Legend of the Seeker: Why you should watch it!

My name is Michele, I learned to read at 4 years old and I am an Anomaly. This is also my first piece for the Anomaly Blog...so here we go!


I first came across “Legend of the Seeker” early one lazy Saturday morning. I stopped on the channel because I recognized Charisma Carpenter as one of the characters, and I was excited to see her acting on another show.  I was completely lost on the story line, but totally dug her leather outfit and killer braid. I watched random episodes as they would appear, weekend after weekend, but never investigated to find out what the show was really about.

Fast forward a year to when I began watching the webseries: “The Guild”, and joined their online fan community. One of the ladies there was an avid Seeker fan and after months of reading her tweets about her campaign ‘Save the Seeker’ (the show was up for renewal and was ultimately cancelled), I decided to check it out for myself. After watching the first episode, I fell in love and enlisted my boyfriend to watch the series with me.

On the surface it’s your usual story: boy lives in small town, boy meets girl, boy finds out he is secretly a hero and that someone he has known all his life holds the key to who he really is. But beneath that, the show shines in bringing together a trio (and eventually a fourth member) of characters that, as a unit, are well written, complex and often hilarious. Originally a series of books named “The Sword of Truth”, written by Terry Goodkind, which I intend to read once I catch up on my Game of Throne books. The show was produced by Sam Raimi (yes, from Spiderman) for television in 2008 to 2010.

First, there is our hometown hero Richard Cypher who can best be described as ‘the Ryan Gosling of the Midlands’ (see the Ryan Gosling meme for reference). He can be a bit earnest and innocent in how he views the world, but his sensitivity and big brown eyes win (almost) everyone over in the end.  Our woman of the world (and kick ass fighter!) is Kahlan Amnell. She is a Confessor which means that she possesses some powerful magic, in addition to her awesome fighting style. Our initial trio is rounded off by the hilarious, wise and always snarky Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. Besides having the coolest name ever, Zed, as he is called, is a powerful wizard whose love for Richard and Kahlan is only surpassed by his ability to set everything right with a few words of knowledge or wisdom.

Although watching the season finale of the first season left me seething (I literally screamed in anger and declared I hated the show, much to the amusement of my poor boyfriend), “Legend of the Seeker” is definitely a show worth watching for the humor, awesome action sequences and (you knew it was coming) EPIC romance. It may at first remind you of other ABC/UPN Saturday morning shows like Xena and Beastmaster where the characters roam the same forest week after week, hoping you won’t notice, but the show redeems itself in diversifying locales, getting into serious issues and having baddies that straddle the moral divide. At times, I felt like the show was rushed or uncertain of the direction of the plot (the books and show are purposefully different), but overall it was consistent in its humor and the message: (say it with me!) that love and friendship can truly conquer all.

Personal Notes: The pilot episode was amazing. It could have been a mini-series on SyFy for all the seamless special effects it contained, and the backdrop of New Zealand was beautiful.  It is definitely worth watching even if you decide not to continue watching the rest of the series. If you liked “Xena” you might recognize a familiar face in the middle of the season. The show is rated PG 13 and tends toward the violent action side of fantasy.  

Michele

Staff Writer for Anomaly

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Horrible Doctor Who: Five Episodes that Shame Time and Space

Warning: Content contains spoilers. Please read with caution. If unwanted spoiler gets in eye, rinse head thoroughly under water until burning rage subsides. If symptoms continue, please Google issue and then proceed with care.

My name is KC and according to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'm "mostly harmless." And in parentheses, it says "see, Anomaly."

I would say I'm a pretty devoted Doctor Who fan. After all, Doctor Who was the vehicle that opened my eyes to my inner geek. Time travel, space adventures, interesting characters, romance, horror, drama, comedy... for a family show, it seems to have it all!

About a month ago, I recorded a Skype-cast with Meds and Kenny for Treks in Sci-Fi, all about the most recent series (or "season") of Doctor Who. When the episode was released, we all received an email from Jen. She let us know that we all did an awesome job and that our love of the series made her "really want to revisit the series." She said she had started with series one... but she had to stop after the aliens invaded London.

I, being a huge fan of the series, do not blame her one bit. If I had started with the first series and saw the episode she spoke of, I would have abandoned Doctor Who myself. There are fantastic episodes of the series, but every now and then, there are terrible ones.

Jen received three different replies from Meds, Kenny and I about which episodes to watch. I had a color coded list ready to send, and then I thought of something. There are plenty of lists out there about which episodes of Doctor Who are the best. Anyone can get those anywhere, and they could miss some underrated episodes if they go by these lists alone. Even some mediocre and bad episodes have their merits. However, not a lot of articles cover the poor quality ones. And you know what? The best thing about these stories is you can skip them and you will not miss a lot!

I have compiled a list of five episodes from the new series that are absolutely abysmal. (This show is nearly fifty years old, I'm not going that in depth!) I will give credit where credit is due and I write why the episode might be worth watching. That being said, the episodes I have listed are bad and I point out why they are bad. Big emphasis on bad.

Take note that these are merely my opinions and mine alone. I'm also more than willing to be a hypocrite and change my opinions if I magically get a job working with the Doctor Who creative team. Until that extremely unlikely day, my apologies to the Doctor Who powers that be.

"Aliens of London/World War Three" (Series One, Episodes 4 & 5)
Reason for Skipability: Aliens known as the Slitheen are masquerading as humans. That's fine with me because some of the best science fiction has at least one story like this. The problem is that the Slitheen are gigantic green monsters that have to compress their forms into a tiny human suit. Therefore the tell-tale sign that they're aliens is that they experience moments where... you know what, they fart. Yes, you heard me. A television show about time and space resorts to fart jokes. Why, Russell T. Davies? Why?
Dang It: A character named Harriet Jones is introduced in this episode, and she occurs two more times in the show. She's probably the only good part of this two-parter. Plus, her portrayer, Penelope Wilton, can be recognized as Simon Pegg's mom in Shaun of the Dead.

"Boom Town" (Series One, Episode 11)
Why it's bad: The farting aliens return! Well, one of them. The episode itself is gets pretty lost and can never find its tone. In fact, I'm not even sure if this episode wants to be a science fiction story. It's really a back and forth about why this deadly woman-alien should or shouldn't be sent to her home, who will execute upon her return. I could watch a better version of this plot on Law and Order or Star Trek.
Dang It: In two ways, it connects to the following last episodes of the first series. Missing this episode won't ruin anything though.

"New Earth" (Series Two, Episode One)
Reason for Skipability: This episode has interesting basic ideas. Seemingly utopian future, dark secrets about utopia's hospital system, humanoid cat nuns--I can dig it. But the episode itself was poorly executed in terms of story. It didn't need elements like a returning villain or a theme about living forever... the whole episode just fell flat. Also, if I had to get onto "Aliens in London" and "Boom Town" for the fartiness, I have to get onto this episode for it's immature use of hidden swear words. Cutting to another shot before someone curses doesn't make you clever. Fourth graders will laugh at it now, but they will not when they grow up.
Dang It: There are a few good parts in here. As in four. 1) The first minute is beatifully shot. 2) Big fat spoiler--Rose kisses the Doctor. Sure, she's possessed by another female entity, but it's a pretty good kiss. 3) The Doctor gets possessed and then proceeds to act as a woman. It's amusing. 4) The last few minutes of the episode are, again, beautifully shot. Oh! And a bonus: you get to see the Face of Boe. But that's it.

"Love and Monsters" (Series Two, Episode 10)
Reason for Skipability: I must admit that I liked this episode the first time around. But I may or may not have had a glass of wine that night, because the next time I watched it, I could not believe how ridiculous it was. I have to admit that I like the format of the episode where it's an outsider talking to the webisphere about experience with the Doctor, and cutting clips in of Elton John and ELO. And the actors do a good job. But the story, dialogue, and direction are all over the place. It has some major A.D.D., and not in an interesting, Terry Gilliam kind of way. I mean a let's-give-a-five-year-old-a-cup-of-coffee-and-have-him-write-the-episode kind of way.
Dang It: I got nothing. Just skip it.

"The Voyage of the Damned" (2008 Christmas Special)
Reason for Skipability: This is probably one of the worst Christmas specials ever. And is it just me, or do most of the Christmas episodes have nothing to do with Christmas? This is basically a combo between Poseidon and B-movie, which is never a good combination. You are introduced to characters that you never come to care for, and the explosions are the kind that only Michael Bay could love.
Dang It: A character named Wilfred Mott is introduced in this episode, and he becomes pretty important later on. And there is one moving moment of the special near the end between the one-off companion Astrid (Kylie Minogue) and the Doctor, but I don't know if it's worth watching the entire thing.

I will admit that I would probably like these episodes if I were much younger. However, I'm an older viewer and I think that the only faults of this intelligent show are when it loses its maturity. But I still adore Doctor Who, and that's what true love is.

Alright, Who fans. We all love the show, but which episodes would you warn others about? Why do you think they're terrible? What are they're saving graces? Comment with your answers!

KC
Staff Writer for Anomaly
Co-Host of Anomaly Supplemental
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Anomaly of New York Comic Con

I'm Anne and I had a press pass to New York Comic Con because I'm an Anomaly.

I spent the last three days at my first ever Con and it has been an absolute blast! Between walking through Artist's Alley, seeing the ladies of Battlestar Galactica, and playing new video game demos, I've had a full dance card.

When I first got there, I was completely overwhelmed. I was supposed to meet up with some friends and as soon as I saw how many people were inside and how gargantuan the exhibition floor was, I feared I'd never find them. Luckily I spotted a Jayne Cobb doll in the Tonner booth and was so happy to see a familiar face, albeit a fictional one, that I stayed and checked out all of their collections for quite some time. They had sets from Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings, Firely, and a bunch of other cult classics. The detail was astounding and a little creepy. I started picturing Jayne arriving at Barbie's beach house to party with Galadriel and Skipper. Luckily one of my friends spotted me just as my brain descended into complete insanity and we all continued our Comic Con adventure together.

My favorite thing was getting to see all of the cosplay. There was such a range from girls who simply threw on a brightly colored wig and some awesome steampunk goggles to one girl who had commissioned an insanely detailed Tali costume (from Mass Effect) that had taken over 6 months to complete.

I also saw some awesome Avatar cosplay of Katara and Toph from the animated series.

The most overpowering presence in terms of cosplay was undoubtedly Star Wars. There were Jedi's everywhere! After a while they all started to blend in together, until steampunk Boba Fett showed up and blew everyone away. Well, not literally, but it was very impressive.

That was only topped by Chewbacca. The funny part about this picture is that I have a similar one taken when I was a little girl at Disney World. My parents somehow thought it would be a great idea to thrust tiny me into the arms of seven-foot-tall-Chewbacca and I was completely terrified. As you can see, it's a different story now that I'm an adult Anomaly. Hold me closer, giant wookie.

Of course, there were a fair share of Anomalies-to-be.

The craziest thing about the R2D2 model in that last picture was that the father of those two kids was using a remote to make it roll ahead of his children whilst it sounded a horrendous alarm so that the family would have room to walk and not get trampled. Part of me hated him because whenever they got close, that's all you could hear for about 10 minutes as people could barely move due to sold out crowds on Saturday, but most of me was jealous.

I also ran into a girl who had created her own Astrid of Berk costume from How to Train Your Dragon. We chatted for a bit about how she'd managed to construct the leather armor at home with tile glue. As it turned out, she's a 2D animator- that is, while she's not defending her village from an onslaught of pesky fire-breathers. We both came to one singular conclusion: Dragons are awesome.

I knew Angela and Jen would appreciate this hardcore Battlestar fan-couple.

They also had a bunch of new action figure models on display that haven't been mass produced for sale yet. My favorites included Bioware's Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age figures as well as Blizzard's new series of World of Warcraft models. Finally, Boomkin get immortalized (even if it had to be of the Alliance persuasion). My personal favorite is the Undead Priestess. The detail and the dynamic position is really eye-catching. The shoulders guards took me back to the days when I was raiding Black Temple and wished I was a cloth wearing class so that I could wear them.

I've been considering getting into some table top RPG's and I found one I'm really intrigued by called Eoris. I talked to the creators and not only were they passionate about the game, but their artwork is incredible. Everything has a completely unified look to it and the books are really beautiful. The only reason I didn't end up buying them right then and there is because every time I want to try a table top RPG and I buy a book, no one wants to play it. So here's the deal- NEW YORK ANOMALIES: ASSEMBLE! Let's make this happen.

I wanted to save most of my money for Blizzcon since I'm traveling to LA for that convention in a few weeks, but I did pick up two special items. Number one, I ran into Georges Jeanty in the Artists Alley who was displaying some of his artwork for the Buffy comics as well as one of the covers for The Guild comic books. He was such a nice guy and we ended up talking about how he met Felicia Day at a Con in London and encouraged her to get into writing comics. The rest is history, folks! I ended up buying a print of his cover for The Guild and he signed it for me. I also discovered the booth for Her Universe which is a company created by Ashley Eckstein (the voice of Ahsoka on Star Wars: The Clone Wars) to sell "geek chic" apparel for women. They have the most awesome Star Wars baseball caps with sparkly lettering! That was what initially caught my eye until I realized I probably would never wear it since I don't wear hats. Their shirts are amazingly comfortable and I was impressed that they came in plus sizes as well as the regular sizes. They also don't run insanely small like some women's apparel. I ended up buying the Han and Leia "I Know" shirt, but it was a close call between that one and a purple shirt with Leia and Darth Vader that said "Daddy's Little Girl."

I recorded a ton of great audio interviews with other Anomaly con-goers, artists, writers, webseries creators, actors, and musicians and sent them off to Jen and Angela so hopefully you'll get to hear more about NYCC first hand in the near future!

Anne

Staff Writer for Anomaly

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