Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Arthur Lipscomb <arthur@alum.calberkeley.org>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-05-25 (Sunday)
Date: Mon, 26 May 2025 09:30:32 -0700
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 219
Message-ID: <101259d$23dqc$1@dont-email.me>
References: <10121tt$22kor$1@dont-email.me>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Mon, 26 May 2025 18:35:59 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="a4cd429a8160a57cdf5981c7f314bfaf";
	logging-data="2209612"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/xbJdaa1Bq+TVSwV5O5ScO0EVRrhsLlQo="
User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird
Cancel-Lock: sha1:cvOx2w/yvpMyb8bTGL1afTvFZoU=
X-Antivirus-Status: Clean
In-Reply-To: <10121tt$22kor$1@dont-email.me>
Content-Language: en-US
X-Antivirus: Norton (VPS 250525-10, 5/25/2025), Outbound message

On 5/26/2025 8:38 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> Fringe S2E23 'Over There: Part 2'.
> 
> Olivia and Walter continue their interuniversal tourism and like most 
> American tourists make a mess of things.  "A new and improved episode 
> with twice the Anna Torv!"
> 
> The glyphs in this episode spell "Weiss".
> 
> Dr. Walter Bishop: Hello, William.
> William Bell: Walter.
> Dr. Walter Bishop: I see you've aged.
> William Bell: It appears I'm not the only one!
> 
> When Peter and the Olivia "over there" talk about the difference between 
> universes, Peter looks at a famous comic book cover starring Green 
> Lantern and Green Arrow, but in this alternate universe, they are Red 
> Lantern and Red Arrow.
> 
> The movie marquee on the Other Side lists several movies playing : 
> Superman vs. Batman 2, Indiana Jones and the Hex of the Hydra, Star 
> Wars: Legion of Droids, Splash 7, Smokey and the Bandit: The Final Lap 
> and Mask vs. Joker.
> 
> Walter is eating at alternate KFC and says on Wednesday 1983 he 
> identified the last of the 11 herbs and spices. In 1983 William 
> Poundstone claimed to have analyzed a sample of the seasoning and found 
> it to contain only flour, salt, MSG, and black pepper. Since then 
> recipes purporting to reveal the real 11 secret herbs and spices have 
> been published.
> 
> On Walternate's desk are two photos. One is an autographed photo of 
> President John Kennedy, apparently in his sixties, and the other is of 
> Walternate with Obama.
> 
> When Peter first looks out of his alternate NY apartment window we see, 
> to his right, a distant pointy skyscraper. In our world that building is 
> the Transamerica Pyramid, the tallest building in San Francisco.
> 
> When Fauxlivia and Frank are awakened by a videophone, the ringtone 
> plays the song "Science Fiction/Double Feature" from The Rocky Horror 
> Picture Show. The song, like "Fringe," is full of references to classic 
> science fiction movies, and the song's title references the "dual 
> universe" subject matter of the series.
> 
> When Peter is shown his new room by Fauxlivia on the wall are several 
> pictures relating to comics. There is the lightning picture of Frank 
> Miller's The Dark Knight Returns but where Batman should be there is 
> Superman.
> 
> In the first part of this two-parter, the alternate Fringe agents nearly 
> used a quarantine device to contain an event. Walter and Bell's journey 
> to Walternate's lab at alternate Harvard showed the effects of such a 
> device, which closely parallel the effects of the weapon used on the bus 
> in The Ghost Network (2008).
> 
> It is quite possible that the wormhole event occurring at Madison Square 
> Garden happened during the NBA finals which were played there that year.
> 
> 
> Fringe S3E01 'Olivia'
> 
> Olivia continues to be a running tourist in the Redverse while her tour 
> group arrives home with the wrong Olivia.
> 
> The glyphs in this episode spell "Amber".
> 
> The alternate Manhattan headquarters for Fringe Division is a several 
> story oval building with a hint of Roman Colosseum and a roof garden. 
> The building is actually the central branch of the Vancouver Public 
> Library.
> 
> The taxi that Olivia commandeers in the alternate universe has a rooftop 
> ad for the Broadway show "Dogs" (instead of "Cats").
> 
> 
> 
> Fringe S3E02 'The Box'
> 
> A box containing a piece of The Machine is dug up but leaves dead 
> bodies.  Alternate Olivia tries to track it down while attempting to 
> seduce Peter to keep him distracted.
> 
> The glyphs spell "Alert".
> 
> Dr. Walter Bishop: Kent Street. I frequented a massage parlor just 
> around the corner. I used to get off right here.
> Peter Bishop: Sure hope you're talking about the station, Walter.
> 
> Newton tells Olivia that she joined Fringe Division on September 9, 
> 2008. This was the date that the show premiered.
> 
> The running joke of Walter having difficulty remembering Astrid's name 
> is used again. This time he calls her "Aspirin".
> 
> 
> John Wick: Chapter 4 (Syfy)
> Keanu Reeves plays a skinny Terminator mowing down bad guys from an 
> honorable secret criminal sect.  Do you really need more than that? 

No, not really.

  And
> isn't a massive body count to traditional way to celebrate Memorial Day?
> 

I believe it is.

> What Did You Watch?
> 
> 

I watched:

The Andromeda Strain (4K disc) 1971 sci-fi movie based on a Michael 
Crichton novel, directed by Robert Wise.  The story involves a group of 
scientists racing against time to analyze and figure out how to destroy 
a deadly virus from space.  I watched with a pretty good commentary 
track.  On the commentary they talked a lot about the visual effects all 
being done practically by Douglas Trumbull.  He also mentioned the plot 
is very similar to another Crichton book called, "Sphere."  I also 
happened to pick up on that plot similarity early on.  The commentary 
also mentioned this movie features the one and only on screen cameo by 
Crichton.


Originally, I was going to watch that popular movie based on a Michael 
Crichton story about the amusement park where the creator spared no 
expense, but the attractions started to kill the guests, then I changed 
my mind and decided to skip "Westworld."  Mainly because there is no 
commentary track on the disc, and I really only cared about listening to 
the commentary track.


Runaway (blu-ray) 1984 sci-fi movie written and directed by Michael 
Crichton and starring Tom Selleck as a cop in the future who is hunting 
a psycho (Gene Simmons) who is reprogramming household robots to be 
deadly.  Simmons also has at his disposal killer spiderbots that shoot 
acid, and a gun that shoots bullets that can turn corners to target 
specific people.  I watched with a commentary track for the first time. 
It was a good commentary that talked about the making of the movie and 
the cast.  The commentary also talked about the young actor who played 
Selleck's son.  I already knew the actor had fallen on hard times, and 
there is even a documentary about him, that I keep meaning to watch. The 
commentary talked about his fall from grace, including robbing a bank. 
On the commentary they said even though he wore a mask while robbing the 
bank, everyone recognized him. Now I *have* to track down that 
documentary and watch it.  I'll if I can get to it today.


Sphere (blu-ray) 1998 sci-fi movie based on a Michael Crichton novel, 
directed by Barry Levison. The story involves a group of scientists 
(Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, and Samuel L. Jackson) who are assembled 
to investigate an alien spacecraft found in the ocean.  This is a very 
frustrating movie to watch.  It had the potential to by so much better 
than the end product.  I watched with a commentary by Dustin Hoffman and 
Sam Jackson.  Jackson mentioned several times on the commentary that he 
couldn't follow the movie and had no idea what was happening.  But he 
was nice enough to point out plot holes.  And Hoffman blamed the movies 
problems on the director running out of time and not being able to 
finish the movie.


Twister (4K disc) 1996 movie written by Michael Crichton.  I don't think 
I've ever watched this movie before.  I also had no idea Crichton had 
anything to do with the movie, although I did intentionally pair it with 
the other Crichton movies once I learned he wrote the script.  The movie 
stars Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as a pair of storm chasers who are 
trying to drive into a tornado so they can have their machine sucked 
into the eye of the storm to take readings. But they have to do this 
before their rival played by Cary Elwes can launch his machine into a 
tornado.  It all felt really ridiculous.  And how am I supposed to take 
a movie like this seriously when there weren't even any sharks in the 
tornadoes, only cows?


Twisters (Amazon streaming) 2024 sequel (I guess) that feels more like a 
remake considering it has the exact same opening, and as far as I can 
========== REMAINDER OF ARTICLE TRUNCATED ==========