Posted by Devin Parker

Geek question of the day: What do J. Michael Straczynski, creator of "Babylon 5", and Paul Dini, producer and writer on "Batman: The Animated Series", have in common?

A: They both wrote episodes of the (technically) animated "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon.

I also found out that Paul Dini, creator of Harley Quinn, is also a writer and story editor on my currently favorite television show "Lost".

That's right, it's my current favorite. I'm beginning to worry that perhaps "Alias" has, as they say, jumped the shark. I mean, Vaughn seems to be dead (!), Sydney is playing Vaughn to the new ersatz-Sydney, there's some French chick who shows up every now and again (apparently enough to be in the main credits), neo-Sloan is trying to blackmail Sloan, and Jack hasn't threatened to torture anyone, like, this entire season so far. Oh, and now the girl who played Fred on "Angel" is on the show as a villainous henchman, but I can't think of her as anyone except Fred and the blue-tinted demon-goddess girl who took over her body later.

If you understood everything I just typed, it may be time for you to go read a book or something. Get a little fresh air.

I was kind of hoping that everything was leading up to a grand culmination, a la "Babylon 5", but I'm starting to think that this isn't the case.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at Wednesday, November 16, 2005 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

8 comments

I am pleased to report that other than the references to Paul Dini and the Batman animated series, I didn't get one word of that.

Though I could tell you a lot about House, if pressed, and Joanna could give you the rundown on Surface, Invasion, and a few others as needed.

And I could also give you in-depth discussions of 64 Zoo Lane. Franklin, Little Bear, and a dozen other children's programs...

We'll be getting rid of cable again here soon.

1:33 PM

I think that, for most of this season, I've just been waiting for the sign that Vaughn isn't really dead. I mean Vaughn is the other half of Alias. Ever since Garner/Sydney got pregnant the show's been a bit boring. Man, babies ruin everything!

I think the most interesting thing has been the side story of Sloan double crossing neo-Sloan; because, even though we know Sloan is evil we still carry a torch in hopes that he's not really, even though we know he is. But I don't think Sloan can carry the show. So far there's no tension. All the "good" guys are getting along and that's really where the drama has been, the tension between Syd and the other "good" guys, i.e., her father, mother, and Sloan and the tension betweeen Sloan and Jack. Even they are getting along so far. The show seems to have completely abandoned all previous plot points except for Sloan finding a cure for his daughter and Syd being prego. Everything else is new and blah.

And, no, Michael (because I know you've asked before), I can't just talk to Devin about this because I see Devin for a grand total of about an hour per day on average. He drives me to work most mornings which accounts for about 10 min. and then 3 days a week he comes home to eat after class before going back to school to do "home"work and on the 2 days he works he comes home about 10 min. before I go to bed. The weekends are blurs of housekeeping chores and social engagements, that is when Devin doesn't have to work at the bookstore or do more "home"work. So if I actually want to converse with him this is my only way most days. By the way I think you should have been an art teacher as the roles seem to be reversed a bit. Devin seems to spend 20+ hours a week working on art projects and the teachers spend about 2 minutes grading the projects in class.

9:37 PM

I think that last part is training me for the comics field, in which I spend hours working on one page of comic panels, and readers breeze through them in less than a minute.

3:54 PM

We were huge fans of Alias, but started losing interest when they got Sydney and Vaughn together. We were always much bigger fans of Will, and for some reason they dumped him...

11:30 AM

Chris,

Does that mean you missed the entire 3rd season when Sydney lost 2 years worth of memory?

That was like my favorite season.

11:55 AM

I did like Will. He was kind of a moron once or twice, but for the most part, I liked the sorry fellow. In some ways I thought he was cool because he was the relatively normal guy caught in the middle of the whole super-spy war between the CIA and SD-6, and endured some pretty harsh punishment for it.

Anyway, he did show up in one fairly memorable episode later on after he went into hiding; it was almost a conciliatory episode for the guy.

6:05 PM

We saw her lose the time... so we must have watched at least part way into that season. We're fickle folk - nothing can ever live up to the great X-Files.

This year, we've been watching "Bones", which is pretty good. The male lead is Angel from... um yeah - Angel.

8:03 PM

That would be the oh so dreamy David Boreanaz...

9:49 PM

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