1840 4400 moves forward Babylon 5 and X Files

It has been an unusually good Monday with the highlight the arrival of Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself, which chronicles the response of 107 people, predominantly women, to a dear Jill, E mail which the artist received. It is a sumptuous book full of photographs both matt and glossy plates, I am yet to count, possibly 107 in addition to the written responses, some by hand, there are 4 video CD’s with English subtitles. The Email or perhaps a response is printed in Braille and shorthand. The book therefore has textures as well as visuals and audios and I am leaving until Christmas, it is my Christmas present from me to me, to enjoy.

It was lucky that I was at home having gone out to the Car Body Repair centre as soon as the bin was put out along with environmental box. The purpose was to pay the insurance excess £120 under pressure from the Insurance Broker and the Legal service to proceed with the claim for no fault reimbursement. I took the new annual tax licence with me and was advised that the vehicle would be ready within couple of days. A new petrol cap was required. I missed the turning to the centre not once, but twice. The first time I went on to the infamous Gateshead Roundabout under the fly over and turned right and then right again into the parallel road I had been travelling and then turned right and right but again missed the turning forgetting that it is set back from the roadside and has a boarded former car show room towards the main road, the original show room moving further down the road to impressive new sales premises.

Beautiful Day and I still have not found what I am looking for U.2.

My next trip after briefly examining Take Care of Yourself was to Sunderland to a building Society, not to be confused with a Bank as one couple did during my visit to deposit money transferred from Premium Bonds and add the interest for the previous year.

I had to park on the 8th level of ten although I was pleased to have been able to park at all such is the Monday rush at this time of year. That I could park is perhaps an indication of unseasonal calm before the storm. Just when the army has completed a temporary Bridge to rejoin the town of Workington across its river banks there are more severe weather warnings in the area. It is now called a crossing after the name of the policeman who died in the area

I then went to Fulwell, after a little petrol at Morrisons, to Sainsbury to see if the 25% reduction on a half case of wine was still in operation. I was after some Asti Spumante, a repeat of last year and a case of Peroni as I have only one bottle left from the supply bough last Christmas. They had the Peroni but not the Spumanti. I passed my former home of thirty years on the way back to Shields. I bought copies of the Journal and Shield’s Gazette to see the reaction to Joe gaining a place in the finals of the X Factor. The Gazette has an editorial and well as two page centre spread and a note on the front page.

Pride, With and without you, New Years Day- U2.

I watched two episodes of the 4400 before going to the supermarket for a Christmas buyin which included a bottle of Spumante for Christmas and new Year‘s Days and pieces of Turkey Breast and stuffing which will make a hot meal on the day and cold the day after. A frozen box of Pigs in blankets! I had intended to buy salami but there was no assistant immediately available and I forgot the crackers. Otherwise everything went well with a small pieces of iced Christmas cake, some specialist cheese, two individual Christmas puddings. I hope to get in some puff pastry mince pies just beforehand rather than the traditional pastry version. Two bags of walnuts -going back to the neighbour’s tree across from where I lived for the first ten years of my life and a further supply of boxed dates. I need some Queen olives and prawns. I stocked up with tinned veg but forgot the frozen roast potatoes. A good supply of fruit should last till the weekend and I did not forget the milk having enjoyed, surprisingly, a cup of black coffee on return from Gateshead.

Streets with no name, Stuck in a moment, Sweetest thing, Where the Streets have no name-U2

The second highlight of the day was not the episodes of the 4400 but Babylon 5 episode 20, Babylon Squared in which Delenn is called back to homeworld for a meeting of the Grey Council, so called as holding the balance between the dark and the light and where she is surprised to find that the Council has been holding informal discussions in her absence to decide on the next leader, her. This would mean holding court in the Great Hall for the rest of her life, not returning to Babylon 5 to oversee the implementation of the Great Prophecy. She takes the unusual and controversial decision to decline the honour which could mean banishment from her position on the Council.

Sunday Bloody Sunday, Too late- U2

Meanwhile back on the station a distress signal has been heard from.... Babylon 4 which disappeared with its skeleton crew and builders in total some 1250, given that the present small city size population of 250000 on Babylon 5. The Commander and Garibaldi go off to investigate and find the station has been flipping between times so that the occupants have no idea that four years have elapsed and they were thought to have disappeared without trace. Everyone is evacuated in five shuttles trips. Meanwhile Sinclair finds an alien who is trying to contact- The One. The purpose of the alient to take the biggest of the Bablyon Station through time to help The One in Great War to come. At first he thinks Commander Sinclair is The one a human in a space suit who arrives and the alien gives up something to him. a Time stabiliiser which will also help in the Great War. Commander Sinclair attempts to greet the new arrival but is thrown back by a force. Having completed the mission the alien says he is to die whether he is to stay on the ghost station -Marie Celeste likle or leave with Commander back to Babylon 5. The programme ends as the human in the space suit removes his helmet having taken charge of station the stabilizing device. It is another Commander Sinclair, older!

One, Walk on, Desire, Sometimes you can’t make It, The Saints are coming -U2

In contrast the X files episode had no grand design and concerned a woman whose mother was murdered bring her birth forward. The young woman is blind but the principal suspect in two murders which required sight to carry out although Mulder is convinced she not guilty but shielding the murderer.

Rockferry and Warwick Avenue- Duffy

It transpires she has been able to see the murders through the eyes of the killer and that she was only present at the scenes astrally in an attempt to prevent further killing. Eventually Mulder proves she is innocent and gains her support to capture the actual killer, the man who murdered her mother, and who has been recently paroled from prison. It is her father.

Serious and Stepping Stone- Duffy

And so to episodes 5 to 8 of the final season of the 4400 which continues to disappoint and lack the Wow factor of Babylon Five and some episodes of the X Files. Each season of Lost also brings its revelations as the whole unfolds. We appear to have completing switched from the activities of the 4400 to those who have taken the Promicin originally manufactured by Isabelle. During the four episodes we learn that anyone who has taken the shot is able to manufacture further quantities thus the supply can become unlimited and in effect half the world can develop special abilities and half die. At present those taking the shot are mainly adults who have reached a crisis point in their lives and no reason to continue. However it does include a school boy who has lost his parents in road accident.

Syrup and Honey, Hanging On Too Long - Duffy,

In Try the Pie Tom goes off in search of Kyle who has been led to where Jordan Collier has been hiding and finds him in deserted mine with a bevy of bodyguards. Tom stops off at a local diner and is greeted warmly by local citizens including the Sheriff and is recommended to take food including the special apple pie which he is told has special ingredients. Apple Pie in the USA is like Fish and Chips in the UK where the differences between requires careful study, along with pasta sauces in Italy and Italian America. How Tom manages to get in the same area is a puzzle.

Delayed devotion and I’m sacred- Duffy

Tom stops for petrol and recognises Kyle’s Car when he goes to find an assistant and there is no petrol in the pumps. Tom realises something is not right and it is not. The village is full of special ability Promcin takers and his persistence leaves him to being captured.

Distant Dreamer- Duffy

Meanwhile Kyle has convinced Jordan about the book and the mission. Isabelle who has accompanied Kyle is also freed while Jordan take in the idea that he is to bring heaven on earth, to show the face of God by the new Promicin takers. Given his Jesus appearance this is not a surprise. Kyle explains that his father is the last name on the list of 200 people whose taking of the shot will change the world. Jordan says he will not force the drug on anyone even if Kyle is certain his father will survive and is part of the grand plan. However while he nearly goes ahead, he relents and Tom comes to in the deserted village. There is no sign of the Promicin takers. In between om has taken the a portion of the apple pie and enjoys the pleasant memories of the villages and one of his own which bonds everyone together. It is the special ability of the the woman who runs the diner and with whom Tom stays during is adjustment to the village prior to seeing his son, Isabelle and Jordan. Tom understands that his son has become Jordan’s adviser and adds his name to those which the authorities are required to look out for an apprehend with caution. Meanwhile Jordan and the others have decided to move back into Seattle. It is time for the grand mission to begin.

Tomorrow and Save it for your Prayers- Duffy

In the Marked we learn that Isabelle was not alone in coming back from the future to scupper the work of the 4400 and the new Promicin takers. Matthew Ross who Isabelle killed and Jordan’s previous advisor and controller of the 4400 centre turns out to be one of the Marked, as the beings from the future are called. A 4400 returnee, ah they still have purpose, a third rate amateur film maker using his friends to make the films is now making films which appear to explain some of the great mysteries such as the assassination of President Kennedy.


Your song and I need you to turn to - Elton John
When Tom and Diana investigate the man goes into hiding so they contact a lawyer who appears to have funded the films. He is in a state fo fear claiming that he man is being pursued by the Marked, his latest project which is to reveal the ten individuals, important beings whose bodies have been taken over by beings from the future. One of these is the present head of the biggest software company in the world and another is a Cardinal adviser to the Pope. However the names of the others have not emerged from the process of writing the scripts for his films

The Bridge and Yellow Brick Road - Elton John

Then Tom is taken away by members of the Government to a special clinic where he is inject behind his ear leaving a mole. They have found that the Software leader ahs a mark behind his ear but different to that of Tom. This occurs after Tom and Diana arranged a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the company to ask if he has had contact with the returning 4400 film maker, as his financial backer has been found dead believed murdered. The two are then confronted by the CEO who effectively admits he is one fo the Marked, on their side and and on the people and therefore they should be supported. We learn that Tom has been chosen to replace the Isabelle killed member, but only as a sleeper until needed.

Don’t go Breaking my Heart -Elton John with Kiki Dee

In Till we have Built Jerusalem Jordan and co have moved into a mile square derelict area of riverside Seattle using an abandoned nuclear shelter as their base until they have transformed the area as a second heaven on earth paradise. They have placed lights around their territory which act as defence wall which no one can penetrate. However the government decide to use their Promicin trained soldier to penetrate the defence and kill Jordan who has announced his mission to the world.

Philadelphia Freedom and Rocket Man - Elton John

Tom and Diana hitch a ride to try and save Kyle and Maia. Maia has been having visions which she draws and paints. The first announces that Jordan is in the City and the second the area where they are located, however before the Unit can work out the area, Jordan announces this and that any attempt to interfere will be met by force. Maia then sees the government assault and goes to assess if Jordan is a good man and should be saved.

Daniel and Crocodile Rock- Elton John

Jordan demonstrates his good intentions by getting one of the Promicin takers to clean up the polluted river into drinking water and where fruit and flowers spring up on the banks. The special forces who have the capacity to become invisible but only if they stand still and to neutralise the defence system enter the new 4400 territory but are immobilized and Jordan uses his special ability to remove the Promicin from the soldiers.

Sacrifice and Can’t you feel the love tonight- Elton John

Jordan has already warned what will happen if the USA government takes offensive action with demonstration “natural” events such as earthquakes, rain storms and the like in areas where there are no populations. Now he is wants to take punitive action but is persuaded by Maia not to do so. Instead he increases the area of the new society, doubling to two miles square of the city.

Sad Song and Your Song- Elton John
with Ronan Keating and Bryan Adams live

Meanwhile Diana and Maia are back on their own, the husband having left on his work assignments. Tom is invited to dinner but only as a friend and then Maia suggests she would like the former boyfriend the Unit geek to visit them again. The unstable and unreliable Diana seems to agree. I would have pensioned her off along with Tom. However the new Unit director is even more unsuitable and seems to have a crush on Tom which eh is unaware off until told by Diana.

Candle in the Wind and The Bitch is Back- Elton John

Meanwhile Shawn is continuing to heal a dozen people a day and try and further his political career. He is attacked by an existing councillor who Miaia has vision will become President and force all the people with special abilities to wear a yellow P on their arms rather like the Jewish star in centre is occupied by Nazi Germany before their extermination. However Shawn is the victim of a honey trap when the daughter of someone he has cured invites him to dinner and into her bed. This is a set up by men from the East who are paying for her education, career and new lifestyle. This and the emergence of Jordan as the new Saviour appears to scuttle Shawn’s political ambitions especially as the Senator backer tells him to withdraw as the media assemble, the story of the one night stand being leaked.

Saturday Night-Elton John
with Anastasia

Further having told Jordan about the threat which the Councillor will have in the future, especially after the man announces he is going to stand for Mayor, the man is struck down and is in hospital in a coma. Shawn blames Jordan who denies any involvement. Shawn admits his human weakness and error but confirms his intention to continue to stand, despite rejection in the opinion polls. He also goes to the hospital and cures the Councillor thus appearing to return the situation to that forecast by Maia. Shaun sees his mission as being of the Grey between the Dark and the Light!

I’m still standing and Don’t let the sun go down on me- Elton John

This brings me nicely to No exit in which all the key players suddenly find themselves brought to the Unit HQ in the middle of the night and under attack- Jordan, Kyle and Isabelle, Shaun, Tom, Diana with Maia and the Unit leader together with the geeks. Only Richard is missing. In the melee which follows first the unit leader is killed and then Shawn. It emerges that one of the geeks who keeps saying, that was not meant to happen, has taken Promicin and his special ability is to create dreams games in which he is able to bring about reconciliation although only when he finds the way out of the dream. He dies just as he is find the way. The group work out the enemy is the building which they must disabled. This involves Tom and Jordan joining hands to act as a conduit for a volt supercharge to override the building, This breaks the dream and everyone returns to where they were before

1841 4400 ends, Babylon 5 Season 1 ends and X files disappoints

The 4400 is over. I do not say completed but I would be surprised if there was any continuation now the actors and production team has dispersed and given the way the final episode ended. It ended more satisfying than I had been left to believe but I believe there was a possibility that had public demand been greater and ratings higher then another season may have emerged.

Tuesday December 8th 2009 began well and early although the dreams had not been pleasant and I woke for the third time feeling I needed to have slept for longer. I wrote, or more accurately rewrote on going downstairs and did not breakfast until after nine. Then the planned day changed with a phone to call announce that the car was ready for collection. I decided first finish the writing and then packed up and made my way, listening to the BBC Newcastle which was interviewing a couple from Jarrow who won £2.7 million in the National Lottery North East two years. The husband in his early sixties had been made redundant and then worked for a local supermarket on the fruit and vegetable counter. They had switched channels after watching the Bill at nine o’clock and when the numbers came up the husband realised he had them within in his two lines but it was only when checking on the Teletext he realised he had the winning six and a share of the jackpot estimated at £2.7 million.

The coupled had commented at the time that if there were ten winners that would be £270000, a fortune given their circumstances. They had phoned their daughter and then the National Lottery live after getting out a magnifying glass to make sure they had the telephone number. The husband had not been able to speak and needed a tot of brandy and they had then spent the night giggling. The following day they were taken to a National Lottery Office in Liverpool for the ticket to be verified and then a local bank manager came with the checked to arrange to pay it into the bank of their choice.
I was so intent on listening to the interview that I went past the turning off the Newcastle Road to the Car Body Care centre and then taking the left turn, did I really say right and right yesterday, and on merry go round first reaching the metro station and then going around a housing estate , but worse was to come because the road I then took, instead of reaching the Newcastle Road once more went under it and into the large industrial area North towards the riverside and on a route I had never had cause to previously travel. There was nothing more to do than to reverse. Collecting the car and checking in the hire car only took a couple of minutes, The replacement lockable petrol cap means an additional key. The back shelf cover was no long automatic. The drivers rear door still has locking and unlocking problems but appears to work. The most disappointing aspect was that the front paint scratch was unattended. I suspected this was the position given the problems created by what had happened. I decided to take the vehicle as it was It is a box on wheels compared to the rounded lines of the courtesy car with its radio controls on the steering wheel. If I ever win the lottery! I once was in position to have a monster saloon complete with air conditioning, which was a bonus on a trip to the South of France. The experience appeared destined not to last, there is no free lunch, there is always the downside for every upside and of an overall accumulation for everyone individually and collectively.

The 4400 has ended and a review of some of the extras confirms what I thought all along. There was only a flimsy storyline in the beginning and the 4400 was a number selected because it sounded good, with original title such as The Bright Light. The writers accept they switched from developing the main theme from stories about the returning 4400 to the idea of the Promicin being able to bring out special abilities any people. And from being produced only by Isabelle for the government at 17000 doses sufficient for 3 years for a small unit of specially trainee soldiers 20 reduce to 10 through the fifty fifty, to any individual having taken the shot and survived being able to produce unlimited supplies and someone developing the ability to distribute the power as a viral infection thus creating the situation where half the popular die and half develop special abilities. This changed the master plan to affecting the future in a positive way to creating a new super people state and the debateable proposition that the powers would collectively be put to good use.

The final episodes and the end pieces also confirms my feeling that the writers became bogged down in trying to find new abilities which might interest the public and make a storybook. In the closing moments the director of the unit develops the ability to turn a pen into a flower, what a power and social significance when compared to the lass that is able to transform a polluted river into drinking water. There is admission in the extras that this was a filler moment and that having moved away from individual stories centring on the special abilities they were interested in showing new abilities within the budget and decision to end the series by attempting to answer the various questions which the Fourth season had posed. I suspect the writers intentionally left the door open raising several questions in case another season was commissioned. So how did it all end.

It begins with a diversion. In Daddy’s Little Girl I was unsure why the story had been written except to bring back Richard and his wife to play happy families with a young and innocent Isabelle. Surely not? Richard kidnaps Isabelle disclosing that he has been staying with 4400 returnees and he is back to regain contact with his daughter. However he has a secret plan which involves kidnapping Isabelle and getting her to drink water prepared by another returnee that can reverse the aging process. She is taken back to her babyhood before the transformation and then his wife is added. This however lasts only a brief period of time and he realises he has taken away Isabelle’s personality and arranged for her to return to being a young woman but still Promicin free and allergic. However this all a fiendish plot of the future or at least some of them!

It will be remembered that Tom was taken to a special clinic by the government and given an injection which is to turn him into one of the Marked, beings from the future who take over the bodies of prominent people in the world in order to prevent others from the future helping to change the present in such a way to prevent the catastrophe of the future. In One of Us the change takes place and Tom learn who the others of the Marked are, and surprise surprise one is the boss of Homeland Security who comes to the Seattle area with bodyguards to overseas the response to the 4400, the re-emergence of Jordan Collier and the Promicin takers One of Tom‘s early assignment is to kill the man with the ability to solve past assassination riddles and who thought he could identify the Marked. Another is to stop Maia having visions so Tom injects her with the Promicin suppressant and Maia gets sick. He has already commenced an affair with the new boss of the Seattle based 4400 monitoring unit, and she like Diana has seen and enjoyed La Dolce Vita, thus indicating what, I believe nothing other than one of the writers liked the film or the company agreed to a product placement which is all the fashion these days in terms of maximising income and profit. However Diana and his boss become suspicious.

Meanwhile Doc Burkoff is close to working out how to identify those who will die if they take Promicin and Shawn goes on the box to alert folks that they should hang fire as the forecaster will be available within weeks. This does not suit Jordan and Kyle who want the world to become just Promicin Positives with the rest dying away, literally. They kidnap Burkoff. Richard having lost his wife again and arranged for the conversion of Isabelle back into a young woman is captured and confined in the Government and Isabelle is made Promicin Positive by the Marked and given all her old powers back with her first assignment the capture of Jordan Collier.

Ghost in the Machine is another divertissement. Maia is given a great birthday present from the power to take people back to times when they were happy. She is taken back to her parents or more accurately her parents are brought to her. The main story of Ghost in the Machine is a man who wants revenge on the Software corporation headed by another of the Marked. The man has suffered a stroke and is on a life support system but gains the special power to manipulate markets after taking the Promicin. When Tom, now of the Marked, finds out the information and passes it on to the CEO of the software company, they agree the culprit must be stopped. When the family fails to cooperate Tom crashes his vehicle to cause the systems failure of the life support system and the man dies thus bringing the system back to normal. In reactivating Isabelle a fail safe device has also been fitted which will kill her if she disobeys and fails to carry out instructions.

In the penultimate episode- Tiny Machines, Diana and the unit boss work out how to neutralise the Marked with Tom. This involves killing him with a radiation dosage and using Shawn to revive. First they need to capture Tom and for this they enlist the help of Maia who pretends to be helping Tom by saying that she had mislead him by not saying she had a vision in which Diana has gun and is about to kill Tom.

So we come to the Great Leap Forward in which what happens in the separate storylines is interwoven to create the grand climax.

The catalyst is Shawn’s brother who has taken the Promicin on finding out from Burkoff that he has a 90% plus chance of not being rejected. However his special power is to be able to give people Promicin in the form of an airborne virus, thus half the population in his immediate vicinity gain special powers whether they like it or not and the other half die. The young man only realises this when his mother gets sick and is taken to the local hospital where the 50:50 killing starts. The virus has no effect on those with Promicin already and Diana and Dr Burkoff because of his separate Promicin making experiment are also immune. The younger brother then seeks Shawn’s help and with Burkoff’s help and that of Diana works out that the reason she rejected the shot was because of a body constituted immunity and which fortunately for the world is already manufactured as a health supplement and in branded medications which means that the population can be protected either from unwittingly gaining special powers or its side effect of death!

Thus we have a situation it will be possible for everyone to be tested if they wish to determine if they are able to take Promicin without the likelihood of the side effect, or take an inexpensive over the counter drug to prevent the effects of the wonder drug if they are unwittingly exposed. People therefore have the choice to remain as they are or find out if they have special powers. Obviously this is one of the great flaws in the whole series- the random nature of special abilities which given the way the goodies and baddies of the future are able to control in other ways is obvious nonsense. It should have been one or the other and this reflects the lack of an overall series integrity and the admission by the writers that they switched between the final season outline, ideas development and the requirements of the network and their paymasters.

The reason for the capture of Jordan is to turn him into the Marked and therefore to betray and destroy the mission movement he has created. Isabelle having completed her part believes she is then free to join Richard who The Marked have promised to arrange his release from prison. However back at the ranch Kyle has taken over the leadership of the movement and is working with Shawn and Diana to bring order to the City while the authorities ensure everyone has the antidote and also work out how to cope with a city half full of people with special abilities- they become abilities if they are positive developments and powers if they are negative (My terminology). However faced with killing the man she has come to love, (I know I forgot to mention this development), she cannot go through with her assignment knowing that to fail will end her life. Therefore she atones for her earlier behaviour with self sacrifice.

Meanwhile Tom decides that he will pretend to remain of the Marked and seek to free Jordan and learn what his former colleagues are still up to. However he gives his game away on learning that Isabelle has been sent off to kill his son, and is captured by the National Intelligence leader, who in turn has told the head of the software company his use in the adopted role has ended and he kills himself to enable the being to be transferred to another. Jordan is kept alive for the full conversion after Isabelle has carried out her mission and Tom is kept alive so the Mark can find out how he managed to shake off the implanted being. Isabelle having decided not to kill Kyle comes to rescue and manages to dispose of the National Intelligence Director and her bodyguards before she also dies.

There is a moving last scene where Tom, Kyle and Shawn’s attend the funeral of the younger brother and Shawn’s mother. It is not clear what happens to the body of Isabelle or her incarcerated father, although there is a photo of him among the final stills. Before the solution to the Promicin virus is discovered it enters the Unit centre killing half of those present but the former boyfriend of Diana survives and he develops the ability to travel to places and situations he likes in photographs. There is the suggestion he will make it again with Diana and play happy families with Maia. Tom will play happy families with the head of the Unit having discarded his former wife and Alana.

Jordan with Kyle his right and left arm adviser and instructing interpreter of the new bible take over the running of the city which in the final shot is to have become Promisc City. Diana worries about what will happen and Maia does not reassure her by saying we will be in charge and it will be better.

There are lots of questions left such how will it all work out. Will beings from the future still try and intervene in Seattle and the world as it changes? Even if the current batch of the Marked are dead as Tom gives their names to Jordan as a thank you parting gift will another group come back from the future? Will Tom take the shot which his son gives to him in another of the final scenes? Given that we know of the random nature of the special powers and that they can be used negatively and harmfully as well as positively will the Government of the USA stand back? Will the powers be given to third world countries and to presently opposing political systems and religions for example?

Midweek also saw the final episode of the first season Babylon 5 and this was much more satisfying. On Tuesday the episode concentrated on the relationship of the good station medical director who started to run a free clinic among the poorer classes of station revealing the ship liner construction with the ambassadors and other influentials occupying the higher levels and the chancers and adventurers the underclass inability the bowels of the station.

On Wednesday, Garibaldi the station security Chief learns of a plot to kill someone important. Although Garibaldi learns that the plot is to kill the President who is travelling in Earth Force One and informs station Commander Sinclair it is too late as the communication system is jammed and the plane explodes. The Vice President has managed to escape and is sworn in. The explosion is described as an accident and although Sinclair attempts to provide the evidence to the contrary he is blocked and the information disregarded. However this is a minor part of the big picture.

The final episode of the first season began with Ambassador Mollari of the Narns and Ambassador G’Kar of the Centauri arguing over territory and violations before a meeting the Council. Mollari is accusing the Centauri with G’Kar denies when in fact Mollari has been persuaded to create an incident which will lead him to be regarded as a hero. G’Kar returns to his home world to find out what is what and tells his assistant that there is someone else out there.

Mollari does not know is that he is being used by a master race to ferment dissent between the civilizations who are members of the Babylon 5 Council. The mysterious race have no obvious solid physical form, thus we are introduced to the Shadows. Mollari is beside himself on learning that 10000 Narns have died. There were 9000 deaths in Seattle from the Promicin virus.

Commander Sinclair proposes marriage to his girlfriend. Delenn intervenes indirectly to say she needs to tell him what happened to him on the Minbari ship, (I thought he had been taken back to the home planet) and why as a consequence her race had surrendered to the Earth Alliance when they were at the point of victory. She has a meeting with Ambassador Kosh after her assistant makes preliminary contact on her behalf. Kosh reveals himself to Delenn and she tells him he will not see her again in her existing state. Kosh tells Commander Sinclair that “It begins,” and then reminds Sinclair that he has forgotten what happened to him on the Minbari ship. When Delenn tries to explain what happened Sinclair decides to take a rain check and go in search of Garibaldi who is found shot in the back, by his traitorous assistant, When Ivanova is seen watching the good doctor trying to save Garibaldi’s life she is joined by Ambassador Mollari who expresses concern and a wish to remain on watch with her. We know his motives are not what they seem.

Delenn can wait no longer and enters a cocoon Chrysalis. The episode is called Chrysalis but attaches a device with the information for Sinclair about what happened and his part of the Great prophecy. Sinclair’s last words in the episode and season are “Nothing is the same anymore” Thus the episode is packed with crucial development as part of the master plan and leaving the audience eagerly awaiting the second season. I have not checked if season two begins tomorrow or we have to await until the New Year. Such is life and there is so much to do before my next trip.

The X files last two episodes do not have a summary available on Wikipedia which says a lot for their value. In All Souls Sculley investigates the death of Catholic children and this brings her into Catholic mythology, monsters and devils as well as angels on a mission. In the Pine Bluff variant Sculley suspects Mulder is up to no good until being told he is participating in a deep cover special mission. The bottom line is that the USA government is experimenting with a killer biological agent which can kill anyone locally without remaining in the atmosphere through aerosol can. I failed to understand the double bluffs and complex involvement of the government.

Things were much simpler in Spooks which I will leave until Friday when the next episode is also being shown. It is a top notch spy series. Wednesday was also a good day in arranging to get the car sorted and listening to PMQ’s and then seeing the Autumn financial statement being delivered to an excited House of Commons.

1838 The Truth is out there Babylon 5 The X Files and 4400

I am in a sci fi dilemma between wanting to get on with the project which has dominated my life over the past five years in terms of tackling one of the major components which could take the greater part of year to complete, my immediate objective of completing the 4400 before Christmas and with beginning a similar treatment of Babylon 5, the most important and satisfying of all the sci fi series including Star Trek, Star Wars and the X Files. The X files has a special place because it went on for nine season and some 200 episodes, and satisfied my belief that governments cover up to protect themselves and to protect the general public, and that the human mind body has paranormal potential which can tap into forces which exist and which we do not yet understand. When it comes to 101.75 I do not like to compromise but compromise is necessary because of the unknown-how much time I have left to complete the set task as originally intended and as it has evolved.

I watched the first four episodes of the final season 4 of the 4400 on my first evening in London and look forward to watching the remainder over the coming days. But it is with Babylon 5 I begin

Babylon 5 was created by Michael Stracznaski a seasoned science fiction writer for TV with only limited success until he decided on the overall formula for the new series which he largely wrote influenced by other series which had a core building such as a hospital or police station and the grand designs of works such as The Lord of the Rings.

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Earth-Minbari War. The Babylon Project was a dream, given form. Its goal: to prevent another war, by creating a place where humans and aliens can work out their differences peacefully. It's a port of call – home away from home – for diplomats, hustlers, entrepreneurs, and wanderers. Humans and aliens, wrapped in two million, five hundred thousand tons of spinning metal… all alone in the night. It can be a dangerous place, but it's our last best hope for peace. This is the story of the last of the Babylon stations. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Babylon 5.

These words begin every episode setting the tone so that any sub stories, are part of the grand design which in fact is to cover all the important issues of the day and facing human kind in the future, here on the earth planet and potential in the universe if over the next one or two hundred years we are able travel at the speed of light and begin to explore other galaxies and find the life forms which exist. Only the date year is changed as the seasons of the series unfold.

The core prop of the series is the station which is designed as five miles in length and half a mile across rotating to create gravity and sectioned to enable the different races to exist in their environments. The station is number five with the first three sabotaged or accidentally destroyed and the fourth disappeared soon after it became fully operational with all those then on board..

There are six major civilizations in the series five of whom form the permanent council of the intergalactic assembly. Humans from Earth who run the station, the Minbari who should have destroyed the Earth Alliance in the recent war but amazingly surrendered. the Narns and the Centuri who hate each other going back over time and the Vorlons, a superior race who exist within a metal suit. There are dozens of other races who visit to the station to trade and attend meetings of the assembly including the Deazi, Brakiri, Vree, Makah and Pak’ma’ra.

There is one universally regarded evil specie called The Shadows who have allies but they do not appear until the second season after we have got to know the main characters and themes. One flaw in in the series was the decision to make all the main characters on the station humanlike in their basic form. This was to avoid computer generated characters and puppets. Another device is to simplify language communication although the signs on the station are in three languages and other languages are heard in the background. As with the Hitch Hikers Guide devices for the instant translation and understanding have been created.

In addition to the station commander who changes between season 1 and two but who makes guest appearances in seasons two and three there is a core group who appear in every episode Ambassadors Delenn of the Minbari, thoughtful, spiritual healer, and a member of the most important council in her world and who from the onset appears to be a special one.

Ambassador Londo Mallari, of the Narns, former warrior, past his prime, uncomfortable in his role as a diplomat who helps save the station in the first season and Ambassador G’Kar of the Centauri Machiavellian and wicked and always trying to get one over Londo and the humans. Ambassador Kosh of the Vorlons is restricted to his special quarters except for meetings of the Council which he only attends when it suits his purpose.

There are several characters on the earth team who sometimes feature in episodes as well as having a role in most episodes. There is the Russian number 2 on the station Susan Ivanova whose mother resisted becoming a member of the Psychic Powers corps and whose life ended prematurely as a consequence. There is head of security Michael Garibaldi, an alcoholic with a violent anarchical tendency who is the Commander‘s friend. The head of the medical team Dr Stephen Franklin. There are the others who become constants and are assistants to the three Ambassadors from Mimbari, Narn and Centauri.

For the first season there are several subjects which continue throughout the self contained stories. The first is why did the Minbari surrender and what is the relationship between their decision and the capture and release of the Station Commander Jeffery Sinclair after the rest of his fighter squadron were destroyed and he returned to earth with a memory block about what happened while he was in captivity. Delenn knows the secret and is why someone of her importance is placed on the station as Ambassador.

The first of the grand themes is Order versus Chaos, and the use of diplomacy, compromise and reason to overcome unbridled power and force and related to the theme is the issue of free will. The Earth Psi Corps has the ability to read minds and they have become a force on their own, at times challenging the democratic authority or associating with factions seeking to overthrow the legitimate government. Fundamental to the series is the rights of individuals and yet there has to be team work, leadership and a chain of command. Underpinning the series is the support for democracy and the difficulties that arise especially when colonies such as that on Mars seek self determination. There is also respect and understanding of different religions as each of the main civilizations holds religious ceremonies to educate the others, with earth introducing representatives of the dozens of different religions which exist on the planet. The Centaur, not surprising, have Bacchanalian type faiths of which there are said to be seventy while the Mimbari and Narns are more pantheistic and there are many situations where science versus faith arise. Everyone also is of human frailty with alcoholism, gambling and substance addition occurring. What binds everyone together is the common enemy, the threat, and survival and while the station is threatened during the first season all the civilizations are threatened by the Shadows.
In contrast to Babylon Five, The X Files is all about whether different sentient life to human beings exist as well as exploring the possibilities of paranormal conditions within human kind. The series is built around science versus conviction and belief. Although I rejoined viewing in season five of the nine it was at a fortunate point because the main issue was finally resolved, or was it, during the season?

For the previous four years there was Fox Mulder (pronounced Moulder) who believed his sister had been abducted by aliens and whose entire work as an FBI agent was devoted to establishing that earth had been visited by alien life forms which for some reason the USA government wished to cover up, possibly because it was using some of the technology for military purposes.

Dana (pronounced Dayna) Sculley, a medical doctor and scientist had been appointed his partner in order to constantly check the validity of his findings and her scepticism survived despite finding she too had been abducted by someone and an implant was placed in her neck.

Now in a two part fifth season programme Patient X and the Red and the Black the roles appeared reversed with Mulder convinced that what had taken place was an elaborate government plot to use the idea of aliens cover up its own activities and that his own recollections were none other than false memory syndrome. This approach appeared to be supported by another FBI agent whose mother had contacted Dana saying she had been abducted and also had an implant. The son argues that his subsequent testimony of being a witness to her abduction was also false memory syndrome created by his mother who had become mentally unbalance where her husband left her when he was still a child.

At the beginning of the Red and the Black the audience is shown the first of three situations in which groups of assembled individuals are burnt to death (the Red) and where governments in Russia and the USA explain the event as mass suicide of a cult mass. At the last of these Dana accompanied the mother of the fellow FBI agent to the assembly location but escape when a second of what appears to be space craft arrives and attacks those doing the killing. Throughout the series Moulder has been confronted by a mystery man who appears to be within government and who constantly smokes. He appears to take special interest in the activities of the agent and his involvement appears to be protective. At the beginning of my present viewing Mulder had been put into contact which his sister who had been adopted by the smoking man who in turn has been assassinated, or so it appeared to be by the group he worked for.

In the recent episodes it is revealed that the group have been doing deals with an alien race as a means of surviving their colonization of the earth and the elimination of the majority of humankind by something described as the black oil (The Black). However it appears that an antidote to the oil has been created by Russian interests but its value is still being tested and therefore it remains necessary for those in the know to continue to deal with the alien race. Having watched the series before and remembered aspect of the recent programmes I ought to know what happens next and the great unravelling of the series. I do not because having carried forward the master scheme a little the two main characters then continue with there work on the X files, difficult to explain situations, usually deaths or extreme behaviour which cannot eb rationally explained.

This brings me to the first four episodes of what became the last season of the 4400. The first episode, The Wrath of Graham has one main story and attempts to follow all the ongoing. The main story is the emergence of a rival Messiah to Jordan who is in hiding as the allocation of Promicin, the drug created from Isabelle which gives users a fifty fifty chance of gaining paranormal powers or quickly dying is declared illegal, but continues to make available by the dispersed 4400 and others. The young student is unaware of the aura he emanates at first and then attempts to take over the Seattle before taking over the world. Jordan comes out of hiding to stop the young man by using his power to neutralise the Promicin created by Isabelle which the young man has taken.

Tom continues to search for Alana and discovered a portrait of her in the gallery showing that she existed 100 years before. His son Kyle returns home also having taken the illegal Promicin and discovers he is being shadowed by an attractive young woman who tells him what to do, and this includes giving Shawn who is a coma a shot of Isabelle‘s Promicin and this works.

Tom’s partner Diana with Maia and her husband are enjoying life in Spain during his work assignment there but Diana who is on the verge of accepting a post as 4400 adviser to Europe is contacted by Marco her former lover and 4400 unit geek that he has seen a video where her sister has accepted the offer of Promicin. Diana therefore decided to go to Europe to find her sister and Maia who she leaves behind tells Ben that his wife will not be back. Dr Kevin and Tess are also in hiding with Tess having major problems because of all those who have died having taken the distributed Promicin. Richard Isabelle’s father, distressed at what has happened has gone missing as the 4400 centre remains closed by the authorities. In addition the 4400 has a new Director, its third, and the least likely individual to be appointed to such a position complete with a large poster for the film La Dolce Vita

The second episode of the final season, Fear Itself was comparatively low key but which provided important story development. The single story feature is an ability to bring out the fears which people have. Diana unable to find her sister is taken back by the unit but on probation. Shaun’s recovery leads him to re-establishing the healing foundation and talk of reopening the centre Isabelle is offered the opportunity to be transferred to a less restrictive prison if tests show the Promicin has been removed. In fact the tests show that she would die if the Promicin returned or was given one of the injections .

I had a personal interest in the third episode Audrey Parker’s Come and Gone. The story is one fo the weakest. A an old disabled woman volunteer at a help centre has taken the Promicin injection and is writing and publishing a Blog which attracts the attention of the 4400 monitoring centre who are asked to investigate and stop the writing because it could encourage to undertake the fifty fifty lottery of gaining an ability or dying prematurely. It is this aspect of writing and being officially monitored to ensure one does not stray into forbidden areas which interests.

However I do not understand her ability or its rationality. She appears to be able to project herself as a younger different woman, an artist holding her first important exhibition of contemporary art which coincides with an affair with a boyfriend who Audrey has the ability to know is a con man. She decides to intervene and warn off the young man as her real self and the young man is able to trace who she is and kill her. This technically closes the case for the monitoring unit because the writing has stopped but Diana is contacted astrally by the woman whose soul is within and without that of the young artist snd is in a kind of restless limbo. However when they arrest the boyfriend of the artist they find he has an alibi but further contact leads them to discovering that the death was the accidental action of the son of the woman’s nurse.

Meanwhile Tom’s son Kyle astral type projection has been elading him to read a coded manuscript which contains what his role is to be in relation to Jordan, Shaun, the future of the 4400 and the salvation of human kind. Diana’s husband and Maia have returned tot he USA from Spain which Diana is at sixes and sevens torn between her feeling that she ought to continue with her work, her concern about her sister and her affection for her husband and Maia which admitted appear to have suddenly changed from all consuming to a long way third

Shaun goes to see Tom and the new head of the unit, she of the film poster, whose father is dying and where they could benefit from the Healing power. However they have a duty to warn that he will be arrested when he attempts to reopen the centre, He has enlisted the help of Heather, she who can bring out the special talents of children and at the last moment the authorities relent and they are allowed to return to work. Shaun heals the father. In the final scene the vehicle in which Isabelle is being transported to an easier confinement is involved in a road accident and she finds herself free.

In the Truth and Nothing but the Truth Diana finds her sister April who is leading a great life with boyfriend blackmailing businessmen through her ability to get people to tell the truth. Unfortunately she brings out the truth of a major conspiracy to defraud the USA government. Diana finds her sister

Meanwhile Kyle makes contact with Isabelle he hides and she helps him to interpret the special book. This lists people who must take the Promicin in order to save humanity and this includes his father. His father having suspicions that his son has taken the illegal substance and developed a special ability so he arranges for a secret test which confirms his suspicions. Meanwhile one of the most vociferous Senators against the way Jordan Collier and others have used their special abilities contacts Shaun to explain that he wants to promote his leadership through a political role in local government in the city, as a Councillor. He explains that as a Vietnam Veteran he had gone with his wife to the Communist run Saigon and if he could learn to forgive and accommodate a former enemy and therefore he wants to help build bridges and peace between the 4400 and rest of humanity. Kyle encourages Shaun to stand saying it could lead him to becoming Mayor of the city and Governor of the State. Kyle then accuses Shaun of betraying Jordan and the future Diana advises her husband she is going to stay on with FBI 4400 unit. Her sister is employed by the Government as a special agent to use her powers and is giving the kind of lifestyle and male support she has dreamed about. Noen fo the opening episodes has the kind of impact which will create a new audience or keep existing fans enthusiastic except the most loyal.

I am reminded of George Orwell’s Animal Farm in which it is agreed that everyone is equal but after a time the leadership determine that they are more equal than others and therefore merit special privileges.

1832 The 4400 season three ends

As with the second series, the 4400 has got better and better with each episode and builds up to an excellent crescendo of action and revelation which appears to set out the full story behind the series, but still provides no indication why it is to end in mid air, or does it, with the conclusion of the 4th and final season. As with the first two seasons there are the regulars and the comings and goings, including several resurrections.

The second part of the season begins with Bling which can be regarded as a divertissement. A young woman commits suicide as do two others and the cause appears to be a 4400 lady who found that oil from her hands had the effect of causing people she touched to come into hallucinatory contact with relatives or former partners with whom they continue to have unresolved issues.

Diana and Tom each receive a basket of cookies ostensibly from each other home delivered which given that they work in the same office is a little surprising and amazingly they both start to eat the gift before checking with each other. Given they are supposed to be crème a la crème operatives of the FBI seconded to the special 4400 monitoring, support and control unit and it has been established they the individuals can do what they like with the future being able to intervene at will this act of stupidity on their party should not have passed the editorial decision makers.

However the episode has a well intentioned purpose in providing a way for the viewer to understand how they became as they are. Tom meets his long departed father who was a street cop, drank too much and took out his frustrations and the impact of his job on his wife and son.

This usually results in high achievers who are self reliant with a tendency to become over dependent on work for their continuing sense of identity and equilibrium and explains the failure of his first marriage. His second “wife” is in fact an artificial creation of the future to provide the kind of support a true creative requires if he is to flourish.

Tom failed to get to his father’s bedside before he died. At the end of the programme they have a long chat before he returns from whence he came! Diana also has an interchange with the boyfriend who cheated on her just before their wedding and which has lead her never to having a serious relationship since. At present she is dating Marco the 4400 government unit geek but the hallucinatory drug makes her realise that the relationship will not progress and this is unfair to the young man. They are two of the most unlikely matchings in TV relationship history, and it is not surprising that the editors had to find away to create a more likely individual..

Before the four episodes viewed have concluded both Diana and Tom are into satisfying relationships with potential long term significance, but not with each other. This impression does not last!

Maia has an insight that Diana will marry a creative photographer who like Diana has been to India. In order to introduce the young man the plot fabrication is for her banished sister to call one day and to bring her fiancée to meet Diana as she has come back to Seattle where the boyfriend lives.

Diana discounts Maia‘s prediction but tells the young man why they should not have contact when he calls to bring her a framed photo of an area of India which they both know. However her sister calls to complain that Diana is responsible for breaking them up and when Diana confronts him he explains that even if they are not to get together the prophecy from a 4400 made him question the suitability of the sister for a life partner. When they accidentally meet at the supermarket they both accept there is chemistry between them and have a proper date in secret with the sister acting a baby sitter for Maia.

I have trying to decide if the failure of Diana in particular to give appropriate regard to Maia’s revelations is simply a plot weakness. Everything she has seen and said has proved accurate after all. Ryland, who is painted as the baddie, appears the only individual in the world who fully understands the implications of the return of the 4400 although he appears to have been given all the financial help, manpower and authority anyone could need to combat the threat. However once the threat was established any and all governments would have formally established mechanisms to combat the situation, in so far as anyone is able to do so, and I am yet to work out if the allegory is a fundamentalist Christian one with the future representing divine and devilish intervention and the conflict who are opposed to radical change because it threatens their individual and corporate interests between them or the difference between fundamental Muslims who want to change the world peacefully or use force to do so and the interests, primarily capitalist, arms dealers, militarists, pharmaceutical, government organisations and such like

Tom’s “wife” Alana is officially allowed to come back to the USA for reasons which will be explained in a moment and similarly Tom’s son Kyle is freed from prison where he has been serving a long sentence for the murder of Jordan Collier and refusing to have contact with his father. Things are looking good for the two investigators and monitors of the series who form a kind of X files duo.

There are three related major subjects as the seasons unfolds. The first is the attempt by Dr Burkoff to create a synthetic form of the chemical which appears to have given the 4400 their special powers but which have turned him into a horrible looking individual who has to continually regenerate himself to survive but with increasing difficulty. He is being assisted by the schizophrenic young girl at the psychiatric unit with the power to make people do things who got them to create the communication device which enabled Dr Burkoff to break out of his condition and begin to function as he had done before the onset of the illness. Why the future did not cure him before his return is a puzzle though. Because he believes the experiment is failing due to his metabolic construction he decides that his assistant should use her ability to make people do things to transfer the experiment to Diana. Why he does not just transfer the experiment to his assistant is another of those editorial storyline moves which makes this less than a top notch series despite the excellence of the overall concept

He is stopped before doing damage by Tom, after a team from the Ryland Group shoot him four times and leave him for dead but he survives and moves on Diana. Meanwhile we learn that Isabelle’s visits to the Ryland laboratory has been to create a huge supply of chemical which she is able to provide naturally and to do so in a quantity which is staggering as we are shown a vast area of phials stacked on shelves row upon row and amounting to three years supply for purposes we are yet to be advised. The shoot of the stacks reminded me of scenes from the X files as it reached its conclusion.

Dr Burkoff goes on the run with the his female assistant and changes back to his normal good looking self thus proving that he has found a way to create the chemical in a laboratory. As Ryland points out scientists all over the world will have been doing likewise and paying 4400’s untold wealth for their cooperation or taking them into state control. Government would be con entreating on the military and economic value while criminal and pharmaceutical corporations would be looking at the commercial opportunities. The Chinese would have been first, the Russian following closely with teh British doing it on the quiet.

The appearance of Dr Burkoff reminded of the beauty and beast transformation of the Troll into the beautiful Princess in the recent Merlin episode. This week there was reprise of the Mr Hyde and Jekyll concept as a beautiful young orphan Druid girl had been given up to the local mercenary witch finder and taken to the city for a reward from the king who Merlin rescues and falls in love only to find that she turns into a murderous monster at night. As is common with every episode there are several silly moments as well as touching ones and can be said to have replaced Dr Who as a Saturday night after football fixture as the latter has moved more to a late more adult audience.

In the 4400 episode there are three killings in the Seattle area where the victims are turned into solid blocks which I thought were wood like. Each of the victims has a number pinned to them which the team work out is a message although why the operative choose to do this is never made satisfyingly clear. A similar kind of coded message is provided in this week’s episode of Spooks.

In Spooks we are back to the unit facing a major terrorist threat which appears to be managed by the Russians after capturing a terrorist. Why the Russians should be behind such a move is the odd aspect of this programme. This is the story put forward by the Russian captor of Luke who tortured and befriended him for four years who comes to London offering to reveal information about the plot for a passport and a million dollars. Don’t the script writers know that a million dollars will only sustain a lifestyle for a year or two these days. A billion dollars and you are talking. Luke and the Russian play cat and mouse with each other and with their superiors until everyone works out the operative has instigated the whole thing to get the money and a new life.

The underlying storyline is the news that there has been a secret meeting of allegedly rogue western spooks with the Chinese to change the the world order, although it is not year clear if this a good or bad thing similarly to the master plot of the 4400. The USA controller of the beautiful Marta Hari who is having a lecherous affair with Luke and which is getting serious, tells Luke’s boss about the meeting in order he should be on his guard as someone from the UK is thought to have been involved. The crunch is when Marta Hari throws her boss to his death when she realises he is coming close to identifying her as the USA individual attending the meting. She was captured by the Russian defector suspicious of her cover story and who is rescued by Luke as he saves the city of London by getting the Russian to reveal the bomb code to his colleague with two seconds to spare, real Bond style that.
The Russian is handed over to his bosses in act of British solidarity! No! revenge, knowing they will sort him out in ways which the British justice system does not allow.

The 4400 Jekyll and Hyde episode is called the Starzi Mutation. (Starzi is the real name of a specialist in transplants although spelt different it is also associated with the dreaded former East German secret service.) In the fictional work there was a problem which arose in the Seattle area when a flawed radio therapy machine caused slight mutations among a number of patients. There were over 100 individuals involved. What emerges is that
whereas a 4400 returnee who becomes a parent with a normal human being only produce a normal child, with one of the Starzi mutations they produced a 4400 powers child although it is not clear if they are Shaun’s the healers or Isabelle, the apocalypse! This is why many of the returnees settled in the Seattle area.

The government has selected a small team of service personnel to use the Isabelle provided chemical to develop super solder fighting powers. The individuals have all been reported dead to their families and one of the has gone AWOL after having problems. He goes after those affected by the radio therapy machine fault. The number pinned to them is the same as they appear on the official list and also official number of one of the soldiers reported dead whose body was never recovered and which leads the government monitoring unit to find the rogue soldier and his friend who kill each other.

The lack of clarity about motives for the behaviour is not revealed until the last episodes of the season. When Diana and Tom confront Denis Ryland he is forced to admit they have been creating the special unit of solders and pre-empt any independent disclosure by holding a press conference. Ryland defends the unit to Tom and Diana saying that the special soldiers are there to protect the interests of the USA and Tom or Diana makes the statement that the real intention is to go for the 4400, Ryland replies that controlling the 4400 and defending against the misuse of their special powers is what defending the interests of the USA is all about. This is a rational position

Behind the development is Isabelle who had moved her obsession of a relationship with Shaun into a marriage, contacted his family and inviting all the 4400 to the wedding. 1000 of them accept and one seeks a personal interview with Shaun to give one his manufacture red cigars in a presentation case. He discloses that his power is to enable people to see something of their own future and he has created the cigar for Shaun to look into his. Isabelle has admitted to Shaun that she had done bad things and will continue to do them and that Shaun is her counterpoint and the only person who may be able to stop her. Shaun who does not want to marry her decides to try out the cigar and has three insights. One is an extension of the other in which he is responsible for the death of Richard and the other he is unable to stop the death of Tom. All three visions occur in a world where war and terror has broken out between 4400 and their supporters and the states and their supporter. The first reaction of Shaun to is pull out of the marriage but he then decides to go through with the wedding in order to see if he can change what is to happen. Meanwhile Richard has developed kinetic powers which he tries to harness and one exercise is to think knives to fly off the kitchen shelf into a target and where the viewer has no doubt he has his errant daughter in mind.

This leads to the tour de force programme of the series so far, first tailored in the last frame at the end of the second season. Shaun comes out to greet the 4400 attendees before his wedding and one of them comes forward looking very much some depictions of Jesus of Nazareth but who is none other than the resurrected Jordan Collier. He then disappears and Tom and Diana are brought in to try and find him with Tom having the added incentive that if Jordan is alive then his son was wrongly convicted of murder. But Jordan is difficult to track down as he appears to have been all over the world at different times as a preacher Messiah and where his portrait has been created in mosaic tiles everywhere that a following has developed.

The two discover his diary which contains an epileptic(?) story about the future. Jordan visits Kyle in prison and when Tom and Diana find him, he still has no recollection of who is except that her has wondered through time as well as the earth world and that he has been to the future. This is the reason that Alana is brought back from her position as a fugitive in order to help Collier remember his identity which she does successfully.

His return unsettles Isabelle who misled Collier into believing he would not be assassinated. Collier orders her out of the centre and she joins the Ryland enterprise full time.

The next development is that the surviving members of the Nova group who are in custody are released by a member of the 4400 with the power to temporarily knock out all the staff including its security personnel.

This action is part of the Jordan Collier’s plan which he has kept from Shaun. He and Richard then tell Shaun they are planning to raid the military base where Ryland is using the Isabelle’s chemical to create the super military elite special force. Shaun is so upset that they are about kill people that he discloses that Collier was behind the break out of the Nova group and their plan to attack the special unit. This is in fact a blind for the real activity as Shaun is no longer trusted. The release of the Nova group was aimed at making use of the shape shifter He poses as Ryland and orders the moving of the three year store of chemicals made into 1700 units and the 4400 take possession. Ryland’s reaction is to believe the intention is to destroy the supply but then there is an internet video explaining that the substance will be distributed. The video is made at a safe house which the 4400 monitoring unit manage to locate. However when they arrived they find that Shaun has been called there to try and save the sister of the person who has made the video and who has taken the chemical and is showing an immediate adverse reaction. She dies. Shaun is taken into custody to try and find the location of the total supply. Tom and Diana confront Ryland who admits that some people have an adverse reaction within the first 48 hours and die. Half the selected 20 soldiers have died one way or the other. Hence the last episode of the third series is called 50 50.

Alana is persuaded to interrogate Shawn as a way to prevent torture being used and for her stay in the USA to be made official. However before she can see Shaun, Ryland arrives with the power to interrogate Shaun using Isabelle to get the information and she sends Shaun into a coma where he remains as the season ends. When they reach the centre where the supplies are being held first they find that the look alike drugs are fakes, then that Collier is in fact the shape shifter and that the place is wired for a major explosion. There si no explanation how the look alike drugs were created so quickly although one imagines Dr Burkoff was the brains for this development

Before she has obtained the information from Shaun Isabelle admits that she was created in order to kill all the 4400, something part of her did not want to do and she thought by giving the stuff to Ryland she would be able to achieve a standoff between the 4400 changing things and the her mission to kill them. She saw the marriage with Shaun, assuming Collier was dead, as another good way to achieve a synthesis between the thesis and antithesis, the equilibrium of the dialectic.

Ryland survives yet again, the third assassination attempt and so does Isabelle whose plan having failed sets out for the 4400 centre on a mission to kill all the members in her path.

Having seen what Isabelle has done to Shaun, Tom collects the syringe given to him by the future having reached the conclusion that killing her has become justified.

The relationship between Diana and the photographer has progressed. He has returned from London and asks Diana to leave her job and go with him to Spain where he has accepted a job which will last six months. Eventually Maia tells Diana’s sister about the relationship and predicted marriage as the sister has been sitting moping about her lost love and hoping he will come back to her. She is not as angry as Diana anticipated and comes to the conclusion she is not destined to have the stable long term relationship and effectively wishes the new couple well. Maia has seen that the sister will attend the wedding.

Because of the events at the centre Diana removes Maia from the school against the wishes of the girl but she returns when Diana is called away and on the day when Isabelle goes on the rampage and enters the class room asking which child will she kill first. Maia stand up to warn her that what she is doing will not work just as Diana comes in and shoots Isabelle down with Tom close behind to inject her the substance given by the future. However Isabelle recovers from the gunshots, the resurrections abound, and she knocks the syringe out of Tom’s hands and attempts to kill both Tom and Diana. Richard uses his kinetic power to move the syringe into the neck of Isabelle who collapses and then rises. Tom shoot her to be safe although subsequent tests reveal that she is back to being a normal human being without powers. Isabelle and Shaun are seen in adjacent wards in the hospital side by side, their futures uncertain.

Diana and Maia call to say goodbye to Tom and Diana before their trip to Spain. Maia tells Alana that they will be back sooner than everyone thinks.

Kyle, Tom‘s son having been released from prison is expected to return to High School. He goes to see Collier who explains that what happened was necessary with both playing preordained parts. Kyle is impressed with the mission and decides to leave home and to work for the centre in whatever way Collier ordains. Alana who having fulfilled her mission expects to be allowed to remain with Tom and is suddenly whisked away from him by the future. Has his mission been completed with the neutralising of Isabelle?

Collier has already arranged for the real Isabelle produced chemical to be distributed by the 4400 to the most needy, the underclass which includes the very old and the sick with everyone given a warning that there is only a fifty fifty chance of it working and of dying if it does not. Most of those who accept the offer feel they have nothing else to lose. It is like being given the opportunity to become a lottery millionaire on the spin of a coin. Heads you win, tails you die. The 4400 centre appears to have been closed by the authorities and 4400 dispersed with Collier reflecting on what has happened from a log cabin by a lake- the lake?

In the final scene one of those accepting a syringe is Diana’s sister/ This is all warm up for the 4th season which was in fact the last although it ends in mid air with more questions than answers, so I am led to believe.

The X files series has been running on various Satellite channels and recently I looked in at the conclusion of an episode of Babylon 5 and saw that it was moving into its last phase as the plot for the whole series is uncovered and as with Babylon 5 a concentrated effort on going through all the seasons of series is justified but whether I will have time remains to be determined. The X files was a wondrous series for the conspiracy theorist with the basic question have terrestrial landed and their technology used by the government or perhaps they have been dictating to the government or was it all a splendid government creation to out manoeuvre the Soviet enemy. The series also has the power group within the state. Was is certain is that such groups exists within every state and between states and cuts across the usual differences. For example Past President’s of the USA government have get-to-gether’s and are invited to other groups of former leaders and with the people who walk with Presidents and Kings. The existence of such meetings is not generally secret although the precise information about locations and times usually is for security reasons. There are usually formal minutes which are checked and circulated to those attending but the main activity comes form private social occasions involving individuals, sub groups and the whole group. Often there is closeness reached between individuals who have held the same position as there are between people of the same political parties, religions, commercial interests and such like. It is the way of the world.

1830 Everyone is not as they seem 4400, Nautilus, Planet of the Apes and Babylon 5

As with the second series of the 4400 the subsequent episodes of the third series are significantly better than the openers. The stories and the acting are stronger. The major story line which has a bearing on the whole series is the taking of Maia and several other of the children by the future because those who have returned have not made the required impact to alter the direction of humanity to avoid future disaster. We only learn that the kidnappers are the future in the second part of the opener. A woman posing as Maia’s younger sister, born to her parents several years after the her original disappearance, makes friends and then just when Diana is having her checked out takes Maia when she is out playing. However Maia has indicated a premonition about what will happen in her diary and directly to Diana who she says will forget her.

When the children are reprogrammed they are returned to earth at different times and several are subsequently identified as having made important contributions to humankind already although Maia is reported to have died of smallpox while part of a Go West Wagon Train at the age of 25.

The aspect of what then happens after the children are reprogrammed should ring alarm bells all over the fictional world and with Tom and Diana and their boss in particular, because the future appears to have the ability to eliminate all knowledge of the children from those with whom they lived, went to school with or who had records of them, including the removal of any photographs since their return. This is awesome power which presumably can be directed at will and raises the question as to why the future needs the 4400 to change the Timeline in the past. We are back to issues of determinism, Chaos Theory and the Butterfly Effect raised previously.

However Diana has whispers of concern about something she cannot identify and when Tom goes on one of his trips into an alternative reality with his “wife” they encounter a figure representing Maia who suddenly stands in the road before their fast moving car. She also subsequently appears as her true self and when Diana joins with Tom’s wife she goes back to the day of the adoption. Once they realise the children existed but memories and records and been wiped they work out that Maia had sent a message about where to look for her but when they get to a house with six look alike bedrooms on one floor where we know the children were housed, it is empty and a prospective purchaser is being shown round by an estate agent.

Meanwhile Maia and the other children have been using their powers to break free from their captors in the same building but when Maia does open the front door it leads directly in the room where Tom has entered in the building used by the 4400 foundation/as the Governor Jordan Collier art centre and where he first encountered his wife during the prolonged alternative reality which last eight years. The room continues to remind me of a scene in a 1940’s era film.

Maia tries to resist the reprocessing. Diana then uses Tom’s wife to try and turn permanently into an alternative reality situation with her adopted daughter but with the consequence that her life in the present is rapidly deteriorating as she goes into a coma. This can also be interpreted to eb a message about addiction to drugs and other substances under which he individual is happier than in the day upon day of the reality of their “normal” existence.

In order to break the position Tom devises a scheme to communicate with the future by attempting to hang himself off a bridge, believing that the future having marked him as a communications conduit will not let him die. Tom makes the case for the return of the children which is agreed on the basis that he does them a favour. When the children are returned he learns that the favour is to kill Isabelle.

Given yesterday’s Butterfly Effect 2 film and the first in that series “be careful what you wish for/ask of the Gods who may grant you what you wish etc the development in the 4400 is not surprising.

Time Travel and believing it is possible to alter timelines is also the subject of a two hour film called Nautilus which I have not come across before. Nautilus was made famous by Jules Verne in his novels. This 2000 film is also about time travel and an under water submarine vessel which returns from a near destroyed earth planet to try and alter the course of what happened. In 1990 when the present day of the film is set and international energy corporation is drilling into the earth core as part of a way to create a renewable energy system. The owner hires a specialist security agent to manage the last 23 hours before the product launch to a small team of specialists interests which includes one CIA agent. The agent is also in a covert operation with traditional energy firms who want to sabotage the new development and in this respect he is sympathetic to a group who are dropped from a helicopter and then swim underwater to attached plastic explosive devices the foundation of the drilling platform and at various places on the platform. They are stopped and held prisoners.

At this point the Nautilus intervenes and calls upon the drilling operation to be stopped on the grounds that it will tap into a fault which has so far been undetected with the consequence that the core will explode through demolishing cities and setting in motion a world in chaos and decay. To convince those on board he proposes to arrange for the owner of the project, and the scientists directly involved to come over to their craft and obtain the required proof.
The response of the USA government alerted by the CIA with full support of the owner is to arrange for a nuclear submarine in the area to try and sink the attacking craft. The White House and armed forces of the USA are not advised of the nature of the mission or the claim of time travel but are forced to ask questions when the two torpedoes launched about turn and take out the launch submarine killing all those on board, The next attempt is to launch rockets from two, planes and again the rockets are used to destroy the launching crafts. The security man on board thinks this is immoral and against eh code which si extraordinary given his role and background.

The party requested to come to the time machine assemble and are surprised to find that it is daughter of he captain who comes over to meet them in a small unit. The new project security chief joins them after an attempt to capture the visitor from the future fails. The quartet are not easily convinced and the manner of the persuasion with a video of the future and of how the world moved into greater chaos and anarchy eventually convinces except for the owner of the project.

While they are away the CIA contact releases he prisoners after believing he has done a deal in which they will destroy the project as in their original mission. They kill him later. The Time Traveller’s daughter then returns the visitors to the drilling platform with the exception of the female scientist who asks to remain ion board the time travelling craft. She then separates the captain from his crew and takes over the vessel with a view to using it to destroy the drilling platform admitting she was an inside member of the attack group.

At this point the captain realises his mistake, it is his craft which caused the explosion which set off the destruction of the planet. He finds a away to communicate with the aircraft carrier from which the attacking planes had been launched and provides information enabling it to destroy the time machine with explosives. At the same time his daughter and the security chief are able to regain control of the drilling platform dismantling devices which would have initiated the new energy scheme and planet destruction. The daughter is therefore marooned in the present but has struck up a relationship with the head of security. The film is good fun but lacks originality and the kind of script and acting which made The Planet of the Apes such a success in 1968 and led to four film sequels and two TV series.

The 1968 film is in two distinct parts. Charlton Heston plays the captain in a no return exploratory deep space operation where the craft is able to fly so fast that while the crew only age eighteen months two millennium pass on earth. The experiment goes wrong and the craft crashes onto the waters of an unknown planet where the three men of the crew are able to escape, with the sole female having not survived the journey during their hibernation transit phase. They find themselves in a lunar type of landscape with only three days of rations and no indication of other forms of life, food and water. There are exchanges between the trio about their motives for undertaking the mission until they discover a single rock plant which leads to more and more vegetation and a natural waterfall and clear water in which they bathe after striping. Their clothes and supplies are then removed and partially destroyed by a primitive form of human beings who behave like animals in a pack but who nevertheless wear clothes for cinematic modesty. The “animals” are found enjoying the food of a cultivated area until the arrival of apes and gorillas on horseback with the power of speech.

They control a small area of habitable earth where they have created a primitive human kind of society similarly to those of the middle ages in Western Europe with a religious and belief system based on laws and a bible in which scientific truth is defined by the belief system. One of three space explorers is killed and later found stuffed in a museum while the second is captured and his speech and brain functions surgically neutered.

Only the Captain, played by Charlton Heston, survives by falling into the hands of an ape “animal” behavioural scientist and her anthropological scientist boyfriend who discovered important remains when exceeding his authorization and going into a cave in the forbidden zone. While a wound has rendered Heston temporarily unable to speak out loud he is able to mouth words and write and with the help of the young couple he is able to communicate his story which no one appears to believe and even his female behaviourist friend only accepts that he is a unique specimen which merits study, possibly can be domesticated and should not be subjected to the gelding and lobotomy which the rulers of the community decide should be his fate.

Eventually the two break Heston out from his confinement along with the mute female given to Heston as a playmate, They go to the forbidden zone where they are met with the scientific elder who is also keeper of the faith out to stop them uncovering the known truth. The anthropologist shows him the evidence he found which far from proving that the apes were always superior to humans, appears to show that the Apes may have been a development from the humans in a reversal of human history. The elder admits all this was already known and he had come to eliminate the evidence and those who has gained the knowledge. He is captures and used as a bargaining tool.

They eventually do a deal in which Heston and his woman ride off further into the forbidden zone while the evidence is blown up but the two scientists are able to return without being tried for treason or such like. As they ride across the shoreline Heston stops and sinks to the ground off the horse in disbelief and realization they his craft had returned to earth and that man had engaged in a nuclear holocaust. “We finally really did it! You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn You, God Damn you all to hell.” The picture ends as the remains fo the Statue are revealed in one of the most powerful and effective images in cinema history. I wrote that and then was impressed that it was also part of the Wikipedia review thus there are at least to of us with the same opinion. I wonder what Dr Mark Kermode thinks?

The film was remarkable and trend setting in a number of respects. It was far more effect in its message of concerns about the impact on humans and the environment as most of the message films of the day and since, although Neville Shute’s On the Beach stands well, alongside Dr Strangelove, with the former and continuing to be shown on Sat TV.

The Planet of the Apes was ahead of its time in terms of the realistic looking gorillas and apes. It was also brilliant in standing on its end the approach of many religious groups towards creation and the role of humans in relation to animals and the planet.

The film is based on the book by the French write Pierre Boulle La Panete des singes. As previously observed, a note in the Wikipedia article points out that the animals are naked in the book and anything other than this is ludicrous and reflection of the self imposed censorship of Hollywood. In the book the apes also speak their own language which the human space man has to learn and the spaceship survives so that the survivor is able to return to earth where he finds that the planet has evolved parallel to earth because of the nuclear catastrophe soon after the exploration set off.

The film was remade in 2001 as a “reimaging” with a very different storyline and ending. I enjoyed the remake but it remains light years away from the greatness and significance of the original. Although the film made a profit there have been no sequels.

Returning to the 4400 the relationship between Shaun and Isabelle has developed despite the opposition of her father Richard that she has the emotional intelligence still of a child while the body of a young woman. Under the encouragement of Mathew Ross, said to be Richard’s Collier’s choice as adviser and protector to Shaun, she defies her father and establishes a physical relationship with Shaun, Mathew select her clothing down to her underwear in order to get Shaun into the frame of body to be influenced by Isabelle in ways which Mathews dictates, The couple keep their relationship secret out of respect to the wishes of her father and Shaun’s position in the movement.

Mathew attempts to increase his power over Shaun with the help of Richard who has discovered that large sums of money have disappeared from the foundation set up by Collier and which Richard’s wife had run. Shaun admits that he had used the money to bank role the terrorist Nova group before he realised what they were up to. Eventually he is able to admit this was an error of judgement and to accept the advice of Richard. The Nova group continue to exert pressure on Shaun for support and funds and when he refuses they commence to make threats on his life leading to mind bending which causes Shawn to become psychotic and self harming. Richard consults the 4400 government much to the opposition of Isabelle but despite her protests Shaun is placed in a private secure psychiatric establishment. Isabelle begins to exert her authority which culminates in the episode Graduation Day. She gives her father a warning heart attack but stops of killing him. She then kills Matthew when he tries to strop her break out Shaun from the institution. She also appears to be responsible for the deaths of the remaining members of oft eh Nova group but her defence is that their special powers turned in on themselves and killed them. At the end of the episode having been released from custody under suspicion she present herself to Dennis Ryland at his corporation and institute.

Dennis the former head of the 4400 supervision unit has survived the scandal of the special powers inhibitor which led to the deaths of 4400 returnees because of its side effects. He has not only become head of a major corporation but has been given major agency powers by the government to intervene in the control of the 4400, and the development of counter measures. In the next episode, The Home Front we find that Isabelle is submitting her brain and body to tests which are helping scientists to understand the phenomenon and make use of the new knowledge. Isabelle it should be reminded, is the only individual in the series born with special powers after the return of her parents, although there is now also Dr Kevin Burkoff who has developed a drug which can induce special powers, in his instance of self regeneration. As a result of the actions of Isabelle Shaun returns to his position with his abilities restored but decides that is wrong for the two to continue as a couple.

This enables the plot designers to reintroduce the former high school girl with a crush on him before he disappeared and who had established a relationship with his younger brother. The excuse for her to make contact is that her father has an incurable cancer which Shaun cures and agrees to have Sushi meal with her one evening. Isabelle who has already made it plain to her father and to Shaun that he is the only person she wants to share her life in adult relationship makes plain her concern about his growing interest in the former girl friend and Shaun is forced to break with the girl out of her own interest, although this is the opposite of what he wants to do.
The main function of the episode, The Home Front, is to explain the departure of Karina Lombard who plays Tom’s second “wife” Alana Marvea. She has gone to work at the 4400 special school where she is working with Heather Tobey, the returnnee who in an earlier episode had problems at the school where she worked because of her ability to bring out the creative talents locked into some ordinary children. Agents working for the government under the control of Dennis Ryland arrest Heather when it is discovered that the tip off to one time member of the Nova group Gary Navarro, the last known member at large, prevents his capture by Tom and Diana. When Heather provides an alibi she admits to Tom that the person who has access to her room while she was away was Alana. Alana gives herself up in order to prevent Heather being tortured for the information. Tom then brokers a deal with Dennis Ryland to exchange Alana for Gary. This takes place but Diana and Tom both have doubts about the morality of what they are doing and break Gary free from Ryland resulting in that he and Alana must flee as fugitives, going first to the Canadian border. Tom and Diana then blackmail Ryland from using what they have done against them and from pursuing Alana and Gary with any vigour. Alana will appear in the series again

The reason why Tom and Diana feel obligated to Gary despite his association with the Nova group and his near successful attempt on the life of Ryland is that todate they failed in their commitment to protect him when he agreed to assist with his special power of hearing what is inside the head of other people. Against his will he was taken into permanent custody of the state in order to be trained to use the power in the service of his country. He had renounced violence and wanted to live a quiet life without using his powers which he had come to be able to control.

This still leaves Tom with the obligation to kill Isabelle. He has a dream in which he is in a position to kill, egged on by Diana who wants nothing to hamper the continuing return of Maia. Tom has a real life experience of being able to kill Isabelle who appears accepting of her fate. Tom hesitates and then decides against carrying out his commitment saying he will wait until he finds out why she has to be killed. During his time back with the future they disclose that in their time there are two forces at work. Those who want the 400 to succeed to prevent the way the world develops and those who do not who want the situation to continue so that in their present time they can exercise even more power over everybody else than they are able to do so in their present. This fits into my own view that it impossible to change in a fundamental way the forces that operate within all human beings and where the forces of evil will always gain ascendancy over the good for varying periods of time both in terms of personal relationships, individual communities and nations as well as between nations. It is the moral and social dialectic as well as the political and economic.

The issue formed part of the episode of Babylon Five which concerns the power of the planetary Earth Corp of individuals who can read peoples minds. The episode centres on the attempt by members of the Corp police, both dislikeable characters, to capture an alleged rogue member who is known to have had a close relationship with the Corp member assigned to the station. He has come to say goodbye to her and to enlists the help of the station Commander to finish the transformation which is the culmination of a secret experiment in which he was forced to participate. The scheme was enhance the power of the Corp ho are graded up to level 12 which each level having the power to overcome blocking devices more effectively. The experiment also enabled the development of kinetic powers which by the end of episode have led to a state where the individual has exploded much like that of the black monoliths in 2001 and 2010. And in this instance into a super being with superpower who has unity with all matter and all knowledge. He admits to having unintentionally killed the research officer leading the experiment because he feared the power it would bring to the Corp, and their ambitions, and in order to escape and prevent destruction of the Babylon Five he kills one of the two Corp police trying to stop him and the other is restrained by the Commander and forced to return to earth. As with the 4400 and Lost it takes time for the master plan of the series to unfold but as is a feature of the latest episodes, everyone is not as they seem.