Monday, October 01, 2007

El Fin

It is the finale again. Uncle has posted the final 2 part installment of his Alias Revelations screenplay. Head on over to The Uncle Gun to read the last piece of the puzzle, then come on back over here to chat up the new material.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a brief overview of the Bionic Woman- I finally watched it and man, there was enough Alias pumped into to last me for awhile.

18 comments:

uncle111 said...

Well,
Okay, maybe I do need to watch BW E1.

Girlscout said...

You do- I mean, the opening sequence, a bunch of soldiers are running down a hall- guess what hallway it is? I swear it's the same old Alias hallway under SD-6.

Oh and last night on Brother's & Sisters, the woman at the bridal shop was none other than the CIA secretary who leads a bloodied and red wigged Sydney in to meet with Devlin in the pilot. Oh Ken Olin, how I love thee!

Page48 said...

Uncle, you're pulling out all the "Alias" chestnuts, including Jack's secret storage facility, not to mention Jack himself.

I thought you might have included a shameless plug for the latest Ford product, but I notice you substituted a shameless plug for your jewelery shop instead. Excellent use of product placement, and to think that Vaughn bought Syd's ring from you. Who knew?

Also noticed that the number 47 finally got its moment in the spotlight. I was beginning to wonder if you were going to part with tradition.

Great effort at fan fiction, capped off with the all-important "Alias" cliffhanger.

uncle111 said...

Page48,
How did you like the way I dealt with Jack?

Page48 said...

GS, I'm looking forward to your take on the BW pilot.

I'm a keener on seeing this show succeed, so I've been all over the internet trying to gauge the reaction of people who watched it. I have my own issues with it, mostly related to lame dialogue and an even lamer boyfriend (Will), but the writer of the pilot is already long gone from the show, and the promo for the next episode suggests the boyfriend issue has been cleared up, so I expect better efforts going forward.

Many people claim that Sarah Corvus stole the show. I felt that her character flirted with being cartoonish, something I don't want to see become a habit. Her "time out", "time in" routine with the cigarette flip comes a little close to being comic book material. I don't want the comic book thing to spiral out of control. Keep a respectable degree of seriousness, please. "Alias" was pretty crazy sometimes, but it was played as if it was based on a true story, and that, IMO, is what made it work.

Many claim the show is too dark. Hogwash. It's a show about a woman involved with a murky underground organization, not "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". Does escapist TV have to be peppered with laughs and one-liners to be entertaining? Apparently some people think so.

Some headlines declared the show a "flop" after Wednesday's debut, despite the fact that it was a ratings success, dominating the 18-49 demographic, and providing NBC with it's best Wednesday night series premiere since 1999.

Clearly there is an audience hungry for this type of show, and people who don't get it will never be on board, but I am on board, and I think BW is only a few tweaks away from being on its way.

Page48 said...

Uncle,

I firmly believe that an "Alias" movie, should it ever develop, would have to find a way to include Jack. I cling to the belief that the door was left open when Jack's death was not confirmed in the script of the finale, or on the ABC website.

In your scenario, of course, he was killed but reconstructed. Somehow, I'm not comfortable with Jack being immortal, which he would be if he was saved by exposure to Rambaldi juice like Sloane was, but if he was constructed using Helix, would he not merely be a double, and would that not require a donor body? I'm a little fuzzy on how Jack can be the real McCoy.

uncle111 said...

Hmmm. Page48, you must not have read the last few pages. Jack not only was not brought back by Helix or by the Rambaldi fluid, Jack was not the one blown up in the tomb. That was a double of himself that he Helixed before Syd went to get the amulet from The Rose in Italy.

You might want to go back and read that again.

uncle111 said...

He explained it to Syd in the Oval Office.

Page48 said...

Yup,Uncle, the re-read makes sense. That's the problem with trying to speed-read these instalments at work with the usual distractions. I should know by now that "Alias" requires attention to detail.

I like that "way out" for Jack, although it called for incredible SpyDaddy foresight on his part. It takes away the problem posed by the improbability of his surviving the blast in the tomb, which was a long shot, even by "Alias" standards.

Thanks for clarifying.

uncle111 said...

This one particularly needs attention to detail because it has so much in it.

uncle111 said...

A list of other things that need remarks.
1- any The Pretender fans should recognize Jarod.
2- I was thinking of the F-150 when I used Samaritan Arts.
3- There was no way that I couldn't use Jack's place.
4- How do you like Conrad's role in things and the scheme that goes back to the days of Rambaldi, let alone Sloane going back that far?
5- Did you find my way of answering some of the unanswered questions and tieing of loose ends was "Alias" enough?
6- Are you glad Helix is gone and that Elena and Irina are back?
7- How about Kendall's reveals and his explaination of Project Christmas and what that implies about Jack and Syd's relationship? Could that be what really so upset her when she read the S.A.B. 47 Project document?
8-And what about Rambaldi being alive and using Kendall to meet Syd?

Girlscout said...

Not sure how I feel about any of it yet. I need to re-read it I think. I it was a lot to take in and a lot to keep straight. Who is dead, who is alive, who is back from the dead, who is a double, who isn't. So much Uncle, so much!

Bonkers for Bristow said...

Anyone watch Monday's episode of Heroes? Am I the only desperate watcher that saw the scene with Hiro dunking Sark and yelled "Alias!" ...? It was a shot right out of the opening of the pilot.

OK. So I'm clutching at straws... It makes me happy. :)

Girlscout said...

YES!! I totally thought of that bonkers. All he needed was a bright red wig! HAHAHA!

Tammy said...

Uncle - it's me leaving a very "undetailed" comment again, but I'm at work and have just read the last installments quickly... BUT, I wanted to say my first impressions were good!!

I LOVE what you did with Jack. Until I learned that he had used Helix to double himself, I was very disbelieving about the reconstructed Jack, but I love that he doubled himself and was very much alive!! LOVE it!

OK - I'm going to re-read the whole thing, NOT at work, and then maybe I'll have some more specific comments for you! Overall, it was great though!

uncle111 said...

GS-
So this is twisting your brain like a pretzel.
Tammy-
I'm glad you like it. Bringing Jack back this way was my favorite part. He's back and it is very natural. He's not a clone, double or reconstructed. He used Helix on someone else in order to protect Syd and help her destroy Helix (which was becoming a black hole for Alias). I like the multi-level symmetry of using Helix to destroy Helix, and using Helix to protect Syd from enemies and from a future with Helix. It is the kind of 3 dimensional problem solving the Project Christmas puzzle solvers are supposed to have, even though he couldn't solve that puzzle. It is a Jack Bristow type perfect scenario.

SKlaft said...

Notes as I read...

I shouldn't have much more to add in criticism, so this will be breif.

1. Things are back to moving along nicely, now that they are out of training phase. I don't know if you watched Bionic Woman, but there was a training montage that contained only music and a few scenes of her doing things of interest. there was only one scene of dialog. They made it work, but it was still a little lame. It would have been much better to assume all the training and expereince was in place when the show started (as was the case with Alias, though you felt more training was necessary). Introducing new people, new weapons, and new scenery sould always be done as subtlly as possible, without much dialog or notice by the chracters. To them, its just another day on the job, and there are more important dramatic sequences to draw our (and their) attention.

2. Grammar note: "Marshal thinks someone sprayed Vaughn and ME..." not "Vaughn and I"

3. Barnett was more of a therapist, and there was the other curly-haired lady who was more involved with the psy-ops and mental tech. Remember the lady who said she had seen Syd's file and that her spacial reasoning was "stellar"? Also, there was an older black lady who hypnotized Will to get the information. Barnett was not really involved in this aspect of the game. Besides, I think she was fired from the CIA for the liason with Sloane.

4. Is the deal with the earth's magnetic field any sort of shout-out to the movie "The Core"? (I thought that movie was pretty cool)

5. Ahhh, the 47 thing. Now the characters can be in on it, like it had some particular significance. We all know it was a fraternity thing with J.J. and his former classmates, right?

6. You totally nail Rachel's lines. I can hear her slightly nasal, and uncertain, wispery voice.

7. Firing a missle as a warning? That's an expensive and wasteful warning. Wouldn't he just fire a few rounds over the canope?

Again, you run the risk of looking like a military info-mercial rather than a drama. The arial fight seems gratuitous.

8. Conrad claiming to have forged Page 47 is completely unsatisfying. Its like Dallas ending with someone waking up and it was all just a dream. Its just a downright mean-spirited thing to do to a faithful watcher. There was just too much detail and precision in what was writen. Rambaldi's miracle, or Conrad's... either way, the prophesy and the hidden code that led Sloane to the immortal-juice could not have been done through conventional means.

9. Woah... Sark is back with Allison Doran. That would have been an interesting reunion, see that Sark became so madly in love with Lauren not too long after Will shuved a blade through Allison's heart.

10. Excellent way to end. Very intreguing.

uncle111 said...

Robetron,
1- the rewrite will have much less training. But this is much bigger than just another day on the job.
3- Barnett pretty much replaced the other shrinks in terms of screen time, so she's the one everyone is familiar with and she has more of a relationship with and to Syd and Vaughn.
4- No. I liked The Core too, but this is a bridge to Rambaldi's true endgame, which others in the series thought they knew and which has some similarities to, but which were way off in effect.
5- I heard people say that's what the 47 thing was, but no one in the bonus material seemed to know what it was. In fact they put 47 on things they shot that they knew the audience would never even see. like making that the number of a pencil someone is using. Instead of it being a number 2 it was a number 47.
I was watching a 1960's spy series the other day and the hero's speedometer had 2 47's on it just before his car ran off into a lake.
7- But it's a good visual and good theater, which is sort of the point.
8- The fact that Rambaldi shows up at the end redeems the loss of the mystery that was Page 47. Page 47 may be a forgery, but Rambaldi is alive and his being alive is more of a mystery and more intrigueing than Page 47.
Conrad is a 500 year old guy with access to much of Rambaldi's knowledge. He is capable of creating such a forgery. And when the series was still on there were a lot of discussions about real trouble spots because of Page 47. This neutralizes those trouble spots.
10- Thanks! I actually love the ending myself.

Robetron, again, thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions. They will help alot in the rewrite.