I had originally intended to blog about recent comic books, but that will have to wait until I've got more time and have caught up in reading them. My thoughts are with friends with sick family members, including Brian D.H. and April O'C., and I've offered condolences to fellow blogger Steve M.R. regarding his grandfather. Speaking of illness, with Monica S. out sick yesterday and Michele L.D'F. still in Italy, CW's copy desk has been busy, especially in the face of some construction in our office (see image above) as the online group continues to expand.

Last Saturday, 6 October 2007, Janice and I finally went to the renovated and enlarged "Natick Collection." The shopping mall is nice, but we'll be unlikely to shop at most of the upscale stores. We also took advantage of Olive Garden's "Never Ending Pasta Bowl!" We also had an expensive but tasty dessert at Finale. Closer to home, we're fortunate to have a Trader Joe's within walking distance. While we do most of our grocery shopping at Sudbury Farms or Stop & Shop, Trader Joe's is good for healthy snacks and seasonal items.

As September's warmth has given way to more seasonably cool, damp weather, I've caught up on local newspapers, including the Boston Phoenix, the Cambridge Weekly Dig, the Improper Bostonian, and Stuff at Night. The Phoenix and Dig are progressive alternatives to The Boston Globe and Herald, similar to New York's Village Voice or Washington D.C.'s City Paper. The Improper and Stuff are aimed at young urban sophisticates, which I'm not, but they're occasionally entertaining or informative.

I pick up the free Boston Now during the workweek. In addition to my Yahoo and Google RSS feeds, I read the Sunday Globe, but I miss the reading The New York Times in print.

While I know that I've blogged quite a bit lately about genre television, now that we're a few weeks into the new season, I can report my impressions more fully.

The revived Doctor Who's third-series finale was well-done, not so much because of the plot, but because of the acting and a few choice revelations about the time traveler's friends and foes. My favorite recent episode was "The Weeping Angels," but unlike some of the British tabloids, I liked most of this season. Spin-off Torchwood has also been decent.

Supernatural comedies Reaper and Pushing Daisies have both been stylish and amusing, with the slacker spy on Chuck not far behind. Of these, I've found the surreal Pushing Daisies to be more sweet than twee. As for more dramatic shows, Heroes is still working to juggle converging plot threads, but I appreciate the connections to the Star Trek franchise. Time-travel program Journeyman has also been solid.

Speaking of Trek, in addition to various Web sites' eager speculation about the Iron Man, Dark Knight, Indiana Jones [4] and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Justice League movies, J.J. Abrams' plan to reboot the space opera franchise has fans cautiously optimistic. Here's a good link to a list of the best "quest films:" http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/22/quest.films/index.html

I'm dropping Bionic Woman and Moonlight, mainly to free up time to watch shows I've recorded while gaming. Smallville may not be far behind, and I'm still waiting for the "Worf factor" (when actors from a parent show move to the spin-off, improving it; an allusion to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) on Stargate: Atlantis.

Next time: Comic books, gaming, and more…

Friends, I hope you’ve had a good week. Now that my boss Michele is on vacation in Italy, I've been busy with work, but here's a quick update. Unfortunately, late last week, I got hit with another unexpected expense when I had to bring in my car for repairs. Some rattling led to the replacement of my 1998 Honda Civic coupe's rear brakes, a heat shield, and other equipment! After dealing with that and the past months' dental bills, it's probably just as well that most of my travel plans for this autumn have fallen through.

On Saturday, 29 September 2007, Janice and I walked to the Needham Harvest Fair, as well as to a library book sale. Among the booths was the "Soup Bowl," a contest among local restaurants and other local businesses. Our favorite was a spicy squash soup from a nearby nursing home!

On Sunday afternoon, I accompanied Janice to her new office in Dedham, Massachusetts, for a few hours to help with unpacking after OCS's recent move. The initial scene was pretty chaotic, with computer cables, file boxes, and unfurnished cubicles as far as the eye could see. My fellow copy editors and I are now also dealing with some construction at CW as various other units move around, not to mention the ongoing renovations at the Natick Collection shopping mall.

After that, we drove to New England Comics in Norwood, Mass., to pick up my subscription and take advantage of a sale. Once I catch up more on reading, I intend to post a roundup of my favorite DC and Marvel titles right now. Here's a good list with profiles of the most popular superheroes: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/10/01/top-100-dc-and-marvel-cha…

We also stopped by a Barnes & Noble, where Janice picked up some historical mysteries and I got the latest British genre entertainment magazines. I wonder if the increased availability of such imports is related to the demise of U.S. publications such as Cinefastique, which were more boosterish, less opinionated, and generally smaller in page count.

As I continue to catch up on the new television season, thanks in part to Verizon's DVR, I can report on a few more premieres. I was looking forward to seeing more of actresses Amanda Tapping and Jewel Staite on Stargate: Atlantis, but I found the writing to still be lackluster compared with now-departed parent show Stargate SG1, which carried on the space operatic legacy exemplified in the aforementioned Star Trek: the Next Generation (whose cast is shown above).

Like the revamped Bionic Woman and other quasi-feminist programs (including the yet-to-air Terminator spin-off The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Moonlight is awfully familiar to fans of various other vampire series, including Dark Shadows, Forever Knight, Kindred, and Angel. It was mildly diverting, but not a must-watch. Bionic Woman and Moonlight are the two new shows I'll most likely drop.

Smallville's return was also predictable, but as always, good acting almost redeems the plot holes and ill-advised tinkering with the Superman mythos. (Note: Some of the enclosed links have "spoilers.") I have yet to watch the Superman: Doomsday direct-to-DVD animated movie, and I've been busy trading discs with friends and co-workers. I've also caught a bit of Ken Burns' latest documentary, The War, about World War II, on PBS.

While the SciFi Channel's Friday night lineup has faltered, sister network NBC's Monday offerings have been more successful in terms of quality and ratings. While still setting up multiple characters, Heroes has still been intriguing, and I like Chuck and Journeyman. Fortunately, Doctor Who's third-series finale, the return of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and Torchwood make the end of the week entertaining.

Like director/fanboy Kevin Smith's Reaper, the quirky style of Barry Sonnenfeld's Pushing Daisies will be familiar to fans of The Addams Family, Fantasy Island, or Dead Like Me, but I did like the gentle, if morbid, comedy of its pilot episode, as well as the appealing character actors.

In gaming news, the Tuesday night face-to-face group welcomed Sara. Her Wemic Kahin (leonine centauroid Druid) "Neela" may have been a bit overwhelmed by our D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy campaign, but I hope that she and the other newer role-players Ben R./"Slink" and John C.M./"Nebi" have fun alongside veterans Beruk A./"Kunal," Greg D.C./"Killian," and Brian W./"Mumtaz."

Tonight is the "Holy Steel" teleconferencing team with Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and Byron V.O./"Ibrahim." In addition, the City of Heroes online group is considering other meeting times to accommodate the schedules of David I.S., Shari S., Kim A.G., Steve M.R., Thomas K.Y., and me. I've also been back in contact with old friends Ray C. from high school and Nick F.J.T. from my year in Queens, New York!

Fellow genre entertainment fans, as fellow blogger Ken G. has noted, today marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: the Next Generation. An essay that I wrote and he edited is among the posts at Showbits.net commemorating the influential space opera series.

Speaking of genre television, while I haven't yet watched last night's season premiere of Smallville (which I expect to be fairly predictable anyway), I plan to catch Doctor Who, Midnight, and Stargate: Atlantis tonight. I'll also record Avatar: the Last Airbender. As I noted to Steve M.R., I'll cut back a bit on viewing once I've seen a bunch of premieres.

Of the new shows I mentioned in my previous post, NBC's Journeyman and the CW's Reaper were the most promising, with the SciFi Channel's Painkiller Jane and Flash Gordon earning the dubious honor of being the weakest. We'll have to see how good supernatural dramas Midnight, Pushing Daisies, and New Amsterdam are, although it's worth noting that relatively few programs avoid swift cancellation. Live long and prosper…

In addition to hosting Dexter V.H. and meeting Jacqui M.D. during the past week, I've been busy watching the season premieres of various genre television shows.

The BBC's revived Doctor Who (also on the SciFi Channel and PBS; pictured above) is winding down, but David I.S., Janice, and I have felt that the third season (or series, as they say in the U.K.) has been very good, balancing horror and suspense with a sense of wonder and allegorical social commentary.

I like Freema Agyeman as the Time Lord's latest companion Dr. Martha Jones, and the most recent episodes have been suspenseful, as more classic foes have returned. Although spin-off Torchwood hasn't yet transcended its roots in Doctor Who (or The X-Files, for that matter), I've been enjoying it on BBC America.

The other Friday night program that I recommend to all fantasy fans is Nickelodeon's Avatar: the Last Airbender, which just started its third season. This animated series continues to challenge its young heroes as they try to master the elements in adventures loosely inspired by Chinese mythology. I took a quiz to see which character I most resemble. Stargate: Atlantis returns with a cast shakeup this Friday.

On Saturday mornings, Kids WB's Legion of Superheroes has also toughened its young metahumans by introducing DC Comics villain Imperiex, although I'm less certain about the inclusion of Superman (legal difficulties prevent it from using "Superboy") and a clone. Speaking of young heroes, we'll see how faithful the next takes on Spider-Man and Wolverine and the X-Men are in spirit to Marvel Comics' source material.

The Batman has steadily improved, with the quirky redesigns of various villains gradually giving way to better stories after the introduction of sidekicks Batgirl and Robin. This season is off to a strong start with a cameo by Superman (and his supporting cast voiced by the same people who were in the Dini/Timm animated series) and will feature another version of the Justice League (for whom a live-action movie is in the works).

In slightly more mainstream fare, NBC's Chuck on Monday nights was reasonably amusing, although the stereotyping of "geeks" or "nerds" is annoying, especially when those they show are both more physically attractive and less intelligent than those I know in real life. USA Network's Burn Notice similarly spoofs spy shows, but with a bit more subtlety, no doubt due to a slightly smaller budget.

The second season premiere of Heroes was a bit scattershot as existing and new metahumans were shown in multiple parallel storylines. I hope the sophomore show can avoid over-reliance on melodrama. Still, my favorite character remains time traveler Hiro Nakamura, played by Masi Oka. There have been several connections to the Star Trek franchise, including cameos by George Takei, the announcement of Zachary Quinto as Spock in J.J. Abrams' cinematic revival, and upcoming visits by Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura in the original 1960s series.

Speaking of time travel, Journeyman more closely resembles Quantum Leap than Doctor Who, Heroes, or Trek, but feels more like an adult drama. In the series premiere, Kevin McKidd was ruggedly believable (as he was in HBO's Rome) as a journalist who struggles with his new power and tries to convince family and co-workers that he isn't insane, even as he tries to solve the mystery of why he's jaunting through time and how that's connected to his supposedly dead ex-girlfriend.

While I haven't been able to watch much of the SciFi Channel's Eureka (which would be at home at sister network USA next to Psych and Monk), Reaper was one of the better comedies I've seen so far this autumn. The premiere was directed by Kevin Smith, and indeed, the use of slackers dealing with the devil is reminiscent of his hilarious film Dogma. Yes, more stereotypes are used here, but there was a greater self-awareness and quicker timing than on other shows.

On Tuesday nights, I'm usually running my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy game. The six role-players and I skipped this week because we played in Dexter V.H.'s fun D20 Star Wars: Saga Edition one-shot. Next week, the group may have yet another prospective member, Sara.

On Wednesday nights, I had caught Kelsey Grammer's Back to You and Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, but last night's premiere of The Bionic Woman was OK. The lead actors are veterans of other genre shows — Witchblade: the Series, Robocop, and most importantly, the revisionist Battlestar Galactica (which won't return until next year).

The setup was fairly standard for the empowered female protagonist now familiar to watchers of Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Dark Angel, and a host of other shows. The somber tone, similar to Galactica thanks to shared producers, may turn off viewers otherwise attracted to Bionic Woman's premise, cast, or action scenes, which were better than in the original Lindsay Wagner series.

I'll be recording the latest premiere of Smallville, which will introduce Supergirl while continuing to eliminate older characters. On Thursdays, I've been playing City of Heroes online or running the D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: Holy Steel" teleconferencing team anyway. Tonight, I'll again be meeting Jacqui and other co-workers for dinner, probably at "Not Your Average Joe's" in Needham, Massachusetts. This coming weekend, my town will have street fair.

On the one hand, like The Batman, I've approved of the gradual shift toward the comic book continuity fans know and love, but on the other, the show's overuse of the "Kryptonite monster of the week" and soap opera aspects have annoyed me. Let's hope that Smallville's own cameos of Justice League members will continue to help it. There are more shows yet to debut, including supernaturally-themed Midnight and New Amsterdam.

Speaking of guest appearances, I've written a retrospective on Star Trek: the Next Generation for co-worker Ken G. at Showbits.net. It's hard to believe that it has been 20 years since I met Janice and other friends such as Dexter, not to mention the premiere of the influential space opera! Feel free to post comments there or at this blog.

Although the warm, dry weather may suggest otherwise, a busy autumn has arrived. Congratulations to Corbin A.Y. & Andria K.Y. on their new townhouse!

I took Friday, 21 September 2007, off from work to prepare for Dexter V.H. and Byron V.O.'s visit. Unfortunately, Byron had to return home to St. Louis from New York prematurely due to family illness, but college chum Dex still came up from Brooklyn to the Boston area.

Janice left for a weekend in Maine, and I did some housecleaning and moved our lawn. Dexter arrived via bus and train by midafternoon, and we decided to quickly drive to Pandemonium Books & Games in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Fortunately, early rush-hour traffic wasn't too bad.

Thomas K.Y. came over at about 6:00 p.m. for dinner at Bertucci's Brick Oven Ristorante, which out-of-towners such as Dex, Byron, and former co-worker Jacqui M.D. like to eat at when they visit. We hung out at my place afterward. Thomas suggested watching a video or going into Boston, but Dexter was a bit tired, and we couldn't agree on a movie. We did watch Dex's DVD of the unaired pilot episode for NBC's Heroes, which was pretty interesting.

On Saturday, Dexter and I watched some cartoons (more on that in my next posting), and we had lunch with Thomas at the Minado sushi buffet near where I work in Framingham, Mass. We met Beruk A. at a nearby Newbury Comics, and Thomas left before Dexter's D20 Star Wars: Saga Edition one-shot game at my second duplex in Needham Heights, Mass.

We were pleasantly surprised at attendance for the space opera scenario. Although the role-players trickled in over the course of a few hours, the streamlined rules system and everyone's familiarity with George Lucas' universe made character creation simple. If this is indeed a preview of Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, I'm there next summer!

I played Sullustan Scout "Gevo," and Beruk rolled up a human Scoundrel named "Yanik." Brian W. then created Duros Fringer "Dor," Greg D.C. was Jawa Commando "Jesek," and Byron eventually dialed in as Bothan trader "Raynor." Our team met and fought Imperial forces in the period at the end of Star Wars [Episode III]: Revenge of the Sith.

I thought the game was among our more fun occasional weekend one-shots, not least because I got to play rather than act as Game Master for a change. More information on that and our regular D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" and "Holy Steel" fantasy sessions can be found at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/

Alas, Dexter didn't get to go sightseeing in Boston, partly due to numerous telephone calls and text messages from friends and family late into the night, but we did watch more season premieres on DVR. After brunch at Friendly's (another local chain), Dex caught a ride with a friend back to metropolitan New York. I didn't get online for the City of Heroes supergroup, but I wrote my update for the previous night's game.

I met Jacqui, who was in town from Des Moines for business, at her hotel. We ended up stopping by the Borders Books in the Chestnut Hill Mall in Newton before grabbing dinner at Bertucci's (again, for me). We chatted about travel, health, work, and television. We'll probably go out again with co-workers Michele L.D'F. and Bob R. tomorrow night.

On Monday, I continued catching up on reading and writing, if not on sleep. Janice returned by midday, and we had lunch at Acapulco's in Newton. Janice and I then shopped for groceries and watched the previous weekend's shows and premieres. After a summer with several houseguests, I'm looking forward to more time with Janice and some genre entertainment conventions in the coming months.

Next time: SFTV roundup!