STARFLEET COMMAND COMMUNICATIONS UPDATE – NOVEMBER 2013 Whedon himself strongly insists that the show isn’t an easter egg factory, but there’s no denying this is a show that knows where it’s come from, even if they’ve had to strip back the concept to fit into the cinematic constraints - and we’re only in season one! Has ANY genre show seriously found its feet that quickly? And there have even been complaints that the show isn’t realistic enough! Really people? We’re talking about a world where the good guys have flying cars and even FLYING AIRCRAFT CARRIERS and the greatest weapon of mass destruction known to man wears purple slacks and you’re complaining about realism? In the words of Benjamin J Grimm, literary critic of this parish: gimme a break!
actually Dunlop 65’s. And they manage to pull off this level of immersion while continuing to tell a story and build their own mythology and threats. So far we’ve been introduced to the Rising Tide, who have hacked their way into S.H.I.E.L.D.s mainframe; a shadowy research group (A.I.M.?) secretly working with the Extremis biotechnology to create Super Soldiers; South American nationalists and our first genuine supervillain in waiting: .
At this early stage nothing is certain – except that we’ll be seeing Dr Franklin Hall/Graviton again and he won’t be happy with Coulson‌ Because the production team seem to understand that this isn’t high drama, we’re here to have fun! And a word about that attention to detail? Lola is clearly a pre-1967 Stark-built MK V S.H.I.E.L.D. Flying Car created by Jack ‘King’ Kirby – how do I know? When she converts over to flight mode, we get a great view of her machpressure fan jets spinning up to speed and those fan jets were phased out after issue 162 of Strange Tales when Gaffer rebuilt Fury’s personal Mk V with miniature vortex beams‌
One positive inclusion in the format is the “beer cooler� scene: similar to the Star Trek’s “Laugh on the Bridge� closing scene, we see the team relaxing off duty when the mission is over, often with the aforementioned beer cooler and a few frosty ones. I don’t know about anyone else, but it makes the characters a little more realistic for me. But as I said before, it’s too early to make a fair judgement, although based on just 4 episodes so far, I’d say we’re on to a winner and just wait for the post-Winter Soldier second season, but then I would say that. So in conclusion:
If he geeks out again shoot him Err, yes‌ So, attention to detail – and an obvious love for the genre that isn’t restricted to Marvel titles – “Eye Spyâ€?s diamond-loaded golf balls were a clever reference to “Diamonds are Foreverâ€?’s smuggling trick, although I couldn’t make out whether the dissolving balls were
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CONS: Script quality variable; budget limited; uneven tone; too much fan service
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PROS: Clark Gregg; fully-realised universe; on-going story arc; movie tie-in; relaxed cast
My verdict‌ Wait for it‌
on t Yield, Back I E L
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