REVIEW: Star Trek TOS “The Ultimate Computer”

The Enterprise is summoned to a space station where Dr. Richard Daystrom installs his revolutionary computer M-5, to take control of all systems of the ship. The computer soon turns out to be superior to a human crew, in normal ship operations as well as in a simulated battle against another starship. Then, however, M-5 destroys an unmanned ore freighter, and a crewman is killed when he attempts to cut off the computer’s power. Unbeknownst of the situation on the Enterprise, as M-5 has disabled any communication, a task force of four starships under Commodore Wesley continues the simulated attacks. M-5 takes the battle seriously, cripples the fleet and kills hundreds of crewmen. Daystrom has programmed M-5 with his own engrams, and Kirk uses this knowledge to convince the computer that it is guilty of murder and has to shut down. Wesley is authorized by Starfleet to destroy the Enterprise but he breaks off the attack when he notices that the ship is dead in the water.

This episode has largely been categorised as one of the better action episodes of the original series. This is thanks largely to the eye candy of seeing more than one Federation starship and the subsequent wargames. Indeed, back in the day it was one of the best looking episodes that helped finally give the series the genuine feeling that there was more than one ship in Starfleet. In the digitally remastered version we get even more eye candy in the form of the ore freighter that wasn’t seen properly in the original episode for budgetary reasons. Now we see none other than a recreation of the freighter we saw in the Animated Series. That alone is enough to make the most avid Trekkie’s heart beat just that little bit faster.

However if you scratch away this glossy surface we have one of the most philosophical episodes of Star Trek ever; long before Star Trek: The Next Generation’s classic “Measure of a Man.” The question the episode asks is an old one; should machines do the work of man and if so what becomes of the man? This is Kirk’s question more than anyone else’s in the episode as the M-5 is aimed directly at replacing the decision making capability of a starship. Kirk feels useless in this episode in the face of the M-5 hence Commodore Wesley’s “Captain Dunsel” remark but alas we can’t have a TV show about a computer piloting a starship and so naturally the computer goes bad. One thing that does pop up briefly is that the ore freighter is unmanned which tells us already that some of the more mundane yet essential jobs in space are already entirely mechanised so it would appear starfleet has been heading toward an unmanned future for some time before the M-5.

But the thought process behind Daystrom and his creation make us ask intriguing questions not just about this fictitious universe we like to sit and watch of an evening but also about our own future in space travel. Even if we discard the distances and time involved in space travel we are still left with an extremely hostile environment in which to go gallivanting around in cooped up inside a metal box. Is it wise therefore to say “What the Hell; we can go there so let’s go.” Science fiction is filled with examples of how this can be a bad idea not just for the crew of whatever ship we are travelling on this week but also for humanity itself. Death, disease, war, alien influences on human culture – it seems we don’t need to leave our planet to be affected by what goes on out there.

This was touched upon briefly in Star Trek: Enterprise’s 4^th season when there are Humans who believe that Starfleet’s exploration of space is advertising Earth’s presence to hostile aliens that didn’t seem bothered before warp flight. This is something Daystrom seems to have forgotten since he envisions a future where nobody dies in space exploration because machines are expendable.

“Men no longer need die in space or on some alien world! Men can live and go on to achieve greater things than fact-finding and dying for galactic space, which is neither ours to give or to take!”

– Daystrom, defending the need for the M-5

This leads him to fall in to the trap of many a scientist in science fiction who develop supercomputers or robots – he builds a machine that learns but still considers it expendable. Therefore surely there is the danger that this machine will learn that it is not expendable or, like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey, it may judge its own importance in completing a given mission to be greater than the survival of a few humans in an unfortunate circumstance.

Ultimately, what this episode concludes is that the human spirit will always have a place. It was a foregone conclusion and is something that continues throughout all of Star Trek. As Captain Archer onboard the Enterprise NX-01 will later (or already said in canon);

“Starfleet could’ve sent a probe out here to make maps and take pictures, but they didn’t. They sent us so we could explore with our own senses.”

COUNTDOWN: Top 5 Things Star Trek: Enterprise Did Right

In many ways Star Trek: Enterprise has become Star Trek’s Phantom Menace in that it is a prequel that has become almost cliché to poke fun of. I am not going to stand here and argue that Enterprise was the best series of Star Trek because it wasn’t. What I am going to say in this article is that it wasn’t as bad as many make out and while much of the first two seasons were mostly recycled plots from previous Star Trek shows there were some hidden gems and a sign of the promise the show had.

PLEASE NOTE; This is just my opinion but I would be interested in hearing what you have to think.

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Technological Inferiority

Like many fans, when I saw the Enterprise NX-01 for the first time my response was “That looks like the Akira-class from Star Trek: First Contact! I thought it was supposed to be set before Kirk?” The most important thing about first impressions of a new Star Trek is the ship and the creators seemed to get it wrong. However…While it took a long time for people to warm to the Akiraprise, as some call it, one thing I have to say I really liked about it was that it was inferior to most of the enemies it faced. For the 30 years leading up to Star Trek: Enterprise we saw our heroes flying around the universe in the most advanced ship of its day. Now we had a ship that really felt like it was the cutting edge of human technology but since humans were new to spaceflight they weren’t the best on the block. In fact the ship didn’t even have shields and in an early episode we saw one of the really awful early torpedoes get shot out of the sky. Over time the NX-01 became more advanced and we started to see some of the more familiar technologies enter service like Photonic torpedoes but even in the last season the Enterprise was still largely the underdog. I really liked this.

“Evil” Vulcans

OK they weren’t evil exactly but certainly there was an antagonist element about how they were portrayed in Star Trek: Enterprise. This was another of those decisions that seemed to anger militant Trekkies because since the very early days the Vulcans were seen as both peace loving and close friends with humanity. What those Trekkies seem to forget however is that we are seeing an earlier Vulcan people here who aren’t the intellectual element of an alliance of planets but rather they are their own people who have enemies and are cautious about their dealings with humanity who after all hadn’t long come out of a Third World War and were now joining the space faring nations of the galaxy. There is even a brilliant line where Suval actually tells Admiral Forest that humans achieved far more than Vulcan did in the same timeframe and that many Vulcans are fearful of what humans will achieve in the future. Translated, this means that some Vulcans in the 22nd century are afraid of being displaced by humanity in terms of galactic importance which in a roundabout way is exactly what happens. From the Vulcan point of view therefore it is understandable that they are distrustful of humans. One final note; we need to remember that there have been ‘bad guy’ Vulcans before including one who wanted to play Baseball with Sisko to prove Vulcans are better than humans – that’s racist isn’t it?

Racist Humans

Overnight humans became wonderful and peace loving? CRAP! Perhaps the biggest thing Star Trek: Enterprise contributed to the Star Trek universe more than anything was showing the transitionary period for humanity and how that by the 22nd century there were still those who were fearful of aliens because they were different. Even better and perhaps more relevant for the 21st century audience was the fact that this racism was largely caused by an alien attack which lends weight behind why these racist elements are still thriving. This mirrors the post-9/11 world where many Muslims feel that the West has the view that all followers of the Islamic faith are terrorists which of course is absolute nonsense. I would have liked to see more of this but sadly the show finished before it could be explored further.

Trip and T’Pol

Romances between central characters has been met with mixed responses from fans in the past. Some really worked well (Worf and Jadzia Dax in DS9) and some really didn’t work well at all (Chakotay and Seven in Voyager). Trip and T’Pol did work for me. Not only did it work but it actually interested me. In a pseudo kind of way we saw a little something of what Spock’s parents went through with all the dilemma of a love across species although in this case the genders are reversed. Connor Trinneer and Jolene Blalock had wonderful on-screen chemistry and many of their scenes were emotional in the later seasons. Their relationship showed how their characters had evolved over the course of the show; they were perhaps the only characters who really did.

The Augment Saga

In the show’s final season multi-part storylines became the order of the day. Without a doubt the most exciting was the three-part Augment story arc which saw Brent Spiner make a guest appearance as Arik Soong, a predecessor of Data’s creator Dr Noonien Soong. When first advertised, this fact was seen simply as a gimmick to try and pull back some of the old school fans who had given up on the show but this episode was much more than that. What we got was a thrilling trilogy that explores more of why genetic engineering is banned in the future and makes us question more about what it means to be human; something Star Trek has repeatedly done with mixed success. It was also brilliant to see the Augments demonstrate their agility and strength far more than we have seen before and it would be something we would see again in Khan himself in Star Trek Into Darkness. Spiner’s performance was flawless and it was great watching him play a character who has not only an abundance of emotion but is actually manipulative and antagonistic. Perhaps Data’s evil brother Lore has more in common with Arik Soong than Dr Noonien Soong would like to admit? This was Star Trek: Enterprise at its best.

There is no escaping it; Star Trek Enterprise was heavily flawed but does it really deserve the disdain it has received? No. Not in my opinion. I am not being a blind Trekkie here as I have already highlighted some of the show’s problems but there was some gold mixed in with the bronze.

Dr Who Series 8 Retro Posters Gallery (Part 1)

To celebrate Peter Capaldi’s first season at the helm of Dr. Who the BBC’s Radio Times have produced a series of retro themed movie posters for each episode. Designed by Stuart Manning they include tones from previous incarnations of the Doctor.

Here are the episodes so far…

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REVIEW: Star Trek Voyager “Riddles”

Tuvok and Neelix are returning from a trade mission aboard the Delta Flyer when Tuvok is attacked by a mysterious cloaked intruder. The attack leaves Tuvok with amnesia and as such he develops emotion and new interests. Meanwhile Janeway with the help of an alien official goes in search of the cloaked aliens in order to find the weapon that hit Tuvok to help the Doctor develop a way to heal him and restore who he was. However Tuvok is unsure as to whether he wants to return to his old self.

The main purpose of this episode is to explore Neelix and Tuvok’s relationship by allowing Tuvok to close down his logical barriers and see things as Neelix does. I was uncertain how interested I would be with this but actually Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips both give wonderful performances that add real substance to the characters. It’s a testament to Ethan Phillips’ ability to emote despite the extensive prosthetics he is required to wear. The search for the aliens is relegated to a B-plot in this episode but is still interesting. All the way through however I suspected that Naroq’s people, the Kesat, were not as innocent as Naroq appears. This is something the writers of “Voyager” liked to do a lot but I was pleasantly surprised that for me at least the twist came that there wasn’t the twist I was expecting.

This is one of Star Trek’s more touching episodes and is an exploration of our characters rather than space. We are mostly exploring Neelix’s persistent efforts to befriend Tuvok over the previous six years and how they have achieved very little. I have to admit when Tuvok realizes how he has behaved toward Neelix Tim Russ gave a very emotional performance and I was a little choked up. It showed that Neelix was a true friend even if that friendship wasn’t wholly returned. I was then infuriated by Tuvok at the end when he returned to normal and treated Neelix like normal. I left this episode disliking Tuvok immensely. For someone who is supposed to be emotionless he displays irritation regularly. One touch I did like, intentional or not, was Tuvok’s new found interest in cooking which was a nod to the season two episode “Tuvix”.

Watching Naroq reminded me of Fox Mulder in the early episodes of “The X-Files” just far more annoying. That being said I have to say I was touched by his own sacrifice of his equipment at the end. The annoying enthusiasm we saw in the first half of the episode actually added weight to this sacrifice as I got the feeling he really was giving up his life’s work even after getting so close. Perhaps he had gone far enough with Voyager’s crew to satisfy his own curiosity.

For “Star Trek: Voyager” this was an above average episode with a deeply personal feel to it; I find that episodes that revolve around Neelix and the Doctor are usually emotional ones. There could have been a bit more action with the aliens and it would have been nice to see them fully rather than just an outline but that’s me just being picky.

Thanks for reading…

REVIEW: Star Trek Voyager “Alice”

HARRY KIM: It’s just an old rust bucket.

TOM PARIS: Are you kidding? Look at those lines, it’s a work of art. That ship wasn’t assembled, it was sculpted. I think I’m in love.

Voyager stumbles across a junkyard in space and Paris finds his latest love interest hidden among them in the form of a mean looking little shuttlecraft. He convinces Chakotay to buy the shuttle for him and he begins working on restoring it apparently with honourable interests. Soon however his work on the shuttle, which he names Alice after a lost love interest from his Academy days, becomes an obsession and he misses duty shifts and time with friends to keep working on getting Alice ready for flight. It becomes clear that there is more going on here than meets the eye but before Voyager can do anything about it Paris escapes aboard Alice before he is nearly killed by a particle fountain.   

In a nutshell this is a Star Trek take on Stephen King’s “Christine” and it’s not just coincidental; Brannon Braga admitted that King’s work was a source of inspiration for this episode. If you are going to pay homage to the classic horror story about a possessed Cadillac then naturally it is going to be a Tom Paris focused episode. The montage of him fixing up the ship seem intentionally designed to resemble a mechanic working on a car with Paris on a trolley to slide underneath the ship (what could be sticking out of the hull to work on is anyone’s guess). I can’t help but feel this isn’t one of Robert Duncan McNeil’s best performances however and that’s a shame. In the similarly themed episode “Drive” (click here for my review) he seemed to have much more enthusiasm and I think the conflict with Torres in that episode made for a better story. I am not saying he doesn’t seem to be bothered but it just feels like he could do better. In fairness I think the script could have something to do with it also.

As for Alice; the little ship looked excellent. It was certainly a mean looking craft even though it was merely an extensive redress of the Type-9 shuttle. It is a testament to the skill of the art department that on such a tight budget as most TV shows like Voyager are that they could do so much. It does seem shockingly well armed however and it’s two shots against Voyager seem to be enough to blow up a few computer consoles on the bridge. As for the projection of Alice in Paris’ mind Claire Rankin managed to nail the creepy jealous girlfriend vibe down to a tee. She is genuinely unsettling and makes you feel awkward everytime she is on screen. 

This was a premise that was wide open for a Star Trek homage. It is certainly an interesting one with enough technobabble in the first two acts to give us an explanation for what is happening without wondering if this is the first episode with a genuine ghost or demon. Sadly it is let down by a poor script that after a promising start can’t keep up the pace then goes in to fifth gear to wrap up quickly. Was it really necessary to waste minutes with Kim and Torres moaning to one another about Tom’s latest obsession? I would much rather devote that time to develop more of Alice’s motivation for going to the particle fountain which she calls “Home”. We never get an explanation as to why she wants to go there so desperately.

But perhaps the biggest thing that really gets on my nerves about this episode is Chakotay’s line;

We already have a full compliment of shuttles. 

No you don’t! In the previous five years Voyager had lost numerous shuttles. Now, on a Galaxy-class ship like the Enterprise-D that wouldn’t really be a problem but for the relatively minuscule Intrepid-class Voyager still 50,000 light years from the Alpha Quadrant they must surely be on their last one or two shuttles by now. Why didn’t the writers proceed on the lines of they needed a new shuttle? It surely wouldn’t affect the story in anyway. This just reflects the biggest problem I had with Voyager during its entire run and that is the stories rarely reflect the fact that this is a crew far from home. Many of the stories are like TNG episodes in terms of resources used when the need for resupply should have been a recurring theme throughout the show and not just in the first series. To really balls it up though this episode later has Chakotay saying he cant spare certain resources because they are in short supply in the Delta Quadrant. Come on! Make up your mind. With regards to the shuttlecraft debacle the answer could be that if they could build the Delta Flyer then they could build new shuttles too but where is that in the dialogue – nowhere. Also where is Neelix’s ship?

There; rant over.

In conclusion this was a slightly below average Star Trek episode. It had an excellent premise and good start but it failed to keep it together. Its a real shame. 

REVIEW: Dr Who 8×02 “Into The Dalek”

Mark Berryman reviews the second episode of the newest Dr Who series

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Apologies for taking so long to get this written. I’ve had very mixed feelings regarding the most recent episode of Doctor Who.

“Into the Dalek” sees the new Doctor and Clara miniaturized and sent into a Dalek who is claiming to be “good”, but needs a Doctor to fix him.

To be honest I found the whole episode a little pointless. While Capaldi and Coleman yet again shone together, I couldn’t find much else that I enjoyed. I found myself asking for the first part, how has the Doctor or anyone else not realised that if they “fix” the Dalek it will mean making it it’s usual bloodthirsty self, which of course is exactly what happened.

We’ve been here so many times before, the Doctor having to share his mind or his memories with one of his enemies and yet again proving that his mind is powerful enough to overcome any of his enemies. I will say that I thought the special effects were fantastic, some of the best they’ve produced so far. There were moments that I did enjoy. Clara referring to herself as the Doctor’s “carer” had me in stitches.

Then there is Danny Pink, the new character. I haven’t seen enough of him to make a decision about him. He doesn’t seem annoying or likeable yet, we’ll have to see more of him. I have said before, I’m never a big fan of more than one companion in the TARDIS. I love the chemistry between the Doctor and Clara already and I’m a little worried about that being damaged by another person being on board. Hopefully he’ll be a likeable character though, that would be nice.

I’m very much looking forward to this weeks episode, the first of the series to be written by Mark Gatiss. I do love Mark Gatiss!

I’ll write more about the next episode, the more I wrote about this episode the more horrible about it I became, so I’ll leave it at that! hahaha

The “Marsh melon” Debacle

SPOCK: I am preparing to toast a ‘marsh melon’.

McCOY: Well, I’ll be damned. A marsh melon. Where did you learn to do that?

SPOCK: Before leaving the ship I consulted the computer library to familiarise myself with the customs associated with ‘camping out.’

 

It’s been over 25 years since Star Trek V came out and bombed so badly that even today it remains the butt of numerous jokes. There was even a scene in The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon and Raj are arguing over which was the worst movie; Star Trek The Motion Picture or Star Trek V. The truth is it was a film that had everything against it ranging from Gene Roddenberry’s own dislike of the premise, ILM being unavailable for the effects work and William Shatner’s galactic sized ego at the helm. With all the mistakes and goofs in this movie one seems to stand out more than any other and yet it is the one that makes Trekkies least angry. Rather it has long been a source of curiosity and discussion. 

“Why does Spock call masrhmallows “marsh melons?”

The truth is this line was what was left of the original script which consisted of a scene in which Dr McCoy plays a joke on Spock and reprograms the computer he accesses to learn what to do while camping. McCoy makes the computer call them “marsh melons” with the idea being he and Kirk would spend the evening laughing at Spock’s mispronunciation. While these scenes were never shot somehow the result was retained in the final script and McCoy’s glee is immediately obvious although now it appears that he is simply amused by Spock making a genuine mistake.

Stepping away from this a moment I think most people will agree that while the rest of the movie wasn’t up to much the campfire scene itself was a touching moment. It was tender, emotive and well acted offering a deep insight in to their friendship which had carried the series for so long. So if we don’t take anything else away from this movie (which a lot of people now even refuse to accept as canon) we can take this simple yet touching moment.

Thanks for reading….

REVIEW: Dr Who 8×01 “Deep Breath”

In the first of an ongoing series Mark Berryman will be bringing his thoughts on the newest series of Dr Who and more importantly on the new Doctor himself.

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Despite losing my favourite Doctor on Christmas day, I’ve been very excited for the start of series 8 of Doctor Who.

Having got used to the thought of Peter Capaldi in the role, I’ve been wondering exactly what he would bring to it. It’s no secret that he’s a huge fan, so I had the feeling he would be bringing his “A” game. That it turns out, is exactly what he did.

“Deep Breath” hits the ground running, starting shortly after “The Time of the Doctor“. The early addition of the Paternoster Gang, to help unsure fans ease into the episode, I think was an inspired choice for the episode. Helping to give people something familiar as we try to get used to this very unfamiliar face.

The Doctor finds much of the episode, as with any first new episode for a Doctor, finding out who he is. Capaldi (except for the tree moment, which was one of the bits I didn’t like) has done away with the more slapstick elements we’ve had over recent years. There is still a long way to go before he defines who his Doctor is but he showed us glimpses of what is in store; a darker side to the Doctor, much darker than we’ve seen since the show started again in 2005. Did he push the villain at the end or did he jump? My money is definitely on push! Capaldi for me has shown an instant chemistry with Jenna Coleman. This was one of the things I wondered about. Smith and Coleman were fantastic on screen together, it seems these two will be as well.

I’ve read a lot of posts complaining about how Clara handled the regeneration. I don’t think that it was that she didn’t understand what had happened, I think there was a lot of grief there for her. She’d just lost her best friend and was finding it hard to come to terms with this new face. I thought Coleman’s acting was fantastic, especially in the scene with Madame Vastra who purposefully pushed her to the snapping point to get her point across. The addition of Matt Smith at the end, I felt was a nice touch, although I thought it was for the fans more than Clara, the ones like me, who at one point had found it hard to come to terms with anyone new taking over. He’s still the Doctor, he’s still OUR Doctor, no matter what he looks like now. I doubt this is the last we’ll see of Matt Smith, he has already said he’s not finished with the role. I look forward to seeing the Raggedy Man again. But for now I’m excited to see what is to come from Peter Capaldi.

Asking more questions, as it should, “Deep Breath” was a fantastic opening episode. I hope the rest of the series can continue in this way.

One question, who was the woman at the end? My thoughts are that it is Rani and the “heaven” we saw was her TARDIS. Thoughts?

One final thing, the new opening credits? What were they thinking??!! hahaha

Alfred Bester – Psi-Cop, freedom fighter, hero & villain

I mean, being a freedom fighter, a – a force for good, it’s – it’s a wonderful thing. You get to make your own hours, looks good on a resume, but the pay – sucks.

– Alfred Bester (Walter Koenig)
Babylon 5
4×04 Moments in Transition

 

Alfred Bester was brilliantly portrayed by Walter Koenig in Babylon 5. He was the recurring guest character you always hoped would be in the next episode because you knew it would be a good one. He was fascinating in his mystery, entertaining in his comedy and downright frightening in his fascist-style sense of supremacy. I have chosen this quote because while it was said in relation to something else it actually had a lot of relevance to Bester himself. 

Despite the fact that the Psi-Corp, the blanket organization for the telepaths, is entirely self sufficient and is an entity within the Earth Alliance already, Bester wants to have more power. It’s difficult to pinpoint just what Bester’s motivation is for wanting to have an Earth Alliance controlled by telepaths. The most obvious answer is that Bester is a supremacist in his views as he sees himself and his telepaths as the future of humanity and therefore have a right to lead humanity with mundanes (non-telepaths) as second class citizens. In many ways this view he has of humanity’s future resembles apartheid in South Africa between the whites and blacks. 

Taking this further however it can be argued that Bester is in fact a freedom fighter because of his ambition hence my selection of the quote. The truth is despite the power of the Psi-Corps it is still an organization to control telepaths including Bester. The Psi-Corps still has to answer to the President’s office as is seen several times throughout the series and it is hinted that this is a source of frustration to them. The very existence of the Psi-Corps serves to segregate mundanes from ‘teeps’ and therefore probably fostered Bester’s superiority complex. It is really a case of chicken and the egg. Either way it is an interesting view on civil rights and agencies/charities that support one group which while may begin with a positive goal still serves to breed segregation. 

Whatever it was intended to be, Bester was a thrilling character to see on screen and was wonderfully portrayed by Walter Koenig. Despite his Star Trek background Koenig’s performance ensured that people were not seeing Chekov on screen but a new character altogether. This was a real testament to his acting.

Thanks for reading…  

 

REVIEW: Garfield – “Lab Animal”

Every so often an established TV show will have an episode or story that goes right off the rails of what we would expect. The most common case is when an otherwise serious format goes downright silly for one episode. The X-Files for example was well known for it with at least one episode a series dispensing with its own otherwise serious and brooding mould for something a light hearted. Another of Glen Morgan and James Wong’s shows, Millennium, had a very famous episode called “Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me” in which four demons meet in a doughnut shop. These episodes offer a break from an otherwise deep series but when the situation is reversed (i.e. an otherwise light hearted comedy turns dark) people are often mixed in their responses.

Anyone who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s like myself knows of Garfield and Friends. The lazy cat who loves lasagne and lives with his owner John and the happy-go-lucky puppy Odie entertained children for years. It began as a comic strip written by Jim Davis and was animated in to a hugely successful television series which ran from 1982 to 1991. When Garfield: His 9 Lives was released initially as a graphic novel in 1984 and then animated in to a TV special in 1988 it offered an explanation for much of Garfield’s quirks through his past lives. Most of these lives were funny or cute in some way to reflect the light hearted nature of the show.

But then we get to Life No. 7. 

Life No.7, known as “Lab Animal”, put a shockingly dark twist on the world of Garfield. In this ‘life’ Garfield is a tabby looking cat who is captured by a laboratory for use in animal experimentation. It is not clear exactly what the experiments are for but after receiving an injection Garfield falls asleep and wakes up a short while later. When the scientists open his cage to continue with the experiment he escapes and leaps through a window. He is pursued by a pack of dogs and escapes by holding on to the undercarriage of a helicopter before falling in to the woods apparently having escaped. He drinks water from a nearby stream but as he does he starts to change. Garfield transforms in to a dog and becomes the same breed as the ones chasing him thus allowing him to blend in. The last we see of this life is the Garfield-Dog looking at the camera with ominous green eyes.

Everything about this short story is a departure from traditional Garfield ranging from the topic to the animation and style. It is surprisingly dark and as such seems so out of place with the rest of Garfield. It is in fact a mini-horror story, albeit watered down for children, and I have to say it is a fascinating and entertaining one. It is fast paced and genuinely unsettling in places exposing children to the world of animal testing. This should have caused much more of a fuss amongst parents than it did but because it was Garfield it somehow fell by the wayside after all Garfield was good natured fun. Not this time. If you haven’t seen the episode then it might seem bizarre that I am complementing the excellent directing and the score all of which build an ominous atmosphere throughout. The final scene with the Garfield-Dog’s eyes glowing hints that there is so much more to this story but of course we will never know.

This is one of those wonderful one-offs that appear every now and again and was definitely the highlight of Garfield; His 9 Lives for me.