Saw the new Lord of the Rings movie, The Two Towers, yesterday. Definitely another great installment. I refuse to do the Internet thing of announcing whether or not I thought it was better than the first one, because:

• I hate that sort of NASCAR-type evaluation that insists that it isn't enough whether something is enjoyable or not, but whether it's more or less enjoyable than something else. I mean, the logical conclusion to that line of thinking is that there should only be one thing that people should go to for entertainment, because it is the single piece of entertainment to which all others are inferior, and why settle for second best?


• The Lord of the Rings movies aren't really meant to be individual films, any more than the books are individual stories rather than one really long book published in three volumes because the publisher thought the binding would have been unwieldy if the manuscript wasn't split up. It would be like just reviewing the middle third of a story, and ignoring how the first and last parts put the middle into context.



And finally, what's the point? Anyone who enjoyed the first one should go see the second one, because it's the next part of the story. Anyone who hated the first one should probably avoid the second one, because it's the next part of the story.

I also watched the last (and first) episode of Firefly last night. The first episode, because this is the original pilot episode, the one where the story starts, which Fox had held off showing because they didn't think it would hook audiences. The last, because it's been canceled. (As have Birds of Prey and Robbery Homicide Division.) It's difficult to tell how this episode, "Serenity," holds up as a first episode, because I come to it with the benefit of hindsight. I'm already familiar with, and have affection for, the characters, and I have seen how many of the hints about the future will play out. It's definitely frustrating, knowing that we won't get any new stories about these folks or this setting, barring a miracle. Hopefully, we'll have the opportunity to at least see what we had again, either through reruns on the SciFi Channel or, even better, on DVD.

Speaking of quality telefantasy being canceled, next month starts up the final run of episodes of Taken, the 20-hour miniseries about alien abductions produced by Steven Spielberg, they aren't going to follow it up with another miniseries or regular series. And they do show Stargate SG-1, which has matured into one of my favorites. But it's hard not to be disappointed when they stop making something I enjoy. Particularly when it's premature, like with Firefly,FarScape, or even Birds of Prey.

Speaking of BoP, I was watching this week's episode and saw one of those annoying anti-marijuana ads that have been popping up more and more frequently these days. You know, the ones talking about the evils of the Demon Weed, like how it slows your reflexes and dulls your senses. Which may be true, and are things that potential pot smokers should probably be aware of. What bothers me was that the very next commercial showed what a great time could be had by drinking beer--a substance which slows the reflexes, dulls the senses... And let's not forget that, unlike perfectly legal tobacco cigarettes, marijuana doesn't cause cancer.

Finally, I have come up with my own Star Wars tie-in product, and I post the notion here before somebody else starts manufacturing it: Force-in-a-Box. The great thing is, anyone who is convinced that they just have purchased an empty box obviously doesn't have enough midi-chlorians, and that'll show up in a medical test.