In general, “Lost” viewers are an intelligent group. You have to have some brains to keep what’s going on straight in your head – or at least what you think is going on. Do any of us really know? No.

But after the season premiere of season 6 I’ve been reading some comments, theories, etc. that tell me people are focusing way too much on the minute details and forgetting the big picture.

SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN EPISODES 1 AND 2 OF SEASON SIX, STOP READING NOW.

I’ll add some buffer space. If you don’t want spoilers, get out now while you still can.

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Okay, you were warned.

Okay, the bomb went off and it worked…and it didn’t. We have two times lines. Yay! Double the angst, glowering looks and “son-of-a-bitches.” One where the bomb did work and the plane did not crash and the island has sunk; one where the island did not sink but all the Losties were booted into the present – Jacob is dead so we know they’re in the same time period as Ben, Not-Locke and Richard Alpert.

In the timeline where the bomb worked and the plane didn’t crash, we are seeing differences – major differences. And for some reason, this is confusing people. Desmond was on the plane – and he was wearing a wedding ring. Hurley is the luckiest guy he knows. Boone failed to retrieve Shannon.

We have to remember that detonating the bomb didn’t just zip our characters back onto the plane – it changed everything related to the island from 1977 to the present – well, 2004, anyway. (Remember, that’s when the plane crashed.)

So it makes sense for Desmond to be on the plane. Even if he went on his life-affirming boat race, there wasn’t an island to trap him. Hell, maybe he won and proved his worth. Then again, it might not even be Penny he’s married to. Maybe he and Libby hit it off and got hitched.

Because the island is on the ocean floor it may no longer be affecting any of our characters and therefore, anything could be different. Granted, I don’t buy that it would have any effect on Shannon but that change was most likely due to the fact that the actress wouldn’t come back for the final season.

My curiosity isn’t about the major changes we’re seeing, what I’m most curious about is what we’re NOT seeing. I know the actor playing Walt is way too old to play himself from 2004, but we didn’t see Michael at all. Our favorite exploding science teacher made an appearance but we didn’t see see Libby or Nicki and Paulo.

Oh come on, wouldn’t it have at least been amusing to see our least favorite island couple return even for just a cameo?

Michael may have been left out due to acting conflicts, the whole thing with Walt’s age or something else. Personally, I’m taking Libby’s absence as a sign that my original opinion that Libby was in fact an Other may be correct.

We shall see…and I can hardly wait.

So, the long months of waiting for the sixth and final season of Lost are almost over – just 3.5 hours until the big event.

But not for me. I have to wait until it’s posted online.I love living in the country but we don’t have cable television and our antenna doesn’t receive a strong enough signal for the converter box to give us anything but our local NPR stations. As Pepe Lepeu would say, “Le sigh.”

I know I’m not alone but that doesn’t make it any better. All day tomorrow I’m going to have to resist the urge to visit my favorite Lost sites and discussions. I’ve done my best to avoid any spoilers and I certainly don’t want to blow it this close to actually getting to see it.

Oh well. In little more than 24 hours from now I’ll be able to watch. I haven’t been this excited about a tv show premier since the second season of Twin Peaks.

I do plan to restart this blog soon. In the meantime, check out this great Twin Peaks parody:

This past Sunday (November 23) was the 45th anniversary of the airing of the first Doctor Who episode on the BBC network entitled 100,000 B.C.

Originally intended as an educational program to teach children about history, it was soon obvious that the ratings always went up when the show had monsters and the education bit was left behind to make way for more fantastic story lines.

And lucky for us because despite its dull start, Doctor Who turned into one of the best written, albeit cheaply produced, programs on any continent. Even though it was still considered a children’s program the writing and acting were strong and with a bit of imagination the cheap special effects could be overlooked, allowing an enjoyment of a strong premise and story.

Doctor Who, for those of you not in the know, is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who travels the universe in his T.A.R.D.I.S. (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) – a space ship as well as a time machine – which has a broken chameleon circuit causing it to be stuck in its current shape, that of a blue, mid-twentieth century police box. Fortunately, it’s bigger on the inside than the outside.

The Time Lords are a noble race. Well, to be blunt, they can be rather snooty and condescending. The Doctor himself is sometimes just as bad, but he’s always been a sort of rebel. His fellow Time Lords often look down on him, even taking away his space travel privileges at times.

Time Lords have the ability to regenerate and can do so up to twelve times, meaning that eventually, there will have been thirteen doctors. Currently, the series is up to number ten and will soon move on to number eleven.

In his travels, the Doctor often picks up ‘companions’ mostly female humans, but sometimes they are alien and occasionally even male. The fifth Doctor, Peter Davison, seemed to prefer an entourage as opposed to a single companion but most of the time, the Doctor only has one tag along.

I’m a relatively new fan of Doctor Who. I had heard of the program, of course, but I had never seen it until I moved in with my husband 9 years ago. It took a few months before he made me watch a story and I won’t claim that I loved it from the start, but I liked it well enough to watch a few more stories.

I don’t even remember which Doctor was my first or which story but eventually I became a fan and although I like all the Doctors I have seen (I have yet to see a full story with the first Doctor) I do have my own favorite – Jon Pertwee, the third Doctor. Some of the best stories are in the fourth Doctor’s run (Tom Baker) but I’ve always loved how Pertwee played the part. He was strong, always in charge and while he was often curt and even harsh, he could be very kind and never backed away from a challenge.

I have to admit that I didn’t become a Big Fan until the newest series of Doctor Who, starting with Chris Eccleston, the ninth Doctor. Writing and good actors had always been Doctor Who’s strongest points and special effects had always been its weakest. Now the show not only had excellent writing and acting, it also had a budget to allow the show runners to realize the writer’s visions.

The new show also allowed the Doctor to be more ‘human,’ for lack of a better word. Maybe because he was now alone in the universe (the Time Lords, had been wiped out in a great war) his affection for his companions, especially Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), became deeper and much more personal lending more weight to the sometimes tragic story lines of the series.

Doctor Who has it all, really – science fiction, fantasy, drama, comedy, farce, tragedy, apocalypse, redemption, romance – you name it, it’s been in a Doctor Who story somewhere, and sometimes all in the same episode.

The Doctors:
1 – William Hartnell
2 – Patrick Troughton
3 – Jon Pertwee
4 – Tom Baker
5 – Peter Davison
6 – Colin Baker
7 – Sylvester McCoy
8 – Paul McGann
9 – Chris Eccleston
10 – David Tennant

Halloween is both mine and my husband’s favorite holiday so naturally we got married on Halloween.

It makes sense because one of the most – if not THE most – romantic couple in all of television history is Gomez and Morticia Addams.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Back in 1990 there was one-season television series titled simply ‘Dracula – The Series.’ I had never even heard of it until just a few years ago when my husband happened across a DVD in a bargain bin. He had seen a few episodes on television and was curious to see it again.

It’s a weird mix of Dracula (of course), The Monster Squad and your typical family sit-com.

Shot completely in Luxembourg, this show is about two boys, Max (Jacob Tierney) and Chris (Joe Roncetti), whose mother moves them out to Europe to live with their uncle Gustav Helsing (Bernard Behrens) and his attractive young ward, Sophie (Mia Kirshner). If moving halfway across the world wasn’t a big enough adjustment, they quickly learn that Dracula – THE Dracula – is a town resident and that Uncle Gustav is the descendant of the famous Van Helsing line.

This Dracula character is closer to the novel than most modern-day vampire characters. He can go out in the day – sunlight does not kill him – but he does not have ‘vampire powers’ until nightfall. However, he is not the type to sleep in during the day. He can’t – he runs a multi-million international business under the name of Alexander Lucard.

As with many early 90’s syndicated shows – and one aimed at families – the dialogue can often be silly and the plots a little ludicrous. Fortunately, this show does not take itself too seriously and it’s obvious that the actors and writers had fun with it without camping it up too much.

The stand-out performer of the program is Geordie Johnson, who plays the title character. I’ve never seen a blond Dracula before and I wouldn’t think it would be an appropriate look for him but Johnson plays it so well that it seems right for this portrayal. He has a nice, square jaw (all the better for making those fangs look even more menacing) and resembles Kyle MacLachlan, which is never a bad thing in my book.

Dracula can get a little campy – silly one-liners, over-dramatic entrances and exits – but he is played seriously enough that the line is never crossed into all-out camp. Even when Drac is popping off those groan-inspiring jokes, you never stop believing he’s a dangerous monster. Johnson plays the villain just right in that we don’t want him to win, but we don’t want him to die either.

The entire show was released on two DVDs, out of order, but this hardly matters because there isn’t much of an over-arcing story to this program like most modern-day shows. The prints are acceptable but not all that great. The show was shot on 16 millimeter film so the graininess should be expected.

If you do happen to pick these up, make sure you’re in a frame of mind to watch something fun, but not too deep but not too fluffy either.

Purchase Dracula: The Series (2-DVD Pack)

This show is also available to rent through Netflix.

To learn more about this show, visit Lucard’s Home Page, an in-depth fan site covering all aspects of the show.

Niles Crane (David Hyde-Pierce) after taking care of a sack of flour as if it were an infant:

Last night, I actually had a dream my flour sack was abducted and the kidnapper started sending me muffins in the mail.

On August 18th Julius Carry passed away from pancreatic cancer. Apparently he wasn’t famous enough to get mention anywhere that I read even though he was the co-star of the geek favorite ‘The Adventures of Brisco County’ and the 80’s action flick ‘The Last Dragon.’ He was famous enough in our house to cause sadness at the news of his death.

So long, Mr. Carry. RIP.

Don’t get me wrong – I like Locke very much. He’s been one of the best three characters from the very beginning but I have this unhealthy fascination with Ben. If I were on the island I would be very tempted to join the Others – and the fact that Nestor “I am Batmanuel” Carbonell is one of them would have nothing (okay, maybe a little) to do with it.

No logic here. Ben went way down below the island to a very cold place – wearing the coat he was wearing when he turned up in the desert – turned an ancient wheel and after a noise as annoying as Jim Carey’s screech it went bye bye. Right on! Find THAT Charles Widmore, you man who keeps showing up on all of my favorite shows.

This season finale did cause one reaction I don’t think I’ve ever had with this show – crying not because of a disaster, or sad ending but for a very happy ending. When Desmond and Penny saw each other I turned into a total girl and cried for them. There aren’t too many of those kind of moments on Lost and I was glad that it went to the third of my three favorite characters (Desmond).

• What did Sawyer ask Kate to do?
• Where did the island go?
• Did everyone/everything make the jump or were others tossed out like Ben?
• Did Miles stay because he knew the boat was going to go boom or is there something else going on with him?
• Where is Sayid taking Hurley?
• Is Jack’s dad dead or not?
• When does the second half of season four start?

My husband is a writer, and a pretty good one. (Don’t listen to what he says about himself – he’s one of those ‘his own worst critic’ types.)

Last week his first comic to be released this year came out: Kolchak – Night Stalker of the Living Dead – and it’s gotten a nice review over HERE. He’s a big fan of the character and although I’ve only seen a few episodes of the original series it’s clear that he really gets Carl Kolchak.

Later this year (June) a three-issue mini-series of his comic Femme Noir is coming out, and it’s already getting good press. He’s been working on Femme Noir for years – it was a webcomic on his first web site back in 1999 and now it’s made the jump to print with all new stories. If you like old films of the noir and/or horror persuasion or like old pulp novels, this one would be right up your alley.

And later this year or early next year another three-issue mini-series will be released of another title, Perils on Planet X. It’s science fiction/fantasy along the lines of ‘John Carter of Mars,’ ‘Flash Gordon‘ and ‘Buck Rogers (the comic and old serials, not the 70’s tv show.)

As you can tell his writing subjects are as eclectic as his tastes and in my opinion he does a wonderful job on all of them.

Over here, you can see a list of other comics he’s done in the past. (This listing is not complete yet).