m postmaster@awenet.com Sun Jul 16 11:31:20 1995 Received: from vuse.vuse.vanderbilt.edu by marimba.cellbio.duke.edu via SMTP (920330.SGI/920502.SGI) for merlin id AA12942; Sun, 16 Jul 95 11:31:20 -0400 Received: from awenet.com by vuse.vanderbilt.edu (8.6.12/SMI-4.1/VUSE-1.15) id KAA04166; Sun, 16 Jul 1995 10:31:12 -0500 Received: from pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (132.170.243.2) by awenet.com with SMTP (Apple Internet Mail Server 1.0); Sun, 16 Jul 1995 00:07:01 -0700 Received: by pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Smail3.1.29.1 #7) id m0sXNnd-0001zlC; Sun, 16 Jul 95 03:07 EDT Message-Id: Date: Sun, 16 Jul 95 03:07 EDT X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Version 2.0.3 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: superchat@awenet.com Reply-To: superchat@awenet.com Errors-To: postmaster@awenet.com Precedence: bulk From: ind00597@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu (Matthew Gerber) Subject: 000REVIEWS: Hero Patrol #17 to Task Force Aurora #6 Status: RO Complete spoilers for: Hero Patrol #17 They Came From Schenectady #4 Sentries #2 Task Force Aurora #6 The "review crew" consists of myself, Mason Kramer, Jon Lennox and Rick Rechowicz. Mason and Rick do not review episodes they're affiliated with and anyone can choose to abstain from any review. I still write the capsules. Story type scale: 1: Full-tilt wacko 2: Generally humorous with serious elements 3: Equal balance of seriousness and humor 4: Generally serious with humorous elements 5: Lethal serious, perhaps with flashes of humor Rating scale: 0: Abysmal (As bad as it gets.) 1: Very Bad (Thoroughly wretched, few life signs.) 2: Bad (Still thoroughly bad, but less so.) 3: Very Poor (Might have potential, but needs a lot of work.) 4: Poor (_Does_ have potential, but needs work.) 5: Mediocre ("Eh." Okay, not bad, but not good either.) 6: Good (Genuinely good read. Basic Superguyage.) 7: Very Good (High basic Superguyage. The difference between 6 and 7 is fairly slim.) 8: Excellent (Very high quality writing.) 9: Exceptional (Really excellent, even for Superguy. Can have no serious flaws.) 10: Perfect (The kind of thing that leaves you sitting there in front of the screen going "whoa...." for a while. These are VERY, VERY RARE.) /// HERO PATROL #17 (Mike Escutia) /// Doctor Entertainment breaks his henchmen Dave, Benny and Joe (codenames Larry, Moe and Curly, probably not in that order) out of prison. That was a month ago. Flash to today, where the HP is trying to figure out a truly bizarre set of robberies. Meanwhile, Doctor Entertainment muah-hah-hahs about his device to transport people to the Television Dimension while his sidekick Doctor Count counts up the gadgets the henchmen retrieve. (Yes, it's the guy from Sesame Street.) The HP, being clueful types, track them down rather quickly--and then, along with the henchmen, get zapped into the TV dimension. Good read as usual. Doctor Entertainment is a bit one-dimensional, but Doctor Count makes up for this by being absolutely hilarious. Nice setup to what's obviously going to be a Television Dimension arc; it's got me looking forward to it. Hero Patrol #17 (Type 2): 7! 7 wonderful points! A-hahaha! Matt: 7 Mason: 7 Jon: 7 Rick: 7 /// THEY CAME FROM SCHENECTADY #4 (Steven Powell) /// Jeff manages to get to the door, but it won't open. He's very, very upset. Meanwhile, the team faces down Epilady and Mall-Rat. They rout the bad guys, but fail to capture them. They then have a meeting and realize they need a secret HQ. The Swiss-Army Manager orders Hoefinger and the Mason to check out an old building, and doesn't want any of his other minions around for some reason. Meanwhile, Jeff finally gets inside, and finds what he's looking for: a box with arcane symbols on it. He activates it, things start happening, and the building collapses, killing Hoefinger and Mason. This episode is _much_ improved from the first three. Writing and characterization quality are up, the action is clearer, and things are just generally better. I'm now looking forward to reading more of this. They Came From Schenectady #4 (Type 2): 5.5 ancient destroyed lightbulbs Matt: 6 Mason: 5 Jon: 5 Rick: 6 /// SENTRIES #2 (Jon Robertson) /// The team goes out to find a car, finds a group of "Cadre" soldiers chasing a girl, creams them, and brings the girl back to HQ. They're not stupid enough not to realize it might be a setup, so they leave her under observation. Better, but we still don't know nearly enough of what's going on. Apparently the Cadre captured the team at some point in the past, but beyond that, there's very little we know. The characters are decent, but the series still needs more background so we can tell what's actually going on. Sentries #2 (Type 3): 4.5 6'6" teenagers Matt: 5 Mason: 5 Rick: 4 Jon: 4 /// TASK FORCE AURORA #6 (Chris Angelini) /// Anaesthetic puts Wishstar through military calesthenics, and she faints thirty minutes into the routine. Clarke boards the Beanstalk's spaceship and meets the rest of the crew: Drover Eight, the pilot; Lydia Tonk, the commander, Gordon (just Gordon), the scientific observer, and Cassandra Crossings, the mechanic. Oh, and Doug's coming.... and is in charge of supply. Meanwhile, in the Windsor Casino, DOYLE (as JACK) manages to break Rea out of his cell. Meanwhile, at the Beanstalk, Peterson proves he's not a _total_ slimebucket by helping Wishstar out a bit, and gives her a data disk he says she'll find interesting. Meanwhile, on the ship, we find out that the mission is to investigate an anomalous sensor artifact, and that there's a holographic expendable crew member available. Meanwhile (yes, this is a big issue) Slate asks Big Behn for help trying to get the new Tribe recognized, and finds out she doesn't terribly care. At that point, Twenty-Second shows up and explains that Gggthxtsth wants Nineteenth dead. A fight starts. Meanwhile, DOYLE hears a _very_ interesting conversation between Benson, Minister de Ranged, and an unknown--then his remote unit gets caught. The unknown decides to send _his_ AI out to kill DOYLE, and the AI sounds very familiar.... Was that a long enough synopsis? :) A _lot_ happens this issue. Not much new to say in terms of review, which is good. Characterization, plotting, and dialogue are all solid. Looking forward to more. Task Force Aurora #6 (Type 3): 7.25 push-ups Matt: 8 Mason: 7 Jon: 7 Rick: 7 Matthew Gerber ind00597@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ind00597/