I and I Am A Camera (When hoverdrones start to kill, Max and Logan gain an unlikely ally)
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections:
Dark Angel:
Season 1:
I and I Am A Camera (When hoverdrones start to kill, Max and Logan gain an unlikely ally)
She was designed to be the perfect soldier. She was trained to be a human weapon. But then she escaped. They came after her, and she knew they would never stop looking. She was lucky. A few months later, terrorists triggered an electro-magnetic pulse that wiped out America's cyber infra-structure. The U.S. became a third world country overnight. It was easy for a girl to disappear. Ten years later she's still looking over he shoulder. She's found an unlikely ally in Logan Cale. Born to a life of privledge, he's now an underground cyber-journalist crusading against a corrupt government. He wants to save the world, or what's left of it. She just wants to find the others like her. Together...who knows.
While Max fights off some thieves for Sketchy, a mysterious man takes pictures of Max in action. Before Max can question him, the man disappears. Max runs into the stalker several times, but he keeps getting away from her.
At the same time, a half dozen recently released parollees have been murdered. One of them was "Snuff" Willis, one of Herbal's best friends. Max steals the files on who will be released next, so that Logan can protect them. The stalker again follows Max, so she decides to scope out his hideout. While there, she finds newspaper pictures of all the murdered parollees, crossed out. The last picture is not crossed out yet, so Max heads to the parollees' apartment. The stalker is already there, but he actually protects the parolee...from a hoverdrone.
Logan surmises that the hoverdrones are being used in a police coverup. He continuously visits his uncle (whose company makes chips for the drones), claiming that he will expose his uncle if provoked. Logan knows that doing this will cost him his fortune and livelihood. His uncle denies knowing anything.
Meanwhile, MAx and Logan find out that the stalker has some crazy thoughts about coverups and parallel dimensions. One thing he does have is an exoskeletal suit he wears on his legs, which increases his strength and speed. The stalker and Max break into the hoverdrone control facility and find out that the next target is Logan. Logan's uncle was killed earlier, by a company co-owner. Max and the stalker save Logan and destroy the hoverdrone, but the stalker's exoskeleton is damaged.
To Max's shock, Logan broadcasts the truth about his uncle and the hoverdrones. Logan also realizes that MAx is not just a killer at heart. She's trying to fight the darness in her past.
The co-owner strikes a deal with Madame X and Manticore. He gives up the data, and a second prototype to the killer hoverdrone, for a large sum of money. He also reveals that the hoverdrone is programmed to kill a person based on that person's photograph. When he leaves, Madame X enters his picture into the data clip.
As the episode ends, Logan gets a delivery. It's the stalker's exoskeleton. With some fixing, it might help Logan get "from here to there."
THOUGHTS
-I liked this one. Just a light little episode, with plenty of comic relief. I especially liked the looks on Max/Logan's faces as Phil questioned them about their "codenames" and "powers."
FAVORITE QUOTE
"Trust is far too rare a commodity theses days."
-Madame X, to Gil.
NITS
-The hoverdrone keeps on Logan, so how come it didn't keep firing on the parollee (Pedro Benedee)?
-Does it really make much of a difference if trash is thrown on the street at the end? I mean, it's not like it was spick-and-span anyway!
By Brian Lombard on Wednesday, May 02, 2001 - 5:03 am: Phil's headquarters are lined with newspaper clippings all along the walls. Pay close attention when Max first slips in the window, cause the writers slipped in an in-joke. There's a headline right behind Max that says "Writers On Strike!" This is a reference to the upcoming strike Hollywood has been warning us about for months.
Ah, the use of stock footage continues, and this time, it's rather sloppy. After Logan gives Max the address for the next potential victim, she hops on her bike and rides off to save the day. The close-up of her on the bike shows that she's now wearing her red shirt, even the scenes both before and after this show her wearing her all black cat burglar outfit. I believe the lifted shot is from "Heat," when she was driving around looking for some action.
By Duane Parsons on Wednesday, May 02, 2001 - 6:32 am: That killer hoverdrone sure had a lot of .45 cal bullets to go on that loong attack on Logan and Max. Also, had to be caseless ammunition since there was no empty cartridges ejected from the hoverdrone.
Too bad the military does not use .45 cal ammunition as general issue (pistols and submachine guns) any more. It has gone to 9mm.
Then there is the recoil of firing on automatic. That must be one good hoverdrone.
By LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, May 02, 2001 - 4:31 pm: Original Cindy in a midriff-baring shirt: YEOWW!
When Cindy tries to get an address for Pedro Benedek from Logan, she goes to a pay phone. Why doesn't this girl use a cell phone? Given the kind of trouble she gets herself into, she could certainly use one.
The hover drone FX were well done. They looked quite realistic.
How exactly can a hoverdrone find someone with just a photo? There's millions of people in the city. It's not like using an infrared signature or individual heartbeat or lifesigns. Beisdes, we see the drone following Logan's car from BEHIND. How does it know Logan's in there if it hasn't already seen his face?
By S. Na on Thursday, May 03, 2001 - 9:29 pm: Actually, the sign says "Writer's[sic] Strike". Oh, the irony.
By Electron on Wednesday, May 22, 2002 - 3:22 pm: Nice moment: Logan's car with the hoverdrone in it crashes against a pillar and does NOT explode. Even Max is very surprised.
By constanze on Thursday, June 06, 2002 - 3:38 am: >Luigi: How exactly can a hoverdrone find someone with just a photo? There's millions of people in the city. It's not like using an infrared signature or individual heartbeat or lifesigns. Beisdes, we see the drone following Logan's car from BEHIND. How does it know Logan's in there if it hasn't already seen his face?
Well, even today we have Software that can do facial recognition, so you can follow a person around a city from camera to camera. However, these things don't need the laser stuff, they just look at characteristics like the eyes and match them. (but the laser is probably BILC). Thats also why logan showing his eyes is very laughable: its the one part of his face a computer can immediately recognize.
I guess the only thing new about the drones which makes them futuristic enough is the size of the computer they carry around, so the are independet of central command. Otherwise, you can build sth. like that today. To recognize and compare the faces of people in a crowd would take some time and a lot of computer power, though.
When max and the stalker are in the command center and find out the drone is after logan, they don't try to give the drone a delete or break off mission command. They don't pull out all the wires and so on. Even if the drones are independet from the central control, they should at least try.