Not content with having alienated everyone over the age of 12 as far as Star Wars goes, George Lucas continues his relentless crusade to milk the cash cow.

Someone has said, "You can't ruin Star Wars"... in a sense, that's true.

Regardless of the loathsome prequels... we have (another) cartoon. This time, in CGI. For those who have stopped paying attention - and who can be blamed - this was all launched by a film, setting up the basic premise of Anakin with an apprentice... who, as with most things jammed into continuity is - naturally - never mentioned.

As with the previous - rather wonderful - Clone Wars cartoon, this is set in the eponymous conflict and so... action abounds. Unlike the cartoon, Clone Wars gives more prominence to the actual clones. They actually take off their helmets and demonstrate some personality here, which is good because they're sufficiently competent to be likeable.

The films demonstrated the rather monumental idiocy of the battledroids - here, it's turned up a notch and definitely played for laughs... it DOES humanise them a bit more but then, droids AND clones are both killed, so... we're reckless with all synthetic life, it seems.

The premise of the film is simple - if pointless - after a little introduction of Anakin and his new apprentice - Asoka - we find out that Jabba's son has been kidnapped. Why does this matter? The Hutts control a lot of trading routes. If the Jedi rescue the infant Hutt, they get access to those trade routes or something.

The most obvious thing to notice with the film - and cartoon - is that it takes some time to get used to these stringless marionettes. Their expressions are extremely limited and at times, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was just a game that you were playing... except that they're probably look less stiff and lifeless.

Despite that, the quality of acting is considerably better than pretty much everything in the prequel trilogy... not that that is particularly difficult. Regardless, the inexorable march toward being a purely eight and under franchise continues... There's pretty much no character development, there's the inexplicable pink R2 and of course, the plot is laughable.

Essentially, there's just a progression of the film from one action sequence to another... and yet, it all feels rather hollow. The battledroids are 10 times the fodder stormtroopers were and even the clones seem to be more than capable of taking out dozens of them with ease...

The cartoon is somewhat more interesting - although, unlike it's animated counterpart Grievous is again somewhat bungling and cowardly... One has to wonder how the Seperatists are really able to support their war effort. Or why... Oh, obviously the manipulations of Palpatine are behind it all but there's still little sense of underlying causes beyond "BECAUSE!" Which is rather too endemic in the Star Wars prequels, people are idiotic or gullible to forward the plot... so, it would probably be rather too much to ask the spawn of the prequel franchise to try and explain away the nonsensical war.

The action doesn't always focus on Obi-wan or Anakin. We've had episodes about clones, other Jedi... Jarjar (sigh) and so on. So, there's a diverse focus... but that's presumably because, there's only so much more than can be done in the Clone Wars period.

How does it compare to the highly acclaimed - and straight forward awesome - Clone Wars cartoon? It seems almost unfair to compare them. The cartoon was great, it actually managed to take the card board cutouts that Lucas hamfistedly stuck into a trilogy more geared toward shifting merchandise than telling a story and made them INTERESTING! In a couple of the episodes, we had more development of Anakin and his fall from grace than in the entirety of the prequels... the CGI fare is markedly more standard Saturday morning fare.

If you're even marginally interested in Star Wars - it's worth watching and it does include some pretty cool fights and action sequences but it lacks the characterisation and special X-factor that made the cartoon so enjoyable and memorable. That, coupled with the puppet-like CGI means that this may be fun but will struggle to rival it's predecessor in the affections of viewers.

Autumn - or Fall if you're so inclined - is a season where the days shorten, the nights draw in, the sun weakens and the leaves on the trees turn a dozen hues of gold and rust. It's also time for new seasons for TV to start! Making an an unwelcome return, Smallville season 8 - so, now 5 too many - lumbers onto the scene with about as much energy as a hibernating sloth.

Smallville started out as an attempt to re-energise the live action televisual fortunes of Superman after the rather dire New Adventures of Superman, featuring Dean Cain and Terry Hatcher... it was rather low budget and cheesy in that early 90s way... the first season was passable because they pretty much set up the Lex vs. Superman dynamic nicely but after that, they kind of lost the plot.

Which is really the problem that Smallville has had for some time... It wasn't exactly a show that hit the ground running... but over the first season there was a gradual buildup and that really worked for seasons two and three which culminated in a rather sublime finale. Everything was up in the air...

And then season four happened and in a single episode, everything that had been built crumbled like a sandcastle before an oncoming tide. The cliffhanger was lazily resolved in a binge of deus ex that all too quickly restored the status quo - minus Pete. Except of course, we just had a bunch of stupid stuff happen and the bottom kind of fell out of the show.

In truth, there are two problems that arise for any long running show. It either stays the same or changes abruptly - either in terms of cast or format or style... The secret is walking the line, letting a cast evolve, letting the focus shift... Farscape was only around for four seasons but managed a considerable evolution of its cast and format - but never in a jarring way.

After leaving the safety of high school, Smallville seemed unsure of what to do. Season 8 has seemingly dismantled the support apparatus of its eponymous setting, Clark moving to Metropolis to become a journalist... Not only that, Lex is currently AWOL (replaced by some sexy CEO chick), Jimmy seems to have been strangely absent (replaced by a much more ruggedly handsome chap) despite having just gotten engaged and it seems Green Arrow is back on the rota while Maw Kent and Lana finally drop off the radar.

That's quite a sizeable change from the original cast... currently, only Chloe and Clark are left as regulars. Although, it's fair to say that they've somewhat dominated the cast for some time... and with Clark's parents out the picture, Lionel Luthor dead and so on... It's pretty much down to the irritating Lois to fill that void and prevent Chloe and Clark from just driving the show entirely by the themselves... although, they have effectively been the dynamo behind the show for some time. Chloe is the computer boffin who just hands Clark the information he needs, when required - and then he bursts in and shouts at people.

It's a show that still fills its remit - it's 40ish minutes where your brain can go into sleep mode and you'll still maybe get some enjoyment but the excitement? It's gone and you can never help but feel that the writers don't want to give Clark flight because that would be the end of his development. Oh, maybe he's a tad less naive than he used to be but he's not really changed. He's still duplicitous and wholesome. That's about as far as the character goes. Oh, sure - we can toss in the Lois/Clark angle... their love/hate relationship has been there since she was crowbarred in.

A corpse staggering along... let's hope this season is the last.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was never a show that was going to have a happy ending... And it seems the end is nigh and not a moment too soon. Some might blame the Writer's Strike... but really, that should have given the producers time to sit back and think.

Because this show was in need of a dire rethink. Granted, it may have effectively retconned Terminator 3 out of existence (T3 wasn't... horrible - it was just an unnecessary addition, the next logical step was post-Judgement Day) but beyond that it was less than useful. On a TV budget, you're just never going to be able to recreate the kind of special effects that made Terminator the success it was.

Stargate is the obvious parallel to draw... but Stargate was a much easier concept to adapt. With a few minor tweaks to the continuity, it became a dial-a-plot device. Terminator never afforded a TV spin-off that kind of oppurtunity - nor should it have. Yet, we had SCC anyway... but it seems clear that the exact notion of WHAT was going to be done in the show was less than clear to those involved in its production.

They did have a recurring nemesis in Chromarty but really, he was as inconsistent as Cameron. No disrespect to Summer Glau but does she really do anything else except the monotone scary ass kicking girl? She's ok at it but really, it did not help the seeming aspirations of this show and it's conspicious desire to be Whedonesque... at least, one has to hope that this show was trying to immitate Buffy... because, if they just stuck in the high school element for no reason - then the show was even more listless than it appears.

There were no definite concepts... in fact, the obvious reason for the retcon of Terminator 3 was that T3 stated what seems fairly obvious... that the conflict between man and machine IS inevitable - as a consequence of John Connor AND the Terminators being created by predestination paradox. SSC essentially tossed that out the window and said Skynet was just some random assortment of chess programs and traffic cameras.

We were spared the "Terminator of the week" but thus far there have been... four in total. None of them really that inspiring of terror - mostly because they seem to take about ten seconds to decide that it's a good idea to kill John Connor... which is, just about enough time for some to hit them with a car or something... because you know what? They're fighting GOD DAMNED ROBOTS FROM THE FUTURE WITH 9MM PISTOLS!

Those things aren't even that great at killing people, so is it any surprise their efficacy against time travelling killing machines is akin to that of a water pistol?

With a plot that didn't know where it was going, a bunch of characters who didn't resemble in the slightest their big screen equivalents, a low budget "Terminator vision lit" that looked awful... This show had a future about as rosy as that of humanity in it's own continuity.