Hello everyone.

I've had this post planned for some time. I was going to do it after 'Tomorrow', but I was allowed to continue through Season Four. Now I've got a healthy amalgam of different odds and ends to say, but I'll try to keep them relatively brief.

Firstly, here's some ratings. The usual boring old disclaimers- firstly that this gives a much more primitive idea of my opinions than the reviews themselves- secondly that some of my opinions may have changed over the course of the Season, which in this case has been a lengthy stretch of real time as well.

Deep Down: 9
Ground State: 6
The House Always Wins: 3
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: 6
Supersymmetry: 8
Spin The Bottle: 7
Apocalypse, Nowish: 6
Habeas Corpses: 5
Long Day's Journey: 7
Awakening: 9
Soulless: 10
Calvary: 6
Salvage: 7
Release: 8
Orpheus: 9
Players: 7
Inside Out: 7
Shiny Happy People: 5
The Magic Bullet: 7
Sacrifice: 8
Peace Out: 7
Home: 9

Year end total: 156/220
For comparison
Season 2: 158/220
Season 3: 156/220
Season 1: 147/220

There are a couple of patches that just let it down from being a Season as good as two, in my opinion. Actually, although these ratings out of ten aren't given with the final ranking in mind, I think they do represent my general feeling about the show- that Season One was weaker, and that the other three are of very similar quality with Season Two just edging it.

Secondly, I'd like to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who's ever read one of these posts- it really pleases me that anyone goes to the trouble of wading through them. Thanks also for every single reply, each of which I've read an dis valuable. Just to know that you've stimulated some kind of thought is a precious thing. And thirdly I'd like to thank six particular people who've helped made the Odyssey what it is:

Rahael, who responded to the very first post by saying that there wasn't enough discussion of Angel to balance Buffy, and so I decided to keep going for a while.

Rob, who wrote one particularly kind comment after my reviews of 'Five by Five' and 'Sanctuary', which were pretty lengthy by Season One standards, got no responses. I considered giving up at that point, but he made me go on.

shadowkat, who spent what must have been several hours transcribing a Tim Minear interview that gave great insight into the mind of one of the creators, and helped bolster the Odyssey through Season Two.

cjl, whose Annoying Series is a very rewarding way to end a season of the Odyssey.

Masq, for just generally being the best, but also for often humouring people who want my threads back, and for her extraordinary website, which has much improved my understanding of the series.

And finally and most importantly of all, to yabyumpan, through whom I have watched every single episode from 'City Of...' to 'Home', and has helped me battle the postal system with considerable success, and let me off for wrongly dated cheques!

Next, a technical question. aliera has been investigating whether it is viable to send tapes by post for Season Five from America to Britain at a reasonable price. It turns out it is possible. However, I believe the video tapes are different. How would one go about playing an American video tape, or recording a British one? Any ideas welcome. In case anyone's wondering, I don't own a computer, so beyond issues of legality, downloading episodes is just not possible.

And finally, here I am, back in Ithaca, possibly to start out again. So what better excuse than to reproduce Tennyson's Ulysees about the aging warrior and sailsman's perpetual Wanderlust.

Ulysees

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees. All times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea, I am becoming a name
For always roaming with a hungry heart;
Much have I seen and known, - cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honoured of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull is it to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life! Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains; but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought . . .
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me ?
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads ? you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
?T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are:
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Glorious.

TCH