Mark Sheppard Guest Stars, and Wendy goes Fantastic Voyage on the Middleman

by Josh Roth @ 9:02 pm August 28th, 2008

As we approach the end of the first, and most hopefully not last, season of the glorious gem known as The Middleman Javi and the gang continue to show us how unbelievably talented they are. As I said last time, the latter half of The MIddleman’s first season has been significantly deeper and more character-focused. That trend continues as we get to “The Clotharian Contamination Protocol”, the second to last episode of the season. And this week builds up to what looks to be one hell of a finale, introducing us to our main villain, Manservant Neville, as played by Mark Sheppard! Now Sheppard is no stranger to us Battlestar Galactica fans, where he played the suave and infinitely clever lawyer Romo Lampkin earlier this season. He also had a brief stint on Whedon’s Firefly as the conniving criminal ‘Badger’. With his wit and awesome accent he melds perfectly into the Middle-verse. And next week’s season finale is shaping up to the most brilliant episode of the series so far.

Brendan Hines is a perfect addition to the cast as Wendy’s love interest and former Middleman-possible Tyler Ford. Tyler is such an interesting and endearing character, and Hines plays him perfectly. You may recongize Hines from a few episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, where he played a very similar character. First off it’s good to see Wendy have a love interest, especially one who can keep up with the witty and snappy dialogue that makes the show iconic. It also solidifies the lack of a sexual tension between Wendy and the Middleman, personally I think their relationship is more brother-sister than father-daughter (which is actually brought up in this week’s episode).

Manservant Neville isn’t a new character to the Middle-verse, he originated in the third book of the Middleman comic, where he was the right hand henchman to the Middleman’s arch nemesis Kanimang Kang. Since Javi’s made it clear that the third book wouldn’t come to pass anytime soon (considering it contains the death of the Middleman) it’s pretty clear that Manservant Neville is gonna be the main nemesis for a while, which is fine by me. Mark Sheppard is relatively new to me but he’s quickly become one of my favorite TV actors, thanks to his genius performances on BSG and Firefly, and it looks like he’s gaining popularity in sci-fi circles, as he will be appearing in Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse. In the TV showb Neville is the CEO of Fatboy Industries, the ACME of the Middle-verse. We first see him after Tyler Ford intervenes and saves him from a post-car accident fight, and he immediately offers Tyler a job. By the episode’s end Tyler’s been accepted into the Fatboy inner circle and taken his place at Neville’s side as his right hand man. Neville’s intentions are especially given his reputation in the comics, so having Tyler on his evil league should prove interesting.

This week also sees the return of the Clotharians, the waring alien race from “The Boyband Superfan Interrogation” episode guest starring the boy band Varsity Fanclup (apparently they’re real). They send a swarm of evil nanobots hurtling back to Earth inside the Voyager 2, which latch themselves onto Ida, turning her evil and forcing Wendy to shrink down to microscopic size a la Fantastic Voyage and Innerspace to reset Ida before she explodes, save the day, and all that jazz. It’s a typical Middleman plot if ever I saw one, but it’s used to further the overall series arc more than just a serialized episode, building up to next week’s season finale. Javi promises that next week will be epic and intense, and if this week is any indication, it will be. The effects this week were pretty impressive, especially the shot of the HQ going into lockdown, and the world inside of Ida (see the photo at left)

This week’s episode wasn’t the pinacle of plots for The Middleman but it did help expose some things character wise. It furthered the plot of O2STK (Organization too Secret to Know), giving us a peek behind the curtain. And it gave Wendy and the Middleman some personal time to talk about their non-sexual relationship. If anything, this week was filler, but it was filler in the sense of a bridge, bringing us from the first season and into the possible future of the Middleman. ABC Family has said repeatedly that they are in support of The Middleman, but they haven’t said anything about it being renewed. I’m sitting in wait for any word on the future of Middleman, but here’s hoping that this gem of a series graces our TV’s for many many years to come. I urge you to check out the season finale next week, it’s shaping up to be quite an hour of television.