THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN
Season 2

They live amongst us

See Dick Continue to Run

Whislt Dick tries to come to terms with life in an invisible box, Sally, Harry and Tommy (now renamed Tommy, Tommy and Tommy too - or two) try to come to terms with their new commander who is in turn trying to come to terms with getting into Mary Albright's bedroom. Just what, though, is he building in the closet?

Yes, the craziest aliens ever to invade earth are back and it's like they never went away. The comedy is just as broad and the playing just as overdone, but the comedy count is still pretty high, although with the cliffhanger of the last series to work out it's a little more strained than usual.

See Dick Continue to Run continued

Dick is finally released from his prison and faces the evil alien that has taken his place and wants to impregnate a large part of the population of Ohio (don't ask). Can he be stopped? Should he be stopped? Will Mary finally find out what is going on.

The cliffhanger is finally resolved and everything can go back to normal, if normal could ever be used in connection with this bunch.

Hotel Dick

Following a night at the movies, the family head for a science fiction convention where Dick plans to tell Mary the truth about where he's from and Harry plans to strike a blow for alien rights. Sally, meanwhile, discovers the joys of room service.

Putting these guys in a science fiction convention should have been a mine of laughs, but the laughs come more from the usual interaction than from the setting. That said, the vision of Mary in a Madonna bra and deely boppers is one that will not easily be erased (no matter how we try). George Takei (Sulu from STAR TREK) guest stars and proves conclusively that he can't even play himself convincingly.

Big, Angry Virgin from Outer Space

Sally's relationship is in trouble, so Dick suggests the easy way to solve everything is to sleep with him. Sally's body, of course, is that of a virgin. Surprisingly enough, complications ensue.

Kristen Johnson is having so much fun with her character that it's hard not to have fun with her. Sally is is a great character and she gets to have some of the more interesting stories. This isn't one of the best, but there is fun to be had.

Much Ado About Dick

Now that Dick and Mary are an item, the campus is beginning to talk and Mary is having problems being taken seriously. When she gets cold feet, she turns to other faculty members for help and advice. All he really needed was a show tune.

This is a completely unmemorable episode with little to recommend it apart from the usual supply of hit or miss gags and gurning.

Dick the Vote

When Harry is mistaken as an activist, he stands for council against a seasoned campaigner. The dirty tricks campaign makes everyone think that the Solomons are part of the mafia.

Politicians are easy targets for this kind of humour, but that doesn't stop the story from being chillingly believable - in a 3rd rock sort of way.

4th and Dick

It's football season and Dick gets past his incomprehension of the rules of the game and into the spirit of the thing, much to everyone else's embarrassment.

Team sports, you either don't get what the fuss is about or you are so wrapped up in your love of them that you don't stop to question it. Truth is, it's just another chance for Dick to go over the top, which he duly does. Not a classic, but funny enough.

World's Greatest Dick

Tommy aces his exams and gets into the papers as a child genius. Dick immediately attempts to take all the limelight as the father of the genius, gets him into a top school and brings about a challenge of wills.

As the team's information officer, Tommy knows more than anyone, but is trapped in the body and role of a teenager. This is a dichotomy that is rarely examined too closely, but it works especially well here. The scene in which Dick and Tommy face off like samurai warriors over a series of difficult questions in foreign languages is very funny.

My Mother, the Alien

The landlady needs the Solomons to look after her grandchild whilst she goes to the doctor. I think you can work out the rest.

Aliens try to figure out a baby. It's old, tired and very, very predictable. This is quite simply the worst episode that this show has come up with yet and we're going to need some convincing to forgive and forget.

Gobble, Gobble, Dick, Dick

It's thanksgiving and the Solomons have to come to terms with all the rituals and trappings that go with that. Harry learns the eroticism of food with Mrs Dubcheck's daughter.

After the huge disappointment of My Mother, the Alien, 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN redeems itself immediately with a very funny episode that uses all the old cliches, but still manages to be inventive and funny. It's Harry's thread that is the funniest and we can all hope that Mrs Dubcheck's daughter does indeed come back from Orlando.

Dick Jokes

After a night in a stand up comedy bar, Dick sets about trying to unravel the secret of being funny in order that he can MC a fundraising event for Mary.

Humour, it's a difficult concept and from this evidence 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN has forgotten the secret of it. This examination of what's funny is just an excuse to trot out all the oldest and least funny slapstick routines (planks hitting heads, custard pies and the three stooges? Please, no more). Comedy this is not.

Jolly Old St Dick

It's Christmas and the Solomon's find it as difficult to comprehend as Thanksgiving.

It's a shame that Thanksgiving and Christmas are so close together because it means that there are two episodes about pretty much the same thing. However, whilst Gobble, Gobble, Dick, Dick was a festive treat, this is cold turkey leftovers. It's predictable and trite and almost none of the jokes work. What has happened to the show of late?

Proud Dick

Mary gets a new parking space and Dick quits his job in jealousy. Working in a fast food restaurant provides it share of challenges, but Dick refuses to return. Harry, meanwhile, loses his memory and realises that he is amongst aliens.

Fast food joints and the people who work there are an easy target and nothing in this episode rises above that easy target level. This season is proving far more patchy than the first and this is another low point.

Romeo and Juliet Dick

Dick gets the job of directing Romeo and Juliet for Tommy's school and immediately sets himself up as a director of the old style, all jodphurs and riding crops.

As if this show ever needed an excuse to get its cast overacting, but the school play gives it to John Lithgow as a gift wrapped up in a bright, shiny bow. It's admittedly funny seeing him appear in the costumes of the director, but there isn't that much else going on to mention, except perhaps Mary's appearance in court.

Guilty as Dick

Dick sprains his ankle in an accident and comes over all human male about it. Whilst he prolongs his family and Sally's guilt about his condition beyond actually having the condition they begin to suspect.

Men overreact to illnesses and women overcompensate when tending them. That's it, everything that the show has to say about anything. The comedy isn't all that funny either, although Sally's skill in selling chocolate is worth a few moments' laughter.

Dick on One Knee

A frenchman wishing to stay in America asks Sally to marry him in order that he can get his green card. She thinks that he means it and says yes. The wedding is prepared. A man from the government shows up looking for illegal aliens and there is some confusion.

One of the best things about 3RD ROCK FROM THE SUN is its determination to be totally un-PC. There are moments when discussing women and their roles in life where this is provocative stuff in these enlightened times. Sadly, there is also far too much of the seen-it-all-before pre-wedding stuff. Tommy discovering a talent for flower-arranging has some nice moments though.

Same Old Song and Dick

Dick decides that his relationship with Mary is getting stale. She comes up with some interesting ways of proving him wrong.

Nothing much distinguishes this episode from any other in a series that is becoming increasingly samey. The scene with Dick and his fellow men being stripped in a game of strip poker is the only high point.

I Brake for Dick

Dick hits a chipmunk with his car and immediately resolves to live a completely animal-friendly life. This means that Sally is going to have to give up all her shoes. Meanwhile, Tommy finds yet new ways to annoy August.

More of the same, though the animal rights people might not appreciate the way that Dick's attempts to live without cruelty to animals are ridiculed in their ineptitude. The characters remain fun and the cast are all great, but the feeling of deja vu seems to be a constant companion now.

Dick Behaving Badly

Dick is accused of being under Mary's thumb, so he breaks out and becomes a bad boy, as described to him by Harry. This involves dressing up like Marlon Brando and going to a strip club. Inevitably, this is not a great success.

Who would have thought that the game Monopoly could be so much fun? The showdown between Sally and Tommy over it is far and away the best thing in the show, although Harry's explanations of what it is to be a real man also provide a highlight. The physics party is an easy target, but it does work.

Dickmalion

Dick learns that he lives on the wrong side of the tracks in Rutherford and uses an invitation to the exclusive country club to raise his social sights. What he doesn't realise is that he is being invited as the comedy entertainment.

Anyone who has seen the french play Diner des Cons will recognise this at once. The humiliation of someone for entertainment is never a good thing and comedy uses it at its peril. Fortunately, Tommy's trying to impress a girl by becoming a feared rebel save the day.

Sensitive Dick

Dick is accused of being insensitive and goes on trial at Rutherford.

Dick gives a wonderful speech at his hearing, which, far from apologising for his rudeness, actually turns it into a matter of the advancement of the species. This is the high point, but there are plenty of other laughs to be had along the way.

Will Work For Dick

Dick annoys Nina once to often and she refuses to work for him again. He refuses to apologise and first turns to Harry and then tries to be his own assistant.

Nina is much undervalued by both Dick and the writing team. Very much a supporting character, she very often gets lines that, whilst short, are devestatingly funny and she is played pitch perfect by Simbi Khali. Dick's appearance, covered in printer toner (don't ask) at her mostly white appartment is classic stuff.

15 Minutes of Dick

Dick's joy at appearing in the Rutherford year book is overshadowed when Sally is turned into a hero of the common man by challenging a celebrity.

3rd ROCK FROM THE SUN has used celebrity cameos sparingly to this point. Mark Hamill plays it straight and gives an object lesson to George Takei whose appearance in Hotel Dick was nothing more than embarrassing. It is Sally's metmorphosis into a superstar and Harry's turn as her media manager that steal this episode.

Dick and the Single Girl

When Mary introduces Dick to a leaving professor, he finds that she is a genius who can give him all the intellectual challenge he has been missing. She, on the other hand, wants him for his body. Mary is jealous.

Those people longing to see Kristen Johnston in a pink tutu (yes, you know who you are) get your wish in this episode and quite a sight it is too. Sally wants to live the childhood she never had and Tommy's hair suffers for it. The battle over Dick's body is also quite fun.

Nightmare on Dick Street - Part 1

Mary announces that she has received the chance to study a primitive culture in Borneo for a year. This causes Dick to panic and have a dream, something he has never experienced. He sees a psychiatrist who gives him pills that space him out and Sally takes over the mission, but then she too becomes prey to the sleeping sickness of scary visions.

If you've never had one then a dream could be a pretty scary thing. Hell, some of them are scary enough even if you have had them before. The ones that Dick and Sally have are intense and beautifully shot, quite lengthy and full of striking images. What they are not is funny. This casts a flatness over the whole episode from which it cannot recover.

Nightmare on Dick Street - Part 2

Tommy has a dream and contacts the Big Giant Head asking if they can all go home for maintenance. Permission is granted, but Dick doesn't want to go. He decides to stay and marry Mary. The rest of the team leave, but not before Harry gets his dream sequence.

It's the final episode of the season, so it's a cliffhanger, but the same problem remains as in the first part of this story. The dreams dominate, most especially Harry's which is a tour de force of choreography and imagination, but just isn't funny. Perhaps these were all just bribes to get the cast back together for season 3?