Escape Artists
Escape Pod => Science Fiction Discussion => Topic started by: RichGarner on April 19, 2007, 08:02:30 PM
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So... what sci-fi shows or movies could you do without?
For me, I never really liked Enterprise. It seemed to abandon a lot of the original premise of the first shows in favor of flashy, more appealing action and eye-candy. Personally, if you have to throw in sex just keep my attention, you've lost me for good.
I also never got into Dark Angel. Maybe same reasons, but for the most part I didn't see the fun in another "human superweapon created by the government that escapes and tries to make a difference in the world" premise. Maybe it was the fact that it was James Cameron. Aliens and Terminator 2 were the only movies of his I liked.
Finally, can someone please take Charmed off the air? It may not fall completely into the SF realm, but too close for my liking. It was ignorable when it was a simple Buffy knock-off... but it's getting more and more obnoxious to see it on at least three channels as I flip around.
What other shows or movies need massive swift kicks of da booty?
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I had trouble getting into DS-9. I think in part because I had difficulty getting past the toady from Benson and Hawk from Spencer for Hire. People said that it improved esp after the first season, but I had already stopped watching by then.
Buffy had definitely jumped the shark by the time it went off the air. There was maybe only 1-2 standouts from season 6 and 7.
and while not tv/movie related we can do without Sci-Fi like this: http://techdirt.com/articles/20070416/175502.shtml
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Mansquito or any SciFi Channel Sci-Fi Saturday movie.
Enterprise - Let's throw every bit of Trek lore out the window and re-write the universe.
Aeon Flux - There isn't a good thing to be said about it. <- Edit I'm talking about the movie version
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Now that you mention it... I think Battlestar Gallatica is the ONLY good Sci-Fi Channel original.
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Now that you mention it... I think Battlestar Gallatica is the ONLY good Sci-Fi Channel original.
They've done some damn good miniseries. Dune and The Lost Room were great gambles that paid off.
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I'm probably one of the few people that never liked Farscape. I've only seen the pilot so far, but it came accross as so silly and derivative that I never worked up the enthusiasm to watch any more episodes.
It may be worth mentioning, though, that I'd just finished watching a season of the West Wing before trying Farscape, and just about anything would pale in comparison :P
Simon Painter
Shropshire, UK
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Now that you mention it... I think Battlestar Gallatica is the ONLY good Sci-Fi Channel original.
They've done some damn good miniseries. Dune and The Lost Room were great gambles that paid off.
Yes but Mansquito and Chupacabra pretty much erode any good will I may have had toward them for it ;D
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I've read reviews of Painkiller Jane being excruciatingly horrible so much so that I have absolutely no desire to ever watch it. Kind of a bummer, because I thought the title was cool, even though what I saw did make it look like another Dark Angel.
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I also never really got into Andromeda. The spaceship looked too silly and I could never get past the Hercules thing.
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I also never really got into Andromeda. The spaceship looked too silly and I could never get past the Hercules thing.
While there was some of the Hercules thing, I actually liked the show better than most star trek stuff. I think because it had a bit more storyline instead of always trying to wrap up in one episode.
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I also never really got into Andromeda. The spaceship looked too silly and I could never get past the Hercules thing.
While there was some of the Hercules thing, I actually liked the show better than most star trek stuff. I think because it had a bit more storyline instead of always trying to wrap up in one episode.
Have to agree.
The worst show on the Sci-Fi channel (to my opinionated mind) is re-runs of "Star Trek: Enterprise". I don't quite understand why I don't like it, it just bugs me for some reason.
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I actually liked the last season of "Enterprise". I thought they were starting to pull out. Alas, it was not to be, and they dove yet again into alternate history.
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Alas, it was not to be, and they dove yet again into alternate history.
I think that's why it died as a show. If they had had more exploration, maybe it would have done better.
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The first bunch of episodes post September 11th were actually pretty good (in a reflection of the disaster, a huge swath of Earth is wiped out by some alien probe/satellite thingy, and Enterprise chases down who did it) - but as mentioned above Time Travel showed up and wrecked the whole thing. Someone told me about a collection of episodes from the various ST that involved time travel, and that there were no Enterprise titles - we both figured it was because that's most of the bloody series.
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Yes but Mansquito and Chupacabra pretty much erode any good will I may have had toward them for it ;D
How dare you talk ill of MANSQUITO!!!!
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/Nevernaut/124_1.jpg)
He is a monster who only wants your love and understanding! Why must you be so cruel? WHY?!?
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Yes but Mansquito and Chupacabra pretty much erode any good will I may have had toward them for it ;D
How dare you talk ill of MANSQUITO!!!!
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/Nevernaut/124_1.jpg)
He is a monster who only wants your love and understanding! Why must you be so cruel? WHY?!?
You know, as I watched Mansquito all I could think about was why the non-mansquito characters didn't just spray themselves down with Deep Woods Off and get on with their work.
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You know, as I watched Mansquito all I could think about was why the non-mansquito characters didn't just spray themselves down with Deep Woods Off and get on with their work.
That would have been the only way that movie could have been better, really.
Especially if there was a scene where some Red Shirt got the can last, and it was all out. Which led to a daring run down the halway to becuase he...had...to get...another....CAN!!!
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You know, as I watched Mansquito all I could think about was why the non-mansquito characters didn't just spray themselves down with Deep Woods Off and get on with their work.
That would have been the only way that movie could have been better, really.
Especially if there was a scene where some Red Shirt got the can last, and it was all out. Which led to a daring run down the halway to becuase he...had...to get...another....CAN!!!
ROFLOL... The desperate last scene was the remaining scientists hurredly rubbing against each other to try and spread the Deet around so the last one could plug in the giant bug lamp.
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I had trouble getting into DS-9.
I liked DS-9 the best of all the Treks.
I never got Buffy at all, and I tried becasue I had friends who liked it.
On a more general way I hugely dislike what I think of as "bug eyed mosnster" stories or stories were the monster is a monster just becasue it's an alien, and it goes around eating people's brains, just 'cause that's what aliens do. These stories can have a camp appeal, and if they are done well, as in Alien they can scare the pants off you, but I don't really think they are SF. It sort of pisses me off that these sort of stories are the first thing that comes to mind with the general public when they think of SF.
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Lexx is, to my way of thinking, the worst thing to happen to Sci-fi in a while.
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Lexx is, to my way of thinking, the worst thing to happen to Sci-fi in a while.
I saw part of the pilot for Lexx at a Con many years ago. A buddy and I sat down to watch it, because if it had Rutger Haur in it, it couldn't be that bad, right? After about thirty minutes, we gave each other the "WTF?" look and just left.
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So... what sci-fi shows or movies could you do without?
I vote for Battlefield Earth. Dreadful. Saw some of it on a cable channel and it was so bad I couldn't stop watching. Ouch.
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So... what sci-fi shows or movies could you do without?
I vote for Battlefield Earth. Dreadful. Saw some of it on a cable channel and it was so bad I couldn't stop watching. Ouch.
Yeah. I saws the trailer and I immediately tried to burn my eyes out.
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The "Wing Commander" movie was pretty bad.
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The "Wing Commander" movie was pretty bad.
It was bad, but it was still fun. Maybe because I was such a big fan of the games. (There's a whole game genre that died a mysterious death - why?)
I kind of liked how the spaceship designs had a WWII motif going on. (Which the games did not.)
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There was this god-awful sci-fi movie a few years back that was, essentially, a horror movie set aboard a spaceship. It started promisingly, and then degenerated into standard horror with characters so damnably stupid, they should not have survived to adulthood. I remember the "money shot" of the entire movie was a guy getting his head sliced in half by a laser as it swept right through his screaming mouth, horizontally.
Gruesome.
Now, if only I could remember the name so I could properly pan it. :)
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I don't think Supernova is the movie you're talking about, Kaa, but it certainly deserves a mention in this thread. 1 1/2 hours I can never get back. I'm sure the film I saw represents nothing of the script Angela Bassett and James Spader signed on for.
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Could we do without "Dark Star"? Or is that the wrong thing to say?
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Could we do without "Dark Star"? Or is that the wrong thing to say?
I could do without "Dark Star", unless by the laws of changing parallel universes we would also have to do without "Alien". That would be bad.
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Could we do without "Dark Star"? Or is that the wrong thing to say?
Great for a student project, creative use of a beach ball, overall not much of a movie in a CGI world.
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Disney's "The Black Hole"
Slim Pickens as a robot?
I have two memories of seeing that movie in the theater.
1) When the black hole was eating everything, people were chanting "Go black hole! Go black hole!"
2) When the villain finally got sucked in, someone in the audience yelled "Bye bye, wimp!" and lots of people laughed.
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Dude, I saw that movie when I was a kid and it rocked me. I remember being so shocked when the Maximillian put on his little helicopter buzz saws and ripped into the one guy. And then one guy tried to escape (I think) and got blown up with his ship. It felt darker than a lot of other stuff I'd seen at that point (I was like 5) and very weird. I might have a different opinion if I rewatched it, but when they all dived into the black hole, I was pretty shocked.
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I saw it in the theater when I was maybe 14 or 15 and it almost put me to sleep.
Maybe I should go back and try it again.
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Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking that The Great War of Magellan (http://www.greatwarofmagellan.com/) won't really be science fiction that should be remembered. Let's be proactive and ignore it from the get-go.
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This could break Steve's as yet unwritten "Second Rule of EP Forums", but here goes.
I could do without Star Wars Episode I, II, and III.
Talk about taking a national treasure and totally *bleeping* it up.
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I could do without Star Wars Episode I, II, and III.
No argument here.
I don't think "Jedi" was the best movie in the world, either. Because most of us were young when it came out, and it was still within the afterglow of "A New Hope" (I hate having to write that now), it has achieved beloved status. But if it was the movie to come out 30 years later I wonder if we would have such fond feelings.
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I think "Return of the Jedi" had to be a bit less exciting because it was the final arc. The denoument of a great story is never as exciting as the climax. Remember "Jedi" gave us Jabba, Princess Leia in a bikini and Bobba Fett falling into a sarlak pit. Granted the Ewoks took most of that away, but then we had the "unfinished" Death Star, and the speeder bikes....
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Mansquito or any SciFi Channel Sci-Fi Saturday movie.
ohhhh yes... i recently saw part of Basilisk, and i was ready to murder someone about 5 minutes into it... if it weren't for the fun bloodspatter, i would not have gotten past 2 minutes.
oh and, i saw this a long while back, Hypercube. That had the dumbest ending i have ever seen, and the movie itself was just bad. I dont know about the other two movies in the trilogy but Hypercube was terrible.
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Remember "Jedi" gave us Jabba, Princess Leia in a bikini and Bobba Fett falling into a sarlak pit. Granted the Ewoks took most of that away, but then we had the "unfinished" Death Star, and the speeder bikes....
You're right. My argument against Jedi is more of a musing than a definitive lumping it in with the Last Three. For me, any good will that the Ewoks did not obliterate was taken care of by Evil Darth Vader becoming Poor, Misunderstood Darth Vader.
And what's up with the Sarlak? It's stomach acids will take 1,000 years to digest me? A suite at the Ritz Carlton will digest me in less time.
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And what's up with the Sarlak? It's stomach acids will take 1,000 years to digest me?
I wondered about that myself - so he starts eating when he's born and he's not done for 1,000 years? Sheesh, hope he doesn't need many calories? And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
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I'll put in my vote for "Mission to Mars".
Good frigging grief that was a horrendous piece of crap, as much as I happen to adore tim robbins and gary sinese.
I will have to admit to liking lexx, what I saw of it. It was different, and amused me. I met the guy who played stanley a few years ago, he was pretty cool.
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And what's up with the Sarlak? It's stomach acids will take 1,000 years to digest me?
I wondered about that myself - so he starts eating when he's born and he's not done for 1,000 years? Sheesh, hope he doesn't need many calories? And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
contrary to popular belief, tooth filled holes are the hottest vacationing spot for many indigenous creatures to that planet
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And what's up with the Sarlak? It's stomach acids will take 1,000 years to digest me?
I wondered about that myself - so he starts eating when he's born and he's not done for 1,000 years? Sheesh, hope he doesn't need many calories? And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
contrary to popular belief, tooth filled holes are the hottest vacationing spot for many indigenous creatures to that planet
I tried going there, but do you know what they want for a tooth with a good view of the stomach?? It's insane.
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Maybe the whole 1000 year thing was a metaphor.
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I tried going there, but do you know what they want for a tooth with a good view of the stomach?? It's insane.
thats a shame, but the cheap teeth arent that bad....
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Donnie Darko -- The Director's Cut.
Way to take a flawed yet intriguing movie with a forigvably massive time travel logic hole and turn it into a flawed movie with comical pseudoscience and a massive time travel logic hole that somehow seems less forgivable.
If you enjoyed Donnie Darko, I implore you to give the Director's Cut a miss. Buy a second copy of the theatrical release if you want to show your support.
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And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
I would if it added 900 years to my life.
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And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
I would if it added 900 years to my life.
900 years of pain or at the very least boredom? I'll just take the 1-70 years I have left.
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And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
I would if it added 900 years to my life.
900 years of pain or at the very least boredom? I'll just take the 1-70 years I have left.
ehhh, bring an iPod or portable tv... crank power, and a bag of cheetoes... id be just fine.
and how are you sure about the 1-70 years left? how do you know you have at least a year left? scary no?
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And who would walk into the giant tooth filled hole?
I would if it added 900 years to my life.
900 years of pain or at the very least boredom? I'll just take the 1-70 years I have left.
ehhh, bring an iPod or portable tv... crank power, and a bag of cheetoes... id be just fine.
and how are you sure about the 1-70 years left? how do you know you have at least a year left? scary no?
Based on a bunch of calculations I just made up. I have a 99.85% chance of making it through the next year.
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I'll put in my vote for "Mission to Mars".
Good frigging grief that was a horrendous piece of crap, as much as I happen to adore tim robbins and gary sinese.
I will have to admit to liking lexx, what I saw of it. It was different, and amused me. I met the guy who played stanley a few years ago, he was pretty cool.
Mission to Mars was really, REALLY boring, and the ending wasn't that great, but I don't hate myself for watching it.
Red Planet, which I never saw but really never wanted to see either, was a Mars movie with a great line in it, though:
Val Kilmer: "This is it."
Woman: "What?"
Val Kilmer: "That moment our teachers told us about in high school when algebra would someday save our lives."
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Red Planet, which I never saw but really never wanted to see either, was a Mars movie with a great line in it, though:
Val Kilmer: "This is it."
Woman: "What?"
Val Kilmer: "That moment our teachers told us about in high school when algebra would someday save our lives."
That was the best part of the entire movie. I think overall it was better than Mission to Mars but really, that's not saying much is it? ;)
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Donnie Darko -- The Director's Cut.
Way to take a flawed yet intriguing movie with a forigvably massive time travel logic hole and turn it into a flawed movie with comical pseudoscience and a massive time travel logic hole that somehow seems less forgivable.
If you enjoyed Donnie Darko, I implore you to give the Director's Cut a miss. Buy a second copy of the theatrical release if you want to show your support.
Uh oh. We have a conflict here...
I rented, then bought, the Director's Cut of DD BECAUSE of said "changes." I love the alternate use of music in certain scenes. It seems more impacting. I'm not saying it's awesome... but I DID buy it.
(Rich stands proudly waiting to absorb oncoming blows.)
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Ones that come to mind right away for me is Robocop 2,3,4,5,6....or however many more they made.
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RoboVampire- Listen to Podculture, you'll understand
50% of Scifi Saturday Movies- Some are good to have in the background whilst playing CSS but that is about it.
Star Trek TOS- I just can't stand the near Utopia, I'm sorry, maybe that removes all my geek cred but it just ginds on my nerves
Painkiller Jane- The title describes what you must be near overdosing on to like it.
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Goin back to the Sarlak thing... i was just wondering...
how did anyone figure out how long it took the Sarlak to digest something?
honestly there cant be any actual studies done on that... it was probably more of a myth than a fact...
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Goin back to the Sarlak thing... i was just wondering...
how did anyone figure out how long it took the Sarlak to digest something?
honestly there cant be any actual studies done on that... it was probably more of a myth than a fact...
Well, they could do a test - say, feed something to the Sarlacc, then remove it in a year's time and see how much progress the Sarlacc has made ("hmm... I think this guy is 0.1% digested...") and extrapolate from there.
Of course, though, the whole concept is pretty silly - the idea that the Sarlacc can somehow keep someone alive for 1000 years while slowly eating him makes no sense whatsoever - the Sarlacc would have to expend far more energy and nutrients keeping the victim alive than it would ever get out of him.
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Goin back to the Sarlak thing... i was just wondering...
how did anyone figure out how long it took the Sarlak to digest something?
honestly there cant be any actual studies done on that... it was probably more of a myth than a fact...
Well, they could do a test - say, feed something to the Sarlacc, then remove it in a year's time and see how much progress the Sarlacc has made ("hmm... I think this guy is 0.1% digested...") and extrapolate from there.
Of course, though, the whole concept is pretty silly - the idea that the Sarlacc can somehow keep someone alive for 1000 years while slowly eating him makes no sense whatsoever - the Sarlacc would have to expend far more energy and nutrients keeping the victim alive than it would ever get out of him.
No, no, no. You can't use logic. That's not fair. That's like saying a professional bounty hunter wouldn't miss when he tries to shoot a guy sitting on the other side of a small table.
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Cleopatra 2525
Small Wonder
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Battlefield Earth
Ghosts of Mars
Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions
The Island
The Day After Tomorrow
Howard the Duck
Smallville
The Fantastic Four movies
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Anybody else old enough to remember Space: 1999? Hint: that was then a date in the distant future...
Martin Landau and Barbara Bain on a moon that has been knocked into interstellar space by the explosion of nuclear waste dumps on the far side. (Yes, you did read that right...) Spider Robinson says that after being trapped in a room and being forced to watch, his wife found him "...weakly slumped over the television set, trying to destroy it with profanity."
It really was that bad..
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Anybody else old enough to remember Space: 1999? Hint: that was then a date in the distant future...
Martin Landau and Barbara Bain on a moon that has been knocked into interstellar space by the explosion of nuclear waste dumps on the far side. (Yes, you did read that right...) Spider Robinson says that after being trapped in a room and being forced to watch, his wife found him "...weakly slumped over the television set, trying to destroy it with profanity."
It really was that bad..
Space: 1999 was great!
It starred Brian Blessed as the ruler of every planet ever! You can't go wrong with that.
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Battlefield Earth
I'll second that only if you're talking about John Revolta's abortion of a film. I love the original novel, which made the film just that much more painful to watch.
John Travolta is off-source and out-ethics.
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Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions
That was unfortunate, because The Matrix itself was so promising. I think it's a case of art destroyed by commercial success. Once they produced a hit, there was nobody with the nerve to rein in the directors, and they desperately needed reigning in. You can see the outline of a great movie hiding in Reloaded, especially in Neo's confrontation with The Architect. Unfortunately, it gets buried in a steady stream of over-long action sequences and pointless filigrees. I have the sense they got overwhemed by 'the coolness' of what they could do on film, and forgot they were there to tell a story.
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I never got Buffy at all, and I tried becasue I had friends who liked it.
I never watched more than half an episode the whole time the series was running, because it sounded too stupid. Then one New Year's day (after the series wound up) they ran an all-day Buffy re-run marathon, and both my wife and myself were hooked. Some friends had a few seasons on DVD, we bought seasons 5 and 6.
Similar thing happened with Dark Angel, except that those same friends had it on DVDs.
I never could sit through Andromeda.
What partly spoiled Star Trek: Enterprise for me was Scott Bakula. They made up for him by casting Jolene Blalock. In general though, I think the overly-long story arcs and the time travel business lost them their audience.
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Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
Defense:
DS9: We initially gave it a pass when it was in its first season; then went back and started with Season Three, because we'd heard Worf came aboard. By the time he did, we were hooked. And it DID get much better; the Baseball episode (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Take_Me_Out_to_the_Holosuite_%28episode%29) and the story lines in which Sisko experiences life as a 1950s sci-fi writer (Far Beyond the Stars (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Far_Beyond_the_Stars_%28episode%29) and Shadows and Symbols (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Shadows_and_Symbols_%28episode%29)) writing the history of "Deep Space Nine" were very funny and powerful, respectively.
Middle of the Road Waffling:
Smallville: I had hope - and more than a little respect for Gough & Miller - after the second season. The first season was a fun (for me) cross between X-Files and 90210 (two shows that I never really got into). The second seemed to really pick up some interesting mythology, and the writing was much more interesting than the banal set pieces we are treated to in more recent years. The third teased me by building on themes of friendship, loyalty, and parallels between fathers... and then it descended into melodrama and angsty poseury. Now it's just something I watch because I got my wife hooked, and it's still fun to do the MST3K thing on it while hunting for bits of DC lore to pop up.
(Part of my misguided hope: I thought Spiderman 2 was written by G&M; apparently, they were working on it intially, but the script that went to production was by Michael Chabon.citation (http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/preview/1808417249))
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Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
What he said.
The guy who plays the captain is wooden and has no screen presence. The aliens are all basically humans with intentionally two-dimensional characters (this will be the Violent Race, this will be the Intellectual Race, this will be the Sneaky Race). Star Trek was basically dumb, but we all went into it already being familiar with the universe. B5 is dumb, but makes us learn a bunch of unrewarding dumb stuff.
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Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
Since we're goring sacred oxen here (or something) ...
I've probably mentioned this already, but I'm underwhelmed by Firefly. I've watched the first DVD and so far I don't feel a connection or empathy with any of the characters. I don't get why it's so revered the likes of Steve Eley and Mur Lafferty, and SF fandom in general. I don't feel at all inclined to continue with the series (but the fact that it's unfinished and likely to remain so probably isn't helping to motivate me in that regard.)
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Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
Since we're goring sacred oxen here (or something) ...
I've probably mentioned this already, but I'm underwhelmed by Firefly. I've watched the first DVD and so far I don't feel a connection or empathy with any of the characters. I don't get why it's so revered the likes of Steve Eley and Mur Lafferty, and SF fandom in general. I don't feel at all inclined to continue with the series (but the fact that it's unfinished and likely to remain so probably isn't helping to motivate me in that regard.)
Hey, wakela was WAY meaner then I was! :)
But as for Firefly, there were a number of "hooks" in it for me. I won't bore you by listing them (I'm sure that's been done to death) but for me, it just popped.
Personally, I'm always wary of things that people suggest to me, and I had just given the thumbs down to a number of things that had been enthusiastically thrust at me when the first FF disc came in the mail. I actually rolled my eyes, and thought, "Oh, boy... another chunk of fandom to wade through."
So, what I'm saying is, it was good, but made even moreso because I was expecting it to be bad.
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Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
Since we're goring sacred oxen here (or something) ...
I've probably mentioned this already, but I'm underwhelmed by Firefly. I've watched the first DVD and so far I don't feel a connection or empathy with any of the characters. I don't get why it's so revered the likes of Steve Eley and Mur Lafferty, and SF fandom in general. I don't feel at all inclined to continue with the series (but the fact that it's unfinished and likely to remain so probably isn't helping to motivate me in that regard.)
Hey, wakela was WAY meaner then I was! :)
But as for Firefly, there were a number of "hooks" in it for me. I won't bore you by listing them (I'm sure that's been done to death) but for me, it just popped.
Personally, I'm always wary of things that people suggest to me, and I had just given the thumbs down to a number of things that had been enthusiastically thrust at me when the first FF disc came in the mail. I actually rolled my eyes, and thought, "Oh, boy... another chunk of fandom to wade through."
So, what I'm saying is, it was good, but made even moreso because I was expecting it to be bad.
I dunno, man. I think we were about the same level of meanness. Though it did take a swipe at trek.
But I'm glad someone brought up Firefly. I like it OK. Some episodes were better than others. I liked the movie a lot. But I really don't get the hyperventilation that you run into whenever Joss Whedon's name comes up. C'mon, the guy gets his own "Whedonverse" that is often simply referred to as "the 'verse"? It was a pretty good show and it was funny, but it wasn't Earth shattering, and it played fast and lose with the laws of physics just like the rest of them do.
Disclaimer: never watched Buffy.
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Hey, wakela was WAY meaner then I was! :)
I dunno, man. I think we were about the same level of meanness. Though it did take a swipe at trek.
Disclaimer: never watched Buffy.
[/quote]
You're right... but I was smiling REALLY big when I typed my comment. ;D
As for Buffy... I tried, but petered out halfway through season 2. No reason... just haven't had any Vampire motivation lately. :-\
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I dunno, man. I think we were about the same level of meanness. Though it did take a swipe at trek.
But I'm glad someone brought up Firefly. I like it OK. Some episodes were better than others. I liked the movie a lot. But I really don't get the hyperventilation that you run into whenever Joss Whedon's name comes up. C'mon, the guy gets his own "Whedonverse" that is often simply referred to as "the 'verse"? It was a pretty good show and it was funny, but it wasn't Earth shattering, and it played fast and lose with the laws of physics just like the rest of them do.
Disclaimer: never watched Buffy.
The verse is how they refer to the universe in Firefly, if it's used in Joss fandom that's why.
Buffy and Angel are good, character based shows. They take a while to get into, but once you're in it's sweet pleasure/torture.
Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
Since we're goring sacred oxen here (or something) ...
I've probably mentioned this already, but I'm underwhelmed by Firefly. I've watched the first DVD and so far I don't feel a connection or empathy with any of the characters. I don't get why it's so revered the likes of Steve Eley and Mur Lafferty, and SF fandom in general. I don't feel at all inclined to continue with the series (but the fact that it's unfinished and likely to remain so probably isn't helping to motivate me in that regard.)
The first season is much better from the vantage point of going back from the last season and watching it again. Believe me, you've probably missing quite a lot that will be very important later.
TAD — On the cheesy graphics bit —> Mid nineties. Amigas were costly, and it's only in the last few years graphics have gotten really good. At least they followed physics (for certain values of physics).
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Offense:
B5: I never could get into Babylon 5. I tried with Season one, and with a mini-series compendium (details foggy... I know Boxleitner was in it, though). I just couldn't get past the horrible effects in combination with the cheesy dialogue, hokey characterizations, and the inscrutable political motivations. It seemed to take all the things I liked about the Star Trek universe, and re-make them badly, instead of the other way 'round.
Since we're goring sacred oxen here (or something) ...
I've probably mentioned this already, but I'm underwhelmed by Firefly. I've watched the first DVD and so far I don't feel a connection or empathy with any of the characters. I don't get why it's so revered the likes of Steve Eley and Mur Lafferty, and SF fandom in general. I don't feel at all inclined to continue with the series (but the fact that it's unfinished and likely to remain so probably isn't helping to motivate me in that regard.)
The first season is much better from the vantage point of going back from the last season and watching it again. Believe me, you've probably missing quite a lot that will be very important later.
I think you're addressing this to TAD, not me. B5 is my all-time favorite SF show and I have never spoken a word against it (though I could; the final season left much to be desired.)
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For me the one series whose popularity always makes a giant question mark appear above my head is Stargate SG-1. I've tried to watch it several times, once starting in Season 1 and then just checking out whatever episode happens to be playing at the time, and it's never come even close to clicking for me. The fact that it got 10 seasons astounds me (then again, look at Voyager!).
All that said, I'd rather have Jar-Jar Binks trapped in my head Scorpius style than watch Stargate Atlantis.
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So... what sci-fi shows or movies could you do without?
Farscape from "Dog with Two Bones" on*. "Into the Lion's Den" is the series finale as far as I'm concerned.
* i.e., the last episode of Season 3, all of season 4, and the "Peacekeeper Wars" miniseries. Nothing to redeem any of it.
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Farscape from "Dog with Two Bones" on*. "Into the Lion's Den" is the series finale as far as I'm concerned.
* i.e., the last episode of Season 3, all of season 4, and the "Peacekeeper Wars" miniseries. Nothing to redeem any of it.
I wouldn't go quite that far, but I can see the frustration. As Farscape season finales go, it was weak. Really weak. And Noranti's introduction has always seemed poorly done to me. On the other hand, there's enough in season 4 to keep me at least entertained if not thrilled, and I'm one of those sick few who absolutely loved the way season 4 ended (Peacekeeper Wars doesn't exist as far as I'm concerned).
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I think you're addressing this to TAD, not me. B5 is my all-time favorite SF show and I have never spoken a word against it (though I could; the final season left much to be desired.)
Yeah, sorry, I was. I was just lazy and didn't snip out your part.
On the final season — I've had problems with it too, but I still think it was better to have that season than cut B5 off at season four, which was the plan from conception. And there were some good episodes, Paragon of Animals and the Very Long Night of Londo Molari have always been favorites of mine.
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On the final season — I've had problems with it too, but I still think it was better to have that season than cut B5 off at season four, which was the plan from conception.
I think the plan for B5 from conception had been to go for 5 full seasons, but when it looked like the 5th season might not happen they moved the resolution of several plot and character arcs to the 4th season. It made for something of a jarring transition from the 4th to the 5th season, but it's better than having lots of plot threads left unfinished if the 5th season hadn't happened.
I was a big, MAJOR fan of B5 when it was first on. Haven't seen it in years now.
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On the final season — I've had problems with it too, but I still think it was better to have that season than cut B5 off at season four, which was the plan from conception.
I think the plan for B5 from conception had been to go for 5 full seasons, but when it looked like the 5th season might not happen they moved the resolution of several plot and character arcs to the 4th season. It made for something of a jarring transition from the 4th to the 5th season, but it's better than having lots of plot threads left unfinished if the 5th season hadn't happened.
I was a big, MAJOR fan of B5 when it was first on. Haven't seen it in years now.
I was a huge B5 fan and heard the same thing about the original 5 year story arc which was compromised a bit when it was in danger of being canceled. I also haven't seen it in years now and wonder how if holds up. I would probably still dig it, I thought it had a lot of interesting characters, especially the evil Mr. Morden (and his associates).
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On the final season — I've had problems with it too, but I still think it was better to have that season than cut B5 off at season four, which was the plan from conception.
I think the plan for B5 from conception had been to go for 5 full seasons, but when it looked like the 5th season might not happen they moved the resolution of several plot and character arcs to the 4th season. It made for something of a jarring transition from the 4th to the 5th season, but it's better than having lots of plot threads left unfinished if the 5th season hadn't happened.
I was a big, MAJOR fan of B5 when it was first on. Haven't seen it in years now.
I was a huge B5 fan and heard the same thing about the original 5 year story arc which was compromised a bit when it was in danger of being canceled. I also haven't seen it in years now and wonder how if holds up. I would probably still dig it, I thought it had a lot of interesting characters, especially the evil Mr. Morden (and his associates).
That's the story as far as the commentary an the DVDs goes. A friend has all five seasons and all of the movies. Every couple of years I borrow them again and rewatch the whole thing.
TAD — On the cheesy graphics bit —> Mid nineties. Amigas were costly, and it's only in the last few years graphics have gotten really good. At least they followed physics (for certain values of physics).
The graphics got better as the show went on. Also NASA called the producer of B5 to ask if they could use the design of the starfury. It seems they had gone through all sorts of designs for a forklift kind of vehicle for the spacestation and the starfury was the best design. I don't know if they are still planning on buiding it, since Bush gutted the budget and gave them the Mars goal, I think it got axed.
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I think you're addressing this to TAD, not me. B5 is my all-time favorite SF show and I have never spoken a word against it (though I could; the final season left much to be desired.)
Yeah, sorry, I was. I was just lazy and didn't snip out your part.
Ouch... between goring sacred oxen and snipping out peoples' parts, this thread is getting dangerous!
But, in defense of my previous obnoxious remarks:
1. "Weak Graphics" - I appreciate the constraints of technology and budget, but it was the combination of elements that threw me out of my zone-of-willing-suspension-of-disbelief. The only show I have ever decided to hate based on the shite-ness of the graphics (so far) was Daredevil.
2. "Small Sample Group" - If it "gets better later", then I may try again... later. I had similar issues with ST:TNG (I hated Dr. Pulaski enough that I didn't start watching the show again until season 5), and DS9 (as I've explained elsewhere).
3. I don't have a number three.. and we're late! Bye!
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I think the plan for B5 from conception had been to go for 5 full seasons, but when it looked like the 5th season might not happen they moved the resolution of several plot and character arcs to the 4th season. It made for something of a jarring transition from the 4th to the 5th season, but it's better than having lots of plot threads left unfinished if the 5th season hadn't happened.
Threadcrossing here ... one thing I'd look for at the "Impossible Dreams" video store is a version of Babylon 5 that turned out just as JMS had planned it -- or at the very least, one that had Claudia Christian staying on for season 5 instead of being replaced by Tracy Scoggins. I never warmed to Cmdr. Lochley.
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Hey, wakela was WAY meaner then I was! :)
I dunno, man. I think we were about the same level of meanness. Though it did take a swipe at trek.
Disclaimer: never watched Buffy.
You're right... but I was smiling REALLY big when I typed my comment. ;D
Good point. I was eating puppies.
2. "Small Sample Group" - If it "gets better later", then I may try again... later. I had similar issues with ST:TNG (I hated Dr. Pulaski enough that I didn't start watching the show again until season 5), and DS9 (as I've explained elsewhere).
Yeah, I got this about Buffy from a fan. It's not worth it to me if I have to sit through a crummy season or two to wait for it to get good.
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2. "Small Sample Group" - If it "gets better later", then I may try again... later. I had similar issues with ST:TNG (I hated Dr. Pulaski enough that I didn't start watching the show again until season 5), and DS9 (as I've explained elsewhere).
Yeah, I got this about Buffy from a fan. It's not worth it to me if I have to sit through a crummy season or two to wait for it to get good.
The problem is that some of the best stuff takes a while to find it's stride. When someone says it takes a while, you need to take into consideration who is saying that. I have a friend, who thinks the ending of Armegeddon is so strring and inspiring, he cries at the end everytime he sees it. If he tells me I need to watch something for a while to get into it, I know to never watch it. I have others I follow blindly where ever they send me.
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This is just going to be pure blasphemy to most, if not all, and bear in mind that I haven't seen it in probably 15 years or so, but I totally didn't like 2001: A Space Odyssey. :-[
I need to watch it again, probably, but all I remember is being bored and confused. Maybe I need to watch it with some commentary.
Am I the only person who doesn't like that movie? I need some validation! lol :P
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This is just going to be pure blasphemy to most, if not all, and bear in mind that I haven't seen it in probably 15 years or so, but I totally didn't like 2001: A Space Odyssey. :-[
I need to watch it again, probably, but all I remember is being bored and confused. Maybe I need to watch it with some commentary.
Am I the only person who doesn't like that movie? I need some validation! lol :P
I'm with you all the way. Totally overrated toss. I've even mentioned this before in another thread here: a film should not require reading the novelization in order to be comprehensible.
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This is just going to be pure blasphemy to most, if not all, and bear in mind that I haven't seen it in probably 15 years or so, but I totally didn't like 2001: A Space Odyssey. :-[
I need to watch it again, probably, but all I remember is being bored and confused. Maybe I need to watch it with some commentary.
Am I the only person who doesn't like that movie? I need some validation! lol :P
My wife hates it. And, according to legend, Rock Hudson walked out halfway through the premier shouting "Can someone tell me what it's about?", so no. You're not alone.
And I can understand why people don't like it: the structure is very different from any other movie, before or since; the plot changes abruptly and without warning several times; major events (including the entire conclusion) are presented without any explanation or even context; there's no dialogue for huce chunks of the movie. Any one of those points can easily kill a movie, and probably should.
But, somehow, it works.
If people don't like, say Casablanca, or Nosferatu, I would say that is indicative of poor taste (or possibly congenital insanity). But not liking 2001 is entirely understandable and excusable.
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Ha! Thanks, StePH!
And I literally laughed out loud at
If people don't like, say Casablanca, or Nosferatu, I would say that is indicative of poor taste (or possibly congenital insanity). But not liking 2001 is entirely understandable and excusable.
I'm glad you understand Mute!
I no longer feel like a SciFi leper.
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Stargate - at least all of the tv iterations. Not that they are the worst things in the world, but is there ever any deviation from the plot formula of those shows?
BTW - Babylon 5, for all its faults (and as much as I am a fan, I know it has many), certainly offered three-dimensional alien races. The seemingly most violent race produces one of the more spiritual characters in the show and there are good and bad people in all of the races. If anything, the actors playing the aliens all tend to be more nuanced and interesting than the actors playing humans.
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BTW - Babylon 5, for all its faults (and as much as I am a fan, I know it has many), certainly offered three-dimensional alien races. The seemingly most violent race produces one of the more spiritual characters in the show...
O hellz yeah G'kar was awesome (of course most of the credit must go to Andreas Katsulas' performance) ... and Mollari, the character whom we're meant to see as just a drunken buffoon in the beginning, turns out to be one of the darkest characters in the show.
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I'm with you all the way. Totally overrated toss. I've even mentioned this before in another thread here: a film should not require reading the novelization in order to be comprehensible.
I agree completely. Clarke's novel, which I read first, is awesome. But no movie should depend on the moviegoers reading a book first.
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I'm with you all the way. Totally overrated toss. I've even mentioned this before in another thread here: a film should not require reading the novelization in order to be comprehensible.
I agree completely. Clarke's novel, which I read first, is awesome. But no movie should depend on the moviegoers reading a book first.
I disagree. I've never read the book, and the first time I saw the movie, I didn't even know there was a book. But I still count it as one of my favourite movies, and I don't think it's all that difficult to follow.
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Is there any way I can watch that movie with you so you can tell me what the hell is going on?? lol :D
It's one of those I feel like I'm supposed to like, but I just don't.
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Sorry for this but I really didn't like Farscape (muppets in space) and Firefly (cowboys in space). I mean what was with those Mexican style gun belts? ::) Really, shotguns in space? If you can break the speed of light, you don't need shot guns. The tech level would supply something a little better.
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Sorry for this but I really didn't like Farscape (muppets in space) and Firefly (cowboys in space). I mean what was with those Mexican style gun belts? ::) Really, shotguns in space? If you can break the speed of light, you don't need shot guns. The tech level would supply something a little better.
Just for the record, there's no FTL travel in Firefly. Just a dozen habitable planets in the same system. Travel between them takes weeks, at best.
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Oh, my mistake. I couldn't get past the gun belts... :)
Still their tech level should be sufficient to progress beyond chemically based projectile weapons.
Thanks
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Oh, my mistake. I couldn't get past the gun belts... :)
Still their tech level should be sufficient to progress beyond chemically based projectile weapons.
Thanks
The tech level did exist. Firefly was a show about haves and have nots. The inner planets of the alliance had all the cool tech you could want, but the poorer planets didn't. Serenity itself can hardly stay in the air for lack of money for parts. If they could afford energy weapons, they would have been able to fly a better ship.
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Oh, my mistake. I couldn't get past the gun belts... :)
Still their tech level should be sufficient to progress beyond chemically based projectile weapons.
Thanks
The tech level did exist. Firefly was a show about haves and have nots. The inner planets of the alliance had all the cool tech you could want, but the poorer planets didn't. Serenity itself can hardly stay in the air for lack of money for parts. If they could afford energy weapons, they would have been able to fly a better ship.
Yeah. Think of the nose-bleed weapon that the blue-hands use, or the sonic rifle, which was like a Airzooka powerful enough to knock a man down...
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Dr. Who.
The recent series from the past few years are okay, but I just can't stand any of the older ones. I'll never understand how it got popular.
I'm probably going to get flamed for saying that.
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By the way, not that any of you were being kept up nights worrying about the name of the really bad movie I mentioned way back (on page 1 of the comments) where the HIGH point of the movie was a guy getting his head cut in half by a laser, but a friend informed me, finally, that the movie in question was "Nightflyers." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093626/
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Dr. Who.
The recent series from the past few years are okay, but I just can't stand any of the older ones. I'll never understand how it got popular.
I'm probably going to get flamed for saying that.
In response to that, this. (http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2007/05/nature-of-infection.html)
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Aaah, but anything good about the last season of Enterprise was due to them sorting out plot points because they were cancelled, I can only suspect that the cast must have been pretty pissed off to get to the final episode and find out that not only were they the first show to be cancelled early but they were also now relegated to guest stars in a TNG episode.
The Bionic Woman remake was lame. They took completely the wrong tack with it, at the very least Jamie should have been working for the organisation from the start, a soldier not a regular person.
Dark Skies was fairly horrific too, from what I remember.
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Dark Skies was the X-Files clone set in the 60's, right? I'm pretty sure I saw several episodes of that, but the only thing that sticks in my mind is one pre-title sequence, which went along the lines of: Three civil-rights activists have disappeared in rural Mississippi! The most likely and rational explanation is that they were abducted by aliens! Let us investigate at once!
And I don't care that they turned out to be right about the aliens. If that's seriously your go-to explanation in those circumstances, then you're spending too much time thinking about this, and you need to take a vacation.
Anyway, that is my entire memory of that series.
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I only saw two episodes of Dark Skies, relatively spread out in their season (or was it seasons plural)? I remember being kind of interested in it, but a bit surprised with how far their mythology went. Something bad (probably aliens) happened to the guy's girlfriend, who had been the female lead at first, and then there was some kick ass government spook lady escorting him around in the second episode. And yeah, it was a weird X-Files rip-off. Period-piece 60s with UFOs. I would've loved to have been in the pitch-meeting for that one.
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I'll come out and say that I watched Dark Skies during its (one) singular season, and I rather enjoyed it.
Although it was awfully reminiscent of X-Files set in the 60s. If Mulder and Scully were married. Well, until late in the season when the Scully character diminished in importance and Jeri Ryan assumed a prominent role. I'm kinda curious about where they would have taken things if they'd gotten renewed for a second season.
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(First post here)
I could definitely do without Horror movies that pretend to be science fiction. The two examples that spring to mind are the Predator series and the Alien series. They were both decent Horror movies, but not what I consider SF.
Also, movie versions of books where they keep the title, and maybe the same one sentence summary could be used to describe both, but where it's not at all the same story. The best examples of that I can think of are I, Robot and Starship Troopers.
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(First post here)
I could definitely do without Horror movies that pretend to be science fiction. The two examples that spring to mind are the Predator series and the Alien series. They were both decent Horror movies, but not what I consider SF.
You probably didn't care for Event Horizon either. (I do consider the Predator and Alien movies to be SF, but Event Horizon was basically a haunted house movie set on a spaceship.)
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Also, movie versions of books where they keep the title, and maybe the same one sentence summary could be used to describe both, but where it's not at all the same story. The best examples of that I can think of are I, Robot and Starship Troopers.
I never did figure out what they were up to in the movie version of Troopers. At one level, they seemed to be poking fun at the novel -- exaggerating it into a "Hey, kids! Let's put on a war!!!" parody. On the other, they seemed to be trying to create a 50's-era war movie in a future sitting, which could be construed as a legtimate projection of the novel's world view. I think there's a lot more there than that, but it is a defensible view.
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Also, movie versions of books where they keep the title, and maybe the same one sentence summary could be used to describe both, but where it's not at all the same story. The best examples of that I can think of are I, Robot and Starship Troopers.
I never did figure out what they were up to in the movie version of Troopers. At one level, they seemed to be poking fun at the novel -- exaggerating it into a "Hey, kids! Let's put on a war!!!" parody. On the other, they seemed to be trying to create a 50's-era war movie in a future sitting, which could be construed as a legtimate projection of the novel's world view. I think there's a lot more there than that, but it is a defensible view.
I couldn't figure that out, either... but I think they were going for some kind of award for shlock. My three prime justifications (having last seen this film nearly 10 years ago):
* co-ed shower scene (boo-YA!)
* Michael Ironsides, after finding a dead soldier with a hole in his skull, bellowing "They sucked his BRAAAAAAIN!" to the ceiling as the camera withdrew to an impossible height.
* Neil Patrick (Doogie Houser) Harris in a Nazi SS uniform approaching the giant bug creature - which has just been nuked in her lair, had her feeding proboscis hacked off, and been dragged out of her tunnel to face several hundred space marines with machine guns, tanks, bazookas, and more nukes - placing his hand on her side, and pronouncing (because he's a telepath, and can scan alien brains for subtle details that the average space marine would NEVER figure out on their own) that "She's... AFRAID!"
w00t.
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I'm gonna say we can do without any more books by Michael Crichton. I just read Next and I'm getting sick of him using his books as a long parable for his op-ed at the end.
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I'm gonna say we can do without any more books by Michael Crichton. I just read Next and I'm getting sick of him using his books as a long parable for his op-ed at the end.
You made it past Jurassic Park, Airframe, and State of Fear? You're doing better than I did. :)
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I thought Jurassic Park was good.
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I thought Jurassic Park was good.
Ditto. It was Airframe and Lost World that I really started to feel a disconnect. Prey was okay but I never read the more recent ones.
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I'm very fond of Prey, there's a nice narrative touch in there that wrong footed me. Plus I have the audio book read by Wilson from House which really takes the edge off:)
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I'm very fond of Prey, there's a nice narrative touch in there that wrong footed me. Plus I have the audio book read by Wilson from House which really takes the edge off:)
SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was it that you thought the wife was going to end okay based on the intro/prologue, only to realize, shit, she's not his wife? Because that threw me (in a good way).
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It was Airframe and Lost World that I really started to feel a disconnect. Prey was okay but I never read the more recent ones.
The Lost World read like a novelization of the first Jurassic Park movie. It had the feel of a sequel cranked out solely for the money.
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I'm very fond of Prey, there's a nice narrative touch in there that wrong footed me. Plus I have the audio book read by Wilson from House which really takes the edge off:)
SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was it that you thought the wife was going to end okay based on the intro/prologue, only to realize, shit, she's not his wife? Because that threw me (in a good way).
That and the huge nested flashback, yes:)
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It was Airframe and Lost World that I really started to feel a disconnect. Prey was okay but I never read the more recent ones.
The Lost World read like a novelization of the first Jurassic Park movie. It had the feel of a sequel cranked out solely for the money.
Quite agree. That's a desperately poor book which was made into a desperately poor movie.
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It was Airframe and Lost World that I really started to feel a disconnect. Prey was okay but I never read the more recent ones.
The Lost World read like a novelization of the first Jurassic Park movie. It had the feel of a sequel cranked out solely for the money.
Totally. It was like Crichton saw the movie and realized, damn, I wish I hadn't killed Jeff Goldblum. Also, I should make Malcom funny, just like Goldblum. Although I don't think he ever pulled off the funny.
The movie was also sufficiently horrible. Especially the teenage gymnastics vs. raptors finale.
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The Lost World read like a novelization of the first Jurassic Park movie. It had the feel of a sequel cranked out solely for the money.
Quite agree. That's a desperately poor book which was made into a desperately poor movie.
... which had desperately little in common with the book that it was supposedly adapted from. But as I suggested, they had already made the movie version and called it Jurassic Park. ;)
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I'll come out and say that I watched Dark Skies during its (one) singular season, and I rather enjoyed it.
Although it was awfully reminiscent of X-Files set in the 60s. If Mulder and Scully were married. Well, until late in the season when the Scully character diminished in importance and Jeri Ryan assumed a prominent role. I'm kinda curious about where they would have taken things if they'd gotten renewed for a second season.
Same here. The opening titles and the narratives seemed to imply that they were going to bring the show to present day, so I was kinda interested in seeing where they were going to go.
I also agree on the whole Jurassic Park thing. That last book read more like a contractual obligation. It was like it was thrown together just because they all knew it would sell like a bastard.
And it seemed like Starship Troopers was a purposefully campy movie that sometimes forgot and took itself too seriously sometimes.... I never read the book.
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Dark Skies actually had an incredibly cool structure laid out which, due to the first season suffering from first season disease and not actually getting anywhere particularly fast, they never got to.
The plan was simple; one season equalled one decade.
And as the decades passed, John would rise higher in MJ-12, the war would become more public and he'd eventually realise something; we were losing.
Had they still been on air, the producers were seriously talking about doing a two hour special, New Year's Eve, 1999 that would finish, live, with Loengard delivering an address to the nation which would in essence be 'My fellow americans, for the last four decades we have been at war with an alien intelligence...'
Would have been fun:)