Star Wars & Sc-Fi Talk
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
Miragedriver
Brigadier
Agreed 100%
Sorry old friend, but I guess it came down to two things Capitain Janeway's voice and the over use of temporal rifts in the plots. However, the main reason for watching the show was to see 7 of 9 in that (nothing left to the imagination) uniform
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For a "B" Television show Babylon five was very well written.
---------- Post added at 04:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 AM ----------
Obi Wan, I wouldn't have said it better myself. I've wanted a Lightsaber since I was 14 and first saw Star Wars. Next life I want to be a Jedi.
Thank you! I could never stand having that kid pilot the Enterprise.
That’s why I admire the English. You are masters at the fine art of sarcastic humor. And I agree the actors on BSG all gave an incredible performance. My wife, who is not into science fiction absolutely, loved the series because of the acting and drama.
I think I can speek for all men. I wish we could have seen more of her. I mean in other series...........
FYI, 7 of 9 (actress Jeri Ryan) can currently be seen often in figure hugging skirts in the drama series 'Body of Proof' she still looks amazing as does series star Dana Delaney (who guest starred in an episode of Battlestar). Delaney's character looks very fit for a woman in her mid forties, which is amazing considering Ms Delaney herself is 55!
Loved Buffy and Angel for the sarcastic humour (writer Joss Whedon spent four years of his schooltime in England...) Has anyone mentioned Firefly? If you haven't seen it, GET IT! On the subject of past series you can unearth on DVD check out 'Dead Like Me' a brilliantly written black comedy fantasy about an 18 year old girl who doesn't start living until the day she dies... and becomes a Grim Reaper! Also try Dollhouse (from the Joss Whedon stable too) though because of studio interference it doen't take flight until about five episodes in.
Going back to my childhood (the 1970s), I was hooked into SF from the age of five by shows like Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, UFO and Space: 1999, all from the mind of Gerry Anderson. Only the last two of those mentioned had live actors instead of puppets, but that didn't matter when I was a kid.
Loved Buffy and Angel for the sarcastic humour (writer Joss Whedon spent four years of his schooltime in England...) Has anyone mentioned Firefly? If you haven't seen it, GET IT! On the subject of past series you can unearth on DVD check out 'Dead Like Me' a brilliantly written black comedy fantasy about an 18 year old girl who doesn't start living until the day she dies... and becomes a Grim Reaper! Also try Dollhouse (from the Joss Whedon stable too) though because of studio interference it doen't take flight until about five episodes in.
Going back to my childhood (the 1970s), I was hooked into SF from the age of five by shows like Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet, UFO and Space: 1999, all from the mind of Gerry Anderson. Only the last two of those mentioned had live actors instead of puppets, but that didn't matter when I was a kid.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
I thought Ronald Moore's BSG was a disappointment. The one thing and most important was the overall story was bad. It could've went two directions. Either escape to search for Earth like the original series or stay and fight an insurgency war to which seemed what they were leaning since the series uses the Iraq War analogy. It turns out they did neither and just hung around and maybe defended themselves from a Cylon attack every now and then. Everything else was just character dramatic filler in between. It was only until the last season and only the last episodes where they actually took action. It was simple finding Earth. It was through psychic occurrences that they found their way and not hard trials of having to look for Earth.
I'm looking forward to Bryan Singer's Battlestar Galactica which was originally supposed to be the one on Syfy instead of Moore's but is now instead going to be made into a movie.
I'm looking forward to Bryan Singer's Battlestar Galactica which was originally supposed to be the one on Syfy instead of Moore's but is now instead going to be made into a movie.
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Equation
Lieutenant General
A Battlestar Galactica movie? From what I researched it's going to be different from both the 70s series and Moore's version. I guess that's okay, since the Japanese anime Gundam is the same way (each series, with different characters and scenerios), along with Stargate and Star Trek.
---------- Post added at 12:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:43 PM ----------
Agreed 100%
Sorry old friend, but I guess it came down to two things Capitain Janeway's voice and the over use of temporal rifts in the plots. However, the main reason for watching the show was to see 7 of 9 in that (nothing left to the imagination) uniform
---------- Post added at 04:13 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:10 AM ----------
For a "B" Television show Babylon five was very well written.
---------- Post added at 04:29 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:13 AM ----------
LOL....Okay the temporal rifts I could understand...but what's wrong with Janeway's voice? I find it as a mature and wise lady doing her best to keep the crew alive and hope of going hope.
Yep, I like it because it portrays a real scenarios of diplomacy and what leads to war. Star Trek DS9 is the same way but in more details.
With regard to Bryan Singer's Battlestar project, a few years ago I noticed his interviews on the subject were generally dismissive of the RDM version but more recently he has shown a lot more respect for the recent tv series, perhaps realising that SF fans are very loyal and BSG(RDM) has a large fanbase, the same fans his own movie will be aimed at. If you are making SF movies, you don't piss off your fans! Personally I think it will be a few more years before Singer's Battlestar see the light of day, simply becasue it's too soon after the RDM version. The dust needs to settle a bit.
Loved the anime movie Akira and saw it late at night on tv in the 90s. The original broadcast was of the subtitled version, and it's a long and involved movie that demands you pay attention. So they put it on late at night when you are struggling to stay awake and concentration is at it's hardest! I loved it! Under those conditions your mind becomes more receptive to new ideas and you can suspend disbelief more easily. I remember when I was a kid at the back end of the 70s and early 80s there was always a late friday night movie starting around 11 on British tv, and as I didn't have school the following day I could stay up to watch it (I was 9 years old in 79), and got to see some amazing movies; Dark Star, The Wicker Man, pretty much the whole Hammer Horror collection. I was propping open my eyelids with matchsticks by the end of the movie but it was the highlight of the viewing week for me! I learned from it all that good storytelling trumps special effects everytime (even though I love FX as much as anyone), my favourite horror film being 1963's The Haunting which has only one special effect in the whole movie but still scares, though best seen after midnight for atmosphere!
Of course the big film of this year IMHO will be Ridley Scott's Prometheus, the prequel to Alien.
Hammer films were successful when they set the trends, and lost their way in the 70s when they followed other peoples trends. Discuss.
Loved the anime movie Akira and saw it late at night on tv in the 90s. The original broadcast was of the subtitled version, and it's a long and involved movie that demands you pay attention. So they put it on late at night when you are struggling to stay awake and concentration is at it's hardest! I loved it! Under those conditions your mind becomes more receptive to new ideas and you can suspend disbelief more easily. I remember when I was a kid at the back end of the 70s and early 80s there was always a late friday night movie starting around 11 on British tv, and as I didn't have school the following day I could stay up to watch it (I was 9 years old in 79), and got to see some amazing movies; Dark Star, The Wicker Man, pretty much the whole Hammer Horror collection. I was propping open my eyelids with matchsticks by the end of the movie but it was the highlight of the viewing week for me! I learned from it all that good storytelling trumps special effects everytime (even though I love FX as much as anyone), my favourite horror film being 1963's The Haunting which has only one special effect in the whole movie but still scares, though best seen after midnight for atmosphere!
Of course the big film of this year IMHO will be Ridley Scott's Prometheus, the prequel to Alien.
Hammer films were successful when they set the trends, and lost their way in the 70s when they followed other peoples trends. Discuss.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Even though Moore's BSG fans can be loyal, they're really not many. BSG ratings in the US put it on the brink of being cancelled at the midpoint of its run and dropped significantly after the first season. I guessed it with Lost. Intially you're surprised because you haven't seen something like this before and you'll forgive all the mystery anticipating a big payoff later. Second season they started doing the same things building up mystery upon mystery and they weren't explaining crap so it became obvious they were just throwing them out there just for watercooler talk the next day. The ending just confirmed that they didn't know where it was going and they answered basically nothing about the island. Why was there so much post-hatred of Lost afterwards was because everyone realized they were being dragged through a show where anxious excitement in finding out the meaning of it all was pointless and wasted the viewers' time.
Anyone remember David Hasselhoff's Baywatch Nights? It's his spinoff of Baywatch where at night his character had a second job as a private detective. Ratings were horrible so to ride the wave of popularity of the X-Files at the time, Hasselhoff turned Baywatch Nights into investigations into paranormal/extraterrestrial phenomenon. As Hasselhoff put it, " I don't like how X-files does all that explaining." And that's why his show stunk and didn't last. It's called suspension of disbelief which is important for shows that don't take place in the real world because everyone knows the rules there and not the one that was made up. How come no aliens/monsters showed up on Baywatch? The two shows existed in the same universe. If some innocent kid drowned in the ocean and died, why not pull out an alien that knows how to bring the kid back from death? What did the mysteries of the island on Lost have to do with the ending? Absolutely nothing. BSG had this theme of ressurection and everyone from Cylon to humans went through it. What was the purpose of that? In every story your protagonist has a goal and the reader or viewer is a witness in their journey in achieving that goal. Did they explain why everyone was going through a ressurection? Only we as the viewer knew they were going through this huge ressurection and everything starts all over again. Things just happened and finding Earth wasn't really important. And in the end they didn't believe they found Earth but it really was because the universe goes through this ressurection. Why again? It's not really ressurection but more reincarnation. Either's religious context doesn't seem to apply to BSG. I have to conclude they just threw it there as Lost throws in mysteries. All the personal drama of the characters seen in the seasons... what did they have to do with anything? The world in movies and television is a world in a fish bowl where everything essential feeds on each other. In movies and television there are two important ingredients in good storytelling. Story of course is paramount. Then there's character development. Yes of course the drama in the characters' lives is important but in the fish bowl of movies and television worlds, everything serves a purpose for something else. The point of showing character development is to set or foreshadow how the characters will react down the line especially to developments to the main story playing out. The Lost producers admitted after the show ended they were essentially writing from week to week. I got that feeling that they didn't know how it was going to end in the second season. If anyone writes fiction, you know how you're story is going to end just like the characters in stories have a goal or you just end up meandering around doing nothing of purpose to which you see in both Lost and BSG.
The Walking Dead does character drama well so far. All the drama in the characters lives is in context of how it plays in the a world of dead people walking. We don't see some teenage girl whining about how she's going to find a boyfriend in this cruel world of the walking dead. Last year there were rumblings that the CW network was developing a series to ride the wave of popular Twilight and the Waking Dead where some girl falls in love with a dead teenage boy zombie and let the drama ensue with all the problems associated with that. Haven't heard anything about it since so I assume someone of reason at the CW network canned that idea.
Here's a great promotion for The Walking Dead in South Africa.
[video=youtube;gb3I4R58oZ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb3I4R58oZ0&feature=player_embedded[/video]
Anyone remember David Hasselhoff's Baywatch Nights? It's his spinoff of Baywatch where at night his character had a second job as a private detective. Ratings were horrible so to ride the wave of popularity of the X-Files at the time, Hasselhoff turned Baywatch Nights into investigations into paranormal/extraterrestrial phenomenon. As Hasselhoff put it, " I don't like how X-files does all that explaining." And that's why his show stunk and didn't last. It's called suspension of disbelief which is important for shows that don't take place in the real world because everyone knows the rules there and not the one that was made up. How come no aliens/monsters showed up on Baywatch? The two shows existed in the same universe. If some innocent kid drowned in the ocean and died, why not pull out an alien that knows how to bring the kid back from death? What did the mysteries of the island on Lost have to do with the ending? Absolutely nothing. BSG had this theme of ressurection and everyone from Cylon to humans went through it. What was the purpose of that? In every story your protagonist has a goal and the reader or viewer is a witness in their journey in achieving that goal. Did they explain why everyone was going through a ressurection? Only we as the viewer knew they were going through this huge ressurection and everything starts all over again. Things just happened and finding Earth wasn't really important. And in the end they didn't believe they found Earth but it really was because the universe goes through this ressurection. Why again? It's not really ressurection but more reincarnation. Either's religious context doesn't seem to apply to BSG. I have to conclude they just threw it there as Lost throws in mysteries. All the personal drama of the characters seen in the seasons... what did they have to do with anything? The world in movies and television is a world in a fish bowl where everything essential feeds on each other. In movies and television there are two important ingredients in good storytelling. Story of course is paramount. Then there's character development. Yes of course the drama in the characters' lives is important but in the fish bowl of movies and television worlds, everything serves a purpose for something else. The point of showing character development is to set or foreshadow how the characters will react down the line especially to developments to the main story playing out. The Lost producers admitted after the show ended they were essentially writing from week to week. I got that feeling that they didn't know how it was going to end in the second season. If anyone writes fiction, you know how you're story is going to end just like the characters in stories have a goal or you just end up meandering around doing nothing of purpose to which you see in both Lost and BSG.
The Walking Dead does character drama well so far. All the drama in the characters lives is in context of how it plays in the a world of dead people walking. We don't see some teenage girl whining about how she's going to find a boyfriend in this cruel world of the walking dead. Last year there were rumblings that the CW network was developing a series to ride the wave of popular Twilight and the Waking Dead where some girl falls in love with a dead teenage boy zombie and let the drama ensue with all the problems associated with that. Haven't heard anything about it since so I assume someone of reason at the CW network canned that idea.
Here's a great promotion for The Walking Dead in South Africa.
[video=youtube;gb3I4R58oZ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb3I4R58oZ0&feature=player_embedded[/video]
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Miragedriver
Brigadier
Oh boy Obi Wan. You have just reactivated all of those dormant brain cells. I remember spending hours watching UFO and Space 1999. I use to draw those funky transporter vessels they utilized. And as a smaller child I watched the Thunderbirds after school. Great show, very well thought out, and you forgot that they were marionettes.
If it was not for all those programs we would not have the high quality Sc-Fi we have now. All of us grew up as well as our expectations for better programing.
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AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
They're remaking Space 1999 for television but calling it 2099.
