OT - Good sci fi TV shows?

[couslee]

with Captain Lameway? (who should be instantly court marshalled upon return to the alpha quadrant)

[Cheeze]

Ruatha - I only heard about the animated/cgi Version of Starship Troopers but never have seen it. I wish I would, sooner the better.

Dogscoff - That movie was such an abominable use of the book it's barely funny. On its own right, it's a dumb movie with some good action. Given how butchered the vision was of the story, it was truly ghastly. Verhoeven might have had Robocop fighting alongside the soldiers, it was the exact same world...and that's half my point. He had done that already. The understanding of the military was so completely absent it boggled the mind. My ears ache every time they called a sergeant "sir" and he didn't tear the speaker wide open, and that was just a small detail.

Do I need to bring up the "it's okay that I'm dying, because I had you" line??

On top of that, it is clear there was no effort to bring the world to life as Heinlein described. And since Troopers has been derided as some sort of fascistic vision, that wasn't too surprising, only disappointing. But no powered armor??

And I still saw the movie twice...in the theater. I'm just hopeless that way!

BTW, thanks for the Wilma Deering memories! She wore those outfits so well. Princess Ardala was cute too, but not as much so, since she couldn't fly a space fighter. It was horrifying to see Colonel Deering playing third fiddle to Ricky Schroder and Ardala on that godawful Texas detective show...but I guess everyone has to find work, don't they?

[ February 15, 2003, 04:48: Message edited by: Cheeze ]

[Sea-Monkey-Pirate]

Fox Saddles Up Mister Ed

The Fox network has given the green light to a Mister Ed pilot, an update of the classic 1960s talking-horse sitcom, which starred Alan Young, Variety reported. Twentieth Century Fox TV and Original TV will produce the pilot.

Original's Marty Adelstein, Dawn Parouse and Neal Moritz will executive produce the pilot. Writer Jack Handey (Saturday Night Live) is behind the Mister Ed update and will also executive produce, the trade paper reported.

The SCI FI Channel has cast the key roles of Starbuck and Apollo for its upcoming original miniseries Battlestar Galactica, based on the 1978-'80 TV series. Oregon native Katee Sackhoff (Halloween: Resurrection), 22, will play a female Starbuck in executive producer Ronald D. Moore's reimagination of the series, SCI FI announced.

Meanwhile, British actor Jamie Bamber (HBO's Band of Brothers), 29, will play Apollo. In the original series Starbuck was a male character played by Dirk Benedict, while Apollo was played by Richard Hatch.

The four-hour Galactica miniseries, from Roswell and Star Trek: The Next Generation hack Moore, is slated to debut later this year. Moore has been quoted as saying, "If you liked the god-awful sh t I have put out in the past, you will LOVE this steaming pile!"

A source close to Fox Television, which produces Buffy the Vampire Slayer for UPN, has told SyFy Portal a rumor that the network won't bring the show back for an eighth season. "There is a whole different attitude at UPN right now, and it's not the same attitude that first brought Buffy to the network in the first place," the anonymous source said. Les Moonves, president of UPN parent CBS, reportedly wants Ratings winners and nothing else, the source added.

"It is believed around here that if Moonves had been running UPN two years ago, Buffy never would've been there in the first place," the source said.

Australian model Travis Fimmel will play the title role in The WB's drama pilot Tarzan, a contemporary update of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic tale, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Warner Brothers Television and Laura Ziskin will produce the series, which will also star newcomer Sarah Wayne Callies as Jane.

The series focuses on Tarzan as a young man as he is brought from the jungle to his childhood home, New York, (New York City? I thought he was French!) by his uncle, the head of Greystoke Enterprises. In this Version, Jane is a fiery police detective, the trade paper reported.

Eric Kripke wrote the script for the pilot. Ziskin and Kripke are executive producing with David Gerber and the pilot's director, David Nutter (The X-Files). Let's hope they don't rape this property as badly as Disney...then again, nobody rapes like Disney.

[ February 15, 2003, 06:40: Message edited by: Sea-Monkey-Pirate ]

[Ruatha]

SG the movie was ok, but the series really stink. It's a McGyver goes Extraterrestial and stops making gadgets.
It's the same childish plot and bad actors.

Admittedly Andromeda has a bad plot too but the good filming makes it worthwhile to see.

IMO nothing comes close to Babylon 5.

[Omega_Prime]

Ruatha

I respect your opinion, but let me take a snip from the show.

Te'alc: I have read of female warriors doing battle in an arena of Jello.

O'Niel: (Cocks his head, taken a little aback, then nods) I'll call Daniel.

If there is another sci-fi show written at the maturity level of Boston Public, or even a scifi show with that kind of warm humor and chemistry between the cast members, I am just missing it.

At best, I have seen scifi have one, or the other. B5 certainly had the maturity of good drama, but no warm humor. STNG tried to have the warm humor (Q puts the crew in the role of Robinhood type bandits and Worf spits out, "I am not a merry man!") but never had mature writing.

Case in point, the crew:
Worf, the only Klingon in the Federation, on the bridge, an empath...on the bridge, an android...also on the bridge, a guy so "blind" he can see more than we can....started on the bridge, akido master Tasha Yarr...yep...bridge, Wesly the boy-god...16..on the bridge...DRIVING, and the tactical genius that came up with the "Picard Manuever" as the captain, and in the bar...a bartender that makes Q nervous. It was the X-Men in space! One "special person" is enough for good scifi. Deep Space..same thing. Shapechanger, simbiotic crewperson, a messiah, a being of pure data in the computer core...

Most of today's interplanetary scifi goes that rout. A crew of SuperBeings in space, with super toys, and a mysterious member "from parts unknown". It is so over-done, it has a set format. You can plug almost everyone of the above into Andromeda and find the counterpart.

Not so with SG1. It is people that bleed, love, and laugh. The closest they have to a cliche is Te'alk. (That one special person)

Also, I think the Jack O'Neil character is the complete reverse of McGyver.

1. McGyver would never pick up a gun. O'Neil will never put his down.

2. McGyver was brains. O'Neil is brawn.

3. McGyver was the problem solver. O'Neil has never been the one to figure something out.

4. McGyver - Hippy. O'Neil - Military.

I will say that Richard Dean Anderson has political views that border on socialist, and the better actor on the show by FAR is Christopher Judge.

[DavidG]

Mmm I don't think anyone has mentioned one of the best TV show of all time:

The Outer Limits. (new series)

The best part is that since each show is different the ending is always unpredictable. I love the one were that little twerp from Next Generation accidentally blows up the Earth

[ February 15, 2003, 13:35: Message edited by: DavidG ]

[DavidG]

Originally posted by Omega_Prime:
It was the X-Men in space!

Brilliant!!!! One of the key reasons I could never get into TNG.

[oleg]

Yeah, SG-1 rocks ! Some episodes have weak or even silly plots, but what show produced 100+ outstanding episodes? Even Bab5 had few very silly moments.

[Ruatha]

OK, I'm not saying you are wrong (or am I?). You are fully entitled to your opinion.
But I haven't smiled once wathcing SG1. Maybe I haven't given it a reasonable chance,. Only seen about 5 episodes.

Yes, Andromeda suffers from the unbeatable syndrome aswell with superheroes, but i think there is something funny in almost all episodes.
Perhaps I have a strange sense of humour or it might be I'm not native speaking english

SG1 to me really shouts, Hey, look what we high scool students can make! (I e low budget and bad plot and actors).
I liked mcGyver though, that might be one of the reasons I don't like SG1.
I always thought it very funny how he could build a nuke from a lighbulb and sugar or whatever; (Everything contains atoms, right? If I just can get them to split...)

Yes, Bab 5 also has it's downs but the story was great. Interweaven plot through several seasons. Not very much paradoxes and "unbelivable" stuff.
I always though a Sci Fi story needs "credability" within it's own context.

My favorite Sci Fi ever is Asimovs Foundation Series!

[ February 15, 2003, 17:33: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

[oleg]

The first time I watched Andromeda I almost died laughing. You see, that morning I was watchng Hercules:Legendary Jorney and when switched on TV later I thought it is simply a new humorous episod The storyline about saving a girl named Andromeda fits quite well. I especially liked blue Aphrodites with tail. Imagine my disappointment when I learned truth.