OT - Good sci fi TV shows?

[gregebowman]

Originally posted by steveh11:
I'll add another to that list of movies: James Cameron's "The Abyss".

Interesting note on "The Abyss" and "2001". In both cases the book was written at the same time as the film, and in both cases changes in the film were made because of the book, and vice versa. Whether this helped I leave to the viewer/reader!

Steve.

There was a book based on "The Abyss"? I'm sure there was a novelization of the movie, but I can't picture James Cameron being dictated to by an author. On the other hand, I know that Stanly Kubrick worked hand to hand with Clarke to work on 2001. I don't see that book as a novelization of the movie.

[Cheeze]

growltigger...gotta give Buck credit, he had his share of pretty women. But can anyone compare to Captain Kirk (as played by the One True Shatner, or OTS as Shatnerologists reverently refer to the Great One) who would entrall anything remotely female, at any time, in any place!!!

raynor: (for post above this one) The midgets TK'ing Wilma Deering's clothes off have been mentioned several times already. Unless you said it, in which case, yes, we remember it...quite well!!

[ February 23, 2003, 15:22: Message edited by: Cheeze ]

[raynor]

Does anyone remember the Buck Rogers episode where they encounter the PK-able folks who have never seen a woman before?

Off-Think! Off-Think! Off-Think!

[DavidG]

Originally posted by David E. Gervais:

quote:

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Originally posted by DavidG:
On a realated note can anyone think of any Sci-Fi movie (or any movie) based on a book that was actually good?

hmmm,.. The Thing, Planet of the Apes (original!), The Omega Man, 2001: a Space Odyssey, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Jurassic Park, Hunt for Red October, etc, etc, etc.

I could go on and on, for some reason the 'Good' ones seem to be 'memorable'. Dune comes to mind, but you'd have to clip the ending (prevent Paul from causing it to rain) over-all Dune is well done, but Dune had just a few 'major' bugs that basically raped the original book! The Mini-Series was/is a much better adaptation of the book!

Cheers!

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OMG Dune!!! Really? Guess we'll have to agree to disagree here. I think Dune is a classic example of a totally brilliant book (posibly my favourite of all time) and an unbelievable bad movie. But yea that mini series was pretty good. The only other examples you gave that I have seen the movie and read the book was Jurasic Park and I thought the book was much much better. I guess I always like the books better because you can get so much more depth in a novel than you can in a 2 hour movie. I suppose if you were to put all the chapters from a book in the movie it would be god knows how many hours!

Edit: I guess in my orginal post I should have said "better than or as good as the book" instead of just 'good'

[ February 23, 2003, 22:09: Message edited by: DavidG ]

[DavidG]

So the absoulte best Sci-Fi show of all time ( and possible the best TV show of all time) Outer Limits is now on the Space channel at 6pm EST every weekday!!1 WOOHOO

[David E. Gervais]

Originally posted by DavidG:
I guess in my orginal post I should have said "better than or as good as the book" instead of just 'good'

Easy, any Tom Clancy book made into a movie will always beat the book. IMHO all his books make for a very dry read. He always tries to cram way too much detail into his naration!

Jurassic Park was/is a better book than movie, but the movie was very well done.

I read Dune after seeing the movie and I was amazed at how much they managed to get into the film. I also imediately noticed how bad some stuff got raped. Most if not all the people I know that saw the film read the books first and all they noticed is what was missing or distorted. My having seen the film without having read the books gave me a different perspective. The reactions that my friends had prompted me to read the book to get the real story. I can't go back and say I didn't like the movie because I did like it. That would be like having a good steak diner and saying you enjoyed it very much then finding out it was bear meat and changing your mind! I don't play that game.

Also I don't agree to disagree, I prefer to say we are in agreement about dune, but have both experienced it from a different perspective. I now recognise that the film was much less than it could have been. But that could also be said of every film ever made! Hindsight is 20-20 after all!

Cheers!

[Cheeze]

Just adding some information. Last week, the Sci-Fi channel played Battlestar Galactica from 11-4pm every weekday.

They are doing it again this week, but with Buck Rogers. I'm wondering if I need to set my VCR and then check back for the particularly good episodes. Oh sure, there's the "off think" one with Colonel Deerings' bumps...but how about that one with the space vampire when Wilma got turned and she started acting extra sexy?

I noticed something in the Buck Roger's movie today. They had the same flight controls as the Vipers do. Makes that 13th tribe connection more believable...so to speak.

Update: Sci-Fi was showing the Night Stalker today. Maybe they'll show Buck Rogers every Monday or something. There's always hope.

[ February 25, 2003, 18:32: Message edited by: Cheeze ]

[raynor]

Oh yeah.... the space vampire episode is one to watch.

Does anyone remember Space: 1999? They just delivered the DVD Megaset. It's 48 hours of sci-fi for about $120. I watched the first one Last night, and man, did it bring back memories. I used to have a walkie-talkie that looked like their communication devices.

I wonder if Star Trek: The Original Series DVD's will ever drop in price. It seems like they are still about $15 mail-order for every two episode disc.

Does anyone remember an old sci-fi series about an Ark? They had these stun weapons that reflect the sun, and they had a food technology that seemed like it was similar to replicators. I think maybe their uniforms were mostly white. I think maybe they had a smaller vehicle that would come down a ramp from the back of the 'ark'. The ark was just a big traveling ground vehicle. Wow. That was a LONG time ago.

I also remember an old sci-fi show about something like the Phoenix. It seemed like it was an Native American looking dude with a phoenix symbol on a chain that could transform or something. Hmm... okay, that is more fantasy than sci-fi.

There is another sci-fi show that was short lived called maybe Other World? It seems like a family of four was swept into this other world and was trying to get out. I remember one episode where all the people were androids because of high radiation levels. It was cute. The son fell in love with the young android girl who showed him her "light" on a master board and said it represented her "soul". I still remember having a crush on her.

[raynor]

Originally posted by javaslinger:
What's that god awful series wehre people crash land on some planet. There some kind of underground race there called diggers?

It's a recent show.

I wonder if you are talking about Earth 2? They had that race of spear carrying aliens that communicated in dreams and would shoot up out of the ground and back again. They had VR gear that was pretty cool. The series was just so flat, I thought.

[Cheeze]

raynor...those bring back memories. I think I needed a life even then, I watched so much television, apparently.

First, Space 1999. From the same production company that did The Muppet Show. I really liked the shapeshifter, she was really cool. That was Moonbase Alpha, and hadn't the moon been yanked away from Earth or some such thing.

Phoenix was pretty fun to watch. The same actor who played Khan's number one guy in Wrath of Khan. I liked all his special powers, and how he was constantly on the run from government agents, if I remember right.

Last, Ark 2. That was Saturday morning television, before/during/after the Kroft Supershow (H.R. Puffenstuff anyone?). Was that oriented around a family in a post-apocalypse environment? I remember the sun-powered weapons...I seem to think they used a similar sound effect as the martians in the classic War of the Worlds movie. If that doesn't bring up The Land of the Lost..and not that terrible remake. And Jason and the Star Patrol. And the Bay City Rollers Saturday Morning Special...AAAAGHH!! Someone stop me!