This weeks Sci-Fi Thread (08/05/07)

08/05/07 | Kevin Davis

[KevinDavis]

This week in Sci-Fi:

Sun:
9/8 The 4400 --> USA Network

Tue:
9/8 Eureka --> SciFi Channel

Fri:
8/7 Dr Who --> SciFi Channel
9/8 Flash Gordon --> SciFi Channel

Sat:
10/9 Masters of SciFi --> ABC

[KevinDavis]

Disappointing episode of Masters of SciFi..

[KevinDavis]

[P.O.E.]

FYI - Cartoon Network is showing vintage “Astro Boy” cartoons at 2AM Saturdays.

[Mike Darancette]

Disappointing episode of Masters of SciFi..

You got that right. A society devoted to the psychological torture of the President of the United States for his actions in office ...... wait isn't that happening now?

[Publius6961]

This might be a good time to ask... what happened to the weekly reruns of (nuts!) Jericho?

I thought that CBS promised to rerun all the episodes...

I missed it this week.

[KevinDavis]

Heard nothing....

[Tanniker Smith]

Yeah, not a good episode to start with. And I had problems hearing some of it. Granted, I had the AC blowing, but I really hate cranking up the TV to "50" to overcompensate. It was difficult to understand what was going on when they were whispering.

And I thought that Hawkins was going to actually appear as "host" and not merely be a voiceover (which I had trouble with as well).

The story could've been told in 30 minutes. And the ending had been telegraphed from the first time she picked up the gun in the first five minutes. My son was playing on the laptop and not watching, but Waterson screaming "What did you do to me?" got his attention. He asked, "what did they do?" I told him exactly what was going on, "He's lost his memory of everything that's happened for a long time, he's older than he thinks he is, and something horrible happened in the world becuse the psychiatrist was about to commit suicide.

40 minutes later . . .

[KevinDavis]

What made the original Twilight Zone great was the fact that it told the story in 30 mins.. No more or less. I did see the 1 hour TZ episodes and they weren't that good. I don't think any show is going to overtake the TZ.

However, I did like the Stephen Hawkings voice over...

[Paradox]

I’m not one of those “sensitive” to liberal cues in the movies or TV, like some here who have complained about Shrek, Harry Potter, and other movies, but I thought this was a slight slap at Bush. The pre-emtive strike, the whole “taking responsibility” thing. I dunno, maybe it was just a stupid episode that I read more into it than there was. I don’t know if it was intended, but the only character I felt sorry for was the President.

[Tanniker Smith]

No, it might've been just a story, but it'd been updated for television and for today. And, yes, I think they specifically chose this one to air first as a slap in the face. Problem is that the folks who were waiting for this weren't the ones that such a message should've been aimed at.

TZ had plenty of cautionary tales, some delivered a little better than others, but this thing took the sledgehammer approach.

btw, I wasn't aware of "liberal cues" in Harry Potter. If anything, the current film slams the liberal head-in-the-sand approach as well as the abettors in the media.

[Paradox]

I wasn't aware of "liberal cues" in Harry Potter

There are none, as far as I know, but there are some conservatives (some here on FR even) who can "find" such nuances in just about everything that comes out of hollywood.

[HitmanLV]

What made the original Twilight Zone great was the fact that it told the story in 30 mins.. No more or less. I did see the 1 hour TZ episodes and they weren't that good. I don't think any show is going to overtake the TZ.

The typical Twilight Zone is a 30 to 60 second story stretched out to 30 minutes. Sometimes unbearably so. The season TZ was an hour long made the deficiencies really apparent.

Outer Limits was a far, far better show than TZ.

[KevinDavis]

The new one or the old one??

[HitmanLV]

I’m speaking of both the original TZ and the original Outer Limits.

I never saw the new Outer Limits.

[Duke Nukum]

Any thoughts on the new Flash Gordon? I thought the first episode was okay but it seemed to be lacking the campy fun of the 1980’s movie. It seems a little bland. Zarkoff has been turned into Crazy Eddie from First Wave, and not a very good copy of Crazy Eddie.

I think the show could get better but it needs something surprising. A “wow” factor because I don’t think any of the characters as they are written here are very memorable.

For me the 1980 movie the “Go! Flash! Go!” scene is what Flash Gordon is all about. It is prescient of the dawning of the Reagan era of optimism and success and the return of pride in one’s country. There is nothing so compelling in the pilot episode of the TV show.

[KevinDavis]

I wasn’t too happy with the pilot. I hope this show gets better..

[Duke Nukum]

Probably not co-incidentally, the movie was on the HD movie channel last night and I watched most of it until torrential rains took out my Dish signal.

William Pitt is so wrong, it isn’t the Miracle on Ice hockey game that is the start of the 3rd or 4th American Empire. It is Flash Gorden with his unabashed patriotism and optimism, uniting the quarreling factions on Mongo and bringing about a regime change of the despot Ming.

Ming can represent many things of the 1970’s from the expanding Soviet empire to Jimmy Carter. It is really quite a good movie, I can see why it is so underrated. Like Red Dawn, the socialists just hate that movie.