Science Fiction has become a poisoned well . .

7-27-06 | Marc Costanzo

[OneWingedShark]

"The series was called "Casca: The Eternal Mercenary". Do you know if anything has ever been done screenwise based on this series or concept?"

Nope, I haven't a clue. I haven't read the books either, but I may, because the premise sounded interesting. You would recommend it, yes?

[techcor]

BTTT.

[discostu]

They should probably call it the "genre channel" but most folks wouldn't get it. Sci-fi, fantasy and horror have always been connected at the hips and always will be. The line between them is very thin, just look at the original Twilight Zone (most re-dos have been pretty ignorable), primarily it's a horror show with almost every story revolving in some way around fear, but many episodes are built around sci-fi concepts (and I'm pretty sure there's a couple with fantasy elements though I can't think of any off the top of my head) that just happen to be kind of scary. It's the same reason why most "sci-fi" conventions are actually sci-fi/ fantasy/ horror conventions, and some of the more interesting discussions at those conventions involve trying to actually define the lines between the genres.

[Oztrich Boy]

Harrington to be (remember, her family is all mountain men and women These types tend to be fair skinned)

Depending how you look at it. Although it backs onto the Copper Wall Mountains, Harrington House is actually on the shore of the Tannermann Ocean.

[discostu]

Harrison would probably insist they speak Esperanto and thus make the show completely unwatchable.

[aruanan]

Read Orson Scott Card. I haven't been disappointed in any of his books. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are great and can be read simultaneously--well, you know what I mean.

[Kieri]

Ursula K. Le Guin would be another one. While Earthsea miniseries really didn't live up to it's potential, this was mostly because Ursula wasn't consulted on anything. The Left Hand of Darkness deserves at least it's own miniseries.

That's why I cringe every time I hear SCIFI is "adapting" a classic novel. They butchered "Riverworld," too.

I hated Riverworld, BTW. Some of the concepts were interesting but the characters...ech.

[discostu]

Actually Scanner Darkly is freaking awesome. Hands down THE most accurate translation of a PKD story to movie. Just don't have anything scheduled too soon after you see it because getting out of that theater is a lot like coming off a serious drug trip and driving is not your friend for a good half hour afterwards.

[OneWingedShark]

Hey, I read some of Cook's books, pretty amusing, too.

[OneWingedShark]

"These are classics. I wish the schools would show them as examples of good SF tales without the flash of modern FX."

Sadly I've noticed that trend too: that the stories get worse as the effects get better... maybe that's why in print SF still does well, the effects are only limited by the imagination of the reader.

[Pilsner]

The series was called "Casca: The Eternal Mercenary"... I haven't read the books either ... would recommend it, yes?

Read the first three books in order, they are all good. There are some good stories in 22 or so books, and there are some that bring to mind Reagan's explanation for why some of his early movies weren't good. "They didn't want it good, the wanted it Tuesday."

[Dead Corpse]

It wasn't that bad. It just needed... more. More plot. More revelations. More time essentially. They crammed what should have been a seasons worth of events into a miniseries/movie.

They need to stop dumbing things down. Right now, most of the sci-fi on the Sci-Fi channel is written by 20-somethings for 12 year olds. Blech...

Challenge the public. They may surprise you.

[Aldin]

I believe the Niven/Pournelle collaboration to which you are referring is titled _Fallen Angel_, and I agree it is quite good. For at least a decade I was convinced that there simply wasn't any sci-fi better than the Niven/Pournelle collaborations. Now that I'm a lot older and wiser I'd still be tempted to hold up books like _Footfall_, _The Mote in God's Eye_ and _Legacy of Heorot_ as the finest examples of first contact I've ever read.

[Doomonyou]

[marc costanzo]

Although mainly space-opera, Star Trek had asopirations of, and occasionally achieved Science Fiction. Lost on Space never aimaed to be and was never more than skiffy.<<

Not entirely true, LOST IN SPACE's first seven episodes were more like real science fiction .

Same with Star Trek, the first few episodes of the first season were the best - after that, it became all messagey(as in Lefty)

[DBrow]

Shawn had a bunch of fairly lightweight roles, but some of his earlier work shows that he can be serious.

When I read the last few Ringworld books, Wu's attitude and the way he complained about being constantly manipulated by Puppeteers or Pak or whoever made me think of Shawn.

He's compact, and has features that could be made to look multiracial, as Wu was. He can act comptent and cool, he played a good lawyer in some movie I have forgotten.

As for the three women being airhead enough, that depends on how it's written and how directed, and on your own interpretation of what Teela should be like. I would not think of any of the actresses as airheads, their careers suggest a degree of intelligence. I did not read Teela so much as an airhead, but as someone who never really had much control of her life- since it was driven so hard by luck, any choice she made was toward a goal she was not aware of.

Although casting imaginary movies is fun, I think that the actual choices would be a disappointment just because that's the way Hollywood does things.

[DBrow]

I didn't know that, thanks- I don't watch a lot of tube.

[marc costanzo]

Interesting, I think I am somewhere below the second tier !

[marc costanzo]

>>I liked the job Keanu Reeves did in "Constantine", which might make an interesting series, albeit not Sci-Fi, now that I think of it.<<

You got to be kidding, CONSTANTINE is more of a supernatural knockoff of The Matrix

Reeves performance was just adequate

[Tench_Coxe]

"In Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote In God's Eye" there is a Muslim character. However, even in the future he is duplicitous and conniving."

But he was also key in finally dealing with the Moties.