Posted on 07/27/2006 6:49:43 PM PDT by marc costanzo
The essay below was originally written in the early Spring of 2001:
With the passing away of LEXX ends an intriguing albeit tawdry experiment in Sci-fantasy. One that breaks with conventions, or should I say cliches of TV sci-fi of the 90's . The politically correct pabulum, the multicultural indoctrination, the BladeRunner motifs, and not the least; the steroid mutated superbabes that can punch the lights out of men, but never get punched back in return !?
How about creating a new sci-fi anthology with none of the puerile baggage of Rod Serling, Rockne Obannon, Michael J. Stracinsky, etc .. It is time to end their reign of un-American cynicism and fatalism !
>>The late Jean Raspail's THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS is creepy, thrilling, and more timely today than when it was written. This comes close to being a "must-read". <<
Yes, it was written in the early 1970's !
That book has been circulated a great deal by various 'close the border' groups.
It is also mentioned in Thomas Chittum's CIVIL WAR TWO: The Comming Breakup of America(non-fiction, but a scary read !)
For this action he was cursed with immortality and condemned to wander the Earth as a mercenary until Christ's return. The series was called "Casca: The Eternal Mercenary". Do you know if anything has ever been done screenwise based on this series or concept?
<<
The concept, maybe . . .
In 1988 Demi Moore starred in this film called The Seven Signs, not to be confused with The Seventh Seal .
In it, the villian was trying to facilitate the end of the world becuase he was Pontius Pilate's gatekeeper who totured Christ, and was condemned to speand the rest of eternity to wander the Earth, until the world came to an end !
I've thought about the possibility myself, and the big question in my mind is who would you get to play Harrington? That's a hard part to fill. Harrington is a tall, dark haired woman hailing from mountainous country. She's mostly caucasian with a significant amount of Chinese. That's going to be a hard thing to cast.
It pains me to say it but theat would be Mrs Angelina Jolle.
Sorry.
Louis Wu? Wallace Shawn.
Oh Dear God in Heaven, no! Louis Wu is basically Asian and, more importantly he is both competent and cool. No, I'd start with Chow Yun Fat and work out from there.
* * * *
Have to disagree with you there. I don't have the book in front of me at work, but just after the party scene in the beginning of Ringworld (just after they'd been recruited to the expedition), Teela and Louis remove their costumes that they'd been wearing for the party, and Niven describes Wu as (paraphrasing here) looking much less Asian, and more of the "mush-together of races that had been interbreeding since the 20th century that had no identifiable racial group." Keanu Reeves would probably be a better choice, both in the non-specific racial mix category as well as the age (since the boosterspice would be retarding his aging.) You may, of course, quibble about his acting ability...
Lucy Liu?(sp?) Michelle Yaiou? Even Angelina Jolie with a bit of cosmetic enhancement could do it! I forget the name of the woman who did the recent HBO/BBC characterisation of Queen Elizabeth would be formidable in that role...alas she's too old! Portman would be too wooden. Alice Krige could do the role in some of the books where Harrington has matured and climbed up in rank.
Some of the jacket art work on the books suggest a kind of Jolie look to the character...though the books suggest that Harrington herself doesn't think of herself as attractive.
The tree cat character...now thats a personality the animators could have a field day with!
"I don't understand your beef with Michael Strazinsky. We *loved* Babylon 5 in my house."
I agree; WHAT is the problem with B5 from a conservative's point of view?
Could it be the scathing denounciations of the parroting lame-stream media? How about the contempt for simpering polititians and adulation of a strong, courageous military standing on principle? Maybe it was the bold stand for freedom against tyranny?
Oh, wait, those are all points we make here daily about real issues. Hmm.
They range from the 5'7" too short Jolie down to the you've got to be kidding 5'1" Liu. Now I'm prepared to accept a 5" downgrade to get Claudia Black, but 13"?
How about "Memoirs of a timelord"<<
Who was it written by ?
Tom Baker ?
Try reading some of Charles Stross. He's a recent author I discovered (British) and he is HOT on his topics.
I'm Louis Wu...my handle says so!
Written by Howard Waldrop, who is also responsible for "The Texas-Israeli War", one of my favorite book titles ever.
Yeah, but casting you would be too obvious.
Same here...stopped for a while at Farnham's, didn't like it at all and it's the only Heinlein I never finished.
Just read hist real "first" novel and was astonished to find so many of his later themes.
But if they did that, they could have Shatner play DiGriz. He's had experience shooting films in Esperanto.
Yes he was (reluctantly if I recall. It's time for another re-reading!)
I rediscovered Jaime Retief in my fifties and recommend it highly to older adults.
Great juvenile Sci Fi holds up well, as a rule.
As a child I enjoyed the action and thought the "professional" behavior of the characters silly.
But now, I've dealt with so many Pouncetrifles, Dimplicks, and Groaci and Boge, over the years that it's the broad exposition of the "professional" behavior of the characters that I most enjoy.
Too many obvious alternate solutions.
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