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Science Fiction has become a poisoned well . .
7-27-06 | Marc Costanzo

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 !


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Philosophy; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: canada; entertainment; fiction; firefly; heinlein; lexx; media; sciencefiction; scifi; serenity; tv; vanity
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To: Brucifer

Back off! There's nothing puerile or (un-American) about Rod Serling. He was a paratrooper in WW II who earned a purple heart and a bronze star. As far as I'm concerned he set the bar for television scifi back before anyone else even realized what was possible.

Yeah, I know, you've seen it all before... but Serling was there first. Further, he wrote and awful lot of those shows himself. Modern televison's scifi stands on his shoulders.<<

Rod Serling, John Kerry, Oliver Stone, Jack Muthra, they all won metals
in the end, they turned into Benedict Arnolds !

Cultural Terrorism, begins with Rod Serling and that sleazy writer of his, Charles Beaumont .

Rod Serling is the first of Television Cultural Barbarians
He also wrote that anti-American movie Seven Days In May, by that other well-poisoner John Frankenhiemer !

Just because you fight in some war, does not mean you love your country .

So you fight and kill strangers because you were sent by the goverment to do so - back in WW2, they did not have the option to say no !
(FDR draft was reinstated in 1938)

Does that give these men the right to poison our well ?

NO ! ! !

Liberals and Lefties(here and abroad), fought with America in WW2,
but did they fight for America ?

By the way, Rod Serling ripped off Alfred Hitchcock's far superior ALFRED HITCHCOCK: PRESENTS
(like that Night Gallery episode of Miracle of San Camefeo)

Rod Serling had more in common with Charlie Chaplin than with Audie Murhpy . .

And that is my judgement on all Liberals, of that past 100 years !


321 posted on 07/28/2006 10:18:54 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: IronJack

Stargate SG-1 is a ripoff of Star Trek and a little bit of ~ ~ X-FILES ~ ~

Canadians are plagiarists

To be sure, this series is produced by that dufus actor Richard Dean Anderson, who movied up to Vancouver, Canada permanently .
How Hollywood, how Liberal !


322 posted on 07/28/2006 10:24:52 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: exhaustguy

Thanks for that link! I had never read this series. Went to the site and started reading it last night!


323 posted on 07/28/2006 10:25:15 AM PDT by CaptRon (Pedecaris alive or Raisuli dead)
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To: LonePalm

>>Ping for later.
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
<<
Increasingly I have lost any faith that Hollywood or Canada have or ever will change their anti-American habits .


324 posted on 07/28/2006 10:29:46 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: Oztrich Boy

Claudia Black ~ ~ ~ :-Z

This dyke b!tch is precisely what I am talking about !

This she-male freak is always the same character,
she is a steroid enhanced gyno-stalinist monster who is always punching out men, and this b!tch is always getting away with it - -

Thanks to the Rockne Obannon's and these f@gs in Canada !
(Farpoint was made in England though)


325 posted on 07/28/2006 10:35:34 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: marc costanzo
Do you know why X-Files and other series are filmed in Vancouver, Canada and even Australia? Because of the COSTS of production in the USA!

Hollywierd has its own problems with unions. SAG isn't just for actors -- it includes all the tech guys, grips, lighting, FX, caterers, etc. Production has gotten so expensive in the US that it's become too expensive for SF shows -- especially ones with a lot of FX -- to be made here.

New Zealand has more going for it than just gorgeous mountains and countryside; it's cheaper to film there.

326 posted on 07/28/2006 10:37:39 AM PDT by Kieri (Dump "Dangerously Incompetent" Debbie, Support Keith Butler for Senate)
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To: marc costanzo

Memoirs of a timelord

http://home.comcast.net/~earthenewfrontier/othernovels.htm


Its online and its free
enjoy it I did


327 posted on 07/28/2006 10:38:49 AM PDT by calljack (Sometimes your worst nightmare is just a start.)
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To: KevinDavis

Please add me to the ping list. Thanks.


328 posted on 07/28/2006 10:40:57 AM PDT by 6ppc
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To: Dr Stormfist
Also the sci-fi channel is showing ECW...
 
That blows me away too!  Typical of NBC...

329 posted on 07/28/2006 10:41:34 AM PDT by united1000 ("The price of greatness is responsibility. " Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: marc costanzo

Hooooooooooo kay. I see you'd rather rant and rave against Canada like an ignored corner prophet than actually discuss SF and its current relevancy. Actors like Black, Browder and others take roles because it pays their bills, just like everyone else.

Not only that, but you've seriously pi$$ed off this 'Scaper.


330 posted on 07/28/2006 10:41:49 AM PDT by Kieri (Dump "Dangerously Incompetent" Debbie, Support Keith Butler for Senate)
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To: DBrow; All

By the by, in that new version of Twilight Zone(which was colorized), some critics will say that it was better than the original(well, at least better production values) !

One episode I liked was JARELL TV, which was a precursor to THE TRUMAN SHOW .

Another story I liked was with Harry Morgan of Dragnet .
He played an old inventor whose life work was to constantly ad on to this rube goldberg machine to keep peace and order in the world .


Now that is a concept that Robert Zemeckis should turn into a movie !


331 posted on 07/28/2006 10:44:36 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: 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.<<

Looks crappy and Pop to me !

It stars Keanu Reeves, yeaghh !

I remember that Wil Gibson wanted to make Sci-Fi more Rock 'n' Roll, that is the probelm he and other in this subgenre of CyberJunk also made it very anti-American and very very violent(remember Johnny Moronic)


332 posted on 07/28/2006 10:48:13 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: marc costanzo

I never cared for Lexx. I can accept wierd alien life forms, but not a galaxy populated by puppets. Ditto with Farscape and Babylon 5.

Bring back Fire Fox.


333 posted on 07/28/2006 10:54:28 AM PDT by Lee'sGhost (Crom!)
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To: marc costanzo

Well I actually saw it and it was great. Huge PKD fan and I've seen everything made from his books and short stories, and Scanner is the best. Keanu actually can act, he just frequently doesn't.

Wil Gibson wanted to get away from the sacharine shiny-happy-future that had taken over SF in the 70s. Personally I like the changes, those clean shiny SF worlds were primarily boring, they didn't connect to reality well and lacked oomph. There's a reason why Gibson got the first ever Philip K Dick Award, the modern age of SF follow very closely from some of the core concepts in PKD's work, filled with dirty streets and unhappy people. I don't think anybody hated the Johnny Mnemonic movie more than Gibson, nice soundtrack though.


334 posted on 07/28/2006 10:54:51 AM PDT by discostu (you must be joking son, where did you get those shoes)
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To: Doomonyou

Hit 'em with the Probability Broach first. Scott Beiser did a graphic novel version that could be their "story board".


335 posted on 07/28/2006 10:56:16 AM PDT by Dead Corpse (It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.- Aeschylus)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1

Definitive Bladerunner heads for DVD
By Lester Haines
Published Wednesday 31st May 2006 10:14 GMT
Those of you who feel the world might benefit from yet another version of Ridley Scott's Bladerunner will be delighted to learn that Warner Home Video is planning to release a 25th anniversary "definitive new version" - billed as the "final cut" of the 1982 sci-fi classic.

In September, Warner will release a "restored and remastered" version of the film, including the 1992 "director's cut". After four months, this limited release will be deleted and replaced by an all-singing, all-dancing definitive DVD onto which will be packed the aforementioned "final cut", plus the "director's cut", plus "the original theatrical cut, the expanded international theatrical cut", according to Reuters.

The re-release of the "director's cut" is apparently what Bladerunner aficionados have been waiting for, since it "first came out on DVD before optimal formatting standards had been established", according to Doug Pratt, editor of the DVD-LaserDisc Newsletter.

Pratt further explained: "Shortly afterwards, it went into moratorium. The early adopters who bought the title have long since wished to see it upgraded, while other fans, who came into DVDs later on, have been unable to find it at all. It is the only 'big' sci-fi spectacle currently unavailable on DVD."

That, then seems like an end to the matter, although we suspect Warner will continue to milk this replicant cash cow with further releases including the "Linux programmers' cut" (lots and lots of extra Daryl Hanna and Sean Young), and the "What is it with Ridley Scott and bloody unicorns? cut" (no bloody unicorns). ®


336 posted on 07/28/2006 11:01:12 AM PDT by united1000 ("The price of greatness is responsibility. " Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: Starter; skepsel
Written by Howard Waldrop, who is also responsible for "The Texas-Israeli War", one of my favorite book titles ever.

I have his "Night Of The Cooters" collection on my bedside table. /grin

337 posted on 07/28/2006 11:01:16 AM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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Comment #338 Removed by Moderator

To: Lee'sGhost

>>I never cared for Lexx. I can accept wierd alien life forms, but not a galaxy populated by puppets. Ditto with Farscape and Babylon 5.
<<

Babylon5 only had muppets in the first season, quickly got rid of them !(to costly I guess, for this cheapo series)


339 posted on 07/28/2006 11:05:21 AM PDT by marc costanzo (Better an Honest Enemy of than Dishonest Ally ! ! ! !)
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To: Pilsner; OneWingedShark
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."

OWS, I think Pilsner pretty much covered it. The books were a rip-roaring good read, with lots of action. I wouldn't include them in a list of "the classics of Western literature" though. /grin

340 posted on 07/28/2006 11:14:26 AM PDT by tarheelswamprat
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