Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2007 6:17 am Post subject: Firefly
I was curious how many of you know of, watch, like the series Firefly. I recently bought the series on DVD and despite being only 14 episodes, I found it to be one of the most delightful series I have ever watched. The fact that they make a full-length, theater-released movie of it says a lot for the show, if not for the fans. When I think about the garbage that becomes a successful I cannot help but wonder what values people have.
I had never heard of it either. I don't watch all that much TV either. I don't even have cable anymore, so about the only things I watch are the occasional baseball game that's on when I happen to be watching, and Nascar races. I will also sit down and watch and watch a show or two with my wife once or twice a week.
I typically don't watch much TV either, but I heard about the series and the DVD set was fairly inexpensive, so I took a chance and I am glad I did.
I am probably going to be watching more TV in the next few months as I recently got digital cable just for the baseball games on the North American Sports Network. It's the only way I get to watch games over here (other than mlb.com). I coach a little league team and in addition to enjoying a good game, I watch the games to get tips-n-tricks to teach my kids.
I saw the Sci-Fi 25 few days ago. Position 15 says a lot for a show that aired only 14 episodes.
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1267 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 12:50 am Post subject:
You can take the boy out of America, but you can't take the America out of the boy. LOL
We've gotta have our baseball.
I went through that list and was really puzzled by some of the decison. Of course, I don't get to the movies all that often anymore so some of the selections I'd never even heard of.
I can see including the original "V" mini-series (the TV series it spawned was awful). Reptiles give me the creeps anyway, so the aliens were especially sinister.
While I like the movie "Galaxy Quest", I don't consider it science fiction. It's strength was to parodize the whole "Star Trek" franchise.
I know Doctor Who is a *huge* cult classic but I could never get into it.
Quantum Leap definitely deserves a place on the list. It does what science fiction does best, presents and discusses controverial social issues in the guise of entertainment, allowing those issues to be presented when they otherwise would not be received.
This is a lot of what Gene Roddenbury was trying to do in the original Star Trek series. Before that show, there was no such thing as a multi-racial group shown working together on TV. Critics predicted that Star Trek would fail for that reason...especially among Bible belt audiences. In fact, no one complained at all.
My only disappointment with Quantum Leap was the lack of explanation of why, after Sam leapt away, did the original person seemed to be able to take over their life again. They *should* have had no memory of the time Sam was acting as them and should have been totally confused about all the things Sam changed when he was "them".
Somebody was on crack when they put Starship Troopers on the list. I liked the original Heinlein novel (though not his best work) but the movie blew chunks in the reviews.
Why Total Recall was put on the list is a total mystery (pun intended). It was a so-so movie at best. I like Schwarzenegger escapism but I wouldn't bother to see this movie more than once. True Lies isn't science fiction but it is my favorite Schwarzenegger film In fact, if you're going to consider Starship Troopers and Total Recall, why not replace them with Independence Day and I Robot. They're much more entertaining films. I know I'll probably get heck for this, but I also liked the Terminator movies ("I'll be back").
I've never seen Children of Men, but I hear it's good.
I like the Back to the Future movies too, but I don't consider them science fiction movies, even though they are about time travel. The whole time travel bit though, is just a vehicle (a DeLoren in this case) to create the situation where a high school kid meets his parents when they were in high school (and I think we'd all like to have the experience of finding out where our parents were *really* like when they were teenagers).
I've heard good things about the "Lost" series, but as I've said, I don't watch much TV.
I'm shocked that the remake of The Thing was on this list. I like the original within the context of the period in which it was created. I didn't think the remake was particularly necessary.
I think "Aliens" or rather that film series belongs more to the horror genre and science fiction was just the means to create a horror film. I saw the first one, was scared out of my socks and avoided the sequels. I don't think being scared out of your wits is entertaining.
While Star Trek The Next Generation absolutely belongs here, I would have picked Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country over ST II The Wrath of Khan (although, they are my two favorite films in the ST movie series).
I can see why E.T. is on the list and I guess you can call it science fiction but it's more like "a boy and his (alien) dog" story...sort of like "Lassie from Outer Space".
If I let myself, I probably would have been an X-Files fan but I guess I didn't see enough episodes to make it stick. Then again, if I liked it that much, I probably would have found time to watch it more.
I saw Blade Runner exactly once. I found it confusing and overly violent (and I like "manly, action oriented" films). I remember reading the book the movie's based on "Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep" by Phillip K. Dick and it was far superior.
I've never seen the current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica and from the way I've heard the series described, I doubt I'll ever want to.
The Matrix is probably one of *the* defining science fiction movies made in the last few decades if only for the mind blowing way it questions "what is reality?". Of course, the special effects are pretty cool, too.
The rest of the movies and shows on the list I've never seen and in some cases, never even heard of (I must live in a cave). Since shows and movies have to have been created since 1982, I'd have to think about what I would have included on the list. Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi (1983) would have made a good entry for starters. Anyway...enough wandering about in the world of fantasy. _________________
I didn't take a look at the list at first, but after reading it I can't understand why some of cartoons were included and something like Stargate: SG-1 was left off. Of all the Sci-Fi stuff I've watched it had to be my favorite.
You can take the boy out of America, but you can't take the America out of the boy. LOL
We've gotta have our baseball.
You got that right!!!
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While I like the movie "Galaxy Quest", I don't consider it science fiction. It's strength was to parodize the whole "Star Trek" franchise.
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I think it is still SF, since you are dealing with people from other planets, advanced technology, etc.
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I know Doctor Who is a *huge* cult classic but I could never get into it.
The only doctor I got into was Tom Baker. The show was typical brit SF, that is pretty campy in places.
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Quantum Leap definitely deserves a place on the list. It does what science fiction does best, presents and discusses controverial social issues in the guise of entertainment, allowing those issues to be presented when they otherwise would not be received.
This is a lot of what Gene Roddenbury was trying to do in the original Star Trek series. Before that show, there was no such thing as a multi-racial group shown working together on TV. Critics predicted that Star Trek would fail for that reason...especially among Bible belt audiences. In fact, no one complained at all.
Actually there were complaints about things like Uhura having a position of responsibility. Don't forget this was the mid '60s.
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I'm shocked that the remake of The Thing was on this list.
I actually liked it. I thought they did a good job. I am not a big fan of remakes, but this did have a lot of good elements.
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While Star Trek The Next Generation absolutely belongs here, I would have picked Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country over ST II The Wrath of Khan (although, they are my two favorite films in the ST movie series).
I liked ST IV because I grew up near SF and it was nice to see things I knew. Plus I love time travel stories and the humor aspect of the story was fun.
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I saw Blade Runner exactly once. I found it confusing and overly violent (and I like "manly, action oriented" films). I remember reading the book the movie's based on "Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep" by Phillip K. Dick and it was far superior.
I agree that the book was much better, but I have seen the movie over and over. Although the issues are not as controversial as in ST or QL, there was the important question of who each of is, what is our personal future, etc. To me it also brought up the question of where does one draw the line between human and non-human.
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I've never seen the current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica and from the way I've heard the series described, I doubt I'll ever want to.
I have seen a couple of episodes from the first season and it is definitely better than the original (not that hard to accomplish). I love Edward James Olmos in everything he does (he's also in Blade Runner) .
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I didn't take a look at the list at first, but after reading it I can't understand why some of cartoons were included and something like Stargate: SG-1 was left off. Of all the Sci-Fi stuff I've watched it had to be my favorite.
I loved the first few seasons, but then it went the way of ST:DS9 had this ongoing conflict that you had too keep watching to know what was going on.
What I thought should have been there was 3rd Rock. It might be stretching it a bit to call that SF, but it does deal with an alien race and advanced technologies. Plus, it does address social issues in a very direct, if not unsual way.
I saw Blade Runner exactly once. I found it confusing and overly violent (and I like "manly, action oriented" films). I remember reading the book the movie's based on "Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep" by Phillip K. Dick and it was far superior.
LOL. I have never seen a movie that was as good as the book it was based on. I read far more books than I see movies, and I have really wanted to see a couple of movies, i.e. The Runaway Jury and The Pelican Brief, as examples, and I can't tell how thoroughly disappointing the movies were. The movies themselves weren't bad, if you had never read the books, but after reading the books I thought the movies actually sucked.
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What I thought should have been there was 3rd Rock. It might be stretching it a bit to call that SF, but it does deal with an alien race and advanced technologies. Plus, it does address social issues in a very direct, if not unsual way.
I agree that 3rd Rock was excellent. It probably wouldn't have been included though because it was SF only as a prop for the comedy routines, not SF first and comedy second.
Joined: Jul 7, 2003 Posts: 1267 Location: Boise, ID, USA
Posted: Mon May 07, 2007 12:05 pm Post subject:
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I have never seen a movie that was as good as the book it was based on.
I have. M*A*S*H. The book was actually a series. I read the first one which is what Robert Altman's movie was based on and the book was terrible. There was virtually no characterisation, no one seemed real. It wasn't worth reading. The film was far superior. _________________
I have never seen a movie that was as good as the book it was based on.
I have. M*A*S*H. The book was actually a series. I read the first one which is what Robert Altman's movie was based on and the book was terrible. There was virtually no characterisation, no one seemed real. It wasn't worth reading. The film was far superior.
Well, that's a first then. I've never seen the book Mash was based on so I can't say anything about it.
I've never seen the current incarnation of Battlestar Galactica and from the way I've heard the series described, I doubt I'll ever want to.
You should give it a shot (from the beginning) and maybe hear a few other people describe it. Forget the old series prejudices for a minute, yes they borrow names, yes, starbucks a girl... but the show is INTENSE. 1st and 2nd season are incredible. Story, acting, action and particularly the characters are amazingly well done. The show very boldly confronts a lot of political and moral issues that are complete taboo. But it seems to do so without bias through various characters standing up for their beliefs and hashing it out. While some characters are a bit preachy there are other characters who angrily disagree - balancing them out.
Quick warning the 3rd season is a bit slow and depressing, 4th season gets better and goes out with a bang.
As for Firefly
That is one of the best shows ever made. It took stargate sg-1 years to develop a really smooth story arc and it took firefly 3 episodes. I love the detail that went into the unique universe and society and "the earth that was". Love how rough and tough and non utopian space is. You can find out what they're muttering in asian languages on wikipedia If you like Joss Whedon's creations try Dr Horrible's sing along blog. Neil Patrick Harris plays a hopeless romantic up and coming super villian while Nathan Fillion (captain from firefly) plays a egotistical and vain super hero. Oh, and it's a musical. The funniest musical I've ever seen. Yes it's a bit short and has a disappointing ending but it was a great low budget/no budget experiment produced on a volunteer basis (for commission) during the writers strike. It's a great concept film showing how low budget doesn't have to look low budget, things don't have to be hollywood fancy all the time to entertain us. Good show. _________________ Find a better elearning experience.
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In fact, if you're going to consider Starship Troopers and Total Recall, why not replace them with Independence Day and I Robot. They're much more entertaining films. I know I'll probably get heck for this, but I also liked the Terminator movies ("I'll be back"). 
