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Best Sci Fi Currently On Television?
A few months ago a friend recommended Farscape, and I started watching. The first season was flat, but the current season is absolutely amazing. So I started watching Lexx just because I had hope in TV sci fi. (I blame Voyager) I'll run a poll on this later, but I'd like to just throw this out: what is the best sci fi on TV? What do people like? Why? I like Farscape because the plot this season has been really interesting (and I even dig the device where the split the main char so they could have silly episodes interspersed with serious ones) and Lexx... well Lexx is just seriously bizarre: I love the wacky humor and terrible B effects. (thanks to everyone in Germany that recommended it. Wow! You werent kidding). Are there any other nuggets of joy out there that I'm missing? The scary thing is that the Sci-Fi channel has finally edged out Comedy Central and Cartoon Network on my Tivo for disk space.
There IS no science fiction currently on televisions that I'm aware of. There's lots of fantasy with a scientific bent, but no real sci-fi.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
- The West Wing -- Two angles were mentioned. On the alternate-universe angle, it's not. It's just fiction. There's no substantial, "what if" premise related to a historical event (what if the president were a human being who could think for himself doesn't quite count). On the science angle, there's science in the show (good science), but very little speculation. Speculation is a key to science fiction, and the dividing line between Law and Order (which had a whole lot of science) and Viper (a bad show, but clearly science fiction for its speculation).
- Buffy, Angel, et al. -- Nope. These shows are fantasy pure and simple. The line gets muddy (is The Lathe of Heaven science fiction or fantasy?), but vampires and their respective hunters don't even get a smudge on their wardrobes
I will say that, as an SF snob, I find the fawning over Lexx to be distasteful, but I'm pleased with the recent Farscape for actually getting the plot moving again. Best SF on TV is still B5 re-runs and the Iron Chef (which is clearly about the mandroid who plays Chairman KagaCheck out AbiWord.
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You didn't specify if you're having problems accessing information about the current season, or earlier ones.
There is extremely little information available about episodes until after they air. Even after they air the synopsis and screen shots might not appear for some time. If you're not seeing information about the current season, it's probably because they haven't release it yet, not because of your location.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
And major characters would often die, making it more realistic.
Not to mention the last episode, where they simply killed off all the remaining characters (excepting Blake himself... they just faded out right after he had been captured). Not many shows have the guts to do that.
Try the other site then, http://www.stargate-sg1.com. Depending on where the hyphen is, you get the Showtime site, or the MGM site, which deals with the syndicated version (ie, the shows from last year that are run on Fox or wherever). I was always amused that they have two separate web sites so fans who don't get Showtime don't end up with spoilers.
By the way, your comments reminded me of one of the things I absolutely love about most Cameron stories: The characters see all the same obvious shit we do.
In Aliens, the characters don't do the typical moron horror-movie character stuff (i.e., "Hey, let's stay here on this horrible planet and let the nasty monsters plant larvae in our chests!"). They decide the smart thing to do is get the hell off the planet and nuke it from orbit. Cameron's genius is in preventing them from doing so in a believable way.
Likewise, the characters in Dark Angel see the same obvious shit we do and actually try to take the easy way out whenever possible. Cameron finds credible ways to keep them from doing so. He also complicates their lives in creative ways that seem to flow naturally from the characters' motivations, rather than from the demands of this week's "A very special Dark Angel" or whatever.
The characters are as simultaneously cynical and idealistic as most of us. I like that a lot.
Oh, and have I mentioned that Jessica Alba's luscious?
DS9 became hard to follow when the eppisodes became very sequential.
This must be a big problem for viewers in the US. Considering the completly non serial way that series tend to be scheduled there.
I think the credits mention a joint venture between Canada and Germany. Not sure where it is filmed but I believe I heard it was done in Nova Scotia. Since the last episode ended on a beach and Nova Scotia is surrounded by beach,...
But I love this show for three reasons:
- Eva Habermann is hot. Too bad she was only on for half/dozen shows.
- It isn't politically correct. It isn't afraid to affend anyone. Compare this to Voyager which was I think was annoyingly politically correct. But then again, I wouldn't recommend it to my parents...
- It's by far got the most original concepts and ideas out there. I don't know of any other show where the humans fly around in a giant bug in one of two universes. Compare this to Roddenberry shows which all seem the same.
Ozwald
Not to mention the last episode, where they simply killed off all the remaining characters (excepting Blake himself... they just faded out right after he had been captured). Not many shows have the guts to do that.
I think you mean Avon. We got to see Blake killed.
I would be a paid subscriber if Taco and Hemos weren't such cunts
hawk
Futurama is the best SF on tv today. Since it's a cartoon, they can do absolutely anything. Plus, aside from The Simpsons, it's probably the funniest show on the air. Sure, it's not pure SF, but they routinely address topics that the lamer SF shows are afraid to touch.
"If I could live to be several hundred
I could take a walk and really wander, really wonder."
for crying out loud, that stuff is its *own* parody . . .
:)
hawk
Although there were some very good episodes in season 5 [most importantly, Back to Reality (He committed suicide; he committed suicide; he committed suicide, and the _fish_ committed suicide. There's some kind of link here I can't quite make out), one of the greatest episodes, right up there with White Hole (Would you like some toast?), Timeslides (Unpack Rachel and get out the puncture repair kit!), Stasis Leak (Nevermind. It's the personality that counts), and Polymorph (I think we're all beginning to lose sight of the real issue here, which is: what are we going to call ourselves?)], and Holoship (You make love like a Japanese meal: small portions, but _so_ many courses.)
Season 6 just didn't stand up to the others. Psirens (You heard 'em -- they want seed-spreaders. I'm going to apply. You guys deal with this Psiren thing. I'll deal with this.) was decent, but then you have stuff like Emohawk which was just a lame reason to bring back Ace Rimmer and Dwane Dibley. It was funnier the first time in Polymorph.
Seasons 5 and 6 also marked the move from pure sit com to a little more action oriented, which helps to keep the show from getting stale, but I loved the slapstick stuff. The shows don't seem to flow quite as well anymore, as for a point, they were getting to be a reason to string together a bunch of one liners. However, even a bad episode of Red Dwarf is better than most of the 'good' shows on american TV these days.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Hear, hear! Damned right! B5 is the best Sci-Fi TV ever. It is a series that can be watched from end to end several times in a row (all 110 episodes) and you will *still* catch something new, or understand some obscure bit of foreshadowing that originally you missed. I have seen the series several times over, and I still find myself finding new gems. The continuity of the series is great; my biggest pet peeve of ST:NG (my second favourite SF TV show) was how the events of the episode would only affect the crew for *that* episode, and would never affect them afterward.
As well, it is a very believable sci-fi series. The humans are not the most powerful race in existence. The future is dirty, dingle, and jerry-rigged; not some utopian paradise. The science is believable: Star Furies act as how spacecraft *should* act. And I love the space battles; just the little details like the space debris keeping the inertia, the way streams of pulse cannon fire missing missing hitting missing targets.
B5 is the premiere science fiction series. If you haven't watched it, and want to know how good it is without knowing anything of the story line, I would suggest watching "In The Beginning", the made-for-cable movie that relates the events of the Earth-Minbari war.
"Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
I also think the special effects and/or props are done really well. Maybe I don't see the holes in them, but they always seem to be "just right". They never seem to have a "cheap" feel to them and aren't overdone. I think their subtlety adds a quality feel to the show that the other hollywood heavy-handed sci-fi shows overshoot.
Other shows seem to lose their engrossing quality to me because things always are overdone. When it comes to alien beings, do they always have to look the Zergs in StarCraft? It seems easier to view an alien planet that has trees to me than an alien planet with cheap props. (unless the trees are from "just outside L.A." locations - they won't cut it)
Maybe better effects are really well done to the point of being invisible. I heard that forest gump had more digital effect footage than jurassic park. You get more engrossed.
By the way, it comes in great on Dish Network. But I'll bet it looks really good on their showtime HDT channel, but they don't have a PVR for that yet...
s/HDT/HDTV/
As a science fiction snob, I should never ever watch this show, let alone admit it, but the only episodic television show I watch is Andromeda. Even worse, it's pretty much just because Lexa Doig is so hot. (For those who don't know, she plays the avatar of a massively powerful warship, so she's not even playing someone real, and yet that's part of the appeal. Psychoanalyze me now!)
I'm going to science fiction hell for sure.
For non-episodic science fiction shorts, I try to check out Exposure . It's a mixed bag, but usually has something worth watching every show.
However, anyone can tell you -- Red Dwarf is not considered SciFi as much as a sitcom set in space.
I do, however, have every episode on VHS, including the two bloopers tapes, and am hoping that they released the original versions on DVD, and not the 'remastered' ones where they took out the model shots and replaced them with CG. [There's just something classic about the models slamming into everything]
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Since B5 ended (am I the only one worried about the Rangers?) there've been three series that are not just good; they're great.
Lexx is great. Stargate has gone from okay to excellent. But far away ahead of them all is Farscape.
I don't know how much you Americans have seen, but I've been watching it on DVD and I'v seen up to about half way through the second series. It's taken a fairly old plot (old before Voyager used it) and the traditional format (individual episodes, occasionally two- or three-parters, the rare reference to previous plots), but managed to be truly excellent.
The reason it's so good? IMO, it's because it avoids cliches. On several occasions (I still haven't learnt), I've groaned as ten minutes into an episode it looks like it's going to be one of those ridiculous Trek episodes that make us all cringe. But I've invariably had to apologise (mentally, anyway) to the producers by the end of the episode.
It may not have all the strongest plot lines, but it avoids cliche. And that's a rare and wonderful thing.
Maybe I missed the meeting where everybody decided that only serious llamas like Dark Angel, but I think it's a great show. Jessica Alba is seriously luscious and the stories are well written. I like the neo-dystopian post-pulse rotting Seattle she lives in. I like the hard-core Russian/South African gangs that are chasing her. I like the bad-asses at Manticore who won't stop until she's reprogrammed. I really like the fact that they're not afraid to kill off characters that have appeared in more than one episode.
All in all, it's one of the few shows I make a point to watch every week--along with Futurama, South Park and The Sopranos.
I watched FG a couple of time and found it to be painfully unfunny. The dad is pretty good, sure, but he's a shameless Homer-ripoff. The baby is just annoying... that character's entire schtick seems to be that he says/thinks things that are too sophisticated for a baby. Big deal. Nothing he says is actually funny to me, just odd (and tiresome) coming from a baby.
Blech!
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
It's gone into differant director's hands over the past few seasons, so it's also interesting to see the differances between the seasons. I like the way It's going.
However, I've heard that this may be their last season! It will be very sad if that's the case. I would love to see it live on, but if not, let's hope the ending is good.
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I don't know what kind of futuristic world it is where all the babes look like that, but I wanna go there =)
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The unfortunate problem with Sci Fi is that rarely anyone besides us "geeks and/or nerds" seem to like it. If I'm sitting around with a buncha friends, and we are channel surfing, if I see a cool show like say Star Trek TNG (in my opinion the best Star Trek), they won't even consider watching it.
There is some sort of stigma attached with Sci Fi that mainstream people just don't seem to like it. Sure there are exceptions (most prominent one being X-Files when it was good), but many people just don't want anything to do with Sci Fi.
That being said, I really love Sci Fi. Some of my favs are Star Trek, and old stuff like Quantum Leap, that rocked. Maybe that's why I'm actually looking forward to the new Star Trek with Scott Bakula. It's got a really interesting premise, and if they can just do it right, it has the potential to be awesome.
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
B5 was by far the best sci-fi on TV for several reasons.
The effects: The budget per episode for B5 was a tenth of what ST:TNG cost, and by the time B5 reached the 5th season the effects were just stunning. Quite possibly the best space battles ever in a sci-fi show.
The story: While you could watch most B5 episodes as a seperate entity, the dedicated viewer was rewarded by one of the best stories I've seen in any medium. I won't even try and encapsulate it here, but it ranged from great comedy (some of the Londo/G'Kar scenes, plus various comments from other characters, particularly Ivanova.) to tragedy (no spoilers here. Suffice to say the show has it's fair share of tragedy.) Unlike shows like Voyager or Next Gen, B5 started a story, and ran it to it's conclusion. There were changes from the creators vision along the way (JMS is a genius!) for various reasons, but the description "a novel for television" was used, and fairly so.
Characters: No annoying robots or cute kids. Every character was believeable. Every character had flaws. The characters evolved. B5 could and should be used as a teaching piece on character development. Another thing I liked was the fact that you never felt any character was indispensible. In TNG, you know damn well Picard, Riker etc... aren't going to snuff it. In B5 I always felt like no character had a free pass. That added immeasurably to the show.
Realism: Unlike the shiny happy universe of Star Trek, B5 had real problems. Homeless people aboard the station for example. JMS (I won't even attempt to spell his surname) made a believable universe by including such elements.
The music: The show was great, but Christopher Franke's (ex of Tangerine Dream) music moved the show up a level. There are scenes which just rip your heart out, the music is so poignant. (Again, no spoilers.)
The alien races: While most were humanoid (not all) I think the aliens designed for B5 were FAR better than the blindingly obvious "human under makeup" aliens of Trek. The Pak'Mara for example looked amazing, and while the main players are the standard "human under makeup", the diversity of the portrayed alien cultures was amazing. Oh, and not all of them breathed oxygen. The station has section for non oxygen breathers.
For all your B5 needs, go check out The Lurkers Guide.
In closing, Babylon 5 is the best sci-fi there has ever been on TV. I look forward to the new "Legends of the Rangers" but I can't see, in all honesty, how it can possibly live up to Babylon 5 itself.
Besides, you have to love a show that blasts a teddy bear into space:)
I like Lexx. Why?
.. man, the show should be required viewing for middle school kids in order to bolster social tolerance!
.. btw, I believe Lexx was created by Canadians. Can anyone confirm this?
- It happens to so stupidly far in the future
- the sexual innendoes
- its funny
just my two cents
"Old man yells at systemd"
The movie and early episodes were occasionally painful to watch as a writer tried to include some pseudoscientific nonsense, but they seem to have put that past them.
The benefits of Stargate SG-1?
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
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I haven't seen television since Feburary, but last I checked, they had re-runs of Babylon-5 on. I'd say, in order, Babylon-5, Farscape, original Star Trek re-runs and StarGate SG-1 are the best scifi on American televsion today.
"Avast! Prepare for the rodgering!" THWACK! "Arrr.. me nards.."
I'm personally a big fan of Andromeda, although I do also enjoy Earth: Final Conflict and Stargate SG-1. I'm not holding out much hope for Star Trek: Continuity Error, though.
(<sarcasm>Cable? What the hell is cable?</sarcasm>)
I'd have to vote for Doctor Who. Doctor Who is the greatest Sci-Fi series in the history of Sci-Fi.
Just find a PBS station that shows re-runs, or see if BBC America is still airing their early morning episodes, and kick back and enjoy.
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Ahead of its time then... a little lamish on the effects by todays standards, but it was great. As I have no cable I have no idea what is on now... Does anyone really watch Cable?? I thought all these /. people were DVDers...
The scary thing is that the Sci-Fi channel has finally edged out Comedy Central and Cartoon Network on my Tivo for disk space.
You have limited disk space on your TiVo?
Some weak hacker you are!
My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
I have no idea if this is showing on any channels right now, but I liked it.
Was probably because I started watching it after playing some of the Wing Commander games; there's a lot of similarities, but anyway it's a nice bit of fun sci-fi in its own right.
I actually do as well. I got hooked on SG-1 and actually the now cancelled Total Recall 2040 (to a lesser degree).
The world is neither black nor white nor good nor evil, only many shades of CowboyNeal.
Somebody else has already brought up the other shows I was going to talk about (Andromeda, Dr. Who, Red Dwarf)... but where's Blake's 7?
Unfortunately it wasn't particuarly popular, but it did run for 4 seasons on the BBC. I think that the character development was quite good, especially in the first half of the show. The characters were usually out for themselves first and for the group sort-of when it was convienent. Plus no ridiculous pseudo-philosophical problems.
The overall story line was very believable too -- a group of unlikely outlaws rebelling against an tyrannical Federation -- and not any of the silly utopian nonsense you get with ST: The Marxist Generation. And major characters would often die, making it more realistic.
Of course the series did have its downfalls. Towards the end it seemed they ran out of stories and the episodes got pretty silly. Plus they suffered from the typical BBC attention to special effects. On most occaisons you couldn't see the strings on their models..
Most SF fans know that many of the most interesting genre movies are derived from short stories (i.e Blade Runner, The Minority Report, even A.I.). What a lot of people don't know is that these short stories often first appeared in SF magazines. Magazines such as Interzone, Asimov's, and F&SF aren't in good financial health right now, even though they are the nursery for a lot of SF writers.
A yearly subscription to most of these costs less than on month's cable bill, but gives a lot more entertainment, and helps to ensure the future of SF writers.
End of pledge break -- now back to our regularly scheduled Microsoft bashing
Lexx is a co-production between Canada and Germany. A lot of the FX for the show are done right here in Toronto by CORE Digital. I got to see a Lexx on their internal reel 3 months before it hit the air. :)
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
There is some sort of stigma attached with Sci Fi that mainstream people just don't seem to like it. Sure there are exceptions (most prominent one being X-Files when it was good), but many people just don't want anything to do with Sci Fi.
Did you read what you just wrote? "Sure there are exceptions like X files when it was good" Its not like the US is a hotbed of high culture, but even mainstream viewers have some taste and, frankly, most Sci Fi sucks!
"...well, it was nice to see another installment in the Star Trek universe, but Voyager's writing sucked..."
"...Dr. Who was ahead of its time, but, gee, the special effects were painful to watch..."
"...Sliders was a great idea, but each new universe was riddled with logical holes..."
"...Lexx... well... Lexx..."
The unfortunate problem with Sci Fi is that rarely anyone besides us "geeks and/or nerds" seem to like it.
The problem (IMHO) with most SciFi is that it is almost never well executed.. Geeks seem have the intelligence to see past the (rather substantial sometimes) flaws and keep watching, but most people are honest enough to just keep channel surfing.
Geeks, for whatever reason, get off on preferring intelligent crap over stylish crap. They would rather see a TV show with the latest uber-gadget/newest buzzwords in physics/hot chicks with the biggest breasts who never seem to have to wear a standard uniform...
But, its not like mainstream people hate SciFi... mainstream people are embarassed to watch bad SciFi, that's all...
I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
Stargate is just below my threshold -- not bad and I catch it pretty often, but I feel like I watch enough TV as it is so I don't follow it religiously.
No final decision has been made yet whether Showtime will pick up a 6th season.
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
Ok, this may be vaguely off the topic of currently running shows, though it's one to watch out for if they re-run it, or bother to get round to series 2..
That's "Ultraviolet". It's well worth watching out for, although it's (in current form) just a 6 episode mini series.
Keep the eyes peeled,
Malk
Stargate SG-1 airs at 10 PM on the east and west coast feeds. Since my cable provider normally uses the east-coast feeds, I get it at 8 PM.
If you're seeing it at midnight, you're either on a tape delay or in the CTZ but getting the west coast feed for some reason. Either way, you should complain to your cable provider.
(If I had to guess, this is to "protect the children" from the nudity and sexual situations in their late-night programming. Heaven forbid we expect parents to monitor what their children are watching on TV in the late evening.)
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
I have to disagree with you. I really didn't like the first season very much. The second season would have been alright if Pulaski died or something. I can't believe how bad that woman could act. I think they used her in the show just because they knew nobody would want her to stay once Crusher came back. Starting with the 3rd season, I think ST:TNG really took off. The characters had really developed and the writing was great. Not that all the episodes were good, but the good ones were good. My biggest issue with Voyager is the writing sucks. Nevermind the shitty computer generated special effects. You can predict the end within the first 5 minutes. And the characters were really shallow up to the last season. Granted on ST:TNG you knew Picard wasn't _REALLY_ going to die, but you weren't sure how he was going to be saved.
Anyway I'm ranting.
In fact, there's so much SciFi on TV these days that I can't keep up. There's also a "Witchblade" show on TNT (more Fantasy than SciFi) that's not bad. "Now and Again" is starting on SciFi on Monday; cancelled show from one of the major networks that I never saw, but I'm sure I'll check out a few episodes.
Those of you in the UK can look forward to a new season soon, and most of us in the US can catch reruns of the first 8 seasons on our local PBS station.
I've waxed and waned on the SciFi channel - they have series that start good, but I just can't get into them. I do agree that Farscape is a lot better now than in the first seaon.
And, though it technically isn't SciFi (more horror) what about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and it's spin-of "Angel". Though I'm worred what UPN will do to it, Buffy has been the best written and the best acted show on TV, and Angel isn't far behind. The characters in those shows laugh, cry, and hurt. And, though it gets silly once in a while, it knows it's silly and just laughs at itself.
Buffy is definitely the most "junvenile" of the two, though the themes it has discussed (sexuality, loss of a loved one) are biggies and they give it the weight that those themes deserve. Angel is more of an adult-oriented, with more of a Batman: The Animated Serie feel to it.
Try it - you may like it!
The Official Red Dwarf site has a good interview with them about staring on LEXX - Prison Wardens.
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You cannot wash away blood with blood
The Outer Limits imitates the original Outer Limits, and since I was around for that it's usually painfully obvious to me in the first five or ten minutes where an Outer Limits episode is going. Not always, but most of the time. This doesn't mean that the original and/or current versions aren't good shows, but Twilight Zone remains in a class by itself.
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Well, they are aiming for a different demographic in farscape, and personally I can not stand an idiot muscle brain frat boy portrayed as a scientist. The rest of the crew is all right, and the special effects are pretty good, but man that guy sucks as an actor and as a charachter. Lexx is pretty good, and odd, but a little shallow. The chronical shows some excellent camp humor potential. The invisible man is ok, but nothing special.
As for non sci-fi channel sci-fi, witchblade is alright, but shows signs of degrading into the monotony of the highlander siries. Buffy was good for a while, but I think that it is past the haighpoint and is going down hill. The star treks have been washed up for me for a while. Of course my all time favorite is blakes 7, with doctor who as a second.
-CrackElf
"Blake is an idealist, Jenna. He cannot afford to think." - Kerr Avon, Star One, Blakes 7
If you want to understand the thinking behind Fox News (or most anything from Fox) read Arthur C. Clarke's short story "I Remember Babylon". Then substitute profits for politics.
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OK, not strictly sci fi, but this is the best-written show, ever. It does occur in an alternate universe where the president is a different person, so that might sneak it in to the very border of SciFi-ness. Ok, probably not, but don't limit yourself to scifi, there is some excellent television floating around. Not much, but it's there.
Communication is only possible between equals
A&E started running a mystery series based on books by Rex Stout called "Nero Wolfe". No, it's not sci-fi, but it stars an 'genius that's just a little excentric', dated a few decades back when more people had class and men wore hats.
You've got to love a guy who takes "Webster's New International Dictionary, Unabridged, Third Edition", rips out each page of it one at a time, and tosses them into the fireplace because the book threatens the integrity of the english language.
Anyways, A&E is currently shifting around the show right now and it doesn't have a solid time slot (they overplayed the first batch of episodes), but it's been playing and probably will continue it's run on Saturday nights. But of course, there's also the original books in a library near you.
There have been some quite strong rumours about a coming Blake's 7 movie. (google rocks :)
//rdj
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IN THE YEAR 2525
THERE ARE WOMEN WITH THE WILL TO SURVIVE
FIGHTING FOR A BRAND NEW DAY
NOTHING'S GONNA GET IN THEIR WAY
...
Christ, I'm so sorry. I don't know what overcame me. Oh yeah, the character Sarge gives me wood. that's what it was. Bad TV show, bad acting, nice abs. Now it's cancelled. I hope. It disappeared off local TV like an indicted infomercial king.
Two downsides, though:
- It's on at the same time as Farscape (but that's why God invented VCRs & Tivo)
- So far, there's only 6 half-hour episodes
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I was thinking yesterday that Earth: Final Conflict hadn't turned out as good as I had expected when it first started, and I suspect part of the problem is that its focus wanders because it isn't pre-planned the way B5 was, so each episode is written without enough regard to how it fits into the overall picture.
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So that means it would be a movie based on a TV series that was based on a Movie. Please tell me that it was further based on a book which was based on a true story ;-)
I also love how they give the characters a human touch, theyre not superhuman. O'neil always goes "Ok, thats a needle" whenever hes about to be poked, clasic.
I don't find a whole lot of character in any of the characters in Lexx. The only main character who doesn't seem completely flat is Kai (And he's DEAD!) I do derive a fair amount of sadistic pleasure in watching the writers torment Stanley and any show that has two freaking seasons of Nigel Bennett as the bad guy has got to be good.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Go back and check her out in Mann and Machine.
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My only source for the show is WGN on cable and they usually move it around to make room for Cubs games or put it opposite 3 other things that I want to tape, and right now they seem to be running re-runs from previous seasons, so I'm having a little trouble keeping up with where things stand in that particular imaginary universe.
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I agress, I love farscape, but I find Lexx very confusing and annoying. I think my difficulty is that I don't watch a lot of tv and when I catch Lexx ocassionally the story is just so different from what I recall of the last episode that it is very hard to follow.
Speaking of the guy whose name I just went blank on, who played the first corporate bad guy on TR, he was the lead on a show called Stingray several years ago that was pretty good, although calling it sci-fi is somewhat of a stretch.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Egad...7 days being on anyone's favorite list is just sad.
I watched that show when they first started airing it. By the 5th time some horribly weird unknown complication with time travel rendered the hero [an amnesiac, hurt, whatever], I was sick of it. The reasons for going back were crappy, the constant fuckups of time travel were lame (and shouldn't have been relied upon to be so much of the plot), and the acting was just awful.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
Geeze. Get over Kevin Sorbo, OK?
I find Andromeda to be absolutely fascinating. Sure they're derivative, but so? Let's talk about ST:TOS eposide "Balance of Terror" -- can you say "every sub/destroyer movie made?"
I enjoy the show. I enjoy the characters on Andromeda. The effects grate on me terribly (Mainframe did a better job on "Roughnecks" for God's sake!) but I can live with it. I think the Nietzscheans are a fascinating sub-species. I can do without the Magog but for a first season, it seems to be getting it's legs. Anyone remember the giant jellfish dog that was "Encounter At Farpoint?" Even TNG took a season and a half to get good.
It's a cool concept. If they decide to make things progress as they did in B5, it might be great. I look forward each week to that show -- really the only one I don't miss.
Even though I don't own a tele, I've seen a large number of Lexx shows. A friend works on the German side of things, and they fly him to Toronto and some studio in the wilds of Nova Scotia (his words) from time to time. Much of the talent in front of the camera is Canadian, with the exception of Eva & Xenia. Behind the camera is a mix of Germans and Canucks. Most of the young, sexy bit-part actresses are German.
Since I spend wayyyyy too much time in hotel rooms, I do get to see Lexx on both sides of the atlantic. There are two different versions, the European/Canadian shows tend to be more sexy and edgy, the U.S. gets a very edited down version so the Sci-Fi channel doesn't get kicked from too many cable stations as pr0n.
When my friend first told me of Lexx, it was being sold to various investment groups and production support companies as a way to attract a large number of hard-core geeks. By analyzing the only successful elements of recent trek shows [7of9], the first season working title was Sexx. The mini-capsule was "Trek meets Xena in a Blue Velvet universe". With a tag like that, its not hard to see why CmdrTaco likes Lexx, as well as Farscape.
I like Lexx, but I wish all four seasons would come out on DVD or tape, or some fan would digitize every episode into mpeg and share them on gnutella.
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
aside from The Simpsons, it's probably the funniest show on the air.
If you like the simpsons, and funny shows, do yourself a favor and watch The Family Guy. I mean, damn, how can a show be this funny every week? The dad and the baby have pretty much stolen the whole show, but you can run a show off those two characters alone. You can catch most of the third season so far on newsgroups too.
I don't know how many people are fans of the show, but I fear not enough people for Fox to keep it on the air...
python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
At least Lamas is finally getting enough age in his face that he can play more interesting characters than pouty stud pretty boy if someone will write something decent for him.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
We may be running into the problem of "Just what is or isn't Science Fiction" here. What qualifies The Prisoner? Those oversized bubble gum bubbles floating on the sea? Would the original Wild, Wild West television show qualify? It had as many "not supposed to have been invented yet back then" things as The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne or whatever the name of it is. What about The Man from Uncle or Get Smart? Perhaps even a few or more of the episodes of The Avengers.
The dividing line is awfully blurry.
Just for the heck of it I'm going to mention the 80's version of War of the Worlds. Oh yeah, and that English or Australian thing that PBS showed a few episodes of several years ago where they put metal plates in everybody's heads and made them look like bowling balls.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Prisioner walks the edge of sci fi. Some episdoes are (The General, and a number of other ones regarding futuristic brainashing techniques) but many aren't.
Wild Wild West is the original example of what is now being called "Setam Punk" and IS considered a form of science fiction.
Avoiding the issue of cheesecake... If you want to include fantasy in with SciFi, Buffy and Angel are some the best writing on TV (even when compare to the Sopranos).
It is by coff... er, will, alone I set my mind in motion...
...but then they killed Birkhoff, and the rest of Season Four sucked, bordering on insane, then the fans pitched a fit, "How could you DO that to the show we loved!" and got it back for a mini-Season Five, whereupon the producers of the show said "If you thought S4 was bad, wait til you see THIS...."
A real shame, because Nikita was a show with class when it was good.
In my home, we always call Farscape "The Puppet Show." I think it was the only way I could convince my non-sci-fi wife to give it a try. Now she watches every week. She misses most of the subtile bits, but she knows all the characters.
And since we are using this thread to wax nostalgic, here's my short sci-fi list:
Farscape
Dr. Who
Battlestar Galactica (campy, but cool)
Blake's Seven
Viv
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