Sci-Fi USA, some *very* rare praise
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Anyone who’s read a lot of my posts has eventually run into the fact that I ****ing hate Sci-Fi USA. I mean with a passion. I’ve written letters to them, their sponsers, even some of their board. Partly the reason I do this is because I care. If my TV is on 9 times outta 10 its on the Sci-Fi channel. Lately there has been some pleasent surprises. They seem to be listening.
Lexx; From 4.1-4.10 Sci-Fi USA ran about 5 ads a week for Lexx, this is no joke. And usually the ads were run before, during or immediate following the showing of Lexx.
Since Lexx came back on they have been pimping it non-stop. You cant get through a single hour without seeing 2-3 Lexx commercials. Kudos. It could possibly be due to Firescapes off-season or due to the lack of programming lately.
Outer Limits: Ok basically the new show is a piece of ****. You can argue all you want but it is. Why is this here then? Well for the first time they are actually showing the OLD Outer Limits which made the Twilight Zone look like a joke. The even are showing this during the day now. If you want to know why shows like Lexx are on the air, check this show out. You wont be disapointed, its the precursor to all great Sci-Fi imho.
First Wave: It’s not the best show. But its good original Sci-Fi. And Sci-Fi the channel has a LONG history of putting shows like this in the dustbin after first runs. Instead they are now dedicating an entire hour every day to running the series again start to finish. Granted they have done this before and pulled it but they’ve promised not to in this case and have so far stuck to those guns.
Babylon5: I hate the show, but only because I could never figure it out. But its a HELL of a lot better than Quantum Leap which used to hold that slot. Some people claim B5 is the best Sci-Fi series ever, cant agree but its a least something better than Quantum Leap which belongs on Oxygen or Lifetime or some other network.
And finally EFC, the first 4 seasons. Originally Sci-Fi lied and pulled the show citing poor ratings. When it was exposed that its ratings were among the highest that slot had ever had they backtracked and then claimed it wasent a good fit. They promised to bring it back ASAP, and facing the heat that they did, they brought it back in 3 months and are now to the point were they cut it off last time with no hint of being cancelled in sight.
Could this be a new trend for Sci-Fi USA? I hope so…
[url=http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/jobenvy/02/05/hammer/]http://www.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/jobenvy/02/05/hammer/[/url]
Hate to be a downer, but Sci-Fi has always shown plenty of ads when showcasing “new” episodes. Once they run out of new LEXX episodes, watch the ads drop, and watch LEXX get moved again to the Monday Morning (2AM) slot.
You gotta give 4-6 months after the purchase of Sci-Fi channel to see any real changes.
PS
Earth Final Conflict has to be the dumbest show on TV, worse than Babylon5 and i HATE that show. Gene Roddenburys wife must be making a mint selling off her late husbands throwaway sci fi ideas. Im sure he had alot of half baked scenarios for shows written down before he died, and EFC is one of them.[ 06-02-2002: Message edited by: Evil_Lister ]
quote:
Originally posted by Evil_Lister:
Earth Final Conflict has to be the dumbest show on TV, worse than Babylon5 and i HATE that show. Gene Roddenburys wife must be making a mint selling off her late husbands throwaway sci fi ideas. Im sure he had alot of half baked scenarios for shows written down before he died, and EFC is one of them.
[i]Before[/i] he died? Man, other than the [i]Star Trek[/i] franchise, *every* scenario the guy came up with was half-baked. Does *anyone* really want to see [i]Genesis II, The Questor Tapes, Planet Earth[/i] or [i]Spectre[/i]? What about that show that he tried to use an episode of [i]Star Trek[/i] as a launching pad for? “Assignment: Earth” with Robert Lansing as superhuman secret agent/big-time doofus Gary Seven and Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln, his hapless assistant? With his “now she’s a cat, now she’s a hot babe” companion? With Kirk delivering one of the worst “hey, let’s do a spin-off!” lines of all time, something like “We’ve checked the historical records, and you two have some very interesting adventures ahead of you…” That episode (with “Spock’s Brain”) just makes me want to dig up Roddenberry’s corpse and punch it in the face a few times, but they cremated him.
The guy could assemble some talented people, but I have to agree with Harlan Ellison: Gene Roddenberry couldn’t write himself out of a paper bag.–Aleck
quote:
Originally posted by Aleck:
[i]Before[/i] he died? Man, other than the [i]Star Trek[/i] franchise, *every* scenario the guy came up with was half-baked. Does *anyone* really want to see [i]Genesis II, The Questor Tapes, Planet Earth[/i] or [i]Spectre[/i]? What about that show that he tried to use an episode of [i]Star Trek[/i] as a launching pad for? “Assignment: Earth” with Robert Lansing as superhuman secret agent/big-time doofus Gary Seven and Teri Garr as Roberta Lincoln, his hapless assistant? With his “now she’s a cat, now she’s a hot babe” companion? With Kirk delivering one of the worst “hey, let’s do a spin-off!” lines of all time, something like “We’ve checked the historical records, and you two have some very interesting adventures ahead of you…” That episode (with “Spock’s Brain”) just makes me want to dig up Roddenberry’s corpse and punch it in the face a few times, but they cremated him.
The guy could assemble some talented people, but I have to agree with Harlan Ellison: Gene Roddenberry couldn’t write himself out of a paper bag.
I completely agree with Aleck on this one. Gene Roddenberry was a two-bit writer who stumbled on a gold mine.
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“Brain. Brain. What is brain?” -Kara, [i]Spock’s Brain[/i]
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
I completely agree with Aleck on this one. Gene Roddenberry was a two-bit writer who stumbled on a gold mine.
Well, glad to see we can agree on *something*, DT. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
Thing is, it wasn’t even that he stumbled on a good idea. He took an idea that was as old as [i]First Men in the Moon[/i] — people travel space, basically good guys, run into bad aliens and win out over them…what Roddenberry stated at the beginning would be “[i]Wagon Train[/i] in space,” to show how “original” this guy’s thinking was — and hired some good sci-fi writers to develop it. That it turned into something better than it had any right to be is pretty much wholly dependent on the writers he hired. When he got rid of most of them in the third season, the show, for the most part, turned into a big flying piece of crap. Like I said, he had a couple of decent ideas and could get some talented staffers together to create some good stuff *in spite* of what his natural tendencies may have been. But outside of that…yecch.
–Aleck
quote:
Originally posted by Aleck:
Thing is, it wasn’t even that he stumbled on a good idea. He took an idea that was as old as [i]First Men in the Moon[/i] — people travel space, basically good guys, run into bad aliens and win out over them…what Roddenberry stated at the beginning would be “[i]Wagon Train[/i] in space,” to show how “original” this guy’s thinking was — and hired some good sci-fi writers to develop it. That it turned into something better than it had any right to be is pretty much wholly dependent on the writers he hired. When he got rid of most of them in the third season, the show, for the most part, turned into a big flying piece of crap. Like I said, he had a couple of decent ideas and could get some talented staffers together to create some good stuff *in spite* of what his natural tendencies may have been. But outside of that…yecch.
I don’t think [i]Star Trek[/i] borrowed much from Wells. The sci-fi novel which it most closely resembles is [i]The Voyage of the Space Beagle[/i] by A. E. van Vogt (though not as much as [i]Alien[/i] resembles the “Discord in Scarlet” segment). Really, the original series’ premise utilized well-established science fiction elements and themes. It was writers like Harlan Ellison and Dorothy Fontana that made [i]Star Trek[/i] what it was (and still is, to some extent). I am not among the Trekkies who idolize and boswellize Gene Roddenberry.
[i]Spock’s Brain[/i] angered me. It wasn’t so much the plot flaws, continuity errors, pseudoscience, or shameless reuse of sets, sound effects, and story factors from previous episodes, but because it was my idea! A couple of years ago I created an outline for a story (I make a lot of outlines, the actual writing is the tough part) called “Arcanus Muliebribus” (maybe the xenomorph can tell us what that means) that was remarkably similar. Not to the plot about the missing brain, but the part about a planet where the males and females live in different societies, and the males are absolutely terrified of the females. I thought up that same premise! Gene Roddenberry stole my idea 31 years in the past! That’s even better than George Lucas. [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
Gene Roddenberry has had more posthumous success that Tupac Shakur. I cringe at the thought of what could follow [i]Earth: Final Conflict[/i] and [i]Andromeda[/i]…
[b]Gene Roddenberry’s [i]Assignment: Earth[/i][/b] with Jolene Blalock as the cat [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
A couple of years ago I created an outline for a story (I make a lot of outlines, the actual writing is the tough part) called “Arcanus Muliebribus” (maybe the xenomorph can tell us what that means) that was remarkably similar.
If you mean the latin phrase [i]muliebris arcanus[/i], then I think that translates as “secret women”.
quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
[b]Gene Roddenberry’s [i]Assignment: Earth[/i][/b] with Jolene Blalock as the cat [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
Myself, I would make a point of watching every episode. Who can deny that she has a great set of ears.
[img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]quote:
Originally posted by DalekTek790:
I don’t think [i]Star Trek[/i] borrowed much from Wells.
I didn’t mean to imply that it *did*. I was just saying that the basic formula of [i]Star Trek[/i] is as old as science fiction itself, and that Roddenberry’s notion for a “[i]Wagon Train[/i] in space” was even *less* original than he made it sound.
quote[quote]The sci-fi novel which it most closely resembles is [i]The Voyage of the Space Beagle[/i] by A. E. van Vogt (though not as much as [i]Alien[/i] resembles the “Discord in Scarlet” segment).[/quote]
You should really look for Mario Bava’s 1960’s Italian science fiction film [i]Planet of the Vampires[/i] (particularly the restored version that was recently released on the “MGM Midnite Movies” DVD imprint — otherwise the framing and color schemes are, for the most part, lost). I think you’d like that. The planet sets are mostly non-existant (though Bava was able to do more with less than what [i]Star Trek[/i] regularly had to work with), and the dubbing is occasionally distracting, but it’s really quite good. There are no vampires, BTW. Bad US re-titling. And it’s remarkably similar to [i]Alien[/i], even though Ridley Scott and Dan O’Bannon claim that they never saw the film prior to making [i]Alien.[/i]
quote[quote]It was writers like Harlan Ellison and Dorothy Fontana that made [i]Star Trek[/i] what it was (and still is, to some extent).[/quote]
Amen to that. I’d also add David Gerrold, Jerome Bixby and Robert Bloch (the last two to a much lesser extent, though their episodes are pretty memorable).
quote[quote][i]Spock’s Brain[/i] angered me. It wasn’t so much the plot flaws, continuity errors, pseudoscience, or shameless reuse of sets, sound effects, and story factors from previous episodes,[/quote]
You forget to mention insipid dialogue, botched concept…oh, let’s face it. There’s *nothing* good about this episode.
quote[quote]Not to the plot about the missing brain, but the part about a planet where the males and females live in different societies, and the males are absolutely terrified of the females.[/quote]
Don’t blow a good thing by giving me stuff to work with. [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img]
–Aleck
Good arguements. I’ve never been one to praise Gene Roddenbery, in fact much to the contrary if any of you saw my post on Enterprise and how if they make anymore G.R. programs I’ll puke.
Sure the guy didnt have any creative talent, but his concepts ran away with themselves. Im clearly not the expert some of you are on Star Trek in fact other than seeing all the eps I dont know much, but I’ve read that most episodes werent his writing but of those around him. Even his secretary wrote an episode apparantly.
Why EFC and Andromeda are good in spite of being his series’s are the fact that Space Operas have life of their own. Sure the concepts are old and far overused but the soap opera style in which they are told make them incredible intriguing.
And if ya really want to break it ALL the way down everything is a ripoff. Asimov, Tolkien, Heinlein all credited as huge innovators could be called ripoffs of DaVinci, Shakespeare, and they could be ripoffs of Sophocles, Euripedes, Homer and if you REALLY want to break it down EVERY fiction is a ripoff of Gilgamesh, the first story known to man. It has every element of current fiction and is better written than most fictions. Its epic.
Every writer is a plagarist, influenced by those who come before them and all they have seen and known. A person locked in a box their whole life cant come up with ideas of spaceships or even space. The Cave by Plato is a great reference, albeit fiction of why this is so.
quote:
Originally posted by Aleck:
You forget to mention insipid dialogue, botched concept…oh, let’s face it. There’s *nothing* good about this episode.
C’mon! It has the best line in all of [i]Star Trek[/i] history:
“Brain? What is brain?”
I want a .wav file of that really badly!
[img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
quote:
Originally posted by Flamegrape:
If you mean the latin phrase muliebris arcanus, then I think that translates as “secret women”.
A book I read a while back described some cultural nuance as being an “[i]arcanus muliebribus[/i].” I looked that up in my Latin dictionary and it translated as “womens’ secret.” It seemed like a good title. Maybe one day I’ll actually get around to writing that. [img]images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
quote:
Originally posted by Flamegrape:
C’mon! It has the best line in all of [i]Star Trek[/i] history:“Brain? What is brain?”
I want a .wav file of that really badly!
Kara the Eymorg’s two big lines in that episode are the oft quoted “Brain. Brain. What is brain?” and “I know nothing of brain!” (you’re telling us [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] ). I actually searched for a sound file for one of those the other day but couldn’t find any. [img]images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img]
You might have noticed that the Controller in [i]Spock’s Brain[/i] looked exactly the same (down to the way the lights blinked) as Gary Seven’s computer in [i]Assignment: Earth[/i]. Another obvious equipment reuse was the remote control for the brainless Spock, which was clearly one of the tricorders from [i]The Cage[/i] (and consequently [i]The Menagerie[/i] part 1). So Dr. McCoy is controlling Spock with an obsolete tricorder! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] Also, the sound of the pain units is the same sound effect as when Trelane used his powers in [i]The Squire of Gothos[/i], which had the actress who played Isis (when she briefly appeared as a woman) in [i]Assignment: Earth[/i] providing her voice for Trelane’s mother. But now I’m way off topic.
[ 07-02-2002: Message edited by: DalekTek790 ]
quote:
Originally posted by Evil_Lister:
Hate to be a downer, but Sci-Fi has always shown plenty of ads when showcasing “new” episodes. Once they run out of new LEXX episodes, watch the ads drop
Actually, no. I was part of the 24/7 marathon in the weeks preceeding the start of season 4 to try and catch a glimpse of a Lexx Trailer. My god, people were taping Sci-fi and then fast forwarding through the tapes trying to catch a trailer. It was terrible. I did see several and have heard that when Season 4 part B started they were running a lot more promos, some of which were *not* even Friday Night Prime Promos which just happen to feature Lexx. Yeah!!! But lately? I haven’t seen as many, they seem to have died down again, so I am not sure what is happening now.
Scifi’s advertising is extremely predictable!
Two years ago they ran an ad for Dune once every commercial set for the three weeks before it aired. This is in addition to all the highway billboard signs they bought, other channel advertising, movie theater ads, and other channel ads. Once Dune aired twice, they plugged their Prime show more.
Last year/this year they did the same thing fro B5:LotR! Right after it aired, they replaced those lotr ads with Lexx, Chronicle and few Iman plugs. Then came that Jackie Chan kung fu thing a couple weeks ago, hey where’d all the Friday Prime advertising spots go to? That’s right, the stupid kung fu flick. But, Firestarter is on next weekend, Can you guess whose getting all the ads now? All this holds true for Mindstorm, which aired a few months ago.
Last calender year, Scifi put a lot of emphasis on their prime time m-th shows. They plugged Farscape, and the grade C movie of the night, quite often. Remember how many ads the Lexx movies got when they were aired?
This year the emphasis has changed, scifi still plugs EFC, Outer Limits and the nightly lame movie, but only in the afternoon and evening. An equal amount of ads are done for the prime shows, and an equal emphasis is put into the Sunday Night movie.I’d like to say that after Firestarter, that more ads will go back to Lexx (not that the blitzkreig ad campaign the 2 weeks before it restarted helped), because look what’s coming back on at the end of the month. Yup “The greatest scifi show on television” Farscape. (Scifi’s quote, not mine) I like both Lexx and Farscape. (But its obvious which one I like more. If you have to ask, you obviously don’t know me. But I’m running off on a tangent, so I’ll continue this in the Farscape forum shortly.) So can you guess where most of teh avcated ads slots will go?
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