OT - Good sci fi TV shows?

[Baron Munchausen]

Omega Prime, you missed the 'revival' Galactical 1980 on that list of the worst SciFi of all time. It belongs at the TOP of the list, too! The Buck Rogers series follows closely behind it.

Orev Saara wrote:

Did somebody claim that Stranger in a Strange Land was a good book? Maybe I am a stranger in a strange land, but it seemed to me that Heinlein was just indulging in some of his odd fetishes a little too much in that book. Don't believe me? Read Glory Road or Job: A Comedy of Justice. Good writing occasionally, but the man had issues. If you're looking to read good sci-fi, I recommend Asimov or Cherryh. Or Zelazny, for something a little wierder. Or Card. And Saberhagen sci-fi ain't bad.

Yes, Heinlein re-wrote the same book(s) many times over. Stranger in a Strange Land is nearly identical with Friday, for example. Too bad he didn't know when to quit.

[ February 13, 2003, 17:48: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Omega_Prime]

Job: A comedy of justice. If that sucked any harder I would accuse it of being a colaberation between Terry Gilliam, David Lynch, and Tim Burton. It was that bad. Good thing they never made a move together. It would be three hours of muppets and midgets commiting suicide via auto-erotic-asphyxiation. (Or would that be a dream sequence?)

Tim Burton can rape a story like nobody else...except maybe Disney. (Treasure Planet? Tarzan? I hope Disney never starts doing Bible Stories...Jesus and the cross singing, Jesus surfs on it.)

Legend of Sleepy Hollow was okay...it just had nothing to do with the story of the same name.
It should have been called, "Sherlock Holms and the case of the Headless Swordsman"

But together? Together they form VOLTRON.

LOL

[ February 13, 2003, 17:54: Message edited by: Omega_Prime ]

[Omega_Prime]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
Omega Prime, you missed the 'revival' Galactical 1980 on that list of the worst SciFi of all time. It belongs at the TOP of the list, too! The Buck Rogers series follows closely behind it.

I considered Galactica 1980, but it was a kid's show. Chips from space, almost. I also didn't include Knight Rider, Team Knight Rider (yeah there was a spin-off!) Captain Marvel/Isis, Electrowoman/DynaGirl, and a host of other unwatchables. It's not really fair to include kids shows as bad scifi...or else I would have a super long list...highlander the animated series.....the new Stargate cartoon....Trek Animated.....

The only reason 6 million dollar man made it, was because of the original premise (borrowed from the story Cyborg). A cyborg secret agent. Not new now with cyber-punk, but ground-breaking in its day. It started off, I might add better than it ended. It was a comic-book on TV by the end. Bigfoot, aliens...more than one race of aliens....complete androids....but in the 70s people wanted crap, so that is what they eventually got from this show too.

[gregebowman]

Hey, I loved Steve Austin back then. Like I mentioned earlier, the series did start out good, but by the end it was terrible. Bigfoot and aliens? Sheesh, I didn't want that kind of junk even back then.

As far as Heinlein goes, I was thoroughly enjoying all of his books when I was growing up until I read Stranger In A Strange Land and Glory Road. I was in my early to mid teens, and it was quite a shocker for me to read all of that adult content. It took me about 10 years before I finally picked up another of his books, which I think was either Friday or Job. If he had just stayed with the format I was enjoying that he used for Have Spacesuit Will Travel and all of the others like that, I would have kept on reading his works.

[Grandpa Kim]

Originally posted by orev_saara:
Did somebody claim that Stranger in a Strange Land was a good book? Maybe I am a stranger in a strange land, but it seemed to me that Heinlein was just indulging in some of his odd fetishes a little too much in that book. Don't believe me? Read Glory Road or Job: A Comedy of Justice. Good writing occasionally, but the man had issues. If you're looking to read good sci-fi, I recommend Asimov or Cherryh. Or Zelazny, for something a little wierder. Or Card. And Saberhagen sci-fi ain't bad.

We must agree to disagree. The crap I read is much better than the crap you read. But let us have limits: Cherryh?! Yuck!

[Cheeze]

One enjoyable new sci-fi show is The Dead Zone. Anthony Michael Hall is great in the lead, and the episode stories work well and mesh with the overarching plotlines. The vision sequences are fun, and often done just right to give a little mystery to the show.

gregebowman...Steve Austin?? I love that guy! I'm excited that he's coming back at the next PPV and I just know Stone Cold is gonna be hittin' everyone around with the stunner...oh darn...wrong Steve Austin..oops...hehe

Bigfoot was one of the coolest recurring characters on Six Million Dollar Man, and he was played by the late great Andre the Giant!!!

For reading, Zelazny's Lords of Light is very cool. As the book flashes back and forth between its present and past, it could take a couple reads to catch everything and put it in perspective. It's also good to have some sense of Hinduism/Buddhism. Also Charles(?) DeLint's Svaha is an interesting mix of cyberpunk, Native American and Far Eastern mysticism and just some good action.

I still love Heinlein for Starship Troopers. I'll never forget how I read chapter 1 as a kid, went to sleep and immediately had a vivid dream of being on that first drop. And my brain did a better job than that "Space 90210" movie called Starship Troopers some 20 years later!!!

[ February 14, 2003, 05:42: Message edited by: Cheeze ]

[Ruatha]

Cheeze - What do you think of the computer graphics Version series of Starship Troopers?

[ February 14, 2003, 07:45: Message edited by: Ruatha ]