Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Space: 1999 - Season 1, Episode 1 - “Breakaway”

I’m finally getting around to checking out Space: 1999, the British cult sci-fi series from the 1970s that happens to star two Americans. Martin Landau and his former real-world wife Barbara Bain are the Yankee leads in this retro space epic. They work on Moon Base Alpha in the year 1999. (Funny how the folks in the 1970s were so optimistic about our space futures!)

“Breakaway” was the premiere episode, one that sets up the premise for the entire series - a huge explosion on the moon that sends it, along with the Moon Base Alpha crew, into deep space.

I love retro sci-fi, and I particularly love 70s sci-fi and all its sleek costuming, minimalist design, and bizarro sound effects. Space: 1999 does this to great effect. There’s a never-ending list of quirky things to spot. For example, we have TV monitors showing a strange transmission from a distant planet: It looks just like a moving Spirograph drawing complete with eerie droning in the background. Fun!

And the video communicators that double as door openers! They didn’t have that on Star Trek!

The tone of the show is dead serious in that 70s Andromeda Strain style. The crew are constantly either frowning or standing around with a serious look on their faces. Everything is down to business! It doesn’t make the show bad - just slightly intense in their own low-key 70s sorta way. This is definitely not a kids show like the original Battlestar Galactica was.

The special effects are dated, but not as bad as you think. The ships look OK - but it’s the monitors inside the station that really date the show. Not one of them has any color to them. My favorite part of the set is the big view screen, complete with superfluous squares of color bleeping around it just like you might see on the Disneyland Space Mountain ride.

The plot itself was decent. People on the moon are coming down with a strange ailment that either puts them into a coma or makes them go space nuts. From there we discover some strange anomalies that ultimately lead to the moon’s blast off into deep space. In spite of the story not really making much scientific sense, it was still interesting and I enjoyed it.

While I did not get a good sense of how the characters will interact with each other as a team, we’ll see how this shapes up over time. If you are interested in retro sci-fi, then check this one out.

More on the New Farscape Webisodes

A nice blog entry covers them here. Three to six minutes still seems short to me with current bandwidth capabilities, but let’s not get carried away - the whole point of this is to keep the episodes cheap. Let’s not give Sciffy a reason to drop the show due to “costs” again.

Mind Control With Derren Brown: Yet Another Show That Should Not Be On SciFi

Derren Brown: You seem like a nice bloke and I’m glad you have your own TV show. But why on earth are you on the SciFi Channel?

I just watched the first 10 minutes of Mind Control With Derren Brown. In that time, he’s made people at a mall put their arms up into the air (although we were not allowed to hear the 20 minutes of pre-hypnotic suggestion he played on the loudspeaker), used some sort of slight of hand to “guess” how much people had in their wallets, and charmed some pretty ladies.

I was curious to see the show if only that Brown is a hypnotist and I do hypnosis myself (though not the stage variety). I don’t think this is a bad show, but I wasn’t drawn in to watch the whole thing and I certainly don’t think this belongs on SciFi.

This is a nice channel flipper show that would work well on some other cable network that has more stuff like this. It is not, in any way, science fiction. It wasn’t even that amazing. Interesting, but not freaky interesting. I wish I could say I was wowed, but…ehhh. Not mind blowing enough to make me sit through an hour of it. Something that maybe I’d watch part of if I were skimming through the dial, looking to find something to pass a little time while a friend was over.

So once again, the Powers That Be at SciFi have shown their complete and utter lack of understanding of sci-fi…or, are perhaps, in conjunction with fare such as wrestling and Destination: Truth, are looking to turn SciFi into a cross between a paranormal Discovery Channel and Spike TV.

At least John Edward was talking with the dead.

Get it together, programming people, please.

Informal Viewer Survey for the SciFi Channel

A sci-fi fan has put up a survey that will be forwarded to SciFi weekly. If you’d like to chime in, the survey is here:

http://maenad.tripod.com/scifiviewersspeakout/

Thoughts on the New Farscape Webisodes

Sci Fi Wire recently announced that Farscape is coming back - but on the web only in the form of new webisodes! As a long-time Farscape fan, I don’t even know what to think!

Now, we all know this will not be the original Farscape. I seriously doubt Ben Browder or Claudia Black will be appearing. But I do think it’s kind of neat that we’re finally getting to see some new aspect of the Farscape universe. There’s so much there that was left unexplored. It’s also an interesting experiment in online television. Will future sci-fi shows be released on the web only? Probably.

So overall, my reaction is positive…I don’t have high expectations, but I am glad they are doing it. More Farscape. Amazing!

Doctor Who - PHEW!

Perhaps Russell T. Davies spoke too soon - who knows. Regardless, it looks like Doctor Who will not be canceled when he leaves, according to a story in Sci Fi Wire.

Steven Moffat, writer for Doctor Who, said the following about the show’s continuation after the departure of Davies: “If Doctor Who demonstrates anything—any simple truth about television—it’s that everyone is dispensable.”

No kidding! Especially when that person is a producer!

Doctor Who Canceled?

I got a notice on MySpace that Doctor Who was going to be canceled after series four because Executive Producer Russell T. Davies wants to focus on other projects! Excuse me? Look, we’ve got a good cast and production crew, who the hell needs some producer just to keep a show on the air? While we all know Doctor Who will never die, I do like the current incarnation and I’m a fan of David Tennant. So say it isn’t so.

Dresden Campaign Picks Up Speed…Because Apparently the SciFi Channel Likes to Shoot Itself in the Foot

The SciFi Channel - run by apparently clueless executives whose last personal interaction with a real sci-fi fan was probably the nerdy kid sitting next to them in chemistry class in high school - seems to be about to shoot itself in the foot once again with a pending cancellation of The Dresden Files.

I say “pending,” because rumors do suggest that the show is toast, and we all know that when given the choice between doing the right thing and the stupid thing, SciFi will pick the stupid thing each and every time. Continue reading Dresden Campaign Picks Up Speed…Because Apparently the SciFi Channel Likes to Shoot Itself in the Foot…

Doctor Who’s Harem

First we had Rose Tyler. Then we had Martha Jones. And now - just as U.S. audiences are being introduced to Martha - we’re told that the Runaway Bride, Donna, will be the next companion for series four. Martha will be returning mid-season as well.

I actually just caught the U.S. premiere of series three and enjoyed Martha very much. I’m concerned that the Runaway Bride was a bit whiny, but maybe she’ll calm down a bit once she’s a regular. So who’s your favorite companion for the new Doctor Who?

An Interview With the Charming Paul Blackthorne

Paul Blackthorne plays Harry Dresden on The Dresden Files, and I had a chance to speak to him about the show and a few other things.

The Dresden Files apparently has the highest female viewership of any sci-fi show on the air. Judging from the frenzy Paul elicits on the SciFi Channel bulletin boards, Paul’s electric hot good looks and charm are surely part of the reason. (They call it the “Paul Factor.”)

And yes, in person, he’s about as drop-dead gorgeous as a man could be, even with his “just rolled out of bed” look, complete with flip-flops. (I wish I as a woman would look that good upon waking up!) Just take a gander at the picture included with this interview - it was a single casual shot I took of Paul next to my surfboard. Even with his self-proclaimed “scruffy” hair - perfection!

Paul’s not just a pretty face, however. He’s an accomplished actor. While it might be natural to imagine Paul as a hero now that he’s on The Dresden Files, he is also well-known for his more insidious roles as a supervillain on 24 and a bad guy British officer in the critically-acclaimed Bollywood film Lagaan, for which he was nominated for several awards. His career has spanned independent films to TV guest appearances on shows such as ER and Monk.

In addition to being an actor, Paul, who is British, is a skilled photographer and has exhibited his photos in London.

As for his personal life, he’s not the kind of person to trumpet about it. But, since fans are curious about such things, it’s not a secret that he’s happily living with his long-time girlfriend. “She’s my girl,” he says proudly, and as well he should. I had a chance to meet her, and she is as naturally beautiful as you would expect, poised, smart and quite nice. So while you ladies may be a bit jealous, you can rest assured that he’s in very good hands.

If there’s anything we could fault Paul with, it’s that he’s not a big sci-fi fan. But I think we can forgive him for that.

With all that said, let’s hear what Paul has to say about himself, in his own words:

Q: Do you like sci-fi?

I’ve never been a particular fan of any one genre, only that which might appeal in any of those genres. I think when I look at my resume, it’s kind of all over the place, whether it’s a Hindi film or an indie film or an American television program or a British one or whatever or sci-fi. I’m not really hooked on any one particular idea. I don’t think many people out there are.

And when this (The Dresden Files) came up, the character very much appealed to me. I had conversations with people about the sci-fi element and how far that would be taken, but in essence, the nature of the character trying to reconcile two worlds, the magical one in which he lives and the real one in which he lives - it’d be a bit like those Venn diagrams with those circles crossing - he’s sort of stuck in the middle, trying to keep both sort of happy. And that’s what appealed to me, not so much the sci-fi element. But then again the sci-fi element wasn’t something that didn’t appeal to me. Continue reading An Interview With the Charming Paul Blackthorne…