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nekuomanteia
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 7:37 pm
Posts: 601
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:29 am 
 

I've seen about half of the original Star Trek series here and there but nothing consistent enough to really get into it, although I do see why the show was so innovative back then. I've also been meaning to give Doctor Who a try, both the original and the new series but I can't seem to find the time when I'm juggling five different shows that I really like. Here are my top five starting with what I think are the best.

1. I can't seem to make up my mind if one's better than the other so I'll have to settle for a tie but Fringe and Farscape have been up there when it comes to mindfucks which is where sci-fi can really shine for a tv-series. Both had dark atmospheric styles and were not afraid to throw in some crazy love drama. The plot twists were mind boggling and the acting on Fringe was superb all around, especially from the three main characters, all in all making the show highly addicting. Imagine "Law and Order SVU mixed with The X Files" on LSD and you start to get some idea where the show is willing to take you. Speaking of LSD, how can you not lke Walter? John Noble did a splendid job portraying a former government researcher/mental patient/ genius. He simply took over the screen with that voice and presence no matter what cameo appearance came around to confront him.

I keep wanting to put Farscape before Fringe because there's a lot more action and drama, plus more shoot outs this side of Miami Vice. Actually, both had great shoot-outs, but for once, aliens can be aliens, fucked up aliens, not these stuffy Star Trek Next Generation drones. I dug all the 'back on Earth' references giving new twists to banal, everyday things we take for granted, where nobody but the viewers know their meaning. I discovered the show when looking for more Jim Henson related material and man, was I amazed at how advanced his son had gotten at his father's craft. Scorpius, the main over-arching villain figure gives the show a nice touch although I would have liked more recurring villains popping up in later seasons. I'm a couple of episodes from finishing the series and I'm already saddened there will be no more besides The Peacekeeper Wars. I hear Firefly and Red Dwarf are just as interesting which I haven't seen so I'll have to check those out later.

2. I'm in the middle of the Canadian/South African Charlie Jade and I'm liking what I'm seeing. The show definitely has a certain visual style I don't see on any other show and may I add, was perhaps cancelled because it was sympathetic to a character that played a terrorist. Too bad, there are several shows today with characters playing terrorists. I would have liked to see where this show was going beyond the one and only season. I also like the idea of parallel dimensions which Fringe played with, but, we need to remember this show was doing it in 2004-2005 right at the outset.

3. From here on out these last three shows could go either way. Continuum has in my opinion, none of the qualities of any of the aforementioned shows, and after many frustrations, I started to realize it was all by design. The creators have basically given you all the characters without resorting to the played out formula of good guys vs bad guys but instead have given you the option of deciding who to side with or not to side with at all, depending on the actions they take from one episode to the next. I like the concept but I hate that I haven't grown to like any of the characters. In fact I hate just about all of them. I think I'm comparing the show too much to Fringe and can't get past the idea that it's never going to live up to it no matter what but only because it doesn't want to. There are similarities between the two main female protagonists but it doesn't help that I still sense I'm looking at anywhere from mediocre to bad acting, by everyone, therefore it never builds up any of the mystery or the type of mystique that Fringe had. One thing I do like is the tech on the show, which funny enough, Fringe could have benefited from as I felt the last season was lacking in cool efx.

4. I'll put Outcasts here because I think it deserved to be given a chance for at least a couple of more seasons. I haven't finished it but it's very well acted, the efx were alright, and the concept, although done by other shows in the past, made social commentaries for today's world, regarding eugenics, race, and the police state.

5. Defiance has a cool concept, good stories, and all the cgi and tech you may want except I find the acting bland and uninspired. Like Continuum, I feel nothing for any of the characters and would rather have the show go back and start from scratch. The over all quality of the alien/creature makeup effects sucks which is a shame as you would have thought most people would have seen Farscpae and learnt something by now.

Addendum: Just noticed Defiance is made by Rocne O'Bannon who also made Farscape so now I'm even more confused as to why the make up and prosthetic dept. on Defiance is lame.


Last edited by nekuomanteia on Thu Jun 13, 2013 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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drterror666
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Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 1:49 pm
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Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 9:27 am 
 

I have always been a Doctor Who fan, but the revamped series is pretty crap! I used to love Star Trek and all its offshoots; I actually thought Star Trek: Enterprise was a great series, taking the formula back to the Original Series formula. But, if I have to have real favourites, they would be Babylon 5 and Space: 1999.

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Aurone
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Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 3:17 pm
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Location: United States of America
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:47 am 
 

Farscape. It is easily one of the most underrated Science Fiction shows in my opinion. Beyond impressive make up, some truly unique designs, likable characters and episodes wit wide ranges, some being full on comedy episodes wile others where very serious and dramatic, a few where action packed and some where pure science fiction. I will admit that Season 4 really did stumble over itself which is why I wasn't that surprised over its cancelation, but we got the mini-series as a fine send off.

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Exigence
Age: 29 (Wait, what?!)

Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2005 2:42 pm
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Location: New Orleans
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:27 am 
 

Quantum Leap....if that counts as Sci-Fi. I mean...that was the channel I watched it on when I was a kid.

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Dux_Saxoniae
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Joined: Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:56 am
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:21 pm 
 

Battlestar Galactica and its spin-off Caprica (which never quite found its feet, but could have become a great show). Both shows have fantastic characters and interesting philosophical overtones, but Galactica kind of has the edge because of the military angle and action.

I'm also watching the original Star Trek again, not having properly seen it since all those Saturday afternoon reruns as a kid, and I'm really pleasantly surprised. A lot (read: all) of the stories are very heavy-handed, but often well done, and the cold and empty original universe is an interesting alternative to the far more fleshed-out world of the later shows.

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LivingDoorway
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Joined: Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:40 pm
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Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:21 pm 
 

Not sure if you can consider it pure sci-fi in the conventional sense, but Red Dwarf has always been a favourite of mine. Although it's primarily a comedy, some of the ideas in it are thought-provoking and interesting, not to mention the humour itself is hilarious.

For actual sci-fi, I find Firefly to be one of the better shows I've watched. Every character is likeable, and it has a perfect blend of drama, comedy and sci-fi. Sucks that it got cancelled after one season when shit like Big Bang Theory can go on apparently indefinitely.

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Winterfell
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Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2009 2:27 am
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Location: Montreal
PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:54 pm 
 

Firefly definitely gets the top place for me. That it was cancelled halfway through the first season makes it hard to compare it to longer running shows - on the one hand, it never had a chance to run out of ideas and start sucking, but it also never had a chance to develop many of the characters, relationships, villains, subplots, etc. Still, definitely an absolutely fantastic show.

The re-incarnated Doctor Who is also wonderful. There are some forgettable episodes and not every character is a winner, but there are also some absolute classics like Blink and The Girl in the Fireplace. Also, seasons 5-7 have been of outstandingly high quality (bucking the trend of shows generally shitting the bed after five seasons).

I'll also throw out a mention to the anime Cowboy Bebop, which is a fairly short series with a substantial western element and lots of music. It avoids a lot of anime cliches (silly faces, malletspace, etc) and while it isn't without its own silly moments or plot holes, it's generally pretty damn good. The Ghost in the Shell series is also pretty good, at least in the first couple seasons.

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volutetheswarth
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:35 pm 
 

Earth 2 is easily my favourite sci-fi show with Star Trek: TNG a close second. Earth 2 was quite mysterious throughout it's short run, but it never felt aimless or convoluted for the sake of lengthening it's life span. It had a clear direction (apart from a couple of self contained curve-ball episodes) and every character had their purpose, Tim Curry was outstanding as Gaal and Clancy Brown really sunk his teeth into the role of John Danziger. J. Madison Wright who played True Danziger showed a lot of potential, a character I could relate to as a kid watching the show and most of all she was believable. It's quite sad that she died before she could get the future roles she deserved. I would have loved at least one more season because the show never truly grew to what it could have been.

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Scorntyrant
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PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 9:20 pm 
 

Blake's Seven owns everything. Visually, it's certainly a product of it's time - late 70's BBC production with cardboard sets and every outdoor scene filmed in a quarry. But the scriptwriting and characterisation were fantastic. Very dark concept, and if you make it all the way through the 3 seasons, the ending is very AGOT style haha.

I'll also throw out a mention of Alien Nation. That was a good idea, and one District 9 borrowed substantially from.

More recently, I'm a big fan of the X-Files, Dark Skies and Millenium.
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Slaytanic55
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Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 11:53 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 4:19 am 
 

Also a big Doctor Who fan here. I do like the classic series, but mainly just for historical purposes. The special effects are completely abominable, even for their time, and the stories aren't that interesting either. The revived version, on the other hand, is probably my favorite show. The first season wasn't so great, but it gradually got better(thanks to Tennant) and seasons 4-7 are just complete fucking gold. The show seemed to get a whole lot better after Steven Moffat became the showrunner, as all my favorite episodes are written by him.
I also like Star Trek: TOS and TNG. I'm about halfway through TOS, and it's starting to get pretty bad. I just watched Troubles with Tribbles and I'm dreading season 3. I've only watched a few TNG episodes, but they seem to be mostly superb. Probably due to Roddenberry finally having the budget and creative control to really bring his vision to life.
Haven't seen a whole lot of sci-fi other than that, as I'm focusing on catching up on DW. But I'm fairly interested in Firefly and Warehouse 13 and will probably watch them sometime.

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Scorntyrant
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 5:31 am 
 

HERESY!!!!!

I absolutely hate the new Dr. Who, but love the original. Saying "the stories aren't that interesting" seems pretty odd - there were so many classics! Maybe it's different where you are from (noting the U.S location), but for anyone from the U.K or Commonwealth countries it was on every week rain or shine for 30-odd years. So it's such a huge part of the collective culture and dearly loved by pretty much anyone over 30 who's at all into sci-fi.
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By_Inheritance
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Dec 25, 2009 8:38 am
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:22 am 
 

The X-Files and Red Dwarf are the only Sci-Fi shows I truly love. I don't watch many Sci-Fi shows (although I watch a lot of Sci-Fi films) and I'm not really into Star Trek inspired shows. I've seen Firefly and thought it was good, but not amazing as people say. Maybe if it lasted longer it could have been great.

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drterror666
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Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 1:49 pm
Posts: 115
Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:17 am 
 

Scorntyrant wrote:
HERESY!!!!!

I absolutely hate the new Dr. Who, but love the original. Saying "the stories aren't that interesting" seems pretty odd - there were so many classics! Maybe it's different where you are from (noting the U.S location), but for anyone from the U.K or Commonwealth countries it was on every week rain or shine for 30-odd years. So it's such a huge part of the collective culture and dearly loved by pretty much anyone over 30 who's at all into sci-fi.


+1

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bassistneededlolnot
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2010 7:08 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 12:54 pm 
 

I'm not a huge fan of the sci-fi genre; probably because my dad used to constantly watch Star Trek on the only TV in our house and I would waste a lot of effort trying to persuade him to let me watch something else. Pretty much the only tv show I watch nowadays that could be considered sci-fi is "Supernatural". I fucking love it.

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nekuomanteia
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 7:37 pm
Posts: 601
PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 5:48 pm 
 

I'd suggest giving Fringe a try. It's full of suspense and there's nothing Star Trek about it, well, except for that one recurring character who you may recognize.

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darkeningday
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Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:17 pm 
 

Fringe has its gems, but they're so few and far between it's really not worth the effort to try to slog through it all; I gave up early in the third season and I've yet to look back. It really is just a watered-down, dime store X-Files, replete with terrible expositional dialog that insults the intelligence of its audience (I get that this is network TV, but they could at least construct a more interesting way to re-state the plot 20 times in an episode than just LITERALLY re-stating the plot), cheap laughs (Walter is well-acted but horribly stock and grating) and some guy from Dawson's Creek. Stay away.

The third season of Farscape was pretty okay-ish, where the writing finally caught up to the lurid art design, but the first season was total dogshit and the second, fourth and mini were way more miss than hit to really recommend it. The third season of Enterprise tackled everything Farscape tried to do far, far more intelligently. Watch that instead.

Anyway, nu-BSG, Blake's 7 and Morgan and Wong's Space: Above and Beyond are about as good as you're gonna get as far as TV sci-fi is concerned.
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Empyreal
The Final Frontier

Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:58 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:20 pm 
 

Slaytanic55 wrote:
Also a big Doctor Who fan here. I do like the classic series, but mainly just for historical purposes. The special effects are completely abominable, even for their time, and the stories aren't that interesting either. The revived version, on the other hand, is probably my favorite show. The first season wasn't so great, but it gradually got better(thanks to Tennant) and seasons 4-7 are just complete fucking gold. The show seemed to get a whole lot better after Steven Moffat became the showrunner, as all my favorite episodes are written by him.


What, the first season of the new Doctor Who is far and away my favorite one. Easily the one with the most meaning and purpose to it, and with only like one ep (the very first one) that is subpar. Chris Eccleston is great and the stories are thought provoking and relevant. Cool stuff...shame they stopped doing it like that in the future. Everything else is good to really good up until the end of season 5 or so though.

Firefly is pretty fucking awesome.
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~Guest 293033
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Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 8:16 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:26 pm 
 

Never actively got into sci-fi, but I've seen all of the Star Trek spin-offs. Deep Space Nine is definetly one of my favorite shows overall, let alone sci-fi.

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~Guest 132892
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Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:18 am
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:28 pm 
 

Against Such Things wrote:
Never actively got into sci-fi, but I've seen all of the Star Trek spin-offs. Deep Space Nine is definitely one of my favorite shows overall, let alone sci-fi.

Your doing it wrong. :nono:

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~Guest 293033
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Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 8:16 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:46 pm 
 

iAm wrote:
Against Such Things wrote:
Never actively got into sci-fi, but I've seen all of the Star Trek spin-offs. Deep Space Nine is definitely one of my favorite shows overall, let alone sci-fi.

Your doing it wrong. :nono:

You have any suggestions?

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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 11:13 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
The third season of Farscape was pretty okay-ish, where the writing finally caught up to the lurid art design, but the first season was total dogshit and the second, fourth and mini were way more miss than hit to really recommend it. The third season of Enterprise tackled everything Farscape tried to do far, far more intelligently. Watch that instead.

:nono:

Just when I think we'll ever agree on something...
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the_raytownian
Veteran

Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2006 1:09 am
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:44 am 
 

LEXX. yeah. Farscape. yeah. Babylon 5. yeah. Even Sliders was pretty bitchin'.

I was really into the sort of stuff that aired on Sci-Fi in the mid-to-late 90's, but I have not been into/had a desire to watch much of anything since those days.

I really dislike everything about the new Doctor Who. I also can't stand anything Joss Whedon touches. Fucking seriously. Get this cutesy bullshit out of modern Sci-Fi, please. Humor is fine, but I feel like the new DW is designed for cutesy little 13-year-old shut-in weeaboo girls who love Charmed and Twilight and Evanescence, ROCK ON! Sorry, that is exactly the feeling I get any time I try to sit through more than 5 minutes of that shit.

EDIT: and Quantum Leap. Fuck yeah. And Star Trek, naturally. I never really got into ST: Enterprise or Andromeda (actually, I can't remember if I ever saw for than a few minutes of either, which should explain why I don't have an opinion), but I genuinely like all the other series. ALL OF THEM.

LEAVE CAPTAIN JANEWAY ALONE!!!

drterror666 wrote:
Scorntyrant wrote:
HERESY!!!!!

I absolutely hate the new Dr. Who, but love the original. Saying "the stories aren't that interesting" seems pretty odd - there were so many classics! Maybe it's different where you are from (noting the U.S location), but for anyone from the U.K or Commonwealth countries it was on every week rain or shine for 30-odd years. So it's such a huge part of the collective culture and dearly loved by pretty much anyone over 30 who's at all into sci-fi.


+1


+2, even though I am from Alabama. :oh shit:
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the_raytownian
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:00 am 
 

bassistneededlolnot wrote:
Supernatural


Aw, gross!
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drterror666
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Sep 05, 2010 1:49 pm
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Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:48 am 
 

the_raytownian wrote:
Andromeda


Now, there's a piece of shit, right there.

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Littlewolf
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Joined: Tue May 01, 2007 4:18 am
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:35 pm 
 

I'm a huge SF fan and I've seen most of the shows people here mentioned so far, but it surprises me nobody's mentioned SG-1 an its two spin-offs, especially Stargate Atlantis...

The original SG-1 is quite entertaining but Stargate Atlantis has the bad guys called 'The Wraith' that are quite aesthetically pleasing - wear lots of black leather, long straight white hair, very pale and grim (almost frostbitten), pointy teeth, deep voices, feed on humans by sucking out their life-force... (the average trve BM fan/musician)... :lol:

http://youtu.be/SFXO_FpVem0
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darkeningday
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Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 1:20 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:05 pm 
 

failsafeman wrote:
darkeningday wrote:
The third season of Farscape was pretty okay-ish, where the writing finally caught up to the lurid art design, but the first season was total dogshit and the second, fourth and mini were way more miss than hit to really recommend it. The third season of Enterprise tackled everything Farscape tried to do far, far more intelligently. Watch that instead.

:nono:

Just when I think we'll ever agree on something...

Oh come on, SafeMan: A farting Ferengi muppet with the worst dialog ever, a guy with the dumb fucking name of "John Crichton" who's totally just the ersatz Han Solo of the bunch (only even worse, because he's a flag-deepthroating, "patriotic" Han Solo), "D'Argo," a Klingon rip-off so blatant I'm surprised there's been no litigation from the Roddenbury's, "Chiana," the requisite zero-dimensional sexdoll for all the virginal teenage boys to splooge their Darth Vader boxers to... and Claudia Black's character, who's admittedly pretty good as both an actress and a character; she's the only interesting one in the bunch.

Compare that to the third season of Enterprise which, after a rocky first two seasons, finally grew up and became awesome. And best of all, there wasn't a farting Ferengi in sight.
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maidenpriestmanic
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Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:33 pm
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:12 pm 
 

The stargate series would have to be my all time favorite tv series in general let alone sci-fi.

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Nahsil
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Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2006 2:06 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 4:24 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
Oh come on, SafeMan: A farting Ferengi muppet with the worst dialog ever, a guy with the dumb fucking name of "John Crichton" who's totally just the ersatz Han Solo of the bunch (only even worse, because he's a flag-deepthroating, "patriotic" Han Solo), "D'Argo," a Klingon rip-off so blatant I'm surprised there's been no litigation from the Roddenbury's, "Chiana," the requisite zero-dimensional sexdoll for all the virginal teenage boys to splooge their Darth Vader boxers to... and Claudia Black's character, who's admittedly pretty good as both an actress and a character; she's the only interesting one in the bunch.

Compare that to the third season of Enterprise which, after a rocky first two seasons, finally grew up and became awesome. And best of all, there wasn't a farting Ferengi in sight.


I find it funny how I alternate between agreeing with you and agreeing with failsafe on things like this. Gotta go with darkening here, Farscape was an embarrassing cheeseball of a show.
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Morrigan
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Joined: Sat Aug 10, 2002 7:27 am
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:27 pm 
 

This thread makes me a :panda: with so few mentions of Firefly. Come on! Nothing else comes close. Fringe, BSG, Farscape, fucking Babylon 5? :nono: Dollhouse, while not perfect, was way better than all of those and wasn't even mentioned once.

Lately, Orphan Black is probably the best sci-fi-ish show on TV. Defiance is okay, I don't really have any actual problems with it (in terms of acting, writing, production values, whatever), but it lacks in... charm, maybe? I'm just not really thrilled to see the future episodes or excited when it's on. It's mildly entertaining and has potential, though. Hopefully it'll become more exciting later.

Kudos to whoever named Cowboy Bebop, that's a pretty good show too and quite possibly the best Anime TV series ever.
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maidenpriestmanic
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Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:33 pm
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 5:43 pm 
 

the_raytownian wrote:
bassistneededlolnot wrote:
Supernatural


Aw, gross!


Supernatural isn't bad, pretty good show, though I wouldn't call it a sci-fi

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failsafeman
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Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2004 8:45 am
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 6:22 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
failsafeman wrote:
:nono:

Just when I think we'll ever agree on something...

Oh come on, SafeMan: A farting Ferengi muppet with the worst dialog ever, a guy with the dumb fucking name of "John Crichton" who's totally just the ersatz Han Solo of the bunch (only even worse, because he's a flag-deepthroating, "patriotic" Han Solo), "D'Argo," a Klingon rip-off so blatant I'm surprised there's been no litigation from the Roddenbury's, "Chiana," the requisite zero-dimensional sexdoll for all the virginal teenage boys to splooge their Darth Vader boxers to... and Claudia Black's character, who's admittedly pretty good as both an actress and a character; she's the only interesting one in the bunch.

Compare that to the third season of Enterprise which, after a rocky first two seasons, finally grew up and became awesome. And best of all, there wasn't a farting Ferengi in sight.

That basically sounds like an impression made after watching one episode. I could write snarky one-line putdowns like that about any series I've seen, including ones I like. Doesn't make me clever or right. John Crichton is essentially nothing like Han Solo, D'Argo is hardly a Klingon (even if you you pretend that warrior races in sci-fi were somehow invented by Star Trek), Chiana got plenty of character development as the series went on. Also you forgot about Scorpius, who's probably the best villain in all of sci-fi TV alongside Gul Dukat.

As for Rygel, he was a fantastic character, and only "a Ferengi" if you look no further than the very general character traits of greed and cowardice. In fact his greed and cowardice stem from totally different sources, too - rather than coming from a society that encourages greed and frowns on violence, Rygel actually needs the money if he ever hopes to regain his throne, and he's not so much cowardly as just far smaller and weaker than essentially anyone else. He was originally the Dominar of his whole race of billions, a proud, arrogant ruler who had everything in life handed to him on a silver platter - until he was suddenly deposed by his traitorous cousin and thrown into a Peacekeeper prison where he was tortured for decades. In prison he was forced to abandon essentially every last shred of his dignity in order to survive (and in fact the warden reveled in humiliating him precisely because he had once been so powerful), and ended up having to sneak around in the walls and hoard food (and developed the habit of stuffing himself whenever he could, because his captors often "forgot" to feed him for extended periods, as well as the habit of stealing everything not nailed down in case he could use it or barter it for food). His sense of trust was shattered by his cousin's betrayal and his years in prison, so even long after most of the rest of the characters were getting along he was still primarily looking out for #1, because those are the tactics that allowed him to survive while so many of his former fellow prisoners died. Remember, when Crichton first lands on Moya, the only survivors out of a whole prison ship are D'Argo, Zhaan, and Rygel - Rygel certainly didn't survive by fighting. He's interesting because unlike essentially every other main character, he can't kick any ass at all, and has to rely 100% on his wits and skill at hiding. At the same time, after they escape, he desperately tries to mend his tattered dignity, insisting on flying around on his throne and acting like he's still important, which isn't helped by the fact that he's tiny and the rest of the crew (especially Crichton) don't take him seriously. Yes he provides some comic relief, including fart jokes, but fuck you I thought they were funny.

Farscape is a light-hearted character-driven space adventure series; I could easily write about every main character like that to refute your one-liners, but the show isn't meant to be heavy sci-fi, it's meant to hearken back to the pulps, with a motley crew of aliens that go on fun adventures without a lot of hemming and hawing about science. The series is incredibly imaginative and probably features the best alien prosthetics of any sci-fi production ever (seriously, they were able to get guys in rubber suits to seem both real and even threatening). Yes Farscape is cheesy, but it knows it's cheesy, and cheese can be just as tasty as anything else if it doesn't take itself too seriously.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:24 pm 
 

Admittedly, it was better than Rockne S. O'Bannon's earlier show (which is, last I checked, the absolute worst sci-fi series of all time).

I've seen all of Farscape twice, although I couldn't quite make it through the fourth season on the re-watch due to EXCESSIVE SHITTINESS, and by extension haven't watched the miniseries since highschool either (which is when I first watched the whole series, as I'm betting you had as well). I actually DO remember all of that about Rygel, only unlike you I remember finding all of it ridiculously contrived, as if the writers were trying desperately to give him some sort of depth that the show bible obviously hadn't made room for.

I also find statements like "incredibly imaginative" rather pointless when judging a work of art: my five year old nephew makes some "incredibly imaginative" fingerpaintings; doesn't mean it should be hung up in a gallery.

It had a lot of money in it, I'll give you that, and it certainly wasn't all bad (the aforementioned third season is quite good) but honestly, if I'm looking for "incredibly imaginative," intentionally cheesy, tongue-in-cheek sillness, I'd way rather just watch Cleopatra 2525 which had the sort of honest, self-aware stupidity Farscape could really have benefited from. There's even a Run Lola Run episode! And come on, dat theme (sung by Firefly's Gina Torres!) What's not to like?

I'm also running under the assumption you haven't seen the third season of Enterprise, which is something of a tragedy, really, because it's probably the darkest, strangest and most daring season of Star Trek out there. Oh, and the "rubber suit aliens" in that season easily put the Farscape ones to shame (let alone the CGI ones, who might just be the single best all-CGI characters in any show ever). At least give it a go.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:54 pm 
 

Well we'll just agree to disagree then. I watched the whole of Farscape within the last year with my girlfriend, so I'm not just basing this off of vague teenage memories. I'll give Enterprise another shot I guess, but I saw a few episodes back when it was airing and wasn't impressed at all. I can't really remember anything about it besides a general "meh" feeling that surpassed the similar feeling I had for Voyager.
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Nahsil
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:38 pm 
 

I never finished it, lost interest.

Enterprise does pick up in the later seasons, becomes fairly compelling. I remember watching the pilot and having a general "what the fuck is this shit" impression.
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volutetheswarth
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:23 pm 
 

darkeningday wrote:
I'd way rather just watch Cleopatra 2525

I distinctly remember wanting to blow myself up after watching that show.
the_raytownian wrote:
Even Sliders was pretty bitchin'.

No it wasn't. Re-watch it and then say that with a straight face.

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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:46 pm 
 

Cleopatra 2525 somehow managed to be both laughably bad and also not funny in the least. Pretty impressive, really.
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 12:04 am 
 

volutetheswarth wrote:
darkeningday wrote:
I'd way rather just watch Cleopatra 2525

I distinctly remember wanting to blow myself up after watching that show.

failsafeman wrote:
Cleopatra 2525 somehow managed to be both laughably bad and also not funny in the least. Pretty impressive, really.

You guys have apparently never familiarized yourself with the miracle of marijuana. :P
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 1:09 am 
 

This is how darkeningday sounds whenever he talks about weed
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darkeningday
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 2:54 am 
 

That was such a terrible episode.
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failsafeman
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 3:03 am 
 

This is how darkeningday sounds the rest of the time
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