Sci-FI
Klaus Hergescheimer
Posts: 332MI6 Agent
It appears as though a number of you guys are sci-fi fans. I most certainly am one.
I would say that my favorite Sci-Fi franchise is Star Trek. I grew up watching The Next Generation tv show. I really identified with that series and cast, although Dr. McCoy is perhaps my favorite of all of the Star Trek characters. I never really could get into the TOS show, although I do enjoy the movies. My favorite of the Star Trek movies is First Contact, which I find to have a terrific plot with a great deal of intellectualism, great performances, and a good deal of suspense and fun. I also greatly enjoy The Wrath of Kahn, The Voyage Home, and The Undiscovered Country (which I find to be the best of the TOS movies).
A few other Sci-Fi films I really enjoy are The Matrix (the first one being among my favorite films of all time), Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Oddessy, Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes (the original), 12 Monkeys, Terminator (Terminator 2 being my favorite), and War of the Worlds (the original; the Spielberg remake is, IMO, awful, with Tom Cruise horribly miscast).
I would say that my favorite Sci-Fi franchise is Star Trek. I grew up watching The Next Generation tv show. I really identified with that series and cast, although Dr. McCoy is perhaps my favorite of all of the Star Trek characters. I never really could get into the TOS show, although I do enjoy the movies. My favorite of the Star Trek movies is First Contact, which I find to have a terrific plot with a great deal of intellectualism, great performances, and a good deal of suspense and fun. I also greatly enjoy The Wrath of Kahn, The Voyage Home, and The Undiscovered Country (which I find to be the best of the TOS movies).
A few other Sci-Fi films I really enjoy are The Matrix (the first one being among my favorite films of all time), Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Oddessy, Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes (the original), 12 Monkeys, Terminator (Terminator 2 being my favorite), and War of the Worlds (the original; the Spielberg remake is, IMO, awful, with Tom Cruise horribly miscast).
Comments
When it comes to Star Trek, the original TV series stands head and shoulders above all the spin-offs. The stories, the elements, and especially the chemistry between the lead actors makes for unforgettable viewing.
When it comes to films, I am a big fan of the 1950's classics The Day The Earth Stood Still, Them!, Forbidden Planet, War Of The Worlds, The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.
Other favourite's from film and TV include: The Day The Earth Caught Fire, The Day Of The Triffids, Planet Of The Apes, Star Wars Episodes IV & V, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Alien, The Terminator, The Matrix, Doctor Who, UFO.
The original Star Trek had a profound impact on me; I literally learned to speak English watching that show as it was one of the very first things I saw when my family moved to America. Other shows I loved over the years include Space: 1999, UFO, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone.
As for movies, 2001: A Space Odyssey is all time tops on my list. Forbidden Planet ranks a very close second. There are tons more of course, some famous and many more obscure: Alien, Bladerunner, Demon Planet, The Illustrated Man, Logan's Run, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, First Men In The Moon, etc., etc. etc.
I've also read a ton of sci-fi books. I've worked thru many of the classic authors like Wells and Verne, to contemporary authors like Herbert, Bova, Bradbury, Ellison and Asimov. My favorite author by far however is Sir Arthur C. Clarke. I've read just about all his books and short stories multiple times and even corresponded with him for a while when I was in college.
It's great to know that so many of my pals on AJB dig science fiction as well.
I love Star Trek---particularly TOS and the Next Generation (which I actually feel is just as good, if not better than, Kirk and Co. The only ST I didn't particularly care for was DS9---I actually liked "Enterprise."
My brother has gotten to be pretty good friends with Ethan Phillips, who played Neelix on ST: Voyager, and got the first two seasons of that show on DVD (autographed) from him when they wrapped a play they did together at the David Geffen Theatre...
I enjoyed all of the ST movies, to one degree or another, with Wrath of Khan, Voyage Home, Undiscovered Country and First Contact being my preferences...
As a kid, I was entranced by everything Irwin Allen did for TV: Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea---all camp now, but when I was 7 to 10 years old, they rocked my world...
Love Star Wars, as well, and probably enjoyed Episodes 1 thru 3 more than most fans
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Great call on Twilight Zone, Bradbury (I'm still pining for that Fahrenheit 451 film adaptation that's supposed to be happening sometime soon), and Clarke.
As for Star Wars, I think I just kind of outgrew it. I just don't enjoy it now as much as I used to. I will say that The Empire Strikes Back is one of my favorite movies of all time, and no matter how old I get, it will remain so. I also love A New Hope greatly, and I still somewhat enjoy Return of the Jedi when I watch it. I just never have gotten into the prequels, which I think was very miscast in the key role (Never bought Hayden as Anakin; they should have gone with someone older and started when Anakin was a teenager, like Luke). I also think they were very much miswritten and misdirected by Lucas. (There's a reason why The Empire Strikes Back is so good, and it has to do with both counts I just mentioned) Although, I will say that rarely has a part been as well cast as Ewan MacGregor was in the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I've never really got into any other sci-fi franchises, but I do enjoy watching Star Wars and have been known to watch the occasional episode of Babylon 5, but beyond that, I don't watch much else.
When I was in 6th and 7th grade living in Wichita Falls, Texas. Star Blazers was to me, the best thing in my life. Words cannot describe the happiness I felt watching "Our...Star Blazers. I think it was probably the wagon train in space element Roddenberry had so ably mined before which I found irresistable.
Other than those I sort of nitpick what to watch...
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I want to check it out because there are some who say it's one of the best in the ST realm so to speak. I'm so bias to the original series though.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I wasn't a big fan of DS9 myself, although it was hugely popular with many fans; as it took place at a sort of crossroads of the universe, it seemed to deal a lot with the politics of opposing factions---mainly the Bajorans and Cardassians...
I like my Trek to be about a ship going places (TOS, TNG, Voyager, Enterprise) instead of a space station just sitting there---just my own preference. I'm sure there are tons of DS9 fans out there...still, someday, when I've got the time and $$$, I'll probably own it anyway ;%
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
It's certainly a little different from the other
Trek outings. It takes a few seasons before the show seems to come into it's own, but once your involved the series is very enjoyable.
The one thing I will give DS9 credit for is that by the end of the series, there's a real respect for the characters, and you can tell that each had grown and changed to some degree over the course of the series. In TNG, and Voyager, the characters are basically the same by the time the series came to an end.
Never cared much for DS9 myself; I found the characters to be a bit too self-righteous and sanctimonious for my tastes, especially those Bajorans and Maquis.
I also lost track of the number of times certain characters like Dukat changed alliances or how certain characters were realized. Worf was a prime example: in Next Generation we have this whole story arc about how he discovers his long lost brother and then loses and regains his family honor. As soon as he shows up on DS9, they rehash that whole angle, including the interactions with his brother Kurn again. First he's on good terms with his brother, then he has his brother's mind wiped when they lose their honor and his brother wants to commit ritual suicide, and then they never even so much as mention Kurn again when Worf gets his honor back. Lots of characters went thru that kind of back and forth and it really got tiring and hard to follow for me after a while.
The final couple of seasons were pretty entertaining, the FX were always great and there are some standout episodes here and there (Trials and Tribbleations is probably my favorite as it ties into the original series in a pretty clever way), but overall it wasn't that much fun for me.
Just my two cents.
BTW Loeffs, as an Irwin Allen fan, it may interest you to know that a bunch of Lost In Space DVD's are on sale at Amazon. Season 2-Volume 1, Season 2-Volume 2, Season 3-Volume 1 and Season 3-Volume 2 are all marked down to $19.99 each. My bro and I ordered a few. More bills to pay. Oh the pain. The pain.
the production values and storytelling was just so different the original version seemed unrelated except as a conceptual source
and I really liked Picard and Troi and Data and that "Earl Grey hot" a lot
that damned Holodeck I quickly got to despise but it was cool when the Moriarty program hijacked the ship
and I liked all the ecological and multicultural morality tales, heavyhanded and deadly earnest though most of them were
I particularly liked Picards managerial style and often when in difficult social situations figured my way through by asking "what would JeanLuc Picard do?"
after seven seasons of revisiting the same increasingly familiar overlapping cultures Deep Space 9 was a logical necesitty, though everyone except me resented the abandonment of the essential roadtrip concept
in recent years Ive watched the whole Captain Kirk version on DVD and have concluded it was in fact much better
the stories were more creative, the interplay between the 3 main characters was classic, and its more impressive how they achieve so much with such simple special effects
plus theres all the primary colorschemes and hot alien babes in miniskirts
best episode ever is the one with Joan Collins, thats just an elegantly structured and poignant tale
as a film genre I prefer the early 70s dystopic films
Planet of the Apes, Logans Run, THX1138, Soylent Green, Zardoz (with hairychested Sean Connery content)
I guess Im a bit of a sceptic about humanitys future and this era of film captures the way I see it going as opposed to the world without money and war as foreseen by Rodenberry
one classic I recently discovered: Disneys version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
made in the early 1950s with James Mason, Peter Lorre, and a scenestealing Kirk Douglas, this was the Star Wars of its day
a vastscaled bigbudget scifi spectacular, made at a time when scifi films were lobudget and disreputable
that Nautilus is sort of like the Enterpise too if you think about it
theres only a couple of scifi authors I like, Jules Verne and HG Wells of course
the others I like just happen to express their philosophy through science fictional conventions:
J G Ballard, I like his Conradian vision of how shallow our civilization is
stories like Concrete Island and HighRise are pretty accurate depictions of how I see humanity
Philip K Dick is my personal favourite
Ive read dozens of his books, though I dont recommend reading too many consecutively
I now know in the nottoo distant future theyll be sending us all to live in a desolate martian colony and deluding us into enjoying it with Can-D and Perky Pat, thanks to Mr Dick
and another I recently discovered is Stanislaw Lem
his book Solaris is a magnificent, tragic satire of humanitys ultimate inability to communicate
I just don't know...
Guess I'll look at Kirk vs. Finnegan tonight. ;%
Does anyone here think that Capt. Pike may have made a better captain than Kirk?
Jeffrey Hunter looks to have had leading man aptitude.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Interesting question you pose there. I like the Chris Pike character and often wonder what might have been. I think Hunter would have made a very good leading man, but I have a feeling he would not have developed the rapport with Nimoy that Shatner was able to. It would probably have been a very different relationship.
I also think Shatner was a more versatile actor in those days and could deftly go from drama (City on the Edge of Forever, Balance of Terror) to comedy (A Piece of the Action, Trouble With Tribbles). Maybe its the mental image I have from The Cage, but I don't see Hunter as being able to pull that off.
That's a good way to look at it, Tony. I do believe that a relationship between Pike/Spock would be a bit more "clinical" for lack of a better word. Shatner is just more animated when it comes to ST...REMEMBER WHEN HE SPLIT PERSONALITIES? Bad Kirk was classic Shatner...
"I wanna live!...I wanna live!!!!!" Worth an Emmy alone.
I'll admit that I love the ST shirts from the Pike era more with that ribbed like collar, thicker material and not as tight.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
I'm Captain Kiiiiirk!!!!
William Shatner used to be called the male Fay Wray because of his talent for screaming.
I always thought the young, hungry Shat-man from the 60's was a very good actor (as long as the director kept him in control). He was brilliant as the terrified airplane passenger in Twilight Zone's Horror at 20,000 Feet. And he really got to flex his acting muscles in a lot of those old Trek shows. These days he's almost become a caricature of his former self, although I still think he rules.
For my money though, his tour-de-force performance on Saturday Night Live when he freaks out at a Star Trek convention is a high water mark: Get a life will you people? For crying out loud, it's just a TV show.
Even when the man played T.J. Hooker I was seeing Kirk.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Back to the future was a great series.
Last, but certainly not least, 2001: Space Oddessy has to be one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time (up there with From Russia With Love and Godfather and Godfather 2)
I have seen many, many, sci-fi movies.
One of my favourite episodes of Star Trek ever is "In The Pale Moonlight". In past episodes of Trek, right and wrong has mostly been black and white - "The Prime Directive" stands, and it decides what is right and what is wrong. This episode has painted right and wrong in a shade of grey. To quote Sisko in that episode - "People are dying out there, everyday, and here I am, worrying about the finer points of morality!"
Like any other series it has its weaker moments. There are times (especially in the first two seasons) when I fell asleep watching an episode of DS9. But with the introduction of the Dominion towards the end of Season 2, the series started to get better and better. While I thought that DS9 spawned the best Trek episode ever, I also think that it had the worst: "Move Along Home" was extremely painful to watch.
I like Dax.
As a kid, I remember reading every Star Trek or Space:1999 novel that came out and I'm looking to get back into the habit of it. Man, I miss those days...
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
Some of H.P. Lovecraft's stuff blends horror and sci-fi. "Herbert West: Reanimator" and "From Beyond" are two novellas that quickly come to mind; he also wrote a lot of short stories that mixed the genres like Cool Air and The Music of Eric Zann. I'll peruse some of my books tonight to see if I can come up with anything else.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
"The name's Bashir. Julian Bashir."
What does everyone think of Star Trek's homage to the 60s spy genre?
Personally, I was never able to warm up to the characters on DS9 (well, except Terri Farrell) so I didn't really enjoy their attempts at "theme" shows all that much. The one exception was Trials and Tribbleations which I thought was a very clever revisiting of The Trouble With Tribbles from TOS.
I'm glad to see that there's someone else who enjoyed the prequels. I thought they were all highly enjoyable and even if some of the acting was wooden and the writing derivative, there was just so much to see and so many cool characters and moments.
I think Christian Bale could easily capture that serious, sullen disposition that Patrick McGoohan always displayed; he'd definitely be a strong candidate for a remake. A live Captain Scarlet movie would be a lot of fun too, as long as they don't go the kiddy route like they did with that live Thunderbirds movie from a couple of years ago.
From IMDB.com
Cast Set for Next 'Star Trek' Movie?
On the heels of Paramount's confirmation that J.J. Abrams (Mission: Impossible III, Lost) had been selected to direct the next Star Trek feature, reports began circulating on several movie and sci-fi websites Monday that the studio was in talks with Matt Damon, Adrien Brody, and Gary Sinise to play the roles of Capt. Kirk, Dr. Spock and Dr. McCoy respectively. First reported by IGN Movies, a unit of Fox Interactive, and attributed to unnamed studio sources, the stories also indicated that James McAvoy, who costarred in The Last King of Scotland, was "in the mix" to play the role of Enterprise engineer Scotty.
Batman: "The Hammer Of Justice is UNISEX!"
-Batman: The Brave & The Bold -
http://trekmovie.com/2007/02/27/it-official-star-trek-is-back-122508-film-to-embrace-canon/#more-537
http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/45415.html
As for the proposed cast, the thing I find interesting is their age. According to IMDB Damon is 37, Brody is 34 and Sinise is 52. That would pretty well throw out the rumored Starfleet Academy storyline. Something tells me this is going to be a quasi-reboot about Captain Kirk's first days in command of the Enterprise, possibly bookended by cameo appearances by Shatner and Nimoy. But that's all just speculation on my part.