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Jakensama Wrote:The writers sat down and said "wow its a show about a holocaust Yes, that may be the break I'm having with the writers.
They wanted a show about a holocaust so they could show us all the devastating mental effects of war on a tired and ragged people. I have read my history books, kthx, don't need another show about it. And for some damn reason, they decided to do this in space. Using a cheesy action series from the early 80's as the basis.
I wanted a show about robots being blown up.
I mean, imagine a new Transformers series with the BSG writers. Megatron would turn out to be a really conflicted guy with deep inner feelings, who was really antagonized into his justifyable actions by the deceitful cruelty of the Autobots. One of the Autobots would try to assassinate Optimus Prime before joining the Decepticons and Optimus Prime would sob into his bucket of bolts, fling paint around his headquarters and go try to piss off Hot Rod in an effort to make Hot Rod shoot him (Hot Rod would turn out to be a Decepticon, but he sides with the Autobots and is Optimus Prime's long time friend and drinking buddy).
That would be some shitty Transformers. That would be an abomination. And thus, BSG.
My requirements for what makes good TV is so easy to fill, it's amazing that Hollywood is damn near incapable of doing it. They can't NOT try to turn everything in some deep, emotional rollercoaster about inner lives and the fragility of the human psyche.
I wonder if that new Joss Whedon show is turning out good? At least Angel didn't have emotional breakdowns every 5th episode. Or he did, but it mostly involved killing people. Or vampires. Or people and vampires at the same time.
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I think its a great setting for what they were trying to do, I don't agree with everything (as I said I think the middle kinda drug on), but I don't see anything with setting a drama in a sci fi setting, not all sci fi fans just want to see robots being blown up.
The first 2 episodes of Dollhouse kind of sucked, they certainly needed to pick a much better actress for that kind of character, but it didnt even seem to be that interesting. Whoever cancelled Firefly should be shot.
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Dustie Wrote:[slight spoilers, not really]
If you watched last weeks "lead up to the final" episode, you would find that the person who plays Kara's character would agree with Slamz. She said she hated where her character went over the last year or so. On the flip side, she seemed to imply that the ending makes it all worth it, we'll see.
It also mentioned the need to pull in more viewers than just your science fiction "nerds" and that is why we have a space soap opera. Its also why we are losing good Sci-Fi programming for wrestling and reality tv because apparently more people enjoy that than science fiction. Its all about the money, if being a strictly science fiction channel was bringing in enough money I'm sure they would not change a thing. Lets start pointing the fingers at the creators and subsequently the viewers of reality tv, that is the real abomination.
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They canceled SG-1 when it had 1.4mil (compared to 3-10mil for network television) viewers in ratings, if they would have put them all (BSG, Atlantis, SG-1, etc) online with Hulu they would have easily paid for itself with advertising
[should not have shot the dolphin]
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The farscape episode of SG1 amused me.
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Jakensama Wrote:You were a soldier when most of the human race had been eradicated? After 4 years of what they had been through, people would crack, especially if you were the last survivors of your species and the goal you had been working towards turned out being a dead nuked rock.
Plus there are plenty of historical examples of shitty morale on cramped ships over history and mutinies.
Like I said what I did learn is people become less emotional living in extreme enviorments not more emotional.
I don't want to watch a bunch of whinny men as entertainment. I can watch chick flicks for that.
Vllad
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Vllad wants more Vulcans and Borg!
[should not have shot the dolphin]
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Diggles Wrote:Vllad wants more Vulcans and Borg!
Challenge your preconceptions, or they will challenge you.
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I can handle emotion as long as it is Klingon style. Anger, head stomping followed by laughter and lamenting over your dead foes bodies.
Vllad
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Vllad Wrote:I can handle emotion as long as it is Klingon style. Anger, head stomping followed by laughter and lamenting over your dead foes bodies.
Vllad
Act and you shall have dinner. Think and you shall be dinner.
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I always thought they should do a Star Trek show from a Klingon perspective.
Probably nobody other than Star Trek nerds would like it, but there are an awful lot of Star Trek nerds.
(My full vision is to do it as two separate shows, one from Federation perspective, one from Klingon perspective. Not necessarily directly overlapping but taking place in the exact same time period. e.g. if the Klingons blow up a Fed ship, you'll be hearing about it in the next hour during the Fed show.)
First I need to get the population of China hooked on Star Trek and then they'll have funding to do this and more!
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They already did the overlapping time period with DS9 and Voyager. I like the idea of having a show from the Klingon perspective; however, I'm not sure I would trust the writers to keep the story entertaining.
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As big of a fan as I am of Star Trek the days of mamby pamby Sci Fi are over.
If they make another Star Trek it needs more grit. Maybe a series on the potential fall of the Federation. Possibly a series on a long prolonged war from a real enemy and they are losing giving ground over and over again.
Something with a more serious tone. Its time to blow up Ray Bradburry's world and bring it back to reality. Not everything ends up good for the good guys.
Vllad
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DS-9 was pretty gritty in the later seasons, but yeah otherwise I agree. They could have a series with a Defiant type ship with some hard core Marines doing crazy infiltration missions and what not.
Maybe now that Ron Moore is done with BSG he'll consider doing a new Trek project.
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I was watching DS9 the other night, one where they are defending an outpost from a Jem'Hedar charge and it dawned on me that for badass shock troops the Jem'Hedar were kinda bitches who unstealthed a long way away from their target and ran head on to their deaths into the federation troops who included a doctor, a cadet and some science officers.
And these people took over the gamma quadrant how?
Then I watched the one where Garak and Sisko tried to trick the Romulans into the war, had more had that tone it would have been a great show.
Plus it had the greatest piece of thespianism ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qKcJF4fO...re=related
(Also federation has no money, how do you encourage your citizens to not have simulated orgies in the holosuite all day every day)
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Vllad Wrote:If they make another Star Trek it needs more grit. Maybe a series on the potential fall of the Federation. Possibly a series on a long prolonged war from a real enemy and they are losing giving ground over and over again. Totally agree. That's where I think they royally screwed up with "Enterprise" (among other reasons). It should have been a gritty show about the first human interstellar crew and all of the brand new pitfalls they encounter. Instead it was sort of a foo foo feel good show about honest upright citizens going out to do the right things, at least for the few crappy episodes I saw. Scott Bakula(?) was like a younger, slightly more energetic Picard when he should have been more like Captain Kirk.
Basically, Star Trek needs another Kirk. There's a man who goes out, makes contact with new aliens and if they give him any trouble (and they virtually always do), it's phasers, photons and fist fights.
I would love to see a good, gritty Star Trek based in a time of war.
I'm just not convinced that there exists a writer in Hollywood willing or able to do such a thing. Now if you want touchy-feely Star Trek or let-us-show-you-how-war-is-wrong Star Trek then you're up to your ears in writers.
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I couldn't stand Enterprise when it came out. However I went and bought all four seasons on DVD. While it does start shitty season 3 of Enterprise might be the single best season of any Star Trek I have seen.
Essentially it is one story broken up into 24 pieces. It is great dispite the poor choice in captains.
Season 4 breaks down when it starts doing story arcs instead of repeating what they did in season 3. If every season was like season 3 they wouldn't have gone off air.
The other great thing about watching it on DVD is you can see the story un-fold all at once. That never did translate well on Television. Their are some shows that translate better to DVD and because of that their are also some that you should never watch on DVD.
24 is an example of a show you should never watch on DVD. Taking a week's break inbetween episodes on 24 makes the show entertaining. Watching them back to back on DVD just makes you aware of just how utterly stupid and completely irratating the characters on 24 are.
Vllad
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I can only watch Lost on DVD. The week long breaks (or random multi-month long breaks) are agonizing in that kind of story, but back to back it's a great show.
Maybe I'll check out season 3 of Enterprise. Wonder if they have it on Netflix...
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I will agree that i really didnt like Enterprise at first, way too campy/corny (cough Trip's character cough)...but did grow to like it more.
They really need to cut out all the stupid time travel bullshit from Scifi in general.
[should not have shot the dolphin]
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Yes. I was greatly annoyed to find out that the first major enemy in Enterprise involved time travel. I think that was the last straw for me.
I'm sorry, but time travel is what you fall back on after you've run out of good ideas. You don't start with that.
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Slamz Wrote:I can only watch Lost on DVD. The week long breaks (or random multi-month long breaks) are agonizing in that kind of story, but back to back it's a great show.
OMG This.
I never watched Lost until maybe 4 or 5 months ago. My friend finally got me into watching it and I got hooked, downloading it all and watching all the first 4 seasons in maybe 2-3 weeks straight. I didnt even notice the period that people were saying it went downhill during.
Now that I have to wait every week for an episode, I am enjoying it far less.
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Slamz Wrote:Basically, Star Trek needs another Kirk. There's a man who goes out, makes contact with new aliens and if they give him any trouble (and they virtually always do), it's phasers, photons and fist fights.
But here is where I have to disagree (suprise, jake disagreeing). I think you can do an interesting character who isn't "drooling into his oatmeal" without making him a 2 dimensional character like kirk. You can have action and solid storytelling, I don't see why the two need to be mutually exclusive.
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Jakensama Wrote:Slamz Wrote:Basically, Star Trek needs another Kirk. There's a man who goes out, makes contact with new aliens and if they give him any trouble (and they virtually always do), it's phasers, photons and fist fights.
But here is where I have to disagree (suprise, jake disagreeing). I think you can do an interesting character who isn't "drooling into his oatmeal" without making him a 2 dimensional character like kirk. You can have action and solid storytelling, I don't see why the two need to be mutually exclusive.
I would tend to agree with this as well. If Federation had a bunch of Kirk's, they'd easily become the top enemy on lots of peoples lists.
I think I liked Janeway the best. Since she was always alone, she had to bend the rules some yet still uphold the general ideals of the Federation.
[should not have shot the dolphin]
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Looks like SG-1 getting added to Hulu! HOt damn! (granted I already have the dvd's)
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I would worship the Ori if I got to hit Adria.
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