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[admin]

Your chance to sound off about sfsite.

[Stinky93]

ok, this thread has never been used, so I'll start things off.

Yes, I read the Babylon 5.1 article whenever a new one is written.
Kudos for pointing out that it's the writers and not the actors that makes a show great.
That's the same thing I've been saying for years about music. Any schmo can sing the latest pop hit, but how many can actually write it? It's too bad shows are not titled using the writer's name (something like Shawn Ryan's The Shield). Otherwise it's almost impossible to keep track of who writes what. However, I know it'll never happen.
Don't get me started on actors.
Actors are really just descendants of the court jester. Here's 7 bucks Brad and Angelina, juggle for me. But I don't want to know who you are voting for. I'm paying to see the juggling. When you are done, shut up and leave.

[admin]

One thing working against credit for writers is that fact that many shows today are written by committee. They sit around a table and everybody tosses in their two cents worth, and then somebody gets the writing credit. I'm pretty sure that Ronald D. Moore, for example, has done a lot of writing for Battlestar Galactica, even though his name only appears on a few of the scripts.

[Stinky93]

Just read the latest Babylon 5.1 article. This is as good a place as any to sound off on what went wrong with Heroes.

1. The Hiro character. In season 1 we got to see what he would look like in the future. He looked very cool, with sword and
goatee. However, ever since season 2, he has been an incompetent buffoon. I understand he is supposed to be comic relief, but this is on the level of the three stooges and thus, unfunny to their core audience (sci-fi/comic book fans).
2. How many times are they going to play with the timeline? There is now no solid basis where anything that happens is written in stone. Everything that occurs can be undone.
3. The doctor. He was first a good guy. Now he's some evil Dr. Mengele type guy. I don't buy it for a second.
4. Syler. He was dead, then he survived. He was captured, then he was released (and made into an agent no less). Come on.
Why would his story interest me any longer? He is unstoppable. Even if he is stopped, he is let go again to start all over.
5. Season 3. What in the world is this season even about? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? A formula to make more supers? Let's discuss that. Someone made a formula that was so dangerous that they wrote it on a piece of paper and hid the two pieces.
Why not just burn it? And why did Hiro's dad have it locked up with specific instructions to not look for it? Why even leave the instructions behind in the first place?

So in conclusion, I think the show's ratings are failing because it started out as a great premise, but the core audience is now catching on that the writing is weak, or at the very least written on a 4th grade level.
I've watched all three seasons, but very soon I'm going to stop. It's a convoluted waste of time now.
(Same with Lost. They got off the island. That was the goal. They are done. I am done. End of story)

[admin]

I agree -- mostly. But I did enjoy the last three shows of the Villains story line a lot.

Hero Nakamura is the hero of the show, not the comic relief. Treating him as comic relief has been the biggest mistake of season three.

On the other hand, powerful, unstopable villains are a stable of the superhero world. Without them, the superheroes would have it too easy. My interest in the show returned when Syler cut out the brain of the woman he loved.

[Stinky93]

Well, I've stuck with it so far, but my interest is really waning. I'm hoping they get it together soon.
I wish the show would do more to advance the storyline. It just seems to drag on and on and on.

[Stinky93]

Update - My wife and I decided to stop watching Heroes after watching the two hour season premiere. Having to
sit through another season of Hiro and his idiot sidekick bumbling around is just painful at best. Let me outline this
season's plot line based on what we've seen in the past.
Syler will get his memory back and seek revenge and cause havok.
Peter will be forever trying to do "the right thing", whatever that is.
Claire will have to go on the run again.
Claire's dad will lie to everyone in an attempt to do who knows what. What exactly is he doing again? Why does he do it?
Hiro and his sidekick will once again show the world just how poor writing of a hit TV show can fill airtime so
that nothing ever really needs to happen. They just need to move the show from one commercial to the next.
All of these characters will interact in such a way so that next season they can start all over again at the same place
as the previous season.
When my wife said she no longer wanted to watch it, I was so relieved. I felt the same way.

[admin]

I really don't blaim you for giving up on Heroes. I'm not impressed by any of the Fall tv shows. But let me tell you that the first episode you didn't watch did not have Hiro in it, had Clair's dad decide not to lie to her, and had one beautiful moment about a deaf musician.

[catthom]

Dang, I have used the reviews here to find new Scifi to read, and was hoping for a more active forum. I'm in Tampa, love science/speculative fiction (hard and soft) and I'm always looking for new things to read, and new movies to watch.
Anyone remember the very campy Zardoz? Sean Connery as a barbarian wearing red diapers? The luscious Charlotte Rampling as the no longer bored immortal?
Or, another oldie- The Lathe of Heaven?
How about a vote for the best and worst science fiction movies of all time? Well, excepting the future.

[slaven41]

Worst scifi movie of all time? Transformers 8, in full-spherical 3D, with taste-o-rama (where you get the special mouthpiece you insert so that you can taste all the tastes in the movie). Oh, wait. You said excepting the future. :-)

For bad scifi movies, it's hard to beat Plan 9 from Outer Space, although I'm also partial towards Queen of Outer Space, with Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Anyway, welcome to the forum. And if you want to see more posts here, the easiest way to do that is to say something. :-)

--Dave

[catthom]

Well, I have so many favorite baaaaad scifi films (emphasis intentional) it's hard to choose.
One of the top worst films-
The Creeping Terror, 1964- so very bad, so very campy, hard to believe most of the contemporaneous audiences didn't have access to decent drugs so they could truly appreciate this film. The monster is an old carpet.
The best intentionally bad film-
Big Man Japan, 2007- mockumentary with some of the best monsters ever. Beats The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes hands down.
Old films- special category-
Film that scared the be jabbers out of me when I was a little kid and watched it the on black and white TV in the late 50's- Invaders From Mars, 1953.
Film my mom turned me on to as a kid- The Boy With Green Hair, 1948. Maybe not quite science fiction, but definitely worth watching.
Best film, quite a few could make this cut, but the film Blade Runner is one I can watch over and over.
Oddest film, Tetsuo, The Iron Man, 1989. I like it. I'm not sure why, or what it says about me- but cool film
OK, I could go on- but these are the ones that sprang to mind tonight.

[admin]

Plan 9 From Outer Space is just clumbsy and boring, but Queen of Outer Space is cheezy and campy but delightful, with a script by Twilight Zone writer Charles Beaumont. Another bad movie I like a lot is The Mysterians.

As for good movies, in my column for mid-July I list my ten favorite sf films before Kubrick, Spielberg, and Lucas remade the genre.

[catthom]

OK, how do I find your column (I feel stupid asking this)?

[slaven41]

He's at http://www.sfsite.com/, under the heading Babylon 5.1.

--Dave

[admin]

Thanks "Dave". I'd love to see a few short reviews (focusing on your personal reaction) from the regulars here.