TV Shows Discussion

[PZ]

Man, I need to get out more - I don't recognize any of those shows.  ????

[Jim di Griz]

Man, I need to get out more - I don't recognize any of those shows.  ????

Or stay in more 

[PZ]

 

[fragger]

 

It's OK PZ - I don't know a lot of those shows either ????

Just getting back to UFO for a sec - it appears that there was only ever the one season of it, 26 episodes (according to IMDB) which is what was in the set I bought, so that is the whole series. In later years there were a couple of "films" cobbled together from bits of the TV show (weird idea). Pity it was axed after just one season, they could easily have gotten a good few years' worth of stories out of the premise.

I'm well into the second half of the series, this definitely seems to have some of the best eps :-X I'm also increasingly impressed by the late Ed Bishop's performance as Commander Straker, the guy in command of SHADO. That guy was great :-X

Trivia: Ed Bishop passed away only five days after Michael Billington, who played Col. Paul Foster in UFO, in 2005.

[fragger]

...most of the Anderson's shows had great tunes.

That's true, I also really like the Thunderbirds theme, especially last part of the closing version.

Btw Art, I forgot to mention that The Streets Of San Francisco theme is one of my favourite TV show themes ever, great bit of music that :-X The Hawaii Five-O theme is another - they don't write 'em like those any more.

[PZ]

I recall as a child sitting in front of the tv with a tape recorder just so I could record the theme song of Hawaii 5-0  ^-^

[Jim di Griz]

Sounds like me when I was young too, recording bits off TV onto a portable reel-to-reel - mostly though it was firefights on the news from Vietnam - I used those to provide background atmosphere for when playing with Action Man  :)

As to those TV shows - perhaps a bit more info for you PZ.

Warehouse 13 is about two FBI agents seconded to a hidden department within the FBI which stores and guards all of those magic or powerful devices created throughout history. It's like that warehouse in Raiders of the Lost Ark...massive and full of technology, magic and everything in between. Their job is to track items down which are still out there. Some fun episodes in there so far.

Firefly is basically a space age frontier series, hence the cowboy look to things. Though not mentioned in the series as such, Serenity the film links Earth history and that of the series - I won't divulge here, suffice it to say that you aren't left guessing. You will have heard a mixture of languages in there - the characters all swear/curse in Mandarin, which is a neat trick to get around the censors - I have a translation for most phrases used in the series, culled from the w@&k of the loyal fans called Browncoats. The series is also cheap as chips, despite being grade A good stuff.

Fringe is another FBI secret group dedicated to keeping the world safe from a shadowy group from 'elsewhere'. John Noble (Denethor in LOTR) is also in the team and plays one of those scientists from the 60s who dabbled in all kinds of questionable activities - I'll say no more on that score. It gets pleasingly mind-mangling  :)

Flash Forward only had one season but the story sort-of rounded itself off - episode one, all across the globe every human passes out for 2mins 17seconds. In that time, they all saw events from their life exactly six months into the future. Again, centering on members of the FBI the series unravelled the how behind the what and hinted at the why - damn shame that got cancelled, it had at least another season's worth of intrigue left to divulge  :(

[PZ]

Thanks for the info Jim d'G; I'll keep these on my list of thing to watch  :-X ;)

[Fiach]

I saw Serenity first, I thought it was great and told a mate of mine, he in turn told me about Firefly, I found it on sale in HMV that weekend for about 20€ it was an awesome series.

I have 3 series of Fringe, it started to get a bit bonkers, but Walter is a great character.

I'll definately check out Flash Forward.

I just finished watching a series called Terra Nova and I was pleasently surprised by it. In the future the earth is kinda screwed with pollution and a time portal is discovered, that leads back to prehistoric times. The trip is one way, and people have been going back for awhile and have set up a settlement there, where thry can recieve goods via the portal to help them survive. A family go though the portal and the series follows their story as they become more involved with the other settlers.

[Jim di Griz]

My turn to have not heard of something  :) I'll have a look out for that as it sounds good.

[Art Blade]

I remember Terra Nova which was usually quite exciting to watch.  :-X

[fragger]

One last comment about UFO and then I'll shut up about it, but I thought these aspects about it were noteworthy.

After watching the whole short-lived series, what really stood out were some of the quite ground-breaking concepts for 1969-1970 television. These included entering such dangerous territory as depicting socially acceptable interracial relationships (a white woman with a black man), "unhappy" or inconclusive episode endings (no pandering to contemporary TV studio "happy endings always" dictates), depictions of sex, drugs and alcohol abuse (the Brady Bunch was being produced at the same time in the US), confronting and complex character development (e.g. father risks, and ultimately sacrifices, the life of his young son for sake of the rest of humanity, and it haunts him ever after), an ever-evolving storyline (the humans never stop leaning about the aliens), and some rather dark and unsettling story themes. But mostly what impressed me were some of the accurate future technological predictions, including:

Gull-wing doors on cars (okay, so they never really caught on, but you can get real cars that have them)
Spacecraft launched from high-altitude carrier aircraft (like Richard Branson's)
Personal computers
Personal pagers
Web cams (after a fashion)
Fingerprint and voice identification systems
Orbital telescopes
Car telephones
Cordless telephones
MP3 players (the 1969 equivalent anyway)
Liquid breathing systems (à la The Abyss, but twenty years earlier. And they do w@&k - the liquid-breathing rat in The Abyss was no fake-out).

Plus attention to laws of physics, such as accurate depictions of the effects of depressurization, consideration of proper spacecraft re-entry angles, and the fact that spacecraft don't need to have their engines going all the time to keep moving (take note, George Lucas). There is some license taken at times, but in view of everything else the producers put across, I reckon they earned those gimmes.

I recommend the boxed set for fans if you can get it (check out Amazon, it's called The Complete UFO Megaset) as the episodes are presented in the correct order, not jumbled up as they were at the time to hide key actors' departures halfway through the run (notably George Sewell and Gabrielle Blake). At the time, almost no networks showed the episodes in the same order, and even after 42 years I can tell that the order they were shown in here at the time was quite different.

An amazing show way ahead of its time, despite the visual effects that greatly range from laughable to excellent. It's a great pity that it wasn't allowed to continue as I felt the producers were just hitting their stride with it at the end. There was going to be a UFO 2 series, but it ultimately degenerated into what would become Space 1999 which I thought was a much shallower, more pedestrian and less raw offering.

OK, I'll knock it off now before you all start to think I'm obsessed or something.

[PZ]

I like the look of gull wing doors but I think they look more like they should have been named frigate bird wing doors  :-()

[Art Blade]

OK, I'll knock it off now before you all start to think I'm obsessed or something.

Nah, don't worry.. you're not obsessed.

I think..

..or are you?

:-()

What worries me more is, "or something."  ???

:-D

[Jim di Griz]

Good retrospective fragger, makes me want to watch the lot again  :-X Nice observations too.

[Fiach]

Talking about UFO and S 1999 reminded me of this gem Blakes 7 (clicky)

Blake's 7 - A Servalan Compilation - Part 1 of 2

Blake's 7 - A Servalan Compilation - Part 2 of 2

[Jim di Griz]

Okay, time for a few more TV series to recommend. I'm not sure how widely available this is outside the UK, but Episodes series 2 is just airing on the BBC - I know iPlayer is available across most of Europe but elsewhere might be different.

It's a simple enough premise: UK TV show gets acclaim, Hollywood producer wants the writers to recreate it for the US audience...I'm sure you can guess how that goes? Great comic talents, Tamsin Greig (Green Wing and Black Books), Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) and Matt LeBlanc w@&k very well together. Only seven episodes in the first series but nine in the second - good, dry humour all about the sensibilities of Hollywood and how it amazingly continues to w@&k that way.

As Fiach mentioned Blake's 7 it's time to bring out my favourite SF series which in a way has some similarities with B7 - Farscape is possibly the most creative series around at the time c2000 and it managed four seasons before they pulled the plug. Two films followed forming a mini-series The Peace-keeper Wars to tie up the story line after that. In all, a ride and a half with more aliens than you can shake a stick at - good characters, epic scale and not done in Hollywood. Okay, it's a Jim Henson production and there is one animatronic character in there, Emperor Rygel XXVI Dominar of 600 million subjects and a totally self-centered a$$ - so not a muppet. The filming was done in Australia with a lot of local talent (Claudia Black Pitch Black, SG-1.)

An astronout from earth attempts to test his theory for wormhole creation from orbit - gets sucked through and can't get back - appearing in the middle of a battle, his ship is picked up by a living prison ship just after an onboard revolt. Here is the open credit sequence - that should give an idea of what you can expect.

Farscape

[Art Blade]

I watched Farscape back in the day quite frequently and I agree with you that it's one of the better type of series which, however, reminds me of my favourite: Babylon5 aka B5. Biggest two differences are that B5 is available in wide screen (Farscape is only available in 4:3) and B5 is still available from start to end (all 5 seasons plus "movies") while FS kind of ceased to exist.

[Jim di Griz]

Yup, got all the B5 too  :-X That's another series with epic scope; a true example of the Space Opera style in SF.

[Art Blade]

 :-() :-X slap on the back for your excellent taste  ^-^

[Jim di Griz]

 :) thanks - though I am not truly deserving of that as my lady wife introduced me to the series in the first place. I'm really surprised it took me so long to 'find' it. I suppose having no TV for over half of my adult life may have contributed.

Still, I'm glad to have found it now. I really like the way the standalone films fit in - definitely a fan of epic overlying storylines.

[Art Blade]

After 10 years I stopped counting -- I haven't watched TV in some 12 or more years now. My goodness, I have so much more time for gaming now  :-D

[fragger]

I picked up the old Cosmos documentary series, a seven-DVD boxed set. I hadn't seen it since it was on back in the seventies and I wasn't sure if it would hold up in terms of content and visuals, but it most certainly does. Graphics in the show are pretty impressive for its time - the CG effects dating from about 35 years ago are surprisingly well executed.

If you're interested in a series which doesn't focus solely on the cold mechanics of the universe but also delves into the evolutionary processes and the amazing interactions behind what we call "life", that traces the history of scientific development told via enacted mini-bios of the key historical players, that contains a wealth of anecdotal tidbits and fascinating historical connections, all presented in the easygoing, personable style of Carl Sagan and backed by wonderful visuals with some majestic music from Jon Vangelis - in short, a beautifully presented and moving account of life, the universe and everything - this is your show :-X

[mandru]

@ fragger and Cosmos.  :-X

Episode 12 Encyclopedia Galactica. Whew!  ???

I had a chance to go to college many years after graduating High School and was in their Media Program when Cosmos aired.  I was able to provide my humble services to the program's director by actually getting to stay late and hang out while recording and watching the episodes as they ticked off so that he didn't have to do it.

I've always seen the Cosmos series' overall production quality as a tour de force.

[fragger]

Cool little story mandru :-D

Episode 12 is the next one up for me, will watch when I get home from w@&k later 8)

I totally agree about the production values but what also really strikes me is the overall character of the show, it's uplifting.

Incidentally, the version of Cosmos I bought has updates at the end of most episodes that were recorded many years later, still with Sagan narrating and each just a few minutes long, in which he discusses a point or two from the preceding episode which may have either been proven incorrect since the show was made or have been altered by more recent evidence. Sagan passed away in 1996 so these updates are still over 16 years old today. They're nice little additions to the original episodes :-X

EDIT: Oops - I let a dirty four-letter word slip back there in the second sentence. It won't happen again, I promise... 8-X