News and Commentary on Space
I vaguely remember watching this show a couple of times when it was originally aired. I remember it being cheesy, but ye gods, I had no idea…
Like watching a Kevin Costner movie or reading a Cormac McCarthy novel, it’s so awful it makes one’s brain hurt.
Okay, so it’s only a subset of major movies and TV shows, but this visualization of fictional time travel timelines is pretty interesting nonetheless – especially the path-crossings by unrelated time travelers and the amusing crossover movies/episodes one can imagine resulting from these “paradoxes”.
John Scalzi takes on the bad science/design of the Star Trek franchise.
I actually used to like ST:TNG when it was first broadcast. Nowadays, I find any manifestation of the franchise insufferable. Bad acting, lazy writing, trite speechifying, cross-episode amnesia re:new discoveries/innovations, Patrick Stewart, etc.
That said, I caught a bit of Star Wars: Episode I in the hotel on Monday evening. I thought it was pretty weak when I saw it in the theater, but seeing it again made me cringe over how godawful it really was. The “Ewan MacGregor Jinx” was strong with that one.
Practice makes perfect, I guess – behold Roland Emmerich’s latest end-of-the-world apocacataclysmageddovaganza:
Vatican City? That’s innovative. Even Godzilla didn’t wreck Vatican City! And while everyone jokes about an earthquake sending California sliding off into the sea, has anyone actually showed it before? Nice.
I hadn’t realized from previous info that the film had “ships” of some sort in it – it isn’t clear whether these ships are spacecraft intended to flee the planet, or if they are (as hinted in glimpses) simply modern-day Noah’s Arks waiting out the catastrophe at sea. Either way, the premise one can glean from Emmerich’s trailer is vaguely similar to Martin Caidin’s 1987 SF novel Exit Earth, in which a looming planetary catastrophe triggers a similar response. Oddly enough, my copy from back in the day proclaims in bold type on the front cover, “Soon to be a Major Motion Picture!”. I’m glad in a way that “soon” wasn’t - the special effects in 1987 would have been pretty lame.
Some of the scenes are also reminiscent of the old classic, When Worlds Collide, specifically the panicked mobs rushing up the ramp onto one of the aforementioned ships - perhaps it’s Emmerich’s nod to George Pal. There was some talk a couple of years back about a remake of WWC, which makes me curious as to whether this instead was the project in question. Too bad, if so - having read the book WWC was based on, I was really looking forward to a faithful new adaptation…not least because the novel’s escape spacecraft were constructed in the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (While the movie is considered a classic, beyond some of the effects it’s honestly pretty awful, especially given the potential of the book and its sequel.)
UPDATE: Well, it turns out a remake of When Worlds Collide is in fact in the works. Spielberg is producing it, and at least judging by the writing credits at IMDB, the source material appears to be the book rather than the George Pal movie.
For those of you who know about the book: it made it into the top 100, but Labyrinth of Night didn’t make the cut to the final three.
Ah well. Back to looking for an agent the old-fashioned way.
Someone at SciFi has been doing their homework as regards spacecraft metal fatigue — last night’s episode, No Exit, features character Galen Tyrol performing, of all things, a dye penetrant inspection of Galactica’s major structures.
I have a hunch that that is the first time an authentic non-destructive inspection technique has figured in a science fiction television series. I’m impressed. If it had been Star Trek, they would have just made up some BS technobabble.
It is a little strange, though, that it’s a Cylon doing it.
