In the US/UK: Sometime in 2010
Available from Amazon.co.uk on BluRay import
The Cylons were created by man. They evolved. They rebelled. They look and feel human. Some are programmed to think they are human. There are many copies. And they have a plan.
Unfortunately for them, it’s rubbish, and they can’t make up their minds about what to do. At least, that’s what Battlestar Galactica: The Plan appears to suggest. A final “milk it for all it’s worth” effort before it becomes impossible to get the actors in the same place, it’s more like a director’s commentary than a worthwhile addition to a TV classic’s range.
In the US: Fridays, 9/8c , SyFy In the UK: Tuesdays, 8pm, Sky1/Sky1 HD
We’re three episodes into Stargate Universe (if we count the launch movie as a two-parter, which we do since the producers do), so time for a third-episode verdict.
On the whole, not bad. I’m not feeling enthused by it, but coming out of episode three – which actually made a brave stab at not being either Stargate Anything or Battlestar Galactica – I’m feeling pleasantly surprised by the whole experience.
In the US: Fridays, 9pm, SyFy In the UK: Tuesdays, 9pm, Sky 1/Sky 1 HD. Starts tonight!
It’s odd how genres change. Look at science fiction. For over 10 years, Stargate SG-1 was it as far as sci-fi was concerned, having in turn inherited its mantle and style from Star Trek: The Next Generation: amiable wisecracking soldiers with no personal lives turn up on planets full of primitive people, have fights with bad aliens in silly costumes then kill them all. Everything’s right in the world again. Nothing truly bad happens. The end.
Then Battlestar Galactica came along. Suddenly, all that went out the window, in favour of grittiness, misery, handheld cameras and terrible things happening to everyone. And Stargate started to look silly – well, sillier. Stargate Atlantis suffered even more from that and as a result, only made it to half the run of Stargate SG-1, despite its best efforts.
Now we have Stargate Universe, which while pretty impressive in a lot of ways, is kind of like ‘Battlestar Galactica lite’ – it’s BSG but with half the depth. While it’s light years ahead of Stargate in tone, it’s still not quite the show it wants to be. But you never know.
In the US: Fridays, 9/8c, Fox In the UK: Sci Fi. “Coming soon” apparently
Dollhouse was a show that everyone wanted to love when it first came out. It was by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy. It starred Eliza Dushku – Faith off Buffy. It had that nice Tahmoh Penikett from Battlestar Galactica as an FBI agent. It was sci-fi…
The list could have gone on for a while, but despite all these plus points, there was always something missing from Dollhouse. To a certain extent, there was a problem with the format: lots of pretty people give up their bodies for five years to the mysterious Dollhouse, which then implants them with new personalities to suit particular jobs, usually sexual. It just sounded icky. Or like a porn version of Joe 90.
Then there was the question of what it all meant. Was there a message to it? Not an obvious one. Could we care about the characters? Not so much, when their personalities changed from episode to episode and we never found out what they were truly like.
So while some people watched it, it didn’t garner great ratings or great fervour from many people, other than the true dyed in the wool Whedonites.
But now we’re back with season two. There have been format changes aplenty and Whedon is slowly pushing for something a bit deeper than he was before. I’m still just not sure it’s a programme with any real point other than to give Eliza Dushku a chance to dress up every week.
Look up into the sky. Is there a round, silvery shape there? No, of course not. As we all know, the Moon left the Earth’s orbit back in 1999 following a cataclysmic nuclear explosion caused by waste from Moonbase Alpha going into chain reaction.
That, at least, was the scenario painted in Space: 1999, even if it – obviously – never came to pass. Made by Gerry Anderson, originally to be the second season of his earlier live action show UFO, Space: 1999 was a mix of many elements, some good, some bad. On the one hand, it did have some fantastic model work, cinematography and sets, the likes of which probably haven’t been bettered.
On the other hand, the acting was dreadful, and the plots… oh, the plots. They were concept sci-fi: great big ideas about philosophy, the universe, etc, but handled so badly, and usually with a plastic-looking monster, that it was impossible to regard them with any seriousness, particularly since the science part of the science-fiction was so ineptly handled.
The show was also hampered by having husband and wife team Martin Landau and Barbara Bain as the two leads. Okay, they’d been fine on Mission: Impossible but their marriage was now breaking down and they could barely stand the sight of each other. Therefore, zero chemistry between the leads.
After a first, not terribly successful series, a new producer was brought on board to help boost the ratings. Unfortunately, they brought on board Fred Freiberger, the US TV producer responsible for the changes made to season 3 of Star Trek that got it cancelled, and who went on to make the changes to The Six Million Dollar Man that got it cancelled. So despite the introduction of hot, shape-changing alien Maya, and an Italian lothario, guess what happened to the proposed season three.
During this time, Space: 1999 went through a couple of title sequences. For the first season, we got the funky disco theme coupled with the “This episode” (did you miss that? We said “This episode”, loser!) montage of highlights that Ronald D Moore copied for Battlestar Galactica. It also (weirdly enough) had Barbara Bain on a turntable.
Season two grabbed itself a whole new set of titles and a new theme. It wasn’t as cool, didn’t have Barbara Bain on a turntable, and it had a stupid “Red alert” on it. But it was more action packed and it did explain the plot.
These, however, were not the weirdest title sequences for Space: 1999. In overseas markets, there were completely different sets of titles that pioneered whole new areas of weird. The Japanese set was perhaps the least weird, since all they did was add a really odd new electronic/lounge theme to the first season titles.
No, for absolute weirdness, you had to go to Italy and watch Spazio: 1999‘s second season titles.
