New TV sci-fi series

Did anyone see the first part of Asteriods on Saturday? It had
reasonably good special effects, but it is completely unoriginal and you
could predict where the asteriod was going to land without the use of a
single telescope or computer. Also I thought it was a bit long winded
and could probably be done in an hour. I have also heard there may be a
series made of it, (how, is earth going to be weekly bombarded by earth
shattering asteriods) is this true?

Crime Traveller was definetly far better than the BBC's last attempt
"Bugs" (aaagghhh) in that it actaully appears to be in a world where
there are people other than those essential for the plot, and no one
drives a disgustingly yellow car. They also manage to fit all the time
travel stuff in without creating major parodoxs or impossibilties like
those that occured in the science of Bugs that made it completely
unbelievable. It actualling made a reasonably good Saturday evening
program, hopefully it will keep going at this standard or get better.

Andrew Smith

On Mon, 3 Mar 1997, Smith A.M wrote:
Did anyone notice the similarities between Asteroid and ID4? There was a
definite Will Smith character... And an astronomer who saves the planet.
Hmm... Are we seeing the start of a new formula for disaster movies?
(Much as there was the old man with dog and teenage couple who spot a
shhoting star in old sci fi horror such as the Blob, and Killer Clowns...)

I hope not.
I sure hope it does get better, for I thought it was tosh. It all worked,
to a certain extent - except that loop of infinity thing (PLOT DEVICE
OVERLOAD) and that PIECE OF PAPER AT THE END! WHY WOULD HE BE CARRYING A
BLANK PIECE OF PAPER? (Sorry. End of rant, but that kind of paradox
solving really annoys me. It seems to suggent time has a sense of humour.)

Oh, and if his wound was healed when he arrived back, then surely
everything about him would have been returned to how it was - his
position, memory, and the things he carried... This is time theory for
kids. It's just as bad as Bugs. I take it back, in fact - it didn't work.
Oh, and what characters were there who weren't to do with the plot? I
didn't see any...

All in all, I'm not gonna watch it again. I could have been soooooo much
better. But it wasn't.

Oh, and the characterisation was sporadic.

Ben.

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I thought several things (just for a change)
1. It was a bit long winded.
2. It was typically American - oh by the way a few meteorites landed
elsewhere in the world but were not interested in them.
3. It was factual realistic for most parts.
4. The part it wasn't: was it me or did they look amazingly dry and
unscathed after being hit by a flood that was moving whole trees and
trucks around (there is an argument that they quite possibly could have
been dead from it, with big holes in the bridge, but then I do too much
geomorphology). The odds of the meteorite hitting the dam in the first
place must have been amazingly astronomical (pun intended I think).
5. How did that plane take off in a hurricane? and avoid getting struck
by lightning etc. (it was also convenient that they had that laser lying
around in the first place).
6. The airburst over the house at the end was amazingly predictable.
7. It could really happen (but that's another matter entirely) so the
term science fiction could be rather optimistic.

I didn't see crime travellers so I can't say anything about it (also
this e-mail would be excessively long if I did)

Jonathon Hart

According to an article in 'The Independent' last week, you've got a
much greater chance of being hit by an asteroid than winning the
National Lottery jackpot. Makes you think, doesn't it?
Quite enjoyed 'Crime Traveller' - Chloe Annett actually has comic timing
- bit of a rarity in the acting profession nowadays.

"Crime Traveller" was total and utter trash! O.K, I admit that they
have rather neatly avoided al the traditional paradoxes and technobabble
a la TNG but you could work out what was going to happen from all the
clues that they left in the future when they went back. We were told
that "Slade" had been there as a caterer and that they had escaped when
the other bloke went to the loo. The same thing is going to happen every
week with us seeing the result of their stupid time jumps and then
working backwards to achieve them.
And, who can believe that the moron wouldn't have been sacked for
driving a murder suspect into a river? Mind you, anyone who has the
corny name "Jeff Slade" straight out of a sixties "champions" type
series deserves to survive just so that the can be prevented from ever
being born by the Timelords!
Finally the time machine! After the effects of Red Dwarf and
considering this is a Prime Time show you'd think that they could manage
to come up with something that doesn't look like a 5 year old put it

Previous, Dalli L uttered these insane rantings....
Yes, but imagine if they go back more than once in one episode - it's going
to be fun watching them get all tangled up trying to keep time on course.
Well he did get sacked - that's why Ms. Annette character helped him out by
solving the case for him.
I thought it looked quite good for an amatuer effort - but then I'm not one
of those loons from the physics dept. so I wouldn't know what a timemachine
would like look if one came up and bit me on the bum.

Anyway - it beats Casualty - no gorey multilated corpses.

Chris

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chris@ #include <stddisclaimer.h> http://www.instituteofcorrection.org.uk/

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