On Sunday, January 18, 1998 10:48 PM, Chilard D
[SMTP:D.Chilard@] wrote:
Why is everyone so fickle? Everyone slagged off Space: Above And
Beyond
when first it came on, and the same for Dark Skies; now, everyone
loves
them! (Or so it seems...) I bet when the series of Lexx comes
out,
you'll all love it! After all, did you all love Babylon 5 when it
started, or was it an acquired taste...? (That's not some kind of
probing question - I imagine some of you did, I just want to know
for
sure one way or the other!)
Preparing to receive numerous flames from people calling me a
heretic
for comparing trash like Lexx to the "excellent" S:AAB...
D.Chilard
S:AAB was poor ever since it came out. I would compare it's quality
to that of Starship Troopers, only without the fine irony that pops
up through Starship Troopers. Coming to think of it - the two are
fairly similar... No plot, computer SFX were poorly rendered (edgy
lines all over the rendered ships), and above all, incredibly boring
and unoriginal...
Dark Skies was not much better either. It would have been an almost
reasonable spinoff on X-Files if they left it just with the pilot,
but the rest was just endless repeating of the same idea...
B5 was good from the very begining. It is due to the nature of things
it was supposed to be about! It talks about relations between people,
and between different races all of whom have different views and
beliefs. B5 could have just as well been remade to be happening
anywhere, and any time. The SF was just the wrapping for a good idea
and a good story. It could have been, say, an outpost in the Roman
Empire, and instead of the Shadows, they could have been fighting
some powerful, barbaric tribe... I am not making a complete parallel
analogy here, but I think it just gives you the idea. If you take the
SF shell away from it, and put something else instead of it, it will
still be just as good.
On the other hand, all the other above mentioned ventures into SF
(Lexx, S:AAB, Dark Skies, Starship Troopers) are simply building a
plotless story around a SF core, which is ultimately futile as far as
making a successful story goes.
Call me old fashioned, but I find that most people (including me)
watch something for the good story, not because "it is SF".
Just my humble opinion...
Gordan
