Crusade • j********o@***.com 11/06/1999 00:00:000 UTC I have a bad feeling about this... I guess it doesn't matter, since the series is still-born anyway, but it's almost as if Strazinsky wants to prove that B5 *was* a fluke. Cliched cardboard characters in a cliched scenario - good combination. Let's see: macho but compassionate captain, check! (He defeats a man twenty years his junior, who *of course* has a concealed weapon (to better demonstrate his treachery.) Think how much better a scene it would have been if the *Captain* had been the one with the wrench hidden behind his back - this would have established his guile and ruthlessness. Then, to demonstrate his mercy, he had told the mutineers that none of this would be reported to command - as he orders the bloodied leader dropped in an escape pod to the surface!) Cocky pilot, check. Grumbling civilian, check. Stalwart second in command, check. (People with expressionless faces probably shouldn't take up acting. If they were going to make him inscruitable, he could at least be mysteriously so: I keep thinking the exec's name must be "Earnest Nobody.") Science fiction stereotypes apparently aren't enough: we need a thief and a wizard to round out the motley crew. Giving the characters a singular goal is always a bad idea (hey - remember the episode where they almost found the cure? That is an amusing parallel - first we have the very similar premises of B5 and DS9, now he's mimicing Voyager!) A progressive goal they could achieve incrementally would lend itself to better plot development (for example, if they had to capture a number of Draq computers to crack their encryption...). The B5 universe of expensive aliens is not an easy place to set a low budget show: those lame warrior-Draq costumes suggest just how fast the money can run out - and next week looks like "cowboys and dragons:" Ach der lieber! At least the current Star Treks are consistently mediocre. Gorno • Stargazer 12/06/1999 00:00:000 UTC >I have a bad feeling about this... I missed the first episode -- I hadn't even heard about it! Sounds bad, but couldn't be worse than the season premier of "Sliders" which has slid just about as low as it can go (although they have yet to do a *musical* episode). I haven't been following the show since it switched to Sci Fi, but Remmie is now the only original character left in the show. Have you ever watched "Farscape"? It's not half bad . . . --Doc • -=JC=- 20/06/1999 00:00:000 UTC Stargazer wrote: > >I have a bad feeling about this... > I missed the first episode -- I hadn't even heard about it! > Sounds bad, but couldn't be worse than the season premier of "Sliders" which > has slid just about as low as it can go (although they have yet to do a > *musical* episode). I haven't been following the show since it switched to > Sci Fi, but Remmie is now the only original character left in the show. I have to say that I really liked a lot of the Sliders episodes that I saw after they stopped mimicking bad movies (eg: when they left FOX). There was some neat, intelligent stuff there, and we often didn't get a cliche ending (heh, like that hybrid gal who tried to convert her boyfriend to the human way, and got knifed for it). But the last two episodes have been really....well, trekkish. I mean, I like Trek, but I can't stand the constant stream of technobabble coming out of the new episodes! How many times are they going to talk about "quantum fluctuations" and such? And the episode intro still sucks -- I liked the original first season Quinn monologue. Not *quite* what I'd call total suck. But in need of some serious repair. > Have you ever watched "Farscape"? It's not half bad . . . It's scary. Finally, we have a decent followup to The Muppet Show. Farscape, at worst, seems silly escapist fun. At best, it actually has some real and interesting serious moments and good character interaction. And the makeup is some of the best I've seen in cheezy alien sf shows (eg: DS9, B5, etc..) First Wave sucks ass. Every single episode I've seen is about a woman seducing men and either killing them or dying herself. Actually, probably a good show to watch on a lonely night... Poltergeist? I've seen only one episode, and it was actually kinda cool (Undertaker, the only cool wrestling character, but then I haven't watched for a few years), but I have no real compulsion to continue watching. -- -JC PC News'n'Links http://www.jc-news.com/pc PS: Is anybody taking a boat out to see the last solar eclipse of the millennium in this hemisphere? If offshore, you'd get to see an full-eclipserise. oooooh! • Stargazer 21/06/1999 00:00:000 UTC >PS: Is anybody taking a boat out to see the last solar eclipse of the >millennium in this hemisphere? If offshore, you'd get to see an >full-eclipserise. oooooh! Unfortunately, you'd have to go out pretty far, like way off the coast of Newfoundland to get a decent view. --Doc • j********o@***.com 26/06/1999 00:00:000 UTC For a ship on a desperate mission to deep space to save mankind, they sure seem to be taking their time! It's almost not even worth complaining about. The cliches in last week's episode were piteous. And no one got hurt... couldn't the girl have gotten shot as the gargoyles attacked? I would have liked if the blast at the end not only ruined the mine but the local water supply! wueek-waaaah! Or if Gideon had made an enemy for life of the other captain... I think Strazinsky projects his world view from his personal experience in Hollywood: a lone, sane, compassionate man in a world of incompetent, cruel morons. That technomage sure hogs all the attention - no one else gets any respect (sort of like a "Galen and Andy" show!) A sick thought that occurred to me is that, practically speaking, Galen is like Dr Who, with Captain Gideon and the Excaliber funtioning as his Brigadier and U.N.I.T.! ("I say, Galen old chap, you've asked me to believe a lot of odd things, but this just isn't cricket!") I'd enjoy that premise a lot more actually! (They could dump the techno- crap and just make him a 23rd Century wizard!) But presenting the other characters as equal players without any play balance doesn't work for me. The disdain the archaeologist gets particularly bugs me, as the nobility of the thief (apparently the only non-materialistic one who ever lived!) If the show had lasted and they were to film a final episode, it should end with the revelation that the archaeologist's real mission was to steal the technomage's technology - a successful mission, we find out. Things that would have balanced out this week's episode ("The Well of Somesuch"): after his failed attempt to hack the technomage's ship, Gideon hires the thief to sneak in, which she does, returning with valuable secrets! We see the archaeologist lose his data, then pull out his notebook and say "Thank God for paper and pencil!" He opens the book only to discover the pages erased; scowling, he walks to the wall and fingers a decoration of knotted twine. "The Inca never invented paper... but they knew how to keep quite accurate records anyway. I guess that wasn't in the curricula back in mage school!" A single alteration that would have justified the entire series: after they land on the alien necropolis, Galen has told his little tale of woe and Gideon has left, leaving the mage behind to mourn his lost love. Behind him we see the Excaliber... sedately cruising away... The next thing we see are the words "Two months later..." A gaunt and haggard Galen is helped to the cafeteria where he wolfs down a hearty meal. The Captain asks, "I hope we didn't misunderstand your instructions about returning to get you, Galen. I do hate it when friends misunderstand each other..." "No... misunderstanding... Captain." Gorno • s******j@f****.**o.com 26/06/1999 00:00:000 UTC One of the things that came to mind while watching Crusade this week was "I'm missing South Park for _this?_" I'm gonna be on Long Island next week. Monday I'm visiting my cousin in NYC. Hopefully make it to 4th of July things at House Poon on, uh, July 4th. -- +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ SeJ@ay-oh-el-dot-com ~ stefanj@eye-oh-dot-com http://www.io.com/~stefanj/ CHARGES APPLIED FOR UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL EMAIL!