The TV Series discussion thread
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The first 3 seasons of Red Dwarf is where it´s at
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holeraw
V.G.A.
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My favorite of the most recent shows is Sherlock.
... It seems I have a fondness for the character, since I tend to eventually check out anything Sherlock Holmes related when I get the chance (incidentally, I'm currently playing The Testament of SH) and I admit he has been generally well-treated, but I think this show in particular excels at what it attempts. Maybe I should check out Elementary at some point too...
... It seems I have a fondness for the character, since I tend to eventually check out anything Sherlock Holmes related when I get the chance (incidentally, I'm currently playing The Testament of SH) and I admit he has been generally well-treated, but I think this show in particular excels at what it attempts. Maybe I should check out Elementary at some point too...
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Tom Hanks vs the Fonz
Since we're talking TV series, I might as well toss this little gem out there which is pure 80s bliss - Tom Hanks fights The Fonz!
Used to really love Happy Days, wonder if it still holds up to this day.
omg another classic Fonz scene
Since we're talking TV series, I might as well toss this little gem out there which is pure 80s bliss - Tom Hanks fights The Fonz!
Used to really love Happy Days, wonder if it still holds up to this day.
omg another classic Fonz scene
Zloth
I smell a... wumpus!?
What? They are still making TV series after Babylon 5? Why?
I actually got Brisco County Jr years ago. Can't stand it. The science fiction aspect of it was somewhat interesting but that really wasn't played up much. I found the show exceedingly predictable. (Oh look, the professor invented a new something-or-other! What do you bet Brisco needs it to defeat the villain? What do you bet we'll never see that something-or-other after this episode?) Also it had a whole lot of people shooting and absolutely nobody ever dying, which got pretty annoying, too.
I actually just got done watching the whole Star Trek: Next Generation series. There are a lot of great episodes in there.... and a lot of really stupid ones, too. Season 2 ended with one of those annoying "look back" shows where 90% of the episode consists of clips from previous episodes all strung together with a weak story. Thank goodness they learned the value of a cliff hanger! But yeah - a mixed bag.
Firefly was definitely great stuff. I think there were one or two "meh" episodes but many of them were really good.
I've seen the first 4 series of Red Dwarf and really like them. The CONSTANT put downs grate on me if I try to watch too many but the show has some incredible imagination. So I just keep them spaced out <ahem> and all is well.
The new Doctor Who's are really good stuff. Definitely better than the original and I like the original quite a bit.
The new Battlestar Galactica is worth watching once but I wouldn't pay for DVDs. (Except I did.) The science fiction is good stuff but it's watered down with a lot of drama TV. Same with Torchwood.
Babylon 5 rules all, IMHO. It's still my favorite show of all time. Even the fifth season has a lot of good stuff - it's just overshadowed by the awesome fourth season. I think it's also the most quotable entertainment I've ever seen. (Yes, even more than Holy Grail.)
I actually got Brisco County Jr years ago. Can't stand it. The science fiction aspect of it was somewhat interesting but that really wasn't played up much. I found the show exceedingly predictable. (Oh look, the professor invented a new something-or-other! What do you bet Brisco needs it to defeat the villain? What do you bet we'll never see that something-or-other after this episode?) Also it had a whole lot of people shooting and absolutely nobody ever dying, which got pretty annoying, too.
I actually just got done watching the whole Star Trek: Next Generation series. There are a lot of great episodes in there.... and a lot of really stupid ones, too. Season 2 ended with one of those annoying "look back" shows where 90% of the episode consists of clips from previous episodes all strung together with a weak story. Thank goodness they learned the value of a cliff hanger! But yeah - a mixed bag.
Firefly was definitely great stuff. I think there were one or two "meh" episodes but many of them were really good.
I've seen the first 4 series of Red Dwarf and really like them. The CONSTANT put downs grate on me if I try to watch too many but the show has some incredible imagination. So I just keep them spaced out <ahem> and all is well.
The new Doctor Who's are really good stuff. Definitely better than the original and I like the original quite a bit.
The new Battlestar Galactica is worth watching once but I wouldn't pay for DVDs. (Except I did.) The science fiction is good stuff but it's watered down with a lot of drama TV. Same with Torchwood.
Babylon 5 rules all, IMHO. It's still my favorite show of all time. Even the fifth season has a lot of good stuff - it's just overshadowed by the awesome fourth season. I think it's also the most quotable entertainment I've ever seen. (Yes, even more than Holy Grail.)
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Make that the first 7 or 8.The first 3 seasons of Red Dwarf is where it´s at
My favorite episodes were the one where they sip at a bit of alcohol and the one backwards episode.
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Jaz
Play nice.©
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Oh yes, Lexx was great fun! Xenia Seeberg played Zev in the series, Eva Habermann played Zev in the miniseries.
Red Dwarf is a classic, so I didn't even think of mentioning that one here... thought more of whatever is currently on TV here.
SG Atlantis: I started to enjoyed that once Claudia Black's character joined the gang.
Red Dwarf is a classic, so I didn't even think of mentioning that one here... thought more of whatever is currently on TV here.
SG Atlantis: I started to enjoyed that once Claudia Black's character joined the gang.
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Claudia Black (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0085227/ ) actually joined SG1 series, not Atlantis.
She is the type of actress that steals the show/sceen, and I adore her work.
She is the type of actress that steals the show/sceen, and I adore her work.
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Well, we've finally come to the end - we have literally watched every single episode of Star Trek: Next Gen. Overall it was a good show. There were some not-so-good episodes, and many a time I probably would have scrapped Data due to him refusing to beam up Picard or endangering the crew in some fashion, or was rolling my eyes due to some clueless "progressive" lesson-learning episodes youre supposed to watch w/ the family. But overall it was good. The characters were likeable and able to stir emotions, make you care about them. They were well-defined, diverse bunch as well, not just carbon copies w/ different faces. Picard is also a badass, a true commander worthy of the helm of the enterprise.
Reminding me just how good it is, we have been watching the lackluster Star Trek: Voyager. I'm sorry, I've given it a chance, and Voyager just flat-out sucks. Janeway's voice is annoying, and her tough-girl act just isnt convincing. The black vulcan token "emotionless and logical" character is about as endearing as a wet blanket. "Harry Kim" and the rest of this curiously named, deadbeat bunch just arent any fun. The half-Klingon/half-puerto rican, Torrez I guess isnt half-bad, but Neelix is just retarded as the "wacky" character. The best character is the freakin' Doctor, a hologram. Who has intelligence, emotions, and can interact w/ solid objects.. yeah.
I cant believe Voyager lasted as long as it did, thre's seasons available to watch. So far what Ive seen (about 10 episodes) it's awful. Granted, that's not a whole lot to judge an entire series on, but I was hooked on TNG within a few episodes.
Reminding me just how good it is, we have been watching the lackluster Star Trek: Voyager. I'm sorry, I've given it a chance, and Voyager just flat-out sucks. Janeway's voice is annoying, and her tough-girl act just isnt convincing. The black vulcan token "emotionless and logical" character is about as endearing as a wet blanket. "Harry Kim" and the rest of this curiously named, deadbeat bunch just arent any fun. The half-Klingon/half-puerto rican, Torrez I guess isnt half-bad, but Neelix is just retarded as the "wacky" character. The best character is the freakin' Doctor, a hologram. Who has intelligence, emotions, and can interact w/ solid objects.. yeah.
I cant believe Voyager lasted as long as it did, thre's seasons available to watch. So far what Ive seen (about 10 episodes) it's awful. Granted, that's not a whole lot to judge an entire series on, but I was hooked on TNG within a few episodes.
Funny, I just watched he last Star Trek movie again the other night, and I was thinking it's not that bad. I think part of why many don't like it is because of how young the cast is. Although I don't expect most people to admit that. The acting wasn't very good, but it never was for the other films and most of the series' either.
Personally, I always thought Deep Space 9 was the worst series. I honestly can't recall a single episode that I really liked. The whole thing just felt like some lame side-story to me.
Personally, I always thought Deep Space 9 was the worst series. I honestly can't recall a single episode that I really liked. The whole thing just felt like some lame side-story to me.
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Different ppl, different tastes. DS9 is the crown of series and ways better than TNG. Voyager ain't the worst part, series that killed the franchise is Enterprise. The problem also there is that the overall best two episodes ever made are inside Enterprise (mirror universe). And the "new" ST movie, while not a masterpiece, it's well done action sci fi. It was announced as a sort of reboot and I've enjoyed it being reboot of another TV show.
Of course, that's all just IMO.
Of course, that's all just IMO.
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Well, we agree on one thing, joxer. DS9 is #1 by far.
Poor Enterprise, though. I genuinely liked the three episode arc with the Romulan drone ship in season 4. I kinda dug most of season 4, actually. 3 was interesting too but not very Star Trek. I didn't quite buy the entire extreme measures schtick. Archer was not Jack Bauer and them forcing him into the role was almost funny. I also kinda think a fifth season would have been fun if the oft discussed plans were going to go into effect- particularly the one about Shran joining the crew. Jeffrey Combs is the best.
I guess the new movie was decent action sci-fi, but I expect more from Star Trek. Not sure why, honestly, as the films have always been kinda crap compared to the various series but the new one was just too far for me. They could have done a cut and paste with a few names and called it something else, which generally is the sign of a bad Star Trek. I just don't think the folks making it are fans. Which sucks, as talented fans of Trek have been chomping at the bit for an opportunity for years. Bryan Singer, Bryan Fuller and Jonathan Frakes all pitched shows to Paramount that were rejected because of Paramounts fear that launching a Trek TV series would be overkill with their current movie run. IMO, any of them would be better. Actually, all three together would be ideal. At least then it'd have a chance of feeling like Star Trek.
Unrelatedly, I'm really hoping SyFy's Defiance turns out decent. I have no real expectations that it will be, but I hope. Rockne O'Bannon made Farscape, one of the best sci-fi series ever, but I really fear the MMO-tie-in cheese around Defiance.
DS9 is #1 by far.Poor Enterprise, though. I genuinely liked the three episode arc with the Romulan drone ship in season 4. I kinda dug most of season 4, actually. 3 was interesting too but not very Star Trek. I didn't quite buy the entire extreme measures schtick. Archer was not Jack Bauer and them forcing him into the role was almost funny. I also kinda think a fifth season would have been fun if the oft discussed plans were going to go into effect- particularly the one about Shran joining the crew. Jeffrey Combs is the best.
I guess the new movie was decent action sci-fi, but I expect more from Star Trek. Not sure why, honestly, as the films have always been kinda crap compared to the various series but the new one was just too far for me. They could have done a cut and paste with a few names and called it something else, which generally is the sign of a bad Star Trek. I just don't think the folks making it are fans. Which sucks, as talented fans of Trek have been chomping at the bit for an opportunity for years. Bryan Singer, Bryan Fuller and Jonathan Frakes all pitched shows to Paramount that were rejected because of Paramounts fear that launching a Trek TV series would be overkill with their current movie run. IMO, any of them would be better. Actually, all three together would be ideal. At least then it'd have a chance of feeling like Star Trek.
Unrelatedly, I'm really hoping SyFy's Defiance turns out decent. I have no real expectations that it will be, but I hope. Rockne O'Bannon made Farscape, one of the best sci-fi series ever, but I really fear the MMO-tie-in cheese around Defiance.
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D
DArtagnan
Guest
My distaste has nothing to do with the age of the cast. Primarily, I think the movie shits all over Star Trek and what I think it should be about - and what Roddenberry wanted it to be. It completely ruins the characters - especially Spock, which happens to be my favorite character in all of Star Trek. Also, they've reduced Kirk to an arrogant idiot with zero redeeming features, and the less said about their version of Scotty the better.
The fact that the movie has a crappy villain and a beyond stupid plot doesn't help.
Then again, I actually care about Star Trek - because it's one of the very, very few shows that has broken new ground time and time again. It's not just entertainment, and I think I've learned and grown more as a person from the ideas of the show (TOS/TNG in particular) than any other piece of entertainment out there.
Deep Space 9 is sorta like Babylon 5 - in that it's a big story arc taking place on a space station, but it's quite inferior to Babylon in that way. I'd say it's very good overall, but it can't touch TNG. It's infinitely superior to Voyager and Enterprise, though.
The only problem I had with DS9 was that the first season was so bad in comparison to the rest. All the series had issues with the actors and writers settling on and expanding who the characters would actually be and usually their first seasons were the weakest, but the difference in quality from the first season of DS9 to the ones that followed is pretty stark. It goes from being one of the weakest series I've seen to one of the absolute strongest in the final two seasons. It also has my pick for one of the single best hours of sci-fi tv I've ever seen - "In the Pale Moonlight."
And yeah I don't think it does some of the grand plot arcs as well as seasons 3 and 4 of babylon 5 did, but the acting quality is more even so individual episode quality later on in the series does not vary quite as much as it does for B5. They are quite similar shows in some ways - the first season of DS9 seems particularly weak as it felt like a worse version of babylon 5 at the time. The similarities subside as both seasons develop in later seasons though, but at the beginning it was enough that JMS (b5 creator) thought that paramount execs ripped off his promotional material he showed them a few years earlier.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Babylon_5#Babylon_5_and_Star_Trek:_Deep_Space_Nine
What's really ineresting is to look at the actor crossover and see how small the stable of decent actors doing scifi is. It's the longer part of the article.
Well both Babylon 5 and Deep Space 9 are good choices (if you can accept that they get much better after the first seasons.) If you've already seen them though, there's also Farscape. While it is less coherent it's incredibly entertaining and has excellent characters. If you've read any of the John Carter novels, you'll also probably appreciate how much of it acts as an homage.
Not exactly science fiction in the sense of a technologically advanced setting, but still certainly speculative fiction - Jeremiah. Nice post apocalyptic setting and should pull some fallout nostalgia strings.
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Drithius
Magic & Loss
I should watch DS9 one of these days/years. I only sporadically viewed it when it was first aired. As for Voyager… hated hated hated it. I actually thought Enterprise (slightly) better than Voyager; however, I never truly got acclimated to Scott Bakula as the Captain - his acting range isn't all that varied and I kept seeing Sam Beckett.
As for other sci-fi, Farscape is indeed an incredibly fun romp. And, if you've had your head in the sand, Firefly is the best series to ever grace television.
As for other sci-fi, Farscape is indeed an incredibly fun romp. And, if you've had your head in the sand, Firefly is the best series to ever grace television.
The only quite consistently solid Star Trek is roughly the first half of the original series, the rest is just various shades of crap or mediocrity, with occasional fluke of goodness .
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