Damn I wish I could see the vids, expecially on a thread like this...

Woohoo – seem to be working again!
Shep, that Acceptable in the 80s Servalan mash was brilliant.

We march backwards into the future.

Sounds like McLuhan had some affinity with Te Ao Maori.

OK I just found a good McLuhan quote, that illustrates some of what I find interesting about blogs comment threads.

Well, here's my favourite McLuhan quote from a short-lived Canadian current affairs show called This Hour Has Seven Days:

"I'm resolutely opposed to all innovation, all change. But I'm determined…

Was pretty out there BITD – especially the B&W early stuff.

Pretty forward thinking though for the time.
Has that very obvious dreary English shot-in-a-studio look but tehy did do outside shot – mainly involving fields and a transit…

How are you feeling, Russell? If I were you, I would read the latest Metro and feel considerably better. You've made it to the upper echelons of the Police Force without even trying.

Ah yes, that was quite droll, wasn't it? Nice to have one's work appreciated.

The week's been…

we already know that's a given

Ae Shrewy, somebody's got to keep them stereotypes alive.. :)

Or constantly angry? :)

Oh Sacha, we already know that's a given. :)

Sincerely,
Shrewy McGee

Page not found
Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog MandM does not exist.

Doesn't work from links in their own blog either.

Maybe Russell 'tagged his master' and that undid it.

Are you implying that I'm constantly drunk

-->All over the world, people are drinking Jack Danielles.

Are you implying that I'm constantly drunk, Craig? :)

I don't think so... but my social life was so much simpler when marinated in a liquid breakfast. :)

(Also, I just saw Pineapple Express: James Franco may be The Best Stoner Character in a Film Ever. He and Spicoli could have a stoner-off, maybe.)

Apparently, Franco and Sean Penn get off on something else entirely in Gus Van Saint's biopic of Harvey Milk. :) Which looks like something…

And "Lady L", now, too.

Maybe I just give the Apatow crew too much of a pass because…

Judd Apatow seems to have lost his understanding women as people powers since then – his recent female characters are pretty much cardboard cutouts for his male leads to get amusingly tangled up over.

That's putting it nicely, B. I don't want to be too po faced about it, but…

I ADORED The Tomorrow People when it was first shown. But i strongly suspect I would cringe if i saw it again after all these years

With you on that, Mr Ashby. I remember proudly enticing my parents to watch Stingray with me, and only realising how naff it was…

Freaks and Geeks Freaks and Geeks Freaks and Geeks.

F&G was da bomb. Sort of a longer fleshed out Dazed and Confused which I also love for it's chilled stoned flavour, irredeemably rawkk soundtrack, and the possibility of a world where the jocks and geeks can get over themselves for a…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cEsAX4xaFI&feature=related

I suppose I should say I never saw, or don't remember seeing the original Survivors so can't comment on how the new one measures up.

That never stops the rest of us, so take a punt :)

Anyway, I thought it was good. Criticisable in terms of minor stuff but well acted and quite effective. Nice plot, interesting…

And you can see practically the entire cast today on How I Met Your Mother, ER, Bones, Knocked Up, Spiderman, and so on.

(I am still crushed that I will never see Haverchuck become a jock, or Lindsay as a proper Deadhead, or any of the gang become all New Wave. CRUSHED.)

I know how you feel, but you have to console yourself that you won't have to sit through another of Nick's…

the whole thing seems to illustrate some kind of inverse proportion between the quality/intellectuality of a show and the number of seasons it lasts

Freaks and Geeks Freaks and Geeks Freaks and Geeks. 18 glorious episodes, cancelled unceremoniously after one season. I couldn't have loved that show any more if…

sounds like more fond memories going down the crapper. bloody buggers.

apparently they've kept the aircraft sound in the closing credits but.

they better keep their hands off Children of the Stones or…

And no remaking of Blake's Seven. Please. The joy of Pearce and Darrow as Servalan and Avon could not be replicated. Acid bon mots ahoy.…

but Carnivale? Is good? We should be watching it?

I actually think it's one of those shows that works better on DVD. At the time critics were universally raving about the astounding production values — and with a reported budget of around US$4 million a episode it should have --…

We don't read your posts anymore, Russell. We just comment on them

Or just comment!

But I have reacquainted myself with the original post & don't intend to double up on breaking news anymore.

Er, yes. As I said in my post.

Ep 2 is probably screening right now.

really? Well I'm not really a details person.

Er, yes. As I said in my post.

We don't read your posts anymore, Russell. We just comment on them.

It seems the first episode of the Survivors remake started 3 days ago on the UK.

Er, yes. As I said in my post.

Ep 2 is probably screening right now.

Carnivale was excellent. It takes a while to start making sense, and some of the plot lines never get resolved because it was cancelled, but it's definitely worth watching.

Seymour & Fleming have aged so that they now look like sisters. No sign of the welsh guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbZM8AJvlaE

That policing is a full time job, in part because of Godzilla's uniquely embedded place in U.S. culture. Unlike E.T., the Predator or the slimy extraterrestrial…

I agree with others here, that why spend time remaking (or ruining) old shows and movies when there are so many unfinished stories out there.

I blame environmentalism – reuse and recycle seems to e the name of the game.

Yes, I ADORED The Tommorrow People when it was first shown. But i strongly suspect I would cringe if i saw it again after all these years. Be good for the kids though, great concept, wonderful stimulus for the imagination.

I downloaded an episode of Russell Brand's Ponderland last week.

It was shite.

Couldn't be as bad as Little Britain USA — even the ads are playing havoc with my usually somnolent gag reflex. HBO cancelled Deadwood, Carnivale and Rome so they could commission that shit? The new characters don't…

Russell Brand as Ian

Lets have RB as far away from anything as we can, ok? He can't act and isn't funny. I can do without him gurning at the camera every two seconds.

I downloaded an episode of Russell Brand's Ponderland last week.

It was shite.

Lets have RB as far away from anything as we can, ok? He can't act and isn't funny. I can do without him gurning at the camera every two seconds.

The man's charms remain profoundly mysterious to me too.

If they're going to reboot anything, it should be Blakes 7. Truly original bastard sci-fi.

The Library in Finchley in North London had the complete series of B7 on VHS when we lived there. Over maybe 8 months I worked my way through the whole thing. Rumour is that Paul…

Now, however, after 12 years I seem to have an uber immune system.

You work at a kindergarten, right? That's like a huge virus incubator, I bet that by now you're immune to all disease known to man, woman and child.

Got a reference?

Try an undergraduate immunology textbook. I am a mere physiologist, immunology is simply details dear boy.

If they're going to reboot anything, it should be Blakes 7. Truly original bastard sci-fi.

Be careful what you wish for, Zippy! I suspect Eddie Izzard is the only actor today who could bring off Supreme Commander Servalan — for whom there was no deed too nefarious, no set too…

But there's a pretty clear steer at the end of the premiere that this is no mere mutation, but a human folly — which I personally found a bit depressing.

Then you probably don't want to read the Germ Warfare section of this Wired story then.

If they're going to…

And let's face it, I'd forgotten, but Carolyn Seymour was really hot. I note that she went on to a regularish spot as a Romulan in one or other of the Star Trek franchises.

Just to geek out to the point of being utterly pathetic, Seymour was in [[http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Carolyn_Seymour|two episodes…

And let's face it, I'd forgotten, but Carolyn Seymour was really hot.

She had a quite gratuitous through-frosted-glass shower scene in the original series — which was replayed by the Abby character in the new one, but far more modestly. It's funny what you could do in the 70s.

I…

Most memorable thing for me was that blue, woolly, short cropped jacket the dark haired girl with the bucked teeth and sibilant wore.

Well, I found it rather odd how damn clean and well-groomed everyone was, but I saw a documentary a few years back where someone made the good…

I recall a dystopian British kids' show in the early 80s that sounds like The Survivors, although I remember it as The Changes. For some reason, pylons featured…

I don't need to read it again while it's wearing a wizard hat and robe and calling itself Faith of the Fallen.

I cannot read that sentence without thinking of this. (NSFW)

Priceless.

I don't need to read it again while it's wearing a wizard hat and robe and calling itself Faith of the Fallen.

I cannot read that sentence without thinking of this. (NSFW)

Oh and the mad mad welshman with the really bucked teeth

And the opening credits.

"Rrrregimental champion" shooter he was. I channel the guy whenever I want to reclaim my welsh accent.

And let's face it, I'd forgotten, but Carolyn Seymour was really hot. I note that she went on…

Agreed, Craig – all hail TOR. Pan McMillan, the UK branch, publishes Hal Duncan and Jeff Vandermeer – who are both seriously awesome, but way, way more weird than the norm for commerical skiffy.

Tom Doherty is a legend for a reason — and Tor/Forge is one of those exceptions…

Also, behold the horror of the Terry Goodkind TV show. By the guy that did Xena. With Guy Warner... erm... Craig Parker as the super bad guy

Low budget, syndicated, objectivist bollocks! Hilarious.

As I said when I first heard about this, at least they're not fragging something I love.…

Could have been the modern idiom. But it was super cool when the star says 'fuck' (in a different font) in Neil Gaiman's Stardust. Maybe you can get away with it now and then but not wholesale.

Yep, the Goodkind show is kind of stinky. But HBO's doing Game…

Most memorable thing for me was that blue, woolly, short cropped jacket the dark haired girl with the bucked teeth and sibilant wore. We must have had a new fangled colour tv (unfortunately not one of those ones with an adjustable green line – any green lines…

I have no idea how Goodkind does it. I have about five of his books at home (special deal from the UK SF book club). Got about two paragraphs in. Book. Met. Wall. Same for Robert Jordan.

I can see the latest Richard Morgan squicking people. I liked it,…

I've got (or had) a book describing the worst of the worst. I've always hankered to see Eegah featuring a pre James Bond Jaws & a chap called Arch Hall Jr (his dad directed) who was described as an all singing & dancing and acting phenomenon exactly unlike Ricky Nelson.

I've seen…

Aw, I don't know if that's entirely fair — SF fandom has it's fair share of bigoted arseholes (and how...), but even when you're being published by a powerhouse like TOR (which has a eclectic and crap-lite list that I'd be proud to part of)

Agreed, Craig – all hail…

(Who wrote the rule that every postmillenial sci-fi tortured detective must own a supercar to crash as a plot point later on? Or is this just a standard movie detective trope that chimes neatly with the interests of carmakers?)

Just FYI, Rick Deckard, the most tortured most sci-fi cop, doesn't…

(I liked Bride of the Monster which from memory was the one where Bela Lugosi died after filming and Ed replaced him with someone who looked completely different for a few shots that needed reshooting),

Nah, that was Plan 9 – you only see Lugosi leaving his house & picking & smelling…

I saw it decades ago in Dunedin, a double feature billed as "The worst movies ever made"

In 1984 Channel 4 ran a Friday night special called The Worst of Hollywood over most of the year. They showed the movie at The Scala with a pre and post film commentary…

Although the fact that they feature teh gayz might have something to do with that...

I don't think SF fandom is scared of teh gayz. What about Delaney? Ricardo Pinto? Clive Barker? Mary Doria Russell? The latest Richard Morgan?

They are, I think, very good books, and seem to be oddly ignored by the SF community in general. Although the fact that they feature teh gayz might have something to do with that...

Aw, I don't know if that's entirely fair — SF fandom has it's fair share of…

Rustle Brown

Has made like a tree and leafed?

Natural viruses, like all living things evolve (if you go in for that sort of thing)... and any virus that kills 100% of its hosts does not have a big future! An artificial or created virus may not suffer from this evolutionary restriction?

The thing is a virus is often…

If you're a fan of sci-fi, you may want to check out the Starship Sofa podcast. Plenty of discussion on the old masters of SF and a pile of new and classic fiction. Recently we've had stories by Gene Wolfe,…

I think there's one circulating round the Chch libraries, cause I've read them all.

Gah! Well, Emma, you're the first other person I've come across who has. They are, I think, very good books, and seem to be oddly ignored by the SF community in general. Although the fact that…

I've found it a matter of whether there's a consistent system or not. Magic or science, doesn't matter. I really dislike spec-fic where the speculative elements are clearly being, as we officially call it at Bardic Web, 'pulled out of your arse'.

The most coherent fantasy magic system I've ever…

Must find Robot Monster!

While you're looking for it, have a search for The Creeping Terror, which is equally delightful. A giant piece of carpet wiggles slowly and completely unmenacingly towards its hapless victims, who basically have to leap into it of their own free will in order to fulfill…

Seek it out

Was early for a meeting in Melbourne a few years ago and was idly window shopping, and I stumbled over a whole table of B-grade sci-fi DVDs for $2 each. I therefore have a library, most as yet un-watched!

Must find Robot Monster!

Ro-Man: "I cannot – yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must – but I cannot!"

Oh and while King Kong vs Godzilla sounds cool, it really isn't.

On a side note: the entire Plan 9 from Outer Space is on Google Video.

I saw it decades ago in Dunedin, a double feature billed as "The worst movies ever made", Plan 9 & Robotmonster.

Plan 9 was merely bad, Robotmonster was colossally & entertainingly bad, a man in a gorilla…

I've found it a matter of whether there's a consistent system or not. Magic or science, doesn't matter. I really dislike spec-fic where the speculative elements are clearly being, as we officially call it at Bardic Web, 'pulled out of your arse'.

Hear hear. I read a fair bit of…

Higgs Bosons (which turn out to be far smarter critters than any of us, including Higgs, had realised) are coming back from the future to prevent us finding out about them.

Meanwhile, the stories I loved as a teenager – Survivors, Logan's Run, The…

No idea what the C stands for, but the LH likely stands for Lower Hutt, and it'll be about some grand scheme to bring trolley buses to the benighted northern lowlands.

The LHC is the Lower Hutt Collider. It's a particularly badly designed road junction, which, coupled with the driving…

Re: I, Robot. The book was soooo much better. But it would never, never ever work as a film. It could maybe work as a TV series, in the style of a CSI show.

The screenplay Harlan Ellison wrote in the 1970's (and which Asimov liked a lot) is [[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1596870419/sr=1-1/qid=1147229162/ref=sr_1_1?_encoding=UTF8|in…

Re: I, Robot. The book was soooo much better. But it would never, never ever work as a film. It could maybe…

And a question for the group: Don't you think it's a wee bit arrogant to assume that the human race couldn't be wiped out by a virus without our help?

Yes, but a good dollop of hubris adds flavour to any script.

If it wasn't 'OMG Teh Commies Will Brainwash You' (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

Don Siegel reportedly said of the film's title that it was probably "... the idea of some studio pod." This is the "enemy-within, capitalist-consumerism-is-turning-us-all-into-passive-automatons" reading.

In the evening, we watched the 90-minute premiere of the BBC's remake (contains spoilers) of the 1975 series Survivors, which screened in Britain on Sunday night.

damn, I haven't even seen the original yet. But there are Friends In The UK for that as well.

If a parent feels something is harmful or just unpleasant they should
make representations against it.

Proof that Jesus was a virologist, the meek shall inherit the earth. The injunction about eating pork for the children of the book wasn't because of Trichosomiasis from the meat, it was to lessen…

It's pretty tragic stuff, packed to the gunwales with product placement…

I think the thing with hard-science SF is that the authors (and fans) can…

Science just replaces magic.

Or religion.

But that's a whole other kettle of fish. And loaves.

Science just replaces magic.

Or religion.

But that's a whole other kettle of fish. And loaves.

Nope — Ed Wood, Jr. was just not so much a talent-free zone as a smoking irradiated wasteland where not even the cockroaches would survive. You can appreciate the man's work as disaster-pieces of straight-faced camp surrealism.

True enough, and the critique of Plan 9 was written tongue in cheek.…

The pod people aren't a clearly visible "other" at all

Oh, but that's all part of the same anxiety Craig! You won't even *know* the commie agents until they take you over and brainwash you! But of course the film also plays into that grey flannel suit anxiety too -…

Obvious statement follows: The very best sci-fi has a resonance with the culture at the time.

Indeed. Actually that goes for all fiction. I find it interesting that sci-fi always has themes taken from fantasy genres (and vice versa). But readers of sci-fi seem divided into those who also like…

Poneke's a bit partial to the purple prose, isn't he?

He's a trained journalist, freed from the shackles of a sub-editing!

I read a great critique of Plan 9 from Outer Space that suggested the awfulness of the movie was just a ploy to sneak its subversive message past the censors.

Nope — Ed Wood, Jr. was just not so much a talent-free zone as a smoking irradiated wasteland where not…

If you want an excellent post apocalyptic novel, try The Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall. I interviewed her at the Auckland Writers and Readers festival:…

Obvious statement follows: The very best sci-fi has a resonance with the culture at the time. Hence Godzilla was…

If it wasn't 'OMG Teh Commies Will Brainwash You' (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)

I've always found that a rather odd reading, because it could also be read as The Man In The Grey Flannel Suit or The Lonely Crowd given a paranoid gloss. The pod people aren't a clearly…

Heh, can't wait to see what this Hadron collider comes up with. That's the…

the Logan's Run remake which has had so many changes of director and screenwriter that it looks hopeful it'll never be made.

Now, a remake of Logan's Run I'd go for. The original book (yes, there was a book) was great – contrasting the supposed wide-open nature of a world…

And a question for the group: Don't you think it's a wee bit arrogant to assume that the human race couldn't be wiped out by a virus without our help?

Natural viruses, like all living things evolve (if you go in for that sort of thing)... and any virus that…

Did you get to my "Saturday Night At The Movies" pitch for The Big…

I recently watched The Incredible Shrinking Man from 1957.

During my long-abandoned US PhD study, I did a class called 'Nuclear Film'. It was amazing how many of those scifi classics reflected apocalyptic Cold War anxieties. If it wasn't 'OMG Teh Commies Will Brainwash You' (Invasion of the Body Snatchers),…

Poneke's a bit partial to the purple prose, isn't he?

Truly is the LHC project the greatest scientific experiment in all of human history, and how fantastic we are alive to experience it.

No idea what the C stands for, but the LH likely stands for Lower Hutt, and it'll…

Is there a doctor in the house? Or, rather, someone who can verify the widely-held belief that if you're busy, your body will hold off getting sick until you ease up?

I can bring you an anecdoctor. I have a friend who's a teacher. She always gets sick in the…

Truly is the LHC project the greatest scientific experiment in all of human history, and how fantastic we are alive to experience it.

But there's a pretty clear steer at the end of the première that this is no mere mutation, but a human folly — which I personally found a bit depressing.

I thought it was one hell of a cop out, actually. Has Adrian Hodges not read The Stand (where 'Captain…

I'm going to give it a go. There seems to be plenty of well seeded torrents floating around internet. I'm too young to have seen the original, do you guys think it's necessary to watch the older one to really appreciate the new one?

I think it would add to…

Or, rather, someone who can verify the widely-held belief that if you're busy, your body will hold off getting sick until you ease up?

There was an episode of something (Grey's Anatomy?) where a person with massive internal injuries only had them go off (cardiac arrest etc.) when they were…

99 percent of it is a domestic procedural about a dude getting smaller (male disfranchisement?) until the last minute when the guy shrinks so much he becomes one with the universe.

Awesome spider fight too.

gonna make love to a water-rat over there.
and raise a family.
and we'll become the survivors.
ya know why?
coz we're gonna survive
see you in the sewer darling