Posted on 07/27/2006 6:49:43 PM PDT by marc costanzo
The essay below was originally written in the early Spring of 2001:
With the passing away of LEXX ends an intriguing albeit tawdry experiment in Sci-fantasy. One that breaks with conventions, or should I say cliches of TV sci-fi of the 90's . The politically correct pabulum, the multicultural indoctrination, the BladeRunner motifs, and not the least; the steroid mutated superbabes that can punch the lights out of men, but never get punched back in return !?
How about creating a new sci-fi anthology with none of the puerile baggage of Rod Serling, Rockne Obannon, Michael J. Stracinsky, etc .. It is time to end their reign of un-American cynicism and fatalism !
ping
I liked LEXX. That was one bizarre show. It's where I learned what a "fluffer" is.
That Canadian series LEXX I now realize is another example of Canadians ripping off someone else's ideas(for once, not one of ours) .
The British series RED DWARF was first, and better .
It started out as a comedy stage act on UK TV, then became more Sci-Fi . .
And yes, I had a guilty pleasure of liking that bizarre show too !
Red Dwarf is playing again here in Georgia!
Smegg off!
>>I liked LEXX. That was one bizarre show. It's where I learned what a "fluffer" is.<<
You are talking about the last season, the episodes that take place on earth and Stanley Tweedle gets a job in the porn industry . .
I suggest all the stuff by Ringo, the Niven/Pournelle collaboration Angel's Down, the stuff by Rick Cook, Eric Flint's 1632 universe and the Honor Harrington books. I think you'll be pleased.
What are you ? A GIT :-)
I wanted to visit Potatoho.
I think it's amusing that everything that passes for science fiction these days is dystopian. It's all this angst-ridden bleakness that belies man's innate stubborness, the parasitic persistence that causes him to defile one creation after another, only to create yet another. But in the PC future, there is no light, only tunnel.
*Sigh!* In a better universe, there would have been an anthology series "Tales of Known Space", with installments of Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton, Beowulf Shaeffer, and Man/Kizn Wars...
Robert Heinlein
I liked Firefly. Never saw it on TV but I have all the episodes on disc.
No "aliens" with latex glommed on their faces, no space monsters or exploding suns, but it was a western in the old tradition, people dealing with people problems, but in a ship named Serenity.
I never saw LEXX, though, is it worth the effort?
We can all dream about "The Jerry Pournelle Theater", but good luck trying to interest anyone in Hollywood in such a concept.
On the other hand, improving video technology is steadily reducing the cost of production, while the Internet is reducing the cost of marketing. Is there a TV Rutan in our future?
>>I suggest all the stuff by Ringo, the Niven/Pournelle collaboration Angel's Down, the stuff by Rick Cook, Eric Flint's 1632 universe and the Honor Harrington books. I think you'll be pleased.
<<
Oh really ?
I have only read the works and short stories of:
H G Wells
EE Doc Smith
Larry Niven
Robert Heinlein
AE van Vogt
Issac Asimov(Second Foundation, History of the Greeks)
Edgar Allen Poe(Facts in the Case of Mr Valdemaar)
John W Cambell Jr(Who Goes There?)
Arthur C. Clarke(Exile of the Eons)
Dean R Koontz (Phantoms)
What gets my blood boiling is the Sci-Fi channel is billed as Sci-Fi...why do they constantly show horror films. If that's what they want to do...then CREATE a horror channel.
Put on episodes of the Dark Knight, Poltergeist, Nightstalker, etc...even Ghost Hunters.
Whether it lives on in the video world -- well, I can't say and I don't care, but I will say that well over 90% of I see in SF movies... leaves me cold. It's shallow, it plays to what the producers think is "today's market" (right or wrong, at best it soon becomes "yesterday's market") and most of it is best ignored.
I'd like to have a copy of the "original" "War of the Worlds" in my DVD collection. The last remake.. forget it.
"When Worlds Collide" is there, proudly. (Did they ever do "After Worlds Collide" by Wylie & Co?)
And the weeklies.. well. several years I got so bored by the Star Trek follow-ons I quit watching broadcast teeeeheeeeveeee entirely. I think I turned the tube on early this year to watch the Rose? Super? Cereal? Sugar? Finger? bowl -- but I'm not sure which nor when.
Can't, it was destroyed by Mantred's drone arms !
A Niven-based series would be so cool!
Time is long and deep.
You could be the producer- start with a "treatment", a storyboard and a business plan- all you need then is backing, and someone else's money, then buy a production option from Niven.
You sell the idea, and get backers, and there will be a Long Arm of Gil Hamilton TV series!
Now that I got you started, I'll play a wirehead in your pilot, don't forget me, baby, I gave you your start!
Why not email Larry and see what he thinks?
Also the sci-fi channel is showing ECW...
>>*Sigh!* In a better universe, there would have been an anthology series "Tales of Known Space", with installments of Gil 'The Arm' Hamilton, Beowulf Shaeffer, and Man/Kizn Wars...<
Yes indeed !
The Kzin were featured in the 1973 animated version of Star Trek !
That episode was based the short story: THE SOFT WEAPON
Maybe not Pournelle, but maybe Gordon Dickson's Dorsai stories.
They could be made into an allegory of today's world, like MASH and 'nam, or COMBAT! and um, combat.
Yes better still, why not open up a 'made in canada channel' ?
Exclusively grade D movies
You've been reading too much cyberpunk!
Try David Brin's Kiln People, or Terry Pratchett, or Elizabeth Moon.
Or David Drake.
Actually, I know of one. In Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote In God's Eye" there is a Muslim character. However, even in the future he is duplicitous and conniving.
Maybe they should make a movie about of his I SHALL FEAR NO EVIL . .
Tycoon's mind is transplanted into his crooner secretary's body - call it 'The L Word' meets The Schizo Man
starring, of course, Second Secretary Jaime Retief- Ambassador to the Stars!
"To place your grasping members above your cephalic nodules instanter!"
Sorry, Keith Laumer is dead. Watch PC puke.
The coffee afficianado. Was he Muslim? I know he was from Levant and his servant feared him terribly.
Let us get this clear:
My primary criticism is of Sci-Fi entertainment,
not the classics literature !
Yes, I like William Gibson - but one of him is enough. ;)
And a huge percentage of otherwise intelligent authors uncritically accept the Al Gore view of global warming, which renders their books unreadable to me.
REAL science fiction affecionados NEVER use the term "sci fi."
That's kzin, monkeyboy. :)
I became a Firefly fan after Serenity came out.
Great characters, great story; just a really fun time. I have to say that I was really dissappointed to find out that they aren't doing a Serentiy 2; or picking up another season of Firefly.
Sometimes I think that studio exec's have no idea how much money a good Sci-Fi fanchise can make. Star Trek, Aliens, Star Wars, Terminator and Stargate have made at least a few bucks over the years. Firefly's 1st season saw Fox change the day/time no fewer than 4 times. The Sci-Fi Channel picked the series up; and managed to not only change time/days no fewer than 3 times, they also managed to show the series out-of-order. It's like the studio execs wanted the show to fail. What is this? An alergic reaction to money, revenue and royalties?
That's the guy. Yes, he was Muslim. He makes reference to his being from the Levant and some Islamic references.
The Fremen of Dune were Muslim. One complaint they had of the Harkonnen family was that they did not allow them offplanet even for Hadj.
A sandy desert planet with something the rest of the galaxy could not live without, under their sands...
The same stracinsky as Babylon 5?
I never saw LEXX, though, is it worth the effort?
Depends on what you like, LEXX is more risque, more semi-pornographic, and a lot more fun .
The concepts you mentioned for Serenity sound similar to LEXX, but not the same thing ofcourse . .
I was pretty fed up with the PC Trek and it's naive humanism. Then I had to go read the Horatio Hornblower novels and Richard Bolitho series by Alexander Kent. I have loathed Trek with a passion ever since.
Two words:
Frank Herbert.
Amen
> I never saw LEXX, though, is it worth the effort?
The show had some interesting ideas, but was a bit too bawdy for my taste... and I never saw them actually go anywhere with those ideas. So, I'd have to say "No, it isn't".
Not a sci-fi person, but glancing through this thread I had to post and say: Great tagline!
I do like the SG1, Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica.. Eurkea is ok, I still need to watch the show some more. My problem with the sci-fi channel is that they show, films like Frakenfish Island, or show wrestling.. Heads should roll at the sci-fi channel..
Just an extra tidbit of info. LEXX is the name of a living ship that looks like a giant firefly and can shoot fireballs that blow up planets. It was an invention of an evil empire and the show revolves around several characters who stole it finding someplace decent to live. Captain is a middle aged loser/pervert, there is an exassasin who is dead and kept "alive" by some type of blood, a women with lizard/insect genses spliced into her, and a robot who was horny for the woman, but became horny for the dead assasin. OH and a man eating plant lady.
It was an ok show. I watched on and of, it kinda grossed me out a little but there was some good humor.
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