Max Headroom's "War"

I rarely review individual episodes of a series, but Max Headroom is so good that I did want to talk about one particular excellent episode: War. In this episode, the lead character Eddison Carter starts covering a terrorist group (the White Brigade) which is launching attacks on the lower-end parts of Eddison's city. In a stunning twist, however, the terrorist is being funded by network tv to provide "entertainment terrorism", in order to keep the ratings up for certain networks. "War" is an exceptional episode, even if I do detect a certain amount of traditional Brit anti-Irish bias here. The idea of the media literally funding terrorism, of terrorists using special effects demonstrations in place of actual terrorist demolitions, etc. is truly mindblowing. Obviously, there are parallels between the White Brigade and groups like Fox News, that provide the same sort of terrorist "media events", which later turn out to be nothing. I think Max Headroom could do a slightly better job of paralleling government and corporate interests, but that's no fault of Headroom. In fact it's a tribute to the series, one of the few sci-fi series that imagined the future would be even worse than it is now. So, friends, if you get a chance, check it out.

Max Headroom: Anti-Corporate Rabblerousing

I just finished watching the complete Max Headroom series over a period of three days. I can't believe how good the series was! Impeccable writing and cynicism that is nearly a match for Blake's 7 makes Max Headroom one of the best sci-fi series I have ever seen, perhaps the best. The cyberpunk elements of the series are of course great, but what is truly distinctive is how the series used the character of Max to both gain and yet subvert its own advertisers. The set design on the series is absolutely phenomenal, and Max has proved to be a far more reliable barometer of the future then series like STNG. Practically every prediction made in the series has come true in some sense, and some of its warnings about cyberterrorism seem particularly prescient in an era dominated by spin-controlled media who seek to shut down organizations like Wikileaks. I feel so greatful I've had the opportunity to watch this show. It's the only series I've seen that goes beyond Blake's 7 in its attacks on corporate and media manipulation of working class and middle class populations (of which I am a member). I hope to include future entries on Max Headroom, as well as on Firefly, which I have also just finished. Hopefully, some Outer Limits reviews will also be coming your way as well.

Note: I'm still hard at work on the Encylopedia project. Here's the Dialogue breakdown

Babylon 5 (full), original BSG (full), Firefly (full), Max Headroom (full), new BSG (all but the last season and one episode of the 3rd), Farscape (slightly less than half way), Outer Limits (a little more than halfway full), Doctor Who (about 30 episodes done), Twilight Zone (complete), STNG (complete), TOS (complete), Space 1999 (complete), DS9 (about 3 seasons worth), Earth 2 (fully recorded), Blake's 7 (fullly recorded)

Series I have access to that have not been dialogue recorded: UFO, Buck Rogers, Torchwood, Alien Nation, The Prisoner, Hyperdrive, Red Dwarf, Dollhouse (VOY and DS9 I have access to scripts)

Series I soon hope to purchase: Space Precinct and\or Stargate SG-1

As I've said before, I'm going through each series and recording dialogue that deals with political, social, economic, religious, or philosophical issues. Some series, like SG-1, I'd prefer not to watch, so if anyone wants to take those ones over, it'd be a blast. This dialogue recording process has gone relatively well, and I'm hoping to eventually add Stargate Atlantis, Enterprise, Earth Final Conflict, and Andromeda to it, though I don't know that I will tackle the Japanese series myself (not because they are bad, but just because I don't know Japanese culture well enough to comment on them intelligently). Lost In Space is another one I should perhaps tackle.

Why are Female Friendly Shows Being Cancelled/

I recently heard that Caprica, the BSG series targeted at female audiences, has been cancelled and is to be replaced with another Battlestar Galactica series, Blood and Chrome, about a "hotshot young pilot" Will Adama. Do we need any further evidence that the sci-fi channel is dumbing itself down even further than normal? How many times do we have to go through the "Top Gun" hotshot scenario before it gets old? It was entertaining in the BSG remake, but only because Starbuck was such a well conceived character. Clearly, this move is aimed at the testerone section of the public who wants more blood and battles.

This represents a continuing trend in sci-fi television to cancel shows that are either female friendly or portray complex female characters. I think that's one of the problems that Firefly (which I recently finished viewing) has had with the general audience. It made the mistake of viewing women as three dimensional human beings with complex personalities, personalities not reducible to stereotypes. Gina Torres's character (sorry, forgot the name), River, Caylee, and in particular, Inara, were superbly drawn, and therefore not appealing enough to men raised to simply view women as sex objects. This accomplishment was all the more remarkable considering that Inara's character was a Companion character, only the second starring sci-fi tv character to be a prostitute (Callie from the original BSG was the first). I think the real problem with the sci-fi genre as a whole right now is that it primarily read and watched by men, and is therefore targeted at the male, rather than female audience.

Will the new Battlestar Galactica be Remembered

I am closing in on the Fourth Season of the New Battlestar Galactica, and I am wondering what the long term impact of the series will be on televised science fiction. An article here argues that BSG still deals with relevant issues. I am a little less sure of that myself, to be honest. Terrorism, while a pressing political issue, has always varied in the amount of press coverage it received. It was "in" in the seventies and the 2000's. But will it be so forever? I think the new BSG broke new grounds in character development and provided some more radicalized political characters, such as Tom Zarek. But compared to Blake's 7 or Babylon 5, it wasn't particularly daring for its time period. Both Blakes 7 and Babylon 5 dealt with terrorists, and sympathized with them far more than BSG did. Both Blake and Captain Sherdian were in a sense terrorists themselves. I don't think that BSG is a genre shifting show in the way that the original Star Trek, Blake's 7, STNG, and Babylon 5 were. Worse, it did not stop the decay of the genre that has been occurring since the advent of reality television. Today, outside of Caprica and the new Doctor Who (and sundry spinoffs), there is very little in the way of good science fiction. Ten years ago, we had a nearly fully functional Sci-fi channel, that ran series like Farscape and the new Outer Limits (relatively decent), as well as Andromeda, which was at least decent for a few seasons. There was Firefly and Dark Angel and a host of inventive programs coming out in the wake of the digital revolution created by the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars franchises. Now, there's literally nothing out there. BSG wasn't the first of a new breed. I fear it may be television science fiction's swan song.

Space Precinct: Cop Shows in Space

So what is your guys opinions on space cop shows like Space Precinct, Star Cops, and Star Rangers. I am thinking of asking for Space Precinct for my birthday, as it looks like an interesting series, but some of its predecessors in the space cops genre do not impress me. There was a really good law show set in the future that aired ten years ago, and during the height of ER, there was Mercy Point, a space hospital show, but basically its very hard to find a market for these kinds of specialized series. It's too bad, though i'm not really one to encourage the Orwellian boot of law enforcement to migrate into space.

Original Outer Limits vs. Sequel: No contest

I just wanted to say how much I prefer the original Outer Limits to its sequel series. The original series had an alien every week, and always was full of interesting ideas. Politically, it was foreword looking and maintained one's interest in how the series would unfold. By contrast, the sequel series was full of crappy special effects and crappy story lines, often having to recycle from the old series just to come up with good plots. There were a few good episodes, including a quite moving Holocaust time travel story, but overall the series drowned in its own mediocrity. It is my hope that future television series do follow the original's example, not its inferior ripoff.

Tourist Attraction, Homoeroticism, and Latinos

I am currently watching the Outer Limits episode Tourist Attraction, from the original series. What struck me as very unusual about the episode is that there is a small scene, almost a throw-away, in which a Latino dictator critiques Ralph Meeker's adventurer character for his hypermasculinity, saying that among Latinos it is quite common for men to show physical affection without this being seen as a sign of homoerotic behaviour. I don't know if the episode is taking shots at homophobia or shots at Latinos, but either way its a pretty risky line to put into an early sixties TV series. As usual, the original Outer Limits proves itself to be ahead of its time.