Friday, January 14, 2011
What is your favorite Earthside sci-fi program?
Normally, I am more a fan of space opera than earthbound science fiction. My favorite space operas are Farscape, Babylon 5, Doctor Who, Blake's 7, and to a lesser extent, the new Battlestar Galacatica. But I was wondering what your guys favorite Earthbound series are. To me, the top two Earthbound series are The Prisoner and Max Headroom. I think the Prisoner set the surrealist tone for so much of the Earth-centered sci-fi that came after it, only it did it much better. Max Headroom, meanwhile, was the definitive cyberpunk show. Politically, Earthbound series tend to emphasize paranoia and distrust of the government, healthy attributes in a state-controlled era of media-spinned, entertainment-saturated American citizens. Many of the top earthbound series have leaned heavily left, particularly Max Headroom and The X-Files. My fear with earthbound sci-fi is not that it will supplant space operas (though it is doing that), but that it will no longer be creative. I just can't get that interested in what's going on in Lost's island or in the parallel universes of Fringe. Neither series, right now at least, appeals to me. I want some real sci-fi ideas, and some new ones, not recycled and inferior copies of great Prisoner and X-Files episodes. The age of remakes and quasi-sci fi should be over. A return to cyberpunk, to thoughful space opera, to outlandish science fiction ideas, should begin.
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lost crossed into the fantasy realm towards the end, but was a really good show. Terminator: TSCC was really well don and good too.
ReplyDeleteI was an initial fan of Earth: Final Conflict. It had much of the paranoia, anti-authority and inquisitive tones like the series you mentioned. It took me many years to realize it was an updated take on the "V" concept of an underground human resistance against an already entrenched alien stealth coup/occupation. I didn’t catch V reruns until years later.
ReplyDeleteV was okay, but it was still a rather black and white show. Despite the Visitors deceiving the majority of Earth’s populace, the resistance was still in-the-know and correct regarding their reptilian foe, who are truly inhuman and for the most part irredeemably bad. I have not watched the recent V remake.
I found EFC’s exploration of the Companion/Taelon's true purpose and its imagining of a near future Earth setting very compelling. The show dealt with war, religion, the ethics of science and technology, genetic engineering, terrorism, media manipulation and propaganda and many of the more interesting, political, and sometimes morally gray and less comfortable topics.
The series, however, eventually fizzled, much like Roddenbury's other posthumous notes-reconstructed series, Andromeda. I felt the ending was far less thoughtful than the setup.
Henry,
ReplyDeleteI think EFC was also promising as well, until the second leading character turned into a sort of superman, with virtually unlimited powers. I think that's what ruined the show.
Budd,
Thanks for the info on Lost!
From my deficient memory my faves were The Prisoner and X-Files.
ReplyDeleteI never saw Max Headroom with any consistency but it is on my list of eventual watches. I have Lost lined up on the netflix. Never really saw Earth Final Conflict. The original V was pure cheese that I loved as a child. Fringe is pretty decent from my sporadic viewing but I sorta feel like it's X-files all over again despite premise differences.
I thought Alien Nation was pretty decent for the time and seemed pretty much earthbound.
I'm not bothering to mention all the anime, that'll just expand the list too far.
mentioning anime, Neon Genesis Evangelion is really good.
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