Speaking of fictional science, was there a sci-fi cliche that Eureka (new show on the Sci-Fi Channel) missed last night? Shows like this really make me question whether Battlestar Galactica can be as good as people insist it is (the one episode I watched didn't sell me on it).
(I'm also kind of apprehensive about the Dresden Files show that's in the works. The one commercial they showed was such a mess of jump-cuts that I couldn't really make sense of it, but I rather like the books, and hope they don't screw it up too badly...)
- Log in to post comments
Unforunately, I had to miss it. Any idea if there will be reruns tonight or so? Is it worth watching just for kicks? After all, my guilty pleasure are monster movies on sci-fi channel at 3am....
Eureka was heavy on the "reek." It missed a robot, a morphing character, a cute alien with alternate agenda, Tesla coils with big sparks, and an omnipresent all-knowing computer. The girls are masculine and racially diverse; the guys are White, effeminate, and clueless (plus a token Black for comedic relief). The writers missed a bet by not having a bunch of pumped female bodybuilders in lab bikinis doing medical experimentation on each other.
The presence of a child and a dog would have revved up Babylon 5 lethally unfortunate circumstances.
If one were to assemble the Profoundly Gifted a la Manhattan Project or Google, what racial and ethnic groups would predominate? HINT: Look at student populations of Bronx High School of Science, MIT, and Caltech.
Selfish threadjack, but...
I don't suppose you could alter the comment structure so that the commenter's name precedes the comment instead of follows it?
I watched it and enjoyed it. I'm a computer geek, not a physics geek so it may have been much more annoying to those actually considered scientists.
Just a quick mention, it was the first episode and they did do the "magic computer program" and the "math whiz autistic boy" and they hinted at the "alien" interference. I expect we will see the robots and aliens by mid-season.
It was fun if you don't get too bothered by bad science.
It wasn't bad, exactly, just really predictable. The Marshal character sort of drove Kate nuts, but I didn't have much trouble with that part. The father-daughter stuff was pretty lame, and the technobabble was ridiculous, but they at least approached it with a reasonable sense of humor.
I might watch another episode or two, just to see if they do anything interesting with it. It didn't immediately grab me as a "must watch" sort of program-- if I happen to be flip past it, well, there are worse things to watch, but I'm not likely to go out of my way to catch it.
I'm really enjoying BSG. I've seen the first 1.5 seasons. I got to it late, so I've only seen what's out on DVD.
I will say, though, that I was watching the miniseries pilot with a couple of friends, I had a moment of cheering out loud. The first time a fighter docked on the battlestar, it's drifting forward, turns around, keeps drifting, and then decelerates and accelerates towards the dock when it fires its engines.
Newton's 3rd law in a Sci Fi show. I know, it's more common nowadays after Babylon 5 made it respectable again, but after Star Wars showed fighters banking against vacuum and generally flying like airplanes, I'm always happy to see a sci-fi show get a little bit of 17th century physics right.
-Rob
cheem: Ask and, in this at least, ye shall receive.
My thanks, Kate.
cheem: it's one of my great preferences in blog design, and so once someone else expressed a desire for it, I had the incentive to bug Chad to let me tinker with his MT template. =>
Woot! I'm also a fan of the design switch. If I'd known all I had to do was ask...
Oh, meant to comment on the topic, also. I watched the Eureka pilot and got exactly what I expected out of it: science fantasy with a humorous bent. If you were expecting hard science fiction you must (somehow) have missed the commercials.
My biggest annoyance would have to be the "fun for the whole family" attitude that seems to be a driving force in the show, as I think that's exactly where SciFi channel productions have failed. When they stop making excuses and attempting to appeal to kids and stodgy parents, they're actually capable of some good TV, as BSG proves over and over again by being the best show on TV right now, period.
We didn't watch Eureka so I can't comment. Just wanted to note that we're also Dresden File fans at our house and interested in the tv show.
We're having to work Really Hard to keep ourselves from buying the new HD in hardcover. Really hard....
MKK
Looks like The Dresden Files has not yet been re signed for another season. See http://maenad.tripod.com/saveharrydresden/
for a place to send comments to the executives at Sci Fi. Though I would think that they know better than us about what makes good TV.