All based on a military vessel commanded and basically run by military
personnel who have no problem shooting. Well, sorta. :-)
|> and the parallels to the crew of St:Tng and St:Ds9 are just incredible!
|> I won't go into details on that, but would you believe they have 'a'
|> "Wesley Crusher" on board!!! *smile* and he's not dweeby!(however,
|> quite cocky!) So is this the new trend? are we to have a male kid
|> supergenious on every other new science fiction show? (not to mention,
New trend? If it were, it wouldn't be annoying!
This is such an old trend it's way beyond cliche'.
At least if someone had decided to use a supergenius female child instead
of the stereotypical and overused male child, it would at least be a little
less irritating.
Big military/scientific ship with families, a supergenius kid and an
animal. Shudder.
I found it has potential and will watch. The use of the kid hasn't been
horrid (yet?). We'll see what happens in the future (no pun intended).
I forget exactly what was said about Babylon 5, but there is only one
episode dealing with a kid and "he had the courtesy to be unconscious
through most of the episode." Now THAT has potential. :-)
--
\\ Robert J. Granvin User Services Specialist
// School of Statistics - University of Minnesota r...@stat.umn.edu
In article <1993Sep13...@aurora.alaska.edu>, fs...@aurora.alaska.edu
Actually, what impressed me the most, was the fact that for almost the
first 45 minutes to 1 hours, there were NO commercials! The screen would
fade to black, and I though a commercial would come up, but nooooooo....A
<very> nice touch. I got me quite interested!
Besides that, I thought that the show was very nicely done. My local paper
kind of canned it (saying that it <had> potential, but the premiere
sucked....). I thought that the computer animation of all the subs was
quite interesting--especially the skin rendering on the seaQuest (kind of
blotted tiger stripped). It made it look like a realistic undersea camo.
<Some> of the acting was a little corny, but that was probably just used to
develop some of the characters odd personalities. i.e. the
"hair-club-for-men" situation. :)
Robin Bjorklund
Insight Access Group, Inc.
165 Western, Suite 2
St. Paul, MN 55102
612-225-4249
I was amazed at how much SeaQuest seemed to be trying to emulate Star Trek:
The Bland Generations. Right down to the weak characterizations and approach
to telling the first story ("Well, let's come up with a contrived inner
conflict for the principal character. Well, let's show everyone around the
ship. Well, let's have things go wrong with the ship in battle. Well, let's
come up with some gosh-wow clever way to fix the problem, even if it is rather
contrived."). It was really frightening.
>great show tho!
>just thought I'd draw the parallels.
There are many to be drawn. I must admit I enjoyed it mainly because I'm a
very big Roy Scheider fan. I could have done without the James Bond villains,
though.
For my money, I thought The New Adventures Of Superman was a more
entertaining show.
--
Michael Rawdon raw...@colby.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI
"...I guess I'd rather have mediocre Star Trek then none at all."
- A friend, about the ST:TNG episode "Legacy"
How 'bout the Helm Officer looking like those andriod (??) servants
on Lando Calrissian's (sp?) sky city? Or the Supply/Moral Officer being
similar to the Tony Curtis role in "Operation: Pettycoat"? Or Lucas (the name
of the kid) having the same name as that of the 'special' kid (or was that
Loki?) on "Jason of Star Command", whose token adult was none other than
Jonathan Harris, who was the saboteur on another science fiction show with a
bratty kid and a non human companion. Or the attempt to really address a
subject that Gene Roddenberry was wishy washy on, and that is the "conflict"
between science and military (if the show is done right, it'll show that they
can be one in the same, at least co-exist) and also civilian vs military ala
"Battlestar Galactica". How many of you were expecting Alex Baldwin and Sean
Connery to appear somewhere or see Richard Herd pull off his mask to show his
lizard skin underneath? It looks like Speilberg has taken the best parts (and
the bad parts reworked) from these various sci-fi programs and made them work
together. It's interesting to note that the SeaQuest looks like a floundering
Babylon 5. Was the SeaVeiw built in San Francisco? If so, then we know that
the SeaQuest and the Enterprise were built there too. One final thing, how
many of you knew that was Pearl they were flying over before it was identified
on the screen? Oh well, one could go on and on and on with just the Star Trek
parallels even.
--
Chris Wayne @ UNM | "THE CAST AND CREW OF STAR TREK WISH TO DEDICATE
cwa...@hydra.unm.edu | THIS FILM TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE SPACESHIP
--------aka--------------+ CHALLENGER. THEIR COURAGEOUS SPIRIT SHALL LIVE
Don Quixote of RAS \ ON TO THE 23RD CENTURY AND BEYOND."
>There are many to be drawn. I must admit I enjoyed it mainly because I'm a
>very big Roy Scheider fan. I could have done without the James Bond villains,
>though.
>For my money, I thought The New Adventures Of Superman was a more
>entertaining show.
Isn't the end of the Internet or the world or something now
imminent.......?
(Oh, wait. We haven't had the BABYLON 5 debut yet.)
--
Roger Tang, gwan...@u.washington.edu, Artistic Director PC Theatre
"David Henry Hwang's BONDAGE is about an Asian male attaining his fantasy: being
dominated and humilated by a Caucasian blonde. Sheer fantasy, of course; we all
know in real life it's the other way around."
> In article <1993Sep13...@aurora.alaska.edu>,
> Richard S. Guse <fs...@aurora.alaska.edu> wrote:
> >In the premier of the new series "SeaQuest DSV",(if you haven't seen it,
> >you outghto! Anyway, this is in the previews, it's a very large submarine
> >that is on a "supposed" exploration and scientific mission. (sound familiar
> >and the parallels to the crew of St:Tng and St:Ds9 are just incredible!
> >I won't go into details on that, but would you believe they have 'a'
> >"Wesley Crusher" on board!!! *smile* and he's not dweeby!(however,
> >quite cocky!) So is this the new trend? are we to have a male kid
> >supergenious on every other new science fiction show? (not to mention,
> >they used a slightly modified battlestar galactica score for the music.
> >*smile*
> >great show tho!
> >just thought I'd draw the parallels.
>
> How 'bout the Helm Officer looking like those andriod (??) servants
> on Lando Calrissian's (sp?) sky city? Or the Supply/Moral Officer being
> similar to the Tony Curtis role in "Operation: Pettycoat"? Or Lucas (the nam
> of the kid) having the same name as that of the 'special' kid (or was that
> Loki?) on "Jason of Star Command", whose token adult was none other than
> Jonathan Harris, who was the saboteur on another science fiction show with a
> bratty kid and a non human companion. Or the attempt to really address a
> subject that Gene Roddenberry was wishy washy on, and that is the "conflict"
> between science and military (if the show is done right, it'll show that they
> can be one in the same, at least co-exist) and also civilian vs military ala
> "Battlestar Galactica". How many of you were expecting Alex Baldwin and Sean
> Connery to appear somewhere or see Richard Herd pull off his mask to show his
> lizard skin underneath? It looks like Speilberg has taken the best parts (an
> the bad parts reworked) from these various sci-fi programs and made them work
> together. It's interesting to note that the SeaQuest looks like a flounderin
> Babylon 5. Was the SeaVeiw built in San Francisco? If so, then we know that
> the SeaQuest and the Enterprise were built there too. One final thing, how
> many of you knew that was Pearl they were flying over before it was identifie
> on the screen? Oh well, one could go on and on and on with just the Star Tre
> parallels even.
>
>
> --
> Chris Wayne @ UNM | "THE CAST AND CREW OF STAR TREK WISH TO DEDICATE
> cwa...@hydra.unm.edu | THIS FILM TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE SPACESHIP
> --------aka--------------+ CHALLENGER. THEIR COURAGEOUS SPIRIT SHALL LIVE
> Don Quixote of RAS \ ON TO THE 23RD CENTURY AND BEYOND."
the Seaview was Based in Santa Barbara, CA. Which means she WAS probably
built in San Francisco...... (Mare Island???)
Diane
Aw come on get, with the program! We all know the ratio of male to female
supergenius children is 30:1 (M:F) a slight decrease from today's ratios
--but hey, its the future. ;).
Besides your sentence should read "stereotypical child", period! In the
end it all balances out when you consider the number of female children on
sitcoms vs male children. (5:1 on Cosby!!! for example).
You really have a choice. you can either have a child on your scifi series
or lower the age of the cast to attract the bread and butter male 18-34
viewers from a suit's viewpoint (sorry its my minor).
DSN has done a pretty good job of keeping kids onboard and keeping them out
of the way.
Although DSV has done *the* best job of writing for a kid character.
--
I.
"...I am the fires that seethe beneath the earth for chance that one day
I might visit myself apon the world and remake it in my image.."
--eric r. glover glo...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu
Oh yah. I forgot. :-)
But haven't we had 30 male supergenius kids yet? :-)
|> Besides your sentence should read "stereotypical child", period! In the
|> end it all balances out when you consider the number of female children on
|> sitcoms vs male children. (5:1 on Cosby!!! for example).
But none of them were supergeniuses. :-)
|> You really have a choice. you can either have a child on your scifi series
|> or lower the age of the cast to attract the bread and butter male 18-34
|> viewers from a suit's viewpoint (sorry its my minor).
Except I don't understand why this is suddenly a major requirement.
Even though I'm at the upper end of that range, the addition of an
obnoxious kids instantly turns me off to the series, not attracts me
like it's supposedly intended to do. Meanwhile, at the same time,
everything else that doesn't pander to and cater to "the formula"
still attracts me just fine if it's quality.
Age doesn't attract me in entertainment. Substance and creativity do.
The addition of a formula-required-ratings-booster doesn't improve the
quality of the show. Maybe it bumps it up a point or two because of
increased audience, but I still argue -- "if you build quality, they
will watch..."
|> DSN has done a pretty good job of keeping kids onboard and keeping them out
|> of the way.
Agreed; and they are reasonably believable, average and even have a
reasonable role. DS9 probably has the "kid factor" that bothers me
the least (more or less not at all, though I'm sure it'll have its
moments just because... :-)
|> Although DSV has done *the* best job of writing for a kid character.
And additional agreement. This kid doesn't offend me because of the
way he's played or presented. The concept irritates me because it's
a "formula" required for TV today. Bleah.
Maybe if he was just a cocky average-aged person who everyone puts up
with because of his skills... Just get away from the boilerplate
formula!
It looked promising, but I refused to watch it after seeing the "Talking
Dolphin" in the promos. A Talking Dolphin?!? Gimme a break, it ruined the
whole premise for me.
> Anyway, this is in the previews, it's a very large submarine
> that is on a "supposed" exploration and scientific mission. (sound familiar?)
> and the parallels to the crew of St:Tng and St:Ds9 are just incredible!
> I won't go into details on that, but would you believe they have 'a'
> "Wesley Crusher" on board!!! *smile* and he's not dweeby!(however,
> quite cocky!) So is this the new trend? are we to have a male kid
> supergenious on every other new science fiction show?
Not a new trend, but an *old* trend. Remember Brice Lynch from Max
Headroom? Doogie Hauser? Ever Read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card?
(*Great* Book BTW.) I also remember some incredibly bad series a few years
back where almost the whole crew of some space ship (or fleet?) was kids
(anyone remember this? I seem to recall one of the rocket jockeys having to
manually pilot through an asteroid field (how original)).
(not to mention,
> they used a slightly modified battlestar galactica score for the music.
Boy, that was so long ago I can barely remember character's names, let
alone the score! :^)
,__o Michael Wojcik Information Systems Specialist
_-\_<, mwo...@eniac.seas.upenn.edu The College
(*)/'(*) mwo...@mail.sas.upenn.edu The University of Pennsylvania
Thanks in advance
Charles Baetsen
I agree wholeheartedly. Half the time, Spielberg concentrates on the story,
the action, the F/X, and the other things which benefit a show/movie. And
the results are usually awesome--producing excellent adventrues (such as the
"Indiana Jones" trilogy) or spellbinding drama (such as "The Color Purple" or
"Empire of the Sun", although the latter could use some gratuitous editing.)
However, the other half of the time, Spielberg puts on his Papa Smurf hat and
loads his features with shlock, smarmimess, and continually tries to "tug at
the heartstrings". The results usually aren't that good--witness "Hook", which
would have been a damn fine movie if 30 minutes of "he's a mean old man, cause
he doesn't have a mommy" cut out. As it is, it is quite boring. As they say,
all dressed up and no place to go. The only exception to this is of course
"E.T.". First of all, this is better written than any of his other "sad"
movies, and second, the pain is genuine.
Unfortunately, Spielberg has elected to do this with Seaquest, giving us the
aformentioned verbose dolphin, whose voice, I might add, sounds a LOT like
"E.T." I wonder when he will realize that these attempts to appeal to the
kiddies sabotages his work and undermines his credibility. Seaquest holds
promise, but a well-placed harpoon would increase its value by orders of
magnitude.
Just my HO,
/sj/
Did you happen to notice that the seaQuest (Why is it spelled like that) was
constructed in San Fransisco. Can anyone think of another famous ship of
exploration from another sci fi show that was built at San Fran? Possibly
the Constitution-class USS Enterprise from Star Trek.
Hmmm.......
That's all for now.
Kevin Casto
Cuttlefish Galactica?
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea:The Next Generation?
gary
> you outghto! Anyway, this is in the previews, it's a very large submarine
> that is on a "supposed" exploration and scientific mission. (sound familiar?)
> and the parallels to the crew of St:Tng and St:Ds9 are just incredible!
Yes, a show that answers the previously unasked question, "What do you get when
you cross Star Trek (best ship around owned by a quasi-military organization on
a research/exploration/peace-keeper mission) and The Man From Atlantis (said
ship is a deep sea sub) with a twist of Americanized Maxx Headroom (annoying
teenage computer genius and a "cute", naive non-human)."
-------
Sean O'Connell I'm insane, but it keeps me from going crazy.
se...@hacks.arizona.edu
Death - Life's way of saying, "You can let go of your ankles now."
Hey, what if the kid atleast had a job, and just didn't tag along and
save the day every now and then. Atleast Wessly kinda had a job toward
the end of his stint on TNG. If the kid on SQ atleast wore a science
uniform, it might have been slightly better.
If these teenage geniuses are so damn brilliant, make a couple of
exceptions, and enlist these morons. Sheesh.
Atleast Doogie Howser was a doctor, and didn't pretend to be a doctor
with the neighborhood girls in the back of his family's home.
hwn.
With "Home Improvement," it's 3:0 (M:F), but I guess that is going to
change this season.
Another point with these teen-age sci-fi geniuses, why do they have to be
so happy and perky. I'm not only waiting to see one that actually is
enlisted, but also has a HUGE chip on his sholder. We need more teenage
curmudgeons on TV.
hwn.
You know, maybe it is the seaQuest project that layed the foundation for
the Federation star ship program 300 or so years later. :)
Actually, where the hell near SF would you build a 1000 foot long sub?
Everything is closing down, the shipping industry is non-existant. This
made little sense.
hwn.
[Old stuff deleted]
|> Not a new trend, but an *old* trend. Remember Brice Lynch from Max
|> Headroom? Doogie Hauser? Ever Read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card?
|> (*Great* Book BTW.) I also remember some incredibly bad series a few years
|> back where almost the whole crew of some space ship (or fleet?) was kids
|> (anyone remember this? I seem to recall one of the rocket jockeys having to
|> manually pilot through an asteroid field (how original)).
|>
It was never a series. What you're talking about was a four hour movie that
Disney produced for their "Magical World of Disney" show that was on a few
years back. The movie was "Earth Star Voyager," and the reason the whole ship
was kids was because they were on a long (over 30 year) trip to a planet that
might be able to support human life (the movie was set in a future where
pollution was slowly killing humanity, and they needed a new home. The kids were
sent to explore the planet because the trip was too long to send adults, because
they would have died.) It was a fairly cheesy flick, and pretty lame SF, but on
the whole I don't think it was as bad as you make it out to be.
|> (not to mention,
|> > they used a slightly modified battlestar galactica score for the music.
|>
|> Boy, that was so long ago I can barely remember character's names, let
|> alone the score! :^)
|>
|> ,__o Michael Wojcik Information Systems Specialist
|> _-\_<, mwo...@eniac.seas.upenn.edu The College
|> (*)/'(*) mwo...@mail.sas.upenn.edu The University of Pennsylvania
--- Josh Harrison
"Second star to the left & straight on till morning." -- Peter Pan
>Oh yah. I forgot. :-)
>But haven't we had 30 male supergenius kids yet? :-)
Doubtful. But even if we have, there was that ensign that Wesley fell
for. Does she count? (*AND* she seemed better adjusted, and smarter,
and had higher rank too!)
ACS
--
___ ___ ___ ______________________________________________________________
| | | __| "Maybe I'm paranoid, but remember, even paranoids have |
| - | --|__ | enemies."--Cal Pryluck, Temple University |
|_|_|___|___|______________________________________________________________|
Alvin_C._Shih_____...@csri.utoronto.ca______________________|
I just don't understand why they had to give the dolphin that STUPID voice.
I mean, since it's computer-synthesized anyway, why make it so impossible
to understand? Just another contrivance that annoyed me.
BTW, shouldn't we at least point out a parallel to ST so this doesn't
wander off topic permanently? :)
Laura
lau...@netcom.com
>Eric Glover <glo...@casbah.acns.nwu.edu> wrote:
>>
>>You really have a choice. you can either have a child on your scifi series
>>or lower the age of the cast to attract the bread and butter male 18-34
>>viewers from a suit's viewpoint (sorry its my minor).
> What ever possessed tv execs that inorder to attract a younger audience,
>they needed younger actors for that audience to "identify" with? With me, if
>I ever find a need to identify with a character on tv, it'll be because of the
>characterization and not the age of the character.
Yes, but people who read the Net are far from the "norm" of American
society. And no one who is posting from a .edu site should think that Tv
producers are thinking about them when they are developing a television
show. The average American hardly makes it out of high school, and I
would think that most of them would like to see characters on a show
that are their own age. Look at the success of shows like 90210, and the
other shows that focus on high school age children.
-Hades
>BTW, shouldn't we at least point out a parallel to ST so this doesn't
>wander off topic permanently? :)
Talking about annoying contrivances is certainly one way to do just that! :-)
--
Michael Rawdon raw...@colby.cs.wisc.edu
University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department, Madison, WI
"My favorite Star Trek With Jean-Luc episode is the one where some alien
kills another in the first five minutes and then the crew debates for the
next 55 minutes about what to do. My favorite Star Trek With Captain Kirk
is the same as anyone else's, the one where Kirk, overacting, falls in
love with a beautiful alien babe, which Spock calls illogical, and where a
bunch of security guys die. You know the one?"
- A friend
I would've watched it if he did.
===============================================================================
= Patrick Spacek (aka Philip Marlowe) = =
======================================= "I use the heater to heat my brain, =
= Please Send all Flames, E-Mail, = I use the heater to stop the pain." =
= and Proposals of Marriage c/o = =
======================================= -The Crotch Donuts =
= pdne...@undergrad.math = =
===============================================================================
>Thanks in advance
>Charles Baetsen
I just got next week's TV Guide and CITY has both Decent Part I and II on
Tuseday September 21 starting at 7:00pm. However, I wonder if CITY is going
to return TNG and DSN to Saturdays starting at 8:00pm.
Eric Nisbet
Interesting point: I don't think that there is a a "San Francisco Navy Yard".
(I believe that Roddenberry said that the Enterprise was built at the "old
San Francisco Navy Yard") Perhaps they meant the soon-to-be-defunct Mare Island?
David R. Wells
"There seems to be something wrong | David R. Wells
with our bloody ships today" | AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ
Adm. D. Beatty, May 31, 1916 | Email: drw...@houxa.att.com
DISCLAIMER: I don't speak for AT&T, and they don't speak for me.
> I was amazed at how much SeaQuest seemed to be trying to emulate Star Trek:
> The Bland Generations.
and
> For my money, I thought The New Adventures Of Superman was a more
> entertaining show.
Michael, you must finally have a VCR! I remember I was amazed some
time ago when you mentioned you had no VCR to review episodes, yet you
were turning out very thoughtful (if controversial) TNG reviews and
dredging up tidbits from previous shows.
With a VCR at your disposal, what can we expect next?
(No flame or insult intended. Just a fun observation about something
from long ago that struck me as quite interesting.)
Ted Beers
If you call and ask for local 4100 they have a Star Trek hotline.
Present schedule is:
TNG ep 252 Tuesday Sept 21 19