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Back in the late 80's, actor Matt Frewer starred as the pop culture icon Max Headroom in a series entitled "20 Minutes into the Future: The Max Headroom Show". This sci-fi series had Frewer playing investigative reported Edison Carter as well as his alter ego, Max Headroom. It was a series as ahead of its time as its title implied. It stands up quite well today even though it aired almost 20 years ago.

In one episode of the series, entitled "Whacketts", a tragedy strikes an area and people are rummaging through the rubble to rescue their television sets. They are even risking their lives to do it, all to watch some outrageous game show on an obscure channel. Edison Carter can't believe what he's seeing. Someone makes a comment about how the government will "provide free TV sets to the needy" so it doesn't make sense people will risk their lives to save a TV. It turns out that the TV show they're all watching is a carrier for a kind of "video drug" that makes people feel euphoric and very quickly addicts them.

While I think we are a long way from having video drugs (though this might explain the fascination with American Idol), I found this article on Slashdot very interesting. To quote:

"SFGate has the story of the cutoff date for those rabbit ear antennas that some of us grew up with (Feb. 19, 2009). Now while the story of analog vs. digital TV has been beaten to death, still I think there is something more here. 'The Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration... said it is setting aside $990 million to pay for the boxes. Each home can request up to two $40 coupons for a digital-to-analog converter box, which consumer electronics makers such as RCA and LG plan to produce.' Beyond my disdain for most TV to begin with, I am blown away that with all of our current problems -- homelessness and crime on the home front, war fighting and terrorism abroad -- our government is seriously going to spend this much money on upgrading peoples' televisions."

No, our government isn't quite at the point where it will give television sets to the needy, but apparently it IS about to spend almost a billion dollars to make sure people with outdated televisions can watch digital broadcasts on their old analog TVs.

Art (the Max Headroom Show) is here being somewhat imitated by life...

Years ago, I watched an episode of Married with Children in which Al Bundy was excited to purchase a DVD or CD collection of the "Diana Rigg" episodes of the BBC series "The Avengers" from the 1960s. Al was excited about this because he enjoyed the show and felt that Diana Rigg was especially attractive.

I recently noticed that BBC America was playing The Avengers, so I decided to have my TiVo grab them for me as they aired. I've now seen probably a dozen or more episodes of the show. While it's cheesy by today's standards, there is a certain charm to the series. Patrick MacNee's "John Steed" character displays a good sense of humor while maintaining a British sense of propriety at all times. He's kind of a James Bond style secret agent who relies on wits and cunning more than gadgets and firepower.

Steed's companion in the early episodes is Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg. In later episodes, a different actress joins him, playing the character Tara King.

I've got to agree with Al Bundy, Diana Rigg is an attractive woman, a good actress, and far nicer to look at than Linda Thorson, who played Tara King. Thorson's character sports boyish short hair, boyish clothing, and lacks the coy romantic charms of Diana Rigg. Tara's more of a little boy in a woman's body, while Emma Peel is stylish, sophisticated, charming British woman.

Some clever YouTube person has created a video that mixes the original Star Trek series footage with music from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  It's quite well done:

 

While flipping through the channel guide on my cable box the other day, I came across a show listed as "Pants Off Dance Off".  Given the title, I figured this would be some sort of "adult" show that would be on a channel I certainly don't subscribe to.  I was surprised to learn that the "Fuse" TV network isn't an adult network at all.  I set the TiVo up to catch the show, just to see what it was all about.  Here's one of the title graphics, just to show I'm not making this up:

Star Trek, the original 1960's version, is perhaps the best sci-fi series ever aired.  It featured scripts written by "real" sci-fi writers like Harlan Ellison, actors like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy who played their parts so well they became typecast for decades, dramatic music, and special effects that were the best of their time.  More than that, Star Trek featured Gene Roddenberry's vision of mankind's future, a future in which we had virtually overcome war, corruption, prejudice, sexism, racism, and practically every other human failing.  It was a future that we'd like to be a part of.

When I learned that G4 television had come up with something it was calling "Star Trek 2.0" based on the original series, I was intrigued.  How could you improve on a classic?  After watching just part of one episode, I came to realize that you couldn't... at least not the way G4 tried to do it.

What G4 has done is cram the video into about two thirds of the screen.  On top, they placed "Trek Facts" which provide little bits of trivia about the show and the episode.  This, at least, is mildly interesting.  On the left side of the screen they display a scrolling list of "Trek Stats" such as "Uhura touches earpiece" and "Red shirt deaths".  These might be interesting if they started at zero during the first episode and increased as the events they portray happened during the episode(s).  But they don't.  On the right is some weird random thing they call the "Spock Market" which seems to have nothing to do with the show, either.  Then, across the bottom of the screen is the ultimate eye candy for ADD sufferers watching the show... they display a question and let the people who visit the G4 web site submit answers and chat with each other.  This chat is mostly inane in the bits I've seen on Trek 2.0.  Worst of all, they shove a huge G4 TV logo in the bottom right.  A lot of screen real estate is wasted for this crap, which doesn't improve the episode at all.  Here's what it looks like:

I hope the ratings for Star Trek 2.0 are so low that they cancel the idea and stick with airing the show unmodified, as originally intended. 

Without further ado, let me provide a list of what I believe are the top 10 science-fiction series of all time, in order from the most important and relevant to the least:

1. Star Trek: The Original Series  If this series hadn't gone into syndication and gained such a large following, I think it's very unlikely that many of the other shows on this list would have ever made it to television. For its time, its effects were excellent. Its stories were penned by some of the biggest names in science fiction, like Harlan Ellison. Compared to other sci-fi series of its day, it was unique and original. Its musical score is easily recognized by many people who aren't sci-fi fans, and is the source of a great deal of parody and humor today. The performances by the main cast members (William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForrest Kelly, Walter Koenig, George Takei, and James Doohan) were so powerful and recognizable that these actors had a difficult time getting work for years after the series aired, being ?typecast? by their Star Trek Roles.

2. Babylon 5  What can I say about this series? It was extremely well-written by series creator J. Michael Straczynski. It had thought-provoking, intelligent story arcs that began in the first episode and continued on for some time. We saw characters rise, fall, and learn from their mistakes. Things weren't always neatly wrapped up at the end of the episode. The pioneering special effects were always in service of the story. The acting performances were, at their worst ?decent? and at their best ?incredible?. I've seen fellow fans of B5 crying, laughing, and sitting on the edge of their seat during certain episodes. This series showed the television world that audiences would come back to a show each week even if it didn't return to the familiar starting situation at the end of the story. I believe Babylon 5 helped make it possible for other ?ongoing arc? shows like Battlestar Galactica get off the ground.

3. Red Dwarf  This one is probably a very controversial choice, so I'll explain why it belongs on this list. Yes, it's more comedy than sci-fi. Yes, the effects are at times very cheesy. The acting, especially that of the minor characters, sometimes sucks. But this series and its 8 seasons on the air proved something to television networks, sci-fi fans, and the world. It proved that you could have a science-fiction comedy that worked. Amazingly, too, Red Dwarf managed to successfully ?reinvent? itself when it started to get stale. The first season is more of a sitcom than anything else. Later seasons were more like relationship comedies, action comedies, etc. It even got a bit more 'sci-fi? than comedy at times. But the bottom line is that the show is just plain hysterical, especially in that final season.

4. 20 Minutes Into The Future: The Max Headroom Show  This series aired during the height of America's love affair with Matt Frewer's ?Max Headroom? character. ABC aired it on Wednesday nights at 8pm initially, and it got some pretty amazing ratings for a sci-fi show at the time. Unfortunately, the network executives moved its schedule to Fridays at 8pm, which is usually the death of a sci-fi series (since, contrary to what most of society thinks, sci-fi fans have lives ? and those lives tend to include social activities on Friday and Saturday nights). The show made it through about a dozen episodes before it was killed. It was a very original series in that it looked at the role of television in our society. It talked about televangelist cults, media coverage of war and terrorism, software monopolies (before anyone was uttering ?Microsoft? in the same sentence with that word), and violence in entertainment. Its effects and sets were also very unique and original, having a ?retro-tech? feel to them like Terry Gilliam's ?Brazil?. The acting performances by Matt Frewer, Amanda Pays, Jeffrey Tambor, and others were believable and there was a certain chemistry between the cast that helped make the whole ?world? of the series come to life. Why this hasn't arrived on DVD yet, I'll never understand. You can buy the ?Jackass? series and even 'sanford and Son? but you can't get Max Headroom yet.

5. Doctor Who  Personally, I don't enjoy Doctor Who that much. When Tom Baker was The Doctor, I enjoyed it, mostly because of her performance. Some of the others I ?liked? but didn't especially ?enjoy? watching. The story lines are sometimes interesting and thought-provoking, but mostly seem to be action-oriented without much social commentary in my limited exposure. Still, I recognize its place in the Top 10 because it has endured since the early days of television and still draws in legions of fans. It has to be doing a lot of things right to have managed to stay on television as long as it has.

6. The Twilight Zone  While less science-fiction than drama, The Twilight Zone is on this list because it has become a cultural icon in its own right. People mimic its theme music to imply that something doesn't seem quite right in a situation. It's been parodied all over the place, and its actors include some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The stories were often excellent, the actors' performances dead-on, and the writing among the best in televised science fiction.

7. Stargate SG:1  I saw the movie starring Kurt Russell and wondered how you could make much of a series out of it. In fact, I didn't start watching it until it had been on for 7 years on the Sci-Fi Channel. One of my best friends recommended I check it out, and I finally gave in. The actors put in some great performances. The writers managed to come up with some good story arcs and follow them through to completion. At times when an episode's plot wasn't perhaps as original as the writers would have liked, they made it work by treating the situation as a parody and let the characters actually recognize that fact (e.g., in the episode ?Window of Opportunity? Teal'c and O'Neill find themselves the only ones aware that the same day is repeating over and over. At one point, O'Neill confronts the ?villain? of the episode and asks him if he wanted to be ?king of Groundhog Day?, a nod to the movie starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell in which Bill Murray's character re-lives Groundhog Day over and over).

8. Blake's 7   Before Babylon 5 came on the scene, telling a story that covered an entire galaxy over a series of many turbulent years, there was Blake's 7. This series told an ongoing story of the struggle of a group of convicted criminals, led by a political activist, who toppled a corrupt and evil galactic government. The core characters were played by actors who were generally able to play their parts extremely convincingly. Paul Darrow did an excellent job as Kerr Avon, a ruthless mastermind who always took care of number one, even if it meant killing a crewmate.

9. Battlestar Galactica (the current series)  While I enjoyed the original Battlestar Galactica when it aired, I was also only about 11-12 years old and was just happy to see anything sci-fi on television since I'd memorized pretty much all of the dialogue in Star Trek (the Original Series) by then. In retrospect, the series has some redeeming qualities, but it's just not that great when you watch it with a set of adult eyes. The new Galactica, however, is a different ballgame. It got off to a slow start, but has been picking up steam (and viewership) ever since. The effects are well-done and serve the story lines. The writing seems to be getting increasingly better. The acting is also improving at a good pace (though it was quite good from the start). I have to say that I personally prefer Dirk Benedict's "Starbuck" to Katee Sackhoff's, but I think Ms. Sackhoff is a fine actress and plays the part well.

10. Firefly  This is another one on the list that I can't say impresses me as much as it does its legions of fans. Don't get me wrong. I "like" Firefly. I just don't "love" it. It deserves a spot here for several reasons. One is the writing, which is consistently good and results in a series that doesn't take itself too seriously. Another is the acting, which brings the "written" characters to life in a convincing way. The special effects, where they are used, serve the story line rather than "become" it. Its plot isn't the most original, mirroring Blake's 7 in that the main cast consists of people who are essentially criminals who pit themselves against a corrupt and evil government, but it manages to do so in a way that is interesting. By combining elements of a classic western with sci-fi style twists, Firefly becomes something unique in its own right.

There's my list. Now, discuss amongst yourselves...

Being a night-owl, I was up late one evening when MTV2 ran an infomercial for this DVD set.  Remembering all the laughs I got from this series when it originally aired, I decided to buy the DVDs.  The best price I found at the time was on DeepDiscountDVD.com.  Now that it's been out for a little while, you can probably do better through Amazon.com's Marketplace (click the picture of the set at the left to visit their site and look at the pricing).

Today I sat through the entire 3-DVD set.  Many of the episodes I remember are here.  Some are not.  For instance, I thought "Frog Baseball" would be here.  It isn't.  That's the film that actually convinced MTV to do Beavis and Butt-head in the first place.  You'd have thought it would be on the first set.

For a while, I watched local television personality Mike Rowe on WSYX doing the news.  I kept thinking he reminded me of someone, but I just couldn't figure out who.  Then one day, it hit me.  He looks like Jon Arbuckle of the Garfield comic strip.  I couldn't find a great picture of either of them that makes them look as much alike as I think they do, but this is close...

Jon Arbuckle (left) and Mike Rowe of WSYX (right)

 If you feel the need to make your own comparisons, here's a link to the official Garfield site, and another to the WSYX television site.  (And just for the record, in case Mr. Rowe or the Garfield folks see this, I mean no insult to either of them.  Jon is a well-loved cartoon character and Mr. Rowe is a much-respected local journalist and anchorman.)

As many of you know, the UPN series "Star Trek: Enterprise" was taken off the air earlier this year, never to return.  Paramount tells us that they don't plan to introduce a new Star Trek series for at least a couple of years.  Reasons I've seen given by the Paramount executives for the series' failure include:

• Competition with four previous series running in syndication (1)
• There's some "erosion" of interest in the franchise (1)
• Low ratings (2)
• There's no longer an audience for science-fiction (3)
  
  

Though I am not convinced that anything other than the "low ratings" have anything to do with the real reason the show was canceled, the reasons themselves show some surprising lack of touch with the Star Trek fan base.  If people really are watching re-runs of the four older series instead of the new one, that should tell you that the new series isn't "reaching" the hearts and minds of your audience.  If there is an erosion of interest in the franchise, then you must be doing something wrong.  Consider Doctor Who on the BBC, which has managed to deliver what its audience has wanted for decades without any such "erosion".  And if there was no longer an audience for science-fiction, why has the Sci-Fi Channel found such success with Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica?  Why are audiences still watching Star Trek: The Original Series, etc.?  No, it wasn't competition with other Star Trek series, erosion of interest, or the lack of an audience for science-fiction that caused the low ratings for Enterprise and its subsequent demise.  It was the lack of a vision.