Really Good Sci-Fi

Post Reply New Topic

In honor of Defiance, which I consider to be an interesting show with a ton of potential, I'd kinda like to talk about sci-fi that does things a bit differently.

It's rare to see sci-fi that transcends it's subgenre. Most shows fit neatly into a particular subgenre, and do nothing particularly interesting with it.

But there's a few, over the years, that I've been particularly drawn to. Maybe because of my fascination with westerns, pioneers, and colonists, shows like Firefly really appealed to me. It was different than Star Wars. It wasn't clean. Often, the lines between the good guys and the bad blurred. A telling scene, for me, was in the episode "Shindig", where Mal stabbed a duelist he had just beaten in the gut a couple of times, just because he thought it was funny (Of course, the guy was basically demanding that he kill him). Meanwhile, from what we see of the horrible Alliance, we see men like Durran Haymer, who is a smart, kind, and decent man. That sort of grayness would not ever be seen in the "Star Wars/Star Trek" traditional space opera.

Jeremiah was another one. It was firmly in the "post-apocalyptic" genre, but rather than being overly dark or excessively bleak, it was actually kind of hopeful. It's been years since I saw it, but from what I remember, it was pretty much Kung-Fu in the post-apocalypse. Along with the Y: The Last Man style storyline, I though it was a pretty good show that ended well before it's time.

Defiance is definitely interesting to me. I was kind of iffy about the pilot, with it's epic action scene and all, but it's shaping up to an interesting, character driven show that reminds me of nothing so much as Deadwood. When it focuses on the characters and their relationships and struggles in the terraformed St. Louis area, it's fantastic. I will say, it doesn't do action quite as well, and nobody in the cast is anywhere near as good as Ian McShane, Jim Beaver, or Robin Weigert from Deadwood, but I think given time, it could grow into something great.

What about you guys? What sci-fi shows have really pulled you in? What shows have done interesting things with the sci-fi medium?

My ulterior motive: I'm without a show to watch online right now. I'm looking for recommendations

I've only recently discovered the magic of Firefly.

Sadly, I cannot recommend a good recent SF show...

However, if you like Firefly and you're not averse to reading, I'd recommend books from Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium universe. Firefly "borrowed" a lot of stuff from these books.

Click here

In Pournelle's CoDominium universe, conceived of in the 70s, it is an alliance of the US and USSR that carves up the world and dominates human affairs (rather than an alliance of the US and China as in Firefly). In the early 21st century the CoDominium begins to colonize the stars with forced emigration...

Timeline:
1969: Neil Armstrong sets foot on Earth's moon.
1990: Series of treaties ends the cold war and creates the CoDominium--shared global hegemony of US and USSR.
2008: Alderson FTL drive is tested.
2020: First extrasolar colonies established. Great Exodus begins.
2110: Coronation of Lysander I of Sparta.
2111: Formation Wars begin.
2250: Leonidas I proclaims the Empire of Man.
2250-2600: The Golden Age of Mankind.
2273: Prince Samual's World absorbed into Empire.
2603: Secession Wars begin.
2632: Prince Samual's World is bombarded from orbit.
2637: 1st battle of Makassar.
2640: Secession War continues. Many colonies are 'lost'. First Empire is broken--a new Dark Age begins in many colonies.
2658: 2nd Battle of Makassar. Remnants of loyalist fleet take refuge on Prince Samual's World.
2680: Battle of Prince Samual's World. Loyalist forces defeated.
2681: Prince Samual's World is occupied by secessionist forces.
2694: Loyalist engineer coup on Prince Samual's World.
2711: Orbital bombardment of Prince Samual's World. Devastation is widespread--effective end of high-energy civilization.
2723: Last starship visits Prince Samual's World. Loyalist families are evacuated by remnant Imperial Feet.
2740: Prince Samual's University established in neutral city-state to preserve as much knowledge as possible.
2791: Plague on Prince Samual's World many die.
2800: Interstellar trade stops. Piracy and brigandage abounds. Dark Ages throughout former Empire of Man.
2810: 1st Hundred Year War begins on Prince Samual's World.
2864: Kingdom of Haven begins to dominate Prince Samual's World.
2870: Secession Wars end.
2903: Leonidas IV of Sparta proclaims Second Empire of Man and vows to recover lost colonies.
2915-2990: Wars and plagues abound on Prince Samual's World. Kingdom of Haven begins war of global unification.
3013: Prince Samual's World discovered by Imperial Navy. Empire of Man allies with Kingdom of Haven....


Right now I'm reading King David's Spaceship,which begins on Prince Samual's World in 3013.

Prince Samual's World is going to be absorbed by the Empire. The problem is, since Prince Samual's World is such a backward planet--tech level is roughly late 19th century--they will be recolonized. Recolonization means that the world will be dominated by off-worlders from civilized, spacefaring cultures and that it will have no representation in the Imperial government. The only way to avoid this fate is to acquire the knowledge to build a spaceship and prove that Prince Samual's World is advanced enough to govern itself...


I'm about halfway through the book. It's good.

^^^ Bit of trivia...

CLICK

Fringe (RIP)

Newest : Orphan Black on BBC-A

Sanctuary.

I loved that show with the vast majority of my heart and was quite upset when it was cancelled.

Fringe. Usually I'm not really the science fiction series type of guy. But I LOVED this show. Mainly because of John Noble (I think most people know him as Denethor in Lord of the Rings)

He played one of the best roles ever. A scientist who spent 17 years in a mental institution after a lab accident killed his assistant. He shows every emotion so convincingly. He's able to make you laugh out loud (I did, numerous times, people stared at me on the train) and make you tear up 5 minutes later.

I also loved Alphas. Super hero show that was shamefully cancelled after 2 years. The premise was a group of Alphas (specially talented people) working as a investigatory team, tracking down other Alphas. What I loved most about it was that almost no one was over-powerd. A lot of abilities were toned down, like someone being able to induce the fight-or-flight reflex and push adrenaline in his system to temporarily get stronger. Downside was after 5 minutes he gets heart problems.

And there was Stargate : Universe. I didn't like previous SG iterations, but this one was different. It was about a crew stranded aboard an ancient spaceship, billions of lightyears away from earth with no means to return home. Whereas other SG's where about exploration and human-alien relations, this one was one of survival, psychology and human relationships.
Also shamefully cancelled after 2 seasons.

Screw you Syfy!

There are a number of British shows too. You've probably heard of Doctor Who, but you may not have heard of Blake's 7. And Blake's 7 was Firefly long before Joss Whedon put pen to paper.

The setting is in the far future. How far isn't known, although it is said to be in 'the third century of the second calender', so at the very least in the 23rd or 24th century (it was created in 1977). Earth and its colonies are under the thumb of the brutal Terran Federation, a totalitarian society that uses brainwashing and drugs to prevent rebellion, and won't hesitate to massacre even the most peaceful activists.

Roj Blake was once a successful rebel, but he was captured. Because killing him would create a martyr, the Federation merely brainwashed him. At the time the first episode, The Way Back, begins, Blake seems to be a model Federation citizen with no knowledge of his past, and not knowing that the family he thought still alive were murdered. Rebels convince him to stop taking the drugged food and water, and to attend a covert meeting of rebels. Blake is unsure about his past, until he witnesses the meeting being gunned down by Federation troops.

The Federation, knowing that Blake's conditioning is unravelling, and still wary of creating a martyr, decide to frame him. Using the same conditioning as they had on him, they brainwash a bunch of children into believing that Blake molested them (bloody strong stuff even today, and this was a program made in the 70s), and thus sentence Blake to life imprisonment on the prison planet Cygnus Alpha.

Blake, along with a few other prisoners, attempts a mutiny, but fails. Although it looks like him and his ringleaders, glamorous space pirate Jenna Stannis and acerbic and cynical hacker Kerr Avon, will be executed long before they get to Cygnus Alpha, the prison ship comes across an alien spacecraft, adrift in space after a battle. After some crewmembers sent to salvage it are killed or driven insane by the spacecraft's defence mechanisms, Blake, Jenna and Avon are sent over. They manage to barely overcome the defences. They then abscond with the ship, and follow the prison ship to Cygnus Alpha, where they rescue two more prisoners, cowardly thief Vila Restal, and the burly Olag Gan. Blake dubs the ship the 'Liberator', and decides to use it to hit back at the Federation.

The ship has an AI called Zen, making it the sixth member of the crew. While attacking a Federation outpost, Blake encounter and recruit the seventh member of their crew, a telepathic engineered human called Cally. Thus, they have a motley crew of wanted criminals and terrorists, each with their own agenda, particularly Avon, who chafes under Blake's commands and wants the Liberator for himself. They are soon pursued by Commander Travis, a Federation officer with a long list of war crimes under his belt and with a grudge against Blake. Travis was sent by Servalan, the Supreme Commander of the Federation's military, glamorous, beautiful, and absolutely ruthless.

And that's just the first five episodes.

Blake's 7 was created by Terry Nation, who created the Daleks for Doctor Who. While it often had a budget that made Doctor Who look expensive (yes, that's possible!), many of the stories are quite adult for the time, with lots of moral ambiguity. Easily the best character in the series is Kerr Avon, played splendidly by Paul Darrow. He's always ready with a quick retort or a snide remark in almost any situation.

This is a trailer for the second series of Blake's 7, put onto the DVD set of the first series. Warning, there's a strobing light at 1:48 for you photosensitive Aspies. But the series is perhaps summed up very well in the lines at the end of the trailer...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIHPCAGMCts[/youtube]

Farscape
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lh7eQtcGNo[/youtube]
It's my favourite show of all time. Basically, it's about a human astronaut who accidentally goes through a wormhole and ends up on a space ship with prisoners in the middle of an escape
It also has my favourite antagonist (Scorpius). I thought the plot got better every Season. Although the final Season is not my favourite (there were just a few differences that I personally don't like).
It's funny (gets funnier as it goes along), extremely well acted and has a very engaging plot once they actually get into it. Most of the first Season is filler and character development, which is necessary and you'll be glad for it in the end. And some of the filler episodes are actually the best in the series.