Category: Television & Movies

If you’re familiar at all with my reviews of the region 2 DVDs of the BBC late ’70s/early ’80s sci-fi series Blake’s 7, you know that the bonus stuff on those is scattershot at best. Kevin Davies, the guy behind the brilliant More Than 30 Years In The TARDIS documentary aired in 1993 (as well as the documentary on the Hitchhiker’s Guide TV series DVDs), had a documentary ready to go for these DVDs, but it was nixed by the new rights-holders to the Blake’s 7 property, with rumors abounding that the Davies documentary reveled too much in the show’s legendary campiness for the tastes of the new owners of the copyright, who were wanting to retool it into a gritty, dark space opera. (In 5+ years, they’ve only managed to turn out some audio dramas, but that’s neither here nor there.) Davies’ work never saw the light of day, and the DVDs had odd assortments of extras that were probably of interest only to the diehards.

Little did I know that the BBC would later turn around and produce its own documentary that would’ve been perfect. I got my hands on a 2006 documentary called “The Cult of Blake’s 7”, which encapsulated the entire series, in half an hour, about as perfectly as anyone could, while interviewing most of the surviving key players you could possibly want to hear from (though Jan “Cally” Chappell was conspicuous by her absence). The show was irreverent, but never mocking – which is a very fine line to walk when you’re dealing with something that went to the excesses that Blake’s 7 sometimes went to. (The degree to which it’s become fashionable to make fun of B7 today really surprises me sometimes, so it’s admirable that the producers stayed this side of outright mockery.) Clips and snippets appear between the interviews, often hilariously appropriate to what’s being discussed. As the documentary was made for widescreen, it’s really startling to see how well many of the clips reframe in 16:9! The whole thing is narrated by Robert “Kryten” Llewellyn of Red Dwarf fame.

Anyway, it’s sad that this came along too late for inclusion on the final season’s DVD set, and even sadder that Kevin Davies’ project seems destined to languish in obscurity. (I’ve never quite worked up the sheer amount of gumption involved to e-mail him and say “Could I get a look at what you did have ready?” and I keep holding out hope that it might be released on its own someday, or just put on YouTube. I’d just like to see it. But in the meantime, this’ll do – I felt it did my favorite ’70s SF series justice.

I’ll be back soon to blog about More Things That Only I Care About. 😆… Read more

I remember not so long ago, ’94ish or so, when J. Michael Stracynzski talking to Babylon 5 fans openly about the show was just an unheard-of thing. These days we have stuff like The Fuselage (where the writers and other creative forces behind Lost talk to the fans).

But there’s an L.A. Times interview with Russell T. Davies (of Doctor Who revival fame) in which he says this:

He also notes that he deliberately keeps organized fandom at arm’s length: “I think we’re an unusual science-fiction franchise in taking a very big step back from fandom and having nothing to do with them. . . . Every program on the BBC has a message board on the website. I forbid it to happen on ‘Doctor Who.’ I’m sorry to say this, all the science fiction producers making stuff in America, they are way too engaged with their fandom. They all need to step back.”

Which I thought was interesting. Now, that being said, I can see where RTD is a bit weary of fandom – there are people who are practically scholars in all things Who, while folks like Losties and B5 fans are just along for the ride and not pointing out contradictions in four decades of continuity across several media – but should the needle in general swing more toward JMS or RTD? Again using Lost as an example, look at the whole hubbub over Nikki and Paulo: the fan feedback literally did those two new characters in, when in fact those characters had been added to explore the story through the eyes of people who weren’t the omnipresent characters such as Jack, Locke, Kate, etc. – which was something else the fans had expressed an interest in. By trying to accede to the fans’ wishes, the makers of Lost arguably pissed away A-story time, or time that could’ve been spent fleshing out better known “minor” characters who’d been there all along – damned if you do, damned if you don’t. (I will say this about that, though – if they hadn’t tried to cram Nikki and Paulo into the story last season, we would’ve missed out on the wickedly funny episode Expose’, which disposed of them in a darkly comical way. That episode alone is almost enough reason to justify their rather limited existence.)

Who’s writing this stuff anyway – them or us? Discuss.… Read more

Fun little poll on BBC America’s site to help you determine which member of the Torchwood team you are, though I’m a little mixed on the results – it’s funny, I could picture lots of stuff involving me and Gwen, most of which probably shouldn’t be discussed in polite company, but I can’t really picture being Gwen. But that’s how the results came in. On the upside, I’m not Ianto.

My wife got me to watch a few minutes of Celebrity Rehab on VH1, and I’ve gotta say, I’m appalled at the shape Jeff Conaway is in – so much so that I didn’t even think to be really irritated that they only ever mention Grease and Taxi and never Babylon 5. I can’t even say I’m disappointed or judgemental of his situation, just appalled that he’s in the situation he’s in. Whatever people know him from, this is a guy who would almost certainly get nothin’ but love from his fans if he could clean up enough to write his autobiography and do a book tour or something like that. If only he could get out from under his demons and do something like that, though I’m sure it’d take more than an outpouring of admiration from a bunch of total strangers to really help him. I don’t know what it’ll take, but I hope he can pull it off – after about 15 minutes or so, I couldn’t watch any more.… Read more

Entertainment Weekly takes Sci-Fi to task for…well…an odd lack of decent sci-fi. The thing that they kinda leave out is that, relatively recently, there has been better stuff on there (Farscape, Lexx, though the latter admittedly ended because its creators felt they’d done all they could with it – man, if producers started thinking that sort of thing all the time these days, we’d be in trouble), and the network has been presented with the opportunity to salvage fairly high-profile fare with a following and didn’t bite (i.e. ABC’s late, lamented Invasion). (For those about to make the contention that Invasion tanked on ABC because it couldn’t hang onto the Lost audience: the numbers might not have been enough for a major over-the-air broadcast network, but would’ve been plenty good for basic cable.)

But here’s a suggestion for a solution: Sci-Fi desperately needs a geek edition of Project Greenlight. When you’ve got people like James Cawley and Rob Caves turning out Trek fan films that just about rival the real thing, and people like Reeltime Pictures, who did countless Doctor Who “spinoff” productions in the ’90s, out there…and people are already willing to watch that stuff at the standard at which it is currently produced…why not tap into that? Now, of course, it’d have to be original productions, rather than fannish takes on the Star Trek universe or what have you, but if the people who have that production capability could turn out something completely original and compelling…why not give those producers and their casts & crews the dough to make that their full-time gigs? Such a contest would be the most talked-about thing in SF circles for years, and would do an incalculable amount of good in reconnecting the network with its target audience. And Sci-Fi could embed two-or-three-person documentary crews with some of the contenders and get Yet Another Cheap-Ass Reality Show out of the deal, though one that’d have a more genuine connection with their audience than, oh, say, wrestling. C’mon, Sci-Fi. Burchuss and I are on hot freakin’ standby.

Other than that, all I can think of is…”pwned!” I’m glad it’s not just me thinking this over at my little niche website.… Read more

Possible big Doctor Who spoilers from a BBC chat show. Call it a gut feeling, but I had a strong hunch this would be the case. Maybe it’s just me being tired, or more narrowly focused on other things (can’t imagine what those might be), but what really bugs me is that I’m not sure how I feel about this news. If, in fact, it’s really news.… Read more