Star Trek vs Babylon 5

[Roger Godpleton]

That first episode of the new season that aired this week was so great. I can't believe Starfleet Cooper Draper Pryce has to hire a black person now.

[Dandontdare]

Anyone see a short-lived series called Starhyke which starred Claudia "Ivanova? - Ivanavon too!" Christian? I keep walking past the DVD in a trade-in shop and it only costs a few quid but since I've never heard of it and the "complete" version is 6 episodes, I'm not expecting much.

[Onlyverysmall]

@ Klute
That's a good argument, I may watch it all again soon.

Talking of Claudia Christian, I always thought she looked loads like Anthony Ainley who played The Master in '80s Doctor Who.

[vzzbux]

Sod all you lot. Farscape was some of the best TV and was prematurely cancelled.




V

[Onlyverysmall]

Farscape was very good. Lexx on the other hand could sometimes be sublime...at least the earlier ones, anyway.

[klute]

Sod all you lot. Farscape was some of the best TV and was prematurely cancelled.




V

Farscape was awesome i'm pained to admit that i didn't watch all of it i caught bit's and pieces here and there and now regret not watching the full run.I should put it on my christmas list

[klute]

Farscape was very good. Lexx on the other hand could sometimes be sublime...at least the earlier ones, anyway.

Again as with farscape i wasn't a consistant lexx viewer but i has spent a bit of time recently thinking about it again one for my christmas list.

[the 'artist' formerly known as Slips]

Ive always found Trek to clean, I loved the original series but then I loved "Lost in Space", "Land of the Giants", "the Avengers" and all other 1960 kitsh TV series.  Im not sure I can class it as love.  I think it was Tordel who put his finger on it, the 3 leads made that series and the later films.  I dont like to talk about TNG because I just thought it was a bit pants (and then there was the worse spin offs).  And by Pants I dont mean something that would fit in Rich's underwear thread......   

B5 was grit and dirty to ST's cleaness.  It was a place where aliens didnt really like humans.  In a lot of ST episodes it was "Oh good, solve this millenium old problem we have.  Oh that was the answer?  Its that simple" and off they flew.  B5 had problems every one did, even the ending left problems that werent really resolved.  It just seemed more real less idiolistic and in season 4 (I think) we the humans are the villains of the piece.

maybe in the end it all depends wether you like soap opera style high Sci fi or not.  I guess the same split is apparent in Fantasy fans? 

[Professor Bear]

B5 was grit and dirty to ST's cleaness.  It was a place where aliens didnt really like humans.  In a lot of ST episodes it was "Oh good, solve this millenium old problem we have.  Oh that was the answer?  Its that simple" and off they flew.  B5 had problems every one did, even the ending left problems that werent really resolved.  It just seemed more real less idiolistic and in season 4 (I think) we the humans are the villains of the piece.

This was the biggest stumbling block for me with B5: we condemn racism, sexism and slavery, and while we're not free of those things just yet we're getting there because humans are basically fantastic when you get down to it.  Trek comes from a place where this is a given and thus can be seen to be forward-looking, while B5 assumes we will get worse, not better, and thus can be seen to be regressive.

Farscape was very good. Lexx on the other hand could sometimes be sublime...at least the earlier ones, anyway.

I simply cannot get into Farscape at all.  I got halfway through the second series and then had to give up at that episode where they're on a planet of lawyers and win a court case by setting a branch on fire with lasers and saying it was magic.

[Mardroid]

Anyone see a short-lived series called Starhyke which starred Claudia "Ivanova? - Ivanavon too!" Christian? I keep walking past the DVD in a trade-in shop and it only costs a few quid but since I've never heard of it and the "complete" version is 6 episodes, I'm not expecting much.

I own it.

I bought it really out of curiosity. They hacked out an entire series before they even had a proper channel to show it on. It ended up on DVD first! It's only relatively recently (after being out, literally years) that they have a cable channel to show it on.

Anyway...  The premise was very interesting, and I found it watchable, but overall I didn't think it very good. Possibly better than Hyperdrive, but nowhere near as good as Red Dwarf*. CGI was actually pretty good, but they had years to tweak it.  It showed promise at the end, though.

*I know there are people here who dislike Red Dwarf. I'm curious which episodes they've watched though. If their opinion is based on series 7** and 8, the're missing out 5-6 great series. Buy hey-ho these things are all subjective aren't they? I actually disliked the first episode of series 1. It put me off of the series entirely, and didn't see an episode again until Series 3's Marooned. I soon changed my mind.

**Actually, I like that one, but many of the actual RD fans do not.

[klute]

Space above and beyond....i was gutted when it was cancelled

[Mardroid]

Space above and beyond....i was gutted when it was cancelled

I really liked that too. It ended in such an exciting way too.

[Beaky Smoochies]

I dont like to talk about TNG because I just thought it was a bit pants (and then there was the worse spin offs). 

You're right about the spin-offs, talk about running a good idea into the ground, and whilst I still like (loved it years ago) TNG, it really started to tail off in overall quality around the time they started with the aforementioned gratuitous spin-offs around the fifth season (1991-92), apart from the occasional remarkable episode and/or storyline (the Klingon civil war, the appearance of Spock on Romulus, etc), but it's a shame they didn't just concentrate on TNG alone, and keep all the good material for that series, and when Patrick Stewart announced he was leaving after the seventh (and easily the dullest) season, they should have waited until all work on the series was complete before even thinking about a TNG movie, and then maybe the resulting film may have had a much better script and be a lot less rushed overall... even if you don't like TNG, Slips dude, I suggest you watch the Best of Both Worlds  two-parter, the highpoint of the entire franchise; epic and dark and awesome, "resistance is futile", indeed!

[Beaky Smoochies]

Space above and beyond....i was gutted when it was cancelled

BSG before there was  a BSG, certainly had potential, pity FOX didn't have the cojones to give it a chance...

[JamesC]

I've always bee a 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' man for the following reasons: