You Can Take Away My Geek Card Because…

[Eric Plumrose]

The dialogue is bollocks ("unobtanium" makes me want to vomit)

I don't get why people have such a hang-up with 'unobtanium'. It's a legitimate term and one not coined by Cameron, who seemed to be using it as seriously as they did in THE CORE.

Talking of which, I really don't hate the aforementioned not even when I saw it at the flicks. And it's got yer man Stan in it.

[shaolin_monkey]

Until...about 5 minuets ago, I had never heard of the Wampa attack scene from Empire Strikes Back. Comedy fucking gold.

and neither had I till I read your post. Just watched the footage - they should've left that in, it's great!

Sorry, no. Just no.

From the moment you hear 'Imperial troops have entered the base. Imperial troops have entered the - KKCHZZT' it's balls out tension as Han etc try to escape. That would have been destroyed by a comedy Wampa arm twatting a snow trooper.

As a DVD extra it's a laugh, but it has no place in the film.

[ThryllSeekyr]

The Walking Dead - the comic, never watched the TV show. I just don't get it! It's bog standard, common-or-garden zombie/survival fare, nothing unique or interesting about it. I also found the writing a bit off - lots of cheesy dialogue, supposedly intelligent adult characters that talked like teenagers, and cheap, soap opera-level shock twists.

Okay, it was latest, the ultimate series about zombie outbreak....world wide and it was done with attention to detail and respect for the genre and the make up effects are awesome.

Despite the fact that it's going the way of actual Undead Apocalypse right!

Apologies if you find the reply unwelcome, but I just felt like saying that!

[The Adventurer]

Indeed, when Walking Dead launched it was a fresh and original take on a mostly dead genre. 15 years later Zombies are pretty worn out again, but Walking Dead set the tread, it didn't ride it's coattails.

[Theblazeuk]

Doctor Who. Much as I respect and admire it as a British institution, I've tried and tried but I just can't get into it. Perhaps this is horribly reductive, but every single episode I've tried to watch starts out promising, then gets wrapped up by a lame, technobabbly deus ex machina. That doesn't constitute good writing imo.

Yeah that pretty much sums up my feelings, though I vaguely feel like some of the older stuff didn't always fall into that trap (but had naffness in other fashions). However I will watch it persistently for some of the concepts it brings to life, even if it doesn't know what to do with them.

'Hand-Mines' was a great idea that should really have been the whole episode.

[Jim_Campbell]

'Hand-Mines' was a great idea that should really have been the whole episode.

Really? How would that have worked, then?

[IndigoPrime]

Clearly, combine it with this: https://youtu.be/H4BNbHBcnDI?t=47

[Hawkmumbler]

Fear Her is a story i'll staunchly deffend as a gem of Series 2 of revived Doctor Who. It isn't perfect, and the Olympics 2012 scene has aged as badly as you would expect (actually, I remember thinking it was naff back then) but has a genuinly brilliant look at humanity being it's own worst enemy, particularly in parent/child relationships, and how abusive parents are genuinly the lowest for of scum in the universe*.

I'll give you Love and Monsters though. Utter guff.

*Davros would disagree but who gives a fuck what he thinks.

[JamesC]

I think Dr Who's strongest assets are the main premise and the design of the TARDIS. I'm not sure the TV show has ever been all that wonderful (it's had its moments but I don't think it's ever been consistently great).
I'd say the old books are the Dr Who material I've enjoyed the most.

When it comes to British tea-time Sci Fi I'd say the first two series of Primeval are about as good as it gets. It's a shame it petered out towards the end.

I'd also like to give shout out to Ultimate Force. Not sci fi but one of the best action shows ever (again, the first two series were strongest). It got a lot of criticism for being a dumb, macho show but I thought it was really well written (especially Tony Curran's character).

[Theblazeuk]

'Hand-Mines' was a great idea that should really have been the whole episode.

Really? How would that have worked, then?

Crossing a minefield isn't tense enough for you eh?

[Jim_Campbell]

Crossing a minefield isn't tense enough for you eh?

For 45 minutes? Again: how would that work as, you know, a story?

(Clue: it wouldn't.)

Cheers

Jim

[Grugz]

i dunno, if you told me they'd do an episode about the doc stuck on a broken down space bus.

[Tiplodocus]

I think I know where Jim is coming from but it could work in the hands of someone very clever and with a few different people thrown into the mix/minefield.


I suppose you can take away my geek card because I feel similarly about the much vaunted "wooden planet" in Alien 3. Cute idea but stands up to little or no scrutiny and what exactly does it bring to the story?

[Spikes]

Agreed.
...and they came within a whisker of filming it (building the wooden planet sets, before pulling them down sharpish once Fincher was on board).

But it always struck me as an act of desperation almost, in a 'nothings working, we've tried a dozen different drafts and writers, lets go totally ape-shit crazy with this' kind of way.

[M.I.K.]

I think I know where Jim is coming from but it could work in the hands of someone very clever and with a few different people thrown into the mix/minefield.

And pigeons.