The story: Inmates swarm from a prison, killing a guard during the breakout. Most of the escapees are shot down, but two armed convicts are successful. They hold a helpless family hostage in their home, until our heroes arrive and the convicts are bludgeoned into submission. This episode is from which '60s series?:
A)The Untouchables
B)Danger Man
C)Petticoat Junction
D)Route 66
Simply post your answer in a comment; everyone is welcome to take a shot at it.
Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica Manifesto:
Before filming started, Ronald D. Moore created a guideline to outline the intent of the show. Let's take a look at a few points, and see how well the show succeeded.
"'Battlestar Galactica: Naturalistic Science Fiction or Taking the Opera out of Space Opera' Our goal is nothing less than the reinvention of the science fiction television series. We take as a given the idea that the traditional space opera, with its stock characters, techno-double-talk, bumpy-headed aliens, thespian histrionics, and empty heroics has run its course and a new approach is required. That approach is to introduce realism into what has heretofore been an aggressively unrealistic genre."
I think the show was succesful at most of this. Sci-fi had become a stale genre, and Moore's intent worked out well, for the most part. The show did have its share of stock characters, and many would point out that the "opera" part was left intact, as a soap opera in space. Baltar could certainly be hysterical at times as well. But I do think the show made a good attempt at realism.
Ah, the centurion has ridges on its head, and not bumps...got it!"We will eschew the usual stories about parallel universes, time-travel, mind-control, evil twins, God-like powers and all the other clichés of the genre." Okay...
Parallel Universes: Granted, characters didn't conduct monkey business in alternate realities consisting of pointless plotlines. But the Cylons' projection abilities almost functioned in the same way, much like holodeck shenanigans.
Time-travel: Thankfully, none of this wackiness took place in the series. Time and time cycles did play a part in the series, but people weren't jumping back and forth in time or creating absurd paradoxes.
Mind Control: Ooops. Cylons were certainly controlled at times, and probably Baltar and Starbuck as well.
Evil Twins: Big Ooops! Just look at the Boomer/Sharon/etc. character. The series really embraced this forbidden concept.
God-like Powers: Is returning from the dead a God-like power? Where I come from, it is.
"Our spaceships don't make noise because there is no noise in space. Sound will be provided from sources inside the ships -- the whine of an engine audible to the pilot for instance. Our fighters are not airplanes and they will not be shackled by the conventions of WWII dogfights. The speed of light is a law and there will be no moving violations."
Space Noise: It's a common misconception that sound can't travel in space; just ask Harlan Ellison about that. But no one knows what a space battle might sound like, so I'll give them a pass on this one.
Speed of Light Law: Ironically, the ships' utilize FTL drives for propulsion, and FTL stands for "Faster Than Light". They had to do it, it's a vast universe.
Overall, I think the manifesto was followed as much as possible, but the realities of network television drama intruded. The "Naturalistic" approach worked, as long as the viewer considers ghosts (Starbuck, and her dad as well) to be natural. Sometimes the plot wandered unintended paths (such as when Richard Hatch's character was added), and sometimes they painted themselves into corners for dramatic purposes (such as the death of Starbuck). But still, it was a great show, and probably did reinvent the way serious sci-fi should be portrayed. Was it the best ever? Nah, it just didn't quite match the best of all time--Babylon 5.
Hammer Film of the Week:
This week's Hammer film....isn't a Hammer film! Several British studios tried to copy Hammer's success, and rarely succeeded. Tigon's The Witchfinder General is one of the very few that did. Filmed in 1968, the movie tells the story of a true figure (Matthew Hopkins) who was empowered to roam the 17th century English countryside, extract confessions, and execute those suspected of being witches.
Though tame by today's standards, the film raised quite a few eyebrows on both sides of the ocean at the time with its gritty portrayal of a corrupt inquisition. There's almost no humor in the story, but director Michael Reeves balances things with beautiful photography and a great score. Some consider this to be Vincent Price's greatest performance, as the grim and evil Hopkins. Price was forced to play the role in a serious manner, unlike the over-the-top campiness that we usually love from him. Tensions between Price and the director were very high on the set, and they almost came to blows on how Price should play the part. After seeing the end result, Price later apologized to Reeves for his behavior. It's been very difficult to see the original version of this movie until recently. It was released in the USA as The Conqueror Worm, with a narration tacked on from Edgar Allen Poe's obscure poem (although the film had nothing to do with the poem).
Releases on VHS had the original score stripped out and replaced with synth doodlings. It wasn't until the recent MGM DVD was released that we could see the film back in its original version, and it's worth seeing again.
I'll finish off with something even more terrifying than a Hammer film...a graph of the projected budget deficit, from the Washington Post.
Thanks for reading...feel free to post any comments that come to mind, and send any extra stimulus packages my way. Watch out for snakes, especially those in congress!