Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- The Panopticon: Do Gay Martians Have the Right to Marry? – Okay, one of the more unusual Star Trek reviews / commentary that I’ve read. Of course, there is something to what he says …
- Bill Mann: Here’s Why the Right Wing Dominates Talk Radio Today: Bill Mann
- Not A Crime?
- Jeff Schweitzer: Dick Cheney Will Protect You, and Liberals Want Your First Born: Jeff Schweitzer
- Here’s How The CARD Act Will Actually Change Credit Cards [Credit Card Reform] – Yeah, ask me how surprised I am that credit card companies are rushing to raise rates while they still can.
- Bad Luck Facebook Scammer, You Picked A Target Who Reads Consumerist [Scams] – I love articles like this.
- Dollar Redesign Project – Ooooh … this looks cool …
- Jim David: Adam Lambert Loses, Homophobia Wins – I have done not a whit of following AI (ever), so I can’t comment on this knowledgeably. But it seems sadly plausible, esp. with Bill O’Reilly getting involved.
- MySQL: Forked beyond repair? | Developer World – InfoWorld – MySQL has become pervasive enough in the web world that it would be a serious problem if it fell apart as a usable standard.
- Keep Kids Safe Online: The Quintura Search Engine – PC World – I’d rather have Katherine use Real Google (with SafeSearch cranked up) and deal with the accidents then teach her to use a dumbed-down Yahoo interface with kites and flowers.
- The British UFO TV series is headed for the big screen | SCI FI Wire – There’s a lot of good concept stuff from UFO that could make for a good movie (or a very mediocre one). A big part of that will be what they do with the production design.
- We’re Doomed!: hilzoy
- Got a cell-phone? FCC claims the right to search your house: Cory Doctorow
- Lessig reviews Helprin’s embarrassing infinite copyright, bloggers-are-stupid, Creative Commons is evil book: Cory Doctorow
- Too much cola causes muscular weakness – I barely had the strength to hit the ‘share’ button on this article. Hmm…
- This Is Not Your Father’s Star Trek – Reflections On The Series And On JJ Abrams’ New Film | /Film – Another good review.
- 10 Things Parents Should Know About the New Star Trek | GeekDad | Wired.com – Good review, and can’t argue much with any of it. I don’t know that I’d take Katherine with us (at 8-going-on-9) yet.
- BA Review: Star Trek | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine – Some great scientific nitpicking on the movie’s science. On the other hand, Abrams is still better than Whedon, whom I also love.
- 11 things about Star Trek that made us go ‘WTF?’ | SCI FI Wire – Some legit criticisms, some goofy. The difference in set design between Engineering and the Bridge was a bit grating (as was Engineering looking like breweries I’ve visited).
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Ooooohh….I loved UFO as a Kid and had several of the Corgi toys (An UFO, one of the SHADO Vehicals, and an Interceptor), though I suspect that it was be like the Thunderbird Movie (Or Get Smart, or the Flintstones, Or the new Pink Panther Movies, or just about any modern remake of classic TV). 🙁
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Engineering was filmed at some Budwiser Plant in LA, so there is a high probility that you have seen it in RL.
I thought it looked like a brewery (albeit with radiation trefoils).
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I was a very faithful watcher of UFO (and love drawing all the cool vehicles). My hope is that they will be as faithful to them as the (hey, I watched that on my last flight to Disney World) execrable Thunderbirds movie, but continue to treat it as seriously as the show took itself. There were some pretty spooky eps they could adopt with ease …
If they screw up my favorite (no, I’m not kidding) sci fi show from my youth, I’ll hunt them down and kill them. I do believe they could make a really fun movie, though, if they get a good script. And you know, Sylvia’s still out there, waiting to improve the “fashion of the future.”
So, key questions:
1. Playing it for yocks, or playing it straight? Grim? Light?
2. Keep the cool vehicles or “improve” on them? (The best thing the TBirds movie did was basically keep the classic vehicle designs. The rest was rubbish.)
3. Keep the cool fashions or replace them? (Certainly Star Trek shows that you can work with “classic” styles and treat them seriously, not like camp.)
4. Keep the English feel to it, or Americanize it? (n.b. – the reference in the story to “under a Hollywood studio” probably answers this one).
FWIW, Mary, I thought of you as soon as I saw the story.
The Writers are not listed on IMDB, the producers haven’t done anything of note other than the infamous “Hounddog” from 2007.
If they Camp it up, it will be a failure.
If they turn it into another Goonies, it will fail.
And yes, they could take all the cool bits from the TV show, play it straight and make it cool, but since it is a bunch of no names producing, and writing it, I will assume that it will end up being like V, The Chronicles of Riddick, or any movie that The Rock is in. But, I’ll reserve judgement until I hear who the Director and Actors are. If it is some like McG or Michael Bay as Director, or The Rock, or Jim Carrey playing Straker, then I’ll know how it is going to be played.
I’ll pay more attention to the writers/directors than to the actors. But, yeah.
The thing is, it’s such a niche/cult classic, it would make zero sense to yock it up. The title and reference back to a few-remember BritTV show of the 70s couldn’t get them much carry-over audience as a comedy remix. Easier to simply make a show about a secret organization of goofballs who are Earth’s last line of hi-tech defense against alien invaders. Throw in a few satiric homages to “UFO” (and MiB and …), and you get all the advantages and none of the need to pay the copyright holders.
But, then, stupider things have happened.
Actually…
The whole “Under a Hollywood Studio” part sounds like a great big helping of Mary Sue-ism to me.
Well, the original was underneath a British studio, so …
Honestly I’d like to see them keep it centered in Britain, even if they have to add some Americans for looks. Although the show never had enough time to develop the complete story, I always knew there was a deeper reason the UFOs were mostly landing in England, something they expected to rediscover or reactivate. The show was always more about the idea of being invaded than things blowing up (like the TV shows Invasion of Threshold), so the script will really matter.
If you don’t play it straight, the concept loses it’s earnestness and that’s half the fun. The new Trek movie found a way to be fun and ‘serious,’ so it can be done. And the designers have to create a future that takes some chances – the future never looks the way we think it will, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to imagine it. Sylvia believed that wigs might become part of daily fashion, so she took a chance. Now folks actually color their hair those wild colors, so was she really wrong?
As Dave knows, I take this really seriously (in a TV sort of way). I have the complete DVDs of the series, and I think it’s time to watch them again – thanks for reminding me.
Well, the best thing to remember is that, even if it turns out to an Abomination in the Eyes of Man and God, the DVDs will still always be there for you. 🙂