{"id":10966,"date":"2007-05-05T23:35:45","date_gmt":"2007-05-06T06:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/05\/05\/the-sci-fi-25.html"},"modified":"2014-11-06T08:29:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T15:29:35","slug":"the_sci_fi_25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/05\/the_sci_fi_25.html","title":{"rendered":"The Sci-Fi 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

EW identifies its picks for the top 25 SF TV\/movies of the past 25 years<\/a>.  Interesting.<\/p>\n

25.  V: The Mini-Series <\/em>(1983) <\/strong>– Watched bits of this at times, but never got into it.  Appreciated the “big story” SF on the small screen, though.  Joe Straczynski cut his teeth on the related TV series.<\/p>\n

24. Galaxy Quest <\/em>(1999)<\/strong> – A brilliant send-up of 60s-70s SF (Trek in particular) and fandom (Trekdom in particular) that still managed to be a rippingly good tale that validated and lauded what it spoofed. <\/p>\n

23. Doctor Who <\/em>(1963ff) <\/strong>– The current stuff is faboo.  The older stuff shows that you can build a successful franchise through imagine, persistence, appreciating your fanbase, and remembering that great FX are not the highest priority.<\/p>\n

22.  Quantum Leap <\/em>(1989-93)<\/strong> – I missed this when it first broadcast, but caught quite a bit of it later in rerun.  It’s almost unfair to call this an sf show — aside from the metaplot, it’s more about period drama and the use of modern sensibilities to address the problems of the past.  Makes you wonder what sort of “problems” Sam would be called upon to fix today.<\/p>\n

21.  Futurama <\/em>(1999-2003)<\/strong> – Simpsons <\/em>sensibilities meet SF.  Fight!  More theme\/story-oriented than the parent Groening cartoon, Futurama <\/em>is still a damn lot of fun.  Never joined the cult, but I enjoyed taking occasional sips of the Kool-aid.<\/p>\n

20.  Star Wars: Clone Wars <\/em>(2003-05) <\/strong>–  Since the first two of the original trilogy were beyond the 25-year scope, the authors chose this iteration of the SW universe.  And that’s hard to argue with, showing both style, plot, and action sensibility, the three of which were hard to find all together at any given point of later SW flicks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

19. Starship Troopers <\/em>(1997)<\/strong> – Unlike 95% of the folks I know, I both enjoyed this film and love the original Heinlein novel.  Take the flick for the delightful satire it is, even if it misses the mark of what the original was all about.<\/p>\n

18. Heroes <\/em>(2006ff)<\/strong> – I missed a huge chunk of the middle episodes, so I have to pass on this one.  I am waiting for the Season 1 DVD set (due out in August).<\/p>\n

17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/i> (2004)<\/strong> – Never saw it.<\/p>\n

16. Total Recall <\/em>(1990) <\/strong>– Love it.  One of the best Ahnold shoot-em-ups combined with SF themes and WTF moments during and after the flick.  Great music, too.<\/p>\n

15. Firefly\/Serenity <\/em>(2002\/05)<\/strong> – Doyce liked it.  My dad liked it.  Not surprisingly, I liked it.  The premature end of the series still depresses me all to hell with “what might have been” sorrow. The film was fine, but more like taking the kids on a great vacation after the divorce than what we might have had otherwise.  I really need to watch the series DVDs again.<\/p>\n

14. Children of Men <\/em>(2007)<\/strong> – I always mistrust entries for lists like this that are too new, especially if I haven’t seen them.  I might have to make a point of catching it on in-room video next time I take a business trip, though, as I’ve heard too many positive things about it.<\/p>\n

13. The Terminator\/Terminator 2<\/em> (1984\/91)<\/strong> – The first is a great “monster chase” horror film. The second adds various nuances along with Ahnold action and Sarah Hamilton as the Scary Obsessive Mom.  Triffic stuff.  The third film was poorly warmed leftovers.<\/p>\n

12.  Back to the Future <\/em>(1985) <\/strong>– It’s easy to dismiss this as pop fluff, but it’s actually a fine, accessible time travel flick, with some fun characters and spiffy music.  Another candidate for rewatching some time soon.  The sequels were good, too, but somehow more institutionalized and less spontaneously fun.<\/p>\n

11. Lost <\/em>(2004ff)<\/strong> – Didn’t catch it at the beginning, and it became quickly clear that this cult show required utter attention to every nuance and twist from Minute 1.  Can’t say anything more about it, except the sneaking suspicion that, in some alternate universe, I have a web site devoted to it.<\/p>\n

10. The Thing <\/em>(1982)<\/strong> – Yeah, it was scary, in an early-80s kind of way, but it didn’t hold a candle to the original novella.<\/p>\n

9. Aliens <\/em>(1986)<\/strong> – Kick-ass horror, suspense, action, and SF.  Not to mention guns, monsters, and a faboo leading lady, great music, as well as some immortal lines (“Game over, man!”).  A true classic in the genre.  Superior to the simple (if profound) ascetic horror of the first film, or the everything-you-knew-was-too-optimistic downer of the third.<\/p>\n

8.  Star Trek: The Next Generation <\/em>(1987-94)<\/strong> – Deserves tremendous credit for kickstarting the franchise, giving credibility to TV SF, and lasting for a decent amount of time.  That said, it started out as stiff and inhuman as the Borg and only loosened up by playing every SF cliche it could. <\/p>\n

7. ET <\/em>(1982)<\/strong> – Steven Spielberg makes for the warm fuzzies in re extraterrestrials, on a far more personal and cuddly level than even Close Encounters.  I saw this once, some time after it was in theaters, and was not terribly impressed.  The kids are cute and plucky, the government is menacing and misguided, the tropes were rickety even in 1982.<\/p>\n

6. Brazil <\/em>(1985)<\/strong> – Terry Gilliam does Kafka and Orwell with darkly comedic results.  What more can one say?  Saw it once, was moved and depressed, have no desire to see it again.<\/p>\n

5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan <\/em>(1982)<\/strong> – The best of the Trek flicks by far, and the most successful in that series’ exaggeration of what made the TV series a success.  As iconic as the series in its various moments, with the best space battle scenes (to its time, and long after), it deserves a classic reward, even if it hasn’t aged well. <\/p>\n

4. The X-Files <\/em>(1993-02)<\/strong> – Never got into this series.  Struck me as “Monster+Conspiracy of the Week” as the True Believer and Skeptic try to solve things without their delicate dynamic changing.<\/p>\n

3. Blade Runner <\/em>(1982)<\/strong> – Never saw this until long after its release.  It’s visually stunning and philosophically provocative, and is rightfully a classic in the genre.  But it’s not my idea of a “sit on the couch and catch a fine flick” kind of movie.<\/p>\n

2. Battlestar Galactica <\/em>(2003ff)<\/strong> – A faboo show with fine effect that does its best when running its characters through the personal ringer and falls apart when it tries to get too, well, SF.  An excellent study of the challenges facing a people who are facing extinction of their race, and what lengths they’ll go to preserve themselves (even if it means abandoning bits of what they are seeking to preserve as a whole).  What is survival?  And how does the attempt to survive change the survivor? Heroes with feet of clay and villains with hearts of gold.  That’s what makes this a great show.<\/p>\n

1.  The Matrix <\/em>(1999)<\/strong> – A great “everything you know is wrong (by a couple of magnitudes)” tale of subjectivity and high technology, this film also kicked the SFX threshold forward a couple of blocks.  A fine movie that holds up today, even in the face of the somewhat-less-successful (on various levels) sequels.<\/p>\n

And that’s the list.<\/p>\n

After which I can only possibly say — Where the frell is Babylon 5<\/u>? <\/em> Cutting edge in computer graphics (in its day), studiously the anti-Trek<\/em>, and the grandfather of every grand-story-arc-driven show on TV, not to mention just damn fine fun in its own right.  There are any number of  things on the list (especially at the lower end) that I would, both objectively and subjectively, bump off in its favor.<\/p>\n

And I might toss in a word or two for Farscape <\/em>as well …<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(via De<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EW identifies its picks for the top 25 SF TV\/movies of the past 25 years.  Interesting. 25.  V: The Mini-Series (1983) – Watched bits of this at times, but never…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[362,43,361,41,360,372,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-tv-babylon-5","category-media-tv-doctor-who","category-media-tv-fireflyserenity","category-media-movies","category-media-tv-star-trek","category-star-wars-media-movies","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131455,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/a-golden-anniversary-for-the-show-that-changed-sf.html","url_meta":{"origin":10966,"position":0},"title":"A Golden Anniversary for the show that changed SF","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Sep-16 8:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's hard to believe, but it was 50 years ago today that the first episode of Star Trek aired on NBC television. Presaging airing order weirdness for future SF shows, the first episode was \"The Man-Trap,\" not the (second) pilot that had sold the series.The article below tries to speculate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128344,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/18\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less-redux.html","url_meta":{"origin":10966,"position":1},"title":"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi TV Shows (kinda-sorta more-or-less) (Redux)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 18-Oct-15 11:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"So this is based on an article from a Popular Mechanics (!) article on \"The 50 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows Ever\" [http:\/\/www.popularmechanics.com\/culture\/movies\/g156\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows]. See here [https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/17\/the-50-greatest-sci-fi-tv-shows-kinda-sorta-more-or-less.html] for caveats and comments on that list. I've decided to do my own force ranking (thanks +Stan Pedzick), working within the same list (to do otherwise\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/TV%2BGuide%2BSF.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10080,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/09\/08\/the_original_series.html","url_meta":{"origin":10966,"position":2},"title":"The Original Series","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Sep-06 8:57am","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, it gets poked fun at a bit today -- but when Star Trek debuted forty years ago (!) tonight ... egads. SF on TV to that time had...","rel":"","context":"In "Star Trek"","block_context":{"text":"Star Trek","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-star-trek"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/startrek-tos-cast.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130718,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/05\/21\/hey-maybe-star-trek-beyond-wont-suck-either.html","url_meta":{"origin":10966,"position":3},"title":"Hey, maybe "Star Trek: Beyond" won't suck, either","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 21-May-16 5:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"After the Ghostbusters reboot second trailer came out looking like a possibly-maybe-better movie than the first trailer did, Star Trek: Beyond has something that -- besides spoiling a whole bunch of stuff, it seems -- feels like an action-adventure SF movies that I might actually enjoy watching. View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49720,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/01\/emotional-moments-from-sf-tv.html","url_meta":{"origin":10966,"position":4},"title":"Emotional moments from SF TV","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 1-Mar-15 10:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A cool article\/video if only because it includes some (very justifiable) bits of #Babylon5 in the mix (along with BSG, TNG, and X-Files).YMMV, of course. Video: Ars picks ten emotional moments from our favorite sci-fi TV shows Some truly great character bits from some truly great television episodes. View on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49768,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/06\/the-swinging-sci-fi-sixties.html","url_meta":{"origin":10966,"position":5},"title":"The Swinging Sci-Fi Sixties","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 6-Mar-15 9:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've kind of gotten into the swing of tailoring movie choices with my daughter around the era that she's studying in history. We've dealt with 40s-50s so far, and she's moving into the 60s. So the question becomes, what SF movies from the 60s (that I consider iconic and\/or enjoy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/fantastic-voyage-poster-1966-everett5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10966"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37145,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10966\/revisions\/37145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}