vader vs japanese cops on youtube

Space:1999 (1975 intro)

I remember, when I was 11 years old, watching the ads, probably including this one, on TV in San Antonio and looking forward to it because it I thought it looked exciting and interesting. Then when channel 12 finally started showing it and I finally got a chance to see it, I thought it was excessively cerebral and uninvolving, and, well, boring. Looking at this old "cold open" ad I realize how cheesy and ridiculous it must seem to a modern audience. If it no longer looks exciting and interesting to me I can only imagine how an 11 year old today might regard it.

Friday 11 Jan 2008

Plan 9 From Outer Space is in the public domain. So Now you know.

Why I don't like "BSG"

left: c. 1956 Shelter, courtesy 3wheelers.com, right: James Callis, freaking out in an episode of Battlestar Galactica, courtesy the SciFi channel. And don't tell me to say it's James Callis's character who's freaking out. I know it's his character, for Pete's sake. But isn't is wearisome to always say, "James Callis's character, who is the only one who can see Tricia Helfer's character, blah blah blah..." Well, isn't it? Do you know how monotonous it is when people do that? I could go on, but this is only a caption... Yes, I'm fond of elipses. If you don't like elipses, frag off, as the characters on BSG might say...


1.There's something about the show, something a little hard to define-- whether it's the dialogue, or the acting, or the pacing-- that tells me the people doing it are constantly preoccupied with the darkness and supposed significance of the whole endeavor, like it's Alain Resnais in space or something. If anything, their hi-falutin' portentousness actually makes me miss Lorne Greene.

2. That guy with the British accent, lovesick over the tall outer-space chick only he can see. The actor may well a likeable person, and capable of real acting and range and all that, but I only know him on this show, and here all he ever does is mope about with that look of perpetual consternation. It's really tiresome.

2b. On the other hand, if they had an episode in which he was accidentally sucked out an airlock or something and we saw him drift out into space and explode, maybe I'd start watching. And they could even bring him back as his (non-moping) Evil Twin, so that the actor could keep up his condo payments. That would be ok with me too.