Okay, leaving aside 2001: A Space Odyssey, I thought I'd drop in and offer my opinions on favourite sci-fi movies and series.
Plenty of people have already suggested Doctor Who, and I can't add anything further to that. However, I will add others that haven't been mentioned, possibly because of their (relative) obscurity in the US, but also because of this little fracas.
The Quatermass serials:
I have this username for a reason. The trilogy of Quatermass serials from the 1950s codified the three main forms of alien invasion: we go to them, they come to us, or they were always here. A fourth serial was made in the 1970s, but wasn't groundbreaking.
The second and third Quatermass serials are both available on DVD, in a set that includes the two surviving episodes of the first serial, The Quatermass Experiment. The Quatermass Experiment was also remade as a feature length TV play in 2005, and all three serials have versions done by Hammer Horror, although the TV shows are of better quality.
Blake's 7:
Done on a budget that makes Doctor Who look lavish and overproduced, Blake's 7 is nonetheless important, as it is the show that looked at the themes of Farscape, Babylon 5 (and its spinoff, Crusade), and Firefly long before these shows were made. About former rebel leader Roj Blake and a motley gang of criminals, freedom fighters, and terrorists, fighting against a tyrannical Federation.
Despite the crappy special effects and sometimes camp approach, there were some very adult stories. In the first story alone, Blake, when he starts recovering his memories of being a rebel, is framed for child molestation by the Federation. Now, this is BBC TV in the 1970s, so that was pretty strong stuff, especially for the time. And it was morally ambiguous far more than most contemporaries. One of the best characters is the acerbic hacker Kerr Avon, played wonderfully by Paul Darrow.
Here's a few trailers. The first is done by a fan with new model effects done in CGI, but shows enough of the first series...
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRuqTQYSJMI[/youtube]
This one is a trailer done for the first series DVD, and advertises the second series. It's a good one, but photosensitive Aspies be warned: at about 1:58, there's a strobing light that is on for a couple of seconds. But the last lines in the trailer sum up the series wonderfully.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIHPCAGMCts[/youtube]
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(No longer a mod)
On sabbatical...
07 Aug 2012, 5:28 am
