SyFy actually doing some sci-fi

allisolm

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SyFy is developing Frederick Pohl's Gateway into an hour long series. No cast or air date yet. To be produced by David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) and Josh Pate (Falling Skies).
http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/gateway-david-eick-battlestar-galactica-1201568667/

Also SyFy's six-hour miniseries “Childhood’s End”, based on Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi novel will start on Dec 14. Cast includes Charles Dance, Mike Vogel, Daisy Betts, Yael Stone, Julian McMahon, Osy Ikhile and Colm Meaney.

And the series "The Expanse" debuts the first of 10 episodes on Dec 14 as well. Based on Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck’s bestselling book series. Thomas Jane and Steven Strait star.

http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/cha...premiere-date-expanse-thomas-jane-1201568520/
 

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
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Yes, but the real question is will they be able to work any sharks into any of these?
 

Charmonium

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May 15, 2015
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Both series started tonight - Expanse looks interesting. Haven't watch childhood yt.
 

Zim Hosein

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Both series started tonight - Expanse looks interesting. Haven't watch childhood yt.

I caught Expanse on demand a few days ago and liked the premiere episode, looks promising. BTW, what's up w/ Thomas Jane's hair? :eek:

I'll view Childhood later today and post my thoughts.
 

FerrelGeek

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Jan 22, 2009
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Saw Expanse last night. Need to watch it again to catch more detail. Definitely has potential.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
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i watched the first episode of The Expanse.

i also read the whole set of wikipedia pages about the show, writers and books that the material derives from.

so, two entirely separate things; first, the science.
i love correct science. i also tolerate so-so science, as long as it's not preposterous. i accept that Expanse has dedicated a fair amount of research and they are trying to stick to realism.
second, the actual storytelling and direction. i find the expanse to be just horrible in this respect.

every bad move you can make in filmmaking, they make it. shoveling a ton of characters in the first episode. having deaths and accidents happen to characters who the viewer barely knows at all. big developments to a story that has yet no foundations.
or, as one would say, a clusterfuck.

there are a few interesting establishing shots (say, the crane hands manouvering the huge mineral chunks in the space station, where the guy's arm gets hurt), but they are just shoveled in, and they have no importance asides from the fact that "we can science". could not grasp a single metaphor if there was any.

the dialogue is horribly PG13; even a man who's arm has been torn off has no more intense dialogue that "hey, where's my new arm".
i'm not looking for coarse language, i'm looking for emotion.

good film is about a director telling the viewer "hey, i am going to tell you a story. sit down and watch". and like every story, it needs a beginning, a development, and an end. this series just started with compressing a ton of BS into a single episode where so much stuff happens, i would need to watch it maybe five times to begin understanding what is going on.

same for characters. characters which are unusual need careful introduction, they are not to be just thrown on the screen, assuming the viewer will tolerate them. Expanse completely misses this point, and shovels in weird characters, vistas, environments, languages, themes, sex, violence, all at once.

go to youtube, find a song you like, go to settings, and play it at 2x speed. that's what The Expanse feels like.
 

clamum

Lifer
Feb 13, 2003
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I watched the first episode of Childhood's End last night after reading this thread (and I remembered my co-worker mentioned it too). I thought it was pretty decent, and I have no familiarity with the source material. Man the body on the farmer's girlfriend/fiancee,
when she was walking to meet the orb as it was bringing him back after exploding his house apart.
HNNGGG. It also reminds me of that show "V" I think it was called. I only watched about a half dozen episodes of that show but Childhood's End does remind me of it. Anyway I'm lookin forward to the next episodes.
 

SphinxnihpS

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Feb 17, 2005
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I've been to Gateway, where I unwittingly told Fred Pohl I hoped his wife lost the election (which she did). Pohl Pas.

Childhood's End is the worst of all the ACC books, and I'm betting that the TV show changes it drastically, especially the ending, but we'll see. Why don't they do Rendezvous with Rama?
 

Bacstar

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Nov 2, 2006
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So far I'm not getting it for The Expanse, but it's only two episodes. I may jump ahead and watch the next two episodes on-demand. Would it be good to start reading the books this show is based on?

Childhood's End though I'm really liking. I can't wait to see the final episode tonight. SyFy channel seems to be living up to its name these last few months with some of their shows.
 

SMOGZINN

Lifer
Jun 17, 2005
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Why don't they do Rendezvous with Rama?
Don't get me wrong, I love Rendezvous with Rama, but I don't think it would be very well received as a movie or TV show. To put it frankly the plot moves to slow and
after a lot of build up in the end nothing really happens, it leaves us with lots of questions and nearly no answers.
 

BoomerD

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Feb 26, 2006
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Don't get me wrong, I love Rendezvous with Rama, but I don't think it would be very well received as a movie or TV show. To put it frankly the plot moves to slow and
after a lot of build up in the end nothing really happens, it leaves us with lots of questions and nearly no answers.

One of my favorite ACC stories...I'd LOVE to see it done as a movie...maybe a movie series since there are now 6 books in the Rama series. (4 by Clarke, 2 by Gentry Lee)

Yes, it has some slow parts...and HOPEFULLY, if it's ever made into a movie, they don't try to fill them up with alien monsters or things that never actually happened in the book.
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
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well, RWR has a great buildup to the best cliffhanger ever.

shame the next 2 books went into a totally different direction.
 

bbhaag

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Jul 2, 2011
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I hate threads like this. It makes me realize internet nerds ruin the chance for a decent sci-fi series.