Conference noted::sf

A reviewer in the Denver Post said it looked like a cartoon with human 
characters rather than drawn ones.  A style very reminiscent of Ice Pirates,
that movie classic with Robert Urich.  Pretty dreadful, actually.  I do like
the fact that they're using bullets rather than laser blasts, kind of a
throwback to simpler times, I guess.  And one more thing: that JoJo is some
kinda woman, eh?

-Patrick

    Lame doesn't begin to describe this show, but it's the kindest word I
    can think of right now.  Linda Hunt was either severely bored or broke
    to be a part of this trash heap.
    

    Personally, I always use bullets in pressurized ships while surrounded
    by vaccuum.  I find it adds that special kind of tingly excitement to
    my day.  It also helps keep my dock crew employed patching holes. 
    
    
    "Space Rangers" = blech.
    

    Oh, it wasn't that bad.   
    
    
    Okay, the effects were worse than Saturday morning kid-fare effects. 
    And yes,the personalities and plots were fairly predictable.  BUT -- 
    the scripts and delivery of dialog didn't make me wince, and I was
    actually sort of interested what was going on.
    
    No, Space Rangers won't attract intellectuals by the dozens, and I
    suppose it will bear inevitable comparison to Star Trek, which neither show
    deserves.  Space Rangers will end up on the losing side of the
    comparison, but for all its "this could be better" flaws, at least--at
    LEAST--everyone wasn't so damned nice and squeaky clean.
    
    
    kim

    I agree with .4--it wasn't that bad--heck, I'd only rate it as bad as
    Battlestar Galactica.
    
    They seemed to have set Space Rangers in a universe equivalent to the
    one Alien and Aliens were in (bullets, bureaucrats, and space travel). 
    Sure, there were holes in the script you could drive a deathstar
    through, but it beats the heck out of watching most of the new 
    series on the tube.
    
    _Randy
    

    The writing is terrible.  The dialogue is stupid, the plot contrivances
    are absurd, the pacing and transitions haphazard at best.  All we're
    left with to enjoy are the actors.  I kinda liked Chernault, Boone,
    JoJo and Zylyn.
    
    Let's put it this way -- it's not even as good as Covington Cross.  The
    only reason it's not more of a disapointment is that I wasn't expecting
    all that much from it anyway.

Yeah, the writing is the worst aspect of the show.
The morphing was nice, the matte painting weak.
I'm somewhat forgiving of the character development, and willing to give
them a few episodes to straighten it out, if they last that long.
Almost every ensemble TV show from All in the Family to ST:TNG
starts out on shaky ground, building personalities that can mesh
for continuity.  In the first episode, there's a rush to build as much
context as you can stand for the characters' rationales and motives.
In SR, the obvious example is the guy with the prosthetic arm being
paranoid about letting "Central" know about how prosthetic he really is.

But the plot devices......  Jeeesh....
The old chestnut about the AI failing into a jibbering mass
upon encountering something unusual.
They may not be able to recover from that, ever.

- tom]

PS: Cheer up, ST:DS9 starts tonight in the Boston area.  8pm, channel 56.

        FYI -- There were only 6 episodes of this show made and there are
        no plans to make any more.  Thank the Force!
        
        Steve  

The actress who played JoJo would make a decent Romulan. Or a feisty Elf, a la
Tolkien.

Wook

No improvement.  Episodes two and three were worse than one, 
and three was horrid.

This one's a deader.

    I think some people are taking this show more seriously than it takes
    itself.

    Actually, the problem is that we're not taking it seriously at all....
    
    I have no objections to an insouciant attitude in SF; I love Buckaroo
    Banzai, after all, and the highlight of the premiere was the early line
    "Please do not strike the equipment."  So if you mean some people are
    being humorless about the show, I think you're wrong.
    
    The problem is precisely that the show doesn't take itself seriously as
    an endeavor.  It seems to think that slapping together some futuristic
    sets and costumes will be sufficient to draw a large audience of SF
    fans.  There's no attention to the fundamentals that make a show
    interesting or enjoyable.

Strange.  Last night they showed the pilot show, which I thought might be
a repeat (already?) but it turned out to be real pilot, where characters
are introduced, and the crew gets set up (Dan, the new guy, is shown coming
in with the latest batch of recruits and then tries to sell himself to 
Boone).  We also see Boone's wife and kid, though the earlier shows
had them on earth, and either separated or divorced.  I wonder why they 
choose to show them in the order they did.  If anything, I'd say last
night's show had the, ah, most original (stretching it I know), plot 
of the ones I've seen so far.  Looks as if there might be one or two 
more 'inbetween' shows, though maybe they ditched some of the ideas out
of this one.

PeterT

    So *that's* why I was left wondering -- geez, didn't that kid already
    show up before?
    
    I was beginning to wonder if maybe the gung ho kid wasn't the same one
    I'd seen before (altho he looked the same).
    
    As for the show itself, the quality-meter gives it about a 2 on a
    possible 4, but hell, I *still* like it anyway.  It can only improve if
    it sticks around long enough to do so.  Besides, I like the theme song. 
    Lose the little sherrif's star logo, tho.  
    
    
    kim

It may already be gone.  Postings on rec.arts.sf.tv talk about it being 
put on hiatus.  I don't know if that means they will be showing this 
Wednsesday, or it's already been replaced.  Supposedly only 6 episodes
were shot (not sure if this includes the pilot).  Ah, well...

So it goes,
PeterT

    Haven't seen this one in several weeks, guess it was cancelled (?)
    
    Jim

    
    we can only hope :')
    

    The STARZ premium service is showing "Space Rangers" movies, under the
    subtitle (as I recall) The Chronicles I, II, and III.
    
    One of the previous notes indicates that 6 episodes of the series were
    produced; it appears as though the three movies were created from them.
    
    Dave