Conference noted::sf

    Well, I sort of watched it.  I.E. I had it on, but it didn't keep me
    from reading the newpaper and other things.  It was so engrossing
    that I spent the last 1/2 hour or so watching some of the Outer
    Limit's stuff I had taped the night before ;-)  So, did the evil
    mugwump in the many-tubed iron lung turn out to be Turner's uncle
    as I was expecting, or did the uncle turn up in other ways.
    And I don't know about you, but if I heard my computer hologram
    coughing, I'd ask it what the hell was wrong!!
    
    PeterT
    

    It _was_ pretty rank, wasn't it... The long, non-dramatic pauses
    between bits of dialog certainly helped the, uh, action, and the
    chemistry between the, ah, actors was really, uh... something. (I
    especially liked the self-regenerating mountain range that they blew up
    twice, by way of demonstrating their peachy-keen new gadget (which, of
    course, had to be disabled early in the adventure so it couldn't be
    used to get them out of their various fixes in a straightforward
    manner); I bet they got big production points for using the same
    footage twice.)
    
    Ah, well. (I'll admit I left it on for the duration, but I spent most
    of the time designing garden layouts, glancing up now and then to see
    if they'd done anything interesting yet.)
    
    Re spoiler-related question in .1 (not that it matters whether this
    obvious attempt at a series pilot gets spoiled or not):
    
    
    
    It's unclear. See, I'd been positive it was the uncle (or the other guy
    who went along - whoever had the ring on), but then the mugwump (good
    name!) said stuff about having been trapped there for millenia or
    something. Now, I know time drags when you're strapped to a bunch of
    tubes and waited on by animated puddles of fake vomit, but ten years to
    _millenia_? I dunno. 
    
    HOWEVER: in the Deliverance-style shot of the mangled (but oddly
    unburnt) fist sticking up from the lava, a glimpse of The Ring was
    clearly visible. So. Was that the uncle/other-guy who'd kind of lost
    track of time, or was it a demon who'd eaten the uncle/other-guy, or
    was it the U/O-G who'd been possessed by a demon? [And why should I
    care? ;-)]
    
    My favorite part: where the team leader or somebody blithely freed the
    Yeti from one of his two "highest commandments" by simply saying,
    "Friendship is more important than any law." Pop TV-psych at its worst;
    let's tramp all over the deepest beliefs of other societies, *and*
    justify all manner of crimes in the name of friendship, all between
    commercial breaks. Yeesh.
    
    -b

The biggest dilemma I'm having is whether this or Space Rangers is worse. Both
of these could kill science fiction on TV. Who WRITES this stuff????? Could
they possibly have thought it was GOOD???? liesl

    You know, I was much more seriously insulted by the lack of good 
    dialog in B5 than the absolute absurdness of this movie. 
    I guess it is because it lived up to my expectations (i.e. NONE).
    I thought it was a useless piece of fluff.
    But I didn't get to finish watching it - we taped the rest - I find
    I am almost eager to see the rest from your descriptions.....
    
    (Gees, you don't suppose people might think this is SF do you.....
    THEN I'd start to get upset........;-)   )
    
    Monica
    
    
    

    What they all said - it was pretty awful.  But the worst thing about
    it was the audacity to claim it was "based on" Verne's story. "From the
    author of '20000 Leagues Under the Sea' and 'Around the World in 80
    Days'" (or was it 'Five Weeks in a Balloon'?).  Didn't the original
    story involve descent on foot?
    
    I also got a sense from the (lack of an) ending that this may have been
    intended as (heaven help us) a pilot for a serial.
    
    len.
    

3...5...10..20 km/sec through magma and then they pop out into the 
chamber and the model just smoothly moves along 8^) If they were 
going to have that much trouble stopping maybe they should have 
cut back on the thrusters at some point? Full thrust launch into a 
magma pool? It ain't the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop!

    Somebody on the usenet suggested that this thing appeared to have been
    written for children [and that his 4-year-old just loved it. ;-) ]. I'd
    had that thought myself while watching it, but couldn't correlate it
    with its 9 p.m. time slot... Hey, maybe it's the pilot for a
    Saturday-morning cartoon series. Just _think_ of the "action figures"
    market! 
    
    -b

>    Somebody on the usenet suggested that this thing appeared to have been
>    written for children [and that his 4-year-old just loved it. ;-) ]. 



	I'd agree. The network folks _target_ their stuff for certain
	sections of the public.  After watching five minutes of this
	drivel, I knew it wasn't aimed at me.  I spent the rest of the
	show trying to figure out who it _was_ aimed at :) 

	What must they think of the Sunday, 9pm viewing public? 


Ian S.

        Well I  saw  about  5 minutes of this poor excuse for a movie and
        turnied it off.  If I were an NBC executive I would be hanging my
        head in shame.
        
        Disgustely
        
        Steve

    Two of the most confusing aspects of this incredibly mediocre
    program are 1) Sunday night is supposed to be the biggest night
    of the week for television and 2) an article I read in the newspaper
    a few days before said that the stations were competing for
    audience share for the upcoming ratings.
    
    I can't imagine that any intelligent adult actually sat glued to
    a chair through the whole thing. After the first two segments I
    decided to clean the hamster cage, which turned out to be more
    entertaining.
    
    By 10 pm I turned the telly off and curled up with a good
    sci fi book.  BTW, if I remember right, it was Burrough's explorers in
    the 'At the Earth's Core' series that used a machine to tunnel their
    way to the center. Those books were written for adolescents, but could
    probably be enjoyed by adults. I read them when I was about 16.
    _Marty                                                         

    It just occured to me -- the only things that were missing from this show
    were the silhouettes of Joel, Tom Servo and Crow, near the bottom right
    corner of the screen.
    					andrew

    Well, after mentioning that we'd sit down and see this seriously
    (or hilariously) bad movie - we popped the tape into the machine
    and sat down.
    Could NOT sit through it! I have a high pain threshold, but ugh!!
    I ran out of the room (*honey, don't we have some dirty diapers or
    something to wash?*).
    
    Bad, Bad, toooooo Bad.
    
    Monica

    	Excuse me for interrupting but this movie does not sound like
     THE JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH I have seen with James Mason
     and is about at least 25 years old. Don't tell me that the U.S. 
     networks have again(!) rehashed an old and CLASSIC movie (in my opinion)
     and destroyed more good memories from my childhood.
    
    						Mike N.
    						

        You are  correct.    You  can say that the American networks have
        again bastardized a  classic and have insulted the name of Jules
        Verne.  
        
        Steve

    Yep, that whizzing sound you hear is M. Verne spinning in his grave!