Saw a trailer for Falling Skies tonight during Southland. Looked pretty good, some recognizable cast members, but maybe dangerously close to being V. LOL

The trailer we saw tonight had more cgi and action, but I don't see it on youtube yet. This one is from a month ago.
Keep your fingers crossed that it will be good.




edit: this looks a little like the one tonight, but seems shorter.

I truly hope it will be good, unfortunately we have been let down by quiet a few shows.



Bullet

I am starting see more adverts for this series.

~4 weeks to go to the show premiere. Has anyone heard advance word on this show? good? bad? fair? The adverts and vids above look good!



http://www.tnt.tv/series/fallingskies/

Well, the executive producer behind it is Spielberg and he's had a very good track record with tv shows that he's been involved with so far. I will definitely watch the 2 hour pilot. Oh, and I noticed Mark Verheiden is a co-executive producer as well. He was one of the top writers for the new BSG.

writeup on Falling Skies in the today's LAT. You can read it here:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/tv/la-et-falling-skies-20110617,0,7557440.story

I am gettign excited, I just hope it is good, or hell at this point even just decent,lol.


Bullet

Looks great.

What the new V should have been, perhaps.

The premise reminds me a little of the classic BBC series The Tripods (which I loved - also a youth-focused survival-in-a-world-where-the-aliens-are-already-here story).

Interesting that Disney picked up the rights to The Tripods, movie-wise - rumored to be a film planned.

I'm nervous. This is looking too good. I'm still afraid it may turn out to be another V. I want something more along the lines of a sci fi "The Walking Dead" type treatment.
We find out tomorrow night!

Addendum to my post above, couldn't let that reference pass without posting a video.

Oh, how I loved the eighties.

I really enjoyed it. I saw some disconnects but what the hell, still was enjoyable,
,,



Bullet

It's hard to get a series like this started, so I'm reserving judgment. Good cast.
Seems a lot like BSG and V, but strictly from the human perspective. Looking forward to some mainstream shows to see what they do.

I read the book in grade school. It was good.

According to the link below, the series premier was ratings success:

http://tv.msn.com/tv/article.aspx?news=654074&gt1=28103

pretty bad. who finds this formulaic stuff interesting? not a single original idea., which would be okay if it were done well. it wasn't. even the action scenes were kind of "meh" in that way on lots of tv shows where they look kind of staged and underwhelming (ohh, I bet that car is gonna explode RIGHT AFTER they run past it! Bing!). the sooner it's cancelled, the better. Surprised the creators didnt hold themselves to a higher standardgivent
That some of them worked om much betteer scifi shows. I mean, who writes for a show as good as BSG and then serves up leftovers as stale as what was in the pilot?



New title should be Falling Ratings

Oh dear

Oh well, I'm downloading it now and will watch this week some time. Hoping it won't join the recent roster of turkeys I've put myself through..

I have one main theory,


The network is TNT. TNT has been known for a long time to be a network that is constantly striving to appeal to a mainstream audience so that will restrain the producers of the show from doing anything that could be considered creatively risky.

Also keep in mind that TNT is a much bigger cable network compared to SyFy so the ratings have to be higher which unfortunately means that the show needs to be more "mainstream" in its tone and presentation.

I was hoping it'd be good, hence my dislike for it. I guess if you adjust your expecrations for slightly below average, it'll be okay

That is very impressive indeed. I'll be curious to see though if the viewership drops off, stays stable or increases as this first season progresses.

5.9 million viewers is outstanding for pretty much any cable network and some networks like SyFy have NEVER gotten that many viewers with any show. Not even BSG during its height of popularity.

I really hope this doesn't sound elitist but most of us here who frequent the outer space forum on SimHQ have tastes that for the most part don't coincide with those of the mainstream tv audience so it doesn't surprise me that you didn't like it.

Yeah, I will cop to being elitist, if elitist means expecting excellence. With so much great TV to choose from, both current and past shows, I don't see the worth of so-so or bad stuff, unless it is ridiculously entertaining. Taste is subjective, I know, but even objectively, FS brings nothing new to the table.

It was alight, not great. Performances were good. I kept having flashbacks to that old Dr. Who Dalek film starring Peter Cushing set in London.

Heh, if most tv viewers demanded excellence we wouldn't have a million different crime procedurals, medical dramas, reality shows and talent shows.

The relatively low ratings of that which you consider "excellence" is why we get so little of it.



The Jedi Master

I'd like excellence, but I no longer expect it. LOL
One thing is that I kept thinking of were those Noah Wyle TNT "The Librarian" movies. Like a campy Indiana Jones. Not bad for tv movies, but not all that good either. This is to good sci fi what those movies are to Indiana Jones.
His character is pretty much the same as those movies too.

Would be nice to get a hardcore sci fi show, set far off and in the distant future or past. The real deal. The new wave of disaster movies, which this probably qualifies as, are just not that much fun to watch. I want something along the lines of Empire Strike Back meets Babylon 5.

Still, I'll watch this one a few more times to see if they manage something interesting.

That would be great indeed. Unfortunately it seems that there are too few of us out there to merit a show like that. This is why I created that other thread about whether or not people would be willing to pay monthly for a premium cable channel that showed REAL high quality sci-fi shows.

Could we swap it for some more Firefly and SGU puh-leaze?

Add Caprica to the list and I'm on board.

Can't help but think the next thing to come out will be a new Buck Rogers. They'll copy the 80's show but modernize the stories like BSG did. That would have possibilities, but only if they leave out the friggin robots.
I'm fairly sure they can't do anything purely imaginative.

Well, to be fair a show set that far in the future begs for AI of some kind. Whether conventional robots or some other form, to have a show in the 25th century without them leaves you with ST, which other than Data and the Doctor totally avoided robots as a regular thing, only unusual, and B5 because JMS disliked them.

I'm not saying the handling of robots in BR was so great, just that I think they should be there in some way.



The Jedi Master

Having robots/androids in a sci-fi tv show or movie can AND does work well. It's all in the execution and writing.

Um just a few examples of where having robots/androids worked well!

I Robot
Terminator
BSG
Star Wars
Metropolis
Transformers

I'm shocked your list doesn't start with ...Bladerunner

No, no, no.
I mean THIS kind of robot.

"I'm fully programmed for multiple pleasuring techniques", things you don't ever want to hear from Twiki the robot.

Correct me if I'm wrong but the replicants in Blade Runner wouldn't be classified as androids since they were composed entirely of organic material. Isn't an android usually a being that is composed of both inorganic and organic material?



edit: Ah here's a definition I found online,

An android is a robot or synthetic organism designed to look and act like a human.


Ok, so I guess since the replicants in BR were artifically created, they would be classified as a synthetic organism.


You are right.

Just watched the first eps... good production values, decent acting. Script obviously follows the well-worn path but still, I'll probably watch this one (not as if there's much competition at the mo).

He didn't say androids. He said "leave out the friggin robots" which is something else.



The Jedi Master

I'd forgotten that Gary Coleman guest starred on Buck Rogers. Lol.

ewwww pervert

Bedebedebede...BUCK!
Yosemite Sam just doesn't make a good robot companion. LOL
When in doubt, show more Erin Gray instead.

Actually, Mel Blanc was 10x better than the alternative. In the early part of the second season, the guy who was actually in the suit did the voice. GOD AWFUL. Whiny. When Blanc returned for the end of S2 it was a blessed relief.



The Jedi Master

Back to "Falling Skies". I finally saw it friday night on repetition. I think its ok, i liked it, but it's not great, so far. Had better first impression with BSG.
Talking about the series, after seeing the pilot, i saw the comics, and i think that the mechs are driven by controlled humans, thats why they are bipedal. What do you think?. But maybe the objective its make you think that, writers play a lot with the viewer with those kind things.

The mechs look too small to be driven by a human UNLESS it's children in there.



The Jedi Master

I want to like it but I don't care about the characters, it's very cliched and I keep expecting every character to say "...and, god bless America!" at the end of every sentence. Pretty cheesy.

I think that's the influence from Spielberg. He tends to get a bit sentimental in some of his movies/shows.

I haven't watched the last one yet, did the aliens run around with flashlights instead of guns?

No, they can't have both, they have to choose between flashlights or guns since Spielberg was a Doom 3 fan.



The Jedi Master

Huh?

I simply cannot understand this attitude. If you don't like it, don't watch it. Or how about "I hope it gets better"? Only 2 episodes in and you want it cancelled. That's why there is rarely any good Sci-Fi on, Sci-Fi fans are so incredibly picky. Too much so when you start wishing for a programs cancellation after only 2 episodes. How is it being cancelled going to make anything "better"? The slot will just be filled with re-runs or some reality show crap.

I haven't been overly impressed, but I'm going to keep watching for at least 6-8 episodes and hope it gets better. It beats watching Firefly episodes over and over again, even as much as I love Firefly.

I don't think anyone is in them, they're just robots. I think.

I usually give a new show at least that many episodes when I'm giving it a shot. That's about what I gave ST: Enterprise before I gave up on it.

Except Enterprise needed 2 seasons to find its footing, unfortunately.

I will say this about FS...it's slow. Even when it's not supposed to be slow, it comes across as slow.
You know the pacing of action movies when they give you those "breathers" in between set pieces? That's like the way the show is 99% of the time. The moments where stuff happens are very brief and spread out.
This was probably done for budgetary reasons, which is a shame. Another good idea that won't make it because budget forces them to spend too much of the show talking.
Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis had small budgets, yet they managed to spend at least half the show DOING stuff.
FS just feels static.


The Jedi Master

Enterprise was just about my favorite ST. Started out far better than TNG did, but TNG really nailed it after about 3-4 seasons. Enterprise lost it in the last few shows after the big conflict was resolved.
Sci Fi shows rarely grab me right away. Only Farscape, Firefly, BSG and Enterprise managed that with me. Even TNG and Babylon 5 I pretty much wrote off for a while due to the slow starts.

Keeping my fingers crossed on this.
The kids in the mechs makes sense, due to kids being captured and adults killed as well as the size of the mechs. They also pointed out how odd it is that multi-legged aliens would build bi-pedal mechs. I think it's more likely the kids are used for something else and there will be another alien race in charge, with what we've seen being a lower class soldier/worker races that are simply different.

Both TNG and B5 had first seasons that had quite a lot of rough spots in them. Shoddy acting from a lot of guest stars, cheap special effects, some boring stand-alone stories, some corny dialogue, etc. Both shows improved dramatically of course later on.

Agreed. Enterprise was great, I enjoyed how they learned things that in later shows were taken for granted and how they couldn't solve every problem by reversing the polarity of something. The Xindi arc wasn't all that great to me, although there were some good stories in it. And the last show was the worst ending of any TV series I've ever watched.

Finally watched ep 2. Looks like Baltar has showed up.

Other than the finale, I think Enterprise's final season was awesome. It was what the show should have been from the start. Instead, they were trying to retcon ST (long before JJ's film found a plausible way to do it) with a bunch of lackluster stories. The Xindi arc was flawed, but it was better than what came before. Its main flaw was it took an entire season and it really wasn't that strong. It was a 1/2 season, maybe 2/3 max.
They stretched it out to a full one (actually over that if you count the end of S2).


The Jedi Master

Just watched the second episode, pretty good, I'm definitely more invested in this than, say, V after two (not that that's a very high yardstick, mind).

Pope is definitely the best character in it though!

Not James Callis, but Steven Weber (who I still remember best from "Wings").

Im really enjoying the series

Looks like it got renewed for season 2 already

Must admit I'm surprised. Two weeks of stable ratings and they're ready to commit?


The Jedi Master

I think a lot of broadcasters are very aware of viewer disillusion about new shows, people don't want to commit to watching a show because a lot of the times it gets cancelled.

So if they believe the show is a winner they'll announce a renewal pretty early to get people to keep watching it.

HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones both got renewed after one show, for instance.

I like the show it's interesting, gritty real all that but I think about how "V" was just getting interesting and it was cancelled so I'm not counting on it lasting very long

I too am starting to like it. I can hope it last longer then one season.




Bullet

Getting tired of the refugee lifestyle business already. I hope at some point they get organized and it turns more military oriented. Kind of like V, and even Terminator: SCC sometimes, they talk too much playing soldier and not enough tv time doing something. Feels like they have a limited CGI budget and have to build 95% of the show around just the humans. Of course, that's probably true, but doesn't make for a great show.

There isn't much I can see in how they depict how the survivors live that I would claim wouldn't be plausible given the circumstances of most of the human race being wiped out and the world being occupied by aliens with technology vastly superior to our own. Given their limited resources and the need to scavenge most of the time just to stay alive, plus most of them being civilians with no military experience and very limited weapons/ammunition I think it is reasonable for them to not be engaging the aliens in combat very often. Boring on some level yes, but realistic.

Good news for Falling Skies fans,

http://airlockalpha.com/node/8589/tnt-orders-second-season-of-falling-skies.html

Good, but 2 seasons does not mean much,lol. The 3rd will be the test,lol.


Bullet

This should interest you, PM



6.5m average viewing numbers pretty good for the genre.

6.5 m for a sci-fi show on a cable channel is astounding. Heck, Fringe barely gets more than those numbers and it's on a major broadcast network.

Another solid episode this week, just watched it - predictable outcome but the journey is entertaining nonetheless.

The more i see this series, the less i like it!. As somebody wrote, its too sssssllllloooowwwwwwww!!!!. It's becoming tedious!. And because of the more broader audience target, it also feels seely how they treat the more dramatic subject like the fight between humans for resources and survival, and so on.
If things don't start to heat up a little i will stop viewing it because each episode its more boring that the previous.

No show can please everyone. If there was a big all out battle every week between the humans and aliens there would be a bunch more stop watching because that was unrealistic. I'd probably be one of them.

Exactly. It just has to please enough people for it to stay on the air.

Oh dear! All of what I thought were strengths of the series are apparently what's wrong with it on this forum!

I like the military/civilian struggle of priorities, the "human" focus, the pace that isn't "slow" to me but rather foreboding, and the unfolding storyline.

Maybe it's because I've been combat arms, but that's what soldiering life is - prepare, patrol, wait, move, prepare, patrol, wait, move....rinse and repeat.

I don't want cutsie suprise plot twists ("He's a cylon/she's a cylon/and Good Lord he's also a cylon! What a shocking bit of suprise betrayal yet again!") for the sake of going off the path of predictibility.

In fact it's refreshing that the aliens aren't suddenly being whooped all at once thanks to Mr. Hero and Dedicated Sidekick, with appearances of Comic Relief and Love Interest. Nobody is larger than life in the show, everyone looks whipped, and they're grasping for straws.

How is this developing? I've got the last 3 on dvr and can't get myself to watch. Last one I saw they seemed to be bringing in a Balter character.

Like all good Sci-Fi, it's a Western at its heart. It's not a religion - it's not supposed to change your life; it's supposed to entertain you.

I liked them; you know what's going to happen up through the last one aired - but the getting there is told really well.

It has some evil stuff in it, too, if one pays attention, especially if one listens to the last part of the last episode at the "Lodge." PBMF.

Unless they put the whole thing on ice and bring out the Alien Girl Dancers with disco music, I'll probably buy the DVD's when they come out.

There have been duplicitous characters in theater, film, movies, books etc. since story telling began, to try to claim that the Pope character (assuming that is who you are referring to) is a ripoff of BSG's Baltar is ridiculous.

And if the last show you saw was when Pope was introduced I don't know why you're bothering with this thread, except to cast aspersions against a show that you're well out of date on.

Quotes they should have had in the series:

"Sorry, Honey, but there can only be one hot blonde fighter chick on patrols, and you ain't it. You're skidder bait."
"All our kids are precious. Jimmy, take point."
"Let's be careful out there. After last episode we're down to two black guys of limited character development."
"Dad, you were right! Since I've been carrying automatic weapons nobody has made fun of me for playing lacrosse."

I am actually enjoying it.


Bullet

I think he was referring to the doctor who saved his own skin rather than Mason's wife. Who also was nothing like Baltar, given later events.

Great episode this week.

I wouldn't say any of the characters on this show are direct analogues of characters on other series, at least no series I've watched. Granted I've not seen MANY shows.

The truth, though, is the show seems to be way too much about anticipation. You need to pay it off from time to time, and the problem is the payoffs are weak. They do indeed manage the build-up well, but when the result isn't as good, you begin to tire of it.

I've come to the conclusion this series might have been better served as a miniseries. It's obvious they were constrained by budget when it comes to encounters with the aliens, and the whole "let's join the survivors 7 months after the invasion is over" part just started from a negative place. It's almost like they're saying "we know what you want to see, but we can't afford it, so instead watch this."

Dart nailed it when he said this was a Western. Change the aliens for Injuns, make the refugees settlers, and add a twist where the Injuns want the settlers' kids and you pretty much have this show.

Unfortunately, I don't really like Westerns.



The Jedi Master

99% of science fiction is a western.

Really? How so?

How are Dune, Blade Runner, Andromeda Strain, Gattaca, Pitch Black, The Arrival, Men In Black, Tron, The Matrix, The Fifth Element and hundreds of other sci-fi movies at all like a Western?

Here you go Dart, you'll find this article intereting.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/992929/c...fi_western.html

Dune: Okay, some movies are overblown costume affairs with random stuff thrown back and forth to seem artsy.
Blade Runner: Reluctant hero picks up the badge one more time to fight the evil gang and rescue the girl.
Andromeda Strain: Been too long since I saw it.
Gattaca: Didn't see it.
Pitch Black: Reluctant hero puts aside his dark, criminal past to rescue the stranded settlers from the restless natives.
The Arrival: Didn't see it.
Men in Black: Sherrif trains his new comic relief deputy in running bad guy out of town.
Tron: Law man comes to town to get rid of corrupt boss that runs the place.
The Matrix: Six men overturn the corrupt officials that run the town after a turncoat does terrible deed.
Fifth Element: Law man takes up the badge one more time to fight the evil gang and rescue the girl.

Star Trek:

Original Series: Really big Lewis and Clark expedition into hostile Indian territory. Many killed, several screwed.
Next Generation: Also an exploration expedition, but deeply in touch with its feminine side. Many feeling hurt, some light kissing.
Deep Space Nine: Town stays in place, Sherrif deals with the riff-raff that comes through.
Voyager: Expedition lost; the Wagon Train to Somewhere.
Enterprise: See Original Series, but with better fist fights.

How much of that was stuff Westerns copied from elsewhere? I never recall hearing about the great innovation in storytelling that Westerns introduced.



The Jedi Master

The same comparisons could be made to story lines from anything from "I Love Lucy" to "Seinfeld".

Star Wars is just WW2 in scifi. Evil Empire Germany, Good Guys British.

LOL!

On a serious note, it's been mentioned by many film writers and directors that there are about 30 basic plots from which all films derive their stories from.

Pretty amazing isn't it?

Check out this link,

http://www.ipl.org/div/farq/plotFARQ.html

Indeed, although Star Wars also follows the usual US convention of having the REALLY bad guys played by British actors (i.e. Peter Cushing as Tarkin).

Although regarding the WWII thing, it's hard to argue with this (I love this, it works just as well with either footage!)

What does it mean that the squadron dog in Dam Wars is named Wookie?