Bad Sci-Fi

So, in case you don't know, I love really, really bad science fiction stuff. I'm not saying bad, like Enterprise or Heroes, I'm talking egregiously bad. Most of it that I've watched I couldn't tell you the name of. These shows just reek, and I can't look away. It's a trainwreck. Most people stop watching at the bad acting part. Oh no, bad acting is just the beginning for me. Thanks to learning about the film industruy by being Brennen's aide, my analysis goes beyond bad acting. I look into directing, writing, cinematography, content editing, special effects, etc.

Every once in a while I find a diamond in the rough. I'd give that distinction to Primeval, a BBC sci-fi series. The concept is though-provoking, which is really the purpose of sci-fi as far as I'm concerned. The special effects aren't great, but that just draws me in more. Spectacle is just wasted on me. I can still tell it's special effects, no matter how much you dress it up. Back to Primeval, the premise is outstandingly good. The acting, has it's ups and downs. The characters, decent. The saving grace: driving story line. The premise, portals opening up to the past, would lend itself to an episodic series. An episodic series is one where each episode stands alone as a story, like Star Trek. The writers went straight past that and made a story arc. Characters change, relationships change, pertinent stuff actually happens. Details turn out to be important. THAT, my friends, is what I look for in a series. That immediately demonstrates to me that the writers actually thought it out. That is what I crave. Strangely enough, that very concept is what drew me in to animes and mangas. Series that demostrate forethought.

In contrast, I'm currently watching Space: Above and Beyond. So far, the series has been episodic, with a few story arc features. Basic motivations haven't changed, though. They still get brought up every episode. Now, the biggest problem with the series is the aliens. They stink. Most sci-fi series suffer from that. In the show, mankind has never encountered an alien race. Suddenly, one pops up. They look like humans, they act a lot like humans, they have very similar weaponry to the humans, the humans can understand and break their codes, etc. I hate that. It ruins a sci-fi series faster than anything else. Freespace is my favorite example for how to do it right. Humans run across one alien civilization. They turn out to be very close to the humans in most aspects. They have a war, blah blah blah cliche human reaction to everything. THEN, a new race appears. The Shivans. Weaponry doesn't affect them. Their tactics make no sense, so they push the humans back. Their flagship is infinitely more powerful than any human ship. Nothing is known of their origin, their military strength, or anything. Humans finally capture a Shivan ship with only one shivan inside. It wipes out the boarding crew. It didn't look like anything I'd seen before. It was genius. That is how aliens should be handled. The good-old they make no sense approach from Close Encounters.

Strangely enough, this brings me to anime. I've always wanted to create a guide for watching anime, like what the good ones are and why and other information. That wouldn't interest you. I'll keep it brief: never, under any circumstances, watch a dubbed anime. Squeezing lemons into your eyes would take the pain away, but only barely. The companies that do English dubs are awful. They edit the content to a fraction of what it used to be, yet leave in stuff that just doesn't need to be there. The voice actors are awful and overused (the same ones appear in everything). Most subs also include culture points so that the uneducated American (me) can know what the people are talking about. I find them very helpful. The vast majority of animes are inappropriate and just dumb. Unfortunately, my love of bad stuff comes in here. I've given way too many animes too much of a chance to impress me, only to finally concede that they are awful.

Perhaps later I'll go into my personal preferences, but not today. Enjoy life.

One last note: happiness is directly correlated to obedience to God's commandments.