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Zaggitz posted:...the general tendency to rank second parts higher than first parts. I look at it more as you failing statistics.
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Oct 18, 2014 10:00
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Let's be real here, any story that involves FTL travel in any form is not sci-fi at this point, it's fantasy. And since FTL is intrinsically time travel, excluding one while allowing for the other is silly. Meeting humanoid aliens? Similarly fantasy. Artificial gravity? To call it plausible is overstating its case, but it's not completely out of the question. Transporter\Replicator technology? To say that the kind of energy it would take is astronomical is putting it lightly, even if we figured out how to do it. Psychics? Don't get me started. Hard sci-fi doesn't really exist on TV, and it really probably shouldn't.
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Oct 20, 2014 15:19
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marktheando posted:I hate this 'no true sci fi' discussion whenever it comes up. Though I do enjoy it when someone claims that Star Trek, the show with a new god like alien every other week, is somehow more 'hard' sci fi than Doctor Who (not that anyone here has said that, but I've heard the claim made before). I think as a practical matter, it's important to point out that every dramatized sci-fi show we can consider features fantasy elements that break a "hard sci-fi" convention. I *don't* think that this lessens the enjoyment of any of those series, at least in my view. I just think that if we're calling it like it is, then nothing on TV is hard sci-fi, and there are very good dramatic and production related reasons for that.
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Oct 20, 2014 19:11
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Toxxupation posted:(ugh that loving title) Just call it Oranges: The New Black
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Oct 27, 2014 22:14
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Toxxupation posted:plus the thing about communism is that it's appealing, that's why it has been implemented as a system of government, if cybermen came down and went "you'd live forever and look exactly the same, and be super strong and powerful, at the cost of your emotions" there'd be a moral ambiguity where people would legitimately want to be them I think it's interesting that sci-fi goes down this road so often - "logic vs. emotions regarding intelligence" There's clearly a sort of cultural fascination and perhaps a good deal of historical reasons for setting those up as a dichotomy - even though they're not a dichotomy, in either the strictest logical sense or even the looser sense. We're finding out, as we research and understand intelligence more and more, is that emotional states are not separate from intelligence, but rather an inseparable component of the overall emergent property we call intelligence. Certainly, you can set up a series of logical commands and follow them through to completion, but building the kind of complex behavior that we would recognize as a social intelligence seems to actively require a kind of background set of assumptions and guidelines that change based on starting conditions - that our brains interpret as emotional states. This is a more complex subject, of course, and breaking down complex subjects into digestible sci-fi bites is hard to do.
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Nov 18, 2014 18:25
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docbeard posted:Counterpoint: everyone should watch The Curse of Fatal Death, it is good. Counter-counterpoint: No it isn't.
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Nov 30, 2014 19:33
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Oxxidation posted:They're all underwater. There All Is Aching.
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Dec 31, 2014 07:34
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"Well then! No time to lose! I'm the Doctor. Do everything I tell you, don't ask stupid questions, and don't wander off." This was it. This was the episode I was waiting for, because it was the episode that sold me. I had a passing interest in Doctor Who as it was on during the RTD years - it was clearly kitsch, but it had moments, and my appreciation for better TV was not fully formed. But I don't know whether I really liked the show. I liked certain episodes, and some of the concepts, but if it were to go away, I wouldn't have especially cared. And then this episode comes along and changes everything. As Occ noticed, everything is better. Everything. The obvious stuff like the acting and the writing, but also the production design. The cinematography. The score. The camera work. The art direction. This wasn't fart monsters anymore. Ok, it was still eyeball monsters, but they were little more than window dressing on a tour-de-force, laser-accurate depiction of what Doctor Who is at its best; a fairy tale about a magic man with a magic box. Not a perfect man, mind you - clever, but clumsy. Always right except for all those times when he's very wrong. He has mastery of time and space but can't even accurately navigate them. A doting old fool in a young man's body. I was really getting tired of the show, especially the long, drawn out Tennant swan song, and then here it was: magic. The kind of magic that the skeptic in me knows does not exist, but the 8-year-old in me cheers for. Finally, a regeneration worked.
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Jan 4, 2015 14:38
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Republican Vampire posted:Community is great about this because it has that scene where Shirley tells Abed off and defends people who like consistently entertaining things over weird conceptual boondoggles. And here I was, thinking to myself, "Have you read that bible of yours?" But then I also remembered that she's a fictional character and that I was projecting.
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Jan 21, 2015 05:03
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Jerusalem posted:I'd say wait at least a week before doing a season review, let everything settle in your head and take the time to get a little perspective on how everything slotted together (or didn't). I agree. I mean, "do what you want" goes without saying, but as long as you're asking us, Jerusalem's probably got it right.
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Jan 22, 2015 21:49
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I agree, it's the show using its ability to tell stories that don't make sense (which it has earned) to still tell a story that makes a difference for the characters. The problem with "it was all a dream" stories isn't at work here. It's not used as a crutch to tell "alternate universe" stories without them changing the dynamics going forward. It was not an example of 'everything resets as if nothing ever happened, so why should I care?' Everything here happened. The environment was the crazy non-reality of dreams, but that was not the premise. They got out, and they still remember it and are changed because of it. ashpanash fucked around with this message at 08:12 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 07:15
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Glenn_Beckett posted:Actually the opposite: so-and-so dies! Is used here as a cheap, nothing manipulation and I hate it. My problem is that it sets up these massive sacrifices just to say "hey, these characters WOULD make these sacrifices" without the gumption to commit. It's an amazing story that ultimately pulls its punches so hard that I don't feel them. I think it's kind of important to the overall story that they were never actually ever in any physical danger in either scenario. It was all a dream on both sides, and they would have died in both anyway. The real danger was always psychological, and that's why the writers invented the 'psychic plot pollen that turns your darkness against you.' Don't tell me a show like this can't have plot pollen in it.
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Jan 24, 2015 08:18
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I loved the moment after the Doctor says "there's only one person in the universe who hates me as much as you do." The look on Toby Jones' face said a page and a half of dialog. Going from an almost disappointed look of "You don't even know who I am" to "Oh, you DO know. Even better." is just a wonderful bit of acting. This thread, and the perspective from the reviews from Occ and Oxx, are mostly about the writing, which it should be. TV is a writer's medium and still plays the most important role in its production. But having an actor who is not just a generally good actor, but who understands and can elevate the material - that's what makes TV magical.
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Jan 25, 2015 07:38
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howe_sam posted:And yet his poo poo still don't work in the playoffs. The law of large numbers doesn't apply to small numbers.
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Feb 2, 2015 22:16
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Bicyclops posted:That's the message I took away, was that the It's-a-Wonderful-Life "But look! Look how much people love you!" approach, while deeply touching, is not some magical cure. One of the many things I appreciate about CBS's "Elementary" is that it presents recovery as a never ending process, not as an instant phenomenon.
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Feb 4, 2015 06:41
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Toxxupation posted:I don't like coldly, blatantly emotionally manipulative ones, and the last ten minutes of "Vincent" crossed over into the latter camp. That's how I felt, as well. Watching it, I remember thinking to myself something like, "wow, that is some maudlin bullshit." The greatest man who ever lived? I mean, it's not just on the nose, it's up the loving nostril. I tried watching this one again and it just felt like a slog, somehow worse than The Hungry Earth to me (which was just trite and empty), but not as insultingly bad as Cold Blood.
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Feb 5, 2015 00:34
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Please review something, Occ. Your thread is fraying.
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Feb 6, 2015 14:46
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Sounds like he's bored doing it. Lame.
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Feb 11, 2015 18:27
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Craptacular! posted:Also, people think this is the peak Matt Smith Speech, but while I'm a fan of this Doctor it wasn't too special to me. It's him yelling at a bunch of vaguely defined shapes and lens flares. I get that being known and feared by the galaxy is kind of this Doctor's thing and that he doesn't always quite know why but ehhh. It's a good scene, but not "let's imagine Tom Baker reading this" good. I remember thinking at the time that this was just a retread of what he said in the Eleventh Hour, so it wasn't as impressive...until we got to the ending. Then it was revealed that essentially, it's his ridiculous bluster that gets him into this situation in the first place. They weren't intimidated by his speech; if anything, they were comforted by it. We got him, exactly where we want him.
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Feb 11, 2015 19:47
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Toxxupation posted:I was hitting a mountain that shot laser beams, with an axe that also is a sword, as doctorwhat yelled at me about hating turn left Were you hitting the mountain with an axe that is also a sword, or did the mountain shoot laser beams with an axe that is also a sword? This is important.
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Mar 4, 2015 15:21
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It's been said before, but Moffat's biggest sin is that season 5 was so off-the-charts great. Two or three lovely episodes, sure, but the show was finally everything we always wanted it to be.
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May 5, 2015 05:39
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MikeJF posted:Stars can have rings! Who said they can't! Well, gravity, for one. A star would be far too influential on its local surroundings to not collapse a nearby ring system within short order. Then you also have the fact that a star would be streaming out stellar winds that would blast apart any nearby structures. I mean, it's Doctor Who, so who cares about science, but it'd also be pretty much a death sentence for anybody in a star system if the star died.
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May 29, 2015 15:31
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The Xmas special was my favorite. Possibly because it was the newest, and possibly because his Hammness is in it, but I also had to admire how well structured it was. In addition, I thought I had guessed the two "twists" in the third part - and for the record, I did - but I wasn't prepared for the "after twists" that were both perfectly set up and beautifully and effectively terrifying. Great stuff.
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Jun 1, 2015 13:29
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Jerusalem posted:Yep, adult society is over. We had a good run though. Ah, we hosed up things for everyone and we know it. Let the kids have it, they can't be any worse than us.
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Jun 3, 2015 05:20
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Bicyclops posted:Controversially, I think genocide sucks. But you can't argue that it's not effective at its main goal: killing people for dumb political reasons.
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Jun 10, 2015 14:44
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Toxxupation posted:But even that bright spot comes with a giant asterisk due to the final scene trying to force a completely out of loving nowhere romance between Porridge and Clara. It's like, even when "Nightmare" succeeds, it fails. I don't remember exactly what the dialog of the scene was, but as I'm imagining it in my head, I can sort of see the argument that it wasn't really a romantic gesture. It was more of a "I'm powerful, you're smart, I could use someone like you around, let's form a partnership" kind of situation - kind of like The Doctor has with his companions - and seeing it through the lens of a medieval style King. Which is, need a partnership? Marry into it. Like I said, I don't fully remember the scene, and as you pointed out, the episode sucks so I don't want to bother checking. But it might take some of the edge off of this point. quote:I just want to point out that chess is fairly close to being "solved", meaning that a computer could be programmed to force a victory or at worst, a draw in 100% of all games. This is part of the problem I have with this episode - it implies that a race of superintelligent computer men with, essentially, quantum cloud computing still aren't able to solve a relatively simple board game. This routes back to my issue with using chess as the framing narrative - in addition to it being hacky and cliche, it's a game where all players have perfect knowledge of the game state at all times. I don't think it works as a "Man versus The Machine" backdrop since it's a game that's solvable, over an inherently unsolvable game like, say, poker. It also makes Cybermen even more pathetic than they already are considering their whole gimmick is being awesomely rational computers and yet they're unable to win at an utterly rational game like chess. Oh, totally agree here, especially about chess being still considered some sort of genius game. It's a game for people who are good at rigorous analysis - at making lists of things in their head and sorting them. And guess what, that's what computers do best, sort lists. Computers fail at all sorts of pattern recognition because of the inherent randomness, but chess is a 64 space grid with 16 pieces each, which have specific, defined ways of moving. The number of permutations is not potentially infinite, it's concrete. 10^43 possible solutions. That's a loving big number but it's not absurdly big. A giant galaxy-spanning race with FTL travel and impossible energy capabilities (not to mention time travel) would compute chess like it was tic-tac-toe. When people use chess as an example of how "super-intelligent computers will take us over," I just laugh. Computers can't even read captchas, and a two year old can do that. Computers are drills - they are tools. They have lots of useful bits, can be used in a lot of useful ways, but they're only useful if you need something spinning fast or with lots of torque.
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Jun 20, 2015 05:47
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Toxxupation posted:^^^ Nier is legit the only game to have made me cry Combat sucked in the (first) Prince of Persia Sands of Time game, but it had such a great control/puzzle dynamic and such a wonderfully told (and well structured, even if a little traditional) story that I still go back and play it occasionally. Is this a similar situation?
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Jun 20, 2015 05:50
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armoredgorilla posted:He liked Listen, everyone. Water is wet.
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Jul 18, 2015 05:27
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Escobarbarian posted:Literally suggesting that the only reason your lead was able to become the good, strong person he is and has been over decades and decades of television, books, audios, whatever, only become the yes flawed but overall inspiring, brave man he is, is because this one companion from 50 years in who hasn't even been there a full season and is still far from fully drawn as a character was supportive to him as a scared child, is such a loving insulting thing to do to a long-established franchise in my eyes. It's just.....it's so lovely. She had just learned it from him so it's at worst a pre-destination paradox. It's not Clara coming in from left field to change the Doctor's future, it's the Doctor learning, and influencing himself, inadvertently, through the use of his companions - which is the loving theme of the 50 years of the show. It's not an insult, it's a god drat love letter.
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Jul 18, 2015 06:54
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If you haven't yet seen Farscape, I'd rather see you do that.
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Jul 18, 2015 20:47
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This was a character study. A drat good one. Stop getting so hung up on absurd made-up science bullshit.
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Jul 19, 2015 04:12
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jng2058 posted:I'd like to take this moment to recommend Babylon 5. It's true that there is a lot to love, and a whole lot more to hate, about Babylon 5. It does kind of fit Occ's description of what he wants perfectly. Farscape has probably the opposite ratio, and it's done with more competence. I'll say that Farscape does get goofy a lot, which Occ, you'll love, but it does goofy mostly on purpose, like Who. Babylon 5 was terribly serious about itself (it kind of had to be, it was up against then-juggernaut Star Trek), and its goofiness is mostly by accident.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:29
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Just want to make clear that while this is true...your evil twin posted:Babylon 5...the creator wrote out an entire 5-season arc in advance, and from season 2 onwards he wrote almost every episode. This is bullshit: quote:in Babylon 5 everything is planned and has an answer. Lots of things were planned, and lots of things ultimately had much, much different answers than the original planned answers.
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Jul 20, 2015 14:38
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idonotlikepeas posted:but it's basically impossible to know how much of what showed up ultimately was due to backup plans activating and how much was stuff he pulled out of his rear end because he'd already used the fifth backup plan and didn't have a sixth. It's not impossible, He published it. Spoilers: it's very, very different.
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Jul 20, 2015 15:08
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Just do Farscape. You'll have lots to write about, lots to analyze, lots to criticize, lots to love, and you will be joined by other people right along with you. I imagine it will be a very similar experience to this thread, only people won't be pestering you about old stupid 40 year old teleplays and audio dramas. I know that I won't pay attention to anyone watching loving Lexx or Glee or Supernatural or other dumb suggestions even if I did enjoy reading their reviews. There's only so far you can push someone.
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Jul 23, 2015 22:24
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Escobarbarian posted:Glee was the one he already said he was gonna do. And it would be a hell of a lot more entertaining to watch him have a breakdown over that than get bored as hell by Generic-rear end Sci-Fi #17. Maybe it's just me, but for me, the fun of this thread is taking the journey with Occ. It's not about torture, it's about the shared experience, watching along, anticipating both the highs and the lows, and appreciating Occ's eyes for the nuances of the form. And you can denegrate sci-fi all you want, but sci-fi (and fantasy) gives writers the freedom to go outside the normal bounds of experience to tell (hopefully) interesting stories, and to explore how (again, hopefully) well-drawn characters interact with those stories. And along with that freedom comes a lot of ways to gently caress up royally. For the average viewer, I can understand not giving a poo poo about sci-fi, but I kind of question a writer or reviewer who isn't interested in it.
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Jul 23, 2015 23:00
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Toxxupation posted:look. you need to know how much work i put into these goddamn reviews Don't think docbeard's thread lets you off the hook for also reviewing Farscape.
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Jul 24, 2015 19:57
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Stuporstar posted:Holy poo poo. You just made me realise The Producers is a classic heist movie. Well, he's describing a form of narrative structure, really. Describing it quite well, too! But I think it's a little too handwavey to call The Producers a classic heist movie.
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Jul 25, 2015 06:32
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Stuporstar posted:Also, when I say "classic" I'm referring to the original with Gene Wilder, not Matthew Broderic doing an impression of Gene Wilder decades later. You know, it's SA, not Reddit. We're probably at least close in age to each other and everyone reading. quote:If that doesn't scream heist movie to you, I dunno what to tell ya. Screams "farce" to me, but I'm not any more right than you are wrong.
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Jul 25, 2015 06:50
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adhuin posted:Could a maths teacher do that? What, do a flip? Sure, it's just math. What, dodge lasers? No, it's just math.
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Jul 25, 2015 07:04
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