A tragedy in Super Marionation
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Poetry Angel wrote:As for Stingray, I can only answer.. SeaQuest.
And as for Stingray, I can only answer...
Stingray.
They managed 39 episodes, all of which were rather exciting and varied...
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Kinggodzillak
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Marion wrote:Now, I think I would hate an anatomically correct CGI Thunderbirds series - even more than I dislike the special effects driven CS:CGI (There I have said it. )
I agree with the first part of this statement (and ignore the second! )
I never got on with the Thunderbirds comic strips because the characters just didn't look right anatomically correct. The uniforms just looked very silly. However, with a subtle update, I think a CGI version could work, as long as the original format was adhered to (a smidgeon of humour and of course, those fantastic launches).
Call me a Philistine but I think the reason why post OCS productions lost a bit of soul was the lack of movement. I'm not talking just about the puppetry here but about the amount of lingering pan shots and pre-fade outs. It wasn't as noticable before OCS for some reason. Maybe the editing was deliberate. Let's face it, there was an awful lot of the same thing going on with UFO and Space 1999 (remember all those Landau-Bain looks that were so interminable? )
With regards to Seaquest, I didn't watch it much, for the same reasons I didn't watch Battlestar Galactica much. A Stingray movie, with exploding Terrorfish and an eternal love triangle involving a mute mermaid? Bring it on!
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steviep
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Clya Brown
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Ok, were there really 39 episodes of Stingray? I only have shadowy memories of it from the past, and we only have seven episodes on the one DVD which the kids watched a few years ago. But as with OCS and NCS, I don't think they could use the original stories without spicing them up quite a bit. I'm not sure about pushing the love triangle though, I don't want my kids being corrupted by scenes of Troy Tempest having it off with a mermaid behind his girlfriends' back!!!
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Chris C
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The original link is at: http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/proteus/vpost?id=36&trail=15#4
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Clya Brown
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To me, Scarlet is the one that's potentially short of plotlines - which results in this seemingly endless array of amazing capabilities that the Mysterons have acquired during the course of the CGI series, which you need to invent enough new plots to fill all the episodes.
I'd have thought that any situation which resulted in any sort of disruption to life on earth would have been suitable for exploitation by the mysterons, which is why I can't imagine writers of Captain Scarlet stories running out of possible plots!! But I do agree that it is the human interactions which make the stories more interesting, which is why I like the situation between Destiny and Scarlet in NCS. It probably could have been handled better, but it is that interaction which gives the characters some depth and allows them to appear more human, and gave scope for CS to have some moving moments of reflection. It is a shame there were such tight time restrictions on the episodes as I'd liked to have seen more of the characters' lives along with the action!! But I think Marion is right, that's the part the kids would have found boring. It reminded me of something Aegis wrote a while ago about CGI not yet being accepted as an 'adult' medium. The series could have been very different had it been aimed at adults rather than children.
I wonder if Stingray would suffer the same fate if it was re-made in CGI format.
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Chris C
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Chris C wrote:I wonder if Stingray would suffer the same fate if it was re-made in CGI format.
Picture the scene:
Interior: Troy Tempest's quarters. Tme: 23:00. Tempest walks through his quarters and throws his uniform jacket onto the bed. He is fatigued. He walks into the kitchen/dining area to make himself a drink. A single light illuminates the form of Atlanta Shore. She is leaning against the worksurface. Her arms are folded and she is tapping her foot. Her expression is not friendly.
Shore: Where the heck have you been, Troy? I made dinner three hours ago.
Tempest: Darling! You know I was on patrol. Titan's hordes were pursuing us all day and I had to take out a lot of terrorfish before I could get back here at all. You look upset. What is it?
Shore: Aw come on! You know what! I saw you, Troy! Out in the pen with Maaarrrreeeenaaaa. She got on your boat. Again. Another "trip around the ocean"?
Tempest: Stingray's not a boat, she's a high-tech sub, as well you know. Marina had something to show me out there, that's all.
Shore: I bet she did!
Shore turns around and picks up a cup from the drainer.
Tempest: Honey! You know she's part of the crew now. Don't be jealous! Hey, if you're making coffee, two sugars in mine....
Shore: AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!
She throws the cup and narrowily misses Tempest's head.
Smashing cups in CGI can't be that difficult
Could it work? OK - maybe not.....
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steviep
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<<
Sitting down at the table, he stopped stone dead, his face frozen in a caricature of disbelief.
“Atlanta?”
“Yes?”
“Atlanta – what is that?”
She glanced round from the cooker, identified the object of his gaze and returned to the task of frying the bacon.
“That, Brad, is a seal.”
Grey ground his teeth. “I know it’s a seal, Atlanta! What the hell is it doing on your breakfast table?”
She rolled her eyes and turned to face him with her hands on her hips.
“It’s having its breakfast, for heaven’s sake! What do you think it’s doing on the breakfast table?”
Captain Grey took a tentative step closer to the table and peered down at the little creature, which was nibbling away at a small plate of pilchards.
“Is it house-trained?”
“His name’s Oink. He’s Marina’s pet - I look after him when she’s out on patrol with Troy and Phones. He has a little pool out on the patio, and he’s got the run of the house. And he only poos in your corn flakes if he doesn’t like you – so be nice to him, okay?”
>>
Do check out the fanfic section here (http://www.spectrum-headquarters.com/page5.html) - there's a library of great stories by dozens of authors, including many crossovers with other Anderson shows; indeed, do you fancy contributing yourself? We're always on the lookout for new talent!
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Clya Brown
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Off Camera: Atlanta?
Tempest: Who the heck's that??
Off Camera: You coming back to bed?
Shore [to Tempest]: Well, you didn't expect me to wait forever, did you?
Tempest: Whaaa?
Captain Grey appears at Tempest's bedroom door, dressed in Tempest's robe. Tempest glares at Shore.
Tempest [to both]: How dare you! How very dare you!
He flounces out of his quarters, into the waiting arms of George Lee "Phones" Sheridan, where he rests his head on Sheridan's shoulder and gently sobs.[/b][/i].
Sheridan: There there. It was never meant to be, Troy. You know that.
They hug and then walk off arm-in-arm.
Fade.
Writer's note: Hey, when I mentioned a love triangle, I never said who else was in it....
Stingray Swingers - a bit too adult, maybe?
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steviep
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Chris C
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Poetry Angel
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Poetry Angel
The problem you've got with a family show is that it really does have to appeal to the whole family - and that means that everybody in the family has to be entertained. If there's nothing there for the parents, then they won't want to watch it. That may not be a problem if you can simply sit the kids in front of the TV and leave them to it, but if it involves taking them to the cinema then you've got a potential problem, because it's the parents who have to take them there and buy the tickets.
Personally I felt that's where Thunderbirds the Movie went wrong: it was targeted specifically at fairly young children who would be taken to see it by adults who also expected to be entertained - and they weren't. In contrast, I can remember watching James Bond movies when I was a kid and loving every minute of them - but I can also watch the same movies thirty years later and still love every minute of them, but for completely different reasons. The action that held me spellbound when I was a youngster is now enjoyable fantasy, and I can now laugh at the innuendo that I completely missed the first time around. To me, that's how you create a family show - by which I mean a show that entertains the whole family, not simply a show that's so bland that it couldn't possibly upset or offend anyone.
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Clya Brown
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If "mature" theme is the future of any of these wonderful family oriented shows, then I will simply turn off the TV for good and go back to reading and watching my good shows on video from time to time.
I think the nature of all television has changed since the 'good old days' of 'wholesome family shows'.
Regrettably even children's shows - with the exception of those made for pre-schoolers and a few others - have become more fast-paced and 'exciting' and that invariably leads to such things as car chases, explosions, comic-book violence and so forth. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but I suggest that the majority of kids watching TV would not stick with more pedestrian shows.
I think this applies more to SciFi than any other genre - the comic book element in TV Sci-Fi has always been present and in them (even the original Star Trek) the modus operendi has always seemed to be, in the - possibly apocryphal- words of James T Kirk : We come in peace - shoot to kill, men! And, as the audience for these shows has grown-up and matured, so have the storylines and this has leached down into shows aimed at younger audiences too.
I personally happen to find many of the special effects driven storylines of NCS repetative (seen one psychotic, articulated robot-drone and you have seen them all) - but I can understand why people like it - if they like that sort of thing to start with. Either way, I am sure that NCS is far too good to merit the treatment its received from CITV - even if it isn't my personal cup of tea - and I deplore the way the series has been presented.
I don't think turning the clock back to a rose-tinted universe is the answer.
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Marion
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Poetry Angel
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Poetry Angel
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