BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

I recently watched the “Roots The Gift” on TVONE which features two characters Kunta Kinte and Fiddler from Alex Haleys ground breaking 1977 mini series “Roots”. In this movie the two of them accompany their owner to another plantation at Christmas time and they learn that the son of the owner helps slaves escape.  The two of them try to help him and also see this as an opportunity to escape themselves. While watching my geekdar picked up a couple of familar faces. I saw two Captains and two Lt. Commanders from Star Trek.  Then again Q may have transported them all to 1775.

Posted under Television

“Tin Man” is the Sci-Fi channel’s re-imagining L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. I watched the first and second night of this three part miniseries. Sci-Fi promoted this series almost as much as Flash Gordon was promoted. That should have been my first warning. The second was Sci-Fi’s scheduling of the second night to run against Chuck and Heroes, which are two of the Sci-Fi channel’s target audience’s favorite shows, especially since these were the mid-season finales. Thankfully, Sci-Fi repeats their “television events” almost immediately after airing.

Briefly, the story follows D.G. (originally Dorothy Gale) who works a dead end job as a waitress dreaming of bigger and better things. We find out that she isn’t from this world but from another world called the O.Z. (Outer Zone) and that she is the key to saving it from an evil sorceress, Azkadellia (the Wicked Witch). She is joined on her journey down the old road by Glitch, a man who lost half his brain as a punishment for being a criminal, Raw, a cowardly beast with psychic abilities, and Cain, a former cop, known as tin men in the O.Z. We get the classic characters of munchkins, the Mystic Man (the Wizard) played by Richard Dreyfuss, and even the flying monkeys who spring from the cleavage of of Azkadellia. Literally.

The effects aren’t bad for a television series. Obviously, the network wanted this to be a success. The visuals are pretty good, despite the filter that the director, editor, or director of photography went with. What I mean is that everything seemed to be in perpetual early evening, an almost dusk. It’s a decent story for the most part, but it could have been done better. Many of the puns and allusions to the original story don’t have to be so blatant. Anyone watching has probably seen the Wizard of Oz dozens of times. I can do without lines like “If he only had a brain,” or “They’re off to see the Wizard.” Side note: It may not be suitable for your under 5 crowd, but that’s a parent’s call. There are hookers, a pimp, torture, some pretty gruesome scenes, and the Mystic Man is a drug addict who uses on screen. But I digress.

If you don’t have anything else to watch, especially with the writer’s strike, give this a shot. If you miss it, you won’t miss much. Rent The Wiz.

Two fists for making Toto a black man.

Posted under Movies, Television

 Here’s the ratings for all the shows this year. Just to give people an idea on of how there favorite genre shows were doing.   Heroes is the number one genre show at #20.     Chuck must be a winner as far as NBC is concerned, it the #54 ranked show and was recently picked up for a full season by the network.   I wonder why they haven’t picked up Journey man (#62) for a full season considering its pretty close to Chuck in the ratings.  Also I wonder how many shows are avoiding cancellation due the writers strike.   I think the strike has extended the life of a couple shows (Reaper) because the networks need programming.     

Read More…

Posted under Television

 We recently posted the Ratings for all shows this  year.   Just to give people an idea on of how there favorite genre shows were doing.   So hears this weeks ratings.   Heroes is the number one genre show at #33 which I think it pretty decent since its up against Monday night football.  All of the Genre shows seem to be sliding as the season progresses.    I wonder how many of these shows would have gotten the axe if the WGA strike wasn’t happening.   The networks really can’t cancel a show until they have a replacement.

   Read More...

Posted under Television

It seems like the WGA is officially on strike and its going to have a impact on a number of things.   In case you didn’t know the WGA is on strike for the following things.

• An increase from 4 cents for every DVD sold to 8 cents 
• Digital distribution revenues (ads and downloads )- Writers want 2.5% and the Studios are offering .3%; one of the sticking points is producers want to call some stuff “promotional material” which would be exempt.  The writers are countering that if you have ad revenue associated with its then its fair game.

Seems like they would just meet in the middle and be done with it, but its not my money to give away.   Now to the important stuff how does it affect me.  

Read More…

Posted under Movies, Television

We recently ran a list of Top 10 Canceled shows and according to the networks,  ratings (or to be more specific low ratings) were the primary reason for canceling a show.   Since these shows live and die by their ratings, I thought it would be interesting to track how our favorite genre shows are doing this fall,  so we can see who maybe on the way out.  The highest ranked genre show this week is Heroes at #17 .    For fans of shows like Reaper you may want to start last rites because I don’t think it will be around much longer.    Theses numbers are for the season to date.   I plan on posting the weekly numbers  so stay tuned.   I have highlighted the genre shows in bold.  Read More…

Posted under Television

Last night Spike aired its 2007 Scream Awards which honors the best in Horror, Sci-fi, Comics and Fantasy.   I think they should rename it the Fanboy awards because that’s the audience.   The awards were very entertaining, lots of energy and plenty of genre stars, and its nice to actually see some of the comic guys get some screen time.   Some of the major highlights other than announcement of the category awards, was Harrison Ford winning the first ”Hero” award which recognizes the legends of the genre,  a reunion of the original “Star Trek” cast for the 25th anniversary of “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan”, and Neil Gaiman winning the  ”Comic-Con Icon Award”

I like the fact the the show also premiered never before seen trailers (great marketing gimmick for fanboys)  for upcoming films like Beowulf.   My only real complaint was the musical performers, Ozzy Osbourne, Avenged Sevenfold and Alice Cooper who won an award for “SCREAM Rock Immortal”.   Its amazing that people seem to think this is the only genre of music that Sci-fi, Comics and Horror fans like.   I guess we can only tackle one stereotype at a time.    

Here are the categories and nominees for the awards the winners are in bold.

Read More…

Posted under Comics, Movies, Television

Universal, which brought us the successful Jurassic Park trilogy, has decided to add another dinosaur flick to the stable. The studio has given the greenlight to cult classic “Land of the Lost,” a somewhat popular television series from 1974, rerun during the eighties, and brought back to T.V. in 1991 as a new series starring Timothy Bottoms (The Paper Chase).
The movie will star Will Ferrell and have a budget of $100 million dollars. Source: Variety

I don’t know what to think of this project. I watched the series when it aired in the eighties and also the 1991 series. There has to be some interest for a box office big gun like Will Ferrell to be attached to this film. I don’t get nostalgic for this like I would for something like, I don’t know, maybe Thundercats or Transformers. Also, I remember the series took itself seriously, and this movie is being touted as a comic. I just don’t know if Ferrell’s going to be enough to get back the $100 milllion.

Posted under Movies