Space: The Imagination Station - True SciFi

For some time I've been tracking new topics on the SyFy (formerly well known as the American SciFi network), bulletin boards. One third to one half of the new topics board wide are from users condemning and complaining about the new line up. It's true, they've been straying for years, adding wrestling, reality television, terrible ghost hunting shows and most recently a cooking program to their lineup. It's depressing watching the channel that brought us hits like Farscape, Stargate Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica go straight down the crapper. Their heyday is over. Their core audience feels shunned.

All that has little to do with what's happening on our very own Canadian Imagination Station: Space. I love this channel. Any day of the week you'll find wall to wall Star Trek with shows like Lost, Smallville, V, and Doctor Who (yes, the new one!), sprinkled in. As my writing takes me stoically striding away from regular Space Opera convention (the Spinward Fringe series is taking a decidedly un-Star Trek / Star Wars turn), being able to flip to the Space station while I'm house sitting is a warm comfort.

That's why, when I was receiving yet another new topic notification from the SyFy bulletin boards entitled "Sci-Fi fans should fight back" a thought occurred to me. I'm in Canada, where we still have a science fiction themed channel that's true to itself, why not praise it for doing things the right way instead of attack a channel that has clearly lost its way?

Space: The Imagination Station doesn't have much original programming, and what little it has is pretty low budget, but it's not bad. They have a show called Inner Space that reports on science fiction and pop culture and the reruns they have are absolutely appropriate. They're the reruns we love, ranging from Star Trek to canceled shows like Defying Gravity and Flash Gordon. Most fans think these shows were canceled before their prime, and Space isn't afraid to pick up the completed episodes of these orphaned series. I appreciate a lot of the reruns because I can't afford to buy boxed sets of Star Trek: Generations, Deep Space 9, Voyager or Enterprise. I'm not alone, many of us science fiction fans can't afford to buy these huge collections.

Missing are the awful SyFy movies, made on a pauper's budget with screenplays that leave viewers choking on bad dialog and cliche. This week on the Space channel they're featuring Final Draft (B Grade starring James Van Der Beek), Hitcher (the A Grade Horror remake), The Mist (B Grade starring Marcia Gay Harden), The Fog (B-ish grade remake starring Tom Welling, Selma Blair), The Last Sect (B Grade vampire film starring David Carradine). They may not be top shelf, but every single one of those films beats the most recent SyFy films: Mega Piranha and Monster Ark. To me, it's better to pick from the B Movie shelf than to continually try to make a low budget scifi/horror film and fail every single time, at least in SyFy's case. I'm aware that many great directors started with B grade low budget film, but there's no spark in the SyFy drivel. I've never seen a quality film made exclusively by SyFy. Over the last year those films have been a continual source of complaints on the SyFy bulletin boards.

There are shows like Stargate: Universe, Caprica, Eureka, Sanctuary and Warehouse 13 that live on SyFy, but those few bright spots don't redeem the station. I hope the lower budget shows in that list have other buyers lined up, because I doubt the all new SyFy network will continue to carry them with the way they're going. The funny thing is that all those shows are filmed in Vancouver.

So, looking away from the tragic example the American SyFy network is setting and back to our own lower budget but higher quality Imagination Station, I'm compelled to say thank you. Thank you for being the home of beloved reruns, fantastic B and low A grade films, original programming that may be short in size and budget but big on ambition, and for staying true to your own name.

May you forever be absent of terrible reality television, wrestling and cooking shows.

RL

If I were offered a television deal from the SyFy station at a one million dollar budget per episode, and another deal from the Space Station at three hundred thousand an episode, I'd take the deal from the Space Station. It's better to be amongst respected reruns, instead of crammed into the embarrassingly bad SyFy schedule.

Speed Racer: Watch the Monkey

Andy and Larry Wachowski are two writer/directors that I'll trust until the day I die. What they did with the Matrix films and the Animatrix was amazing. Despite the opinions of detractors I still feel it's some of the best science fiction ever made.

Sadly, that trust lead me to watch Speed Racer recently.

I understand they were attempting to put forward a complete creative vision that included a colorful version of the future that was faithful to the spirit of the cartoon. In my opinion they tried a bit too hard. The background was so loud the entire movie looked cluttered and even though the CGI was fantastic it was so cartoony that it made the unrealistic acts in the movie look comedic.

I'm not going to say that this film doesn't have its merits. The attempt at delivering a completely saturated creative piece where no thing is left undoctored and the experience is fully engineered resulted in a film that stands apart. Art isn't always enjoyable, sadly, and I honestly didn't have a great experience watching this film.

I can honestly say that if I were 8 years old I might be on the edge of my seat for this, but the same could be said for a really good cartoon with 1% of the budget. It comes down to pacing, story and performance. Sadly, the performances were cheesy or made to look cheesy through the direction and appearance of the film. The pacing wasn't terrible, though after watching racing for so long became ho-hum. The story was predictable and very close to a tale that's being told over and over again these days; a few people standing up to evil corporations involved in broad conspiracy.

Could I do better with the same resources? I can answer that in one word: No.

They wanted to deliver a movie that was a piece of art as much as it was a cartoon adaptation. They accomplished that. I would have done it differently, yes, but better? I wouldn't want to compare any of my writing skills against the creators of the Matrix. I'm also not a director, hell, I don't even know one. I just hope their artistic vision is something I enjoy more in their next film.

Sadly, my favorite character in the movie was the monkey.

RL

Starship Troopers 3 Marauder: 10 Reasons to Avoid This Film!

10 The sound track sounds like it was done with a late 70's synthesizer played by a 12 year old with no talent and only three fingers.

9 This series of films was originally based on a noteworthy science fiction novel. They have fallen so far from it that it's embarassing.

8 Characters are completely unbelievable. Their backgrounds, performances, dialogue and interactions are poorly delivered and badly written.

7 The technology in this film would either never work (due to the pesky laws of physics) or simply doesn't make sense. Some of it even looks like it's from the 90's.

6 The directing is so bad that I am absolutely certain I could have done better myself with a super 8 in a maximum security prison.

5 The special effects are much worse than the first film. I've seen better effects in Swede movies.

4 Production design lacks any creativity. Everything is borrowed or stolen from other films and television shows. I'm sure they raided the props room for the original Lost in Space.

3 The main villain bug is a great big version of a part of the female anatomy in such great detail that this film should have been rated XXX.

2 Casper Van Dean is the best actor in the film by far.

1 Let me spoil the ending: almost everyone finds religion and the highest paid actors survive.


Easily the worst movie I've seen in over a decade.

RL

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