More vintage sci-fi...

Man, these prices just don't work for me...

Ark II: The Complete Series ($134.53)
Quark - The Complete Series [DVD] ($89.99)

I think Ruth was my first Asian crush...

ARKII Intro


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyv9zxtgCCc

I wonder whatever happened to the jet pack (gotta watch The Rocketeer again someday soon)?

Season 1 of the new BSG had different intro music from the rest of the seasons. Check out the intro credit sequence for seasons 2 through 4.

PM, I don't get it...

Battlestar Galactica: Intro season 2


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXWOgB-BZq8

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I like the new Raider even less than I like the new Viper (I know it's not new as you pointed out on first post, but this is the first time I've really seen any of it).

I still love watching sci-fi though, even if my cutoff is the 1980's.

Isn't there yet another BSG reboot series or movie in the making?
https://screenrant.com/battlestar-galactica-reboot-trouble-metropolis-esmail-problem/

You just know that whatever comes out today is going to be woke as all hell! And I still like models over CGI.

That one died in development hell. It became DOA a long time ago. It wasn't a reboot because it was going to continue the same BSG universe that was created by Ron Moore.

Great thread!

The BSG reboot was the best show I've seen on tv since the x-files.

ps: honorable mention to Space Above and Beyond

Holy smokes! I haven't seen a post from you on SimHQ for a very long time. Welcome back!


Oh, and concerning Space Above & Beyond, it's definitely one of those short lived sci-fi shows (one season exactly) which should have been given more time to find an audience.

If we're bringing up other old scifi shows, Babylon 5 has to get mentioned - great writing, and I think it would have been better if there hadn't been the expectation of being canceled at the end of season 4, and changes made to accommodate that. I keep hearing about a reboot from JMS, but things keep changing in the TV world and it keeps getting delayed or changed or something. It's just sad that so many of the original cast have been lost over the years.

Crusade had possibilities, I think, with Gary Cole as the lead, but it just didn't catch on.

Crusade had tons of potential but the suits at TNT decided to cancel it before the first episode even aired.

Everything about Babylon 5 was great...except Legend of the Rangers. I do agree that some of the changes made due to the early cancellation, then the cancellation getting canceled muddled things up a bit. Particularly after they ended it at season 4 and kept going adding in new plot lines that ended up going nowhere when it ended after season 5.


Space Above and Beyond was a great idea, but it had a bit of a rough start, budget problems, and some of the acting early on was bad, even by 90's TV standards. It did seem to get better and better as it went on though.

This is the key point for me right here. Yes, you can definitely see how the show was trying to find its footing in the first few episodes but you could also see the very noticeable improvement with the later episodes as you mentioned. Even the first season of Babylon 5 had its share of dreadful acting and some silly plots in the "stand alone" episodes.

How did I not know this???

When you posted the below I meant to reply "It's right there"

And you should have!

All this time and I'm just now discovering that the regular phaser is really a hand phaser clipped on to a pistol grip (which provides more power, or so I've read).

Mind. Blown.

Looking back at my first pic it's now clear as day, but I didn't didn't pick up on it (too busy trying to find a pic without a Tricorder, since there's no Space 1999 equivalent). Gives me an excuse to binge-watch my blurays again to see if I missed it, although the only episode I remember off the top of my head with hand phasers is the one with the falling/flying jellyfish/stingray-looking creatures.

But what a cool idea that is.

This phaser stuff is fascinating! Did you know that the detachable hand phaser is also a razor?

Set phasers to shave!

ST: TOS was made on a shoestring budget for its entire TV run. There have been interviews with people who worked for the props department and they confirmed that they would go "dumpster diving" at the studio lots to find stuff.

That's also why they had so many time travel episodes, plus that gangster planet one. It's because the studio just got done filming some other movie and they swiped all the left over props and costumes.

Obvious budget saving episodes:

Patterns of Force - Nazi planet
Bread and Circuses - Roman planet
A Piece of the Action - 1930's gangster planet
City on the Edge of Forever - 1930's Chicago
Assignment: Earth - 1960's NYC

and quite a few others!

This is freaking awesome! I think that's what made it so good, the ingenuity and sparking of ideas when working with what you have.

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One reason I love the era of models vs. CGI (besides models being so cool, like the ones on the RC & Scale Modeling board), is that CGI is too easily overused and abused. Half of the movie or show becomes a massive fast-paced CGI action scene which for me is too much.

I had a friend (Chad H.) who was the only neighborhood kid who saw Firefox at the theater (1982) and was disappointed that the aircraft action scenes were sparse and at the end of the movie (as he put it). I disagreed after seeing it on TV. I thought the story and balance of acting to special effects were perfect. Same with the first 3 released Star Wars movies, and the early Star Trek movies. CGI is ok in moderation, but models (with their limitations) rule!

The point of TOS was the stories/plots/characters and not the special effects. Although some of the visuals were pretty spectacular for the day, especially for a TV show rather than a big budget movie.

Many modern shows would do well to remember that.