Nine Million Years to Earth
(a.k.a. Quatermass and the Pitt)
Wonderful British flick from the '50's. A bunch of subway workers discover what they believe is an unexploded German bomb...which turns out to be an ancient spacecraft.

The Edge of Darkness
A British ecological/supernatural miniseries from the '80's. This was the X-Files before there was an X-Files. Darius Jedburg steals the show. He's a stereotypical CIA gunslinger with a western drawl, who enjoys discussing the profundities of Willy Nelson lyrics--an excellent example of how a writer can turn a stereotype to his advantage. Interestingly, the writers made him one of the good guys. The Time of the Preacher, indeed!

Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away… and just about anything done by Hayao Miyazaki

One film that I positively loathe and despise…

Shawshank Redemption. I think it's some of the best characterization in the history of art. It only takes a few minutes for you to feel like you actually know Andy Dufresne and Red. Every time I watch it, I think, "I wish I had written that," and then I want to go write.

OK. Here's an old one that really did something to me when I saw it:

The Quiet Earth. Some of you sci-fi junkies MUST have seen it. It came out in film festivals about 1983-84. Australian film, if I remember correctly.

Movies? LOTR, Spider-man.

Smallville is good for maybe 5-6 outstanding episodes a season and 10 good ones, followed by 6 or so mediocre formula episodes.

I enjoy Star Trek Enterprise, though I can't tell you why, since I historically despise ST.

I have yet to watch an episode of Joan of Arcadia where I haven't cried, a little, at least once. It can be sappy and sentimental and often bludgeons the old heartstrings but it effective.

I enjoyed about 25% of the episodes of the Highlander TV Series and have them on DVD.

Along those lines there was another great show called Brimstone, though it only lasted 13 episodes, worth checking out.

In the same line was a show called Proffit, that lasted 6 episodes and was delightfully twisted.

There was a very entertaining Vampire series on the BBC called Ultraviolet, where Vampires are never actually referred to as Vampires, but instead are infected by Code-V. Neat little show.

On the film front...Full Metal Jacket (I like most Kubrick movies, Eyes Wide Shut not counting), Matrix (just the first one), Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back, Alien, Aliens, Princess Bride, Road Warrior, Mad Max, Braveheart (sappy still loved it), Life of Brian and jeez the list goes on and on.

I fondly remember watching 9 million years to earth over and over again. Back in 78-79 the local movie theatre would let parents drop there kids off at the movies all day for like $5. It was kind of like day care during the summer and one of the movies they played was 9 million years...sigh. That and Dragonsslayer which I remember because there was a scene with bare boobies, which was a big deal for a 8 year old in the days prior to cable and the internet. Good times.

Other stuff to add: Babylon 5. Like wbriggs with DS9, I'd say it is an excellent example of how to plot a long and complex story (and I'd recommend he gets the DVDs/videos and follows it, damn it!).

I think inspiration comes in the unlikeliest of places when you need it. I've gotten character creation ideas from Xena (conflicted hero with a little more villain than good in her? Gotcha), clothing from LoTR, dialogue snippets from anything, etc.

I'm easily inspired I guess... just depends on whether my Inspiration Receiver Nodule is plugged in or not.

quote:

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my TV viewing is pretty limited to The West Wing, SG-1, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Buffy, X-files, and well... any ole thing on SciFi Channel.

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That's limited? Wow.

"Man on Fire" choked me up pretty good. And in so doing, it taught me a thing or two about writing emotionally powerful drama while keeping it tough at the same time. Inspiration? I don't know if that counts, but it taught me something about the craft.

Here's a shameful little secret of mine: "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" chokes me up pretty much every week. Maybe not shameful for some of you, but when you're a 23-year-old male...

The City of Lost Children (the best movie I have ever seen) and anything else by Jean Michel Jeunet like Delicatessan and Amelie.

Also Carnivale has just started in Australia, is it worth watching? It seems interesting but I am worried about the way it will resolve and whether it will just get silly.

Cool victorian ghost stories, MR James, Dickens.

Babylong 5 because to date it is the most believable future-in-space series or movie that I have seen. It includes human foibles still intact, diseases without miracle cures, and complex political situations on alien planets instead of just earth.

Charmes - becuase it has so many examples of what NOT to do. The show is awful. It includes such mistakes as emotional distance from the characters because of their blase attitude about everything, misused and underused powers that clearly have the writer's holding them back, internal inconsistencies the size of the grand canyon, no real rules, plot elements that have more to do with convenience than anything else...I could go on. In fact, I only watch it because I have considered trying to write something similiar but do it right. The *idea* has potential.

Farscape: I just got into this one, actually (I'm always late about getting into shows, I have to hear from others that thye're good before I waste my time and then I have to catch up three or four sesasons.) Anyway, this one because I have seen what feels to me like truly unique spins on some old ideas. I loved the fact that the human joined the rest of the galaxy instead of the rest of the galaxy coming to earth. While living ships have been done before, I liked their living ship very much and how it really does manage to feel like a character, a sentient being with feelings, rather than a ship.

Smallville: The current season is disappointing me a bit but pushing that aside, I love so much of what they've done ot make Superman into Clark Kent, struggling adolescent with superpowers. And somehow, (this is the most inspirational part) they have made me sympathize with Lex Luther. I find myself hoping against hope that he will find a way to turn into a good perosn instead of the villain.

Spider Man: The movies....This was the single best adaptation of a super-hero from comics to the big screen to date. It took a superhero and made him into a person I could care about. It gave the kids something to watch and the grownups with brains some things to think about. (especially the second one)

I mean real movie epics. Spartacus. Lawrence of Arabia. Master and Commander.

p.s. Corpsegrinder: Apocalypse Now is brilliant.

Oh, please!

You want brilliant? I'll give you brilliant...
South Park, episode 310 "Chinpoko Mon". Now THAT was brilliant.

I enjoyed parts of Apocalypse Now, but have to agree with Corpse that on the whole I found it pretentious and self indulgent.

I thought Full Metal Jacket was a far more effective movie.

The Spider-Man movies were great movies, it brought the feelings of a young man having to deal with life and abrupt changes to the front.

As for TV, I enjoyed "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", because it brought to life one of the things that I was interested in in high school, Greek mythology.

I also enjoyed the first "Highlander" movie as well as "Braveheart". Braveheart because it showed a change in a man that took a violent change to a violent end.

Now as for Star Trek and Babylon 5. I didn't get into B5 for some stupid reason.
I enjoyed all the Star Trek versions, especially DS9, Voyager and Enterprise.

I agree that "Full Metal Jacket" is better than "Apocolypse Now". But what about "Deliverance"?

Ok enough rambling, back to your regularly scheduled forum.

If you want a dose of science and history delivered in a very unique and quirky way this is the show for you.

James Burkes Connections, Connections 2 & Connections 3.

If you are not familiar with this series it is well worth looking into.

He starts an episode with two seemingly unrelated things, like the Taj Mahal and the Space Shuttle, then through the course of the episode he moves from the Taj Mahal to something related to it and then to the next relation and by the end of the show you are at the Space Shuttle. The "connections" are sometimes a little forced but it still works.

The first series was the best imho, since it took a full hour and really explored the relations between them. The second series was also entertaining with twice as many episodes but they were in half hour segments and he had connections that would span several episodes. The third series was more in line with the first and I liked it second best.

He also did another similar toned series called "The Day the Universe Changed" in which he explores seemingly insignicant things that brought about huge paradigm shifts in other areas.

Another is Fantastic Planet an animated movie where humans were mouse sized vermin in a world of giant blue aliens.