In the Trek vein, I can't really say I was a big fan of ST:Next Gen. Too many plotlines stolen from Classic Treck. Plus, I like continuity in my sci-fi. TOS was OK, "Spock's Brain" notwithstanding. Brooks was good as Cisco; too bad he didn't have better writers and a bigger budget. Supporting cast was at least decent for DS9. Voyager, I may have given a chance if they'd gone with the original plan and cast Lindsey Wagner (yes THAT bionic woman) as Janeway. But don't particularly care for the "Remo Williams Refugee" Kate Mulgrew. My own opinioin is she cannot act her way out of a paper bag, let alone a cardboard Starfleet Bridge set.
I liked Buck Rogers. Twiki (sp?) the robot was voiced by none other than Mel Blanc, the voice of most of your favorite Looney Tunes characters. The second Season of Buck was a little...dry, I guess would be good word. No more Dr. Hugher, Dr. Theopolis, Twiki or Princess Ardala. (Pamela Hemslee in those dresses...wow!)
Plus the episode with Buster Crabb, the ORIGINAL Buck, was just GREAT! Some great guest stars, like Jack Palance, Sam Jaffee and Peter Graves helped, too. But again, they were all in the first season.
V was decent, I thought it definitely declined over time.
GalacticanCajun, thanks for bringing up the Flash. A very good series. Too bad it was cut down when it was. Seeing Mark Hammel pay the Trickster was just GREAT!
Farscape I liked, but I lost interest in it. One of my friends was big into it, and he thought the ending was just awful! Did the series no justice. He was also into Space: Above and Beyond. I just wasn't into it at the time.
I was, and remain, a big B5 fan. Strazynski's use of actors from Sci-Fi series of the past, his appreciation for both the Biblical and Science Fiction writing, his CONTINUITY of the series thanks in part to his "Continuity Nazi" Fiona Avery. (Think of the Soup Nazi from Sienfield, and apply that passion to the continuity of the series!) Plus, B5 made some good breakthroughs, especially in the CGI arena. But I think one of the less appreciated ones is that the "Stereotypical Alien" mold was broken. In Bergen/Branana Trek, all Ferengi are greedy, all Romulans are devious, all Klingons are warlike, etc., etc., In B5 we found that the aliens were not necessarily evil or driven by a single trait, but that they had personalities and were driven by their own motivations. Strazynski took two of the Alien ambassadors, started them out as adversaries, one a loose cannon no one wanted anything to do with, the other the happy-go-lucky guy everyone liked. Over the course of the series, these two were juxtaposed, and finally end up friends. A very good series, though I do think it kind of petered out at the end, but mostly because the didn't expect to get their 5th season, so they crammed everything they could into the 4th. And too bad the spin-off Crusade never got a chance to get going. Sci-Fi should have picked it up. TNT just wanted to much control, and their fingers CERTAINLY didn't belong in the soup after the success of B5. Strazynski even registered the psuedonym "Eiben Screwed" and used it in a writing credit on one of the Crusade episodes.
Regards,
Gunstar Aries
