[diamondgeezer]

OK, who saw/remembers/wants to ***** about the following three series -

Ultraviolet - a top-secret police unit battles 'leaches' (read: vampires) in and around London. Sinister conspiracy on the part of the leaches, which is only revelaed at the last minute and is really quite chilling.

Invasion Earth - an alien crashes in WWII London. Fifty-odd years later, the nasties he was running from start to think seriously about destroying the Earth, and it's up to a lone Tornado pilot to save the day (well, sort of... the point is it had Tornados in it)

Last Train - A meteroite impact wipes out civilization on Earth. In the English countryside, an intercity express train was protected from the blast by being in a tunnel, and the passengers frozen for over a century by a government agent carry some sort of insta-freeze gubbinz. Basic premise was a bit daft, but the actual show wasn't at all bad.

Does anyone living on this fair and sceptered isle remeber any of these shows? What did you think of them?

[Fineus]

Originally posted by diamondgeezer
Last Train - A meteroite impact wipes out civilization on Earth. In the English countryside, an intercity express train was protected from the blast by being in a tunnel, and the passengers frozen for over a century by a government agent carry some sort of insta-freeze gubbinz. Basic premise was a bit daft, but the actual show wasn't at all bad.

I do remember enjoying this one, probably because I followed it - it was interesting to see people cope and some of the situations that could show up - as well as the sci-fi elements. Some of it was actually quite emotional, especially towards the end of the series.

Edit, oh and this one:

Invasion Earth - an alien crashes in WWII London. Fifty-odd years later, the nasties he was running from start to think seriously about destroying the Earth, and it's up to a lone Tornado pilot to save the day (well, sort of... the point is it had Tornados in it)

This one got really emotional at the end as well as the futility of their efforts dawned on them and the girl commited suicide as they started nuking each of the alien structures in turn. A bit far-fetched at times but still had some good ideas (I particularly liked the idea that the invasion was carried out on infinite dimensions and therefore there was no way to halt the attack).

[mikhael]

You guys have the BEST television shows. Be it scifi, real life stuff, comedy... We americans get RAW SUCKAGE from the studios.

All three of those sound cool.

[ZylonBane]

What, no Space: 1999? Sheesh.

And mikhael, it sounds like you just don't know where to look. There's more quality American-made TV on in a week than I have time to watch.

[diamondgeezer]

Originally posted by ZylonBane
And mikhael, it sounds like you just don't know where to look. There's more quality American-made TV on in a week than I have time to watch.

Failing that, there's always S:AAB reruns

[mikhael]

Originally posted by ZylonBane
What, no Space: 1999? Sheesh.

And mikhael, it sounds like you just don't know where to look. There's more quality American-made TV on in a week than I have time to watch.

Having lived all over the world, from Europe to the Japan, Australia and the US, I have to say that American television is among the worst in the world (though not as bad Saudi Arabian TV!). When I lived in Japan and Saudi Arabia, I had access to the STAR! networks out of Hong Kong. They carried a lot of older british shows, as well as chinese and filipino shows. Great stuff.

American TV just lacks the sort of writing you get from Brit shows. About the only two shows I watch anymore on TV are Farscape and ER. Pretty much everything else is annoying.

[Grey Wolf]

My favorite shows are: SNL (the old ones, either the originals or the David Spade/Chris Farley years), ST:TNG (don't even mention DS9 or Voyager), and Monty Python's Flying Circus (anyone here remember the matress sketch?).

[ZylonBane]

Originally posted by mikhael
About the only two shows I watch anymore on TV are Farscape and ER. Pretty much everything else is annoying.

I see. So you find (or found) all the following shows "annoying"--

Frasier
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Will and Grace
MASH
Just Shoot Me
South Park
Duckman
Futurama
Stargate: SG-1
Babylon 5
The Simpsons
Cheers
Kids in the Hall
Star Trek TOS/TNG/DS9
Night Court
The X-Files
Newsradio
The Tick

That's an interesting sense of taste you've got there. Glad I don't share it!

[Bobboau]

hate 6 of those
love 10
the rest are passable

[karajorma]

Well Luckily in the UK we get the best of both worlds. We get imports of the cream of american TV (CSI, The Shield, Law & Order, 24, almost everything on ZB's list) plus we get our own TV shows which often rival the quality of the american shows yet almost never get seen by you americans unless they are remade (badly) for american TV.

As for the series that DG mentioned, I watched them all and I`ve got UV on DVD

I liked Invasion Earth too, especially the bit where they finally begin to realise they won`t win.

[diamondgeezer]

Originally posted by karajorma
...and I've got UV on DVD

*pokes karajorma with stick*

I'm comming to rob your house

I'm so gonna have to find Invasion Earth on disc somewhere... BBC store, methinks

[mikhael]

Originally posted by ZylonBane
I see. So you find (or found) all the following shows "annoying"--

Frasier -- TEH SUCK

Mystery Science Theatre 3000 -- TEH SUCK

Will and Grace -- This one is a close call. On the one hand we have Will, Grace and that Megan Mulally chick. On the other, we have the campy faggy moron. call it a draw.

MASH -- TEH SUCK

Just Shoot Me -- TEH SUCK

South Park -- TEH SUCK plus TEH SWALLOW

Duckman -- TEH SUCK

Futurama -- TEH SUCK

Stargate: SG-1 -- TEH SUCK

Babylon 5 -- The pinnacle of long-storyline television goodness

The Simpsons -- TEH SUCK

Cheers -- TEH SUCK

Kids in the Hall -- Canadian. 'Nuff Said.

Star Trek TOS/TNG/DS9 -- A truly mixed bag. All Trek has its high points, but its caught amidst a wash of lows.

Night Court -- TEH SUCK

The X-Files -- See the note about Trek.

Newsradio -- This actually had some intelligent humor. Of course, I liked it for the guy from Kids in the Hall and the girl that's on ER now.

The Tick -- TEH SUCK and TEH SPIT. This should never have been made. Its an offense to human intelligence. Far better in the monochrome deadtree format.

That's an interesting sense of taste you've got there. Glad I don't share it!

And if you like ALL of those, I'm glad I don't share YOUR sense of taste, Zylon.

Since I moved back to the United States this last time (I've lived less than half my life in the continental US) I've watched an average of about 3hrs of television per week. Lately, that's dropped to a single hour.

[diamondgeezer]

Wow, I caused a fight! Bonus!

And just so you know, mik - Futurama is the daddy, and SG-1 is a firm favourite, despite the major wobbles in quality (there's always the excuse that it's got Amanda Tapping in it. Yes please!).

Frasier is very clever, but gets annoying after a while, and I wouldn't touch Will and Grace with a ten foot clown pole.

As for X-Files - am I the only one that thought Robert Patrick was The Man(tm) compared to that miserable Duchovny bugger?

[Styxx]

The only things I watch on TV these days:

- Enterprize (still on season one here)
- Andromeda (still on season one here)
- Alias
- The West Wing (when I can)
- CSI and CSI:Miami (the latter just started here)
- Law and Order: Criminal Intent
- The District
- The Chronicle (damn, this one rules)

I'm seriously considering cancelling cable.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by diamondgeezer

As for X-Files - am I the only one that thought Robert Patrick was The Man(tm) compared to that miserable Duchovny bugger?

Nope. He didn't have as much chemistry with Scully, but he had more of an edge to him.  When they got the other girl to work as Patrick's partner though, I lost my last shred of interest.

[ZylonBane]

I guess mikhael isn't much of an animation fan. All the bright colors and rapid movement must confuse and enrage him.

[diamondgeezer]

Oh, well, yeah, they were never gonna get someone who could out-Scully Gillian Anderson (if that makes any sense at all), but I ran with... after watching eight bloody years of it, I was gonna see it through to the end.

Speaking of which - the last epsiode was pretty lame, right? I mean, it wasn't just me that felt short-changed? Eight years of conspiracy unfoldage and that was all we got - The aliens are comming in ten years time and there's nothing we can do about it (blacked out to minimise spoilage for those suckas without cable )

[EDIT] OK, this'll get the topic closed, but what the hell - Zylon, you may be the FS2 guru around here, and I respect what you can do with FRED and the rest of 'em, but you really are a proper twat sometimes.

[mikhael]

DG: I forgot to watch the last episode. Actually, I think I missed the last six or eight episodes.

Zylon: I like animation just fine, so long as the writing isn't watered down, the plots are not just rehashed sitcom plots, if the animation quality is good, and if the animation isn't really a 30min commercial for a product tie in. That rules out most everything. I wasn't much of a fan of american animation before I moved to Japan. While in Japan, I grew to loathe most japanese animation. Between the two, there's not much left except small studio and independent work that very few people ever see.  TV is just a waste for me. The only reason I have cable is that my wife likes it, and its only like $10/mo on top of my network access.

[Hunter]

Frasier
Mystery Science Theatre 3000
Will and Grace
MASH
Just Shoot Me
South Park
Duckman
Futurama
Stargate: SG-1
Babylon 5
The Simpsons
Cheers
Kids in the Hall
Star Trek TOS/TNG/DS9
Night Court
The X-Files
Newsradio
The Tick

All of them have pretty much come out of top production studios and are shown on some pretty big networks throughout America. In the UK however, we don't have anything like that nor are there any large budgets for our Science Fiction programmes, with the exception of some recent documentry-style programmes such as BBC "SPACE" which had some very impressive CGI.  

About the only two shows I watch anymore on TV are Farscape and ER. Pretty much everything else is annoying.

Farscape is as good as 100% Aussie and isn't really an American show at all, it's just funded by them.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by Hunt Smacker

Farscape is as good as 100% Aussie and isn't really an American show at all, it's just funded by them.

My wife points this out constantly, when she's not mooning over Ben Browder.