From: wilson@cs.ucf.edu (tom wilson)
Subject: Re: TimeTrax
Organization: University of Central Florida, Orlando
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 09:14:07 GMT

echristo@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Elena A Christofides) wrote:
>On Saturday night after Dr. Who, WOSU showed this new TV show - 2 hr debut - 
>that was so HORRIBLE!!!!
>There were so many incongruities in their time travel stuff, that it just made 
>you puke!

Like the average person is going to notice....

>I can't believe that I stayed up till 1:30 a.m. to see this. At least I can 
>safely say that like Deep Space Nine, I stuck it out, and I hated every minute 
>of it! It was actually WORSE than Deep Space Nine AND ST:TNG all roled into one
>big hairy ball!

Well it depends on how you approach the show. If you try to compare one thing
to your favorite (whatever - show, person, etc.), then it's going to suck. The
only thing that bother me about TimeTrax was the inconsistencies in props and
other "features" of the two times. In the future, they have a huge screen at
the police station flashing different viewpoints of a bad guy, yet in someone's
room there are simple every day pictures in frames. Why not some super
futuristic graphic image of the person?

Anyway, I didn't expect a whole lot from TimeTrax and I wasn't too
disappointed. On the topic of other recent sci-fi in relation to old sci-fi:

Deep Space Nine: I find the three Star Treks work well. That is why I think
a new Doctor Who wouldn't be bad. The problem I have with TNG is that it is
becoming soap-opera-ish in that they give the shows a point to prove (like
Aesop's fables). So far DS9 has returned to the fiction that was in many of
the original ST. While DS9 appears to have a limitation in variety of
stories (because the station can't go very far), it has been quite good.

Space Rangers: Given the average premier, I have been overly pleased with
the last two eps. The one tonight was quite awesome (they had a huge circular
space-station-like structure that accelerated a space ship to light speed
faster than the ship would on its own - very cool idea). Most of the material
has been split between special effects and semi-comedic situations. If you
compare it TNG, you won't be watching long (or like me you'll be watching SR
instead of TNG 8-). I guess you can say that the way the characters deal
with each other is reminiscent of the original ST - they poke at each other.
Look back at ST - it's classic. The first time through, it probably didn't
mean much.

TimeTrax: I can't remember a whole lot since it aired here almost 2 weeks
ago (or was it just last week). Like I said above, have expectations and you'll
be disappointed (kind of like a new Who fan - particularly if you see a weak
episode)...revelation----not all episodes are stellar! Maybe the others will
get better. I know SR was that way. I don't know how much they can do with
this show since the police guy has already gone back in time to catch the
bad guys. There ain't a whole lot of interesting sci-fi going on in present
day earth.

Well, what the hell does this have to do with Doctor Who you say (no you don't,
you would have quit reading)? Well, for one - it's new sci-fi. After reading
the Jan issue of DWB, Ian Lavine said in a letter to John Birt of the BBC
that there seems to be no new UK sci-fi on either BBC channel. Perhaps the
success of a few new sci-fi shows over hear might mean something in the UK.
Maybe not.

Finally, as bad as TimeTrax might/could be, I'll watch it over the rest of
the prime time junk. In fact, I don't watch any other prime time TV except
for the Simpsons (and you can argue that it's not really much of an adult
show), ocassionally TNG, DS9, and SR. Since I'm getting the Sci-Fi channel
now, it's neat to see those old shows that seemed kind of dumb way back then
(I can't believe how much better Lost in Space is compared to what I
remembered).

Tom