ABC orders "Masters of Science Fiction" (1 Viewer)

[Jason Seaver]

Link

Adapting Asimov's "The Last Question"? Sign me up. My only worry is that the reaction to Masters of Horror (also an IDT production) was pretty lukewarm, although I imagine expectations will be different here.

Still, hire Takashi Miike to do an episode. I dare you.

Which leads to the other question - who would you think of as sci-fi directors that are currently working? People don't get identified with that genre the way they do with horror. The big name is Spielberg, but they won't get him. I'd be excited if David Twohy or Alex Proyas were hired, though. Maybe Nicholas Meyer. Any other ideas?

 

[Jefferson Morris]

Aronofsky, perhaps. Love to see Fincher take a shot at sci-fi again. Maybe David Lynch, if he's finally gotten the taste of Dune out of his mouth. The Wachowski brothers.

How about Genndy Tartakovsky? Or Luc Besson?

I'm intrigued by this series, although what I saw of Masters of Horror seemed rather sub-par.

--Jefferson Morris

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jason Seaver wrote (post #1):


Mr. Lynch has been quoted as saying that he never had much taste for "science-fiction" in the first place. He's really always been more of a director of the weird than anything else, I think.

 

[Bob_L]

I have every conviction that if Mick Garris is involved this will be a study in underachievement.

MOH was the essence of a botched opportunity.

 

[Rakesh.S]

i'm giving this 3 episodes.

There is no way this sticks around UNLESS it is written into the contract that all episodes have to be aired, like the horrible Kingdom Hospital.

 

[GlennH]

Four episodes (out of six total) will air on ABC this month, starting this Saturday August 4 at 10 p.m. I'm going to set the DVR and check this out in HD. Apparently the final two will only be available on the DVD set (?).

http://www.mastersofscifi.com/site/schedule.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/0....ap/index.html

 

[ChristopherDAC]

Well, I thought A Clean Escape was at least well done. Since I haven't read the story, I can't really comment further. Waiting for the Heinlein.

 

[Jose Martinez]

I tried to watch it last night but, as usual, the local ABC affiliate, screwed up their HD broadcast. First, it started off 4:3. Then, the dialogue or center channel was missing so all I heard were the ambience and score. I gave up.

 

[Henry Gale]

One of my very favorite Asimov tales that I first read half a century ago.

I guess that one didn't make the cut?

BTW...you can read it online for free.

Well....

Last night's premier episode was terrific. Sam Waterson's voice goes all over me but he was very convincing and I've always loved Miss Davis.

Did someone miss it because of some HD thing and some sound thing?

Too bad.

 

[gushin]

I found it to be an excellent show. I think Saturday night though is going to give this bad ratings, and it won't be renewed. Which is quite a shame. I hope the three remaining are as good as this first one.

 

[Scott_J]

The show couldn't even muster three million viewers in the Saturday-night time slot of death:
Link

 

[Jerome Grate]

I happen to stumble across the show and I thought it was pretty good, but that time slot just stinks. Saturday night at 10pm. I happen to catch it because we were back from vacation and tired. Definetly would have pulled more viewers on a week night.

 

[Citizen87645]

Anyone know if the first ep will be repeated before the next one?

 

[Jason Seaver]

With those ratings, we should be worried about there being a second one. I just hope that Starz gives the complete series an HD release sometime this fall.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

I could have sworn I remembered hearing that JMS wrote one these shows, and checking on the website, I was right. He wrote the script for Watchbird, which is one of the episodes that is not airing.

 

[Henry Gale]

Got my answer about "The Last Question".
Found this at SyFy Portal:
"There were a number of stories producers struggled to include, such as Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question," wherein an increasingly powerful computer deals with the death of the universe. Addis recalled that John Milius of "Apocalypse Now" and "Conan The Barbarian" fame was incredibly passionate about "The Last Question," "as were we all, but to render it with any integrity would have cost far more than what we had."

 

[Henry Gale]

Where's Ed Wood when we need him?

 

[Scott_J]

Not on ABC. I doubt it'll air on any cable networks (and it's not on abc.com for streaming, either).

 

[Scott_J]

 

[gushin]

It would be nice if ABC allowed us to watch these online. At least NBC allowed all of Kidnapped to be seen that way.