tv review
Reviewing insightful and thought provoking science fiction TV and technology.
Doctor Who: The Pyramid At The End Of The World Review
Warning: Potential spoilers ahead for the episode. Science Fiction often is a way for us to see our world through different eyes. As classics like The Twilight Zone or the original series of Star Trek have shown, there is something about the genre that allows us to remove ourselves slightly and see the world we live in in a different context. Doctor Who has also shown itself capable of this both in its original run and with its current 21st century incarnation. The Pyramid At The End Of The World, aired on the 27th of May, was to prove that once again with an episode that combined the genre and the show's most recent story arcs with the world we live in now.
By Matthew Kresal9 years ago in Futurism
Review of 12 Monkeys 3.8-10
The concluding three episodes of the penultimate season 3 of 12 Monkeys on the SyFy Channel last night -- soon to be rebranded in all caps -- was as good as the first seven, which is to say, superb indeed, and you can put that in all caps any time.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
Review of 12 Monkeys 3.5-7
A superb, punching, philosophic triad of episodes 3.5-7 of 12 Monkeys last night, with Jennifer's most memorable line coming in 1953, "a thing for Asimov". This has almost nothing to do with the story, but it's meta-beautiful, since Asimov's The End of Eternity -- from around three years in the future, in 1956 - has always been, to my mind, at least, since the day I first read it back in 1959, the best single time travel novel ever written.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Frequency Epilogue
Frequency -- the CW time-travel series, based on one of the best time-travel movies of all time -- was unceremoniously cancelled a few weeks ago. Truthfully, the series had a lot of flaws, and probably deserved to be cancelled, but I was sorry to see it go, anyway. Part of that was, as you should know from reading my reviews here, I really like time travel. Part of that was, well, there was more Frequency story to tell.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
Rewatching... Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones - Part 6
Saturday 13 May 1967 There was an article in the paper yesterday describing how a man had written to Gatwick airport because he was worried about flying in case he got miniaturised. Perhaps it was tongue in cheek, but it suggests that this story must have made more of an impression on the public than I'd imagined.
By Nick Brown9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Oasis
I caught the pilot for Oasis last month on Amazon Prime. It definitely has possibilities. The set-up is something we've seen and read many times before -- an Earth in bad shape just a few decades into the future has apparently discovered faster-than-light travel, and is setting up a colony on some habitable world out there in the galaxy. Also familiar is the discovery that this new world isn't such a nice place, either, and in fact has something very strange and likely deadly about it.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
Review of Travelers
The premise of Travelers -- people from the future coming back to save our world from devastation, by changing the past, and traveling via insertion of their minds into the 2016 bodies of people who are on the verge of dying -- is something we've seen before in time travel, notably in 12 Monkeys (save the world), Quantum Leap (mind from the future jumping into present bodies), and Air Raid/Millennium (bodies on the verge of death). Travelers even feels a little like Trancers (1984) -- which is to say, very welcome, since Trancers is one of my all-time favorite low-budget time-travel series of movies -- but the actual story and stories of the new Canadian series, streaming since late last year on Netflix, has twists and turns and an appeal all its own. And, in the end, it's altogether outstanding.
By Paul Levinson9 years ago in Futurism
