We have the technology...
Monday, October 8th, 2007 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caddymanLast night before bed I watched episode two of the Bionic Woman. It’s hard to tell at this stage if it’s actually going to go anywhere, so I shall give it the benefit of the doubt for a couple more episodes.
Being a “re-imagining” by the same people who brought us the revamped Battlestar Galactica1, I am prepared to give it a chance, but I have to say that it doesn’t immediately grab the attention as BSG did. Michelle Ryan continues to hold the title part together well; I’m not worried about the ability of the cast, Miguel Ferrer plays the standard gruff boss acceptably enough (though I keep unconsciously comparing him with his RoboCop days). I do find myself wondering, however, how long it will take for the plot arc to surface properly and if it will be worth the effort when it does. There is only so much mileage in having Katee Sackoff’s Sarah Crovinus2 (the prototype and now rogue bionic woman, played rather psychotically and not entirely unlike her performance as Starbuck) as the background baddie.
Of course, there is also the inventor of bionics who seems also to be a baddy on the run for reasons not yet explained…
The re-imagining hasn’t addressed much of the improbable physics that the original series displayed, though the bionics are not now bolt-ons, but limbs artificially grown on a synthetic frame with microchips here and there. I suppose that goes part of the way to explaining why the arm doesn’t drop off at the shoulder when she picks up something very heavy (something that troubled me even as a spotty teenager lusting after Lindsay Wagner) and some of the terminology could have been better thought through. I mean, it’s one thing giving the inventor of bionics the surname “Anthros”, quite another naming the little (presumably “nanites”) machines he invented to sit inside the bloodstream and repair it and the bionics “anthrosites”.
To my mind this is an opportunity lost. It sounds much too much like anthracite: we could have had a steam-powered heroine who had to stop from time to time to chow down on coal to keep her bionic boilers going.
I think that would make for a proper “re-imagining”.
And where have the bionic sound effects gone? They were great.
1Which I notice was playing on the TV of the deserted house Jaime was investigating. I suppose they don’t have to pay anything if they already own both series.
2That character name rings a bell from somewhere. It seems very familiar to me.
Being a “re-imagining” by the same people who brought us the revamped Battlestar Galactica1, I am prepared to give it a chance, but I have to say that it doesn’t immediately grab the attention as BSG did. Michelle Ryan continues to hold the title part together well; I’m not worried about the ability of the cast, Miguel Ferrer plays the standard gruff boss acceptably enough (though I keep unconsciously comparing him with his RoboCop days). I do find myself wondering, however, how long it will take for the plot arc to surface properly and if it will be worth the effort when it does. There is only so much mileage in having Katee Sackoff’s Sarah Crovinus2 (the prototype and now rogue bionic woman, played rather psychotically and not entirely unlike her performance as Starbuck) as the background baddie.
Of course, there is also the inventor of bionics who seems also to be a baddy on the run for reasons not yet explained…
The re-imagining hasn’t addressed much of the improbable physics that the original series displayed, though the bionics are not now bolt-ons, but limbs artificially grown on a synthetic frame with microchips here and there. I suppose that goes part of the way to explaining why the arm doesn’t drop off at the shoulder when she picks up something very heavy (something that troubled me even as a spotty teenager lusting after Lindsay Wagner) and some of the terminology could have been better thought through. I mean, it’s one thing giving the inventor of bionics the surname “Anthros”, quite another naming the little (presumably “nanites”) machines he invented to sit inside the bloodstream and repair it and the bionics “anthrosites”.
To my mind this is an opportunity lost. It sounds much too much like anthracite: we could have had a steam-powered heroine who had to stop from time to time to chow down on coal to keep her bionic boilers going.
I think that would make for a proper “re-imagining”.
And where have the bionic sound effects gone? They were great.
1Which I notice was playing on the TV of the deserted house Jaime was investigating. I suppose they don’t have to pay anything if they already own both series.
2That character name rings a bell from somewhere. It seems very familiar to me.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 11:07 am (UTC)Could you be thinking of Corven from Crow: City of Angels?
Or something similar?
A steampunk version could be great fun - I wonder if Mr Moore had considered it?
I hope that Wagner and Majors get to make cameos.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 01:15 pm (UTC)"Bionic Woman" was, in my usual humble opinion, total shite. I was disappointed. "Moonlight" (a vampire thing) was even worse. "Life" isn't too bad, therefore probably won't make it past season 1. "Pushing Daisies" (with Anna Friel who manages a rather good American accent) is... odd, but strangely engaging; sort of "Dead Like Me" meets David Lynch.
On the bright side, Heroes has had a good start and House is its usual cynical scream.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 01:51 pm (UTC)That Mr Draconis wasn't impressed by them as I recall. I am looking forward to seeing if I agree with him or with you.
House has picked up nicely after what I thought was a disappointing 3rd season over all.
Oh, and Happy Birthday, by the way!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 08:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 03:45 pm (UTC)I should clarify my stance on Heroes. I thought 75% of season 1 was poo, and I still spend a great deal of time complaining at the motivations/actions/plot bricks. However, the first couple of eps of season 2 have been immensely better than the first 2 eps of season 1 were, that's for sure. We'll see. (I might have enjoyed them more because they're had more Hiro and less of that stupid alter-ego bint, too.)
The only other show I yell at more is "The 4400" -- which is a potentially good show that is 90% unmitigated shite. Shame, really.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 05:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 01:26 pm (UTC)Seen Sarah Jane Adventures yet?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-10-08 01:48 pm (UTC)I quite enjoyed them, bearing in mind they are pitched even younger than Dr Who which veers widely between the childish and the adult!