The old E. E. 'Doc' Smith books are no longer in my collection any more, having fallen foul of one of my general clear-outs, but I do recollect enjoying them when I was a teenager (Lensman and Skylark series). I think I dumped them because I was allowing myself to be influenced by the opinions of others at the time. They were also old, as in 'astrogator calculates course with a slide rule' old. It'll be interestng to see what kind of a movie these will make, since this was BIG space opera:
The
internet movie database has the Lensmen movie listed as sometime in 2011.
Writer J. Michael Straczynski said in 2009 he's finished his second draft for Lensmen, and producer Ron Howard and Universal are happy with it. He said it'll be very character-based, typical of Howard's work, and yet the special effects will be cutting edge. And it'll keep the massive scale of the original novels, as much as possible.
The Babylon 5 writer
and Ron Howard? Seems promising...
10 comments:
I loved the Lensmen series. Forst sci fi books I bought, they influenced my choice of reading for the rest of my life, pretty much. Sounds promising for the film.
Giant68
can someone tell me a good Babylon 5 'area' to watch? it was just the random ol' funny nose and soap opera stuff out of the box of cliches when i was watching them as it came out. Ron Howard? for real? uh..Willow II.
there is a Lensman anime, i cant recommend sitting through it.
Yeah, I saw the anime. I will never be able to get that portion of my life back!
Giant68
They were probably among the first I read too, Giant68.
I like Babylon 5, Vaude. It's about the only SF series I've watched that actually has a story arc that completes. Admittedly you have to get round the rubber head problem first.
i watched the first season, the arc it created was neuron bent into sponge shapes. was like Star Trek with a few aliens having curious breakfast cereal, and or animal traits thrown in to spice it up.
dunno man. a specific arc/episodes would be good to hear about. curious about H. Ellison's work, but not enough to pursue i guess.
-burn out vaudeviewed
Babylon 5 was riddled with cliches and terrible acting - but it was still cutting edge special effects and it still managed to complete an entire arc.
And about Season Two-ish it starts to get awesome.
My particular favourites are the ones when they dig up a shadow ship on Mars and the attack on B5 by Earth.
B5 had it's moments, but like any other series, some was dreadful. Series 2 to series 4 are great, series 5 must be avoided at all costs, except the very last episode where Straczynski himself switches off the lights as they abandon the station.
As for the acting, anything involving Londo (big hair) and G'Kar (rubber head)is worth watching.
As for the Lensmen, I did enjoy them when much younger but looked at one recently and realised they do not date very well.
thanx for the advice. season 2 or bust.
haven't liked ANY of the interactions in season 1. semi pre chewed and regurgitated Star Drek.
waiting for a great mini series where morals of a praying mantis and spiders challenge the morals of a world of delicious children up against amoral hedonists (that makes the gnat like nudge winks of True Blood look like a used door mat). or Deathworld, The Genocides, Cugel, Spatterjay, Speculum Fight, Deicide and Wolf Eyes the series, would be fun too.
Vaude, I guess I neglected to mention that. Season One didn't seem to be going anywhere - just a few bits in it that are relevant to the story later on. It gets better when the station has a new commander.
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