SFdebris

Just watched his Dark Crystal review, is he also going to review Age of Resistance?

The new schedule is up, some reviews have been pushed back:

• 31-Dec-2-Jan Age of Ultron (the comic)
• 11-Jan Short Treks
• 13-Jan B5: There All Honor Lies
• 15-Jan Atlantis: 48 minutes
• 18-Jan Discovery S 2 E 5
• 20-Jan B5: And Now For A Word
• 22-Jan SG 1: Forever In A Day
• 25-Jan Odo Bio
• 27-Jan B5: Knives
• 29-Jan Dr. Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang
• 1-Feb The Breach (ENT)
• 3-Feb B5: Convictions
• 5-Feb Twilight Zone(TBA)
• 8-Feb Prey (VOY)
• 10-Feb Spider-man (TAS): I Really Really Hate Clones

Notably, Stargate Atlantis is back after three and a half years

Edited by DeadlyAssassin on Dec 29th 2019 at 11:44:22 AM

Children of Dievas - my webcomic about the Northern Crusades

Coz I remembered to request some. Watching the review I wanna request more episodes with Michael. Atlantis' being responsible for their own fuck ups never gets old.

"There All Honor Lies " - I can't wait to see Chuck's take on the idea that "death first" is a near homophone for a Minbari phrase that means "I submit to your authority".

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48

Wait, that long ago? Man, I checked the thread and my earliest posts on this thread seems to have been in Jnauary 2015, five years ago. Time really flies, huh?

It doesn't really get a mention, actually. Neither does Ivanova's "deep space franchise".

Surprisingly, he doesn't mention that it's Keffer who has the close encounter with John Bearidan - though considering how Chuck feels about the character, that's probably for the best.

I've noticed most of his older star trek reviews are unavailable and the ones that are have a different icon than his other videos, what's the deal there?

Copyright strike by CBS. Had to move to another video site, for like the fifth time.

Edited by WillKeaton on Jan 18th 2020 at 8:11:01 AM

What site is that?

You know, there have been so many I can't even keep it straight.

Mind you, when I say he's moved to a new video site, I mean the place that hosts the videos. All the videos (that haven't been taken down) are still embedded at SFDebris.

Chuck reviews the first two episodes of Andromeda. Now, I've Watched Andromeda, and I think it starts out pretty good. For about a season and a half it works show. But, as time goes by, its quality drops, to the point where Season 5 is just terrible at every level. Compare a Season 1 or 2 episode to a Season 4 or 5 episode and the early stuff is a breath of fresh air. As for acting, I have to give credit to Keith Hamilton Cobb who plays Tyr Anasazi. Guy knows his craft.

Edited by WillKeaton on Feb 26th 2020 at 12:40:06 PM

I have weird feelings about Andromeda. For one, it's almost impossible to not notice that it's based on a script Gene Roddenbery wrote for Star Trek (Niezcheans = Klingons, Commonwealth = Federation, Magog = Borg, Tarn Vedran = Vulcans). That said I liked the show's premise... but a lot of it to me fell flat. Trance Gemini and Rev always felt like the sort of occupied space but didn't really have anything to do on the show. Kevin Sorbo can't carry the gravitas his character requires. I found that while the characters and premise worked on paper, the cast have little chemistry and didn't really play off each other. Gordon Micheal Woolvett who plays Harper being the main exception. The writing and tone also felt inconsistent. You have some pretty dark stuff (The Magogs as a whole, Dylan being a man who's been betrayed by his best friend and has basically lost everything), but the tone is firmly that of a 90s adventure show.

Probably not helped by the fact that the show gives itself a loftly goal (restore the commonwealth), but a lot of episodes dont feel like progress is being made towards that, and the characters dont really seem to have a plan beyond "Travel around and like, be nice to people?"

I will say the show's visual design for a lot of stuff was on point. Loved the original look the show gave itself.

I do think with a stronger cast and better writing Andromeda could be a really cool show. But I dont think what we got ever was.

Edited by Ghilz on Feb 26th 2020 at 1:07:51 PM

The way I always looked the Reformation of the Commonwealth is: people have spent 300 years living in a crappy universe filled with anarchy. I can easily see people signing up for a new Commonwealth if it meant peace and stability. Problem is, the Commonwealth got reformed in the final episode of Season 2, and it immediately turns into an obstructive bureaucracy within two episodes. I've heard there were some issues making the show that came to a head between Seasons 2 and 3 with the direction of the show changing, and you can tell there's a big downturn in quality right then.

It's pretty clear from the beginning the show had a plan for Trance. I couldn't tell you what that plan was, but they absolutely hinted she was more than she seems and that her true nature would be important later. But then, again, something happened and her character went in a new direction and she seems to have been given a completely new origin.

A little trivia: The actor who played Rev Bem actually quit because he couldn't stand wearing all that heavy makeup all the time. Thus he vanished abruptly halfway through Season two.

Andromeda had the potential to be really good, but it never reached that potential.

Edited by WillKeaton on Feb 26th 2020 at 1:00:46 PM

i am aware. The original show runner was fired midway through season 2 and took his plans with him, and that's when the show took an abrupt turn (Apparently over clash with Sorbo who wanted a bigger role). But that said, even looking at the earlier stuff, some of the stuff doesn't work for me. Like, yeah, something is up with Trance (A scene Chuck doesn't cover reveals that she wasn't healed by the medbay, but lied to the crew when she in fact basically resurrected). But like, outside of those mystery hook, Trance does... nothing. She's just there. Ironically the episode where she changes into a more complex form is the last one the show runner worked on... But I couldn't tell you what her job on Beka's crew was if my life depended on it. Rev Bem meanwhile, his whole thing is how he wants to sort of redeem himself for what he is, and how he hates that the first thing he did upon being born is murder a sapient being. That's cool and powerful stuff.

...So why is he on a salvage crew? We later see he's basically an ordained space monk. Which, like, fine, but none of that explain why he's there. It's not like he knew he'd get a shot at a greater calling.

And like I said, I dont feel like there was much chemistry between the cast. There certainly were good actors (the guy who plays Rhade I always found managed to make his character tragic and interesting).

Edited by Ghilz on Feb 26th 2020 at 3:08:06 PM

So Vimeo's announced to chuck that if he wants to keep using them his costs will go from 240$ a year to 26,000$ a year because Vimeo is circling the drain. So Chuck's gonna be moving his stuff.

...WTF. A price hike is one thing, but trying to squeeze someone for over a hundred times the going rate? Chuck ought to sue them over that shit. Not because he would get anything, but just to stamp the official record of that 'business'.

Keep in mind that this is after he's already moved all his star trek videos off Vimeo already. He gets 67k views on vimeo per month. Compare to about 45k views on Youtube on month where he uploads nothing there.

It's pretty clear Vimeo wants to reposition themselves as "Youtube but for Corporate content", and wants to get rid of their traditional content creators.

He's reviewing Star Trek beyond, here's the background video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV0jFcyKmQg

Looks like his review of The Andromeda Strain is on hold. Damn, I would've loved to have seen that.

All night at the computer, cuz people ain't that great. I keep to myself so I won't be a case on The First 48

If anyone can suggest a video host he hasn't already tried I'm sure he would appreciate it. He's gone through youtube, dailymotion, vimeo, and a few others. Also, MST 3 K continues: https://sfdebris.com/videos/tv/mst3k05.php

Edited by Neveratall on Apr 13th 2020 at 7:27:14 AM

I can't bring myself to watch this guy anymore.

His "Star Trek plus dad jokes" schtick was fine at the time, but now video-essay landscape has changed so much, with strong production values, great in-depth analysis, clever conent ID-friendly use of footage and interesting framing... and Chuck hasn't. His videos are still lo-fi, crude, my-uncle-jokes level voiceovers plus barely edited footage.

Which is fine, I guess, but not for me anymore.

I find it depends a lot on the work he's commenting on. You're pretty much correct when it comes to his episodes on stuff like Stargate and, I assume as I've never really watched more than a couple of these, his Star Trek stuff. But when he's doing a show with a more complex ideas and so has more to work with, rather than the 100th episode of the same show, he can write compelling stuff. He's also good when he can take the time to dig into the production of shows and movies and explain their history, though I'd love to see some sources on those.

For these reasons the most recent stuff I've enjoyed from him are the Kino's Journey episodes. His Star Wars movie retrospectives were pretty great as well, as were the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ones. If you go further back, his write-ups on some of the Pratchett miniseries (again, felt like he had little to work with on Colour of Magic) were some of his best work. Not sure if those are online anywhere anymore though.

Edited by GabrieltheThird on Apr 14th 2020 at 10:01:17 PM

My favorite review of his are The Hogfather adaptation review, the Battlefield Earth review, the MLP review, Batman beyond series and TOG review. In fact i was introduce to Star Trek by watching his review. I especially like his take on Worf character and his conflict.

E.T technically is a Isekai movie

"though I'd love to see some sources on those."

Yeah, that's another problem. Some of his research is... questionable, especially when he treat unconfirmed rumors as facts (i.e. Eccleston situation in his "Day of the Doctor" review or some information from his history of comic books series).

Lack of sources is usually big red flag for me.

So stop watching. Problem solved.

Edited by Ghilz on Apr 14th 2020 at 11:50:27 AM