J.J. Abrams enters The Twilight Zone

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by HaplessCrewman, Jun 7, 2013.

  1. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Abrams's movies are awesome. He saved Star Trek, after all - maybe he could bring a real audience back to Twilight Zone. If the BBC is ever serious about doing a Doctor Who movie with real earnings potential for them internationally, Abrams has got to be their guy.
     
  2. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Yes, an American director of whizz-bang, frantic Hollywood action movies is absolutely the right choice for adapting a quirky British show for the big screen.

    :wtf:
     
  3. sidious618

    sidious618 Admiral Admiral

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    I could see Abrams fitting right in with Doctor Who. His direction matches a lot of the direction we currently get in the show so he'd be a natural.
     
  4. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Well, I'd like something slower, more offbeat and thoughtful than a lens-flare filled action movie which could be slotted alongside his Star Trek and Star Wars movies.

    Abrams would be utterly wrong for Doctor Who, which should always be an alternative to the hugely budgeted American sci-fi franchises. Not made by the exact same people. Would be an utterly colossal mistake.
     
  5. yenny

    yenny Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Next we know, he be rebooting Small Wonder, Out of this World, UFO, Lost in SPACE, Time Travel, Land of the Giants, Space 1999 and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
     
  6. sidious618

    sidious618 Admiral Admiral

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    Pretty much every episode of Doctor Who is an action sci-fi film. I mean, one episode this season was called "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship!" :lol:
     
  7. DalekJim

    DalekJim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    :wtf:

    How is An Unearthly Child sci-fi action? Or The Daleks? Or the Edge of Destruction? The Aztecs? City of Death? Warrior's Gate?

    Of the entire 26 seasons of the original run, only some of the UNIT stories come close to being considered action. And they're hardly frantic in pacing, tending to be slow, stagey 6-parters.

    Did the previous episode, The Name of The Doctor, even have any action at all? No, and it didn't need to. Was fucking awesome regardless. Give me that over an Abrams/Orci/Kurtzman burger of blandness any day :techman:.

    When Doctor Who is fast-paced adventure, it is quirky and offbeat. There's a very large difference between Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and bloody Star Trek Into Darkness.
     
  8. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Wow, you've seen the Abrams' Star Wars film? Hmmmm, Dalek's do have time travel. :shifty:

    (someone call UNIT or Torchwood, I'll watch him till they get here)
     
  9. Konata Izumi

    Konata Izumi Commander Red Shirt

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    Don't forget the Doctor Who film. He'll be perfect.
     
  10. sidious618

    sidious618 Admiral Admiral

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    I'm talking about the current series which is absolutely being pushed as action/adventure films in one hour formats. Moffat said so himself before the season started.
     
  11. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Only if you've never actually watched the original. I have. No rehash beats stories written by Serling and his contemporaries. JJ isn't fit to get those writers coffee and doughnuts.
     
  12. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    Good thing the story is by Sterling then.
     
  13. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'd agree that there were many episodes that were mediocre, but there were also many that were intriguing and nearly on the level of Star Trek for captivating story lines.

    And then there's SG-U, which I take it you didn't see. Many SG-1 fans don't even consider it a Stargate series, only having borrowed the Stargate device for occasional use. And while I appreciate that perspective, I think it also shortens the merits of SG-U. It was a ground breaking kind of show that really should have had a solid 4~6 seasons.


    I don't mind Abrams doing some Twilight Zone work, as it's a pretty open ended kind of thing. So much sci-fi we see today has a little bit of Twilight Zone in it anyway.

    I wouldn't mind seeing JJ Abrams re-doing Lost In Space as a TV series. Fun, humorous, and campy sci-fi premise but with impressive special effects.
     
  14. teacake

    teacake Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Gary7 your avatar.. omg..
     
  15. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I considered SG-U the way a lot of Trek fans seem to have considered Enterprise: a misfired attempt to "freshen the brand" undertaken by people who'd been doing the thing so damned long that they couldn't actually do anything new.

    So many things in SG-U looked like the producers and writers were just looking at their own past work and saying "this is so different," but by comparison with any current drama other than Stargate it was - yeah, mediocre.

    SG-U wanted to be Moore's BSG, but it seemed to be the same writers as always and they just weren't good enough to improve the franchise no matter how much freedom they thought the new premise gave them.
     
  16. CorporalClegg

    CorporalClegg Admiral Admiral

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    I want Abrams to direct a Who movie now.

    With a Lady Doctor.
     
  17. DarthPipes

    DarthPipes Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I have a lot of faith in JJ to do this project. The only episode I ever saw of Felicity was the Twilight Zone homage he did. It was perfect. Black and white, the tone, the look, even the expressions on the actor's faces. Perfect. He can definitely do TZ justice. Or in this case Rod Serling's work.
     
  18. Gary7

    Gary7 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    :) Someone managed to image stabilize a turbulence scene from TNG, essentially making the camera still and allowing you to see everybody moving themselves around like old TOS days. I couldn't resist capturing Riker, while everybody else is perfectly still. :rommie:

    Enterprise got off to a rocky start. I have to say I didn't start warming up to it until Season 3. If they'd gotten to that level in Season 2, I think they could have recaptured momentum and gone for a good solid 6 seasons.

    By the same token, SG-U could have done the same, meaning get S1 content moving twice as fast and evolve into S2 quality midway through S1. Yes even in their best moments, I saw plenty of flaws. But there was a lot going right for it, enough that the potential was there to evolve it into something worth sustaining for at least 4+ seasons. It's a real shame they weren't given that chance. You have to watch the series more than once to get what I mean.
     
  19. RJDiogenes

    RJDiogenes Idealistic Cynic and Canon Champion Premium Member

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    I like the Stargate series, but I disagree about SGU. There was too much of the nuBSG-style dumbing down. Making the characters retarded so they can be all kewl and dark, the using of each other's bodies for sex, the forced conflicts-- they even managed to make General O'Neill boring. Every time I watched it, I got the impression that the producers were saying, "Why are you making us do this shit? Please let us go back to telling good, solid stories again." :rommie:

    I did see that TZ homage on Felicity and I remember liking it. But did Abrams actually do that, or was it the people he hired? As I said, his TV stuff is generally decent because of the people he hires. Although come to think of it, nuTrek was bad mostly because of the people he hired-- it was directed competently, but the script was Asylum-level nonsense.
     
  20. Admiral2

    Admiral2 Admiral Admiral

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    Doesn't matter. JJ will fuck it up. [Reese]"That's what he does! THAT'S ALL HE DOES!"[/Reese]