{"id":12266,"date":"2014-08-18T20:53:22","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T01:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/?p=12266"},"modified":"2014-08-31T07:35:18","modified_gmt":"2014-08-31T12:35:18","slug":"the-futures-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/the-futures-of-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"The futures of the past"},"content":{"rendered":"

GorT recently found a Popular Mechanics<\/em> list<\/a> of the 50 greatest “sci-fi” television shows<\/a>. Most of the shows listed were aired after I quit watching teevee, but there are a few I can comment on.<\/p>\n

41. Battle of the Planets<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I bought the first disc of Gatchaman<\/b><\/i> to fill out an order a few years ago. It’s of great historical importance in the development and popularization of anime and all that, but Gatchaman Crowds<\/a><\/b><\/i> is better.<\/p>\n

36. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century<\/b><\/i> \u2014 Dumb, but it had what’s-her-name in spandex during the first season.<\/p>\n

35. Cowboy Bebop<\/b><\/i> \u2014 A great classic, I suppose, but I lost interest after a few episodes. Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack almost redeems it. My recommendation: skip the DVDs and track down the CDs.<\/p>\n

31. Lost in Space<\/b><\/i> \u2014 A dumb show containing the germ of a better one. Keep the Dr. Smith and the robot, add Will Robinson to tweak Smith’s vestigial conscience and generate plots, dump the rest of crew, and you’d have a pretty good sf comedy. The actual show was watchable only when Smith was onscreen with the robot.<\/p>\n

30. Battlestar Galactica (1978-79)<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I watched the first episode or two. I was embarrassed for Lorne Greene.<\/p>\n

27. Red Dwarf<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I never saw any of this, but I read a couple of the books. They’re okay, but Douglas Adams did that sort of thing better.<\/p>\n

26. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I haven’t watched all of it, but what I’ve seen is very good. And there’s Yoko Kanno’s music as well.<\/p>\n

11. Firefly<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I watched a couple of episodes while visiting friends a few years ago. I might watch the rest sometime.<\/p>\n

10. The Outer Limits<\/b><\/i> \u2014 When it was good, it was great, or so I thought when I was eleven. I haven’t seen it since.<\/p>\n

8. Neon Genesis Evangelion<\/b><\/i> \u2014 What the hell is this doing in this list at all, let alone in the top ten? I watched the first disc of Anno’s neurotic fantasy, and I’d like those two hours of my life back. The only character who isn’t repellent is the penguin.<\/p>\n

7. The Prisoner<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I never saw the final episode. I have Thomas Disch’s novelization somewhere in my piles of books. Someday I may read it.<\/p>\n

6. Star Trek (the original series)<\/b><\/i> \u2014 A favorite when I was young, despite my contempt for Kirk.<\/p>\n

5. The Twilight Zone<\/b><\/i> \u2014 Another favorite. Unfortunately, it was seldom broadcast at a time when I could watch it.<\/p>\n

1. Dr. Who<\/b><\/i> \u2014 I saw a few episodes during the Tom Baker era. It was okay.<\/p>\n

The Popular Mechanics<\/em> article is missing a qualification: all the shows listed were broadcast in America. A true list of the best science fiction shows of all time broadcast anywhere would have to include these:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Shin Sekai Yori<\/a><\/b><\/i> \u2014 What are the consequences of a change to human nature? What is human?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Serial Experiments Lain<\/a><\/b><\/i> \u2014 Cyberpunk meets ontology; Teilhard’s no\u00f6sphere gone wrong.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Dennou Coil<\/b><\/i> \u2014 Augmented reality and kids. Imagine Ghost in the Shell<\/b><\/i> as done by Miyazaki.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Shingu<\/b><\/i> \u2014 A friendly town with a secret, kids with strange powers and invaders from space. And they’re all genuinely likable, except for the killer robots.<\/p>\n

And perhaps these:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Oh! Edo Rocket<\/a><\/b><\/i> \u2014 Aliens beasts and rockets in 19th-century Edo, with repression and corruption, slapstick and horror, and a faux Glenn Miller soundtrack.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Kaiba<\/b><\/i> \u2014 You can take a person’s memories from one body and put them in another. What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Mouretsu Pirates<\/a><\/b><\/i> \u2014 High school girls and space pirates. It was directed by Tatsuo Sato<\/a>, the man responsible for Shingu<\/em><\/strong>. As with Shingu<\/em><\/strong>, the story is good but the ultimate value of the show is in the characters whom you enjoy spending time with.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita<\/a><\/b><\/i> \u2014 The twilight of the human race, with fairies.<\/p>\n

… and probably several others I’ve forgotten or haven’t seen. There are undoubtedly worthy shows from other countries as well that I’ve never heard of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GorT recently found a Popular Mechanics list of the 50 greatest “sci-fi” television shows. Most of the shows listed were aired after I quit watching teevee, but there are a few I can comment on. 41. Battle of the Planets \u2014 I bought the first disc of Gatchaman to fill out an order a few … Continue reading “The futures of the past”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime","category-culture-and-anti-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xam3-3bQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12266"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12305,"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12266\/revisions\/12305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shuffly.net\/zoop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}