"NBC quickly agreed to give him the green light — IF Johnson would make the miniseries about aliens instead of authoritarians.
He was heartsick, but forged on. Maybe the sci-fi element could make it a more palatable allegory about fascism and freedom... The result was #V."
“I got to thinking, God, how would everyday people feel if suddenly there was a sea change in our life that turned it all around, if suddenly some hyper power rolled over us, just like the Nazis rolled into Europe?”
"Today, Johnson hopes to reclaim the show—from the executives who bungled it, from the conspiracy obsessives who misunderstood it, and from the reliquary of nostalgia TV. He is actively trying to remake it as a series of movies, believing its themes are more relevant than ever."
"Sinclair Lewis’s dystopian 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here was his inspiration. Lewis intended it as a warning to complacent Americans that their democracy was more vulnerable than they realized."
"In Lewis’s book, the United States is torn apart by a flamboyant blowhard politician who uses fearmongering and empty promises to the working class to win election before consolidating his power, shattering the traditions of governance, and stoking paranoia and division."
“A young guy named Jeff Sagansky was sitting in the corner. He said, ‘How about aliens, Kenny?’” Johnson says. “And I went, Aaaggghhh! I just didn’t want to go in that direction.”
What would Battlestar Galactica (2003) look like if it were launched today?
Showrunner @RonDMoore : “I would still try to approach it with the same attitude that I had when I approached the original, which was I wanted to preserve the framework of what the original was." 1/4
"I want it to be recognizable as Battlestar Galactica. It’s still a warship and an aircraft carrier in space, guiding a ragtag civilian fleet running from the Cylons after an apocalyptic attack. It’s about their society. What are the pieces of their civilization they..." 2/4
"...chose to carry with them? What’s important to them? What does it mean to be a democracy? Then I would have to get down into the weeds and then it would be different because it would have to be informed by the last 20 years of what we have gone through." 3/4
But the future of the Internet promises to be a gigantic lie rather than the finest library in the galaxy, and it's sadly a tragedy worthy of a great sci-fi novel.
Cherish your old (art)books. Protect your bookshelves.
[Thread] So I've been playing #StarWarsOutlaws since last Wednesday. I managed to play it for 15 hours (despite a wedding this weekend 😅).
I quickly realized that this game is MUCH more massive than I thought, and I'm still far from measuring the scope of this game.
I'll give you my first impressions in this thread.
First you have to know where I come from. I loved open worlds in the 2000s, but after the incredible Black Flag I lost the desire to devote dozens of hours to a single game. Since then, I've only played Mad Max and Red Dead Redemption 2 this winter.
Suffice to say, I started Outlaws from a very high starting point!
Unsurprisingly, Outlaws is no RDR2 masterpiece. I wasn't asking for so much. I was asking for fun. I was asking for Star Wars.
Given that, after 15 hours (which is already my ideal length for a game lol), I'm dying to get back to Kay & Nix for a heist, that's a pretty good sign.😌
[Thread] You've seen or are about to see Alien Romulus, and you want to take this opportunity to revisit the history of sci-fi. 👋
Here are some of the films that inspired the writers of the 1979 film... #AlienMonth
1/18
You should start with Dark Star (1974).
In this film co-written by Alien (1979) co-writer Dan O'Bannon (where he also appears↙️), one of the story beats should ring a bell.
Alien would never have existed without Dark Star.
2/18
Beyond Alien, Dark Star is a milestone in the history of science fiction, as it launched Carpenter's career, which is no mean feat! The film was not a success, but Carpenter went on to make Assault on Precinct 13 (1976). The rest is history.🤗
With two weeks to go before the release of Alien Romulus, I'm starting my Alien rewatch.
And for the first time, I'm starting in the chronological order of this universe.
Welcome to 2093, on LV-223.
Iceland, I love you.
Love this shot.
(Ha yes, I don't know if I'll make the live tweet last, but the idea is to highlight stuff I like. I'm not in the habit of wasting my time on stuff I don't like 😌)
Please note that Star Trek Prodigy did not invent the concept of "lost kids on a spaceship".
There was The Astronauts (2020). There was Space Cases (1996), with Firefly's Jewel Staite (ans appearances of George Takei & Mark Hamill). There was SpaceCamp (1986).
And these are the ones that come to me from memory, without looking at my notes. There must be other stories, including lots of novels.
Because it's a solid basis for a story in space. What's important is how it's told.
We're building on what's gone before, and....
...that's a good thing.
SpaceCamp, Space Cases, The Astronauts and Prodigy are distinct, and Skeleton Crew probably will be.
Plus, I don't understand why it seems like we learned about it yesterday when we've known about the synopsis for 2 years.