Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/419.SF018071.TXT

Text File | 1993-02-05 | 18KB | 468 lines

SF-LOVERS Digest           Thursday, 4 Feb 1993        Volume 18 : Issue 71

Today's Topics:

                     Television - Time Trax (14 msgs)

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Date: 17 Jan 93 22:05:02 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Barry Mishkind)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax

Am I just being overly critical, or is this a sort of Quantum Leap on
purpose?

Barry Mishkind
[e-mail]

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Date: 18 Jan 93 04:11:40 GMT
From: [e-mail] (aka Angelo Muscat)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax or QL

[e-mail] (Barry Mishkind) writes:
>Am I just being overly critical, or is this a sort of Quantum Leap on
>purpose?

I don't know that much about Time Trax yet, but from what was released
there are a lot of details that remind you of QL:

 - Time travel as a means of correcting some past wrongs
 - Time traveler has a high I.Q.
 - Holographic observer/sidekick

With the exception that he does not "leap" into others peoples's auras and
lives, there is not much difference.

The good thing is that it is exactly this feature which makes QL so unique
and diverse.  Time Trax is probably going to be more action oriented.

Alex

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Date: 19 Jan 93 03:34:43 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Ben Scott)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax

Well, as I type this, I'm about 3/4 of the way through watching the Time
Trax premiere.  It's actually surprisingly good.  Well, it's surprising
that it's not bad, anyway, which is what I expect these days from any new
show.  I mean, if DS9 was barely worth watching, and that's from a very
experienced group, how can anyone else do better?

They actually show the outdoors in the future - computer graphics, but
reasonably well done, and most shows don't even try to show the future like
that.  The technology is, well, I won't go so far as to say believable,
but a lot better thought out than usual.  The flying cars don't use any
kind of magical "antigravity" at least.  The acting is reasonable, the
dialog hasn't made me laugh yet, and the story is nearly original.

I'm not even sure whether or not to bother watching the series.  The movie
is good enough to watch on its own; the series looks to be based on
catching the criminal of the week, while no doubt helping out some troubled
citizen from 1993.  Unless they get some really good writers to come up
with something different, which has happened before, but not in this
country (not recently anyhow).  Maybe I should just preserve the memory of
the movie?

Ben Scott
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 15:02:31 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Jason Austin)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

[e-mail] (Barry Mishkind) writes:
> Am I just being overly critical, or is this a sort of Quantum Leap on
> purpose?

   The only thing similar to Quantum Leap is that it involves time travel.
It's more similar to the Terminator movies with the machines replaced by
advanced humans.

Jason C. Austin
[e-mail]

------------------------------

Date: 21 Jan 93 13:25:00 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax

Hmmm... we seem to have The Six Million Dollar Man meets Quantum Leap (he
even has a hologram companion, although Al from QL can stay in focus a lot
better than Selma can.)

Actually, I sort of enjoyed this show, but how much of the future will we
get to see in upcoming episodes?  If it sticks to 1993, it's going to be
pretty much just another cop show.  Will Annie be returning?  You can
probably bet on it.  I give it a C+.

But, several questions came to mind as I watched this show:

1 Why did they insist on calling it the Smithsonian Institute?  It's the
Smithsonian *Institution*.

2 It's the Museum of American History, not the Museum of History. (Or else
the Museum of Natural History, but that's not really a history museum.)

3 How did the door of the bathroom stall that Damien (sp?) materialized
into get locked from the inside?

4 That red brick building they kept showing as the "Museum of History" is
an administrative building, not a place that has displays (well, I think
there are some small displays, but the "History Museum" is on the other
side of the Mall.)

5 If whites are a despised minority, why are all of the cops white?  And
they're all male, also.  (Well, there was that one brief appearance of a
black female cop showing Elissa (sp?) into Damien's office, but she seemed
more like an usher than a cop.)

6 200 years from now, they still use *paper* mail?!

7 They still have books?  The dust jackets and everything else about them
looked just like modern books do.  Nothing will change in the publishing
industry in 200 years?

8 Why didn't the National Archives have those old newspapers on microfiche,
microdot, or some form of computer storage (CD-ROM)?  Would they really
allow just anybody to walk in off the street and ask to play around with
the originals of 200-year-old newspapers?  And what are newspapers doing in
the National Archives anyway?  They should have gone to the Library of
Congress, or even to the Washington Post itself, if it still exists in
2193.

9 How come Doctor S (never could figure out his name - Sahmbi?) needed the
machine to go into the past, but Sepp the Nazi didn't?  Sepp just licked
the envelope, and he was gone.

10 Has Michael Warren *really* gone bald since Hill Street Blues?  And
haven't they found a cure yet in 200 years?  I always ask the same question
about Jean-Luc Picard.

11 Why did they badmouth Aaron Burr?  He wasn't a traitor!

12 The chronology of Damien's popping into the Smithsonian went all askew.
Selma said he arrived sometime after 9:00 PM, then Annie says something
about how they've grilled him for several hours, then they go out to dinner
(breakfast, maybe, but not dinner!), and the waiter says, "I go home at
eleven, sir."  Get the time straight!

13 The Secret Service guy just took a stranger's word for it that he was
CIA, just because he flashed a badge?  And then goes on into detail about
the President's schedule?  What's the CIA doing there, anyway?  It is
illegal for the CIA to be involved in domestic situations.

14 What was that about Sepp getting three doses of that drug?  He had one
when he popped into 1993, and one when he popped out.  Where did the third
one come from?

15 Why, if Damien was born in 2160, does the photo of his "mother" show her
dressed in 19th century clothes?  You can bet that this little time jaunt
had something to do with Damien showing up as a foundling at the orphanage.

16 I wonder, if there is a 200-year limit on the use of that drug, couldn't
they just set up their operation in 1993 and send other people back to
1793?

And there were too many commercials!  And the narration at the beginning
was annoying.

Well, we'll see about the next episode.  If it turns into just another cop
show, I'll stop watching.

Rick Kitchen
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 18:23:00 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Milady Printcap the goddess of peripherals)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax

Possible Spoilers

Oh yeah! I know a _lot_ of guys who look googly eyed at a woman's picture,
get to spend the night with her, and then decide that they've lost
everything worth living for. Please. I was glad someone thought about it
later, although one sentence didn't make up for it.

All in all I thought the show was pretty well written, with the exception
of the opening. I've never seen/or read a script that simply listed the
complete back story of a character. I've been lectured about heavy handed
exposition before but now I have perfect evidence of why not to do it. Geez
it was boring! I wonder how many people didn't make it through those 5
minutes. (My personal opinion: the beginning was after the computer recited
history of Dorian. We didn't need the teaser.)

However, once we got past that I thought it was pretty well written. I
really liked the version of the future that the show presented. I thought
it was interesting and well thought out. It's a shame we probably won't
spend too much more time in 2193 during the run of the series.

Once we got to 1993 this weren't quite as interesting.

Now to the lead actor. UUUUUUGGGHHH! During his first tirade I kept
wondering how bad the other actors up for the role must have been.  It's
frightening. I hope Darian can spend the rest of the series perfectly happy
because real emotions take him beyond his abilities.

I'll watch it again. Somewhere (I think TV Guide's little pseudo reviews)
it was stated that this show was as bad as Space Rangers. I disagree.

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Date: 21 Jan 93 14:50:30 GMT
From: [e-mail] (John Hawkinson)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax

Well, I watched the premier/pilot of Time Trax on Wed (20 Jan) at 8pm on
WWOR-9 (NYC) which is airing on Warner's new PTEN (Prime Time Entertainment
Network) syndication network. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody had any
responses?

Criminals are disappearing from a particular jurisdiction. It turns out
that they're being sent back in time by a scientist who's using the money
to finance his time research. Things happen and the main character, Captain
Darien Somebody (?) ends up going back in time after them. One of the
things is that the drug which allows people to go back and forth, TXP, is
apparently lethal after two uses, meaning each individual can only make one
round trip. Presumably future shows will be about this guy rounding up the
other criminals (96 or so left) stuck in 1993.

Thoughts had:

   Are they actually going back to a ``parallel universe'' or to the same
universe? If it's a parallel universe, then how can those people take out
ads in the {Washington Post} and have them show up? If it's the same
universe, shouldn't all the cops be alarmed that if the criminals succeed
then the world as they know it would change forever?

   They mention this time-slowing ability but they never seem to apply
it...

    The SELMA ``thing'' is intriguing, but somehow it brings back memories
of the ``computer-that-saves-the-day'' (i.e. Knight Rider).

I guess that's about it...

John Hawkinson
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 18:18:56 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Geoff Bronner)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

I'm very sad that I choose to watch Time Trax instead of Space Rangers. It
was WORSE! How is this possible?

Yuck.

Geoff
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 14:11:42 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Ann M. Davis)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

Actually I loved it.  You can't build a story on SPFX alone.  The SF
elements created a solid atmosphere and background for the story. I liked
the acting and the actors.  I thought it was very well done.

Points I got a kick out of:
SPOILERS

The Pentagon as a prison.  I found this very believable.

The modern version of peepholes for doors.

Selma's disguise as a credit card

Ann M. Davis
MIT Center for Space Research
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 19:48:06 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Gregory Allen Ruderman)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

[e-mail] (Ann M. Davis) writes:
>Actually I loved it.  You can't build a story on SPFX alone.  The SF
>elements created a solid atmosphere and background for the story. I liked
>the acting and the actors.  I thought it was very well done.
>
>Points I got a kick out of:
>SPOILERS
>
>The Pentagon as a prison.  I found this very believable.
>
>The modern version of peepholes for doors.
>
>Selma's disguise as a credit card

   I enjoyed the allusions to whites as a minority.  Probably the most
realistic thing in the whole intro.  And the fact that they paid more than
just lip service to it.  Take another look at the compositions of the crowd
at the U.N. President's assassination...

Gregory A. Ruderman

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Date: 21 Jan 93 15:12:55 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

Sorry, I liked it, a lot.  I didn't tape Space Ranger, I just watched Time
Trax instead.  I would rather not put the wear and tear on my VCR to record
SR.  If it's on against 90210 and some other network trash, I will probably
watch it.  However, if Time Trax stays in this timeslot, then I will just
miss Space Rangers.  It just isn't that good, IMHO.

As for TT, well, I thought it was good.  It portrayed a pretty good vision
of the world 200 years from now as far as technology goes.  It portrays a
pretty dismal social picture, though.  Kind of looks like the writers do
not share Roddenberry's optimism.  Anyway, the show was good.  The SELMA
character was very good, and it appears that it will provide a number of
plot possibilities.

As far as the ratings of the scifi pilots so far, here you go:

    Space Rangers=5/10     Time Trax=8/10     Deep Space 9=9/10

Regards.

Tom Rogers
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 22:28:11 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Margaret Newman)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

It reminded me of Quantum Leap - Al and Ziggy, and a little of Voyagers!
replete with the "manual", the smart sidekick, and setting things right.  I
didn't catch the Terminator part when I was watching it but looking back I
can understand the (vague) similarity.  I thought the show was rather
boring to start out, but it picked up when Darien went back to 1993.
Anyone remember Time Tunnel?  How does it compare with this?

Margaret

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Date: 22 Jan 93 12:55:59 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

[e-mail] (William R. Cruce) writes:
>I find it difficult to believe that in 2193 (or whenever) people who want
>to read 1993 newspapers will be allowed to check out yellowed old actual
>PAPER copies.  Most libraries now keep old periodicals on microfilm or
>microfiche.  Surely in a world with credit card sized computers there will
>be a better way to read old newspapers...

Maybe due to some time paradox thingy, you need the actual paper printed
the actual day the news was created, and not some reproduced facsimile.
Just a guess.  It don't make sense.  It was obviously a writer's oversite.
However, in Washington DC, I would bet that 200 year old papers would exist
along with micro-fiche, or some other storage technology.

Also, who gives a crap?  My pet peeve is people who watch scifi shows
looking for low tech inconsistencies.  The show was still very enjoyable
with this very small oversight.  Do you feel superior now that you have
pointed out this error?

Regards.

Tom Rogers
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 18:03:29 GMT
From: [e-mail] (mel rupinski)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

Jason C. Austin <[e-mail]> writes:
>[e-mail] (Barry Mishkind) writes:
>> Am I just being overly critical, or is this a sort of Quantum Leap on
>> purpose?
>>
>
>The only thing similar to Quantum Leap is that it involves time travel.
>It's more similar to the Terminator movies with the machines replaced by
>advanced humans.

[possible SPOILERS if you haven't seen Time Trax yet]

Well, I wouldn't say the *only* thing.  For example, Selma did remind me a
little of Ziggy (actually, more than a little).  Both have female voices,
somewhat similar "person"alities (although Selma seems to be more of a
mother-type; they both get jealous, etc.) complete with egos.  Further, in
both instances, the main character has a holographic companion (I like the
fact that Selma is transparent - reminds you that she is really a computer
projection.  Nice contrast to Al, who appears solid (I assume due to the
neural link), which conveys more of his humanity, as Sam's friend and
confidant).  Finally, in both instances our heroes go back in time to
change things for the better.  The difference is that Sam "puts right what
once went wrong" on a personal basis, whereas in Time Trax, the purpose is
to put right what will go wrong eventually for just about *every*one if the
criminals aren't returned to their own time for punishment.

BTW, I wonder what would happen if one of the future baddies were to be
caught by the 1993 police, then incarcerated and sent to jail.  I guess
with some of them in high places with connections, she or he would probably
get off easy (or something like that).

I guess, one big difference is that Time Trax appears to be more action
oriented (like a cop show), while Quantum Leap focuses more on the
interpersonal relationships or personal drama of the characters.

In all, I did like Time Trax, although I want to wait for future episodes
before I make a definitive judgment.  I do find it interesting, however,
that I find the show *a lot* more interesting than DS9, considering that
Harve Bennet is the main force behind TT.  It seems that after he severed
his ties with the Star Trek group, he came up with a much more interesting
series (IMHO) than they did.

Just my $.02.

Mel Rupinski
Dept. of Psych.
Tulane U.
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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