Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/435.SF018081.TXT

Text File | 1993-02-23 | 18KB | 392 lines

SF-LOVERS Digest            Monday, 8 Feb 1993         Volume 18 : Issue 81

Today's Topics:

                      Television - Time Trax (9 msgs)

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Date: 22 Jan 93 07:22:43 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Ben Scott)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

SPOILER warning left in for a reason, folks:

[e-mail] (Ann M. Davis) writes:
>Points I got a kick out of:
>SPOILERS

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

Done for effect, to make a point.  Not realistic but funny.  Also, the
effect was very well done - especially the way the spotlights moved.

>The modern version of peepholes for doors.

A bit overdone, again a case of overstating a point, but also good.

>Selma's disguise as a credit card

Just silly.  I mean, within the context of the story, it was a good idea,
but here in real life, it was a cheap joke.

>Anyway, does anyone know if/when this will be a series?

The movie was the pilot for a series.

Parts I liked (some of which I touched on before):

The flying cars were supported by air, not magical antigravity or rocketry.

(The technological speculations in general were well thought out, if a bit
less than ambitious considering that the setting is a full two centuries in
the future)

Caucasians being the minority race was not overdone; it was a valid part of
the story without being harped on tediously.  Similarly, the old cliche of
references to a past nuclear war or other societal collapse was avoided for
ONCE.

The computer displays were large, ubiquitous, quick and reasonably well
done considering TV budgetary restraints.  Unlike the tiny TV screens in
the Star Trek movies, the ridiculous jumpy Mac-like "animation" of anything
moving on a Trek TNG display, or etc.

I posted earlier (while still watching the movie) that the dialogue hadn't
made me laugh.  Well, there were a few bits later on that did, mostly any
time the main character was talking to the girl.  But overall, it wasn't
nearly as bad as the run-of-the-mill.  Characterizations, too, were at
least average if not better.

The computer pal Selma could've been worse; she doesn't make wisecracks
constantly, at least.  The flickery display is a bit of an affectation but
is part of the "character" I guess.  There's a lot of potential usefulness
in a gadget like that and they actually had some nifty ideas in the movie.

As I also said, so long as the writing doesn't fall into the trap of
helping the person of the week while catching the criminal of the week,
which it likely will, it could be really good.  I hope they continue to
show the future society from time to time, though I see few excuses to do
so in the subsequent shows.

Ben Scott
[e-mail]

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Date: 22 Jan 93 20:22:42 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

[e-mail] writes:
>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.)

Yea. Al only fades when they're low on power or something.

[cut]

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

Some of your questions are pretty good, but the answers to a few seem
obvious to me.

>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.)

The best question of the lot! I was wondering about that myself.  My best
guess: as in the modern day military*, the police force was a bit better at
implementing "equal opportunity" than society as a whole. Therefore there
are a disproportionate number of minority members. Do I compliment the
society or insult the casting director that the "blankos" were
proportionately represented in the police leadership positions (not like
the present military)?

* I'm talking about the volunteer force, not the fact that poor
  folk couldn't legally dodge the draft in the Vietnam era.

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

They'd hardly allow a criminal computer access - too much mischief to get
into. The letters might have been delivered as "parcels."  I mean, there
may not be a large enough demand for paper mail, but there would still be
package shipments.

>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.

Sepp needed Dr. S. to run the machine for him. Given that the Doctor knew
where Sepp was, he could project some sort of beam to the appropriate
coordinates. But the Doctor had to run the machine himself for his own
escape.

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

I think there's some historical disput, but it's not my area of study.

>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?

You don't have to travel when you take the drug. The machine has to be
powered up, also. There was probably some failed attempt before he made it.

>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.

Either 1) Fashions come around again, 2) She was in costume, for some
reason, in the picture, or 3) It'll be related in a subsequent episode,
which would be fascinating.

>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?

Why? 200 years is enough to get them away from the law, and the lifestyle
is cushier.

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Date: 22 Jan 93 17:39:03 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Brad Johnson)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

Just to put in my 2 cents, I have to say that if Time Trax in series form
can continue to expound on the ideas generated in the premiere, then it's
going to be a great show!

To each his own, but by way of comparison, I thought the Space Rangers
premiere was the worst piece of SF cliche drivel I've ever seen.  (Except
for the pilot apparently _choosing_ to lie on her stomach to fly her
spaceship.  That was at least hilariously stupid.  What happened to any
concept of sensible human engineering or ergonomics?)

I don't claim that Time Trax was startingly original or anything, but the
FX were pretty good and the future environment postulation was very good.
I thought the writing was only so-so, and the plot was extremely
MacGyver-ish, but you can't win them all.

To compare with Quantum Leap, I thought Time Trax was leaps (pun intended)
ahead in the sense that the science fiction and time travel concepts were
INTEGRAL parts of the show.  I also really enjoy QL, but let's face it -
the time travel thing is only a cheesy plot device to put the protagonist
in a wide variety of completely un-related situations week after week.
(Can anyone say Deus Ex Machina?)  Sam Beckett could just as well be an
angel as a time traveler.  (Now let's not start that again.)

Back to Time Trax - my only fear is that they won't show the world in 2193
much anymore, which would be a shame, since that was by far the best part
of the premiere.

Thanks for listening.

Brad Johnson
[e-mail]

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Date: 23 Jan 93 00:21:45 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Michael McAleese)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax

[e-mail] writes:
>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 the 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.

  A dismal social picture? The city was clean and beautiful, there were no
poor people, the typical person was a mental and physical giant compared to
our norms (as the intro kept pounding away at the "average" nature of this
superman have as the main character), and aside from some political unrest
hinted at in the opening sequence all seemed fine and dandy. Perhaps their
version of the future didn't have Mr. Roddenberry's rose-colored view of a
future without crime or want (or human beings, it would seem) but it was
anything but dismal.
  I expect SELMA will be used for many of those oh-so-humorous incidents of
normal folk catching the hero shouting into his credit card because he's
moronic enough to forget this might seem a little odd in a public place,
despite his 204 IQ. (On a side note, I wish they wouldn't try the acronym
into a name thing. Why not just say it's a computer that we named Selma?)

Michael McAleese
[e-mail]

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Date: 21 Jan 93 21:59:18 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Leslie Shkolnik)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Time Trax (Minor Spoiler)

Minor SPOILERS

Did anyone see Time Trax last night?  I was really looking forward to this
and so far am not impressed.  I'm not quite sure yet whether it has
potential.  It started out pretty poor.  They did a pretty bad job laying
the ground work, and I don't believe overnight that there was really any
attachment between Darien and Alyssa.  But once they went back in time, it
picked up a lot.  They never did adequately explain how over a 200 year
period of time man all of the sudden has changed physiologically.  And the
cities were WAY too clean.  If there is so much violence then, as the
commercial said, then it wouldn't have been so clean and pretty!

I think they should have spent a lot more time building up the characters
and the relationships between them, and showing us what 2193 is supposed to
be like so that we know what he is giving up!  I also think they should
have showed us his history instead of narrating it.

There may be hope in the future!  For now, I'll have to keep watching.  I'm
holding out with hope for next week!

Leslie
[e-mail]

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Date: 23 Jan 93 10:26:42 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Michael I. Lichter)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Time Trax (possible spoiler)

[e-mail] (Bob O'Hara) writes:
>One thing that bothered me though...early in the show, it is said that
>caucasians are now a minority.  Other than the riot scene, most people
>seemed to be pretty WASPy.  Did anyone else find themselves bothered by
>this incongruity?

Yes!  (And besides, if they wanted to use an epithet for whites, why use
the neutral "blanco" instead of words that already have a charge like
"gabacho" or "gringo"?)  Not only were all the cops white, but the
scientists (except for Frank) were white, etc.  This was not very well
developed, making Dietrich's speech about "we're both white" seem odd, and
Darien's reply "I guess it's good I don't know too many white men" (was
that what he said?) look kind of wierd.

By the way, somebody mentioned that Darien's mother being dressed in
Victorian clothes indicates something interesting.  I predict that (a)
Darien will travel backwards from 1993, (b) that he will meet and fall in
love with a woman in this earlier time period (say 1850's), and that (c) he
is is own father, but in a different universe (remember this parallel
universe stuff) from his own.

Michael

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From: [e-mail]
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 11:19 EST
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: TIME TRAX

                                 TIME TRAX
                   A television review by Mark R. Leeper

   The year is still young and this is our third science fiction series to
debut.  Apparently we have another time travel television series that looks
as if it could follow in the time tracks of TIME TUNNEL and QUANTUM LEAP.
It certainly is the silliest of the newest science fiction shows.

   Our story begins in the present with a time traveler falling into a
stall in the women's restroom in the Smithsonian Institute (well, they call
it an "institute").  This is Darien Lambert, a fancy cop from 2193.  What
is he doing in our time?  We flash back to 2193 ... uh ... we flash forward
to Lambert's past in 2193 ... uh ... we flash forward back to Lambert's
past in the future.  (Yeah, that's what we do.)  In this future police have
gotten more technical, computers have gotten much smaller, criminals have
become much cleverer, and matte painters have lost the secrets of their
ancestors.

   Lambert is born on August 17, 2160, which seems to fall on a Monday
contrary to all current expectations that it will be a Sunday.  Lambert has
an IQ of over 200 which he either chooses not to use or which may indicate
downward recalibration.  Advanced technology has made him a super-athlete
and has given him the ability to "slow down visual images" until it is too
late.  He makes himself a super-cop.  Then he stumbles onto a mad Nobel
Laureate who has been sending something like a hundred criminals back to
1993 where they are trying to take over the government, just like Burr,
Bonaparte, and Brutus.  (Brutus?  Brutus was a follower of Pompey who was
forgiven and given a governorship by Caesar, but allowed himself to be
goaded into joining the assassination plot.  He was no empire builder!)

   Lambert is given an AT&T smart card that is just a little smarter.  It
is a tiny super-computer that projects a hologram of a frumpy know-it-all
librarian who can answer Lambert's questions.  It is called SELMA (short
for "Special Encapsulated Limitless Memory Archive") Gee, the computer has
a female name which is an acronym.  Gosh, that has a nostalgic feel.  I
thought that went out with 1950s science fiction films!  He finds out the
mechanics of time travel from a beautiful super-genius, then goes back two
hundred years and finds a woman who looks just like the one he just left.
(Oh, boy!  Now they're borrowing from Mummy movies.)  So Lambert is now in
1993 hunting down criminals from 2193 who are trying to take over our
world.  When he needs to send a message back to 2193 he places an ad in the
Washington Post.  His trusty old police captain is scanning the
200-year-old papers for ads that he could not find the previous week, but
were placed two hundred years earlier.  Luckily the captain has not thought
to look at the front page or he would know if the coup succeeded.  I guess
the idea is that the past is changing the future, and there are allusions
to something never explained about parallel universes having something to
do with time travel.  I don't understand it, the writers don't understand
it, only Lambert understands it because he took a course in Parallel
Universe Theory at the Police Academy.  Confused?  Hey, I spared you the
whole bit about the time travel drug.

   All this is produced by Harve Bennett, usually associated with "Star
Trek" movies.  Whether this series becomes something creative and
interesting, or falls into being just a souped-up INVADERS remains to be
seen.  We will all know some time in the future.

Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzfs3!leeper
[e-mail]

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Date: 25 Jan 93 21:29:41 GMT
From: [e-mail] (William Johnson)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: TimeTrax

A friend of mine came up with an interesting thought about TimeTrax or
Timedrek depending on how one looks at it.  If the action is taking place
in an alternate universe, then how are the characters communicating with
the future through newspaper ads?  Also my own thought on the matter, how
do the people get sent back to the correct universe?

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Date: 26 Jan 93 01:43:43 GMT
From: [e-mail] (Eric E. Katz)
Reply-to: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: TimeTraxx

The answer to the parallel universe question.  They aren't communicating
with the same universe.  They are communicating with the one that was
generated by the events that are in motion in the past that Darien is in.
That one will pull the criminals back and that will also change the future.
That's the reason I could think of that would make sense.  This of course
brings about two points, there has to be one criminal that remains or that
Darien has to send himself back with the criminal.  We could conclude that
the criminals are successful, but perhaps Dr. Sahmbi put into motion a way
of contacting his future self that will live in the parallel universe
generated by his actions.  All we need is that the future Darien will find
out about this and that he will send himself back to stop the criminal's
plan.  Of course he will find a way of saving Alyssa when he goes back.

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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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