zouzounaki: (Default)
Some little time ago, just last month as a matter of fact, a dream of mine came true. It wasn't what you'd call a monumental thing though it seems it to me: Earth 2, the short lived scifi series which ran from November of '94 to May of '95, was released in a comprehensive, complete series DVD set. While it lacked EPK (electronic presskit) material, it does include both deleted and extended scenes and a blooper reel, both of which I wouldn't have even dared to wish for!

You see, Earth 2 affected me profoundly when it first aired and does so even more now that I've lost my parents. Earth 2 was the first and only show in my lifetime that became a "family event" to watch; we all were sat down every Sunday night at 7 (though football was usually running over into its timeslot!) to see what was going to happen next! I was devestated when word came down that it had been canceled and I cried. Yes, I cried for a tv show, something I had never done and have not done since, because it had become such an intregal and exciting part of our otherwise mundane lives. Turns out there was bloody great reason it was canceled, which I didn't know at the time, but suffice it to say, if it had gone on, it would have been as great a travesty as the second season of SeaQuest DSV (see the greatest fansite for the show on the web: http://www.earth2tv.com/ for i8nfo on what would have been a disasterous second season!)

So, the question was: would the show still have the same impact on me now, 11 years later? The answer? No. It had a completely different though no less potent impact! I was able to understand some of the emotions I hadn't before, appreciate what they were doing with the storyline and characters. Characters I didn't care for previously, I've warmed to and episodes that I've held the most viscious rancor for for these long years don't seem quite as bad now as I can isolate the elements that bother me and appreciate it as a whole. It is no longer a wham-bam scifi show (with a brain) that I watched back in the mid-90s but a carefully plotted, character-driven scifi piece that was far ahead of its time.

It's no small wonder that Browncoats (fans of Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity for the uninitiated) in general have fond memories of this show as it definitely comes across as a forerunner for that sort of adult scifi. It uses elements and metaphors of the Old West as the pioneers on G889 make their way across a continent to their brave new world; the American West would also provide inspiration for Firefly. Earth 2 contains a running story arc, something very rare at the time and a dangerous choice as "mythology" was generally being blamed for X-Files not nabbing enough viewers as critics believed it deserved. As a matter of fact, that would have been eliminated from a second season all together, so frightening was the idea of establishing a weekly audience who kept coming back to see the advancement of a simmering, well-developed story instead of 'Ooh, shiny special effects!'

And the F/X, well, as this was done before the digital revolution (Jurassic Park was only a year before the series debuted), its ambition has to be admired even if some of the opticals are, to our modern eye, now pretty cringe-worthy. Again, it's scope, its granduer, was far ahead of its time!

Something that is not cringe-worthy are the characters, especially the females, who seem ahead of their time now, in 2005. Beautiful but not glamorous mature women, their complex relationships with their children, their fellow pioneers, always seemed so real to me but now that I've matured more, I can appreciate it all the more! Jessica Steen as Julia as she struggles with the emotionless life she's supposed to lead (it's in her chromosomes!) while falling in love with beefcake Alonzo (Antonio Sabata Jr.), making some of the most Gawdawrful decisions as she's backed into a corner and her ultimate redemption remains to me one of the most interesting and complex female scifi character arc!

The series isn't without it's rocky bits, as a matter of fact, after a ganbusters pilot episode, the following three episode storyarc is rather dreadful and I can just picture viewers slowly turning away as it developed each week. It hits its stride immediately afterwards however with a bit of awkwardness for an ep or two but that doesn't matter in the long run. And the long run was a mere 21 episodes with one helluva cliffhanger!

So, why, with all of this going in its favor, no season 2? NBC wanted to renew, UPN wanted to pick it up after NBC ultimately passed but again the ball was dropped. Why? Stupid fucking Universal who, unhappy with the ratings it was getting, brought in a new producer who wanted to change just about everything about it. And both networks knew the proposed ideas were shite as both balked when they saw the document. In the end, it wasn't the networks' fault but the actual makers of the show; they were its ultimate downfall.

Devon and Julia were to be taken out of their leadership roles and both of their romances would have come to a halt. They would have become more "caring, warmer" whilst Yale and Morgan were to get the ax. Bess was going to sleep with anything that moved and a cute widdle Grendler was going to join the party as well as a know it all teenage cyborg. The party would get a new, male leader and all story arcs would be gone. Nothing spiritual would remain and Alonzo would have super strength. What. The. Fuck?!

So, yes, in the end, I'm happy I didn't get THAT season 2 though my heart will always be a little sad for the season 2 I could have, should have gotten. And I still have the DVDs to pop in whenever I need my Earth 2 fix which seems something of a small miracle to me!

Peace, Ghani
zouzounaki: (Default)
Many spoilers to follow:
It was the middle of last year when rumors started to surface of Padme's fate: That Anakin was going to kill her, Force-strangle her and throw her against the wall as nothing more than a rag doll. Some fans felt this wasn't far enough for Ani to descend, that he should rape her to conceive the twins; then, he would truly be "badass" and "kewl." Ew. Meanwhile, we few, we proud PT fans had an adverse reaction. After the tender love story, the devotion he'd shown, how could he commit such a heinous act?! And then it turned out to be true, though not exactly in the way it had been described, and the fur really started to fly. 'It's totally out of character! It's what Lucas believes is best but I can't see it!' On both Anakin and Padme fandom fronts, a cry went up: "How could he?"

I've been completely and utterly spoiled, I've read every bit of information from every official source that I could. And I've come to believe that it is absolutely perfect for what Lucas was trying to achieve!

You see, in the OT, Vader is a figure of fear, of loathing: He tortures his daughter, among countless others; kills indiscriminately in the name of the Empire; wounds and makes ready to kill his own son, fully aware of his parentage this time, if he does not join him in ruling the galaxy. And there's the crux of it: The same choice he offers Padme and that she rejects, blindly trying to bring him back to anything rational. She can't. Luke can't, not until the end of the next movie when Vader kills the Emperor, not to atone for his countless sins, not to put the galaxy to rights, but to save the only person who unconditionally loves him. Because, as Lucas himself points out, children teach us to love unconditionally, something Anakin could not even grasp when he had a hold on Padme and covetously sought to hold on to her forever.

Not that it has to do with love. Lucas is very careful to point out that it is fairly early in the picture that Anakin's lust for Padme turns into his lust for power and knowledge. Under the guise of "saving" his beloved, he will become all powerful. This may be terribly hard to swallow for those who have loyally followed Anakin's journey through the course of the past two movies but it is in no way out of character. Think of all the world leaders who started out *just wanting to do good* and where they ended up- a mild example being the fact that Robespierre was ardently against the introduction of the guillotine in the senate as he claimed, one could say foresaw, that it would become to quick, to easy to execute criminals. He ended up wearing the machine's likeness on his cuff-links as a sign of his power.

Padme said it herself in AtoC: That living the lie would destroy them both and so, it seems, it has. While whispers of Palpatine's counsel are definitely darkening his heart, the twists and turns are already there, laid out by the first two movies of the PT. It was anger that slaughtered an entire tribe of Tusken Raiders, not love; love is never a justifiable rationing for indiscriminate killing.

As for Padme's part, is it believable that a strong character with an even stronger sense of self would lose herself in this. Completely. She did the moment she married him, knowing full well the implications. They are a young couple, their thoughts are in the here and now, not how everything is going to work in the long run. I must admit, I was sorry to see the senate petition side story go as it's a vital part of the forming of Palpatine's opposition as well as a part of the story that would involve Padme at work.

But does the movie work without it? In a word, yes. Treason is a perfectly understandable reason for Anakin to suspect Padme but a young man's inherent sexual jealousy and need for possession is much more potent, in my opinion. It's an extremely instinctual biological thing as the rash young man he is to want her to himself, whether that envy materializes in suspicions over her activity in the senate or her alleged closeness with Obi Wan. It's not necessarily that he believes that Padme and Obi Wan are creeping, it's that urge to possess, an almost animalistic pissing contest with any male that comes close to her.

And Padme's broken heart: Chauvinistic plot device or melodrama at its height? She could not survive this movie, not without a mention as to her fate in the OT (and anyone who thinks that lies in Leia's recollections in RotJ are adding too much with their own imaginations); I would not leave her to the EU nor would I want her death to be off-screen. Do people die of broken hearts? My father did, last year three months after my mother passed on; he lost his will. Is he excused from his fatherly duties of looking after his mentally ill daughter because he is male and therefore didn't have the same drive that a mother would have? Now which is the chauvinistic assumption? She knows the twins are safe and cannot bear living out something she believes -knows- that she helped to create, even with the best of intentions: love.

So, the ultimate question lies not in whether we find it sympathetic or the right thing, but that, as terrible as it is, it is still realistic. I for one applaud Lucas for taking this very risky path, of sticking to his guns that darkness is, in fact EVIL and not cool, that it is a destructive, unfeeling entity. That Anakin became that entity.

Peace, Ghani

EDIT, Post-RotS: Watching the movie, I understood the most fundamental reason of all when it comes to the choices Lucas made concerning Padme's death: She could not, for the stories sake die of physical wounds because that was what Anakin misguidedly was trying to protect her from in the first place. His vision would have been true and some would argue that it would be more fateful if he indeed caused with his actions the very thing he feared most. To me, it's more tragic that it was indeed his actions that caused her death but not in the straight-forward way of damaging her physically, but wounding her spiritually and emotionally with the choices he was making in her name. It is still a self-fulfilling prophecy but not one that Anakin could ever have dreamed of nor can he, in his new Sith state, ever understand it.

Profile

zouzounaki: (Default)
Jean: A Legend In My Own Mind

March 2017

S M T W T F S
   1 23 4
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 12th, 2025 01:33 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios