Bad Sci-Fi, Classic Sci-Fi

Last week John Scalzi's SciFi Movie column for AMC talked about why so many classic Sci-Fi films are actually bad films. Being limited to 800 words he barely scratches the surface (he expands some thoughts in the comments, and doesn't answer one question with the response "What? Tell you now and waste a whole potential column? Madness!", so hopefully he will come back to this theme). Which begs the question, is our focus on bad sci-fi in this blog and our viewing a reaction to the high levels of badness in the classics of the genre, or are we just so-bad-it's-good weirdos?

The crotchetyoldfan, who, not entirely coincidentally, is behind the Classic Science Fiction Channel my last post was about[1], talks about this column and SF films he's watched three times on his blog. If nothing else, there's several films I'd like to see and several more I'd like to see again I got from this.

Additionally, there's a point he touches on in passing, which is that the movie business marketing label "Sci-Fi" doesn't make a film SF. Related is the question that came up last week, namely is Hellboy a Superhero movie? An associate, who we may or may not be referring to as LeMat in these posts, said yes. The question is, if it wasn't from a comic book would it still be? (Of course if it wasn't from a comic book, the film would almost certainly have been very different).

Anyway, enough talking about talking about bad sci-fi - this afternoon I hope to get back to just talking about bad sci-fi.

[1] I'm clearing out my things to blog about list, so I can review the first two episodes of Crime Traveller before tomorrow's movie night.

The Classic Science Fiction Channel

So via Wil Wheaton and Boing Boing, John Scalzi's pimping thread[1] and our own comments I'm pointing out The Classic Science Fiction Channel website. Down the linked page is the creator's screed. Here's an excerpt:

I've been very disappointed by the so-called SciFi Channel since its inception. Like many others, I believed that I'd be able to tune in and regularly catch repeats of classic shows, great classic movies, some SF oriented 'made-for' content (coverage of conventions, literature, authors, etc) and maybe some original movies or series, carefully chosen to insure the preservation of the genre and treat it in a positive, perhaps even marginally experimental, way.

You can probably guess that's not what I got.

In the UK it's not as bad as the US where this guy is based. Indeed one of our associates[2], not a big SF fan, was introduced to Heroes by the SciFi Channel and leaped to it's defence. I have every intention of watching, reviewing, and, to a limited extent, enjoying SciFi's monster-of-the-week movies.

Here's the idea behind The Classic Science Fiction Channel - don't like what regular TV is giving you? Create your own virtual internet channel. Some of the stuff is on Hulu which doesn't let you look at it if you're outside the US (boo, hiss). Some of it is stuff that Heckler has already spent his hard earned pennies[3] on (a quick glance suggests that this very nearly corresponds with the Hulu stuff. Hooray!). Worse still, we have a pile of DVD's as tall as Heckler[4] to watch already, so getting on to this will take a while, not to mention that we'll have to ramp up our technical skills to make things on the computer appear on the big screen.

Nevertheless I heartily endorse The Classic Science Fiction Channel, which will get the Heckler & Kochk Seal of Approval™ and appear on our blogroll once I get around to setting it up.

[1] It's not as smutty as it sounds.
[2] Heckler, we should come up with a system for nicknaming other people. I note that this Wikipedia page may be of assistance.
[3] No, literally.
[4] 37 inches from muzzle to butt plate, since you ask.