Dept. of Media Skiffy
Sunday, 3 August 2014 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaffy_rGood, Challenging, and Confusing
It's about time, and inhuman personages of great but fluctuating powers, battling against incomprehensible dangers that are, again, largely time-connected, and about the results on humans caught in the wash of the battles, even when they are sometimes the cause of the battles.
Nope. Not Doctor Who.
It's "Sapphire and Steel." Which is why I titled this post as I did. Because that's what I think anyone could reasonably call "Sapphire and Steel", the British ITV show from the 1970s to which the redoubtablethisbluespirit introduced me a couple of years ago.
It's mysterious, incomprehensible, funny, brilliant, ridiculous (a deadly pillow! An evil round patch of light!) and unexpectedly terrifying (you'll believe a pillow is deadly! And that a round patch of light is evil!) It's got Joanna Lumley and David McCallum and, from time to time (see whut I did thar), the wonderful David Collings. It's very slow, but it's slow for a reason. And so many of its shots are beautifully composed to take advantage of the slowness ....
... ahem. Yes. I rather like it.
And you should watch it. Or at least I think you should give it try.
And why do I bring this up? Because today, at the end of an afternoon spent attempting to introduce a fannish friend who is not into televised skiffy to some various aspects of same (it's a long-term project spearheaded by another friend, and entered into willingly but bemusedly by the first person), as we were clearing up, the spear-header and I were talking about favorite series, and I happened to mention S&S. Oh, the friend says, I have that collection. It turns out she was less impressed by it than I was, and she handed the entire collection to me.
*cue pictures ofkaffy_r dancing quietly in her head*
Having seen S&S only on YouTube, to be able to have my own actual collection? Well, the whole "dancing in her head bit" is quite true.
As for the rest of the afternoon, well it was good, challenging and confusing as well. The person to whom we were introducing skiffical television liked, as far as I could see, the first episode of the revived DW, "Rose" or at least was positively amused and curious about it. The person was, again as far as I could see, equally amused by "Once More With Feeling" from Buffy.
But, in what came as a surprise to me, the person seemed to be almost insulted by the first episode of Firefly, for reasons that I truly, deeply disagree with, and which appear to point to a them having a sincerely different way of viewing skiffy, SF/fantasy, or indeed the world, than I have. I shall have to think on that deeply, because I'd personally predicted that the person would like Firefly and be completely contemptuous of DW. And thus do humans continue to confound, confuse and challenge me.
Still, the person did not immediately declare that the crash course in introduction to TV skiffy was over and done with. More afternoons are therefore possible in future. I look forward to it.
(Still. Rearing back because Firefly has wooden kitchen tables on space ships, or because shipping containers in the far future look like ... shipping containers ... well, as I said, I must think on that deeply.) And you know I still love you, right?)
It's about time, and inhuman personages of great but fluctuating powers, battling against incomprehensible dangers that are, again, largely time-connected, and about the results on humans caught in the wash of the battles, even when they are sometimes the cause of the battles.
Nope. Not Doctor Who.
It's "Sapphire and Steel." Which is why I titled this post as I did. Because that's what I think anyone could reasonably call "Sapphire and Steel", the British ITV show from the 1970s to which the redoubtable
thisbluespirit introduced me a couple of years ago. It's mysterious, incomprehensible, funny, brilliant, ridiculous (a deadly pillow! An evil round patch of light!) and unexpectedly terrifying (you'll believe a pillow is deadly! And that a round patch of light is evil!) It's got Joanna Lumley and David McCallum and, from time to time (see whut I did thar), the wonderful David Collings. It's very slow, but it's slow for a reason. And so many of its shots are beautifully composed to take advantage of the slowness ....
... ahem. Yes. I rather like it.
And you should watch it. Or at least I think you should give it try.
And why do I bring this up? Because today, at the end of an afternoon spent attempting to introduce a fannish friend who is not into televised skiffy to some various aspects of same (it's a long-term project spearheaded by another friend, and entered into willingly but bemusedly by the first person), as we were clearing up, the spear-header and I were talking about favorite series, and I happened to mention S&S. Oh, the friend says, I have that collection. It turns out she was less impressed by it than I was, and she handed the entire collection to me.
*cue pictures of
kaffy_r dancing quietly in her head*Having seen S&S only on YouTube, to be able to have my own actual collection? Well, the whole "dancing in her head bit" is quite true.
As for the rest of the afternoon, well it was good, challenging and confusing as well. The person to whom we were introducing skiffical television liked, as far as I could see, the first episode of the revived DW, "Rose" or at least was positively amused and curious about it. The person was, again as far as I could see, equally amused by "Once More With Feeling" from Buffy.
But, in what came as a surprise to me, the person seemed to be almost insulted by the first episode of Firefly, for reasons that I truly, deeply disagree with, and which appear to point to a them having a sincerely different way of viewing skiffy, SF/fantasy, or indeed the world, than I have. I shall have to think on that deeply, because I'd personally predicted that the person would like Firefly and be completely contemptuous of DW. And thus do humans continue to confound, confuse and challenge me.
Still, the person did not immediately declare that the crash course in introduction to TV skiffy was over and done with. More afternoons are therefore possible in future. I look forward to it.
(Still. Rearing back because Firefly has wooden kitchen tables on space ships, or because shipping containers in the far future look like ... shipping containers ... well, as I said, I must think on that deeply.) And you know I still love you, right?)
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 6 August 2014 01:39 am (UTC)My own favourite science fiction films tend to the more scientifically plausible-ish ones, e.g. Strange Days or I Am Legend or 28 Days Later. But I am willing to put up with bad science - sometimes ridiculously bad science - for the sake of beautifully made, beautifully acted films such as Sunshine. In films and telly, I do, however, unreservedly love a lot of sci-fi, science fantasy, and plain old space opera. And come on, Firefly IS space opera. Or more precisely, horse opera set in space :D
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 6 August 2014 02:13 am (UTC)Indeed. I'm even more apt to take this attitude because I often don't catch what may or may not be completely implausible science and because I tend to agree with the SF writer and critic Damon Knight.
He grew up in fandom in the 30s and 40s before becoming a pro, and was thus privy to fannish fights over what did, and did not, constitute "true" science fiction. Perhaps irritated by that kind of pilpul-ish hyperfocus, perhaps irritated by his fannish friends - and perhaps aware that the term "science fiction" had been an arbitrarily coined term for a sub-genre of literature that began with no pretentions towards being scientifically accurate - he stated "Science fiction is what I point to when I say science fiction."
And yes, Firefly is that grandest of western horse-burners-cum-space opera. Heh.
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 6 August 2014 02:39 am (UTC)Thought Miranda only was a fairy tale
Meant for shiny folk but not for me
Alliance came and got me
It was all serene
Thought I'd found the answer to my dreams
Then I snorted Pax
Now I am a Reaver
Without a trace
Of sane in my mind
I want blood - ooh, I am a Reaver
Mad as a seizure til I die
I thought rape was more than just a givin' thing
Now, the more I rape, the more I eat
What's the use of mercy, hey hey hey
I can chew your brain! Hey, hey, hey
Give you all a universe of pain
Cause I snorted Pax
And now I'm a Reaver
When I attack
I doubt you'll be fine
I love blood - ooh, I am a Reaver
Sick as a fever, say bye-bye!
Yeah, I'm out in Space
I am a Reaver
I cut my face
It's cannibal time
I am a Reaver, yeah yeah yeah yeah
I'm a Reaver...
~ducks and runs away~
;
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 6 August 2014 03:58 am (UTC)Wait! Come back! Neil Diamond would be proud!
no subject
Date: Wednesday, 6 August 2014 10:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 7 August 2014 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 7 August 2014 02:47 pm (UTC)BTW we just got back from seeing GotG. I never thought 'Vin Diesel out-acted the entire rest of the cast' was a sentence I'd ever hear myself say, but there you go. My DB, who is noticeably less discriminating than I am about films, said that he had expected a lightweight but well-made piece of first-rate froth but what he got was a fatally flawed, poorly thought-out piece of third-rate meh. I think he's too kind, but I will say that the tree and - to a lesser extent - the raccoon were a win; they were actual characters with believable emotions and a surprisingly touching relationship. Go figure.
no subject
Date: Thursday, 7 August 2014 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 7 August 2014 03:10 pm (UTC)I think it's a bit sad that they could get one thing - tree and raccoon relationship - so right and fall down so badly on the rest. Was painful to see Lee Pace so constrained by weak directing - compare Eccleston's turn as Malekith in Thor 2, not exactly a demanding role but he was encouraged to imbue it with true menace and he succeeded. Gillan was simply awful, and since we've seen her display acting chops on NuWho, I'm blaming the director. And has it ever been established that Glenn Close can act at all? Because here she was nothing so much as distilled essence of that horror my DB once made me sit through, namely the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. (Saldana was quite competent, but I prefer her as Fauxhura...)
Ooh, speaking of NuWho, I just found out that the opening episode will have Strax and Vastra. That's a carrot I will suffer the Moffat fanfic-cum-budget-offenses-to-the-senses for :D