Corvus-9 Reviews

Walking with Monsters (2005)

Visually stunning but shallow docudrama

[6/10 · 27 December 2005]

Interesting docudrama about life on Earth before the dinosaurs. Excellent CGI and scientific information is marred by an overly simplified and sensationalized presentation. Hundreds of millions of years of evolution are condensed into about a half-dozen scenes. Information about ecology and the food web is ignored in favor of scenes of large carnivores attacking each other.

I am curious how they determined the behavior, colouration, and sounds of these creatures. The arthropods are so loud that one would think that prey would be able to hear them coming. I was also not aware that amphibians and reptiles roar like lions.

Men of Iron (2004 TV Movie)

Interesting but distracting documentary

[6/10 · 2 July 2005]

An interesting British documentary about several famous British engineers of the 19th Century. The series focuses on their private lives and personal struggles rather than the time or technology, so one does not have a good sense of when these achievements were being done or what else was going on at the time.

The film includes great scenes of the modern remains of some of these constructions. Computer graphics showing proposed structures and animated engineering drawings are also very interesting. On the down side, much of the historical re-enactments are shown in grainy, blurry, sepia-toned images that are extremely annoying.

There are also several anachronistic scenes of Victorian gentlemen taking modern-day subways or walking across modern skylines. I imagine the director is trying to link the characters with the modern day, but these scenes make no sense.

Moonbase 3 (1973)

What an innovative show!

[16 June 2005]

Moonbase 3 was an ambitious attempt by the BBC in 1973 to create a technically accurate science fiction program. It also followed the "New Wave" of science fiction writing then popular.

In traditional science fiction, larger-than-life heroes zoom across the galaxy, fight swashbuckling space battles with evil interplanetary despots, and woo beautiful alien women. On Moonbase 3, scientists and administrators attempt to conduct experiments while beset with budget cutbacks, equipment failures, work stress, personal isolation, and a heartless Earth bureaucracy.

The stories are often grim and depressing. The base is small and understaffed, the technology is unreliable, and everyone is under constant pressure to produce breakthroughs. Outer space is deadly and unforgiving; a tiny error in piloting your rocket can kill everyone aboard.

Small teams of researchers on a European moonbase are isolated for weeks at a time, leading to psychological stress and conflict. Many times in the series the researchers can only stand helplessly watching their experiments fail and their friends die. It's easy to see why the program was never an audience-pleaser.

However, the program has some extremely innovative themes which are never explored in other television or movie dramas. It shows how difficult, yet personally rewarding, scientific research is. It shows what a difference having a good manager makes. It shows how following the rules really can work, and how rule-bending seat-of-your-pants rocket jockeys can get everyone killed.

H2O (2004)

A taut and topical political thriller that goes off the rails.

[4/10 · 12 April 2005]

A taut and topical political thriller that, unfortunately, goes off the rails.

In its defense, the basic premise is plausible, the writing is tense and dramatic, and the acting and direction are professional. Other posters have complained about implausibilities in the plot, and the wrong names used for things. A political thriller must have some unexpected twists or there would be no story, and we can assume that the "H2O" world has different names for things like the RCMP and War Measures Act.

The series, however, goes off the rails in the third hour. We can accept one or two extremely implausible events if the story requires it, but when near-impossible events happen again and again, with a new one each few minutes, credibility crumbles. Worse, earlier crises are left unresolved before the next one hits.

I'll give an example. An assassin is killing anyone, no matter how powerful or insignificant, who threatens the conspiracy. One of the major characters is a police detective who is about to unravel the plot. The assassin traps her, spills clues about the conspiracy, and then lets her go. This is an absurd Hollywoodism, like something from an old Flash Gordon serial. There are even bigger howlers in the series, and I know what happens later, but this is the one that made me want to throw something at the TV.

The series plays like it was written by a committee, and each member wanted to get their plot twist in whether it made sense or not. The ending is a disappointment too; there is yet another plot twist in the last few minutes and the story just stops. All the viewer is left with is a huge number of unresolved plot twists.

Commander's Log (2004 TV Movie)

Amateurish filler

[3/10 · 20 February 2005]

This program was shown in an early morning time slot on SPACE, a cable sci-fi station. I am amazed that anyone would pay for this or broadcast it; it is incredibly amateurish.

The entire show is a sequence of short monologues or scenes performed on a set that looks like a closet with a bunch of circuit boards taped to the wall. There is very little continuity between scenes, and no plot. A typical scene revolves around some lame joke or special effect and is only a minute or so long. The dialog makes little sense and the special effects look like Photoshop filters. The actors are all adults, but I have literally seen high-school plays with better writing and sets. This program is an embarrassment.

Perhaps each scene would work as an interstitial; a filler between shows instead of commercials. Stringing all the scenes together makes the limitations of the material extremely obvious.

Friday Night with Ralph Benmergui (1992–1993)

Painfully Canadian

[11 January 2005]

In 1992 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation launched a late-night talk show to compete with American imports. They followed the standard format; a band, announcer, sketch comedy, and celebrity interviews. Unfortunately, Canada has few celebrities, the CBC had a small budget, and the host was the uncharismatic and unfunny Ralph Benmergui.

For those for whom "Canadian entertainment" is an oxymoron, this was very, very Canadian entertainment. Benmergui's fawning over minor celebrities, and his cringing unfunny monologues, were painful to watch. Ratings were poor, and dropped each week.

In desperation, the CBC tried changing the band, the announcer, the sets, the interviews, Ralph's haircut; everything except the two things that were broken, the host and the format.

The CBC still needs a good late-night program, but this program was so unpleasant to watch it has probably poisoned the format at the broadcaster so badly they'll never try it again. The program isn't even listed in the CBC archives.