Five questions meme

[iainjcoleman]

I'm blowing the dust off this LJ because katlinel tagged me with her five questions. As is traditional in this little game, let me know in comments if you'd like five individually hand-carved questions of your very own.

1. Which dead politician would you most like to have a chat with and why?Niccolo Machiavelli. He would have some excellent stories. Also

Comments

[iainjcoleman]

Sure, no problem.

[communicator]

Ha. I thought I was the only one who is disappointed by modern SF. I share a lot of your views. I wrote a piece on SF-TV for vector magazine, and in general I do think it can't pay for itself in this country. However dramas like Black Mirror or Misfits can find a niche as edgy/transgressive dramas, helping Channel to fulfil its statutory remit for innovative content. Black Mirror at its best got an audience no higher than the execrable Outcasts at its worst - yet the former was considered a triumph and the latter a disaster. In absence of mass audience SF needs to be seen as delivering some additional quality or audience share not acheived by anything else. Bit its a high bar nowadays - I sometimes literally can't believe how brilliant modern telly can be.

[iainjcoleman]

I guess Outcasts was considerably more expensive than Black Mirror, which would account for higher expectations. It's also noteworthy that Black Mirror was marketed, as you say, as transgressive satire rather than SF.

One of things that Black Mirror and Misfits share with Doctor Who is a strong sense of authorship - a boldness and confidence in their respective visions. That's something all good drama needs, of course, but it seems more critical in SF somehow.

[philmophlegm]

I find I agree with you on many of these points

[iainjcoleman]

I was actually tempted by Cicero, but in the end I had to plump for Old Nick.

That's a good point about the "most read" section. It's a very valuable resource for the BBC to use in allocating its news coverage, if they're willing to use it. It's clear that the Daily Mail's online version is strongly influenced by its readers preferences as revealed through page clicks, hence the prominent sidebar specialising in breaking news about Carol Vorderman's bum, Rihanna's curves and the shopping practices of assorted Kardashians.

My wife keeps trying to persuade me to give Battlestar Galactica a proper go, and perhaps she will wear me down. I can't say I'm massively enthusiastic, though. The one episode I did see in its entirety was about an election on board the space fleet and, although I don't remember many details of the story, I do remember my incredulous fascination at the almost total lack of understanding of how electoral politics actually works. Perhaps if I'd seen a different episode I would be less antipathetic towards the show.

[kalypso_v]

I'd go for Cicero as dead politician and Machiavelli as dead civil servant.

[iainjcoleman]

Imagine the slash.

No, on second thoughts, better not.

[iainjcoleman]

No, but it may get different viewers.

[niall_shapero]

1: Ronald Reagan. I’d love to hear what he’d have to say about what has become of his Grand Old Party (which would likely cast him out, now, as a RINO).
2: What’s RIGHT with TV today? Darn near nothing. What’s wrong: Scripted dramas being replaced by semi-scripted “reality” shows, and the scripting for the so-called dramas is so bloody poor as to almost defy belief. That’s US TV. The British TV that gets TO the US is one one of two types - either very good, or very bad, with nothing in between or so it seems.
3: I’m strictly a slacks and quasi-dress shirt type, with brown or black leather shoes (loafers by preference).
4: 90% of SF today is crap. Of course, 90% of EVERYTHING is crap (correction: SF on TV seems to be 99.9% crap - most especially the likes of Doctor Who). I live for the 10% of SF that is NOT media-tie-in-work-for-hire-crap that is written assuming that the reader is NOT a fifteen year old boy.
5: No one - I’m not an actor, nor would I dare try to be one.