The Official, Long Awaited, TV Shows Thread

Spoiler: Missile in space

Well they just took the 100nm flight range of vanilla AIM54 - in air! - to equate how far it can reach in orbital space, which obviously is completely nonsensical. But, the whole premise of just 'converting' the missile into orbital use is nonsensical anyway for the reasons already mentioned - there is no air, no drag, no means to control the flight direction (what the hell did the control fins do there anyway), no real blast effects except for direct kinetic hit - all in all completely different flight mechanics and the real-life selling point of the original air-to-air Phoenix (BVR attack with long flight distance) being pointless.

My frustration rises from the first season seemingly establishing the series into facts, spending a lot effort in explaining the audience how a spacecraft is not a car that can just go anywhere (verbatim quote from one of the characters), that the physics dictate the trajectories and orbits and so on. Then either the writers were fired or they just stopped caring of any facts, leading to the plot running away with Star Wars physics and 'anything goes, we just want popcorn and drama'.

 

I don't know why they chose to mimic capabilities of a realworld counterpart, other than would be convenient to do so and perhaps tactically 200nm is no more useful than 100nm - for any of the reasons I gave for ordnance having different ranges. As you know the real cost of deploying anything in space is getting it out of Earth's orbit where every kilogram impacts the cost. From an engineering perspective, if you have a capability requirement of firing a missile no more than 100nm then you can do that in a far lighter package. That cost saving might be more important than the missile having a 700nm range. But I take your point if they're not bigging up the economic aspects for space exploration/warfare then it seems silly.

I find a lot of TV shows that start well, often because the writers have had a lot of time to flesh out the universe, the rules, the characters before filming even begins, often go downhill when it gets greenlit for a second/yhird season because the story arc wasn't written out ahead (e.g. Babylon 5, The Expanse, about half of Game of Thrones). Suddenly having to produce something on an accelerated timetable, quality and consistency are the first things that disappear.

edit: typos.

 

I thought the first season of Babylon5 is generally considered as the one that sucked most. The actual story didn't really start until the S1 finale.

 

I wasn't attempting to rate the TV shows, just making the point that where you have a complete story in advance, you can generally produce a more coherent tale over multiple years. Babylon 5 season1 had a lot of filler, and I think it would have been far better if it was just 13 tighter episodes. I definitely enjoyed watching season 1 the second time around, having watching the entire series years earlier. You may not spot important scene setting or key plot lines emerge on your first run, particularly plots predicated on time.

 

The Expanse was based on a book series and I thought it got better and better (from an already very high starting point) until at least the 3rd or 4th seasons. That's not to say that the final seasons weren't also excellent.

 

As I've got older I have definitely found a lot of entertainment loses its lustre sooner rather than later, i.e. things get worse before ending on a high.

That said, I have seen the first four seasons of The Expanse and I do recall enjoying them, but in my mind it's hit some weird point where I'd rather watch something new than finish off a story I was enjoying. I am probably just weird.

 

Aah, I thought you referred to B5, Expanse and GoT as examples of series which went downhill. Makes more sense...

 

Nope, just stories where were written in advance. I'll say that I was not a fan of season 5 of Babylon 5. We all know why Game of Thrones went off the rails and that is because the show overran the story which is why most TV shows deteriorate.

 

Halo series trailer is out for Paramount +.

Going to be interesting, Uncharted movie in February vs. Halo series in March.

 

I watched the tailer and it was better than I was expecting, but in terms of real-life Halo what has been produced thus far has been on a really low budget. I am hugely disappointed they didn't get Steve Downes to voice the Chief. This is a real head scratcher. If they intend to shoot a lot of footage with the Chief's helmet off, just have the actor just his voice and the Downes's voice when the helmet is on. But now I need to play Infinite before this airs because otherwise the voice in the TV show will sound wrong, then the voice in the game will sound wrong.

Aslo.. Cortana. This aside, I am quietly optimistic it'll be good. They don't even need to come up with an interesting story, Bungie did that already.

 

I have not watched it, but I'd have to say that Peacemaker HBOMax series has a great soundtrack for each weekly episode. That is if you're a child from the 80s. Now if only each episode was as solid as the music choices.

 

Ok Boba Fett just got a *lot* better! That’s all I am going to say about it.

 

Yes, it's all because they opted to include Episode 5 as a BoBF episode...

 

I don't get the reference to Cortana. Did MS make them put in a character called Cortana or did they take the name from the character that the developers came up with to use as the Windows voice assistant thingy?

I thought it was suppose to be a place in Italy but its a character in Halo?

 

Cortana is the Master Chief's AI holographic assistant.

 

Always has been.

 

I think she's my favorite character in Halo.

 

Such a weird choice to cast a different actor, film her using her voice, then hire Jen Taylor to re-voice the filmed actor but she sounded different.

This had to be the easiest CGI option ever. You have this character who is literally a sparkly hologram. Just make a CGI sparkly hologram and use Jen Taylor doing her actual Cortana voice. Is it just me that thinks she sounds quite different? I mean, it was only one line. Maybe it was just that line or how it was delivered.

How can Jen Taylor not sound like Jen Taylor? How can master Chief not sound like Master Chief. The two iconic voices of the franchise.

It's ok.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine.. it'll be fine..

 

From what I've heard, Covid19 restrictions struck so the actress who played Halsey wasn't available to finish her Cortona scenes so they went to plan-b and got Jen Taylor to step up.

Also, this is from Showtime/Paramount who are solid on filming and presenting personal shows but weaker on special effects.