Surface, Episode II...and, for that matter, Cleopatra 2525.

[oneirophrenia]

OK, Surface is the best new sci-fi show on television. Right up there with Lost. I just took some time to FINALLY watch the second episode and it just impressed the hell out of me. Sure, it's TV science-fiction, so it's not all that realistic, but it's handling its subject matter in a very sober, intelligent fashion: for instance, the marine biologist chick (who, incidentally, is played both cute and intelligent) recovered some dying hagfish that apparently fed on the carcasse of one of the sea-dragons; their stomachs are full of sea-dragon meat that can now be tested to see just what the heck the sea-dragons might be. That was rather clever, and certainly not what I was expecting from that particular plot-thread.

There are some silly elements, however, that I hope won't ultimately sink the show. One of the scientists autopsying the sea-dragon carcasse that washed ashore gets splattered with some gunk from the body and the wounds he received in the body explosion, as it were, regenerate overnight thanks to--apparently--some agent in the creature's body. This could turn out to be phenomenally stupid. Biological matter from a clearly non-terrestrial organism is not about to cause that kind of a reaction in a human body: fatal anaphylactic shock or, at least, a bizarre infection would most likely result--unless the biological matter expelled from the carcasse was laced with reparative nanomachines. That would be more likely. After all, if you're a species that can apparently cross interstellar distances to colonize another planet's oceans, there's probably a good chance that you've developed some form of molecular technology. And since one of the most obvious applications of any kind of self-replicating nanobot tech is medical/biological support, this would make sense. It would still be kind of hokey to think that biomed nanobots keyed to a certain species' biological construction could be able to cross over into another species and still work, but hey...it's a lot more likely than tissue transfer. If that doctor starts speaking in alien tongues and developing the ability to telepathically communicate with the sea-dragons, though, I'm going to give the show The Big Finger and never watch it again.

Speaking of televised sci-fi, I also picked up the complete Cleopatra 2525 series on DeeVamaDee, too, and have only had enough time to watch two 20-minute episodes. But, man...that show is even cheesier than I remember it to be. BUT THAT'S OKAY in this instance because that's exactly what it aimed to be: a sci-fi/action show featuring babes in skimpy outfits living in vast underground complexes, fighting the evil machines that took over the planet's surface, and otherwise looking hot while doing crazy stunts. The show is almost like a Heavy Metal serial written by drunken, slightly-horny transhumanists one night while bored out of their minds. It's very amusing, and actually features some great performances and characters. I completely love the bizarre harlequin/wicked-clown "villain" Creegan: I have NO clue what the dude is doing in the series, but he looks awesome and is surprisingly menacing. It's a fun show, always worth watching, especially when you just have a jones for chicks in spandex fighting morphable aerial robots.

Comments

[inmostlight.livejournal.com]

NBC was rerunning the first two episodes of Surface last night and I wound up watching them. You're right, it is pretty good and certainly much, much better than I was expecting it to be. I like the global scale of it and disparate groups, and there are even some characters that aren't annoying.

For comparison, the new show Invasion is just awful. Too small of a scale (aliens invading....hicktown Everglades?), and I just want to slap every chracter with a two-by-four.

Back to Surface, though...I missed a few parts because of Comcast shittiness. Did they say the sea-dragons are non-terrestrial? I thought they just came from very very deep under the surface, and wouldn't be surprised if they're tied in with that doctor's theory about how all life on Earth originally formed at the hot undersea vents. Because especially now that she's been fired and will be marked as an outcast in the scientific community, it clearly means she's correct in a show like this.

Also, from the way the creatures look, it'd be cool if they tie them into Chinese mythology about water dragons.

[oneirophrenia.livejournal.com]

Well, from what I can tell from the first episode (which ends with a strange shower of meteors landing in the ocean), and from the fact that the sea-dragons are being treated as a *recent* phenomena, I would assume it's more likely they came from Ouuuuuuter Spaaaaaaaaaace. I'm thinking they'll probably end up revealing that the dragons burrow in the depths near oceanic vents for heat--the baby dragon those two kids have in the bathtub was getting sick, after all, because the water it was lying in was too cold. I bet they need to grow up in fairly warm waters such as tropical seas or nests around ocean-floor vents until they grow large enough to withstand colder waters (probably through a layer of something like blubber).

I also dig the HELL out of the fact that they're bioluminescent *and* can fire off electric charges to stun/kill their prey. At least when they're small. The big ones are so goddamned huge they obviously do not *need* to squirt off a high-voltage sneeze to stun anything because, christ, apparently they can crack open nuclear subs and eat the soft, chewy treats inside without much problem. :)

I've always thought the idea of an alien "invasion" focused on the oceans was a MUCH likelier prospect than your traditional invasion. After all, there's a lot of scientific speculation indicating that earthlike planets will usually be hotter and wetter than our joint (we're actually at the colder, drier end of the habitable zone), and aquatic beings are just better suited to travelling in zero-gravity or high-acceleration environments due to, well, having grown up in water-buoyed and -cushioned environments. It would be AWESOME if the sea-dragons turned out to be completely unaware of the existence of human beings because they literally don't pay any attention whatsoever to land-based organisms!

[inmostlight.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the meteorites at the end. But then I also thought it may have been an optical illusion or something, since there were matching lights coming from below the surface. Maybe it was just giant sea dragon sperm and that's how they spread it around, sort of like when a whale comes to the surface and shoots stuff out of their blowhole.

Until proven otherwise, I'm still going for the terrestrial-in-origin, and they were just really deep and undiscovered. i.e., the Godzilla theory.

They really ought to be trying to cash in on the recent giant squid photography. I mean, really, we've explored more of THE MOON than we have of the ocean floor, I'd say that it's more plausible for these things to be coming from down there than from outerspace.

There's also the distinct possibility there's more than one species. What if the really incredibly huge things aren't related to the sea dragons? Possibly even enemies? That'd be neat if they were fighting and humanity was caught in the middle. And then they stomp on Tokyo.