ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

I never watched this series during its one-and-only season, but it definitely has some very devoted fans.

One of them is All Sci-Fi member Jstn, who was a site admin of the now-defunct message board Surface Chat, which was part of a website called Save Surface. The site was devoted to fans of the show who made concerted efforts to change the networks mind about cancelling their beloved series, complete with signed petitions and letter-writing campaigns.

None of it worked, off course, I'm sad to say.

But based on the enthusiasm of Jstn and the other members of that site, I took a chance and bought the box set, hoping it was as good as those folks seemed to think.

Sadly, I just wasn't very impressed with the series. Most of the episodes were about a misguided teenage boy's obsession with a strange hyperactive amphibian he found at sea one night and went to great lengths to hide from friends and family members.





For me, the boys highly emotional and completely illogical behavior quickly became annoying, especially when the plot revealed that the little creature was a clue to a mystery concerning big events which involved giant sea monsters spotted around the world!

Eventually we do get to know other characters in the story and how they related to the unfolding mysteries.





But these "unfolding mysteries" take their sweet time about being revealed to the audience, and by the end of the season the audience has a long list puzzling questions . . . and a very short list of satisfying answers!

Unlike the devoted fans of this series, I simply wasn't intrigued by all the tantalizing clues which the episodes had presented — in fact, I was plum frustrated by the whole thing!

Admittedly the little creature was well designed, and the FX were skillfully done, but this isn't exactly Bambi, and I didn't understand the teenage boys mindless devotion.





But I'm fair enough to admit that if the network execs hadn't torpedoed this deep sea series at the end of one season, it might have made the murky plot elements pay off with exciting revelations we learned about in season two.

Oh well, I guess we'll just never know . . .


______ SURFACE TV SERIES / Sci-Fi Special Effects

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

I remember that fall there were a number of sci-fi TV shows debuting, Bud.

Some I was excited about, some mildly curious.

I remember that Surface was on my mildly curious list. Turned out to be the best of the lot. While some of the shows I was excited about were meh.

Learned my lesson.

Check out all the new sci-fi series premiering in the autumn. The ones you are excited about can turn out to be so-so, the ones that do not look terribly compelling may just be the best ones you'll see.

[kolchak]

IIRC the critter was called 'Nimmy', short for Nimrod.

This and the Sean Cassidy one in Florida were water-themed long-arc series, ideas stolen from, I mean inspired by, Lost. None of them were renewed. Also 'Threshold' with Peter Dinklage among others.

The Florida one was good. The Fichter guy played the sheriff.

Hollywood loves monkey-see-monkey-do. When 'The Abyss' came out we also got 'Deepstar Six' and 'Lords of the Deep'. Ocean horror stuff. (also Leviathan.)

Right now comic book stuff is all the rage. The market is overflowing and stuff like 'Green Lantern' gets lost in the shuffle.
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"God is not worried about the 21st Century. He knew it was coming." T.Shawyer

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's an eight minute documentary / promo for the NBC series.
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_________________ SURFACE TV SERIES / NBC


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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This series inspired such a strong devotion among its fans that a message board call Save Surface was created, and the members promoted a write-in campaign to prevent the shows cancellation.

I didn't work . . . but the message board survived for several years afterwards under the domain name of SaveSurface.com.

That domain name is now owned by somebody else, just like allsci-fi.us (our old domain name) was adopted by some kind of industrial pipe fitter company. But they've since fold up, and our old domain name is available again.

One of the most ardent supporters of the series and of the message board was Jstn (an abbreviated version of "Justin" I believe), who is a longtime member of All Sci-Fi, although he's only posted six messages since this "new board" was created in 2014, the last message being in Feb 02, 2015.

On the "old board" he was a frequent visitor.

Jstn was struggling with health problems, as I remember — and I suspect he might now be among the many "lost" members of All Sci-Fi, a growing list that includes people who have stopped posting and whose emails are listed as no longer active.

And then there a few members I know for a fact that have past away, such as the following.

Bulldogtrekket (Tim Edwards)

Bogmeister (Andrew Bogdan)

Randy Everett

There were other members on the "old board" (which lasted from 2007 to 2014) who have gone on to their ultimate reward, and I suspect the list will grow if All Sci-Fi survives during the years to come.

But for now we're surviving a global pandemic, and I hope the current group of intelligent and active members will continue to provide frequent transfusions of imagination and intelligence to this special on-line community we call . . .


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)