ladyofjest: (Default)
Day 09 - Best scene ever

I feel like I should be prefacing each of these posts with the reminder that my answers are constrained by what I can remember when I sit down to do this meme. I do put a good measure of thought into each question, going down the lists of my favorite or important television shows, probing my memory for "best scene ever" examples, for example. But I don't have an eidetic memory, so I have to rely on whatever my mental net can pull out of the mess of my media memory at the present. I'm sure if I had longer to ponder the question, I'd come up with more or different answers; however, with an on-and-off 24-hour consideration here in the summer of 2010, this is what I came up with.

Also, I have chosen to interpret "best scene ever" as "coolest, most bad-ass (optionally hilarious) scene ever."

I think I'll go with a top 5.

Note: I've included links to these scenes where possible for those who want to relive them; if you haven't seen the episodes in the first place, however, I don't recommend watching them out of context!

5. Mal first demonstrates his unique brand of negotiating in Firefly.
This is one of those quintessential scenes from the second episode ("The Train Job") of Firefly that firmly demonstrates these protagonists are not entirely Good Guys. It also does so in a macabrely funny manner. It's part of what made Firefly such a strong and compelling show.

4. Buffy finds her inner core of strength in "Becoming: Part Two."
I couldn't find a decent clip of this one, sadly: in the season finale to the second season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, her vampire boyfriend Angel has lost his soul once more and become the terrifying Angelus. Naturally, Angelus has stalked Buffy and his game culminates in a good, brutal round of taunting battle. Since I can't find a clip, allow me to quote from Alexander Thompson's transcript of the episode:

Transcript here! )

3. Daleks vs. the Cybermen from New Who.
This is my optionally hilarious choice: in the season finale ("Doomsday") of the second season of the new Doctor Who, you have this extended scene of the Daleks and the Cybermen smack-talking each other. I was hysterical with laughter the first time I saw it, which helped some considering I was sobbing with heartbreak by the end of the episode.

2. Ambassador Delenn, Defender of Babylon 5
I love Big Damn Heroes: Delenn is the quintessential definition of one such in Babylon 5 and this is one scene by which that is incandescently apparent. The fierce temperance of her words and the way the Earth Alliance warships don't even hesitate before leaving always has me shouting "Fuck yeah, Sea King!" Or, you know, something like. The scene is from "Severed Dreams" (3.10).

And the most kick-ass scene?


1. Battlestar Galactica to the rescue on New Caprica.
If you plan on watching Battlestar Galactica, but you haven't seen through Season 3, don't read this! That said, this was one of the most amazing scenes in the show, even while being immersed in a bunch of sub-par aspects of the show fore and aft. When Adama dropped the Galactica into atmo in "Exodus: Part 2", I'm pretty sure I punched the air with amazed glee. Watching them launch the vipers and then do an FTL jump away sealed the deal: I was crowing that Adama had huge, titanium cajones.

Quixote says that he concurs with most of my choices.1 He adds that he considers the closing scene of "Time Enough at Last" from The Twilight Zone to be one of the most iconic scenes ever. He also wants to mention the closing scene of The Prisoner in "Fall Out" for its sheer WTF?! scene awesomeness.



1. I can specify that he's not including Buffy the Vampire Slayer in his echo.

30 Days of TV: The List )

This entry was originally posted at http://infinitejest.dreamwidth.org/13465.html. You can comment here or there. Comments on the original post so far: comment count unavailable
ladyofjest: (Default)
I've been thinking about doing the 30 Days of Me meme for a little while now, but then [livejournal.com profile] enna_xor went and posted her first entry in the 30 Days of TV, which promises an interesting daily reflection on viewing habits and preferences. I find these sorts of informative memes to be interesting, so it's time to give one a try.

I'd love to engage with y'all in the comments - even if you don't pursue the entire meme in your own spaces, tell me your answers in mine.

Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled.

Four shows immediately spring to mind: Firefly, Pushing Daisies, Dead Like Me1, and Carnivale. Firefly was cut down in its prime and was a show that made me fall in love with it within two or three episodes; however, in retrospect, I can admit that it had some problematic aspects in its worldbuilding and execution.2 Pushing Daisies is my heart's true whimsy-love, but it was episodic enough that I don't feel a bone-deep ache of loss over its cancellation. Dead Like Me's cancellation affected me very strongly at the time, as I felt an intense connection to its story and characters in the midst of watching it; since then, though, I feel more distance from it, and don't feel as terribly.

But, oh, Carnivale.

Carnivale was brilliant and dark and gritty and, most importantly, it was fully planned out. More aggravatingly, the creator refuses to tell the story in any way except through film, how he originally envisioned it. At least Pushing Daisies and Firefly either have had or are planning sequential art continuations of their stories.3 And Firefly and Dead Like Me got feature films.4

So, that's my answer: Carnivale most emphatically should never have been canceled. I first watched this show five years ago, post-cancellation, and I still haven't finished mourning that loss. Discovering that HBO offered not to cancel it if the producers would limit expenses per episode to 2M and that he refused to compromise at all further complicates my feelings.5 I just want to finish watching this remarkable story unfold.

And, for fun, here's my husband's answer: Star Trek.

He doesn't feel this needs elaboration, considering the cancellation of the original show to be one of the most tragic assassinations in the history of television. Although, he did unpack it a bit further to remark that even one more season of Star Trek would more than likely have made science fiction a viable television enterprise thirty years before it finally became one thanks to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Sin of sins, I myself actually haven't seen a full episode of Star Trek (the original series) beyond "Space Seed." One of our summer television projects therefore has been set.




1. Yeah, I have a thing for series created by Bryan Fuller: I almost put Wonderfalls on that list as well.

2. The Companion element being one of the most glaring that wasn't working out as it should have at the beginning.

3. See: Serenity: Those Left Behind and Serenity: Better Days. As a side note, there's also been some additions to Firefly canon in the recently released Firefly: Still Flying. Pushing Daisies had one short comic that was a Comic-Con goodie, but this news article shows there's plans for more (although those plans keep getting pushed back, it's still apparently in production).

4. See: Serenity and Life After Death. (The collector's edition of the Serenity DVD includes the River Tam sessions, which are a must-have.)

5. See the Wikipedia article's section on the cancellation.


30 Days of TV: The List )

This entry was originally posted at http://infinitejest.dreamwidth.org/10542.html. You can comment here or there. Comments on the original post so far: comment count unavailable

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