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EUROPE'S MOST VISITED SF/F WEB SITE |
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TAKEN Stephen Spielberg's new mini-series on SCI-FI Channel which begins this December 2002 in the USA.
In the near future, twenty hours of television are lying in ambush just waiting to abduct us. We'll be transported to a mindless zone where our eyes, unable to move right or left, will be fixated upon a television screen. We'll be fed addictive stories which will be portrayed by lifelike
characters and before we know it we'll be - TAKEN! This is the master plan of that old weaver of Science Friction
tales (not misspelled), Steven Spielberg. Roswell, alien abduction,
Area 51, Bermuda Triangle, crop circles, government conspiracy and
hybrid beings - elements of these have all been thrown in the pot
and stirred up to produce something akin to the alien version of
'Roots' except that here the enslaved have more ethereal chains. It even has a reference to 'Close Encounters'. In this story, the film has become a fact which fits neatly into the plot. A little bit of self-justification does your morale a lot of good. It's a wonder Private Ryan doesn't appear somewhere in the script or even Schindler. After all, didn't he disappear at the end of the film, taken away
by Ruskies? Anyway, the story commences with a dying American pilot from the
Second World War. Russell Keys doesn't end up as a mangled piece
of flesh and bone somewhere in enemy territory but emerges from
a blue light to find himself with his mates on safe ground suffering
from convenient amnesia. (Look up medical dictionary for the condition,
convenient amnesia. Millions have it!) This is a story which moves through time, space and generations.
Keys finds memories become apparent which lead him to believe that
he has been abducted by aliens and irrevocably altered. Bad enough,
you would think, but this curse is passed on to his children and
their children in turn. They're all future UFO fodder! Along comes Owen Crawford. He's the guy behind the Roswell Conspiracy and indeed he becomes a sort of 'X-Files' Smoking Man in the future. We also have Sally Clarke, a lonely woman ostensibly knocked up by an alien to produce a hybrid child. And there we have it - we get not just two families but three reacting together throughout the next sixty years. It's science in action. A two body problem, ie the Earth and the Moon is quite easy to solve but add the Sun's gravity and things become much more complicated. Likewise, the drama resulting from three mutually interacting families becomes much more compelling and interesting. Presumably, each family has characters for us to identify with. Maybe the spectrum of character traits found in most humans can be found here. So no matter what you're like, you'll find your niche in this series. Spielberg is a clever cookie in many respects. According to the information given on the website, Spielberg says this series is 100% character driven. He wants people to watch this and for the advertisers to take notice. There's also something for all ages, from old folk from the war years to middle-age hippies to young kids who would like to imagine themselves as being something more exciting than what they are. Throughout the years, kids have wanted to be Superboy, Spider-man, Tomorrow Children, Skywalker and others of a similar nature. Curiously, I wanted to be like Zachary Smith. Apart from me and others like Uncle Geoff who wanted to become
an omnipotent deity and settled for editor instead, this series
is all things to all people. To find out more about 'TAKEN', go to the scifi.com website which was reviewed in last month's edition. Here you'll find a movie type site, which is quite interesting
to watch and also additional pieces of information about the new
series. The question is: Will it be a success? Spielberg usually makes money out of his projects and maybe this will stir up thoughts about aliens, abduction and such matters for an entirely new age? For those of us who have seen it all before, it may be entertaining
television nonetheless. Rod MacDonald
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OTHER REVIEWS - November 2002
Other Reviews: November 2002 Books Forests Of The Heart by Charles De Lint Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek edited by David Langford The Last Hero (A Discworld Fable) by Terry Pratchett and illustrated by Paul Kidby The Frank Collection: A Showcase Of The World's Finest Fantastic Art by Jane and Howard Frank Blood And Honour by Simon R. Green Prowlers by Christopher Golden Prowlers: Laws Of Nature by Christopher Golden Star Trek Star Charts: The Complete Atlas Of Star Trek written and illustrated by Geoffrey Mandel Angel: Endangered Species by Nancy Holder and Jeff Mariotte The Hobbit Companion by David Day and illustrated by Lidia Postma Bodies: His Photographic Art by Boris Vallejo Drinking Midnight Wine by Simon R. Green TV series
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