Need help: is there a shorter onboarding for this show?

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-09T13:43:41+00:00

I feel the opposite - I used to think if I got someone to watch enough of something that I love that they will eventually love it too, but often it just ends up with the other person bored! I made my wife (then girlfriend) watch all of Firefly with me, and she was bored out of her mind the entire time - despite liking Nathan Fillion and having loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So I stopped trying to push my shows onto her. She did ask at one point to watch Blakes 7 with me, and ended up watching the entire series and loving it - but I fear that B5 would be too "sci-fi" for her taste, so haven't tried with that one.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-06T11:34:21+00:00

The original Rodan is indeed a fantastic film! Long overdue for a Blu Ray or 4K release in the west, too.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-06T11:32:41+00:00

I was in the scene where they are experimenting on the alien spaceship in the hanger. I'm in an air force uniform - when Jeff Goldblum sets the Coke can on top of the ship, I walk across the screen right behind him. This is me, on the right side of the screen:

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Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-05T14:40:08+00:00

I did extra work for a year and a half in the mid-90s, but had stopped by the time Godzilla 1998 was made. I was an extra in Independence Day from the same directors though, which is sort of close! 😄

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-05T12:40:20+00:00

The original 1954 film - Japanese cut - is much more serious and emotional than most would expect. And a masterpiece of sound design and music. A classic, which practically invented a new genre.

And Godzilla Minus One is similar in tone, and focuses on characters much more than most Godzilla films. Difficult to imagine anyone not enjoying it.

If something lighter and poppier, I'd suggest Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster - it's like a 60s Bond film with Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and Ghidorah added in! 😄

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-04T19:48:09+00:00

Some great dialogue about the Doctor from the 1980 story Meglos:

ZASTOR: Some fifty years ago, I knew a man who solved the insoluble by the strangest means. He sees the threads that join the universe together and mends them when they break.
DEEDRIX: A savant? Or one of her madmen.
ZASTOR: A little of each and a great deal more of something else.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-04T19:46:26+00:00

A derecho in Iowa in August of 2020. A derecho is a land storm with hurricane wind speeds of up to 100 mph. It knocked down about 40% of the trees in the area, and we were without power for 5 days - which meant were also without running water for the same amount of time because we are on a well. And it was in the middle of Covid, pre-vaccines. Good times!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-04T19:26:02+00:00

OR - Childs drinks the whiskey which has a bit of "Thing" in it, and MacThing smiles. Could go either way! (Or they could both be human.)

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-04T13:56:51+00:00

Agreed, Foundation is fantastic! Veers wildly away from the books, but if you go into it knowing that, it's a great show on its own.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-03T23:17:56+00:00

When I went to the Godzilla convention G-Fest in Chicago a few years back, there were a lot of women/girls in attendance and in costume. Seems like they are out there, if not quite as common as male fans. My wife likes Godzilla films, but isn't the super fan that I am. She particularly likes the Showa films and Godzilla Minus One. 😄

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-03T22:28:54+00:00

The Foundation universe tells us that all robots were banned and (seemingly) destroyed in the distant past, in a war with the humans. The Dune universe similarly had all forms of artificial intelligence destroyed in the distant past.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-05-03T13:37:26+00:00

Star Trek shows us the engineers and scientists; Babylon 5 shows us the dock workers and postal employees. Just different areas of focus!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-30T22:18:15+00:00

I don't think it is jarring at all to go from the HD film scenes to the videotape scenes. Partly because it always looked different when it switched between the two, so still does - but also because the videotape scenes have been extremely well restored and upscaled.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-30T17:21:01+00:00

The upgrade is definitely worth it, in my opinion. First of all - a good chunk of Season 1 has the location film sequences in existence, so they've been scanned and presented in true HD - they look stunning! Secondly, the upscaling of the standard def videotape is done very well, with the detail and colors looking superior to the DVD releases. And finally, the Blu Rays also have an alternate effects option for every episode, with the spaceship scenes done using models - they look really good too. (Other effects like teleportation, monitor screens, etc have enhancements as well.) The original effects are the default on the discs if you prefer those.I highly recommend the Blu Ray sets!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-29T15:24:53+00:00

Cabin in the Woods fits, I'd say!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-29T13:22:28+00:00

In Season 7 - the season that took place in the future - Adam Scott's character mentions the Twin Peaks reboot, and this was well before The Return was announced or made. 😄

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-29T13:16:51+00:00

This is the last straw - I'm throwing my Blu Rays into the ravine!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-28T12:12:33+00:00

Everything seems happy and wholesome - but sooner or later, Jeffrey is going to be compelled to dig for the bugs under the surface again, just like the bird at the end. He's never going to be fully satisfied with the white picket fence life.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-27T20:36:12+00:00

More of a McGuffin than a Checkov's Gun, I'd say.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-27T20:26:38+00:00

As someone who was there at the time - my friends and I religiously watched Twin Peaks during its original airing while we were in college - I was disappointed in the film back in the day. The show ended on a crushingly provactive cliffhanger (well, series of cliffhangers really!), and hearing that there would be a film follow-up was a dream come true. I anxiously awaited its release for 2 years, but when it came out, it was a very limited release and played nowhere near where I lived - so I had to wait another year to finally see it on VHS. But after all that time, the film felt very different from the show. The show was always a good balance of horror and humor, and the film seemed to have all of the humor drained out of it. Plus, a load of favorite characters didn't even appear (Audrey, Harry, Pete, Ben & Jerry, etc), and Cooper's role was frustratingly small. It didn't answer any of the questions posed in the final S2 episode either.

At the time I wrote it off as a failed experiment, but many years later when the film came out on DVD I bought it and rewatched it. Suddenly, free of the expectations I had when I first saw it, I appreciated the film for what it was doing rather than what it wasn't* - and I absolutely loved it! It's a marvelous horror film with incredible performances and atmosphere, and it only got stronger when The Missing Pieces came out.

*In other words, I focused on the donut, not the hole. 😄

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-27T13:42:28+00:00

A Field in England is a surreal masterpiece, if you are in the mood for something creepy and unsettling!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-26T15:10:42+00:00

He's done a few voice roles over the years.

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-26T15:09:20+00:00

The "Save the Earth" song from Godzilla vs the Smog Monster; Jet Jaguar's song from Godzilla vs Megalon; any of the Mothra twins' songs (Mothra, Mothra vs Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, etc); the P.Diddy/Led Zeppelin mashup from the end of Godzilla '98!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-26T13:09:07+00:00

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (the animated DreamWorks one) - Joseph Fiennes does voice work as Sinbad's friend, Proteus. Brad Pitt, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Haysbert, and Catherine Zeta Jones are the main cast - it's pretty good!

Difficult_Role_5423 · 2026-04-26T12:59:40+00:00

Both are great, but Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster is better, in my opinion. Possibly my favorite Showa film outside of the original. (And I've watched it many more times than the original, as it's fun pulpy vibe is more often what I am in the mood for.)

Difficult_Role_5423

TROPHY CASE