Cool News
HEADS UP: "Starship Troopers" CGI series (now called "Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles") debuts IMMEDIATELY !!!
Glen here...
A while back, some people working on the CGI animated series Starship Troopers
told me not to expect a very substantial "push" for the series once it hit the airwaves.
I remember them saying this, but I took it with a grain of salt. After all, given the show's
pedigree and brand recognition, I could not conceive that Sony would discharge this
production onto the airwaves as if it were hocking out a piece of troublesome throat flim.
God, was I wrong.
Would you like to know more?
Seems the Starship Troopers CGI series...now called Roughnecks: The Starship
Troopers Chronicles...will debut THIS FRIDAY...AUGUST 27...at 7:30am on the Sci Fi
Channel. HREF="http://www.scifi.com/bin/schedulebot.cgi?db=US%3AEastern&ds=1&mon=8.99&wd=d&s=27">CLICK
HERE to see for yourself! The show will begin airing on the Sci Fi Channel daily
in that timeslot starting Monday August 30.
A search of TV GUIDE.COM reveals the
series will also begin airing in wide syndication on Monday August 30 - which means it will air
on different stations (at different times) across the country. So, I can't tell you precisely
when and where Roughnecks will be showing in your area: that part's up to you. But this
does (at least) mean you might have a chance of seeing the show if you don't receive the Sci Fi
Channel.
So call your local stations...overrun some Internet search engines...and scope-out when you
can see Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles!
And to think Columbia / TriStar's legal department gave me grief for being too detailed in my past coverage of this series. Turns out,
my coverage was the most advertising this show would receive - and
they didn't have to pay a cent for it!!!
I had a chance to see a completed episode of Roughnecks last night.
I was very impressed by the sheer quantity of the CGI used (I know it's an all CGI series.
Read on to see what I mean...). Where CGI series often feel like they were conservative with
the number of cuts, cutaways, angles, etc. used to tell their story, Roughnecks does not
have that feel. It feels very full.
As a whole the show looks dazzling, although I had some problems with a few of the voices
(they sounded inorganic with the characters). The sound-mix (guns firing, explosions, etc.) is
downplayed quite a bit - diminishing the overall sensibility and impact of the episode's
numerous action sequences. A big mistake in my book.
The show is well-designed, and the series' over-all ambiance (atmosphere, design,
technology, etc.) is effective - despite competition with juvenile scripting and an occasionally
horrendous score which sounds like video game background music (I am told the score is wildly
variable throughout the episodes - and can sometimes be rather good).
The particular episode I saw felt a bit childish (although the essence of it's story was good:
the Roughnecks have to capture, wrangle, and bring back a baby Plasma Bug for research.
There's a cool little Wages of Fear / Sorcerer pseudo-homage as the troops try to
drive their platform truck across a marginal bridge, hauling unstable Plasma Bug as they go).
Despite my criticism of this particular episode being slightly more juvenile than I would have
liked, I am assured that...over the course of the series...Roughnecks will see some of its
main characters killed, and head into more mature territory from time to time.
So there you have it. It's geeky fun - I would have died for
this series when I was a kid. Go watch it...decide for youselves...and come back to COAXIAL on
Monday when I'll open the "Reader reaction: Roughnecks" TALKBACK.
Good luck - and enjoy!!!
Glen
If you send a message to the above address & bounces back to you,
address!
Or call:
(512) 347-1992
Mail can be sent to:
Glen Oliver
P.O. BOX 160812
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
P.O. BOX 160812
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
Austin, TX 78716-0812
USA
USA
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ysssssessss
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What a cosmic joke. Papa H is either spinning in his shroud or having a huge laugh, I can't tell which.
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I checked both of the links provided and maybe I'm dim or something but neither place is listing this series as coimng out. What's up with that?
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Ummmm - well - it's listed on the SciFi Channel schedule bot at 7:30am on every weekday starting this Friday Aug 27. It's there, I just checked again. If you go to the TV LISTINGS section of the TV GUIDE web site...look at the sidebar for the prompt which reads "Search for a program" (or something like that)...you'll find a listing for ROUNGNECKS in your area (you'll be asked to put in your zip code, etc.)**Glen**
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"Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles" will air at 6am and 2:30pm daily on UPN Ch. 13 starting Monday Aug 30. In the afternoons, it will replace ROBOCOP - one of my son's favorites so I'll never hear the end of it. It WILL, however, lead into POWER RANGERS - his ultra-favorite. So maybe there's hope...**Glen**
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Maybe the Voltron show sucks, but the CGI from Mainframe's Beast Wars, War Planets, and Reboot, are all fantastic. I've seen the stills here and the demo reel at a convention and I didn't think they were better than Mainframe. But it's dumb to pass judgement now, it sounds good and if it is on the Sci-Fi channel, I'll get a way better reception for it than I do for Mainfraime shows. Only WB carries them in my area, and WB is the worst reception I get. If only WGN would repeat the episodes like with Buffy. At least that won't be the drawback with Troopers/Roughnecks. Why did they rename that anyway? Roughnecks...hmmm.
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Well dang! Sorry son of Glen. For what it's worth, there was another animated Robocop long ago, and a live TV show even. Forget Travolta and the Terminator, Robocop is the comeback king.
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If anyone knows when this is going to be on up north, lemme know. Of course, we always get screwed over and never get the good shows until later ( still waiting for G vs. E to debut up here).
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Just checked the Sci Fi Channel website. There does not seem to be two feeds (one for the east & one for the west). It is listed as coming on at 4:30am in the Pacific Time Zone. Get up early or go to bed late or set your VCR, cause that is the only way you will see this. Also, TV Guide's website does not find any matches on "Roughnecks" or "Starship Troopers". Any ideas on syndication for L.A. area?
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Someone wrote: "Also, TV Guide's website does not find any matches on "Roughnecks" or "Starship Troopers". GLEN HERE: It **is indeed** on the TV Guide web site. I've called it up twice today, and found it listed all next week in my area. Go to http://www.tvguide.com. Select "TV listings"...then put your zip code in...then click "search listings" prompt once you get the current schedule grid (the search listings prompt is to the left hand side of your screen). Then, type in "Roughnecks", and it'll call up the scheduling for the show in your area. IT IS ON TV GUIDE WEB SITE. If you can't find it, the show is either not on in your area - or you're not using the TV GUIDE site correctly.**Glen**
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Channel 11 WPIX will be showing it weekdays at 6am. Sigh. Guess my vcr will be getting a workout.
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The name Rougnecks came from the book by Heinlen. Razjacks Roughnecks (i think it's spelled right) was the unit that Casper Van Dien (the star of the movie) was in.
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any idea at all? I love CGI animated series (advantage: Canadians get Beasties, Reboot and Shadow Radiers before Americans) and I've been looking forward to ST:Troopers (though "Roughnecks" title sounds kinda pointless) Hell, anything can be better than Voltron or Donkey Kong!
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Try Yahoo..
http://tv.yahoo.com/yahoo/listings/searchresults.dpg?searchType=T&view=grid&daypart=Today&searchPlus=0&searchOperator=And&keywords=Roughnecks+Starship+Troopers&day=All
(adjust as neccessary for your area, but it should also catch whatever syndication runs there are) -
KVC 13, 6:00 am and 2:30 pm weekdays.
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Channel 20, WDCA, UPN
Weekday mornings at 7:30am
That's the same timeslot as Sci-Fi Channel, but it won't start until Monday 8/30. Make sure you catch the first one from Sci-Fi on Friday. -
I'm curious. Besides the fact that it's Voltron, the biggest problem with the Voltron CGI are the jerks and extra movement's given to give the characters a natural sense. The Mainframe product- ReBoot and Beastwars- rocked from the start, though the Fox promos for Beast Machines, complete with rococo redesigns of the Maximals and that crap theme song have me worried about the show's future.
I'm mostly interested to see how the show deals with its source material. If anyone has looked at the Dark Horse trooper books, they purposely added back history to make the Bugs the original invaders, making the Facist Earth less reprehensible. (In the movie, they wanted to expand, so they expanded. In the book, war was what they did, so they did it, in both cases without one instant thinking of alternative solutions.) Will the series soft pedal the books views, or ignore them completely? Will it pick up the subversive media bits Verhoeven used in Robocop and Troopers? Probably it will be a bug blasting fest and ignore as many issues it can, but I'm willing to give it a chance. -
All I can do is hope that this series won't be as utterly STUPID and pointless and full of BAD acting/writing/talent/military strategy that the movie was.
The movie SUCKED. -
I found some info for all of us Canucks in here, or at least all of us Canucks living in Toronto. Jam! TV listings tells me that Roughnecks will start Monday, August 30 on WUTV(the Fox station on Rogers in Toronto). However, it's airtime here is 5:00am! Make sure those VCRs are workin'.
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Telstar 5 Transponder 7 M-f at 6:30am Central time.
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There's no syndicated info there, but a website exists...
http://www.siconrecruit.com -
The Starship Troopers movie rocked! It can be watched and enjoyed on so many levels. Depending on your mood it can be a simple gung-ho action adventure, a satire on the dangers of fascism or inversely a strange kind of endorsement of a totalitarian society. It is so loaded with detail and fascinating images that I see something new each time I watch it. It is an ultimate science-fiction flick and not the crock of shite some seem to believe.
Anyway, the CGI show seems to bare little resemblance to the book or the film but I plan to give it a chance. There's too much cool stuff in the concept of ST for them not to hit the target here and there. -
I don't know what set of episodes you all in America are on for Beasties, but if you're talking about the robots having a half-robot half-animal design, don't worry, it kicks ass. They also have some amazing episodes too (I don't know if you guys have seen the one where they travel back in time to the ORIGINAL Autobots Ark and stuff. If you have seen it already, then I am very misinformed. If you haven't seen it, trust me, its great) and I REALLY gotta set me VCR for 5:30 to watch it? Oy Vey!
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We get our Beast Wars. We've seen 'em all. In fact, it looks like it's gonna end its syndicated run in a few weeks.
They'll be reaired on FOX Kids weekdays with the new Beast Machines on Saturdays.
If you'd like to see images from Beast Machines, go to www.bwtf.com.
I know the Beast Machine models are a departure, but we'll get used to them. We got used to three years on constantly changing designs already. Kids will love to play with ugly toys.
On a side note, the entire Beast Wars series takes place before the events of Generation One.
They didn't travel back in time mid-season or for a single episode.
The entire three years takes place on an ancient Earth. -
Starship Troopers is an anagram of Piss-poor E.T. Trash (R)
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Friday at 6:30 Central and 7:30 Central is Roswell Conspiricies. It says that Monday 8/30 at 6:30 Central is Roughnecks, though.
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Ugh.
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Saw about 20 min, of "Roughnecks" this morning. Not bad as cartoon scripts go, and the CGI was excellent. I was really impressed by the expressions etc. on the characters, they were about as good as I've ever seen on CGI people! The whole look and feel of the show kind of reminded me of "Space: Above & Beyond" if any of you out there are SAaB fans...
(I did notice that one character's arm was bitten off by a bug, he didn't seem too put out by it - he has a prosthesis? I don't know the characters...) -
Yes, Lt. Rajek has a prostethic arm. We've already seen it damaged twice - apparently they
don't build 'em with pain sensation.
In Heinlein's novel several veterans made it a point to show
off their prosthetic arms or legs to underscore the commitment serving in the army might entail.
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