El Cosmico here, I'm actually in an extreme hurry as I write this, so bear with me. Or don't . Doesn't matter to me.

Anyway, there's a new trailer up at the DUNE website, you can find it at: http://www.scifi.com/dune/events.html, it looks good to me.

That trailer will be showing in about two weeks in theatres. Anyway, I came across a tape, which some of you asked me about because Harry made a few...choice comments about it.

I'm not really even sure where it came from, or quite what it was. On it, about 45 minutes of clips from the upcoming DUNE mini-series. Random clips. In no special order, at least not that I could tell. Harry didn't care for it. Here are my thoughts.

First, the material was unfinished, and in small segments. I'm not sure for what purpose it was made, or which, if any of the scenes were finished.

One of the things you're going to need to do if you're going to enjoy this series is put the Lynch movie out of your mind. Wipe it. Forget it. Don't bring that baggage with you, or you'll be sorry.

Why? Because in spite of the problems with the Lynch film, the LOOK of the Lynch film is distinctive and wonderful, at least in my opinion. So, anything that differs with that look will naturally disturb your mind. Unless you put that Lynch film out of your mind.

A few other things to think about here...Patrick Stewart was Gurney in the Lynch movie. Would YOU want to be the actor put up against Stewart's scenes? It's inevitable, every time you look at the new fellow (forgive me, I don't recall his name), you're going to see and hear echoes of one of the finest actors of our age, Mr. Stewart. Not an easy thing to live up to.

That being said, I think they could have made a better casting choice for Gurney, but the fault, in my opinion, is only half his.

The sets in this series, I still believe, are very interesting, elaborate, in many cases really very well done. I liked a lot of what I saw. I also liked, with a few exceptions, the costume designs.

Many of the characters were well done, but again, they suffer from comparison to their equivalents in the Lynch film. The Baron, of course is one of these, as is the Duchess Atreides, and while William Hurt does a FINE job as the Duke, again, it's inevitable, I hear Prochnow's German accent, and somehow I miss it.

Now, Herbert didn't write the Duke with a German accent. Here, as with so many things, it's a question of expectation. Not of expectation of quality, because there is, I believe, a lot of quality in the scenes that I saw. What I'm talking about is expectation of specific methods of performance and content.

This will be a problem for many viewers, unless they make a sincere effort to watch this mini-series as a work on its own. As a work on its own, I consider the scenes I've seen to be significantly above average television. Good, but not outstanding, and not excellent.

At times, though, I disagreed with the choices being made, the most significant being portrayal of the members of the Guild. To be fair, I don't think anyone could ever have hoped to top the Guild Navigator in Lynch's film. Unfortunately, however, that doesn't excuse the very limited (only a few seconds) portrayal that I saw, which, I must say, I didn't care for at all.

In other words, what I've seen is a mixed bag. Highly mixed. Mixed and mixed and then mixed some more again. After that, it appears that mixture was added. Finally, the whole thing was finished up with a large measure of mixing. Then, it seems that someone snuck in and secretly mixed a bit more.

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, I need to go. I'm pressed for time. I've got shenanigans to be up to. Bourgeois business. I just wanted to answer the emails you folks have been sending me...the frantic ones asking "What was ON THAT TAPE?" Well, folks, lots of stuff was on that tape. Some of it was really good. Some lukewarm. Some bad. I don't know what's going to make the final cut. I do know that even if this show is as mixed as the tape I have, I think it will be worth watching for sci-fi fans. I also know that if you can't get the Lynch film out of your head while watching this, you're asking for trouble. Anyway, go check out the trailer, look at the pictures they have for you there. I'm sure we'll have more on this as we continue to be pulled through this terrible, inevitable, one-way dimension of time.