It's time for another installment of '99 Rewind, our celebration of the 25th anniversaries of the movies, television and music of 1999. This time, we celebrate distant landscapea show that proved that sci-fi television with farting Muppets could also break your heart.
In 1999, the potential of television beyond soap operas and independent procedurals was becoming more evident, as the debut of The sopranos ushered in an exciting new era for storytelling. However, when it came to telling serialized stories across seasons at a time, genre television was a little further ahead of the mainstream: shows like Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine It spent the '90s executing meaty, multi-episode arcs that piled up novel-like amounts of narrative, demonstrating from the start how powerful the medium could be. And based on that tradition arose distant landscapethe Sci-Fi Channel series (pre-SYFY rebranding) that premiered on March 19, 1999.
When we talk about good science fiction television, we don't talk enough about distant landscape; Its cultural impact has never been recorded at the same level as Battlestar Galactica either black mirror or any number of critically acclaimed sci-fi series. But few shows before or since can match distant landscape when it comes to crazy alien designs, horny-as-hell characters, epic romance, and twists that range from devastating heartbreak to absolute hilarity. Even at the ripe old age of 25, streaming on Peacock, the show still holds up wonderfully.
distant landscape begins with a classic setup: an astronaut (Ben Browder) takes a test flight that takes him and his experimental ship… Actually, the narration in the opening credits of season 1 does a good job of explaining it. let's go to the tape:
My name is John Crichton, an astronaut. A radiation wave hit me and I went through a wormhole. Now I am lost somewhere distant in the universe on a ship, a living ship, full of strange alien life forms. Help me. Listen please. Is there anyone out there who can hear me? I'm being chased… by a crazy military commander. I'm doing everything I can. I'm just looking for a way home.
The way it's written, performed, and recorded highlights this show's twisted approach: Instead of our hero boldly explaining his mission, Crichton's little speech here comes directly from the emergency messages he's sending to an unknown galaxy, after his unexpected arrival. a place far from Earth.
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