Space Rangers

Beowolf666 is thinking of Firefly (http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=serenity), a truly great show and subsequent movie, Serenity.

I do see where Beowolf666 may have gotten the two confused, some characters sound to be very similar, especially the missionary, female second in command, and engineer.

There is also a similarity in the Banshies of Space Rangers and the Reavers of the Firefly universe. After reading the plot summary for Space Rangers, one gets the feeling that Joss Whedon may have been a fan of Space Rangers, or at least the basic idea, which was then refined for Firefly.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen Space Rangers yet, or I'd leave a comment about it. I just wanted to make sure the nice comments Beowolf666 left were attributed to the correct series.

There are some great bones for this but the cinematography and editing are awful. Every few seconds the frame rate slows just slightly in an apparent attempt to be dramatic but it just makes it look like the film was dragging. And the deliberate camera shake is nauseating.

Props are meh and graphics are meg but not unduly so for the year and tech at the time. It's just the lighting and cinematography that makes it nearly unwatchable.

There are some great actors along side some awful ones. And blast it, I know Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is not that bad of an actor but man is he bad in this. I can only hope it was poor direction and script for him.

My cousin is a set designer. He made a lot of the stuff on the show including the ship that they used and he even wrote an alien language for the show that was posted on signs and walls around the base that the rangers live and work out of. I have seen every episode of the show including the ones that never aired. I have even read the scripts for episodes that were never filmed. It is a shame that the show got canceled, it was about to get really good. I really don't know what else to say, IMDb says that my post must have at least ten lines of text, but I read posts all the time that have a lot less. I really don't understand why I have to post at least ten lines here. That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.

Ouch! I was 11 when this show came on and I LOVED it. For years I hadn't been able to find anything about it online. It's on Netflix's instant view service. It's certainly not what I remembered, but fun to watch for the nostalgia. The special effects look like a BAD Windows 95 screen saver... no, that may be being a bit generous, but it was 1993. The intro is 80'serrific, it's got all the characters turning towards the camera, one by one, and smiling while their name flashes underneath and cheesy music playing. I've got to fill 10 lines... which is stupid so I'm going to keep typing. I'm actually watching the show right now as we speak... er... as I type... I just watched the take off sequence, which to be honest was why I loved the show to begin with. I'm going to raise my original score of 5 to a 9 just because of that. How many more lines of text do I need? This is the 14th line on my screen. Weird...

Sure, this series was kind of hokey, and sure, the characters were -- as one of the IMDb comments points out -- rather cartoonish. And there's no denying that the stories were highly derivative; you'll find deliberate echoes of "Star Wars," "Star Trek," "Aliens," and a host of old space operas from the early days of TV.

But that's pretty much the point. I'm old enough to remember those early shows -- "Captain Video," "Captain Midnight, " "Tom Corbett," "Space Patrol" -- and "Space Rangers," when I saw it back in '93, had the same kind of unpretentious charm, along with likable (if thoroughly stereotyped) characters, colorful aliens, and plenty of action. It also had a terrific, pounding opening theme by Hans Zimmer (it is on my iPod even as I write this), as well as the pulchritudinous six-foot-tall Marjorie Monaghan as a pilot (so easy on the eyes) and -- in a brilliant bit of casting -- the diminutive Linda Hunt as the Rangers' commander, possessor of one of the most soothing, intelligent voices in the Solar System.

The fact that the show had an obviously low budget seems somehow appropriate; it gives "Rangers" yet another connection to "Tom Corbett" and its ilk.

I was never a fan of "Star Trek"; it seemed just a bit too slick, smug, and preachy. Sure, it was probably, quote-unquote better than "Space Rangers," but I preferred the latter, and I still remember how surprised and disappointed I was when it was canceled so abruptly.