Dann Michalski

From the Sci-Fi Channel comes the mini-series Tin Man, a bold new vision of L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Using a steampunk aesthetic, the series envisions a modern adaptation of Baum’s work that takes place several generations after Dorothy Gale first visited. In this tale a waitress named D.G. is transported to a fantastical land called the O.Z., where she discovers that she’s a long lost princess and that her evil sister has overthrown the kingdom and is attempting to plunge it into permanent darkness. Most of the hallmarks of the original story are here (the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Wicked Witch, etc.), but it’s all done with a twist. The cast is led by Zooey Deschanel, Neal McDonough, Kathleen Robertson, Alan Cumming, and Richard Dreyfuss, and they give pretty good performances. Additionally, the set designs and costumes are quite interesting and create a captivating visual style. Yet, there is some over use of green screen effects and CGI creatures. The music however, does an impressive job at brings a sense of wonder and excitement to the series. An incredibly imaginative take on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Tin Man delivers an exciting adventure that’s full of thrills.

An incredibly ill-conceived Saturday morning cartoon show, Return to the Planet of the Apes is atrocious on every level. After the failure of the Planet of the Apes live-action television series the franchise attempted to re-imagine the property as a bizarre mishmash of Boulle’s original novel and select elements from the films. This time three astronauts crash-land on Earth of the future and attempt to protect a human colony from the ape military, which is led by the warmongering Gen. Urko; who’s dedicated to the extermination of mankind. The characters of Dr. Zaius, Zira, and Cornelius are kept, and there are appearances by Nova and Brent (but they’ve been completely rewritten). The Ape society is changed to a high-tech society with cars, buildings, electricity, etc., and the Underground Mutants have also been changed. And while there are some interesting things about this new version of Planet of the Apes, the writing is terrible. The animation is also unbelievably bad, as there’s barely any movement or depth to it, and the coloring is extremely poor. But what damns this show more than anything else, is the appalling voice work; which has no inflection or life to it. Dying a quick death, Return to the Planet of the Apes only lasted 13 episodes…which was 13 too many.

Partly a spin-off, partly a revival, Galactic 1980 is an atrocious sci-fi series that completely bastardizes Battlestar Galactica. Set a generation after the original series, the Colonial Fleet finds Earth but discovers that the Cylons have followed them, so to protect Earth they continue on into open space leading the Cylons away; but secretly a pair of viper pilots are sent back to establish contact with Earth. Initially it starts out as a time travel story with rouge elements of the Fleet going back in Earth’s history to advance technological change in order for Earth to be able to fight off the Cyclons in present day. But that’s quickly dropped and the show becomes about setting up a colony for the Fleet’s children. Lorne Greene returns as Adama, but is relegated to playing lackey to a child genius. And the new leads, Kent McCord and Barry Van Dyke, are awful; they don’t have any charisma or personality. Virtually no time is spent on the Galactica, as the show veers more toward a fish-out-of-water comedy with the Colonials getting into wacky adventures. Fans of the original series won’t even recognize this show and will find nothing to like. An extraordinarily bad attempt to revive Battlestar Galactica, Galactica 1980 is an embarrassment.