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4400 Discussion Thread

R

Ranger Shoshanah

Regular
Kasidy Yates, freighter captain, delivers another thread from ISN News

Here's another experiment in keeping all the discussion concerning a particular show in one thread.

Ranger
Vorlon (Admin)

4400 Discussion Thread
If your a Deep Space 9 fan then you are going to love this new show from the minds and actors behind that Trek series.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/100704_01.shtml

The show revolves around the concept of 4,400 missing UFO ubductants return to Earth.. all at once. The story partialy shows how these people try to find their way back into modern society, however, knowing the history of the writers we can tell that there is a bigger story behind the initial setup. The 4,400 is a back door mini series pilot the same way that the new Battlestar was for sister channel SFC. So if all goes well the show could turn into a regular series.

The 4400 debuts Sunday night on USA at 9 PM EST.

07-11-2004 12:49 AM



Ranger
Vorlon (Admin)

Okay..

I can tell by the silence that I was one of the only people to watch this first part of the mini eh? I am glad three others saw it in my office. LOL

Anyway...
I liked part one. It did have a bit of a "TAKEN" vibe though. And that could be because one of the leads was from the SFC series. Or that the spooky little girl who knows a lot reminds me of the spooky little girl from "TAKEN". But other than that.. no.. it still reminds me of "TAKEN".

There is also a bit of an "X Files" thing going on here as well. The two investigators give off that Molder and Skully pairing theme. He has a son who is in a coma because of the aliens [not a sister taken by aliens]. And she is cut off from looking at things in a non scientific way [not the disbeliever of everything supernatural]. Despite this shadowing the series has to rely on these familiar characters in order to set up it's mythos.

So what we know so far is that the UFOs took citizens of Earth up into space for the last 60+ years. These people have been returned to Earth in present day by a glowing Orb that blew it's self up after dropping them off. These 4,400 were released back into society with the belief that nothing had been done to them. But now some are exhibiting strange and unexplainable powers. In an effort not to start a panic Homeland Security will watch and monitor the 4,400 for strange activities.

It's an interesting show so far with some nice nods to hard core SF fans.. but it is a mainstream show with heavy sentiments which may turn off some from hanging in for the full ride.

Part two airs this Sunday at 9 PM EST on USA. Repeats and marathons are said to be in the works but I haven't seen anything on that yet.
07-13-2004 11:17 AM



Jean
Vorlon (Moderator)

60+ years ago? During the Second World War, then? Is there any sign that this is going to be relevant?
Are all the 4400 American?
It sounds intriguing, but it will be ages before it gets to a telly near me - sigh!
07-13-2004 02:34 PM



Ranger Shoshanah
Senior Lurker

Not all of the 4400 were kidnapped 60 years ago--most are much younger. But all came back the same age that they were when they left, be it as a little girl or as a middle-aged man.


__________________
When you see what you want, don't be afraid--all love is not unrequited.

"I, for one, prefer to think ...that ["Space, Time, and the Incurable Romantic"] is more of a JMS "What If?" story than part of the series "canon". As far as I'm concerned Marcus stayed in that tube forever, a monument to missed opportunities and to the enduring power of hope." Joseph DeMartino

Sometimes I think that the human heart resists all attempts to suppress wishful--or wistful--thinking.
07-13-2004 05:19 PM
 
I just finally saw the pilot today, and plan on watching the next part tonight.

I sort of agree with the above, that Tom Baldwin and Diana Scouris (which does sound alot like Dana Scully doesn't it?) do have that Mulder/Scully thing goin on.

I never saw "Taken" but I read the book. Thought it was an interesting read, but hard to follow at times, and thought the ending sucked. I can see the girl in The 4400 being like the girl in Taken I suppose, but she is also like any girl in any sci-fi series or movie that has something weird going on with her.

I think that, more than ANYTHING the general plot (thus far) resembles JMS's comic book series "Rising Stars" While I have never read them (I did read his Midnight Nation series and loved it) I was planning on buying them to read them as I have heard great things about it. Rising Stars is basically, 113 people in a small town are struck my some mysterious energy and all develop some special powers as a result and what they become can change the face of the earth. This show VERY much has that feel right now.

I also do not find it a small bit of cooinsidence that when I was looking up as to why Rising Stars was not finished yet, that there was some issue with JMS and Two Cows comics and the Rising Stars movie that was supposed to be started a year or two ago. Read about that in the long quote at the bottom. Did JMS have another one of his ideas hi-jacked or are we too early along to come to that conclusion?

It does also have an obvious "X-Men" feel to it as in some way these people can be considered "mutants" with special powers and a big part of the show is how society will react to them.

Not at all saying that the creaters of this decided to rip off X-Men, Rising Stars, and Taken, but there are definitely similarities in there. I did find it interesting and will watch the rest of the episodes to see if I like it. So far so good though. There is potential for a very good and deep story here if they take it that far.

"Rising Stars" is late. The superhero series by "Babylon 5" writer J Michael Straczynski has not seen an issue released for months. Many presumed lateness on behalf of the writer or artist, but it goes a lot deeper.

For the last few weeks, Lying In The Gutters has been hearing references to issues between J. Michael Straczynski and Top Cow, and that as a result, JMS has held back the scripts to the last three issues of the "Rising Stars" series. Online, all JMS has said publicly is that there were some "issues" that were being worked on.

Here's what's been uncovered.

In 2002, JMS was writing the screenplay for the "Rising Stars" motion picture for MGM and Atlas Entertainment. As usual, the project went through multiple drafts, notes being given and incorporated, until a draft was reached that MGM liked enough to send the producers out to look for directors. JMS declined his oft-taken producer status due to his commitments on the TV series "Jeremiah."

However, again not unusually in the world of film, as JMS continued to deliver scripts for the comic, he heard nothing back from MGM. However, rather than the project simply going dead, I understand he was totally shut out of the process.

According to one comment he made online, JMS only learned about the Russo Brothers (hot newcomers and proteges of Steve Soderbergh) signing on directors and to do a "light rewrite" of the screenplay the same way everybody else did; he read it on comics2film.com.

Apparently it's Writers Guild policy for a new writer on an original project to be brought on to meet with the original writer. Guess what didn't happen.

Now, the Russos were supposed to be doing a very simple polish on the script. But instead they decided to do their own version of the movie, and totally threw out JMS's script.

Again this is not uncommon. What is unexpected is that JMS was never even informed about this. He was still waiting for an expected polish of his script to come in.

Since this was all going through Top Cow's much-trumpeted media exploitation interests, JMS contacted Top Cow many times over the following months to check on the status of the "polish," but was told each time, from the offices of Spike Seldon and Chris Carlyle, that no script had come in yet.

Sources close to JMS suggest that even though he was still delivering comic scripts, he may have started to slow down on delivery a bit, because he was getting a bad feeling about the situation.

He was right, and the whole situation came to a head because of a chance meeting.

According to an email sent from JMS to Top Cow, JMS was returning from Vancouver when he ran into Chuck Roven at the Vancouver Airport. Roven is head of Atlas Entertainment, producers of "Twelve Monkeys" and "Three Kings" and "City of Angels," and the company that will be producing the "Rising Stars" movie. According to the email, JMS asked Roven how the script was coming. Roven told him that the Russo Brothers were working on their third draft, that the first two drafts had been very good, and they were doing a lot of work on the third draft.

So two drafts of the movie, based on JMS's series, had come in, and all the while he was being told by Top Cow that no drafts had ever come in.

The email sent after this, to Top Cow, demanded copies of the scripts at once, but received what JMS believed were delaying tactics. Finally JMS emailed back to say that if he didn't have the scripts in hand within 48 hours, he was going to sever all relationships with Top Cow.

Within 24 hours, the scripts that had supposedly never been there, were couriered to JMS's home.

The new drafts, according to our sources, has nothing to do with JMS's original screenplay. I'm told "the comic was about taking the clichés of comics and turning them upside-down. The new screenplay puts them all right-side up again. The whole thing has just been dumbed down"

The big finale involves the main characters constantly beating each other up with trees. Okay, sounds good, we all like a bit of tree-on-tree action, but not quite in keeping with the tone of the book

So at this point, it looks as if JMS is holding back the last three issues of "Rising Stars" until this situation can be resolved. According to a source close to Jim McLauchlin's office, JMS has asked to meet the Russos (which again was something that was supposed to happen anyway) and to give notes on the screenplay and to be involved creatively in the process.

So far, he believes Top Cow have done none of these things.

JMS has not yet been invited into the process, indeed he believes he has been specifically been cut out by Top Cow management. Many editors there reportedly knew nothing of what was going on until matters came to a head. Rumours are that Top Cow insiders are furious that JMS wants to be involved, and feel they can wait him out.

I also hear that JMS is yet to receive any of the money from any of the merchandising from "Rising Stars," or the novelizations of either "Midnight Nation" or "Rising Stars" and that Top Cow accountants have been asked to look into this.

When contacted for comment on this, JMS replied, "I can't argue with the events as you've described them. That's what happened. Suffice to say that it was a shock and disappointment to find that Top Cow would so deliberately and deceptively cut me out of the process. I mean, it's one thing to lie so blatantly, but another to tell a stupid lie that can be so easily punctured. As for the screenplay, to be fair to the Russos, it's actually closer to the original books in a few places than my draft was, but the rest is a complete disaster, and if it were to go forward as is, I would really have no choice but to totally disassociate myself with the project."

Matt Hawkins of Top Cow replied to the allegations saying, "I wish we had the kind of power in the Hollywood process as stated, but unfortunately we do not. The writing decisions for the 'Rising Stars' movies were ultimately made by the studio. If the 'Rising Stars' comic scripts are being held up specifically because of this, we've only been notified of such recently and only through reading the posts on the Internet. The assertion that we've done nothing to try to remedy this is untrue as we have been talking with the studio and powers that be about how best to fix this and have been trying for months to have a sit down with Joe to discuss the entire situation.

"We've always felt Joe was a spectacular writer and both myself and Jim McLauchlin have been trying very hard to work this out as we would like Joe to create and write new projects for Top Cow. That may seem unlikely at this point, but we continue to hold out hope. We continue to work with Fiona Avery, who was brought to us by Joe, on several projects including a brand new one launching this October called 'Cursed.' We have also done two recent spin-offs on 'Rising Stars' written by Fiona ('Bright' and 'Laurel Darkhaven').

"The idea that 'Top Cow' insiders are furious is insane, there is a great deal of concern over this and we're doing what we can to try and fix the situation."
Click to expand...
 
Obviously not a lot of people on this site are watching this, which I find surprising. I would have figured more of you guys would have checked it out.

Well tonight's episode was "interesting."

I can TOTALLY see an X-Files kinda thing going on now. I also see something else building up. Almost like a Professor X and the X-Men, but its too early to tell.

I think if this show becomes a series it could be very interesting. It could also be very "we have seen this before, its been done." I think if they stick to an overall story "arc" of sorts and keep things moving along with where did the 4400 come from, why are they here, what purpose will they serve, and who sent them it will be very cool. However if the main basis of the show is the two detectives from Homeland Security tracking down weird happenings involving the 4400, then its basically just gonna be another X-Files and not worth the time.

Next week's episode looks to get things back on an overall track so I am anxiously waiting to see it.
 
I just started watching it, and I think it's very good. So far, I've seen only the pilot, but I've taped the next two hour-long eps. I see that all six hours are going to be broadcast in order on August 8th.
 
Splitting hairs here, but it's not from SciFi Channel, it's from USA network (Same Mega-Corporation, but different Management and Programmers)
 
Well that kind of illustrates one of the reasons why I haven't watched this. I don't watch something just because it's scifi, it actually has to peak my interest. Sometimes it seems like people believe they should watch anything scifi to support it and create better ratings.

For me, alien abductions...m-e-h Meh.
 
Ditto. I didn't watch "Taken" and I didn't watch this. It's just not my thing. I think there are very logical reasons some very sane people believe in alien abductions, but I tend to cringe at the sci-fi interpretations of it. Although "Close Encounters" did interest me back when it came out. :D

So did alien abductions, actually, back then. :eek:
 
I like this show despite the fact of "alien abudctions". What I like out it is that no one ever really comes out and uses that term. They are called "Abductees", but no one knows who or why they were taken. As the episodes go on, they are hinting at a reason or pattern for the abductions. I think it is a very character driven show. It is nothing like "Taken" IMHO. Well, except for the little girl. Other than that...'
The show deals with the ramifications of these people being gone and how some of them cannot go back to their former lives.
 
Frankly I think all 3 of you are wrong.

Alien abductions? Not what the show is about. Hell it hasn't been said for sure that these people WERE abducted by aliens. Assumed? Yes, but it hasnt been said. But in any case, that all represented the first 15 minutes of the 2 hour pilot. The rest has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with alien abductions, it has to do with how these people are now different, why they are different, and what they are meant to do.

It is much more like "X-Men" than it is "Taken." Either way it is interesting, but if you didnt watch it because of alien abductions, you jumped to the wrong conclusion.
 
I thought that was what I was saying, the show isnt about alien abductions but about the people themselves. Perhaps I just didnt phrase it correctly.
 
Am I the only who sees a hint of the old aliens-manipulating-the-human-genetic-code theme? This show reminds me of the Vorlons' creation of human telepaths and the subsequent founding of Psi Corps. Whoever did this, alien or not, it's going to have radical implications for human society. What does one do with "mutants?"

This is *old,* folks. For stories of the human creation of "mutants," we need only look to the Jewish legend of the Golem (created to defend the Jews of Prague) and to the story of Frankenstein's monster. Stories of non-human creation of "mutants" go all the way back to Zeus impregnating a human female and begetting Hercules, if I have my Greek mythology correct.

Star Trek: Deep Space 9 spoiler

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A modern version is that of a Celestial Temple "Prophet"/Wormhole being assuming human female form on Earth and becoming the mother of DS9's Benjamin Sisko.
 
Basically, we're faced with 3 questions, which I'll list in order of importance:

What do we do with these people (the Psi Corps/X-Men question)?

Why was this done? Is there a pattern to, a reason for, a plan involved in these genetic changes?

Who or what did this, and how?

Please add any other questions that I missed, &/or add your own thoughts/comments.
 
The hope is, that there is precisely where the mini-series is going, rather than the standard fare of Alien Abduction. Who knows, may not even turn out to be aliens that abducted them, although hard to believe the 4400 returnees go back to the 30s, and none have aged, and are "altered".

I didn't see the third episode, but I saw the 2 hour premiere, and the first 1 hour episode, and it looked like they were more concerned with asking and answering your questions, than showing us Aliens.

It's apparently aiming to go to a weekly series, once the initial 6 episodes are done, if, the ratings support such an action. Not sure they can keep it interesting to stretch it that far though.
 
The real question is whether the creators of the show know whether the 4400 were abducted by aliens or not. I'd like to think the show was sold on more than just a gimmick and that there's a valid, interesting, and understandable reason behind the disappearances & reappearances, whether it's alien abductors or not.

I think I'll be a little annoyed if the writers and producers are making it up as they go along and that they themselves don't know how the 4400 happened. It could go either way. I think the show is made by several Star Trek alums, and they were notorious for making things up as they went along. However, I think The 4400 has the better half of the Star Trek people, so maybe they do know the meaning behind the 4400 and already have a plan for when and how to reveal the mystery. I'll keep on hoping.
 
If they make this show into a series, I'd like to know how long it would last. Plus would the producers want to continue the show after finding out the mystery of the 4400 and would the audience care.
 
I feel the same way. Yes, we found out "where" the 4400 came from and kinda sorta why they were taken, but it's still all very vague.

We got no resolutions on the characters. We didn't get to see the baby be born. We don't know what happened to ?Sean? (the teenager; sorry, not remembering names right now). We don't know what happened to Mia. The purpose of the special powers aren't obvious yet. In fact, I don't remember ever finding out what the special powers were for the black guy and the rich bearded guy.

Talk about being left hanging.

There is some hope, though. Some of the previews referred to the episode as the "finale", not specifying whether it was season finale or series finale. However, there was one particular commercial which ran several times today that specifically said it was a *season* finale. So, there may be a good chance it'll be coming back. If so, maybe we'll get the rest of our character development.
 
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