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Title:
Masters Of Science Fiction: The Complete Series: 2-Disc Set
Region:
One
Genre:
Science Fiction Anthology Series
Episodes
– Disc One: “A Clean Escape”, “The Awakening”, “Jerry Was A Man”
Episodes
– Disc Two: “The Discarded”, “Watchbird”, “Little Brother”
Stars:
Judy Davis, Sam Waterson, Terry O’Quinn, Elisabeth Rohm, Anne Heche, Malcolm
McDowell, John Hurt, Brian Dennehy, James Denton, Sean Astin, James Cromwell,
Clifton Collins Jr. and Kimberly Elise
Hosted
By: Professor Stephen Hawking
Writers:
Sam Egan, Michael Petroni, Michael Tolkin, Harlan Ellison, Josh Olson, J.
Michael Straczynski, and Walter Mosley
Based
On Stories By: John Kessel, Howard Fast, Robert A. Heinlein, Harlan Ellison,
Robert Sheckley, and Walter Mosley
Directors:
Mark Rydell, Michael Petroni, Michael Tolkin, Jonathan Frakes, Harold Becker,
and Darnell Martin
Feature
length: 264 minutes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions For The Hearing Impaired
Packaging:
Single Size Two-Disc Keep Case
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Television Broadcast: 2007/DVD Release: 2008
Home
Video Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment and Starz Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: Not Rated
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
For
two seasons on Showtime, Writer/Director Mick Garris brought the fantastic idea
of an anthology series where renowned genre filmmakers directed what would
essentially be a one hour feature film quality production and over the course of
thirteen weeks, viewers could thrill to some intriguing and scary horror
stories. Though the series entitled Masters Of Horror was not renewed by
Showtime for a third season, it came back in a different form on NBC this past
summer of 2008 under the title Fear Itself. Unfortunately not all
thirteen episodes aired on NBC this past summer. It is a shame another cable
network did not pick up the show since over the air “free” broadcast
television is even more constrained at times than basic cable/satellite networks
like SCI FI, TNT, Fear Net, or Spike TV. So what might unofficially be called Masters
Of Horror: Season Three met a
fate similar to a sister series that ABC aired during the summer of 2007. In
both cases, the shows were never allowed to completely air all the episodes
produced and now fans must wait for the eventual DVDs and Blu-ray Discs to
surface. This past August of 2008, Starz Home Entertainment through the Anchor
Bay Entertainment label released Masters Of Science Fiction: The Complete
Series: 2-Disc Set on DVD-Video. Now fans can see all six episodes of the
acclaimed, short lived science fiction anthology series, including the two
episodes that never aired on ABC during the series initial run.
Unlike
Masters Of Horror/Fear Itself, Masters Of Science Fiction was not
so much about feature filmmakers making one-hour theatrical quality movies for
TV, but rather celebrating the Grand Masters of Science Fiction, the Writers
whose names include Harlan Ellison, Robert A. Heinlein and Robert Sheckley among
others have their stories respectfully dramatized for television by feature
filmmakers though unlike Masters Of Horror/Fear Itself, the directors are
not all genre filmmakers though each has an impressive resume in each of their
own right. Hosted by Stephen Hawking, who provides the introduction and closing
voice over for each episode, the series also included a diverse cast of talented
actors and actresses such as Judy Davis, John Hurt, Terry O’Quinn, Sam
Waterson, Brian Dennehy, James Cromwell, Malcolm McDowell, and Clifton Collins
Jr. Screenwriters often involved the inspiring story’s author or noteworthy
writers like J. Michael Straczynski. So
on paper, this sounds like a homerun and as a whole, Masters Of Science
Fiction is a fantastic genre anthology series, but while tackling tough
questions involving “What is human?”, “When does security to defend
freedom impede it?”, “What is justice?”, and “Does a leopard ever change
it’s spots?” among others and often delivering sobering answers, the problem
I think is that for the most part, these questions have been raised before and
dramatized better too.
The
show feels too much like “television” and offers nothing fantastic or jaw
dropping. The New Outer Limits, which originally aired on Showtime and in
syndication before being picked up for an additional season by SCI FI was more
engaging and haunting. In fact since Masters Of Science Fiction never
tries to break new ground in TV genre programming the way Masters Of Horror
did, and thus feels like The New Outer Limits when it should have strived
for more. At least now the episodes can be enjoyed in their entirety, without
commercial interruption and viewers can see the two unaired episodes entitled Watchbird
and Little Brother, which previously had only aired in North America
on the Canada network SPACE. All six episodes look beautiful in their 16
by 9 enhanced (1.78:1) broadcast aspect ratio with a full English Dolby Digital
5.1 Surround Soundtrack and English Closed Captions for the Deaf and Hearing
Impaired. Sadly there are no extra value features regarding any of the episodes
included in this set at all, which is a particular disappointment when one
considers the amount of extra value features included in the original single
episode DVD releases of Masters Of Horror. Surely there must have been
some behind-the-scenes footage and interviews shot. A commentary or two would
have been nice also, but where it counts, Anchor Bay Entertainment and Starz
Home Entertainment has delivered the complete series beautifully and as a
connoisseur of genre entertainment, I’m very happy to it in my personal
collection and you can too. Masters
Of Science Fiction: The Complete Series: 2-Disc Set is available on DVD-Video at
retailers on and offline now.
©
Copyright 2008 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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