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Techtite Feature Article! |
"The problem was that as of 1978, there really wasn't much other sci-fi to poke fun at. No Battlestar Galactica. No Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There wasn't even more than one Star Wars movie." ---from the article
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The Top Ten WORST Sci-Fi Series Blunders Of All Time!The List begins with: Quark(NBC, 1977, 8 episodes)  Just
about every Top Ten Worst list has the "so bad it was good" candidate for
number ten. That having been said: allow me to offer my saddest sympathies to the cult following
for Quark...yet even they must confess: it had to
be said. I mean; come on. It lasted eight episodes. It had a laugh track. It
was about a guy who flew in an outer space garbage truck. This was a bad sci-fi concept...though enjoyably so. In any case, it makes
this list
-affectionately- at number 10.To make a long eight episode story short, Quark was a sci-fi parody at its best, and at its worst...well, it was about an outer space garbage truck. If this sounds like six of one and half a dozen of another, you're getting warmer. While mildly amusing as a sci-fi parody, it was outright bad as a series. The giant amoeba thing the Captain keeps as a pet dog. His First Mates, The Double Mint Twins, who are constantly speaking in unison. Chief Engineer Gene/Jean, who talks like a man one minute and a woman the next. Add to all this a saccharine laugh track that made sure that even if you felt like laughing at any of the above, laughing along with the cheap laugh track almost seemed...dirty. The most fascinating aspect of Quark is how, to hear gossip tell the tale, it wasn't originally intended as a Star Wars parody. With its original series pilot first airing on May 7th, 1977, Quark picked up galaxy garbage almost two weeks before Star Wars' first opening day. It wasn't until the whole Star Wars craze demanded all things sci-fi, that Quark was given the go-ahead in 1978, with its first real episode titled, "May the Source Be With You." From then on, the decision was apparently made to make the series a parody, not a garbage-truck sci-fi series. Good idea. However... The problem was that as of 1978, there really wasn't much other sci-fi to poke fun at. No Battlestar Galactica. No Star Trek: The Motion Picture. There wasn't even more than one Star Wars movie. It can be argued that by episode two, all parodies available were done. By episode three, they were done and done. By episode four...well, you get the idea, right? It is fair enough to say that a modern, "re-imagined" Quark might actually sell. There's a whole lot of sci-fi to parody now...as is evident, by the rest of this list! Yet in 1978, there just wasn't enough sci-fi junk for Quark's garbage scow to feed on. As a parody show it might've worked someday . As a show about a space garbage guy...not so much. On to Worst Series, #9: Since When Does Three Equal "Lone"...? ------------------------------- What was your choice for best/worst sci-fi series, ever...? Send your opinions to Techtite's Letters page!
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