Hazy Recollections

I watch a lot of sci-fi for the quest. That is, I watch a lot of sci-fi generally, but there are a lot of shows that I watch only for the Quest. Deathly dull shows like Project UFO, intelligence insulting (yet oddly popular with the masses)shows like Charmed, and mojo losing shark jumpers like latter day Heroes. So I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that I find that a lot of what I've watched over the years has just disappeared from my head.

Take Prey for example. It starred Debra Messing and had something to do with the next stage in human evolution deciding to have a pop at us. That is the sum total of my memory of that show.


I definitely watched it, that much I know, but without a google search I couldn't tell you a thing about who else was in the cast, who created the show, who was on the writing staff or any story specifics. (Although as I'm typing this I am getting a vague hint of something involving a man being set on fire, possibly while standing in the bed of a pick up truck. I could be talking bollocks of course.)

Or Haunted. It starred Mathew Fox as (I think) a Detective, who was able to see ghosts. I distinctly remember two things about this show. The first is that I quite liked it despite something of a critical mauling. The second is that it starred Mathew Fox as a guy who could see ghosts. Again, this is a show I remember liking. I just can't remember why.


Then there are the phantom shows. The shows that I only know exist because I wrote their names down once in a file. Although in many cases I don't remember doing it. For all I know they could have been huge phenomenons at the time of their initial broadcast. Or maybe they were cult hits, shunned by the mainstream and yet having pride of place on the DVD shelf of any self respecting geek. Or maybe they just sank without a trace. Whichever it is, I have no memory of them. They popped up on my radar just long enough for me to enter them in my file and then I promptly forgot about them again.

A recent trawl through an old 'pending' file unearthed an episode list for something called Welcome To Paradox. What is it? When was it made? Who was in it? All good questions. I don't know the answers to any of them but they are good questions.

There are loads of them. Shows like Century City. From what little I've got written down it was fairly short lived. So was it designed as a self contained limited series or was it just a dismal flop? Or what about Something Is Out There. What a title! There was... something. And it was Out There. I bet that show was Arsom.

I've decided that this year is the year I tackle some of these long standing residents in my files. Pull them from the dingy recesses of the condemned squat of 'pending' and into the warm, cosy, warden protected retirement village I call the 'Canceled' file. I could go off and do some research as to what these shows were about, or who was in them. Just to give myself some idea of what I'm about to let myself in for. But come on, what would be the adventure in that, eh?