Superb Series Gathers Dust On Shelf

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Superb series gathers dust on shelf
ABC seems afraid to air science-fiction anthology Wednesday, April 25, 2007 Mark Dawidziak Plain Dealer Television Critic

I have seen the future. Well, at least I've seen what may be the best futuristic anthology series since the glory days of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits."

It's called "Masters of Science Fiction," and it's a stunning collection of grand stories, relevant themes, mesmerizing performances and riveting dialogue. Intrigued? You should be. This is the kind of series that could have been submitted for Rod Serling's approval -- and would have won it.

I've seen all six of the completed episodes, but it's possible you won't get that chance. "Masters of Science Fiction" appears to be stuck in a time warp that's keeping it out of the prime-time universe.

The series was announced last August as a midseason replacement for ABC, but it has yet to be scheduled by the network of "Dancing With the Stars" and "Desperate Housewives." And we're fast running out of weeks for the 2006-07 television season, which comes to a close in late May.

Will we see this brilliant series before the calendar says June? It's unlikely. We're heading into the all-important May sweeps period, when ratings determine what local stations can charge for advertising.

This is not the time for midseason replacements. Those usually come off the bench in January, March or April, so we thought, surely to goodness, we would have seen "Masters of Science Fiction" by now.

During that stretch, however, ABC found spots for such inferior midseason replacements as "Notes from the Underbelly," "October Road," "In Case of Emergency" and "Great American Dream Vote." In almost every one of these sorry cases, the show's IQ and the star's belt size were roughly the same.

How smart and how classy is "Masters of Science Fiction"? The producers secured the services of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking as host and narrator. We're talking Stephen "A Brief History of Time" Hawking, for crying out loud.

The mysteries of cosmology and quantum gravity might be all in a day's work for Hawking, but because he didn't write "A Brief History of Prime Time," the mysteries of network television must seem beyond comprehension to him.

But this isn't at all mysterious to anyone who has observed the depressing trends of youth-obsessed, reality-chasing, thought-avoiding network television. In this era dominated by American idols and dancing stars, "Masters of Science Fiction" is the type of show that represents everything that scares the demographics out of a network executive.


It's brainy. It's literate. It's challenging. It tackles the great issues of our day under the guise of futuristic storytelling. It has no recurring characters, again recalling the greatness of television's landmark fantasy anthologies.

And although it's a visually compelling series, "Masters of Science Fiction" also dares to be talky, allowing two or more great actors to dramatically dance around one another for an hour of intrigue and insight. This is a different kind of dancing with stars.

The stakes aren't which team survives to dance again next week. The stakes being kicked around in these masterful episodes are whether our society will survive - and how.

In short, this is a series that assumes there is intelligent life on the other side of the television screen. It's not that network television doesn't recognize the existence of such intelligent life forms. The broadcast networks simply have been more and more content to see those viewers flee to such cable outposts as FX, HBO and Showtime.

So if there isn't a place for "Masters of Science Fiction" on the ABC schedule, it isn't a case of woe be to ABC. It's more a case of woe be to all of us.

Let me give you some idea of the wonders being withheld from you while ABC makes sure you're getting weekly doses of "Supernanny" and "Wife Swap."

Directed by Mark Rydell ("On Golden Pond," "The Rose"), Nebula Award winner John Kessel's "A Clean Escape" is a futuristic tango between Judy Davis and Sam Waterston. Davis is a psychiatrist. Waterston is her patient, who suffers from short-term memory loss. The payoff is a twist worthy of the best excursions to Serling's "The Twilight Zone."

Starring Aurora native Anne Heche ("Men in Trees") and Malcolm McDowell, "Jerry Was a Man" is Robert A. Heinlein's statement on how humanity is defined. It was adapted and directed by Michael Tolkin ("The Player").

Brian Dennehy and John Hurt are the stars of "The Discarded," based on the short story by Cleveland native Harlan Ellison, whose credits include episodes of ABC's original "The Outer Limits." Ellison, recently named a Science Fiction Grand Master, has a cameo role in the episode, which he adapted with Oscar nominee Josh Olson ("A History of Violence"). It was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played William Riker on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

These are the best of the six, and they are about the three best hours of television I've seen this season. There's also a great deal to recommend "The Awakening," based on Howard Fast's "The General Zapped an Angel" and starring Terry O'Quinn ("Lost"), and "Little Brother," based on a Walter Mosley story and starring Clifton Collins Jr.

The weakest of the six is unquestionably "Watchbird," despite earnest performances by Sean Astin and James Cromwell. It's the most obvious and didactic of the group, getting preachy where the others are provocative. And even "Watchbird" is eminently watchable. That's an incredibly high batting average for an anthology show.

Does "Masters of Science Fiction" have a future? Will we see it in something better than a death-ship time slot (say, Saturday nights in July)?

If ABC executives don't know what to do with this gleaming gem of a series (and it's clear that they don't), they should cut it loose, letting it find a more hospitable home in the television galaxy. There are distant shores where it can land and prosper.