MovieChat Forums > Science Fiction Theatre (1955) Discussion > Reviewer Missing the Point

Reviewer Missing the Point

posted 9 years ago by highwaystar50
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I've been reading the reviews of this series by one person in particular and have come to the conclusion that they have pretty much missed the point of Science Fiction Theatre. One phrase pretty much summed it up on the review of the episode, "Who Is This Man." The phrase was, "It is the old story..." That's the thing...back in 1956 it wasn't an old story. This story, as most all of the others, described cutting edge, for the time, technology or ideas. I suppose this show is lost on most viewers unless, like me, they were very young and impressionable when they saw the show first run. Of course shows and movies like these done with low budgets are going to look dated or hokey by today's standards but I contend that they must be viewed by the standards of the day they were created. In the case of this episode, past life regression was only "dreamed up" during the time frame of Sci Fi Theatre - it was unknown to most viewers. It would be 32 years after this episode first aired that it would actually be used to treat a patient. There was definitely more (pseudo)science than fiction to this one. Viewers and reviewers who were “born yesterday” are not able to view this series with 50’s sensibilities but lack of imagination isn’t any reason to disparage the show either. All IMHO of course.
KS

[–] brooksshows 9 years ago

I agree and think you are absolutely correct. It's difficult, maybe impossible, for someone born in the 90s to understand what it was like in the 50s from a science perspective. Unlike a lot of other shows in the sci-fi genre, this one seemed a little more serious and at least tried to pay homage to real science. And maybe that's why some might have a disillusioned view of the show overall? Science has advanced so much that some of the premises from back then seem sort of silly now. But when the show aired, like you said, much of it was cutting edge science of the time. We didn't know what was out in space, if humans could survive, if mysterious cosmic organisms were out there... all these things were great big unknowns.

What's really most fascinating to me is when I listen to some of our greatest scientific minds of today, speaking on how they became interested in science. Most, if not all, were heavily influenced by this show and others like it.