Warehouse 13
Jul. 30th, 2009 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swestrup"Warehouse 13" is a new TV program on the SyFy network in the States. I've now watched the first 4 episodes, and I can see I'm going to have a love/hate relationship with this show.
To start with, I have to admit to some bias, as the show is essentially a rip-off of my idea. My 15 minutes of fame came way back in the mid 80's when I managed to take over the entire Usenet with a project to compile The Contents of a Certain Government Warehouse1. For a number of months it was impossible to go on the Internet without coming across references to the project.
At one point I was even contacted by Steve Jackson Games to produce a Gurps module of the game, but as I was then engaged in starting up Strategy First, I didn't have any time. Not wanting to see the project just wither away (as I knew it would if someone didn't go ahead with it). I sent them all my notes and gave them my blessing to do what they wanted to with it, but I let them know that I wasn't giving up my rights, just letting them do what they want. A few years later, they came out with Warehouse 23 which is not what I would have written, but which is a heck of a lot closer to my vision than the show is.
So, now there's a TV show based on the idea. I have no idea if they negotiated with Steve Jackson for the TV rights, but I'm guessing they didn't. I'm not even sure if Steve Jackson is/was in a position to grant TV rights as our entire agreement was a few loosely worded emails; the sort of thing that lawyers can argue either way for months on end. I've been joking with my friends saying I should sue, since they certainly never contacted me for the rights. I suppose if I lived in the land of litigation, that might even seem like a good idea, but from my current perspective that's just crazy talk.
As far as I can see, the TV series uses roughly zero of my ideas, other than the existence of the warehouse itself, and one can easily argue that that part isn't even original to me, but to the unknown person who first proposed the ending scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Okay, history aside, what do I think of the show? Well, I (naturally) love the idea of the warehouse and where one can go with such an idea. I also like the characters they've introduced so far, and think that the whole thing could really grow on me. Some of their gadgets like the Tesla stunner and the Farnsworth communicator are clearly well thought out and nifty. The 'neutralizing liquid' that they came up with though is just dressed-up magic. Realistically, each episode's maguffin would need to be neutralized in a different way, rather than just having some unexplainable liquid that you can pour over a piece of technology to make it behave. The liquid is just an excuse for the writers not to think. Not happy about that.
In fact, the writers would do well to learn a little more science if they're gonna write an austensibly SF program. So far their 'scientific' explanations for how things work are even less convincing techno-babble than that on Star Trek, and that's saying something. In fact, the pilot and the third episode are far more fantasy than SF in their behaviour. The second episode 'Resonance' is far better and appears to be real SF. If they put in more episodes like that, I'll very much enjoy the series.
So, at this point I'm cautiously optimistic. Its early in the series yet, and so the writers may still be finding their legs. If they start going with interesting SF plots and conspiracy stuff, then I'll keep watching. If they fall over into the realm of magic and monsters of the week, I'll give it a miss.
------
1:That link doesn't point to my final output, but to a file that was substantially altered and added to since I stopped work on the project. Still, its about as close to my original idea of the project as you can currently find on the Internet. I've been meaning to revisit the project for decades, but never got around to it.
To start with, I have to admit to some bias, as the show is essentially a rip-off of my idea. My 15 minutes of fame came way back in the mid 80's when I managed to take over the entire Usenet with a project to compile The Contents of a Certain Government Warehouse1. For a number of months it was impossible to go on the Internet without coming across references to the project.
At one point I was even contacted by Steve Jackson Games to produce a Gurps module of the game, but as I was then engaged in starting up Strategy First, I didn't have any time. Not wanting to see the project just wither away (as I knew it would if someone didn't go ahead with it). I sent them all my notes and gave them my blessing to do what they wanted to with it, but I let them know that I wasn't giving up my rights, just letting them do what they want. A few years later, they came out with Warehouse 23 which is not what I would have written, but which is a heck of a lot closer to my vision than the show is.
So, now there's a TV show based on the idea. I have no idea if they negotiated with Steve Jackson for the TV rights, but I'm guessing they didn't. I'm not even sure if Steve Jackson is/was in a position to grant TV rights as our entire agreement was a few loosely worded emails; the sort of thing that lawyers can argue either way for months on end. I've been joking with my friends saying I should sue, since they certainly never contacted me for the rights. I suppose if I lived in the land of litigation, that might even seem like a good idea, but from my current perspective that's just crazy talk.
As far as I can see, the TV series uses roughly zero of my ideas, other than the existence of the warehouse itself, and one can easily argue that that part isn't even original to me, but to the unknown person who first proposed the ending scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Okay, history aside, what do I think of the show? Well, I (naturally) love the idea of the warehouse and where one can go with such an idea. I also like the characters they've introduced so far, and think that the whole thing could really grow on me. Some of their gadgets like the Tesla stunner and the Farnsworth communicator are clearly well thought out and nifty. The 'neutralizing liquid' that they came up with though is just dressed-up magic. Realistically, each episode's maguffin would need to be neutralized in a different way, rather than just having some unexplainable liquid that you can pour over a piece of technology to make it behave. The liquid is just an excuse for the writers not to think. Not happy about that.
In fact, the writers would do well to learn a little more science if they're gonna write an austensibly SF program. So far their 'scientific' explanations for how things work are even less convincing techno-babble than that on Star Trek, and that's saying something. In fact, the pilot and the third episode are far more fantasy than SF in their behaviour. The second episode 'Resonance' is far better and appears to be real SF. If they put in more episodes like that, I'll very much enjoy the series.
So, at this point I'm cautiously optimistic. Its early in the series yet, and so the writers may still be finding their legs. If they start going with interesting SF plots and conspiracy stuff, then I'll keep watching. If they fall over into the realm of magic and monsters of the week, I'll give it a miss.
------
1:That link doesn't point to my final output, but to a file that was substantially altered and added to since I stopped work on the project. Still, its about as close to my original idea of the project as you can currently find on the Internet. I've been meaning to revisit the project for decades, but never got around to it.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-03 11:37 pm (UTC)Later on, during the middle of the writing process, more or less, SJ finally let me in on the Usenet angle, and sent me floppies containing the entire thread in raw form, with the instructions that I should "mine this for ideas". I spent a long night reading through it, and at that stage it influenced the GURPS book at long last, although really only one distinct idea beyond the premise made the cut in concrete form: the bit about warehouse vermin (I can't remember who posted it) inspired the sidebar on Warehouse rats waging a quiet underfoot war. That's a big impact, though; those rats have featured in every adventure I've ever run using the Warehouse as a setting, including one for the GURPS World Championship Tournament in ... 1997, I think.
To give an idea of how much the left hand wasn't talking to the right, later STILL in the writing process (when the first draft was already in Austin) Scott Haring called me up in a panic asking me if I knew about this Usenet thing and if I ripped it off I was in big trouble! I had to patiently explain to him that, yes, I knew about it because Steve Jackson had mailed it to me on floppies telling me to rip it off :) Steve had taken a while to tell me about the Usenet thread, but he'd apparently neglected entirely to tell poor Scott :(
Of course, finally all the threads came together and the book got out with appropriate credit given ... and if its any consolation, Steve Jackson made it plain to me that it wasn't the book HE would have written, either. But I think that's how books _should_ be ;) (and I'm sure the book you would have written wouldn't have been the Steve version, either).
Anyway, for my own take on Warehouse 13, see the Blue Room ...
- S. John Ross
no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 01:03 am (UTC)And for, that matter, I was never told the book was out, and didn't get a complementary copy of it until years later when I complained about it at some point, so I can attest to the lack of communications.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 01:24 am (UTC)And yeah, SJ Games has always had some good people in there, but consistent communication? Never their strong suit. :)
I was once writing a (different) book for them for a couple of months, pouring my guts into it, before a random phone call revealed to me that the book had been re-assigned to another writer, several weeks before (by a different editor than the one who'd assigned the book to me). Nobody bothered to tell me. Eeeeeeek :(
Anyway, as you can see from my Blue Room post (if you went to see it) I always make sure to give props to the mighty Westrup! Always and forever, dude.
- S. John
no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 03:54 am (UTC)