This is it. The fourth and last of the Masters of Science Fiction Sci Fi series, The Discarded, aired last night on ABC. It starred Brian Dennehy, John Hurt and James Denton in a story of "despised minorities sentenced to drift in the darkness of outer space forever." (From abc.com)
I looked forward to it the most because it's based on a Harlan Ellison short story, and he not only wrote the teleplay but also had a cameo in it as a misfit mutant. Let's just say I wasn't happy with the episode. Ellison's thumbprint was all over it.... but the sometimes tedious dialogue actually detracted from moving the story forward. At times I was so distracted by the hideously deformed mutants that I forgot to listen.
I felt two things: A sudden longing for the Friday nights of long ago when I would plan my life around the X-files. And... number two, which is harder to define, but I miss Harlan Ellison. I read him when I was too young to understand him. At times his breadth of knowledge and his obscure references went over my head, but yet I was still able to sense the passion in his words. He was clearly a man of wit and temper, compassion and lust, and oftentimes pure unadulturated hate. I remember him characterizing himself as a cross between Jiminy Cricket and Zorro.
Maybe it's all too deep, Harlan. People need hit on the head these days. Or right between the eyes. Subtle social commentary disquised in fantasy/science fiction stories doesn't translate well to the masses for The Glass Teat (what you once called television).
Right at the end, though, I got a reward for watching it all the way through. Stephen Hawking recited one of my favorite Eric Hoffer quotes:
"What monstrosities would walk this earth, were some people's faces as unfinished as their minds."
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