I'm Sure They're Up To Plan Thirty Or Forty By Now

As someone who appreciates both Science-Fiction and irony, it should be no surprise that I loved the movie Plan 9 From Outer Space, reputed to be the worst movie ever.  Many have pointed out that it's not really the worst  or even the worst by its auteur Ed Wood.  But on the principle of "so bad it's good," it's the best worst movie ever.  Any movie worse than it would - in the words of Enid from Ghost World - be past good and back to bad again.

But I wonder how people reacted to Plan 9 when it first came out.  Would they have appreciated it in the same way?  For one thing, irony appreciation seems to increase with time.  But there's also the matter of our differing perspectives:  I don't know when I first saw it, but it would have been early to mid-eighties.  At that point, we'd already had the Star Wars trilogy, Star Trek was in continuous reruns, and there was at least one epic special effects blockbuster per summer.  With a growing number of Sci-fi options in the popular culture, it's easier to look at a horrendous misstep in the genre and enjoy.

But, if I step into the shoes of my 1950's counterpart, it's hard to laugh.  His Science-Fiction options are limited to literature.  So for him to head down to the local theatre to see one of the few genre movies he'll ever get to see, pays his hard-earned nickel, and sits through the cartoons, news reel, trailers, serials, etc, then see something that could only be appreciated for it's badness, it would have to be a disappointment.

The reason I'm doing mental time travel here is Sharknado, the purposely terrible movie from the American Syfy channel.  It did well enough to warrant a sequel, and even got a limited theatrical release, which is the noblest achievement for a made-for-TV movie.  Many of my geek brethren embraced it, but I couldn't get so excited.  Yes, we may have moved from one SF/comic book blockbuster a year to one a week, and from Star Trek reruns to an entire sci-fi channel.  But those movies and TV shows are getting continually dumbed down, and Syfy is one of the biggest offenders.  So like my 50's geek, I find it hard to appreciate the irony of intentionally bad sci-fi when its swamped by lazy dumb sci-fi movies and reality shows.  So, Syfy, put some money into bringing back more scripted science fiction, and I'll gladly tune in for Night of the Living Sharks.