I'm catching up on this series on DVD. I never watched it on TV. I enjoyed the hell outta the first season. Oddly enough I'm also watching La Femme Nikita season 2 on DVD, so the derivation of Alias is quite obvious, though it has enough of its own style to hold its head up.

I'm season 2 disk 1 right now and I've finally hit an episode that made me think "well that was stupid." Dead Drop features an obscure Asian Space Agency that's launching a spy satellite financed by the evil mwahahaa villian's orgainization. Out of all the normal rockets they could have chosen for an orbital satellite launch - Arianne, Long March, Titan, whatever - they chose to show an obscure Asian launch site with a friggin Saturn V moon rocket!!The most expensive, biggest, and most recognizable non-reusable space vehicle ever invented by man. :freak:

Sydney's mission is to screw with the satellite itself, so she uses a powered loughe(sp?!) to travel the rocket's exhaust channel, climbs a ladder from the exhaust pit to the top of the gantry (as if), and opens a little service door on the outside of the rocket - to mess with a satellite that's probably buried deep inside :freak:. Then with seconds to spare she climbs back down and takes her little 150MPH sled back out the exhaust channel with flames licking at her heels - flames which conventiently stop at the end of the tunnel (rather than roaring into the sky like with real rocket launches) so she can stand there and watch the launch. :rolleyes:

Okay, there have been a lot of daring stunts and wild technology in the series, and I've been happy to play along and enjoy it, but that whole bit was the first time I just sat there shaking my head.

A Saturn V for chrissakes!

Didn't this happen on an episode of Star Trek?

"Assignment Earth"?

I'd imagine the decision to use a Saturn 5 was a practical rather than "scientifically accurate" decision. Between the mock-ups at the Cape and NASA stock footage I'd guess it was the easiest rocket for them to have access to.

I never could get into the TV series of Nikita, I liked the original movie too much. Between "Alias", "Aliens", "The Long Kiss Goodbye", the idea of a gun-toting hottie has been done a lot, but when Ann Parillaud got up from that restaurant table in her little black cocktail dress, pulled out that BIG automatic pistol and started raising serious hell in the original movie, it was seriously novel (and hot).

Alias is serious good fun and decent drama at the same time. I don't for a moment believe this is the way the CIA really works, but I accept it for the show's purposes.

I mean, in reality, Sydney would never have survived the pilot -- Sloane would never have been able to spare her after having her husband-to-be killed. But who cares?

I'm sure the use of the Saturn V was indeed a practical, "get the show on the air" decision, as noted above. They do amazing things with a TV budget -- as far as I know, they've done only one location shoot since the series began (in a Las Vegas casino for the first season). Yet they do a good job of making the audience accept that most episodes have as many exotic locations as a Bond film.

Qapla'

SSB

Wow, that's surprising! They DO do a good job of representing exotic locales.

I've watched a couple after "Dead Drop" this weekend, and it's back to its old relatively-believeable self. Though I see the most characteristic shot of the whole series seems to be Sydney running down a corridor for her life :lol:

That Saturn V - in some shots I could see the seams. It was the Monogram kit :lol:.

Wow, that's surprising! They DO do a good job of representing exotic locales.
Yeah, I believe that in one of the audio commentaries it is mentioned that most everything you see is within 25 miles of the studio, and they get a great deal of mileage out of the Disney backlot. They've even shot interiors using their own staff offices.

Qapla'

SSB

In the classic I SPY they would have an entire season of scripts written and ready to go beforehand, then travel to Hong Kong, Greece, Mexico or wherever and film all the exteriors, and then over the course of the season shoot all the interiors in Hollywood. If you get the dvds and watch the show, they'll be in one location for several episodes and then re-assigned to somewhere else for awhile, etc.