Are you on the Global Frequency?

[Emperor_Norton_II]

Once upon a time, there was a comic book by the name of Global Frequency. This comic lasted 12 issues - by design, mind you - and recieved a fair amount of critical praise from the small number of people (like me) who think that comics are a valid form of literature. The premise was fairly simple: A sort-of-secret agency called the Global Frequency, consisting of 1,001 specialists scattered around the planet, busts their asses to protect humanity from natural disasters and the rubbish left behind after 50 years of lunatic Cold War one-upsmanship. Global Frequency's central conceit was that - in a medium dominated by the superhuman - the world was saved by otherwise ordinary people. Well, if you discount the ex-sp00ks. And the magician who may-or-may-not actually be Crowley. Or the cyborg. But whatever.

Anyway, Global Frequency got optioned as a TV series, and it was slated to go on the WB. This would be back when the WB was still engaged in making dramas like Buffy & Angel. They shot the pilot, but about midway through production the WB changed management, and The New Pointy-Hairs decided that instead of this edgy sci-fantasy Joss Whedon shit, the Viewers wanted five trillion clones of Dawson's Creek and Gilmore Girls. So, GF got ye Axe before it ever even got a single showing on network television. Teh suck.

Until very recently, when some brave soul out there in the hell that is Hollywood leaked the pilot. The first and so far only episode - dubbed from middling-quality video tape to mpg - hit the BitTorrent sites, where a casual search could pick it up. Not that I'd suggest that anybody go out and download the pilot for themselves, because that would be, y'know, illegal and stuff. Really.

Stop snickering, dammit.

I scored myself a copy of the pilot - through methods I cannot reveal without putting myself at risk of attack by Jack Valenti's ninjas - and sat down to watch it. Frankly, I loved it. It's a bit rough in spots, but then that's common with TV pilots. The plot basically takes the first issue of the comic, "Bombhead," and runs with it. There's a few minor changes to the original story, mostly in order to set up the recurring cast members, but otherwise it's exactly like the comic in tone and dialogue. All in all, Global Frequency shows signs of being very good television, better than Babylon 5 was in its first season. Possibly as good or better than Battlestar Galactica. Which makes the fact that it wasn't broadcast all the more annoying.

WB executives == fuckheads who live off Teen Angst. Probably write atrocious Mary Sue slash fanfic in their spare time, too.

But the interesting thing here is, the pilot is getting a lot of positive buzz from the internerd. The more people see the leaked tape, the more people want. John Rogers, the executive producer for GF (and also things like The Core and Catwoman, but I don't intend to hold that against him. Much.) has suggested that sufficient public interest might light a fire under studio executives. It's a hell of a long shot, but if there's enough of a fanbase to get Firefly made into a major motion picture, maybe this can work too.

It'd be worth the effort just to knock one more goddamn reality show off the air, I'm telling you now.

For more information on GF, the comic and the slowly growing movement to see more of the TV show, check out the following sites:

Kung Fu Monkey - blog of producer John Rogers
The GF TV fan movement site

Peace out.

[salvorhardin]

1. I saw that!

Without even knowing what it was. An anonymous asynchronous distributed remote backup copy of it appeared on my hard drive one day a couple weeks back, 'cause you know that's just the kind of generous person I am. Making those backups for people free of charge without them even asking or anything.

First of all, I was amazed to see my favorite Star Trek fantasy^h^h^h^h^h^h actress, Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro Laren) as the head of the secret Global Frequency organization. The single most underated actress of the past decade.

Anyway, you're right. It was a little rough around the edges, but this was the pilot and I thought it had considerable room to grow. The characters while edgy were all likeable. Also, the idea of pulling J. Random Character off the streets to help deal with critical plot issues was intriguing to me.

The AADR backup copy I received also had the first issue of the comic with it. This was a nice surprise and an even nicer surprise was that the writers and producers had stayed pretty faithful to the comic.

I'd really like to see more of this show and encourage all sci-fi fans to check it out.