‘Techno TV'
New and innovative technology has always been sought after by the so called ‘techno geeks’ but the use of television programs which have a new entertainment value such as the Gadget Show have now more than ever brought this technology to wider audiences.
The earliest show that I can remember which reminds me of this type of programming is the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World but this has now evolved in to series which has more comedic value. This brings a new edge to technology based shows and like Channel Five’s Gadget Show and allows a more family friendly viewing.
The last episode as well as testing the gadgetry for general functionality also brought in the entertainment of pitting the technology through comedic testing to convey the more amusing aspects. For example the new as well as old toy robots including Lego Mindstorms, Robosapien and Robonova were put through a Robot Olympics including races, dance offs and fights. This as well as showing the technological brilliance of robots put across varied, although unlikely real world applications making the expression of the technological wizardry less boring.
Previous episodes have tested mobile phones to destruction by drowning, shooting and blowing them up all in the interest of science. These, although extreme, test the technology in ways we would never dare to test ourselves and provide a WOW factor that previous technologically orientated programs would not.
3 comments:
that's an interesting link to point out, between comedy and tomorrow's world style techno programs
Do you remember robort wars? Or Gamesmaster. Although maybe Gamesmaster was always about entertainment, seeing as the technlogy wasn't really discussed - it was all about the games. Although it did have Patrick Moore in it.
There is an increasing amount of science comedy too.
Robot wars was definetly entertainment using technological wizardry. I remember that some of the robots even gathered a following because they always had a gimmic/stylish mechanism incorporated on their killing machine like the earlier robot flippers on caos and pincers on razer.
There is also Brainiac: Science Abuse on Sky One which always misuses science, sometimes dangerously, because it does something cool.
"always misuses science" - interesting comment...
what would you class as a misuse of science?
(I'm not suggesting you are necessarily wrong to think that, Ben Goldacre for one would agree with you, but there are lots of different reasons why you might think it, and I wanted to know what yours were)
Post a Comment