Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Infestation: A Sci-Fi Gem on SyFy Channel.
Saturday night, SyFy Channel showed Kyle Rankin's (no relation, darn the luck) new monster-bug movie, Infestation. (Here.) The movie has a lot of fun playing with monster, zombie, and alien invasion movie conventions. But it's far from being an exploitation of science fiction genres. There's good writing with real-live character development and good direction. The movie is also blessed by the lead acting of Chris Marquette and the supporting role played by Ray Wise, as Marquette's dad.
Infestation takes place in the first days after animal-sized bugs have conquered the world. All humans had been instantaneously knocked unconscious only to awaken some days later wrapped in webbing. Marquette's character is part of a small band of humans who try to survive and decide to launch an attack on the bugs' nest, to rescue the girl and blow up the queen.
The plot will probably surprise nobody but the writing might; for instance, when Rankin has Marquette's character talk disappointingly of having fantasized that the end of the world would come some day leaving him and his own beautiful Eve to repopulate the Earth. The reality is not exactly what he'd imagined.
When SyFy shows the movie again, as they no doubt will, give it a look.
-tdr
Infestation takes place in the first days after animal-sized bugs have conquered the world. All humans had been instantaneously knocked unconscious only to awaken some days later wrapped in webbing. Marquette's character is part of a small band of humans who try to survive and decide to launch an attack on the bugs' nest, to rescue the girl and blow up the queen.
The plot will probably surprise nobody but the writing might; for instance, when Rankin has Marquette's character talk disappointingly of having fantasized that the end of the world would come some day leaving him and his own beautiful Eve to repopulate the Earth. The reality is not exactly what he'd imagined.
When SyFy shows the movie again, as they no doubt will, give it a look.
-tdr
Labels: Insects, Movies, Science Fiction
Sunday, June 07, 2009
Terminator Salvation.
It's better than you've heard. The movie is a worthy sequel in the franchise, and certainly better than T3: Judgment Day. T3 was a hopeless movie about fate being in control of us. Terminator Salvation has a more life affirming theme, delivered with lots of cool chases, gun battles, giant robots, and unbelievably realistic computer animation. What's not to like about that?
-tdr
-tdr
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction
Friday, April 03, 2009
First Treasury Secretary From Metaluna.
Could Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner be an alien? Here's Geithner.
And here's Metalunan scientist, Exeter, from the classic 1955 scifi movie, This Island Earth. (Here.)
It's a forehead thing. We report, you decide.
-tdr
And here's Metalunan scientist, Exeter, from the classic 1955 scifi movie, This Island Earth. (Here.)
It's a forehead thing. We report, you decide.
-tdr
Labels: Politics, Science Fiction
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Cylons, Humans, Whatever.
Now that Lost has slipped into nonsensicality and 24 has become a parody of itself, Battlestar Galactica stands alone at the pinnacle of television, notwithstanding last week's episode devoted entirely to exposition. BSG's final season is confounding viewer expectations and opening up entirely new themes. The biggest question now is not why are cylons and humans fighting and who will win, it's just what the hell are the cylons, especially the Final Five.
The scifi website io9 offers this analysis:
My own theory based on the recent episodes is that the Final Five cylons were humans back on "Earth" before they became Cylons. The Final Five invented the resurrection process when they were still humans. They died during the destruction of Earth by the centurion cylons but when they went through resurrection and their minds, their memories, and perhaps even their souls were downloaded into new bodies, they became cylons. The Final Five are, therefore, the consciousnesses of human beings implanted into android bodies.
My preference for the big season finale is that there be a final battle between cylons and humans. Many of the humans we've followed during the series die but resurrect into new android bodies and begin new lives as cylons.
-tdr
The scifi website io9 offers this analysis:
"Some stuff from last week's "No Exit," which could have some bearing on upcoming episodes, cleared up by the show's writers. Humans probably originated on Kobol, then spread to the colonies. Earth was destroyed because the skinjob-style Cylons living there built their own Centurions, who then rose up against them. Cavil is the only "skinjob" model to know the Final Five's identities, because he corrupted the other six models' programming so they'd never speak of the Final Five or search for their identities. (So he had to box D'Anna when she learned the truth, or it would destroy his "house of cards.") The Cylon events summarized by Cavil in "No Exit" may be seen more fully in "The Plan" TV movie.
Now that Adama has agreed to use Cylon technology to repair the cracks in Galactica, he's admitting there's no longer any difference between humans and Cylons, and also that Galactica is in as bad shape as Tyrol says. This will set up a lot of the rest of the series. And there will be more Boomer development coming soon." (Here.)
My own theory based on the recent episodes is that the Final Five cylons were humans back on "Earth" before they became Cylons. The Final Five invented the resurrection process when they were still humans. They died during the destruction of Earth by the centurion cylons but when they went through resurrection and their minds, their memories, and perhaps even their souls were downloaded into new bodies, they became cylons. The Final Five are, therefore, the consciousnesses of human beings implanted into android bodies.
My preference for the big season finale is that there be a final battle between cylons and humans. Many of the humans we've followed during the series die but resurrect into new android bodies and begin new lives as cylons.
-tdr
Labels: Battlestar Gallactica, Science Fiction, TV
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Scifi Channel Movie: Wyvern
Watching Scifi Channel's Saturday night movies is a hit and miss endeavor. Yesterday's airing of Wyvern was a hit. The movie is a classic monster- terrorizing-remote-small-town genre flick. In this case, a dragon from Norse mythology known as a wyvern, and a small town in northern Alaska, called Beaver something or other. Beaver Creek, Beaver Falls, whatever. The choice of name gives the producers the chance to name the town's restaurant, run by the local beauty, The Beaver Pelt. Enough said about that.
So, anyway, the movie gets off to a good start in setting the scene with some coy references to Northern Exposure. The cast includes some actors from that TV show, who play variations on their roles from the series. The town doctor, not played by the actor from Northern Exposure, is very clearly based on the big-city doctor in the series.
The movie does the monster genre things right. The computer graphics are very good and the plot pushes all the right buttons: monster suddenly appears, vague sightings, animals and people getting killed off, the monster revealed, the town isolated and under siege, the townsfolk trapped in a restaurant, the humans fight back, loved ones die, the hero resolves his conflict, and victory. Think Tremors.
Wyvern also does some non-genre things right. The film is written by the award winning Jason Borque, who has a solid career making documentaries, television shows and movies, and feature films. (Here.) His script show literary talent.
In the story, the wyvern is unleashed on the world when human-caused global warming melts a glacier in which the dragon had been trapped by Odin millenia ago. The wyvern's release is a direct result of humanity's greed and arrogance, which causes people to do what they want regardless of the consequences.
Meanwhile, the movie's hero is a guilt-ridden big rig trucker who blames himself for the death of his brother. His brother has died in a truck accident that happened when the ice melted and the truck fell into the water. The hero was driving the truck and couldn't save his brother. The hero blames himself for this brother's death because his own greed and arrogance caused him to take the job and push on down the highway, even though he didn't need the money and he knew the ice road was at risk.
Resolution comes in the movie when the hero faces down his guilt and lures the dragon into a final conflict that directly parallels the accident that killed the hero's brother. It gives nothing away to say that the hero saves the day, atones for his sin, and gets the small-town girl.
When Scifi Channel repeats Wyvern, as it inevitably will, check it out. It's worth the time. And if you need another reason, it's the final movie with actor Don S. Davis of TV's Stargate. Davis passed on unexpectedly last year. (Here.)
-tdr
So, anyway, the movie gets off to a good start in setting the scene with some coy references to Northern Exposure. The cast includes some actors from that TV show, who play variations on their roles from the series. The town doctor, not played by the actor from Northern Exposure, is very clearly based on the big-city doctor in the series.
The movie does the monster genre things right. The computer graphics are very good and the plot pushes all the right buttons: monster suddenly appears, vague sightings, animals and people getting killed off, the monster revealed, the town isolated and under siege, the townsfolk trapped in a restaurant, the humans fight back, loved ones die, the hero resolves his conflict, and victory. Think Tremors.
Wyvern also does some non-genre things right. The film is written by the award winning Jason Borque, who has a solid career making documentaries, television shows and movies, and feature films. (Here.) His script show literary talent.
In the story, the wyvern is unleashed on the world when human-caused global warming melts a glacier in which the dragon had been trapped by Odin millenia ago. The wyvern's release is a direct result of humanity's greed and arrogance, which causes people to do what they want regardless of the consequences.
Meanwhile, the movie's hero is a guilt-ridden big rig trucker who blames himself for the death of his brother. His brother has died in a truck accident that happened when the ice melted and the truck fell into the water. The hero was driving the truck and couldn't save his brother. The hero blames himself for this brother's death because his own greed and arrogance caused him to take the job and push on down the highway, even though he didn't need the money and he knew the ice road was at risk.
Resolution comes in the movie when the hero faces down his guilt and lures the dragon into a final conflict that directly parallels the accident that killed the hero's brother. It gives nothing away to say that the hero saves the day, atones for his sin, and gets the small-town girl.
When Scifi Channel repeats Wyvern, as it inevitably will, check it out. It's worth the time. And if you need another reason, it's the final movie with actor Don S. Davis of TV's Stargate. Davis passed on unexpectedly last year. (Here.)
-tdr
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction, TV
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
A True Double Planet System.
What-if speculation is at the heart of science fiction. For instance, look at this 1613 map of the moon drawn by English astronomer, Thomas Harriot. 
(Credit Lord Egremont and the Royal Astronomical Society here.) The Moon looks like it has Earth-like features. What if it did? What if our closest neighbor in space were a planet similar to ours, with breathable atmosphere, an ocean, a continent and islands? What difference would that have made to our history?
-tdr
(Credit Lord Egremont and the Royal Astronomical Society here.) The Moon looks like it has Earth-like features. What if it did? What if our closest neighbor in space were a planet similar to ours, with breathable atmosphere, an ocean, a continent and islands? What difference would that have made to our history?-tdr
Labels: Astronomy, Science Fiction, Society
Friday, January 23, 2009
Fanboy Alert!
Cowboy Bebop is my favorite anime series. (Here.) The series is set in a near future Solar System where Earth has been devastated by a terrible accident and humans live throughout the Solar System. The series follows the adventures of several down on their luck bounty hunters who travel the system in their spaceship taking work where they can get it. The show is like film noir and scifi all held together by a great musical score.
Plans are afoot to do a live-action movie based on the series. Keanu Reeves is slated to play the lead bounty hunter, Spike. (Here.) Reeves has found his niche as actor in scifi, fantasy, and horror movies. I have to admit, if I were an actor, I'd want his career. I didn't see who else is in the cast, but I'd have Ron Perlman play Jet Black and Charlize Theron (with her Aeon Flux dark hair) play Faye Valentine. The androgynous kid, Edward, I'm not sure.
There's only one other anime that I'd like to see made into a live action movie: Vampire Hunter D. Its blend of horror and magic in a post-apocalyptic Earth is compelling. It's reminiscent of the best of Jack Vance's fantasy novels in his Dying Earth series. That series of books would be fun to watch as anime.
Two books from Vance's oeuvre that would make good movies include The Dragon Masters and Emphyrio. Of the two, The Dragon Masters is probably the most fun with its story of humans on a distant hardscrabble planet fighting a war against alien invaders. The twist is that humans have genetically modified captive aliens into monstrous warrior-slaves, while the alien invaders use genetically modified humans as slave soldiers. Emphyrio is probably the more thoughtful work. It takes place on a world in which mass manufacturing is outlawed and all production is handmade, which leads, surprisingly, to an oppressive society. The irony is that the artist hero of the story rebels by making duplications.
In other big fanboy news, toys are now becoming available for J. J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie. (Here.) Cool, they are.
-tdr
Plans are afoot to do a live-action movie based on the series. Keanu Reeves is slated to play the lead bounty hunter, Spike. (Here.) Reeves has found his niche as actor in scifi, fantasy, and horror movies. I have to admit, if I were an actor, I'd want his career. I didn't see who else is in the cast, but I'd have Ron Perlman play Jet Black and Charlize Theron (with her Aeon Flux dark hair) play Faye Valentine. The androgynous kid, Edward, I'm not sure.
There's only one other anime that I'd like to see made into a live action movie: Vampire Hunter D. Its blend of horror and magic in a post-apocalyptic Earth is compelling. It's reminiscent of the best of Jack Vance's fantasy novels in his Dying Earth series. That series of books would be fun to watch as anime.
Two books from Vance's oeuvre that would make good movies include The Dragon Masters and Emphyrio. Of the two, The Dragon Masters is probably the most fun with its story of humans on a distant hardscrabble planet fighting a war against alien invaders. The twist is that humans have genetically modified captive aliens into monstrous warrior-slaves, while the alien invaders use genetically modified humans as slave soldiers. Emphyrio is probably the more thoughtful work. It takes place on a world in which mass manufacturing is outlawed and all production is handmade, which leads, surprisingly, to an oppressive society. The irony is that the artist hero of the story rebels by making duplications.
In other big fanboy news, toys are now becoming available for J. J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie. (Here.) Cool, they are.
-tdr
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Praising Cloverfield.
Cloverfield is the most nerve-wracking movie I've seen since The Blair Witch Project. The two movies share more than tension. Like its predecessor, Cloverfield's filming is part of the movie. Whereas in most movies the characters pretend there is no camera, in Cloverfield the camera is part of the movie. It's a clever technique for bringing the audience into the movie and ratcheting up the tension to an almost unbearable level.
Cloverfield's film technique might be contemporary but in one way the movie is a throwback to an earlier era when producers ruled Hollywood. Today is the era of directorial power. Yet, all the buzz about Cloverfield is over the fact that it is J.J. Abrams' new movie. Abrams didn't direct the movie and he didn't write it. He produced it. Of course, Abrams is the producer of the TV show, Lost. On TV directors and writers still take a back seat to producers. Cloverfield is a bit of a TV movie in that regard.
That being said, Cloverfield is directed and written well by Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard, respectively. There are two stories in the movie. There's the plot one expects from a monster movie: puny humans running from the giant monster attacking New York and futilely fighting back. Woven into this plot rather effectively is the development of a love story between two of the survivors. The movie even weaves in a backstory without departing from its unconventional filming technique. The backstory, like the main plot, is told through scenes apparently shot on the camera used by one of the characters. The monster story is exciting and tense but it's the plight, courage, and heart of the characters that make this movie something worthwhile.
-tdr
Cloverfield's film technique might be contemporary but in one way the movie is a throwback to an earlier era when producers ruled Hollywood. Today is the era of directorial power. Yet, all the buzz about Cloverfield is over the fact that it is J.J. Abrams' new movie. Abrams didn't direct the movie and he didn't write it. He produced it. Of course, Abrams is the producer of the TV show, Lost. On TV directors and writers still take a back seat to producers. Cloverfield is a bit of a TV movie in that regard.
That being said, Cloverfield is directed and written well by Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard, respectively. There are two stories in the movie. There's the plot one expects from a monster movie: puny humans running from the giant monster attacking New York and futilely fighting back. Woven into this plot rather effectively is the development of a love story between two of the survivors. The movie even weaves in a backstory without departing from its unconventional filming technique. The backstory, like the main plot, is told through scenes apparently shot on the camera used by one of the characters. The monster story is exciting and tense but it's the plight, courage, and heart of the characters that make this movie something worthwhile.
-tdr
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction
Monday, December 24, 2007
Science Fiction Movies And TV Sounds Quiz
The site, shegoddess.com, has a quiz on sounds heard in classic science fiction movies and television shows. (Here.) I scored 13 correct out of 14 for a score as follows:
-tdr
"Your Score : 93 credits You're an extreme sci-fi geek! You're probably wearing your very own homemade TRON costume right now!"Like there's something wrong with that!
-tdr
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction
Monday, December 10, 2007
The Golden Compass Movie --- More Spiritual Than Not.
The controversial movie, The Golden Compass, opened this weekend and pulled in lots of money from audiences around the country despite calls for a boycott. No fan of boycotts but a fan of bargain matinees, five dollars of the gross, plus 50 cents, came from me.
The movie is controversial because Christian groups have advised parents not to let their kids see the movie due to its supposed anti-Christian message. The Catholic League called for the boycott, claiming the movie is anti-Catholic. The irony is that the movie appears to be developing a theme that rejects materialism and embraces a spiritual basis to human nature.
Perhaps the books on which the movie is based are worth all the fuss, but the movie seems pretty tame. Sure, the totalitarian organization that seeks to rule all the parallel worlds in the multiverse is named "the Magisterium," and Catholics will recognize the term because it is used to describe the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. But that's about as far as the supposed anti-Catholicism goes in the movie. By the way, a more daring choice, and more appropriate to our times, would have been to call the totalitarian organization "the Caliphate."
Certain themes in the movie do seem conventionally opposed to dogma and religious authority. There's a nascent theme developing that favors free inquiry into the truth and opposes authoritarian repression of knowledge. Another theme appears to involve suspicion of elites, who wish to live their lives as they please while telling others who don't know better how to live. These are hardly revolutionary or controversial ideas.
The most interesting idea in the movie involves the spiritual nature of humanity. The movie posits that souls are real and that only humans possess them. The twist is that in the parallel universe of The Golden Compass, a human's soul manifests itself in a spirit animal that accompanies its human everywhere. While a person is a child, the spirit animal changes shape, representing the unfinished nature of the child. Once a person becomes an adult, the spirit animal settles on a form that represents the soul of the person. (Wondering what one's own spirit animal would be if they existed in our universe is part of the fun of seeing this movie.)
These spirit animals are called "daemons," pronounced "demons." It's a bit cheeky to name human souls "demons," but that cheekiness amounts to little more than a finger in the eye to theological conventions and hardly worth the controversy.
What could be controversial is a developing theme that involves the spirit animals. The Magisterium is conducting experiments on children to cut the spiritual link between humans and their daemons. The Magisterium is conducting these experiments in the belief that it is for the children's own good to be freed from their daemons. For those of us who survived the 20th Century and its Communist totalitarian governments that sought to change human nature, destroy religion, and create a "New Soviet Man" this is a powerful theme.
It's ironic that Christian organizations oppose this movie and atheists have come to its defense. For it turns out that the good guys in the movie accept the spiritual nature of human beings and the necessity of humans remaining connected to their souls. The bad guys in the movie want to quarantine the soul and cut the connection between humans and their spiritual nature. If anything, this movie has an anti-secular theme. It will be interesting to see how this theme is developed in the sequels.
-tdr
Republished once to correct final line.
The movie is controversial because Christian groups have advised parents not to let their kids see the movie due to its supposed anti-Christian message. The Catholic League called for the boycott, claiming the movie is anti-Catholic. The irony is that the movie appears to be developing a theme that rejects materialism and embraces a spiritual basis to human nature.
Perhaps the books on which the movie is based are worth all the fuss, but the movie seems pretty tame. Sure, the totalitarian organization that seeks to rule all the parallel worlds in the multiverse is named "the Magisterium," and Catholics will recognize the term because it is used to describe the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. But that's about as far as the supposed anti-Catholicism goes in the movie. By the way, a more daring choice, and more appropriate to our times, would have been to call the totalitarian organization "the Caliphate."
Certain themes in the movie do seem conventionally opposed to dogma and religious authority. There's a nascent theme developing that favors free inquiry into the truth and opposes authoritarian repression of knowledge. Another theme appears to involve suspicion of elites, who wish to live their lives as they please while telling others who don't know better how to live. These are hardly revolutionary or controversial ideas.
The most interesting idea in the movie involves the spiritual nature of humanity. The movie posits that souls are real and that only humans possess them. The twist is that in the parallel universe of The Golden Compass, a human's soul manifests itself in a spirit animal that accompanies its human everywhere. While a person is a child, the spirit animal changes shape, representing the unfinished nature of the child. Once a person becomes an adult, the spirit animal settles on a form that represents the soul of the person. (Wondering what one's own spirit animal would be if they existed in our universe is part of the fun of seeing this movie.)
These spirit animals are called "daemons," pronounced "demons." It's a bit cheeky to name human souls "demons," but that cheekiness amounts to little more than a finger in the eye to theological conventions and hardly worth the controversy.
What could be controversial is a developing theme that involves the spirit animals. The Magisterium is conducting experiments on children to cut the spiritual link between humans and their daemons. The Magisterium is conducting these experiments in the belief that it is for the children's own good to be freed from their daemons. For those of us who survived the 20th Century and its Communist totalitarian governments that sought to change human nature, destroy religion, and create a "New Soviet Man" this is a powerful theme.
It's ironic that Christian organizations oppose this movie and atheists have come to its defense. For it turns out that the good guys in the movie accept the spiritual nature of human beings and the necessity of humans remaining connected to their souls. The bad guys in the movie want to quarantine the soul and cut the connection between humans and their spiritual nature. If anything, this movie has an anti-secular theme. It will be interesting to see how this theme is developed in the sequels.
-tdr
Republished once to correct final line.
Labels: Movies, Religion, Science Fiction
Monday, November 12, 2007
Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse.
I've watched so many zombie movies, I've lost track. It hasn't been a complete waste of time as those movies have taught me something about surviving a zombie attack. Still, I've only got a 67 percent chance of survival, according to this web quiz at justsayhi.com. (Here. I just love the internet. It's so informative.)
One reason my percentage is so low is that I don't have enough canned goods in my house. Apparently what's good for natural disasters is good for supernatural disasters, too. Who knew?
Another reason could be that I still have below average aim. Today was a day off from work so I took my .38 snub-nose revolver to the shooting range and practiced a zombie survival trick, "not in the chest, head shots are best."* The results were not good with about 25 percent head shots on the paper target from less than 10 yards. Fortunately, I've got this.
A killer kitty named Kimba and a Mossberg 500 Persuader.
-tdr
* That "head shots" quote is from a lesson taught to grade-schoolers in the Canadian zombie movie, Fido. More on that later.
One reason my percentage is so low is that I don't have enough canned goods in my house. Apparently what's good for natural disasters is good for supernatural disasters, too. Who knew?
Another reason could be that I still have below average aim. Today was a day off from work so I took my .38 snub-nose revolver to the shooting range and practiced a zombie survival trick, "not in the chest, head shots are best."* The results were not good with about 25 percent head shots on the paper target from less than 10 yards. Fortunately, I've got this.
A killer kitty named Kimba and a Mossberg 500 Persuader.-tdr
* That "head shots" quote is from a lesson taught to grade-schoolers in the Canadian zombie movie, Fido. More on that later.
Labels: Guns, Movies, Science Fiction
Friday, November 09, 2007
YES!!!!!!!
Although 24 has fallen prey to the Hollywood writer's strike, fans of the best little animated scifi show ever made can rejoice. Futurama is coming back!! The straight to DVD movie, Futurama: Bender's Big Score, is slated for release on November 27, 2007. November truly is the month for giving thanks. Pre-orders are available at Foxstore.com. (Here.) A preview is available though Comedy Central's Insider blog. (Here.)
-tdr
-tdr
Labels: Futurama, Science Fiction, TV
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
Check out the Star Trek uniform here. It must be seen to be believed. Given the short lifespan of Enterprise security crewmembers, you'd think the knitter would have chosen a different color uniform.
-tdr
Technorati:
Star Trek, 
knitting.
-tdr
Technorati:
Star Trek, knitting.Labels: Aesthetics, Science Fiction
Monday, January 29, 2007
Just Frackin' Great!
The two most annoying characters on Battlestar Galactica are Lee Adama and Kara Thrace. The show's focus on their self-indulgent relationship is ruining the series. Imagine my dismay when this personality test (here) reveals I'm most like Lee and then Kara (here). Aaaarrgghhh! Better a Cylon than either of those two. Excuse me while I retake the test.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica
Labels: Science Fiction
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Battlemess Galactica
Does anybody watching Battlestar Galactica really care whether Lee and Starbuck get together or whether they remain with their respective spouses? And speaking of Lee Adama, that guy is turning into one big prick, cheating on his wife and messing with Starbuck's head. It's almost a shame he was rescued from drifting in space way back at The Battle of the Resurrection Ship when the BSG producers were still making a superior space opera instead of this pretentious soap opera.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica.
Labels: Science Fiction
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Good News, Everyone!
Futurama is going to be a movie. (Here.) Woohoo!
-tdr
Technorati: Science Fiction, Movies, Animation.
-tdr
Technorati: Science Fiction, Movies, Animation.
Labels: Science Fiction
Monday, October 09, 2006
One Cylon's Terrorist Is Some Human's Freedom Fighter.
Webomatica has a thoughtful take on season three's first episode of Battlestar Galactica. (Here.) Some of it seems off the mark, some is spot on, but all of it is worth reading. He argues that BSG has always been a political show and he welcomes this season's obvious comparison to Iraq. He also argues that the episode has something universal and important to say to viewers, especially American viewers.
BSG has never been a political show about today's society. In the first two seasons the show did use current events for plot and themes but the series has always been about the BSG universe not about Earth in the 21st Century. Whatever similarities there might be between the BSG universe and our own are superficial. For example, the Cylon's sneak attack on the humans is not like 9/11. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were tactical strikes against discreet targets. The Cylon attack on the human planets destroyed many planets and killed billions of people and was the first blow in a genocidal war. The war we fight today is a war between ideologies not a genocidal war.
What has made BSG excellent so far is that the producers have resisted the urge to turn the series into a thinly veiled version of Earth today. There is a whole genre of TV shows that gives viewers stories "ripped from today's headlines" as the advertising puts it. To be blunt about it. Those shows are plain unadulterated crap lacking the creativity to tell original stories and lacking the wisdom to really add much of anything to the debate about whatever issue the producers decided to hijack into their series.
The concern that arises from BSG's third season premiere is that the situation in the series is set up so carefully to match the situation in Iraq. This was a deliberate choice as this review (here) in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer makes plain. A series producer explains their use of the word "insurgency" in the episode:
No doubt it's true that all three situations mentioned by Eick involved an insurgency. The American revolutionaries were insurgents who but for their victory would have been hung as traitors. The Iraqi revanchists are insurgents but they do that little beheading and suicide bombing thing that the American colonists didn't do. And the BSG humans are insurgents too. But beyond that there is little similarity between the three and the situation in BSG is so extreme that it can tell us nothing about the wisdom or not of the bumper sticker adage "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter."
The human situation on New Caprica is probably one of the few situations where the kind of terrorism practiced today might be moral. The humans are fighting for their survival against an enemy embarked on a war of genocide against them. The situation in BSG is so extreme that it probably justifies an eventual genocidal counter-offensive with the goal of killing every Cylon down to the last android. About all the show can tell us about the morality of terror tactics is that when you are one of about 50,000 human survivors fighting android overlords who began a genocidal war by destroying a dozen or so planets and killing billions and billions of other humans, a suicide bombing here and there will not make your just cause unjust. It says nothing about whether terror tactics in a lesser cause turns a just cause into one that is unjust.
All that being said, the series deserves watching. The producers have maintained a high level of quality in the first two seasons and, to give them their due on this issue, there is a lot of room for moral exploration. Besides, the series has way cool spaceships and totally hot androids.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica, Science Fiction, War.
BSG has never been a political show about today's society. In the first two seasons the show did use current events for plot and themes but the series has always been about the BSG universe not about Earth in the 21st Century. Whatever similarities there might be between the BSG universe and our own are superficial. For example, the Cylon's sneak attack on the humans is not like 9/11. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were tactical strikes against discreet targets. The Cylon attack on the human planets destroyed many planets and killed billions of people and was the first blow in a genocidal war. The war we fight today is a war between ideologies not a genocidal war.
What has made BSG excellent so far is that the producers have resisted the urge to turn the series into a thinly veiled version of Earth today. There is a whole genre of TV shows that gives viewers stories "ripped from today's headlines" as the advertising puts it. To be blunt about it. Those shows are plain unadulterated crap lacking the creativity to tell original stories and lacking the wisdom to really add much of anything to the debate about whatever issue the producers decided to hijack into their series.
The concern that arises from BSG's third season premiere is that the situation in the series is set up so carefully to match the situation in Iraq. This was a deliberate choice as this review (here) in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer makes plain. A series producer explains their use of the word "insurgency" in the episode:
"'That's the phrase that we use to apply to all the violence taking place in this part of the world that we're so neck deep in,' co-executive producer David Eick said earlier this week in a conference call. 'It's that old adage: One person's freedom fighter is another person's terrorist. It all depends on what your frame of reference is, and on what side of the ledger you're on.O spare us.
"'The nature of how we interpret the actions of our characters is, for sure, informed by what's going on in Iraq. ... But I think we also relate to these actions in a different way because, ironically, yes, that's the way this country was born too. So what does it really mean to be an insurgent?'"
No doubt it's true that all three situations mentioned by Eick involved an insurgency. The American revolutionaries were insurgents who but for their victory would have been hung as traitors. The Iraqi revanchists are insurgents but they do that little beheading and suicide bombing thing that the American colonists didn't do. And the BSG humans are insurgents too. But beyond that there is little similarity between the three and the situation in BSG is so extreme that it can tell us nothing about the wisdom or not of the bumper sticker adage "one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter."
The human situation on New Caprica is probably one of the few situations where the kind of terrorism practiced today might be moral. The humans are fighting for their survival against an enemy embarked on a war of genocide against them. The situation in BSG is so extreme that it probably justifies an eventual genocidal counter-offensive with the goal of killing every Cylon down to the last android. About all the show can tell us about the morality of terror tactics is that when you are one of about 50,000 human survivors fighting android overlords who began a genocidal war by destroying a dozen or so planets and killing billions and billions of other humans, a suicide bombing here and there will not make your just cause unjust. It says nothing about whether terror tactics in a lesser cause turns a just cause into one that is unjust.
All that being said, the series deserves watching. The producers have maintained a high level of quality in the first two seasons and, to give them their due on this issue, there is a lot of room for moral exploration. Besides, the series has way cool spaceships and totally hot androids.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica, Science Fiction, War.
Labels: Science Fiction
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Battlestar Galactica Finds Earth.
Battlestar Galactica's two hour episode last night struck very close to home. After a year of occupation by their Cylon overlords the human insurgency is now resorting to suicide bombers, blowing up police graduation ceremonies, and targeting civilians. The Cylons are rounding up suspected insurgents, transporting the "detainees" in shackles and canvas hoods, and torturing them in prison while the human puppet president denies it happens.
Hmmmm. Does any of that sound familiar?
BSG, or the best show on TV, as we fans refer to it, has flirted with contemporary wartime events over the past two seasons. This was successful in the past because the writing hinted at current events more than paralelling them. With this new season it looks like the writers may have decided to tell stories "ripped from today's headlines" as those awful unoriginal shows on broadcast television do.
It's too soon to tell from one episode whether the show will turn preachy and convey an overt message about the war. To date the show has avoided that temptation and that's one reason it is so good. Good fiction doesn't preach. Good fiction tells stories that let the viewers or readers come to their own moral conclusions. Time will tell if the writers remain committed to producing good fiction or if they have decided to produce sermons.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica, Science Fiction, war.
Hmmmm. Does any of that sound familiar?
BSG, or the best show on TV, as we fans refer to it, has flirted with contemporary wartime events over the past two seasons. This was successful in the past because the writing hinted at current events more than paralelling them. With this new season it looks like the writers may have decided to tell stories "ripped from today's headlines" as those awful unoriginal shows on broadcast television do.
It's too soon to tell from one episode whether the show will turn preachy and convey an overt message about the war. To date the show has avoided that temptation and that's one reason it is so good. Good fiction doesn't preach. Good fiction tells stories that let the viewers or readers come to their own moral conclusions. Time will tell if the writers remain committed to producing good fiction or if they have decided to produce sermons.
-tdr
Technorati: Battlestar Galactica, Science Fiction, war.
Labels: Science Fiction
Monday, August 21, 2006
AllSpace Mexican Dinner Recap
San Diego members of the Mars Society, the Planetary Society, and the National Space Society got together at Acapulco Restaurant today under the auspices of The Alliance for Space. Over margaritas and tacos, we talked about some of the historic events happening in space today.
For instance, the new definition of planet being debated by astronomers. We liked the planet/pluton proposal and couldn't quite understand what all the fuss was about.
There's also NASA's big news with the selection of SpaceX and Kistler Rocketplane as COTS finalists. We were glad SpaceX got picked. It turns out we all think pretty highly of Elon Musk.
Which of the non-finalists will switch gears and compete for Robert Bigelow's America's Space Prize? Whatever happens, we all agreed we're rooting for San Diego's own SpaceDev to do something in space with their plans to fly a spaceplane using hybrid rockets.
We talked about the plans by the Mars Society to conduct a four-month long mission in the Arctic next summer.
And then we went way out there and started talking abour terraforming the planets. We got to talking about Venus and Mars and how Venus has the gravity we need but Mars has the "better" climate. This got us talking about how much better it would be if Earth's sister planets were located in the Sun's sweet zone for life. By the time dinner was over, we had moved Venus and Mars to the trojan points of Earth's orbit around the sun. Venus especially would be great to have nearby. It's got that gravity that is almost Earth-like, easier for humans to adapt to than Mars would be. Once we decided to move Venus and Mars it seemed a shame to leave Mercury way down there out of reach so close to the Sun. So we thought about moving Mercury and all its minerals too. After all, if you're going to think big, then think BIG. How to do it? That's just an engineering problem!
Join us next month at Killer Pizza From Mars in Escondido. When? Stay tuned at the AllSpace blog (here) or the AllSpace mailgroup (here).
-tdr
For instance, the new definition of planet being debated by astronomers. We liked the planet/pluton proposal and couldn't quite understand what all the fuss was about.
There's also NASA's big news with the selection of SpaceX and Kistler Rocketplane as COTS finalists. We were glad SpaceX got picked. It turns out we all think pretty highly of Elon Musk.
Which of the non-finalists will switch gears and compete for Robert Bigelow's America's Space Prize? Whatever happens, we all agreed we're rooting for San Diego's own SpaceDev to do something in space with their plans to fly a spaceplane using hybrid rockets.
We talked about the plans by the Mars Society to conduct a four-month long mission in the Arctic next summer.
And then we went way out there and started talking abour terraforming the planets. We got to talking about Venus and Mars and how Venus has the gravity we need but Mars has the "better" climate. This got us talking about how much better it would be if Earth's sister planets were located in the Sun's sweet zone for life. By the time dinner was over, we had moved Venus and Mars to the trojan points of Earth's orbit around the sun. Venus especially would be great to have nearby. It's got that gravity that is almost Earth-like, easier for humans to adapt to than Mars would be. Once we decided to move Venus and Mars it seemed a shame to leave Mercury way down there out of reach so close to the Sun. So we thought about moving Mercury and all its minerals too. After all, if you're going to think big, then think BIG. How to do it? That's just an engineering problem!
Join us next month at Killer Pizza From Mars in Escondido. When? Stay tuned at the AllSpace blog (here) or the AllSpace mailgroup (here).
-tdr
Labels: Science Fiction, Space Societies
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Star Trek Characters
Once I took the test and turned out to be Captain Egghead. But that test compared captains of the Enterprise only. The latest test has more characters to choose from and now I'm Will Riker. (Here.) Beats being a red shirt, I suppose.
-tdr
-tdr
Labels: Science Fiction
