Nancy's Musings

Softer Sci-fi fans, or closet fans, often find themselves attracted to shows about seeing the dead. There are three recent (within the last five years) shows on that vein, and one more that's partially related. Most recently, the show Medium (based on the "real life" psychic Allison Dubois) features a woman who converses regularly with the dead while she's awake, and has clairvoyant dreams while she sleeps. I picked up Ms. Dubois's book while shelf-reading at the library the other day, and I have to admit, I don't believe for two seconds that she can do what she says she can. I do believe that she might believe it, however. These abilities contradict all the laws of God and common sense, which is why this show is science fiction, and not, for instance, reality TV (which shows, incidentally, also go against all the laws of God and common sense). The draw of this show (besides the escapist fantasy elements) becomes really the relationship between this mother, h...

Lord of the Rings is not Science Fiction. It falls into a cousin category known familiarly as "Fantasy." For some fans, the distinction is bewilderingly impassable, while non-nerds consider the terms interchangeable . They're both right. Some writers have skillfully entwined the two genres, although most writers choose one or the other; an imagined past-like or a futuristic reality. It's more complicated than that, I think, but not a necessary discussion. Most Star Wars fans also like LotR, probably because SW has large elements of fantasy mixed in with the sci-fi. I am awed by Tolkien's epic, but mostly it makes me cry. My other blog will contain a more scholarly interpretation of his fantasy. Here I am simply going to list all the things that make me get all misty. The Elven singing. The ring-taint on Bilbo. Frodo's strength under a burden he did not earn. Isildur's weakness and the unearned self-reproach that it brought to Aragorn and his kin (it remin...

I met the most amazing person today. My mother's visiting teacher invited me to sit in on their conversation, and she's bright. She's cheerful, pretty, intelligent, educated, socially inclined, active, and well-kept. She's single and thirty-six, and she says that her thirties are much better than her twenties were. The light around her was quite contagious. It was a blessing to hear about her perspective. She helped me see something: people who are single have a unique set of experiences. People who do not marry early have opportunities that others might not have. Each experience changes us, and gives us a pool of knowledge which benefits everyone, not only those who live it. To have a complete set of knowledge for society some of us must take the slower path. All of us must take different paths, and then the Lord can use what we know to benefit those around us. Being thirty-plus sounds like fun. It takes someone brilliant to show me that, and to be a kind of example th...

In the late seventies, explorations into the sub-, extra-, or super-natural were carried out by investigative journalists only, such as "Kolchak: Night Stalker" (a show of which I have seen every episode). Crime drama and Occult Investigations gave birth to a new set of shows involving the investigation of what are now called Fringe Sciences (probably coined by the firstborn of that union, The X-Files). "Kolchak: Night Stalker" ended when the writers ran out of monsters. When they had finished with vampires, werewolves, and South American human sacrifice, ghosts, zombies, and all the other conventional evils, the writers could not think of anything else for Kolchak to do. His investigations did not disturb any major political or occult figures (just his boss), and his determination to find and publish the truth did not meet with any significant resistance, and so foundered and sank. With a little scientific advancement, the wreckage could be raised again. "Chro...

Just in case you are wondering, my list of Science Fiction universes goes up to twenty-five items at least. Today's object is Farscape . The hero of the adventures is a young astronaut and physicist named John Crichton who accidentally launches himself into the other end of the universe where he meets aliens. The ruling body at that end of existence are called Peacekeepers, and they are actually quite tyranical and violent. They are also humanoid (well, from our perspective, naturally). He meets some interesting people and makes some interesting shipmates as he attempts to return home. They live as semi-symbiotic parasites on a space-going leviathan named Moya. Most characters have lovely Australian accents with a few exceptions. John speaks with an American accent, as does Dargo (an alien friend). Aeryn (the love interest) sounds British. Thus far, the accents have some historical relevance to their relative positions in the show. This dynamic only holds for shipmates; most peacek...

One of the most popular science fiction shows of the last twenty years is Stargate SG1 . It sprang as a spinnoff of the movie Stargate , but ended up with a fandom all its own and ran for ten strong seasons plus two movies. The first six seasons star Richard Dean Anderson (of MacGuyver fame) as the broody and violent Colonel Jack O'Neil. As the seasons progress, though, he loosens up and becomes one of the most endearing characters. Daniel Jackson backs off from his intense role as romantic lead, and becomes more of the moral compass/spiritual leader. Major Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) remains a fairly static personality, but as she was not a character included in the original movie, she did not have any previous actor portrayals to fight against. She gets bits and pieces of personal life throughout the seasons. Teal'C, a lovely character introduced in the first episodes of season 1, didn't impress me. The actor had little skill or diction, which I found frustrating. ...

I've been building up one doozy of a case of cabin fever for the last week and a half. I can't breathe. My little sister decided this was a great time to pick a fight. She insisted that she couldn't wait for me to watch the last hour of Daniel Deronda; she absolutely had to watch another episode of Eureka RIGHT THEN. Our house simply does not have the bandwidth to support two simultaneous streamings, so we tiffed - rather loudly. In honor of the frustration of trying to get a bipolar teen to be patient or empathetic, this blog is about Eureka. Eureka is set at the present time, and I believe somewhere in Northern California. The story is basically about a marginally street-smart U.S. Marshall who stumbles upon a secret little town populated by the leading technological geniuses. The town is funded by the Department of Defense, and the local company, Global Dynamics, has an entire top-secret section (Section 5) devoted to weapons and defense development. The humor of the sho...

Joss Whedon's Firefly is an interesting balance between Star Wars and Star Trek. Like Star Trek, it is set futuristically and is based entirely on science, but like the Millenium Falcon, Serenity is more like your uncle's chevy than a hospital in space. Only the Alliance (the "North") have crisp, white cruisers. Really, Firefly is a post-Civil War era Western set in space. The captain and central, charismatic figure was a leader for the hypothetical "South," but was betrayed by his own people at the battle of Serenity Valley, where he was forced to surrender. After the war, he and his second in command started smuggling, and taking on passengers to look more legitimate. Once a rebel. . . In Whedon's imagination, like Roddenberry's, humans have expanded to fill the galaxy, but unlike Roddenberry's United Federation of Planets, they have found they are alone. Humans terraformed worlds to the barest minimums and then dumped settlers on them. The c...

The obvious rival for Star Wars is Star Trek. Where Star Wars has elements of adventure, carelessness about technical details, and a basic good vs. evil premise, Star Trek often pulls from an opposite pole. Star Wars has a kind of retro, nostalgic feeling where Star Trek often makes one uncomfortable with its futurism. We can all imagine driving our uncle's 50s chevy in space, but who imagines the sleek and silent running of ships in Gene Roddenberry's world? My father says that he likes Star Trek specifically because it does take place in our own universe and reveals an optimism about the potential of the human race. Rather than evolving a set of charismatic characters and setting them inside a war, Gene Roddenberry instead imagined a situation of exploration. He saw the universe vast, and filled with unbounded curiosity and dedication to adaptation. With technology instead of magic, the crews of the galaxy class starships Enterprise, NCC1701 series, embark into parts unknown....

I am a long-time fan of all things science-fiction. When my students ask me if I've seen a movie, unless I have, my response is usually, "does it have magic or a space battle?" and then they struggle to find some way to catch my interest. Unless it really does have magic or a space battle, it rarely works. I can pretty well promise never to watch Forest Gump . As a brief sidenote, I have deep and varied interests outside of science fiction, but because they rarely intersect with anyone else's or my own, I don't mention them as often. Back to the point. Most people encounter science fiction through the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars. Many people stop there. I do not consider fans of Star Wars to be nearly as nerdy as they think they are, or as the rest of the world seems to think they are. Star Wars is much too popular generally to be strictly in the same culture. Science Fiction fans are accustomed to jokes about programming languages, comparing seven different ...

"Is that what you get for your trouble? You're unlucky, unloved, and unlovable." "I know you'd never give me a second glance." "The Zulus, they had spears and bows and arrows; how you bravely faced each one with your sixteen-pounder gun. . ." "What if I die here?" "Some folks put on armor but the arrows go straight through." ". . .All the departed, dear loved ones of mine." "The man who is in charge of all the money has a large question-mark hanging over him (and his future)." "Something unwanted has entered our existence." "Why did summer go so quickly, was it something that you said?" "It has begun!" "Listening for the sound of guns; listening for the rolling drums, and a man who never comes." "Drag another cliche howling from the vaults." "I have squandered my resistance for a pocket full of mumbles; such are promises." "We'll hold each-o...

I wish I were fishing with my little sister's bra in the bathtub for rubber duckies (sort out THOSE modifiers!). I wish someone would fall in while I was thus fishing. I wish my imaginary friend would be unimaginary just long enough for a good conversation. I wish stationary bicycles grew on trees: pine trees. I wish my life were more Coleridge than Dorothy Parker. I wish Coleridge were more Dorothy Parker. I wish I had Jedi powers rather than my more mundane (and rather rusty) feminine wiles. I wish my potent glare could frighten all of my students into instant honesty. I wish I had my own desk with a weighted tape dispenser. I wish there were a place in academia for hopeless romantics (don't say it. All Romantic Academics are hopeless. Thanks). I wish my elbows would stay smooth and supple. I wish I could use my psychic abilities for something more than figuring out what my little brother has been doing all weekend. I wish pens were edible - or at least flavored. I wish remot...