Nancy's Musings

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...

Babylon 5 was a brilliant show that ran for five years. Unlike most shows (which may get prematurely cancelled), Babylon 5 completed a story arc so well-tied together that it must have been intended substantially from its conception. Although the show has been compared (less than favorably) with Star Trek , it never had the same "a monster a week" logic. It was deeply political, philosophical, romantic, and strategic. Some characters came and went, but all wove well into the larger tapestry. The name of the show is the name of a space station established by Earth to host other species. The captain and other officers of the crew are human, but they interact significantly with ambassadors from the Mimbari, Centauri, Narn, and Vorlon races, as well as many other less impactful groups. Soon a great enemy emerges - one of the old races called the "shadows" - and they have the creepiest looking ships I've ever seen in science fiction. The show would be very differen...

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...

In my experience, conventional (less artsy) movies require either a kiss, or an explosion to be complete. For my approval, explosions need only be large, colorful, and contain interesting debris, or an amusing camera angle. If this is the case, I am very likely to be a wholehearted fan of the entire movie. My fanaticism for Independence Day and The Rundown are both based on the explosions they contain. I am also particularly fond of the explosions in Live Free or Die Hard . I like it more when the explosions are disproportionately large (which they almost always are). Kisses are less amusing, but still require much skill. Anyone who has been the reluctant audience for PDA will understand that not every kiss is worth watching. What makes a kiss unwelcome for the audience? I don't know. I'm just one person. I know that I am most irritated when a kiss is either too cold, or too passionate for the character or relationship (or situation) (I'm a big fan of the appropriate, and...

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 ...