With projects galore overwhelming my time and leaving this site lacking, I’ve decided to open up a new string of geeky lists. One of the themes of one project has been violence and if we portray violence, do we glorify it? My opinion? Simply, no.

Everyone loves a bit of action and violence. We can all be morally superior, some elitists say wrestling is disgusting for it family friendly contest (more so than boxing, which… is a can of worms in itself) but whether it’s you’re nightly entertainment on the levels of Ian Beale punching Masood or the destruction of Coronation Street to the much loved Die Hard, everyones primal side loves to see the bad guy get a punch in the mouth.

It’s simply the most primal side of justice. So, I’ve decided to look at my favourite action moments and fight scenes. And if you don’t see your favourite, don’t fret. This is only the first of several installments…

It’s a weird collection of scenes, but these… are the most memorable. And hey, I haven’t even made a dent yet! So until part two, tell me what action, fights and general violence you love most.

Since SyFy announced Caprica was coming to an end I’ve read a lot of angry fans being angry fans and blasting the SyFy network for letting this tremendous piece of science fiction fall at the first hurdle. That it was a travesty that a true original SyFy show was being axed and of course, how dare they show Smackdown!

Here’s the thing that pisses me off. When Caprica was airing people found it tedious, slow, it had no direction it was pointless, it was just there to wank out BSG, it smelled and it had no friends. But as soon as it gets axed… it’s a complete turnaround and the stupidity rolls out.

When Caprica started people were uncertain about it. But they gave it a chance. And as it went on it seemed that a lot of those people stopped caring. Whether it be the storytellng, the pace, the lack of direction, too much time in the V world or just plain pissing over the work put into the Cylons in BSG. It seemed that there was a whole world of crap to complain about.

Aside from Allesadra Torresani who is just plain hot. Everyone loves her. The show? Well… no one liked Caprica. Not really. The majority tolerated it, they found it bearable at best and a lot of those people turned off.

What does this tell me? No one cares about Caprica. Look at the numbers and the reviews from fans. It’s not a good show. It’s not worth investing in. It’s just not working. People accepted this, people agreed with this, people even said they didn’t think it would make a second season and a good few people were happy with that.

But it seems, once the network agreed with them – that network became the enemy.

It’s been a target for a while, particularly when they opted to include non-genre shows and change from Sci-Fi, to SyFy. But why shouldn’t they? It’s a business and their business wasn’t reaching it’s full potential. Why does Smackdown get on SyFy? Because it gets ratings that SGU and Caprica doesn’t. It’s had better ratings that the much loved Battlestar Galactica. It’s bringing a fresh audience to a channel that was struggling. Oh, and more Americans know who Undertaker is than they do Joseph Adama.

People are complaining that SyFy is abandoning it’s genre shows. It’s genre isn’t the problem. It’s quality is.

SyFy shouldn’t be blasted for doing whats right. They shouldn’t be critising a show no one liked (and those who suddenly think its a loss when it’s been axed, pathetic response) getting throw aside. They shouldn’t critisise a show that gets higher ratings because they believe they’re better than it (the previous bracketted comment proves otherwise). If anything, they should support their genre.

That doesn’t mean watch SGU and ask for another season. SGU is shit. It means wait, be patient. SyFy won’t survive by milking Battelstar (yay! look! Blood and Chrome, thats Adama, that’ll sell!!) or the long-dead Stargate franchise (and thats coming from a fan). They need to look at new ideas, fresh concepts, new beginnings… instead of looking for the next big thing instead of hoping to cling on to the fans of a popular show.

And those of you who are complaining about SyFy axing Caprica, and praying they don’t axe SGU, Captain Kirk has a message for you.

“There’s this phenomenon of fans who become very proprietary, not just about the objects of their fannish-ness, but also their status in the fandom,” she says. “They always want to be the one who had the inside story, the inside contact, the latest cutting edge stuff about the show or the actors. There’s almost a need to be an object of famousness themselves.”

For those who have read my previous Finnish-inspired Fandom posts, which generated some hate from the types of people the quote above refers to, I thought I’d share an interesting article from AfterElton.com by Brent Hartinger. Click here to read the full piece

Heading back to the world of science fiction before returning with the comedy run (mainly because I made a shitload of notes and haven’t went through them yet) my Enterprise mini-rant inspired me to look towards the leaders in sci fi. The men who are often the central focus of the show, the decision makers and the men who sit in the big chair (if they get a chair) making all the tough choices.

Oh yes, the captains. Thinking of Enterprise and how Captain Archer seemed weak, uninspiring and so downplayed that he bored my super-sexy Batman pants of me, I began to think of all those characters which were truly captivating through the writing, the performance and transitioned from being mere characters on a screen, to men of legend.

It’s a tough choice. But much like Marty Michael’s Top Ten Sci Fi Heroes these choices are based on my view (as always really, my site and all that) and oddly, we have two of the same men in the list. Enough babble. Kicking off with number five…

Kicking off at number five, we have…

Most importantly, the reason he’s on a non SW fans list is that he’s portrayed by Indiana Jones himself; Harrison Ford. Unlike Mark Hamil, Ford was cool. so cool that he outshines Luke Skywalker in every way and became the icon for all the young men who wanted to be just like him.

He’s also got a big hairy man slave.

Mal Reynolds is captain of the Serenity, an old cargo ship with a crew desperate enough to work for him as they live out a life of crime, struggling to survive as they live outside the controlling government. Mal once tried to fight that government in civil war and found himself on the losing side in a battle which he’s not overly bitter about, his side lost and he’s keeping out of their way. There’s no great plan, or mission of morals with Mal. Nor is there any malice in any crime he commits. He’s just a man trying to get by.

He’s not all about robbing and shooting people either. He’s somewhat of a nice guy which showed when he defended a brothel against an angry sheriff type for little reward, helped an Alliance captain against Reavers and helped an old war buddy when he found himself in peril. When it comes to the Serenity spin off movie he shows some more kindness when he realises he can’t turn his back on troubled young River, the sister of his ships doctor which again finds him up against the Alliance once again as an Agent tracks River down for knowing too much.

It helps that he’s portrayed by Nathan Fillion, who not only has wonderful comedic timing that works incredibly well with a Joss Whedon project, but he has a wonderful presence that makes him watchable in any role.

Out of all the Next Gen era of Trek captains, Sisko had a lot more going on. From his initial struggles to calm the people of Bajor when he takes command of their only outpost after they were occupied by Cardassia, to his reluctance to accept the role as their Emmisary to the Prophets due to obvious conflicts it causes with his government, to raising Jake in an unsafe enviroment and eventually heading to war with the Dominion, Sisko seemed to have a lot on his plate in comparison to other captains who pretty much had no social life. Yet Sisko carries on, makes friends and enemies and at times, controversial decisions.

Far away from the comfortable bridge of Captain Picards Enterprise and the bizarre calm office of Captain Janeways lost Voyager, Sisko seems to grow and change through the seasons, gaining a more commending presence over his crew through the war, breaking the rules and creating situations to bring in allies and even putting his own girlfriend in prison when she aids a terrorist group.

Lets look at Picards evolution through seven years of the Next Generation; Cup o’ tea, cup o’ tea, almost got shagged, cup o’ tea.

Exactly.

When the colonies were attacked and the fleet collapsed, Adama found himself on the last known Battlestar left and with the forced advice of the new president, did a runner with the remaining civilians before leading them on a quest to find the mythical 13th tribe, colonists who left centuries past for a planet called Earth.

This role couldn’t be played by anyone but the acting powerhouse that is Edward James Olmos. Through the four years of BSG we saw Adama’s highs and lows. Not just the public figure who was a strong leader, but the man who would break down and cry when things got tough, who struggled to maintain a relationship with his only surviving son, protect his dead sons ex fiancee and struggle to do the right thing. Often making bad choices and finding himself on the verge of giving up.

Adama’s faith was tested more than most in sci fi and two of his greatest moments showed a truly loving connection to his command. One is where he free’d the doomed colonists of New Caprica which left his ship in ruins before he accepted the fate that he and his ship were ready to die. Until Lee Adama jumped in for the save…

The other came when his ship finally did pack in. All the abuse from the Cylon attacks in both wars had left the ship in tatters. When it was time to move his flag elsewhere, he snapped. Everything he’d been through piled up hit him hard and we saw the brave, commanding Admiral curled up in a ball crying his eyes out over everything he’d lost.

How many of our heroes had such emotion? And how many of them seemed stronger for it? More importantly, how many of them could pull of that ‘stache?

Through the run of Star Trek, Kirk was bold, dashing, courageous, clever and while his right hand man, Spock, gained more fan mail, Kirk got all the girls on the show. When the movies hit the big screen, we saw this character evolve. At first into a man who had given up his life of adventure for a desk job and hated it. But it wasn’t until the far superior sequel, The Warth of Khan, that we saw this older Kirk become something new when the aging Admiral found himself in a battle against an old adversary and the character was reborn.

Shatner’s legendary Kirk survived another five Star Trek films, getting killed off in Generations, and has remained an icon. Although Shatner’s become a self aware self parody, he’s still awesome.

When Star Trek was brought back to the big screen with a new cast and new direction, it was no surprise that they opted to go back to day one. While Picard, Sisko and Janeway (not so much Archer) had their fanbase, not one of them matched up to Jimmy T.

Honorable mentions go to Commander Sheridon of Babylon 5, Colonel Jack O’Neil and despite hims not really being a captain… The Doctor (hey, he has a ship!)

Disagree? Have someone better in mind? Say something.

Before I say anything, if you read the last workshop blog you’ll know about a little project. The inventor of that project (I don’t think inventor is the correct term, but fuck it – this is my site. Deal with it) has started up a blog right here on TPM. Click here for Gary; Creator of creations. That’s not the blog name – I’ve been drinking.

Anyway, Enterprise… I recently picked on this show once again on GBBS. Why? Because it’s a huge gaping hole of disappointment. It’s as disappointed as lusting over Paris Hilton, thinking she’d make a great woman to stick your pee pee into then seeing her sex tape and realising even with a penis in her, she’s still dull as shit. That was Enterprise to me.

What I proposed on GBBS was simple; re-casting. I’ve seen Scott Bakula act. He’s not going to win an Oscar or anything, but he’s good. In Quantum Leap he did something quite important; he made it fun. The show wasn’t great, but it was fun and that was down to it’s two leads. I’ve seen Bakula in other things, mainly on Sci Fi where he just didn’t seem to have ‘it’ as much as he did in QL (though his QL co-star Dean Stockwell showed he was still awesome with his portrayal of Cavil in Battlestar Galactica) and even though I cringed hearing he was going to be captain of the Enterprise, I still hoped he’d be fun.

He was anything but.

The entire character was pathetic. He was bland, uninteresting, he was George W in Space (cheers for that OT!) and until the last season the only change in character would be to shout. BECAUSE SHOUTING SHOWS YOU SHOULD TAKE ME FUCKING SERIOUSLY! More importantly to me, it was as if Bakula either a) knew the character was shit and just read the words on the page hoping he’d be paid at the end of the week or b) was wrong for the role.

But was he wrong for the role, or was the character – along with the rest of the show – just dreadful?

I think it’s both. And when it comes to the show itself, I’m going to steal from the discussion…

1978 – Battlestar Galactica – great show, strong characters. New show on the tail of the Star Wars / SciFi craze
2003 – Battlestar Galactica – 25 years after TOS BSG with just G1980 and a few books inbetween, massive cult want for BSG. VERY MUCH thought out to twist on the classic show with a modern spin. Shot in a documentary style that give it more of a visual edge as well as the edgy sub plots the show had.

1966 – TOS Star Trek – great show, strong characters, ground breaking stories parallel current events. Became underground cult GOD!
2001 – Enterprise – 35 years after its original inspiration on the tail of a constant – and sometimes overlapping – exposure of other incarnations of Star Trek. VERY LITTLE thought on making this a modern twist of the classic that can lead into the classic (keep time lines happy). It was the Studio trying to milk more out of its near 40 year franchise with just typical plots, and nostalgic tie ins to the future’s past. That is why Star Trek (2009) was a blockbuster film and Enterprise was called off.
- Cylon Knight

And…

I think BSG was much more of an ensemble show than Enterprise (both lasted 4 years; so it’s a level playing field for comparison that way). After 4 years on BSG, I really felt that I got to KNOW those people (a tribute to the writers and the actors both). On Enterprise? What little I know of Travis is that he grew up on a cargo ship, flies the ship, and smiles a lot (and he once had a thing with a redheaded reporter who looked like a cleaned-up Lindsay Lohan).

For a similar comparison, let’s consider Gaeta on BSG; he sings, he’s bi-sexual, he lost a leg, he went from being a loyal officer to a occupation collaborator/rebel to leading a mutiny against the admiral, and he was executed by a firing squad!

BSG was driven by characters and their growth; not cardboard archetypes.
-Obsolete Toaster

And I can hold Voyager up to the same thing – BSG owned that show in terms of concept. Galactica had MORE than Voyager and yet ended up in the shitter. Voyager? Limited resources, hostile crew, bad situation yet… status quo.

Enterprise and Voyager failed to capitalise on something very important; Difference and change. They tried to milk the same elements of the same franchise and, while Enterprise was more of a failure and did improve in it’s last season, they failed. They killed it.

I won’t say anymore, because I could pick this apart and rant on this for hours. But… let’s hope the next Trek TV series moved forward from the event that sent Spock back and time and kicked off the alternate reality. JJ-Trek was a great way to reinvent a movie franchise. For a TV franchise…?

…well, I do have an incredible multi-year outline…

Paramount, give a call. Or I’ll send Adam Shame round to get you.

After a recent conversation with Barry Miller at the recent Battlezone event, and seeing a post by the always wonderfully minded Obsolete Toaster on GBBS, I’ve decided to re-evaluate something I evaluated here before. The Treks. Arguably it’s one of the most successful franchise and one that’s survived several incarnations.

But, while I’m a trek fan – the new name of this site should be a clue – I can still see the bad as well as the good and with the discussion coming up more than once lately, I decided I was bored enough to take another bash at looking back on the franchise.

The 1960′s show was, obviously, the show that started it all, a colourful science fiction drama with a bold captain, a cold alien scientist and a grumpy old country doctor. I do view this through rose tinted glasses and I do forgive some flaws as it was a style of the time thing. You can’t bitch at Citizen Kane for not being in HD. But this show was built around that trio, had some good supporting characters and was very exciting and imaginative for it’s time.

As I said, it was imaginative. Sure, there wer ebudget restraints and looking back it’s cheap and cheesy. But even with those labels it’s still appealing, it’s still good. The science and the look might be dated but the shows speak volumes. A lot of people like to remember it for having strong messages, sometimes it did, but for me the key was giving a bright and hopeful idea of the future wrapped up as an adventure story with all the drama and silliness thrown in.

Sometimes the siliness worked, Tribbles are still good fun and worked a charm in DS9′s re-visiting the episode in an anniversary special. But sometimes there was Spocks Brain. And that wasn’t so good.

The discussion with Barry was interesting. He’s no big Star Trek fan, but he liked Voyager as he said ‘it had a purpose’. We both talked about that problem with TNG – there is no point. Exploring strange new worlds? No they don’t, they go around, have a chat with world’s they’ve known for years and drink tea. Deep Space Nine (my favourite of the lot) to him was a bunch of people sitting around. I get that too, partly.

Voyager had a twist, it had purpose. But as has been mentioned, they didn’t follow through with that purpose. They mentioned their dilemma for several years, tossed in the word ‘rations’ and we even saw them do deals to buy supplies and weapons we never saw again. Supposedly they had little supplies, yet rebuilding the two or three shuttles they had was fine and when they needed to, they built the Delta Flyer. Where did those resources come from?

The Borg… they seemed boring and I got fed up of them. The obvious casting of Jeri ‘doesn’t she look hot in this tight lycra’ Ryan and her taking on the role of not evolving and being very cliche was just dull. It felt as if it became all about her at times and with each Borg appearance, they seemed to become less of a threat.

Add to that Janeway… one week she’d be a by the book captain enforcing the law, the next she’d be changing her mind and being a rebel. Why not just stick with the Starfleet/Maquis command split and have Chakotay push the rebellious, out of the box actions and have Janeway try to stick by the book. That conflict alone adds more story conflict, shows both sides being strong and weak depending on the story, it shows vulnrability and all sorts of new doors could have been opened that, throughout the show, were closed leaving Chakotay being left as a calm, boring and unseen character who could have been so much more, and Janeway comes off as somewhat of a mental.

Then there was Enterprise… there were many factors against it.

Timing. Star Trek had been running solidly on TV in one shape or another since 1987, for seven years there were two on at the same time. The TNG movies, bar one, weren’t doing that well. The product was becoming stale and uninteresting and instead of giving it time, putting it on the shelf for a while and letting it rest – Star trek came back! Again. There just wasn’t enough time to let the audience rest and build interest in the name again.

Casting. I’m sure many people love the memories of Quantum Leap and Scott Bakula has been moderately good in a few TV movies I’ve seen. His interpenetration of Archer ws so bland and so dull, I felt like he may as well have skipped learning the lines and just read from the script on camera. It felt as if there was nothing in that performance, no interest, no passion – just say the words and go to the bank at the end of the week.

Characters. The blatant attempt to revive the TOS trio was awful. Other characters which could have had interesting personas were put aside and there were attempts to spice them up that didn’t make sense.

Writing. It was awful. Sure, there are some episodes I enjoy just like there are some with Voyager. Some are better in retrospect, others are better with lowered expectations. Re-watching the Xindi arc, that was better than remembered (still not great) and just like Voyager it felt like all the challenges made in the plot were swept aside.

When Barry said to me DS9 was just people sitting around, although I could see that (they rarely do any actual work) it was a character driven show, with involvement, that had a story line that wasn’t interesting – so they changed it and brought on the war which was interesting. But it stemmed from that initial plot.

Like anything, there were flaws – but seeing interesting characters, a good cast, good stories and arcs that seem gripping despite knowing the Federation would never lose the war… it just seemed to have the flow, story logic, development and characters that Enterprise and Voyager were scared to do.

I see DS9 as having a new beginning in it’s fourth season with the third building to it. The Bajoran stuff was good, but it wasn’t interesting enough to carry a show and there are only so many times you can write about aliens coming through the wormhole – part of Voyagers problem was ‘how many variations of bumpy forehead can we do?’ – so they rebooted and focused on one mighty civilization, the threat they posed and how that changed everything. With Voyager far away, DS9 had control of the Federation and how it would evolve.

Maybe it will be the show with people sitting around or not doing their actual jobs, I watched one the other day where Dax seemed to be pissed at having to do some actual work, and maybe Voyager and Enterprise had a plot closer to the original one that got everyone interested.

But both for me were a whole heap of undiscovered potential. Voyager in particular was trumped by the BSG re-imagining where, despite having more resources than Voyager, did run into problems. Hell, the entire fleet ate recycled goop because there was nothing else to eat and everyone felt the effects of losing their home and being trapped in their jobs.

With such let downs, is it any surprise the new movie went back to Star Treks roots?

Or have I just put undue pressure on a concept and hoped for more?

In recent weeks there has been some bashing of my name, which I do not appreciate. I’m lovely and I dislike anyone who says otherwise. I am, after all, the longest reigning T-Division champion, not just in the UK, but the world. The whole entire world. And I am, among other things, somewhat awesome.

So it’s with this recent bashing of my good name that I contacted my lawyer and asked him to make a statement on my behalf…

Did the defendant make mistakes? Sure. He did. Serious mistakes. But did he actually commit any crimes? Did he commit treason? No. I mean, it was an impossible situation. When the mods arrived, what could he possibly do? What could anyone have done?

What would you have done? If he had refused to surrender, Jason would have probably nuked the planet right then and there. So did he appear to cooperate with Jason? Sure. So did hundreds of others.

What’s the difference between him and them? Too Tall issued a blanket pardon. They were all forgiven, no questions asked. Dougie Patterson. Dougie Patterson used F bombs, offended dozens of people. Forgiven. Ann and Talie. They murdered all decency in the male form. Forgiven. The mods. The mods instigated a laid back attitude and let the users run wild. Forgiven.

And me? Well, where do I begin? I shot down a bad idea, the booking of Kenny Baker. Over a thousand people on board with me. Forgiven. I raised my tone to a Showmasters crew member, committed an act of mutiny. Forgiven. And then on the very day when Tyler surrendered to those mods to create an era of peace, I jumped away.

I left everybody on that forum, alone, undefended, for months. I even tried to persuade the mods never to return, to abandon you all there for good. If I’d had my way nobody would have made it off that forum.

I’m the coward. I’m the traitor. I’m forgiven.

I’d say we are very forgiving of mistakes. We make our own laws now; our own justice. And we’ve been pretty creative in finding ways to let people off the hook for everything from name calling to light porn. And we’ve had to be, because… because we’re not customers anymore. We are a gang, and we are on the run, and we have to fight to survive. We have to break rules. We have to bend laws. We have to improvise.

But not this time, no. Not this time. Not for James Tyler. No, you… you have to be banned, because, well, because we don’t like you very much. Because you’re arrogant. Because you’re rude. Because you’re pushy, and we, the mods, want to throw you out of the event, because you didn’t stand up to the shirt and get yourself banned in the process.

That’s justice now. You should have been banned back in the Elizabeth Croft thread, but since you had the temerity to be overlooked, we’re going to banish you now, and everyone who knows you. That’s justice.

This case… this case is built on emotion, on anger, bitterness, vengeance. But most of all, it is built on shame.

It’s about the shame of what the mods did to themselves back on that forum. It’s about the guilt of those mods who ran away. Who ran away. And we’re trying to dump all that guilt and all that shame on one man and then flush him out the airlock, and hope that just gets rid of it all. So that they could live with themselves.

But that won’t work. That won’t work.

That’s not justice; not to me.

Not to me.

So there.

Disclaimer: I’m sure someone will get bent out of shape at all this and not realise it’s a parody. I’m sure someone will be stupid enough to think Lee Adama is a real lawyer and someone, just one person, might be foolish enough to wear an awful shirt in protest. I hate to post this… but… does this face look bovered?

Most of the time I’m spending in front of the laptop writing lately has been more creative than rambling, so being a little distracted I’m doing quickie roundup of the good stuff on the telebox.

First of, Doctor Who. We’re three eps in and it’s been a little odd. On one hand we have an amazing lead in Matt Smith who’s knocked down the critics (well, aside from Outpost Gallifrey, or Gallifrey Base or whatever those nuts are calling themselves now who will always hate everything that wasn’t made in the 70′s) and of course, the filthy eyed Karen Gillan who’s more than just a cracking pair of legs. But the last episode felt a bit lacking for me.

The whole thing with the Daleks, great. Multicolored Daleks of old. Awesome. With Winston Churhill underneath London in World War Two, it had all the right elements, some nice set dressing but somehow… it felt like one of Lost’s transitional episodes only there to say “Hey! The Daleks are back, watch later in the series to see what they do!” It didn’t seem to have much point other than showing off the new paint jobs, but the leads and Churchill… all wonderful besides that.

However, I must agree with SWA’s head honcho Peter Murphy – we should stop promoting shows until Doctor Who is over. In his words: “Why should I watch Doctor Who three hours after the rest of the nation?” Good point.

Lost has been a bit of a trip and I can’t wait to see it resolved, or if it’ll be resolved in a good way with so few episodes left. Desmonds ep a few weeks ago was great, Hurleys was alright but didn’t go beyond what Desmond had done, not really, so I’m looking forward to tonights (well, not tonight for me) episode as we’re getting closer to the end!

FX showed the premiere of season three of Dexter this week and I loved it. Ok, I’ve seen the series already a while ago through the wonders of the internet. When I first watched it, I watched it in two or three days which only made me speak like Eddie Guererro thanks to Jimmy Smitts part in the show. Fortunately, it was an awesome series with a great angle and… I’m keeping my mouth shut becayse my girlfriend hasn’t seen it yet.

I introduced her to season two when it was aired last year on STV and thankfully, she loved it just as much as me. Also it had Darla from Angel naked a lot. And that insane hot chick. Both naked. Lots. Good stuff. So now when I watch Dexter, I was with a bit of excitement not because I’m seeing it for the first time, but I’m showing it to someone for the first time which is ten times better.

Speaking of which, she introduced me to Angel recently after we’d got through a catch up of Buffy. While I found the first season a bit Relic Hunter, it did have some good comedic moments. The pokes and prods at the seriousness of Angel were nicely done, going in hand with the type of writing Whedon does best. But the second series, thats where it got interesting.

It had the same digs at the character but for a period it goes darker with Angel slipping close to the dark side with the return of his old killing partner and thats when Angel moves form being a shadow of the Buffy franchise to it’s own entity. It found it’s niche outwith that world and made a really goot entertaining watch.

The best part though was Lorne’s homeworld, a demon who runs a kareoke bar who leads the team to his own warrior dimension where he’s shunned… and I’ll stop there but if anyone has seen the dance of shame they’ll know… it’s the best thing Whedons ever done. Ever.

Rewatching BSG has been wondeful too. We’re up to season four of the rewatch, the first time we’ve got this far together. So far we’ve seen Geata get shot in the leg, Starback going batshit, Lee Adama being a pussy, Romo Lamkins cat, Tigh being a dirty old man and Cally getting blown out of an airlock by a slutty Cylon. There’s a lot of stuff that happens in this season and we’re almost half way through (well, near the end of the first half of the Fourth season – why they split it on DVD is unkown to me). The show really had a wondrful feel to it and is so different and dark from the original.

And second time round I still hate Roslin and Lee Apollo asthe days go by, and I still want to vote Baltar. And theres not enough Zarek – I can’t wait ’till we get to that big evil two parter where he gets control.

Shameless… still good. Though I don’t know if I need to see Paddy’s wank face. And everything else remains relatively awful…

…anyway, I’m going away to hide in my shell for a bit. I’ve got a script to re-read, I’m re-writing 2.7-2.17 of Year One, I have costumes to make and a show to book. More on that another time…

I’ve noticed a lot of debate on reality versus fantasy recently and with SyFy promoting Caprica as more accessible by hiding the fact it’s a science fiction show, it prompted me to ask a question when Majik made a comment to the Galaxy Quest post.

With the theme of the Geeky List thing here, it’s no great secret that these days I’m all about the drama aspect of science fiction. Watching Ben Sisko struggle with a controversial decision, Adama giving Tigh chance after chance despite his mistakes and addiction, Sam Tyler (good name) trying to understand if he’s time travelling or going insane… or even a more mainstream idea of Marty McFly going back in time and trying to make sure his parents kiss on that dance floor…

But what about the science element of science fiction? Lost was officially bundled into the science fiction category once the survivors began to shift throughout time. When Desmond shifted there was a ‘sort of’ explanation. When they began jumping through time at random intervals, there was no explanation whatsoever. Is just having a time travel element enough? Or should there be a more logical explanation to it for it to be properly science fiction?

The thing that turns me off Science Fiction is the fiction element. I’m one of the seeming minority that just can’t watch Dr Who without wanting to chew the power cable of the TV in the hope that silence and death arrive at the same time to save me from evil Wheelie bins, Daleks that weigh just over 30 lbs and a screwdriver that seems to have inherited the “Superman effect”. Give me something based on science boundaries being pushed, and I’m fascinated – the moment reality is a dot on the horizon, I’m lost…
-Majik

And I see where he’s coming from entirely. Me, I’m more interested in the dramatic opportunities. Voyager had a character that was a hologram. There was a technical explanation and often technical episodes where there was a problem to be fixed which would give a more in depth look at how this sophisticated piece of science theory would come together… but the key t the episodes would be heavily based on ‘how does this effect the character’? Which is a valid point thats been around in sci fi for ages.

Is the machine alive? Can a machine have consciousness? The Next Generation really hit home on this with Measure of a Man – an episode which questioned the very being of a machine – but has there been too much focus on the emotional elements and not enough on the hard science?

The science was in part what dragged me into Trek in the first place. The technomagic was often unobtainable bullshit but it was all based on actual theory that people were either working on, or have worked on since. I’m still amazed they’ve came up with Geordies Visor and the Tricorder – even though both are extremely low tech in comparison.

Unfortunately they went too far by the time of Voyager and it was swaying to the side of bullshit more than theory and ‘Borg Nanoprobes’ became the same magic wand the sonic screwdriver had when RTD was writing Who. That made me appreciate the Who-isms more, I suddenly loved the anti-technobabble that some shows had user as overkill and dealing with transdimensional residue by calling it ’stuff’ and the ‘timey wimey detector, goes ding when there’s stuff’ type lines just began to amuse me.

When I’m writing it I have my own limited knowledge and reference books from some brilliant authors and scientists, one of whom does Trek science books which is brilliant for my time killing hobby, but I always try and put that in a realistic setting. In Next Gen, LeVar Burton tried to make the technobabble realistic by saying it as fast as he possibly could, as if he was speeding through the thoughts in his mind instead of making the words sound complex and awe inspiring. I like to remind myself of an engineer I know… he doesn’t spout off technobabble or lose you in thought, he knows what he’s doing… and thats all that matters to him.

I think theres room for both hard science and magical fantasy in sci fi – but more recently I’ve been interested in story and character more than challenging concepts. They’re good for the odd film or episode – Se7en was a good film, for example, but not every production could be like that and the less there are, the more special the film is – but overkill on something that’ll make you think is not enough to keep the audience emotionally interested, which is the main key to the current generation of TV – which is somewhat a sad thing to say.

Life on Mars is a good example. There was a sci fi element, but it wasn’t obvious… the story was more about the man and his struggle with the changes around him. BSG was less about the science and more about the personal struggles and overall story of being the last of humanity on the run. So I think I’m leaning towards the SF Drama more than anything these days…

But again, what about the science? Is it important to a story how the Doctor manages to regenerate? Or how the warp drive works? Does it really matter to the plot? Not often.

But how much bullshit can you spout before science fiction becomes science fantasy? Is the concept of time travel or the setting of a space ship enough to carry the science element, or is it important for the writers to know, or at least convey some sense of knowledge of how these things work and make us open our mind and question it – as Star Trek has done to many kids who are now scientists – or wave a magic screwdriver and just say ‘it works because it does’.

Arthur C Clarke said you can’t write science fiction without knowing anything about science. More recently shows have focused on personal elements and our own lead sci fi, Doctor Who, often see’s it’s science as magic that will be dull if delved into.

I know there’s a lot of you out there who are sci fi fans, have wonderful minds better than my own when it comes to how things work (like Maj) and those of you who just love to be entertained. And I’m in the middle of fantasy versus reality, so…

Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Does it even matter anymore? What do you think?

General update time. Because this is my site and I feel like it. First off, Source. Some comments were left regarding the name change and they’re staying moderated. So there. Problem? Refer to the line about my site…

Source has been pretty good lately and I’ve been around all of this year doing generally MC’y stuff. I sucked last time in Erskine, but I enjoyed Rutherglen and was looking forward to doing Cumbernauld but alas, I was busy. Being Falcon’s agent, I wasn’t letting a British title tournament happen without getting him involved so I bribed a few people and made sure he was in. Well… blackmailed. But thats not the issue here…

So, we sorted it so that Joe Coffey’s first round match would instead be a qualifier against Falcon and my guy won. Which is good, but regardless of our foul play against Coffey, I’m calling it now…

Joe Coffey, future NWA Scottish Heavyweight Champion. Without a doubt.

The SWA year kicked off in Uddingston. I was leading Falcon and Junior, but I still ended up doing some MC’ing with a lack of an MC on the night and will be hosting the show this Friday in Newton Mearns.

I think I like this gig. But still, I do miss Marty Michaels.

Outside of wrestling I’ve kicked off Year One part two here (mirrored here) and I’ve been working on the costuming for LFCC.

As you’ve seen in the previous update, the officers uniform is pretty much done. I’ve got some paint to add the serial number and I’ll be working on the tactical belt at some stage before then.

Next up is the phaser, which will be a Nemesis-style dolphin phaser but with a different paint job, and I’ve ordered some plastic to start creating the Link (the what?) and once those are done I can knock up the ‘tool belt’.

I’m also working on Raven Shayde‘s BSG Colonial Officers uniform. I’ve cut all the pieces and she has all the pins and buttons. It’s just up to me to sew together all the pieces.

I’ve also started pre-planning Six’s outfit from the BSG miniseries pilot. I have patterns ready for it, I just need to modify them to look more like the Six suit which will require a bit of research. I’m also offering ring robes and entrance gear to wrestlers – so if you want some, get in touch.

The only annoyance in all this is the latest frak up from Royal Mail. I checked the mail today. My DS9 season 4 box set was here. Yay! That was all. Later on Raven checked. There was a wedding invitation from an old friend who I’m looking forward to catching up with, good times, and a slip from Royal Mail reading “Sorry you were out.”

It was labeled 7:50 on Friday. When both Raven and I were awake and she was getting the kids ready for school. I was awake and sitting pretty much where I am now. Same deal this morning. So when exactly did Mr Incompetence try to deliver my mail?

There’s a guy that’s brilliant with deliveries, always gets them here with a smile and some chat. The rest… absolutely hopeless. So I’m going to have to head to the post office in the morning and try to get my mail that way while shouting at people. The most annoying thing is… I know exactly what was to be delivered.

Anyway, good stuff… my daughter started nursery today. Which is good and weird at the same time. I feel old and weird. But proud of her awesomeness.

On March 4th, I posted this on the showmasters forum regarding Collectormania Glasgow.

I’ll put real money on that first guest being less than average height.

-Linkage

…today Showmasters announced Kenny Baker. R2D2.

I am this:

Oh, and if you’re wondering what the pic is all about… Raven bought me a re-print of the Enterprise D cutaway poster today which has taken pride of place on the living room and is awesome.

I’m done now. Piss off.