March 26, 2007

• Thanks for the trip down Memory (RAM or ROM?) Lane, gojeannie!
  
  Pivotal Sci-Fi Moments (in no particular order)
  ST:NG - The Best of Both Worlds (Parts 1 and 2): ushered in the Borg as the Ultimate Enemy—merciless and seemingly unstoppable. There were many other fine Borg episodes but this one introduced emotionless techno-bad guys who inexorably destroyed any ship, colony or world in their path (bringing the Federation to its collective (ha!) knees). It was balanced by drama on the human level in the fine form of Lt. Cmdr. Shelby, an ambitious and aggressive rival for Cmdr. Riker's position. Last but not least, the assimilation of Capt. Picard into the Collective, he representing the one character who was infallible and undefeated up to this point. Hands-down the BEST season-ending cliffhanger AND the best new season opener. Ever. EVER, I tell you!

   

  

  I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile.

  
  Alien: the original and best of a very good but not completely great series. [The third movie, Alien3, really sucked mainly because they immediately killed off Newt and Corporal Hicks who were the only other survivors of Aliens besides Ripley—and then whacked her at the end) (uh.....retro-spoiler alert....ooops).] Along with the original "Star Wars" [the first and ONLY worthy movie of that so-called series…the others pale—PALE, I tell you—in comparison (especially after the Luke and Leia storyline went from naïve farmboy makes good to aw shucks romance then degenerated to (ACK) incestuous overtones in the next film) (and one name sums up the degree of suckiness: Jar-Jar Binks)], Alien was one of the first sci-fi movies to portray ships and their humans as dirty, grungy, flawed real-life entities. No antiseptic "2001: A Space Odyssey" here, folks. Besides an alien which truly made you jump out of your seat with every inventive appearance, there was good character interplay, Jones the (shithead) cat, a captain who listened to "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" in the shuttle and last but not least, a movie that closed with Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2, the "Romantic."

   

  

  In space, no one can hear you scream

  
  Firefly - Ariel: this is the episode where Simon Tam hires the Firefly crew to take he and his sister, River, down to the planet Ariel. He's desperate to diagnose the damage Alliance doctors have inflicted on her through their barbaric experimentation. Comical scenes of Mal, Zoe and Jayne prepping for and carrying out their mission of bringing the Tams to the medical facility, then segueing to stealing pharmaceuticals for selling on the black market as compensation for the caper. The men with Hands of Blue make a chilling appearance, dispatching Alliance personnel using a mysterious device that causes people to bleed out. Drama on the personal level: Jayne's betrayal of the Tams to the Alliance (of biblical proportions, if you think about it) and Mal handing out retribution to those who would turn against him and his crew. Wicked.

   

  

  I don't care, I'm still free...You can't take the sky from me

  
  Hey, here's something we're going to have to investigate! From Wikipedia:
  Fourteen minutes and thirty-nine seconds into the first episode of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series, in the beginning of the scene where Laura Roslin receives diagnostic of breast cancer. The Firefly ship is the third one to appear in the sky.

   

  Star Trek - The Menagerie (Part 1 and 2): Classic, classy. The real beginning of the Star Trek universe, introducing not only Capt. Kirk and crew (Nurse Chapel (aka Mrs. Roddenberry) as Number One looking pretty darn good as a brunette) BUT an even greater starship captain, Christopher Pike. While contrasting stoic Vulcans vs. hot-blooded Homo sapiens, this episode also showed Mr. Spock's intense loyalty and, yes, his humanity while "saving" his former captain. How different and interesting a series ST would've been if Jeffrey Hunter had elected to continue his character…and its especially poignant when watching these episodes, knowing that he died in real life a scant 4 years later.

   

  Jeffrey Hunter is not a hugely well-known actor today but some might recognize him from "The Searchers", an epic John Ford Western starring John Wayne and a young Natalie Wood. He also portrayed Jesus Christ in "The King of Kings"—while panned by critics, its paradoxically considered one of the finest cinematic versions portraying the life of Christ.

   

   

   

  Battlestar Galactica - there are too many fine, fine episodes to distill my choice down to one (same problem with the Star Treks, actually) but some of the better moments had to involve Admiral Caine. What a stroke of genius to have Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro of ST:NG) portraying the biggest bad-ass around...stronger than Adama, suffering no fools, ruthless to the point of sacrificing non-military or "non-essential" personnel in order to better the chances of her fleet surviving. Yes, we can sit back in our chairs, comfortable with our superior vision, and deride her decisions but what if YOU were the leader of the last dregs of humanity, believing that no one else had survived the slaughter? What if you came to the belief that saving some would spell doom for all? What if your focus became one of revenge since there was no chance of ever winning against the Cylons? Clearly Starbuck came away with a different understanding and even appreciation of the Admiral--her eulogy spoke of her admiration for the very difficult decisions that Caine had made.

   

  And In Case You're Wondering

  Yes, actually—I AM currently avoiding our taxes. Well, I devoted most of the weekend to entering the interminable credit card items (because we file business AND personal, that's why) into QuickBooks. And yups, it would go oh so much smoother if I were to diligently enter these suckers in every month. But that would mean discipline and organization. What fun is that??!?

   

  I did set myself some carrots, however, to "help" rid me of the ball and chain (taxes, silly):

   - no buying nor planting any cool new Spring denizens in my revamped jardin;

   - no watching the season finale of Battlestar Galactica AND, more importantly;

   - no reading gojeannie's Xanga which could be full of spoilers.

   

  I'm fracked.

   

  • 2:30 am
  • 1 Comment