Random SCIFI/Fantasy Thoughts

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Speaking of War of the Worlds, am I the only one who actually kind of liked the second season of the TV series?

 

[theenglish]

Here's another random thought.

In Star Trek 4 Kirk mentions that they don't have money in the future, but in Star Trek 6 Scotty mentions that he just bought a boat. What gives, do they have money or not?

Well I think by money Kirk just meant the traditional paper currency and coins. But they do have credits of some kind (even though I was never quite sure how those were earned).

Star Trek is always inconsistent on this. According to TNG, it is basically a socialist society yet there are still commodities on Earth that are produced in limited quantities, such as Picard's family's wine, and would presumably need to be purchased rather than replicated. In DS9 we see Starfleet officers purchasing things with their credits, maybe earned because they live in an area that still requires money. Yet, in order to issue officers credits Starfleet would still have had to make an economic deal with the Bajor economy.

 

[theenglish]

Does anyone wish All Along the Watchtower would have played an integral role from the beginning of NuBSG? I think it would have been cool if the song would have been a plot point from the beginning and not just at the end of the series. I think it was a great concept that could have been better executed.

Weirdly enough, All Along the Watchtower was going to be in the first season finale when Starbuck and Helo (I believe) walked into a cafe and turned on a juke box.

I wish that this was explained with more clarity. I really think Moore wimped out with his finale and not working out the true meaning of how the song is connected with the present day Earth. Really, if he just wanted a piece of music to connect the Cylons then it should have been just an original theme.

 

[Starborn Dragon]

I don't agree with the criticism of the Star Wars prequels that Anakin Turned too soon. Some people like a lot of detail, me i like to keep things simple, and you really didn't need to show a slow process of turning to the dark side.

The first episode established that Anakin had emotional problems and was actually an insecure fearful child.

His greatest fear was losing people he loved.

This came to fruition when he lost his mother to the Sand People and he slaughtered an entire tribe of this. When palpatine learned of this, this was the weakness he could exploit, and he exploited it by telling him the story of Darth plagarus (sp?). And we know that he and Anakin had a lot of talks like this, so we can deduce that some of these talks were Palpatine playing on Anakin's fears. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to the dark side.

Then, there were the visions. For myself there is the possibility that they were not really true visions of the future or Padme's death, but I think they were being sent to him. By whom i am not sure, but I believe it was Palpatine,a gain, playing upon his fears and manipulating his emotions, even if they did come true.

In short, there was a lot more manipulation and playing upon Anakin's fears and emotions more than people realized, and that was what led to him turning to the darkside, complicated by the actions of the Jedis and their distrust of him.

Side note: I am also of the opinion that Windu may have actually survived that fall, but I can't be certain. This is something i will never have any kind of official answer to.

And wouldn't it be something if an adult Snips appeared in either Rebels or the upcoming movies?

 

[davejames]

An invasion from space is what it was, anyway.

Ultimately, yes. But having them emerge unexpectedly from underground after thousands of years is a lot creepier and more mysterious than if it was just the typical alien invasion from space we've already seen in a zillion movies and TV series.

And audiences already got the ultimate version of that anyway with ID4, so Spielberg clearly had to come up with something different for his movie. Having a bunch of space capsules simply crash down and their tops unscrew just wouldn't have compared (and would have been way too "50s scifi" for this kind of story anyway).

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Here's another random thought.

In Star Trek 4 Kirk mentions that they don't have money in the future, but in Star Trek 6 Scotty mentions that he just bought a boat. What gives, do they have money or not?

Well I think by money Kirk just meant the traditional paper currency and coins. But they do have credits of some kind (even though I was never quite sure how those were earned).

Star Trek is always inconsistent on this. According to TNG, it is basically a socialist society yet there are still commodities on Earth that are produced in limited quantities, such as Picard's family's wine, and would presumably need to be purchased rather than replicated. In DS9 we see Starfleet officers purchasing things with their credits, maybe earned because they live in an area that still requires money. Yet, in order to issue officers credits Starfleet would still have had to make an economic deal with the Bajor economy.

I remember an episode of DS9 where Syskos dad had a restaurant where he had real food serving people. Did he have cooks and waiters or did he just replicate the ingredients and cook himself? Even if he did, the wait time would be horrible.

 

[fireproof78]

I don't agree with the criticism of the Star Wars prequels that Anakin Turned too soon. Some people like a lot of detail, me i like to keep things simple, and you really didn't need to show a slow process of turning to the dark side.

The first episode established that Anakin had emotional problems and was actually an insecure fearful child.

His greatest fear was losing people he loved.

This came to fruition when he lost his mother to the Sand People and he slaughtered an entire tribe of this. When palpatine learned of this, this was the weakness he could exploit, and he exploited it by telling him the story of Darth plagarus (sp?). And we know that he and Anakin had a lot of talks like this, so we can deduce that some of these talks were Palpatine playing on Anakin's fears. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to the dark side.

Then, there were the visions. For myself there is the possibility that they were not really true visions of the future or Padme's death, but I think they were being sent to him. By whom i am not sure, but I believe it was Palpatine,a gain, playing upon his fears and manipulating his emotions, even if they did come true.

In short, there was a lot more manipulation and playing upon Anakin's fears and emotions more than people realized, and that was what led to him turning to the darkside, complicated by the actions of the Jedis and their distrust of him.

Side note: I am also of the opinion that Windu may have actually survived that fall, but I can't be certain. This is something i will never have any kind of official answer to.

And wouldn't it be something if an adult Snips appeared in either Rebels or the upcoming movies?

For me, and I know it's been discussed before, but Anakin's turn bothers me because I never felt like he was never on the good side to begin with. I never felt like he is not already going towards the Dark Side and that he should stop.

The second problem is that I'm not really invested in Anakin as a person because I really don't feel like he was a well defined person. He is afraid of loss, but I don't viscerally feel it, I don't empathize with him in a meaningful way beyond the surface level. Contrast that with Luke, whom I not only identify with as a young man, but wanted to be.

Couple that with wooden acting and I just don't believe Anakin or feel that he is a hero or a tragic character. Which is sad, because he could really be a Shakespearean/mythological style character who sees a prophecy and strives to stop it from happening but ends up causing it to happen, or at least he perceives as such. Obviously, there are elements manipulating things against him, such a Palpatine.

I guess my biggest issue is that the potential is there, the archetypes in mythology are there, and that Anakin' story could have been so much more than what it was.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I don't agree with the criticism of the Star Wars prequels that Anakin Turned too soon. Some people like a lot of detail, me i like to keep things simple, and you really didn't need to show a slow process of turning to the dark side.

The first episode established that Anakin had emotional problems and was actually an insecure fearful child.

His greatest fear was losing people he loved.

This came to fruition when he lost his mother to the Sand People and he slaughtered an entire tribe of this. When palpatine learned of this, this was the weakness he could exploit, and he exploited it by telling him the story of Darth plagarus (sp?). And we know that he and Anakin had a lot of talks like this, so we can deduce that some of these talks were Palpatine playing on Anakin's fears. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to the dark side.

Then, there were the visions. For myself there is the possibility that they were not really true visions of the future or Padme's death, but I think they were being sent to him. By whom i am not sure, but I believe it was Palpatine,a gain, playing upon his fears and manipulating his emotions, even if they did come true.

In short, there was a lot more manipulation and playing upon Anakin's fears and emotions more than people realized, and that was what led to him turning to the darkside, complicated by the actions of the Jedis and their distrust of him.

Side note: I am also of the opinion that Windu may have actually survived that fall, but I can't be certain. This is something i will never have any kind of official answer to.

And wouldn't it be something if an adult Snips appeared in either Rebels or the upcoming movies?

I don't disagree with Anakin's motivations per se, it's the writing and acting that made it out to be on the childish/ Whiney teenager side. They could have taken those same motivations and given it more depth with a better actor, writer and director.

 

[tomalak301]

I've been doing a rewatch of Farscape and I really miss shows like this on tv. I know we're in the hard core comic book realm now but it would be great to get a space based show on tv again.

Speaking of comics I found out that cw was rerunning The flash this summer and I watched the first episode last night. Nice start but I was stuck by how fun it seemed. I'm looking forward to watching this series this summer and hopefully being caught up before season 2 starts.

I'll write about this more in the Orphan Black thread, but I'm really starting to think season 3 is much better than season 2. They probably had their best episode tonight, an Alison/Cosima show, finally.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

I'm really amazed how similar a lot of the Marvel and DC characters are, and that one of them hasn't sued the other over it.

As for superheroes, I can be very hard to pinpoint the "first" anything, since there's almost always some earlier inspiration or influence, which probably makes such lawsuits problematic.

Super-strength? That goes back to Hercules at least, not to mention Philip Wylie's novel "Gladiator." A mysterious vigilante with a secret identity? Hello, Zorro and The Scarlet Pimpernel. Cyborgs, mutants, telepaths, mystics, mer-people . . . all very old sci-fi cliches that were around long before comic books existed.

Which might make it harder to prove that your super-powerful mutant cyborg ninja is a unique creation.

I always assumed that Marvel and DC had a more or less mutual (obviously unofficial) understanding that big legal battles would ultimately hurt them both more than it would help either of them, especially in later decades when any suit from one side could easily be met with an equal countersuit from the other side (you say we stole character a? Well, you stole character x from us!). And, of course, as long as everyone was more or less clear that lawsuits were basically off the table, there was absolutely no reason for each company to NOT cash in on whatever was being successful on the other side.

As a fan, I actually found it rather fascinating - I was a huge sucker for those marvel/dc crossover stories that were basically implicitly built on the idea that certain characters were clearly each other's counterparts.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

So I'm watching through Supernatural for the first time and am currently about halfway through season 4. It's fun and interesting, but the one thing that strikes me the most about it is how often it starts to feel like an anti-Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's not always the case and it's not true for every single aspect of the show, but I find it really amusing how often I see things and think 'On Buffy, that would've been exactly the opposite'.

For instance, where Buffy is very Pagan, Supernatural is very Christian. Where Buffy is very physical, Supernatural is much more mystical. Where Buffy is very anti-gun, Supernatural uses guns all the time. Where Buffy is very critical of family ties, supernatural is all about family. Buffy is very idealistic versus a much higher level of pragmatism in Supernatural. My personal favorite, though, is the hilarious contrast between 'Sunnydale Syndrome' and the Winchester Charm (I swear, sometimes it seems like they can convince people monsters are real without even providing any evidence).

 

[theenglish]

Well I think by money Kirk just meant the traditional paper currency and coins. But they do have credits of some kind (even though I was never quite sure how those were earned).

Star Trek is always inconsistent on this. According to TNG, it is basically a socialist society yet there are still commodities on Earth that are produced in limited quantities, such as Picard's family's wine, and would presumably need to be purchased rather than replicated. In DS9 we see Starfleet officers purchasing things with their credits, maybe earned because they live in an area that still requires money. Yet, in order to issue officers credits Starfleet would still have had to make an economic deal with the Bajor economy.

I remember an episode of DS9 where Syskos dad had a restaurant where he had real food serving people. Did he have cooks and waiters or did he just replicate the ingredients and cook himself? Even if he did, the wait time would be horrible.

Another odd one is the Picard family plantation. Do they just produce it to give away to family and friends? Surely there is a demand for this unreplicated product.

 

[The Old Mixer]

Threads that endlessly debate the details of Trek's supposedly moneyless universe aren't exactly scarce around these parts. There's at least one active one in General Trek Discussion right now.

 

[fireproof78]

I've been doing a rewatch of Farscape and I really miss shows like this on tv. I know we're in the hard core comic book realm now but it would be great to get a space based show on tv again.

Speaking of comics I found out that cw was rerunning The flash this summer and I watched the first episode last night. Nice start but I was stuck by how fun it seemed. I'm looking forward to watching this series this summer and hopefully being caught up before season 2 starts.

I'll write about this more in the Orphan Black thread, but I'm really starting to think season 3 is much better than season 2. They probably had their best episode tonight, an Alison/Cosima show, finally.

I miss Farscape too. I think it had such a unique feel to it. I agree we need something like on TV again.

Star Trek is always inconsistent on this. According to TNG, it is basically a socialist society yet there are still commodities on Earth that are produced in limited quantities, such as Picard's family's wine, and would presumably need to be purchased rather than replicated. In DS9 we see Starfleet officers purchasing things with their credits, maybe earned because they live in an area that still requires money. Yet, in order to issue officers credits Starfleet would still have had to make an economic deal with the Bajor economy.

I remember an episode of DS9 where Syskos dad had a restaurant where he had real food serving people. Did he have cooks and waiters or did he just replicate the ingredients and cook himself? Even if he did, the wait time would be horrible.

Another odd one is the Picard family plantation. Do they just produce it to give away to family and friends? Surely there is a demand for this unreplicated product.

I would imagine so, but I think that Picard's family is kind of rebelling against the general format of Federation society. Robert seems to be inclined to live a different type of life, with Jean-Luc being more the rebel in his family.

Or its just something they enjoy.

 

[davejames]

I'll write about this more in the Orphan Black thread, but I'm really starting to think season 3 is much better than season 2. They probably had their best episode tonight, an Alison/Cosima show, finally.

I was a huge fan of this show in the first season, but the more the show focused on all the Leda/Dyad conspiracy stuff in season 2 the more bored I got with it. I don't know if it's just because I got burnt out on conspiracy storylines with X-Files back in the day, but this one just isn't interesting me in the slightest.

I tried watching the season 3 premiere earlier but couldn't even get halfway through it before becoming bored to death. Although I might give it another shot later and hope things eventually pick up a bit...

 

[tomalak301]

I've been doing a rewatch of Farscape and I really miss shows like this on tv. I know we're in the hard core comic book realm now but it would be great to get a space based show on tv again.

Speaking of comics I found out that cw was rerunning The flash this summer and I watched the first episode last night. Nice start but I was stuck by how fun it seemed. I'm looking forward to watching this series this summer and hopefully being caught up before season 2 starts.

I'll write about this more in the Orphan Black thread, but I'm really starting to think season 3 is much better than season 2. They probably had their best episode tonight, an Alison/Cosima show, finally.

I miss Farscape too. I think it had such a unique feel to it. I agree we need something like on TV again.

I think that's what I enjoy most about it. It was unique, in a fun kind of way. It's actually the show I hold a lot of other shows up to, like do those shows have a villain as great as Scorpius, or a developed relationship like John and Aeryn. There were things Farscape did that I question (Like the whole Jothee storyline, which I just finished last night with Sons and Lovers and question why it took all of Season 2 to find this guy and then they didn't do much with him other than allowing Chiana to have an affair) but for the most part, it's still my favorite science fiction show of all time because it was fun with great characters and just a great entertaining story arc.

I wonder if we ever will get a spaced based show again. I would love to see another Trek series, but it doesn't need to be Trek per say. Just something different from the influx of comic book based shows that are now taking over the TV spectrum and represent the biggest blockbusters of the summer movie season.

I'll write about this more in the Orphan Black thread, but I'm really starting to think season 3 is much better than season 2. They probably had their best episode tonight, an Alison/Cosima show, finally.

I was a huge fan of this show in the first season, but the more the show focused on all the Leda/Dyad conspiracy stuff in season 2 the more bored I got with it. I don't know if it's just because I got burnt out on conspiracy storylines with X-Files back in the day, but this one just isn't interesting me in the slightest.

I tried watching the season 3 premiere earlier but couldn't even get halfway through it before becoming bored to death. Although I might give it another shot later and hope things eventually pick up a bit...

I can understand that. Despite people saying The X Files is this great show, when I was doing my watch through last year, there were times when I found the show overrated because of the dogged down conspiracy storyline. Granted, it took like a half year to get through the series, but the conspiracy stuff contradicted what came before, and by the end of it (Season 6), I was happy it was over for the most part, except for the whole Terminator and Scully's baby storylines.

 

[davejames]

I think part of the problem is the whole show takes place in such a self-contained world (it's never even made clear what country they're in), that it's hard to see what larger impact this conspiracy really has on anything... other than on the clones themselves. And there are only so many times you watch one clone or another get kidnapped or threatened before it just loses any impact.

 

[Greg Cox]

Here's another random thought.

In Star Trek 4 Kirk mentions that they don't have money in the future, but in Star Trek 6 Scotty mentions that he just bought a boat. What gives, do they have money or not?

Well I think by money Kirk just meant the traditional paper currency and coins. But they do have credits of some kind (even though I was never quite sure how those were earned).

Star Trek is always inconsistent on this. According to TNG, it is basically a socialist society yet there are still commodities on Earth that are produced in limited quantities, such as Picard's family's wine, and would presumably need to be purchased rather than replicated. In DS9 we see Starfleet officers purchasing things with their credits, maybe earned because they live in an area that still requires money. Yet, in order to issue officers credits Starfleet would still have had to make an economic deal with the Bajor economy.

Heck, just one movie earlier, in Star Trek III, McCoy has to charter a flight and haggles with a shady alien pilot over the price . . ..

I like to think that it varies from planet to planet and culture to culture, depending where you are in space. There may well be portions of the Federation where money is no longer used, but you may still need currency on Argelius or wherever. And once you get out on the Final Frontier, beyond the "utopian" plenty of 23rd century Earth, all bets are off. Then you have struggling miners, con artists, mail-order brides, smugglers, bartenders, etc.

The Federation is not one big monoculture. I'm sure that Earth and Vulcan and Andor and so on all have different ways of running their economies.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

An invasion emerging from underground doesn't have to be creepy and mysterious. As anyone who's seen Infra-Man knows, it can be hilarious!

 

[tomalak301]

I think part of the problem is the whole show takes place in such a self-contained world (it's never even made clear what country they're in), that it's hard to see what larger impact this conspiracy really has on anything... other than on the clones themselves. And there are only so many times you watch one clone or another get kidnapped or threatened before it just loses any impact.

I like that because it makes things more personal and intimate. There's already a lot of people involved (The military, the Proletheans, etc) that anyone else and it would get overwhelming and I don't feel that way at all with this show.