(no subject)

[butterfly]

I was ill over the weekend. This would have sucked, but I got to spend the time lounging around watching Stargate with friends, so all is good.

Random fannish thoughts:

The first season of Andromeda still ranks among some of the best sci-fi that I've seen. It was so kick-ass. And the acting... Lexa Doig played three versions of the same character every episode, and each version was unique yet clearly part of the same core. In the first season finale, she plays five versions of that character, all in the same episode.

Stargate's science works better when you go on the assumption that our science is flawed (as Narim says in Enigma) and thus you end up not stressing over some of their more interesting 'scientific' ideas. And because I love driving ideas, I'd like to mention that I love that the driving idea behind Stargate SG-1 is the temptation of power and inevitable arrogance that comes along with it, particularly power that isn't earned. Which is why our guys still lack killer tech after eight years in the game. With great power comes a great big swelled head (which is why Teal'c should be wary about saying what he's saying to Ishta -- someone should point out to him that he pulled his own Jaffa Revenge Stupidity back in the day). As for Daniel... it's been a while since Absolute Power.

Firefly is not science-fiction at all -- it's a character-driven show that happens to take place in outer space.

I can't believe in the 'things change' version of time travel (aka the 'Marty McFly slowly disappears from his own family picture' version). It strikes me as fundamentally unworkable and inherently destructive to the fabric of space-time, which strikes me as unlikely. I prefer the 'things happened as they happened, already including the presence of time travelers' (see: The City on the Edge of Forever (Star Trek: the Original Series), Angel Dark, Demon Bright (Andromeda), 1969 (Stargate SG-1), and the Time Turner in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) version.

Also, I want someone to write Jack/Freya/Anise/Daniel fic.

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Night Watch is brilliant. I love Pratchett's stuff. Funny and smart.

Well, the thing about my theory is that time doesn't have to insure that you do the same thing twice -- you already did it the once. You're going to do it the same because that's what you chose to do in that time, that's how things happened. That's what you did. There's a great ST book -- The Metaphysics of Star Trek -- that goes into time travel, AIs and emotions, parallel universes, cloning, and all those big issues.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Well, the thing about my theory is that time doesn't have to insure that you do the same thing twice -- you already did it the once.

I see what you mean, though it makes my brain ache a bit trying to keep it in focus. You only go back once, it's just that your future self has memories of what you do after you go back. Is that right?

Hee, this reminds me of a wonderful Czech film called Tomorrow I'll be Scalding Myself With Tea, in which a bunch of neo-Nazis go back in time to help Hitler win WWII. They keep getting foiled and going back to try again, and you gradually realise that in the first scene set in the past, nearly everyone on screen is a time traveller from the future, desperately trying to avoid being spotted by their past selves, including the ones who had previously travelled back. It's hilarious.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, my, that sounds brilliant. Hee.