(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

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

Note to self: Stop assuming that new sci-fi will be crappy on very flimsy evidence. Like the ads when Andromeda first aired.

And I can't believe I lost one precious miniseries/film/thingy and seven precious episodes of Battlestar Galactica before prillalar mentioned how hard it rocked.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Sadly, only the first season of Andromeda is fully ass-kicking. Season two is pretty good, but even then, it's starting to go down-hill (Kevin Sorbo's ego actually eats the show. It's like a train-wreck.).

[blueswan9.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the first 2 seasons of Andromeda. The second season finale was probably the best cliff-hanger I've ever seen. Alas, the opener for S3 was a dreadful let-down - and things went down-hill from there.

I have this geeker love for the ships on my SF shows, and Andromeda is the most "human" ship of them all.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I prefer the 'things happened as they happened, already including the presence of time travelers'

Totally with you on this. Actually, my own private geeky theory of The Truth About Time Travel is that it's perfectly possible to travel forwards in time (because the future hasn't yet happened, so the time traveller just gets temporarily suspended in a pocket dimension and pops out at the right future moment) but you can't go backwards (because the past has already happened and therefore can't be changed). Those brain-numbing scenarios of temporal loops where it turns out you can go back in time because you already did are acceptable under this theory, as long as the cosmos (or the time travel fairies, or whatever) has a way of ensuring that when you go back in time you don't behave any differently from the way you did last time. Hm, have you read Terry Pratchett's Night Watch? That has quite a neat angle on why a time traveller would choose (subjectively) to behave the way he is in any case constrained to by the laws of time travel.

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

What happened to Andromeda was a shame. It could have been such a great series, but no, Kevin Sorbo couldn't stand to be written as an interesting (read: flawed and fallible) character. He needs a radical ego-ectomy.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

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

Sure it is. Character-driven and science fiction are not mutually exclusive. Pretty much 80 percent of what I read and write is character driven science fiction.

It's science fiction if the science is relevant to the story -- that is, if you couldn't just change the space ships to horses and have everything be the same. And in Firefly, you couldn't -- the vast technological disparities, the ease and speed of travel from the core to the frontier, the hybrid culture, not to speak of River's entire plot line, could not have happened like that if it weren't for the technology and its social implications.

Exploring the social implications of technology, and the personal growth of characters put into its crucible, is exactly what most of the best SF is all about.

[jic]

not stressing over some of their more interesting 'scientific' ideas.

Unfortunately, I will never be able to not stress over contradictory science. Science that's bigger than what we know is fine, but science that claims things will behave contradictory to known behavior -- I'll enjoy that, but I won't buy it. Apples won't suddenly start falling up when we "discover our understanding of gravity is flawed" unless someone also presents me with anti-gravitons.

On the good side, I really, really enjoy the show, and I really, really enjoy your company =D I love the premise, the thesis, and the characters. And I'm glad you're feeling a bit better. *hugs*

[ineke.livejournal.com]

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

Oh, I have half of that story just sitting on my hard drive waiting to be finished! *laughs*. Doubt that it will be, though. Still-- it's a fun thought, isn't it? I spent a lot of time drawing little circles with arrows in my notebooks: Jack -> Freya -> Anise -> Daniel -> Jack...

And of course, it's all about Jack and Daniel sublimating, represssing, denying... heh. We all know they really want each other.

[larakailyn.livejournal.com]

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

I actually have considered writing fic for them! I have no idea if I'll ever have time, but if I can come up with a really good story idea, I will.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Andromeda herself... so amazing. Lexa Doig always impressed me on that show. I love that she didn't want to be human, that she knew that she was pretty damn kickass.

Lexa Doig and Michael Shanks will have the prettiest and most talented kids ever.

S2 was pretty good, with some odd moments. Season Three is when it started to get really bad, I agree.

[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.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It really was a tragedy. There was so much potential in that story -- especially if we'd actually had Dylan go insane, which would have made sense and kicked so much ass.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm probably not explaining it the right way. I really don't think that there are any stories told on Firefly that couldn't be, say, set on a submarine. It doesn't feel space/future dependent the way that, say, Star Trek or Farscape does.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I will never be able to not stress over contradictory science. Science that's bigger than what we know is fine, but science that claims things will behave contradictory to known behavior -- I'll enjoy that, but I won't buy it. Apples won't suddenly start falling up when we "discover our understanding of gravity is flawed" unless someone also presents me with anti-gravitons.

Which, incidentally, we saw in the episode Shades of Grey.

And thank you.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have half of that story just sitting on my hard drive waiting to be finished! *laughs*. Doubt that it will be, though. Still-- it's a fun thought, isn't it? I spent a lot of time drawing little circles with arrows in my notebooks: Jack -> Freya -> Anise -> Daniel -> Jack...

It really is a fun thought.

And of course, it's all about Jack and Daniel sublimating, represssing, denying... heh. We all know they really want each other.

It wouldn't be nearly as much fun if that weren't the case.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Ooo, cool. Let me know if you do.

[dragon-lord.livejournal.com]

OMG Andromeda

*happy sigh*

Lexa... Keith... God, Tyr. Rawr.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

I think you're explaining it fine, I'm just not agreeing with you. To me it feels very dependent on a space future, just of a very different kind than Star Trek.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay. That's way cool. As long as we both know what the other person is saying, it's all good.

[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.