Category Archives: science fiction

Media, Reviews, science fiction

The Prisoner Returns?

From Cable360.net
AMC Sets The Prisoner Free


How much more more confident can AMC get? CableFAX editorial director Seth Arenstein poses that question in his blog, as he remarks on the guts the network must have to be presenting the late Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner for free on its website. AMC’s own version of The Prisoner, starring Ian McKellen as Two and Jim Caviezel as Six, premieres later this year. Seth, writing about the recent passing of McGoohan, says “assuming AMC’s re-make of The Prisoner is nearly as good as its previous scripted forays (Mad Men and Breaking Bad have each grabbed Emmys in their first seasons), McGoohan-mania, or at least a resurgence of interest in McGoohan and The Prisoner, should become part of the culture.”
fandom, General, science fiction

Going Down?

I was checking out of the Bubonicon hotel this morning and boarded an elevator with an elderly couple. They must have both in their 70’s; he was walking with two canes.

She saw my badge and asked if the Klingons were still around. I immediately flashed back to the masquerade MC’s (Victor Milan) comment the previous evening about an older mundane couple that had that “deer caught in the headlights” look after getting onto a elevator full of Klingons. (Bubonicon is known for having a lot of hall costumers.)

Continue reading Going Down? →

General, Politics, science fiction

On hiatus

Well, it has been a while since my last post. I’ve taken to drinking liberally, at least on odd Tuesdays. I also helped run a small SF convention.

In retrospect, I am not sure what I’ve been doing. I’ve discovered soduko, amazing how that will suck out your time.

Playing with the computer, trying to get MythTV working. More on that later in a geek posting.

Trying to get the books in order for income tax time.

Following the trials and tribulations of Teresa Nielsen Hayden. Sometimes the system can be so wrong.

And watching football playoffs, preparing forthe 2006 baseball season and trying to rip my music collection using MusicBrainz. Amazing how many CDs I have that aren’t in their database.

And now, it is off to a Linux Users Group.

Reviews, science fiction

Serenity

I saw Serenity this past weekend. I enjoyed it.

Joss Whedon kept the characters from Firefly and continued to develop them, using the movie medium to give some more depth than they got from TV.

The story picks up from the show and continues the Alliance’s pursuit of River. I don’t think you need to have seen the show to become engaged with the movie. The TV show provides back story on the characters but the movie defines the characters within its own view. It is hard for me to say, since I did see the entire series, that if someone walked in without Firefly, that they would appreciate the movie, but I think they would.

The movie quickly establishes the overall conflict between the Tams and the Alliance, and even provides the reason that the Alliance fears River Tam. Within Serenity, the crew continues to deal with a ship that is continually breaking down and with the tensions of living with a group of people they might not otherwise want to live with.

Especially when the goals of some are the pursuit of individual wealth and glory and for others is the pursuit of individual liberty over the commune of the Alliance with its select few who desire mastery and control over the human race. It is this pursuit of the mastery and control that leads to the main crisis of the movie and its tactically satisfying conclusion.

There is no strategically satisfying conclusion that can be reached, a la “throw the ring into Mount Doom”, in a two hour movie. And maybe there never will be. The suppression of one’s humanity in support of an ideal society goes back throughout human history. I doubt it will change much in the future. And there will always be people to take advantage of that blind faith for their own ends.

Whedon blends comedic elements so easily throughout the script. Even in the middle of a tense scene, a spot of homor highlights the moment and heightens the tension. People act as people throughout the script. Even stereotypes and exemplars of virtue have dings around the edges to make them more real.

I will give this an 9 out of 10 and expect to get the DVD when it becomes available.