One quote was someone saying that their work wasn't sci fi because it was based on what actual scientists think might actually happen in the actual future. Guh.

They mean it's science based fiction, eh? There ought to be a word or phrase that covers that...

This is the whole thing with Margaret Atwood claiming that Oryx and Crake isn't science fiction because, um, she doesn't write science fiction and there aren't any spaceships in it.

Or, really, that the Lee/Kara relationship on BSG is "queer het" (i.e., slash) because Starbuck is too cool/butch for it to be het.

No, seriously.

I breifly saw that and boggled. It's got to be one of the stupidest things I've seen. Is it slash writers who are saying this or slash readers or both?

Because I get really tired of the "oh noes!! girly parts and boy parts interacting is of the ick!"

I will say that I was surprised to find I really like Shannon/Sayid, but more because they are my only OTP. And the OTP-ness of it caught me off guard.

While most sci-fi -- whether on TV, in movies or books -- remains aimed toward science geeks or overgrown adolescents,

Ummm..... While I would generally agree with their point when it comes to movies and TV, well written SF in print is supposed to be accessable (though it didn't always used to be that way). It's one of the reasons that TV and especially movie "sci-fi" usually leaves me pretty grumpy, because it's usually some other genre (action or horror) dressed up in space suits, but mostly just really badly written.

Although I will admit that it may just be that I think all the print sci-fi is accessable, just because I liked it.

(As is "best" -- I'd have to pick Farscape if it came down to a choice.)

As Jess goes, so goes my nation.

BSG is ranking pretty high up there for me, but Farscape gets the "best" pick froom me, hands-down.

I am finding that individual Firefly episodes stand up to rewatching much better than individual Farscape episodes; there are more layers.

I'm not sure what I'd pick as favourite TV sci-fi, but Farscape's choice of momentum over sense in a pinch removes it from consideration for me.

Plus, the whole skittles thing. I'm still mad.

I was very cranky at last night's episode, ...Different Destinations, in which Aeryn Sun, of all people was talking about "women and children."

I mean, HELLO? The women in question were armed, so it couldn't even be changed to "noncombatants and children." They had to be armed; one of them shooting a guy was critical to the plot.

It just... in the Farscape future, there is no reason to believe that women, as a mass, are less dangerous than men, or are more likely to be protected by men. There is even less reason to believe that Aeryn Sun, who as far as we can see never got privileged gender status as a Peacekeeper, would reflexively believe such a thing. I'd have been much, much happier if they'd stuck to "nurses and children" or something like that.

[Note: This was last night's episode in my house; your DVD-watching may vary.]

I think print sci-fi is generally less accessible to "the general public" than TV sci-fi. You (almost always) have to go to a whole different section of the bookstore to get it, which means you have to want to be reading a sci-fi book, and there are no pretty people in leather to rope your non-sci-fi-fan friends in with. (Plus, writers of science fiction generally know they're writing sci-fi, and aren't apologetic about it. As opposed to TV and film, which, as you said, are almost always watered down for mass marketability. Film more than TV, probably.)

I dunno, Jessica. With books, you get the (admittedly small) chance to become part of the literary teaching canon, which is about as crossover as these things get. Also, various SF authors escape the ghetto: some by denying it, some by ignoring the boundary, some just by persistence and quality.

There are 100s of cheap mass markets that nobody who doesn't go to cons or subscribe to Asimov's will ever hear of for every one escape artist, but it's not unheard-of.

As for Firefly/Farscape, I think the quality varies a lot for both shows; but that the basic premise is very different. In some ways, Firefly feels like the more adult show, having fewer "standard SF trope" escape clauses; but Farscape's canvas is avowedly bigger (and bigger, and bigger). They've got their merits -- I think the acting and writing is mostly better on Firefly, while Farscape wins universe-design and visuals hands down.

Farscape wins universe-design and visuals hands down.

Sometimes to the detriment of the plot. Note the beach planet on which everybody wears color-coordinated magenta-and-gold Thai silk.