That guy is no fun at all. I'd like to see what his perfect world of SF looks like.
Lorne: My little prince. Oh…what did they do to you? Angel: Nina…tried to…eat me. Lorne: Oh, you're--medic! You're gonna make it Angel. Just don't stop fighting. Doctor! Is there a Gepetto in the house?
'Smile Time'
Boxed Set, Vol. III: "That Can't Be Good..."
A topic for the discussion of Farscape, Smallville, and Due South. Beware possible invasions of Stargate, Highlander, or pretty much any other "genre" show that captures our fancy. Expect Adult Content and discussion of the Big Gay Sex.
Whitefont all unaired in the U.S. ep discussion, identifying it as such, and including the show and ep title in blackfont.
Blackfont is allowed after the show has aired on the east coast.
This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.
§ ita § - Nov 16, 2006 7:52:06 am PST #3686 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Dana - Nov 16, 2006 7:53:44 am PST #3687 of 10001
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Okay, first example in, and he's already wrong. Spock never wanted to be human.
§ ita § - Nov 16, 2006 7:59:39 am PST #3688 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I'm reading through the comments on the first page, and they're more interesting than the article itself.
Polter-Cow - Nov 16, 2006 8:02:07 am PST #3689 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Heh. Some of those I agree with:
Sci-fi writers love to treat “planet” as if it’s a single location. “Let’s land on the planet, where we’ll meet the one settlement of the one culture, and have the one adventure the planet can afford us.” Planets are entire WORLDS. Even with advanced technology, it will take a space exploration crew YEARS to explore and survey a single planet. Even an uninhabited one.
That's always bugged me, but I deal. Because it sure would take a lot of work to come up with entire WORLDS for every single planet you might want to come across.
I'd like to see what his perfect world of SF looks like.
Apparently, a NASA space exploration documentary.
§ ita § - Nov 16, 2006 8:09:28 am PST #3690 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I love the SG1 episode where Sam deduces they're on an ice planet.
Turns out they're in the Arctic.
DXMachina - Nov 16, 2006 8:17:23 am PST #3691 of 10001
You always do this. We get tipsy, and you take advantage of my love of the scientific method.
Antarctic.
I will say that Stargate is among the worst at that. So many of the planets they visit seem to be just a single tiny village that has maintained the exact same population level for thousands of years. It ain't natural.
I had to stop reading the little snot. It's fiction. Deal with it. SF isn't the only genre that is rife with cliches (or maybe he hasn't noticed that cops always get blown away the day before they're supposed to retire).
Dana - Nov 16, 2006 8:22:05 am PST #3692 of 10001
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
Yeah, you also have to love his theory that CGI is cheap now, so all aliens can be non-humanoid. That wouldn't pose any difficulties in terms of a story's emotional impact or anything. It's a huge challenge for actors in prosthetics to convey emotions past all of that latex or makeup. Now you want me to care about something CGI'd?
Polter-Cow - Nov 16, 2006 8:23:25 am PST #3693 of 10001
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Well, I'm sure he'll come up with a "cop movie cliches" list tomorrow.
I love the SG1 episode where Sam deduces they're on an ice planet.
Turns out they're in the Arctic.
Hee. Exactly! I mean, the way these things work...think of the many, many places one could land on Earth. It's a diverse planet!
Really, the worst is when someone is marooned on A Planet and then a search party just LANDS ON THE PLANET IN THE SAME AREA. (And, no, they didn't do any sort of "scans" or anything. They just...landed. And voila!)
tommyrot - Nov 16, 2006 8:25:51 am PST #3694 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
At least on the BSG episode where Kara gets stranded on the planet/asteroid, they spend days looking for her. And then they note how little of the asteroid's surface they've covered. And they never actually find her (she finds them).
§ ita § - Nov 16, 2006 8:25:52 am PST #3695 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Antarctic! Thanks. I tried to google, and it was not useful.
I think the guy forgets that humans are the ones consuming the stories, and that fiction has...mechanisms. Sometimes emotional impact is the point, not equations.
Yeah, there are lazy writers. But there are also writers whose goal wasn't what this guy thinks their goal should have been--and that's not his call.