Closet Sci-Fi Geek

If you woke up tomorrow with a different set of memories, would you still be you?

A while back I watched A Scanner Darkly. While this is a good enough film (and yet another cinematic adaptation of a Philip K Dick novel), it’s certainly not the best film I’ve seen about fractured identities and perspectives that are warped by drugs or technology. Total Recall has much more fun with the

topic. Based on “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” by Philip K. Dick, it raises the fundamental question - do memories define character? If your memories tell you that you are a gun-slinging, ass-kicking spy; does that make you a gun-slinging, ass-kicking spy? Bladerunner (based on Philip K Dick’s, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) takes a more meditative approach to the topic. Is the film-noiresque hero, Deckard, real or not? Is he a human or is he a replicant who has forgotten that he is artificial. The random selection of antique photos on Deckard’s piano gives us a clue. Are they a record of Deckard’s past or are they a badly constructed history; a collation of tenuously linked memories. Then there’s the unicorn dream he keeps having. Again, is this his subconscious at work or another memory, implanted by Tyrell Corporation? Similarly, if you can hide memories, can you hide a personality? Take Talia Winters from Babylon 5. One minute she is a mild mannered telepath, minding her own business as best she can, the next minute her ’sleeper’ personality has been activated and she’s a cold-blooded killer. Ditto with The Long Kiss Goodnight. Amiable housewife becomes professional killer. There are many many many other examples. But just one question really. If you woke up tomorrow with a completely different set of memories, would you still be you?

If You Were to Create a Sci-Fi Show, What Would it Look Like?

Here are some things I’d like to see:

I would like to see some sort of epic space opera along the lines of Star Wars, where swashbuckling, magic, and spaceships all combine for a really good ride.

What about cyberpunk? Am I the only one missing the heady cyberpunk days before the web was solidified? Back before there was a real Internet, it seemed easier to put out a film or a show about the imagined Internet. Remember Tek War and Johnny Mnemonic? Not the best, but I’m kind of missing the hand-waving computer interfaces and the goggled virtual realities. We could do updated cyberpunk, and better.

Alternate universes. I’d like to see something real imaginative done in an alternate universe. Not Sliders, something stranger and very bizarre.

How about you?

Stargate SG-1 Ends Tonight…So Where Does That Leave SciFi?

I’m about nine seasons behind with Stargate SG-1 so I won’t be watching the series finale that’s airing tonight. (Not to mention, I’ll be out performing comedy improv in West Los Angeles!) So now SG-1 is dead, and BSG is dying soon. Whither SciFi? We have Painkiller Jane (I’m not even sure what that concept is all about), Stargate Atlantis, Eureka (which has grown on me), The Dresden Files (perching precariously on a precipice), and…WRESTLING.

The Friday night line-up is screwed, and Saturday nights have become lame-ass TV movie from hell night. Suggestion: Move Dresden and Doctor Who to Friday nights, put Painkiller Whats-her-face on Saturday nights with Eureka, bring back some good old sci-fi shows for reruns, and drop the wrestling.

I could be wrong. Not that it matters much to me anymore anyway, since I’m now becoming a big fan of the “wait ’til it’s on DVD” method of watching shows.

Battlestar Galactica’s Brief Journey: How Long Should Sci-Fi Shows Last?

With the recent news about the impending end of Battlestar Galactica after only four seasons, I have to ask the following question:

How many seasons is the right amount of seasons for a good, serialized science fiction show?

The new Star Treks were supposed to last around seven seasons (many did not make it that far). Farscape was pulled after four seasons, although the arc was planned for five. Babylon 5 made it to a full five seasons, but it lasted two seasons too long, in my opinion. Meanwhile, Stargate (and its spin-offs) is quickly becoming the Bonanza of the sci-fi world.

So it is with some hesitancy that I proclaim my disappointment at BSG ending so soon. (Although, it is not one of my all-time favorite shows, and I have yet to get caught up with season three.) Maybe it’s a good idea to plan for serialized science fiction shows to have a short shelf life. I know I’m not the only person who wishes Lost were simply going to be wrapped up sooner than later…not because we dislike it, but because the suspense is killing us.

The great thing about the planned axing of BSG (and a few years from now, Lost) is that writers and producers can plan out the show so it can maintain a strong integrity and focus throughout its run. One only needs to look at how Babylon 5 wore out its welcome once the main battle was done and over with. The X-Files stupidly continued on without Mulder - WHY?

When we think about the science fiction worlds we love the most, many of them are short-lived and compact in nature. Movies, for example, run only a few hours. The Matrix would have been better as a standalone. The original Star Wars captured our hearts with the first three installments; there was no need to go back and add the backstory.

There’s a tendency to want to milk a franchise for all its worth, the way Paramount did with Star Trek. Did that make Star Trek better, however? When I think about Star Trek, I still think about Captain Kirk. That’s the Trek I love the most, to this day. If Captain Janeway had never existed, I would not have missed her one bit.

That’s not to say that shows can’t be good if they continue for a long time. But I prefer those to be mindless candy throwaway shows. Remember Friday the 13th, The Series? Did we need to follow that in order? Did we care? It’s something that, if it’s on, you go, “oh, hey, Friday the 13th, I’ll watch this.” And so it’s nice to have a bunch of episodes hanging around for all those reruns. The one exception to this is Doctor Who, but, well, they’re British so no wonder they manage to do it smartly. But otherwise, do the good shows need to last longer? I say no.

Maybe I’m wrong. What do you think?

What Happens When Time Stops?

Just a question to throw out there:

In the Twilight Zone episode where the guy has the stopwatch that stops time, what ultimately happens when his stopwatch breaks?

Has he now stopped time forever, leaving all people in the world in a state of suspension?

Will time start again when he himself dies?

Will he even die at all? Are his bodily functions and needs put on hold now that time has stopped?

If he does need food and water, will he still be able to eat and drink whatever is frozen in time?

Or, is there a failsafe device on the stopwatch, meaning that, while he is forever frozen in that one spot of time, after a certain period, the rest of the world will start up again, and he will just “disappear”?

Of course, this is only a TV show…