foolish_m0rtal | Entries tagged with sci-fi

"Are we done here?"
"You tell me."

Dear world,
I turned on the tv after marathoning a shit-ton (technical term meaning more than 300 minutes) of Person of Interest. Guess what's on now? Oh, nothing just TERMINATOR SALVATION.

This is the universe telling me all the things, dudes. Like, I don't even know what's going on at this point. All I know is that I'm finding Sam Worthington's character unsettlingly attractive, and he's not even my type at all. Moon Bloodgood? Yeah, that's an easy decision, cause damn. But Sam Worthington? Hmmm.... It must be the hot ass resistance fighter jackets.

Aaand he just got punched in the heart. Dammit, Terminators. Who does that? Maybe I'd like this film more if:

a) Christian Bale weren't so fucking intense with his John Connor. Calm down, bro. It's an action film, not Oscar bait. Calm the hell down.

b) They'd stayed with the original storyline of Kate grafting dead John Connor's skin onto Marcus's exoskeleton to keep the legend of John Connor going. So John Connor isn't even the real John Connor, he's Marcus pretending to be John Connor. Mind. Blown. Definitely would have liked this since it would have forced Bale to chill out. I also liked Marcus loads better.

c) They'd made Kate more kickass. She's supposed to be second in command, but most of the film is her standing around while John talks at her and says Significant Things while the camera Dutch angles his face. Blair Williams was a badass. Why u no make Kate like her? Oh yeah, because women in media are all about 'healing shit and having babies,' as my friends and I have said on multiple occasions.

c) They'd added more Ho Yay, because you can never have enough Ho Yay. John Connor's all like, "I know he's machine scum, but there's just...something about him. What is this feeling? Team, I am experiencing emotion. Please hold me back before I jump Marcus's metal bones." Why do I keep doing this to myself, guys?

You can disagree with me on this wholeheartedly.

I recently read an article called Gender-swapped Doctors. The article's cosplay pictures are really fantastic, but I think it tries to read way too much into cosplayer motivations. It talks about female cosplayers who dress up as the Doctor, and how this reflects their perceptions of the show and their disappointment in female characters in the show. While this is an interesting argument, it left me confused.

Maybe because I've cosplayed in the past, but gender lines in cosplay are pretty much non-existent. I like the Doctor character, so I dress up as him. If I wanted to dress up as Martha Jones or a dalek, I would do it because I find those characters interesting. There's no real gender crisis for me, and I'm confused why the writer of the article expects cosplayers to have these same crises. Some of the questions asked in the article were:

Why do so many women want to dress up as the Doctor, rather than his many companions?
Because it's a goddamn Doctor Who convention. I don't understand why the writer of the article expects female cosplayers to all dress up as companions. That takes all the fun out of cosplay. The Doctor is the main character, and I don't know why the writer thinks that female cosplayers would stay away from him just because he's played by a male actor. Also, genderqueer. Look it up. It's kind of a thing.

And why do they create such beautifully femme versions of the Time Lord's eccentric costumes?
There are all sorts of different interpretations of the Doctor's costumes. There are very few and visible fandoms that prize absolute accuracy of costume over inventiveness. I'm sure you can name a few. Sure, there are femme versions of the Doctor's costumes. There are also steampunk versions. I would love an article about that.

And most of all, why doesn't the Doctor look like this on television?
Not sure if a real question or just creepy.

1) This song is extremely addicting, especially when I'm coding.

2) Yes, I know I already posted a fanvid with this song to Sherlock, but whoever did this vid for Doctor Who absolutely nails the timing on all the scenes. It is beautiful.

2) The Dandy Warhols totally shred.

I HOPE A NERDY GUY IN A TARDIS SHOWS UP IN MY GARDEN.

( the complete list )Stolen from

broken_moons

NPR recently published the list of the top 100 science fiction and fantasy books as voted for by the public. So let's meme it, strike out the ones you've read, italicise (I'm colouring) the ones you'd recommend to others and no, seeing the movies doesn't count!

I'm pretty excited about some of the books that made this list! There are a lot that I've been planning on reading, so I'm glad I've got a compiled list now). Not to say that the uncoloured ones are books I dislike, but I feel close to the ones I chose.

Current Mood: busy

From the Tor.com blog entry: "Five Short Stories with Useless Time Travel"

I want to consider a selection of short stories on the theme of useless time travel. In SF, often a lot of the best work has always been at short lengths. I’m going to talk about Poul Anderson’s “The Man Who Came Early” (1956), Alfred Bester’s “The Men Who Murdered Mohammed” (1958), R..A. Lafferty “Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne” (1967), Robert Silverberg’s “House of Bones” (1988) and Robert Reed’s “Veritas” (2002).

All five of these are excellent stories, all of them are thought provoking, and they’re all in dialogue with the novels I’ve been discussing. Most of them have been much collected and anthologized and are easy to get hold of, but the only copy of “Veritas” I have is in an old Asimov’s.

What I mean by useless time travel is time travel that doesn’t change anything—either where somebody goes back in time and stays there without making any difference, or time travel that changes itself out of existence, or time travel that is in some other way futile. I don’t just mean changing time. In books like Butler’s Kindred where the protagonist saves the lives of her ancestors but doesn’t otherwise affect the world, time travel still serves a useful purpose.

Read more on the blog

Keep on rocking, dudes

Current Mood: amused

...which ultimately culminates in a Photoshopped picture, as extended jokes are wont to do.

I especially like Jack Harkness flashing the peace sign in the background. Classy, Jack. Classy...

S~~targate Universe SUCKS~~

~~Why are there f*cking CIVVIES?!~~

~~I TOLD you so! I told you so last YEAR!~~

You miss Atlantis now,
don't you, BRAD AND ROBERT?

SGU is 'DS9 of the Stargate franchise'?!
Think ENTERPRISE

~~Half your fanbase is GONE~~

~~Space gate EVERBODY!~~

I am not good with people...

Watching Warehouse 13, the episode with the Native American artefacts and the villain that walks through walls. Joe Flannigan is making a guest appearance as antique collector Jeff Weaver! *flail!*

Heard the voice and saw the swaggering "I'm the man" walk and thought oh no. This can't be. You bet it is! I yelled "JOHN FUCKING SHEPPARD!" inappropriately loudly at the screen. XD He looks so much like he did in the Vegas episode with the suit he's wearing. Except he's clean shaven...when did THAT happen? He even has the same spiky all over the place hair. The goofy incredulous expressions. The smirks. The low smoker’s voice. Down. To. The. Letter. I’m afraid Artie will be like “AMG, you have the ATA gene” and throw him into the warehouse as a rare and magical item that cannot be set loose upon the world. (Epilogue: Jeff walks into the warehouse and half the artefacts light up in there like Christmas)

Aand as I'm typing Peter just “bow chicka wow-wowed” Weaver. ^_^; Keep it inside, Pete. Keep it inside…

Speaking of Warehouse 13, O_O. I am so impressed with the female characters in that show.

There's Myka, who is absolutely gorgeous and has an actual personality instead of being just a ‘love interest’ or a ploy to present the show as politically correct or equal opportunist. So refreshing. She’s snippy, painfully logical, and knows all sorts of weird facts because her family owned a bookstore. I didn’t like her at first because she was skeptical and didn’t seem like she wanted to adapt to a situation, but later I feel this is part of what makes her who she is. She has flaws. I respect that. (Writers, make Myka put down her hair more)

Woman number two: Claudia Donovan. Ah-h, what can I say about Claudia? She’s kind of like the irreverent punk girls I liked back in high school. She gives Artie a run for his money in the brains department. She’s a pretty decent hacker/techie and can do whatever she puts her mind to. Should I just mention she makes spectacular geek references (Star Wars and Star Trek so far) that make me smile?

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the characters, though Artie sometimes seems more like a deus ex machina or a computer. (Like Bob in the Harry Dresden books)

Still, forget Battlestar Galactica: the Warehouse 13 women are terrific in all the right ways. *shamelessly fangirls*

Update: I just found a Dresden Files/Warehouse 13 crossover fic. 80 Yes, apparently people DO write fanfiction about anything. It was pretty awesome, though. Bob's skull was taken as an artefact into the warehouse, and Harry showed up all like, "Give Bob back, bitchez!" And then proceeded to take random things from the warehouse according to Bob's instruction. (including the hockey stick staff. Yes.)

Ancient Mai and Mrs. Fredrics had quiet eerie conversation and look on calmly.

XD Yes! Ancient Mai and Mrs. Fredrics should team up and stage a coup of the High Council! Then Molly Carpenter and Claudia Donovan can be like the scrappy Teen Titans whilst Murphy and Myka become lovers.

Then everybody else that's left can go out and have a beer. Except Bob, who is undead and can have no beers. T_T It really is a doomed existence.

Current Mood: bouncy

So everyone has an opinion, right? (I've heard yours, I've read your rants, and I've enjoyed them immensely)

Television Without Pity: Spare the Snark, Spoil the Networks, is a website for the t.v discussions inside all of you, just waiting to spill out. Here, fans can discuss what was the best new television series of the year, which character really REALLY needs to get killed off, and which worst pairing was probably created when the writing staff was out doing shots at the local Cattle Annie's.

Right now, TWP is having a polling contest to gather a general consensus about just these sort of things. As I understand it, a batch of polls goes out every week culminating with a list of "____ of 2009" (insert name of desired poll in blank) in the end.

So go to the polls

As I got this information through one of the Stargate Atlantis comms, I only thought it appropriate to give you some Stargate themed polling questions I found that were posted earlier.

( See examples )

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Shipping Up to Boston" by Dropkick Murphys

The Dollhouse doesn't exist. Or does it? Merely an urban legend in Los Angeles, there are some who say it can't happen and others swear it is real. An organization full of mind wiped people (dolls) who have new personalities (including memory, muscle memory, skills, and language) downloaded into them like organic flashdrives. Any personality, anything you want.

( more about Dollhouse )

Current Mood: gloomy

Stargate Universe preview: (the real one, not the fake X-treme Wormhole ad they had going for a while)

The Previously unknown purpose of the "Ninth Cheveron" is revealed, and ends up taking a team to an Ancient ship "Destiny", a ship built millions of years ago by the Ancients, used to seed Distant galaxies with Stargates. This team, led by Dr. David Rush and Colonel Everet Young, are trapped on the ship, unable to change its programmed mission, and encounter new races, new technology and new enemies, as the runaway ship takes them to the far ends of the Universe.

So basically this is like "The Daedalus Variations" (P.S. one of my favourite SGA 5th season episodes) combined with Star Trek: Voyager. "Oh no, Colonel- we're in the frakking Delta Quadrant!"

Please.

First Trailer

Second Trailer

Ye-ah, so basically the trailers tell us nothing but *scream scream* "We're not supposed to be here."

( Meet the Cast )

Current Mood: busy

A Wired editor's creation of a TIE fighter model out of Starbucks cups and stirrers prompted the magazine to create a contest for its readers to submit their own art out of similar Starbucks material."

See full story

Current Mood: discontent

Well, that kind of sucked. I feel like they've hyped up near death so much, this episode felt like it didn't have any meat, and I didn't feel any kind of suspense. I was kind of sad when I thought Ronon had died.
Also, way to redo Mckay's character into a moosh-ball at the very end of the series.
Keller: "Are you okay?"
Mckay: Sarcastically, "I"m alive."
Okay, so that's typical. Now should come some complaining, with Sheppard and Ronon shouting for him to shut up in the background. This would have been a great classic ending. But NO.

(continued) Mckay: "I've got you." *puts arm around Keller* "What else do I need?"

Oh PLEASE. Mckay is neither that smooth nor that adept and expressing emotions. You know he cares when he bugs the hell out of you and shows up at your door wielding X-Files complaining about the incompetence of his staff.

Thought I was going to cry at the end of the series. Nope. Thanks for letting me keep my dignity, new Stargate writing staff, by making the end so stupid, I just ended up walking out dispiritedly. This does not bode well for Stargate Universe.

I did however like ties to other Stargate episodes.

Vegas: With alternate reality Stargate characters in the series, I'd wanted an episode mainly about an alternate universe, and I got it with "Vegas." (though I must admit, whoever was doing the postproduction for that episode loved white-outs waaay too much) Makes me feel like the Stargate writers have been roaming around the web during lunch breaks getting ideas from SGA fanfiction. The events of Vegas ended up interfering directly with the original SGA universe and became the main basis of the plot of the last episode. I REALLY liked that. Alternate realities imprinting on each other- that's the stuff of good fanfiction.

The Daedalus Variations: I don't know how many times I watched this episode on youtube until it got taken off, but it was a LOT. They used knowledge they'd gained from the alternate reality hopping Daedalus to figure out the Wraith signal they were picking up was from the alternate reality from "Vegas."

The Siege: Haha, Sheppard remembered! When he goes on a suicide mission to nuke the hive ship in the last episode, he says "If you contact Atlantis, tell him I said goodbye." Last time John went on a suicide mission in "The Siege," he just left with a 'so long, Rodney,' which got him yelled at in the end. Good thing you remembered and spared yourself a Mckay rant, Sheppard!

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Location: Atlantis Jumper Bay
Current Music: Knights of Cydonia