10. All will be revealed –Â the next time Cavil’s sliding around in slick goo.
9. Gaeta hooks up with Racetrack. Or Seelix. Or any woman.
8. Little Nicky dons the nickname “Boxey” and grows his hair into a shaggy bowl.
7. Helo is revealed as the One True God.
6. Joe’s Bar becomes Quark’s Bar.
5. The fifth and final Cylon is discovered – in Baltar’s pants.
4. Basestar threesome with Boomer, Cavil, and Scar.
3. Poo Barge finds Earth and lands in Clark Griswold’s driveway on Christmas.
2. Bubbles in Grandpa Goo’s tub kill the entire fleet.
1. New radical Centurion political sect: Sons of Larry.
A recent article — on how Battlestar Galactica could save your marriage — includes a commentary on why women love BSG by sometime-geek chick Martha Brockenbrough, a former contributor to Slate and the founder of the SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (which I totally respect). But I beg to differ with some of Martha’s points on the issue of women and sci-fi. An excerpt:
There are other secondary characters in steady relationships, though, and this satisfies a woman’s romantic sweet tooth. One of these might even be the most adorable love affair on TV, between Karl “Helo” Agathon and Sharon “Boomer” Valerii, even if only one of the partners is a human. Neither of them knew Sharon was a Cylon when they first fell for each other. Both were devastated when they found out, but Helo never wavered. And even though the humans abused her, Sharon also did what she could to help them survive. These two are heroes, dammit!
First, there’s the stereotyping: a woman’s “romantic sweet tooth”? Second, a strange sense of “adorable”: I find Helo and Sharon attractive people, but their marriage is not “adorable.” It’s a strong relationship that’s been forged through a lot of determination and trust. Third and most egregious, a lack of understanding of plot and character: “Neither of them knew Sharon was a Cylon when they first fell for each other.” Wha-a? I suppose when Athena-to-be bedded Helo in the forest and then reported to Six and Doral afterward on the rooftop that “we had sex,” it was a completely unconscious move on her part? And — there’s the small fact that Boomer isn’t even the Sharon Helo married.
A female commentator who says women love BSG because it’s romantic and who can’t tell Cylon models apart or understand the basic elements of the story? I love ya, Martha, but you can’t speak for geek girls until you’ve spent a few dozen hours with the DVDs and done your homework.
One of the fundamental (and best) qualities of a geek girl is that she knows her stuff. Being intellectual equals with geek guys is what makes geekdom so cool – it’s not as comfortably nested in the old thinking that men should outsmart women and women should out-sexy men. (Well, at least not the first part.) Geek girls are allowed to make mistakes just like anyone — but if you can’t tell Sharons apart when there are only two to keep track of – you lose your geek card.
Update: Don’t miss additional comments on this post in this GWC Forum thread.
According to Reuters, Tuesday the SciFi network told advertisers that they’ve approved a two-hour pilot of the BSG prequel series Caprica. While RDM and David Eick’s Caprica has been in the works for two years and production will begin “this spring,” no one’s guessing yet at an airdate. I suspect it won’t be “immediate.”
Either way, I’m stoked about the series, which will take place 50 years before current Galactica events and will purportedly focus on the lives of two families – the Adamas and the Graystones. (Perhaps the Graystones are on Starbuck’s dad’s side.) Wikipedia claims Caprica will depict life in the peaceful Twelve Colonies and the technological breakthrough in robotics that gives rise to…well, you know the rest.
Another set of webisodes and a BSG video game on SciFi’s website are also in the works, according to Reuters. Now we know we’ll have more of the Galactica universe to look forward to even after the show wraps up in 2009. So say we all!
Caprica Pilot Given the Green Light [Reuters]
Caprica TV Series [Wikipedia]
Sometimes I think we’re alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we’re not. In either case the idea is quite staggering. – Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction giant and author of over 100 books including Childhood’s End (1953), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rendezvous with Rama (1972), and The Fountains of Paradise (1979), died today at his home in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.
Clarke’s ideas rippled throughout science, science fiction, and broader popular culture. His concept of the geostationary telecommunications satellite in 1945 predates the creation of modern telecom satellites. And Clarke’s 1979 novel Fountains of Paradise laid the groundwork for what he believed would be his ultimate legacy — the concept of a space elevator that will replace space shuttles.
Clarke’s fiction and nonfiction books, essays, and short stories as well as his work in the arts and sciences earned him numerous honors and namesake discoveries (including a species of dinosaur found in Australia, Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei). In 1998 he was honored with a knighthood by the Queen of England.
From the biography at the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation:
During the evolution of his discovery, he worked with scientists and engineers in the USA in the development of spacecraft and launch systems, and addressed the United Nations during their deliberations on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space…In 1954, Clarke wrote to Dr. Harry Wexler, then chief of the Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau, about satellite applications for weather forecasting. From these communications, a new branch of meteorology was born…
Since 1956 Clarke has lived in Sri Lanka exploring a passion for marine diving, where he said he comes as close as possible to the weightless feeling of space. Having suffered post-polio syndrome and at times been confined to a wheelchair, Clarke once said, “I’m perfectly operational underwater.”
At his 90th birthday party last December, Clarke expressed his wish that one day extraterrestrial beings would “call us or give us a sign…We have no way of guessing when this might happen,” Clarke said; “I hope sooner rather than later.”
It’s time to dig out the ole’ 2001 DVD again. We’ll miss you, Sir Arthur.
Arthur C. Clarke [The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation]
Clarke’s passing [MSNBC.com]
Okay, so there haven’t been any confirmed sightings of a Cylon ship — but as of this year, the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) perched atop Mount Graham in Arizona is the closest we humans have come to being able to see clearly something that far away. At 580 metric tons (double the weight of the previous heavyweight telescope champ) and with ten times the clarity of the Hubble, the LBT can’t see farther than our previous best scopes, but it can see a wider, sharper view of space — and also whatever sexy cyborgs may be hurtling toward an inevitable invasion of Earth.
According to Spaceref.com:
With unparalleled observational capability, astronomers will be able to view planets in distant solar systems, and detect and measure objects dating back to the beginning of time (14 billion years ago)…It uses two massive 8.4-meter (27.6 foot) diameter primary mirrors mounted side-by-side to produce a collecting area equivalent to an 11.8-meter (39 foot) circular aperture.
To be honest, I didn’t know that scientists had quantified the “beginning of time” at 14 billion years ago. I have a pair of jeans at least that old, and something had to come before. Otherwise, who made them?
Academic and astronomy institutions in Germany, Italy, and the U.S. began with conceptual designs twenty years ago and today are undoubtedly popping champagne across the globe. Just keep an eye on the Dradus.
LBT Observatory [Main Site]
The LBT [SpaceRef]
What do Beverly Crusher, Ziggy Stardust, and Ludo have in common? Gates McFadden worked with Jim Henson as a choreographer for the movies The Dark Crystal (1982) and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984) and as Director of Choreography and Puppet Movement in Labyrinth (1986). As an actor she goes by “Gates,” while as choreographer she is credited as Cheryl McFadden (her real full name is Cheryl Gates McFadden, after her late mother, Veronica Gates McFadden).
And a cool piece of Dr. Crusher trivia: Gates McFadden, who considers theater her true love, is trained in stage swordfighting – as is Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi). Yet only the male actors were allowed to use swords in the Star Trek: TNG episode “Qpid” (1991, the one where Worf, dressed all in magenta-scarlet, complains “Sir, I must protest. I am not a merry man!”)
I always knew Gates McFadden was cool, but the puppeteering and swordfighting just top it off.
Gates McFadden Article [Memory-Alpha.org]
Patrick Stewart, who was well known in the Royal Shakespeare Company for twenty years before becoming Captain Picard in 1987 on ST:NG, is back onstage in London in the title role of of Macbeth. He talked to the New York Times about his acting career and shot the breeze about working on Trek:
To his bemusement he was described in the Los Angeles Times, he said, as “unknown British Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart.” On set he had difficulty fitting in and took offense at the way he felt his castmates tended to horse around. So he called a meeting and “lectured them about having to be more serious,” he said. That did not go over very well. “It was really awful, being dressed down by the captain,” said Spiner, who played the android Data, and is still close to Stewart. “We really thought, ‘Well, please, get over it.’ “
Stewart’s certainly no longer “unknown,” and he’s getting a lot of love from critics for his role as the bloodthirsty (and newly sexy) Macbeth, though apparently this wasn’t always the case with his fellow Brits:
Critics who sniffed that he had sold out “to zoom about television screens in a preposterous spacesuit,” as Nicholas de Jongh put it in the Evening Standard of London, have showered him with perhaps the highest compliment they can conjure. He has, they say, overcome the technique-destroying indignity of being a major U.S. television star…[later] De Jongh called Stewart “one of our finest Shakespearean actors”…
Huh. Wonder what they said about his role in “American Dad.”
Article [SF Gate]
Macbeth Review [The New Yorker]
On the Twelfth Day of BSG my true love gave to me:
Twelve Raiders Raiding
Eleven Vipers Viping
Ten Larrys Leaping
Nine Gaetas Prancing
Eight Naked Sharons
Seven Spines a’Glowing
Six Sixes LayingFive Tubs of Goo!
Four Battling Birds
Three Hybrids
Two Pyramid Balls
And the Towel that was Draped Around Lee!
10. Paddle-ball Fantastica
9. Cattle-barn Milk Lactica
8. Snaggle Yarn Cat Scratchtica
7. Heavy-Scar Raidertica
6. Anders Rocks the Sacktica
5. President Airlocktica
4. Whiskey Bar Frakked-up Gaeta
3. Buccaneer Beertactica
2. Cylons get Knocked-uptica
1. Battlestar Kick-Asstica
*Bonus from Chuck: Felgercarb Fraktaktica!
10. By 2009, an entire new generation of sci-fi fans will have been born, and we can use the last half of Season Four to squeeze profits from them.
9. The ass-beating the network will receive from Battlestar’s rabid fanbase will be less bloody than if we waited ’till 2010, like we originally wanted to.
8. Brilliant writing, acting, music, effects, and production have all come together on SciFi original series before. And it will all happen again.
7. SciFi network viewers are still stunned and confused from recent kickass programming with BSG. We must embrace our traditional mediocrity to comfort them.
6. In 2009, no one will be left alive who has seen the 1978 or 1980 Galactica series, eliminating pesky OG criticism.
5. Wouldn’t that be sweet if Battlestar Galactica ran for five years? FIVE YEARS!!
4. By 2009, inflation rates will have risen to the point where iTunes can charge what NBC wants for the shows.
3. The gap will help to explain why Chief Tyrol is already showing little Nicky how to shave.
2. When we finally view the end of Season Four, Adama and Tigh will be old enough to have been part of the original exodus to the twelve colonies, thus ending the debate about sailing ships once and for all.
1. Three words about the women in BSG: Sexier with age.
We know that when Razor is released we’ll get to see the back story of how Cain dealt with the attacks on the colonies. It’s been suggested she may not have always been the ice queen we came to know and love/hate.
Here’re the top ten reasons she got that way:
10. She was gonna be an actress. She was gonna be a star. She was gonna shake her ass on the hood of Whitesnake’s car. Then she got drafted.
9. Her college nickname: “Magic Carpet Ride.” She’d show them when she was in charge.
8. Lost a bet in grade school: Either Tommy Davison asks you out, or you become an all-powerful misanthropic dictator who terrorizes the last crumbling remnants of the human race.
7. Tired of her older brothers claiming she “fought like a girl.”
6. Had a fling with President Adar’s predecessor, Wally, and loved the taste of raw power.
5. Did a teaching stint in public junior high for three years before joining up.
4. Knew Paula Abdul was thinking of her when she writhed around, singing “Cold Hearted Snake.”
3. Always thought Cain was the cooler brother.
2. Thought women should rise to the top by kicking, rather than sitting on, men’s laps.
1. Out to shake off those damn Ro groupies once and for all!
Here’s the stuff they don’t want us to see – the stuff that landed on the cutting room floor.Â
10. Starbuck is really the love child of Brother Cavil and the Hybrid.
9. Lucy Lawless’ sidekick from Xena: Warrior Princess shows up to do a love scene with Baltar. Gets boxed.
8. Gaeta’s tattoo…goes all the way down!
7. The secret love tryst among Doral, Leoben, and a Daggit.
6. Tigh wore his eye patch on the wrong side for the first two days of filming, so they just left it in.
5. Adama and Roslin hooked up way before Season One.
4. Lee admits to Dee he’s been seeing Tory on the side. And Seelix. And Racetrack. And Laura Roslin.
3. The Algae Pot Pies in Hangar Deck B gain consciousness and form their own labor union.
2. Admiral Cain is a Centurion.
1. Baltar discovers that Six is real, and he’s the one who’s imaginary.
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