The Saturn Awards

It’s still a little sad to me that Science Fiction Films are so ignored by the other award ceremonies that they need their own but there is little doubt that it is true.  That is of course not a slam against the Saturn Awards which are always fun.

The results this year aren’t surprising. Dark Knight came out on top with 5 awards while Benjamin Button and Iron Man each got three. Hellboy won for Horror film, which isn’t where I would categorize it but it was better than any horror film that came out so i’m not going to complain.

Indiana Jones won for best costume which is fitting since the hat was more interesting than most of the actors in the movie.

Lost won best TV series. Not sure if there were any other nominations, perhaps Battlestar Galactica had a chance if you missed the final episode or heroes if you missed the last two seasons.

Leonard Nimoy won a lifetime achievement award which he certainly deserves. Even if you ignore Star Trek he’s had a good career.

– Visit the Saturn Awards Homepage

Best Science Fiction Film: Iron Man
Best Fantasy Film: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Best Horror Film: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film: The Dark Knight
Best Actor: Robert Downey, Jr. (Iron Man)
Best Actress: Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Performance by a Younger Actor: Jaden Christopher Smith (The Day the Earth Stood Still)
Best Director: Jon Favreau (Iron Man)
Best Writer: Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight)
Best Music: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight)
Best Costume: Mary Zophres (Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
Best Make-Up: Greg Cannom (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Best Special Effects: Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin (The Dark Knight)
Best International Film: Let the Right One In
Best Animated Film: Wall-E
Best Television Series: Lost
Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series: Battlestar Galactica
Best Presentation on Television: The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
Best Actor on Television: Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Actress on Television: Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica)
Best Supporting Actor on Television: Adrian Pasdar (Heroes)
Best Supporting Actress on Televison: Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter)
Guest Starring Role on Television: Jimmy Smits (Dexter)
Best DVD Release: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
Best DVD Special Edition Release: Stephen King’s The Mist (2 disc Special Edition)
Best DVD Classic Film Release: Psycho (Universal Legacy Series)
Best DVD Collection: The Godfather-The Coppola Restoration
Best Series on DVD: Moonlight
Best Retro Series on DVD: The Invaders
The Life Career Award: Lance Henriksen
The Lifetime Achievement Award: Leonard Nimoy
The Visionary Award: Jeffrey Katzenberg

Science Fiction examines Religion

One of the most important aspects of Science Fiction is its ability to present us with ideas that are typically difficult for people to discuss or to help break us away from our preconceived ideas and think about things in a new way. The most difficult and important of these ideas are religion and the different ways that the science fiction franchises deal with religion are an excellent way of examining some of the different ways that people look at religion.

The Agnostic/Atheist

Humans in Star Trek almost never have a religion yet that general ignoring of religion among the humans of the show never stopped them from exploring religious ideas. The Agnostic humans are almost always meeting with “gods” from the original series with Greek gods and a god trapped in the center of the galaxy through the next generation where they met the devil, aliens from alternate dimensions who claimed to be god, and Q.

But most of the discussion of God was in Deep Space 9. It was here that the agnostic had to deal directly with something that he couldn’t fully understand, and at the same time deal with being a religious leader. The final battle even came down to a battle between gods.

In the end the agnostic is still an agnostic, or possibly even an atheist but he has learned to accept and even embrace the beliefs of others and more than anything that is the message of Star Trek.

The Unknowable God

The god of Battlestar Galactica is not an agnostic god. He interferes directly with the characters but the idea of worshiping him is difficult. Even the name of god evidently bothers it. Yet the ideas of destiny and belief are examined well in Battlestar Galactica.

And the question of destiny is one that is unavoidable when talking about God. If God is all knowing then how can we have free will? Battlestar Galactica falls on the side of free will, implying that God has been working to bring about solutions but allowing humans to fail.

Sadly the more important point that the God in Battlestar Galactica brought out is the danger of having an active God in any plot. Deus Ex Machinca(god from the machine) is one of the worst ways to end a story. Having the solution to everything be God did it, isn’t satisfying or good writing.

The Mystic

There is no real hint that anyone in the Star Wars movies really believes in god, yet these six movies are about a religious order and this disconnect from God allows us to look at the ideas without the debate.

The chief religious idea of Star Wars is that there is a force outside of us. Something that connects all living things and allows for a priesthood who can perform miracles.  One of the important aspects of this mysticism is that it is unexplained. This is something that just is.

This idea that there is something greater than us is the universal center of all religion. We may disagree on what that force is or what it wants of us but the core of religion is its existance and Star Wars has that core.

The Enlightenment

Star Gate, though it is almost exclusively about religion, deals with it very little. The Egyptian gods are safe because very few people on earth belive in Ra and they don’t watch science fiction TV series. but it does examine one aspect of religion very carefully in later episodes through the character Daniel Jackson.

That idea is that of enlightenment. The idea of ascendancy through some type of moral or physical purity is as idea of great importance to religion and yet even through this enlightenment we soon find that they are imperfect. Even those with true godlike power can make mistakes and be corrupted like the Ori.

Another important concept in the idea of ascendancy in Star Gate is the idea that people are unable to archive it on their own. Humans, at least in their current form, are not ready to become truly enlightened beings.

The Inclusion

There is an episode of Babylon 5 where every alien race is showing off their religion. This puts the commander of Babylon 5 in a tight spot because the idea of choosing a single religion from Earth is basically offensive.

In the end the solution of bringing representatives from all of earths religions could be considered avoiding the problem but only if you don’t understand the point he was making.

The religion of the humans in Babylon 5 had at least for that moment moved beyond a petty argument over who was right(not to be confused with enlightened debate which is good and healthy) to the uplifting of the ideas of diversity and love as the true religion of humanity and that idea wasn’t lost throughout the series in which humans, who were far from the most advanced or powerful of the races became important more because of their ability to unite people than anything else.

Are Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek Voyager the same show?

As some of you may know Ron Moore was once hired as the producer of Star Trek Voyager but left after only two episodes.  When asked about it he said that the show was not true because the ship looked to clean every week and basically things were to easy for them and that led people to not caring, but it appears some of the ideas stuck with Ron Moore and became a little show called Battlestar Galactica.

So let us examine a few of the ways that Battlestar Galactica and Voyager are similar and differnt and how a few small changes to a show and some good writing can make a premise that didn’t work on one show work perfectly on another.

The story

Voyager: A ship is stranded across the galaxy and attempting a seemingly hopeless trip to reach Earth.

Battlestar: A fleet are the only survivors of humanity making a seemingly hopeless trip to reach Earth.

There is certainly a happier ending built into the story of Voyager but this doesn’t really change the trip all  that much.

The Crew

Voyager : A female leader, an first mate with tattoos around his eyes, a hotshot pilot, an angry engineer, a Vulcan security officer, an annoying alien, a holographic doctor, a boring ensign, and a enemy cyborg attempting to be human.

Battlestar Galactica: Male Captain: Female leader, first mate with one eye, a hotshot pilot, an angry engineer, a self serving scientist, a boring son of the captain, an enemy robot attempting to be human.

Battlestar Galactica has more characters than Star Trek voyager did, but when you look at some of the interesting connections it becomes clearer.  The most striking connection to me is that between 7 of 9 and 6, but Tom Paris and Kara Thrace and even Janeway and Rosyln all have strong connections.

Reconciliation theme

Voyager - The crew is made up of two groups who were fighting but have to work together if they are going to survive.

Battlestar Galactica - Crew is made up of two groups who were fighting but have to work together if they are going to survive.

The marque have more in common with the crew of voyager than the cylons do with those of battlestar galactica but the connections are really pretty clear to me.

Survival

Voyager: Have replicator rations

Battlestar Galactica – Running short of everything, struggling to mine asteroids to get fuel while being attacked by cylons. Decided that things are so bad living on an alge planet might not be so bad.

This is where the Star Trek technology begins to get in the way. It’s hard to really think of someone struggeling to survive when they can play games on the holodeck and then replicate themselves cheeseburger for lunch and complaining about the meals that your cook makes for you doesn’t make you seem like you are barely surviving it makes you seem whinny.

Specific Storylines

Voyager: Find a crew of Starfleet personell who have been in the delta quadrent longer than them and have began to do bad things to survive.

Battlestar Galactica: Find a Battlestar who have been fighting the cylons and have began to do bad things to win.

Voyager: A disease threatens to wipe out the borg.

Battlestar Galactica: A disease threatens to wipe out the cylons

Voyager:  A macovirus attacks the crew but Janeway kills them all by lureing them into the holodeck and throwing in an antigen bomb.

Worst Voyager Episode?

Battlestar Galactica: Stopped before the show had to start coming up with stupid idea.

There are likely other episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Voyager which are similar, but these(not including the third) are both major story lines which were in both shows.

Thinking about all of this makes me sad because I realize that if the creators of Star Trek Voyager had really been willing to explore the ideas that were built into the show, such as how good people react to difficult circumstances and what people will do to survive we could have had a really interesting show, and while there were occasional good episodes of Voyager they never really explored it the way they could have.

On the other hand, Battlestar Galactica, as good as it was, didn’t have the history and legend of Star Trek behind it. Even with a few flashbacks we really didn’t know what the world these people had came from was like so sometimes it was difficult to express just how much these people had changed. This wouldn’t have been nearly as much of a problem on voyager.

Battlestar Galactica: Above the Genre?

Are science fiction fans so in need of critical acceptance of their shows that they will accept backhanded compliments and act as if they are completely reasonable? I avoided talking about the “Battlestar Galactica rises above the genre” statements as long as I have been able to resist but it makes me mad.

I like Battlestar Galactica,  I didn’t even hate it’s ending but the idea that it rises above the genre is frankly offensive because what it’s really saying is that science fiction is for stupid people but that somehow this one show managed to actually be good. This is important because it allows them to watch the show and like it while continuing to feel superior and dismiss everything else.

This is same problem that leads book stores to put books that are clearly science fiction into the other parts of the store so that they won’t be tainted by the association. This is the problem that makes writers such as Kurt Vonnegut claim that a book like slaughterhouse 5 isn’t science fiction.

There are many smart people writing good books, movies and TV series in genre fiction and the only way we are ever going to be able to convince people that the genre isn’t for 14 year old boys is if we stop accepting the premise that anything which isn’t for 14 year old boys rises above the genre.

Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak part 2

Battlestar Galactica has never been an easy show with easy answers and though I wanted answers to many of the things in it I also feared that they would answer them.

Much of the difficulty in this episode came from the fact that they didn’t give us strait answers on some of the questions instead only coming close enough to open discussion.

In the end we do find out what Kara, head six and head Baltar are, but that doesn’t really tell us everything we expected it to, and we find out what happens to most of the characters but that doesn’t always mean that we are happy with that ending.

It’s difficult to know exactly what to think of this episode, except to say that like much of Battlestar Galactica it made me think. It encouraged me to examine ideas, sometimes comfortable, sometimes uncomfortable ideas and I can certainly understand why some people wouldn’t like that. Brushing up against difficult ideas is often uncomfortable.

On the other hand i do not personally think that the writers took the easy way out by not fulling answering everything. The easy way out would have been the fairytale ending that in some ways we all want. The idea that they found a beautiful world, created a city, Kara and Lee live together happily, the fresh air or something like it heals Rosyln and she can build the cabin with Adama, and Hera becomes the leader of this place.

I see no way that in the end the writers of Battlestar Galactica could have written a truly satisfying ending because the themes of their show are themes that we as a race have not yet solved and if they had the answers to all of the questions of battlestar galactica’s moral ambaguities and decided to wait four years to put them out so they would have a great end to a series that would seem a little wrong.

Battlestar Galactica: Saying Goodbye

With last week’s episode a little weak in my opinion and the final episode coming on the air tonight I decided to remind myself, and everyone else as well just why I love this show.

Rather than coming up with a single top ten list of characters or episodes I decided to compile a few of the many lists on the net, as well as a couple clips which can remind us all why we love this show as well as a chance to remind us just where we have been.
IO9

Top “What the Frak” moments so far

5 battlestar spinoffs we’d love to see

Newsarama

5 best frakking ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Episodes

Fovever Geek

15 best Battlestar Galactica characters

Inside TV

Top Battlestar Galactica Episode

Buddy TV

25 best Battlestar Galactica Episodes

IGN

Top 10 Battlestar Galactica Characters

Nothing but everything

Top Ten Favorite battlestar Galactica Episodes

Top Ten Battlestar Galactica Characters

David Letterman Top 10

Trailers from each season

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak

I hope I missed something, because if i didn’t then the writers of Battlestar Galactica spent half of the second to last episode of a five years series on flashbacks that had little or no real connection to the ongoing plot.

It’s not that many of the things in the flashbacks weren’t interesting. it was interesting to see what these people were like before their world was destroyed, but it would have fit far better early in the series not almost an the end. I already know who Kara, Rosyln, Baltar and the Adamas are like, what I want to know now is how the end of the series will end.

I do have faith in the writers. They have taken me on a long and interesting ride and I suspect that they are setting up things which will be important in the final two hours but that dosn’t make it nessisary.

The rest of the episode was very interesting. I don’t know why after five years I did, but I really expected Baltar to vollenteer for the mission to save Hera.

They put this idea in my head with the discussion betwene Baltar and Lee where he asked Baltar if he could tell him of one good thing he had done and he admitted he coludn’t.

I still think that he might just do something selfless at the end, but I certainly wouldn’t bet a lot on it.  As for the rest it seems almost certain that some of the main characters are going to die and the Galactica are going to be blown up.

In addition they really need to explain what is going on with Kara in the next episode and hopefully explain Baltar’s visions of six througout the show, as well as finding another plannet, deal with Caval, and tie up the plotlines of about 15 other characters. A lot to pull off in two hours of television interupted with occasional commercial breaks which is likly to have a giant battle as well.

Let’s hope that they can pull it all together next week and create a series finally which lives up to the quality of the rest of the series.

Battleltar Galactica: Someone to Watch Over Me

In this episode of Battlestar Galactica Boomer finally rescues Hera from the Galactica, and not a moment to soon. This seems to me like the last place a parent would want to keep their child. The ship is falling apart, full of religious wackos with guns, occasionally people attack the cylons the captain and first mate are drunk most of the time and it appears that the flight leader has lost her mind. They should have moved her to the Cylon ship as soon as it arrived so that she would be safe.
Overall this was an interesting episode and I was impressed by just how much of the story they were able to tell without words. The story itself focused largely on the chief and boomer. I’m not sure that I understand a lot of his decisions lately but I can understand part of this. He found out his child wasn’t his child, his wife died, his hope for earth was destroyed, one of the few people in the universe who he felt connected to is in a coma, he is struggling to keep the Galactica in one piece and now the woman he loves appears on the ship, and is going to be executed.
That brings me to the trial of Boomer. She’s under arrest for shooting Adama, I get this generally assassination is looked down upon, but calling it a betrayal has always seemed suspect to me. She is a Cylon and once she knew that she attacked her people’s enemy in the best way she could, but that brings us to the rebel cylons. So far as I can tell they want to execute her for voting for the other guy. I can disagree with who you vote for but I wouldn’t call it treason.
The other half of the episode was Starbuck playing the piano. I don’t think there is much doubt now that her father is Danial, meaning that she is a hybrid. She might even be on the path to finding that out, but this made me think of something else.
The vision of her father reminds me of the visions that Baltar has always had of six. This makes me wonder if there might not be some connection between the two events. It seems likely to me that if Kara is half-cylon he could do cylon projection which could explain how she sees this, but that makes me wonder if perhaps we’re going to find out that Baltar is a hybrid as well. I’m not sure I like that idea, but I find it interesting.

BattleStar Galactica: Deadlock

If you thought that Ellen Tigh returning to the Battlestar Galactica was going to make things better then you haven’t been paying very close attention. Not only are the writers of Galactica unwilling to take the easy way out but it’s Ellen, the same woman who spent her previous life drinking and sleeping with half the men on the fleet.
That said, the solution seems to be clear and the Galactica is being infused with cylon cartilage in order to keep it going and it seems quite clear that the message of the show is that the fleet itself needs the cylons too, but it isn’t the help that the Cylons are giving them that is the ray of hope it this episode, it is the wall of photos and the conversation between Caprica and Rosyln.
Without resurrection the Cylons really can die. You can see it in Roslyn’s eyes when she talks to Caprica and in both of their eyes next to that wall. They want to see them as nothing but machines or at least outsiders but they can’t.
I think that is the miracle that they are talking about. Not some great mythical event or a ship of angels that leads them to a simple solution but a miracle that is both much easier and much more difficult a forgiveness on both sides which is profound enough that they can not only work together but move so past forgiveness that it stops being something they even have to think of and they become one and the last line of the episode is the sum of all of Adamas fears and hopes mixed together. “It’s already happened.”
There is no leaving the fleet for the cylons anymore and no more room for Adama to keep them outside.

A 13th Cylon

I didn’t think about it much the first time I watched this episode of Battlestar Galactica but there is no way the writers just dropped in that little bit of information for no reason. A 13th cylon, who was evidently an artist and killed by Al.(Brother Cavill)
This could be a way to make the rebel Cylons more acceptable to the viewer, making one of the others the real bad guy who led them all astray but I suspect it isn’t, but if there is another Cylon who would it be.
I think the answer is simple, it’s got to be Boxy. Why else would they have put this character in the mini-series except as a way to surprise us when he all returns in the finally to solve the entire problem. the shows writers have said that they would end the show with a bang and I for one can’t come up with a more surprising conclusion than if Boxy, probably along with Muffy, the robot dog to save both the Cylons and the humans, except if they were able to use their time traveling motorcycles to go back in time on earth and stop the atomic war, but then the Cylons wouldn’t come to the colonies and create the human models and… O.K. no time travel this time.