The Sci-Fi Chics Blog

Come on!  I mean it in a good way.    I LOVED X-Files, and Supernatural has all the mood, ghouls, drama and humor (okay, lots more humor) of it's predecessor.  Of course, I think part of the reason Supernatural reminds me of X-Files to the degree it does is because there are so many frakkin' XF alums on board-- Kim Manners, David Nutter, John Shiban...  not to mention the murkey Vancouver location and slew of actors that have been recycled from XF through Supernatural.    The only thing missing is the angst-inducing UST (Unresolved Sexual Tension for you n00bs).   This is where the two part ways. To be honest, as much as I enjoxed the sexual tension and interplay between Mulder and Scully, it's a relief that Supernatural bears no such cross.  And I adore the relationship between Sam and Dean.  It rings true to me with it's amalgam of affection, irritation and protectiveness. 

The question is, is any body else watching?  There are a mulitude of fan sites, but fans can't make a series stick (Farscape and Party of Five fans notwithstanding), and with mediocre ratings at best, I fear Supernatural will go the way of other dark spooky series like the aforementioned  Friday the 13th and my dearly departed Special Unit 2   **sigh**

And  now for something completely different...

As to your Morgraine question, AS-- I think Morgraine's journey was deeply personal.  For me, there's no other way to describe it.  None of the other passages you mentioned-- mythical, sexual, spiritual etc, quite sum it up for Morgraine.   Hers was an all-encompassing struggle/journey towards self.  (Not to sound all pop-psychologisty).  Starbuck's journey is compelling and I love the character, but her quest doesn't come close to Morgraine's in my book. 

-SC

Well I'm a wreck about tonight's episode of Galactica. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!!!)  I can't believe the TPTB have managed to keep Starbuck's fate underwraps, despite the combined efforts of journalists and fangirls and boys. I'm absolutely fascinated by her story arc and can't wait to see where she ends up. I don't know that I have ever been this enthralled with a character's journey. Aeryn on Farscape had a great journey but hers was mostly emotional/personal. Starbuck's journey is personal, emotional, physical, spiritual, sexual, mythical - it's a joy to see such a completely drawn female character on American TV.  Or in any medium, really.   Indeed, I could count on one hand the number of female characters who occupy the same space as Starbuck.

One of them is Morgaine, from The Mists of Avalon.

First of all let me say that I had a love affair with TMOA. Blew the back of my head off when I read it, and when I was finished I couldn't find anything to read for the longest time, because nothing else measured up. What an outstanding take on a much-told story. Kudos to MZB.

Second, I would say that TMOA marked my coming of age as a reader (and media consumer). I've always been a reader, movie watcher, TV buff, that sort of thing, but reading TMOA sort of opened my eyes to the flatness of many a female character. It's only too easy to put female characters into stereotypical categories: The Madonna. The Whore. The Career Woman. The Housewife. The Sex Pot. The Ugly Duckling. What I love about Morgaine is that she is all of those things and more. She has good days and bad, and in finding that I loved her, I found in myself the ability to embrace imperfection, something I had struggled with for many years. I didn't always like what Morgaine did but I always understood why she did the things she did; I never left her, not for a moment, and lived and died with her triumph and tragedy. Also, she was complete from the beginning. What I mean by that is, so many female characters are struggling to define who they are and where they fit in. They are learning to be strong. This is essentially the theme of every frakking book in Oprah's book club. You know, the "abused woman finds the courage to leave the relationship" kind of theme. Nothing wrong with that at all (and huzzah! to all the people in abusive relationships who find the courage to get the hell out) but I'm more compelled by the female character who is strong by nature, not circumstance, and whose journey has more to do with making the world strong enough for HER, rather than her trying to be strong enough for the world. In short, I love women who are natural survivors, and I love female characters who are messed up. Show me a saint and I'll show you a woman I want to slap. Show me a sinner crawling towards grace on bloody hands and knees, and I'll show you a woman with whom I can kill a bottle of wine! 

To return to my original point, Starbuck, of course, is in this rare category of female characters, along with Scarlett O'Hara. (When I say that people are usually like SCARLETT O'HARA?!   But I am talking about the Scarlett of the book, not the movie, the Scarlett who from page one thought people were generally full of shite, the Scarlett who got it done and kept her people safe while the men lounged on the veranda and moaned about how much they missed the old days, the Scarlett who up and slapped her pampered sister when that sister complained one too many times that she was too good to work in the fields, the Scarlett who said to the sister, "You frakking moron, sellings those crops is the only way any of us are going to survive, black or white, so get your arse out in that field and start pickin' the goddamned cotton." Okay maybe she didn't say THAT but you get the idea )

Starbuck and Scarlett's brutal journeys take them to a place where they break and then transcend into their whole selves. For Kara this is spiritual; for Scarlett, sexual. For Morgaine...hmmmm, don't know.  Any thought, anyone?

All this blathering is my way of saying I really hope they don't kill off Starbuck tonight. Boo!

- AS

Once upon a time going to the movies was my favorite thing to do.  I'm old enough to remember the days of no stadium seating, fifty cent popcorn, and adults puffing away on their cigarettes during the show, but young enough to remember my first sold out movie (Rocky III), my first grown-up film (On Golden Pond) and my first blockbuster (ET).  Well into my twenties I was going to the movies on a regular basis.  But with the recent OSCAR airing and subsequent watercooler chatter about them I realized that I haven't seen a movie in the theatre in ages - and more surprisingly,  I don't really care.  After all, I can get all the great drama I want from Battlestar Galactica and Deadwood. I can get all the great comedy I want from Eddie Izzard's stand-up specials and Two and 1/2 Men.   I get actual movies from Greencine, pay per view or friends.  And I even found a "make your own movie-style popcorn at home" article the other day (clarified butter, apparently.) So, what's left to coax me out of my yoga pants, into the car,  and down to the multiplex where I will be robbed of $10? Some might say, "the experience." Ah, the movie experience. I know it well. I fell in love with it many moons ago, somewhere around Jaws and The Empire Strikes Back.   But now how sour and bitter that love has become!!  The magic moment when the lights go down, the picture comes up and the music swells is now accompanied by the rising cacophony of the "too young for the flick" children fussing  and crabbing, and the "I'm so important it can't  be shut off for two hours" cell phone ringing and the "dig into it like the cure for cancer's at the bottom of the bucket" popcorn chompers and the "no concept of what it means to be on time" stragglers crashing in and expecting everyone else in the row to shift and the...well you get the idea.  The experience I fell in love with is now so fraught with annoyance and frustration at the rudeness of others that I just can't relax.   Why put myself through that?  Best to turn on Heroes or House, and achieve a peaceful vegetative state in the comfort of my home. Or my sister's home.  She's got huge-drop-down-screen-with-surround-sound-action going on at her place. Spooky Chic, we'll be over on Saturday....:D

- AS

That's how it all started really. One 8 year old and her birthday present Wonder Woman Underoos. I was slightly embarrassed when I opened them in front of everyone at the party but my red face had faded away to nothing by that evening, when I romped around my room from bed to floor to chair and back again, pretending that I was flying.

To this day I love my sci-fi gear.  Yes, I am 37 years old and own a superman shirt, a wonder woman shirt, a Battlestar Galactica shirt, a Aeryn Sun shirt, an I "heart" Starbuck shirt, and a groovy pink baseball shirt that boldly proclaims me as a "Trekkie Girl."  Oh, and I have a UFP baseball hat. While there's something odd about sporting the same shirt as my 4 year old neighbor (he too is the proud owner of a Superman shirt) I take a lot of joy in letting the world know who I am. I even enjoy the looks I get at work, where I am treated as a loveable and competent but slightly deranged employee.  "Is she wearing a Star Trek shirt?!  YES SHE IS. "Is she one of those sci-fi geeks?" YES SHE IS.  I am *that* girl, that person, the one who was first in a line of 900 people waiting to see Star Wars when it was rereleased, the one who paid a small fortune to see Ben and Claudia at a Farscape convention, the one who went to the United Federation of Planets Science Exhibit 3 times, the one who froze her backside off outside of the David Letterman Show stage entrance just to see Gillian Anderson wave and enter the building. (Must give a shout out here to the other sci-fi chics who were there too, freezing it off! We had a ball.)  Yes, I am that girl, that geek, that NERD, and damn proud of it. So say we all. :P

PS:  why is it weird that I wear sci-fi gear, but not weird that one of the guys in my office has his entire cubicle covered with Miami Dolphins paraphernalia? 

- AS

Yes, the details are still sketchy (13 episodes, 22?  What about the direct-to-DVD movie?) but one thing is for sure: Galactica will be BACK.  As season 3 draws to a close, here's (briefly and without much thought) what I'd like to see in S4:

- More Starbuck!  I'm biased, because she's my favorite, but she's an intergral part of the mythology;her lack of screen time this season hurt the show.  Her S3 fate is unclear but TPTB have teased us with the words "profound change." (One wonders what the heck that could be?  They only thing they haven't done to Starbuck is make her HAPPY.  Maybe that's it!  Here's my spec: the "profound change" is that she lets go of her past and become a deliriously happy person that gets invited to all the parties. Adama so admires her newfound "up with people" positivity that he promotes her to the rank of Official Fleet Motivational Speaker. People flock to her "Let Go of Your Frakked Up Past, or Else" lectures and sport What Would Starbuck Do? t-shirts. Her used gum sells for thousands of credits on the popular auction site Fleet-bay.) Whatever it is, I hope it's worthy of one on of the greatest female characters in Sci-fi.

- No more domestic scenes la Athena folding diapers (DIAPERS. If this had been Starbuck I think I would have lost consciousness) and Callie and Chief bickering over daycare. Who knew there was a daycare on Galactica?!  Why?!

- Give the Cylons back their fangs!  All that time on the Cylon disco ship made them infinitely unscary.

- Along the same line, no more Helo/Athena. They are boring and take up precious airtime. If they must remain together, let's see Athena become more and more Cylon, and Helo try to deal with it. How great would it be to see her down in the cell with 6, bitching that she was a moron to marry a human. :D

- give Apollo something to do other than wander from storyline to storyline. Let him cultivate fleet wheat or open a pizza joint on the deck. Anything. (After A Day in the Life, this looks like it's going to happen)

- Return to the old relationships: Starbuck and Papadama, Lee and Kara as friends, Roslin and Adama as the Dynamic Duo.

- Locate the sense of urgency that pervaded Seasons 1 and 2.  Defanged Cylons and domestic spats make for relatively flaccid viewing.

- Can something blow up?  Please?

-AS 

Yeah, I know, it's not technically sci-fi... but I did already admit I am a fan of all things spooky.  Anyway, I've watched three episodes so far and like what I've seen.  It reminds me of a favorite low-budget series of mine from the 80's called  Friday the 13th (not to be confused with the horror flick of the same name).  It's got that great spooky mood, lots of folklore and magic, and strong acting.  Harry Dresden is likeable-- Medium's Allison with testosterone.  But I like how, unlike Allison, Dresden isn't merely a pawn of supernatural forces, he manipulates them.  After last week's snooze-fest that was Galactica, I  have to say this week I'm looking forward to Dresden Files more than BSG!

SC

I'm a big fan of the show Medium.  Hmmmm.....is that a dirty little secret?  I don't know.  Plenty of people like the show, judging from the ratings but the thing is, it's not very good.  Not particularly terrible either, in all fairness but certainly not a show that should be collecting emmy nominations in any category, never mind Best Actress. Average writing, average performances (except for the husband played by Jake Weber.  He's good, remember him from American Gothic?) So my theory of why Medium is such a gosh-darned likeable show?  First off, it's sci-fi lite, the kind of show that tweaks the typical viewing audience just enough so that it feels like it's watching something daring and mysterious, which, in turn, creates buzz in the non-genre media. Second, it's one of those show wherein the ho-hum individual parts come together to form a much better whole.  Third, the family stuff rocks! Particia Arquette and Jake Weber are top notch as happily marrieds; theirs is the single most believeable marriage on TV. It's a good marriage, but with the typical fights and misunderstandings and short tempers at the end of a busy day. Every married/committed person watching understands those moments, and knows that now matter how loud the voices or crabby the attitude, at the end of the day Joe and Alison will find their way back to each other. I love them loving each other,  and this is what keeps me watching Medium.

AS

Here's an ablsolutely hilarious BSG spoof from http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b39/Batgirl_1969/BattlestarEmasculata.gif:

BattlestarEmasculata

Yup.  Galactica was worth every minute I had to wait for it-- what a superb episode they started the second half of the season with!  I was truly shocked when Helo shot Athena.... I really didn't think he would do it.  In general the Athena-Helo storyline bugs me, but I really felt it came together very well in this episode. 

The Final Five!!  That was my favorite scene.  Now they've really got me wondering about who the one of them could be... it has to be someone that Deanna has met before based on her dialogue.  Gaius?  Sam?  The plot thickens...

My second favorite scene:  Dee bitch-slapping Starbuck.  I'm beginning to really like that girl!

-Spooky Chic

I'm at the point where I need anxiety meds, people, what with all the Galactica rumors floating around. It's bad enough that I have gurgling intestines over who's a cylon, who discovers Earth and who dies (please, not Starbuck!!) and now here it is January 18 and we're no closer to knowing if S4 is a go or not.  I know, I know, SFC said "February" but still a Maalox moment, especially since every Sci-fi Channel exec seems to have the verbal duck and cover down to a science ("Oh yes, we are considering definitely the fact that Galactica will most likely return in the event of a fourth season pick-up, if that's what we decide to do. So, maybe. We think.) Even the actors don't know.  I recently read an interview with Trisha Helfer (Six) wherein she commented that the actors are sort of planning to be back for 4, but they can't say for sure.  Why?!  Why can no one say for sure?!  My guess is, the decision has already been made one way or another but for some reason SFC is waiting to announce, possibly because of actor contracts/negotiations.  Media opinion seems to be swaying heavily in favor of "yes" for a S4 and common sense tells us this is probably the case.  After all, Galactica may be shaky in the ratings but it does a ton of DVD and itunes business, plus, SFC owns it, and so they want enough seasons to make it profitable in cable/syndication sales.  And, let's face it, what else do they HAVE over at the SFC?  There's only so many times they can rerun Mansquito (snort).  So, there's hope.  That said, Galactica is pretty expensive to make, and the SFC has made some boneheaded programming decisions in the past, like canceling Farscape on the last day of shooting S4, when there was no way - obviously - of wrapping up any storylines. So, until I hear the word straight from the SFC, I trust no one.  Now pass the Maalox.

-AS