Some favorite space operas

Starships named Enterprise — Starships Enterprise

[Note: Reposted with some revisions from the “Vanished Lands” Yahoo/eGroups site.]

Fellow role-players and genre entertainment fans, to follow up on a conversation from this past Monday’s FATE 3e Starblazer Adventures: “Vortex” game, here’s an admittedly subjective list of the best space opera movies and TV shows by decade:

>>1900s to 1930s movies: A Trip to the Moon, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials

>>1940s and 1950s: Forbidden Planet (movie), Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (TV)

>>1960s:

-Movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey

-Television: Doctor Who (to present), Space: 1999, Star Trek

>>1970s:

-Movies: Alien, Star Wars [Episode IV:] A New Hope

-Television: Battlestar Galactica, Blake’s 7, Macross/Robotech, Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers

>>1980s:

-Movies: Aliens, Dune, Heavy Metal, Outland, Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, Star Wars [Episode V]: The Empire Strikes Back

-TV: Star Trek: the Next Generation

>>1990s:

-Movies: The Fifth Element, Stargate, Starship Troopers

-TV: Babylon 5, Space: Above and Beyond, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

>>2000s:

–Movies: Moon

–TV: Farscape, Firefly/Serenity, Stargate SG1

>>Do you have any favorites or recommendations? Here are some good online resources:

http://www.filmsite.org/sci-fifilms.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science-fiction_films

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_opera_media

http://movies.ign.com/articles/677/677739p1.html

http://io9.com/328003/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-space-opera

http://www.allenvarney.com/av_space2.html

This list is by no means comprehensive, and it overlaps slightly with related subgenres of speculative fiction, including alien invasion/horror (The Day the Earth Stood Still), comedic/spoof (Galaxy Quest), cyberpunk/dystopian (Blade Runner), kaiju (Gamera), planetary romance (Warlord of Mars), postapocalyptic (The Road Warrior), police procedural (Alien Nation), and time/dimensional travel (Twelve Monkeys). Space opera is distinguished by relatively easy interstellar travel, familiar interactions between humans and aliens, and mostly heroic characters and plots.

What prompted this? Although we’ve previously discussed our favorite science fiction in various media, in “Vortex” Team 1, Jason and I were tossing around allusions, and Josh noted that he recognized only a few of them. I’m sure that Beruk knows more pop-culture references than much of Team 2. Everybody should be familiar with most of the items listed above!

I haven’t even touched on the best space opera books, comics/graphic novels, and games, which are worthy of another discussion! As Brian and Jason noted, the big ideas of science fiction are generally presented with more variety and strength in literature, while fantasy and horror seem more accessible to movie audiences. What do you think?

One advantage of a “sandbox,” homebrew game is that we can incorporate our favorite influences into a shared setting. “Vortex” has 22nd century humans and some established history, but they’re just starting points. I’ve enjoyed seeing the crew of the Blackbird dealing with human-alien relations and the crew of the Appomattox run its cons and get entangled in local affairs. Now that both starships are heading into deep space, the sky’s the limit!

Time and again

The Doctor — Incarnations of a Time Lord

As a longtime “Whovian,” I enjoyed the first two episodes of the latest season of Doctor Who, “The Impossible Astronaut” and “Day of the Moon.” Not only did the cast and crew of the British science fiction franchise get to travel to the U.S. for some location shooting, but writer/producer Stephen Moffat has continued building on plot threads he began last year!

I liked the interplay between Matt Smith as the eponymous Gallifreyan, Karen Gillan as perky companion Amy Pond, and Arthur Darvill as Amy’s stalwart husband Rory. Guest stars included Alex Kingston as the glamorous and mysterious Dr. River Song and genre veterans Mark Sheppard and his father as former FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III. Even President Nixon and Neil Armstrong figure into the story!

The heady plot of the two-part season (or series, as they call them in the U.K.) opener involves Moffat tropes including nightmarish aliens, personal secrets and perils, and of course, some romping through time and space. Who is Amy’s child? Could Dr. Song be a Time Lord? I haven’t figured out all the puzzles yet, but I look forward to episodes that balance childlike wonder at the universe and human nature with darker themes such as mortality and betrayal. Oh, and Stetsons are cool.

In sadder news for the Doctor Who franchise, Elizabeth Sladen, who played popular companion Sarah Jane Smith, recently died at 63. I met her at a genre entertainment convention and found her to be gracious and upbeat. She will be missed.

We have more Doctor Who and Torchwood: Miracle Day to look forward to, continuing the U.K.’s strong presence in genre television.

Coming soon: Boston Comic Con report, more on genre TV, and gaming observations!

Where have I been?

Readers of my blogs may have noticed that there’s a six-month gap in posts, from September 2010 to February 2011. What happened?

Fortunately, it was nothing catastrophic. I had become frustrated with how text and images appeared on my Yahoo 360 and MySpace blogs, and I had gotten busier with work and various games.

At TT, I moved from an associate site editor position to associate managing editor within the Data Center and Virtualization Media Group. I’ve had the opportunity to work with more people and learn new skills. I’ve been juggling some of my old responsibilities of editing and calendaring business information technology articles for online with new ones at the e-publications and special projects unit.

Janice recently changed technical writing jobs and now works in Cambridge, in the same building where her employer was when we moved to Massachusetts more than 10 years ago! She’s getting used to the longer commute by train, and I’m getting back to cooking dinners.

After going to San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, and London last summer, Janice and I took fewer trips, visiting her family in Upstate New York for Thanksgiving and mine in Virginia for Christmas. We did, however, host several college friends, including Steve M.R. and his young family, Stuart C.G., David I.S. at New Year’s, and Erik B.L. and family a few weeks ago.

Janice and I also went to concerts, local attractions like the Isabella Stuart Gardener Museum, and regular seasonal festivals, such as the King Richard’s Faire, Phantom Gourmet Food Festival, New England Comic-Con, and Super MegaFest. While I enjoy celebrating Halloween, we didn’t have a big party this past autumn.

Unfortunately, I spent most of January recovering from bronchitis and dealing with several snowstorms. Most of the movies I’ve seen in the theaters lately were not big winners at the box office or the Oscars, but I enjoyed espionage drama The American; fantasies Legend of the Guardians, Harry Potter [7] and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, and The Chronicles of Narnia [3]: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader; as well as belated cyberpunk sequel Tron Legacy.

French animated film The Illusionist was good, coming close to last year’s favorites of The Secret of Kells and How to Train Your Dragon (I may eventually repost reviews of these). Thanks to movie channels on cable television, I’ll gradually catch up with other flicks, but I haven’t yet had time for a Netflix subscription.

Speaking of genre TV, the current season marks a changing of the guard. I’ve enjoyed the latest wave of shows loosely based on comic book superheroes, including The Cape, No Ordinary Family, and the surprisingly long-lived Smallville, but they’ll probably all be gone soon. Animation has fared somewhat better, with Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Young Justice as more serious successors to the campy fun of Batman and the Brave and the Bold and Marvel’s Super Hero Squad. I’ll review direct-to-video releases separately.

As SyFy’s Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary cycled out of their midseason schedules, I’ve been watching the V remake, Fringe, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Sym-Bionic Titan to get my speculative fiction fix. Doctor Who has been going strong after the lead character’s latest regeneration, and I look forward to more Torchwood and the excellent BBC/PBS modernized Sherlock.

Speaking of fictional sleuths, Psych, Castle, and White Collar have been successful in their niche, even as the more action-oriented Chuck, Human Target, and Undercovers have struggled for ratings. I’m glad that caper show Leverage has hung on (and provided inspiration for a good tabletop role-playing game).

In a somewhat more adult direction, Spartacus: Blood and Sand/Gods of the Arena, Pillars of the Earth, and Camelot have satisfied any yearnings for swords, sandals, and sex better than Legend of the Seeker and Robin Hood did. Being Human has replaced the late Reaper and Eastwick as my supernatural melodrama of choice. I plan to blog in more detail on these and upcoming shows, current comic books, and my “Vanished Lands” and “Vortex” campaigns more regularly. What are you reading, watching, or playing?

29 October 2009: Space opera on TV

This is my fifth and last blog post (for now) looking at the new genre television season by subgenre. I’ve noted before that within speculative fiction — which starts with the question “What if?” — supernatural conspiracy shows, vampire romances, and metahuman melodramas have been more popular lately than space opera. That’s too bad, because my some of first loves in science fiction were the late-1970s TV heroes of Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica (see above and reruns), as well as the novels of Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and many others.

The recent success of Star Trek‘s cinematic reboot could be an early sign of the pendulum swinging back to rockets and ray guns. Not surprisingly, the best space opera on the air right now is the computer-animated Star Wars: Clone Wars. Loosely based on the Tartakovsky shorts that took place between Episode 2: Attack of the Clones and Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, the pilot movie turned off some fans by focusing on young Padawan (Jedi apprentice) Ashoka Tano.

However, since then, I think that Clone Wars has done an excellent job of exploring and expanding various corners of George Lucas’ universe. It has humanized the clone troopers, showed how the Jedi knights are outmaneuvered by the cunning Sith, and demonstrated what Yoda described as the futility of war. Plus, Clone Wars has the blazing space and lightsaber battles, kid-friendly humor, and strange aliens we’ve come to expect from the Star Wars franchise.

I’m still on the fence about Stargate Universe. On the one hand, it’s part of the franchise established by the retro action movie and long-running Stargate SG1. On the other hand, the large conflict-ridden ensemble, dark and shaky cinematography, and focus on survival over heroism are more in the style of Battlestar Galactica: the Plan or Flash Forwardthan I’d prefer.

We’ll see how the major cast and crew changes coming to Doctor Who will affect that British time-travel franchise. I’ve enjoyed its mix of space opera, pseudohistorical swashbuckling, and alien horrors from the Jon Pertwee incarnation through Tom Baker and David Tennant, and I’m willing to give Matt Smith, the eleventh eponymous Time Lord, a shot. Spin-offs include the more adult-themed Torchwood,
the adolescent-aimed Sarah Jane Adventures, and the dubious reboot of K-9
and Friends. Have a Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, 20 October 2009: Second takes on genre TV

Fringe wallpaper — The truth is still out there…

The most popular genres of fiction on television right now are the perennial
favorites of murder procedurals, ensemble dramas, situational comedies, and so-called
reality shows. This season, paranormal conspiracies, exemplified in the past by
shows such as Friday the 13th: the Series and The X-Files, are again all the rage.

So far, Fringe is arguably the best of the bunch, with a good balance of “monster of the week” episodes and an overall story arc. The actors and characters are quirky and sympathetic, the dialogue is clever, and the science fiction/horror aspects aren’t too
unbelievable, if frequently explicitly grotesque.

I’ve been watching Sanctuary, but I hope the SyFy’s cryptozoology show can successfully blend the steampunk tone, globe-hopping adventures (thanks to computer-generated backdrops), and a dysfunctional family-based team better than it did in its shaky first season. Over the summer, the artifact collectors of Warehouse
13 proved to be fun to watch because the writers didn’t taking themselves too seriously despite some heavy themes of betrayal and fate.

I may drop Flash Forward, in which people try to figure out how and why almost everyone on the planet blacked out at the same time, in the interest of time. The Lost wannabe isn’t bad, but with programs like Heroes, V, and the aforementioned shows, I’m already watching enough large casts pursuing numerous plot threads.

Eastwick is one of the few new shows that I’ll probably continue to follow. The frothy witchcraft soap opera is more like early Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Reaper, or Pushing Daisies than later Charmed or Supernatural. Upcoming conspiracy shows in which I’m interested include the remakes of action decoy Human Target, alien invasion V, and espionage paranoiac The Prisoner.

In nonfiction, Janice’s and my DVR is filling up with the PBS documentary on Latin
music and this week’s IFC profile of the “Monty Python” British comedy troupe of the 1970s. More to come!