Science Fiction @ MindSay

Mary Reilly is als kind door haar vader mishandeld en draagt daar nog de littekens van op haar hals en handen. Ze is blij om een goede positie te hebben gevonden als dienstmeisje in een net huis, waar het personeel aardig met elkaar omgaat, en met een goede baas. Ze beleeft veel plezier aan de kleine gesprekjes die ze soms heeft met haar baas, die oprecht geinteresseerd lijkt in wat zij te melden heeft. Maar geleidelijk aan beginnen er dingen te veranderen, Dr Jekyll is vaak afwezig en komt dan uitgeput en ziek terug, en hij stuurt haar een paar keer op pad om brieven te bezorgen in een deel van Londen waar nette mensen geen kennissen zouden moeten hebben. Het wantrouwen van het personeel wordt nog groter als ze te horen krijgen dat hun baas een nieuwe assistent in dienst heeft genomen om hem te helpen bij zijn wetenschappelijke onderzoek, Mr Edward Hyde.

Ik heb op internet gezocht of er soms een vakterm bestaat voor dit genre, waarin een andere blik wordt geworpen op een verhaal door de ogen van een bijfiguur. Het komt vaak genoeg voor: het leven van de eerste Mrs Rochester in Wide Sargasso Sea, of The Journal of Mrs Pepys. Maar ik heb niets kunnen vinden; het dichtst bij kwam een site van een bibliothecaris die het had over "sequels, prequels and parallels".

This week brings the return of two of science fiction television's best shows...BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and DOCTOR WHO.

April 4th sees BSG begin its fourth and final season. As a fan I am saddened to see the ending of the best political drama with religious undertones that just happens to be set in space and feature killer robots.
 But I am also extremely amped up to see what great television this show is going to produce this season and to see how many of my questions will be answered.
How is Starbuck alive? Is she the last Cylon? If not her than who? Will the colonists find Earth? Will Pres. Roslin be alive to see it?

Saturday is the return of the good Doctor for his fourth season (or series as the Brits call 'em) and he's got a new companion in Donna. Now I am a bit peeved that Martha Jones isn't riding in the Tardis this season but I am willing to gie Donna a chance as long as she isn't as shrieky as she was in the Runaway Bride special from a few Christmas's ago. Aside from a new companion this season is looking to be really cool with the return of not just one but three (four if you count Capt. Jack from TORCHWOOD) of the Doctor's former companions when Martha, Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler all come back for the final arc of this season which should be a humdinger. There are even rumors that an entire episode will focus on just the past and present companions as they work together to save the Doctor.

This is the start of pure geek nirvana for me.

It sounds like something out of a science fiction movie, but apparently in the name of national security, the US is set to shoot down a satellite by firing a missile into space.  According to a report from the Associated Press (via MSNBC), President Bush has ordered the Navy to shoot down a broken spy satellite before it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere in an effort to minimize risk to humans.  From the report:

“Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the same briefing that the "window of opportunity" for such a shootdown, presumably to be launched from a Navy ship, will open in the next three or four days and last for seven or eight days. He did not say whether the Pentagon has decided on an exact launch date.

Cartwright said this will be an unprecedented effort; he would not say exactly what are the odds of success.

"This is the first time we've used a tactical missile to engage a spacecraft," Cartwright said.”

If the mission is unsuccessful, it doesn’t sound like the government will keep firing.  Nonetheless, it’s a pretty neat first-time occurrence given the number of movies themed around battling spacecraft. 

 

I watched an intriguing movie last night -- Jerome Bixby's The Man from Earth. Bixby, who died last year before the film was released, was a known writer for episodes of Star Trek and the Twilight Zone. Although the subject matter of this film is a departure from this type of work, it still has that similar feel to it.

David Lee Smith (who plays Calleigh Duquesne's IAB boyfriend on "CSI:Miami") plays John Oldman, a professor at the local college.  The entire film takes place the afternoon of his impromptu "going away party" when he announces that, after ten years at the college, he'll simply be "moving on."  He's packing everything from his house into his truck and isn't telling anyone where he's going. His colleagues, concerned about him and the mystery of his departure, come on over to talk with him.

And then he lets them in on a shocking secret that they discuss for the duration of the movie: He grew up as a latter paleolithic cro-magnon man. He stopped aging at around age 35, and has been alive for the 14,000 years since then. He leaves his job and his friends every ten years or so when they start to notice that he doesn't age.

And everyone reacts. Some with fervent belief, some as skeptics. All of them trying to poke holes into and substantiate his story from biological, anthropological, Biblical and psychological points of view. But he seems to have an answer for every one of them.

And that's it. No action scenes (aside from a minor scuffle), no sex scenes, no changes of location. Just tenured professors (and one undergrad who allegedly is boning her professor with whom she arrived).  Some of them are downright annoying. (Example: John Billingsley plays Harry, the biology professor. He's the actor who played Dr. Phlox on Enterprise. As well as many other nerdy characters with annoyingly nasal voices. But he plays this part extremely well.) Richard Riehle (the old guy from "Office Space" who gets laid off, hit by a drunk driver, and invents the "Jump to Conclusions Mat") plays Dr. Will Gruber, a psychologist who can't decide between believing Dr. Oldman's story or committing him for further observation.

Every question is asked and receives a relatively good answer: Have you ever been sick? Are there any others out there like you? When did you come to America? How do you know that you were in what is now France thousands of years ago? What were you doing in 1292 AD? Did you know any figures from the Bible? 

And the way it ends will set your heart a poundin'.

Great movie. I give it 54 out of 57 stars.

Een kort verhaal, over een bedrijf dat wordt gevraagd om een computer te leveren aan de Lama's in een Tibetaans klooster. Ze zijn daar al 300 jaar op zoek naar alle namen van God en hopen dat ze nu met die computer deze klus in drie maanden kunnen voltooien.

"Well, they believe that when they have listed all His names -- and they reckon that there are about nine billion of them -- God’s purpose will have been achieved. The human race will have finished what it was created to do, and there won’t be any point in carrying on. Indeed, the very idea is something like blasphemy."
"Then what do they expect us to do? Commit suicide?"
"There’s no need for that. When the list’s completed, God steps in and simply winds things up . . . bingo!"
"Oh, I get it. When we finish our job, it will be the end of the world."
Chuck gave a nervous little laugh. "That’s just what I said to Sam. And do you know what happened? He looked at me in a very queer way, like I’d been stupid in class, and said, ‘It’s nothing as trivial as that’."
George thought this over for a moment. "That’s what I call taking the Wide View," he said presently. "But what d’ya suppose we should do about it? I don’t see that it makes the slightest difference to us. After all, we already knew that they were crazy."
"Yes -- but don’t you see what may happen? When the list’s complete and the Last Trump doesn’t blow -- or whatever it is that they expect -- we may get the blame. It’s our machine they’ve been using. I don’t like the situation one little bit."

Daar hoeven ze zich geen zorgen over te maken...