Rick's Science Fiction Page
My favorite "universe" is Babylon 5. The best place to visit is the Lurker's Guide to Babylon
5. They have wonderful plot descriptions, character information and
perhaps most importantly, quotes from J. Michael Straczynski (JMS), the
creator and executive producer of the show. There is also a newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated.
One of the best things about the newsgroup is that JMS posts there.
There was a brief spin-off series called Crusades that was pretty good.
Unfortunately, due to disputes between JMS and TNT (who was carrying the
show at the time) it was discontinued. There was talk of it getting
picked up by Sci-Fi but that didn't happen. :(
At least I have all the novels which weave into the plot very well (all
sanctioned by JMS, and most based on a rough storyline provided by him.)
Here are some more B5 related sites:
Official Warner Bros. B5 page
Babylon 5 Fan Club
TNT Babylon 5 Site
Dateline: Babylon 5
TNT Crusade Site
Crusade - The Quest for Life
InterStellar Network News
The Original Series
If you're a scifi fan, how can you not love Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty and
the gang? This was my first exposure to science fiction and what got me
hooked in the first place.
The Next Generation
Still a good series. Although they began introducing what I would
consider continuity issues--not really errors, just issues. For example,
in one episode they were able to bring the doctor back because her pattern
buffer was stored in the transporter. One would thing this was some great
new revolutionary discovery but they never used the technique again.
There are a lot of instances like this where the universe, at least from a
technical standpoint, didn't really "grow". Still, the character
development was a lot better and the acting was certainly a lot better.
:) But for movie plots, I'm going to have to say that so far I like TOS
better than TNG.
Deep Space Nine
DS9 came out around the same time as B5 and it was at this point when I
started to not "believe" in the Star Trek universe. The first problem I
had with it was that they didn't boldly go anywhere. At least not at
first. The show improved when they started taking the Defiant out for a
spin but I just had trouble getting into the whole Dominion war and quit
watching.
Voyager
Voyager was one of the worst science fiction shows ever made. I have no
idea why it was on the air for so long. At least they were going
somewhere but they're hardly doing so boldly. Janeway is an aweful
character and I have yet to figure out why the crew didn't mutiny. It
seems like every opportunity they have to go home she refuses to go along
with. If Q offers to send you home if you sleep with him, well, you just
hunker down and hop in the sack. The needs of the many outweigh the needs
of the few. And then at some point the cheese infected the ship and that
was it for me. I don't mean that the show got cheesy, I mean there was an
episode where some cheese fungus literally infected the ship.
I'm also interested in the X-Files although I'm kind of a late
bloomer. I got hooked on it about the middle of the second season.
Since then I've been able to catch up on what I missed. It had an
interesting direction and a good mix of "plot" episodes and just random X
Files. But around the middle of fifth season they wrapped up the main
alien conspiracy plot and since then I've been waiting for something else
interesting to happen. Beyond that I lost interest and when Mulder left
they were done, they just didn't want to admit it for a couple more seasons.
Lately I've gotten into watching Stargate. It's not a bad show although
they seem to have some "holes" like in the Star Trek universe. The staff
weapon that Teal'c uses, why doesn't everyone have one of those? They're
pretty darn cool. We've seen O'Neill use them before so it's not
something that only the Jaffa can use. They've killed enough Goa'uld that
they can just pick them up off the dead bodies. What gives?
I haven't looked much for SG-1 sites, but here's the official one:
http://www.stargate-sg1.com
It wouldn't be a sci fi page without mentioning Star Wars.
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Rick Bynaker, CPA
rick@bynaker.com
Last revised May 20, 2007, revision 2.1.00.