Battlestar Galactica – the Ties that Bind

The problem is not that Battlestar Galactica has tranformed science fiction television. The problem is that it has set such an impossibly high bar that its future imitators won’t be able to surpass it. I just got to watching Friday’s episode. This fourth and final season, every single episode goes places I have never seen … Read more

Doctor Who: Partners in Crime

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Last night, millions of Britons (8.4 millions to be exact) sat down to the first episode of the latest series of Doctor Who, the first with Catherine Tate (who co-starred in the 2006 Christmas special). And today, millions of people outside the UK downloaded it and watched it as well. I watched it on my television via my Vista laptop running the media center extensions for a show I’d downloaded on my Linux desktop computer. The wonders of a home network 🙂 As I watched it from the couch with my morning waffles and Diet Coke, I thought how wonderful it will be when BBC makes some sort of deal with some US network so we can see it the SAME DAY.
I mean, it’s the same thing going the other way. People around the world watch our Lost and Battlestar Galactica; I bet they’d love to see it same day as well. I faithfully watch Jericho, Lost, BSG and so on, on the television, as they are broadcast, with commercials, because I want to support these programs and see more like them. I would gladly do the same for Doctor Who if I could get it on Saturday evening like the do in London. So, speaking of London, on to the show.
I don’t know much about the UK aside from what I learned in school — the king, mad with lead poisoning, puts his onerous taxes on us until we elect George W. Bush who cuts them and then we declared independence and gave them Canada or something. I’m not sure on the specifics. Apparently they no longer even have a king! Maybe they lost him in a poker game with France? Battle of Hastings… William of Orange… I dunno, I’m an American. Reformation. Are they still doing that? But I’m pretty sure that Cardiff must be the Vancouver of England, though. A nice city in another country which you can claim is New York, Los Angeles, or London.
Anyway, past here is all spoilers. So if you want the episode to be deliciously unspoiled, stop here. Otherwise, click on through.

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Confounded Confinder!

There’s something supremely, unapologetically geeky about going to a science fiction convention or comic convention. I went to San Diego Comicon back in 2006 and you know, it’s just our kind of folk there. Before that, when I was employed anyway (and living in the greater Bay Area), I would hit up Baycon, SiliCon and … Read more

Arthur C. Clarke, Dead at 90

Arthur C. Clarke, grandmaster author of some of the greatest science fiction ever written and inventor of the geosynchronous communication satellite, is dead today. He’s one of the last from SF’s Golden Age. He worked with Stanley Kubrick, to turn his short story, Sentinel, into the movie (and accompanying book), 2001: A Space Odyssey. Without … Read more

Rudy Rucker’s “Postsingular”

What has Portal got to do with Postsingular, anyway? I didn’t do a whole lot of gaming this weekend. I spent most of it curled up with my Sony Reader, devouring Rudy Rucker’s book “Postsingular“, which he is offering for free download on his website in PDF and Reader-friendly HTML. I love HTML books because … Read more