... or How to write proper romance.. just in a sci-fi setting :) :) :)

A friend posted this link to TOR books, about "Farscape Told Science Fiction’s Greatest Love Story"


And at the very basic level, thinking back on it, yes! I have to say that I completely agree. And in agreement with this I wrote a smaller part of this on my FB page but thought I would like to go a bit further in detail about it. So remembering I have a LJ account decided that I will fill it up with my meanderings.

Some time ago I was watching a piece of Sci-fi fluff on TV, immediately forgettable, so much so I cannot even remember what it was called, but what I do remember is that Adam (My BF) asked me a question shortly after about the female lead.. And was wholly surprised when I couldn’t even remember her name. (I have this associative memory that remembers film and TV in crazy Encyclopaedia Britannica style thoroughness). Needless to say this lead us to a conversation where I stated the simple fact that I do not identify with any of the female characters in movies or tv (books are different because of the way they are written) .. I grew up in the gloriously female character devoid 80’s and 90’s where female “characters” were bland lifeless 2d characters there only as a token representative of the female gender and as possible titillation for male machismo. (oh I must be saved from the monster, oh I am falling out of this bodice, oh we have been through this adrenaline heavy experience allow me to throw myself into your bed. etc..etc..etc..) Because Hollywood and TV land will insist on perpetuating this thematic ad nauseam (to me anyway) I have never felt in anyway that these “women”?? (cardboard caricatures??) have any relation to me as a person. I have a very professional attitude to working with male colleagues, I am not interested in promiscuous sex, if a monster came after me I would beat it into the floor with whatever impromptu weapon I could find, including my shoe … I would not fall over and scream “Life a girl”. Hence my inability to identify with the cinematic ideals being foisted off on me as I grew up (the likes of Ripley and Sarah Connor only being introduced to me much later in life – James Cameron being one of the few directors in hollywood who seem sot understand that women do, do far more than just wait to be rescued in practical situations.

But yes, one series that did make me sit up like a meerkat and take not was this quirky little series called Farscape.
On the surface this series looked a bit .. well I hesitate to use the term Geeky, but the advertising was pretty poor really, making rather tongue in cheek references to the Muppets and really not representing the series as it should.. mostly I think because Sci-Fi (as was then) has literally no idea how to sell it… which is amazing given that this was one of the few actual Sci-Fi shows that channel was producing.. And here was this tv show with animatronic aliens, people in masks and a hot male scientist? And an equally beautiful and competent female warrior… who did not just go goey eyed over the lead male character.. And remained professional and competent and shot the crap out of things she was scared of rather than cowered in the corner waiting for the big masculine man to save her. Suddenly I could identify with a female character, who remained female while also conducting herself in a way I possibly would have done if I had been in her place. She chose her sexual partners with care and thought, she developed strong and completely 3-dimensional friendships with the other characters and she was a completely equal member of the group, supplying ideas and support that were as valued as the ideas thought up by everyone else. And she wasn’t actively chasing Crichton, but found him interesting and intriguing (even if she did not understand those concepts) and also a bit perplexing and weird. And then went through the steps of finding out and working with him and finding out if they were even vaguely compatible on other levels before jumping into bed with him. Basically developing a thoroughly rounded and solid relationship.

Mind you in this series Crichton was equally fascinating because he wasn’t your usual “lead male horndog”. He wasn’t actually interested in a physical relationship immediately, he spoke to Areyn and for that matter all of the other characters as people. His deepest relationship I think was with Zhan and even that started on an intellectual level, with him latching onto her because she listened, and empathised (even if she had no idea what he was talking about) so a degree of trust built up before anything on a physical level took place. And even when they did finally have relations it was more than just a horn-dog roll in the sack. SO here is a male character who is interested in relationships rather than hot meaningless nookie.. Even his burgeoning but eventually doomed relationship with the sebacean engineer was based off a slight mutual attraction but him and her talking to each other..

So yeah.. Actually the whole of Farscape is littered with female characters I could empathise with, self-identify with and get behind.. Even Grayza, who I hated for varying reasons :)..
So yes.. Farscape my go-to Sci-Fi series . I applaud the writers of Farscape fro writing such a well-rounded character driven gem of a show, I applaud the actors of Farscape, who were able to deliver such entertaining and thoughtful characters. And I mock the idiots that cancelled Farscape like they did.. Because they didn’t “get it” and tried to sell it to the wrong people it the wrong way.. This is proper Sci-fi the way it should be..

So. Yeah
( a rambling life whineCollapse )


I think today is a “I want my life back!” day

Okay went to see Avengers 2 at the weekend. While not a complete waste of my time and cash. I did find I had a number of reservations about it.

As with all my movie reviews I have placed the meat of the piece under Cut to avoid spoilers.

( Avengers: Age of Ultron..Here Be SpoilersCollapse )

So Yeah, all i can say is this movie isn't bad, but its just not good. and Marvel/Disney or Disney/Marvel, you need to step back and let the master work.. because otherwise its just all goign to fall down.

Well I had my happy grin last night. apparently I can get to watch Hawaii 5-0 through CBS by way of Hulu:).. so got to see the 100th episode.. wow now I wasn't quite expecting that.. but I have to say Alex O-Laughlin and Mark Dacascos on the same screen doing their thing... . Don't think I will ever get bored of that one.. nope don't think so:)

so I think I will be cramming episodes tonight.. I now need to explore the "Person of Interest" angle:):):)

in other news.. "Sleepy Hollow" is getting better and better. its the first show in a long time where I am finding myself thoroughly gripped by the fact that there is no guarantee that "good will win". There is genuine angst that Ichabod or Mills might actually get injured/killed/turned bad.. and the enemy is smart and using tactics.. :D I likes it when they fight back unfair:):):) also the script is keen and Tom Mison is very good at playing the upright ex-pat and is able to deliver some serious Snark. and i am actually learning a lot about American history around the civil war.. (more of course regarding the people involved and some of the places..I don't worry to much about the whole "headless horseman" thing.

Grimm... ooooh.. I am still on the wall as to whether I do or do not like this series.. I have moments of Yes this is a good series. and then I am not sure I will keep at it

Constantine - now this is a good series!.. really good, it knows what it is, it knows who its for and its doing what it does really well. Of course its FOX so it will be cancelled really early.. but you know what, Like Almost Human, it will be its nice little box set.:)

What else am i watching..

Oh yes Arrow now here is an interesting series because .. you know what occasionally the "bad guys" win.. or sort of win.. you actually have a situation where you have to take what success you can get because its really hard.. I was not to fond of the first series Oliver Queen because he's a whiney little boy.. but second season.. he's really grown up!.. and also again we have "bag Guys" who are clever and are actually planning stuff.. and using tech as well as the good guys. I am also well impressed with the Stunts. you have movie grade stunts happening on a TV budget.. I applaud the work it is amazing..

The Flash I am starting to enjoy this a lot actually, had a bit of a shaky start in that it seemed to be surprised that it existed. But its now gathering pace and is quite a nice thing to watch of a evening when eating your tea.. if it measures up to the quality of Arrow then it will be an enjoyable series.


My other guilty pleasure at the moment is Forever an oddly quirky story about a man who when he "dies" is resurrected again in the nearest body of water.. he knows not why. Begin a Dr by trade and fascinated by his ability??.. he works as a ME in down town New York.. and is able to tell a lot about a dead body from his copious years of experience.. I call it a guilty pleasure because its not a great detective series ( i have issues with the way they write the police dumb to make the main char look smart, and the police procedure is really sloppy) but.. I find it compellingly watchable. I think its Ioan Gruffudd's performance and his relationship with his "son" played by Judd Hirsch... I shouldn't like this series.. i should hate it with a vengeance.. but its quirky and fun and i can't stop watching:/

Apart from that i of course watching and having issues with Dr Who but hey nothing is perfect..

:)

Well this thing with Anita Sarkeesian… is just making things a little bit more interesting in the world. I have placed my thoughts regarding misogyny in computer games under the little cutty thing.. if you don't want to know don't go there..

( Rant about misogyny in computer gamingCollapse )

I it’s no secret to anyone who knows me either through my LJ, my FB or in RL that I like to do Live Action RolePlay (LARP). It is a brilliant hobby, in my view it indulges all the best things in life. It encourages social bonding, imagination, creativity and give people a chance to be who they would like to be rather than what they have to be to fit into society. Sometimes having to adopt a strategy which is against their actual core personality – whether that be that they are transgender, transvestite, “furry”(for want of a better term), exhibitionist, shy etc. It allows people to explore their psyche a little in a safe and controlled environment. And what’s more it allows people to have fun for short periods in their life, vent anxiety, in some cases vent violence in a controlled way.

At the moment there is an intense situation happening because it has been highlighted that there is an issue in the “scene” regarding abuse and assault of a sexual nature. And how it is being ignored, glossed over by the LARP society as a whole both in Large ‘fest’ events and smaller local gatherings. The thing is that this is a touchy subject and one which has a tendency to devolve down into something which has (for want of a better description) foam coming from lips, eyes glowing red and smoke billowing.

The thing is IT IS something that needs to be discussed. Sensibly and sanely because it is happening. But luckily it is a minority thing, where by the 1% is letting down the whole. And so it is up to the whole to turn round and tell the 1% that “No.. what you are doing is wrong!”.

Because of the nature of LARP it is quite easy for a person (male or female) to suddenly find themselves in a situation that makes them massively uncomfortable (I know I have been in a few myself) and or be exploited by a person of a certain mentality. Because everyone trusts each other then it is quite easy for people which a particular nature to use these situations to their advantage.. It is equally easy for people who are inexperienced with social graces to over step boundaries, either because of their enthusiasm or their inexperience at knowing where the boundaries are..

Because of this situation it is important that these boundaries are explicitly laid out. Its depressing to think that this must be done but if you think about it is no worse than a BDSM contract. Just because we consent to playing a LARP we are not consenting to have human decency torn away from us. Everyone is working on a framework of what is and is not acceptable. But it is important that this framework be spelled out because everyone has their own interpretation of what is and is not acceptable. And this is where the situations begin to happen..

LARP does suffer from the two tiered rules set.. where there are “THE RULES” and then there are the social mores and conventions which are not written down.. and you know.. maybe it is time to formalise these. Like the whole convention of not going for fingers, head, face, genitals, breasts when fighting because it actually does real damage to the person. Or if you don’t like what’s happening you can say no!. No one has actually told them that you know.. Sexual advances, smutty talking and telling someone that you are casually sexually assaulting their Character actually isn’t nice in and out of character.. that, yes, you may want to be the BBMF on the field but you still have to think about what you are doing and how it affects everyone around you..

Also event organisers do need to think about this because seriously, it can make or break a system. Just like the fox in the chicken house.. you just need one to prey on the rest and the whole thing just dissolves..

All it needs is a sort of FAQ.. like for instance as examples..

• In our system Sexual Assault and referencing to any form of sexual violence is not considered part of the game do not do it!

• Due to the delicate nature of this particular social interaction, sexual advances are not considered to be part of the game as such the claim of “but it was my character” is not an acceptable excuse. Please do not attempt to make sexual advances In-character to another character unless you have discussed it with the person OC and it is accepted by both parties.

• If you are in a situation you are uncomfortable with then drop out of character and inform the other players.

• Please remember that interest by another person’s Character is not licence to harass them


I am not saying these are perfect but they encapsulate the topic that needs to be broached, regarding what is and is not acceptable in Roleplaying society.

Also.. I think, like I said before this needs to be discussed sanely and calmly.. not hysterically and loudly.. Everyone has to accept that there is an issue, and that this issue is damaging to everything and needs careful handling. LARP is a place where sexual predators can move about undercover because of the nature of the whole game. It is also a place, because of the nature of the game and the people it attracts, where people can get their wires crossed and boundaries can be crossed very easily.. and it is up to everyone to help and support everyone else.. To oust the predators and to help the misunderstandings be ironed out and the boundaries highlighted.

LARP is important as a social release, it is a “safe” place for people to mingle with other people and feel safe to be themselves, even though they are playing a character. I have always been proud of partaking of a hobby which is a meritocracy, inclusive by value of your abilities and not by your gender, sexual orientation, clothing preferences etc.. in fact it celebrates and includes all of this into its matrix and churns out something which is fantastic.

Well Welcome to the year 2014... we are now well into scifi land.. we should be in flying cars have laser guns and bases on the moon..

Well.. there was a news report that we might have hoverboards soon..which I suppose is possibly a step in a positive direction..

Well I am into month 4 of my new job. Its okay I am not made to feel guilty about taking days off and I can clear stuff on my desk. Its good.

Weather..OMG!.. the weather we seem to be getting struck by gales every couple of weeks now. which gets a touch scarey.. floods, rain, more floods, some more rain, bit of wind...
But to be honest I am very glad we are not at -6 again.. also I am glad i am not living in america right now I would be in so much trouble -20???? owies... I used to work in a freezer when I worked for MacDonald's and that went down to -18 so I can sort of guess what its like. Although I really wish I could get to Niagara falls and photograph the icefall.. the photo ops in that weather must be amazing.

Tv again has been quite poor.. with many many soaps and "fly on the wall tv" which is seriously boring .. but much anticipated is the 3rd set of episodes of Sherlock.. which
I have been looking forward to immensely.. having spent the month after than last episode of the 2nd season feverishly working out how he managed to survive the 'fall'.

I have to say I was not disappointed. I love TV where you HAVE to think.. you have to observe you have to participate. I used to love Jonathan Creek for this very reason. To work things out you have to employ your brain.. as with previous series I watched, I joined in, I formulated my hypothesis as to where the overall story was going.. I have to admit I was half right... but I think I may have cottoned onto the main story of the next series. I was though metaphorically punching the air and happy dancing around the room though when they did the big reveal.. I also like the pandering to the various theories wandering round.. it was nicely done.

I won't say anything more though until i am sure that everyone who watches has had a chance to see the last episode.


anyway hows it everyone.. still good i hope.!

You know I really do not have to say how much I have been looking forward to the new series of Sherlock.. having had 18 months of so-so

I have to say that I previously made a set of predictions regarding the outcome and most of them were correct..which has made me incredibly happy - I know.. I am shallow- :).. needless to say there are a number of points I have now which I am writing on a piece of paper and putting in a sealed envelope ...:):):)

one of the things I think I particularly enjoyed was the lampshading of all the random theories that was out there and of course the hanging of the hat on the Slash ficcers:) I am expecting to find about 10 billion expansions of that one scene.. from what I have read I think the raging estrogen brigade in China will be happy (with their adventures of Curly-Fu and Peanut)...

needless to say pre-order is in for the dvd and i am waiting for the next episode:):):)

Okay so my new TV series enthusiasm is quite definately “Person of Interest”.

oooh yeah..

Seriously I just inhaled season 1 and I am scrabbling to watch season two (thankyou thankyou net gods and your access to US Hulu and Netflix - I so cannot understand why we can't just pay the studio directly to watch the damn episode on the internet..is my money not good enough?)..

I will stick things under a cut because I don't want to spoiler people who may be in the process of watching..

( Person of Interest - my viewsCollapse )

POI is a very nice series, I know it's got a third series I am hopign that it gets to have a good run because its interesting and just different enough to other mainstream stuff that it stands out.

Just as I felt that Joss Whedon could do no wrong… I watched Cabin in the Woods…. And realised…. Yes in fact this man at this stage in his career.. can do no wrong.

This movie was incredibly lucky to get out. There was a claim that it was “sat on a shelf” gathering dust etc.. but actually what happened was it was a MGM backed venture… and MGM went bankrupt.. so there was no distributor for the movie until Lionsgate bought up all the various MGM stock. Delivered to our screens at the odd time of “April”… rather than Halloween this was one of those movies that was basically put in the cinemas because it had to make some money.. without any real publicity beyond it having Thor’s Chris Hemsworth in it and eventually being picked up as being by “than guy who directed that awesome smash hit called The Avengers/Marvels Avengers/ Avengers Assemble……..

Advertising was quite lax, and to my mind appealed to half a wrong audience (but that’s really no surprise), it implied this was a what Lions gate should have been doing was going “LOOK… the buffy dudes have made an awesome horror flick… come see this”. But I think word of mouth did for this movie quite well.

Directed by Drew Goddard(who incidentally wrote Cloverfield…. Now that would have been an awesome movie if done by this collaborative pair.. and maybe it wouldn’t be in nauseating shakey vision).. Written by Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon. Joss doing some of the second unit work.

Staring: many many people from whedonverse past and future

Yes I will get on with my chatter but. Firstly Watch Cabin in the Woods. Unless you really can’t do gore and have never seen any previous horror movies.. in which case… CitW may not be for you. As you probably won’t be able to watch much and what you do see… you won’t understand because you won’t have seen the referencing film.. so won’t be relevant or funny…in the funny bits.

Secondly If you have not seen Cabin in the Woods and want to watch it unspoiled DO NOT READ UNDER THE CUT… I will be discussing various nuances of the movie in detail and they will epically spoiler you which you don’t want.. Because this is one of those movies where half the fun is peeling the onion that is this movie’s storyline.

oh yeah I also spoiler, the Cube as well..

( BEWARE! HERE BE MASSIVE DETAILED SPOILERS.. Do not click if you don’t mean itCollapse )

When I look at it though.. I came out of the movie wanting to see it again.. which I feel is always a good sign of an enjoyable and engaging experience.

I will be buying the blu-ray of this one (once they produce blu’s that won’t stall your blu-ray player because of an inherent flaw in the encoding…) I very much want this movie to own..

Please watch this movie if you can and enjoy it..

Its worth reading here for a good discussion on the various tropes. But don't go there until you see the movie.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheCabinInTheWoods

Please be aware before reading any more. I do not like this movie. I was not impressed by this movie and i make no bones about this in this review. If you do like the movie and think it is the epitomy of an action movie and that Mr Tom Cruise is a paragon of acting virtue. Then i would strongly suggest you do not click on the cut.. because... seriously.. you won't like it in there.

( cut due to extreme views regardign this movie, if you don't like, then please don't readCollapse )

So yes I am affraid my only conclusion regarding variosu good ratings regardign this movie are born out of a comparison to the previous (second) movie, which is also quite bad, but actually to me is a far more watchable movie because its a proper action movie....

Really though do not pay money to watch this movie… you will only regret it…

There are bad movies which are good in their badness.. it makes them funny or interesting on an intellectual level. And there are also movies which make you feel like you have just lost 2 hours of your life you will never get back.

This movie is one of the latter movies.

I have to say that i have absolutely no idea what the point is of this movie.. what so ever... also anyone who says this is a good movie.... has no idea what a good movie is... it’s appalling.
The script is bad, the action is mediocre, The acting.. well the actors are trying their best but really you cannot make silk purses from sows ears.. and seriously this movie has the smell of ham running right through it.

( hidden because it might reveal some spoilersCollapse )

So yeah. I wouldn’t advise anyone to spend any of their life watching this movie. Even Clash of the Titans is a better movie...

Abduction.

2011 action thriller type film, staring Taylor Lautner (who I like to refer to as the fluffy Werewolf from Twilight)

An interesting move that at time seems to be at war with itself. On one hand it wants to be a gritty realistic action spy thriller type thing but it keeps lapsing into mild teenage flick moments which I am not sure detract from the film or just roll with it.

( hidden under cut because it is extremely spoileryCollapse )

SO yeah.. its an okay movie of sorts, but be warned the story is stupid and just barrels from one trope to another without any real direction. The Director has random breaking into chick flick moments.. and the final part of the film is so corny you could make tortillas out of it.

But an okay movie to watch for free if you are bored.

Well. that is the Olympic Games done and dusted... two weeks of country wide crazyness. My cynical Brit side of me goes... welll that spent an awful lot of cash and all these companies who stand to benefit monetarily by taking hefty tax breaks (I tell you 12 months tax free just for paying to stick your label on Olympic stuff.. nice if you can get it.) I really was all for not watching any of it.. and just ignoring it's existance because I really did not agree with the politics of our government in this nor to tell you the truth did I find the IOC's political stance to be comfortable. Although, when I sit and think about it all, I can see why they rigorously protect their intellectual property.

But in the end I found that I had to watch. I could not, not watch our athletes pour their heart and soul (and in some cases their health) into this. They are what made this worth it all. And the athletes from all the other countries who travelled here to take part. I watched some seriously awesome efforts.

And it is nice to see the government pour a heap o cash into a project that hopefully will not be a complete white elephant. Unlike the Millenium Dome - oh sorry the North Greenwich Arena... :)..

Needless to say I hope everyone else had a bloody good time of it.. i hope everyone else could see all the stuff we could see (i'm sorry i have no idea what world coverage was like) I just hope the Para-Olympics are just as good..

I think I am mourning the fact that I can't watch Babylon 5 again for the first time. it was such a landmark series for me that it is indelibly marked on my brain:/.. Which is a pity because I would love to watch it again for the first time.

Anyone else have tv series, books films, they would like to see again for the first time?

the email kind not the food kind..

got this today in my work email.. made me laugh so hard...

( Allo meister!Collapse )

now given my email address has a female name on it (i.e. its my full name not my initials) it just strikes me as hilarious

anyway recorded here for posterity because i found it funny:)

Would Have to be Marcus Fenix from GoW, he's solid, loyal to his mates and dependable in a fight.

2009 action movie staring Gerard Butler. It was an interesting film this one because all the reviews seem to pan it as generic trash and as largely a waste of time and effort and complained that the story was bad and made no sense. But I actually have to say that I found it quite watchable and it made perfect sense, if that sense was largely a bit ludicrous and sort of got squished around a bit as they hop from one thing to the next.

( GamerCollapse )

This is not a full price blu-ray movie.. this is probably a cheap bargain bucket DVD film. Just get ur beer n popcorn, leave your brain at the door and enjoy..

When you load up an episode of Hawaii-5.0 the new series to have running while doing a mundane job.. and notice James Marster badly palm a shiv.... that is goign to annoy me now.. *look..SHIV BADLY PALMED!!!!!*

My other random ponderance for today.. if a computer is being eaten by a Virus infront of your eyes.. why don't you just turn off the power? yes it might kill t ehard drive.. but he drive is about to get fragged anyway.. at least the drive stops where you are up to.

aaaany way.. what to write..

We have Netflix now.. which is an awesoem addition to our televisual watching.. and probably signs the death knell to my participation in watching most of terrestrial TV.. But then given that BBC, ITV and Ch4 seem to be spending all their time churning out utter crap like "The Only Way is Essex", or "Playing it Straight", or "Big Brother" Or XFactor or any other random fly on the wall possibly real maybe not, eyeballing someone who is quite happy to prove A:their utter stupidity and B: their ability to allow themselves to be ritually humiliated to be on tv. So we may be kicking Lovefilm into touch in favour of Netflix..

so yeah.. wooo...

Again just need now to find a new sci-fi series to follow.. I acquired the Firefly Blu-ray the other week (as it was on massivly reduced sale from Amazon) and discovered that I really do miss Firefly. I miss the camraderie of an ensemble cast doing awesome things in a space ship.. and stick in it to the man.. you know.. There is nothing on at the moment that does this.. they are all.. just a bit tame really.

mind you I am looking forward to The Avengers. I am hoping it is a better companion piece to Thor and Iron man than Captain America is..

You know what.. this is becoming an obsession.. you know why? because there is something fundamentally wrong with the whole end scenario.

So much so that I have spent the last hour literally reconstructing it and comparing it to real life photos of the area.

and i have figured out what is driving me mad.

( Beware - spoilery type stuffCollapse )