Top 10 Mothers in Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tomorrow, call your mother because it's Mother's Day, and you'll (be made to) regret it if you don't. But until tomorrow, you may want to look at Matt Blum of Geek Dad's list of the ten greatest mothers in science fiction and fantasy:

8. Martha Kent - You think it’s tough to deal with your kids’ temper tantrums? Imagine having to worry they’ll register on the Richter scale! And imagine his birthday parties: “OK, Clark, blow out the candles… CAREFULLY!” It’s a miracle she had any hair, gray or not, left by the time she was getting old.

7. Padme Amidala - Yes, we know, she never actually had the opportunity to be a mother to Luke and Leia. And she did spend most of Episode III sitting at home being pregnant and spouting mind-numbingly bad dialogue. But she was pretty badass in Episodes I and II, and she did produce her twins, who did eventually help bring about the downfall of the Empire.

Who would you add to the list?

New Harry Turtledove Short Story

Harry Turtledove, master of alternate history, has penned a short story about life on Earth, decades after it has been partially conquered by aliens.

The President of the United States looked out of an Oval Office window at Grand Junction, Colorado. The Oval Office was square, but the President’s workplace kept its traditional name. Harris Moffatt III sighed and bent to his paperwork again. Even in Grand Junction, that never disappeared.

Washington, D.C., remained the de jure capital of the United States. Harris Moffatt III had never been there. Neither had his father, President Harris Moffatt II. His grandfather, President Harris Moffatt I, got out of Washington one jump ahead of the Krolp. That the USA was still any kind of going concern came from his ever-so-narrow escape.

Harris Moffatt III was also Prime Minister of Canada, or of that small and mountainous chunk of Canada the Krolp didn’t control. The two countries had amalgamated early on, the better to resist the invading aliens. That, of course, was before they realized how far out of their weight they were fighting.

What Makes A Franchise Enduring? Uniforms

Marc Bernadin argues that shows with uniforms (military or otherwise) permit fans to easily identify with them, and thus aids the endurance of a franchise:

Just one thing separates Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Firefly from Lost, The X-Files, and Buffy.[...]

The bond that unites fans is the shared experience: the idea that a common passion offers a rally point for community. Humans, by nature, flock together — on teams, in the workplace, as families — and a uniform is the most demonstrative display of that community.

Not only does a uniform allow for on-sight verification of a fellow fan, it can also serve as something of a totem with which one can access the story itself. It'd be foolish to posit that there wasn't some element of fantasy at work, that by donning a Viper pilot uniform the wearer isn't trying just a little to be part of the grand Battlestar mythos. The fans don't want to be William Adama or James T. Kirk or Captain Tightpants — it's not about pretending to be someone, it's about wanting to belong to something.

It's an interesting hypothesis, although there have been many shows that had uniforms, but have not endured (e.g. Space: Above and Beyond, Exosquad, Xena). I am, however, at a loss to think of any science fiction or related franchise that did not uniforms, yet has maintained a strong fanbase over time.

Do you agree with Bernadin's hypothesis? Why or why not?

Question of the Day

What is your favorite science fiction television comedy show and why?
	Futurama
	Red Dwarf
	Mystery Science Theatre 3000
	3rd Rock From the Sun
	Mork and Mindy
	Tripping the Rift
pollcode.com free polls

A Gallery of Awful Science Fiction Book Covers

Good Show Sir is a photoblog of bad science fiction novel cover art. Here's the annotation for Will Shetterly's The Tangled Lands:

It was my late teens and I was studying hard at some top notch university. Then came the LSD and it was all, floating semi translucent men surrounded by magical orbs in a forest being watched by unicorns. I suppose that has something to do with the world of cats, right?

via io9

Question of the Day

What science fiction universe would you most like to live in, and why?

What's Your Sci Fi Blind Spot?

Mark Bernardin asks:

Never seen an episode of Star Trek? Never read any Philip K. Dick? What's the one hallowed piece of the science fiction firmament you've never seen or heard or read? Don't be embarrassed; we've all got one. At least.

Well, I guess that I'll get the confessional rolling: I've never seen a single episode of Battlestar Galactica. Or even a clip. By that I mean the new version. And I've only seen a few episodes of the classic series, and not since I was eight years old.

There. Now it's your turn.

Previously on The Zeray Gazette: A Shocking Admission

Sci-Fi Superfan Reference Manual

If you're a bit confused by Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Avatar, and Lost fans, this chart will explain the differences between the species. Pictured above is one small slice of the chart.

via Digg

Question of the Day

What is your favorite science fiction novel, and why?

The Real Reason Why High Literature Looks Down on Science Fiction

via Awesomesauce

The 15 Worst Science Fiction Movies of All Time

Tim of Pop Crunch has a list of what he considers to be the fifteen worst science fiction films of all time. Coming in at #5 is the 1998 Bruce Willis movie Armageddon:

Seriously, the histrionic plot is bad enough, but the science of the film is so bad as to make any scientist within a 5 mile radius of a showing to spontaneously combust. They get every possible details wrong—how you would stop an asteroid; what would happen if you put explosives down a shaft in one; what would happen if you split it up; sound in space; gravity; hiring oildrillers for the thing in the first place. Throw in Ben Stiller pretending he can act and Bruce Willis
giving a textbook definition of “phoning it in”, you get an utterly crap movie, of course directed by Michael Bay.

I thought that it was okay, but Tim is correct to suggest that the movie requires simply enormous suspension of disbelief.

What movie would you add to the list? What movie would you remove from the list?

via Digg

The Periodic Table of Science Fiction

TopatoCo is currently selling a poster that breaks down science fiction film and television into its constituent elements. You can view a larger image here.

Product Page via technabob

Fake Foreign Sci Fi Film Posters

io9 has a gallery of fake science fiction movie posters by Travis Pitts that re-imagine them as sophisticated, foreign art house films.

Artist's Website

Physicist: Sci-Fi Movies Should Be Allowed Only One Major Violation of Laws of Physics

Sidney Perkowitz, professor of physics at Emory University and scientific advisor on the set of many movies, argues that Hollywood should reign in the bad science:

Professor Perkowitz said he liked Starship Troopers, but criticised its giant insects, saying if you scaled up a real bug to that size it would collapse under its own weight. He hated The Core, in which a team of scientists travel to the centre of the Earth and detonate a nuclear device to start the planet's core spinning again.[...]

''I am not offended if they make one big scientific blunder in a given film,'' Professor Perkowitz said. ''You can have things move faster than the speed of light if you want. But after that I would like things developed in a coherent way.

''If you violate that you are in trouble. The chances are that the public will pick it up and that is what matters to Hollywood. The Core did not make money because people understood the science was so out to lunch.'

via reddit

10 Funniest Comedy Sketches about Aliens

(YouTube Link)

io9 has a compilation of ten funny sketches about aliens. The above video "Spacelords" is from Human Giant, and is about a team of conquering aliens who mistake a burger joint for the Earth capital.

Everything I Need to Know About Winter I Learned From SciFi Movies

John Scalzi examined five science fiction movies and discerned prudent advice about winter survival from them. A few examples:

• From The Empire Strikes Back: "Have you practiced using the force to dislodge your lightsaber from a snow pile while you're hanging upside down? And why not?"

• From Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: "From time to time, you may find yourself sentenced to an icy prison planet. When that happens, it's okay to ask for weather-appropriate clothing instead of just going in whatever you happen to have on. Sure, someone in prison might take it from you when you get there, because that's what people on icy prison planets do. But until then, you'll be toasty."

• From The Day After Tomorrow: "When half of the continental United States is encased in ice, saying "How's the global warming working out for you?" in an arch and sarcastic way will get you thrown out into the cold. Because while technically you may be right, now is not the time."

via Glenn Reynolds

Most Overrated/Most Underrated SciFi TV Series

Most overrated: Farscape. Okay, maybe this got better after the first season, which was the only one I watched before giving up on the series. The plot was slow and disjointed and I found the main character, John Crichton, to be a jackass. Yet this series seems to have an enthusiastic and sustained fanbase. Why?

Most underrated: Exosquad. This is not the first time that I've extolled the virtues of this early 90s cartoon. And it won't be the last, I assure you. This majestic cartoon with a great story arc was drawn and marketed to appeal to ten year-olds, but written at college level sophistication. It could have only been improved by expansion to a full hour and consistent animation direction.

What say you? What are the most overrated and underrated science fiction television shows?

Science Fiction's 10 Most Epic Love Stories

At io9, Charlie Jane Anders writes about what she considers to be the 10 most romantic love stories in science fiction. These include Paul and Chani from Dune and John Crichton and Aeryn Sun from Farscape.

For my money, I found Peter David's Star Trek novel Imzadi to be the most romantic novel I've ever read. Troi and Riker are bonded in a strange way throughout the series, and this novel is an exploration of that relationship. It is put to the test, and their love ultimately transcends the space-time continuum. Very hard, very sweet.

What is your favorite love story from science fiction?

UPDATE: Matt Blum at GeekDad has a related list of the ten most tragic love stories in 'geek fiction' -- which he seems to define as to include superheroes, fantasy lit, and medieval lore. Reading it reminded me of another one of my favorite love stories: Willow and Tara from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It is a tale that is both sweet and tragic. It's not science fiction, but it is a related genre.

Science Fiction Valentines

Garrison Dean created this gallery of science fiction-themed valentines for the blog io9.

The 10 Wost SciFi Snubs in Oscar History

At io9, Cyriaque Lamar has a list of what she (he?) considers to be ten times in the history of the Academy Awards when an Oscar definitely should have gone to a science fiction film. I fully agree that the 1985 Oscar for Best Screenplay should have gone to Back to the Future, which was a pretty innovative concept at the time.

Link