Favorite Books: Ender's Game

It's been a long while (over TWO YEARS) since I've written about a series of books that I love. Just recently, I was reminded of a book series that I still cherish to this day when I found out that the film based on the first book in the series had just released a trailer. The name of the series? The Ender Saga. I don't actually remember the first time I read "Ender's Game", but I do remember why it appealed to me. The story of the book is a simple one: In the far future, humanity has had two wars with an alien race known as "Buggers" and we barely survived. We know a third war is coming, and the Battle School was created to prepare a new class of soldiers and military leaders. The story follows Ender as he is drafted into Battle School and follows his career through both Battle School and the more advanced Command School. We see the emotional and physical consequences of Ender's going through the qualification process, the effect his drafting has on his family, and the role the adults surrounding Ender play in his development. And we get all this, almost the ENTIRE STORY,  through the mind of Ender himself.

Outside The Government, Beyond The Police

Doctor Who

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At the same time that I found out about the new series of Doctor Who, I was told about the spin off series, Torchwood. The series takes place in the same universe as Doctor Who, but is completely Earth based.

The story goes like this: In a ep of the new Doctor Who, the Doctor finds himself battling an alien life form that wants to kill Queen Victoria during her visit to the Torchwood Estates. As you might expect, the Doctor saves the day (and the Queen) but Her Royal Majesty takes issue with the Doctor's reckless attitude and decrees him an enemy of the Empire. In accordance with this decree, she founds the Torchwood Institute, in deference to the name of the estate, whose sole purpose is to defend the British Empire from alien attack and especially from the Doctor.

While references abound for Torchwood in the new Doctor Who series, Torchwood takes direct action during the introductory ep of Tenth Doctor, The Christmas Invasion, when the Prime Minister authorizes Torchwood to destroy an alien ship. In a later ep of Doctor Who, the Doctor directly encounters Torchwood and finds out that they defend the Empire from alien attacks by scavenging alien technology and using it against future threats. In this same episode, Torchwood unleashes a resurgence of the Cybermen on Earth. In the ensuing battle, Torchwood is destroyed. At this point, one of the Doctor's former companions, Capt. Jack Harkness takes over Torchwood, moves it from London to Cardiff, Wales, and re-makes the organization (it's third incarnation) into a more empathic, less aggressive, morally grounded version.

If you were to take Angel, The X-Files, Men In Black, and Doctor who, put them in a blender and turn it on high and you'd get Torchwood. I find Torchwood more appealing than it's parent program because of the darker subject matter, as well as the morally flawed characters. The interplay between the Torchwood team alone is fascinating to watch. While I would recommend Doctor Who to any sci-fi fan, I would recommend Torchwood to my friends. For some reason, that cynical, wise ass attitude would work as well for my friends, as it does for me.

Thoughts On... The Doctor

In this previous post, I promised that I would talk about one of my newly added favorites in the realm of sci-fi television, Doctor Who. Well folks, here it is, my take on Doctor Who. One note before we begin, I've only started watching the new series which started in 2005. For all the fans who have been watching since 1963, I apologize ahead of time for any slights or insults that I may inadvertently deliver. The ones that I explicitly deliver, I won't apologize for.

For those of you who don't know, Doctor who is a show about an alien being called "The Doctor", who looks remarkably human, that travels around space and time (in a craft called the T.A.R.D.I.S) exploring, having adventures, protecting Earth, and basically just getting into all kinds of trouble. At times the Doctor has anywhere from 1 to 3 companions tagging along (usually human) as sidekicks or lightning rods. 

First off, the show itself. I am of the opinion that Doctor Who is one of the most original science fiction shows ever created. The concepts presented are fascinating, the idealism is refreshing without short changing or pandering to it's audience, and the technology presented is exceptionally creative. And it's just plain FUN to watch. There are very few shows out there (most created by Joss Whedon) that blend sci-fi, humor, drama, horror, and action in a single episode, let alone an entire series!

One of the most original concepts of the series relates to The Doctor himself, and directly relates to the seemingly never ending appeal of the show. In 1966, the actor who played the Doctor left the show. In an effort to keep the show going, the writers at the time introduced the Doctor's ability to regenerate into an entirely new appearance with new quirks, but retaining the memories of the previous  Doctors. Currently, there have been a total of 11 Doctors, with the eleventh Doctor being on air currently.

It turns out that I have seen the last 4 Doctors. One of which was in a made for US tv movie, that I had completely forgotten about until recently. The other three have been covered in the new series. Out of the Doctors I have seen, my personal favorite is the ninth Doctor as played by Christopher Eccleston. His portrayal was fluid enough that it meshed with ever changing tone of the show. The Tenth Doctor, David Tennant, was fantastic but he comes across as a bit of a goof which can short circuit the times when the show is trying to be serious or suspenseful. The latest Doctor is also exceptional, but seems a bit too grave for the role which can throw a sonic screwdriver into the comedic parts of the show.

As for the Doctor's companions, they are as random and varied as the different iterations of the Doctor they travel with. My personal favorite being Donna Noble, the only companion I've seen that wasn't hopelessly in love with the Doctor and actually gave him a hard time on a repeated basis. I do have to make a small mention of another of my favorite companions of the Doctor, Capt. Jack Harkness. He was definitely awesome, but more about him on a different posting. 

I started watching Doctor Who when a friend of mine was having orgasms watching the season 4 finale and basically begged me to watch the series. And it took two episodes to really lock me into the series. But having watched the new series, and reading up on the older series, I do have one gripe about the show. While the show is completely original as compared to other science fiction programming, there isn't a great deal of NEW thinking IN the show. I'd say about 95% of the greatest set pieces of the show have all been rehashes of prior events. The one that I particularly enjoyed, the appearance of another alien of the same race as the Doctor calling himself the Master, turns out to be nothing more than the latest "return" of a villain that has been a part of the series since the beginning. And honestly, how many times can the Daleks come back before they are reduced to a crutch?

Having a character that, for all intents and purposes, is immortal and is NOT locked into a single appearance is a television dream! But there is a catch. Having to come up with enough new material so the show doesn't get stuck in a cycle of re-hashing old material in a new format. Overall, the show is fantastic, and I'm very much looking forward to the next season (or series as the Brits call it!) just to see what weirdness the Doctor gets himself into now.

Same Earth, Same Year, But Everything Else Is Different

In the early to mid 90's, the people at FOX were smoking some good shit. I don't know what it was, but it was some good shit. That's how the network that invented reality tv with the "When Animals Attack", actually allowed two good sci-fi shows to get (and more importantly STAY) on the air. One was The X-Files, which I'll talk about in another blog post, the other is the subject of this blog post. It's name:


The show follows a brilliant young scientist/student, Quinn Mallory, who is searching for the equation that will allow him to create anti-gravity. Instead he stumbles upon a way to jump between worlds. Along for the ride are his best friend and would-be girlfriend Wade Welles, his physics professor Maximillian Arturo, and soul singer Rembrandt Brown. On their first trip, something goes wrong and these four become lost in parallel universes, sliding from one alternate Earth to the next, trying to find their way home.


For those of you who don't know, certain branches of science, mostly in the Quantum Mechanics arena, have theorized that every possible outcome of every decision ever made did, in fact, happen. So let's say this morning you, dear readers, got up this morning and decided to make Lucky Charms for breakfast. You could have had eggs, but decided on Lucky Charms since they are magically delicious. But, in the instant when you made the decision an entire new universe was created where you chose to have eggs, instead of Lucky Charms because it's the incredible edible egg. That universe is now a brand new slot in the infinite cd changer that is the MultiVerse. With me so far? Good.

So we have all these universes racked up, side by side, in parallel to each other you might say. They are all just as real as the next, but slightly different. In one universe, McD's could have blue arches instead of yellow, or there could be a King & Queen of America... The possibilities are infinite! Now, imagine if you could jump from world to world and see what they were like. That is Sliders!

Now I do have to admit, Sliders was kind of a low-rent sci-fi show. It didn't have much of a budget, but the show made up for it with some brilliant concepts and the exploration of those concepts. For example, the Sliders visit a world where the population is controlled by a lethal lottery. People sign up for the lottery, if they win they get one week of total posh & pomp. At the end of that week, they are euthanized and their families are given all the money they would ever need. Interesting ethical experiment, isn't it?

In another episode, they visit a world where the atomic bomb was never invented, which is about to be destroyed by an asteroid. Should the sliders give this world the atomic bomb and all the horrors that came with it? Or how about a world were anti-biotics were never created? Or a world where women are in power and display the same level of cruelty and mismanagement men have shown in this one. Are you intrigued yet?

That was the true power of Sliders for me. All the different versions of Earth and how one small change played out to huge differences especially in human morality. How differently would we think if psychics were real? If magic had supplanted science all those years ago? How would that redefine what we would currently believe is right or wrong? There is a school of thought that says we are nothing more than the sum of our experiences. With Sliders, you get the chance to see what we would be like if those experiences had happened completely differently.

What Was This Man On?

I read a great deal of science fiction. I know, duh, right? Yet in all my readings, there's one author that consistently perplexes me. His name is Phillip K. Dick. I haven't read all of his stuff, not yet anyway. But, in reading his short stories and some of his novels, one question keeps repeating in my mind over and over and over again.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THE MAN SMOKING??

And, more importantly, where can I get some!! This guy comes up with some of the craziest, wildest, most brilliant concepts I have ever encountered! It's amazing! The man lived from 1928-1982 and he came up some stuff that fits right at home, now in the year 2010!! If you don't believe me, check this out. Here are some of the movies made from his stories:

Blade Runner (1982)

Total Recall (1990)

Screamers (1995)

AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Impostor (2001)

Minority Report (2002)

Paycheck (2003)

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Next (2007)

Look up the stories of these movies, and then realize the they were written BEFORE 1980!! Can you believe it? This man was something else! God, would I have LOVED to have a conversation with him. Oh wait, and there's another movie coming out based on his work sometime next year. It's called The Adjustment Bureau. Check out the trailer:



Provocative isn't it? If you want to find out more about him, there is a website you can check out. Just click here.