What we enjoy.

[cactuswatcher]

Castle last night was a rerun so I don't feel too worried about spoiling anyone. It was centered around a sci-fi convention, and specifically an old TV show that was sort of a cross between Galaxy Quest and the reboot of Star Trek. It was made abundantly clear that though the show in question only ran for half a season a) it was not Firefly and b) it did have a loyal following. Castle thought the show was dreck. So naturally once he started running it down, we discover that Becket was a geeky fan of the show.

I can't say I actually heard much from people who didn't like Buffy, but no doubt there were a lot of them. I'm the kind of fan who doesn't care for fan conventions. But I don't have any problem with those who do like them. I haven't had the desire to wear the costume of a TV character since I was ten or eleven, but I have no problem with grownups wanting a costume party themed on their favorite show. I don't care for autographs. I know people who will pay good money and stand in line to get one. I know people who'd happily stand in line for an autograph, but would never consider spending a dime on one. We're all fans in different ways, and we behave differently. Some of you will remember the sing-along with OMWF at Lake Tahoe. dlgood didn't want any part of it. The rest of us at least watched and most of us tried to sing. A disturbing moment was when Anya and Xander's duet came on. The guys were all happy to perform it as a duet, but at least a few of the ladies were upset we weren't singing the girl's part. It's not like a) we weren't singing along with Tara a few minutes earlier, or b) we were making a fuss because women wanted to sing Xander's part. Who was right? Those who wanted a nice duet or those who wanted everyone to sing together. Was anyone wrong, is the better question.

All of which is a long winded way to get around to a new show coming to cable that has been fairly widely advertised, Defiance. I can see myself as a teenager being interested in it. but even if I had cable TV I think I'd avoid it. It seems like another Mad Max rip-off; post-apocalyptic Earth, this time with aliens, lots of people running around armed to the teeth, but with very little in the way of agriculture to keep them all alive. Can't say I mind aliens that look generally like humans, but interbreeding stretches far beyond my limits of belief. The story is set in what once was St. Louis. The premise is that, due to unfortunate events, an alien terraforming mechanism tore the Earth up leaving humans and aliens all mixed together in groups fighting bad guys of all races and mutants (hey, there have to be mutants and/or zombies, right?) for survival. As implied earlier, I think teenage boys will go for it if anyone. Defiance comes out in video game form today; I think the TV show starts next week. I've seen footage of a beta version of the game on youtube. The game seems like a generic shoot-em-up with races drawn from the show. The women one can play as in the game are appropriately sexy looking and the playable men, mostly look like steriod-poisoned body-builders. The catch with this game is that you must be on-line to play which gives all kinds of opportunities for the producers to make money off it. Who knows? Defiance may become the next big fandom.

Comments

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

shadowkat mentioned this in closing her post, but I wanted to ask you anyway-- are you following Revolution again now that it's (finally!!) back on?

This week the writers got around to describing the technical phlebotinum that caused the blackout, and I have to say it was at least "reasonable" in how it affected everything in such a short period of time, although it still doesn't address why it doesn't snuff out the electrical energy in living things. But then, I don't know of anything that would, even the alternate, neutrally charged universe fanwank I made up last fall. The idea was neat, though, and frankly kind of scary in that there's no particular reason what they described couldn't eventually exist in reality, and could be used as a very nasty weapon.

Anywho, matters not with the psuedoscience, I'm still finding the show very involving. You-- yes, no, maybe, meh?

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't watched Revolution since the first episode or two. That small matter of electricity being necessary for any animal with a nervous system was pretty much strike three for me in a list of technical sins. The characters and plot didn't save it for me. Everybody is entitled to their own tastes. Better for me to shut up about it than rant about something others like.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay, for some reason I thought you had followed it up until the hiatus. No biggee, I was just curious as I haven't seen a lot of comment on the show on my flist.

What's ironic as to the basic plot premise is that the cause of the blackout they just detailed could in fact exist with future advances in technology, if they had just dialed back the degree of involvement. For example, the degree of supression of electrical activity could hinge on the relative amplitude of the electrical energy present. If so, the blackout's cause could effecively ignore very low level electrical fields (like in biological organisms) and have a huge effect on large ones (like power lines, generators, etc.)

(I'm being cautious about specifics here to avoid any spoilers for any other readers of this comment).

That would have been enough to give the show 95% of what it needed apocalype-wise without violating any known laws of physics.

You know, if they'd just have checked with me first. Tsk. And I work so cheap!