Haha, I'm sure by most folks' account I still *am* a fanboy, but compared to the old days, I'm downright boring! Going back ten years, or so, I had a handful of franchises I lived and breathed--hell I was such a fan of these shows, I actually owned the domain "TheSciFi.com" for a time. Thankfully, that domain is now owned by scifi fans, which is nice. When I had it, I covered the same franchises as I did with my old scifi page: "The SciFi Junk Drawer."
You can get an idea of what they were just by looking at the logo for the SFJD. I thought it was a pretty clever design as logos go--definitely one of my better ones. In case you can't identify them all, here's a list (in no particular order):
Star Wars (the logo for the rebel forces)
Star Trek (the arrowhead)
Red Dwarf (the ring)
X-Files (the X, duh)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (The acronym MST3K--I know, not too imaginative)
Gamera (he's the one chewing on the top of the logo)
I credit Star Wars with putting me on the storytelling path I'm still on today. It blew my 5-year-old mind when I first saw it. I still have memories of that screening, too. The blast of music in the beginning, the giant Star Destroyer oozing by, overhead. My favorite personal Star Wars story to tell, however, is the one about how it inadvertently helped teach me to never trust authority. I guess I was looking a little concerned that Obi-Wan wouldn't win the light saber battle with Darth Vader. So, my mom leaned over and whispered: "Don't worry, Pete. Ben'll win!"
:(
TRUST NO ONE!
Oh wait, that's X-Files. I'll get to that in a sec. What got me out of Star Wars? Two words: "The Prequels." I'm still a fan of the original films, but I just can't be a fanboy for a franchise that largely sucks. I mean, just two of the six films are really good and three of the other four are virtually unwatchable. Then, the cartoons? I don't know which are worse the old Ewok and droid shows from the 1970s or the new ones that all look like they take place in the same universe as "Dexter's Laboratory." (I used to work down the hall from those guys, so I may be biased.)
Star Trek is a show that taught me so much about how humanity should be. It's probably what helped me realize how messed up things are here, in the present day when I finally started paying attention. :)
Kirk and Picard were perfect foils--Kirk represented unfettered expansion and growth while Picard showed us that sometimes contemplation and consideration paved the path to wisdom. Combine the two and you'd have the perfect captain. Sadly, "Deep Space Nine" missed the point as did "Voyager" and I didn't even watch "Enterprise" (though I did try). As for the upcoming movie? I'll see an Indiana Jones sequel before I see that. :(
They stopped making Red Dwarf episodes and the promised movie never got made, so it was rather hard to be a fanboy for a show that was no longer in production. However, Red Dwarf is why I am in a happy marriage today, so I'll always be a fan of "Dwarf". :) See, TheWife and I met on an RD email list back in late 1996. We wouldn't meet until spring of '97 and didn't start dating until July. She wrote a play at UCLA that was inspired by us--it was called "Geeks in Love." :D
But we still pop in the series (now on DVD) every now and again and laugh our asses off. If you're not familiar, Red Dwarf tells the story of the lowest ranking officer aboard a mining ship who inadvertently becomes the last human alive. It's got some great storytelling and is a laugh riot.
X-Files was just a blast. There's something about paranoia that is so much fun. Whether it's aliens or government conspiracies--you can't beat that feeling that maybe they really are out to get you!! Sadly, the series got pretty hackneyed and stupid.
When star David Duchovny said the following in an interview, I knew it was time to move on: "Did you see last week's episode? We should stop!"
I probably will see the new X-Files movie, though.
While I credit Red Dwarf with bringing my wife and I together, I credit Mystery Science Theater 3000 as the show that kept us together. This ten-year series about a guy trapped in space and forced to watch bad movies with his robot pals has always spoken to us on so many different levels. It's a puppet show, which is enjoyable, but it also pokes fairly intelligent fun at a lot of movies. Watch that show and you will learn how NOT to make a movie.
On the other hand, MST3K also introduced us to a good number of bad movies that are really great. I had heard of Mario Bava, but until I saw "Danger Diabolik" on an episode of MST, I never knew how much fun his movies were. I'd never heard of Gamera, before MST3K and thanks to MST and Shosuke Kaneko's very realistic take on the giant turtle back in the mid 1990s, Gamera became my favorite Japanese giant monster (dai kaiju).
I still miss new episodes of MST3K. I do download former MST-host Mike Nelson's commentaries from http://Rifftrax.com/ from time-to-time, but it's less fun for me without the premise and the puppets--as corny as that sounds. Still, it's nice that he's still making fun of bad movies.
While the show was still going, TheWife built one of her own Tom Servo puppets from the show (see it here: http://flickr.com/…/443977828 ) and then had it signed by the guy who was the voice behind the puppet (proof: http://flickr.com/…/443977828 ), which still gets my fanboy juices going to this day.
Finally, we have Gamera. Gamera is a giant turtle--a friend of all children or the Guardian of the Universe, depending on which era of movie you're watching. (That last sub-title, I think, is due to a bad translation from Japanese--the universe is a big place to guard--even for a giant turtle!) I like Gamera better than Godzilla simply because he's more fun. A giant lizard is kind of predictable. A giant turtle? That's just awesome. Plus the movies from the 1960s were waaaaay more wacky than any of the Godzilla films (Two words: kaiju gymnastics!!).
However, in the 1990s, Japanese director Shosuke Kaneko got a chance to direct three new Gamera films and while the first one he did was still on the hokey-fun side, his "Gamera 2: Advent of Legion" ends up being pretty damn amazing. When I saw the trailers for "Gamera 3," however, I nearly peed myself. Kaneko-san kills off sooo many people in his Gamera movies, it's hard to imagine how they don't get R-ratings. Seriously, his Gamera films feel more like "X-Files" episodes than Godzilla rip-offs.
Am I still a fan of scifi? Of course--you can never walk away from scifi. I don't really consume much domestic science fiction on TV or in the movies these days, however. Most of it is boring and predictable and stupid (to put it far too nicely). The only shows I watch with any religiosity are "Battlestar Galactica" (excellent writing!) and any series from the "Doctor Who" universe, although both "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" are very hit-and-miss in my mind.
However, if you have a chance to catch "Sarah Jane Adventures," I *highly* recommend it. The writing on that show is surprisingly solid and I don't think there was an episode I didn't like. The pilot is wonderful--it's about this mysterious new drink called "Bubble Shock" which is sweeping the country. "It's organic!"
Oh, it's organic all right!!
I also watch a lot of anime from Japan. My favorite series to date has to be "Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex" aka GITS SAC. It's a great show with amazingly deep stories that explore concepts of life, death, existence, god, humanity and violence with impressive subtlety for a 25 minute cartoon (definitely not for the kids!). I have also enjoyed "Full Metal Alchemist," "Cowboy Bebop" is EXCELLENT and the classic anime shows "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman" and "Space Battleship Yamato." Those last two are hokey, but they're still fun. Oh and "Planetes" made me a cry a lot.
OK, enough out of me!!
What's your favorite science fiction? Or are you too "mature" to, you know, have an imagination? ;)
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Replies.Orignal From: TheSciFiJunkDrawer: When ThePete Was A Fanboy!
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