A Pop Culture and SF Post

[tcpip]

Recently, inspired by my RuneQuest/Stormbringer gaming, I've had the opportunity to appreciate the works of Michael Moorcock. In the past week or so I've read The Jewel in the Skull, The Mad God's Amulet, The Sword of The Dawn, The Runestaff (all fantasy), An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, The End of All Songs (all sf), The Warlord of the Air, The Land Leviathan, and The Steel Tsar (original steampunk). Moorcock also was regular collaborator with Hawkwind, and even caseopaya admits to humming along to the tunes of late. mickey_ob points me to the Prog Rock timeline.

More on the science-fiction theme, I recently did a review of the old sf game Universe. Last week was the 30th birthday of the original Traveller. In recent weeks I've finally (yeah, talk about ignoring pop culture) had the opportunity to watch many sessions of Babylon Five; I find the setting grating, the characters and acting often very wooden, but damn the story is developing just fine. Torchwood has also proven to be sufficiently interesting for me to watch as well.

On other topics, last Friday was Sysadmin appreciation day, which surely must be some wicked joke to grind in how unrecognised they really are. Old uni comrade Adam Bandt is standing for the Greens in Federal seat of Melbourne (MARS used to joke about the World Domination Sub-committee). Somewhat on topic, a star system with four suns may include a planet.

Comments

[alchemon.livejournal.com]

Re: B5....

Which season? I found Season #1 always rather lack-luster, but then again, it's a first season. They definitely seem to get better as they go along, though #4 comes across as rushed (as they had no idea if they'd be contracted to do #5, and tried to cram two seasons worth into one).

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Season #1 was pretty average; currently about 2/3rds of the way through Season #2. The plot development is improving significantly although there is a couple of truly lame episodes interspersed.

I think I may have a read of the Babylon 5 RPG tonight as well.

[extimelord.livejournal.com]

Actually, B5 fandom's how I met my spouse. We love that show to this day. Although, for wooden acting, our first thought is always Sinclair. For us, I think, the third season is really the hallmark of the show. "Z'ha'dum" being my absolute favorite.

[extimelord.livejournal.com]

Ack, sorry, that was a 1, not a 4. Anyway, I think you're going to really start liking it by the time you get to three.

[tentacularone.livejournal.com]

Not that you have any frame of reference from which to judge my taste, but I agree with this guy. I couldn't even sit through the first season, so I jumped to three, which I'd heard good things about, and got hooked from there.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Well, it wasn't too bad, about on par with most popular SF. But yeah, I saw a couple of episodes from later series once and quite liked them..

I owe you a document in a proper format as well. I haven't forgotten :-)

[(Anonymous)]

That's ok, I was able to format the existing one. I do still owe you a playtest/review.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I'll get you a newer version asap. It's changed significantly since version 0.1

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Actually, B5 fandom's how I met my spouse. We love that show to this day.

lol, well yeah, that might colour your perspective a bit! ;-)

Anyway, it's plodding along quite nicely storywise.. But really I am looking forward to the day when someone with imagination writes a script of a setting two to three hundred years in the future and really thinks about what changes to people can be expected by then.