The Rough Dreams

I've decided to start doing the Chuck Wendig flash fiction challenge, which this week involves a random title generator (thank you so much for the generator!). As this is flash fiction, it is only 670 words. Enjoy, and watch this space weekly!

The Rough Dreams
 

Morlynn loved her job. She loved being a Rougher, taking the raw Dream-Stuff her Harvester friends gathered, and shaping it into a general form, a school or work building, the sensation of flight or of drowning. She loved watching the Refiners take her sketched-in form, and turn it into a fully-realized dream, full of color and sound and heightened emotions. Most of all, she loved the thought that she was part of the process of making people's lives and minds more interesting, of showing to each of them some hidden part of themselves.

But sometimes, before she could pass a dream on, it would escape, lumbering off through the Curtain, to the waking world. They were often the hardest to work even before they went rogue, twisting and turning and straining under her hands, and each time it happened, her curiosity grew as to where they went, and why they tried so hard to get there. One day, Morlynn made the snap decision to follow one, to finally learn the answers to her questions.

The Curtain was strange, almost sticky, and she had to force her way through, where the dream had slipped through lightly. The waking world on the other side was bright, the colors sharper than anything Morlynn had ever seen, and it was loud, and smelly... Morlynn was regretting her choice, but she'd taken the biggest step, and now she felt she had to follow through. As she adjusted to the assault on her senses, she figured out that she was in a park, in the midst of a crowd, many of whom were waving signs or chanting something angry.

The people around her didn't seem to be able to see or feel her, which was eerie, but it did make everything a little easier. The dream, too, seemed invisible to them, but they still turned toward it, seeking for it. To Morlynn it glowed so bright its light shone through the people, and she found it simple to trail it through the crowd, that restless, churning mass of humanity, to a young woman standing near the edge of a stage.

The dream gathered itself and leapt into the young woman, the glow spreading out to fill her skin, to shine out of her eyes. She jumped up onto the stage and grabbed a microphone. She began to speak, passionately, gesturing and pacing, and with each word, a puff of glowing Dream-Stuff popped out of her mouth and drifted into the audience, who had turned toward her at her first word. The puffs landed on one person or another's face or hair, their shoulder or hand, then sank in and spread out under their skin.

Morlynn was transfixed. All around her, the waking people were starting to glow. Each glow was faint, but there were more and more of them with every passing moment, and the crowd looked to her eyes like moonlight on water. The people were now moving restlessly, turning to each other to share ideas and glow, waving their signs more energetically, throwing their fists up to agree with some point or other the woman on the stage was making. Her speech finished with a feeling like a silent thunderclap, and the crowd scattered, leaving in every direction with intense purpose.

Morlynn wanted badly to follow them, or the woman, but she felt herself being dragged back. A painful moment later, she was standing in The Boss's office, his luminous eyes fixed on her, though, she was glad to see, not with ire. He rose, came around the desk, and led her over to a sofa, where they sat. She looked down at her hands, then up at him, nervously.

He smiled gently, giving her a sense of calm. “And so you see, my dear. For their ordinary lives, people need sleeping dreams, to let their minds explore. But sometimes, every so often, they need waking dreams too, to let their hearts expand.“ Morlynn smiled back. She really, truly, absolutely, loved her job.

A Request for Rainbows

Game of Thrones is very nearly the only tv show (/movie) that I have watched without reading the associated book first. In general, I like to be able to picture the characters and settings for myself before seeing how someone else interpreted them. This, however, is not a post about the hits and misses of page-to-screen adaptations. This is a post about how authentic we should want our authenticity to be.
Something else I am not addressing with this post is the idea that rape was appallingly commonplace in feudal societies, and so we should have no problem not just talking about it but graphically showing it in a fantasy setting like Thrones. That idea seems to me to be disingenuous at best, and an excuse for gratuitous sexual violence at worst. Though, to be fair, that idea and this one are intertwined quite a bit. Because, for me, it's about agency, and femininity vs. masculinity, and how a created society treats those inferior in some way.
What I'm trying to say here, is that the treatment of and attitude toward Loras Tyrell bothers the hell out of me. I know the Dornish are much more comfortable with open sexuality, and many of them are openly bisexual, but we actively see very little of that on-screen. What we do see is Loras and Renly and "boy-lovers" who are mocked for being less manly than the warriors around them (though Renly was actually shaping up to be a good and decent king for a minute there). We see followers of The Seven- lay people, priests, and Faith Militant alike -being cruel or even violent to those who contradict their apparent view of the way the world works. But why should their world work that way?
Why make a fantasy world, and import these tired old tropes? If you're asking us to accept warging and fire magic, and *dragons*, if you're crafting a society with not just seven Gods, but Old Gods and New, why not have them be more accepting of "alternate" sexualities? You'll note also that all of the homosexual men we've seen have played into the effeminate stereotype to some degree, and even bisexual Oberyn was occasionally flamboyant; why not have queer men who are large and butch, or wily players of The Game? Why not have queer women who....
Ah, yes, the other half of this worn old coin. Where are the homo- or bi-sexual women? Aside from Oberyn's primary partner, Ellaria, and the extremely performative "whores kissing each other for the titillation of the customers," we see absolutely zero women who are sexually attracted to women. (We also see very, very little genuine affection between women, except a scattering of mother-daughter (type) interaction, but all that is a separate post.) Why erase even the possibility of those sorts of characters and stories from your world? Why, in fact, would any author recreate such stifling social mores in a fantasy work?
These are genuine questions to me. I genuinely do not understand why, when creating a world fantastical in so many other ways (even if molded on historical reality), one would confine oneself to historical attitudes. Why not have a society in which a small but significant percentage of the population prefers the romantic company of their own sex, and, here's the important part now, no one is bothered by it?!?! Why not have loving, committed same-sex couples, marrying in the same way as opposite-sex couples, raising children together, even ruling towns or countries together? Wouldn't that be an interesting boundary to push?
Now, this would of course have implications for the rest of society, but that just makes for better stories. Some possible things to explore: if noble couples cannot necessarily reproduce on their own, fosterage/adoption and inheritance become more complex (and interesting); naming schemes, separated from patrilinear conventions, could be quite convoluted; most basically, even words for spouses, parents, and noble hierarchy might be completely rethought. (OK, yes, one quick note about rape: this is another knock-on effect, that people who are comfortable with a range of sexualities and their expressions are also probably less likely to resort to sexual violence as casually as those of Westeros seem to.) Maybe I'm the only one, but it seems like the genre that used to be "sci-fi/fantasy" and is now "speculative fiction" is about exploring the ways the world could be different, and the implications of those differences.
Instead, in Thrones, we have another iteration of the (relatively modern) (Christian) idea that homosexuality is a sin and blasphemy, that its practitioners are dissolute and weak, and degenerates who deserve nothing but punishment in this life and the next. Frankly, it feels like a giant step backward, in this day and age, and it does a disservice to the show's viewers.
And so this is a call. To the established writers, the studio execs, the production companies seeking the next cultural phenomenon: Let it reflect our culture, and the positive direction we are heading. Let it be multicultural (which is something Thrones has had hits and misses with); let it be multi-gendered, and multi-sexual, without backlash; let it remind people that with or without magic and dragons, we can still change the world. Let people have agency, let women make choices without being punished for them, let that fantastical society evolve and improve by the works of its characters. In short, let us have hope again.    

Genetic Engineering And You: a guide for those who eat

One of the biggest fights in politics today is over genetic modification of our food. Unfortunately, this is such a fraught issue that many people find themselves taking a hard-line position at one end of the opinion spectrum or the other, and the world of nuance in between is lost. I would like to clarify some middle ground that I think deserves to be explored.

Now, in principle, I have nothing against modifying or even recombining the genes in food plants and animals to increase yield or decrease the resources that go into something. I am certainly aware that part of terraforming alien worlds will inevitably involve genetic manipulation of not only living resources but also potentially humans ourselves. Heck, some of my favorite stories/worlds have this as a basic foundation! (See: the Pern series by Anne McCaffery) In fact, most food that we eat in the 21st century has been at the very least cross-bred to increase desirable traits. This is the beginning and ending of some people's argument: we have always tinkered with our food to make it more edible in some way, and modern methods are just the next step in that.

But there are issues with modern methods that simply did not arise in more traditional husbandry. Breeding two wheat plants or two cows together to produce a better version of the same species has predictable results, with at worst one or two mutations to be accepted or rejected (i.e. bred into another generation or culled). Taking a cow embryo and splicing in gene sequences from jellyfish or milkweed or elephants could have a whole cascade of side effects and/or unintended consequences.

Which is not to say that such splicing should never take place, just that it should be done in controlled circumstances. Raise that cow in relative isolation, and two or three generations (at least) of its offspring under close watch. Do not, whatever you do, set the first cow loose into a random field and let it wander off for a decade or so, at which point you have no idea how many offspring there are or how to identify and contain them. Not only is that bad science, it also makes the lives of everyone more difficult: the cattle farmers who might unexpectedly have jellyfish-cows, the meat inspectors who have to certify that this is in fact beef, and the consumers who eat something officially labeled 'beef'.

The ripple effect shows more potential problems. Often the experimental organisms and their offspring grow more quickly, or gobble resources more thoroughly, and overwhelm the native population of whatever. The spliced-in genes might mutate in unexpected ways, or cause strange mutations in the organism's native genetic code. Worse, the gene sequences might cause serious problems for consumers, like allergic reactions or the breaking of religious dietary laws. And without any sort of labeling or transparency about their process, the company cannot technically be held accountable.

We must also consider the intent, the end goal, of splicing in genes from an unrelated species. If your goal is to improve a tomato, you might want to add a gene sequence that increases its vitamin content, or one that extends its shelf life. Unfortunately, it seems that many corporations do not have the goal of improving the food itself. The aim of their tinkering is, far too often, to make the plant more compatible with their own fertilizer or pesticide, or less compatible with potential cross-breedees. (The larger goal of which, of course, is to increase their own profits without regard for who loses thereby.) One day we might conceivably even see animals which can only gain nutrition from plants created by a particular company, making farmers completely beholden to that company. This profit motive also leads these corporations to release organisms that have been minimally tested, or tested only in lab conditions, not in the wild.

This is the main problem I, and many other people, have with corporations like Monsanto. They seemingly do not care about the long-term consequences of their manipulations, nor about the short term effects on their own farmers, other farmers, or those who actually consume the food in question. Their methods and materials are functionally inscrutable, and they have bought enough politicians and regulatory bodies that they effectively face no consequences whatsoever. Worse, they simply keep growing, reaching deeper into our lives and our shopping carts every year, with little to nothing seeming to stand in their way.

As I've stated before, I don't have a problem with people pursuing this branch of science. In fact, I suspect that it will be necessary to our survival as a species (even before we start colonizing other planets) that we engineer plants and animals to be more fruitful/hardy/efficient. I just believe that this is work best done by universities and government research bodies, with data published in peer-reviewed journals before the resultant organisms are considered for distribution to the general public. These are institutions which (ideally) hold to a standard of public good, with an eye toward long-term implications of this still relatively untested technology. 

In the meantime, of course, it is important that we the citizens have not only labels on our food, telling us which organisms in it have been genetically modified, and with what genes, but also transparency at every level of creation, including what potentially-engineered plants have been fed to our food animals. We must have greater government oversight into the methods and practices of these monolithic corporations, and stricter laws about what can be modified (and why and how it is modified), and/or what sorts of genes can be spliced in. 

Genetically modified food will only become more common as history moves forward, but with a thoughtful outlook and a light touch, it can provide a higher standard of living for the entire global population. Let's chart that middle road.    

Your song is ending, Doctor

There's a reason Time Lords only get a certain number of Regenerations. (Yes, yes, it's been forever, where have I been? Does it matter? Moving on...) I've heard plenty of theories: the cynical, that the Council of Time Lords doles them out; the logical, that it's a biological restriction; and the intriguing, that it's actually due to some law of conservation of Vortex energy or something, and that with the rest of them locked away, the Doctor has access to all those unused Regenerations.

But I think it's simpler than that, and more interesting, especially for someone like the Doctor. Hell, he's even said it himself- he's tired, old and tired. He's getting on towards 1,000 years old, and it's been a life of near-constant chaos, danger, and intrigue. It's very much like the Heinlein-Martian idea that a city can fill with memories and need to be left behind. For other Time Lords, by the time they get to that 13th Regeneration, they've probably lived closer to four or five millennia, maybe even more; they get into a lot less trouble, overall, than he does. They've still got an enormous amount of experiences and memories, and they all get a bit tired. I think that, after everything he's seen and done, even if he had the option to take on everyone else's spare Regenerations, he wouldn't, not if he had any other choice.

Which is part of why I think they need to bring back Romana. For one thing, I think it would do the Doctor a world (or two) of good to have some family again, a friend who understands about Gallifrey and the loss of a people, an ally who can always keep up with him. Also, he's gotten a bit reckless, and I think she would rein him in expertly, keep him alive just a bit longer. But the other side of that coin is that he would have an heir, someone who can continue his work when he uses up his lives and can finally stop running. She has plenty of experience keeping up with his quick-turns, both mental and physical, and she believes in the goodness of sentient beings and in giving everyone one last chance to mend their ways. There's no one in the Universe he's more likely to trust to continue his legacy, and no one more qualified.

Lastly, one thought on a slightly different topic. Interspersed with the Eleventh Doctor stuff I've been watching, I've also gone back and watched some First Doctor, and I'm intrigued by the similarities. Anyone else with me in thinking that, before we ever met him, the Doctor was as much of a poker and a pryer and an annoyance as Amy ever found him? Granted, he was likely a bit less wacky, what with being surrounded with other Time Lords, but some of his current oddness may be senility anyway. Or at least the weight of age... *This thought inspired by Teenage Rebel by Chameleon Circuit, from the album Still Got Legs.

The virtues of a reboot

So I just saw the new Star Trek movie. To be fair, I never really watched the original series, and while I enjoyed TNG when it first ran, and will willingly watch reruns (likewise DS9 and Voyager), I'm not terribly invested in the mythology or backstory of the Trek universe. So I think they could do well rebooting with either a movie franchise or a tv series, and I think they set up the premise and ending quite well for sequels on either the large or small screen.
But what I want to talk about is the idea of the reboot itself, and what this reimagine, forty years later, says about changes in our culture. (Note that in some ways George Lucas was trying to do this sort of reboot with the Star Wars prequels, but he's lost touch with his audience. That post is coming) The original Star Trek was bursting with promise, the idea that humanity were the great explorers, the great nation-builders. After all, the very idea of a Federation of Planets, a hugely diverse group that could nevertheless work together to do great things, was revolutionary in the age of Martin Luther King. Sure, there were enemies, conflicts, but there was also plenty of barter of goods and knowledge, and of course sexual openness. Nearly any problem could be solved with either ultra-modern technology or good old-fashioned diplomacy (whether it WAS solved that way is another question). And they were always learning new and interesting things about the universe! A strong metaphor for JFK's America...
In the reboot, we have a diverse group that works together a little uneasily (the Vulcan children certainly consider Vulcans as better than humans), but still fairly well. They face an opponent who saw, granted, a terrible tragedy, but he has vowed to retailiate with ten times the force, killing a dozen worlds for the one he lost. (Never mind that with the time travel/dimension hopping/whatever he's done, he could just SAVE his own planet and family.) He will not be reasoned with, he just wants vengance. While the bridge (and the rest) of the Enterprise herself is shiny and gleaming and ultra-modern, we also see plenty of areas that are grimy, run-down, or ill-kempt. The sexuality does ring very true to modern relative-openness, and they even managed to make Kirk's womanizing both realistic and central to the plot, which is impressive. A strong metaphor, overall, for the Bush years (since that's when it was written) and the Information Age.
I saw an episode of CSI recently (I believe it was from the new season) in which the victim of the week was a writer/producer who had done something similar, rebooted a favorite old chrome-future show with a darker and grittier theme. However, in that the fans of the original hated the reboot because the main character was confident and positive and diplomatic in the original, and in the reboot he was whiny and defeatist. The writer claimed this was more realistic, but it really went too far in the other direction. Abrams has avoided this by making all of his characters flawed but still likable, true to the originals but more realistically drawn. (Original Kirk was brash and remarkably charismatic, the new one charming but obviously reckless; original Spock the epitome of the cool-headed scientist [generally], the new one reaching for the ideal of perfect, cool logic, but falling short at times.)
I must admit myself disappointed on one front. The first time we see the space battle from outside a ship, there is silence, and I found myself excited that Abrams was aiming for realism. However, in later battles, the shots from outside the ships have the sounds of proton torpedoes and such firing. The silence was instead repeated inside, for a dramatic moment, and I realized he was using it as a dramatic device, not adhering to actual physics. I'm a little let down. We should require our science fiction to have better science, in this the Information Age.
The original Star Trek was full of hope and starry-eyed wonder. The new one is practical, but still positive and proactive. I say bring on the franchise, we could use more of that sort of hope.

Something to tide us all over

Holy Hannah, it's been forever since I've posted. I should do something about that. Well, to tide you over in the meantime, here's a different blogger I've just discovered, who has many interesting things to say. This particular post is tangentially relevant to the things I say here, so enjoy!
gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2006/06/why_i_like_harr.html

The Spike, the Wolf, the Ram and the Hart

Random late-night thought: Spike being bound to Wolfram & Hart, and furthermore to LA as it goes to Hell. Angel's team all agreed, for various reasons sufficient to each of them, to join the new staff of Wolfram & Hart. However, as has been revealed in the comics, WR&H were playing a very long game, and they now have the whole team right where they want them. But they wanted Spike, too, and he never would have agreed to join them of his own free will. They knew, though, that he would insist on wearing an amulet designated to be worn by 'a champion, souled but stronger than human', especially to save Buffy. Passing it from Lilah to Angel to Buffy to Spike ensured both that Spike would insist, and that there would be no way for him to understand where/who it came from. Any one of a dozen spells would ensure that the amulet returned to the LA office, and once conjured there, Spike would be bound to the offices, and whether or not he recorporialized, he would then have ties that would keep him in town for a year, which is all they needed. They played him just as much as the rest of the team, just at one more remove.

Nature or Nurture (or, the inevitablity of destiny)

The new season of Heroes has started, and the threads tangle more thoroughly with every scene. First of all we have the clustering of powers: the energy manipulators, with the fire-specific subset and Traci's ice power as well as Elle's electricity; the fourth-dimension folk, who can move at inhuman speed or change the flow of time (I include precogs in this category); the body manipulators, like Claire's self-healing, Linderman's other-healing, and Monica's muscle memory; and the mental ones, like Parkman's telepathy/Influence. And now that we have learned about the Company's formula, how much of this is designed?
Next, of course, is the twists and turns of Gabriel's life. Is he still Sylar? Will he be Sylar four years from now? He will have a child, for whom he will care very deeply, but who is the boy's mother? And why has Gabriel named the boy Noah? Never mind all the convolutions that claim Gabriel is another Petrelli, which seems like something of a cop-out on the part of the writers, frankly.
In an interesting twist, we now have four individuals who are effectively immortal. What that will mean for the continuing story is an interesting point to debate, but there are more immediate concerns. For instance, we have seen both Claire's and Peter's blood restore someone from the dead- if they/someone makes this public knowledge, there will be rioting and mass hysteria. On the other hand, at the moment the Company is keeping this very hush-hush, which suggests that they have nefarious uses for heal-all blood. Well, of course they have nefarious plans- they do have Level 5, with all that implies.
I am a little irked that the writers are continuing the trend of more male characters than female, and the males having more volition than the females. Maya, for instance, took the huge step of seeking out Mohinder so he could help her, but to get there she needed her brother, then she turned to Sylar for help, and now that she has found Mohinder, she has completely submitted to him. She may yet kick him to the curb, but only if she notices that he is being abusive, which, with her history, seems highly unlikely. Claire keeps going back and forth on how active she is (though she's getting more and more dangerous), while her grandmother is just a terrible, manipulative bitch.
Ah, and then there's this formula business... It's possible that, like Mohinder, the Company started with someone with abilities (maybe Adam Monroe? or is there time trickery there?). Equally likely, they decided that they wanted abilities, figured out the formula, and tested it on themselves. We know they found the formula too dangerous for general use, officially for the reasons Hiro saw, but likely for more personal (ie, retaining secular power) reasons, too. Now I just wonder how close Mohinder's formula is to the one the Company created, and how far each of them will spread in the coming months.

More of a placeholder than anything

I'm not entirely sure why I'm bothering, doesn't seem like anyone is reading this, but why not?
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while, but my motherboard fried, and it's taking me a while to get a new one. I'm using my roommate's computer right now, but I don't write on it. Trust me, this is impeding more than just blogging- I have a TV show I should be working on. However, I have started a campaign to watch every possible Dr Who episode, so I may be discussing some of that at some point soon. Love to hear from anyone who reads this!

They're Three Laws Safe... really

I was reminded today of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (I knew them in general, it’s been years since I actually read them) and I got to thinking about the recent Will Smith movie I, Robot, which is based loosely off an Asimov story by the same name, with elements of other stories. It occurred to me that there is a fatal flaw in the main character’s dislike of robots, the origins of which are explored in flashback.

First, the Laws:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

There’s also the Zeroth Law, which comes into play in the movie, but has nothing to do with this discussion.

Next, the flashback scene: Will Smith was in a multi-car accident. His car and another were forced off a bridge into deep water. In the other vehicle were a dead-on-impact father and a trapped, aware twelve year old daughter. A robot goes into the water after the cars, and elects to save Will instead of the girl, despite Will’s orders to save her. In the return to Will’s ‘present’, he finishes by saying the robot calculated his odds of survival as better than hers, and that’s why it saved him and not her.

Now, my issue: this robot was violating the Second Law, and by extension the First. In this case, with two humans in essentially equal danger, with A possibly able to save himself and B definitely not, the robot should be going for B. Add in A’s orders to go for B, and the evidence afterwards that A was in fact harmed in the rescue attempt*, and the whole situation doesn’t make any sense at all.

The Zeroth Law and Will’s dislike of and distrust for robots collide, leading to a deep philosophical question about the nature of free will and the choices we as humans make, which is the subject of its own post, but in a movie otherwise decently well adapted and thought out, this moment stands out glaringly.

*This injury the visible reminder of the incident and his new distaste for robots.

What is the measure of Man?

Torchwood is meant to be darker and edgier than the show it spins off of, Doctor Who, and it certainly is that. But it also says things about the human condition that the good Doctor cannot illustrate. One of these is the notion of family, a team. The Doctor might have a Companion or two, but he always knows that he will lose them, either to misadventure or to an excess of adventure that burns them out and makes them long for home. The current Torchwood group, on the other hand, consciously battle incredible odds to stay together, and there have been many circumstances which nearly tore them apart, but in the end, those experiences only draw them closer. This is an idea that recurs again and again in science fiction, the notion that one of the things that makes us human is the impulse, the drive to band together and create teams and communities. We are social creatures, and most of us work better with others around to back us up, to share and expand on our ideas, to be emotional support. The Doctor seems to feel some of this instinct towards group building, but his circumstances are unique, and he often focuses more on that than the people sharing it with him, which can highlight his inhumanity more than any overt action. After all, deciding whether or not to save a thousand humans from Certain Death doesn’t mean as much when you don’t have a grasp on who they would be leaving behind, the bonds that would be broken without those people.

Another poignant aspect of being human is the knowledge of mortality. This was accentuated in the recent Torchwood arc featuring Martha Jones. Owen, the team doctor, is shot, but Torchwood has the Resurrection Glove, which can bring a person back for a minute or two. However, this is the Mark II, and Owen’s resurrection becomes more long-term. It may only be a few weeks or months (or it could be several decades) before it fails again, but in the meantime, he cannot process food or drink, bruises and bone breaks do not mend, and he has no heartbeat. He and Jack have had several mournful conversations about the dichotomy of their situations, one painfully aware that he might fall and die at any moment, the other just as painfully aware that he will never die, no matter what. One missing the food and the love he can no longer fully appreciate, the other missing the spice of subconscious knowledge that all this could be snatched away. They do not come to an conclusions, for what resolution is there for either of them? But they both become just a little more human to us in that moment.

As a minor side note: is Spike a Whovian? We know he likes Monty Python; he makes reference to ‘The Holy Hand-grenade of Antioch’ and ‘that insidious torture device, the comfy chair’, but in As You Were (6.15), he gives himself the code name ‘The Doctor’. Is this a geekly reference?

Buffy Quibble

OK, it's minor, but this one keeps bugging me: At the beginning of Season 1, Buffy was 15 when she started Sophomore year. At the beginning of Season 7, it is implied that Dawn is starting Freshman year, but she is 16. What gives? Sloppy writing? Was she actually taking high school classes before, but in a random building? In fact, for those three years, where were all the teenagers going to school? They could have spent two lines explaining all this, but instead these questions are left to haunt me. *sigh*

Family Of Choice

One of the things that comes up, again and again, in sci-fi/fantasy, is the notion of connectedness, the family you make. It is a thread that runs from Star Wars to Babylon 5, from Doctor Who to Buffy. In every case, teens or adults, generally without close blood family, come together under difficult circumstances, find their strength and their power together, and forge a Family of Choice. (This applies, often more strongly, to written sci-fi, but this blog focuses on filmed art, not prose.)

It is very true that when a group shares a set of experiences, especially if they cannot discuss those experiences with the wider world, they become close. But it can go so far beyond that when the group is a team, when they have a specialized set of skills that integrate well. Consider Buffy and the Scoobies. She is the fighter, stronger and faster than a normal human. Willow has the magical chops. Giles has a wealth of knowledge in their specialized field, and access to even more, plus the training to apply that knowledge and/or teach the others. Xander keeps them all grounded in the real world, reminds them that what they are truly fighting for is humanity, and the safety of ordinary people. Though they have had plenty of arguments, even blow-outs, in the end they are so close they can literally read each others’ minds.

Likewise, Han and Chewbacca are essentially blood brothers, and although Luke and Leia are siblings, they don’t know that when they forge their bond. Through the trials and tests, these four become as close as if they had grown up together, a bond that lasts the rest of their lives. Between them, they have the skills and contacts to move within any circle, interact with any strata of society, from smugglers, thieves and beggars to the heads of planets and empires, and the ability to persuade any of them, whether by money, force, or Force. This makes them an incomparable team for whatever needs doing, especially in the political arenas, both overt and covert.

While often in circumstances like these there are fleeting or unrequited romantic feelings (consider Xander for Buffy, or Willow for Xander, which resulted in a brief fling that stressed two established romantic relationships), in the end the feelings between members of the group are generally those of a more familial love. “You’re like a brother/sister to me” is one of the most common sentiments. The love is generally understated, or described in terms of trust and history; these are people who know the depth of feeling they have for one another, and feel no need to state it time and again.

Often, in life, the families we forge in adulthood serve us and support us better than our blood families ever could, and this is merely writ large in science fiction. It is the unique mix of talents, personalities, and circumstances, that makes a sci-fi team so much more magnificent than a single hero, and something so many geeks aspire to. After all, if you could find, not a single person that compliments you, but a whole group that elevates each other, and that loves you as much as you love them, what more could you ask for?

Whistler In The Dark

So I’ve watched an interesting spectrum of Angel episodes in the past few days, and I’ve come to an intriguing but depressing conclusion- Angel’s life is all about futility. Nothing he does is ever going to be good enough for him, or the Powers That Be. The Shanshu Prophecy is actually the best example of this. I rewatched To Shanshu In LA (1.22), and it talks about how the vampire with a soul will live and die, like a human. Now, add Spike into the equation. First of all, it could be interpreted to say that one will live and one will die, or it could speak to the fact that Spike sacrificed himself to close the Hellmouth and was recorporialized. Either way, things do not look good for The Broody One. Granted, he had no idea that he could become human when he started as hero for hire, but he has always been seeking redemption, and the two concepts become linked from that point onwards.

I also watched In The Dark (1.3), wherein Spike shows up looking for the Gem of Amara. Angel decides in the end not just to not use the ring, which would allow him to walk in daylight and stop fearing stakes, but to destroy it entirely. He is in essence saying that he will forever walk in darkness, that no matter what he does, he’s stuck helping girls with abusive boyfriends, kids trying to fight vampires, and the victims of evil law firms.

And yet he chooses to go on. He talks about it at the beginning of Season 4, when he confronts Connor about his little ocean voyage, about how you behave as if the world is the way you want it to be, and act to bring that about. He will keep fighting the good fight, whether or not it brings him any reward, for the sake of those who cannot fight for themselves. He has taken on a Duty, and he will see it through, no matter what, til the bitter end, because that’s the way the world should be. It should be full of hope, and people helping each other when the going is rough, and all Angel can do is lead by example, and keep trying.

The Choices and the Chosen

Warning: this post is entirely spoilers for Buffy Season 7.

One of the wonderful things about Buffy is her awareness of power dynamics. This is most explicit in Checkpoint (5.17), when she discovers that both the Watcher’s Council and Glory, the Hell-Goddess, are behaving as if she is powerless in an attempt to undermine her power. She reclaims her power, and in the process completely redefines the playing field. However, it is most resonant in Choices (7.22). The name of the episode itself conveys so much: for seven years, we (and Buffy) have been told that she is “the Chosen One”, the one girl in all the world to fight the demons and the forces of darkness. Only a few episodes earlier we had discovered that the power was forced into the First Slayer by the first Watchers, in an act some have likened to metaphysical rape, and that the only help those Watchers could provide was to give Buffy another dose of that essentially-demonic power. Instead, Buffy redefines not only the field, but the entire game. She gives the girls themselves, all the Potential Slayers she has gathered, the choice to take up the power and “be strong”. She takes them from passive creatures to active agents, from “We the Watchers have chosen you to be the Slayer” to “I chose to be a Slayer.”

This is beautifully foreshadowed an episode earlier in the season, Same Time, Same Place (7.3). Willow had spent the summer learning to harness and control her magic use, something which before had been closer to an addiction (the handling of that arc is something I will leave for another posting), and finds herself afraid of her friends’ reaction to seeing her for the first time since she tried to kill them. She magically puts herself out of phase with them, leading eventually to her being attacked by the Monster of the Week and having large chunks of skin eaten. In the ‘tag’ at the end of the episode, she is meditating to heal herself, and then she and Buffy talk. Willow tries to go back to meditation with the line “it hurts too much not to, but it takes so much strength…”. Buffy offers to share her own strength with Willow, saying she’s got so much she’s giving it away. Sure enough, by the end of the season, she has given away her strength, her power, and found herself with more than she started with.

Buffy has long made the conscious choice to be The Slayer. She first actively chooses it at the end of the first season, when she knows of her prophesied death and goes to do her duty anyway. At least once a season after that, she has to reaffirm her decision to put her life on the line for the greater good. In the end, she offers the ultimate Choice to the Potentials, and by proxy all women, and thereby empowers herself and all of them/us. No longer is there a Chosen One, and Buffy is free to make her own choices in life.

The Doctor and the TARDIS: Deus ex Machina

He is, as the Face of Boe has said, the lonely god, the wandering god. But he is not entirely alone. The Doctors may change, over the years, but the TARDIS remains, constancy in his chaotic life, the agent of chaos through which he creates stability.

For this is the true secret of the TARDIS: she is not broken at all, but a sentient being in symbiosis with the Doctor. He has an unparalleled urge to do good, to fix what is broken in the universe and get it all back on track, though he might not always know it, so she indulges him. He chooses a time and place to which he wants to go, and she finds the nearest point of trouble and takes him there. He may complain, and it may result in high Companion turnover, but he loves every minute of it. This is especially poignant with the Tenth Doctor, as he relearns his love of putting things right.

The Ninth Doctor needed Rose, needed someone who would just go along with him because it seemed like a good idea. He had made such terrible judgment calls, lost so much, he just needed someone who could show him the beauty and wonder of the universe again. The Tenth Doctor was a little more together, a little more willing to try his hand at changing things and interfering. Rose, however, was still trying to live as she had with Nine, bouncing around exploring more than actually changing things. This is why Martha was so good for Ten- she has such an impulse towards helping, herself, that she reawaked it in him. He began to actively seek ways to help once again.

The TARDIS, of course, always knows what the Doctor needs. She takes him to his Companions, each of whom is a perfect foil for the Doctor in some way (i.e. Rose could show him how to be happy again, Martha challenged him mentally). She helps him find what he really wants, which is a way to help. Even when all he wants is an escape, she finds a way for him to help someone, which in the end makes him feel better than a simple holiday would. More than all that, though, is an incident from the very end of Nine’s story.

***Spoilers***

The Doctor is seemingly doomed. He has sent Rose away, and locked the TARDIS so they don’t come back for him. In reverse order, Rose: saves the Doctor; leaves herself clues on how to do it in all the time/places they’ve traveled together; takes in the Time Vortex at the heart of the TARDIS (essentially becoming part of it); opens the Vortex; and finds/solves the clues. The TARDIS needs an agent, a being with arms and legs and eyes, in order to do what she wants. In this case, that means saving the Doctor, and incidentally herself, by switching her symbiosis from the Doctor to Rose for a little while. She could then bring them all back together, and fulfill Nine’s other greatest wish, to see the Daleks destroyed before his eyes.

This, by the way, is the reason Ten’s Regeneration is a little jumpy and uncertain: It is linked closely with the TARDIS herself, and she had recently expended a great deal of energy on dealing with Rose and the Daleks and all.

***End Spoiler***

In the end, though the phrase “wandering god” most definitely applies, “lonely god” does not, quite. The Doctor and his TARDIS are as close as a happily-married couple, and it is truly a Pantheon of two.

I love the sound of the TARDIS

Furthermore, I adore the direction they're taking the tenth Doctor. He's been through so much in his 900 years, and even more in the last three or four (all numbers/dates subject to interpretation- this IS a Time Lord).
**Spoilers**
I've just finished Series 3, and oh, Holy Hannah! I've gotta start with the new Master. Delicious! First of all, he has some of the same body language and thought processes as the Doctor, highlighting the fact that they're really just two sides of the same coin. The Doctor interferes because he's trying to help, and the Master interferes because he likes to meddle, and he wants to be in charge of everything. Unfortunately, the Master's newest regeneration is blatantly insane; he's a megalomaniac and a psychopath. Some of the previous regenerations were a bit crazy, but you got the sense that there was a plan. The new one just wants to rule everything, and doesn't care how he gets there. And the terrible things he does to the Doctor! Ohhh, and the way the Doctor sets it right! Gorgeous! But then the Doctor is left to deal with the fallout...
Well, you know, it was bad enough when he thought he was the only Time Lord left, but then to find out there is one other, and it's his ancient foe... How horrible and wonderful that would be! And he tries so hard to help him, to rehabilitate him, and the Master just doesn't care, doesn't want any help, doesn't even want to be around if he can't be in charge and on top of the world. Of course, if one Time Lord can hide in this way, surely others could too. For the Doctor's sake, I'm not willing to believe that there are no others anywhere. I mean, Time Lords! The whole of space/time to hide in, and the technological capacity to change their biological makeup or create a little box outside of time to hide millions of Daleks in! They're out there somewhere, in little pockets and hidey-holes, and the Doctor will find them, gather them, and rebuild his society. I'm sure of it.
The Doctor is making great strides forward anyway. Losing Rose was rough on him, but I think Martha is even more suited to be a Companion. She's sharp, quick on her feet both physically and mentally, and an excellent observer. She also challenges him more than Rose did. I do feel sorry for her that he's so busy thinking about Rose that he doesn't really see Martha for a long time, or realize her feelings for him for a lot longer. I really want him to acknowledge his own feelings more, though. He keeps so much bottled up, in order to appear strong and in control. But you can tell Martha is good for him because he's actually said the word "Gallifrey" to her, and described the place a little, neither of which he ever did with Rose. It's cheesy, but I think in some ways, Rose was an anchor, keeping him from losing himself in revenge or misery, and Martha is wings, helping him get out and explore the universe as he used to love to do.
Finally, one of my favorite parts: Captain Jack. Well, really, the whole suite of "alternative" sexualities that populate the show. (also, Jack is HOT, but that's a side issue) First there was Jack, back in the first series, who flirted with anything that was sentient and bipedal. Then he kissed Rose, and immediately the Ninth Doctor. Yum! (I have a friend who insists they were a trio, and I don't really disagree) Then, early this series, there was William Shakespeare, who flirted heavily with Martha. When the Doctor called him on it, he flirted with the Doctor, who actually somewhat responded. Then there were the old lesbians, who insisted that they were married, and clearly had that old-married-couple dynamic. And now Captain Jack has come back, but the Doctor is more impatient with his flirting ways, and less responsive. Granted, that's for complicated reasons, including the effects of Rose and the time vortex, and the fact that Jack reminds the Doctor that Rose is beyond reach, but when Martha says something about fancying the Doctor, who doesn't see her, Jack indicates that he's in the same position. I gotta say, I was really hoping Jack and the new Doctor would kiss, since that would be hella hot, and also I think good for the Doctor, but there were good story reasons why they didn't, and I'm ok with that. There were also crazy revelations about Jack and another character we've known since episode 2 or 3 (ie 9th Dr), but I'm not going to go into that yet.
I'm not sure this fits the "alternative" sexuality topic, and I'm sure it's less of a big deal in Britain, but this season had a lot of couples with a black man and a white woman. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it does intrigue me, since even now that can be a hot-button issue in the States, and no one on the show even seemed to notice, let alone care, which is cool
In summation, I'm incredibly glad it all comes back at Christmas, since I don't think I could wait til next summer for more of the gorgeous, wonderful 10th Doctor.

What do you care what I do in my free time?

Another minor detail that bugs me. This one came up in the Heroes marathon I was watching this weekend, but it's a perennial theme in Charmed. Now, I'm not claiming that the latter is literature, and I'm withholding judgment on the former for now, but people do watch these things, and gain life lessons from them, so this has impact. The phrase and concept I take exception to is the taboo against "personal gain". Now, granted, if you're only using your powers for selfish things, with no regard for who you hurt along the way, you belong in Arkham Asylum. But if you're generally fairly selfless, and help people as much as you can with your powers, what's the harm in making your own life a little easier or more pleasant too? I guess part of it is that TV tends to be a little simplistic, but out here in the real world, anyone who gives and gives and gives and never gets anything back gets burned out on giving pretty quickly. Ask any hospice worker or Child Protective Services official- you have to take personal time, and do nice things for yourself, at least once in a while. Of course, friends and family can also pamper you, but the idea that you cannot do anything for personal reasons or personal benefit is patently ridiculous, and possibly dangerous to those who would follow the advice of these shows.
Furthermore, Charmed presents its three main characters as Wiccan, and there is nothing in Wicca to say that magic cannot be performed on yourself, for whatever reasons. In fact, if one were seeking, say, love, Wiccan tradition frowns on performing a love spell on someone else, and instead advocates performing magic on oneself. You would perhaps start with a bath with essential oils and/or herbs to boost confidence and allure, then do a candle spell to make yourself receptive to love, and to be able to recognize and embrace it when it comes along. This might include a stone or other good luck charm which you would then carry with you to attract potential lovers, and also to remind yourself of the confidence of the bath and the receptivity of the candles. All of this could easily be considered personal gain, but Wicca has no problem with this, as long as you are improving yourself and not coercing anyone else. I suppose a superhero code might be a little different, but Superman is always saving Lois Lane, which may well put him out of position to help others in the city, or those in other countries. Batman may not actively get anything out of his crime-fighting activities, but there is a definite sense that he does it more because he's bored than out of any goodwill towards humanity. Selflessness over selfishness is always a good choice, and I can't condemn these shows for advocating it, but I do feel that they go a little far in pushing the idea down people's throats.

Something odd

OK, so it's a little thing, but it bugs me. Most of Babylon 5 is so well thought out, and all the alien cultures are so internally consistent, that little lapses in logic really stand out. The one that really bugs me is as follows: they live on a space station. All resources, like water, must be shipped in from planets. Food must either be grown or shipped in. Therefore, one would think that they would hoard these things, make sure to finish every crumb on their plates and every drop in their glasses. But no! People walk away from meals all the time, often in public cafes and such. Sometimes they order drinks, including alcohol, which I would assume to be expensive and difficult to obtain, then leave the room entirely before taking more than a sip. Sometimes they are mostly done with a drink or a meal, and they have a reason to leave, but don't take the last couple of bites or last gulp of drink as they go, which seems incredibly wasteful, especially out in space. I've seen people do that last bite/gulp thing a lot, in real life and in other shows, and its lack here disrupts my suspension of disbelief to a distressing degree.

Beware the shift in technology

In reading Landow’s talk of digitizing print books, I think immediately of a Buffy episode which articulates the turn-of-the-millennium conflict between print and digital media. Landow asks why we would do it, why retype a book or scan it onto a computer, and Buffy and her friends provide some, if not all, of the answers why, and one reason why not, though that might not apply in the real world.
Mr. Giles has a job as the school librarian, but that is just so he can be close to Buffy all day, since he is her mentor, trainer, and information source, known as a Watcher to her Slayer. (Also so he can be near the Hellmouth, which is located directly below the library, but that’s another issue) He has an enormous collection of rare and ancient books, codices, and manuscripts, dealing mostly with demons, spells, and other magical subjects, of which he is justifiably proud. The Slayer and her friends are not nearly as careful with these tomes as a scholar would like, and so he decides to scan them into the computer for searchability. If Giles had been less secrecy-conscious, or Willow more independent-minded, they could have made a website and database from this information, and helped other demon hunters around the world, possibly even other Watchers and their Potential Slayers. Giles himself has said that many of his volumes are unique or the only surviving copy, and certainly his girlfriend, computer teacher and self-professed “techno-pagan” Ms Calendar, has done online research to help them with cases. However, I understand that such things were left out to streamline story, so I can't really object.
The problem must come, of course, and in this case it is that one of the texts is a powerful summoning spell, and the process of scanning it acts like reading it, and the demon materializes within the school network. It is unclear whether or not it can get to the rest of the Web from there, but he concentrates on Willow anyway, so it seems to be a moot point. He woos her and nearly kills her before Buffy rescues her and banishes him. The overt lesson is that people you meet on the Internet are generally not what they appear, especially if they won’t send you a picture or talk to you on the phone, but there is another lesson. Knowledge is power, and the Internet makes it very easy to share both, so you have to pay attention to what you put on the computer, because it can take on a life of its own very easily.