Tim of Pop Crunch has a list of what he considers to be the best dystopian novels of all time. Among his choices are The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. Some of his choices I would class as "post-apocalyptic", rather than dystopian. I think that the latter genre is best defined as set within a tyrannical regime. Nonetheless, the list makes for some interesting reading suggestions.
It's still a couple hours until lunchtime, but I'm hungry! Let's see what cuisine science fiction can offer us.
Star Trek -- a jumja stick. This Bajoran desert is made from the sap of the jumja tree. It's sort of like carmelized apple, except without the apple, or the creamy taste of carmel. Think of it as a dried popsicle.
Star Wars -- human. This Ewok delicacy can be served in a variety of ways, but gourmands prefer to have it roasted over an open fire. Tastes like chicken and pairs well with a dry chardonnay.
Babylon 5 -- spoo. Though physically repugnant while alive, the spoo makes for a quite tasty meat dish. Centauri prefer theirs cubed and aged, whereas the Narn (to the disgust of the Centauri), perfer fresh spoo.
Stargate -- kassa. Sometimes called the "evil Orville Redenbacher", this corn-like product is genetically engineered to be very addictive. That disadvantage aside, it's unbelievably awesomely good. I mean, I can't stop eating it.
Every year since 2007, artists have been invited to submit variations on a 1:1 model of Darth Vader's helmet. This year, the show begins on June 11 in Los Angeles. You can view more examples at the link.
Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who, is sometimes referred to as the American Doctor. This is because it was during his tenure that the series was widely distributed in the United States. So Baker came to define the original Doctor, though he followed others. As one fan recently told me, those that came after Baker seemed weird.
The Earth experiences a near-miss with an asteroid, which skims the surface of our atmosphere. Afterward, people notice that mergers and acquisitions attorneys are unusually ravenous. They begin biting people, who themselves, after a short illness, become mergers and acquisitions attorneys. Soon, it's not safe to venture out at night because the streets are filled with mergers and acquisitions attorneys hungry for human flesh (as in real life, sunlight is a natural foe of mergers and acquisitions attorneys). The world becomes consumed with their bloodthirsty howls and SEC filings as the human population dwindles....
Here's my idea for a movie:
A biological warfare program has an accident, and an airborne pathogen spreads across the world. It kills everyone who has gone through puberty. Once it kills off the adult population, the virus itself dies as it lacks proper hosts. Children are left to rebuild the world.
Alternatively, the virus kills 95% of the post-pubescent population, leaving only all the children and a few adults.
What's your idea for a novel? What's your idea for a movie?
Cartoonist David Stonecipher previously depicted famous female video game characters as male. Now he's tried the opposite approach and drawn eight male characters as female.
In our most recent Questions of the Day, we discussed our favorite episodes of classic Star Trek and The Next Generation. To conclude the topic, let's talk about Deep Space Nine.
I thought that this series was a bit boring until the Dominion War got rolling in Season 4. Deep Space Nine broke with the episodic tradition to present a long, serialized story arc -- a risky venture, as the broadcasting experience of Babylon 5 illustrates.
Nonetheless, my favorite episode is Season 1's "Duet", not a story from the Dominion War narrative. A Cardassian war criminal passes through the station and is promptly locked up by Major Kira. Gul Darhe'el does not deny his actions, but joyfully boasts of slaughtering Bajorans during his world's occupation of Bajor. Yet as the investigation continues, his story begins to unravel. This is not Gul Darhe'el, but a mere military filing clerk who, overcome with guilt about his participation in war crimes, is pretending to to be Darhe'el. Aamin Marritza's hope is that by going on trial on Bajor, he will force the Cardassian people to come to terms with the atrocities they committed.
Kira wants to hate this Cardassian -- all Cardassians, actually -- but she can't. She can't help but sympathize with Marritza and his misguided attempt to heal the wounds of war.
This episode was a glorious piece of writing. Harris Yulin, a veteran actor of vast experience, executed the role of Marritza masterfully. I can watch it again and again.
What's your favorite episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?
