Arwen Spicer's blog

Impossible yet Inevitable: Unintended Pregnancy in FARSCAPE, DEEP SPACE NINE, STAR WARS, and THE X-FILES

Arwen Spicer — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:46:14 -0800

Science fiction most often takes place in societies with more advanced technology than ours. Since our world has effective birth control, it seems reasonable to assume that most science fiction societies would have even more reliable birth control, would have had it for longer than we’ve had it, and, thus, would have integrated it more fully into their cultures. In such societies, an unplanned pregnancy would be virtually unheard of—unless it were related to social prohibitions against birth control or to some weird alien/nefarious/divine intervention. Yet much of science fiction TV and film treats unplanned pregnancies as if they were the natural order of things.

Peace through Strength: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

Arwen Spicer — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 00:04:52 -0800

“Does that mean I have to be a bigger, badder bad-ass than the source of all badness?”--Willow, “Beneath You,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The other day, I corrected a great omission in my science fiction literacy: I watched the classic 1951 allegory of the atomic age, The Day the Earth Stood Still (director, Robert Wise). The film tells of a humanoid alien Klaatu (Michael Rennie) who comes to Earth--in an honest-to-goodness flying saucer--to warn the human race that if they insist on spreading their destructive proclivities into space, they will be destroyed by a league of space nations dedicated to peace. The metaphor is clear: if you pursue atomic warfare, it will destroy you. If you haven’t seen this movie, see it. Its 1950s sci-fi-ness notwithstanding, it’s worth your time on several counts.

The Best SF Series You've Never Seen: CHARLIE JADE

Arwen Spicer — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 22:59:07 -0800

Have you heard of Charlie Jade? Unless you live in Canada or South Africa, the answer is probably “no.” If it is, you’re missing out on an extraordinary show: original, intelligently conceived, and populated by refreshingly fallible heroes and ambiguous villains. Filmed gorgeously in and around Cape Town, this Canadian-South African co-production (2005, 20 episodes, plus one "recap" episode) centers on the adventures of the eponymous Charlie (Jeffrey Pierce), a private detective who, in the course of investigating a mysterious girl’s murder, gets catapulted into an alternative universe. Our universe. There he must unravel the machinations of the nefarious megacorporation, Vexcor, before... well, to say any more would spoil the surprise.

The ILIAD of Neo-Tokyo: The Archetype of the Friend's Death in AKIRA

Arwen Spicer — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 22:57:01 -0700

Katsuhiro Otomo's landmark animé Akira (1987) isn't the state of the art anymore. Twenty years after it was hailed as a monument in Japanese animation, it shows its age. So why is Akira still the best animé I've ever seen? Because regardless of how visually gripping the film is (and it still is), its enduring power lies in its story, crucially in the friendship between teen gang members Kaneda and Tetsuo, whose trials reenact the age-old archetype of the best friend lost to death.

The Implausibility Problem: Comparisons from RED DWARF, BLAKE’S 7, and DOCTOR WHO

Arwen Spicer — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:23:09 -0700

There's a time and place for crazy plots. Take, for example, the Red Dwarf episode "White Hole" (4.4). Here the crew must rescue themselves from a time-spewing "white hole" by closing it up with a planet. Perfectly mundane sci fi so far -- but wait: this planet must be knocked into the white hole according to the principles of a game of pool, as if a solar system and a pool table were equivalent physical entities, or as Lister (Craig Charles) explains to Rimmer (Chris Barrie):

Gaining Momentum: The Power of Backstory in the New Doctor Who

Arwen Spicer — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:52:29 -0700

Right now, Doctor Who is an unstoppable force. After 16 years on hiatus and a mediocre TV movie, the grand old staple of BBC science fiction returned in 2005 to capture a new generation of fans. Having completed its second new season (or “series” to the Brits), the show is currently preparing to launch a third season as well as a spinoff, Torchwood. Under the guiding hand of executive producer Russell T. Davies, the new Who has grown up from its “children’s show” roots to become darker, more complex, more tightly arced, more psychologically realistic, and altogether very 21st century.

The Dead Do Push up the Daisies: Kai as the Voice of Ecocentrism in Lexx

Arwen Spicer — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 13:09:00 -0700

Ask a casual viewer the main theme of Lexx (1996-2002), and she’ll probably respond, “sex.” After all, the premise of the Canadian-German science fiction series is that “love slave” Zev (Eva Habermann, “Xev” after Season Two’s recast with Xenia Seeburg) rejects the sexually frustrated Stanley Tweedle (Brian Downey), falling in love, instead, with Kai (Michael McManus), who cannot reciprocate because he is “dead” (his “de-carbonized” body cannot “feel”). But there is more to Lexx than sexual cliché. The series is, indeed, about sex. It is also about death, specifically “dead” Kai’s quest to achieve his final, irrevocable death. Lexx exists at the crossroads between orgasmic intensity of feeling and feeling nothing at all. It proposes that dying and living are the same, two sides of one process that unites all life in webs of ecological relationality. This ecocentric philosophy is illustrated principally through Kai.