We've changed up things here at Genre-Commentary.com just a little. Gone are the multiple sections, forums, and the like. Now each of our writers maintains a separate blog (or "column" if you like) to which they can add their own articles, news analysis, and reviews. We originally started out hoping to build a site as complex and successful as G-C's sister site, Classic-Horror.com, but we soon realized that we had an entirely different animal on our hands, one that benefited from a more straightforward rendering. Sometimes you shoot for the moon and land in a haystack. Sometimes you realize that the haystack is far more comfortable than the cold, inhospitable moon.

The Sci Fi Channel's new television series The Dresden Files brings to life Jim Butcher's Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a wizard residing in modern day Chicago. In fact, Dresden is so modern that he is even listed in the phonebook under “wizards.”

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.

A wristwatch that can boil an egg, a cufflink that lowers blood pressure, a bus ticket that sends people you don't like to “hell,” a comb that slows time, a pen that emits deadly microwave radiation, and a hotel room key that opens any door into The Lost Room. These are just a few of the hundreds of “objects” that Detective Joe Miller (Peter Krause) encounters in this science fiction thriller to search for his daughter, Anna (Elle Fanning). Detective Joe Miller stumbles across “The Key” as he tries to uncover an unexplained murder investigation where the victim's bodies are melded to the walls and ceilings. The Key is the most sought after object since it is the only object that takes the user to the non-existent Room 10. Then from Room 10, it takes you anywhere you wish to go that has a door.

It’s been several weeks now since the fall finale of Lost (3.06- “I Do”), and I’ve spent my time wisely processing the plethora of perils presented (alliteration is such fun). Now, by perils, I do not necessarily mean the precarious situations our favorite (and not-so-favorite) islanders are in.

“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.

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.

Battlestar Galactica

This is the third of my three-part series. This one’s a little different, and includes spoilers for everything that has aired so far.

I love this show so frakking much! Surprising me more than anyone, it has managed to climb to the number one spot in my mind. I still consider myself fairly new to my geek cred, and can’t say I ever considered the Sci Fi channel a place to find awesome programming. That’s right—I was one of those elitist snobs who considered this genre “hoaky” or “too unrealistic.” Thanks to a slew of friends, the influence of Joss Whedon, and now Ronald Moore, science fiction dominates my TiVo. Battlestar Galactica (amongst other programs, such as Farscape and the new Doctor Who series) has proven over and over again that this genre is nothing approaching hoaky. And the first arc of this season has surprised me in too many ways to recount. The biggest, though, is that I was in tears over the death of Ellen Tigh, easily my most hated character of Season’s 1 and 2. What the frak?!?

Torchwood, the first in several planned spin-offs of Doctor Who’s revival series, premiered on BBC Three last weekend with a pilot episode that can only be described as odd. Not good/quirky odd or bad/pretentious odd, but uneven odd, showing hints of both promise and mediocrity. The fault definitely does not lie in the lead actors: John Barrowman’s Captain Jack Harkness is just as charming and rakish as he was when traveling with the ninth Doctor and Rose. Eve Myles is a worthy companion as wide-eyed police cadet Gwen Cooper. Given two fun characters, a venerable joy of a parent show, and the pithy writing of Russell T. Davies, it’s greatly disappointing that the aliens, special effects, and general spectacle of the thing seem so flat and uninteresting.

This is my second in a three-part series of evaluating the third seasons of three of the best shows on TV. My first piece dealt with Veronica Mars, and I’ll be covering Battlestar Galactica in a subsequent article. Now, though, I turn my attention to Lost.