Guest Post: C. Beth Tries to Change My Mind

Today, it's C. Beth's turn. I never know if I should write "Beth" or "C. Beth". So I live on the edge and do whatever strikes me at the time. Her blog (C. Beth Blog) has made me laugh, has made me cry, and has made me think. All signs to me of a good blog. Check her out!

Don't you just love Cate? She's funny and supportive. But Cate does have one flaw.

She has made it clear that she doesn't care for science fiction. Now, I suppose I should just leave it alone and let her be imperfect in this one way, to make the rest of us feel better. But sci-fi is just, you know, so awesome, that I feel the need to defend a genre that just may be my favorite.

So here are some of the sci-fi TV shows my husband and I have enjoyed, and why they are just so totally cool. Warning: Spoilers ahead.

Battlestar Galactica (the new series, from the SyFy Channel):

So, you've got these robots, right? They're called Cylons. The humans made them, but the Cylons got all smart, and then they went to war with humans. During a truce, the Cylons started making robots that looked exactly like humans. Then they decided they should kill all the humans, so there was this huge genocide in the first episode, and for the rest of the show, the Cylons and humans are fighting, negotiating, infiltrating, etc.

Artificial intelligence that gets too intelligent for its own good--isn't that just a fantastic concept? Uh, what? You've heard it before? A dozen times? Well, but how many times were the robots called Cylons? I mean, admit it, that's totally a cooler word than "robot."

Battlestar Galactica: Robots (with the cool moniker "Cylons") vs. humans. Undeniably awesome.

Farscape:

Farscape is about this astronaut who accidentally goes through a wormhole and ends up on the opposite side of the galaxy. He meets up with this ship of aliens. One of the main characters is an alien that totally looks human. Because the show had a low makeup budget. Or maybe because aliens that look human open up all sorts of possibilities for romantic tension. (The human-looking alien is a beautiful female, of course!)

One of the other main characters is a puppet. Jim Henson's company was involved in making Farscape.

Farscape: Human-looking aliens and puppets. Come on, admit it, that is crazy cool!

(Hmm. This is harder than I thought. But I'll give it one more shot.)

Firefly/Serenity:

Firefly was this freaking cool Joss Whedon show. It takes place in our galaxy in the future, and humans are the only intelligent life form, so there aren't any weird latex foreheads to deal with. Nathan Fillion plays this rogue spaceship pilot, and he flies a ship full of other misfits. The writing is witty and exciting, and the acting is great fun to watch.

Of course, it was canceled after less than a season, so hopefully you didn't like the show too much. Thankfully, a couple of years later they put out a feature film, Serenity, with the original cast. It ties up the loose ends nicely and is very satisfying.

As long as you can deal with multiple main characters being killed off. Why, Joss? Why?

Firefly/Serenity: Pure awesomeosity for a few episodes plus a movie. Bummer deaths of likable characters.

*****

Robots. Puppets. Tragedy. I'm beginning to see why Cate hates sci-fi.

But that doesn't change the fact that sci-fi is the coolest. Ever. I mean, who needs trips across the ocean when I can pop in a DVD and travel across the galaxy without any jet lag? Jealous yet, Cate? (Nah, I didn't think so.)

Nice try, Beth. Had you mentioned the hotness of Nathan Fillion, you might've won me over for Firefly/Serenity.