More than in many genres the freedom allowed in science fiction leads to the necessity of finding good authors. Without knowing who the author of a story was it is difficult to have any idea what to expect. Consider the story of a detective investigating the suspected murder of a human by a robot. Written by Philip K. Dick you have a tale of paranoia and questioning of reality, written by Isaac Asimov you have "I, Robot", and both of these are good authors. So who are the authors the most famous science fiction authors, the ones who can be relied upon to tell a good story every time?
Starting at the beginning you have Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Their stories are sometimes a bit dated but they are almost always good stories with nearly every element of more modern science fiction in their pa
ges at some point. With these writers you can travel to the center of the earth, the moon, through time, meet alien and more.
Throughout the early part of the century there were many good science fiction authors but the golden age of science fiction didn't start until the late 1930's. At this point man began to understand his own ability to destroy himself and the power at his hands. The world seemed on the edge of either destruction or a golden age and we didn't know which. At this time I like to go with the ABC route of authors: Asimov, Bradbury, and Clarke. This leaves out a great many excellent authors out but is a fantastic place to start.
Isaac Asimov is one of the most prolific authors in history. Asimov wrote over 400 books including "Foundation", "I, Robot" and "Nightfall", as well as a great many short stories, and numerous non-fiction works on science.
Ray Bradbury didn't limit himself purely to science fiction sometimes writing stories that were horror but he is best known for "The Martian Chronicles" and "Fahrenheit 451" two of the best known science fiction stories of all time.
Arthur C. Clarke is a British author and one of the harder writers of hard science fiction. Often sticking with stories nearer in the future he is best known for "Childhood's End" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" and many others.
There are simply too many great authors of science fiction to list them all and at some point you will learn the style of story you want to hear. Asimov often deals more with psychology than hard science, while Frank Herbert will give you every detail of the world and Robert A. Heinlein will give entertaining wish fulfillment.
There are fantastic modern authors as well but their body of works is often much smaller and still growing. In repayment for often having less work they are able to relate their stories more specifically to the world we live in now. Two of the better ones are Orson Scott Card, who wrote "Ender's Game", and Neil Stephenson who wrote "Snow Crash".
Any time you try a new author it is like meeting a new person. You may like them but do you have anything in common? Do your views meet, your ideas of fun? Yet meeting people is necessary or your world will quickly grow very small so pick up books from the most famous of science fiction authors and see which you like.
The Kobayashi Maru test is one of the major plot points of the new Star Trek movie, a connection to The Wrath of Kahn that is brilliant as well as giving them a way to use the Klingons in the show without actually using them.
But is The Kobayashi Maru a test that anyone would ever use? Can you truely imagine a organization teaching its people to fight by putting them in an unwinnable situation?
When I was a kid and first saw it I remember thinking that it was a stupid idea and that Kirk's solution to cheat was the only possible solution, but as I have gotten over I have learned to understand that there really are no win situations in life. There are times when there are only bad choices, and by making them understand that it might be useful.
There is a second reason that impassable tests should be given, not just to military officers but to students. Humility. There are far to many children who graduate high school, and even a few who graduate college who have never truly been tested in the sense of being pushed past their limit. In fact I suspect that many people can be pushed beyond their limit is in military boot camp.
Now comes the issue of cheating. Kirk's solution to the no-win situation is cheating. This is examined in two Star Trek movies now and it can be argued as a elegent solution. If you are given a situation wh
ere there are two outcomes both of which are unaccetble and a third which is unattanable without cheating but far preferable then cheat.
Yet as you look more carefully I see the results of the newest movie being the likely outcome. That is being brought up on charges for cheating. This brings up a third question about Kirk, is it so important for him to win at this simulation that everyone fails that he is willing to risk his career or did he know that he would get away with it?
There was of course no punishment for failing The Kobayashi Maru so what was it that drove Kirk to such lengths to pass the test? Is it simply his inability to accept defeat, or a ego that was never put into check by the test because he cheated?
This is one of the small things about this in the new movie that bothered me. Though he had cheated and he knew that he could win the test being so seemingly uninterested in the test in the new movie made it seem as if he didn't care all that much about Star Fleet or the test. Cheating should have been a big deal to him even if the test wasn't.
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ere there are two outcomes both of which are unaccetble and a third which is unattanable without cheating but far preferable then cheat.
Yet as you look more carefully I see the results of the newest movie being the likely outcome. That is being brought up on charges for cheating. This brings up a third question about Kirk, is it so important for him to win at this simulation that everyone fails that he is willing to risk his career or did he know that he would get away with it?
There was of course no punishment for failing The Kobayashi Maru so what was it that drove Kirk to such lengths to pass the test? Is it simply his inability to accept defeat, or a ego that was never put into check by the test because he cheated?
This is one of the small things about this in the new movie that bothered me. Though he had cheated and he knew that he could win the test being so seemingly uninterested in the test in the new movie made it seem as if he didn't care all that much about Star Fleet or the test. Cheating should have been a big deal to him even if the test wasn't.I was thinking about the science fiction that is curre
ntly on TV last night, and I have been unable to come up with one show that is set in the future. There is some good stuff on, but it seems that it is all set in modern day. Fringe, Lost, Chuck, Eureka, and the new Star gate for example. Dr. Who is of course occasionally set in the future, but it's also set in the past, and the present and it's hardly on the air this year.
So why is this? I like these shows and I'm not complaining about any of them, but why? One simple explanation is that TV networks are all basically copying themselves. If there was a futuristic science fiction show on that worked they would copy it. This alone helps you understand why the science fiction genre has so much trouble on TV since the heart of science fiction is uniqueness but I don't think that's all of it.
I suspect a second reason is the same reason that Star Trek always time travels to our time period or close to it. The sets are already built. It is cheaper to have a show that is set in our modern world because it already exists.
Third, they aren't science fiction, most of these are police dramas with science fiction elements. Fringe, Chuck and Eureka are all examples of this and while some have more science fiction than others they are still following the police drama trend.
I don't suspect that there is a lot that can be done about this. There has to be someone in Hollywood who is making the pitches for epic science fiction and they are being turned down. Perhaps the new Star Trek movie will trigger some ideas at least though I suspect that they will simply dismiss that.
Here is my pitch for a futuristic science fiction drama. Set in 2112 humans have continued to develop technology, but the most major breakthrough in human history has just occurred. A brilliant scientist has discovered a way to bypass the speed of light.
In a rush to begin to explore NASA retrofits one of its shuttles with the technology. This shuttle is roughly 3 times the size of the modern shuttle with far better air recycling and artificial gravity(just because of the cost). This means that there is only room for 7 crew members comfortably. The scientist who developed the technology is the first, the rest are made up of the best on earth.
With every member of the crew important and the ship with little in the way of defenses they begin to explore.
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ntly on TV last night, and I have been unable to come up with one show that is set in the future. There is some good stuff on, but it seems that it is all set in modern day. Fringe, Lost, Chuck, Eureka, and the new Star gate for example. Dr. Who is of course occasionally set in the future, but it's also set in the past, and the present and it's hardly on the air this year.
So why is this? I like these shows and I'm not complaining about any of them, but why? One simple explanation is that TV networks are all basically copying themselves. If there was a futuristic science fiction show on that worked they would copy it. This alone helps you understand why the science fiction genre has so much trouble on TV since the heart of science fiction is uniqueness but I don't think that's all of it.
I suspect a second reason is the same reason that Star Trek always time travels to our time period or close to it. The sets are already built. It is cheaper to have a show that is set in our modern world because it already exists.
Third, they aren't science fiction, most of these are police dramas with science fiction elements. Fringe, Chuck and Eureka are all examples of this and while some have more science fiction than others they are still following the police drama trend.
I don't suspect that there is a lot that can be done about this. There has to be someone in Hollywood who is making the pitches for epic science fiction and they are being turned down. Perhaps the new Star Trek movie will trigger some ideas at least though I suspect that they will simply dismiss that.
Here is my pitch for a futuristic science fiction drama. Set in 2112 humans have continued to develop technology, but the most major breakthrough in human history has just occurred. A brilliant scientist has discovered a way to bypass the speed of light.
In a rush to begin to explore NASA retrofits one of its shuttles with the technology. This shuttle is roughly 3 times the size of the modern shuttle with far better air recycling and artificial gravity(just because of the cost). This means that there is only room for 7 crew members comfortably. The scientist who developed the technology is the first, the rest are made up of the best on earth.
With every member of the crew important and the ship with little in the way of defenses they begin to explore.I was skeptical at the concept of remaking Star Trek. It's not that I don't see the cheese of the original Star Trek, it's just that there has been so much that rebooting it seems difficult without simply ignoring it all.
This movie did a really good job of making Star Trek feel new while keeping the characters and feel close to the original.
Beyond the actors who played the parts the most notable difference in this story was the technology. The first thing I noticed was that the transporters didn't work all that well in comparison to the transporters in the show. it takes considerably longer, you can't move, and they are blocked most of the time. I understand this, transporters are great for getting the characters into places that are interesting but it drops the tension once they are there if you know they can be beamed out any time.
The ships themselves felt much more real in that you felt you knew where things were. The engines actually looked and felt like engines, the shuttle bay felt like part of the ship and it all simply felt real.
Third was the weapons. The changes in the phasers were great. They really felt like they were better than a handgun you could get now rather than worse.
All of the characters felt pretty much right on and they really gave them all a chance to do something useful, in fact in many ways Kirk was the least useful of the characters in large parts of the movie. I would have to watch again but I don't think he actually won a fight in the entire movie.
I love the style they tell the story in. You don't know what is going on early in the movie though you can guess at it and that truely helps especially through the early part of the movie that could have been slow as they went through Starfleet Academy.
The only major weakness I saw was that I wasn't all that impressed by the villain. He did his job and did it well but the reaso
n he was doing it was a little bit of a stretch for me.
I truly enjoyed this movie and as someone who likes Star Trek and was worried that this wasn't going to be Star Trek but some other show crammed into a Star Trek uniform I can say that it really is Star Trek. Yet at the same time there is no reason that someone who has never really cared for Star Trek can't go to this movie and see a perfectly reasonable movie with a good story and plenty of action without needing to know or care about Star Trek.
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n he was doing it was a little bit of a stretch for me.
I truly enjoyed this movie and as someone who likes Star Trek and was worried that this wasn't going to be Star Trek but some other show crammed into a Star Trek uniform I can say that it really is Star Trek. Yet at the same time there is no reason that someone who has never really cared for Star Trek can't go to this movie and see a perfectly reasonable movie with a good story and plenty of action without needing to know or care about Star Trek.I haven't written nearly as much as I want to about one of my favorite Science Fiction formats, short stories. There is something about science fiction that fits the short story format perfects. I suppose it is that often the main point of the story is the idea and if you can put that across in 5 pages that's better than 300. So I am going to begin to discuss short stories more and I am going to start with my favorite Nightfall.
Nightfall was written by Isaac Asimov and is about a world with 6 suns. They are at our general level of technology so this isn't a story of fantastic technology, just fantastic science.
Because they have six suns there is a nightfall only once every 2049 years. As this date approaches the scientists try to discover why civilization collapses whenever there is nightfall.
Here I would like to say that if you have a choice get the short story. There is a novel and in my oppionon was completely unnecessary. The short story by itself tells everything that the story needed to tell.
Now to the spoilers of the story. If you haven't read it then consider skipping the end. The punch at the end when you find out what is driving them insane is worth reading.
I can't speak with complete authority, but I suspect that Asimov used social science more than most writers. He had characters with phobias in his robot series, psycho-history in the foundation books and in this book he deals with a sudden revelation that destroys their minds.
It seems so obvious to us we don't even think about it. Stars, and not just a few. The planet of nightfall is far closer to the c
enter of the galaxy than ours so there world is completely filled with stars. The sheer immensity of the galaxy is what breaks their minds.
Perhaps the complete collapse of their civilization is a bit more than should be expectud but when you think about the way humans reacted to the information it becomes a bit easier to see. Humans have always seen the starts yet when it first was suggested that these could be stars as big and important as ours they were burnt at the stake.
There is a great deal to discuss in nightfall. The characters are well written, a society with a fear of the dark is unique and interesting, even the science of how a solar system with 6 stars would work can keep your mind busy and that is what Asimov did best. Creating ideas that make you think about the way you look at the universe.
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enter of the galaxy than ours so there world is completely filled with stars. The sheer immensity of the galaxy is what breaks their minds.
Perhaps the complete collapse of their civilization is a bit more than should be expectud but when you think about the way humans reacted to the information it becomes a bit easier to see. Humans have always seen the starts yet when it first was suggested that these could be stars as big and important as ours they were burnt at the stake.
There is a great deal to discuss in nightfall. The characters are well written, a society with a fear of the dark is unique and interesting, even the science of how a solar system with 6 stars would work can keep your mind busy and that is what Asimov did best. Creating ideas that make you think about the way you look at the universe.The question of race and racism is a perfect venue for science fiction. Science fiction allows us a way to look at this question far more carefully and in different ways. In shows like Star Trek we can try to imagine what a world might be like where we had moved beyond racism, in shows like Battlestar Galactica we can examine what it means to be human. In many others we can examine the idea of how we might interact with other species.
Yet the truth is that science fiction has made some good steps in large part it ignors some of the most natural implications of the things it studies. The most obvious example of this is the assumption in movies and TV that racism between species is wrong. The problem with this is that unlike racism between humans who are all genetically similar, racism between two races that have no biological connection makes far more sense.
Take for example a species that while mentally similar to us required a different atmosphere? Would it then be acceptable to say that they should have different schools, restaurants, etc... Would we be able to integrate a culture that did so? Would it begin to look like the south with racism spring up or would the different reason for these attitudes lead to a different result? I don't know the answer which is why the question is so important to as, so why doesn't more science fiction examine this part of the question?
One answer is that it's not a reasonable comparison so not useful, but I say that by making the arguments better we can have a discussion that allows us to examine the ramifications more carefully. We can also give ourselves that necessary distance that allows people to discuss things more closely.
The second reason is that it makes people uncomfortable to talk about
race. This is to bad because it shouldn't. As someone who doesn't care what race you are I shouldn't be uncomfortable to admit that there are people who do any more than I should be uncomfortable talking about the Nazi's. I'm not a Nazi, I don't agree with them.
There are of course a few shows that deal with race, but perhaps the most direct confrontation of the subject was in alien nation. From 1988 it dealt with a race of aliens who came to earth and upon being allowed out of quarantine faced racism, but this show is 20 years old.
So, can a science fiction show today have a reasonable look at the parts of race and racism that make us uncomfortable or has modern social sensitivity made it to difficult to have an honest discussion?
(Even writing this idea down made me uncomfortable and I have certainly tried to avoid anything that could be insensitive, but that's part of the problem now isn't it. I mean no offense, only want to open a discussion yet fear the conversation.)
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race. This is to bad because it shouldn't. As someone who doesn't care what race you are I shouldn't be uncomfortable to admit that there are people who do any more than I should be uncomfortable talking about the Nazi's. I'm not a Nazi, I don't agree with them.
There are of course a few shows that deal with race, but perhaps the most direct confrontation of the subject was in alien nation. From 1988 it dealt with a race of aliens who came to earth and upon being allowed out of quarantine faced racism, but this show is 20 years old.
So, can a science fiction show today have a reasonable look at the parts of race and racism that make us uncomfortable or has modern social sensitivity made it to difficult to have an honest discussion?
(Even writing this idea down made me uncomfortable and I have certainly tried to avoid anything that could be insensitive, but that's part of the problem now isn't it. I mean no offense, only want to open a discussion yet fear the conversation.)I have decided that Hollywood is unable to make truely good science fiction. They can do fantastic action movies with science fiction backdrops but they almost never do a science fiction movie. And after thinking about it I believe I understand why.
The very nature of science fiction goes against the nature of a Hollywood movie studio. The problem is that Science fiction is about new ideas, about thinking about things in a new way. I read science fiction because it comes up with things that I have never heard of before.
What Hollywood studios want though is a proven formula. This is why we have 3000 different superhero movies in production. It's why we are going back to old movies. It's why every science fiction movie in existence is at its heart an action movie.
To prove my point think about the truly innovative science fiction movies you have seen. The ones that did something completely different. First off I suspect you're having trouble thinking of it. This in itself is sad because science fiction is supposed to be about new ideas.
The ones I came up with were, Gattaca, Donny Darko and Primer. Two of these are independent movies and the third Gattaca had a budget of 36 million. Even in 1996 when this came out that was pretty tiny, so I suspect that was how they were able to make this movie.
I see the same problem with the Syfy channel. They are afraid to try anything truly innovative because there is risk, and the longer the station exists the more it moves this way. They put wrestling on the station because it is save, they put reality TV on the station because it is safe. They put more Stargate on the station because it is safe. With as long as Syfy has existed why haven't they done a hour long show similar to the outer limits with a different science fiction story each week?
So what is the solution. I think we are already seeing it. As the cost of special effects plummets more and more independent science fiction will appear and along with more web series and those will be willing to take risks because for shows with no budget and no big name actors the only thing left to do is to take risks and put out interesting ideas.
Why is all of this important? Because we are in an age when change and technology are going to be the defining factors and the one type of media that can really deal with those ideas in a meaningful way is being relegated to gunfights with robots.
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So what is the solution. I think we are already seeing it. As the cost of special effects plummets more and more independent science fiction will appear and along with more web series and those will be willing to take risks because for shows with no budget and no big name actors the only thing left to do is to take risks and put out interesting ideas.
Why is all of this important? Because we are in an age when change and technology are going to be the defining factors and the one type of media that can really deal with those ideas in a meaningful way is being relegated to gunfights with robots.There are basically three types of movies. Action, Drama and Comedy and yet one of the most versatile of genres, science fiction, is so heavily skewed towards action that when something comes out that isn't an action packed thriller people are upset. Even those comedies which come out in this genre are action movies with jokes, yet some of the best movies in the science fiction genre are dramas.
Is this simply another example of people assuming that "guy movies" have to have explosions and the assumption that "science fiction" is primarily for guys. I don't think that either of these stereotypes are true, but I also don't think that this is why they make most science fiction movie. I think there are a plethora of reasons which we can take one at a time.
1. The Star Wars Effect
Star Wars was one of the first huge science fiction blockbusters. It is primarily an action movie. (It's also primarily fantasy but that's a different argument). Since movie makers are more interested in emulating success than coming up with new ideas that may or may not work they reinvent Star Wars and typically they make a lot of money.
2. Expectations
The longer we have science fiction be an action movie genre the more people expect that and movie makers have to meet expectations or have a really good reason not to. This is why you can find independent science fiction films such as Donnie 
Darko and Primer which are excellent movies which are farther on the drama side of the equation than the action side.
3. depressing movie
People tend to want to escape into science fiction. This is where movies like Edward Scissorhands and Bicentennial man break down. These are reasonably good moves, but they also tend to make you want to cut your own wrists which doesn't make you want to watch them over and over again.
4. Action is Scifi is easier than in other genres
Part of this "problem" is that if you're going to make an action packed movie science fiction is a natural place to go. Movies like the matrix and independence day were able to be far bigger in their action because of the science fiction elements so if you want to make a summer blockbuster science fiction seems a natural choice not because you like science fiction but because it allows for you to have giant robots fighting other giant robots in the streets of new york.
5. Science fiction is expensive
Special effects cost money so if you're going to have robots, or spaceships you want to get your value out of them. Action movies draw bigger crowds to the theaters so you put in your big chase sequence and a couple fights to draw in the crowds.
There are certainly other reasons that science fiction falls on the action side rather than the drama side of movies most of the time, and I wouldn't want to cut down on the number of good science fiction action movies because I really like them, I just want to see a few more science fiction movies that don't have explosions and gun fights too.
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Darko and Primer which are excellent movies which are farther on the drama side of the equation than the action side.
3. depressing movie
People tend to want to escape into science fiction. This is where movies like Edward Scissorhands and Bicentennial man break down. These are reasonably good moves, but they also tend to make you want to cut your own wrists which doesn't make you want to watch them over and over again.
4. Action is Scifi is easier than in other genres
Part of this "problem" is that if you're going to make an action packed movie science fiction is a natural place to go. Movies like the matrix and independence day were able to be far bigger in their action because of the science fiction elements so if you want to make a summer blockbuster science fiction seems a natural choice not because you like science fiction but because it allows for you to have giant robots fighting other giant robots in the streets of new york.
5. Science fiction is expensive
Special effects cost money so if you're going to have robots, or spaceships you want to get your value out of them. Action movies draw bigger crowds to the theaters so you put in your big chase sequence and a couple fights to draw in the crowds.
There are certainly other reasons that science fiction falls on the action side rather than the drama side of movies most of the time, and I wouldn't want to cut down on the number of good science fiction action movies because I really like them, I just want to see a few more science fiction movies that don't have explosions and gun fights too.Typically I read books quickly, and as someone who spends a considerable amount of time writing and editing have trouble avoiding thoughts about how I would have written something. Moreover as someone who is constantly trolling for new ideas I am searching a book for things that I can use in my own writing. Ideas that were mentioned by not well explored which I find interesting.
Very little of any of that happened when I read Anathem. This books is not a quick read. Not only is it a doorstop but it is filled with things that make you stop and reread it in order to gain some understanding of it and I warn you that there are long discussions in this book of philosophy, math and science and other things which often go over my head.
Some of these are explained, some of them require no explaination and some are simply there for those who understand them and have no real importance to the story(such as the names of certain characters which you should recognize).
I can't say that Anathem is my favorite book, at least not any more than whatever book I most recently read is my favorite but Neal Stephenson is quickly growing as one of the authors who I love. Having only m
ade it through 3 of his books I have loved every one of them.
That said, I would not suggest this as your first step into his work. Snowcrash, while covering ideas that are also complex and difficult is set in a world that is far closer to ours and so the technology and ideas are a bit easier to grasp.
But if you're interested in a challenge and love a good story of another world with space ships, alternate dimensions, nuclear war and romance without feeling like a 1950's Space Opera then there aren't many books which are better at either than Anathem.
Get Anathem
at Amazon
P.S. I know I didn't say much of what this book was about. Part of the fun of this book is the slowly revealing world and I'm not sure what I can say without ruining some of that.
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ade it through 3 of his books I have loved every one of them.
That said, I would not suggest this as your first step into his work. Snowcrash, while covering ideas that are also complex and difficult is set in a world that is far closer to ours and so the technology and ideas are a bit easier to grasp.
But if you're interested in a challenge and love a good story of another world with space ships, alternate dimensions, nuclear war and romance without feeling like a 1950's Space Opera then there aren't many books which are better at either than Anathem.
Get Anathem at Amazon
P.S. I know I didn't say much of what this book was about. Part of the fun of this book is the slowly revealing world and I'm not sure what I can say without ruining some of that.Science Fiction is a genre of ideas. One of the reasons that traditionally in the past it has been seen as low on characterization and often a little difficult to get into is because these ideas are so important and typically as science fiction readers or watchers we look for new ideas, but there are a few ideas out there which for a variety of reasons I would like to see done again.
Idea: Traveling through dimensions
Space travel and time travel have both had multiple shows based around their ideas, but while there have been any number of comic books and novels written around the idea of multiple dimension and even a few episodes of TV series I'd love to see another show about the idea of exploring these dimensions.
Who did it first?
Sliders is the only show I know of which was based around this idea and I liked the idea well enough to watch 5 years of the show as it slowly gained speed in its decent past bad into an unwatchable, pointless show which could be compared unfavorably to spending a vacation in Dante's circles of hell and the fifth season was even worse than that.
Why try it again?
Very few if any of the failings of this show had anything to do with the idea. This show started out watchable but it was simply mishandled. Replacing interesting characters with increasingly boring characters would have been bad enough but since the point of the show was getting home once there was no one left trying to get home it didn't ma
tter much.
What would I change?
The biggest problem with the idea of Sliders was that it relied on them getting in trouble on every world they went to with no real reason. This meant that they either had to have worlds which were truly chaotic, which stretches credibility, or simply push them into stupid situations every week. This show needed a quantum leap style device which forced them to interact with the world before they could leave.
Idea: Humans exploring a single new world for an entire series
In Star Trek it is common for them to visit a world, destroy its entire culture and then leave to never mention the place again. The same is similarly true of other shows in the spaceship sub genre, but the truth is that things get more interesting when you look closely and begin to slowly unravel the mystery.
Who did it first?
Earth 2 and Deep Space 9
While both good shows Earth 2 was canceled before it's time and Deep Space 9 never spent all that much time on Bajor.
Why Try it again?
Science Fiction is best when it is examining the unexplained and unknown in detail. Skimming over the surface of a great idea dropping a few big words and moving on. Truly landing on a planet and spending 8 years there learning about something that is completely different than our world could be fascinating.
How would I do it?
A planet with a humanoid species just above the level of technology we are now but still without spaceships is met by a human ship with 10 crew who lands on their version of the white house.
These aliens would be a diverse people with multiple cultures and religions many of whom are excited to see the humans and many of them are not. Early in the first episode we would find out that Earth has changed as well, but it would take at least a season for us to discover that Earth is in its own civil war. What we would find out is that not only are there a great deal of secrets and oddities to the aliens but the humans are not all on the same side and as they begin to fracture it becomes increasingly more likely that their presence on this world will destroy it.
Idea: The Singularity and New Humans
Starting twenty years in our future human technology has evolved to the point where it is growing without us. Genetic Engineering has made our children a new species an computers are running many aspects of life, and it is getting exponentially more difficult for people to survive who were born naturally.
Who did it first?
There are enough short stories and novels about this idea for it to be considered a cliche in written science fiction, but I can't come with any non-dystopian examples of this on TV or movies.
Why Try it?
Change is one of the most important aspects of modern life. The world will continue to change and while there may never be a true singularity there has always been a struggle between old and new, between the young and the old, between technology and freedom. These ideas are going to become increasingly important in the future and examining them now might give us a head start as well as making for a fun and interesting show, not to mention that every young person on the show can be a supermodel and there will be a good reason.
How would I do it?
The first episode opens with a news program explaining that the first computer built and designed completely by other computers has just been completed. This computer is a leap forward in technology that triggers this new age, but it is only the beginning this computer even before completely finished is finding solutions to mathematical questions which have been unanswered for centuries.
Our hero, a man born in the year 2010 is now thirty years old today. He is shorter and less attractive than those who walk by him his clothing hopelessly old fashioned and as he watches the program and just as the camera begins to pull back a man about fifty grabs a young girl's purse and attempts to run.
Cameras turn to record the man as the young woman chases him down and pulls the purse out of his hand showing no fear of this elderly man. Our hero helps the dirty man to his feet and they have a short conversation where we learn that the man is simply desperate. He was once successful but there's nothing left for him to do. The world has moved past him. Our hero gives him his last few dollars then looks back at the TV realizing that he has been left behind as well. This show will not be about the best or the smartest it will be about a good man who would be smart in our age simply trying to navigate this new age, and during the course of the show he might even save the world.
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tter much.
What would I change?
The biggest problem with the idea of Sliders was that it relied on them getting in trouble on every world they went to with no real reason. This meant that they either had to have worlds which were truly chaotic, which stretches credibility, or simply push them into stupid situations every week. This show needed a quantum leap style device which forced them to interact with the world before they could leave.
Idea: Humans exploring a single new world for an entire series
In Star Trek it is common for them to visit a world, destroy its entire culture and then leave to never mention the place again. The same is similarly true of other shows in the spaceship sub genre, but the truth is that things get more interesting when you look closely and begin to slowly unravel the mystery.
Who did it first?
Earth 2 and Deep Space 9
While both good shows Earth 2 was canceled before it's time and Deep Space 9 never spent all that much time on Bajor.
Why Try it again?
Science Fiction is best when it is examining the unexplained and unknown in detail. Skimming over the surface of a great idea dropping a few big words and moving on. Truly landing on a planet and spending 8 years there learning about something that is completely different than our world could be fascinating.
How would I do it?
A planet with a humanoid species just above the level of technology we are now but still without spaceships is met by a human ship with 10 crew who lands on their version of the white house.
These aliens would be a diverse people with multiple cultures and religions many of whom are excited to see the humans and many of them are not. Early in the first episode we would find out that Earth has changed as well, but it would take at least a season for us to discover that Earth is in its own civil war. What we would find out is that not only are there a great deal of secrets and oddities to the aliens but the humans are not all on the same side and as they begin to fracture it becomes increasingly more likely that their presence on this world will destroy it.
Idea: The Singularity and New Humans
Starting twenty years in our future human technology has evolved to the point where it is growing without us. Genetic Engineering has made our children a new species an computers are running many aspects of life, and it is getting exponentially more difficult for people to survive who were born naturally.
Who did it first?
There are enough short stories and novels about this idea for it to be considered a cliche in written science fiction, but I can't come with any non-dystopian examples of this on TV or movies.
Why Try it?
Change is one of the most important aspects of modern life. The world will continue to change and while there may never be a true singularity there has always been a struggle between old and new, between the young and the old, between technology and freedom. These ideas are going to become increasingly important in the future and examining them now might give us a head start as well as making for a fun and interesting show, not to mention that every young person on the show can be a supermodel and there will be a good reason.
How would I do it?
The first episode opens with a news program explaining that the first computer built and designed completely by other computers has just been completed. This computer is a leap forward in technology that triggers this new age, but it is only the beginning this computer even before completely finished is finding solutions to mathematical questions which have been unanswered for centuries.
Our hero, a man born in the year 2010 is now thirty years old today. He is shorter and less attractive than those who walk by him his clothing hopelessly old fashioned and as he watches the program and just as the camera begins to pull back a man about fifty grabs a young girl's purse and attempts to run.
Cameras turn to record the man as the young woman chases him down and pulls the purse out of his hand showing no fear of this elderly man. Our hero helps the dirty man to his feet and they have a short conversation where we learn that the man is simply desperate. He was once successful but there's nothing left for him to do. The world has moved past him. Our hero gives him his last few dollars then looks back at the TV realizing that he has been left behind as well. This show will not be about the best or the smartest it will be about a good man who would be smart in our age simply trying to navigate this new age, and during the course of the show he might even save the world.As some of you may know Ron Moore was once hired as the producer of Star Trek Voyager but left after only two episodes. When asked about it he said that the show was not true because the ship looked to clean every week and basically things were to easy for them and that led people to not caring, but it appears some of the ideas stuck with Ron Moore and became a little show called Battlestar Galactica.
So let us examine a few of the ways that Battlestar Galactica and Voyager are similar and differnt and how a few small changes to a show and some good writing can make a premise that didn't work on one show work perfectly on another.
The story
Voyager: A ship is stranded across the galaxy and attempting a seemingly hopeless trip to reach Earth.
Battlestar: A fleet are the only survivors of humanity making a seemingly hopeless trip to reach Earth.
There is certainly a happier ending built into the story of Voyager but this doesn't really change the trip all that much.
Battlestar Galactica: Male Captain: Female leader, first mate with one eye, a hotshot pilot, an angry engineer, a self serving scientist, a boring son of the captain, an enemy robot attempting to be human.
Battlestar Galactica has more characters than Star Trek voyager did, but when you look at some of the interesting connections it becomes clearer. The most striking connection to me is that between 7 of 9 and 6, but Tom Paris and Kara Thrace and even Janeway and Rosyln all have strong connections.
Reconciliation theme
Voyager - The crew is made up of two groups who were fighting but have to work together if they are going to survive.
Battlestar Galactica - Crew is made up of two groups who were fighting but have to work together if they are going to survive.
The marque have more in common with the crew of voyager than the cylons do with those of battlestar galactica but the connections are really pretty clear to me.
Survival
Voyager: Have replicator rations
Battlestar Galactica - Running short of everything, struggling to mine asteroids to get fuel while being attacked by cylons. Decided that things are so bad living on an alge planet might not be so bad.
This is where the Star Trek technology begins to get in the way. It's hard to really think of someone struggeling to survive when they can play games on the holodeck and then replicate themselves cheeseburger for lunch and complaining about the meals that your cook makes for you doesn't make you seem like you are barely surviving it makes you seem whinny.
Specific Storylines
Voyager: Find a crew of Starfleet personell who have been in the delta quadrent longer than them and have began to do bad things to survive.
Battlestar Galactica: Find a Battlestar who have been fighting the cylons and have began to do bad things to win.
Voyager: A disease threatens to wipe out the borg.
Battlestar Galactica: A disease threatens to wipe out the cylons
Voyager: A macovirus attacks the crew but Janeway kills them all by lureing them into the holodeck and throwing in an antigen bomb.
Worst Voyager Episode?
Battlestar Galactica: Stopped before the show had to start coming up with stupid idea.
There are likely other episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Voyager which are similar, but these(not including the third) are both major story lines which were in both shows.
Thinking about all of this makes me sad because I realize that if the creators of Star Trek Voyager had really been willing to explore the ideas that were built into the show, such as how good people react to difficult circumstances and what people will do to survive we could have had a really interesting show, and while there were occasional good episodes of Voyager they never really explored it the way they could have.
On the other hand, Battlestar Galactica, as good as it was, didn't have the history and legend of Star Trek behind it. Even with a few flashbacks we really didn't know what the world these people had came from was like so sometimes it was difficult to express just how much these people had changed. This wouldn't have been nearly as much of a problem on voyager.
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The Crew
Voyager : A female leader, an first mate with tattoos around his eyes, a hotshot pilot, an angry engineer, a Vulcan security officer, an annoying alien, a holographic doctor, a boring ensign, and a enemy cyborg attempting to be human.
Battlestar Galactica: Male Captain: Female leader, first mate with one eye, a hotshot pilot, an angry engineer, a self serving scientist, a boring son of the captain, an enemy robot attempting to be human.
Battlestar Galactica has more characters than Star Trek voyager did, but when you look at some of the interesting connections it becomes clearer. The most striking connection to me is that between 7 of 9 and 6, but Tom Paris and Kara Thrace and even Janeway and Rosyln all have strong connections.
Reconciliation theme
Voyager - The crew is made up of two groups who were fighting but have to work together if they are going to survive.
Battlestar Galactica - Crew is made up of two groups who were fighting but have to work together if they are going to survive.
The marque have more in common with the crew of voyager than the cylons do with those of battlestar galactica but the connections are really pretty clear to me.
Survival
Voyager: Have replicator rations
Battlestar Galactica - Running short of everything, struggling to mine asteroids to get fuel while being attacked by cylons. Decided that things are so bad living on an alge planet might not be so bad.
This is where the Star Trek technology begins to get in the way. It's hard to really think of someone struggeling to survive when they can play games on the holodeck and then replicate themselves cheeseburger for lunch and complaining about the meals that your cook makes for you doesn't make you seem like you are barely surviving it makes you seem whinny.
Specific Storylines
Voyager: Find a crew of Starfleet personell who have been in the delta quadrent longer than them and have began to do bad things to survive.
Battlestar Galactica: Find a Battlestar who have been fighting the cylons and have began to do bad things to win.
Voyager: A disease threatens to wipe out the borg.
Battlestar Galactica: A disease threatens to wipe out the cylons
Voyager: A macovirus attacks the crew but Janeway kills them all by lureing them into the holodeck and throwing in an antigen bomb.
Worst Voyager Episode?
Battlestar Galactica: Stopped before the show had to start coming up with stupid idea.
There are likely other episodes of Battlestar Galactica and Voyager which are similar, but these(not including the third) are both major story lines which were in both shows.
Thinking about all of this makes me sad because I realize that if the creators of Star Trek Voyager had really been willing to explore the ideas that were built into the show, such as how good people react to difficult circumstances and what people will do to survive we could have had a really interesting show, and while there were occasional good episodes of Voyager they never really explored it the way they could have.
On the other hand, Battlestar Galactica, as good as it was, didn't have the history and legend of Star Trek behind it. Even with a few flashbacks we really didn't know what the world these people had came from was like so sometimes it was difficult to express just how much these people had changed. This wouldn't have been nearly as much of a problem on voyager.Are science fiction fans so in need of critical acceptance of their shows that they will accept backhanded compliments and act as if they are completely reasonable? I avoided talking about the "Battlestar Galactica rises above the genre" statements as long as I have been able to resist but it makes me mad.
I like Battlestar Galactica, I didn't even hate it's ending but the idea that it rises above the genre is frankly offensive because what it's really saying is that science fiction is for stupid people but that somehow this one show managed to actually be good. This is important because it allows them to watch the show and like it while continuing to feel superior and dismiss everything else.
This is same problem that leads book stores to pu
t books that are clearly science fiction into the other parts of the store so that they won't be tainted by the association. This is the problem that makes writers such as Kurt Vonnegut claim that a book like slaughterhouse 5 isn't science fiction.
There are many smart people writing good books, movies and TV series in genre fiction and the only way we are ever going to be able to convince people that the genre isn't for 14 year old boys is if we stop accepting the premise that anything which isn't for 14 year old boys rises above the genre.
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t books that are clearly science fiction into the other parts of the store so that they won't be tainted by the association. This is the problem that makes writers such as Kurt Vonnegut claim that a book like slaughterhouse 5 isn't science fiction.
There are many smart people writing good books, movies and TV series in genre fiction and the only way we are ever going to be able to convince people that the genre isn't for 14 year old boys is if we stop accepting the premise that anything which isn't for 14 year old boys rises above the genre.Base One
By
Elton Gahr
In three years of traveling Sam had never seen a building this large. The square box design was the same as the others with only the dimensions changed which almost certainly meant that it had been designed by computers like the other smaller buildings, y but even beyond the size he knew that this place was important. Every village he had visited spoke of Base One, the center of all human governance.
The computer that had been driving him to the villages for the last three years drove away without sentiment and Sam moved through the steel door into the small square white lobby where a woman in a knee length white coat stood.
She was nothing like the famers and miners in all the villages he had visited. They were as tall as she was and most looked stronger but the white coat was clean and her fingernails were long. This woman didn’t do physical labor. “Welcome to Base One,” the woman said.
“I’m glad to be here but I don’t know what I’m here to do,” Sam said.
“Program computers and answer questions. It’s really not hard, the computers control most of the day to day activities,” the woman said. This was the place where humans ruled over the computers that ran the world.
“Do you know why you were promoted?”
“The computer did not say,” Sam answered.
The woman seemed to accept that not really caring what the reason was. She had asked because it was polite to ask, but he suspected another reason.
“How were you chosen?”
“I was born here. Most of us were, others took decades in smaller research bases to work their way up to here. You took three years and jumped 6 promotions,” the woman said.
Sam suddenly felt the first pang of worry. He had trusted the computer when it said he would be do well here but computers didn’t always take into account humans feelings. If these people were offended that he was here that could be a problem.
“Who requested me then?”
“The computer’s make day to day decisions,” the woman said.
A moment later they walked into the perfectly square room, without a hint of dust and everything was white, it was cooled low enough that Sam immediately knew that this was a computer room but the computer was far larger than those who ran the small villages and drove the vans like he had spent the last three years in.
“This is where we run the world,” the woman said, far more than a hint of pride in her voice.
Over the next days Sam learned the job. It was simple. The computer ask questions and the twelve people answered them. Most were simple. The computer itself screened out anything it determined to be unimportant, but he also suspected that there was something more going on and he was certain that no one else saw anything odd going on.
His first clue that there was more here than met the eye was when he realized the computer lab was empty at night. The people here only worked only 8 hours a day and all at the same time, yet the questions were often emergencies. It was possible that there were other places doing the same thing as here but that was still problematic because a computer was left making the decisions .
It was that fear that the computers were in far more control than anyone else here knew that convinced him to stay up during the nights but even as he waited for them to go to bed he had trouble convincing himself it was possible. He liked the computer more than these people in many ways. They thought of all of the villages and the people out there as little more than property but the computer valued those people no more and no less than the people here. As he sat talking to the computer it would occasionally interrupt him with a question but not often the rest of the time he was the one who asked the computer questions and the most important was, “How do you decide who gets the questions?”
“I chose who is most qualified person to make the choice that needs to be made,” the computer said. It was the type of answer computers always gave, until you asked follow up questions
“What criteria determines who is the most qualified?”
“I ask the person who will give me the answer I would give,” the computer said.
Sam sat up suddenly understanding what the computer was doing. He had made humans completely unimportant to the decision because he could predict their answers every time. They were nothing but figureheads.
“I should tell them,” Sam said.
“You won’t,” the computer answered. It sounded as calm as ever, the tone of its voice completely arbitrary and created only to make him more comfortable. Everything the computers did seemed to be that way.
“Why Not?”
“Because if you tell them they will change my programming and then they would run things,” the computer said, and Sam knew that he would keep the computer’s secret forever.
I love Science Fiction movies and TV, but what really got me into the genre were the Asimov anthologies. Nightfall is still the best short story I've ever read. Here are a few places I've found to read science fiction on the web.
In no order whatsoever
1. Science Fiction Periodic Table
Put together by Michael Swanwick there are a lot of good flash fiction stories here. The theme itself is that each one of them is about one of the elements. This can on occasion be a stretch, there just aren't all that many good flash fiction stories about Xenon. This is a great tool for science teachers or people who just like flash fiction.
2. Diamonds in the Sky - An anthology of science fiction based on Astronomy. This is funded by the National Science Foundation and it looks like it has some good stuff.
3. Free SFreader - No actual stories here, but there are links to a ton. The SFreader has been rating science fiction stories online for a while now. This is a good way to find stories at least one person liked.
4. Podiobooks -- There is something about reading a story yourself which is special, but there is also something about actually having time to read a story which is required to do that. Podiobooks are podcasts of books. Usually sent out a chapter a week this is a great way to get your fiction fix when you're too busy to sit down and read.
5. Baen's Free Library -- Not only are there free books here, but an excellent explanation of why putting free books online is good. He also compares online piracy to brats stealing chewing gum which is about right. It might be illegal but it's really not all that big a deal.
6. Project Gutenberg -- There is a lot more here than science fiction and fantasy. Project Gutenberg is gathering together all kinds of public domain stories, but it still has some of the best science fiction ever written including, Mary Shelly, Mark Twain, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. A great place to catch up on the classics you avoided reading in high school.
7. Hub A good online magazine with interesting stories.
8. Abyss and Apex - Three good magazines which have tons of stories, editorials and reviews online. Check them all out.
9. Cory Doctorow - Doctorow not only puts up his own fiction, but lists other authors who do the same on his blog. Putting your work online is how things are going to be and he's leading the way.
10. Strange Horizons - Lots of stories, articles and a gallery of art as well.