Just in Case the Starship Lifts Off...

I want to confess that I was a science fiction fan before I came to Dr. Clemente's Science Fiction Literature and Film class and I am coming out of the class more enlightened than before.

I must express how much I enjoy the genre; I loved the Animorphs books by K.A. Applegate, I loved Dune by Frank Herbert, I loved the Star Wars movies, I loved the Alien and Predator movies, I crave futuristic shoot 'em ups such as DOOM, Half-Life, Halo, and Resident Evil, and I enjoy science fiction manga and anime such as Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Akira, to name a few.

The end is very near for me; I am about to graduate at the end of this week and my class will watch Blade Runner on the last night of our class. I have not seen Blade Runner, but I have read its source material, which is Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Quite a mouthful of a name, isn't it? Not as sleek and stylish as Blade Runner but it is a good novel nonetheless. I will definately be comparing the movie and the book to each other, since I am always purist about enjoying the source material before any adaptation.

A classmate of mine listed her favorite movies and stories, and I might do the same, just for the sake of a (Possible?) fitting ending to this blog...

Favorite Stories from Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (And any stories outside of the anthology)

First Place: "The People of the Sand and Slag"
Second Place: "The End of the Whole Mess"
Third Place: "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels"

Out of all the stories I enjoyed out of Wastelands, I will have to say I liked "The People of the Sand and Slag." The story possesses a macabre and stylistic approach to apocalyptic science fiction. What is morbid about this story is that the main characters are powered by nanomachine-like mechanisms called "Weeviltech," which allows the users to heal from the most grievous wounds.

The humans in this story become like the polluted earth they thrive on. There is an interesting question on humanity posed as the "humans" decide on what to do with a stray dog they happened to find in blasted Montana. The story was a focus on my first paper I wrote for the class; I wrote how the characters' humanity degenerated as they adapted to the hostil surface. All humanity gains power to cheat death but much like they destroyed their world, they destroyed their humanity with power gained.

The stories that earned second and third place will also be examined. "The End of the Whole Mess" presented what I like the most about Stephen King; his humor, his themes of degradation, and his way of playing the macabre in a world that is easy to believe. I would say this is the least science-fiction oriented story as there is a heavy concentration on the brothers using the Calmative, a substance that is supposed to curb aggression. I like King but details are scant about the actual consequences, save for the end of the story. Still, it was a good read. The third place contestant, "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels," was a suspenceful study of two versions of humanity meeting each other but it did not have the solid "punch" on humanity degenerating as "The People of the Sand and Slag" and "The End of the Whole Mess" did.

Favorite Movies Presented in Class So Far

First Place: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Second Place: Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb
Third Place: Testament

There were quite a slew of good, solid films worthy of cultural reverence in the class (Let's not speak of Liquid Sky); The Day the Earth Stood Still stands resolute after all these years with its theme of aliens destroying Earth is the humans did not get along. Of all the 1950s movies I have seen, The Day the Earth Stood Still affected me tremendously because of its theme, its production, its characterization of Klaatu and Gort, and its solid acting.

Before I saw this movie, I had a fixed notion that a lot of films from the 1950s, especially science fiction films, would have a strong, puritanical, McCarthyesque overtone that would have ruined the movie. There were heavy anti-communist fears and feelings that filled most of these films and I had the idea the theme would be preachy in the movies we watched. I was mistaken with It Came from Outer Space, which was good but will remain my least favorite, and the other '50s movies because the themes are very subtle and remain fresh because of humanity banding together against a common threat. The Day the Earth Stood Still was a different beast entirely because the movie was not about repelling outsiders but rather accepting the outside world and facts or face harsh consequences of embracing xenophobia, or the fear of foreigners.

Dr. Strangelove was my second favorite movie in our repetoire of apocalypse-themed movies. The film is an excellent satire; nuclear weapons back in the 1960s were not talked about and this movie blew the subject up in everyone's face. I would rank it in second place because although it was funny and thought-provoking in its own right, it did not concentrate too much on any of the major characters in any given order. I would have even wanted more out of the notorious nuclear physics expert Dr. Strangelove, whose desire for the apocalypse was darkly funny and intriguing.

The third film that affected me profoundly was Testament; man, that movie not only ripped out my heart but it tore about whatever hope I had of humanity surviving a nuclear holocaust. The true horror is not on the sight of the bomb itself but the characters suffering through the effects of the bomb. I got attached to all the characters involved, and this made viewing Testament all the more heart-wrenching. I would rank this movie in third place because although it was a good movie that should be viewed once, anyone would be hard pressed to watch it again.

Favorite Stories out of The New Space Opera So Far (And any stories outside of the anthology)

First Place: "The Cold Equations"
Second Place: "Maelstrom"
Third Place: "Muse of Fire"

I am sad to admit that The New Space Opera is not one of the most engaging sci-fi anthologies I have read up to this point. So it makes sense that "The Cold Equations" is the first spot on the list. Technical details are given about the pilot's ship and why the little stowaway needs to be ejected outside of it, but they are not severely overblown. The theme is built up with the technology to build up the suspense in a universe where the galaxies beyond Earth are uncertain frontiers being colonized. I like how the story places with the five stages of death; the young girl who stows away on the pilot's ship to see her brother knows the horror of her fate but she understands there is no way to escape from the inevitable. Death is inevitable and death cannot be avoided in space.

The second and third place participants were unique among a mish-mash of technological talk and space babble because each explored the humanities still thriving in the space opera realm. Imagine going up into space and not taking any work by William Shakespeare or any Broadway musical scripts. People on a ship without art would be soulless, heartless, and homicidal as a group of Klingons on fire.

Well, this list is my wrap up of what I enjoyed and what I gained from all the media I experienced. I wish everyone else on their remaining class work, their remaining blogs, and their love to indulge in science fiction.

Till then, this is the starship signing off...

- Kristopher

Liquid Sky Equals Pure Absurity (In a Bad Way)

After Liquid Sky ended, I laughed hysterically.

More accurately, I laughed like a madman as I was walking out of the theater. I had to get some sweet abbreviation soda (Dr. Pepper as it is called in most circles) and a bag of baked Dorito's chips just to make sure I was not losing my marbles. I came to see Liquid Sky with an open mind and no expectations. I had no idea what I was expecting.

Well, this lack of expectation really, really screwed with my head.

And no, I actually did laugh out loud (Explaining it to some people was no easy task), get a soda and some chips after seeing this movie, because not only was this movie bad, it was BAD. It was bad because of its acting, it was bad because of its writing, it was bad because of its special effects, it was bad because of its nonsensical plot. I love art house films and films with unconventional thoughts but Liquid Sky was just, well BAD!

Yes, this movie is a cult favorite, but to me, it was BAD to the point where I felt I was in a drug-induced nightclub. It is an experience I do not want to take again. Liquid Sky was a softcore porno, art house flick gone awry, low budget alien movie, low budget movie overall, and an exercise of how not to make an art film. I find the ideas of punk culture, free love and drug abuse on film facinating but I would easily appreciate the ideas the movie was playing around with had it not been for its aimless execution.

Still, I need to concentrate on the themes of the movie is addressing. The aliens in the movie are addicted to people addicted to heroine. Thanks to Margaret, the aliens become addicted to orgasms and heroine altogether. This results in the funniest lines, intentionally or otherwise, ever to be uttered ("I kill with my c*$t.). You also have the lonely woman and the German scientist looking out the window with the telescope. Both are voyeurs, with the scientist explaining what is really going on. The focus is no longer on the aliens anymore, it is on Margaret screwing anyone she finds and vaporizes them upon orgasm! So if Liquid Sky is not really a science fiction movie, then it is a skin flick masquerading as a science-fiction flick and an art film.

Then you have Margaret constantly painting and dressing herself, especially after she has lethal sex. Could her actions represent the danger of sex with sexually trasmitted diseases? Margaret vaporizing people with sex alone can represent someone infecting other people with AIDS or any other condition imaginable. If you take out the aliens, you could have Margaret as the "alien" and she would vaporize people with her libido alone!

Still, Liquid Sky deserves the "High Caffeine Award."

- Kristopher

Akira!

Akira is the most epic anime that I have ever seen with my two eyes. Period.

The above sentence is not enough to summarize how awesome this anime is, and not enough to summarize why mention of it is being made on Aboard the Starship. Akira is based on a series of graphic novels by Katsuhiro Otomo, the same creator who wrote and directed the film. This anime is given high praise because it is a landmark title. Before Akira, anime was infamous for having stilted animation and lip synching that was off with the words. Akira got rid of the medium's annoyances by recording the actors' voices before making the lip synching animations, cranked up the cel animations, inserted a memorable soundtrack, and using a story that blends cyberpunk fiction and a story of political corruption and resistance against an oppressive government wanting to use power-both governmental and psychic-to their own ends. To top it off, the movie is chock full of cool motorcyle sequences.

The back story is that in 1988, a large explosion destroys most of old Tokyo. Fast forwarding to 2019, the story focuses on a biker gang who through a series of events get involved with a group of terrorists trying to take down Neo-Tokyo's dystopian, third-world government. One of the bikers, Tetsuo Shima, is horribly injured after almost running over a child psychic who makes his bike explode. Tetsuo is taken in by the military government to be a test subject in enhancing his psychic capabilities. Kaneda, Tetsuo's best friend, is determined to save him, but can he face against his friend whose powers are growing at a frightening rate?

Akira goes with the old wisdom of science fiction; science fiction is not used to tell the future, but to prevent the future from happening. The military in Akira rounded up children in Japan and performed experiments to enhance their psychic potential. Not to spoil the story, but one of the children, the title character in the story who does not fully appear until the end, is responsible for blowing up Neo Tokyo. Given Japan's history of being bombed by two atomic weapons, there is a message of using and exploiting technology. Moreso, there is a message of exploiting and abusing people with that technology. There is only concern for power, and power is used by the corrupt and turns people like Tetsuo, who is in a rivalry with his friend Kaneda, into power-hungry maniacs.

The movie is also a critique on the old fashioned Japanese type of honor. The Colonel, the figure responsible for the program that performed experiments on the children, is a figure who believes the miiltary should be the sole authority of a city that is ridden in gangs and corruption. He can be compared to an anachronistic shogun who believes the samurai code should continue to thrive in the light of new developments in civil rights and technology.

Below is a parody by Harry Partridge of the American production of Akira that will be coming in 2011. Yes, that's right. An American production of Akira. In 2011. Wonder how that will turn out...I sorely apologize that the screen is rather squished on the blog.



- Kristopher

The Brother - More Human than Human?

The Brother from Another Planet, an indie film classic we watched in Science Fiction Literature and Film class, shows us that we might not be as human as we think. The Brother (Portrayed by Joe Morton), is not native to planet Earth. He would have no bias about how corrupt, insane, or how beautiful and interesting our world can truly be.

I would believe it is fairly ironic that even though the Brother is an alien from another world, he ends up being the most sympathetic and most human character in the movie. He acts like a good scientist (Or a good alien scientist) would; the Brother observes human behavior, interacts with humans in an indirect way and experiences the pains that humans have to deal with. Yes, he has strange feet that would stand out from the rest of the public in Harlem but the Brother is a lot like us.

It would be easy to assume that The Brother from Another Planet would be a blaxploitation flick, but that's not the case at all. The problems associated with problem are explored with the black populace but other people are looked at closer. You have the Southern woman trying to adjust to life in New York, the kid in the subway who enjoys telling stories and playing card tricks at the same time, the Hispanic repairman who warms up to the Brother and other characters the Brother meets along the way.

The Brother has antagonists; he has to evade a pair of white alien bounty hunters who screech like cats and have synchronized actions with one another. They are funny but they are also omnimous of why they are after the Brother. My best guess is that the white aliens represent the oppressive part of society dominated by people who are Caucasian. Even their mannerisms are bureaucratic in nature, as they ask the man in the arcade about his Green Card.

The Brother from Another Planet was funny, intriguing, and truly introspective. The main character, despite being from another world, was easy to relate to and fun to watch as he tries to find his place in a new world.

- Kristopher

Dr. Strangelove - Strange and In Love with Destruction, Influences Included

Dr. Strangelove, being the title character of Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Stopped Worrying and Loved the Bomb, is charismatic, ruthless, possibly a Nazi and just downright bizarre. Would you be comfortable with your dentist having a mechanical arm, wearing dark sunglasses, and shouting "SEIG HEIL!" at the wrong moment at the wrong time? I would be yanking myself out of the dentist's chair and checking out with the receptionist knowing none the wiser. Dr. Strangelove is a nuclear physicist whose creation background and character portrayal is inspired by several key historical figures.

According to this site, the German version of Strangelove is "merkwuerdigichliebe," which translates to "cherished fate." The name is significant because given to Dr. Strangelove's demented character, the idea of the whole world going up in nuclear flames would sound immensely appealing. The site also analyzed that director Stanley Kubrick would have chosen historical figures involved in nuclear weaponry and nuclear deterrence to help influence Dr. Strangelove's creation.

The first would be Henry Kissinger; he was born in Germany, his accent is in synth with Strangelove's and Kissenger's psychology appears to be linked up with a serial killer. Kissenger wrote about nuclear war in terms of nuclear deterrance and a limited nuclear war. It is an irony that a man who won the Nobel Peace Prize would be convicted of war crimes against humanity.

The second person to possibly influence Strangelove's creation is Werner Von Braun, a rocket scientist who worked for the Nazi Party in Germany until the end of World War II. Although Von Braun, according to the same site, was not too concerned with human morals and ethics, he was taken in by the U.S. government to help develop rockets despite the crimes against humanity he may have partaken in while in the Nazi Party. Can a man be easily pardoned becauses he pioneered rocketry for space exploration? Maybe he escaped the death penalty by engineering the surrender of himself other rocket scienitsts.

The third person up Dr. Strangelove's creation alley would have to be Edward Teller. This Hungarian scientist is infamous to helping to revoke J. Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance to Los Alamos base, the same base where the first atomic bomb was developed. Teller was a pro-nuclear weapons enthusiast and helped develop the more powerful hydrogen bomb.

The last person to be analyzed would be Herman Kahn. His development for nuclear weapons were more linguistic than most. An example of his linguistic skills would be saying that "only" two million were killed by nuclear weapons. Kahn worked with the RAND corporation, a corporation that was the creation of the Air Force. Kahn's corporate

background is similiar to Dr. Strangelove's partnership with the BLAND corporation.

Looking at these four men related to nuclear warfare and nuclear weapons production, I would have to say these men would be the "Four Scientists of the Apocalypse." You have the strategist, the technologist, the manipulator, and the double-speaker. They were lauded for achievements such as space exploration and diplomacy but they are loathed for supporting genocidal regimes and engineering weapons of mass destruction.

So, what about Dr. Strangelove's mechanical arm? The character's arm may be inspired by Dr. C. A. Rotwang, the mad scientist featured in Fritz Lang's Metropolis who wrecked havoc for everyone in sight. Many critics have made comparisons between Rotwang and Dr. Strangelove, but Kubrick has denied any similiarities. Both are mad scientists, though Rotwang is the guy responsible for the "mad scientist character." Dr. Strangelove can be called a "mad scientist" but he appears to be more of a crook skilled in manipulation, nuclear theory and weirdness.

Dr. Strangelove is a highly memorable character from Kubrick's excellent dark comedy. He is cold, calculating, and is bad news to anyone's war room.

- Kristopher

Invaders from Cards

The movie we saw last week, Mars Attacks, was based on a series of trading cards that beared some resemblances to the movie. The cards themselves are less satirical than the movie's story but they are twice as violent and packing more sexual innuedoes than the movie ever dared to venture to.

So yes, I could not help but make comparisons to the movie and the original trading card source. Yet there are so many simliarities and differences when you consider the Martians vaporizing hapless humans into multicolored skeletons, shrinking soldiers into pint-sized victims and Maritians in giant robots running amok! There is also another gruesome weapon the Martians employ in the cards; giant bugs that are enlarged thanks to their gruesome experiments. And yes, there is a ton of nasty stuff like that...

You can find more information about the cards here.

- Kristopher

Cowboy Bebop - Anime Space Opera or "Space Jazz?"

It just occurred to me lately that as I delve into the space opera realm, I think of my favorite Japanese anime that takes place in the space opera realm. Enter Cowboy Bebop, an anime set in the 2070s after Earth became bombarded from an "interstellar disaster." The anime features three main bounty hunters-ex-Mafioso Spike Spiegel, ex-cop Jet Black and gambler Faye Valentine-and the self-proclaimed Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV, A.K.A. Edward who is usually accompanied with Ein, a dog with unusually high intelligence who travel in the ship, the Bebop.

The bounty hunters embark on adventures--or misadventures--across the solar system looking for criminals whom the police cannot capture on their own. There's action, comedy, philosophy, tragedy and animation that's better than most of the current anime lineup coming out. For those unfamiliar with anime, Cowboy Bebop is a great place to start because the series is chock full of Western pop culture references from movies to music.

How is this anime related to space opera? Aside from taking place mostly in space, the crew of the Bebop travel to the ruins of Earth, cities on Mars, and other far off places. Cowboy Bebop can be accurately classified as a "space western." The primary weapon shown in most of the episodes is the handgun, a type of firearm featured heavily in Westerns. The theme of bounty hunters catching their bounty heads in space can also be applied for bounty hunters stalking their quarry across the desert in a Western. Space, according to "The Cold Equations," is a dangerous frontier and this theme is highly apparent in the Cowboy Bebop series.

Below is the trailer for Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, a full length motion picture that features a story set within the main Cowboy Bebop storyline. The movie was the reason I got into the series in the first place. I read a few reviews of people who have never seen the twenty-six episode series but loved the movie with a passion.



- Kristopher