Sci Fi I have enjoyed lately.
May. 15th, 2006 02:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grinninfooleReminded by some notes I have scribbled to myself over the past month:
On April 19, on the small screen at the Pleasant St. theater, I saw Nochnoi Dozor, or Night Watch, a really good sci-fi horror film from Russia. I really want to see it again, and I can't wait to see the sequel whenever it comes to the States. The imagery, while inspired by things like the Matrix in places, was original, and captivating, and the story wasn't one that an American would make. (The failing nuclear plant plot point must loom large for any Russian, for example, and Olga's reference to unspeakable crimes committed sixty years earlier, in what would therefore be during the German invasion, must take on a resonance that I can only dimly imagine.) The struggle of people to live up to absolute labels of good and evil while struggling with the complexities and ambiguities of human life was really well done. Oh, and (SPOILER! SPOILER!) a special tip of the hat to the film-makers for doing well what George Lucas took three films to fuck up, the corruption of the innocent.
Millari and I have been watching the new Dr. Who series, and really digging it. Christopher Eccleston is a terrific Doctor, and Rose has turned out to be a great companion. I have been especially pleased that the creators have clearly thought about why the Doctor would want to travel the universe with a 19 year old woman that he's only just met, and have come up with a good answer. While they do seem to be playing some sexual tension between Rose and the Doctor, I don't think that's what it's about. Yes, the Doctor is lonely, especially since they have upped the stakes by making him the last Time Lord, but that's the key, I think, to what's really going on. He isn't courting Rose, he's teaching her. Rose, and by extension perhaps all his previous companions, is the Doctor's apprentice. After all, why should species be what makes a Timelord?
I'm looking forward to running my game again on the 19th, enough so that I don't mind missing out on Lefty's game at the store.
On April 19, on the small screen at the Pleasant St. theater, I saw Nochnoi Dozor, or Night Watch, a really good sci-fi horror film from Russia. I really want to see it again, and I can't wait to see the sequel whenever it comes to the States. The imagery, while inspired by things like the Matrix in places, was original, and captivating, and the story wasn't one that an American would make. (The failing nuclear plant plot point must loom large for any Russian, for example, and Olga's reference to unspeakable crimes committed sixty years earlier, in what would therefore be during the German invasion, must take on a resonance that I can only dimly imagine.) The struggle of people to live up to absolute labels of good and evil while struggling with the complexities and ambiguities of human life was really well done. Oh, and (SPOILER! SPOILER!) a special tip of the hat to the film-makers for doing well what George Lucas took three films to fuck up, the corruption of the innocent.
Millari and I have been watching the new Dr. Who series, and really digging it. Christopher Eccleston is a terrific Doctor, and Rose has turned out to be a great companion. I have been especially pleased that the creators have clearly thought about why the Doctor would want to travel the universe with a 19 year old woman that he's only just met, and have come up with a good answer. While they do seem to be playing some sexual tension between Rose and the Doctor, I don't think that's what it's about. Yes, the Doctor is lonely, especially since they have upped the stakes by making him the last Time Lord, but that's the key, I think, to what's really going on. He isn't courting Rose, he's teaching her. Rose, and by extension perhaps all his previous companions, is the Doctor's apprentice. After all, why should species be what makes a Timelord?
I'm looking forward to running my game again on the 19th, enough so that I don't mind missing out on Lefty's game at the store.
