Lisa Paitz Spindler, Danger Gal

If you watched the season finale of Sanctuary, then you saw Will getting his Bollywood on in a dance for Kali:

Who knew Robin Dunne could dance?!

Have you written a Steampunk manifesto, but are challenged with titling such an opus? If so, the Steampunk Manifesto Title Generator can help you. It’s like clockwork!

Some of my favorites:

• Tim Whistle’s Submersible Serum
• Lady Lapis and the Love Nautilus
• Mr. McSteamy’s Obscura Meter
• Charity Fotherington and Her Mysterious Machine Eyepiece

Find your favorites too!

This week’s Danger Gal Friday post profiles two characters from the first Transformers movie, Mikaela Banes and Maggie Madsen. I know what you’re thinking — “Megan ‘I have the libido of a 15-year-old boy’ Fox? Really?” * — but hear me out. While certainly Mikaela’s character in the first Transformers movie is physically exploited (and evidently even more in the second movie), she has her moments and I think those moments are important.

Neither of these female characters are shrinking violets and they’re not rescued any more than any of the male characters. In fact, Mikaela deals far better in life-or-death situations than Sam Witwicky does and rescues him from the Decepticon named Frenzy. She’s self-contained and, as evidenced by her walking away from her idiot and condescending boyfriend, doesn’t take crap from anyone. She’d rather walk home than get a ride from a guy who treats her like an idiot. ** When Sam’s car, Bumblebee in disguise, “breaks down” Mikaela is quick to try to solve the problem. Contrasting Sam with the guy Mikaela just walked away from, Sam is in no way intimidated by Mikaela’s ability to take care of herself and whatever car she’s driving. (Or moped — I really thought her the type to have a motorcyle rather than a moped.)

In the end, it’s Mikaela who rigs an injured Bumblebee onto a tow truck and hauls him around so he can fight the Decepticons. She sees an opportunity to make a difference and takes it, even if it puts her own life in danger. She doesn’t expect others to fight for her. So, while I’d certainly like to see less of Fox’s physical exploitation in the movie, her character’s resolve is a positive counterpoint. Also, she stands up to the Sector Seven officer to the point of revenge and in the end isn’t punished for that, but is instead rewarded with having her juvenile record expunged. Mikaela is definitely not a perfect, princess-type figure waiting for others to rescue her and solve the story’s problem.

The other character I found interesting in Transformers is former NSA analyst and Rand Corporation employee Maggie Madsen. Maggie has a colorful past, having lost her NSA job because she has a tendency to speak her mind bluntly, but she’s also acknowledged to be brilliant. She leads her team in discovering the hostile agent hacking into Air Force One. While I feel bad for her feet in those stilettos and think their presence is ridiculous, she’s not sexually exploited and is considered valuable. In the end she’s part of those who defeat the Decepticons.

On balance, I found unexpected feminist aspects of both these characters in Transformers. No one doubts these two women’s ability to accomplish what they set out to do. I’m not optimistic about more of the same from the second Transformers movie from what I’ve been told, but I wanted to at least highlight these unexpected aspects of the first Transformers movie.

Having said all that, I’d really love to see a Transformer with a female voice. Hear that Michael Bay?

* Also, I sort of like that Fox has been plain about creating a persona for the men’s magazines. Some of her quotes are definitely disarming and blunt, a refreshing trend from a “sex symbol.” If it’s true, then she’s created a character to play and admitting it points a finger at how ridiculous it is. Fox seems to be playing the stereotypical vixen and at the same time breaking that character down. That’s not something we normally see in the run-of-the-mill starlet.

** The Transformers Wiki claims that Mikaela hid her car knowledge from other boyfriends. I didn’t really get this out of those scenes. Rather, it seemed Mikaela doesn’t open up to people in general and so would not just automatically share personal information even with a boyfriend. When her boyfriend writes her off as just a pretty face, she walks away without looking back.She’s not afraid to be alone or on her own.

This week’s Danger Gal Friday profiles Myka Bering from SyFy’s new series Warehouse 13 portrayed by Canadian actress Joanne Kelly. Warehouse 13 is already getting pegged as “X Files Lite” with many comparisons between Bering and Scully. There are similarities of the good kind, but the show also has a Steampunk feel to many of its gadgets as well as a bit of a history lesson, in the pilot at least. The SyFy web site describes Bering as:

A woman born to be an agent. Organized and focused, Myka believes in hard work, solid planning, and steadfast execution. She never met a meticulously detailed mission outline she didn’t like, and her attention top minutiae has led her to status as a rising star in the Secret Service despite a “classified” situation in Denver, Colorado.

Pilots for series are often a little rocky as the writers and the actors are just getting to know the story world and the characters, but I thought Warehouse 13 came off mostly solid. I was never tempted to turn the channel and am intrigued by the hints at the character’s back stories.

In keeping with many a Danger Gal, Bering saved her male counterpart and twice to boot — once by pulling him from a wrecked car (and coming too first after being thrown) and in the end. Bering and Latimer saved each other on a few occasions, so I thought that aspect of the pilot was well-balanced. I don’t want to pay undo attention to Bering’s attire, but I always pay attention to see if a female character is costumed similarly to a male character — such as in Star Trek Uhura wears a capped sleeved mini-dress while the male characters are all in long sleeves and long pants. Someone on the Enterprise is either very chilled or sweating.

Bering and Latimer were both dressed appropriately and in fact Latimer showed off more skin than Bering did. I did think it odd that Bering would wear a skin-tight cocktail dress and heels to protect the President, but at least they made a point of showing her taking off those heels when she had to kick some ass. Later we see Bering wearing much more appropriate shoes with actual treads.

From a story development standpoint, Bering contributed just as much to solving the story problem as her partner did. Overall, a good start to a fun show, one not quite so deep as Fringe that I appreciate, and I’m looking forward to more.

In light of the recent reboot of the Star Trek franchise with the release of J.J. Abrams’ new movie, this weeks’ Danger Gal Friday post profiles Number One, the original first officer of the Enterprise from The Original Series pilot “The Cage.”

Number One was played by Majel Barrett, wife of Gene Roddenberry. Originally, Number One had also served as first officer under Christopher Pike on the USS Yorktown before joining him on the Enterprise. Network executives made several changes to the series after the original pilot, one of which included changing Barrett’s character to Nurse Chapel. Number One’s “highly-logical, steel-trap mind” was then attributed to Spock instead. I have few criticisms of the new Star Trek movie, and in fact very much enjoyed it, but one facet that saddened me was the continuation of the Nurse Chapel character without any reference to the Number One character. Initially, Spock was the science officer, but the new movie continues with the idea that he is both chief science officer and first or executive officer.

While I appreciated the update to Uhura’s character, I do hope that Abrams touches on the Number One character in future installments of the new franchise considering he’s also created characters such as Alias’ Sydney Bristow* and previous Danger Gal Fringe’s Olivia Dunham. Jennifer Weiner at The Huffington Post voices many of my misgivings with the female characters in the new movie:

Honestly, I didn’t have a problem until about midway through the film…at which point I realized that every single lady on screen was either a mother, a ho, or an intergalactic hood ornament.

Memory Alpha describes Number One: “. . . she held the rank of lieutenant. She was noted for her exceptional intelligence and rationality. In 2254, Captain Pike regarded Number One as the most experienced officer on the Enterprise.” Evidently, Roddenberry initially based the Starfleet rank structure on the 18th and 19th century British navy, when a ship’s second-in-command was often a First Lieutenant, rather than 20th century Naval ranks now associated with the series.

In “The Cage,” the Talosians reveal to Pike that Number One harbored feelings for him. Number One and Spock at one point installed computer upgrades that made the Enterprise voice-interactive. They utilized her voice-pattern, which was later carried over into all Starfleet computers.

Many different names have been associated with Number One in the Star Trek expanded universe: Eunice Robbins and Morgan Primus among others.

* I thought I’d already profiled Sydney Bristow, but when I searched the archives I discovered that I’ve neglected her! I’ll try to rectify that shortly.

By now I hope most BSG fans have seen the series finale and I don’t have to warn about spoilers. I’ve waited until now to post about the finale because I wanted to ponder it for a few days first. Ultimately, I found the finale simultaneously very powerful and somewhat disappointing.

Commenter “mrd” over at Brad Templeton’s Battlestar Blog made a point that helped me articulate what’s at the heart of my confliction:

…the show was structured with hints and clues, it gives the idea that the show is a puzzle that is meant to be solved, not a mystery to be revealed.

Science fiction, by its very nature of being based on scientific extrapolation, is presented as a puzzle to the reader or audience. In other words, Science Fiction is expected to be analyzed and dissected as opposed to presenting a revelatory story, where information is revealed because there is no analytical through-line. To pose it another way: Religion is revelatory and Science is a puzzle. In religion, God reveals knowledge to us, but in Science we discover it on our own.

A TV show set in space, airing on the “SciFi Channel,” and being shot with a realistic “hand held” style are three giant indicators that “This is Science Fiction.” But Battlestar Galactica is not Science Fiction. It’s a revelatory mystery story with SFnal elements. In hindsight, I see that Moore and the writers made this case, but they made it too subtly. If your plan is to set a mystery tale in space and air it on the “SciFi Channel,” then you need to make that very, very clear. Several big hints were “You will know the truth” promo and the fact that Cylons were “revealed,” not to mention Katie Sackhoff flat out saying the show wasn’t Science Fiction but a “drama in space.” When fans, myself included, brushed that off as Moore and the network simply trying to garner a wider audience — SciFi network reps said repeatedly that this was their goal — Moore needed to say: “No, REALLY people. I’m not writing SF.” Loudly and waving his hands would have helped, because we’re really hungry for true Science Fiction on TV and in movies.

This is why the solution put forward in the finale that a higher power made all the loose ends fit together is unsatisfactory to those who thought they were watching Science Fiction. Since the show made it a point to examine religion, and it did so in a highly sophisticated way, my preference was an ambiguous treatment to the “God factor.” This was an element I always appreciated in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine because the nature of the Bajoran “wormhole aliens” was left open-ended. This, I’ve always thought, is a middle way approach that can appeal to those expecting a puzzle as well as those expecting a mystery. Moore did leave a window open at the end to the “God made it happen” solution though, but again he did it subtly, so it’s difficult to tell what the message is supposed to be:

Head Six: Let a complex system repeat itself long enough and eventually something surprising might occur. That too is in God’s Plan.

Head Baltar (whispering/growling): You know it doesn’t like that name!

Since we don’t have a definitive explanation as to the nature of “God” in this series, or even the head characters and Starbuck, this is a bit more open ended than I thought upon first watching. I’ve theorized from the beginning that the Beings of Light would show up in some fashion in the re-imagined series and that’s essentially what was written. Not having all of the details sort of suits beings like that. But who knows if I’m interpreting this bit they way it was intended?

Despite some disappointment, I still found enjoyment in the ending overall. In particular, I liked that the Galactica was the Opera House. I did not see that possibility and was pleasantly surprised by the development. I almost sobbed myself at Baltar’s line “You know, I know about farming.” Also, I’m really happy Helo survived. The Agathons deserve a happy ending.

I’m not sure how I feel about Tyrol killing someone and getting away with it. After all, Tory didn’t get away with murder, why should Tryol? He committed vengeance not justice. Starbuck’s “end” just makes me sad, but I see that it works. I really do not think we needed to see Tigh and Adama in a strip club. That flashback could have achieved the same goal by being set in a regular old bar. If a sexy venue was somehow required, more in keeping with the feminist nature of the show would have been a strip club with dancers of both genders.

I understand that the letting go of technology was an act of eschewing that which separates us from nature, but Cylons are not natural. The show made the point that even a toaster has worth, has feelings, and is equal to a biological human. Saying that their technology is “evil” because it’s what got them into this trouble in the first place — it started the cycle over — basically negates the headway that was made in achieving a blended human-cylon community. I would have rather seen a new civilization built on those principles of cooperation and intentional use of technology. Instead I’m sad to think that Helo will probably die of an infection in that injured leg without antibiotics.

So, overall: I can live with this ending and there were a few emotional high points. They found our Earth, which is something I predicted when they found the 13th Colony/”Earth.” Moore did not make the nature of the story clear and foiled expectations because of it. I would have enjoyed it more for if I’d understood the show’s goal of being a revelatory story over a Science Fiction one.

This week I’ve recapped BSG’s “Daybreak Part 1″ and put forward my analysis on how the show may be taking place in an alternate universe. I’ve also offered how I think transportation and communication maybe have occurred between the realities.

But what about the ending? How do you think BSG will end on Friday? What clues do we have?

Left, Starbuck in “Daybreak Part 2.”

Ron Moore and The Sopranos

A fan of The Sopranos, Ron Moore loved, loved, loved the ending of that show. The Sopranos had no resolution to anything. Moore said on his SciFi Channel blog:

Oh, I’m sure there are those who will bemoan the lack of resolution to the story or that Chase has somehow “robbed the fans” but I’m a fan and I’m ecstatic. I’m glad he thumbed his nose at the tyranny of the narrative drive to bring things to a tidy conclusion so we can all clap and walk away without another thought about that mob family in Jersey, satisfied that all’s well that ends well. Screw that. I don’t want to see Tony’s death, nor do I want to watch him drive off into witness protection, or sit down to some kind of illusory happiness in the bosom of his family. I simply want to pretend that his life continues, that he’s still simultaneously worrying about onion rings and whether that guy is hiding a gun in the restroom.

It’s poetic. It’s exciting. It’s perfect.

And most of all, I wish I’d thought of it first.

I think we can take from this that not all of the mysteries will be completely resolved. Quite a bit may be left up to viewers’ interpretations.

(more…)

“Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.” –Alice in Wonderland

Based on discussion in the comments of my last post as well as here and here, I think I should clarify some points about my alternate universe theory as well as note a few more ideas that I’ve been pondering over the last 24 hours.

Spoilers follow. Please feel free to read my previous posts on Battlestar Galactica.

I don’t know about other proponents of the alternate universe idea, but I’m not saying that all the similarities between our universe and the BSG universe are intentional. Rather, I’m proposing the opposite.

I can imagine Moore and the writers to have said: “The Colonials are quite similar to us. They dress the same, eat the same food, have the same songs. Now how are they different? They dislike corners on paper. They live on a much warmer planet. The physics of their universe allows for 12 planets to orbit one sun in the habitable zone. They have FTL.”

So, it’s not the similarities that are intentional, it’s the differences. This allowed the writers to draw on all sorts of material from our universe and twist it around to suit their needs.

Left, the Eye of Jupiter as seen by Starbuck in the storm system of the gas giant in “Maelstrom.”

(more…)

Last Friday the first part of the Battlestar Galactica series finale aired with “Daybreak Part 1.” After watching this episode I’m revisiting a theory I entertained when I wrote the post Thirteen New Hints About the BSG Last Season, but didn’t articulate then because I couldn’t connect all of the dots. Well, after last Friday’s episode a whole bunch of dots became much clearer. Beware, spoilers follow.

Please feel free to read my previous posts on Battlestar Galactica.

To briefly recap, in “Daybreak Part 1″ we saw Admiral Adama have a change of heart regarding recovering Hera. He asked for volunteers to take part in a potential suicide mission to take her back. Without much success, Starbuck has been talking to Anders to figure out what the Watchtower song means and her true nature. Baltar wants his religious movement to have a voice in the new government and he wants to be their representative. Lee accused Baltar of being self-serving and demanded that Baltar list one time when he acted out of someone else’s best interest instead of his own. Baltar said nothing, but I do think the flashback to the events with his father are pertinent to this scene. While Baltar did certainly not act altogether altruistically with his invalid father, he was adamant on the phone that his father’s caretaker not leave until Baltar arrived, which displays that he at least cares for his father in some twisted way. Later when the Admiral asked for volunteers, Baltar appeared torn, but ultimately chose to stay behind. I think he may later reverse this position, or serve in some other fashion because this element reminds me of St. Peter refusing to admit that he knows Jesus three times. How many times has Baltar been afforded the opportunity to stand up for the truth and he has refused? Baltar has at turns thematically played the roles of a doubting Thomas, a betrayer Judas, and now possibly an unbelieving Peter, all of which dovetail nicely with Baltar’s role as leader of Colonial monotheism.

So, characters have chosen to take part, or not, in the raid to recover Hera. Their destination is the Colony, the location of which was revealed — off-camera — by Anders after questioning by Adama and Starbuck. Raptor scouts do indeed find it, but the Colony is located adjacent to the accretion disk of a naked singularity (a black hole with its event horizon visible externally) in the only place where it can avoid being pulled into the hole. There’s only one way in and one way out, and of course every Raider the Colony possesses will be protecting that immovable spot.

(more…)

Number Six: Procreation is one of God’s commandments.
Gaius Baltar: Really? Well, I’m sure someday if you’re a good Cylon, he’ll reward you with a lovely little walking toaster of your very own.

Ron Moore channels Obi-Wan Kenobi in his latest quote about the series finale of Battlestar Galactica: “This is not going to be the ending you’re anticipating.”

What ending do you want to see? While we’re digging into the possibilities for tonight’s first half of the two-part series finale, below are a few plotlines that I hope to see resolved. What about you? How do you want the series to end? The Patriot Resource has posted what may be a possible spoiler for the ending. Like so many spoilers, my guess is this information includes both accurate and inaccurate details. One detail about Starbuck, which I won’t recount here for those who aren’t interested in spoilers, does make me go EWWWWWWWW, but doesn’t quite satisfy Eddie Olmos’ contention that Starbuck’s genesis is “sick and twisted.”

That’s not a planet, that’s a space station.

I hope we get to see what exactly the Colony is — a planet? A space station? An installation on an asteroid? Ships in a nebula? The Cylon World-Ship? A giant space bug? Regardless, the place is huge and there may be more than one edifice if you count the spires in the background behind the “mountains.” I’ve also been wondering if Hera is the source of the Opera House visions as one of her projections. The Kobol Opera House represents the last time humans and Cylons lived in peace. Since we know that Hera is prescient like Pythia, she may have been predicting that the humans and Cylons needed to and would band together in peace. Could the Opera House vision represent the Colony?

There’s no place like home.

In “Islanded in a Stream of Stars” Roslin makes the case that “home is where your heart is,” and admitted that the Galactica was more of a home to her than any other place she has lived, despite all the hardship. This seems like a foreshadowing for the fleet in general. I’m expecting a dark ending since that’s what we’ve been told we’ll get. So, I don’t expect them to find Earth by the end of the show. Rather, I think the blended Colonial-Rebel Cylon contingent will scuttle the dying Galactica by ramming it into Cavil’s basestar. At some point the inhibitor chips in Cavil’s Centurions will cease to work and they will revolt. Likewise, Simon and Doral will learn the truth and turn on Cavil as well. This may be the distraction needed for another group to infiltrate the Colony and rescue Hera. Once Cavil is defeated, both the Colonial humans and the Cylons can settle into a blended society on the Colony. From here their search for Earth can continue. They may even find information from Cavil of a possible direction for Earth, but I don’t think we’ll see Earth actually found since the whole point of the show has been the search or the journey, not the destination. We may see a spiralling shot of the Big Blue Marble like we saw the end of “Crossroads,” with a voiceover by Lee, Starbuck, or even Baltar continuing his broadcasts saying “Life here began out there.”

The Source of the head characters

A lot of viewers have been assuming a connection between Daniel (Cylon #7) and the head characters attached to Baltar, Six, and Starbuck. Aside from the fact that Ron Moore has said that we won’t be seeing much of Daniel until the Caprica prequel, the Final Five also saw head characters long before Daniel existed. However, the writers are not going to create a whole new entity to explain these characters this late in the game. Rather, the big elephant in the room are the Lords of Kobol, who we’ve been talking about for four seasons and yet have never seen. Several of them have been referenced by different characters: Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, Asceplius, Aurora, Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, Artemis, Hera, and the Jealous God. Starbuck has been repeatedly associated with Aurora. Several other characters’ associations to Kobol Lords are self-evident: Apollo, Athena and Hera. In the Classical pantheon, Asceplius is Apollo’s son and is associated with medicine, serpents, and the 13th zodiacal sign. It may be left somewhat ambiguous, but I think we’ll see that the head characters are connected to the Lords of Kobol. Certainly the name of the finale — “Daybreak” — hearkens to Aurora, goddess of the dawn.

While we’re talking about the Kobolians, the appearance of the Lida Six model, complete in her retro70s-goddess-chiton/peplos, seems random. Why would they spend the money to shoot that scene if we weren’t going to see Lida ever again?

If the point of the scene was to show some Baltar character development, why introduce a whole new character to accomplish that?

Starbuck’s True Nature

On one of the forums talking about the show, I saw a mention of the show’s logo being a phoenix. In one episode titled “Flight of the Phoenix,” Tyrol builds the Blackbird, a prototype stealth fighter flown by Starbuck and never seen again. The title of the episode obviously doesn’t refer to the Blackbird, but rather, I think, to its pilot. They might want to un-mothball the Blackbird in their fight against Cavil.