People occasionally ask me why I don’t go out of my way to antagonize Liberals on the site here, why I’m not all aggressive and antagonistic and knee-jerky like most other conservative sites.

Today we’re going to be discussing the different ways Science Fiction typically portrays politics, and as such we’ve invited one of our new friends from the Thredonia website - Kit - to take part in addition to our normal rogues gallery.

KIT:
Its a pleasure being here.

REPUBLIBOT 3.0”
Also, say hello to Kit, Burt Cottage, Chip Haynes, and Deadpan. Guys, thank you for being with us!

BURT COTTAGE:
Thank you for inviting me to take part when it seems clear I have the smallest frame of reference for the topic of anyone involved.

CHIP HAYNES:
Hey, guys.

DEADPAN:

Yesterday we reviewed Harlan Ellison’s awkwardly titled 1995 tome, “Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever, The Original Screenplay that Became the Classic Star Trek Episode, With an Expanded Introductory Essay by Harlan Ellison.” There were essentially *two* issues going on in that book - on the one hand we had the struggle between the Artist par excellence, and The Man Who Would Be God; and then you also had this script thing tossed in there.

Harlan Ellison is my hero. I just love the guy.

I’ve got no real illusions about that, mind you: I doubt he’d like me, I doubt it would take five minutes for me to run afoul of his famous rages, easily half the things the man has ever said piss me off, and I don’t even like a lot of his fiction all that much - but - my hero he remains.

This was my second dedicated viewing of Eureka for the website here, and though I liked it fine last week, I find we’re solidly in sophomore slump territory this time out. It was enjoyable enough, I guess, but there were a lot of problems, the central mystery wasn’t very mysterious, the red herrings were actually walleyed bass, and the resolution was a bit Trek for my liking (“Oh, crap! We’ve only got three minutes left in the episode…ok, wave a magic wand and have everything be better again!”), but it felt sup-par. And kinda’ boring, really.

PLAY BY PLAY:

You know how people sometimes say that Trek is like a religion? They talk about it’s optimism, their faith in its view of the future and the human spirit, they natter on about what is and isn’t ’canonical,’ the true believers dress in silly vestments and call themselves “Trekers’ to differentiate themselves from casual fans and from the lower-caste “Trekies.” They have revival meetings they call ‘conventions,‘ where they can recharge their batteries in the presence of like-minded believers.