Junto Boys

SCIENCE FICTION POST STARWARS/STARTREK

I never thought I'd say this. But I'm so happy Starwars and Startrek is over. Both series have outlived their useful time. I will not make any further Starwars comments as Pal Tom's eloquent blog on Star Wars will suffice. I'll just "ditto" Tom on that. Startrek alternatively had become so bogged down in discontinuity, absurd storylines, and tired overused plots (i.e. An alien virus is mutating somebody, some alien is teaching humanity a lesson, the holodeck has gone haywire, etc. etc.). What has happened is new, even superior, science fiction is taking hold. Take for example the wonderful show Stargate and it's spin-off Stargate: Atlantis. I starting watching this show pretty late in the series run (Season 8). Luckily, thanks to Netflix, I was able to back track and watch the whole series on DVD. Stargate is a TV spinoff of the equally good movie starring Kirk Russell and James Spader. Basically it's about an ancient device discovered in Egypt that is more than 10,000 years old. The device is a giant circle with symbols on it. They figure out that the symbols are really star constellations and if you dial a particular set, you get a gate address. A wormhole in space is created and you can step through the gate onto another planet (where an identical stargate resides). In the show the bad guys are small alien parasites who inhabit human hosts and pose as "gods." (Mostly from the Egyptian pantheon). Because of their superior technology, most primitive human cultures take them as gods. These aliens constantly battle each other for supremacy of the galaxy. The series just keeps getting better, now in Season 11 (Stargate) and Season 2 for Atlantis. The continuity is near perfect, the writing is sharp and witty, the character development is phenomenal. For someone who loves Science Fiction, Stargate is the best series since, well, Star Trek. I just hope they don't fall into any of the same pitfalls that led to the latter's demise.