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Okay, this episode, intended as a respite from all-issues-all-the-time for the holiday week, also doubles as pure James Lileks bait. Back when Ken Green and I were resident scholars at the American Enterprise Institute, lunchtime conversation often turned to science fiction, and especially our favorite hobby horse—how much we both hated “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” TOS is the only Trek worthy of honor! And William Shatner’s voyage into space this year proves that, as Ken puts it, “Shatner wins!”
But we also branch out beyond the Trek world to talk of other science fiction adaptations, including whether Dune is filmable at all, whether Fox TV might have actually done us a favor by canceling the great Firefly before Joss Whedon could screw it up with his political correctness, why Babylon 5 and Eureka are the best sci-fi shows most people missed, why Steve thinks The Expanse will not age well, along with the two big questions: DC versus Marvel, and why do libertarians tend to be such huge sci-fi fans in the first place.
We do take a few minutes to look at some recent developments in the world of climate change (speaking of science fiction), as Ken was once an official reviewer for the IPCC on its climate science reports. Plus, you’ll also learn a quick hack for instantly identifying a TV show or movie that has been filmed in Canada. News you can use! And happy holidays.
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Before listening to the episode, I’ll state my idea of whats wrong with Science Fiction…
Star Trek, and the Science Fiction of the 60’s absorbed the cultural zeitgeist of radiant optimism. (look at 2001:Space Odyssey if you’re feeling down) Combine that optimism with the gun boat diplomacy of Kennedy Liberalism and you get Star Trek… Combine the cultural quagmire of a society in decline with the witless woke-ism of Obama’s Cultural Marxism – you get Star Trek Discovery.
Mark Twain once said “You can’t depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus” … Thats what we see with modern fiction, it doesnt function because the ideas we (or rather the far left Marxist maniacs who Hollywood hires to) imagine the future – can’t imagine a functional fiction, because they’re entire world view is non functional.
Wrong! Wrong! NO! Streets in Canada are not laid out in metric measurements…
IF you notice streets in canada are wider – its because they’re designed to have wider shoulders to compensate for snow banks.
The real problem with Tasha Yar’s death – is that she wasn’t in a Red uniform.
You do a great Londo!
Great fun, making Christmas cookies and listening to a couple of aficionados analyzing sci-fi, about which I know almost nothing. I have no skin in the game!
The guys don’t remember the later seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer very well.
There are positive male characters throughout.
While a major supporting character was (clumsily) transformed into a Lesbian, gays complained that the storyline associated Lesbianism with death, madness, and destruction.
So Elon Musk is the 21st Century Ross Perot: build an empire based on service to the US government, particularly by addressing a problem of the government’s own making, the solution to which is beyond that government’s capacity to craft solutions.
I voted for Perot in 1992, mostly as a reflection of my disgust for GHWBush’s establishmentarian go-along-to-get-along breach of his “read my lips, no new taxes” pledge, as well as for his refusal even to address government overspending. Over the following decades, I came to fear that my Perot vote was a wasted tilt at a windmill representing an outsider who could bring tangible change to metastasizing government. (An incomplete, inverted Don Quixote metaphor, but work with me here.)
While my votes for McCain and Romney ultimately made me feel better about my Perot vote by comparison, Trump revitalized my faith that only an outsider can lead us to salvation from creeping federal government gigantism.
I always disliked the notion of the wasted vote. Mostly because I live in Alberta, federal election are normally settled before a single vote here is counted. But I think that if you vote for the candidate or party that best matches what you want, then you havent wasted your vote.
Trump was really a 3rd party candidate, he ran against ACME or “Academia Corporate Media Establishment” – as much as Hillary. Yes, ACME works out for America just as well as it worked out for Willey E Coyote.
That’s Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius to you, Dr. Canuck.
I agree generally, and it was the idea that the US presidential election is designed best for a voter to elect what/who he wants, rather than to vote for some theory-of-the-second-best type of choice, that ultimately convinced me to vote for Perot.
I wish I had recognized earlier than I did that Trump, by calling out the Fake News media consistently and directly, was establishing himself so far outside of the mainstream that he was indeed a third party candidate, one who happened to have the machinery of the Stupid Party working for him.
“Star Trak?”
This was a really fun podcast. Thanks!