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Who knew that John Yoo is a total science fiction geek?! I'm going to have to go back and scour his law review article footnotes to see if I can detect esoteric references to Sci-Fi classics, which, it turns out, he has thoroughly familiarity.
Some time last year I did a podcast on science fiction with my old AEI writing partner Ken Green (who turned up with this episode with his Jayne Cobb cap!), and John Yoo immediately filed for an injunction with the Supreme Court of Podcast Appeals, and today we performed the remedy: a podcast in which we kicked around most of the fundamental SciFi geek questions: Star Trek versus Star Wars (we were unanimous on this verdict); Star Trek: The Original Series versus all of the sequels that Ken lumps under the heading, "Woke Trek." But wait a minute! The original series had a latest wokeness to it, though it was more sophisticated than what has come since. How to tell the difference? I argue that Captain Kirk was a true statesman, while Piccard was a UN bureaucrat.
From there we offer observations on good science fiction, though with an interesting spectrum of opinion about Firefly, the Alien franchise, Dr. Who, The Expanse, and other science fiction of note from recent decades, including some truly obscure programming, such as Blake 7.
So break out some of your best Romulan ale, and send along suggestions for how we can follow up on our proposal to do MST3K-style sequels in which we beat down on truly fictional science films like Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." I am reserving the Tom Servo slot!
Steve Hayward
Ken Green
Discussion (20)
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As "head cannon" judgements go, I agree there were only three good Star Wars movies. Can't agree to discard DS9, however. I judge it the epitome of Star Trek, never equalled. Nothing after Sisco joined the prophets is worth watching, though it took me painful years to accept that.
Never apply economic judgements to science fiction as a general rule. It's never the point.
Prefer Star Trek to Star Wars. Trek is post-scarcity, not communist. As you mention, there is an undercurrent of the capitalist wealth that got them there.
Yes, the Orville is a Next generation clone. You need to turn your liberal BS filter up to about 6 to enjoy it. It can be fun.
Blake's 7 was a fun crew of misfits with scenery chewing villains. Very British. Comparing it to Firefly is interesting.
Babylon 5 is generally overrated, in the "rose colored" memories of aging fans. The aliens got the best lines, humans were all stiffs.
The movie Serenity was good, because it condensed three years of the cancelled show into an hour and a half. Whedon would have stretched that story into 60 episodes of excruciating plotting if he had the chance.
I liked the Expanse, but they never should have renewed it after the ring gates opened. It didn't really work as an interstellar show.
Foundation+ started interesting, but once Hari Seldon died it went off a cliff.
Dr Who has a long glorious pedigree, is very British, but went insanely woke to the point of destroying its entire story in recent years.
If you want to do a MST3K style review, I suggest "Slave Girls from Beyond Infinity". A personal favorite.
Fun podcast!
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Voyager is Star Trek's Odyssey--the journey epic.
Deep Space Nine is Star Trek's Iliad--the war epic.
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I see your point, but is Voyager Odyssey or Anabasis?
DS9 started as a western on the frontier and ended like the Philippines in WWII.
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Few comparisons are perfect.
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It's silly to get into heated debates about profoundly subjective topics, as if people are going to change their minds about what are essentially matters of taste.
With that in mind, I'll confine myself to two purely objective observations.
First, Star Trek is better than Star Wars.
Secondly, Star Trek -- real, authentic Star Trek -- went off the air, never to return except as reruns, before Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.
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