![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Firstly, American readers, if the ramblings on these humble pages or anything else has made you interested into the new Battlestar Galactica, the Sci-Fi Channel is running a marathon on Tuesday of the first five episodes starting at 7 p.m. EST, so you should have a chance to catch up. A fan of the old show – proving that loving both is far from mutually exclusive - lists eleven reasons why.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thassalia, while reviewing episode 5, mentioned having an argument with her significant other. Quote:
This mostly ends up being an argument because of his issues with Starbuck being a girl. He somehow feels like it's a betrayal of his childhood memories and white men everywhere (don't expect sense of M. that late on a Friday night). He finally asked how I'd feel if they remade Star Wars and made Han Solo a girl. I sort of shrugged, and was backed up by Sab on Saturday as we both agreed it would probably be kind of hot.
Which reminds me that almost a year ago, inspired by a post of Andraste’s I think, I went on a bit about genderflipping, where it’s possible and where I could see difficulties. (I.e. for example in the Babylon 5 universe, you could genderswitch all the humans – though possibly not at the same time – without that changing their storylines, and you could do it with the Narn characters (i.e. female G’Kar and male Na’Toth) but it’s far more difficult with the Centauri, especially Londo, because of the way Centauri society, patterned as it is after the Romans, has been characterized. You can have influential women, but they’d have to work through men, they couldn’t be ambassadors on B5. Now with Star Wars, I think a remake, twenty or thirty years hence, with genderswitches could be fascinating. Actually Han Solo would be the easiest candidate to genderflip without taking away any of the Solo characteristics, or changing his storyline. (Assuming the audience at large will then finally be ready to buy a textual samesex romance in a blockbuster.) Smuggler Jenna Solo – Jenna in honour of that other smuggler and pilot of the 70s, Jenna in B7, of course – could still take them to the Death Star, get close to Luke and Leia, get frozen and get rescued. The only thing that would change a bit, in this hypothetical scenario, would be Luke’s reaction to Solo the Smuggler, if you maintain Luke as male and inexperienced farmboy. He might be somewhat attracted as well.
The Jedi, otoh, would require some deeper changes in the storylines, depending on whom you genderswitch. The most problematical might be Obi-Wan Kenobi, not because of himself but because of Anakin/Vader (if you keep Anakin as male), because the prequels offer some reason to believe that young Anakin responds far better to female authority than he does to male. If, otoh, you genderswitch Anakin in the prequels and Vader in the OT but keep the rest of the Jedi (Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gon, later Luke) as male, you can keep the storyline as it is but might aquire a possibly misogynistic subtext. (Gender-switching one or two of the unfallen Jedi along with Anakin should take care of that, though.) Still, I’m fascinated by the idea of a female Vader. But then, I’m firmly withalara_r and andrastewhite on that one (i.e. the idea of genderswitchs in old favourites of mine being intriguing instead of provoking holy outrage).
Going back to certain characters or archetypes and changing/flipping something doesn’t have to be gender, of course.deborah_judge has now started the final run of episodes on DS9 and, as I expected, loves the Kai Winn storyline. As she also started to watch the new BSG, she intriguingly suggested that Laura Roslin might in part be inspired by Ron Moore wanting to write about Winn – or the Winn prototype – from a Winn-friendly pov. I.e. the female mature politician in charge of things, in a somewhat competitive relationship with the male commander, ready to sacrifice lives if she has to, as a sympathetic character we’re supposed to root for, not against. Meanwhile, Andraste mentioned that Justin in Carnivale’s first season is the reason she forgives Moore for Waltz and Eeeeevil!Dukat. (I forgave him before because while he might have written the actual episode, the decision to make Dukat uniformly evil from Waltz onwards was made by the executive producer and headwriter of the show, Ira Behr, who was quite vocal in interviews about his disgust with Dukat fans. (Think David Fury/Spike fans in season 5.) Moore was one of the more influential writers on DS9, and contributed a lot, but so far nothing indicates the Dukat thing had been his idea.) And I can see the similarities. A character who after a horrible tragedy involving the loss of a child/children – and as it turns out at the hand of someone near and dear to him – has a mental breakdown from which he reemerges believing being an antichrist kind of figure is his lot in life and becomes a cult leader? Check. Only in the case of Justin, as opposed to Dukat, we’re encouraged to see this as a tragedy and something he struggled (struggles?) against. And apparently in Daniel Knauf’s original version of the pilot, Justin was already evil ™ , with his own radio show and cult; his season 1 arc was Moore’s specific change in the concept and contribution to the show.
Which brings me to the season 1 finale of Carnivale, The Day that was the Day, which now has arrived at my virtual doorstep as well. (Thanks, smashc). Looking at the writing credits of the season, I can see that Ron Moore – who was executive producer along with series creator Daniel Kauf but is not anymore in the second season, due to being busy on BSG - penned this one and Pick a Number (aka the creepiest episode ever) – and they’re easily among the most powerful of the season. Some of what happened in the finale I had guessed by the season 2 opening ep, but not all.
( Who if I cried heard me among the angels? )
thassalia, while reviewing episode 5, mentioned having an argument with her significant other. Quote:This mostly ends up being an argument because of his issues with Starbuck being a girl. He somehow feels like it's a betrayal of his childhood memories and white men everywhere (don't expect sense of M. that late on a Friday night). He finally asked how I'd feel if they remade Star Wars and made Han Solo a girl. I sort of shrugged, and was backed up by Sab on Saturday as we both agreed it would probably be kind of hot.
Which reminds me that almost a year ago, inspired by a post of Andraste’s I think, I went on a bit about genderflipping, where it’s possible and where I could see difficulties. (I.e. for example in the Babylon 5 universe, you could genderswitch all the humans – though possibly not at the same time – without that changing their storylines, and you could do it with the Narn characters (i.e. female G’Kar and male Na’Toth) but it’s far more difficult with the Centauri, especially Londo, because of the way Centauri society, patterned as it is after the Romans, has been characterized. You can have influential women, but they’d have to work through men, they couldn’t be ambassadors on B5. Now with Star Wars, I think a remake, twenty or thirty years hence, with genderswitches could be fascinating. Actually Han Solo would be the easiest candidate to genderflip without taking away any of the Solo characteristics, or changing his storyline. (Assuming the audience at large will then finally be ready to buy a textual samesex romance in a blockbuster.) Smuggler Jenna Solo – Jenna in honour of that other smuggler and pilot of the 70s, Jenna in B7, of course – could still take them to the Death Star, get close to Luke and Leia, get frozen and get rescued. The only thing that would change a bit, in this hypothetical scenario, would be Luke’s reaction to Solo the Smuggler, if you maintain Luke as male and inexperienced farmboy. He might be somewhat attracted as well.
The Jedi, otoh, would require some deeper changes in the storylines, depending on whom you genderswitch. The most problematical might be Obi-Wan Kenobi, not because of himself but because of Anakin/Vader (if you keep Anakin as male), because the prequels offer some reason to believe that young Anakin responds far better to female authority than he does to male. If, otoh, you genderswitch Anakin in the prequels and Vader in the OT but keep the rest of the Jedi (Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gon, later Luke) as male, you can keep the storyline as it is but might aquire a possibly misogynistic subtext. (Gender-switching one or two of the unfallen Jedi along with Anakin should take care of that, though.) Still, I’m fascinated by the idea of a female Vader. But then, I’m firmly with
alara_r and andrastewhite on that one (i.e. the idea of genderswitchs in old favourites of mine being intriguing instead of provoking holy outrage). Going back to certain characters or archetypes and changing/flipping something doesn’t have to be gender, of course.
deborah_judge has now started the final run of episodes on DS9 and, as I expected, loves the Kai Winn storyline. As she also started to watch the new BSG, she intriguingly suggested that Laura Roslin might in part be inspired by Ron Moore wanting to write about Winn – or the Winn prototype – from a Winn-friendly pov. I.e. the female mature politician in charge of things, in a somewhat competitive relationship with the male commander, ready to sacrifice lives if she has to, as a sympathetic character we’re supposed to root for, not against. Meanwhile, Andraste mentioned that Justin in Carnivale’s first season is the reason she forgives Moore for Waltz and Eeeeevil!Dukat. (I forgave him before because while he might have written the actual episode, the decision to make Dukat uniformly evil from Waltz onwards was made by the executive producer and headwriter of the show, Ira Behr, who was quite vocal in interviews about his disgust with Dukat fans. (Think David Fury/Spike fans in season 5.) Moore was one of the more influential writers on DS9, and contributed a lot, but so far nothing indicates the Dukat thing had been his idea.) And I can see the similarities. A character who after a horrible tragedy involving the loss of a child/children – and as it turns out at the hand of someone near and dear to him – has a mental breakdown from which he reemerges believing being an antichrist kind of figure is his lot in life and becomes a cult leader? Check. Only in the case of Justin, as opposed to Dukat, we’re encouraged to see this as a tragedy and something he struggled (struggles?) against. And apparently in Daniel Knauf’s original version of the pilot, Justin was already evil ™ , with his own radio show and cult; his season 1 arc was Moore’s specific change in the concept and contribution to the show. Which brings me to the season 1 finale of Carnivale, The Day that was the Day, which now has arrived at my virtual doorstep as well. (Thanks, smashc). Looking at the writing credits of the season, I can see that Ron Moore – who was executive producer along with series creator Daniel Kauf but is not anymore in the second season, due to being busy on BSG - penned this one and Pick a Number (aka the creepiest episode ever) – and they’re easily among the most powerful of the season. Some of what happened in the finale I had guessed by the season 2 opening ep, but not all.
( Who if I cried heard me among the angels? )
