The Quixotic Engineer

I don’t watch much television, but when I do like a show I follow it religiously. My favorite series of all time was Firefly, a peerless science fiction series that was tragically cancelled after 14 episodes. I plan to elaborate on my love for that particular show someday, but for now let’s just say that there’s been a hole in my sci-fi loving heart since 2002. My enjoyment of the new Dr. Who is a poor substitute, with its lack of an overarching narrative and generally poorly developed characters.

When my friend’s father, Dave, told me that he was enjoying the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series, I was sceptical at first. Dave is a big fan of sci-fi television, but he also enjoys series such as Stargate and Babylon Five that I never really got into. I also felt that a show whose cast of characters were primarily military and government officials would be too dry; I prefer characters who are on the gray side of the law, such as Malcolm Reynolds and Han Solo.

However, last week on a whim I broke down and asked to borrow his Season 1 DVD set. It took a while to get going, but I’m now 4/5ths in and completely enthralled. Some of the characters, such as President Roslin, Colonel Tigh and Dr. Baltar, are interesting people with complex motivations. The show also does a good job of keeping enough hidden to allow for a perpetual sense of mystery. I’m already speculating as to which of the crew members are really Cylon sleeper agents.

It’s not Firefly, but it’ll do for now.

I’ve been rather enjoying the modern interpretation of Dr. Who lately. The show fluctuates between brilliant (The Empty Child) and cheesy (The Lazarus Experiment) as it has done for over 40 years, but always manages to be entertaining. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are well cast as the quixotic Doctor and his stalwart companion, and the supporting cast is often surprisingly strong. Furthermore, as a fan of science fiction, the modular stories are a nice change of pace from the long drawn-out story arcs featured on other shows. In that sense, Dr. Who could draw favorable comparisons with The Twilight Zone.

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Growing up in Canada in the early nineties, one of my favorite television shows was called ReBoot. The show was groundbreaking for its time, both for its use of computer animation and its unique computer-world setting. The characters, plot, concepts and voice acting were all top notch, and the show was littered with jokes and references that only an adult would get (not entirely unlike recent animated films such as Shrek). I still get a kick out of the rare occasions when I catch a rerun while flipping channels.

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