Unstable Orbit

Next week university begins again. This is good and bad. I will get to see my uni friends again, but I will also have to do work. The strange thing about doing a course in writing is that sometimes you are unable to do the work you want because you have to do the work for the course. However we can submit novel chapters so as much as possible I'm going to stick to my guns. That is I'll write what I want to write. Hopefully my tutors this year will be more open to science fiction.

This blog entry will be rather long and rambling. The truth is I'm doing this to avoid doing over stuff. Mainly finding out details about one of my course and staring at my inbox, as if that will make an email I'm expecting arrive faster.

When I first moved into university halls of residence I had no DVDs, then I have dvds that my computer couldn't play. So I spent more time than I care to admit on You Tube. Here I found, You Tube is like sifting for gold, some great reviews.

These review are mainly of Star Trek and I presented by sfdebris. He makes a lot of good points about these Star Trek episodes. It is partly nitpicking but for some it is more like hippopotamus picking as they have plot holes that go well beyond nitpicking. I thing the following is one of the best examples:

With any review there is always the question of the angle you approach the subject matter. I rather like the idea of Janeway as something of a homicidal maniac, as described in some of the above reviews. I suppose I should segue, sorry I just like that word, into the subject of the best captain in Star Trek.

People often have the Kirk, Picard debate. However I'm going to trump that by saying my favorite Captain is Sisko. Picard would be a close second followed by Kirk. Janeway and Archer have their own special type of ridiculousness, I'm not even going to comment.

Anyway now that I've rambled your time away let me get onto what I planed to say. I want to try my hand at reviewing as well. I however will be reviewing Babylon 5.

In my opinion Babylon 5 is the best science fiction ever. These reviews will be simple opinion. Where Sfdebirs has annoying character, I'm going to do best line. As the dialogue for the series is usually spot on.

The fist of these reviews I shall probably write tomorrow, making this the Friday contribution to my site. Before I do that however I want to explain Babylon 5. Well its a sci-fi series that ran from 1994-1998. It was created by J. Michael Straczynski, a master of his trade. It tells the story of space station Babylon 5.

This series is not trying to be Star Trek. It may share some actors, the main one of note being the late Andreas Katsulas, but it is its own show. It is in fact quite different from Star Trek in that it has a story arc that spans across the five seasons. Meaning there is stuff in the first episode that may not pay off until much later. In light of this still I shall be coming at the episodes in order. Starting with the fist episode Midnight on the Firing Line" The pilot episode wasn't so good and can be summed up by one important line which will be the quote at the end of this rambling post.

I do have one grip about the series. That is the use of imperial measurements. I'm not trying to be an uptight European telling America to change there ways but allow me to explain.

My brother is studying engineering and knows a lot about science. In case your wondering what he's like he's, like Major Carter, as was, with some of the arrogance of Rodney McKay. There we are I've set up camp in nerdvil. Anyway he tells me that imperial system is not suited to complexed science, for reasons that are long and rambling. - So they'd fit right in here.

This one and only grip may turn into the Spanish Inquisition.

"There is a hole in your mind," Minbari Warrior, The Gathering, B5 pilot