The Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Spy, and Superhero Genre

[Doug Loss]

2017 Hugo Award Finalists

The Hugo Awards via File 770
April 4, 2017
More

You know, pretty much nobody but SJWs cares about the Hugos anymore.  Now the Dragon awards...

[LateForLunch]

You know, pretty much nobody but SJWs cares about the Hugos anymore.  Now the Dragon awards...

Yeah, sadly I'm inclined to agree with you on the part about the Hugo's prestige being largely a thing of the past. The last recipient of the Hugo that I had any use for was Gene Wolfe.

[Doug Loss]

Yeah, sadly I'm inclined to agree with you on the part about the Hugo's prestige being largely a thing of the past. The last recipient of the Hugo that I had any use for was Gene Wolfe.

Not sadly for me.  The SJWs in SF fandom have done it to themselves, and good riddance I say.  The WorldCon is an institution that is fast dying anyway, as the SJWs destroy it from within.  DragonCon is far and away larger and more inclusive.  And their Dragon Awards are much better at displaying widely-approved favorites:

http://awards.dragoncon.org/

[kevindavis007]

Am I the only who thinks The Expanse is better than the RDM Version of Battlestar Galactica or is it to early?

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

Am I the only who thinks The Expanse is better than the RDM Version of Battlestar Galactica or is it to early?

I thought BSG started off excellent, but by the end of the series I was skipping episodes.  I can't see Expanse ever improving to the same neighborhood of the first season of BSG, but I can see it ending up being a better series overall.

[kevindavis007]

I thought BSG started off excellent, but by the end of the series I was skipping episodes.  I can't see Expanse ever improving to the same neighborhood of the first season of BSG, but I can see it ending up being a better series overall.

I agree, BSG started out good then at the end it was Ok. To me the last half of the season four was rushed.   I think The Expanse is getting better.

[Cripplecreek]

I agree, BSG started out good then at the end it was Ok. To me the last half of the season four was rushed.   I think The Expanse is getting better.

The expanse is good because it isn't overly futuristic. A couple of solid leaps of technology and we could easily be there 200 years from now or sooner.

[kevindavis007]

The expanse is good because it isn't overly futuristic. A couple of solid leaps of technology and we could easily be there 200 years from now or sooner.

I think sooner.. Also, I hope the UN isn't running things..

[kevindavis007]

Spoiler Alert:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcBnDJswoyU

[kevindavis007]

[kevindavis007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcfSnaCRoKE





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4Cmf4BuNgg

[EC]

Get Out Your Multipass, The Fifth Element is Coming Back to Theaters

4K restoration of the movie, limited theatrical release, two days only. 

[kevindavis007]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkj2lR9CT08

[Machiavelli]

The Handmaid’s Tale is a chilling expansion on Margaret Atwood’s novel

Adi Robertson
The Verge
April 13, 2017

In recent months, The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel about a patriarchal future where fertile women are a tightly controlled commodity — has become more of a symbol than a piece of fiction. From a “Make Margaret Atwood Fiction Again” sign at a protest to women protesting a restrictive abortion law in costume, it offers a form of protest that cuts straight to the misogynist thread in American populism. Hulu, which will premiere an adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale on April 26th, couldn’t have asked for better publicity.

But The Handmaid’s Tale is more than a political jab. In the first three episodes provided to reviewers, it’s a dystopia that manages to stand out in a television landscape already full of apocalypses and oppressive imaginary societies. It’s a colorful TV series about a woman negotiating domestic drama, and judging from its initial installments — all three of which will be released simultaneously on April 26th — it might be one of the darkest shows on television this year.

In both book and series, The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in the near future — in the book, the 1980s, and on the show, in the late 2010s. A fertility crisis has paved the way for Christian fundamentalists to seize power in the United States, founding a rigidly patriarchal theocracy called Gilead. Under Gilead’s police state, households are composed of high-status Wives; domestic Marthas; and the titular Handmaids, fertile women who are forced to bear children through ritualized sexual encounters with the household’s male “Commander.” One of those women is Offred (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss), an ordinary 21st century working woman who’s now living in a surreal nightmare.

More

Wikipedia
 
IMDb
 
Official site
 
Facebook
 

Teaser
 

Trailer

[EC]

Could never get into the novel. 

[Ghost Bear]

The Handmaid’s Tale is a chilling expansion on Margaret Atwood’s novel

Yeah... more leftist "grey goo" that I won't be watching.

Instead, I'll be watching this:

Mystery Science Theater 3000 returns: Watch the first trailer

In the not too distant future — April 14, to be exact — Mystery Science Theater 3000, the beloved cult TV show, will make its triumphant return to Netflix for a 12 14-episode run.

...

The new season also brings with it a brand new cast to the Satellite of Love, including Jonah Ray as the next unfortunate human test subject, Patton Oswalt as TV’s Son of TV’s Frank, and Felicia Day as Kinga Forrester.

MST3K is back thanks to one of the most-funded Kickstarters of all time. The campaign to bring back MST3K, led by the show’s creator and original host Joel Hodgson, raised more than $5.7 million.
(snip)


All 14 episodes are available now on Netflix.  Here's the official trailer:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ct0Z2bQndM

[Smokin Joe]

Could never get into the novel. 

I am no fan of oppressive cultures, especially when they seem crafted to push an agenda. The story may be much older than the adaptation, but I'm not just attracted to another 'oppressive rich and powerful straight (AKA: "misogynistic") whiteman' style diatribe, regardless of the garb within which it is clad. If I want that crap, the TeeVee is already lousy with it. There's plenty of dystopia to watch without it.

[EC]

Some oppressive cultures in sci fi are done well, others not so much. Atwood, though, was just boring.

[Smokin Joe]

Some oppressive cultures in sci fi are done well, others not so much.

True enough, and they make for some good story lines. After all, where would the Jedhi be without the Dark Side?
But those crafted to push an agenda (or stolen to do so) are just present day identity politics in a commercial cloak, and I find that tedious. It's everywhere, boring (as you said), predictable, and typecasts my demographic as something it is not.

[Ghost Bear]

True enough, and they make for some good story lines. After all, where would the Jedhi be without the Dark Side?
But those crafted to push an agenda (or stolen to do so) are just present day identity politics in a commercial cloak, and I find that tedious. It's everywhere, boring (as you said), predictable, and typecasts my demographic as something it is not.

One of the reasons I'm watching more anime than ever, is that the pervasive leftism present in most Western drama is almost absent in most anime productions. Sure, you still run across some, usually of the "corporations are evil" or "we must protect the environment" forms, but for the most part I end up spending more time puzzling out some Japanese cultural reference than I do worrying about getting slapped in the face with what an evil cis-gendered white male I am.   

[Cripplecreek]

True enough, and they make for some good story lines. After all, where would the Jedhi be without the Dark Side?
But those crafted to push an agenda (or stolen to do so) are just present day identity politics in a commercial cloak, and I find that tedious. It's everywhere, boring (as you said), predictable, and typecasts my demographic as something it is not.

On the expanse this week the Martian Marine on the UN shuttle noticed the UN seal on a monitor and told the UN undersecretary, "We use that as a target".

[geronl]

In both book and series, The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in the near future — in the book, the 1980s, and on the show, in the late 2010s. A fertility crisis has paved the way for Christian fundamentalists to seize power in the United States, founding a rigidly patriarchal theocracy called Gilead. Under Gilead’s police state, households are composed of high-status Wives; domestic Marthas; and the titular Handmaids, fertile women who are forced to bear children through ritualized sexual encounters with the household’s male “Commander.” One of those women is Offred (Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss), an ordinary 21st century working woman who’s now living in a surreal nightmare.

Obviously the author doesn't know anything about Christianity

[sneakypete]

Not sadly for me.  The SJWs in SF fandom have done it to themselves, and good riddance I say.  The WorldCon is an institution that is fast dying anyway, as the SJWs destroy it from within.  DragonCon is far and away larger and more inclusive.  And their Dragon Awards are much better at displaying widely-approved favorites:

http://awards.dragoncon.org/

@Doug Loss

What's a "SJW"?

[sneakypete]

Am I the only who thinks The Expanse is better than the RDM Version of Battlestar Galactica or is it to early?

@kevindavis

Ok,I am guessing Expanse is a series on the sci-fi channel?

[EC]

@Doug Loss

What's a "SJW"?

Social Justice Warrior. Young earnest idiots with mush between their ears, mostly.