(XXXII) The End

Dear English 110.01 Newbs,

Welcome to your first experience in a college level writing course. Consider yourselves special for being in this specific class, because there is none other than it (trust me, you can survey your friends taking other English 110 classes). The next quarter of your academic career is going to revolve around watching science-fictions, then writing about them. You will admire some, hate others, perhaps become a fan of one; but suspending judgment is of the essence, if you intend to carry on the lessons from this class. You will learn how to spot multiple real world connections in sci-fi shows. Eventually, you will find yourself easily making these connections on your own. You will communicate your observations with the rest of the class via routine blogging/commenting. In regards to those assignments, it will be in the best of your interests to work them promptly; especially commenting. You don't want to find yourself spending every spare minute of your day browsing through blogs in order to say something. I also advise you to make relevant comments; this could bring you quite a few extra credit points. Of course, you will learn the techniques on how to make your writing style more timely, compelling, and relevant. Just keep in mind that your goal is write material capable of being published by the end of this course. I could babble more gibberish about this class, but I would rather enumerate them for you-creates more emphasize. So here are points to remember:

1) Keep an open mind - You're not going to like everything you watch in this class, but all the shows have fans. There's a reason for that.

2) Keep ahead of the game - Comments, blogging, your giant research paper which you're going to work on over, and over, and over, and over...

3) Give some spunk to your comments (both written & verbal) - comments like..."that was great!! :)" bear very little weight in this class

4) Start your day with a healthy break-fast - It will brighten your day

5) Take advantage of the outdoors - You will find inspiration and relief from mother nature (keep in mind this year's winter storm and what my class had to endure...the flow of negativity was common at times)

6) Drink lots of Starbucks coffee - You just might earn a GOLD member's card like Hillary

7) Convince one of your friends (not in the class) to blog routinely with you - You will learn so many fun facts about them, and the random happenings of their day. You might also learn some interesting blogging strategies from their writing style.

8) Try not to accidentally click publish instead of save as draft, when typing your blog.

Those are my words of advice. If you have a hefty workload this quarter, this class will be tedious. But no matter what you're case is, I am certain you will emerge from this course a better writer.

Sincerely,

Agent McSneaky

(XXXI) Firefly: "Out of Gas" (Sn. 1, Ep. 8)

We've gone full circle. From Firefly, to numerous other sci-fi shows, and back to Firefly. This episode derives its title from the explosion aboard Serenity which destroyed the air generator, and drastically shortened the ship of its air supply. By pushing Kaylee out of harms way, Zoe was rendered unconscious by the impact of the blast. This incident greatly saddened the entire crew, especially her husband, Wash. He wanted to remain by her side the whole time the doctor worked on her, but Malcolm obliged Wash to return to the deck, to figure out a solution to the greater crisis; they were stuck in the middle of space with a bad engine and a critically low air supply. Kaylee, the expert mechanist, explained to Malcolm that there was just no way to fix the ship without a very important piece which was destroyed. The damage of this critical part, made Serenity seem like a car without an engine. They only had a few hours of air left, and the only viable solution was to abandon ship using two smaller vessels. These also had low air supplies, but at least they could move around and seek help. Malcolm decided to remain aboard Serenity just in case anyone responded to his distress signal in time. Malcolm basically communicated with this decision that he would rather die with his ship than abandon it. Inara was clearly distressed, and she told Malcolm that he didn't have to die alone. Jayne and Wash displayed the same degree of concern on their faces before leaving the ship, but chose to keep their silence.

Malcolm stayed behind, and fortunately a rescue team showed up. Turns out this rescue team was just a group of wolves in sheep's clothing. Despite getting shot, Malcolm still stood up for his ship and ousted the thieves while getting what he wanted from them. Malcolm repaired the ship but couldn't garner enough strength to push the button that would recall signal to the rest of Serenity's crew. He fell unconscious and nearly died, but awoke much later on a sick bed in the ship's medical room. He was surrounded by the entire Serenity, and looked very much pleased.

Malcolm faced very trying times in this episode. He had to make life-changing decisions, and most of them dealt with his very own life. He was ready to give his own life for the ship. This shows great dedication and care, on Malcolm's part. These qualities also reflect in his interactions with the rest of the crew. He seemed heartless and inconsiderate when he pulled Wash by the throat away from his unconscious wife. Sometimes leaders have to be re-emphasize their authority with harsh actions. But these actions are not necessarily inconsiderate; rather they reflect a leader's concern for the greater good. Malcolm couldn't have his only pilot sulking incessantly, when the ship needed to be steered. Malcolm was just demonstrating the quality of tough love. He had to make forth right judgments during the crisis, but showed how deeply he cared for his crew when things turn out for the better.

(XXX) Caprica: "Gravedancing" (Sn.1, Ep.4)

In episode one there was a terrorist attack orchestrated by mercenaries of the secret organization, Soldiers of The One (STO). The prevalent belief revealed in this episode holds that God is a 'moral dictator', so all those who believe in the existence of this supreme being are extremists. All the violent acts they carry out in the name of God, such as blowing up a train full of people, makes them terrorists to society. In episode two, the law enforcement unit of Caprica (the GDD) unraveled the identities of a teenage girl(Zoe) and her boyfriend, who might have planned the attack. In all fairness, whether Zoe had any knowledge of the attack is still a baseless claim. But it is discovered with all certainty that she was an STO member. Her mother(Amanda) immediately assumed that she helped plan the attack, and voiced out this claim in a very public outcry in front of mourners at a memorial service. Obviously, these mourners quickly transformed into an angry mob and held the tragic events of the past against Amanda. Things I'm not aware of occur in episode 3, then episode 4 rolls around where Zoe's father(Daniel) focuses on easing the general public's contempt against the family and all it represents.

In the beginning of the episode, Daniel polishes up strategies for his national TV broadcast interview with two of his PR agents. His agents emphasize that his responses on camera should alienate him and his wife from his daughter as much as possible. How so? By saying Zoe was a very 'troubled' child. The PR agents also advice him to project a tone full of remorse. I suppose this was geared at making the public feel sorry for the family. The PR agents literally gave Daniel a script of what to do and say during the interview. During the interview, Daniel tried acting out the script, but the the host of the show belittled his defenses, and roused his audience more against the family. The host used the word 'troubled' against Daniel's defense by suggesting that a 'troubled' girl like Zoe frequenting virtual worlds would assume that her actions had no serious consequences in the real world. Before Daniel's interview went completely asunder, his wife, Amanda, came to his rescue. They both conducted the interview henceforth, and they spoke honestly regardless of the PR script. They interview went a lot better, and even the PR agents admitted from backstage that the couple had communicated an amazing PR message together. To prove how effective their message was, a certain man who wanted Amanda killed because he lost a wife and daughter in the attack, changed his mind after the interview and quickly notified his hit-man to call-off the hit.

What Daniel's PR agents wanted him to do seems very common of public figures in our society. Whenever something bad affects a public figure's reputation, it seems like most of them step up to speak for their case with a 'cookie-cutter' PR campaign. A PR campaign is necessary, but it has to be honest in order to be effective I believe. I happened to come across part of Tiger Woods' 'I'm so sorry' speech, and it seemed to do worse for his image, I think. His speech did not seem honest at all, it sounded like something written by a team of PR agents, and the fact that there was all this planning in advance to his speech just didn't feel right(can't be said any simpler). I'm sure a lot of people would now argue in defense of his apology, but a number of his past sponsors are probably of the same opinion I am. In time following Tiger's apology, numerous high-power sponsors (Gatorade, AT&T...) quickly dropped him. I guess the message from this episode was, If you have to apologize for whatever reason to a mass of people, just be frank.

(XXIX) Farscape: "Premiere" (Sn.1, Ep.1)

So here goes another out-of-space sci-fi storyline, with a human protagonist by the name of John Crichton. I'm assuming Earth, in this series, is supposed to reflect present times because what is seen of it doesn't look very different from the real world. John Crichton is an astronaut/scientist who came up with an interesting theory about high speed travel across space. His theory revolved around the idea that a planets atmosphere and gravitational pull could be used as a slingshot to propel vessels at unrecorded speeds. Obviously, theories are to be verified with experiments, and John Crichton volunteered to be the guinea pig of his own experiment. So he traveled beyond the skies with a traditional spaceship, then detached from it with a tiny vessel designed to support the experiment. The 'sling-shot' experiment was initiated, and worked well! Incredibly well! Perhaps too well, because Crichton developed a wormhole which shot his tiny vessel light-years across the universe. Worst of all, he was welcomed with the most unpleasant conditions; amidst a space battle between alien thieves and alien peace-keepers. While this poor fellow was in complete awe, one of the peace-keepers collided with his vessel (called Farscape 1 by the way), and spun uncontrollably to its explosive end on a giant floating rock. This was a mere accident which I'm sure Crichton will suffer for during the entire series, because the victim aboard this peace-keeping jet was brother to a peace-keeper Captain. Farscape 1 was reeled into the alien 'thief' ship, and what followed was a man in utter confusion about where he was and what these beings were. Crichton was then injected with a highly advanced alien substance which made him able to communicate with the alien beings aboard the ship. He was eventually thrown into a secured area together with a female peace-keeper captured during the conflict. Surprisingly, Peace-keepers look exactly like humans albeit their seeming lack of emotion. A display of this is shown when Crichton had to explain to the peace-keeper what empathy felt like. So essentially this episode establishes the beginnings of Crichton's adventures in space aboard this alien ship (moya) and many other alien creatures, composed off: an intimidating and mean looking alien warrior with a sword, an alien 'priestess'-hairless and blue in complexion, the female peace-keeper, Moya's pilot, Moya (since it's a living ship), and a tiny egomaniac who lusts after power and riches (besides him, moya, and the pilot, everyone else had a standard human build-thus two legs, two arms etc)

Fact of the matter is, I would be scared out of my mine if I was in John's shoes. But eventually the fear would just dissipate and I'll ask a lot of silly questions to figure out where I was. Then I'd try to understand the alien technology, and determine how I could use it to my advantage. I definitely would have felt extremely well of myself for introducing the 'sling-shot' theory to a group of technology advanced beings. Coming from 'primitive' planet Earth, you would expect these creatures, with highly advanced technology, to be familiar with all possible concepts regarding space travel. Ironically John's 'primitive' smarts saved moya and every life aboard.

(XXVIII) BSG: "Bastille Day" (Sn.1, Ep.3)

So in the previous episode, "Water", Galactica's fleet lost a majority of its water supply. Nowadays water is a precious commodity to have, like oil. I think someone in our class made this fateful observation about what would happen to humanity if abundant resources like water, were to run short of supply. Cheers to this keen observant. So water is in short supply, but fortunately for the fleet, they come across this moon with a drinkable supply of water, in the form of massive ice sheets. The process of melting this ice and transporting it to the ship would be a dangerous job and will demand a massive supply of man-power. Apollo suggested that they gather 1500 prisoners for the job, but the President said she would not tolerate slave-labor. So Apollo made the other suggestion that all the prisons who volunteered for this job, be granted points towards their liberty. The President agreed to this, but when Apollo led an envoy to deliver this deal to the prisoners, none of them volunteered for the job. A political revolutionary by the name of Tom Zarek, spoke on behalf of all the prisoners. He had technically ascended to the position of leader. To the ignorance of Apollo, the prisoners had organized a take-over. Apollo and his envoy ended up as Captives, and as ransom, Zarek ordered the President to hold elections so the people could select their leader in a fitting democratic manner. The President refused to negotiate with the 'terrorists' and had a rescue team (led by Starbuck) sent to take control of the situation. Starbuck's rescue team arrived when Apollo appealed had already appealed to Zarek; imploring him to have some of his men do the job that would save what was left of human kind. In return, Apollo promised that elections would be held in due time, and until then, the prisoners could assume full control of their ship (& basically have their own convict-island..sorta) The President received the news with slight, when Apollo disclosed his deal with Zarek. But Apollo reaffirmed the fact that the President was only completing the term of the previous president, and after seven months, elections would be held as their constitution demands. At the end of the episode though, the President confided with Apollo that she had cancer, and would probably not live for seven more months.

I think this episode was basically speaking out against government tyranny. The title itself refers to the French Storm of the Bastille, in which the French citizenry broke into a prison, the Bastille, in a meaningful gesture against brute government power. With the President relying a lot on military decisions, it should come as no surprise that many elements of democracy were steadily dissipating. It seems the government likely took a dictatorial stance with administering Galactica, and Zarek saw that the government was losing sight of critical demands from its citizenry.

(XXVII-1/2) BSG: "Water" (Sn.1, Ep.2)

Water, the essence of life. A very important resource taken for granted when in abundance. In this episode of BSG, the space colony suffers a 60% loss in their water reserves after an inexplicable 'accident'. For the sake of preserving remaining water reserves until a solution is found, Galactica's leadership decides to ration water consumption radically; thus no showers, no unnecessary hand-washing, and similar measures designed to minimize consumption. Even so, calculations reveal that the water supply will be able to sustain the ships for just a few days. So Galactica launches its military on an emergency campaign to fetch water in neighboring planets. Thorough investigation of the water containers reveals that the 'accident' was caused by an explosion; explosions that were planted using explosives stolen from Galactica's own weapon arsenal. Given this information, CMDR Adama quickly speculates that there's a cylon within the colony.

There's no doubt to me that this cylon agent is Boomer. In the beginning of the episode, she is shown completely soaked, dazed, confused, and looking like she just returned from a mission. When she goes for a towel in her bag, she finds an explosive. Boomer sneaked into the armory to return the explosive and to her surprise, a number of explosives were missing from the storage box. Boomer’s jolts of surprise were genuine, but she could be a sleeper agent. Cylons like her are designed to feel human but, I’m assuming, their actual form is hidden in their subconscious, and is fully engaged whenever needed. Ironically, Boomer was the one who discovered a planet with H20 at the end of the episode. I predict she is going to suffer a deep internal struggle throughout the series, because part deeply cares for the well-being and security of Galactica as a ‘human’ military official, while the other side of her is a cylon driven to destroy humanity. Her plight won’t be too different from someone suffering from dissociative disorder.

(XVII) STNG: "The Measure of a Man." -- Get a ruler and find out

In this episode, the Enterprise is docked at a Star Fleet station I'm supposing. There is no explosive action, but rather a lot of socializing with other soldiers of Star Fleet and making dinner plans. Well in this episode, the rising action begins when a Star Fleet commander/scientist, Maddox, obtains permission from Star Fleet to assume command over Lt. CMDR Data, a unique android of amazing ability serving aboard the Enterprise. Maddox's intention was to disassemble Data, understand the workings of his being, and duplicate him in the thousands. Maddox's motif was well-intentioned but Data observes that his research omitted certain obstacles, and was consequently not safe. The Captain of the Enterprise, Picard, was of the same opinion and refused to transfer Data under the command of Maddox. Picard argued that he wouldn't tolerate any potential harm on Data because he was a well decorated and prized commander of the fleet. Since orders from Star Fleet couldn't easily be challenged, Picard suggested that Data retire in order to evade Maddox's intentions. Maddox consulted again with Star Fleet command, and they declared that Data, being an Android, was property of Star Fleet. Hence he could not go against any of their orders. Picard consulted the rule book and found that he could challenge Star Fleet's decision in trial, so a momentous trial (the likes of Brown V. Board of Education) was arranged to essentially decide whether Data was just property or worthy of fair treatment as a human being.

Picard obviously pitted himself as the defendant, but awkwardly enough, following some Star Fleet regulation, a member of the Enterprise, Riker, was forced to argue against his own friend as the prosecution. During the trial,one major issue was brought into question; Data's sentience. This had to do with his intelligence, self-awareness, and consciousness. Riker called Data as a witnessed and toyed around with the fact that Data was just a machine. He was created by man, can be disassembled and rearranged, and can be turned off with the push of a button. To conclude his argument, he compared Data to Pinocchio (in terms of his functions not actions). This was a tough argument to bring down, so Picard called for a recess. During recess, Picard obtained a great defensive argument from none other but Whoopi Goldberg...for real. She said there have always been disposable creatures in the history of many worlds. Creatures you could just use and dispose of without caring about their welfare and feelings. This was a direct reference to slavery, and what the fate of Data's kind shall be if Maddox successfully made an entire race of Datas. So Picard carried this argument to the trial, and called Maddox as a witness to prove that Data was a sentient creature. Maddox was question about Data's intelligence, and it was undeniable that Data was probably the most intelligent being in the universe, capable of learning new things around him just as well as humans. Picard asked Data if he was aware of where he was and why, and Data explained that he was a trial which would determine his fate; proving that he was aware of his situation. Picard referred to the articles which Data packed in his little box when he thought he was going to retire, and in there were items of sentimental value to Data; like the 'picture' of a human lady whom Data was intimate with (shocking right? I wonder if his electrical circuits literally shocked her during times of deep intimacy, since he claimed to be fully 'functional') Picard ended up winning the case with his argument about slavery, and Data was given the power of choice as a human being. Maddox was disappointed but Data reassured him that he will be glad to submit to Maddox's procedure, but only when his research had overcome its flaws.

Data was made for Star Fleet's use. He is a machine but learned and developed human sentimental qualities over time. He was made in man's image, and it should come of no surprise that he eventually developed man's values. Given these qualities, is he indeed worthy of fair treatment as a human being? I think so. Even Maddox reconciled with this reality at the end of the episode, when he addressed Data as 'he' for the first time (hitherto he referred to Data as 'it'). I think Battlestar Galactica shows a scenario which was evaded in this episode of Star Trek. The Cylons, which are as sentient as humans, were relegated to the position of slaves under human control. After watching Caprica, I believe the Cylons are even more sentient than Data, given that they were humans before being transferred to mechanized bodies. The Cylons obviously developed hatred the human race, and eventually broke-out in a vicious fit of vengeance. Do I feel sorry for humans? Yes, but they had it coming for them by using sentient creatures as disposable property. The humans could face up to their mistakes and negotiate with the Cylons, but I think it's to late. At this point of BSG, it's either us or them.