A Great Weekend For Nerddom

Time for another patented Rear View Mirror switch to its favorite non-news driven topic, science fiction.

With War of the Worlds out of the way, I have refocused my energy toward tonights season premiere of Battlestar Galactica. I'm not sure why the producers ended the series in late spring just to restart it again in July, but I thank the lords of Kobol that I don't have to wait until September to see if Commander Adama manages to survive taking a couple of rounds to the stomach.

The only other TV scifi series that was ever done in such a serious vane was The Twilight Zone. The Star Trek franchise, which I dearly love, was never as darkly written as Galactica. Those working on Galactica seem to put so much effort into the production and it clearly shows. Plus the viewer has a hard time figuring out what will happen next. Trekkers always knew that the good guys would win in the end, that all of the regular characters were safe and that for the most part the show the following week would take the crew on an entirely new mission.

The soap opera-like story line of Galactica keeps the audience guessing. After all, who thought Grace Park's character(s) would pump a few rounds into Adama, or get pregnant or show up naked on the Cylon base station. Well, I'm sure that was a dream of a few out there in geekland.

Let's hope the next group that puts out a Star Trek series takes a good hard look at Galactica.

Almost as exciting is tomorrow's release of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Vent though this is fantasy, not science fiction, I have been waiting for this book. JK Rowling is simply the best author on the planet right now. Period. Can anyone remember when a book release forced book stores to open at midnight to satisfy hungry customers? Her books generate interest normally seen only among Star Wars fans. Pretty amazing stuff.