Sci-Fi

I have been a kind-of fan of science fiction for a long time. Some sci-fi I can really get into, but others I just can't. The closer the sci-fi is to real life, the more interested I am. For example, early Michael Crichton is my absolute fave, like The Andromeda Strain. Spider Robinson's humour keeps me reading even when he's into the space travel stuff. I adore the Alien series of movies, I'll watch the Star Trek movies, but mostly for the character stories, and MIB type movies are just plain fun.

I never got into the whole X-Files hype. I enjoyed the Terminator movies, but not the TV show. Lost has been a source of entertainment and frustration for me (polar bears in the South Pacific? Come on!).

But last night I watched a new TV show that I think will be great. I'd call it an X-Files meets The Conspiracy Theory type of show. Only better. It's called Fringe. I think I'm hooked.

When I was a kid, my dad would watch Bugs Bunny cartoons with me. Then I would watch Hockey Night in Canada with him (a Canadian tradition). Little did I know that dad was really enjoying the music of the cartoons. Thing was, dad could always predict what would happen on the cartoons. I was always amazed at how smart my dad was. I would accuse him of having seen the cartoon already, which he denied, but as I got older I was able to predict myself what would happen on a TV show or movie. And I would lose interest in it. I always wanted a twist, to be surprised, to learn something I didn't know.

I wanted to learn about biology and human behaviour. I wanted to know why people and animals did the things they did. Nature or nurture? It's no surprise that I studied psychology and biology in university but what surprises me is.... I'm still surprised by biology and human behaviour. That doesn't mean that I haven't learned anything. There are plenty of psychologists out there who have failed relationships and medical people who don't know the hows and whys of certain diseases. It means that we haven't learned enough. I want to know things and understand them as they apply to my world. That's why most "alien" type shows are merely entertainment for me. I will suspend my beliefs for a short period of time, but ultimately I need to come back to the real world and real bad guys and real conditions. Like MS. That's MY reality. MS has affected my biology and my behaviour, so I need to know why. And sadly, for many of us, it's not sci-fi.

S.
Dad's favourite sci-fi movie? Invasion of the Body Snatchers.