Twenty-eight

I just finished watching Battlestar Galactica Razor and besides being overwhelmed by the quality of the writing and the performances, once again this show leaves me considering the nature of honor, bravery and survival. Which pisses me off. Not anything the show did, but the thing that infuriates me is how much sci-fi is either ignored or maligned when it comes to being recognized for classic storytelling. (Jump back, filmfans, I know The Return of the King pulled down the Best Picture Oscar for 2004, but I consider that fantasy not so much sci-fi)They are always overlooked during awards time, not that awards are everything, they aren't, but attention should be paid. The Emmy people are the worst---only a few ever get nominated or ever win. The mini-series Taken a few years back is a great exception. We've got it on DVD if anyone wants to borrow it. One of my favorites, Blade Runner, turns 25 this year. In 1982, it turned a few heads, was critically acclaimed in the sci-fi circles. The Academy only nominated it for Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction, it lost to E.T. which was nominated for fracking everything. Yes, I know E.T. is a sci-fi movie, so that makes 2 in Oscarland that year, but honestly, you can't compare them when it comes to the weight of the writing and the themes explored. It's like comparing Benji with The Unforgiven.
In one at the end, you've got everyone crying saying goodbye to E.T. and he says, "I'll be right here," and points to Elliot's chest and off he goes. In Blade Runner, the pivotal scene between Harrison Ford's Decker and the android Roy Batty (the mesmerizing Rutger Hauer) culminates in these last words of Batty's as he realizes his inner workings are failing. He sits in the rain and speaks of his love of life, even as short as it was: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain.Time to die."
Blade Runner made me think about what it is to be alive and how we negotiate those experiences into our humanity. Good science fiction has the ability to do that because it can play with how we see our future selves, what will be lost and what will remain.
And I didn't mean to go on about Blade Runner because I really wanted to go on about the role of strong women in great science fiction, but I guess that will be for another time.