When Cynthia told me it was my turn to write the EC editorial this month, it sent me into a silent panic. I love to rant and rave, but its something that's fairly spontaneous. I wasn't sure what to write about. I thought about relating my early experiences about OTF and writing something that ended with "and the adventure continues..." but that's been done many times now. I thought about tackling the current world political climate (you all know what I'm talking about) but unfortunately, its a debate with no right answers, and one by which people are easily offended. Now, sitting down to write on the very day that this editorial is due, the topic has hit me like a ton of bricks.

Recently, there's been a lot of griping from the science fiction fan community about the major sci-fi franchises. Both Star Wars and Star Trek have both reached a sort of "old age" as far as science fiction genres go. They both have huge fan bases and well-defined systems of continuity. Star Trek has become (arguably) the best-loved collection of sci-fi television shows ever. Star Wars has evolved a cult following thanks to three classic movies and a rich assortment of "expanded universe" material. So what's to complain about? Apparently, the newest material doesn't meet with our high standards.

Concerning Star Trek, the complaints center around the new TV series "Enterprise" (with the movie "Star Trek: Nemesis" being a secondary target for whining). According to some die-hard fans, the new series lacks depth, in both its characters and its stories, and the series as a whole breaks some of the continuity defined by previous Star Trek series. The complaints are similar for the Star Wars prequels: the movies don't live up to the standards set by the old movies. In all, the new material is cheesy and incredible.

Welcome to science fiction, folks.

You see, people have fooled themselves into elevating these genres atop ivory pillars to worship from afar. Whenever one does this, to anything or anyone, one is ultimately disappointed. Expectations have been raised so high that the producers of these genres simply can't deliver a product anymore that meets all the needs of the consumers. And let's not fool ourselves, folks: these genres are, and have always been, PRODUCTS. This is not opera, nor Shakespeare, it is popular culture. We can only hold such material to so high a standard before its inherent shortcomings show through.

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret that may shock you: the original Star Wars movies, and the original Star Trek, aren't that good.

I can hear the Europeans organizing a lynch mob now, complete with flaming torches. Thankfully, I've still got a fair bit of time to explain myself before they can cross the pond and arrive at my doorstep. Take some time one day and re-watch the originals with a discriminating stance. Everyone rolled their eyes when an alien monster tore off half of Padme's shirt in Episode ii, but how is that any less contrived than the metal slave bikini worn by Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi? People complain about the quality of acting on Enterprise, but I defy them to tell me that the acting on the original Star Trek was of a much more superior quality. A pair of blue and pink alien women shooting their tongues out on Enterprise is contrived, but the green Orion Slave Girl on the original Star Trek is classic.

The original genres have their good sides as well. The original Star Trek episode "Devil in the Dark" showed us that qualities we consider Human can come in the strangest of forms. Even though some of the lines were cheesy and the acting wasn't Oscar-quality, the story spoke to us somehow. Enterprise, like most new shows, suffers from an awkward period in is early stages where it has to settle into its own groove. Some of the more recent episodes show a great deal of improvement. I for one enjoyed "Future Tense" a lot, and I thought that the episode "Stigma" was very good.

Likewise, its my opinion that twenty years from now, the average person won't be able to discriminate a difference between the original Star Wars movies and the trilogy of prequels. Sci-fi comes complete with a degree of cheesiness, that's just the nature of the beast. This is why when I see people complaining about how their favorite genre has been ruined or circulating petitions to try to force George Lucas of Brannon Braga to do something, I just roll my eyes. Don't you people have anything better to do with your lives? If we tried to purify these genres to the extent that we hold them to in theory, they wouldn't really be sci-fi anymore, would they?

Really, folks, if you want to explore the meaning of life, existence, and everything, for God's sake, pick up something by Plato or Aristotle, study the teachings of a foreign religion, listen to an opera, or any of a dozen other things. However, if you want something that with high technology, scantily-clad alien women, and a smattering of hypothetical moral quandaries that are easily resolved in a 50 minute time slot (or a two-parter for the really though ones), choose sci-fi. I know there's room for both in my life.

Offensively yours,
CL8 Sonata Form