On the bandwagon

A source who will remain nameless says "I can't believe you've not heard of Edward Gorey." Hum. Well, Wikipedia says he did the opening sequence for Mystery! on PBS (or this one?), which ranks among the things I have filed under permanently cool no mater how many times I see it. (It's actually the second one I remember.)

He did not actually render the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" into cartoon form, but this is still a lot of fun: The Trouble with Tribbles in the style of Edward Gorey.

There seems to be quite an extravagant number of Gorey things on YouTube, actually.

Warmed over aliens

Ah, TV aliens. Once so much funny clothing but now quite a lot of fancy make up but almost exclusively shaped like humans. Still, I don't think that the new makeup has really improved the aliens.

It's not that apparently only one ethnicity has ever survived on any alien world. That's part of the big background stuff you don't really see on a moment by moment basis. It's not that everything is in a non-alien language. To insist that your aliens speak among themselves in alien languages is just trying to be unnecessarily difficult.

It's the culture of the moment to moment that makes an alien actually alien. The ticks and fidgets that we all display. We tap our fingers, pace, wink, sniffle, and clear our throats. It seems aliens generally do too. They stress the same words and though a wink may be difficult for them to understand, but they're quite happy with the nods that aren't even universal among those of Earth.

There have been a few aliens with alien ticks, but very few. Possibly more quite early on when they did not have the luxury of really good masks. Sure, illustrate it with the back story and the mask, but sell it with the tendency to rub the hands rather than tap the fingers and all the other little things.

Torchwood

I have made my way through the episodes of the first season of the BBC's Torchwood. The first impression was muddled a bit by the thought that the con man spouting off about the importance of the rules basically for their own sake just doesn't wash. The last was wondering why that particular hand could be valued so highly. Divorced of any knowledge of the new Doctor Who series it spins off from, its an okay series if highly silly. Fun to watch, but nothing to crave.

In between I mostly wondered why "adult" has to mean full of sex (or violence). Why does "mature" mean running about with hormones blazing? Do we grow up to become controlled by the sloshing chemicals? Does the evolutionary urge to procreate become such an all encompassing bit of our lives? I prefer it when "adult" and "mature" mean something more along the lines of "complicated", "sophisticated", maybe even with a little "comment on society".

A woman of convenience

I probably shouldn't be reading about comics. But I did. And they seem to insert diversity, at least in the form of gay characters, when it is convenient.

So they've made themselves a gay Batwoman. She's got a lead role and everything, that's nice. And she's got an old flame: Renee Montoya. She's the cop from Batman: the Animated Series and although she is background, she features strongly in a few episodes. She's a very strong character and works in a "man's" job. Of course she's gay. It's very convenient. I suppose it gives a certain uniformity to the outlook of police force?

Still, she is a pillar of morality doing what is right for society rather than what is right to make a quick buck against a background of extreme corruption. Do you have any idea what sort of strength of character that takes? If you are a straight woman (or a man) looking for a role model like Montoya and can't because she's been written as gay, you are a twit. Her sexuality doesn't matter, it's just very convenient.

(Apparently she's not such the pillar of morality later in life, but I've only read that on Wikipedia. The circumstances of that do seem to make it just more convenient for the writers, though.)

(Also, I suppose this argument could be taken further to point out that being on the moral high ground was the woman's job when this country was born and it wasn't a new idea then. Even now, corporate whistle blowers are very often women, as an example. Of course the character written to have no inclination to graft was a woman. Also very convenient.)


A second bit of convenience occurs in Heroes, the TV show. Here we have a character who has successfully battled off one aggressive challenger to her chastity and is finally starting to see the geeky boy helping her out as, well, male. And she even tries to ask him out to the dance at which point we discover, or at least are treated to stronger hinting than usual, that he is gay. And as a supporting character specifically supporting a character shedding the impurities in her character, that's very convenient. Save the cheerleader, save the world? Apparently, but first get her nice and high on a pillar of purity.


Unfortunately, there's no thin line to walk for this. No balancing act good enough, no stepping clever enough. No right answer. You can please some of the people or none of the people. Is a fictional universe really large enough to accurately or meaningfully reflect the diversity in society?

And Hollywood should get past heavy hinting.

Heroes

I read that one Tim Sale was "ghost painting" the images for the artist character on this new (well, not so new now) show Heroes. Well, that's interesting because I know who that is and that's half of my favorite Batman team. Lots of other people's favorite too. They're quite popular.

So I got hold of it and watched the first show. Which did not blow me away one bit. It didn't really strike my interest nor did it put me off, but had it meant remembering to watch the next week, I probably would never have seen another episode. Since I could watch the next one and still had some time, I went ahead and watched it too. It got better. By the fourth episode, it does really start to get good. Not knock your socks off, I want the DVD! good, but fun to watch at least once.

At the fourth episode, I also noticed the other half of my favorite Batman team. Jeph Loeb is apparently co-executive producer. Guess that means he's got a certain amount of creative control over the shows. I'll be watching where he and the rest of the creative forces take the show.