GWC Podcast #86

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#41

…Janestown kills me everytime with “His eyes are…FOLLOWING me…”

…Hard selling baby. Buy it all! Buy it AALLLL!!!

…Indiana Jones, saw the trailer with Jumper…gonna be SWEEET…however, “Batman without the cutesy suit”, negative Ghost Rider. Entirely different venue, not just in the comic realm, but in the character as well. Indiana isn’t trying to constantly avenge his parents death, Indiana doesn’t use fear to get bad guys, Indiana wasn’t trained how to fight, Indiana aint rich and Indiana will kill foks…Batman will just beat the snot out of you (just talking comics, not movies). I will however, agree they both use their heads more often than not to get the job done. But “Cutesy outfit???” Yeeeeeshh!

…Nothin quite like a Labernith LOL - but Audra and Sean never saw Jaws all the way through??? Dang. Loved Blue Thunder too (saw it on cable). really not sure why the “hard R” was there - beyond the boobies scene.

…Sticky boobs and sticky ass…just the way I likes my superhero girls…Giggedy giggedy…alll riiiiight. Is goo involved?? (sorry that was bad…)

…Man, I am SO glad I’m not the only guy who still hits up the comic books stores. If you also notice the writing of many comics overall has drastically improved from the 80’s. There’s far more character development than there was.

…Must say I prefer “Pepe” the Dolphin more than “Darwin”…just sayin’ :smiley:

…Isn’t Dee Sagiterron? If so, she is a pretty strong character for a group that needs to be shuffled around.

…EMILY!!! Jus’ sayin’

…Glad to hear Sean got my e-mail…KIDDING!!! TOTALLY KIDDING!!! TOTALLY TOTALLY KIDDING

…Topanga is actually a city in Cali…so Audra, once again is correct. Cus she’s the coolest.

…You guys probably caught Knight Rider…and with the ratings it got…it might even be a series. Not kidding. No…really.

…In case I haven’t mentioned lately - YOU GUYS FRAKKIN ROCK. Fo sho…werd

#42

I totally agree. I love Firefly (and Angel), but it was a FOX production and in the end Joss had to sell it to them. People (ie Hollywood) think only guys like sci-fi, so the tv show has to cater to them. I hope BSG has showed them that women can be interested in sci-fi and that men can handle watching women behaving and looking like soldiers. Hopefully BSG’s success will allow Joss more freedom to portray women as he wants.

#43

DAMN…OK I ain’t mad at ya

#44

Ironic, since he was a hero whose weakness was a color.

#45

Thanks!
I had been aware of some that development, I knew that something happened to comics in the early 90s after the collector’s bubble burst, but I thought that it was really more like a leap forward, but yeah, what you’re describing fits the definition of a renaissance as a re-birth pretty well, if they re-started all the genres… that should have been the background for Batman: Year One, then, the re-boot of the all the series…

#46

Not only that, but Green Lantern was also the hero artist or artist hero or whatever.

#47

That would be Kyle Rayner, who was not the Green Lantern of the Silver Age or Modern Age. That was Hal Jordan, who went bonkers when Coast City was destroyed by Mongul and Cyborg Superman after Superman and Doomsday fought to the death in the mid 1990s. Other Earth-based Gls included John Stewart and Guy Gardner, but they and the rest of the 3600 GLs were defeated by Hal, who became Parallax and later was the host for The Spectre, the avenging hand of God.

Kyle was, for a long time, the only GL in the universe when he was given the last ring of the Guardians of the Universe (keepers of the central power battery on Oa) by Ganthet, who was the lone remaining Guardian in this dimension.

Of course the original Golden Age GL was Alan Scott, whose ring was mystical in nature and did not work against anything wooden, unlike Hal and the rest of the Silver Age/Modern Age GLs whose rings did not work against anything yellow.

Okay, you know what, never mind. No wonder it’s so hard for new readers to get into comics. I’m trying to condense years and years of comic continuity into a few paragraphs.

I’m going to go have a lie down now. :wink:

#48

I loved all the discussion on Indiana Jones! Definitely one of the top movies I’m looking forward to this year. I remember going to see the third one in theaters with my parents and being so excited. It came out when I was in third grade, and I did a did a little report comparing all three movies. I stood in front of the class and read off my index cards. I was beyond cool.

Also loved the comics discussion. I was and still am a huge X-Men fan. I got into it because of the Saturday morning cartoon in the 90s. As a female, I didn’t feel excluded at all reading comics. There were plenty of strong female characters and eye candy. Any guesses as to who my favorite is? The only time I felt weird was when I walked into the comic book store-I would go after school in my Catholic school uniform, and felt like an alien with tentacles on my head. Everyone would just stop and stare at me. A girl! Buying comics! But it was cool.

#49

On the comment you said about needing comic relief in BSG I only have one word to say to that.

“BUTTERFINGERS,”

Xt550

#50

Sci fi is wildly sexist, as is most pop media really. The reason people get whipped into a lather when we have a Bamber towel scene is because it’s usually so skewed the other way. Even on BSG, a show I revere, the female Cylons are uniformly hot, while the guys are mostly blah on an esthetic scale.

I was all too happy to see a gay-themed episode (Razor), but really this was as much about “two hot chicks hooking up” as it was about diversity. When you’re point of view isn’t from the default str8 male perspective, these things jump out at you fairly regularly :wink:

SS

#51

Re: Blue Thunder, I’ve been waiting 20 years to work the phrase “JAFO” into conversation, and – as far as I can tell – the opportunity has never come up. But I’m holding on.

RE: Marvel vs. DC, the Marvel characters always seemed more human, and DC characters seemed more superhuman. Batman’s the best superhero ever, but if I had to pick one universe to read (or live in), I think I’d make mine Marvel.

A couple posters said that Superman is too good and too boring. I agree with that assessment. Here’s why Batman rules: Superman wakes up in the morning, and he’s already one of the most powerful beings on the planet. It doesn’t take a lot of effort on his part. Batman, he has to work at it.

Now, Superman’s certainly a good guy and a good hero. And it’s a testament to both his character and the way that his parents raised him that he uses his powers to help others. Supes is a good Boy Scout. But, as Batman says at the end of Dark Knight Returns, when he hands Superman’s ass too him, “My parents taught me a different lesson, dying in the street.” Batman, as a rich orphan, could spend his life wallowing in self-pity, self-medicating, sitting around, playing video games. Instead, he traverses the world and undergoes painful training so he can stalk the city at night and help strangers. Superman’s a fantasy. Batman is a true super-human; he does the most he can with what he’s got.

ps. Let’s try to set a meet-up at the guy’s house with the giant Star Wars collection.

#52

Also, the RDM podcast tells the story behind ‘Taking a Break from All Your Worries’ which was originally intended to be a comic relief episode given the obvious reference to ‘Cheers’ in the title. However, in tweaking the script it evolved into a story about a no win love quadrangle and using torture to extract information. I guess BSG just doesn’t lend itself to comedic episodes…

#53

I’ve gotta go with StevieSpin on this one - well put. When BSG was in its first season, all the magazines advertising it put either the three hot Cylon women on the cover or the three of them with Baltar in the middle. Not that this was SciFi’s decision, but the general idea still stands; that’s what most people hoped would bring in the audience.

#54

I don’t really care a lot about HOW they bring in the audience, as long as they get people to watch a great show.

And I’m going to throw in a Shakespeare reference to back it up: Capulet means little horse and Montague used to be pronounced MOUNT-ague … and there are a hundred other examples that show that even the Bard wasn’t entirely below “sex sells.” - And the people loved it, they went to see his plays and it made them think about a whole lot of other cool stuff.

#55

I think the reason I got “whipped into a lather” is more that Jamie is hot nude and you rarely get to see a guy that hot and that naked on tv at all (sci fi or not), male nudity on all tv shows is mostly done for comedic effect. I totally agree with you about the sexiness of the cylons (female vs male) and I would have made that exact same comment except I thought someone would call me out because of Sam. Still, one hot guy vs all hot women. Where are all the plain cylon women? You’d think the humans would start getting suspicious of all hot women. And I’m not sure what it says about human society that the cylons didn’t think they needed to create hot men.
Does this mean there weren’t any straight women/gay men in influential positions? I mean, they really lucked out Baltar and Cain both liked women. Or is it that the cylons don’t think gay men/straight women think with their pants (or are tempted by a pretty face). This doesn’t seem like a great strategy to me.

And maybe it’s just me, but I really was offended that the b*tchy woman turned out to be gay. I thought this was really stereotypical. I saw Razor before my boyfriend and I hinted to him that something was revealed about Cain that I thought was a stereotype and he said “She’s a lesbian?”. I’d have been much happier if the lesbian turned out to be just another soldier or something. Not the power crazy, torturing, unstable character she was. It felt like a 1950’s sci fi movie where they land on a planet ruled by crazy lesbians and have to free the population from them. Just my opinion. Hopefully they introduce a stable gay character to make up for that in the 4th season.

#56

Actually I do care how they bring in the audience, if you promise them hot women, they are going to expect hot women. If you stop giving them what they want, they’ll leave. I’m not really sure people that tune into a show solely because of the hot women are interested in the good writing, acting, directing etc. This is the whole reason why reality tv does so well. Now advertising a show that’s well written, well acted, well directed, and sexy would lure people that would stay even if the show didn’t have hot women in every episode.

Also, back in Shakespearean times, men performed all the women’s roles. So sexuality in the plays was more funny than titillating.

#57

I’m guessing they made the hot women first. Then they realized they just needed to make the men rich.

#58

Trillian: First off, let me complement you on your excellent selection of name for the forum. I’m a huge DNA fan, and Trillian has always been one of my favorite characters – the only one of all the smart/powerful people in the series to actually be smart enough to handle herself.

FWIW, I always pictured Trillian much more like Ms. Deschanel than the original actress from the BBC TV series, both in appearance and detail. The movie Trillian really pulled off the sexy/smart/important role in a way the earlier attempt completely missed.

Which reminds me: I’d also like to thank you for all the great discussion you’ve spurred this week. I’ve really spent a lot of time thinking about these roles – and I’ve learned a lot. I do understand the difference between the two scenes now. But even more importantly, I see the why.

I guess my personal take is that it’s not unreasonable to include hot women (and hot men, of course) in a story. And it’s not unreasonable to enjoy them as a viewer. It’s only when their appearance serves to define their role that I begin to feel the line has been crossed, hanging their beauty out like a billboard instead of integrating it (beautifully) with the rest of the art.

Of course, where that happens is often the matter of great discussion. For example, I was really turned off by the almost-bare-ass T’Pol scene in Enterprise. She was incredibly sexy – and I’ve always been incredibly turned on by beautiful women in open-backed evening gowns. But it felt out of place to me – like the moment existed separately from the rest of the episode.

On the other hand, I’ve always seen the departure of Kes and the subsequent arrival of Seven of Nine on Voyager as a wonderful thing. “Her body suit saved the show” jokes aside, Seven of Nine was a much more interesting character who breathed life into a show that was ripe for that kind of change. Sure, she was super-hot. But she was also different, and her affect on the other characters’ dynamic was first class.

Regardless, though, thanks again for all your comments and for expressing your views so effectively. To me, that’s what makes the GWC community so special.

#59

You just want Brother Cavil on the cover!!

(Runs away quickly)

#60

New Guy here…literally and figuratively.

ALl I can say so far as I make my way through this podcast is…

Sean…I share your love of tanks…so much so I build them now. I work for the DoD in the Program office who builds Abrams MBTs (no I am not a contractor…bone fide Civil Servant).

If you find yourself in Michigan I hook you up