Sunday, September 30th, 2018
I’ve got one episode to go in order to finish all five seasons of Stargate Atlantis.
I have already watched all ten seasons of Stargate SG1. Just two seasons of Stargate Universe and I’ll have caught up on all the movies and TV series for this franchise. Except for Stargate Origins, which is worth it’s own post.
The last episode I watched (second to last in season 5), entitled Vegas, is one of my favorites from the Stargate Atlantis series. It’s one of their alternate universe stories (SG1 had some good ones). In this universe, John Sheppard made a really bad decision while on a combat tour, which ended his military career. He ends up as a police detective in Las Vegas. He’s working a serial killer case, where the victims are shriveled up corpses with a handprint in the chest. It’s a Wraith, crash landed on Earth after Rodney Mckay’s team from Atlantis destroyed the Hive ship attacking Earth. The show is shot in CSI style, I think. I’ve only seen one CSI episode, and that was the one written by the writers of Two and Half Men. (Which is owrth checking out. It’s funny and clearly some wish fulfillment by the series creator from another series he worked on.) In this episode, Rodney tells John Sheppard was is really going on. Aliens, space travel, and the time he met another John Sheppard in another universe. One where Sheppard was a planet saving hero. Rodney is betting that fundamentally, the two John Sheppards are the same.
Throw in some cool Johnny Cash songs and you have one fine episode. If you have been paying attention, John Sheppard is a Johnny Cash fan. The same poster hangs in the dective’s office as another John Sheppard has in his quarters in Atlantis.
Tags: Alternate Universe, Las Vegas, Science Fiction, SciFi, Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, Sunday SciFi
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Monday, November 30th, 2015
The Desert and the Blade by SM Stirling
The latest in his Change series. This trilogy is the coming of age story of the Crown Princess of Montveil and her companions, which includes the young Empress of Japan. The forces of evil were defeated in North America by the late High King, but won in what used to be North Korea. Evil doesn’t want Reiko to obtain her own magic sword (Orlaith already has her father’s magic sword), which is the conflict of the novel. Of course there are battles, including one bloody huge one against hordes of eaters under the sway of an evil sorcerer. A good read, in which characters introduced in the last novel are grown, and new allies are introduced. It also sets the stage for the next giant novel in the series.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Alternate Universe, book, Monday Book Pick, S.M. Stirling, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Friday, October 11th, 2013
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
One of my kids told me about this one. A deliciously dark alternate history story that starts with a good deed. Events ripple out from that change up and down the timestream and the Flash ends up in a rather nasty universe. One of the best parts was the effect on the Wayne family. In this timeline, it’s Bruce who is killed, not his parents. Thomas Wayne becomes a very dark and deadly Batman and the shock turns Martha Wayne into the Joker, his arch nemesis. The Flash works to find the cause of the timeline change and set things right. It’s hard road, but the Speedster is ready to run it.
Friday B-Movie Pick Archive
Tags: Alternate History, Alternate Universe, comic book, Friday B-Movie, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Saturday, August 25th, 2012
The original is here. Great stuff.
In 1964, JFK is reelected, with LBJ as VP. The GOP does not yet do its big shift to conservatism, and its defeated candidate is Nelson Rockefeller (whose VP choice is William Scranton). Barry Goldwater rises up in 1968, and he is successful, defeating LBJ (who has Hubert Humphrey as his VP). Goldwater’s VP is William Miller (as it was, in actual history, in 1964), and Goldwater is an immensely successful President, winning the war in Vietnam, leaving civil rights issues to the states (and in the process preserving federalism values, to be used to excellent effect in succeeding years), and foreseeing and avoiding the problems of dependency on imported oil. Goldwater is reelected in 1972, defeating Hubert Humphrey (who has Scoop Jackson as his VP).
In 1976, Bobby Kennedy is the Democratic nominee (with Walter Mondale as VP), and he wins, defeating William Miller (who has Bob Dole as his VP). Bobby gets health-care reform, called “Bobbycare.” But Bobbycare goes too far, and RFK goes down in 1980, crushed by Ronald Reagan (whose VP is George H.W. Bush). Reagan is reelected in 1984, defeating Walter Mondale (who has Geraldine Ferraro as his VP).
In 1988, it’s Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen against George H.W. Bush and Jack Kemp, and — no big surprise — Bush and Kemp win. But they’re in for only one term. Blamed for the economy — stupid! — they lose, in 1992, to Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Clinton and Gore are reelected in 1992 (facing Jack Kemp and his VP choice Tommy Thompson).
In 2000, it’s Gore (with Lieberman) against George W. Bush (with Cheney), and Bush wins. In 2004, John Kerry (with John Edwards) lose to Bush and Cheney. In 2008, it’s John Edwards against Mitt Romney, and Mitt Romney wins. (We won’t worry about their VPs right now.) Challenged by Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney is reelected in 2012. And we don’t get our first woman President. But the Romney terms come to a close. Now it’s 2012, and Hillary goes for it again, only to be defeated in the primaries by another “first,” the possible first black President, this fascinating upstart with the funny name Barack Hussein Obama. (But America, having avoided dependence on foreign oil, thanks to Barry Goldwater, never got dragged into crazy interactions with those Middle East countries, and there was never a 9/11 terrorist attack or an Iraq war, or any of those things that would make “Hussein” seem truly odd.)
Speaking of firsts, there’s a first coming up on the GOP side, a woman! It’s the hyper-competent and stunningly beautiful Sarah Palin. With 8 years as Governor of Alaska, her executive experience and record of accomplishment wow America. (She was term-limited in 2014, and spent the next 2 years running for President.) And so in 2016, we have our big first, the first woman President: Sarah Palin!
Tags: Alternate History, Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe, Politics, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Island in the Sea of Time by S.M. Stirling
Mr. Stirling got a lot of mileage out of this book, at least eight other books have been written based on this one, with only two being direct sequels. The story starts off with the island of Nantucket, and a Coast Guard training sailing ship that was just offshore, being transported back to the Bronze Age. That is good for a trilogy right there. What happended to to rest of the planet with Nantucket disappeared is good for at least two more trilogies.
Tags: Alternate History, Alternate Universe, book, Monday Book Pick, S.M. Stirling, Science Fiction, SciFi
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Monday, August 24th, 2009
Forge of the Elders, by L. Neil Smith
In world where Communism won, a team from the World Soviet, in old American Space Shuttles, go to visit an asteroid called Eris. Predictably, chaos is the result, when they find other Earthly intelligent beings, from more Libertarian realities, have gotten there first.
Monday Book Pick Archive
Tags: Alternate Universe, book, L. Neil Smith, Libertarian, Monday Book Pick, Politics, Science Fiction, SciFi
Posted in Baen Books, Monday Book Pick, Science Fiction | No Comments »