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The following is a new article by Tim Mitchell, published in the “depth” section of PopPolitics magazine. Mitchell analyzes how the underappreciated “Mimic” trilogy of sci-fi horror films has a lot to say about postmodern America: The other day, I found an October 2007 story by R. Colin Johnson on the EETimes Web site that sounded [...]

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The following is a new article by Tim Mitchell, published in the “depth” section of PopPolitics magazine. Mitchell analyzes how critically discarded “versus” horror films can tell us a great deal about how we see conflict in the post-9/11 world. Horror is like any other genre of film: The most popular titles of a given [...]

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OK, I'm going to throw this out here and see if anyone is interested. I have an idea for a Sci-Fi series or movie, but I don't have the patience to write it. If anyone out there is into writing SF, or has experience writing for TV, and wants to do this, get in touch with me. I'll consult if you like, but you can take it an run with it as long as I get credit for the idea.

The idea is to follow the history of the Bible from a sort of "Chariot of the Gods"/ Book of Enoch perspective : Yahweh is a captain of a ship of people called the Annunaki, angels are crew members, Jesus is one of them, and there are competing ships or races that become pantheons of other cultures - Isis leads one ship, her lover Osiris is murdered, etc. Moses is talking to a hologram, the ark of the convenant is a radio transmitter that allows the humans to communicate with the ship at great distances, Ezekial is taken aboard a ship he describes a a wheel, etc. We see the story from the perspective of the Annunaki, who are observing and interacting with primitive humans. Some, like Yahweh, intend to establish themselves as deities in the minds of the humans; others, like Isis and Jesus, are trying to help civilization develop along peaceful lines.

There are places on line you can read more about the Annunaki. The twist is to take the audience into the stories from the Annunaki perspective, rather than the perspective of the "patriarchs" that we get in the bible. The Annunaki would be more like modern humans watching a more primitive race, interacting with them and maybe even doing genetic experiments on them.

Speculative non-fiction books have been written about these ideas, but no one has put it into a dramatic format yet, though some series like the original Battlestar Galactica have hinted at it.

Any takers?

I couldn't be more excited that the creators of "Battlestar Galactica" are not going to make us wait until next January to get our interstellar fix. Even though the final season won't be airing until next year, they've just announced that a two-part TV movie will air in November (thanks, Fandom, for keeping us in the loop)

Rear Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes) in command of the Pegasus in "Battlestar Galactica"

If you are not familar with the show, you should be. We've certainly talked it up plenty at PopPolitics.

And you don't have to be a big science fiction fan to enjoy it -- because at its core it's a great story that resonates deeply in our present-day world. As a piece of visual literature, it's full of well-written, complex characters in continuously compromising situations. And as a gripping allegory, it holds up a cracked mirror to our contemporary political and social life -- specifically, the post-9/11 culture of fear, the Bush doctrine and the Iraq War.

If you don't believe me, take a look at this recent analysis of the resurgence of science fiction and fantasy by Gareth McClean in the Guardian. He argues that "Battlestar Galactica," with the help of shows like "Firefly" and "Lost," is responsible for making the genre more relevant than it's been since, well, its Golden Age.

He begins the piece, in fact, by speaking in awe-inspiring terms of Battlestar's allegorical power:

It's not every day that you hear a justification for suicide bombing on an American TV drama - and certainly not one as vigorous and heartfelt as this: "I've sent men on suicide missions in two wars now, and let me tell you something - it don't make a goddamn difference whether they're riding in a Viper or walking out on to a parade ground. In the end, they're just as dead. So take your piety and your moralising and your high-minded principles and stick them some place safe ... I've got a war to fight."

The fact that the character talking is not some swivel-eyed terrorist but, in fact, a hero - or, at least, what passes for a hero in this TV show's murky, shades-of-grey universe - makes his speech more surprising still. In a further do-not-adjust-your-set moment, the show in question is Battlestar Galactica. Yes, that Battlestar Galactica.

Somewhat provocatively, McClean sees the "Star Trek" era of the late 20th century -- which encompasses many other shows including the original version of "Battlestar" -- as a nadir, a time when science fiction narratives, at least those in the popular consciousness through TV and film, were "cheesy" and detached from real life.

The reimagined BSG, as it is now known, is light-years away from its cheesy late-1970s incarnation starring Dirk Benedict, later of The A-Team, and Bonanza's Lorne Greene. The premise is the same - the last vestiges of humanity are being pursued by the sentient monotheistic robots that they created as labour-saving devices - but instead of cheese, there's grime, the harsh realities of living hand-to-mouth in space, and some of the sharpest, smartest writing on television. Gone is the comforting binary of "humanity good, robots bad", and in its place is a universe in which the good guys practise torture and recruit suicide bombers, while the bad guys are devoutly religious, embarking upon a genocidal war in the belief that they are cleansing the universe of corruption.

This is science fiction for the 21st century. What's more, it's sci-fi about the 21st century. Fans of the genre have long known that quality sci-fi and its sister genre fantasy hold up a mirror to the times in which they were created, but never before have the TV shows involved seemed so resonant or indeed so influential. Science fiction has never been more now, fantasy never more real.

I would, of course, be remiss if I didn't attempt to qualify McClean's argument by noting -- as I think he himself implies -- that written science fiction during the "Star Trek" period -- all the novels and short stories -- did not suffer the same fate. In fact, many might argue that with the emergence of such literary luminaries as Ursula Le Guin, Philip Dick and Octavia Butler -- as well as the rise of cyberpunk and other dynamic sub-genres -- we've been in a second Golden Age for awhile now.

And that's a nice way of transitioning to the fact that this past week we celebrated the 100th birthday of possibly the giant of all late 20th-century giants of the genre, Robert Heinlein. He passed away in 1988 but not before he had established much of the conventions and the controversies that would dominate science fiction narratives up to the present-day.

For a great appreciation, see Brian Doherty's homage in the most recent issue of Reason Magazine.

One final note. "Battlestar" fans might be interested in knowing that the two-part movie in November will, as executive producer Ronald D. Moore has described it, chiefly explore a backstory -- the adventures of the Pegasus before it met Galactica in Season 2. But he promises that it will, in a some small way, help bridge Seasons 3 and 4. Don't miss the preview.

Sorry -- this is much simpler than that title makes it sound.

While science fiction and fantasy novels seem to be in a never-ending Golden Age (my favorite recent reads come from Neal Stephenson, Susanna Clarke, Neil Gaiman and Octavia Butler), science fiction and fantasy film and TV have been, at best, hit or miss.

But just when you thought the post-Buffy/Angel horizon looked empty, two ships of different sizes but with similar complexity of characters and ideas have come in.

The best news I heard this week was that the Sci Fi Channel has renewed Battlestar Galactica for another season. The second half of their second season begins in January. (See Maureen Ryan's many posts chronicling her love affair with the series).

And the best scifi movie I've seen in a long, long time was Serenity, Joss Whedon's resurrection of his too-brilliant-to-handle one-season wonder on Fox: Firefly (which Sci Fi Channel has just started rerunning in its intended order).

For me, the most enlightening science fiction revels in its unique allegorical possibilities. It uses the future (or sometimes, as in the case of all the authors I've mentioned above, the re-imagined past) to hold up a cracked mirror to our present-day conflicts and crises. It doesn't just use the the alternative world as a warning of what might become. It puts the most intractable issues of our day in a different, deceptively distant, setting.

In this spirit, I see Battlestar Galactica and Serenity as present-day political documents. They investigate the misuses of power in a time when national borders have become increasingly irrelevant, old alliances have shifted and the only mode of resistance is to exist on the edges of the system, throwing periodic wrenches into the machinery of power.

Sound familar? Unlike the narrative of the War on Terrorism sanctioned by the Bush administration, though, both of these stories are not afraid to revel in the messiness of the new world. They recognize that the new enemies are more than simply cowards and fanatics; they have their own plan and a purpose (consider the Cylons in Battlestar). And they are also not afraid to admit that these enemies -- far from being the force of "darkness" against our "light" -- are, in many senses, our own creation (consider the Reevers in Serenity).

Oh, and by the way, the people who inhabit this new world struggle everyday with balancing their personal morality and relationships alongside their national/international obligations.

And many of those people are women -- physically and emotionally strong women with loads of agency.

So revel in this moment. The bleak, harrowing future never looked brighter.