THE SCI-FI SOURCE

A MAD MAN WITH A BOX

L A U N C HTHE SCI-FI SOURCE

Zack Jolet explains 32 seasons of Dcotor Who in 5 pages. Be prepared for a flood of fun and information; the Dcotor always is.

the origin of science fictionStar Wars sequelssummer readingand more!

“build” Build Build

how to grow up

11Zack Jolet brings you up to date with+ five decades of Doctor Who. If you haven’t been watching up to now, you’ve missed out. Still, with this article, at least you’ll be ready for the rapidly-approaching Matt Smith-featuring season 32.

CONTENTSLAUNCH SPRING SPRING 2011 www.ezinelaunchpad.blogspot.com

28In a complementary article, Elijah Barrish explores a Who-dedicated club at LASA. It’s a new world for Eli, who hasn’t immersed himself in the show as much as Zack; but, as it turns out, he enjoys every second!

4 An IncomingTransmission

5 The Editor’s Biographies

6 Star Wars vs. Star Wars

7 From the Vaults: Summer Reading

8 Flicking on the Switch

11 A Mad Man with a Box

20 War of the Worlds

21 Don’t Lose Your Head

26 Why It Matters

28 A Trip in the TARDIS

SPECIAL THANKS is owed to Aimee Blase for her consistent support and excellent advice; and to Brandi Richey, without whom we would surely have crashed and burned...

18 Drawing the Line

Welcome, readers.

Although this magazine displays a stunning breadth of knowledge about the genre and is riddled with science fiction clichés (note the title of this letter), we editors are, as people, not basement-haunting drones. We are three students in high school with a shared interest in fictitious alien technology and unlimited storytelling. This is the receptacle of our knowledge, divided into stories, complemented by pictures and a 5-color palette. It’s not as sterile as it sounds. It’s fun. Science fiction is fun, and so are we. Enjoy.

INCOMING TRANSMISSION...

Zack Jolet

Eli Barrish

Greg Lyons

Greg Lyons has never seen mainstream science fiction shows like “Doctor Who” or “Star Trek”, and isn’t even a big fan of the Star Wars films. What he does love, however, is reading science fiction. He’s a big fan of the science fiction series “Dune” and “Ringworld”. He’s also a big fan of the horror fiction genre, and you’ll often see him with a Stephen King novel in his hands.

Elijah Barrish watches “Doctor Who”, but avoids the David Tennant fanaticism he often sees at LASA. Other television shows he enjoys include “Battlestar Galactica” and the oft-neglected “4400”. Eli has an extensive knowledge of 20th-century sci-fi novels, including the works of Asimov, Atwood, and especially Vonnegut, for whom he has no discretion concerning fanaticism.

Zack Jolet is a 15-year-old writer who was born in San Diego and raised in Austin. His interest in science fiction mainly comprises “Doctor Who” and “Star Wars”, but also enjoys science fiction manga, such as “Psyren” and “Ultimo”. He lists “Doctor Who” as his favorite television show of all time. He lives in Austin, and hopes to someday become a voice actor.

Star Wars VS STAR WARSby Zachary Jolet

The Star Wars prequels are a common target of vitriol and scorn. They have been criticized for their per-

ceived poor handling of their characters, subpar dialogue, poor acting on the part of their stars, and various other points. In particular, the character of Jar Jar Binks is a source of loathing for many Star Wars fans, who believe he was given much too large a role in Episode I (“The Phan-tom Menace”) in order to sell more Star Wars merchandise to children. Though his screentime was drastically reduced in subsequent films, some fans are still bitter about his mere existence.

On closer inspection, though, a more intricately-crafted tale appears. Links to the original trilogy that may have escaped a viewer’s notice add nice continuity, and plot points can be spotted, which, upon later review, are deeper than expected. For example, in the second film (“Attack of the Clones”), Jar Jar Binks, the much-hated Gungan himself, joins the ranks of the most influential Star Wars characters in the series. Acting as the Galactic Senate representative of his home planet, Naboo, he rallies the other Senators into writ-ing into law the Military Creation Act. This act allows the Republic to acquire an army of clone troopers, and sets in motion the events that would lead to the formation of the Galactic Empire.

The prequel films have been highly praised by critics, con-trary to their ugly reputation. Respected movie critic Roger Ebert noted that “if it were the first Star Wars movie, ‘The Phantom Menace’ would be hailed as a visionary break-through” in his review of Episode I. He went on to call it “an astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking,” and gave it three and a half out of four stars. The third film in the trilogy, “Revenge of the Sith”, received more unani-mous praise than the first two; Richard Roeper of the Chi-cago Sun-Times claimed that it was the best Star Wars film since “Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”. Indeed, Epi-sode III is the only Star Wars prequel to be listed as “fresh” by website Rotten Tomatoes.

The music of Star Wars, composed by the legendary John Williams, has always been a highly-praised part of the

franchise. The soundtracks for “The Phantom Menace” and “Revenge of the Sith” were both nominated for Grammy Awards; the soundtrack of “Revenge of the Sith” was certi-fied Platinum and that of “Attack of the Clones” Gold by the Recording Industry of America. The soundtrack for “The Phantom Menace” was certified Gold by the British Phono-graphic Industry.

One notable thing about the prequels is that they have excel-lent continuity with the Star Wars expanded universe of nov-els, comics, games, and other media. The concept of the Sith as a faction - the Sith being the main antagonists of the films - was developed in the expanded universe, and integrated into the movies. Several characters, including Aayala Secura and Tsui Choi, were lifted directly from the expanded universe.

The romantic dialogue (a common target of criticism), though not the most realistic in the world, is still not as ridiculous as some people claim. Using overtly “lovey-dovey” language in conversation with someone one loves a great deal is a com-mon occurrence, and characters Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala engage in such dialogue throughout the second and third movies in the trilogy.

I’m not saying the Star Wars prequels are the greatest movies ever made - in my opinion, they are not. What I’m trying to convey is that contrary to popular belief, not everything about them is horrible and disgraceful to the entirety of the Star Wars saga. I think that part of the reason the prequels receive so much scorn is that many people put their expectations for what a Star Wars prequel should be far too high, and then were angered when the films failed to meet them. And I’d sooner kiss a Wookiee than say that that’s fair. -Zack Jolet

“If it were the first Star Wars movie, ‘The Phantom Menace’ would be hailed as a visionary breakthrough”

Background image by Lucasfilm

WHY THE STAR WARS PREQUELS ARE NOT AS BAD AS THEIR REPUTATION MAKES THEM SEEM

6 L A U N C H

“Ray Bradbury? I’ve seen that name before, on the cover of that amazing book, Farenheit 451!” ...Which is possibly the most-read novel in science fiction, but - peo-ple - that was his second novel! His first, The Martian Chronicles, was published three years earlier, as a collection of poetic short sto-ries loosely connected by a plot about humans invading Mars and wiping out the indigenous people. And what a loss: as human culture develops on Mars, the first explor-ers uncover Martian artifacts - evidence of a Grecian civilization abundant in art, music, and knowl-edge - that make them doubt the moral basis of the invasion. The Martian Chronicles was the precur-sor to that huge chunk of Sci-Fi devoted to the topic of xenocide (the destruction of a species), including Orson Scott Card’s famous (still famous) Ender’s Game. It’s a must-read.

From The VaultsPictures and Article by Elijah Barrish

The Handmaid’s Tale was a breakout hit of the 1980’s, winning numerous awards and being adapt-ed for film, stage, radio, and even opera. Despite these successes, the book has largely disappeared. Slow pacing, infrequent dialogue, and LENGTHY passages describing tulips are to blame. However, once the reader accepts these quirks, the plot becomes gripping. Canadian author Atwood speculates that in the future, chemical damage and feminism lead to dropping birth-rates. In response, a Catholic re-gime seizes the government of the United States and, transitively, the bodies of women. The unnamed protagonist is one of many women delegated to the task of producing offspring; she is a “handmaid,” in reference to the Biblical story of Hagar. She is assigned to a high-ranking member of the new re-gime, who, in a completely loveless, ritual labor, tries to impregnate her once a month. With a viciously invasive probe, Atwood explores the role of women and sexuality in government, marriage, and every-day life.

Kurt Vonnegut has done things with the genre of science fiction that no one else dares to. He forsakes science (not to mention common sense) to move absurdist plots that often seem more like futuristic religious scripture than narrative. However, with spaceflight, a Martian army, and the time-traveling dog Kazak, The Sirens of Titan is definitely science fiction. It’s just...eccentric. It can’t be compared to any other novel of the time, so it’s hard to summarize. I’ll just say this: if you don’t yet know the meaning of life, Mr. Vonnegut is happy to divulge.

SPRING 2011 7

Summer Reading List

FLICKING ON THE SWITCH

8 L A U N C H

WRITING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES

by Greg Lyons

Your computer screen is the only light in your room. On it

is a Word processor, with bits and pieces of the story that seemed so great in your mind. The plot has more holes in it than a moth-eaten sweater, your characters might as well be flat cardboard cutouts, and your “science” is so wild, it’s fantasy. The last time you had to save anything was hours ago. You feel like someone flicked off the switch in your mind that allows you to write. Writer’s Block is one of many problems that almost all writers face at some point (usually much more often), and science fiction writers are no exception. Every genre of fiction is unique, and writing science fiction is about maintaining a fine balance between keeping the science behind the story true, or at least believable, and writing a story that can hold the reader’s interest. If you’re not quite sure about how to do that, don’t worry; here are some tips to help aspiring fiction writers write well.

KEEPING A BALANCE

It is important for your science to be plausible. If it isn’t, the reader might not at least suspend their disbelief while reading your story, making it less enjoyable to read. Don’t forget, however, that you’re still writing a story. If people wanted to read just science, they’d read a science magazine. All the other elements of good fiction--plot, characters, action--are still as important as ever, and as a fiction writer you’re still responsible for writing those in.

Be careful of plot holes. These are inconsistencies, or “holes,” in the story that go against logic established by the plot. The more of these there are, the less sense your story makes. One benefit to writing science fiction is that in some cases you can fill in the plot hole with science.

“You can use ‘science’, whether real or made up, to gloss over certain details,” says Tim Harrison, who is writing the plot for a science fiction movie about time travel, where such usage of the story’s science may be necessary. Clones can explain characters being in two places at once and bugs can explain characters knowing things that they shouldn’t. Just make sure that what you’re filling the holes with fits the actual story as well!

Good characters drive a story. Without them a story is just a description. Characters can’t be flat; appearance and an occupation don’t cut it for a character that means more to the story than background or cannon fodder.

Mr. Odum points to the last three Star Wars films as an example: “I remember watching the last film and thinking to myself, ‘just die already!’ I simply did not care about the characters at all. There was no connection there.” Writers write characters as real people: they have motivations, dreams, and relationships with other characters.

“An interesting character in a science fiction story is the same as any character in any other genre,” says Harrison. “So long as the character is fully fleshed out and has any sort of depth. The rest is just window dressing.” When you create a few interesting characters, the reader begins to care about them and the story, and that is one of the major things you want to achieve.

SPRING 2011 9

THE SCIENCE

This is the “science” in “science fiction.” Every science fiction story has some scientific aspect, whether it’s some new form of genetic engineering or a great advancement in space travel. There usually needs to be some scientific explanation for the science.

“This is separate from ‘fantasy’ in that sci-fi never relies on ‘magic’ or divine intervention to further the plot,” says Mr. Odum, a LASA teacher who wants to start a science fiction club, “Fantasy almost necessarily involves such interactions.”

There are varying degrees of how this technology is used in science fiction. The two main ones are “hard” and “soft.” Hard sci-fi deals primarily with the physical sciences, things like physics. Scientific accuracy is important to writers of hard sci fi. Soft sci-fi deals more with the social sciences, relationships between different species or life in utopias or dystopias. Hard sci-fi isn’t better than soft sci-fi or vice versa, but it’s important to keep in mind how “hard” you want your science to be when writing it into your story.

BREAKING DOWN THE BLOCK

If you’ve had to write something in a class past elementary school, you’ve very likely experienced Writer’s Block. You feel like you’re unable to write anything, and whatever does come out is crap. Thankfully, there are many

ways to overcome the Block, and though not all of them work for everyone, most people are able to use one or two effectively to start writing again.

Find something quantifiable about your writing. It can be pages, paragraphs, sentences, even words. Set limits based on this quantity.

“Writing to specification helps you crystallize your thoughts,” says Naomi Epel, who wrote The Observation Deck, a “Tool Kit for Writers.” “You may be brimming over with feelings but, unless you find a container to hold them, they can be lost.”

One famous example that people point to is Graham Greene, who wrote 500 words a day, no more, no less. With this small limit he became quite popular and published more than 30 books. Stopping at a limit isn’t necessary, though. If you have momentum when you’re writing, why stop?

Setting deadlines is also useful. Most school papers have deadlines, but when you’re just writing something in your free time you may have to set a due date for parts of your story to actually get things written. Putting a little pressure on yourself when you’re writing can be a good thing.

“If you think you have all the time in the world you may never get started,” says Epel.

“It doesn’t matter if it is bad. Most of it will be bad, but through practice and revision you will get better,” says Mr. Odum. Don’t be too critical of your work as you first write it.. There’s editing for a reason: to fix errors you make when you write. If you let all of your thoughts out, you may find something you like. It’s hard to get better if you keep your thoughts inside and never let them touch the paper.

“An interesting character in

a science fiction story is the

same as any character in any

other genre.”

-Tim Harrison

“Sci Fi never relies on ‘magic’

or divine intervention to

further the plot.”

-Mr. Odum

“Writing to specification helps

you crystallize your thoughts.

You may be brimming over

with feelings but, unless you

find a container to hold them,

they can be lost.”

-Naomi Epel

WISE WORDS FROM THE MASTERS

What’s the difference

between hard and soft sci-

fi? Flip the page!

HOW HARD IS IT?Hard

Soft

Book Tau Zero, Poul Anderson, 1970Why The space-faring crew in the book is travelling to a distant star system, and so are affected by relativity and time dilation. The central conflict is the crew’s inability to slow down after the ship’s decelerator breaks, and the time disparity between the ship and Earth. The book’s title refers to Tau, a value used to calculate the time disparity between an accelerating object and a non-accelerating Earth.

Book A Fall of Moondust, Arthur C. Clarke, 1961Why The conflicts throughout the book, being trapped with limited air, no communications, and the threat of CO2 poisoning, are all real problems when cramped in a spaceship. Also, we proved we could land on the moon only a few years later.

Book World War Z, Max Brooks, 2006Why Everything in World War Z, except the zombies, is realistic. The technology, politics, military tactics, etc. throughout the book are all based in reality. Solanum, an incurable virus transferred through saliva (zombie bites) that gives the victim the desire for human flesh, even works to justify all of the zombie action throughout the novel.

Book The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, 1985Why The book begins in the near future with a totalarian theocracy overthrowing the United States governent and establishing a dystopia where only the men with women as their subjects. Instead of dealing with the physical sciences, The Handmaid’s Tale explores the lifestyle of the women under this totaltarian rule where they are seen by men as only a set of ovaries.

Book Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932Why Everyone’s position in life is determined from birth in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Everyone is created as specific parts of the society so that it can run at its most efficient, from the engineering of their genes to conditioning them in their infancy. Brave New World explores a different but possible type of society, our free will, and what it means to be a human.

Book 1984, George Orwell, 1949Why Oceania’s government, the Party, in 1984 is the perfect example of a totalitarian society. The Party controls everything, and even a disloyal thought is forbidden. This work was a warning in 1949 to the United States on how it should approach Communism and what would happen should totalirianism grew without some opposition.

10 L A U N C H

DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN HARD AND SOFT SCI-FI

by Zachary Jolet

A MAD MAN WITH A BOXAn Introduction to

The Time LordVictorious

For almost fifty years, the British sci-fi staple Doctor Who has entertained - and, in many cases, terrified - audiences around

the world. The program, revolving around an alien wanderer known only as the Doctor, owes much of its success and beloved status to its versatility - the show has no continuity bible, nor do its stories have to fit any sort of genre. Stories have ranged from the standard sci-fi thriller (such as “The Time Warrior”), philosophical speculative (“The Ark”), or even minimalist horror (“Blink”). There is continuity, though some details in one story may be retconned (replaced in the series’ continuity) in another - in the revived series, the “Time War” provides a useful excuse for writers to explain why a detail in their story contradicts one in another.

With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who right around the corner, it has more fans now than ever before. This article will serve as an introduction to the series for new fans, as well as a refresher for those already in the know.

eleventh heaven: The latest incarnation of the Doctor is the eleventh, played by Matt Smith.

The series’ most recognizable trait is perhaps the Doctor’s TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), a sort of time-and-space machine. The TARDIS is meant to disguise itself as an inconspicuous object wherever - or whenever it lands, a feature accomplished by the so-called “chameleon circuit.” However, the circuit in the Doctor’s TARDIS is broken, and so the TARDIS is trapped in the form of a 1960s police box. The anachronism of such a device in, say, 19th century London is rarely touched upon, save for characters remarking upon the box’s blue color. Amusingly enough, the obsolete status of the police box has caused several characters in the revived series to wonder what a police box actually is.

Doctor Who began in 1963 on BBC One (BBC TV at the time) in Great Britain. The show was a runway hit, and lasted 26 seasons until it was “put on indefinite hiatus” in 1989 due to falling ratings. A joint British-American attempt to bring the show back in 1996 proved unsuccessful, but in 2005, the series was finally brought back with Christopher Eccelston cast as the Doctor. This revived series continues to this day, with its sixth season beginning in the spring of 2011.

CHANGING FACESThe many

faces of the Doctor.

“I’m the Doctor. I’m a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous. I’m 903 years old, and I’m the man who’s gonna save your lives and all six billion on the planet below. You got a problem with that?”-The Tenth Doctor (Voyage of the Damned)

William Hartnell Patrick Troughton Jon Pertwee

Tom Baker Peter Davison Colin Baker

Sylvester McCoy Paul McGann Christopher Eccelston

David Tennant Matt Smith

1963 - 1966 1966 - 1969 1970 - 1974

1974 - 1981 1981 - 1984 1984 - 1986

1986 - 1989 1996

2005 - 2009 2009 - Present

é

“Splendid chaps, all of you.”-The Brigadier

T he Doctor is an alien, the last of the Time Lords, an ancient and supremely powerful species that effectively decided the laws of time

until the Time War wiped them out. Time Lords can “regenerate” when close to death (up to 12 times, although this has been implied to be a purely bureaucratic limitation). This provides the series with longevity, since if one actor retires (or, in one infamous case, fired) from the role, he can simply be given a regeneration scene and pass the torch on to the next Doctor. There have been eleven Doctors thus far (from William Hartnell to Matt Smith). The longest-running Doctor was Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor from 1974 to 1981.

Each Doctor has traveled alongside companions. There have been several dozen companions throughout the show’s run. These companions are predominantly human, though the Doctor has been known to travel alongside aliens (Such as Romana, a fellow Time Lord, and Leela, who would eventually lend her name to a main character of Futurama) and robots (including the android Kamelion and the cybernetic dog K9, who eventually received his own

television spin-off show).

FRIENDS AND FOES

An assembly of allies and adversaries. Opposite, in order: Donna Noble, the Master, Kamelion, Sontarans, Amy Pond, a Dalek, Jack Harkness, a Weeping Angel, Sarah Jane Smith, the Rani, K9, a Silurian, Rose Tyler, a Cyberman, Mickey Smith, an Auton, River Song, and a Krillitane. This is only a sampling of the innumerable companions and enemies the Doctor has amassed in his career.

a TARDIS team: The assembled main cast of Series 1-4 (sans Christopher Eccelston) around the TARDIS console.

They also have primarily been female, although again, this is not a rule; in fact, the show’s longest-serving companion (Jamie McCrimmon) and perhaps one of its most popular ones (Captain Jack Harkness) have been men. Also among the most popular of companions are Sarah Jane Smith (companion to the Third and Fourth Doctors who, like Jack and K9, received her own spin-off) and Rose Tyler (companion to the Ninth and Tenth Doctors).

The villains of Doctor Who are similarly varied. From the Nazi-esque Daleks to the Borg forerunners, the Cybermen; from the rogue Time Lord, the Master, to the ancient Silurians, Doctor Who has had a plethora of recurring villains under its belt. The Daleks are undoubtedly the most well-known of these, as the “Dalekmania” of the early 60s proved. Their creator, Davros, was similarly popular in the 1980s, appearing in nearly all Dalek-centered stories of that era. The Master, the Doctor’s former friend and archenemy, has proved popular as well, to the point of being killed off and then resurrected twice, and receiving a second regenerative cycle. The Master has poked fun of his seemingly-insurmountable ability to cheat death: “I’m indestructible, the whole universe knows that!”

Faces of the Cosmos The Cast

“Remember every black day I ever stopped you! And then... AND THEN! do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first.”

-The Eleventh Doctor (The Pandorica Opens)

A Journal of Impossible Things

doctored tape: Region 2 cover to the DVD release of “An Uneartly Child”

D octor Who is as relevant today as it was in 1963, when the first episode of the first serial, “An Unearthly Child” premiered. The show has

undergone format changes over the years - most significantly after its revival in 2005 (the show had been all but cancel led in 1989), when i t changed the way i t told i t stor ies, from mult i -par t ser ia ls to stand-alone 45-minute episodes.

Although it is not as popular in the United States as it is in Britain, Doctor Who is quickly gaining a devoted American following. It currently airs in America on the cable network BBC America. Across the pond, Doctor Who is a veritable cultural institution. Many British citizens have fond childhood memories of watching the show.

It is clear that Doctor Who will remain the same beloved, quirky science-fiction romp for its next 50 years as it has been for its first. And now you, too, reader, are prepared to take part in the adventure.

As the good Doctor would say... Geronimo!

-Zack Jolet

All images by the BBC. Title graphic created by Zack Jolet using images from the BBC and Wikimedia Commons

Trials of a Time LordA gallery of the Doctor’s travels. Screens from, in order: “Rose,” “The Tenth Planet,” “The Five Doctors,” “The Daleks,” “Gridlock,” “Doctor Who,” “The Ultimate Foe,” “Delta and the Bannerman,” “The Pandorica Opens,” “The Long Game,” “The Caves of Androzani,” “Planet of the Spiders,” “The War Games,” “Last of the Time Lords,” and “The End of Time.”

“allons-y!”-The Tenth Doctor

18 L A U N C H

Drawing the Line

Science fiction and fantasy are two similar genres, and it’s

often difficult to differentiate between the two. Science fiction typically contains elements from fantasy and vice versa.

Is a world where warriors fight with swords made of light and a magical Force like Star Wars’ considered sci-fi only because there are robots around? In Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series, Wheel of Time, the characters fight out massive battles with medieval weaponry and powerful magic, but remnants of an old advanced civilization from the past keep peeking through the chaos.

It’s hard to completely separate science fiction and fantasy, but the two genres both have some elements that are only either one or the other. Stories from both genres frequently blend these elements, and some of the same elements are present in even the ultimate fantasy story and the epitome of science fiction, just dressed up a bit differently.

Fantasy

Different worlds.

Tel’aran’rhiod, World of Dreams. Wheel of Time

The impossible made probable”-Rod Sterling

“Relies on ‘magic’ or divine intervention to further the plot.”-Mr. Odum

War of The WorldsPitting Characters and Creatures of Science Fiction Against Each Other BY Zachary Jolet

Stormtroopers VS Daleks

Armor DesignWhite, soulless, and creepy. Intimidating, yes but as fashion statements go, the stormtroopers’ armor just isn’t bold enough to cut it.

The Daleks, meanwhile, know where it’s at! Color-coding by rank is useful in the field, and eyestalks, plunger arms, and abstract design never go out of style.

WINNER: DALEKS

Image: The BBC

Imag

e: Lu

casfi

lm

Ability to Hit TargetsIt’s a sad Empire that has troops unable to hit most targets, up to and including small, fuzzy, primitive villagers! A Mynock could beat out a Stormtrooper in this category.

Daleks, however, are consistantly shown as able to hit and kill targets. They lose points, though, for their need to scream their battle cry before firing.

TIE

Intimidation FactorA skeletal armor design and creepy voice distortion from their mouthpieces make stormtroopers frightening to any Imperial citizen, but the troops of the Rebel Alliance know that they aren’t so tough.

The Daleks mean business. Screaming each individual syllable with lights flashing, the Daleks can and have reduced the world’s most experienced alien fighter to tears.

WINNER: DALEKS

Final ResultsNo contest! Star Wars’ stormtroopers just couldn’t stand up to the might of Skaro’s champions! With a final score of 2-0-1, the Daleks easily exterminate the stormtroopers in this tussle! War of the Worlds winner: The Daleks!

20 L A U N C H

D O N ’ T L O S E

by Elijah Barrish

Y O U R

H E A D

H O W M A R Y S H E L L E Y

I N V E N T E DS C I E N C E F I C T I O N

T he summer sky of 1816 in Switzerland was ashen from

a recent volcanic eruption, locking in the native cold. Unending rain bogged Villa Diodati and its four inhabitants in a wash of deep, frigid mud. But Lord Byron, John Polido-ri, Mary Godwin, and Percy Shelley were not the sort to be stifled by bad weather. A German book of fantasy inspired them to declare a household contest: each of them would write a ghost story. Mary Godwin, better known as Mary Shelley, claims, in her usual style, that she was woken in the

and producers made Frankenstein into over 15 screenplays and mov-ies. For the next two centuries, Mary Shelley’s tale-spinning phantasm seemed to possess the public mind, and literature itself. From it, an en-tire genre bloomed: science fiction.

Before you see how, a brief re-view is in order. Relatively few people have ever read the original version of Frankenstein (which has the alternative title of The Mod-ern Prometheus), and I suspect that almost none have read it since it

For the next two centuries, Mary shelley’s tale-spinning phantasM seeMed to possess the public

Mind, and literature itselF.

22 L A U N C H

night by a phantasm, who related to her a local legend. That legend be-came a short story. That short story became the fourth chapter of one of the most influential novels of all time, Frankenstein (1818). And that, in turn, become another sort of legend.

Needless to say, Mary Shelley won the contest.

Despite instant unpopularity among the critics, Frankenstein was bal-looned into unbelievable success by public adoration. Playwrights

Villa diodati in geneVa, switzerland, aFter restoration

Photograph by Robert Grassi

inside coVer art For the 1831 edition oF Frankenstein

SPRING 2011 23

was assigned by that teacher in col-lege. Therefore, I shall summarize.Victor Frankenstein loved science, particularly chemistry and alchemy. As it turns out, those are the majors needed to imbue a ragdoll of dead limbs with life. Thus, the monster is created. It repulses Victor, along with everyone else. Dejected, it asks its creator for a female companion of the same revolting origins. Vic-tors suspects that the monster wish-es to breed a “race of devils,” and refuses. Tortured by rejection, the monster murders. Slowly, steadily, Victor loses his friends and family. Victor was chasing the monster-across the Arctic when he encoun-tered the explorer Robert Walton, to whom he relates his sad story. In the end, Victor dies. The mon-ster returns to grieve, and promises that it too will soon die alone, in the shadow of the towering glaciers.

For the first time in literature, the protagonist of a novel was a scien-tist – and a “high-tech” one, too, for Mary Shelley’s time. Victor’s uses of vivisection and galvanism were, though unconventional and ultimate-ly unsuccessful, always on the cut-ting edge. The former literally means animal dissection, but has evolved to include in its definition all ex-periments involving animals. In the 1700’s and 1800’s, scientists such as Claude Bernard incised small mam-mals (dogs, for example) to study the purposes of various organs. The lat-ter, the practice of stimulating mus-cles with electricity, Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) originated, by shocking amputated frog legs into spasms.

Is it such a leap from jumping frog legs to murdering human arms? Mary Shelley thought not. She cared deeply about embedding her books

in reality, to give them credibility. For Frankenstein, it was the phantasm in the night. For The Last Man, it was prophetic papers recovered from “Sybil’s Cave,” the lair of a Roman prophetess, which Mary Shelley ac-tually visited while in Naples, Italy.

Here, I will briefly digress from my main point to discuss The Last Man, which is a curious problem of a book. It was written nearly 10 years

after Frankenstein. Like Frankenstein, the critics hated it. However, un-like Frankenstein, the people didn’t like it either. It virtually disappeared until the 1960’s, when it was repub-lished and reassessed by scholars.Even more than Frankenstein, The Last Man is a work of science fiction. A plague annihilates the human race, leaving behind only one survivor. Now, science fiction hosts hun-dreds of works with similar plots.

Public Domain

The better-known ones include: The Road, Battlestar Galactica, Blindness, Lucifer’s Hammer, and I Am Legend, starring Will Smith. However, be-cause of The Last Man’s anonymity and lack of influence, I am forced to exclude it from the evidence.

With that out of the way, let’s return to Frankenstein.

Mary Shelley’s desire to embed her fiction in reality has “sci-fi” all over it. The line between science fiction and fantasy continues to simmer with disagreement, but Rod Sterling, creator of The Twilight Zone, describes it best, in these words: “…science-fiction and fantasy are two different things: science-fiction, the improb-able made possible; fantasy, the im-possible made probable.” Without the interesting syntax, this is what Rod Sterling meant: science fiction plants its world in the “possible,” with imaginable technology. Fantasy grows out of its own soil; it doesn’t make an effort to convince you of its basis in reality. Vivisection and galvanism and Italian prophetesses are all examples of science fiction’s dedication to making the “improba-ble” seem “possible.” Even the epis-tolary format in which Frankenstein is written rings of science fiction.

The themes of Frankenstein are also

in evidence in current science fic-tion. Really, every time a zombie stranglers a movie star (Will Smith, for example), Frankenstein’s mon-ster is reborn. Resurrection in the dead of night. A body falling apart as it walks. Hands like ivory scissor blades. These are the things that the zombie subgenre is made of.

I, Robot (the 1950 book by Isaac Asimov and the 2004 action movie) should also thank Mary Shelley. Its silky-smooth metal automatons are, on a deeper level, just as much rec-reations of Frankenstein as zombies are. Remember the three laws of artificial intelligence? Let’s review.

This was Victor Frankenstein’s am-bition for the monster, as it was for the humans of future-Earth when they designed their robot slaves. But the robots turned against them. Being the creator isn’t the same as being the master. Intel-ligence doesn’t guarantee obedi-ence; in fact, it does the opposite.

And that makes for a fantastic plot.

Now that we’ve established that Mary Shelley wrote in the genre

of science fiction, we must dig through her predecessors and prove that their works were not science fiction. There are three to focus on: Cyrano de Bergerac, Jonathan Swift, and Francis Bacon.

Cyrano de Bergerac’s Le Autre Monde: ou les États et Empires de la Lune (also known as The Other World; The States and Empires of the Moon) was published in 1657, 140 years be-fore Mary Shelley was born. In it, a rocket is propelled from Earth to the moon by sunlight and firecrack-ers. Sciencey stuff, right? True. However, Cyrano is escorted by the Devil of Socrates, who says things like, “If there is something you men cannot understand, you either imagine that it is spiritual or that it does not exists. Both conclusions are quite false.” From there, the book descends into philosophy and sat-ire. Science is Cyrano’s means to his political end. Mary Shelley’s books, on the other hand, are sustained by science: the conflict is created by science, and pursued by a scientist. And although Frankenstein resonates as a story about doppelgangers and “the other,” it can also be interpreted as a parable about the scientist who pushed too far. In that analysis, it is a completely science-driven story with a science-based moral. Lastly, the ar-gument that Frankenstein is more par-able than sci-fi unravels even further when one compares it to I, Robot, which is inarguably science fiction, and is also inarguably championing the same themes as Frankenstein: the boundaries of science, the master-slave relationship, and “the other.”

Jonathan Swift’s Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Sur-geon, and then a Captain of Several Ships

24 L A U N C H

really, eVery tiMe a MoVie star is

strangled (will sMith, For exaMple),

Frankenstein’s Monster is reborn.

1A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human

being to come to harm.

2A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except

where such orders would con-flict with the First Law.

3A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does

not conflict with the First or Second Law.

(1726), which is best referred to as Gulliver’s Travels, faces similar charg-es. On his first voyage after giving up a medical practice, Gulliver ship-wrecks on an island populated by

fierce little specks of people known as Lilliputians. At first, he is her-alded as a god and national treasure, but eventually is forced to return to England. On his second voyage, he visit island after island, culture after culture, oddity after oddity. Each one has an exaggeration of a human trait, and Swift slyly critiques them all. Gulliver’s Travels was often classified as science fiction because of its combination of adventure and invention, but it’s actually slim on science. In truth, it’s absurdist. It escalates from improbable to im-possible without skipping a beat. Meanwhile, it’s a commentary on society in London and a satire of the properties of the ruling class.

Now, for the last author, Francis Bacon, the argument “it wasn’t re-ally about science” won’t work. Re-

member the scientific method? It’s also known as the Baconian method. Yep, in 1626, the father of empirical science wrote the novel New Atlantis. It’s about European explorers who

land on a utopian island. There, in the “House of Solomon,” they are awed by scientific experiments which help to make “Bensalem” a place of “generosity and enlighten-ment, dignity and splendor, piety and public spirit.” This novel isn’t science fiction; it’s propaganda, and successful propaganda. Science fic-tion often tries to be timely and in-fluence the reader’s sentiments about one thing or another, but never so precisely. Storytelling makes way for Bacon’s clear, single-minded vision.

an illustration FroM Gulliver’s travels

Public Domain

It was “a tissue of horrible and dis-gusting absurdity,” according to the Quarterly Review. The British Critic pro-claimed, “the writer of it is, we under-stand, a female; this is an aggravation of that which is the prevailing fault of the novel…and we shall there-fore dismiss the novel without fur-ther comment.” Yet Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein endured, evolved, and eventually radiated across the history of fiction like the explosion of the Death Star. The reach of its influ-ence is hard to comprehend, harder to put into words, and, most impor-tantly, impossible to contain.

this noVel isn’t science Fiction;

it’s propaganda, and successFul

propaganda.

From top to bott om

, photographs and art by Mark Tom

ilson, Nathan Rupert, Denise W

ells

1

3

2

1. DALEK 2. JABBA THE HUT 3. NAVI

Identi fy aliens under the microscope.

byElijah Barrish

S

SPRING 2011 25

WHY IT MATTERSHOW SCIENCE FICTION AFFECTS US

by Greg Lyons

Science fiction invents new ways of perceiving

our world.

26 L A U N C H

One might say that science fiction, with its revolting

aliens and space-faring cultures has very little to do with the real world. We have yet to discover extraterrestrial life. We have yet to colonize new planets. Science fiction is only fiction. Or is it? Actually, beneath its flashy lasers and complex machines lie worlds very much like our own. Science fiction is not merely a genre for escapists, it is an influential part of society that changes the way we see our world.

IT’S OUR WORLD

In science fiction are many parallels to aspects of our society, metaphors that help us to better understand their real-world counterparts. For example, the aliens of science fiction are metaphors for the Other. The Other is to us anyone

who is different, be it their religion, culture, or gender. Aliens are simply another form of this Other, and much of science fiction is about how the characters deal with the Other. These characters are like us in that they must face the Other in their own way, whether it be attacking it, worshipping it, or accepting it.

Colonialism, whose effects we still see to this day in many third-world countries, has parallels in science fiction as well. Ursula K. Le Guin’s book, The Telling is a science fiction story of the dominance of a corporatist government (dubbed, “the Corporation”) over a primitive culture. It is a story of the culture’s struggle for survival and freedom under the totalitarian government. Though many concepts in science fiction seem completely different from our world on the outside, from extraterrestrials to societies with technology decades ahead of ours, they are things we often see in our lives, just with some alien makeup on. As our society influences science fiction, science fiction can influence our world as well.

IT’S INSPIRATION

Science fiction is full of technology that does not exist in the real

world, but these technologies serve as inspiration for many scientists and engineers. Last year Michael T. Jones, Google’s chief technologist, admitted that Google Maps for the iPhone was his attempt at creating a Star Trek tricoder.

A famous example of sci-fi inspiring real-world inventions is H.G. Wells’s The World Set Free. The book, written in 1914, features a weapon that will bring about the end of mankind: the atomic bomb, a bomb fueled by nuclear chain reactions. It put the discovery of atomic energy in 1933 and the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1956. Leó Szilárd, a Hungarian physicist, read the novel in 1932. It is no coincidence that he went on to conceive the nuclear chain reaction in 1933 and patent the concept in 1934. Dick Garwin’s Megawatts and Megatons, written in 2001, confirms the influence of

“Science fiction is useful for both stimulating the imagniation and defusing fear of the

future.”

SPRING 2011 27

When science fiction becomes science fact

inventions from old science fiction that

show up today

Name Art DermBook Dr. Futurity, Philip K. Dick, 1960Real World Skin cell gunFunction Spray on new skin cells

Name Sustained atomic reactionBook The World Set Free, H.G. Wells, 1914Real World Atomic explosionFunction Powerful explosion

Name Wireless Wrist IntercomBook Things to Come, H.G. Wells, 1936Real World Cell PhoneFunction Portable form of communication

Name Air BlastBook Coventry, Robert Heinlein, 1940Real World Air dryerFunction Compressed air to dry materials

Name Language RectifierBook Ralph 124c 41+ , Hugo Gernsback, 1911Real World Machine translatorFunction Computer that’s translates speech

science fiction on the creation of the atomic bomb. Stephen Hawking said, “Science fiction is useful both for stimulating the imagination and for defusing fear of the future.” Indeed, many scientists and engineers are inspired by works of science fiction. Science fiction does more than just inspire new technologies, though.

Science fiction invents new ways of perceiving the world, and influences our views on real-world technologies as well. Not only did William Gibson’s 1984 novel Neuromancer predict the rise of the Internet, it also foretold how the technology would affect us. It gave rise to our perceptions of the “cyberspace,” an entire world of information that we use every day. The movie Gattaca explores the ethics behind genetic engineering, a very hot-topic today. Science fiction examines the technologies of today and their implications on futuristic backdrops.

IT’S NOT DYING

Some science fiction authors and critics claim that science fiction is slowly dying, pointing to a recent fall in science fiction book sales. Through the ‘50s and ‘70s Hollywood hired many science fiction writers to adapt their works, stories such as H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, however, Hollywood began to lose interest in adapting science fiction works. As a result science fiction lost the benefits of cross-marketing and its accompanying sales. Recently, though, Hollywood has begun to take an interest in science fiction adaptations again; movie adaptations such as Dan Simmon’s Hyperion and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game have been under development for a while now. In the near future science fiction adaptations may once again return to the silver screen.

With the economic fall of 2008, book sales from many genres plummeted. According to the Circlet Press, paperback book sales fell by a massive 30% in 2008. The science fiction and fantasy genres weren’t hit quite as hard by the recession, however. In fact, science fiction paperback sales in 2008 were slightly greater than those of 2007 according to 2009 Bookscan data. Simba Information reported in 2009 that the science fiction and fantasy genres were selling over $554 million in 2009, a very healthy amount. Science fiction isn’t dying, it’s slowly growing.

Science fiction is relevant to our society. It serves as a form of inspiration for many inventors and scientists, and can be considered at least partly responsible for many of the inventions we have today. It is not a thing of the past that is slowly perishing, but a genre that is still growing even in the face of our economic recession. Through the creation of different cultures and societies, science fiction gives us new ways of seeing our world. How could a genre that does this be only for escapists?

We’re experts at this,” Anne Kat Alexander soothes the

substitute teacher as she gathers the old projector in her arms, gray cords slithering along the floor. He looks on in disbelief. Anne Kat flicks switches as she walks and half of the lights in the room go out, cov-ering the substitute’s dazed face in shadow. The canvas screen rushes down. Netflix, white type on a dim red rectangle, slowly materializes out of the darkness. Theresa Steele wants “School Reunion.” Season two, episode three; the companion is Rose. We all know the one. Half of David Tennant’s face floats on the wall, still fuzzy, and broken in two by the end of the canvas. The Doctor greets us, “Good morning class. Are we all sitting comfortably?”

A T R I PI N T H ETARDIS

Pictures and Article by Elijah Barrish

P O L I C E B O XP U B L I C C A L L

In the darkness, Anne Kat and The-resa slap blue paint on the white wings of a cardboard rocket. It’s in preparation for Yuri’s Day, which celebrates the flight of the first manned spacecraft. It was manned, of course, by Yuri Gagarin, who orbited the Earth in 1961. The Astronomy Club at LASA urges people to recognize the event with stargazing and homemade rocketry.

This story isn’t about Yuri’s Day, but when discussing Doctor Who Club, it is difficult to avoid Astron-omy Club. The characters that Ms. Earnhart attracts don’t leave. As the sponsor of both of the clubs, she brought them together; and now, Doctor Who, which began as a cata-lyst of bonding and friendship, has become a regular background buzz. Anne Kat and Theresa were among the first few, along with Lucas Szal-winski, who’s sitting at a desk near the front. Anne Kat is slim, blond, and often styled with a teal fedora. Theresa’s hair floats purple and brown around her often-smirking face. Lucas has short black hair and always wears shorts and a T-shirt.

Ms. Earnhart is one of LASA’s three Sci-Tech teachers. She’s a physicist. Her hair changes color; right now, it’s a burgundy-maroon, which is closer to her natural color than its predecessor cyan. “I like to wear my hair short in a David Tennant kind of cut because it’s sporty and I think it looks good on me,” Ms. Earnhart says. Below her short waves she wears glasses, usu-ally. She was a rugby player – short, compact, imposing – but her knees were taking a beating. She coaches kickball now. Her black motorcycle isn’t in the parking lot today.

Anne Kat and Theresa treat me to

an episode of Doctor Who anyway. It’s the first time I’ve been in Ms Earnhart’s room. The door is on the front wall, right of the projec-tor’s screen. On the far left is Ms. Earnhart’s desk. The tables are in the middle of the room. The walls, flecked white marble, are ringed with posters: Einstein, equations, and Doctor Who. David Tennant and his heir Matt Smith seem to bran-dish a sonic screwdriver from every corner of the dark room.

Under the screeches of a blurry flock of zombie-bats, still divided by the tilted projector, I catch an interesting snippet of Theresa and Anne Kat’s conversation.

“All the animals in space died,” laments Theresa.

Anne Kat confirms it. “Yeah, pretty much…”

They claim to have built a secret language of inexplicable inside jokes and non sequitors. The more time I spend with them, the more evident that fact becomes.

As the episode loads, a game of Texas Hold

‘Em is begun.

The Who fans file in.

SPRING 2011 29

The Club formed at the beginning of the school year. For Anne Kat, Theresa, and Lucas, it was in the first few weeks of being a freshman at LASA.

“It just sort of happened by acci-dent,” says Ms. Earnhart. She ex-plains that in the previous year Ms. Mokry’s film club unintentionally began to focus on one show: Doctor Who. When it started to branch out again, Ms. Earnhart’s room “just filled the vacuum.” She remem-bers thinking, “Well, no one else is showing Doctor Who during lunch. I guess it’s up to us now.”

Anne Kat, Theresa, and Lucas oc-casionally showed up in Ms. Earn-hart’s classroom during lunch. They found a common interest in Doctor

Who, and a club was formed…sort of. Ms. Earnhart confesses, “We are a very, very loose club. I don’t even know who the official members are as far as a club roster...” Doctor Who fans gravitate to Ms. Earnhart to, as she puts it, “collect.”

Ms. Earnhart became a fan of the Doctor when she was 12, only a few years younger than the crowd her room draws now. In 1996, Paul McGann starred in Doctor Who, the television movie, in his only tele-vised appearance as the character. He appears in a handful of scenes. Ms. Earnhart informs me that many fans “claim that he’s not even offi-cially part of the canon.” But, she says, “You never forget your first Doctor.” When she thinks about Time Lords now, it’s his long, Brit-

ish-aristocrat face she pictures.

She filed his face away until her se-nior year in college. Out of the blue, a friend demanded that she see a show that had been (re-)launched in the United Kingdom. “And so we took a weekend in the summer and we had a 48-hour Doctor Who mara-thon.” She loved it. “We plowed through the first two seasons of the new series of Doctor Who.” The Time Lords had been revived, and the Doctor, now played by Christo-pher Eccleston, would never leave her again.

Ms. Earnhart has been teaching at LASA for 3 years. As she introduces LASA students to the new Who se-ries, launched by BBC in 2005, she’s also busy digging through the old

From left to right: Ms. Earnhart, Theresa Steele, Anne Kat Alexander.

30 L A U N C H

SPRING 2011 31

series, which ran for 26 years, be-ginning in 1963. A college professor has all the old episodes and gener-ously loans them out. “I love ‘em all. I just think it’s a fantastic show.”

Doctor Who has managed to sustain one continuous timeline over half a century using a device that Ms. Earnhart describes as “one of the best writing tricks in all of televi-sion and movies.” The Doctor re-generates. After each regeneration, his appearance changes slightly; so too with the actor. The first words out of the mouth of the tenth itera-tion of the Doctor, David Tennant, were, “I’m still not a ginger!”

Doctor Who’s unique endurance over multiple generations has the inter-esting effect of bringing people together. The first Doctor, William Hartnell, died at the age of 67 in 1975. Ms. Earnhart’s “first doctor” was McGann, who starred thirty years after Hartnell left the role. Anne Kat and Theresa can quote

“I love ‘em all. I just

think it’s a fantastic show.”

Ms. Earnhart sips at her milk carton as the action unfolds on the front wall.

Brian Cui fumbles for the grapes without moving his head.

- Ms. Earnhart

Tennant, who left the show a year ago, to no end. Ms. Earnhart says about the show’s omnipresence, “It really functions well as a kid’s show and yet goes above and beyond and becomes so entertaining for every-body. That’s what really makes it a magical show.”

When asked to speculate on why high school students love Who, Ms. Earnhart responded, “It’s fun and it’s geeky and it’s a rollercoaster ride of emotions.” LASA is geeky too, she observes. She explains that Doc-tor Who draws elements from his-tory, science, math, fantasy, and the rest. It has something for anyone to obsess over.

My viewing of “School Reunion” is punctuated by munching, shuf-fling, and Anne Kat and Theresa’s

incomprehensible conversation. The projector still hasn’t been fixed. According to Ms. Earnhart, “Most people sit around and just eat their lunch or snack or goof off or study – and/or watch the episode.”

Netflix plays for a few seconds…then buffers…then plays…then buffers. Cries of anguish are ex-haled by the dedicated watchers, mostly newcomers. Lunchtime is running out. I decide to go.

As I get up to leave, Theresa tells me, “So, if you need actual inter-view stuff, you can come back an-other day, and we’ll be less crazy.”

No, thank-you. You were just right.

Towards the end, no one can look away.

“It’s fun and geeky and it’s a

rollercoaster ride of

emotions.”- Ms. Earnhart

SPRING 2011 33

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