There’s a new blog out there, called io9, and it’s pure scifi. It covers everything from spoilers of the newest scifi shows/movies to the latest info on from NASA on sunspot activity. The posts are interesting and witty, and full of nostalgia for the great scifi of the past that’s becoming lost among the shiny gloss of Hollywood’s sudden interest.

One of today’s posts feature Eliza Gauger, the designer of the io9 logo - which is very unique, trendy and cool. She talks about a few different things, including how she became converted to the scifi monsters of the world. However, in my opinion, the best part of the entire interview is when she starts talking about what she hopes to never see again in scifi art, one of which is “hot people”.

Look at Aliens. Or any Cameron film from that era. If he had attractive women in his movies, and he did, they weren’t “women” in the way that movies define women: harpies, hags, or idiots. Scifi ditto. Ripley was not wearing any fucking mascara. She was a CHARACTER, she wasn’t a GIRL. Ditto for everyone else. They were people before they were badasses, or killers, or idiots. This is not a luxury in sci fi. It is a necessity. Cookie cutter characters are unbelievable, and in a wider context of unbelievable things happening (aliens, lasers, spaceships, all imaginary), it is vitally important for as much of the rest of the package to be well-developed and believable.

These are the types of people I hope mold and promote scifi away from the glamour and shiny-ness of Hollywood. Scifi movies - and really, any movie that has a modicum of science in it - are already on a downslide credibility-wise, that having perfect people starring as humble scientists doesn’t really endear a lot of people. So, putting Denise Richards in a lab coat and glasses does not make her any more credible as a nuclear scientist, than if you’d cast some less-than-perfect actress. In fact, it might even detract from the movie (I know I rolled my eyes).

However, bad movie science is for another, and longer, post.

Posted: January 9th, 2008 under scifi.
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