WB 5

Dear English 110.01 Student,

You are about to experience something where you will find hard to forget. I am going to guess that your first instinct on the topic of science fiction is not an interested one. Just give it some time because you will be glad you gave it all a chance. It is worth it, trust me! You will be watching many different shows on vampires, aliens, ships, robots, and slayers. After watching so many episodes, you will be required to write blogs on them. Yes, blogs! My first thought was that blogging is going to be so dorky and nerdy, but in fact, it is not. You will find it funny to read others' blogs and the comments.

Let's recall back to the first day of class. I did not know what to expect of this class. When I found out about the subject, I was thrilled because this is the kind of stuff I enjoy. Each person likes different things, but I have to say that you will enjoy this class and topic no matter what.

For the class, I had to work hard throughout the quarter. I checked the daily schedule every day to make sure that I was up to date with the assignments. I checked over my work and fix the errors right away instead of procrastinating. You must keep in mind that this class requires attention and dedication to your writings. It will be difficult to acquire that good grade if you plan on slacking. The best advice I can give you is that you stay on track and keep up with the work. You will need to work hard from the start! If you follow through with that, you will do just fine!

Altogether, English class will be really fun. You will have the chance to meet people and get to know a great teacher. The work load may get stressful, but there will be plenty of help and you will get through it. I promise. Best of luck to you!

Yours truly,

AnhThu Thai

Farscape Blog

I must say this is my first time watching this show and I found it not interesting or thrilling to my taste for science fiction at all. When the episode began, it seemed somewhat fascinating because I was wondering what the whole storyline was going to be about. This is important to me because I do not like when a show starts off completely boring and I can guess what will happen. It was until the part when the main guy got sucked into a whole different universe. I felt like the aliens, ships, and characters in general were out of sync throughout the episode. It was too much science and it was hard to watch because nothing connected. The only thing I seemed to grasp was that the ships were simply trying to escape each other. Overall, this Farscape episode had no significant details about it and I did not enjoy it.

Altogether, once I found out that English class was going to be about science fiction and relating it to subjects and assignments we were going to do, I was excited about it. I really enjoy the subject matter of sci-Fi. It is always interesting to me in some way. From this class, I somehow saw a whole another side to it because I actually had to go into depth about relating it to my life and the assignments I did for class. The shows we got to watch for class were neat and I found some shows that I would like to continue watching like Angel or Buffy. Basically, the topics of science fiction and modern mythology fits well into many things in life and are very relatable to our personal lives.

STNG Blog

This particular episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation was quite interesting to me. It was unique in a way that it showed how the humans had to work with robots or a non-human. I liked how the episode put forth the worthiness of being a man in general, human or not. Data may not be human, but he is just as intelligent and caring as any human being. He portrays characteristics of kindness and patience. These characteristics are majorly important when living in a world full of successful leaders and great missions in space. It was neat to see how the being of Data came into question whether he should be accepted for what he is no matter what. I am glad to know that the ending of the episode came out positively because Data is a "good man".

Comparing to the original Star Trek, the characters are slightly different. For example, Spock and Data are the two major inhuman beings. The role of Captain Picard and Kirk are somewhat different because of the way they act within the episode. Captain Picard seems more reserved and Kirk was more daring. However, both the original and STNG shows that robots are able to associate with humans.

Relating to BSG, I feel as though STNG is not very similar because of the roles that the robots play within the shows. The robots in BSG are evil and untrustworthy. Humans had to fight and suspect every robot they encountered because no one could be trusted! The robots blended in so well and they appeared to look like humans.

All three shows are fascinating in their own way and I enjoyed watching an episode or more from each. They make me wonder about the many possibilities of having robots within our society. From my perspective, I believe that robots are suitable for some situations but should not be messed around with because they can be dangerous and can get out of control. These episodes may just be television shows, but you never know what could happen.

WB 4 - Star Trek Classics

Star Trek: This Side of Paradise



I watched the season one episode twenty-five of Star Trek : This Side of Paradise. It starts out with the Enterprise going to Omicron Ceti 3 because they heard that the people there are infected with some kind of alien exposure. Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Sulu are the main men who arrives on the planet and analyzes that everyone there are doing well with no dangers involved. They run certain tests and Leila Kalomi comes into the picture to help them out. She talks to Spock and, somehow, he is sprayed by the alien spore. Throughout the rest of the episode, Captain Kirk and the crew tries to determine ways of helping Spock and the planet. Leila also tries her best to help Spock because the two of them develop a sort of chemistry. In the end, Spock becomes himself once again and tells everyone that this was the first time he has ever felt the aspect of happiness in his life.

Comparing this classic episode to today's many shows, there are many differences and some similarities that I see. I feel like this Star Trek episode was very focused on the science fiction aspect of how a typical space show should be like. It was about ships, planets, and aliens. There was little romance involved! The only romance seen within this episode was between Spock and Leila. Unlike the classics, the current science fiction shows I have watched are different. They have the aim of total revenge to the other side. There are also a ton of romance and sex scenes involved. For instance, Firefly and BSG shows various sex scenes such as Mal and his females or the woman robot in BSG. To me, this is just a way to attract the audience. Besides the sex scenes and hardcore focus on revenge, I believe that the aim of current science fiction shows are to make them seem more realistic as well. Watching the shows nowadays, you can relate to the characters and the situations you are watching.
I do see similarities with then and now science fiction of what I just watched and the current shows I have seen. They share intense story lines in each episode about some kind of deal involving aliens or invadors. Firefly, BSG, and Star Trek shows that everyone is fighting invadors from robots to aliens. Compared to Angel, Charmed, or Buffy I observe that the classics have romance dealing with different "powers" or kinds of being. For an example, Spock is not fully human and Leila is not his kind. In Charmed, Piper is a witch and Leo is an angel. All the lovers in the different shows are taking huge risks to be with one another.

BSG miniseries

This is my first time ever watching any sort of Battlestar Galactica episode or series. I thought it was going to be just like Star Wars and have all these wild spaceships and things flying everywhere. It was surprisingly very interesting and it kept my attention the whole time.

At first, I was confused about what was going on within this miniseries. I did not know who was who or what the problem was. Eventually, I see that the humans are in a huge battle against the cyclones. It was interesting to see how Number Six was put into role within the miniseries.

One part that was completely disturbing to me was when the cyclon killed the innocent baby in the stroller. I did not see that coming at all. It was crazy how she can easily do that with feeling no love or compassion for what she did.

Besides some wild parts, I notice the amount of sex scenes. They were kind of unnecessary and random. I felt like they were thrown into the series to spice up some action for the audience. These sex scenes had no relevance whatsoever. Some scenes also seemed slow and dragged out as well. My attention was kept most of the time, but some parts seemed to be pointless and confusing.

Even with some down sides to the BSG miniseries, I enjoyed watching it. The material and style of it was compelling to me. I thought the acting was good, which is important to me because I cannot stand bad acting. Starbuck was exactly how I pictured her to be from reading Leslie’s paper. I would love to finish watching the rest of the miniseries because the action was intense. Plus, I see the point that the producers are trying to get across to the audience which is to not mess around with technology for personal gain.

Poem: "Hug O'War"

Hug O'War

by Shel Silverstein /from the book "Where the Sidewalk Ends" (1974)

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

Growing up, I loved to read poems by Shel Silverstein. He is a brilliant poet and he brings joy to life. The things he says within his poems are wonderful and creative beyond words. I chose to blog about this short poem called "Hug O'War". Although it is very short, the poem can be described with a million words. When I read it, I think of all the happy things in my life that has occured. I think about the people in my life who makes me feel great and happy to be alive!
For instance,my family makes me laugh and giggle and my friends make me smile with the many stories they tell me. I couldn't be more grateful for the life that I have before me.

Sometimes, people take certain situations or things too seriously. People need to relax! The point in life is to be happy and enjoy it while you can! I feel that Silverstein's message in this particular poem is for people to appreciate the laughter and joy that life brings, especially with the loving people that are involved.

The lines that stands out in this poem are "Where everyone hugs, Instead of tugs". This is my favorite part of the poem. It is cute and uses words that are easily relatable for kids. It conveys that there should not ever be any unhappy feelings, but everyone should have positive thoughts!

Buffy: Normal Again

I thought this episode of Buffy was quite different from all the other episodes because it involved her fighting an inner demon. There was the monster, but the whole episode primarily focused on Buffy herself. "Normal Again" was about Buffy going back and thinking about her past when she was in a mental institute. She had to fight between what was real and what was an illusion. I can see how Buffy had a difficult time accepting what had happened to her in her early life and how it scarred her. Many people experience things in their life where you do not want to remember, but it somehow comes back to haunt you. By fighting her false thoughts and visions, Buffy was able to defeat the monster and save her friends and family. This shows that Buffy does have the strength to overcome anything.