Site of the Week -- April 5, 1999
ake the rudeness of South Park, mix in the high-brow science
fiction of Babylon 5, and the result is Babylon Park, a site that
lampoons both shows. Instead of Cartman and Kenny, Babylon Park has Fartass, the engineer of the Not-So-Great-Machine ("It has many guns, but we no use them--it make good snow cone though") and Koshi, the alien ambassador with a bad habit of dying.
Naturally this site will make the most sense to fans of South Park and Babylon 5. References to characters like Johnny "Nuke 'em" Sherman, who won "Best Use of a Nuclear Device" during the Minboring-Earth War, just won't work for those who have never watched B5.
Those who are familiar with both series will enjoy the Babylon Park episodes, which are animated shorts available for download in Real Media format. Each one is rendered digitally, but they retain the cardboard feel of South Park. References to other classics, like Star Wars and Tron, abound, so even complete B5 neophytes will get a few chuckles from this site.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- March 29, 1999
panning light years and star systems, Starshield is a role-playing game hybrid that features a professionally crafted science fiction universe augmented and expanded by its fans.
At the site's core is the Starshield universe, which was created by novelists Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. It's a universe where "relativity" is taken to new heights. According to Starshield physics, the universe is broken into areas with different physical rules. In one, magic is possible. In another, faster-than-light travel is commonplace.
The authors let their fans build around this core. Using role-playing rules developed for the site, fans can create their own "empires" based on the series. Where Starshield differs from traditional games is that its fans are encouraged to post their thoughts, ideas and stories.
Bad links and unfinished pages occasionally mar Starshield, but it is still recovering from a bad crash earlier this year. Snags aside, the site delivers on its promises, providing a place where fans can get in on the ground floor of a new universe.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- March. 22, 1999
'hraarn, the author of several planetary guides--including
the popular Guide to Andamar IV--visited Earth in the 1990s and,
as usual, compiled his field notes on the inhabitants. But his Guide to
Earth damaged his reputation: No one could believe that these specimens
could be as self-destructive and short-sighted as K'hraarn described.
His astonished observations range from humans' myopic view of their
bodies ("Earth people are actually confident that they wouldn't exist
without these packages of meat and circulating fluids") to notes on a
justice system that allows criminals to go free and an all-powerful
media that's obsessed with the salacious.
The Alien's Guide to Earth, available to humans on the World Wide Web, is a well-organized site with interesting but unobtrusive graphics and music. Though "K'hraarn" occasionally sounds a bit more like an outraged human than an alien (he clearly feels for his benighted subjects), some of his Guide excerpts are trenchant and provocative. One of the site's best areas invites visiting aliens to share their own experiences on the "Garbage Planet." The lack of credits maintains the illusion of an alien's work, but unfortunately it leaves the clever site designer anonymous.
-- Mark Wilson
