The Letters to the Editor department is intended to be a forum for our readers to express their own opinions and ideas. While we appreciate the many complimentary letters we receive each day, you won't find them on this page. Instead, you will find letters that go beyond or even contradict what we have written, letters that offer a different perspective and provide a different view of science fiction. If you would like to submit a letter, please use our feedback form or send a message to scifiweekly@scifi.com.
-- Brooks Peck, Editor
Browder Is Restrained, Not Wooden
egarding Brian Patterson's Issue No. 152 "Farscape's Actors Appear Stoned," what the writer sees as a "wooden" performance from Ben Browder I see as restrained. It would be so easy for any lesser actor to play those scenes (in the Aurora chair and in the cell) way over the top. But Browder's portrayal of a man under the stress of torture was right on target. Good actors are aware of the pitfalls that lead to overacting, and it appears Browder avoids those traps quite well. I am definitely impressed with Browder's acting ability (both verbal and non-verbal) and look forward to episodes where he is allowed to show his extensive acting range.
As for the other actors (including the puppets), if anyone thinks that only humanoids who look and act similar to us can be found in this universe, then certainly that narrow-mindedness will limit their appreciation of this fine series. If you want the same old television SF that has been around for the last thirty years, then I recommend you stick with Star Trek.
Cynthia Zaffuto
czhicks@earthlink.net
Learn Farscape's History
n response to Brian Patterson's Issue No. 152 letter "Farscape's Actors Appear Stoned," I think he should look past the one episode he has seen and perhaps get some actual history on the characters.
Zhaan has the glazed look for a reason--she is trying to come to terms with her past of being a savage, seeking to become, once again, a Delvian Priestess.
Ben Browder is far from a bad actor. Look at the situation he is in. A human flung across space trying to adapt to the fact that humans are not alone, and coming to terms with the fact that he will never get home.
Watch the episodes prior to the season finales and you'll get some history of these characters. Farscape is one of the most intelligent shows I have seen on TV in a long time.
Todd Behrmann
tbaz@powercom.net
All TV Is For Men
enjoyed the new Cassutt column. Looks like a good addition to Science Fiction Weekly. But I really got taken aback when I read Cassutt's one assertion:
"It is a time when writers ponder their careers. And begin to complain about networks that arbitrarily change their 'target audience' midway through the development process. ('We know we told you we wanted a show for teens, but now we want it for women 18 to 49.')"
As if it ever happens that a network would rather have women 18-49 rather than the males 18-34! If that were true, I'd still be happily enjoying new episodes of The Sentinel on UPN!
Linda Jokisch
Linda301@aol.com
Have Straczynski Produce Wheel
saw a comment in the Issue No. 152 Letters to the Editor that Robert Jordan
believes that each Wheel of Time book would need 18-20 hours of footage. I have
the perfect solution. Give the project to J. Michael Straczynski as an
hour-long action series.
As a full series, each volume could just fill a 22-episode season.
Straczynski has shown that he can handle the long arc with his Babylon
5, and if each volume has one season of story, the whole story could be
told with a single cast.
Additionally, each season finale would have the same feel of completion
as the books themselves. The Wheel of Time as a full series of full
hour episodes would be truly unique. In my opinion, Straczynski is the
only person who could truly do justice to such a project.
Hieronymus Boaz
hieronymus@boaz.com
Author Logs On Weekly
hanks for a quite perceptive interview and
review [of Eater]--superior work, indeed. I've three books appearing this
month (Skylife and Nebula Awards Showcase 2000 from Harcourt) and hope they'll
drift in eventually.
I log on weekly. It's a delight to see such good material
finally arriving on the Internet!
Gregory Benford
Some Mammoths Did Survive
was interested to note, as I read your otherwise
excellent review [of Stephen Baxter's Silverhair], that you made no mention of the fact that some mammoths
did survive the great die-off that rendered all other mammoths extinct. In fact, mammoths lived on at Wrangel Island in the Arctic until about 3,000
BCE.
I have included a link to a scientific paper about radio-carbon dating
results of mammoth tusks and bones recovered by paleontologists at Wrangel:
http://www.radiocarbon.org/Journal/v37n1/vartanyan.html.
Who knows? Perhaps mammoths lived on elsewhere until historic or
near-historic times.
David F. Rooney
drooney@telusplanet.net
Mission Didn't Disappoint
just want to say that I saw Mission to Mars despite the fact that every review I read said it was not very good. Does it surprise anyone if I say that the critics were wrong? Very wrong. The film was excellent in my opinion. The acting was strong, the story engaging, and the visuals beautiful. I'm not sure what the critics disliked about this movie. Its lack of originality? The original Star Wars movie was little more than a string of movie clichés dressed up like an SF flick. And I loved it for it. I saw it as a tribute to the old Errol Flynn swashbucklers and WWII films like Dam Busters. It did what a movie is supposed to do. It entertained you!
As for Brian DePalma, frankly, I've never been very impressed with anything he's done before. His films always look great, but the stories have generally been awful. I'm glad he decided to "sell out" and make a mainstream film with Disney. It was obvious he was paying tribute to such fine movies as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Is that a bad thing? And unlike some of his other films, this movie actually had a storyline you could follow with characters who you gave a damn about.
Maggy Chiprut
bigmag@rocketmail.com
Mission's Look Can't Be Avoided
fter seeing Mission to Mars, I can't understand why it's received such scathing reviews--I thought it was great! Real "Man Against the Universe" stuff. Technical realism and great special effects. Genuine science fiction for a change, marred by just a little bit of mysticism. But of course there's Arthur C. Clark's famous dictum: "A technology sufficiently advanced beyond one's own is indistinguishable from magic."
And for those who thought it was too derivative of Destination Moon or 2001: A Space Odyssey, I've got news for you. Any movie that deals with pioneering interplanetary travel in humanity's early Space Age--no Warp Drive, no wormholes, no artificial gravity--is going to look, at least superficially, like any other movie dealing with the same time period and technology level. Just like all Westerns look alike--the cowboys always ride horses, never Humvees or unicycles or elephants; and all police flicks look the same--automobiles, telephones, and radios. There should be more hard SF movies like this.
Steve Block
ironhand@stlnet.com
Morgan And Wong Are TV Assets
disagree with M.C. Abel's Issue No. 151 letter "The Others Characters Are Clichés," which claimed that Glen Morgan and
James Wong managed to become severe handicaps to The X-Files and neatly
ran Millennium into cancellation within a year and half. First off, he
doesn't mention how they became handicaps to The X-Files (I personally
thought they did a great job and wrote some of the best episodes). As for
Millennium, that show had low ratings before they even worked on the show.
If anything, they enabled the show to stay on another season (and it probably
would still be on if they didn't leave).
Ryan Smith
frank_black2001@hotmail.com
Campbell Couldn't Create Clark
s a big Bruce Campbell fan, I was happy and surprised to see a letter to the editor suggesting him for the role of Superman. As nice as it was to see him get some much deserved recognition by Robert Reed, I have to disagree with the sentiment. Sure, Bruce would make a great Superman--physically. But most of his acting style tends to turn to a different character than Clark Kent. To be honest, I think if Bruce were ever to play a comic book hero, I would hope it would be Hal Jordan from Green Lantern. Bruce, in my mind, has both the elements of a good guy (as seen in The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.) as well as the elements of the bad guy (Ash in Army of Darkness) that he could easily pull off Hal's story (as portrayed in Emerald Twilight). Hal goes insane, and becomes a super villain, Parallax. This combination could possibly stretch Bruce's acting talents, as well as bring back a comic book hero sometimes forgotten behind Superman, Batman, and the X-Men.
Kristi Brownfield
cukab22@pen.eiu.edu
God, the Devil... Is Taught In Sunday School
keep hearing about television affiliates boycotting God, the Devil and Bob but I'm not sure I understand why. Seems to me we've seen this story before, even studied it in Sunday School. I think they called it the Book of Job.
Mikele Meether
mmeether@fgcu.edu
