ertain episodes of science fiction television programs are universally loved, while others are universally hated. Most are both, which leads to a vast number of arguments around barstools and chat rooms worldwide. But for people who want to leave a more permanent record of their feelings, Synchronicity Web Design has created GEOS, a Web site that collects and tallies the opinions of anyone who cares to express one.
After registering for free, visitors to the site can enter a rating (from 0 to 10) for any episode of these shows: Babylon 5, Dark Skies, Earth: Final Conflict, Millennium, Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, Red Dwarf, Earth 2, Space: Above & Beyond, The Visitor, Millennium, and Dark Skies. Then they can find out what others thought of the episode. There is an overall mean given--the average of every rating submitted--and each individual's rating is listed as well. The mean score for each country is also given, in case visitors want to know how, say, Indonesians feel about an episode.
Additionally the site has an up-to-date news page, with reports on all the shows, as well as an automated Air Schedule Generator. This is a utility that allows users to select one or more shows, a country, and a range of weeks to get a personalized schedule that can be bookmarked for future reference. Air dates and episode titles are listed, but not the exact airing
times.
Which episode is the worst? Make your voice heard
This site is fabulous. It is simple to navigate, and its graphics are slick, professional and never intrusive. It's marvelously interactive and contains a wealth of supplemental information. For instance, there is a one or two sentence synopsis for every episode, as well as writer and director listings.
The site is also easy to use. Users just enter a name, password and country and they are ready to vote, which can be done three ways: on a ballot page, on the ratings pages for each episode, or by e-mail. Users can also sign up to receive e-mail reminders to vote for any of the shows. And if someone changes their mind, no problem, they can always go back and reenter their vote, and the database will instantly reflect the new score. The schedule generator is also a wonderful utility, especially because it lists tantalizing episode titles many weeks in advance.
On the down side, the actual ratings could be presented more aesthetically. Currently they look rather like an accountant's tally, and they are difficult to comprehend at first. Another confusing aspect is the bar charts, which appear to plot the scores for a show's entire season, but since there are no labels it's difficult to be sure.
In any case, GEOS provides an innovative service that, if nothing else, will provide fodder for those barstool debates: "All of Western Europe agrees with me that last night's show sucked!"
