Moon

I don't go to the cinema very often these days.
I used to go a couple of times a month, but when the privately owned, independent cinema in our nearest town was closed down it became so much less convenient.
I also can't stomach the overwhelming reek of popcorn and burgers that seems to be unavoidable at most multi-screens.
...and don't get me started on the noise. The sound of people nattering and munching is so loud, that you can't hear the soundtrack during the quiet parts unless they turn up the volume to such a level that when there's a loud bit on screen, your ear drums implode from the sound pressure.
In short, going to see a film just isn't enjoyable these days.

Fortunately, our local library has a good selection of recent DVD releases, so I can catch up with stuff that I've missed fairly smartly. One of last year's films that I was keen to see was "Moon", so when I spotted it on the shelves, I decided to give it a go.

This excellent movie stars Sam Rockwell. It's a real pleasure to watch some science fiction where the setting, an isolated lunar mining facility, is fundamental to the story rather than just an excuse for a load of flashy special effects baloney. Rockwell plays Sam Bell, the sole human inhabitant of the place as he nears the end of his three year contract. Direct communication with Earth has been lost, so Sam is reduced to sending and receiving recorded messages from home or talking to GERTY, the facility's computer. Given this isolation, it is unsurprising that Sam becomes increasingly unsettled until, distracted by the appearance of a woman who cannot possibly be there, he has an accident out on the lunar surface.
As Sam recovers, he makes a disturbing discovery that feeds his paranoia and sense of dislocation as the mystery develops.
This is a first class thriller.

Science fiction is often a convenient way to present a well-worn idea in a new guise. With 'Moon' we have a story that isn't just a re-tread of a plot that we've seen before  in a thousand westerns or detective stories; the time and the place that it takes place are intrinsic to the drama.

On a more personal note, I found it easy to empathise with Sam.
When I'm alone in the Control Building in the early hours of the morning, watching the Lovell Telescope scan the stars, it sometimes feels like I'm the last man on Earth.

Re-reading an old book in a new way

Unusually for me, I'm reading two books at the same time.
I know there are some people who will quite happily have several books on the go at once, but I prefer to stick with one at a time.

It happened by accident.
I've been reading "Stealing Light" by Gary Gibson, for about a week, but a couple of days ago, I was trying to remember a particular book I'd read many years ago. I'd been thinking about some of the worst names for characters in books and I had remembered Billy Danger. He was the hero of a story by Keith Laumer, so I did a bit of Googling, and spotted it in the list of his work in Wikipeadia. It was "Galactic Odyssey". I then discovered that the entire book is now available to read online.

As you will probably gather from the somewhat lurid cover, this was never going to be seen as a work to rival "Pride and Prejudice", but if you like straightforward, no nonsense space-opera, you could do a lot worse. Before I realized what was happening, I'd read the first couple of chapters.

It's the first time I've ever read a book online.

I doubt whether the experience will make me consider getting one of the various e-books that are appearing though. Real, paper books are still the most convenient way of reading a story.
When they produce an e-book that weighs less than a slim paperback, needs no battery and is robust enough to withstand falling onto the floor when it slips from your fingers as you doze off to sleep, maybe then I'll get one.

If anyone wants to suggest candidates for "The Most Crap Character Name in Fiction", I'll be delighted to read them.
Mind you, I reckon you'll need to do well to beat Angus Thermopyle and Marc Vestabule who appear in Stephen Donaldson's 'Gap' series.

If only...

I've just finished re-watching the TV series 'Firefly', on DVD.

If you enjoy Science Fiction, and you've never come across this gem, beg, borrow or buy it NOW! It is a genuine lost masterpiece. It was the series that Joss Whedon created after he'd finished 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', and concerns the crew of 'Serenity', a Firefly class spaceship.

The series is beautifully made with a core cast of genuinely interesting characters, in a future where humans terraformed and colonized the planets and moons of an unspecified volume of space. Life in the colonies is pretty basic and is essentially a sort of futuristic Wild West, with any and all the technology that would be available by then. In a typical frontier spaceport you could expect to see horse-drawn carts alongside hovercars and shops selling spacesuits and stetsons. Unlike the 'Star Trek' universe, not everything is shiny and new, with most things looking pretty well-used. Also, unlike 'Star Trek', there are no aliens.

Sadly, the FOX Network weren't bright enough to let Whedon and his team deliver the programs as they were originally conceived, and they insisted on broadcasting episodes out of order. They were apparently scared stiff that if they didn't put loads of action in the first programs, people wouldn't bother to watch, regardless of the fact that nobody would know who the characters were, because the introductory episode hadn't been shown. After mucking about with the episode order, and moving some episodes aside to fit in sporting fixtures, FOX decided that the ratings weren't good enough, and cancelled the show after just 11 episodes had been transmitted.

Luckily, an extremely loyal and active fan-base lobbied for a DVD release, and when it duly appeared it included all the episodes in the correct order, as well as another three that had not been televised and a bunch of DVD commentaries and extras as well.
This DVD sold like crazy, and the popularity was so convincing that Whedon was able to get a green light from Universal Pictures to produce a full length feature film, 'Serenity', for cinema release.
It was some consolation

There is a story that after the TV executives first saw the pilot episode of Star Trek,
one of them said, "It's pretty good... but you've gotta get rid of the guy with the ears."
Fortunately for 'Star Trek', this suggestion was ignored.

If only similar sense had prevailed in the board-rooms at FOX, when 'Firefly' was created.