WB 5

Dear English 110 Students,

English 110, for me, was very different from my high school English classes. I enjoyed this class more than I thought I would because I am not an English person. The course theme, science fiction, was interesting because it isn’t really what I expected, but once we got into it I liked it.

To be successful in this course you really need to keep up with your assignments. This can be a difficult task sometimes because of the fact that it is college and there are other classes. However, although there is sometimes a lot to do when you just sit down focus and get it done, it really does not take as much time as you might think it would.

This quarter allowed me to write for new situations like keeping a blog that allows everyone to read what you write, which is very different from what I expected and what I am used to. However, I believe writing for an audience is beneficial because everyone can critique or encourage what you are writing about, which really helped me to think about what I was writing.

I hope this has been helpful.

Sincerely,

Zeke McVey

Farscape

Farscape is definitely more what you think of when you think of science fiction compared to other science fiction shows we watched in class. In Farscape the main character, John Crichton, works for IASA (basically NASA) and is about to test his own theory of being able to slingshot off of the Earth’s atmosphere. When doing this he accidently enters a wormhole which transports him to an entirely different part of the galaxy. He ends up in the middle of a battle between two alien life forms. One of which is basically human, and the other are creatures that you would normally picture when you think of aliens. John is pulled onto one of the ships and continues through some adventures with the aliens. In one instance he is able to test his theory and proved that it did work, and enabled John and the aliens to escape death.

This episode was pretty good in my opinion. It wasn’t my favorite science fiction tv episode we have watched, but I like the story behind it and the story that it set up. The show did a good job of leaving the watcher wondering how or if John would ever return to earth.

Star Trek Next Gen

After watching Star Trek Next Generation in class, I was pretty impressed having never seen a Star Trek episode before I thought it was pretty good. The episode was trying to determine if the android, Data, had rights. In the beginning it was obvious Data was very intelligent but lacked basic human intuition, as shown in the poker game where he was bluffed into losing. However, when Data is threatened to be taken apart, Captain Kirk challenges that Data has the right to choose whether or not he wants to participate in the experiment. The judge eventually rules that Data has the right to choose for himself, and we learn that Data continually learns how to act more human when he respectfully declines to participate in the experiment.

The storyline in this episode was very interesting and brought up legitimate questions about whether or not a machine that acted human could have the same rights as a human. I agreed with the ruling because it was obvious that Data could interact seamlessly with humans and should therefore be treated as one.

WB 4

The Star Trek Original Series I chose to watch was “Assignment: Earth”. In this episode, The Enterprise goes back in time and accidently intercepts a traveler to the 20^th century who seems to be an alien. The traveler argues that he is human, but has lived on another planet for an extended period of time and now is traveling to earth to prevent earth from destroying itself. Captain Kirk is unsure whether or not to trust the traveler fearing that he may be an alien from the future plotting to destroy earth. The traveler escapes The Enterprise and travels to earth to disrupt the launch of a space nuclear missile launch pad. After the launch, the traveler takes control of the rocket in attempt to knock it off course and destroy it. Captain Kirk and Spock begin to try and stop the traveler before realizing that both they and the traveler both want the nuke destroyed and Captain Kirk decides to trust the traveler, and the traveler destroys the missile.

The science fiction of Star Trek seems to be very different from the science fiction shows of today. Today science fiction seems to try and relate to everyone using symbolism in shows that everyone can relate to. In Star Trek, the focus seems to be more for every ones entertainment. I prefer the science fiction of today because although it is not directly relatable the situations that arise in it are similar to what you may come across in your life.