Re: OOC # 34
I have only barely scratched the surface of the more recent Galactica series...there were some things I really enjoyed about it, although it was hard to set aside wanting to see the old characters revisited, as opposed to entirely reimagined. It's another one of those "It's a different story using the same names" things, and when I can get myself to keep that in mind, I tend to enjoy those (not always, though, but I tend to forget the ones that really disappointed me.)
I pretty much entirely missed Babylon 5 until after it had completed its initial run. The thing that really got me into it was a friend (former girlfriend, but I'm still good friends with both her and her husband) who wanted to start making the uniforms. She was really good at patterning (or, more accurately, finding base patterns that matched the profile of the uniform, and altering it to get the details right), but she hadn't really trained herself to look for all the details in the various jackets...so we would sit down with VHS copies of the various shows, watch episode after episode, and I would sketch out where the various details were, so she could incorporate them into patterns. We did Star Trek (TNG), Babylon 5, the original Battlestar Galactica, the dress uniforms from Star Trek: Generations, and a few others...
It worked out so well that she made herself a Colonial Warrior uniform, complete with the Viper Pilot's jacket, and wore it to a con in Salt Lake City where both Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch were guests. Dirk Benedict saw it and was so taken with it that he asked to try it on...and told her that it was actually better-made than the ones they had for the actual show (she made hers out of honest-to-goodness real suede leather, which was a big start), then promptly called Hatch over to check it out (he was also highly impressed). They both autographed the back of it. It has become the pride and joy of her fandom collection, as she has now had it signed by Benedict, Hatch, Herbert Jefferson (Boomer), and I think three other of the original BSG actors. She had someone ask her what she'd sell it for and she said they could never afford the price she'd put on it, as it is now, truly, a one-of-a-kind item that can never be duplicated (since Richard Hatch passed away a few years ago.)
I have always had a weak spot for fantasy and sci-fi...I was a voracious reader through the latter half of elementary school, junior high, and high school, but adult life has kind of put a damper on that, although I really should work on getting back into that habit (as it would probably also help me re-spark my other habit that I wish I hadn't lost...writing! I do so much writing here that I currently have two or three novels that I started writing decades ago and haven't made any significant progress on in the last fifteen years...) My parents were skeptical of the benefits of reading 'escapist literature' like that, but I have to say that two of my earliest grown-up literary loves were The Hobbit and the Barsoom novels (both of which I started reading in third or fourth grade), and the examples of Bilbo Baggins, rising above his timid nature while keeping his good sense, and John Carter with his never-say-die ethos, were a lot of inspiration for a kid who was picked on pretty much all the way from kindergarten until high school.
