Surprise, people: I’m a hardcore science fiction fan.

I’ve been heavily invested in the genre ever since childhood, and I place 99% of the blame for this on my old man. (The other 1% was my natural childhood fascination with all things scientific.) You see, my father read a lot of science fiction novels when he was growing up, and when I was a kid, I rifled though his endless boxes of them. It was here that I learned about all of the classic science fiction writers. Science fiction television and film may be great, but anyone worth their salt knows that the absolute best in science fiction is always found in book form. (And given my disappointment with recent science fiction television, I’ve been delving even more into books lately.)

If it was in those boxes, I read it. I’m sure I’m forgetting quite a few, but just to rattle off some names: Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, James P. Hogan, Robert Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Frederick Pohl, Ursula K. LeGuin, Larry Niven, Cordwainer Smith, Clifford D. Simak…seriously, just pick a legendary science fiction author, and I can guarantee that I’ve read at least a few of their books thanks to my father’s collection and the local libraries. My father was also responsible for introducing me to the Dune saga, and I’ve been [Maker] hooked ever since. My home library of Frank Herbert’s works now spans an entire shelf!

I’m telling you, I filled my head to the brim with that stuff, especially hard science fiction. It was so chock-full, it’s a wonder I was able to process other more important items, like schoolwork, eating, and breathing. Even my favorite comic book characters, like Green Lantern, Iron Man, Firestorm, and Adam Strange are all completely based in the realm of science fiction! When I was a kid, no one else was into the genre, but that didn’t really register; in retrospect, I suppose it made sense that the other kids were more interested in sports and video games than a bunch of dusty old books.

I’ve kept up on my passion for science fiction throughout my entire life. I enjoy a wide variety of science fiction television, film, and other media. I’ve also gotten into the “new breed” of science fiction writers over the years, like Neal Stephenson and Timothy Zahn, as well as picking up novels by classic authors that I missed, such as E. E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series and the works of Richard Matheson.

Nowadays, science fiction is arguably more popular then ever, primarily in the film and television realms. Regardless, I find myself standing apart from my peers when it comes to the span of my familiarity with the genre. This is not a holier-than-thou proclamation, simply a statement of fact. I’ve just noticed that most of my peers aren’t into science fiction to begin with, and the ones that do enjoy the genre rarely (if ever) explore the breadth of the material out there, especially its written form. (The latter certainly isn’t their fault, as most people don’t read for pleasure these days as it is!) This unfamiliarity can be personally frustrating, as when I try to have engage in conversation about much of this stuff, I get blank stares.

I don’t understand why someone would refer to themselves as a fan of a genre when they have very little experience with it, or sometimes refuse to experience anything but a few small pieces. To use a non-fandom example, it would be like someone who’s read a medical textbook calling themselves a doctor. Now, this is different than being a fan of a specific property within a genre, or even a subgenre. There’s fans of the Star Trek film that came out last year, but who do not consider themselves fans of the Star Trek franchise in general. I’m also not trying to say that any self-proclaimed science fiction should check out and enjoy every new bit of genre material that comes along, either. We all know that like any other genre of fiction, there’s an extreme amount of absolute shit when it comes to science fiction.

Obviously, other hardcore science fiction fans do exist out there, and the Internet would provide the best way to connect with them. However, as with most things, I’m very reluctant to join Internet forums and the like devoted to science fiction. Intelligent discussion I can handle; fanboyism and nerd debates I can not. As we know, that’s what a majority of message board topics devolve into, so I tend to stay the hell out. Another idea would be science fiction conventions, but those can be very scary places. There’s not much left after that, but I’ve gotten along just fine so far, so I’ll just have continue forging the path alone.

Out of the blue, I remembered a conversation I had with a friend of mine a while back about a regional comic book/scifi/fantasy/gaming convention she had attended. (No, it wasn’t the Bi-Mon-Sci-Fi-Con.) I asked her how the show went upon her return, and she replied that it was mediocre; there weren’t many dealers or booths, and the crowd was mainly “lower-caste geeks.” I wasn’t quite sure what that term meant, so I asked for more details. She told me this group was composed of stereotypically overweight anime fangirls and World of Warcraft obsessives.

Now, this post is not meant to claim that my friend is somehow an elitist for placing one group of geeks below another; her “lower-caste” term was clearly meant as a joke, as she was just fishing for a funny term to describe the crowd. (She’s a comic book cosplay nerd herself, so she didn’t really “fit in” with most of the other patrons.) Instead, I want to examine an interesting trend that’s been growing exponentially in geek circles over the past decade: subdivision of the overall geek crowd into smaller groups (a caste system, if you will), the game of one-upmanship that accompanies this behavior, and the absolute irony of the entire process.

Heated debates between geeks is nothing new; you could trace ‘em all the way back to Star Trek versus Star Wars arguments in the late 1970s, and I’m sure there were Flash Gordon diehards who disliked John Carter of Mars even further back. However, what bound everyone together was their love of the source material, and in the end, that was all that was important. In recent years, that common bond has been eroding, and the geeks have no one to blame but themselves.

With growing frequency, geeks are cramming one another into a caste system of their own making. My friend’s joke nonwithstanding, this is a very real and serious situation: geeks in one group are demonizing the other, but not out of the good-natured rivalry seen in the past. Geek subcultures literally hate each other now, and often consider certain groups “beneath” them as far as the nerdy social strata are concerned.

This is the colossal irony I spoke of. Geeks and nerds have always complained that they’re a misunderstood and maligned social group, shunned by the rest of the world. Well, look at what they’re doing with this caste system: the exact same thing! So, not only are they maligned as a whole, they’re actively pushing some of their own peers even lower down the social scale, making the entire problem even worse. How fucked up is that?

The Internet has certainly contributed to the caste system in a big way; just as it has brought nerds together, it also drives mountainous wedges between them. Case and point: video game console flame wars, which have gotten far uglier than even the famous Sega and Nintendo rivalry in the early 1990s. Now, we’ve got entire sites and forums devoted to elevating one nerdy hobby while bashing another. All this truly accomplishes is making geeks look even worse in the eyes of everyone else!

I’ve always been of the mind that you shouldn’t hate an entire group; just specific people inside said group that personally piss you off. For example, I can’t stand all of that Twilight shit, and I think the fan fervor over it is incredibly annoying…but I have friends who are into it, and I’d never consider myself “better” than them as a result.

Having said that, if a Twilight diehard nearly knocks me down at the bookstore in their frenzy to score yet another generic young adult novel, they’re going to get an earful of rage.

After the success of last year’s Star Trek film, it was only natural that Pocket Books would add to their current roster of Trek fiction with novels based on the new alternate reality that had been created. They tapped David Mack, Alan Dean Foster, Greg Cox, and Christopher L. Bennett to write four new books that picked up where the movie left off, and they were scheduled for release starting in May of 2010.

Notice that I said they were scheduled. Mack recently announced on his blog that the books have been indefinitely postponed. Why? In the publisher’s own words:

“With last summer’s blockbuster Star Trek movie, J. J. Abrams created a new vibrant, layered version of the Star Trek universe. After careful consideration, we decided to hold off on telling new stories while J. J. and his team continue to develop his vision.”

Now, the authors in question were saddened by this, but respect the publisher’s decision. While I understand the publisher’s stance, I still find it to be a bit of a slap in the face.

These are some of my favorite modern science fiction authors, so it’s rather grating to see their hard work brushed aside so callously. Trek novels may be non-canon, but that doesn’t make them any less enjoyable. In fact, modern Trek fiction not only fleshes out characters, technology, and history, but it also helps fill in the gaps and rectify inconsistencies in the canon material that can’t (or won’t) otherwise be addressed. The latest Trek film had its share of problems, but I still loved it. It would’ve been great to see how these skilled authors worked within the brave new world that Abrams and crew have forged. New series and movies have never stopped the publishing schedule before, so why change things now, at the expense of the authors and their readers?

If that wasn’t bad enough, now we’ve got a gaping hole in the Trek publishing schedule. There’s other fiction set to be released later in the year, but that’s still a long time to wait to get our Trek fix.

There’s still a possibility that these books may see the light of day in the future, but I’m not holding my breath, to be honest. In the meantime, please support the four authors whose books were unceremoniously dumped! Their Trek works are fantastic, and well worth your hard-earned cash. Get your ass to the bookstore!

I’ve been a lifelong Arnold Schwarzenegger fan ever since I saw The Terminator as a kid. Later in life, I naturally built up a collection of his films on DVD, starting of course with his 1980s science fiction and action classics (Predator, Total Recall, et cetera). As far as Schwarzenegger’s comedy movies are concerned, they’re not all winners, but I still enjoy most of them. I began adding those to my collection after I’d finished with his action fare, and that’s where the problems began.

Most of Schwarzenegger’s comedies were released in the late 1990s by Universal, and they were all in the dreaded fullscreen format. I found this out the hard way many years ago after I came home with a two-pack containing Twins and Kindergarten Cop. Not only were the films cropped to fit the fullscreen ratio, but Twins in particular had incredibly poor video quality; it looks like the source material was a shitty VHS copy! When I bought an HDTV earlier this year, these problems were even more pronounced. The worst offender is Last Action Hero, which I’ve refrained from buying; not only is it fullscreen-only, it’s also using a particularly poor pan-and-scan technique. I’ve seen this version of the film on television from time to time, and it’s so blurry, it’s practically unwatchable.

Now, Twins and Kindergarten Cop were recently reissued as part of a three-pack with Junior, and purported to be in widescreen format. Well, not quite; it’s only widescreen because the film’s been cropped! The publishers actually took the fullscreen version, sliced off the top and bottom, and are marketing it as “widescreen.” What a joke!

This kind of crap makes me incredibly angry. While it’s understandable that the Schwarzenegger action flicks would get a much higher quality home video release, that’s no reason to release subpar versions of his other films, many of which did quite well at the box office.

The solution to this is that when these films come out on Blu-ray Disc, they’ll be in the proper widescreen format without the shitty cropping. (The source material’s original aspect ratio is required for BRD releases.) For example, Last Action Hero is coming to BRD in January, and that’s the version of the film I’ll pick up. If Twins and Kindergarten Cop eventually follow suit, then I can finally replace my crappy DVD copies. I generally don’t buy comedy or drama on BRD, as films like that really don’t require or benefit from a high definition transfer like a science fiction or other special effects-laden film would; but when they fix severe problems with the DVD releases, then I’m all for it.

At least my DVD copy of Jingle All the Way is in good ol’ anamorphic widescreen…you just can’t minimize Arnold punching a reindeer in the face.

Some traditions never die.