Stars in my eyes

When you look at me, would you believe that I own or have read just about every Star Wars book ever written? Would you believe I have four books from a Star Trek series that were never published and that I tried to make a costume for my brother based on the Jaffa of Stargate? It’s true. I am a Science fiction fanatic. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is my favorite movie, and Stargate: SG-1 is my favorite* television show. Although they have many similarities name-wise, there are still differences between them plot-wise.

Since few people have ever even heard of Stargate: SG-1, I’ll give a brief over-view. A “Stargate” is a metal device shaped like a ring, and it is used for interstellar travel [a geeky term for traveling from planet to planet through space]. It was invented by a race of people called Ancients, who supposedly lived before there were humans on Earth. It was discovered in the early 1900’s in Egypt. It was shipped to the United States and kept secretly inside a mountain fortress in Colorado until the present day, when an Egyptologist was called in to figure out what it was.

When the Stargate is fully operational, a team from Earth goes through the gate to the planet Abydos and rescues the people who were enslaved by the enemy, the Jaffa. The sarcastic Col. Jonathan “Jack” O’Neill (Portrayed by Richard Dean Anderson) leads the mission. With him are Maj. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and the Egyptologist, Dr. Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks). In the first episode, the Jaffa capture them and there is a delicious battle with lots of guns and things blowing up. There are several other characters (some human and some alien) that make up the cast. Together, they are known as SG-1.

What I like about Stargate SG-1 is that there are more episodes telling the further adventures of SG-1. With the Star Wars movies, there are just 3 movies† to watch. Granted, the story continues in wonderful books that I have collected since I could read. Conversely, the one Stargate book I found was not so wonderful. To boil it down, I bought it at Goodwill for fifty cents, and within a few days it returned there. I was not impressed. As Dorothy Parker^ said, “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” I think that is an apt description.

In the way of similarities between Star Wars and Stargate, some of the characters have striking resemblances. I mentioned that SG-1’s hero, Jack, is a sarcastic, swashbuckling, yet loveable scoundrel, not unlike our friend Han Solo from Star Wars.   A New Hope’s Luke Skywalker is pretty cocky and dippy, similar to the Egyptologist, Daniel. My friend admits they’re both kind of cute. Jack and Samantha have a little bit of the romance going on, but neither of them will admit it. Snatches of conversation between Han Solo and Princess Leia come flashing back because the same type of ‘disdainful banter’ is exchanged between Jack and Samantha throughout the series.

While the two do have their similarities, the two stories have their own virtues. Okay, so they don’t have any ‘virtues’ at all; they’re just good action adventures that I enjoy watching. I understand that many people out there have no use for science fiction, and you may be one of them. Even if that is the case, and you couldn’t care less about this subject of this essay…

“May the force be with you.”

*It’s my favorite TV show after MacGyver, that is. MacGyver also stars Richard Dean Anderson.

†Because of a deep-seated hatred for the horrendous new Star Wars movies that just came out, I refuse to acknowledge their existence.

I always thought I was skilled at understanding people who spoke with accents. I even practice speaking with a British, German, Australian, and Southern accent sometimes. A trip across the country taught me that even though I understood a lot of what people were saying, not knowing all of it can sometimes be embarrassing.

In April of this year, Mom, Grandma, and I took an airplane flight to Pennsylvania for my great-grandmother's 100th birthday. Since Grandma would not be able to walk around the airports, we arranged for someone at the airport to bring a wheelchair for her. The lady who pushed the chair was a middle-aged woman from Kenya, as I recall. Mom and Grandma talked with her as we made our way through the building. She told us where she was from, how long she had lived in the United States, how much she enjoyed it, and other small talk. Her accent was very strong, but she spoke slowly and clearly enough for me to understand. I appreciated how polite she was. She was one of those people that you would enjoy having over for tea.

When the three of us had to change planes in Washington DC, I encountered a completely different experience. As we were walking up to the small propeller plane, an airline official told me to do something in what appeared to be a mixture of Spanish and English shot out of a machine gun. It sounded something like this: "Hey! Hey! You something, something, something!" My knowledge of Spanish could fit in a pint-sized Mason canning jar, and I remember taking a step back and looking at Mom. The official did not seem to like that, because she began to yell at me and wave a bright green sticker a few inches away from my face. Finally, someone grabbed my carry-on bag, put the sticker on it, and tossed it onto a cart outside the door. I’m sure the woman was glaring daggers at me as I scurried back into the plane.

Within a day’s time, I had come into contact with two people who seemed to know the English language equally well but had two different ways of communicating. I’m sure if the official had bothered to slow down and separate her words like the Kenyan lady had, I would have been able to figure out what she was saying. As it was, I left feeling humiliated and slightly annoyed over the incident.

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What would you have scored it?