Stories from the Calindratem

As a nerd I love a good scifi movie and a good movie is not necessarily a big blockbuster. I stumbled over the Australian movie "Occupation Rainfall" because it has two of my favourite actors in it Daniel Gillies and Jason Isaacs.  Since I knew that this wasn't a Hollywood movie, I expected some nice entertainment but nothing huge in the sense of production value but I couldn't have been more mistaken. The special effects are fantastic and don't have to shy away from the comparison with big movies. The only thing that really bothered me in the technical department was the sound. I might have been due to the fact that I watched the original version on the German DVD of this movie and that they didn't put too much effort into the disc, but it was impossible to watch the movie with a fixed sound setting. I had to constantly readjusted the setting during the movie, which seriously diminished the experience.   The movie is a continuation of "Occupation...

Those of you who are following my blog might know, that when speaking about science fiction I often voice that a certain vision of the future is a possible version of what would happen if we let our obsession with technology go too far. I recently binge watched the series "The One", where a company promises you to meet your one true love through DNA testing. The show wasn't particularly about the science fiction part, but it pointed out the dangers, as many people in happy relationships would take the tests anyhow and got insecure about their partners. The essential question remains:   Do we have to use every sort of technology just because we can? Let's start with the example from the show: Dating and love. In the present, dating is harder than ever if you ask me. We live fast lives and many people don't want to commit, either out of fear or because they don't feel the need to. It only gets harder the older you get. We are then told, that online dating is pro...

Since some people have told me, that I always write these about characters that I like I have decided to change that and pick a character I don't like: Hayley Marshall-Kenner. Before getting into the character in details, let's clear something up: While I dislike the character, I find it is very well crafted and Phoebe Tonkin portrays her excellently. She is a stunningly beautiful woman yet manages to believably pull off the tomboy and though girl. She also does justice to the emotional range of Hayley. But let's take a closer look at the character itself.  When we meet Hayley in "The Vampire Diaries" we learn that she has helped Tyler break the sire bond, meaning that although she grew up outside of the werewolf community she has learnt about the supernatural world. Not much is known about the family that adopted her only that when she turned into a wolf her parents kicked her out.  Hayley is what can be called street smart, which makes sense since she spend time...

"Star Wars" is an epic story and these days with new movies and shows like "The Mandalorian" coming out, a new audience is drawn to the story. But while most people would answer that "Star Wars" is a science fiction story, mainly due to the presence of space ships, I wonder if it isn't more of a fantasy story or maybe a cross of both. The question is what defines science fiction and what defines fantasy?  Science fiction as the term indicates is a type of fiction that focuses on science or more precisely on science that has not yet proven or doesn't exist. A logical conclusion is therefore that most science fiction is set in a future setting, which is the first indicator that Star Wars might not be science fiction as we all know that it famously started with the text reading:  A long time ago in galaxy far, far away...  Another and maybe the most important factor that defines scifi is technology that doesn't exist yet and is subsequently consid...

I have been absent for a few weeks due to some issues with my day job and my everyday life. The truth is that calling massive anxiety problems issues it probably the understatement of the century. I am a person who loves to be active and to take on projects and in addition I love to help others. This leads to me overwhelming myself. Since the beginning of the year I have struggled therefore, a lot.  In addition to this, the isolation due to the pandemic has taken its toll as well. Whenever we watch the news, we hear how tough the pandemic is on the elderly or families with children, but a lot of people forget about us singles. This is not going to be a post about Covid-19 but a post about what has been affecting my life in last few weeks. However I feel the need to point out that if you are single and due to the pandemic work from home, isolation might hit you harder than people are aware off. During the high time of the lockdown, when you were only allowed to leave your house with...

When it comes to science fiction most stories are naturally set in the future. The franchises of "The Hunger Games" and "Star Trek" are polar opposites of the science fiction genre as they both predict a very different future, one is a dystopian future the other one is a utopian future. But what seems more likely from the way humanity is evolving right now? On one hand we get news about incredible newly developed technology every week and things that 10 years seemed impossible are happening now. On the other hand we are experiencing a global pandemic and global warming is a serious threat to our planet.    Per definition a dystopia is an imaginary place or condition in which everything is as bad as possible. It is often portrayed within a totalitarian or post-apocalyptic society. Sadly in many ways a dystopian future feels realistic when we watch the news. Instead of evolving it seems like we the human race are devolving. Hate crimes of all sorts are on the rise, en...