Despite what my extended absence may have led you to believe, I did in fact survive my annual pilgrimage to Dragon Con with only a mild hangover and one unidentified bruise. Unfortunately it was immediately followed by our biggest yearly event at work and an ongoing battle with the plague that knocked me out of commission for a couple of weeks. But I’m back!
The quick recap is that Dragon Con was a complete success as usual. I met up with some old friends, made some new ones, and chickened out when presented with multiple opportunities to meet Craig Parker. (If you haven’t caught on, someone who was in both Lord of the Rings and Spartacus is pretty much my holy grail.) I just couldn’t do it. Even shot-gunning a beer for courage didn’t help, though I did learn that I might be too old for shot-gunning beers, so that wasn’t a total loss. But I’ll admit it, I’m a major wuss.
By our 8 hour drive home on Monday, my Con-buddy Kristina and I were slap happy and probably in desperate need of a balanced meal. Because we have different interests we tend to spend the majority of the Con apart, so we were both brimming with stories of our adventures to fill the time. As she began telling me about meeting David Blue (Eli from Stargate Universe) and how much she misses that show, my sleep deprived mind started to wander. If I had the power to bring back one show, to save it from an untimely and unfortunate grave, which show would I choose?
In my usual style I asked Kristina that question as soon as it popped into my head. She didn’t hesitate. She loves Stargate. It’s one of her annual Dragon Con costumes. And in the overall Stargate world, Universe seems to be one story that hasn’t been completely told. On the surface, it definitely has all the right ingredients: a built in and loyal fanbase, a story that ended on a cliffhanger and needs to be finished, and a cast that would still be young enough to actually pull it off. Maybe her dream isn’t so crazy?
Asking myself the same question turned out to be not quite as simple. I know the obvious answer. Maybe it’s what I should say. Most sci-fi fans wouldn’t even hesitate. And yes obviously I would love to see more Firefly. We all would. It still makes me angry whenever I think back on how it went down. But, and please don’t throw things at me, isn’t that part of the magic? That anger. The hatred of Fox. The bitterness about the injustice of how the whole genre is treated. Isn’t that part of what we love? So, I’ll say it. I don’t think I’d use my power on Firefly. I think it will live on forever partially because of how it ended, not in spite of it.
More recently there have been a couple of less obvious options. Enlisted was a truly hilarious show that got buried in an impossible Friday night timeslot by, you guessed it, Fox. Happy Endings is another show that I keep re-watching even though I can already recite every one of the limited number of episodes. And my dad is still pissed about Revolution. Brings it up frequently.
Childhood me would say I should go with My So-Called Life. I’d like to believe that’s only 50%ish because of Jordan Catalano. It was a show that understood what it was like to be the weirdo trying to find the right balance between being a good kid and a rebel. It was ahead of its time with a gay character, sex, and open drug use. And man did Angela Chase dress cool. Seriously, I still don’t know why my mom wouldn’t buy me boots like hers.
But if I had to pick one show, and I apparently I do because I already made up the rules to this silly game, it’s really not that hard for me. Freaks and Geeks is still one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. It did a lot of what My So-Called Life did, but better and with James Franco and Seth Rogan. It had family dynamics, good friendships and destructive ones, and great music. It was adolescence in a nutshell. It was amazing. And perhaps most importantly, it featured one of the best TV depictions of a game of Dungeons and Dragons ever.
Your turn. What show would you bring back if you had the power? I know, I know. Firefly.
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