TV Review - Torchwood Season Two - Episode 12- "Fragments"

Written by Chris Chibnall
Directed by Johnathan Fox Bassett

SPOILER ALERT!

I'd like to warn readers of my blog in advance, that I tend to like to do in-depth reviews of films and TV episodes, so if you haven't watched the episode in question and don't want your enjoyment of the story spoiled, please don't read on. Avoid spoilers, stay surprised! I know it's hard in this day and age to resist finding out what happens, especially with the rise of Internet leeks and rumour mills, but do try! I did think about putting spoiler warnings on these posts, but then I realised I'd probably be doing this for every review I upload, so excuse my lack of net etiquette , but you'll have to be careful to avoid any reviews of shows you haven't seen. Don't let that stop you from enjoying other features of the blog though.


Basic Plot (may contain Spoilers):

The episode opens dramatically on another action-packed day at the office for the Torchwood team. The black van rolls in, boots are placed on the ground - this is the team in action, firm and business-like. We pan up to an abandoned factory where the team have been sent to investigate an alien signal. Ianto Jones and Owen Harper search the upper floors whilst Toshiko Sato and Jack Harkness scout out the building. They discovered something unexpected - bombs timed and planted to go off as the team enter. It's a trap. Cue an almighty explosion.

Gwen Cooper, the only team member still at home, wakes up in bed to a call. Realising that something has gone terribly wrong, it's up to herself and her husband Rhys to rescue each of the team members in succession, pulling them out of the rubble one by one. As the rescue continues, the camera focuses on each of the trapped team members in turn and tells the story of how they came to join Torchwood Three.

Jack's Story:
We cut to 19th Century Cardiff where Jack lies sprawled on an alley floor with a bottle through his chest. Two women beat him up and menace him. It turns out they're from the earliest version of the Torchwood Organisation. They drug him and interrogate him, continuing to kill him repeatedly to figure out how he works. He informs them he's waiting for the Doctor to return to fix him, as the Tardis refuels from the Cardiff time rift, he knows he'll be back someday. Jack reluctantly takes a small assignment for Torchwood, bringing in a Blowfish, whom the female operative then shoots. Seeing Torchwood's brutality, Jack refuses their attempt to bribe him with money and a job offer. He goes to a tavern to think it over, where a young girl reads him fortune and tells him it will 100 years before he will see the Doctor again. He agrees to join Torchwood to pass the time.

1999: A whole century has passed and Jack has remained part of the Torchwood team. He comes back to the Hub to discover teammate Alex has shot and killed all the other six team members. Having discovered a horrifying view of the future, he describes his actions as mercy killings in the face of horrors to come. He tells Jack the 21st Century is where it all changes, echoing the series' tag-line. He shoots himself and leaves Jack alone, in charge of the Hub.

Toshiko's Story:
Workaholic Tosh is working late at the Government Intelligence Agency she works for. Her boss praises her dedication on the way out. Once he leaves, she dashes to retrieve and crack a security code and ducks around cameras to retrieve and steal some plans from a secure room in the basement. Taking the plans home, she uses them to build a sonic modulator as a bargaining tool to release her mother, who is being held hostage by a terrorist organisation. She is captured by UNIT and imprisoned without trial, lonely and devoid of hope until Jack comes to free her, on the proviso that she joins the Torchwood team. She will not be allowed contact with her mother. Jack reveals that the plans were faulty and it would be impossible for a normal person to construct it - proof that Tosh is a scientific genius and that's why he needs her.

Ianto's Story:
We see Jack wrestling with a Weevil in some Welsh woods. He's helped by Ianto, whose capable calmness in the face of an alien pegs him as a previous London Torchwood operative to Jack. Despite pleading for a job at Torchwood Cardiff and complimenting his coat, Jack rejects him. Ianto doesn't give up and greets Jack with coffee outside the Hub. He is desperate to prove himself and he flirts some more. Stepping into the path of the Torchwood van, Ianto won't take know for an answer. Jack is angered until he agrees to help Ianto capture a pterodactyl that has escaped from the Rift. comedy running and shouting ensues, as well as Ianto's secret weapon:chocolate. I'm not even kidding! The dinosaur picks up Jack, who with Ianto's help subdues the beast, but not before Jack lands awkwardly on top of Ianto. The tension and attraction between them and his capableness in the field, convince Jack to hire him.

Owen's Story:
We are surprised to flashback to see Owen happy with a lovely fiancee Kate, a nice home and a promising medical career. He's busy planning his wedding to Kate, but there's one problem: there's something seriously wrong with Kate's memory, she can barely remember anything, even simple tasks like making a cup of tea. Owen begs his supervisor to run some more brain scans. They believe its early on-set Alzheimers, until they discover a brain tumour. Owen and Kate part tearfully and Owen waits devotedly for the results of the Operation. Suddenly Jack appears telling him it was too late for Kate, they go into the operating room and all the surgeons are dead. Kate's brain has been hijacked by an alien parasite, Owen cannot accept this and tries to fight Jack, before blacking out. His visions of a Jack are brushed away as post-truamatic stress, but Owen is sure he existed. He takes time off work and Jack appears to him when he visits Kate's grave. His first reponse when he realises jack is real is to punch him. Owen agrees to remain a doctor, working on aliens and making a difference with Torchwood. This proves Owen's capacity to fully love and explains his cynicism.

With all the team now safe and sound and out of harms way, they get themselves out of the collapsed building with Tosh nursing a broken arm. Their peace is short-lived as a holographic message sudden springs to life from Jack's wrist-band. It's Captain John (played by the fabulous James Marsters), he's behind the bomb attack and he's back - and this time he's brought familiar company: Jack's estranged brother Grey. He issues Captain Jack a warning, he will tear his world apart and everyone he cares about will die. Starting now.

Initial Thoughts:
Ever since Torchwood began, as an adult spin-off of flagship UK SF show "Doctor Who", it's detractors have had one big criticism: the two-dimensional characters. Viewers could not connect with the characters who primitively slept with any alien or human going (gender optional) and swore just because they could. Adults were turned off at Russell and Co's attempt at "adult" material, viewing it as simplistic and lacking in the narrative depth they had hoped for. Thankfully, Torchwood seemed to overcome these difficulties this year, upping the characterisation, toning down the sex and swearing and upping the action and humour.

This episode functions as a four-part play, consisting of character flashbacks and I found it very refreshing to see sides of the characters that we haven't seen before, filling the gaps in viewer's knowledge. Jack's story was entertaining - particularly its revealing of how Jack spent his time waiting for the Doctor. Tosh and Owen's stories really moved me. Toshiko's incarceration really reminded me strongly of Burmese freedom fighter/leader An Song Kyi, the President of Burma who has been wrongfully imprisoned for years for speaking out against the Junta. I know the political elements weren't overtly there, but I made that connection. I think it might be the red uniforms. You really got a sense of her intelligence and loneliness.

However, I still feel that this was simply a bridge episode pointing towards the finale, despite its strong character-driven tone. Still it was worth the watch alone for Ianto's goading of a pterodactyl with chocolate! Do you think dinosaurs like plain or dark?

The Femme Factor:
Tosh and Gwen are both given good screen time here. With Gwen having to act calm under pressure and get her friends out of the building safely. Toshiko's making of the sonic modulator from faulty plans shows what a genius she is and I wish she wasn't so under-valued by the team. She's so smart and capable, I love her! I think it's really important for audiences to see a woman of the colour on the team. It keeps things from getting too aggressively White!

I liked the two female Victorian Torchwood operatives, they were pretty prim and menacing. It's interesting to see women of the era having active roles, as they weren't allowed much autonomy at that period in time. It makes sense that a job at Torchwood might offer them the freedom they desired to take charge. Having said that, they're pretty ruthless for killing that Blowfish alien. So not all good then.

Did anyone else love the creepy little Tarot girl warning Jack that the Doctor would return for him in 200 years time? She was great and it answered a lot of hanging continuity questions across both shows. Maybe I'm just a big fan of fortune telling...

Best Lines:

Captain Jack: "Guess I got a little out of control. *points at his chest* Flesh wound!"

A hilariously subtle Monty Python reference from Jack that made me laugh out loud.

Tosh: "Who are you?"
Captain Jack: "Nobody. I don't exist. Which for a man of my charisma is quite an achievement."

The classically modest Captain Jack, explains all to an incarcerated Tosh. Very funny in a smug way.

Ianto: "No. I've got a secret weapon. *pulls a bar out of his pocket* Chocolate! *approaches pterodactyl gingerly* It's erm..good for your seretonin levels, if you err, have seretonin levels."

Ianto's hilarious plan - I love that they give him so many funny lines. This one was a classic.

John: "Okay, here's what's going to happen. Everything you love, everything you treasured will die. I'm going to tear your world apart, Captain Jack Harkness, piece by piece. Starting now. Maybe now you'll want to spend some time with me."

Captain John issues his villainous ultimatum- cue obligatory ominous cliffhanger.

Favourite Scenes:

Ianto and Jack's comedy chase and capture of the pterodactyl gets my vote entirely. It totally stole the episode. His suggestion to chase the dinosaur using chocolate made me laugh out loud. I particularly liked the subtle flirtation between the two of them in the "I like your coat" "I like your suit" lines and the way Ianto woos his way in through his extraordinary powers of dry-cleaning and making a fabulous cup of coffee. He's pretty persistent. I'll be taking my post-University job hunting tips from him. Works every time!

Owen's scene where he tries to help his fiancee Kate remember things was very touching. Especially when she later remarks that she cannot remember his name. I have a grandmother who suffers severely from Alzheimers and Dementia and it's not something I'd wish on anyone and they portrayed it very sympathetically. The coldness Jack shows as Owen grieves over his fiancee's body is absolutely chilling. He treats her as just another alien creature to be put down. It just shows how joining Torchwood can seriously affect your morals. His narrow escape from the falling pane of glass was pretty scary - I seriously thought they were about to kill him off.

Speculation:
We've know Grey would return to haunt Jack from the moment Captain John mentioned his name at the end of the season opener: Kiss,Kiss,Bang Bang. The flashbacks to Jack's past and over the course of the Season have also all led us this way.

I have a feeling Captain John and Grey are in league with each other. It seems too simple for it to be a standard hostage situation. By the sounds of John's threat that those Jack cares about will die, things do not look good for the Torchwood team at all and I wouldn't be surprised if someone bites the dust in the finale. Having Owen die, might be too obvious as he's living on borrowed time anyway. I adore Toshiko as the smartest, sexiest woman on the team and hope they'll keep her around for next year. I hope nothing happens to Ianto as he's become my highlight of the series, they've given him some fantastically funny lines this year and I adore his romance with Jack. They're breaking a lot of watershed taboos with that one and I say good for them!

Methinks something terribly catastrophic and intensely personal is coming Captain Jack's way and he's not going to like the outcome. Someone won't survive - that's for certain.

Nit-Picks: I hate to say it BUT:

• Surely Torchwood equipment would have been sophisticated enough to tell the difference between an alien organic lifeform and a series of mechanical bombs? If they deal with alien technology all the time, you'd think they wouldn't have fallen into such a simplistic trap. It felt like too much of an easy plot device. Whilst I know the whole episode centered around the telling of the flashbacks, I think the writers could have been a bit more inventive in framing them - plot-wise.

• The entire team must be as indestructable as Captain Scarlett to have all survived those bomb blasts relatively unscathed. Lucky break or a writing ploy? You decide.

• Owen's story, whilst being very touching, felt a bit like an apologist tagged-on story to please and placate many of the viewers who disliked his character's treatment of women (the aphrodisiac spray particularly), his sleeping with Gwen, shooting of Jack and who generally disliked his character full stop. The fact that his fiancee died explains a lot of his behaviour, but it feels too late in the day for these revelations to truly deepen his character. I've said it before,but I feel it's true - Owen became a much more interesting character once they killed him off. Which really doesn't say much for him before that does it?

Overall Verdict:
I'm really glad the writers decided to tell us more about the characters through this episode. I'm a big fan of character-driven drama. No matter how high the stakes are, if the viewers don't know and love the characters deeply, they're not going to care about the out-come. I really loved Tosh and Ianto's stories and I liked getting more perspective on them as people. I hope we'll see them both shine in the season finale. I hope Owen's story gets resolved in a satisfying way too.

However despite the attempt of "Fragments" to raise the emotional depth of the characters for the viewers, I still don't feel totally connected to the team. This episode, whilst illuminating, feels more like a build-up episode to the finale. I felt that the framing device of the bombs was somewhat contrived and somehow - no matter how much I try to get into Torchwood, I can't quite put my hand on my heart and say I love it. It's very slickly put together, but sometimes it lacks soul. You can tell Russell T. Davies is a Buffy/Angel fanboy as Torchwood tries so hard to capture the dark adult qualities of the Buffy spin-off Angel, even down to the billowing leather coats and the team's heroic slow-motion shots. If the writing was sharper and the plot held a few more surprises, I'd give this a higher mark, but nevertheless it was an entertaining bridge episode. I hope the Torchwood finale will exceed my current expectations.

6/10 - A good effort at characterisation with some great dramatic moments, but ultimately it feels like darkly entertaining filler.

SF Girl Magazine - Our Mission, If You Choose To Accept It.

SF Girl Magazine is a magazine dedicated directly to female SF and Fantasy fans (or girl geeks...as some might call us) of all ages and persuasions.It is written for and by smart, feisty women who are passionate and proud to be SF fans and who are keen to debunk the old stereotype that all SF fans are spotty, introverted men who live with their parents and fantasise about Seven of Nine/Cylon Six/and any other sexed-up and boobed up SF robot girl you can think of.

It aims not only to challenge these stereotypes, but to give women a greater voice in a genre where they are often marginalised and forced to accept the views of a media that often panders too greatly to the male gaze.

SOUNDS A BIT SCARY:

I know! BUT we also aim to please and we're not without a sense of humour. Within our pages you'll not only find serious and thought-provoking essays and articles BUT geek humour; fan girls sharing their secret and not-so secret obsessions; collectors pages; convention reports; interviews with female SF journalists and writers; reviews of films, novels and TV shows - both old and new and articles about your favourite SF heroines.

ALL WRITTEN FOR WOMEN BY WOMEN.

Okay....I'm with you so far BUT:

I'M A GUY! CAN I WRITE FOR YOU?

Of course you can! The more the merrier and well done for asking! Whilst SF Girl is written for women by women, we are not exclusivist and always welcome a translator from the Y side of things. Just don't forget who your audience is!

One Girl Revolution - One Woman At A Time.

I started this blog and this magazine because I knew there were lots of women out there who felt the same. I want to give them a real voice within the SF community and a unique place where they can express their views on what excites and inspires them within the genre. It definitely wouldn’t hurt to bring some female voices to the table, seeing as there are so many of them crying out to begin with. More women are reading and watching SF and Fantasy than ever before, the more I speak to and meet fellow female fans, the more I see this is true; and whilst there are some fabulously written titles out there on the shelves, such as the: SFX, Death Ray and Sci-Fi Now magazines. I still feel none of them are truly acknowledging and embracing their female audience.Mainly because their writing staff is made up almost predominantly of men. Having worked at SFX Magazine, for a week of work experience, I got used to the blokey banter, but there were times where, being the one of only three girls in an office of men, I felt a bit set apart and lonely, despite throughly enjoying the work and the company. There are great female SF journalists out there such as Tara DiLullo Bennett and Jayne Nelson, but they are as rare as stardust. I know I want to be one of them and make a real difference. I also firmly believe female readers are settling for male-orientated SF mags simply because there are no other outlets available to them. SF Girl's mission is to provide that outlet, that elusive missing piece in the intergalactic female puzzle.

Challenging the Male Gaze

Don’t get me wrong, I know sometimes it’s the women that make up the audience minority, often accounting for only a quarter of a SF magazine’s reader demographic. Although, I wonder whether this might be because some women are put off by the general male-orientated tone of the writing. Personally, I get fed up with the occasional captions that explicitly put a hot, scantily-clad, SF woman in the foreground with a deliberately ogling comment. It makes me feel as if the writer’s assume so few women read the magazine, no one’s likely to be offended by the gesture. Well, sorry lads, but I am and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Of course, many magazines are slaves to their readership in a constant cycle of supply and demand, so if the male readers want to stare longingly up Hayden Panettiere’s increasingly short cheerleading skirts, than that’s what gets spread across the front page (considering how young Hayden is, I find this a little disturbing). Yes, I realise not all fan boys are slavering cavemen, but it irritates me how often women in SF have to wear ridiculously tight and fetishised costumes just to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

There's more to a woman than the shortness of her skirt.

“Sex sells” as any advertising company would tell you. But, it is truly fair when that selling seems to aim itself in only one direction? Let’s be clear: most female fans often have shallow needs too. I’m not adverse to staring wistfully at the sublimely gorgeous and talented David Tennant every Saturday evening (along –it seems-with every other girl in Britain) and the sheer number of times Angel and Spike appeared with their shirts off on Buffy the Vampire Slayer did get a tad ridiculous sometimes. So, let’s not rule out own ogling tendencies, girls. But why, I must ask, should we settle for accepting that “boys will be boys”, without questioning whether we are just settling for second best in the reader and audience stakes? This leads me to the following question:

Why is there no magazine catering specifically for female SF fans?

Admittedly there are some great blogs, webzines and fan campaigns out there for female fans, such as Pink Raygun and Fan Girl Magazine. But, they’re very rarely updated and appear, despite the quality of their reviews, to be simply a collection of links and fragments of female fan commentary. I feel, from my own perspective as a fellow female SF fan, that we need a real, tangible magazine to call our own. My mission is to work seriously hard to make this dream a printed reality. I do it because I know what it would have meant to me to have a magazine appear on my doorstep that let me know I wasn’t alone in my interests. That there were other women out there like me, who loved science fiction. I do it because I’m one of you too and it’s that passion and commitment that keeps me writing.

What do people think women want from genre programming?

Often it’s incorrectly assumed that women want very different things from their SF than men. Even the Sci-Fi Channel occasionally falls prone to this thinking. Hence, the reason why script writers often shove the occasional sickeningly sweet, angst-ridden or implausible love triangle into a perfectly good quality show or film, in order to draw in more female viewers. I’m sorry, but since when did female SF fans only watch these shows for the romance? I find it insulting some entertainment execs think this is the only way to get women to watch anything. To be honest, sometimes I blame the popularity of “Charmed”. I know it’s not the sole reason for bad genre programming, but here me out:

“Charmed” (1998-2006) was a highly successful teen supernatural show about three witches and it became hugely popular with young girls and women who did not normally watch genre shows. Essentially, it was an endearing, but often lazily written chick flick with skimpy costumes, demons and magic. I do watch it and enjoy it for what it is, but I’m not immune to how poorly scripted and acted it is in places. The show’s focus was often more on the girls’ love lives than their supernatural dilemmas. It is often mocked by male SF fans as “that awful programme the girlfriend watches,” when they can’t persuade their other half to watch anything else. If this is what most SF fans think women prefer to watch within the genre, then I’m very afraid for our chances at being taken seriously as real fans.

So what do SF Women really want?

The same things you do! I (and I’m sure many other women) adore traditional science fiction shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica for many reasons, from the quality of the acting, the writing and the storytelling, as well as the kick-ass fight scenes, the snappy dialogue, big explosions and amazing space battles. If the romances and sex scenes are tasteful and genuinely fit the story then I’m happy to have them there, otherwise leave it out, it serves no real purpose other than titillation. Also, please, for the love of God, SF writers don’t assume that all women want is a romantic comedy in space. The fact that I know what a Viper and a FTL drive is, as well as being able to point out the difference between an A-Wing and Y-Wing star-fighter often gives me serious nerd kudos among my male friends, and why not? Who says a girl can’t feel a huge surge of adrenalin as Starbuck and co. come blasting into a war zone with all guns blazing. Sometimes it’s all I live for. *grins*

All I, and many other female fans, ask for is for strong female characters that are well written (or realistically drawn, if we’re talking about graphic novels) and portrayed as real, strong, but emotionally complex women, rather than cardboard sex objects. I want characters and heroines I can believe in and relate to, as well as cheer for, and that goes for the male characters too. So whilst, I’m not advocating aggressive, macho personas nor at the other end of the spectrum, oversensitive metro-sexual men, I do feel that male SF characters deserve the same well-rounded treatment.

Virginia Woolf may never have written any science fiction during her lifetime, but she got it right when she said: “A woman needs a room of her own, if she is to write.” We need a magazine of our own. An inner space within outer space, if you will, that is uniquely ours. SF Girl Magazine hopes to not only fulfil that goal, but provide readers with red-hot reviews, features and debates on everything from your favourite SF heroines and classic films to the latest news and releases, all with women firmly in mind. Always boldly going where no man has gone before.

I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

How do I get involved?

We are always looking for new ideas and material. If you would like to write something, (an article or review), for the magazine or send in any fiction or artwork., please e-mail me at the following address and get our submission guidelines: editor@sfgirlmagazine.com. While you are there, you can also sign up for our mailing list, which will give regular updates on the magazine’s progress and extra insider info. Just e-mail the above address and leave a contact name.

We have a website that is currently under construction. This will boast an exciting on-line forum and plenty of exciting features. The site will hopefully be launched over Summer 2008. We can be found at www.sfgirlmagazine.com. At this stage you can get involved by staying tuned to this very blog. If you have a Facebook profile, you can search for and join the SF Girl Magazine group on the social networking site and get stuck in with our debates on our growing discussion board here

Whatever you choose, stick with SF Girl and you’ll be sure of an exciting and illuminating journey. Prepare for a great adventure!

 

Kelly Sorbie – SF Girl Editor Extraordinaire

But, you're a Girl!

Yes, I own that t-shirt and no, I'm not going to apologise for it. I'm a Whedon Girl until the end! Also, I really wish I could afford a Force FX lightsaber, but my student loan probably wouldn't cover it.

Okay, let’s get this straight out in the open: I’m a geek. I think I’ve always been a geek. In fact, I’m pretty sure if I’d had it my way, I would’ve emerged from the womb clutching my lightsaber and demanding to know the location of the nearest star ship. Normally, this kind of declaration would label me the epitome of loser, but nowadays, people get geeky about all sorts of things, sometimes even relatively mainstream interests like cars, computers and obscure works of literature – hell, even collecting stamps; the point is everyone needs a hobby.

But, somehow, science fiction and fantasy fans seem to take things far beyond that, we take our passions and make them our obsessions, (believe me that’s the only way I can explain half the Star Wars stuff I own); I think that’s why many people outside the fan community are politely bemused by us. Of course, there are many casual viewers of science fiction and fantasy programming; we only have to look at the overwhelming success of Heroes, Lost and the British tea-time staple Doctor Who over the past three years to see that. Phillip Pullman and J.K. Rowling have both made their names in recent times, for writing fantastic fiction. But, for those of us who post on-line after every episode, who read the classic SF and Fantasy novels, who collect action figures, comic books and collectors items and who love getting involved in passionate debates with fellow fans; in many ways we’re in a league of our own.

So how do I fit into this equation?

Well, like I said, I’ve always been a geek. This fact has always been made harder by the additional fact that I’m a girl, usually for reasons made unknown to me. I grew up in the late 1980’s (yes, I am quite the youngling) and the first thing I remember being really obsessed with was the cartoon ‘Thundercats’. I was four years old and I insisted that my parents bought me all the action figures, which I still have. I used to hide behind the sofa every time Mumm-Ra showed up. I wanted to be Cheetara, so I could run really fast. I even tried to run up and down the garden several times pretending to be her, until I got a stitch. That’s dedication for you. I used to prefer to take my Lion-O figure to bed with me, instead of my teddy bear, I had to be forcibly pried away from it; figure that one out Freud!

I was often bribed into going to my ballet classes by promises to tape “Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles” off ‘Going Live’ for when I got back. I wanted to be April O’Neal, which probably influenced my choice of a career in journalism, or maybe not. Those yellow jumpsuits were criminal. I quit ballet, but my passion for cartoons and SF remained. In fact, Mum insisted it was the only way she could get me to eat pizza. I used to sneak downstairs and watch repeats of Ulysses 3000 at 6 am, before I went to school. I really loved the Ewoks cartoon as well, but this was before I knew what Star Wars was. God, I was truly deprived.

The one thing I remember clearly about mealtimes was my Dad insisting we watched the BBC repeats of Classic Star Trek, in which I did my own distinct tone-deaf version of the wailing theme tune, complete with a dance I made up myself. I was an odd child, but Star Trek was always our father-daughter bonding time. I was left distraught by the end of "Wrath of Kahn", but Dad assured me Spock would be just fine. We reveled in Picard and Kirk's adventures and as I got older, I was sitting down excitedly to watch the pilots of Deep Space Nine and Voyager. It was so good to finally see a female Starfleet Captain.

I was the first person to get really into “Power Rangers” when it first came out. Call me a slave to cynical marketing ploys, but I really loved it. My parents bought me all the toys for my 9th birthday and every time we played it in the playground I had to be the Yellow Ranger. Screw all this Pink nonsense. Usually this game would quickly descend into ninja based chaos. I distinctly remember being sent to the head teacher for karate kicking someone in the face, so anyone who said cartoons don’t encourage gratuitous violence was clearly lying. I now prefer to take my anger at the world out on Halo, it’s just a pity I can’t shoot or take aim for toffee.

"But, you're a Girl!"

The increasingly common cry of my childhood became “But, you’re a girl!” or “Isn’t that boy’s stuff?” It drove me crazy. It wasn’t that I just wanted to be ‘one of the lads’, I was trying to keep up, sure, but I guess, what I really wanted to prove was that I could do everything just as well as they did. I spent my youth jumping around barns and running through the mud in the woods with army camouflage on, war-paint on my face, toy gun and walkie-talkie in my hands; I also played with my Barbie and sang along to Disney films. I never saw anything wrong in that. Although once, my 70 year old grandmother bewildered by my thirtieth viewing of The Empire Strikes Back asked loudly: “What on earth are you watching that for? That’s a boy’s film!" I replied simply: "But, that's what I like Nan!" She shook her head, like I was a lost cause.

In 1997, I was eleven and reading Tolkien alongside Dickens and Jane Austen. I discovered Star Wars for the first time that year, I saw a documentary and begged my mother to take me to see the Special Edition in the cinema. Seeing it for the first time on the big screen was a rush. That opening sweep of the Star Destroyer never gets old. I fell in love with the characters and I rapidly devoured every Expanded Universe Star Wars novel I could find. Mara Jade became my heroine! She kicked bum, wielded a lightsaber, made tough smart-ass remarks and even Luke Skywalker loved and respected her. That was my kind of SF girl. I still find it embarrassing to this day, that my first ever crush was on Mark Hamill. I was young, okay? No-one has any real taste at that age! Now, at the semi-mature age of twenty-two, I can safely say I see exactly what Leia saw in Han Solo. Harrison Ford, back in the day = Yummy!

Having overloaded on Star Wars in every possible way from buying all the tie-in books, encylopedias, character guides, video games and novels – you name it, I still have it. I sought out new fantastical worlds to immerse myself in. I watched old BBC repeats of the original 1970’s Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century, just because I loved the Seventies kitsch of it all. They were both undeniably cheesy, but provided great evening escapism. I got hooked on Quantum Leap, mainly because it was undeniably hilarious seeing Scott Bakula in drag. I also still maintain that Sliders was great fun. John Rhys Davies (Gimli from Lord of the Rings) was in it , so it can't have been all that bad.

Finding My Inner Super-Heroine:

I also immersed myself in Marvel and DC cartoons. I was lucky to be growing up in the 1990’s, when superhero cartoons were having a new revival. I watched X-Men, Spiderman, Superman, Batman:The Animated Series and the Marvel Action Hour, which featured The Hulk, Iron Man and the Fantastic Four. I immersed myself in comic book culture, even though I had never picked up a comic book, so that when this decade’s comic-book film explosion happened, I already knew most of the character’s back stories. I thought Jean Grey, Storm and Rogue were beyond cool – and having gone back and started reading the original graphic novels – I still do.

But the thing I lamented most was that there were no girl’s superhero costumes. I could pretend to be a fairy princess to my heart’s content, but if I wanted to live out my childhood fantasies of being Bat Girl or Super Girl, I had to dress up in my brother’s costumes, which were a tad small on an eight year-old me. At school we had a “Heroes and Villains” fancy-dress day. I decided to go at Super Girl as I had just seen the 1984 Helen Slater film over Christmas and adored it. I had tiny red boots, the cape and even the Super-sign drawn by my cousin to pin on my chest. I like to think I looked rather cute, even if I did spend break-time zooming around the playground attacking bad guys and saving people. The only thing that annoyed me was when a teacher asked me quite innocently: "Oh, are you Superman?" To which I replied rather angrily, "No way! I'm Kara! I'm Super GIRL!" Call me a prepubescent feminist, but I was insanely cross that no-one knew who I was. It was the first time I fully realised how invisible and secondary many female heroines are in our popular culture.

My angry feminist expression was not unlike this, except smaller and cuter.

I still have the same costume problem today. I wanted to be a super-heroine last year for Halloween. I had the very narrow choice of some very slutty Wonder Woman or Bat Girl costumes. Absolutely nothing anyone sold was above a maximum 12 UK dress size, which I, most definitely, am not. I was a little infuriated to say the least. Why can’t bigger women wear those costumes and who makes these stupid rules? In the end, I had to buy a men’s Jedi costume, which was highly baggy on me and roll with it. Apparently, female Jedi don’t exist either. Although, tell that to Aayla Secura!


Vampire Slaying and Alien Conspiracies:

Going back to my childhood geek roots, it was 1999 when I got seriously obsessed with The X-Files. I was hiding behind the sofa a lot, but what hooked me was the building sense of paranoia and conspiracy, I loved trying to work out the mysteries and the adrenalin rush of unbearable suspense that held each episode together. Dana Scully was a fantastic female role-model and I had an immense crush on David Duchnovny (didn't we all?). I managed to get my English teacher to agree to let me write an X-Files short story for an assignment (this was before I even knew what fan fiction was) and he said it was one of the best pieces of writing he'd seen in ages. I even hand drew a cover for it. I still have it at home somewhere and I'm damned proud of it.

Naturally, having grown up in a post-feminist era, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer hit UK screens, I was the perfect audience for it. I’ve never fallen in love with a television show, the way I fell in love with Buffy. Here was a show that never underestimated a woman’s power and emotional complexities. Buffy may have been able to knock the stuffing out of any demonic foe, but she still doubted her self and still had to struggle through all the pain and the hard lessons of growing up, often with the fate of the world on her weary shoulders. I was drawn to the character Willow Rosenberg and it was through her struggles to find herself, that I found the courage to believe in my own self-worth and strength. I loved the show’s effortlessly funny dialogue, the knowing pop culture references and the way Buffy and her closest friends were allowed to change, learn and grow up before our eyes. Ultimately, Joss Whedon taught me that switching on a TV didn’t have to mean switching off your brain; that it could function and transcend itself as a true art form. Some might say it’s just a show about some hot blonde girl killing vampires; I say look a little closer and you’ll be surprised how deep it actually goes.

Willow Rosenberg - coolest TV character. Pretty much ever.

Geekdom is the world's best ice-breaker:

For my final day of secondary school, I dressed up as Princess Leia. My Mum used an inordinate amount of hairspray, but I managed to put my real hair into the trademark buns. Running down the corridors zapping my friends with a plastic ray-gun was pretty funny, as was climbing over an insanely tall fence to get to the pub in that gown. At University, desperate to bond and make new friends during Fresher’s Week that weren’t purely interested in getting smashed on whatever was available every night, I introduced some new friends to the short lived, but much loved space western Firefly. Pretty soon we were having Firefly marathons every other night and holding ‘Lost Night’, where we gathered around my TV in halls and tried to work out what the hell was going on that island. Answers on the back of a postcard, please, as we’re still waiting! By then, I had a small crowd of friends to go and see the big-screen film Serenity with. It was great to share the experience of watching it on the big screen for the first time and our shrieks of horror as one beloved character met a fateful end deafened at least two rows in front of us. Some of us even considered forming a grief support group. Whedon really knows how to break a fan girl's heart. The fact remains, that I've always used my love of science-fiction and cinema to break the ice and start a conversation and some of my closest friends have been made by using the "geek offensive". Sometimes trivial knowledge can be a beautiful thing.

Passionate and Damn Proud:

Several years and a lot less cash later (thanks a lot Ebay!) and little has changed, I still indulge my obsessions: I’m addicted to Battlestar Galactica at the moment, Kara Thrace is my ultimate troubled heroine; I collect Buffy action figures and all the Buffy Season Eight comic books as they are released; the moment a new SF film comes out I’m rounding the troops to go stake out the cinema and any new project by Joss Whedon tends to bring out a severe attack of the fan girl squeals in me. I post online and inevitably get sucked into arguments and debates. It’s just too much fun not to join in. I've even been known to play the odd Dungeons and Dragons campaign with shiny nine-sided dice.

Kara Thrace a.k.a."Starbuck" - kicking ass for SF women everywhere.

Yes, sometimes the fact that I'm a girl still comes up in conversation; but for the most part, my male SF-loving friends find it refreshing to have a woman in the mix. Although, I still maintain there is a very small minority of male fans that still feel threatened by the growing female presence in the wider SF fan community. It's like they think we're gate-crashing their exclusive clubhouse - well, I'm sorry to break it to you boys, but women have always enjoyed science fiction and we're not going away anytime soon. This occasionally exclusivist attitude often frustrates me as I've always believed that gender is irrelevant when it comes to the things you love and following your passions. I'll never be a lipstick loving Gucci girl - but so what? It doesn't deny me the right to be both feminine and sociable as the mood takes me. The world's big enough for all sorts and just because my tastes might not be quite as mainstream, doesn't mean I can't still have a voice.

The SF geek stereotype for most outside observers is still a slightly overweight spotty male with zero social skills, who still lives with his parents and obsesses about space babes, video games and spaceship specifications. Let's face it - this image doesn't help or serve any of us and it's about time it changed. I determined to challenge the deceptive myth that female SF fans are a silent minority and prove they are worthy of equal acknowledgment.

Ultimately, putting gender issues aside, what I love about being a SF fan is the passion and devotion fellow fans always bring to the party, from a painstakingly intricate convention costume to an encyclopedic knowledge of vast fictional worlds to the numerous fanzines, websites and campaigns that have sprung up over the years. When the SF community falls in love with something, they fall in love hard. Plus, most of them have the strangest sense of humour known to man or fish. Who else would consider writing parody songs about Vulcans, Hobbits or Jedi Knights or think building their own life-size Dalek called Tarquin is the definition of comic genius? It’s our eccentricities and penchant for irreverence than make SF fans so much fun to be around, no matter what our backgrounds or genders.

The fact is I’m a SF Girl and a geek and I always will be. It’s in the blood. I love getting passionate and excited about a new show or movie that is coming out or buying the latest novel and spending a day getting lost in another fantastic world where the stakes are high and nothing is as it appears.I love arguing about which superheroes would win in fight or whether the Enterprise could blast the Millennium Falcon’s backside into oblivion. (No way! – is the answer to that one). Pointless obsession to some, it may be. An endless source of gloriously good fun and thought provoking debate? Always.