fiction, but I love to watch sci-fi TV shows and movies. And to me, a romantic at heart, it's made even better if there's a love story in the mix.Sure, I loved all the action in the original three Star Wars movies, the story of good versus evil, but what part of The Empire Strikes Back did I watch and read (I did read the novel) over and over again? The part where Leia and Han confess their love to each other moments before he's frozen in carbonite. This movie was released just days before I
turned 10, so I was in full possession of my romantic streak early.In the more recent Star Wars trilogy, I even rooted for Anakin and Padme, even though I KNEW it wouldn't work out in the end. That, my friends, is an incurable romantic.
Fast forward to 2002. Firefly debuted on FOX. Being a fan of sci-fi and westerns, I was very, v
ery excited about Joss Whedon's mixture of those two genres in this fantastic show that FOX -- grumble, grumble -- didn't give the chance to grow its audience that it deserved. Did I mention grumble? The dialogue and banter was great (which is a Whedon hallmark), it was full of fun action and scary bad guys (Reavers -- shudder!). Again, however, it was a budding romance that was one of the high points for me. I loved seeing how the ship's engineer, Kaylee, and the doctor, Simon Tam, circled around each other until they finally got together in Serenity, the feature film based on Firefly.
Staite's character is one half of the latest burgeoning sci-fi romance that has me on the edge of my seat, on one of my favorite shows, Stargate Atlantis. On the recent episode "Quarantine", Staite's character of Dr. Jennifer Keller is trapped in the infirmary with Ronon Dex, a Satedan warrior who is often the Atlantis gang's muscle. The longer they're trapped, the more they talk and reveal to each other about their lives. Then the looks begin to pass between them, and you cheer that this tough guy who has a loss in his past he doesn't often talk about and this brilliant buy shy and timid doctor who has never felt she's belonged anywhere might be on the road to romance. In fact, they're on the verge of kissing when the cityJewel Staite, who played Kaylee, is now one half of another shuts down the automatic quarantine and they are able to leave the infirmary. Just when I was afraid that this might-be romance might come to nothing more than the product of being trapped together, a scene near the end of the episode still has Ronon and Keller giving each other some glances that other members of the Atlantis expedition notice. Yay! I can't wait to see what happens.
So, any fans of sci-fi romances out there? Any of you watch Atlantis? If so, what do you think of the Ronon-Dr. Keller pairing?
