Maybe I should point out that I started reading sci-fi before the original Star Trek came on the air. I'm a fossil.

I tend to look at a particular work of SF from 3 different perspectives. First there is the turn off your brain and enjoy to ride mode. This works fine by itself for shallow stuff like Star Wars which I don't really regard as science fiction. Then there is studying the depth and imagination of the story. Like "Amok Time" and "Doomsday Machine" were both written by REAL SF writers, Theodore Sturgeon and Norman Spinrad respectively but though they are both good episodes "Amok Time" definitely wins in the imagination and depth category. "Doomsday Machine" is another Enterprise saves the day with subplot variations. "Amok Time" fleshed out Vulcan culture which influenced episodes of Voyager and Enterprise.

The third aspect is the culture and marketplace for the work. The writer is trying to make a living and may be producing what sells rather than what is good. This affected Star Trek with the original pilot, "The Cage" not being aired but another made and that one wasn't shown first. The executives gave us the Salt Monster first. Ad in Voyager got replaced by 7 of 9 and it shouldn't be hard to figure out what market segment she was aimed at. That 3rd level of evaluation is more important for movies and TV than books because they are so expensive to produce and need to attract large markets. but I think sci-fi books have suffered from a Star Wars effect since the early 80's.

Since I taught myself science because of SF books that is another component that interests my though it doesn't seem to matter to a lot of SF enthusiasts.

psik

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This sites preety cool, too! I think I'll start the Dune and Xfiles sections if you don't mind.

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