Steam Engine Time 5

Steam Engine T ime PRIEST’S ‘THE SEPARATION’ MEMOS FROM NORSTRILIA CENSORSHIP IN AUSTRALIA POLITICS AND SF Harry Hennessey Buerkett James Doig Paul Kincaid Gillian Polack Eric S. Raymond Milan Smiljkovic Janine Stinson Issue 5 September 2006 Steam Engine T ime 5 STEAM ENGINE TIME No. 5, September 2006 is edited and published by Bruce Gillespie, 5 Howard Street, Greensborough VIC 3088, Australia ([email protected]) and Janine Stinson, PO Box 248, Eastlake, MI 49626-0248, USA ([email protected]). Members fwa. First edition is in .PDF file format from eFanzines.com or from either of our email addresses. Print edition available for The Usual (letters or substantial emails of comment, artistic contributions, articles, reviews, traded publications or review copies) or subscriptions (Australia: $40 for 5, cheques to ‘Gillespie & Cochrane Pty Ltd’; Overseas: $US30 or £15 for 5, or equivalent, airmail; please send folding money, not cheques). Printed by Copy Place, 415 Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000. The print edition is made possible by a generous financial donation. Graphics Ditmar (Dick Jenssen) (front cover). Photographs Covers of various books and magazines discussed in this issue; plus photos of (p. 5) Christopher Priest, by Ian Maule; (p. 24) Roger Dard, supplied by Kim Huett; (p. 25) Roger Dard fanzine contributions, supplied by Kim Huett; (p. 32) Nigel Burwood, Martin Stone and Bill Blackbeard, by John Baxter; (p. 39) David Boutland. 3 EDITORIAL 1: 32 Letters of comment ‘Dream your dreams’: A meditation on Babylon 5 John Baxter Janine Stinson Rosaleen Love Steve Jeffery 4 EDITORIAL 2 E. B. Frohvet Bruce Gillespie Steve Sneyd Sydney J. Bounds Lloyd and Yvonne Penney CHRISTOPHER PRIEST’S THE SEPARATION Joyce Katz 5 10/10 May/May: David J. Lake Singling out the duplications in The Separation Cy Chauvin Paul Kincaid Martin Morse Wooster Erika Lacey Claire Brialey POLITICS AND SCIENCE FICTION Arthur D. Hlavaty 8 A political history of SF Gillian Polack Eric S. Raymond Harry Buerkett Dave Wood Terry Jeeves CORDWAINER SMITH’S NORSTRILIA Ben Indick David Boutland 12 Cordwainer Smith: Reflections on some of his themes David Cake Gillian Polack and others, especially Mark Plummer 14 Extraordinary evidence: The search for the common precursor of Norstrilia and Dune 15 Of haggis and hagiography: The uncanny provenance of Norstrilia and Dune Harry Hennessey Buerkett CENSORSHIP VERSUS SF IN AUSTRALIA 24 The curious case of Roger Dard: Fandom, censorship and sex in the 1950s and 60s James Doig and Milan Smiljkovic 29 Fantasy and literature censorship in the 1930s James Doig 2 Editorial by Jan Stinson ‘Dream your dreams’: A meditation on Babylon 5 I should start by saying that there are plot M*A*S*H, there was some character ments (such as FTL, aliens and jump elements revealed here (called spoilers growth, and there were changes (an actor gates) as well as some of the major on the Internet) which some readers may left or died; another replaced him) in the themes (aliens and humans living and not want to know ahead of time if they ensemble, but the situations didn’t working together, space stations, cer- haven’t seen all the episodes. change that much until later in its run, tainly space opera in all its most positive Before you read the rest of this edi- when the story lines became more seri- connotations, and the biggie, good vs torial, if you’ve never seen any episodes ous than comical. Of course, M*A*S*H evil) that SF has used in its written form. of the show under discussion, you might ran a very long time, comparatively But JMS, as he’s often called, also knew want to stop reading this and go watch speaking, and B5 only ran for five years. that his potential viewers needed a break some if you can. Those without any inter- But it was designed to be done, from start once in a while from the serious business est whatsoever in the show are welcome to finish, in five years, and the other of empire building and Great War Fight- to read something else in this issue. The shows referenced here (and many like ing, so he gave us humour (the episode rest of you, come on over this way . them) were not. B5 has the feel and the where Delenn asks Susan Ivanova for look of a novel, only it’s television, and hair advice is hysterical), and touch- When I chose this topic for my first full- that was what enthralled me. The epi- stones (Walter Koenig as Alfred Bester, length SET editorial, I did a little research sodic nature of the series is very much the PsiCorps honcho, was not only an in order to get the facts straight. I was like that of ER, in that one should see all inspired bit of casting but Straczynski’s surprised to be reminded that Babylon 5 the episodes in order to keep up with way of showing the doubters that he (B5) premiered on 26 January 1994 and character and story arc changes, and I Knew His SF). ended on 25 November 1998; having nearly got hooked on ER at one point for Because of all that, B5 was space opera recently finished watching all the epi- this reason. I stopped watching it when I with dimension, emotion, guts. It wasn’t sodes in order via Netflix, it felt like the cried more than I thought was good for all space battles and the heroic captain show had ended only last year. I also me at the time; this is an indicator of my and crew emerge victorious, the hooks realised that its characters had been liv- emotional state, of course, but it’s also an upon which a lot of poorly written SF of ing in my head a lot longer than I ex- indicator of how well that show was the genre’s early years were hung. pected; the show’s staying power can written, acted and produced. I suppose one might gauge the popu- largely be credited to its creator’s vision Within that novel-as-TV-show was an larity of a television show by how much and its cast and crew, perhaps the 11-member ensemble cast representing a depth it has in Wikipedia, in terms of num- hardest-working bunch of TV people wide range of characters, several of them ber of articles and the amount of detail ever to commit to a ‘sci-fi’ series until the aliens. One, the Vorlon called Kosh, was contained in them. The Wikipedia entries latest Battlestar Galactica premiere. the most nonhuman of all the aliens who for B5 would occupy a person’s time for Having mentioned it, let me define lived and worked on B5; Kosh was, es- at least a week of 12-hour reading days my usage of ‘sci-fi’ here. It’s still often sentially, noncorporeal. The encounter (followed by 12 hours of sleep necessary used as a pejorative, and with some jus- suit hid a being who had no physical to stave off Bleeding Eye Syndrome), if tification, for any nominally science- form as humans experience it. But the not more. Since Wikipedia is a ‘free ency- fictional product coming out of Holly- skills of the B5 creative team (Joe clopedia’ written by those who choose to wood or independent studios for film Straczynski and the writers, all the actors, write for it (and moderated by those who and/or TV. My use of ‘sci-fi’ is limited to the directors, and the SFX crew) brought choose to attempt to keep the facts noting any science-fictional product Kosh into being as a character, as some- straight where possible), one might de- made in the form of films or TV shows. one viewers could care about. The phrase duce that there are a lot of people still Now that I’ve defined my usage, I have ‘They killed Kosh! Bastards!’ (para- interested in B5. The first entry (or ‘stub’, to say that B5 fits it, but also exceeds it, in phrased from a South Park episode’s char- as Wikipedia creators call it) for the Talk that it is a superior example of an SF story acter comment on Kenny) made its way section (where corrections are discussed delivered via film or TV when compared from the Internet to T-shirts being worn and incorrect data is noted) is dated in to other examples in its area. in mourning, no doubt. The mystery of 2001; the most recent was 4 August 2006. The central question I want to discuss Kosh fed not only the curiosity of the Clearly, there are at least a few people here is: why is the universe of B5 so at- characters on the show, but of the show’s interested in consigning the most minute tractive to me and, apparently, so many fans as well. Even after that mystery was details of this series into cyberspace. other people? partially revealed, Kosh was still a major The Web isn’t the only place where B5 It was, in essence, written and pro- player in the story line, because the next was discussed. Edward James and Farah duced as one story, a novel, if you will, Vorlon to show up was also called Kosh, Mendlesohn edited a collection of essays and that is a rarity in American tele- but Kosh 2 was not the same as the origi- on B5 called The Parliament of Dreams: vision. Long-running, American- nal Kosh, and the viewers knew it before Conferring on Babylon 5. Many of these produced shows like M*A*S*H, Friends, Lyta Alexander explained it.

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