Yay, space!

A NASA engineer came and gave two lectures at uni yesterday, and I am suddenly feeling all energised and enthusiastic again about my grand master plan of going to Mars (which is, of course, the reason I'm at Canterbury in the first place.) While it's slightly depressing to know that a presentation involving ball gimbals and gyroscopes was exciting, because I am not that nerdy, he gave a fascinating talk on the problems they faced after the shuttle disaster in 2003. Basically, the ISS was designed to be continually upgraded and they found themselves stuck in one configuration for two years, with only the Soyuz and Progress ships available for resupply - and given that the Soyuz was designed by Korolev back in the sixties, they aren't precisely the latest technology. So they had to resort to a lot of interesting fixes to get the station to work. Along the way they clocked up more manned hours in one spacecraft than any other programme, ever - manned for two and a half years straight - which really puts the ISS in perspective. Compared to the sci-fi I read, it seems like baby steps; compared to reality, it's amazing. And now the shuttle has landed safely...I want this. Even with the danger, which has seemed much more real in the last couple of years, I still want space very badly. It's nice to feel that again.

They also talked a lot about having to work with the Russians, which has made me much happier about taking Russian next year as I'd planned. History will still end up as the major, but Russian will be in there somewhere, and at more than 100-level.

Had the hall ball on Friday night. It went quite well, really, and there were buses straight home. Although after four years of the same dress I must say I'm looking forward very much to being able to beg/borrow/buy a new one next year, if I go to any balls. I'm not acquisitive when it comes to clothing, but I've had it since I was fifteen. I've worn it to four balls. I think that's quite possibly heroic.

I was going to do some detailed analyses of all the seasons I've caught up on, but I don't think any of you would read it. So nice short comments instead. :P

Season Three: Liked, overall, especially the Mayor who is up there with Angelus as one of my favourite Big Bads. He was eerily evil because he was so normal, and his mentor relationship with Faith managed to be really touching - he was clearly everything she'd needed and not had, except, of course, for the apocalyptic evilness. Snyder gets an honourable mention. I was very upset when he got eaten. But I never understand why no one stands up to him, because they totally could. Oz and Willow were absolutely adorable, the alternate 'verse with Vamp!Willow was excellent, and Spike's one episode was showstealing. (Why does he doom everyone else's romances? It happens in several different seasons.) Buffy did a lot of growing up with Faith there as her "dark side". I wasn't so sure about Faith when she arrived, the second Slayer thing seeming somewhat weird, but she made her own place in the show and I liked her presentation as someone human who screwed up. Actually, speaking of humanity, question here - do Anya and the Mayor have souls? Both started as human, ended up demony, and...well, Anya is in human form, but did she like get a temporary soul while pretending to be human and then keep it? Or what? Because her total lack of empathy argues soullessness. The Mayor, I guess, sold his.

Ashamed to say, though, that I only really liked Angel when he was pretending to be Angelus. And think he was an absolute wanker for leaving. I mean, normal? Slayers do not get to be normal. When you're in love with someone destined to die young, you might as well stick around for them.

Season 4: The show did suffer somewhat with the transition to college (may I say that I WANT those dorm rooms?) especially regarding Giles' support - I found his sudden hands-off approach odd, as Buffy did still need him. The Initiative plot was innovative, but I felt the Big Bad could have been a lot better - Maggie Walsh had SO MUCH potential to be a really, really good villain, especially with her connection to Riley and her belief she was doing the right thing, but instead we just get Adam, who, while cool, was just Bad. Too much black, not enough grey. Even if they had to kill Walsh off eventually, they did it far too early on. Riley was....blah. Very blah. Nice. But blah. He barely had any conflict right until the end. I was very upset to see Oz go - that was a well-played storyline - but the whole Willow-lesbian thing was handled less well than it could have been. They needed more scenes with Tara, for one thing, so we saw the romance develop, and more believable reactions for another; Buffy was good, but I can't recall Xander getting more than one exclamation. And I've had a best friend come out, so I know how this works. Even when you're supportive, it's still more of an event.

Special props for the First Slayer possession thing, but the last episode was just weeeeeeird. Too weird. Went on too long with the weirdness. And why do they not show any Willow/Tara kissing, deliberately? They're up to carefully shot sex in season six, surely one kiss would not have made the show unfit for public consumption.

Season Five: Gloom and doom, anyone? I wasn't so keen on Dawn right at the start; she seemed unnecessary, and something of a gimmick. But she grew on me as the season went on. Joyce's death was handled in a very gritty and realistic way - TOO realistic, actually, in that it reminded me very strongly of deaths in my own family. I think my favourite part, in a weird way, was Anya's "but no one will tell me why!" speech, as it really illustrated her struggle to understand humanity and in a more general sense the confusion everyone feels when faced with death. Really loved Fool For Love (Spike background, more chances to giggle at Angel's bad, bad, bad Irish accent) and Family, because Tara badly needed the character development. Tara is way cool. Was very happy to see Riley go, because while I liked his descent into despair - it made sense, it was in character, and it was inevitable in a lot of ways - again with the blahness. His only function in the show was Being Buffy's Boyfriend. And, with the Initiative, Plot Device.

The finale was, of course, amazing, especially the very last bit because you really got Buffy's sense of calm. Glory's death was sort of anticlimatic. She was a good villain - not a favourite, but nicely quirky and selfish. Ben was excellent, starting off boring and turning into an incredibly human character - how many of us would have killed Dawn? A lot, I bet.

Season Six" Half-way through and...despite Buffy's depression, it was getting pretty good basically up until the Addict!Willow storyline. And now it's all what the fuck, magic was not addictive for five seasons and Willow would be much cooler if they'd gone with the power and control bent rather than letting her off the hook with addiction. Plus no more Giles, and I am sad, because I love Giles muchly and wish him to stay. The Buffy depression is getting...depressing. Riley's return involved serious wishes to poke him with pointy bits of metal. And where did Spike's character development go? Where did the actual normal romance he and Buffy were having in the first few episodes go? Where did his friendship with Dawn go? Did it get flushed down the drain somewhere? 'Cause I sure miss it. This season seems to be about everyone behaving as badly as possible (Dead Things being the best example; I still am not getting over Buffy's sheer hypocrisy in that alley, and we know she's projecting her feelings onto Spike, but why is he so whipped he just takes it and why isn't anyone else helping?). Except for Tara, who rocks the house and is finally 3-D. Tara is like the new Giles. But, waaah, I want everyone else's season five character development back and I want it NOW. Any chance I'll get it in the second half of the season? And a real enemy? Because while I understand the wish to have an amusing enemy after Glory, the nerd trio are better off as minor characters (a good storyline would see them having to join forces with Buffy et al when an actual Big Bad showed up.)

Um. Yes. Short analyses. These are short.