"I don't think that's ever getting old"
Where are today’s Han Solos, Mad Maxs and Capt. Kirks?
Nowhere,
All males (especially white males) are reduced to subservient whiners.
Instead of strong Alpha male role models all we get is Sarah Connor and Captn. Janeway over & over again.
Just look at V, manly man Marc Singer (A.K.A. The Beastmaster) and Micheal Ironside in the 1980s series were replaced by Murphy Brown in the new, also instead of white guy Freddie Kruger, the 5th columnist is a black guy, the women mouthpiece traitor reporter is now a white guy, the whole Jewish Holocaust thing is missing.
In the new Battletstar Galatica, Starbuck is now a chick and Apollo is the whiny male bee-atch and they created a whole new female teacher president role for Capt. Adama to be subservient to
The Terminator, John Connor when from a hard nose tough kid in II, to a whiny male bee-atch in III.
and on and on and on.
That's why Sci-Fi is bombing, there are no male role models for men & boys to relate to and once the “Wow she’s really hot” factor wears off, watching a 90lb waif beat up 250+ pound men gets old real fast and Scifi becomes unwatchable.
“Where are today’s Han Solos, Mad Maxs and Capt. Kirks?”
Mal Reynolds?
Look into E. E. Knight’s Vampire Earth series. There is a manly protagonist for you.
“watching a 90lb waif beat up 250+ pound men gets old real fast”
Not to mention that demands suspension of disbelief bordering on delusion.
I agree w/ qam1 in some respects as to the trend of having 110 lb girls annihilating full-grown men as being a tad overdone, like in Buffy and in BSG w/ Starbuck. But I think Adama, Helo and others more than made up for that.
I also agree that I don’t like that in No Ordinary Family the father figure is so weak, but I think qam1 is missing some good examples which contradict his theory:
Firefly/Serenity — Mal Reynolds and Jayne
Iron Man — The Iron Man character, not Tony Stark
Angel — After he left Buffy
The most recent Star Trek Reboot — James T. Kirk
The most recent Batman reboot
The Cape
Anyway, we could go on and on citing exmples and counter-examples, but Summer Glau was great in both Firefly/Serenity and the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. That I do not mind watching, ha ha ha.
But we only liked Starbuck when she was being bad-ass, and only liked Apollo when he finally manned-up. And Adama refused to be the president's bitch. But the best thing, notice the president's do-gooder liberalism didn't survive her confrontation with hard reality.
That was an interesting series that explored various aspects of our culture. It was the only one espousing conservative principles, although it did go a bit soap opera in the middle.
Hoban 'Wash' Washburn: "Start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90-pound girl 'cause... I don't think that's ever getting old." - Serenity
For example, The Mote in God's Eye or Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle could be made into a blockbuster movie, but instead we get crap like Avatar.
Han is currently filming "Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Metamucil", accusing the Nazi's of hiding his car keys and glasses.
Max is only mad at the Jews and some Russian chick he knocked up.
Capt. Kirk is apparently auditioning to be the next Metlife blimp.
"I don't think that's ever getting old"