Farscape Season 1 - overall review

Over on the ScaperChronicles podcast, I participated in their Farscape Season 1 wrap-up episode (which has yet to come down the feed). Throughout the first season in each episode of the podcast, the crew has been rating each episode of Farscape.

My ratings were initially very high for most of the episodes I discussed on the podcast. With the wrap-up, I wanted to go back and rework my ratings - rate all the episodes, since I didn't get to discuss them all, and lower my high ratings to reflect that I rarely like to give a 10/10 score. My feeling there is that there's always room for improvement, even if what I've just seen seems perfect.

So here is a list of each episode and my rating. Even the ...mediocre episodes, including 1 that most people have called the worst episode of the series, I rated with a 5 or a 6 as none of them, I thought, were just plain unwatchable. Even the episodes I didn't rate highly had some redeeming value at some point and were, therefor, at least worth a middle of the road 5-rating.

Ep #	Ep Title	Rating
1	Premiere	8
2	Exodus from Genesis	6
3	Back and Back and Back to the Future	6
4	Throne for a Loss	8
5	PK Tech Girl	9
6	Thank God It's Friday, Again	6
7	I, E.T	8
8	That Old Black Magic	8
9	DNA Mad Scientist	9
10	They've Got a Secret	8
11	Till the Blood Runs Clear	8
12	The Flax	7.5
13	Rhapsody in Blue	5
14	Jeremiah Crichton	5
15	Durka Returns	7
16	A Human Reaction	8
17	Through the Looking Glass	8
18	A Bug's Life	7.5
19	Nerve	8.5
20	The Hidden Memory	8.5
21	Bone to Be Wild	5
22	Family Ties	9

If you've never seen Farscape, and you consider even remotely a fan of science fiction, go watch it now. If you're a fan of a great writing and continuity, go watch now.

Book Review: Shoes For The Spirit

For Active Christian Media, Rubi read Shoes For The Spirit: A Guide To Your Spiritual Walk by Tamra Nashman, published by Brentwood Christian Press. The author provided the book for Rubi to read.

Rubi's review:

Chicken Soup For the Christian Soul meets "God's Little Devotional Book For Women". And I mean that in a good way. Each short story begins with a short scripture, then the story, then a short devotional. I love the writing style. A lot of similar books seem like they're being read from the pulpit. Tamra Nashman has a warm, friendly writing style that draws you in. It feels more one-on-one.

The book is very well organized for those who only have time to read books in bits and pieces. It's divided into chapters, each one covering a different stumbling block: fear, stress, rejection, jealousy, etc. Each chapter is clearly divided into the short stories and their scripture and devotional, that can be read through in less than ten minutes, easily. But it gives you food for thought and prayer for the rest of the day. It's a very friendly little book - go, buy, read!

For more about this author, Stacy Harp with Active Christian Media recently interviewed the author on the ACM podcast.

PodCast Review: The PodCulture Network

The Podculture Network, "Equal Opportunity Geekness", is a great podcast.


The show is currently recorded every other week, split into two parts and fed weekly. You get part "A" the first week and part "B" the second week. It is not a "professional" podcast with specific show topics and scripts. It's three friends sitting around "geeking" with microphones recording them.


Brad, Glenn, and Christina host Podculture and spend their time rambling about what they watch on TV, what's in their DVD player, their new "toys" and video games, comic books, and a couple of special segments called "Geek Cuisine" and "Glenn's Guilty Pleasures". Geek Cuisine has the hosts trying out a different snack and beverage each episode on-mic and discussing whether or not they like them and why. Glenn's Guilty Pleasures features Glenn talking about really bad old movies that he likes and thinks other geeks might like. Podculture also is friendly with other podcasts, and runs promos for those podcasts, and even has been "syndicating" sci-fi reviews from the excellent Firefly podcast, The Signal. The hosts also mention a little bit about their "real lives" during the show, as asides to whatever the current topic of conversation may be.


It's that little bit about their real lives that makes Podculture extra special. Through their rambling, you seem to get to know these three people more and more as you listen to each episode. Listening to Podculture makes it seem like you are right there, sitting on the couch in Brad's living room talking about the geeky stuff you've done over the past week - except you're the introvert of the bunch and you let everyone else talk while you listen.

Brad produces the show very well. He has each person miked and runs each mic into a mixer before running it into his computer for recording. He also edits in bumpers, promos, intros, outros, and music for the show after the initial recording session. Podculture has a clean, well-produced sound. There is no hiss or digital artifacting. It almost sounds like Brad runs the audio through a compressor - it's that clean.

The only thing I might suggest to them to make the show a little more "user friendly" would be to announce the title of the songs they play during breaks either before or after the break. This probably would involve more planning on their part, as the songs are probably edited in during post along with the segment intros and other pre-produced items. I know that information is usually available in the show notes. But I rarely check show notes for the podcasts I listen to. I'm also not sure about the split feed/two-part thing. I'm always behind in my listening, so it really doesn't matter to me. But it seems like they changed the order of the segments when they went to the two-part episode. I liked them having a set order for their segments. But I'm not completely against the change they've made. It does keep things interesting not knowing which segment is next. Oh, one more thing: Brad has mentioned in some episodes that he is a Christian. That's a cool thing for a geek to blatantly admit to the world. But Brad sure does curse frequently for a Christian. Glenn and Christina don't seem to curse as much as Brad. But now that I think about it - this goes along with the "being in the living room" with them. I know Christians that, when in their living rooms, occasionally curse to express or elicit emotion: humor, displeasure, disgust, etc. But they'd never do it out in public. I guess this is the same thing.

Podculture occasionally invites listeners to submit their own audio for inclusion in the show. They have "fan-made" voice-overs for bumpers for various segments. They also invite listeners to send them ideas for Glenn's Guilty Pleasures reviews, Geek Cuisine ideas, or a dollar.

You can find the Podculture Network at Podculture.net and their forums are hosted at Bluegrassbrowncoats.net, where you can find the rules for The Podculture Drinking Game and discuss episodes, among other things. Brad and Christina also host the Stargate Louisville podcast. Or so they say. Hosting Podculture and Real Life seem to be conspiring against new episodes of SGL.

If you're a geek, this is a fun show. Podculture is number three in my list of podcasts that I have to listen to, and I listen to many podcasts.

Crossposted at Kev's:

Gather

Live Journal

MySpace

PodCasts

A recent thread on one of the forums I frequent asked "what podcasts you listen to".

Here's my list:

These are the ones I listen to, or at least try to listen to, on a regular basis.

Around The World With AIG's Ken Ham

Disasters: Are You Ready?

Firefly Talk

Managers Tools

MouseTunes: Disney talk, For Disney Fans

NPR: Shuffle

NPR: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

PID Radio

Slacker Astronomy

Stargate Louisville

Tales From The 'Verse

The Book and The Spade

The PodCulture Network

The Signal

These are the ‘casts I download but haven’t listened to yet.

CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks Segmented Show

COMM 435 BoilerCast

EarthCore: a Podiobooks.com Production

Flight To Eden - Free Audio Book

I Should Be Writing

Infection: A Scott Sigler Podcast Novel

Management Visions Weekly Internet Radio Broadcast

Managers Tools Members Cast

Mashup of the Week

Michael A. Stackpole related podcasts

OLS274 Boilercast

Out There

Pastor Dan's Blog

Science @ NASA Feature Stories

Search the Scriptures Daily

Skepticality - Science and Skeptic Thought

Slacker Astronomy Bonus Features

Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy

The Splendid Table: Kitchen Questions

TREKs in SCiFi

Writing for Christians

The complete list, including some I've listened to but don't listen to regularly:

Anomaly Archives eNews  Hasn’t had new ep in awhile.

Around The World With AIG's Ken Ham Creation Science radio show.

CBC Radio: Quirks & Quarks Segmented Show

COMM 435 BoilerCast Purdue college course podcast. Completed, has a new feed address each semester.

Disasters: Are You Ready?  Emergency Management podcast

EarthCore: a Podiobooks.com Production  The feed is finished, but you can still download the book.

Firefly Talk  Excellent fancast about Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity.

Flight To Eden - Free Audio Book The feed is finished, but I think you can still grab the files.

I Should Be Writing

Infection: A Scott Sigler Podcast Novel

Management Visions Weekly Internet Radio Broadcast

Managers Tools

Managers Tools Members Cast

Mashup of the Week

Michael A. Stackpole related podcasts

MouseTunes: Disney talk, For Disney Fans interesting trivia about Disney.

NPR: Shuffle  The daily Best Of NPR

NPR: Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fun Current Events/News Game Show

OLS274 Boilercast

Out There

Pastor Dan's Blog

PID Radio Christian observations on the news, plus lots of conspiracy theory.

Science @ NASA Feature Stories

SciFi and Fantasy Podcast

Search the Scriptures Daily

Skepticality - Science and Skeptic Thought

Slacker Astronomy  Funny and irreverent astronomy news.

Slacker Astronomy Bonus Features Interviews and such.

Stan Deyo Show  Only had four shows on the feed.

Stargate Louisville From the same crew that brings us PodCulture.

Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy

Tales From The 'Verse Fanfiction from Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity.

The BBC's In Our Time

The Book and The Spade Biblical Archaeology. They only keep the latest episode on their feed.

The PodCulture Network Scifi geekiness, from the same crew that brings us Stargate Louisville.

The Secrets of Star Wars Only 4 episodes. A Catholic Father from the Netherlands anticipates and attends the opening of Star Wars episode 2.

The Signal another excellent fancast about Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity.

The Splendid Table: Kitchen Questions mmmm…. Food.

TheForce.net Haven’t actually had any new eps in a long time.

TREKs in SCiFI about Star Trek, and scifi.

Walt Disney World Resort: Plugged In Haven’t had a new podcast in awhile.

Writing for Christians