It’s almost trivial for a long-running show to pass the test; just have two women talk to each other about something other than a man in any episode. Some shows do better than others, though, passing the test in more individual episodes.

I started to write a list of sci-fi and fantasy shows I’ve liked, with a “Bechdel rating” or “Bechdel factor” for each, but I soon realized how time-consuming and tedious that would get. (It gives me an excuse to rewatch some old favorites, but if I waited for that you’d be getting this posthumously.) I don’t remember individual episodes of most shows anyway, so the numbers would be pretty arbitrary.

Still, it’s fun to guess. Quantum Leap would score surprisingly low; Al spent more screen time talking about his ex-wives and conquests than any two women spent talking about anything. I’m not sure if they’d get credit for episodes where Sam leaped into a woman, but even counting those I can’t remember many scenes that would pass.

Battlestar Galactica and Firefly would do pretty well, but for some reason I’m not remembering many specific conversations between women. The awesome banter between Inara and Saffron probably passes, and Kaylee and Inara share moments here and there. (Oddly enough, I can’t remember Zoe talking to anyone but Mal or Wash.) Roslin and Starbuck have enough dialogue in BSG that most episodes probably pass.

One show stands out as an obvious winner: Star Trek: Voyager. (I know, I know. I liked it, though.) The Captain and Chief Engineer are both women, and it’s tough to find an episode where those two don’t talk tech. Introducing Seven later in the series probably upped the percentage toward 100%, but it would have been close anyway.

Notice I haven’t said a thing about Buffy. That’s because I have yet to watch an entire episode. Sorry, Deb!

On the left, Lucas surrounded by a ton of stuff from the first Star Wars trilogy, which ended with 1983′s Return of the Jedi. On the right, Lucas surrounded by the only object that mattered in his second Star Wars trilogy, finishing with 2005′s Revenge of the Sith: A green chroma screen.

I’ve been thinking about this in terms of television shows lately. On the one hand, using CG and green screens is so much cheaper that it allows shoestring indie productions to look as good as big studio stuff. (See the indie-to-SciFi show Sanctuary for an example.) On the other hand, green screens make it harder for actors to get involved, and there are lots of ways to get the visuals subtly wrong.

So here’s my question: do we actually need the green screen anymore? There seem to be lots of “extended super special restored director’s cut” editions of existing shows and movies now, and plenty of YouTube remasters of even the crappiest pre-digital video. None of that stock had green screens or motion dots or matchmove data, so why can’t we shoot new video without all those things?

As an intermediate step, would it be possible to dress a set the way you might for a stage play, then fill in the screen-quality props and sets digitally? Can actors look out a cardboard window at a black cloth with stars painted on it, but viewers see a porthole with galaxies whizzing past? That way, you don’t have to make the decision between the on-stage prop and the virtual one until you’re in the editing room. Who knows? You might just decide to leave the cardboard in.

On a side note, George Takei is 71?!? Criminy! Yet another person I can see storming around when he’s 120, shouting, “I’m one hundred and twenty!”

The Doctor makes millions for the BBC, so perhaps it should listen to Davies’s anger about the time it is now being shown – 40 minutes earlier than before, at 6.20pm. “It’s a shame. It’s a terrible slot. We will lose viewers. I am unhappy. We’ll see.” Expect to see it moved back, later in the run.

Other sci-fi writers make a point of praising their hardcore fans, but Davies can be very rude about them (look away now, Whovians). “It’s like having a swarm of fucking mosquitoes buzzing around you. It doesn’t stop you doing your job, but, Christ, they buzz!”

There are a few spoilers, but they’re more intriguing than revealing, certainly not worth avoiding the interview. We watched the first episode of Series 4 over the weekend, and I’m excited to see where it leads.

“I had a situation last year on Battlestar Galactica where we were asked by Universal to do webisodes [Note: Moore is referring to The Resistance webisodes which ran before Season 3 premiered], which at that point were very new and ‘Oooh, webisodes! What does that mean?’ It was all very new stuff. And it was very eye opening, because the studio’s position was ‘Oh, we’re not going to pay anybody to do this. You have to do this, because you work on the show. And we’re not going to pay you to write it. We’re not going to pay the director, and we’re not going to pay the actors.’ At which point we said ‘No thanks, we won’t do it.’”

“We got in this long, protracted thing and eventually they agreed to pay everybody involved. But then, as we got deeper into it, they said ‘But we’re not going to put any credits on it. You’re not going to be credited for this work. And we can use it later, in any fashion that we want.’ At which point I said ‘Well, then we’re done and I’m not going to deliver the webisodes to you.’ And they came and they took them out of the editing room anyway — which they have every right to do. They own the material — But it was that experience that really showed me that that’s what this is all about. If there’s not an agreement with the studios about the internet, that specifically says ‘This is covered material, you have to pay us a formula – whatever that formula turns out to be – for use of the material and how it’s all done,’ the studios will simply rape and pillage.”

There’s a lot more along those lines, so be sure to read the whole article if you get a chance. Moore makes an excellent point: TV is rapidly moving toward being just another Internet service. The studios are trying their best to get paid for Internet distribution, while trying even harder not to pay anyone down the line for it.

No, not me. I’d choke up like a vegan at a hot-dog eating contest. The Global Spin community is much better represented by Deana, if this 10-second teaser video is any indication.

Deana appears this Friday, June 22nd. Check your local listings, etc, and watch with us. (Seriously, how often is it that I actually recommend watching television?)

UPDATE: An article at GVNow has more details.

At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial — barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field — Mr. Lincoln said, “we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. “We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.” So we won’t.

Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off columnists to write how good a job they’re doing instead of doing any job at all.

You must, must, must read the rest of his post.  And let’s hope others do, too.

So here’s the thing.  I just had a thought about how to watch them in true rabid-fan form: watch all of the released webisodes each time one is released.  That would mean watching the first two tonight, then the first three next Tuesday, and the first four on Thursday… and then watching the whole shebang on Thursday night before the premiere.  Is that insane?

I’ve already thought about re-watching the last few four or five episodes of Season 2 again, and that’s a lot longer than all of those webisodes put together.  Actually, with the factorial counted in, it’s about the same length.  Still, though…  what do you think?