PCR past banners Now in our fourth calendar year
PCR #180  (Vol. 4, No. 36)  This edition is for the week of September 1--7, 2003.

LA FLORIDIANA
Florida's Gardens Up Front and Personal -- Part One
by Will Moriaty
THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW
"Dickie Roberts"
by Mike Smith
COUCH POTATO CONFESSIONS
Sci-Fi Hunks and Babes (or is Salma Hayek the Frank Frazetta girl?)
by Vinnie B.
ASHLEY'S HOLLYWOOD
"Filthy" the official premiere reviewwed!
 by Ashley Lewis
CREATURE'S CORNER
"Hollywood, Horrorwood" (Pillars), Part 3
 by John Lewis
SPLASH PAGE
Gay World.....One Shots....Movie News....Things I Didn't Know But Maybe I Should Have
 by Brandon Jones
MATT'S RAIL
Answering My Critics
 by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT
You Never Give Me Your Money....Welcome To The 21st Century (RS's Top 10 Guitarists)....Passing On
 by Mike Smith
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Couch Potato Confessions by Vinnie B.
   The adventures of a boy and his personal video recorder.

Authors note: this article is written in the spirit of fun, and is not meant to be sexist. I am, in fact, a supporter of women's right. Also, no hunks were harmed in the writing of this article.

Sci-Fi Hunks and Babes (or is Salma Hayek the Frank Frazetta girl?)
Sci-Fi and Fantasy has a long tradition of utilizing sex, usually more as a marketing tool than anything else. From the early pulp covers of the '30s and '40s, to the groundbreaking Forbidden Planet's scantily-clad Altaira Morbius and then hunkier Leslie Nielson. And who could ever forget the legendary Frank Frazetta covers?

Fantastic StoryThe original Star Trek furthered the sci-fi hunk/babe mythos. What was up with Kirk and Yeoman Rand? And everyone knows that Kirk was hitting on every half-naked alien woman in the Galaxy. In Star Trek, Next Generation, they split that Kirk persona between Picard and Number One, with [Jonathan] Frakes being the looser of the two and [Patrick Stewart's Captain] Picard the more sophisticated. Frakes never did it for me, but that Jean-Luc Picard!

Deep Space Nine upped the babe quotient with Nana Visitor playing Kira Nerys and Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax. Now these were my kind of Sci-fi women. Attractive and they kicked some alien butt. When Farrell left for a legitimate television career on "Becker", the babe quotient was even increased with the addition of Nicole de Boer (now on the Dead Zone).

The later Star Trek franchises had token attempts to have attractive women in tight-fitting clothes, but I feel those characters were never as developed (pun intended) as previous Star Trek women and were/are only eye candy.

Sam Raimi breathed new life into the Sci-fi hunk/babe story with the Hercules and Xena series. These series had something for everyone: hunky Kevin Sorbo as Herc and Kevin Smith as Ares, and more women with push up bras than you can shake a stick at. My personal favorite was Aphrodite. Xena went on to create quite a stir of Internet fandom among both men and women.

Kevin Sorbo showed he had some brains behind that brawn by moving on to one of the best current Sci-fi shows on tv, "Andromeda". Besides producing, he stars as the hunky-yet-sensitive Dylan Hunt. Ever since the creators of the series realized the error of their ways and turned the silly purple Trance character into a more dark character this show has been on roll. The women, Rebeka 'Beka' Valentine, Trance, and Rommie (the ship's avatar) are tough and kick butt. Throw in an additional hunk, Tyr Anasazi, and what more could you want? Hunks, babes, good writing and character development, and a cool ship make this one of my current faves.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World" got recycled a few years ago and is now being shown daily on the TNT network. I have been catching up on a few episodes recently, and in the later ones they definitely did the right thing by getting rid of the old doctor. This series is heavy on the Babe factor, with half-naked Veronica, played by Jennifer O'Dell, running through the jungle in a skimpy outfit. I live in Florida and all I can say is "ouch" to all those bug bites. They have been able to create electricity in the Lost World, but haven't yet learned to sew any clothes for Veronica. The other resident female is the more interesting character, Marguerete, played by Rachel Blakely. Fans of Farscape will want to watch out for the episode with Gigi Edgley as a half-naked young savage girl and the one with Raelee Hill as an enchanting enchantress.

And speaking of "Farscape", this show has the hottest alien babes since the original "Star Trek". And for the women in the crowd it features one of the hunkiest characters in TV sci-fi, John Crichton played by Ben Browder. He has a big gun and knows how to use it. Oh yea, did I mention that the show is pretty darn good too!


"Couch Potato Confessions" is ©2003 by Vinnie B..  Couch Potato main graphic by Vin Blesi and Nolan Canova.  Webpage design and all graphics herein (except where otherwise noted) are creations of Nolan B. Canova.  All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2003 by Nolan B. Canova.