This is the sixth of eight posts today.
9) SHOW-AND-TELL
For those participating on ZOOM, today, we open the floor to any club members who have “fancraft” projects to showcase—sci-fi scale models, SF/F woodworking or needlecraft, whatever genre-themed, hands-on project it may be that you are working on at present, or have recently completed. Share your fancrafting experience with the group!
Those not equipped to join our ZOOM chat for the show-and-tell may contribute by using this post’s “Leave a Comment” feature to type in a quick description of any such project on which they are currently working.
10) CELEBRATING FAMOUS SCI-FI COUPLES!
Alternately, with Valentine’s Day upcoming on Tuesday, we offer the following gallery featuring, in no particular order, some of SF/F’s most famous and memorable romantic couples:
Spaceman Flash Gordon and his gorgeous girlfriend, Dale Arden, first appeared as characters in a 1934 Alex Raymond comic strip, and were among early sci-fi’s most popular heroes. Their adventures were adapted for radio, film, and television over subsequent decades, with stories produced as recently as the 1990s and 2000s.
Buster Crabbe and Jean Rogers (pictured) were the first to portray the couple on screen in the Flash Gordon film serials of the mid-1930s. Dale fulfilled the standard damsel-in-distress role, with Flash cast as her protector. She was the object of desire for the evil ruler Ming the Merciless and other inhabitants of the planet Mongo, often finding herself in conflict with female characters such as Princess Aura, who longed for Flash romantically. Dale is noted for her warmth and compassion, and stalwart Flash was prepared to risk life and limb to rescue her from danger, again and again. Over time, Dale acquired skills that allowed her to become less the passive victim and more an active participant in the couple’s adventures.
Flash and Dale are often cited as the template for the adventuring sci-fi couples that would follow, like…
Star Wars’ bold, mercenary scoundrel, Han Solo, and plucky, resourceful princess and rebel, Leia Organa, are immediately at odds upon first meeting. They soon grow to admire each other, however, and fall in love, bestowing upon fans a number of heartfelt romantic moments throughout the Star Wars film franchise.
Buck Rogers and Wilma Deering first appeared in a sci-fi/adventure comic strip that is often credited with popularizing the concept of space travel. The adventures of a time-displaced test pilot, Buck Rogers predated Flash Gordon by a few years, and actually inspired, in part, Alex Raymond to create his space/adventure strip.
Wilma was cast as Buck’s love interest from day one. Her penchant for getting into trouble necessitated that he come to her rescue often enough, but she was not as much the damsel-in-distress as Dale Arden, and maintained a level of assertiveness and bravery that served her well as she became, over time, a smart and spunky adventurer.
Buck and Wilma also made the move to radio, film, and television, and were featured in the 1979-1981 TV series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, starring the amiable Gil Gerard and Erin Grey (pictured), he a 20th-century NASA space shuttle pilot fast-frozen by a cosmic phenomenon, only to be revived some 500 years later, she an accomplished 25th-century Starfighter pilot and colonel with Earth’s Defense Directorate. In this incarnation of the familiar tale, Wilma was likely to rescue Buck as often as he saved her. While at first cold and aloof, she would soon take a liking to and befriend this man from the distant past, leading to a few flirtatious moments. Buck, though, was written more in the mould of a Captain Kirk, and the series never developed a full-on romantic relationship between the two, as had been depicted in the comics.
In a TV sitcom that celebrates all that MonSFFen hold dear, Leonard and Penny are the “Ross and Rachel” of geek culture!
Thomas Mallory’s interpretation of medieval Arthurian legend lends us one of the greatest tragic love stories ever written, replete with all the trappings of myth and chivalry.
The Golden Age of Sci-Fi Cinema produced such classics as Forbidden Planet, which saw coquettish interaction between spaceship commander John J. Adams and the beautiful Altaira quickly develop into love. Altaira lives with her father, a brilliant scientist, on Altair IV, a planet otherwise devoid of human life. Against her father’s wishes, she intends to leave the planet with Commander Adams, and in so announcing, triggers, by way of the fantastic technology of the extinct Krell race who once inhabited Altair IV, the manifestation of an unstoppable, invisible monster generated by her father’s own subconscious thoughts.
Forbidden Planet greatly influenced Gene Roddenberry when he was developing Star Trek in the 1960s, and the love story that unfolds in the film resembles that of Captain Kirk and Rayna Kapec in Star Trek’s third-season episode “Requiem for Methuselah.”
Things don’t always work out. Some dates prove to be unequivocally horrorfying!
Tarzan and Jane, who might be described as a pair of swingers, are sci-fi/fantasy/adventure writer Edgar Rice Burroughs’ best-known characters. Since the couple’s debut in 1912, their story has been adapted countless times for radio, film, television, the stage, and in comics (pictured, as drawn by Frank Frazetta). Tarzan of the Apes was originally serialized in pulp magazine The All-Story (later, Argosy), and published as a book in 1914, the first of some two dozen Tarzan novels and collected works of short fiction comprising a series that ran until the mid-1960s.
Born John Clayton II in the jungle to Lord and Lady Greystoke of England, who have been marooned in equatorial Africa for a period of time, the infant boy, after the unfortunate deaths of his parents, is adopted and raised by mother ape, Kala. Called Tarzan—“White Skin” in the ape language—he grows to adulthood, knowing not of his birthright as heir to the Greystoke title and estate in England. A skillful hunter, the fearless Tarzan fends off an attack by the chief ape, killing him, and becomes King of the Apes.
Young, blonde, American beauty Jane Porter, member of an expedition that becomes stranded on the same coast as had the Greystokes years earlier, is the first white woman Tarzan has ever seen. The besotted ape man saves her from the perils of the jungle and, eventually, following her heart, she becomes his wife, progressing from a damsel-in-distress who often finds herself kidnapped as part of some nefarious plot to a capable adventuress in her own right, fully able to defend herself and survive in the jungle. The couple later have a son, who takes after the old man, much to Jane’s displeasure. They also build a ranch in Africa as a base of operations for their continuing adventures involving lost cities and nasty Germans and dinosaurs and ant men and immortality drugs!
The mortal man, Aragorn, and the immortal elf-maiden, Arwen, are the principals in one of epic high-fantasy’s most celebrated love stories.
Though excluded from the book’s central narrative, Tolkien stated that “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen,” a story embedded with the Appendices of The Lord of the Rings, was “essential” to the central chronicle, which is told from the point of view of the Hobbits. Peter Jackson’s three-film adaptation of the novel includes Aragorn and Arwen’s (pictured) tale as a part of the main story.
Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane are an enduring couple in this story of an enduring superhero whose love for his lady, and hers for him, is, well…enduring! Originating in comic books, the Superman franchise later expanded to include film and television adaptations, like 1978’s blockbuster Superman: The Movie, with appealing stars Christopher Reeves and Margot Kidder (pictured).
Some guys just can’t resist the “bad girl!”
The definitive couple of the classic planetary romance sub-genre, and one of SF’s earliest interplanetary unions, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ hero John Carter describes Dejah Thoris, a princess of Mars—or Barsoom—as “slender,” possessed of a “girlish figure, similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life… Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair, caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.”
So what you’re saying, John, is that she was cute!
But, perhaps, what closed the deal for our smitten Earthman was this observation:
“She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure.”
Get a room!
Speaking of Martians, their invasion of Earth brings steadfast scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester and scream-queen Sylvia Van Buren together, and as they dodge danger through the balance of 1953’s War of the Worlds, they fall in love while civilization collapses around them. First dates can be a bummer!
Author Lois McMaster Bujold’s epic, award-winning space opera series, the Vorkosigan Saga, features this pairing of, initially, enemies who come to admire, respect, and love each other. Parents to the saga’s principal protagonist, Miles Vorkosigan, honour, wry humour, a disarming frankness, an abiding affection, and a little polyamorous gamboling are hallmarks of their marriage.
Protagonists of the “Glamourist Histories” books, loving married couple Jane and David Vincent are master practitioners of “glamour”— basically, magically generated illusion as an art form—who travel the globe and become involved in all manner of intrigues. Author Mary Robinette Kowal’s wonderful mixing of fantasy with the Regency Romance has been described as “Jane Austen with magic.”
Former British Army nurse Claire Randall and her husband, Frank, embark on a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands just after World War II has ended. Visiting the site of an ancient Druid stone circle, she finds herself transported back in time to the 18th-century, where she meets, befriends, finally becomes romantically involved with, and marries Highlander James “Jamie” Mackenzie Fraser, enjoying with him on numerous occasions passionate, heart-pounding sex. Returning to the 20th century three years subsequent to her mysterious disappearance, Frank is relieved to see her again but shocked to find that she is pregnant! Awkward.
Author Diana Gabaldon was inspired to write her Outlander stories, now adapted for television (pictured), by an early Doctor Who series featuring 18th-century Scotsman Jamie McCrimmon as one of the Doctor’s companions. Originally, she had intended to pen a historical romance, but decided to introduce the time-travel element when she found that she was writing Claire as too modern a woman.
Icons of YA science fiction, these two bond and fall in love as competitors in the Hunger Games books and films. Ah, young love!
Rivaling Katniss and Peeta in the YA category are this high school girl and her vampire lover, lead characters of the Twilight books and movies. Ah, young love!
A modern version of the classic fairy tale, this love story sees the compassion and kindness of the beast, Vincent, bring out the best in his beauty, Catherine, forever changing her life.
Known for his love of monsters, genre director Guillermo del Toro recalled his childhood viewing of, and disappointment with The Creature from the Black Lagoon, namely that the titular creature failed to win the love of the girl! So, he conceived of a movie where the monster does, in the end, get the girl, and you’re not all wet if you find this an exquisitely executed, if rather strange cinematic romance. 
King Kong’s attraction to, affection for, might we go so far as to say love of Ann Darrow goes unrequited in the original 1933 film, in which Fay Wray spends much of the time screaming in terror. But the relationship is explored more deeply in Peter Jackson’s adoring 2005 remake, with Ann showing a strong emotional attachment to the big ape that yes, might be described as love! Still doesn’t end well for Kong, however.
Scandalous! A witch romantically attracted to another witch! It’s unnatural!
Torchwood’s, and for that matter the above Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s, unreserved portrayals of gay couples were among television’s most positive, though things ended tragically for both couples.
While series writers were ambiguous about a romantic relationship between Xena and Gabrielle, scripts were sprinkled with innuendo, subtle clues, and jokes, which fans dubbed “lesbian subtext.” It is rather apparent that the two are close, very close, and by most measures, almost certainly lovers, with series star Lucy “Xena” Lawless acknowledging in interviews that such is her understanding.
The close relationship of these two principal Star Wars droids has been interpreted by some as akin to that of a gay couple. While C-3PO has fairly a stereotypical air of the effeminate about him, there’s no clear indication of a gender, per se, certainly not in the case of R2-D2, or of why the assignment of a gender would even be necessary. After all, these are robots; machines, neither male nor female, which we suppose would make them at the same time binary and non-binary!
That said, they do seem to love each other. Make of that what you will.
Farmhand Westley sets out to seek his fortune overseas so that he may one day return and marry his true love. But an evil prince has other plans for Buttercup! Westley must survive the Cliffs of Insanity, the Fire Swamp, the Pit of Despair, and other dangers in order to save his princess bride and with her, live happily ever after.
With the arrival of Emma Peel as John Steed’s new assistant, The Avengers added a tad more science fiction to storylines, and while never clearly stated, the easy familiarity between them, lightly comic tone, and their delight in topping each other’s witticisms strongly suggested that there was something more going on with the two of them than a professional partnership.
As Mrs. Peel’s husband went missing while flying over the Amazon and was believed dead, any amorous involvement with Steed would not be seen as improper by fans, who picked up on the heightened sexual inference in the show and ran with it. They imagined an exciting, romantic relationship between Steed and Mrs. Peel that was never actually acknowledged in canon!
Opposites attract, according to the old adage. Both special agents with the FBI, Fox Mulder is a true believer in the paranormal while his partner, the scientifically grounded Dana Scully, seeks a rational explanation for the unusual mysteries the two investigate.
The chemistry between attractive X-Files stars David “Mulder” Duchovny and Gillian “Scully” Anderson is positively electric! Not since the 1980s detective series Moonlighting, with protagonists David Addison (Bruce Willis) and Madolyn “Maddie” Hayes (Cybill Shepherd), have we had to employ a knife to cut the sexual tension!
Farscape fans credit the heat between actors Ben “John Crichton” Browder and Claudia “Aeryn Sun” Black with bringing much of the sizzle to this relationship!
Another case of opposites attracting, with laid-back, dryly humourous and somewhat goofy pilot Hoban “Wash” Washburne standing in contrast to his future wife, level-headed, tough, take-charge Zoë Alleyne, first mate aboard Serenity, the ship on which they both served under Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds. An odd couple, she first disliked and distrusted him, then was heartbroken upon his sudden, tragic death at the tip of a Reaver harpoon.
With a jestful quip, a subtle smile, a tender look, and a loving embrace, stars Gal Gadot and Chris Pine deliver in spades as the ill-fated lovers, Diana of Themyscria and soldier/pilot Steve Trevor in 2017’s Wonder Woman.
How to adequately describe a romance between two Avengers? Super!
These two starred in an engaging paranormal romance that apparently saw an uptick in people taking up pottery as a hobby!
Buffy the Vampire Slayer included many romantic matches, but none so series-defining as that of the slayer, Buffy, and the vampire with a soul, Angel, impassioned but doomed a relationship as theirs was. Some fans cite as more enticing Buffy’s subsequent tryst with Spike—fierce, fervent, and fraught with danger—but that coupling always seemed a case him being more into her than she was into him.
One of the most traumatic affairs in the Buffyverse is that of Winifred “Fred” Burkle and Wesley Wyndam Price, who grew perhaps more than any other, both as characters and romantic partners. Her heart-wrenching death in his arms as the powerful demon Illyria consumes her very being so as to take over her body and rise again, and his subsequent death, with Illyria briefly taking on her visage to offer him a last, comforting moment of happiness, are two of the most emotional scenes in a franchise with a lot of emotional scenes!
The long-running Walking Dead series, about groups of disparate people banding together to survive a zombie apocalypse and rebuild the world, saw a good many relationships develop over 11 seasons. None was so pleasing to fans of the show, however, as that of former sheriff’s deputy and now community leader Rick Grimes and deadly, samurai sword-wielding zombie killer Michonne, who joined Rick’s people in the third season. In adversity blooms love.
Rivaling Rick and Michonne as a fan-favourite couple are Maggie Greene and Glenn Rhee, whose lovely romance and subsequent marriage ends most horribly when Glenn is brutally executed by ruthless overlord Negan, forever scarring Maggie emotionally.
Adapted as both a film and television series (pictured) from Audrey Niffenegger’s 2003 debut novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, this unusual tale of romance unfolds for protagonists Clare Anne Abshire and Henry De Tamble out of sequence!
“I came across time for you, Sarah. I love you. I always have.” Time-travel, again, plays a part in the story of a soldier from the future who volunteers to travel back in time at the request of a military leader who is, unbeknownst to him, his own son to save from execution the mother of that son, who is the woman in an old photograph said son gave him, a woman with whom this soldier has fallen in love and will sleep with while in the past, resulting in the birth of the very son who strategized to send him back through time in the first place!
And there’s also a killer robot.
Amelia “Amy” Pond and Rory Williams are probably the long-running Doctor Who franchise’s most beloved couple, and with all that wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey business going on about them, it’s a wonder they managed to emerge together and intact from their mind-bending adventures aboard the TARDIS. During their days with the Doctor, their relationship matured and strengthened. They married, conceived a child—the enigmatic River Song—and in the end, lived happily together into old age, a Weeping Angel, in their swansong, having sent them to a past so temporally damaged as to prevent the TARDIS from ever traveling there safely to rescue them.
The Doctor is left disconsolate at the realization that he will never again see his companions. “Know that we lived well, and were very happy,” Amy writes to him in a final postscript that he will read a lifetime later. “And above all else, know that we will love you always.”
The Doctor is certainly fond of his many companions, but his affections are more along the lines of a platonic love, as for a brother, sister, or dear friend. For many fans of the long-running, time-bending British sci-fi series, however, one stands alone as, quite likely, the companion for whom the Doctor did harbour romantic feelings: Rose Tyler. His first and principal companion for the revival of the series in 2005, their relationship grows increasingly warm until, finally, she falls in love with him.
At the conclusion of the second series, they are heartbreakingly parted from each other when Rose becomes eternally trapped on an alternate version of Earth in a parallel universe. The Doctor harnesses the power of a supernova to communicate with her for the last time, but they only have a few minutes before a “tiny little gap in the universe” closes and cuts off his holographic projection. “I’m burning up a sun just to say goodbye,” he tells her. She tearfully expresses her love for him, but before he can return the sentiment, the transmission fades. Each is left standing alone and in tears.
Adventurer Rick O’Connell and librarian/Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan are at the center of the Weird Tales-like action/adventure/horror film The Mummy and its sequel, The Mummy Returns. The banter, the playful flirting, the romantic gazes, the derring-do, the heart, the humour, and the vulnerability—Rick and “Evie” are an entirely charming, absolutely adorable couple, in no small measure due to the light-hearted humour and on-screen chemistry of stars Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz!
While attending a party, a young man is approached by an elderly woman he does not know and given a pocket watch. “Come back to me,” she says to him. And so begins the story of a man who falls in love with a beautiful woman from a past era, becomes fixated on somehow traveling back through the years to be with her in order to romance her, propose marriage, and give her back that pocket watch!
Despite the so-so time-travel methodology, this beautifully photographed little romance movie works in large part due to the marvellous performances of stars Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour, resplendent in award-worthy period costuming as they stroll through an extraordinarily picturesque setting while falling in love.
Fry and Leela began their relationship as good friends, with occasional hints of romantic attraction surfacing from time to time, but as the series progressed, he worked to improve himself so as to be worthy of her, and she was taken with his independent spirit, if not his initial immaturity, and eventually allowed herself to open up emotionally and return his love. Theirs is a sweet love story that is at the heart of the wacky animated sci-fi/comedy Futurama.
Hailing from different tribes, Loana and Tumak met and fell in love, becoming, if you will, the Romeo and Juliette of the sexy Stone Age, one million years, B.C. And no savage cave-people, nor volcanic eruptions, nor even Ray Harryhausen’s marauding dinosaurs could keep these two prehistoric lovers apart! Her animal-skin bikini quickly became an iconic image of fantasy cinema.
While James T. Kirk is, arguably, the galaxy’s most legendary womanizer, there is at least one episode in which his habitual love-’em-and-leave-’em play was usurped by true love, and ultimately, anguished heartbreak. In one of William Shatner’s finest moments on screen, the utter agony of Kirk having to hold back and witness Edith Keeler’s tragic but necessary death was written across the captain’s face in that pivotal moment, and in the moments afterwards as he stood grief-stricken on the sidewalk.
