Okay…let’s see. This year’s Nebula noms (news item here) are Batman Begins, Howl’s Moving Castle, the boxing episode of Galactica, and the Madame de Pompadour episode of Doctor Who.
Ooooooookay. I have a feeling the Who episode that was nominated may have gotten in the door on the newfound name recognition of its writer, whose Doctor Who two-parter from the first season won the Hugo. But this was hardly a typical episode of Who, nor necessarily the strongest (hello, did anyone watch The Idiot’s Lantern?), and I’d certainly argue that the Galactica episode in question wasn’t its finest hour – or, at the very least, not the example I’d hold up from 2006 of a good SF concept in service of a story. Ah well. Maybe Miyazaki can finally win something for Howl’s this year.
By the way, in case I hadn’t mentioned it or you hadn’t noticed, there are download links in the Episode Guides section now, which will, for a nominal fee, chuck episodes of several series (and even some movies) onto your hard drive and/or iPod. File this one under “all proceeds keep the site online,” but I just thought it was kinda cool on its own merits. The most recent Stargate episodes are already available through this service, though of course some stuff (i.e. Galactica) is still iTunes-only. Give it a shot if you’re so inclined.
They pick a shipper episode from BSG for the Nebula? @_@ It was a fine character study but certainly not the finest episode of the season. There wasn’t any Science Fiction in that episode! Just romance stuff. If they want to honor BSG for their good work, fine, but pick a better episode!!! (I can think of at least half a dozen).
/rant