Watched Avatar in 3D this weekend. Enough has been said about the movie: its agenda, the screenplay, and special effects, and so I’ll forgo all that. I have however, been turning a concept around in my head concerning the view of space, humanity, and extra-planetary exploration in the sci-fi movie genre.

For example is space empty — a void which, if one looks intently into nothing long enough they will find that the nothing looking back transforms the self into nothing such as the Reavers of Firefly? Or rather is space full and teaming more like a field or womb as C.S. Lewis imagined it in his space trilogy? Is it a frontier which needs taming by the courageous crew of the starship Enterprise? Or is a tame place needs protecting from humanity as in The Day the Earth Stood Still? And for that matter, who or what is evil? The Empire of Star Wars? The Corporation of Avatar? The Alliance of Firefly? The engineers of That Hideous Strength? The Romulans? Klingons? Cylongs? or even Humanity?