Addendum to Yesterday

Because I’m a lazy, forgetful bitch, I totally forgot one of the points I was going to make in my last entry, so I’m making it now. So, consider this an addendum to yesterday’s entry.

I’ve noticed recently that Sci-Fi Channel (or Syfy or whatever the hell they are calling themselves this week) has a major hard-on over Nikola Tesla. For those too lazy to click on the Wikipedia link, Tesla was Serbian investor and mechanical and electrical engineer. The reason we have electricity is mostly because of his work. He is also regarded as the inventor of the radio. So, he’s pretty high class, yet not so well known.

Anyway, three current Syfy shows future Tesla or his inventions in some way. First, let’s look at Eureka. Of course you would expect a town full of scientists and eggheads to bow down to anything scientific. So, the town’s high school is named Tesla, and their school mascot is the Coils. Cute.

Then, we move to Sanctuary. In this show, Tesla portrays a former colleague of Helen Magnus and one of his scientific experiments turned him into a vampire. He also pretty much becomes the bad guy at the end of the season. So, not such a positive portrayal.

Lastly, we come to the new Syfy show Warehouse 13. Not only did Tesla help design the actual warehouse, but his inventions are still used by the team. We get the Tesla Gun, which, while horribly temperamental, shoots electrical energy to incapacitate the victim and wipe their short-term memory. Think of it like a low-end taser.

Now, I get the fact that Syfy needs to ground itself in science in order to give us plausible fiction, but why is it always Tesla? Why can’t you give us some other crackpot scientist? I don’t have anything against Tesla, I just want some variety. Of course, I wonder why they are even trying to be plausible. I mean, they didn’t do that in the Syfy movie "Yeti" and I still shudder when I think about that piece of crap.