By Adelia Ladson
First of all, if you spell it “Syfy,” like above, then you are definitely one. And since, “it takes one to know one,” I can give you some pretty good guidelines to go by. Borrowing from Jeff Foxworthy, “You know you’re a Syfy Geek if…”
If you get every single joke on “The Big Bang Theory.” There are just certain words like “warp speed” and “tesseract” that slip into your vocabulary and you’re not ashamed to use them. You also have a really good understanding of basic science fiction concepts like “teletransportation,” “time warping,” and “phasing.” This, along with retaining a good bit of knowledge from your high school science classes, allows you to understand Leonard, Sheldon and crew on this “laugh-out-loud” TV show.
If you totally understood where “Episodes IV, V, and VI” fit into the “Star Wars” timeline and how they were historically related to the first three movies. Now, you don’t necessarily have to like all of them and there does seem to be a division between us who prefer “the originals” and those who prefer “the new.” Going with that theme, you totally understand the chronology of the “Star Trek” saga from Kirk and Picard to Sisko and Janeway. Oh, and let’s not forget the short-lived “Star Trek: Enterprise” with Scott Bakula as the captain. (He starred in “Quantum Leap.” Remember “Quantum Leap”? Another great syfy series.)
“The Matrix” has you in it’s clutches. “The Matrix” has you in it’s clutches.
If you find yourself getting drawn into watching “The Matrix” on TV while you’re flipping through the channels. Even though, you honestly can’t remember how many hundreds of times you’ve seen it and you actually own the entire trilogy on DVD. Maybe, it’s because we keep looking for a deeper meaning in the movie. It’s like we’re looking for a different outcome of taking the blue pill or red pill. I mean the movie was incredible and the way it built up to the next movie had you at the midnight showing of “The Matrix Reloaded” with baited breath. I know I was. Actually, there are reruns that I just can’t help myself from stopping and watching if I’m surfing the channels. I will watch “Fringe,” “X-Files,” “Sanctuary,” and even (I can’t help myself) “Roswell”. As a sy-fy geek, I just find those shows irresistible and it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve watched them.
The flip-phone circa the late Sixties.
The flip-phone circa the late Sixties.
If you avidly read or watch any news that is about research being done or the possibility (even if it’s theoretical) of the stock science fiction principals being applied in real life. “Beam me up Scotty,” for sure. Actually, google “Quantum Teleportation,” if you want to read something interesting. Of course, I’m still waiting for my flying car, circa “The Jetsons” or “personal air vehicle” as NASA now labels it. We can put a man on the moon but I can’t fly from my door to the nearest beach? Another thing about syfy geeks like us is that we’re going to be the first ones to purchase the newest gadget as soon as it’s put on the market. And, it’s a bonus when it’s something that did come from the realms of science fiction like the communicator that was made real by the flip-phone in the Nineties. We’re attracted to new technology like moths to a flame.
If you look at these traits, and find that you “just might be a Syfy Geek,” know that you are in really good company. History shows us that there have been many Syfy Geeks who have changed the world. Submarine designer, Simon Lake; helicopter inventor, Igor Sikorsky; rocket pioneers, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth; astronomer, Edwin Hubble; and artificial intelligence pioneer, David Hanson, all said they were inspired by the stories of Jules Verne, who actually proclaimed that he was NOT a science fiction writer. Go figure.