70s Sci-Fi, Tolkien Works, and Soap Operas – Geekout 25

One of the Christmas gifts I received from my in-laws this year was a page-a-day desk calendar. On each page, the calendar has a challenge to list some geeky things given a set of three prompts. I’ve been writing about these each day. I’m slightly behind, but this page wants me to list Four Sci-Fi Television Series from the 70s, Two J.R.R. Tolkien Titles, and Two Daytime Soap Operas.

In responding to these prompts, I try to say something about my answers, and some of my answers I know more about than others! Anyway, let’s get to the meat of this post!

Four Sci-Fi Television Series from the 70s

I thought this would be easier, but now that I’m thinking about it, most of the classic sci-fi shows I can think of are 60s, 80s, or 90s shows, not 70s. Also, I’m going to say that “from” here is going to mean that any of a shows episodes were airing during the 70s. And even with that exception, I’m still going to come up short.

Battlestar Galactica

The original version of this show started in the 70s and ended in the 80s. I’ve tried to watch this show, but I didn’t really get into it. I first watched the re-imagined version of the show that aired in the 2000s. The premise of the shows is that the Cylons (artificially intelligent robots) killed most of humanity and the Battlestar Galactica is a surviving starship.

Dr. Who

I believe the show started in the 60s and has been running at least intermittently ever since. This is one of those shows that’s high up on my to-watch list, but I’ve only seen a couple of episodes in the middle. I need to binge watch it at some point.

Two J.R.R. Tolkien Titles

This well-known author almost needs no introduction. Tolkien is an English author from whom much of modern fantasy storytelling finds inspiration. People who write fantasy stories have often read fantasy stories, and these days, those authors have all read Tolkien’s works.

Interestingly, he was a linguist, and I have books containing his translations on a bookshelf behind me. I find Old and Middle English very interesting, and he was very interested in the English language.

The Hobbit

As the name of this book suggests, this story follows the adventures of a Hobbit. The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, quests with a band of Dwarves in search of a great treasure guarded by a dragon. This is actually a children’s story, and remains very popular even today. In fact, it recently received an adaptation in the form of 3 films.

The Lord of the Rings

Tolkien’s most well-known work, The Lord of the Rings is an adventurous tale of the forces of Good trying to cast off the Evil in the world. It is the sequel to The Hobbit. I believe Tolkien originally wrote this story with the intent of it being all one volume. The story is rather large, so you can understand why it may have necessitated being split up.

Most people are familiar with The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Those are the volumes that together comprise The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s interesting to call it a trilogy, because each of those volumes is actually split into two books. That makes it fun, because there are six books in this “trilogy”.

The Silmarillion

Added a bonus one here. This story is technically an incomplete work by Tolkien, however, it did end up getting “finished” and published. I’ve yet to read the book cover to cover, but I intend to at some point. If I were to describe this book in a very simple way, I’d say that the other books are about adventures within Middle Earth, Tolkien’s imagined fantasy world, but this book is about Middle Earth itself.

Two Daytime Soap Operas

Now here’s a strange topic. I’ve heard of these, but I know nothing about them. I know the jokes about crazy storylines and such. Are these shows really like this?

Days of Our Lives

I only know the name. Can’t think of anything else to say about this.

The Young and the Restless

Don’t know anything about this either. I just know the name.

Wrap Up

That was a bit rocky, but I’m looking forward to the next listings on Gaming, Comics, and Sci-Fi.