The Kilted Writer

In the last post , I discussed the "parent" level of the family model of mind, body, and spirit as it relates to the popular science show, Mythbusters . Now, I will take a look at the "children" level of the model.  What's interesting about this show is that it's been on the air long enough to see the "children" mature into an independent team. In the beginning, the team did a lot of "behind-the-scenes" work, but were rarely in front of the camera. Their responsibilities were simply to build whatever was necessary. Somewhere around season four, the team moved to the front of the camera, but their responsibilities were still limited. Now, they share almost equal on-screen time and develop tests for their own myths, independent of their "parents," Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. The Mind Character: Grant Imahara Grant has a background in robotics. On the show, he is often responsible for calculations and scientific...

(Note: This post was originally written in October 2013) First, I want to thank all of you for keeping the blog's stats up while I was away. If you follow me (Kilted Writer) on Facebook, you know I was traveling for my 25th high school reunion. It was a great time, more so than I would have ever expected. Now, though, it's back to work. I want to be as prepared and up to date as possible for my presentation at the Castle Rock Writers Conference on November 23rd. Unlike previous posts, which have focused on "film and fiction" this one will look at the popular series, Mythbusters . This is not a fiction series, but it is produced for entertainment value. Now in its 14th season, I think they've succeeded. Part of that success can be seen in the interactions of the cast members as they set out to confirm or bust various "myths" from all parts of society. The chemistry between the cast members can be partially explained in terms of mind, body...

I grew up on Star Wars, Buck Rogers, and Battlestar Galactica. My friends and I would fight over who got to be Starbuck and who got to be Apollo in our recreations of battles against the Cylon "tin cans." Which is why I was absolutely appalled to find out the recent remake of the Battlestar Galactica television series featured a female Starbuck. What's worse is the sexual tension depicted between Apollo and Starbuck. That whole situation is so far removed from the original characters that it changes the whole dynamic of the series. I recently started re-watching the original series and, given the sex change, was surprised by how much of the original carried over into the remake, right down to the use of "frak." I actually gained a little more respect for the new series. As I watched the pilot episode, I immediately became aware of the mind, body, and spirit symbolism in the characters. The dynamic may be different in the remake, but here is wha...

Stargate SG-1 ran for 10 seasons and over 200 episodes, which gave the writers a lot of different mind, body, and spirit opportunities. In addition to the main characters and the " uber races " of aliens, SG-1 has one other another prominent mind, body, and spirit set. In the war with their primary enemy, the Goa'uld, the humans of earth ally themselves with the Jaffa and the Tok'ra. The Body Race: Jaffa The Jaffa are the enslaved warriors of the Goa'uld, who pretend to be gods in order to exert their power. They are the measure of any particular Goa'uld's military strength. In the pilot episode, Teal'c, a Jaffa serving as the "First Prime" (top ranking Jaffa) of the Goa'uld Apophis, rebels against his false god and starts a movement within the Jaffa to create a free nation. These free Jaffa fight against the Goa'uld to help their brothers and sisters gain the same freedom they enjoy. The Jaffa are imbued with lon...

A while back, I introduced the concept of mind, body, and spirit societies . I illustrated the concept in my discussion of the book, Divergent , by Veronica Roth, and in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The TV series, Stargate SG-1 , contains three separate "uber-races" of aliens the team from Earth encounter at various times throughout the series. These three races make up a complete mind, body, and spirit set. The Mind Race: The Nox The Nox appear to be a very primitive race when the team first meets them. They even seem to have difficulty with basic communication. Within the span of a brief conversation, however, the Nox pick up the language and patterns of communication the team is using and are able to communicate quite easily. The Nox use the power of the mind for everything from healing their sick to escaping detection by unwanted intruders. They can even resurrect someone who has died under the right  conditions. To the Nox, humans are a...

Mind, body, and spirit are usually very clear in science fiction and fantasy. The TV series "Stargate SG-1" is no exception. As with most series, the characters maintain their mind, body, or spirit traits, even as they develop depth over the seasons. Col. Jack O'Neill is a body character when the series begins and he is still a body character in the movies produced after the series' 10-season run. What I found interesting is that this continuity extends to replacement characters, as well. When a spirit character leaves the show, another spirit character is written in to take his place. The same holds true with the body character. For this analysis, I will be looking at the entire 10 seasons, which I recently finished re-watching. For the military ranks, I am using the rank in which the character started the series. The Mind Character: Dr./Capt. Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) Amanda Tapping is one of the few actors to have been with the series f...

In a way, Joan of Arcadia is similar to The Mentalist when it comes to mind, body, and spirit.  In The Mentalist , you have a mind character, a spirit character, and then a team that collectively makes up the body character. When you examine the team members individually, though, you see another layer of mind, body, and spirit. In Joan of Arcadia , Will Girardi (Joe Mantegna) is a mind character, Helen Girardi (Mary Steenburgen) is a spirit character, and their three kids collectively make up a body character. When the three kids are examined individually, you can see another layer of mind, body and spirit. The Spirit Character: Joan Girardi (Amber Tamblyn) Joan sees and interacts with God. She will do whatever God asks her to do, but often reluctantly. She often asks "why," but continues forward despite never getting an answer to her questions. God explains that she can see him because she is open to more possibilities than most people. This is undersco...

In the previous post about The Mentalist , I described how the 'team,' collectively, was the body character in one layer of mind, body and spirit. In this post, I will discuss how the 'team,' individually, make up a second layer of mind, body, and spirit. This form of layering is fairly common in depictions of families in film and fiction. Shows like Family Ties or Joan of Arcadia have the same kind of construct, with the mother and father as mind and spirit and the children as the body in the first layer. The children, individually, then make up the second layer of mind, body, and spirit. The Mind Character: Kimball Cho (Tim Kang) One of the classic cop mind characters is Joe Friday. His famous line, 'Just the facts, ma'am,' defines the mind character mentality. Kimball Cho is Joe Friday with a comic twist, but even then, the comic lines are delivered with an air of seriousness. Cho doesn't like to get involved in side issues when...

In the television series, 'The Mentalist,' Simon Baker plays former 'psychic' Patrick Jane. When a serial killer named Red John kills his family, he joins a special crimes unit with the California Bureau of Investigations where he uses his special talents of observation to help solve cases, all the while keeping Red John on his mind. The investigative team illustrates mind, body, and spirit very well. There are two layers that I will discuss in two separate posts. The same friend who lent us The Big Bang Theory lent us the first season of The Mentalist , so these posts will be based on the first season. The Mind Character: Agent Theresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) Agent Lisbon is a typical cop mind character. Things like 'chain-of-command' and 'rule of law' are important to her when they are investigating a crime. A lot of conflict within the unit comes between Lisbon, who expects her orders to be obeyed, and Jane, who plays by his own rul...

(Note: This post was originally written in February 2013. I have since seen more episodes and more seasons of this show and some things have definitely changed, especially with the introduction of Amy and Bernadette.)   I don't subject myself to any form of broadcast television. I watch what I want to watch, when I want to watch it...with no commercial interruptions. Being self-employed, I have no 'water cooler' to hang around, so being a little behind the times with the latest TV episodes it not much of a bother for me. Recently, a friend lent me the first season of The Big Bang Theory on DVD. As I watched the first couple of episodes, the mind-body-spirit picture began to take shape. The analysis here is based only on the characters and episodes introduced in the first season. The Mind Character: Sheldon ( Jim Parsons) Sheldon is what I call a 'pivot' character. He is the mind character in the Penny/Leonard/Sheldon trio, but he is also the mind...

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is the protagonist in Jim Butcher's 'Dresden Files' series. Mind, body, and spirit abound in this series. First, there are three societies - The Never Never (faerie world), The Down Below (demon world), and The Mundane (human world). I have not read enough of the series to place these concretely, but my initial impression is they are the spirit, mind, and body societies, respectively. Harry Dresden is a wizard, and his magic is deeply rooted in mind, body, and spirit concepts. His potions for example contain eight parts. The first is a liquid that acts to bind all the other components together. Five ingredients represent the five senses (the body). One ingredient represents the mind, and the final ingredient represents the spirit. Spells also have a mind, body and spirit component. And, as usual, there are three primary characters. I have only read the first two books in the series, and as I've shown before, things c...

'Tales of the Gold Monkey' was a series from the early 1980's featuring the exploits of a former Flying Tiger operating as a freelance cargo pilot out of Bora Bora in 1938. The show piggybacked off the success of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,' with a lot of the same themes of adventure.  This show provides an interesting twist to the mind-body-spirit analysis because the mind character only has a two-word vocabulary. The Mind Character: Jack Jack is a one-eyed dog who barks twice to answer 'yes' and once to answer 'no.'  He is an expert poker player and gives advice to Jake, his owner, any time the cards are on the table. When Jake ignores Jack's advice, he loses. When he takes Jack's advice, he wins. Jack also has a phenomenal memory and can hold a grudge better than any human. A running theme through the series is Jack being upset because Jake ignored his advice and lost his sapphire-centered glass eye in a game of cards. ...

Here, I am addressing the television series by Joss Whedon, not the 1992 motion picture. As I posted earlier, Joss Whedon uses mind, body, and spirit characters very clearly in his work, as in Firefly/Serenity . In Buffy, as in Firefly, the characters are clear and there are layers in each of the character types. For this post, I will only address primary characters for analysis, but I will mention the lower layer characters in the discussions. I am also looking primarily at episode 1.1 for this discussion, but there are things mentioned from later episodes and seasons. The Spirit Character: Buffy ( Sarah Michelle Gellar) Buffy is introduced dreaming of vampires. She doesn't want to resume her role as the Slayer, but she is drawn to it despite those desires. Her reasons for wanting to avoid her responsibility are all based on relationships. She says she will lose all her friends, get kicked out of school, and won't be able to tell anyone what she does. It...

Nine characters. Three sets of three character types, all working together to create a compelling cast of characters. This is the final installment, the final layer of body, mind and spirit in Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' series. The Body Character: Inara Serra ( Morena Baccarin) Inara is a 'registered companion.' In the world of Firefly, prostitutes have a social hierarchy, and registered companions are at the top of the heap. They only accept the highest of society as clients and are revered by much of society. The fact that Mal has a registered companion operating on his ship gives him access to some of the more reputable ports in the galaxy. Mal, however, sees no distinction between a common whore and a registered companion. They both represent loveless and purely physical relationships to him. Inara never sweats, never gets dirty, and always looks her finest. While this may not be a universally true statement, it's clear enough in the series ...

The primary mind, body, and spirit characters in Joss Whedon's "Firefly" television series. The second layer characters will be described in this post. The Mind Character: Simon Tam (Sean Maher) Many times, people in medical professions, like doctor, coroner, etc., operate as body characters, but not in "Firefly." He shows this in the pilot episode when Kaylee is shot by a bounty hunter. Rather than immediately moving into action to save her life, as a body character would, he bargains with Mal for protection for himself and his sister, River. Like Zoe, Simon often acts as a devil's advocate, questioning the logic of actions taken by other characters. He also brings a different perspective on core planets (planets controlled by the Alliance), knowledge that lets the crew get away with a hospital heist. Simon is not just a doctor, he is one of the best. He was top of his class and brilliant in everything he attempted. He engineered River...

"Firefly" was a television series that only lasted one season, but developed such a large cult following that a major motion picture, "Serenity," was produced to close out the story. Joss Whedon wrote both the series and the motion picture screenplays and expertly applied mind, body, and spirit characters throughout, just as he has done in other works, such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Dollhouse." In Firefly, Whedon uses three layers of mind, body and spirit. In this post, I will only address the first, or top, layer. The Spirit Character: Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) The pilot episode of Firefly began with Mal Reynolds and Zoe Washburne in the middle of a battle with the Alliance. Their rebel forces (the Browncoats) were pinned down and in dire need of air support that wasn't coming any time soon. Mal was the one running around trying to encourage the fighters, saying things like, "We are just too pr...

Compelling stories tend to have all three character types  - mind, body, and spirit. This holds true in series, as well. In this post, I will take a look at how mind, body, and spirit characters are effectively used in the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes. The first thing about series is that all three character types may not show up in every edition or episode. Many of the strips created by Bill Watterson only featured the young boy, Calvin, and his stuffed tiger, Hobbes. You have to take a grander view if you want to see the various character types. One or two episodes may not be enough to develop the characters and their relationships enough to create the kind of mind-body-spirit interactions that will make the series compelling. Another aspect of series development is the use of  'recurring characters.' In Calvin and Hobbes, for example, Calvin's parents play the primary mind character role, but when Calvin is not at home, Susie takes over as the mind ch...