Open Letter to Doc Jensen

Lostophiles -

This morning I sent an email to Jeff Jensen at EW.com responding to a "should Lost go sci-fi" debate touched upon in his weekly column (for a look at the column in question, click on the title of this post). Below is the text of that email. Should the good Doc respond, I will gladly share his insights with you, and I would love to get your thoughts on this topic, as well.

Doc, I can't understate how much of a fan I have been of your Lost columns (and your many other TV-show articles) at EW.

Today, you ran an email from "Tim," discussing his firm wish that Lost not delve too deep into Sci-Fi in answering its myriad mysteries.

As a fairly loyal science fiction fan, I want to further Tim's point, while also clarifying the issue a little.

First of all, science fiction, per se, is not evil, and has produced some of the finest pop culture we have. But it's possible to do sci-fi right, and it's possible for it to go horribly wrong. At its best (think: Battlestar Galactica), science fiction tweaks the rules of reality ever so slightly to let relatable characters and only slightly distorted versions of realistic, everyday plots shine through. At its worst, science fiction creates sui generis deus ex machina conclusions to what had previously been brilliantly tense concepts (think: any episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation that ended with Geordie LaForge reversing the polarity of something by flushing the positron emissions created by the warp drive through the phaser banks...man, I'm already bored by the allusion).

It is in these moments where only the Steven Hawkings of the world can fully understand the quick and dirty save-the-day or explain-the-mystery device that sci-fi gets its bad name. As aspirational and culture-altering as the simple and relatable notion of "faith in the force" was for fans of the original Star Wars trilogy, the pseudo-scientific explanation of "he has lots of midichlorians" doomed the prequel trilogy to endless eye rolls so big, Admiral Akbar would be hospitalized by the skull-crushing pain.

Similarly, the dramatic downturn in quality in countless X-men comic story lines that occurs when some nebulously-defined psychic threat appears only diminishes the brilliant notion of super-powered mutants as a lens through which to view prejudice and bigotry (and don't get me started on alien encounter plots in otherwise Earthly superhero stories).

The point is, Doc, that for all the brilliance of Lost's set-up (and, now that we've hit the 60% point, there can be only so much more setup), sci-fi-ruining concepts such as "wormholes" and "psychic residues" will most likely result in a letdown. Such a quantum leap in believability would be absurd in light of the realistic portrayal of even the supernatural Smokey on the show. Please, Doc, pass this on to your buddies, Damon and Carlton: don't let Lost devolve from "The Matrix" into "The Matrix Revolutions" with concepts so high-falutin', they distract from the brilliant narrative.

Dan H.
Lost Lover at Law
http://lostlovinglawyer.blogspot.com