Sat, Feb 24, 2001 09:27PM -0600

I was watching "Starship Troopers" [IMDb entry][official site] on FOX last night, and surprisingly, it didn't lose that much from censorship. I wonder what Robert Heinlein would think of it. I've pretty much bought into the idea that it is actually a very clever satire of war, and not just the incredibly stupid movie with vapid acting that it appears to be. But everytime I see it, I am reminded of the fact that Heinlein had intended Johnny Rico to be Filipino. But then again, who the hell would've been cast, I wonder.

But watching it again, I was just struck by incredible similarities between Starship Troopers and the game Starcraft, developed by Blizzard Entertainment. First off, in both games, the main enemy is insect-like (or at least arthropod-like): arachnids vs. Zerg. They even have similar subspecies. The foot soldiers are kind of like Hydralisks except they don't spit acid--or maybe they're like giant Zerglings. The flyers are exactly like Mutalisks. The huge burrowing things look like Ultralisks, except Ultralisks don't spit napalm. The things that shoot plasma out of their asses and can take down starships function a lot like spore colonies. The brain bug is pretty much like an Overlord, or maybe a Cerebrate.

On the Terran side of things, there are also some similarities, although I suppose contemporary military forces have similar branches (mobile infantry, fleet, and military intelligence vs. Marines, shuttles/battlecruisers, and Ghosts.) I did find it interesting that psionic powers were mentioned. The starships looked rather familiar (although I suppose the captain of the Roger Young had more in common with Captain Janeway of the Starship Voyager than with Captain Gloval of the SDF-1.) They even had similar transport shuttles. I realize that in Starship Troopers, the government is a Federation (as in Star Trek) while in Starcraft, they are in a Confederacy (as in Wing Commander. Do you think it was on purpose? Starcraft had Wraiths while Wing Commander had Spectres. Hmmm.), but I think they have more in common than you think. What really made me laugh was the celebration scene before the sortie to the outpost. They were playing "I Wish I Was in Dixie" in the background, and it made me think of Blizzard's running joke about how the Terran Confederacy is made up of a bunch of slack-jawed yokels and rednecks who still fly the American Confederate flag.

But what it also made me think about was joining the military. Maybe it's because I'm reading Journey into the End of the Night in which the main character is a soldier. Maybe it's because I talked to someone who is on their way to boot camp. Maybe it's because I've pondered joining the Navy in order to pay back the enormous debt I will incur from med school. Maybe it's because of my faith in my doom that I will follow in the footsteps of my granduncle and of my uncle. But I've heard all you really do is give rectal exams to healthy recruits, and you have to fend off the advances of lonely wives of career officers. I don't know if I'd want to do that. Not to mention the fact that my Dad was in the Navy (somewhat involuntarily). Let's just say it wasn't one of his fonder memories. I think he may very well be one of the only Filipinos who was in the U.S. military and didn't like it.

But in any case, it seems like it would be an interesting story. I think being a doctor in the military is fraught with irony. Here you are patching up people so that they can kill other people. Or so that they can be killed. In a war, you're like one of the only people who aren't allowed to kill other people. I should watch more M*A*S*H. It really is very funny in a really sick way.

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