Author | Peter Jurasik William H. Keith Jr. |
---|---|
Cover artist | Gary Ruddell |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction |
Published | August 1998 Baen Books |
Publication place | United States |
Pages | 368 |
ISBN | 0-671-87788-7 |
OCLC | 42210416 |
Diplomatic Act is a comedy science fiction novel written by Peter Jurasik and William H. Keith Jr., published in August 1998. The novel focuses on Richard Faraday, an actor who plays an extraterrestrial diplomat on a science fiction television series, who is kidnapped by aliens who believe him to be the diplomat he portrays. The novel was inspired by Jurasik's role as extraterrestrial ambassador Londo Mollari in the science fiction series Babylon 5 (1993–1998).
Richard Faraday is an actor on a science fiction television series, Star Peace. He plays Harmon the Eldar, an extraterrestrial diplomat who is both kind and wise. An alien group of watchers, called the Kluj, who have been observing mankind through their television broadcasts for decades, do not understand the distinction between fact and fiction (in fact the concept of fiction might be a uniquely human concept) and kidnap Faraday as they believe him to be Harmon and they are in need of his diplomatic services.
The Kluj need Faraday to solve a metaphilosophical crisis and avert a galactic war. While Faraday is trying to sort out the galactic crisis, a Kluj takes Faraday's place on the set of Star Peace and learns about the difference between fiction and reality and how Hollywood works. This Kluj has to team up with Faraday to defeat the evil plans of one of the Elder Races wandering around the galaxy.
The lead character in the novel, Faraday, who is an actor on a science fiction television show where he plays an extraterrestrial diplomat, bears some similarity to author Jurasik, as Jurasik played extraterrestrial ambassador Londo Mollari in the science fiction series Babylon 5 (1993–1998). The novel was completed during Jurasik's final year on Babylon 5 and the cover illustration by Gary Ruddell bears quite a similarity to Jurasik's character. [1] Co-author William H. Keith Jr. is the writer of a number of science fiction novel series including the Warstrider series.
The book is similar in tone and story to Galaxy Quest , which was released one year later. [2] It also bears similarities to the 1995 science fiction/comedy television film The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space , as well as John Scalzi's Redshirts published in 2012. [3]
Publishers Weekly reviewed that novel calling it a "lightly entertaining story" that "moves briskly and includes fast action". [4] [5] [6]
Babylon 5 is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Television. After the successful airing of a test pilot movie on February 22, 1993, Babylon 5: The Gathering, Warner Bros. commissioned the series for production in May 1993 as part of its Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). The show premiered in the US on January 26, 1994, and ran for five 22-episode seasons.
Galaxy Quest is a 1999 American science fiction comedy film directed by Dean Parisot and written by David Howard and Robert Gordon. A parody of and homage to science-fiction films and series, especially Star Trek and its fandom, the film depicts the cast of a fictional cult television series, Galaxy Quest, who are drawn into a real interstellar conflict by actual aliens who think the series is an accurate documentary. It stars Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Tony Shalhoub, Sam Rockwell, and Daryl Mitchell. The film was a modest box office success and positively received by critics: It won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and the Nebula Award for Best Script. It was also nominated for 10 Saturn Awards, including Best Science Fiction Film and Best Director for Parisot, Best Actress for Weaver, and Best Supporting Actor for Rickman, with Allen winning Best Actor.
A "redshirt" is a stock character in fiction who dies soon after being introduced. The term originates from the original Star Trek television series in which the red-shirted security personnel frequently die during episodes. Redshirt deaths are often used to dramatize the potential peril the main characters face.
Peter Jurasik is an American actor known for his television roles as Londo Mollari in the 1990s science fiction series Babylon 5 and Sid the Snitch on the 1980s series Hill Street Blues and its short-lived spinoff Beverly Hills Buntz. Peter Jurasik also portrayed Oberon Geiger, Diana's boss, in the T.V. series Sliders.
"Midnight on the Firing Line" is the first episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5, following the pilot movie, "The Gathering". It first aired on January 26, 1994. It was notable for being the first regular television episode which used computer-generated imagery rather than physical models for its special visual effects. The episode also marked the beginning of the first science fiction television series where the entire series had an overarching storyline, which the writer J. Michael Straczynski described as "a novel for television".
"Born to the Purple" is the third episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5. The episode deals with Centauri ambassador, Londo Mollari, having important files on him stolen by his lover, Adira Tyree.
"The War Prayer" is the seventh episode of the first season of the science fiction television series, Babylon 5. It first aired on 9 March 1994.
"The Coming of Shadows" is a key episode from the second season of the science fiction television series Babylon 5. It won the 1996 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.
Londo Mollari is a fictional character in the universe of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, played by Peter Jurasik.
G'Kar is a fictional character in Babylon 5 played by Andreas Katsulas. He is a Narn and initially appears as a villainous diplomat opposite Londo Mollari, being constantly engaged in insidious, if petty, and often comical schemes. He is usually driven by his hostility to his people's historical enemies the Centauri, whom Londo represents. Over the course of the series, he is transformed into a Messianic figure and the foremost spiritual leader of his people.
Babylon 5: The Gathering is the test pilot movie of the science fiction television series Babylon 5, aired on February 22, 1993. It is also the first of six feature-length films in the Babylon 5 media franchise.
Babylon 5: In the Beginning is a 1998 American made-for-television film set in the Babylon 5 fictional universe. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski and directed by Michael Vejar. The film originally aired on January 4, 1998 on the TNT cable network, a couple of weeks before the fifth season of the series began.
St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary was the minor seminary of the Diocese of Rockville Centre. It was founded in 1961 and closed in 1984.
The Adventures of Captain Zoom in Outer Space is a 1995 science fiction/comedy television film.
Ancient astronauts have been addressed frequently in science fiction and horror fiction. Occurrences in the genres include:
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and social advancements in faster-than-light travel, futuristic weapons, and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens, often in fictional galaxies. The term does not refer to opera music, but instead originally referred to the melodrama, scope, and formulaic stories of operas, much as used in "horse opera", a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film, and "soap opera", a melodramatic domestic drama. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Star Trek:
A formal description of an alien language in science fiction may have been pioneered by Percy Greg's Martian language in his 1880 novel Across the Zodiac, although already the 17th century book The Man in the Moone describes the language of the Lunars, consisting "not so much of words and letters as tunes and strange sounds", which is in turn predated by other invented languages in fictional societies, e.g., in Thomas More's Utopia.