Reviews for Storytellers: A Biographical Directory of 120 English-Speaking Performers Worldwide

The average rating for Storytellers: A Biographical Directory of 120 English-Speaking Performers Worldwide based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-03-13 00:00:00 Jamison Murphy There are plenty of non-fiction books about Battlestar Galactica around. John Kenneth Muir's has the distinction of having been published in 1999 - long enough after the original series and atrocious first revival attempt to have two decades of perspective, but early enough to precede the successful 2003 revival. In fact, his barely restrained excitement at a possible reboot and overoptimism as to when it may be forthcoming are quite cute. As is his exceptionally naive assumption that it would be a continuation with the same actors rather than a full reboot. Anyway, it seems only fair to read this before heftier later works such as Alan Stevens' and Fiona Moore's two-volume "By Your Command", Mark A. Altman's and Edward Gross' similarly weighty "So Say We All", or Rich Handley's and Lou Tambone's "Somewhere Beyond the Heavens". It does what it says on the tin, with the centrepiece of the text being an episode guide to the original series and Galactica 1980, each featuring a synopsis, cast list, and discussion. There's also a number of discrete essays including a history of the franchise, a discussion of its mythological elements, and a survey of all the tendrils of the franchise up to that time (toys, fan websites, comics etc.). Particularly useful is Muir's commitment to contextualising the show within contemporary sci-fi in both an essay and throughout the episode guide, with particular focus on Star Trek, Space: 1999, and (controversially) Star Wars. The episode discussion is quite opinionated and not especially scholarly, but conveys useful information nevertheless. Notwithstanding the glaring flaws he discusses, there are minor nitpicks which he insists are not minor nitpicks but major issues, and I cannot agree. For example, his annoyance that the Galactica could have arrived at Earth no earlier than 1983 to be internally consistent, though I don't recall anyone explicitly stating Galactica 1980 was SET in that year, and it hardly seems to me to matter. Yet for all such niggles, he doesn't so much as mention the inconsistency of Cassipoeia magically transforming from a "socialator" (akin to Moren Baccarin's character in Firefly) into the ship's medic without explanation. This was actually a subplot developed through several deleted scenes, though presumably excised altogether so as to leave only the resulting family-friendly reason for her character's continuing role. Muir seems more concerned with strongly asserting his dubious opinion about the mystery ship in "War of the Gods" being the Battlestar Pegasus, which as I understand it has been debunked multiple times. And bizarrely, despite his near-exhaustive discussion of the career highlights of most guest stars, Muir appears not to have noticed Jeremy Brett's existence. That seems a tad unfair to a highly accomplished actor, widely regarded as the best to ever portray Sherlock Holmes (himself the most frequently portrayed character of all time). If nothing else, this is an insight into the BG fandom of the late 90s, uncoloured by the reality of the revival series, written by a nerd who was then in his late 20s. Those like me who enjoy non-fiction books about sci-fi could do a lot worse.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-09-28 00:00:00 Cathy Poe There's some interesting background and historical context details here and overall it might be a better use of time to feed nostalgia than actually enduring the 1978 series' many lows. That said, Muir has many axes to grind with Galactica critics and he so willfully fudges details to support his hobby horses it made me wonder if he'd even watched the series recently when he wrote the book.