Fictional archaeologists

[jack]

This came up at the emergency party at the weekend (although I can't remember why now, I think we were talking about why we like Indiana Jones). Casey and Andy comic [1] had one strip where they rated how nerdy various answers to questions was, one being "Name a fictional archaeologist". It was a good concept, although I (and I think others) disagreed with the answers somewhat.

Fortunately we realised the *real* nerd response was to immediately critique the test and start listing fictional archaeologists in order of how nerdy they are to think of first.

1. Indiana Jones. This was given as the normal response, least nerdy. After all, Indiana Jones is a mainstream classic. However, most of the geeks I know agree with that.

2. Lara Croft. This was given as a geekier response, which is probably true. Although most geeks I know think Lara Croft is a bit passe :)

3. Daniel Jackson from stargate. More obscure, and he actually is geeky himself.

4. Henry Jones, Sr. Slightly more specific than Indian.

5. Henry Jones, Jr. Strictly more geeky than "Indiana", as it requires a detailed knowledge of the series.

6. Someone from a good space-opera I hadn't read.

7. The senior Dalrymple, Earl of Scarborough, from Pippa's work in progress, it being even geekier to *write* about a momentous discovery of linguistics/archaeology.

8. Some other fictionalised *actual* archaeologist.

9. Pham Nuwen, from Vernor Vinge's Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky, a software archaeologist. I was very proud of this one, I thought it wins.

But does anyone have a 10?

[1] although this strip on a similar theme is a lot more epic.

Comments

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

That guy who guest starred on B5 who was the doc's friend and brought some illegal artefacts that turned his assistant into a killing machine or somesuch. I can't remember his name. :-P OH! And Anna Sheridan!

Oh there's also the archaeologist who was in the B5 spin-off--again don't remember his name.

Oh, and true there's Daniel Jackson, but what about Sarah who became Osiris? Or um, his assistant guy who sometimes subs for him? (Arr, can't remember his name either. I suck.) Or Catherine and her dad, for that matter? And Daniel's grandfather . . . ok, you get the point. ;-)

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Oh and on Earth: Final Conflict, there was an episode with a crazy archaeologist lady who found Ma'el's hidden lab and found his antidote to something that was killing people, and she was going to keep the antidote and sell it for lots because archaeologists don't get paid enough.

I think all my list proves is that I watch too much sci-fi and can't be arsed to remember the names of minor guests stars. :-P

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Is that more stargate? I need to watch some stargate again at some point.

Though I think Daniel is just so nice we don't *really* need all the guest stars, though obviously you ought to know them :)

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Oh no, Earth: Final Conflict is a series based on a script Gene Roddenberry left behind that Majel dug up and helped produce. It went south after the first 2-3 seasons, but the beginning was good anyway.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Ah! I must have heard the name, but don't think I heard anything about it. That's interesting, even if if it didn't work out.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Well, it got so bad it was actually tragic by the end, not even recognizable as the same show in S1. ugh. And maybe two people were in the last ep who were in the first. :-P And one of them had been off the series for some time before returning too!! Super tragic.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, of course. And Sinclair's girlfriend too.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Yeah I was thinking about her, but I couldn't rightly remember if she was actually an archaeologist or not. hah.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

I'm not positive, but definitely something like that. It was all fine in my head until someone suggested that pre-season-2, she might have been intended to have something like Anna Sheridan's role in discovery of the shadows, and JMS's comment in the FAQ said that wouldn't have worked[1]. And at that point my memory of what she did got muddled.

[1] Which might be slight retcon, but I don't dig too deeply into what might have happened. There must have been an original plan for the arc of the whole series, but it would have evolved over time, so the new canon is probably more valid than the old one was. And I'm interested in what could have been -- sometimes something non-canon can still hold true for characters or background if not events -- but not consumingly.

[ladyshrew.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know it was related, some kind of surveying, but I couldn't remember if she was an actual archaeologist! alas.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

*thinks* Catherine Saki. It's all a bit vague. I think she was a surveyor, charting planets for valuable *natural* resources. So maybe no achaeology after all.

And she had previous been hired a few times by a big company that later turned out to be suspicious, but I can't remember what the company was.