Lost in Space

I may have mentioned before that movies, television, books, comics, and video games are forms of escapism for me. I enjoy immersing myself in one fantasy world or another not just because it's entertaining, but because sometimes I need a break from the real world. For a few hours last night, I was lost in space.

It started with Out There Somewhere, an indie game I have the pleasure of reviewing for GameCola.net. We occasionally receive review copies of games, as you may recall from my coverage of Gemini Rue and Tobe's Vertical Adventure, and OTS is my latest foray into the realm of attempting to play and review a pre-release game quickly enough for it to still be relevant.

OTS is a fun little puzzle-platformer in the same vein as VVVVVV, and I've been playing for at least a little while every night since I downloaded it. The game takes place on an alien-filled planet, and the hero uses his teleporter gun to leap around, Portal-style, in search of the bad guy. In other words, it's exactly my kind of game. Of all the entertainment I enjoy, I find myself gravitating most strongly toward thinky science-fiction.

Which is why it's appropriate I spent the rest of last night watching Star Trek with my wife.

Two episodes of Deep Space Nine and one episode of Voyager--"Soldiers of the Empire," "Children of Time," and "The Thaw," respectively. Though the Voyager episode suffered from a little bit of questionable science and a few poorly thought-out command decisions (which is typical of the early seasons especially), these episodes were thought-provoking, emotionally impactful, and just plain interesting, making for the greatest night of Star Trek we've had in a long time.

We were hooked, a little more than usual. "Just one more episode," we kept saying, throwing reasonable bedtimes to the wind. The real world would go on without us for a while. We were lost in space.