The Austin Chronicle was looking for people you wouldn’t normally associate with science fiction to give a statement about how a work of science fiction has effected them for their science fiction issue. They asked me contribute and I wrote this piece that was featured in the July 25th 2008 issue.

Shana Merlin

Improviser, member of Get Up and Girls Girls Girls, head of Merlin Works

I was shocked and embarrassed to be crying in the movie theatre after the line, “Number 5 is alive!” But despite the cheesiness of the special effects and Steve Guttenberg’s acting, I was sobbing at the movie Short Circuit. This was my first experience of many to follow – from Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation to WALL-E – robots in science fiction touch my heart like nothing else. Robots capture what is most advanced about our society but also what is most innocent. Like Number 5 and Ally Sheedy dancing a duet to the Bee Gees’ “More Than a Woman.” What could be more innocent? It gets me every time.