A Universe Ahead To Explore

Coming to television this fall is the third series to be set in a very well known, visual-media-based science fiction universe. This time instead of having a proper base of operations (in this galaxy or another), the characters are trapped on a automated ancient starship travelling out of and away from the Milky Way galaxy. That’s one way to put your characters in a spot and have them undergo weekly adventures, I guess. Recently the teaser trailer of this upcoming series was released, showing us a glimpse of some actors involved in the pilot episode. Here’s Robert Carlyle. [[image:sgu-teaser01.jpg:Holy crap! It’s Begbie!:center:0]] Here’s Lou Diamond Philips. [[image:sgu-teaser02.jpg:The Aquaman pilot got flushed… here’s hoping for a hit series:center:0]] Stargate Universe! A team of scientists and military personnel discover an Ancient vessel traveling from galaxy to galaxy — but have no way of returning home to Earth, according to the blurb. [[image:sgu-teaser03.jpg::center:0]] […]

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There Is A Hole In The Bucket Dear Liza Dear Liza

First things first: SPOILER ALERT… This entry will be discussing the series finale of Battlestar Galactica, the double-length episode entitled “Daybreak, Part 2”. But before the day breaks, there is nothing but utter darkness and despair. Death and destruction. As ably illustrated by Tricia Helfer below: [[image:galactica-finale03.jpg:When things get bad, Head Six goes nuts:center:0]] DID I MENTION THE SPOILER ALERT? It’s been dark for quite a while now. First there was that extinction of the Human race with only less than 40,000 survivors being pursued by genocidal robots thing. Then there is facing the reality of having to live out their entire lives in space boxed up in small ships with dwindling resources… if they don’t find Earth. Finally, just before the mid-season break they find Earth and it’s a radioactive wasteland. So, after the darkness, when does day break for the story? Was it ultimately enjoyable? [[image:galactica-finale02.jpg:Admiral Adama thinks […]

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The Lunatic Fringe

Both Sila’s and my household have been following J.J. Abram’s brand new TV series Fringe. As per Alias and Lost, I had a feeling it’s not what it advertised itself to be, which would have been about international spies and counterspies, and surviving a plane crash on a deserted island. Warning: SPOILERS, and I’m serious. SPOILERS! [[image:fringe01-feb2009.jpg:Is the tank an application of the alt universe tech?:center:0]]  What Fringe advertised itself was about a department within the Department of Homeland Security, with agents on secondment from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which deal with fringe science to solve their cases. Naturally this caused a lot of people to draw similarities between it and The X-Files. (And having Darin “Flukeman” Morgan as a producer helped accentuate this fact.) The story starts with a pair of FBI Agents Olivia Dunham and John Scott, who gets involved in a case concerning bio-terrorism aboard an […]

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Year Three

Deconstruction of Falling Stars

It was the year of fire, The year of destruction, The year we took back what was ours. It was the year of rebirth, The year of great sadness, The year of pain, And a year of joy. It was a new age. It was the end of history. It was the year everything changed. The year is 2261. The place: Babylon 5. Happy New Year! A hearty welcome applause to the year 2261… er, I mean the years 1430 and 2009.

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Where Do These T-888 Infiltrators Go To Eat?

These different models of Tee-Triple Eight infiltrators below: they’re a different series of endoskeletons from the T-800 and the T-850 (model 101) from the Terminator movies.  [[image:t-888_01.jpg:Bunch of Metals:center:0]] I might have found the exact place where they all go to eat out. [[image:t-888_02.jpg::center:0]]  … which is right around the corner in Pandan Cahaya.

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Crew

Bridge Crew of the NCC-1701

….”No bloody -A, -B, -C or -D.” Paramount has been releasing a number of images from the new Star Trek movie, directed by J.J. Abrams the past 24 hours or so. The shooting of the movie has been kept top secret that production photos from it has been scant. This new batch of pictures have now circulated to half a dozen different sites on my RSS watch list and forums. The first I read of it was here, at AICN. Here are two photos from the deluge: Above: “I have a hunger, Jim. I want what’s inside your brain.” Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Above: “Jim, I’m a doctor… not a Rohirrim. And why do I smell weed coming from Sulu?” I’m not much of a Trekkie since Deep Space Nice ended, but my interest is piqued because the movie will be directed by J.J. Abrams, creator of Lost and Fringe – […]

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Fighting Evil So You Wont Have To

The Middleman is the funniest show on TV right now… if you’re a geek like me.[[image:middlepics00.jpg:Watch it on ABC Family (only one more episode left… Monday night):right:0]] But I’ll get to that in a minute. Created by former scribe of Jake 2.0 and Lost, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, The Middleman reveals to us that there is one Middleman in existence in the world from a still-indisclosed point in time in the past. His job is to take care of extraordinary and highly bizzare problems, which usually involves incidents related to aliens, demons, mad scientists and mixes or variations thereof. The Middleman is also responsible for training an apprentice Middleman to take over one day because of the lethal occupational hazards. And they work for a secret agency so secret and so efficient (their equipment gets replenished and upgraded almost immediately from unknown sources) and nameless that the Middleman himself has to give […]

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They’re Really Just Form Five Schoolkids

For a single glorious moment in time, the song Diamond Crevasse, as sung by May Nakabayashi the singing voice of Sheryl Nome in Macross Frontier, became the most heartbreaking song in the whole universe. Thrice I’ve seen the ending of episode 20 and thrice I teared up… though it might just be the damn conjunctivitis. [[image:diamondcrevasse01.jpg:The galactic fairy:center:0]] There’s so many bait-and-switches in this story, you just can’t predict who lives and who dies. You kind of know someone will buy it, and you sort of figure out which ones would, but you think, “No, maybe it’s another bait-and-switch.” Then wham! When it happens, it happens right in the middle of that song which had stood for something else when you heard it in previous episodes, and was sung in this episode for a totally different reason. But the melody and the timing of it just interposes with each other […]

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Consumer. Citizen. Tomayto. Tomahto

Burtt At His Best – A WALL-E Review

WALL-E, directed by Finding Nemo‘s Andrew Stanton, is indeed according to Ben Burtt, “R2-D2 the movie “. And as any Star Wars fan knows, Burtt has been the Academy Award sound designer for all the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, as well as a writer for the Droids cartoon TV movie The Great Heep which featured R2-D2 and C-3P0. So, there is no one more skilled than him in crafting mechanical sounds that elicit emotions in viewers. WALL-E is the acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth-class, a trash management robot designed to clear the immense volume of garbage from an uninhabitable Earth, and left behind when all Humans have evacuated into ships in space. We also see two WALL-As – Axiom-class robots later in the movie. However, it’s been seven hundred years since he first started his job and all the other WALL-Es are damaged beyond repair […]

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Out On The Frontier… With Giant Robots

[[image:macross_frontier02.jpg:VF-25 Valkyrie:center:0]]I wrote earlier about the continuation of the Robotech saga with the Shadow Chronicles. Robotech is actually three different anime series juryrigged and tweaked so they become a (more or less) coherent whole to be syndicated on the American market. However, the first of the three, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross is a saga still being told in its native Japanese, disregarding the entire Robotech thing. [[image:macross_frontier01.jpg:VF-25 Battroid:center:0]]Throughout the years, there’s been among others Macross Plus, Macross 7, Macross Zero… and now the latest series to continue saga of the original Macross is Macross Frontier. [[image:macross_frontier03.jpg:VF-25 Gerwalk:center:0]] As with the first Macross, the story’s teenaged central characters are positioned in a love triangle. Saotome Alto is a male student pilot and former kabuki actor who has long and pretty hair and nicknamed hime (princess) by his schoolmates. Ranka Lee is a female aspiring singer who works in a Chinese […]

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All This Has Happened Before

[[image:bsgs4_00.jpg:Bill and Saul:left:0]]This is it. This is the home stretch. For the humans on the brink of extinction and traveling across the stars looking for a new home in Battlestar Galactica, the end is near. As viewers, we have arrived at the fourth and final season’s mid-season break. 10 more episodes before it’s all over. Will it be a happy end? Will they finally find the 13th tribe on the lost colony of Earth? Will the Cylons annihilate the last forty thousand human beings of the Twelve Colonies before they arrive at their destination?[[image:bsgs4_01.jpg:Viper Mark II:right:0]] Trying to formulate a good theory on what will be revealed in the series finale next year is probably a futile effort, but I’m going to attempt it anyway. I have a theory that’s been percolating in my mind since the 3rd season of the show. This discussion will have SPOILERS. So stay away […]

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I’d Pay Good Money To See This TV Show

So anyway, to cut things short io9 pitched in jest the idea for Star Trek: Captain Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Investigative Services starring Wil Wheaton. Here’s an excerpt: Yes, the much maligned ensign should be brought back as the captain of a Starfleet science vessel that warps around the Alpha Quadrant solving mysteries for the Federation. Think of it as CSI . . . in space! Wil says, “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.” Which is the title of his blog post. But then, I got to thinking. CSI… in space! Well, thinking led to another thing and, voila… [[image:wesley_sis.jpg:Do a google search on Wheaton + clown + sweater.:center:0]] It wasn’t easy coming up with the script. It took me almost 6 hours to come up with something I was moderately satisfied with.

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A Novel Tale of a Novel Cover

Once upon a time, I went to study on how to repair flying machines. During my dozens of years (not really, just 2 and a half years) of studying there were many instructors that taught me different aspects of flying machine repairs. Some taught me metalwork, some taught me electrics, some taught me theory of flight. One particular person taught me about turbine engines. He was a tall gentleman, he was. Over the years after I returned home, I’ve always known from second hand accounts that he’s now living in this country. In recent years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting up with him again briefly. Last month, he and his lovely wife came down all the way from Ulu Klang (which is about 10 klicks up the Middle Ring Road) asked me to produce a cover for a science fiction novel that he has written and is about to […]

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Scott Bernard of 21st Mars Division

And The SDF-3 Is Still Missing

Robotech Defense / Expeditionary Force is back in force in the form of the direct-to-DVD movie Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles. And this time, they’re continuing directly from the Robotech The New Generation (the third chapter of the series that was derived from the Japanese standalone series Genesis Climber MOSPEADA) episode “Symphony of Light”. In fact the first 20 minutes or so is a retread of the Battle of Reflex Point from the point of view of the returning fleet. However, this also means that the aborted Robotech II: The Sentinels movie and novels (especially The End of the Circle) has been de-canonised and considered never happened. Returning characters include Scott Bernard, the Invid simulagent Ariel, Louie Nichols formerly of the 15th ATAC. Previously non-canon characters Vince and Jean Grant, General Reinhardt and Janice Em are also featured. New characters that pop up include Marcus Rush (brother of Marlene) and Maia […]

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Shane meets Tom Zarek

And On The 501st Post, Shane Meets Apollo

Yes, really. Awesome wikked. Take it away, Shane: Today was the Winnipeg Comic Con. Richard Hatch was the big reason I wanted to go. JUST to get a pic of him and I together and an autograph. I did that very early on in the day, think I was third in line. I knew later he had this acting/improv/rpg character creation session. I went, thinkin that there was gonna be a million people and I’d get stuck in the back and not even get to interact with him. The room turned out to be very small, and there were only about 50 people. Me, sitting up front. He starts asking why people are here. I raise my hand. Suddenly, I’m talking to Apollo. One on one….I’m mentioning about being a GM and wanting to crerate better stories. He then talks about how RPGing and being a GM is harder than […]

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