https://buy-zithromax.online buy kamagra usa https://antibiotics.top buy stromectol online https://deutschland-doxycycline.com https://ivermectin-apotheke.com kaufen cialis https://2-pharmaceuticals.com buy antibiotics online Online Pharmacy vermectin apotheke buy stromectol europe buy zithromax online https://kaufen-cialis.com levitra usa https://stromectol-apotheke.com buy doxycycline online https://buy-ivermectin.online https://stromectol-europe.com stromectol apotheke https://buyamoxil24x7.online deutschland doxycycline https://buy-stromectol.online https://doxycycline365.online https://levitra-usa.com buy ivermectin online buy amoxil online https://buykamagrausa.net

Category: Babylon 5

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, RIP

I was sorry to hear that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry had passed away. One of the things that struck me when seeing the trailer for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie was…

I was sorry to hear that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry had passed away.

One of the things that struck me when seeing the trailer for J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie was that, for as much as he changed in his effort to revitalize the Trek universe, there were just enough things that he left unaltered—perhaps in an effort to tacitly state, “While this isn’t your father’s Star Trek, it still is Star Trek.” Like that classic “red alert” sound. And it was also reassuring to know that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry—who passed away earlier today from complications from pneumonia at the age of 76—was once again the “voice” of Starfleet computers, reprising the role she had played in every iteration of Star Trek since the very first episode back in 1966.

While I never much cared for her simpering Nurse Chapel character, her pilot role as Number One had fine promise, and she made up for a lot with the marvelous character of Lwaxana Troi — not to mention, as noted, her universality as the Enterprise‘s computer voice.

 

 

She also had a (not at all mentioned, sadly, in any of the IMDB tributes I waded through) regular role voicing Lt. M’Ress on the animated Star Trek. (And I’ll also mentioned she had a famous, gracious, and nicely turned star appearance on Babylon 5 as well.)

Wikipedia entry.

(via Amanda)

 

B5 Quote Swag

I definitely think there are some things here for my Christmas list. Or maybe some other peoples’. I don’t buy many t-shirts, if only because I have multiple-overflowing-drawers of too…

I definitely think there are some things here for my Christmas list. Or maybe some other peoples’.

I don’t buy many t-shirts, if only because I have multiple-overflowing-drawers of too many of them that I love too dearly to get rid of. I’m a lot more likely to do a coffee mug. Alas, there’s a whole bunch of mugs of these I’d like.

Potpourri as the week crosses the half-way point

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SIGH 10/20/08 PHD comic: ‘Academic Salaries’: Yeah, the argument is that they drive alumni donations. Tough. If academia cannot be idealistic, who can be? Selling used…

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SIGH

  1. 10/20/08 PHD comic: ‘Academic Salaries’: Yeah, the argument is that they drive alumni donations. Tough. If academia cannot be idealistic, who can be?
  2. Selling used CDs is still legal in America: But the Media Moguls keep hoping they’ll get a court ruling in their favor.
  3. Is Dennis Kucinich the only person in Congress asking…: I often disagree with Kucinich, and I think his presidential run was quixotic at best, goofy at worst. But sometimes I dream of him as Speaker of the House, and how that might churn up some actual not-bound-by-electoral-considerations debate.
  4. TSA didn’t keep track of ex-employees’ badges and…: I’m feeling more secure, aren’t you?
  5. Amid Meltdown, N.Y. Prepares For Hard Times : NPR: As much as I have zero pity for all those brokers and such whose bubble-flogging got us to where we are, New York state is facing a serious financial impact from loss of income and capital gains taxes with the disaster in the financial industry.
  6. Entire-paper plagiarism: We’re not talking about term papers here, but scientific journal papers. As the center of “scientific legitimacy” extends further than the US or the West, these sorts of things are much more prone to slip in.
  7. In Soviet Russia, Lake Contaminates You: Rocky Flats, only an order of magnitude (or two or three) worse.
  8. The Things He Carried – The Atlantic (November 2008): Yeah! Feeling much more secure!
  9. Huzzah! – *Sigh* I actually liked (original formula) Zima. And it will always share a place in my heart (and my VHS collection) for its early Zany Zesty advertiZing on Babylon 5.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME THINK

  1. Speed of eating ‘key to obesity’: And, yes, I am one to wolf down my food. Not sure where I got that habit, but it’s probably worth trying to counter.
  2. Finding Hidden Tomb Of Genghis Khan Using Non-Invasive Radar…: GK’s tomb was intentionally hidden, and has remained such. Modern technology may thwart that.
  3. That’s What You Get When You Misuse What I Invent,…: (Democracy in Other Countries) .NE. (What Our Democracy Thinks is Correct). I’m a big believer, philosophically, in democracy (pragmatically as well as idealistically), but the idea that just because there’s a democracy somewhere (even if we installed it) they’ll agree with us is narcissistic.
  4. Five Guantanamo Prisoners’ Charges Dropped By US: Which sounds like guardedly good news, except that (a) it doesn’t mean they’re actually being released, and (b) it resets the clock on their “speedy trials” as mandated by federal courts. 
  5. Joseph To Be First Black Doctor?: And why the hell not? 
  6. 10 Best Mainstream Characters in Geeky Movies: What amazes me is how much those characters resonate with this particular geek.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SMILE

  1. Photoshop Disasters on Marie Claire photo: Through a looking-glass, clearly. If you’re going to Photoshop your subjects to make them look younger and prettier, be sure and do the same to their reflections on the glass-top table in front of them.
  2. New in Labs: Canned Responses: I’m not sure how I’d use this new GMail feature, but it’s kind of spiffy. I’m less sanguine about More changes to Gmail contact manager; what I really want is a push-button way to merge Contact entries.
  3. The World of CthulhuTech Gets Weirder and Creepier…: Ancient Ones! Mecha! Fight!
  4. Vicar of Dibley eases path for women clergy: Huzzah!
  5. True nature of science fiction and fantasy books revealed…: The site is BoingBoinged (suspended due to traffic), but the BB page itself is worth the price of clicking.
  6. The AT-ATs Look Lovely in This Light: So wrong, yet so right.
  7. Insanely intricate pumpkin carvings: Too much work for me to do, but not too much for me to enjoy.
  8. Snap! – Some insanely great high-speed photographs.

Weakest Deaths in SciFi

Via BD, this charming list of the 12 Weakest Deaths in Science Fiction History. My comments: 12. Shepherd Book (Serenity): Aside from being one of my favorite Firefly characters, his…

Via BD, this charming list of the 12 Weakest Deaths in Science Fiction History. My comments:

12. Shepherd Book (Serenity): Aside from being one of my favorite Firefly characters, his death not not only robs Wash’s of impact, but it just comes off as “we didn’t know what to do with him, we only had one day to shoot with him, let’s make him motivate Mal then shift off this mortal coil.” Yes, I know there’s more to it than that, but I would rather have simply not seen him in the movie at all.

11. Marcus Cole (Babylon 5): Actually, it was a freaking fantastic death, spot on in character, driven by all sorts of foreshadowed motivations (and plot devices (literally a device) that had been pooh-poohed back in season 1). It just turned out to be an utter waste when Claudia Christian decided to leave the series the next season for a fabulously better-paying motion picture career.

10. Pantha (Teen Titans / Infinite Crisis): Yeah, yet another in a series of “hey s/he’s a cool comic book character we haven’t seen for a while, so let’s kill him/her off to how how Evil the new Evil Baddy is.” Feh.

9. Carson Beckett (Stargate): Never watched it.

8. The Lone Gunmen (The Lone Gunmen/X-Files): Never watched ’em. Wait, I think I did watch one episode of their show, but never followed up on it.

7. Trinity (Matrix: Revolutions): Never watched any of them after the first one. Nothing I’ve heard has encouraged me to rectify that situation. A pity, I did like Trinity.

6. Hicks (Aliens 3): Yeah, right along with Newt. Because nothing makes one of the best SF Action Flicks Evah (Aliens) better than having made it all meaningless by killing off the people Ripley had saved.

5. Louanne “Kat” Katraine (Battlestar Galactica): Never that fond of her.

4. Judge Giant (Judge Dredd): Never read anything with him.

3. Cyclops (X-Men 3): Yeah … what’s with that? An off-screen death for one of the seminal characters? Of course, the movie has tons of other problems, too, but … My related runner-up: Phoenix, in X-Men #137, which was a great death that was steadily robbed of all meaning and reality by resurrecting Jean Gray and, over the course of two decades, trampling the X-continuity into a muddy mire.

2. The Sixth Doctor (Doctor Who): Never heard this anecdote. Funny. And, yeah, kind of lame.

1. Captain Kirk (Star Trek: Generations): Never saw it.

HONORABLE MENTION: Boba Fett (Return of the Jedi): Yeah. Galaxy’s most kicking-ass bounty hunter (whom we’ve never seen actually do much of anything), and he gets accidentally kicked into a monster’s maw. Terribly, terribly weak.

Any others I would add? Can’t think of any offhand, though commenters included all the Jedi in Revenge of the Sith, and Tasha Yar (yeah, that’s pretty good, save that she was a lame character to begin with).

Brilliant but Cancelled

Wired lists their Top Ten Brilliant but Canceled SF TV Series (though their “SF” seems to include heavy dollops of Fantasy, too): Firefly: Well, duh. Aside from the brilliantly flexible premise,…

Wired lists their Top Ten Brilliant but Canceled SF TV Series (though their “SF” seems to include heavy dollops of Fantasy, too):

  1. Firefly: Well, duh. Aside from the brilliantly flexible premise, rarely has a show come along with more character hooks, plot hooks, and just damned fun dialog and protagonists than this Joss Whedon creation.
  2. Wonderfalls: I came to this quirkly little show late.  Fun to watch, but so offbeat that it might be just as well it was sunk quickly (by Fox again), since I’m not sure how it could have been sustained.
  3. Now and Again: Never saw it.
  4. Alien Nation: I wasn’t a huge fan of this series, but enjoyed it well enough. Certainly one of the better SF series of the 80s.
  5. Space: Above and Beyond: I started watching it, got turned off, got turned back on in reruns (far too late). In many ways what a space war saga — a la Starship Troopers — should be.
  6. The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: Never jumped on the bandwagon, but I know plenty of Bruce Campbell fans who loved it.
  7. American Gothic: Never watched it.
  8. Jake 2.0: Never watched it.
  9. Nowhere Man: Never watched it (though it sounds good).
  10. Eerie, Indiana: Never watched it (though it sounds fun).

So, what would I add to the list? Gah — I’m terrible at remembering these things, and I’m sure I’ll kick myself as soon as someone mentions That Incredible Show I Talked About So Highly After Doyce Finally Talked Me Into Watching It Two Episodes Before It Was Canceled.

Hmmmm. The Dresden Files, anyone? Roughnecks? I think the B5 sequel Crusade could have hit its stride if it had had a longer run.

And Ginny reminds me of both Max Headroom and UFO. And there was that vampire-clans-as-crime-families one that was on few years back whose name I can never remember …

Ice breaker

We did an ice breaker for myself and fellow managers today. Since it’s the sort of thing I’ve done here before, I figured it was worth passing on my notes….

We did an ice breaker for myself and fellow managers today. Since it’s the sort of thing I’ve done here before, I figured it was worth passing on my notes.

  1. What cities have you lived in?  San Francisco (Mountain View); Los Angeles (dimond Bar, Glendora, Monrovia, Phillips Ranch); in Colorado Ft Collins and Denver (Denver, Centennial).
  2. What do you do when you’re not at work? Reading. Playing D&D and other RPGs. Playing “City of Heroes” with my wife. Writing. Working in the garden. Spending time with Katherine. Furthering my collections (wine, comic books, quotations). Church stuff. Karate.
  3. What’s the coolest thing about working in IT? Getting to see and be involved in the whole enterprise. Being a part of a set of solid teams. The people I get to work with.
  4. What advice would you give a new employee to hit the ground running?  Talk to peple. Build contacts both among your colleagues and your clients. And, from a practical standpoint, you’ll never regret it if you make friends with payroll, HR, facilities and office management, and, of course, local IT.
  5. What is your favorite TV show? Currently, the weekly one I’m most excited about is Doctor Who. The one I chew through like popcorn is Law & Order. Unlike a lot of the others, not really interested in any sitcoms. Historically, Babylon 5 and Firefly are tops in my book.
  6. What is your favorite movie? Who can narrow it down? This summer, probably Iron Man and Hancock.  Comfort food family fare would be Undercover Blues. Classics would be Twelve Angry Men and The Maltese Falcon. And just to throw out a couple more, Baron Munchausen and The Incredibles. 
  7. What is your favorite food? If osso bucco is on the menu, that’s usually what I’ll order. As a general genre, Italian food. I’m also very fond (overly so, I fear) of both ice cream and cookies as general categories.
  8. What is your favorite music/artist/group? Far too many secondary choices, none that stands out as an absolute. Loreena McKennitt. The Nylons. The Battlefield Band. Various Baroque composers (Handel, Bach, Vivaldi). Loudon Wainwright III. James Barry. The Bangles. My tastes dance all over the place.
  9. What is your favorite book? Yikes, again, far too many. Gaiman’s Neverwhere springs to mind. In terms of rereads, Heinlein (Starship Troopers? Friday?). Parker’s Spenser novels? Brust? Norton? Gah!
  10. What’s your favorite vacation spot? Wales. Or, perhaps, England’s West Country.

“It’s that or nothing”

The end of Babylon 5? Or just the end of low-budget B5 stuff? Quoth Joe: B5:TLT [The Lost Tales] was commissioned at a $2 million budget to, yet one…

The end of Babylon 5? Or just the end of low-budget B5 stuff? Quoth Joe:

B5:TLT [The Lost Tales] was commissioned at a $2 million budget to, yet one more time, “test the waters” for B5. We did what we could with that, and that was that. As we did with Rangers, which also suffered from not having a lot of money because of concerns about “is there really a B5 audience?” Which is, of course, a foolish question from a studio that has never really understood what it has in B5.

Of late, there have been more discussions from WB about doing more DVDs, again at a low cost, or a cable thing, again with minimal investment.

So for the last few months, I’ve been giving this whole subject a lot of quiet thought. And I’ve come to a conclusion.

B5 as a five year story stands beautifully on its own. If anything else is to be continued from that story, it should be something that adds to the legacy of B5, rather than subtracts from it.

 

Which, to Joe Straczynski’s mind, means a “full-featured, big-budget feature film.” 

Heaven knows he has enough on his plate — including a whole bunch of “full-featured, big-budget feature films” for some top stars. He doesn’t need the work. And he’s perfectly happy if, should a big B5 project never happen, that that be it for the story.

At the end of the day, for me, it’s not just a matter of getting more B5. It’s a matter of getting more *good* B5 that respects what came before it and doesn’t have to compromise visually or in terms of action. The original show deserves better than that, the surviving cast members deserve better than that, and the fans who have supported it over the years definitely deserve better than that. A lot better.

 

And that probably means that’s about that, since I don’t see WB ever figuring it all out unless JMS becomes more wildly successful than is ever likely to happen. A shame, but I understand, and even respect his call on this — even if the little fanboy in me would love to see anything else B5, the older fanboy thinks it’s the right decision.

Potpourri for the cocktail hour

Thompson to Vet Judges for McCain – HUMAN EVENTS I thought Fred Thompson crawled back into his den and went back to sleep. But evidently now he’s John McCain’s…

  1. Thompson to Vet Judges for McCain – HUMAN EVENTS
    I thought Fred Thompson crawled back into his den and went back to sleep. But evidently now he’s John McCain’s best friend, and the commenters at the site are tickled red.
  2. Returned To The Battlefield
    When Justice Scalia said that the habeas case would mean more Americans would die, and that there were thirty cases at least of released Gitmo detainees who’d made their way back to the battlefield … what’s the truth behind those numbers. Answer: not a whole hell of a lot.
  3. When The King Travels
    I acknowledge that the President needs a certain degree of security, and I certainly want him to be able to travel. But delaying traffic at Heathrow for hours? Dozens of flights cancelled? Jeez, talk about the Ugly American.
  4. Dodd And Feingold Will Filibuster Telecom Immunity
    Go! Go! Go!
  5. Dork Tower for 16 Jun 2008
    Which cartoon is what I thought of when Doyce posted this.
  6. Do I see a dragon?
    Hey, someone else has been reading the D&D4e comments.
  7. The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive DVD Collection…
    Oh … my …
  8. TSA Gets Badges
    And the airport police aren’t very happy about it.

Joe Straczynski news

Various bits JMS revealed at WonderCon last weekend, including the comics he’s doing (and has done and will do), movie scripts he has in the pipeline, the future of B5,…

Various bits JMS revealed at WonderCon last weekend, including the comics he’s doing (and has done and will do), movie scripts he has in the pipeline, the future of B5, a spec script I very much want to see happen, and the formatoin of his own production company.

Candidates we can all get behind

Proudly wear (display, drink from, etc.) your allegiance to the preeminent ticket for the upcoming election:  Londo/G’Kar in ’08 (“How Much Worse Could It Be?”).  Or, if you prefer, G’Kar/Londo…

Proudly wear (display, drink from, etc.) your allegiance to the preeminent ticket for the upcoming election:  Londo/G’Kar in ’08 (“How Much Worse Could It Be?”).  Or, if you prefer, G’Kar/Londo in ’08.  Or even Zathras/Zathras in ’08 (“Zathras Trained in Crisis Management”).

Hmmmm ….

I am in serious trouble

So one of my managers is hiring a new person who’s name sounds a lot like “G’kar,” a major Babylon 5 character.  I am going to be very hard-pressed to not…

So one of my managers is hiring a new person who’s name sounds a lot like “G’kar,” a major Babylon 5 character. 

I am going to be very hard-pressed to not instinctively do a Londo imitation when talking to (or about) him.

No Hummels Need Apply

Ran across a comment by Steve that: It is a undisputed fact that you can tell a lot about geeks by their desktop action figures. Do their tastes run to…

Ran across a comment by Steve that:

It is a undisputed fact that you can tell a lot about geeks by their desktop action figures. Do their tastes run to anime, Lord of the Rings, McFarlane-crafted monstrosities (both by design and in concept), superheroes (realisted vs. cartoony vs. 80s classic), video game characters, fantasy figurines (lead, pewter, prepainted plastic, etc.), soldiers (Yo Joe!), Star Trek, Star Wars (again, 80s classic or modern or modern-retro-80s classic) or replica props.

For the record, I have a shelf of photographs and toys in my office, which currently include:

Figures:

  • Mickey Mouse (business card holder)
  • Hellboy
  • Babar
  • The Flash (Jay Garrick)
  • Space Ghost
  • The Tick
  • Yakko
  • Belle
  • Goofy
  • Eeyore
  • Hawkgirl
  • Swiper
  • A couple of generic lizards
  • A good luck white Japanese cat

Vehicles:

  • Serenity
  • A Centauri shuttle
  • A Minbari cruiser
  • A Starfury
  • An Imperial AT-ST
  • An SR-71
  • The Mach 5

I have a few others tucked away in a cabinet, but that will do for the moment.

Not everything sits on this shelf.  Every couple of weeks I rotate a few of them into my window.

DVD Review: Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales

Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of…

Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of this one do well enough for WB to go along with the idea).  The “Lost Tales” are meant to be stories sandwiched between the end (proper) of the series and “Sleeping in the Light” decades in the future.  The stories in this volume are set in 2271, several years after the series end,  

(No spoilers below, but I can’t promise anything in the links.)

Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales (2007)

Overall Story
Production Acting

Story:  There are two stories on this volume (subtitled “Voices in the Dark”).  The first is an oddly supernatural tale centered on Elizabeth Lochley; it’s a fun story, but, honestly, didn’t feel like a B5 tale as much as a Twilight Zone episode.  The second, longer episode involves Sheridan, Galen the Techno-Mage, a young prince of Centauri, a terrible prophecy, and an awful decision to be made.  This story is much more B5-ish — a done-in-one, but with potential for future ramifications in the B5 universe.

It’s a nice 72 minutes, worth watching and the second ep is a decent addition to the B5 canon.

The disc also has a good set of special features — most of them with JMS talking with the actors, answering questions, showing the production.  There are also two nice memorials to Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs.

Production:  The CG is very, very nice.  For a show that introduced extensive use of CG for SF, B5 continues to do some cutting edge work.  There are great cityscapes, Starfury close-ups, space wars, and, of course, some very nice B5 shots.

Part of the CG innovation was also extensive use of green screen and virtual sets.  They are impressive and flashy and even useful — but the combination of restricted movement within the sets, limited foreground interaction, and the very limited cast, adds a strange element of visible budget limits. 

It also meant that the stories tend to be a bit wordy and talking-heads — though the dialog is, as usual, interesting and entertaining (the talking-headedness was probably not helped by JMS himself directing the eps).  Future productions will need to figure out how to balance the whiz-bang CG and virtual sets with something more than people standing around, talking with each other.

Acting:  The acting is all competent and up to B5’s normal standards, especially the three “regulars” (Scoggins, Boxleitner, Woodward); Scoggins remains a bit of a lightweight (and she doesn’t solidly carry the episode she’s the focus of), but by the time the disc is over, it’s all good. 

I just wish there had been more actors — there are maybe six others besides those folks, despite being on large starships and the B5 station itself.  It makes for an oddly empty (if nicely rendered) universe.

Overall:  Good stuff — not spectacular or anywhere near B5’s best, but that was always a build-up of multiple episodes, “whams!” and epic arcs.  These eps are definitely in the middle of the bell curve for B5’s history, and were worth the wait.  I just  hope the disc does well enough (and Joe’s schedule is free enough) to get more, better editions of the “Lost Tales.”

(Wikipedia – IMDB – Lurker’s Guide – Official WB site)

Top 25 SF, Boulderized

So BD expanded on the “25 Best SF Movie/TV List” with various just-go-read-it commentary … and so I have to weigh in on his choices: Red Dwarf  – I fear I must…

So BD expanded on the “25 Best SF Movie/TV List” with various just-go-read-it commentary … and so I have to weigh in on his choices:

  • Red Dwarf  – I fear I must confess — never done watch more than a single ep.  Sorry.
  • Farscape – Absolutely agree.   Worlds better (and more influential) than, say, V.
  • Lexx  – No more exposure to than the ads that ran during Farscape.  Never felt compelled to watch.
  • Babylon 5 – Well, yeah, duh.  Though, to correct BD, this one was screwed by WB, not Fox.  And it wasn’t just WB Television, but a very, very, very odd combo of internal divisions within WB.
  • Donnie Darko – Never seen.
  • Twin Peaks – Watched two episodes, gave up on it.
  • Dark City – Yes, creepy goodness.  A top classic? Can’t really agre.
  • The City of Lost Children – Never seen.
  • Ghost in the Shell – Watched the movie.  Very pretty.  No opinion beyond that — though, if we’re going to include anime, I gotta go for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • Cowboy Bebop – Okay, and this, too.
  • The Cube – Never seen.

What, if anything, would I add?  Hrm.  Well, if you exclude anything that’s Fantasy or Comic Book based … I can’t think of much more, TV or movie-wise.  Maybe Buckaroo Banzai or The Rocketeer  for movies.

The Sci-Fi 25

EW identifies its picks for the top 25 SF TV/movies of the past 25 years.  Interesting. 25.  V: The Mini-Series (1983) – Watched bits of this at times, but never…

EW identifies its picks for the top 25 SF TV/movies of the past 25 years.  Interesting.

25.  V: The Mini-Series (1983) – Watched bits of this at times, but never got into it.  Appreciated the “big story” SF on the small screen, though.  Joe Straczynski cut his teeth on the related TV series.

24. Galaxy Quest (1999) – A brilliant send-up of 60s-70s SF (Trek in particular) and fandom (Trekdom in particular) that still managed to be a rippingly good tale that validated and lauded what it spoofed. 

23. Doctor Who (1963ff) – The current stuff is faboo.  The older stuff shows that you can build a successful franchise through imagine, persistence, appreciating your fanbase, and remembering that great FX are not the highest priority.

22.  Quantum Leap (1989-93) – I missed this when it first broadcast, but caught quite a bit of it later in rerun.  It’s almost unfair to call this an sf show — aside from the metaplot, it’s more about period drama and the use of modern sensibilities to address the problems of the past.  Makes you wonder what sort of “problems” Sam would be called upon to fix today.

21.  Futurama (1999-2003) – Simpsons sensibilities meet SF.  Fight!  More theme/story-oriented than the parent Groening cartoon, Futurama is still a damn lot of fun.  Never joined the cult, but I enjoyed taking occasional sips of the Kool-aid.

20.  Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003-05) –  Since the first two of the original trilogy were beyond the 25-year scope, the authors chose this iteration of the SW universe.  And that’s hard to argue with, showing both style, plot, and action sensibility, the three of which were hard to find all together at any given point of later SW flicks.

 

Continue reading “The Sci-Fi 25”

B5 Again

The first installment of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, will be going on sale 31 July.  It must be mine! Created by J. Michael Straczynski in 1993, Babylon 5…

The first installment of Babylon 5: The Lost Tales, will be going on sale 31 July.  It must be mine!

Created by J. Michael Straczynski in 1993, Babylon 5 became a Sci-Fi cult fan favorite and a top rated show. Now in 2007, Warner Home Video (WHV) and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) will take you to 2271 A.D. for Babylon 5: The Lost Tales,a made-for-video movie featuring the original cast including Bruce Boxleitner (“President John Sheridan”), Tracy Scoggins (“Captain Elizabeth Lochley”) and Peter Woodward (“Galen”). Babylon 5: The Lost Tales will be released on July 31, 2007 for $24.98, making it the first WHV made-for-video title for one of their popular TV franchises.

Written and directed by show creator J. Michael Straczynski, this made-for DVD movie is a spectacular vision of B5 and New York City in the 23rd century as it uses the most innovative filmmaking technology, which was unavailable during the original series.

On an immense space station built by the Earth Alliance, the crew of Babylon 5 is charged with maintaining the peace among the various alien races by providing a sanctuary where grievances and negotiations can be worked out among duly appointed ambassadors. Babylon 5: The Lost Tales picks up the dramatic series in 2271A.D, ten years after John Sheridan is appointed President of the Interstellar Alliance.

Movie Soundtrack Meme

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE? So, here’s how it works: 1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc) 2. Put it…

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?

So, here’s how it works:

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)

2. Put it on shuffle/Random

3. Press play

4. For every question, type the song that’s playing

5. When you go to a new question, press the next button

Opening Credits:

“7 O’Clock News/Silent Night” – Simon & Garfunkel – Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
Faith and tranquility juxtaposed against reality and horror. Nice.

Waking Up:

“7 Chakras of the Body – Chakra 1” – Mannheim Steamroller – Fresh Aire 7
Arrhythmic and incoherent, which is just about right for my waking up.

First Day At School:

“Newhart (Arrangement A)” – Henry Mancini – MyThemes.tv
That’s the “Vermont Hotel” series, and deceptively calm for such events.

Falling In Love:

“Chrysalis (3)” – Christopher Franke – Babylon 5
This varies from mysterious and disturbing to tense to exultant and back and around. Hmmmm …

Breaking Up:

“The Threat to the Governor of Harfleur – Katherine of France – The March to Calis” – Patrick Doyle – Henry V
Big dramatic sections interspersed with quiet but ominous elements along with lots of minor keys. Yeah …

Prom:

“Lifted” – Eurhythmics – Peace

Well, at least it’s a nice slow song. And kind of encouraging …

Life’s OK:

“Poor Unfortunate Souls” – The Little Mermaid

Hmmmmmm …doesn’t sound particularly okay to me …

Mental Breakdown:

“The Yew Tree” – Battlefield Band – Anthem for the Common Mans
Well, I guess talking to a tree isn’t terribly healthy … especially if you expect an answer. Great song, though. If I do have a breakdown, I’ll probably start speaking in a Scots brogue.

Driving:

“Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Min” – Chopin
Oh, this truly sounds like a marvelous drive.

Flashback:

“Night Ride Across the Caucasus” – Loreena McKennitt – Book of Secrets
Yeah, I could see a sequence of flashbacks under this. Lots of flashbacks. Fairly dramatic ones, at that.

Getting Back Together:

“Mhorag’s na horo Gheallaidh” – Clannad – Fuaim
Not sure about the mostly a capella chant in an unintelligible language. Or maybe that’s fitting. Tight harmony works, and rhythmic, and fun to listen to.

Wedding:

“Take Me in Your Lifeboat” – Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Nice, given that Margie’s mine. Certainly a great pick-me-up tune.

Birth of Child:

“Water Music St 2 – XVIII” – Handel

Fast and exciting, a well-meshed combination of themes and players. But way too short.

Final Battle:

“Card Sharks (arrangement A) – MyThemes.tv
Ended up with a lot of TV themes in here. Interesting. That said — a darned odd choice.

Death Scene:

“For Your Own Good” – Pet Shop Boys – Nightlife
An ominous start and a typically grim undertone to the bouncy tune. Yow.

Funeral Song:

“Police Squad” – Ira Newborn – MyThemes.tv
Laughs and laughs and laughs …

Sex Scene:

“Star Trek: Nemesis – Suite” – Jerry Goldsmith – Forty Years of Film Music
Good Lord — I hope sex with me isn’t quite this … highly dramatic and action-oriented. Well, maybe action-oriented. And there is this big urgent driving beat, striving toward a climax, followed by quiet, contemplative bits, finally wrapping up with a rousingly optimistic thematic send-off to the future.

Dance Sequence:

“Nutcracker – March” – Tchaikovsky
Far too rhythmic and spritely to apply to my dancing.

End Credits:

“Otoko to Megami no Love Song” – Aa! Megami-sama – Complete Vocal Collection
Perky, poppy, not quite understandable but fun. Why the hell not?

(via BD)

The No-Win 25 Favorite TV Characters List

Via Doyce, or maybe KTBuffy, the List o’ 25 Favorite TV Characters. It’s No-Win because — I know as soon as I save it, or someone comments on it, that…

Via Doyce, or maybe KTBuffy, the List o’ 25 Favorite TV Characters.

It’s No-Win because — I know as soon as I save it, or someone comments on it, that I’ll think of a dozen more. Dammit. And, then, of course, there are any number of one-off characters from anthology shows, or character actors, whom I simply cannot justify calling my “favorite TV charactrer” in and of themselves. And it would probably be unfair for me to identify more than one person in a given TV series …

The following is no particular order except where they occured to me.

  1. Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott (James Doohan). The Lord of the Geeks. Second banana on Star Trek, to be sure, but not only did Scotty get a few episodes “of his own,” he had a ton of fun supporting roles as well.
  2. Laura Petrie (Mary Tyler Moore). Loving wife, great housekeeper, dancer, and more-than-adequate domestic foil for Dick Van Dyke on his eponymous show.
  3. Londo Mollari (Peter Jurassik). Buffoon, monster, good guy, bad guy, the tragi-comic centerpiece of Babylon 5. (Honorable mention to his Serpent, the inimitable Mister Morden.)
  4. The Doctor (Chris Eccleston, Tom Baker, John Pertwee, et al.). ‘Nuff said.
  5. Number 6 (Patrick McGoohan). The Prisoner sometimes went from surreality to incoherence, but the iron-willed prisoner of conscience and independence was a faboo character.
  6. Doctor Miguelito Loveless (Michael Dunn). If a hero is defined by his villain, Dr. Loveless was the perfect pseudo-Bond villain — a sociopathic mad genius who loved children and fine music and who constantly proved himself a bigger man than his erstwhile Wild Wild West foes.
  7. Doctor Mark Craig (William Daniels). Best (or most accurate) portrayal of a heart surgeon evah. (St. Elsewhere)
  8. Robert McCall (Edward Woodward). The trying-to-atone spy-in-from-the-cold on The Equalizer. Classy, clever, and deadly.
  9. Shepherd Book (Ron Glass). He’s a priest! He’s a philosopher! He’s a pacifist! He’s got a sense of humor! He’s got a secret that makes you pretty certain most of those didn’t used to be the case! A great, understated character from Firefly.
  10. The Riddler (Frank Gorshin). The one Batman villain one could actually believe was insane. I loved the laugh, I loved the sheer physicality of the (acted) character. (Honorable mention to the many faces of Catwoman).
  11. Columbo (Peter Falk). Still — and ostensibly doltish — waters run deep. “Oh, just one more question …”
  12. Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi). Yeah, originally a book character, but a splendid rendition of the monkish detective.
  13. Harley Quinn (Arleen Sorkin). How can a character (even a cartoon one, on Batman: The Animated Series) be so naive, pitiful, zany, and psychopathic?
  14. Ben Stone (Michael Moriarty). Sure, Jack McCoy’s been on Law & Order longer, but Stone tops my list of DA’s I would not want gunning for me. McCoy might cheat, but he’d also eventually admit defeat; Stone would hunt you to the grave in his moral outrage.
  15. Steve Taylor (Jack Davenport). Amidst nuanced extremes, Steve’s first-among-equals protagonist on Coupling manages to ground the series in reality without being a stick in the mud.
  16. Commander Adama (James Edward Olmos). Manages to be the down-to-earth, reliable, moral paterfamilias of Battlestar Galactica the fleet — and then turns around and shows that he’s got feet of clay and a pragmatic streak a centon wide. And he does it in an incredibly understated fashion.
  17. Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin). Half X-Files, half Buffy, with a rumpled suit, shady ethics, a cheap camera, and more unbelieved secrets than you could shake a stick at.
  18. Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith). For anyone who ever felt that they were surrounded by idiots, Lisa is your patron saint. But she’s not a shrew — she can have fun and play music and be a kid, even as she learns grunting lessons from her mom.
  19. Mrs. Emma Peel (Diana Rigg). Classy, clever, lethal, and a real dish in a leather catsuit (The Avengers).
  20. The Narrator (Rod Serling). Voice of God or … whatever. He had all the best lines on The Twilight Zone.
  21. Xena (Lucy Lawless). As kick-ass as Hercules without being all namby-pamby nice about it. Swords, redemption, and bad mythology — triffic stuff.
  22. Rupert Giles (Anthony Head). Human, earnest, intelligent, and regularly outgunned and outsmarted by Buffy and the Scooby Gang.
  23. Velma Dinkley (Nicole Jaffe, et al.). Speaking of Scooby, the smart one of Mystery, Inc. Yes, I have a thing for smart characters, especially smart women. Got a problem with that?
  24. Race Bannon (Mike Road). CIA agent, world adventurer, crack shot, judo expert, and bodyguard to the son (Jonny Quest) of the smartest man on the planet. Oh, and he got to flirt with Jezebel Jade and wear that really cool red shirt.
  25. Q (John de Lancie). The nigh-omnipotent villain everyone loved to hate, but who was a great foil to the often-too-pompous Star Trek: The Next Generation cast.

And that’s (God help me) 25.

Slice of Life

Yet another meme. The book nearest me: Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Vol. 7 Stretch out your left arm; what do you touch? After the above? Quick…

Yet another meme.

  1. The book nearest me:

    Babylon 5: The Scripts of J. Michael Straczynski, Vol. 7
  2. Stretch out your left arm; what do you touch?

    After the above? Quick Setup Guide for a Brother MFC-8870DW.
  3. Last thing watched on television:

    The Dick Van Dyke Show, “The Case of the Pillow.” Live? Hrm. Probably something Katherine wanted to watch, but that would have been days ago.
  4. Without looking, what time is it?

    Around 6:15a.
  5. What is the actual time?

    6:07a.
  6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

    Sugar eating some cat food. I think it’s cat food.
  7. When did you last step outside?

    Last evening, to put a trash can into the side yard.
  8. Before this survey what did you look at?

    Sign-in box for iPassConnect.
  9. What are you wearing?

    Gray slacks; green short-sleeved button-down shirt. Glasses. Underwear, socks, shoes.
  10. Did you dream last night?

    Yes, pretty sure I did. I remember remembering having dreamt when the alarm went off.
  11. When did you last laugh?

    Yesterday. I remember laughing over at Doyce’s, though not what about.
  12. What is on the walls in the room?

    A very cool, brightly colored print of some peonies. Other prints of irises, a Barry Windsor-Smith lithograph, some Chinese ideograms whose meaning I don’t recall (but which is printed on the back).
  13. Seen anything weird lately?

    What the Internet is for …
  14. What do you think of this quiz?

    Trying to remember if I’ve taken it before. Aside from that, s’okay.
  15. What is the last film you saw?

    In a theater? Gah. No idea.
  16. Tell me something we don’t know.

    There are a couple of tomatoes on the deck, ripening. Margie is excited about this.
  17. If you could change one thing about the world, what would you do?

    Probably nothing, as I’d be paralyzed by the options and the Monkey’s Paw-like ramifications.
  18. Do you like to dance?

    Not really. It’s not something I have a talent for. I appreciate the ability in those who can, though.
  19. George Bush?

    Less of an ideologue (and a hell of a lot smarter) than his predecessor. Kind of stiff, but clearly sharp, as his diplomatic and CIA resume indicate (though, “out of the loop” my ass). I think one day we’ll look back on him almost fondly as someone who didn’t try to fashion himself as a Great Leader, just a policy wonk made good. Like his wife. Not sure about his kids, though.
  20. Imagine your first child is a girl–
    Oh, yeah, right, and next thing you know, you’ll be telling me I live in Colorado, too. Sheesh.
  21. Imagine your first child is a boy-

    I’m very happy with having a girl. Even (especially) one who’s not a girly-girl (despite her love of pink).
  22. Would you consider living abroad?
    I think that window has slipped past us, unless there were a really good bonus associated with it. Too set and settled.
  23. What would God say to you at the pearly gates?

    I’m certainly hoping it’s something nice and chatty. And that He’s got time to answer a hell of a lot of questions.

The Return of … Babylon 5?!

It’s Woot-astic! Joe Straczynski, at the San Diego Comic-Con, announced all sorts of stuff.  A correspondent to AICN recorded the following most significant item (to my mind): direct-to-DVD B5 releases called…

It’s Woot-astic!

Joe Straczynski, at the San Diego Comic-Con, announced all sorts of stuff.  A correspondent to AICN recorded the following most significant item (to my mind): direct-to-DVD B5 releases called Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.

The biggest announcement I’ll paraphrase: Every 6 months, I get together with WB to discuss what to do something with B5. The DVD sales have raised over 500 million in revenue. Now, I produced B5s 110 episodes at about 90 million dollars. Somehow, B5 is still 50 million in the red. Every time I mention that to WB they say We made a good deal, huh? Anyway, they asked if I wanted to do a feature film but I declined mainly because I can’t yet picture structuring a B5 movie as long as [Andreas Katsulas] and [Richard
Biggs] insist on staying dead. Maybe in a year or two I’ll be able to but right now I can’t do something big and those two roles will NOT be recast.

So I thought about it, and I suggested a bunch of short films. Little mini-movies or an anthology show set in the Babylon 5 universe. I pick a character and develop an hour-long story around that character. Stories that I wanted to tell during the B5 series but never had the chance to develop. They said, Okay. I said I wanted complete creative control. Do not change my words that I write, and I want that in writing. They said, Okay. And I want to direct. They said, Okay.

This project was green lit less than two weeks ago. Its going to happen. Production starts in September in Vancouver, Canada. Post-production will occur from October to February with a release of the first three anthologies in the second quarter of 2007.

On the B5 Mailing List, Joe added this:

[W]e’re looking at 3 half-hour episodes/stories for the first DVD, with additional features and the like in the other half hour. Each story will be worked around a given established character, the specifics of which are still TBD contingent upon availabilities and other issues.

We have a budget, we’re greenlit, we’re going.

As for what prompted the interest now at WB…it’s only recently that they’ve finally run through all 5 seasons, which for many years now has been a constant source of revenue, and I think they would love to have something to continue to with. The recent news re: Changeling probably didn’t hurt, but the deal was actually being negotiated long before there *was* a feature film deal with Imagine. As I recall, we finalized the deal right around the time that the Imagine news was announced.

It was a rather extraordinary 24 hours.

All sorts of other stuff announced by JMS, too:

  • As previously reported, a 1920s thriller/mystery movie called Changeling was sold to Ron Howard (the Imagine deal mentioned above).  It’s expected to be a big budget film, in production in early next year, and has made enough of a splash that, all of a sudden, JMS is big news in certain Hollywood circles.
  • The CBC will be broadcasting a 12-episode radio series by Joe called The Adventures of Apocalypse Al, a noir sf comedy along the lines of Men in Black or Hitchhikers Guide.  Joe notes that it will eventually migrate to US radio and CD.
  • Touchstone is starting production on a pilot for a dramatic prime time series called Borrowed Lives.
  • Rising Stars, Joe’s “real life” super-hero maxi-series, is in development with Sam Raimi’s production company for a TV series.
  • Midnight Nation, another Joe comic mini-series, is being bid on by two different movie studios.
  • A major studio is evidently interested in his one-shot Dream Police for a movie, to be written by Joe.

Triffic stuff.  I think there’s a lot of room for anthological tales of the B5 universe — a whole post-Season 5 world, at the very least (which would deal with several years having passed for the actors, too).  While many other TV SF shows have grabbed onto my heart since B5 went off the air — Farscape, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who — Joe’s show holds a very special place for me.  Here’s hoping it’s a success.

(via Les)