Three authors have taken it upon themselves to expand Isaac Asimov's FOUNDATION TRILOGY, thought of by many as the greatest sci-fi series of novels ever written. According to the jacket covers of the first two books, this is being done with the permission and blessing of the Asimov estate. That I have no quibble with. In fact, once I saw the books in the bookstores, I went out and checked them out from a library. BIG mistake. The books, whose titles are: "Foundation's Fear", "Foundation and Chaos" and "Foundations's Triumph", I found to be nowhere close to that quality nor cannon that Mr. Asimov laid down including holographic simulacrums of Joan of Arc and Voltaire. (????) As much as I enjoyed reading the Foundation Trilogy, I think that these are most definitely not worthy sucessors. Subsequent to the the original writing of the trilogy, Mr. Asimov added four more novels to the series; "Forward The Foundation", "Prelude to Foundation", "Foundation's Edge" and "Foundation and Earth". While I did not at all agree with the direction that Mr. Asimov took the series (i.e.-In the last two novels set at a time after the final book of the original trilogy), but that was his perogative as the originator of the series. I presume that the four added books reflected the change in human technology, changes in the readers of sci-fi, and and the more experienced writer that Mr. Asimov had become in the mean time. Foundation fans, avoid these books like the plague! They might only be of interest to fans of Mssrs. Brin, Bird and Benford. But only minor interest at that, these books are THAT bad! Or to paraphrase Harlon Ellison, this stuff is bat guano.
The Science Fiction channel announced that Battlestar Galactica (Re-Imaged) has been renewed for its fourth (and thankfully) final season. For most SF fans, BGRI has been on 5 years too long. I certainly hope that it was in part the backlash against the reimaging that caused the cancellation. As BG (classic) fan, I can honestly say that I gave both G1980 (produced by G. Larson) and BG-RI (produced by Robert Moore) a chance. But in the long run both of these died because of basic mistakes. G-1980 died from the simple fact that the Galacticans discovered Earth. THAT pretty much ruined the whole premise. BG-RI died from the lack of resepect for the "classic" BG. Oh, a lot of the charaters were the same (Adama, Apollo, Tigh, Starbuck, Boomer, Baltar, etc.) but they got so frakked up, it was hard to believe. I guess Starbuck had the hots for Apollo and decided to get gender reassignmnet surgery, Boomer also changed sexes, Tigh decided to not only bleach his hair (which all fell out any way) but his entire body!
Believe me, I watched the first couple of episodes with an open mind despite all the changes. I did find a few things that I actually liked. One, the concept of the Galactica retracting its launch/landing bays prior to going FTL made a lot of sense. And even though Laura Roslin was about three billionth in the the line of sucession (after the colony President and rest of his government were killed in the intial attack), I did like her character very much even when I found out that she tried to rig an election to prevent Baltar from winning. And using nuclear weapons to wipe out the tweleve colonies? OMG, that is just so 1950's and cold warish (not to mention revealing an almost total lack of imagination) all the way around.
Other than that, BG-RI was turned into a soap opera, the absolute lowest form of TV there is. Handled differently, I really believe BG-RI could have captured not only what few new fans it has now, but a lot of the older, BG-Classic fans and spent more years in production.
....on the other hand, the re-imaging done with the recent return of "Doctor Who" works very well as the re-imaging stayed within established formats and continuity. The Doctor is still a Time Lord from Gallifrey, HE is still a male, he still travels with one or two companions and still travels in a blue police box. Differences include the destruction of the Time Lord race (with the exception of the Doctor, and as we found out at the end series three, a resurrected Master) in a massive war with the Daleks referred to as the "Time War".
The interior of the TARDIS has not been shown with the exception of the new control room. The changes made here in the control room have been impressive indeed. Instead of the plain white room from the Toma Baker era (which wasn't bad, but not great) you walk through the door, up a ramp to where the time rotor dominates the control room. Again, these changes work and at the same time give the TARDIS control roon a definite air of alieness.
Even the enemies have been tweaked. The Daleks still look like pepper-pots, but a couple of things have been addressed. Rather than have the Dalekanium casing of the Mark 3 Travel Unit be bullet proof and resitant to damage, it has now been established that a Dalek can create a force field around itself as protection. Addressing a source of jokes and snide comments, the Daleks now can use anti-gravity leviation to go up stairs. Even the Cybermen look more menacing in their full body armor.
Congratulations and props to the creative team at Doctor Who that managed to pull off this re-imaging WITHOUT ruining the basic premise of DW. Mind you, this is not your father's DW from the 60's thru the 80's, but it is a very worthy entry into the world of SF.
Star Trek 10.5 (aka "Of Gods and Men") has made its debut on the internet. This is being advertised as a 'fan film'. 'Fan Film', to me, denotes amatuers (actors and prodction values) in cheap, ill fitting custumes (usually) on 8mm film (sometimes w/sound). Well, whatever you've heard, whatever you think of when you hear 'fan film', just pitch it into the garbage can. You will (as I did) revise your opinion of 'fan films' after watching this one. Make no mistake, this is nowhere near what a big (or even moderate) budget film would finally look like on the theater screen. But.... This is, all in all, a very superior effort made by people who love ST (the only real thing this has in common with a 'fan film'-the love of the subject matter by its participants). And why not, a few of them HAD roles in ST, the two most notable being Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura and Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov. This truly is a labor of love, and believe me, IT SHOWS!!
Also included are the character Captain John Harriman of the Enterprise B plus Cirroc Lofton (DS9) and Ethan Philips (ST-V) though not in their customary ST roles.
Without supplying any spoilers to those of you who haven't seen it yet, I'll just say that there is an enemy who has held a big grudge agaist James T. Kirk for a loooong time, a visit to a planet from one of the most popular episodes and a very shocking ending to the act (This is act one of a three part internet movie release).
All in all, a very worthy addition to the ST universe. I have yet to settle in my mind if "Of Gods and Men" fits into the continuity and canon of ST, but the one thing I have settled on is that this is a must see for all Trekfen. A wonderful taste of ambrosia in a universe that has lacked any ST franchise for the first time in a generatation. At least until ST-XI comes out at Christmas, 2008!
One thing that bugs me is, when I go shopping in a book store looking for something Trek, Whovian, or anything that is SF, is that the SF section is lumped together with the Fantasy section. To me this makes very little sense (except from a marketing POV). These are two complete, distinct, and SEPERATE genres we are talking about here.
Harry Potter should be seperate from Captain Kirk, Dragonlance should be seperate from HAL 9000, and Bilbo Baggins should be seperate from "Deep Thought". While my tastes run a lot more heavily to the SF side of the spectrum, one piece of Fantasy I also enjoyed was "Lord Of The Rings". Rather than dump on Fantasy and look down on it like some snob, I advocate seperate AND equal billing in your local book stores.
Part two of "Of Gods and Men" is just a little disappointing to me. Perhaps my expectations were too high after watching part one and the blockbuster ending it had. After all, how do you top turning the planet Vulcan into just so much space dust? Well, you can't. And that is where part two was a little bit underwhelming. Charlie Evans has been nursing a grudge against Captain Kirk (but who hasn't?) for leaving him behind in the ST episode "Charlie X". Charlie gets ticked off when he finds out that Kirk died in the events of "ST-G" and wastes a data clerk (played by Ethan Phillips) and a space station.
Charlie subesequently goes to the planet of the Guardian Of Forever and goes out of his way to tell Uhura, Checkov and Harriman about his grudge. He then jumps into the Guardian and changes history. Of course, it isn't rocket science to figure out what Charlie did in the past: he prevents Kirk from being born by killing Kirk's mother.
Taking a mental step back from the previous dissertation, lest you believe that I did not like part two, taken on its own I found part two to be good, solid (albiet predictable at times) storytelling. Again, probably the biggest criticism was having to live up to what was done in part one.
Hopefully there are some good surprises in part three. At least some unexpected twists and turns (at least however many they can fit into the approximately 30 min running time).
Just when you think that a television show can't top itself.... The series four two part finale for Doctor Who ("The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End") went to an absolute extreme, topping even the Daleks vs. Cybermen battle ("Army Of Ghosts" and "Doomsday") at the end of series two, and even the three episode conclusion to series three ("Utopia", "The Sound Of Drums" and "Last Of The Time Lords"). The high energy romp from the end of "Turn Left" through the final scene with the rain soaked Doctor in the TARDIS control room was very satisfying from a fannish point of view. The whole concept of DW doing a crossover with not one, but both of its current spin-offs was, for the most part, well conceived and well executed. If I were a serious nit-picker, I would point out a couple of things such as Sarah Jane's son, Luke, and Torchwood's time lock program were something like a bolt out of the blue, but could be explained as being a part of the continuity of those programs (Programmes for my British fans).
Needless to say, the scene where the "Doctor-Donna" eradicates the Dalek force harkens back to the Tom Baker serial "Genesis Of The Daleks", where the Doctor is torn over destroying the incubator room on Skaro. Not only that, but Davros himself (a not so well guarded secret) comments on Sarah Jane being on Skaro the the birth of the Daleks and is there what should be the Dalek's greatest triumph but turns out to be their greatest "defeat".
Is this the end of Davros and the Daleks? I would certainly hope not. The Daleks define DW as much as Ming of Mongo defines Flash Gordon, the Klingons define the original ST and the Cylons define the oringinal BG. It would be a sad day indeed. But this is science fiction and as Mr. Spock said "There are always possibilities". Loopholes about in SF, just look at the resurrection of Spock in ST-III using the remnants of the Genesis wave. There have been loopholes laid out in DW not only for the return of Davros and the Daleks, but for the possible return of the Master and perhaps other miscellaneous Time Lords. We will just have to wait and see where the new producer take the show, but let me tell you, he has some pretty big shoes to fill.
The science fiction world and more specifically the Star Trek world is mourning the death of Joan Winston. Joan ("Joanie" to her friends) was one of the people who lit the fuse that eventually exploded into the phenomenon that IS Star Trek. Her name is legendary (along with Betty Jo ("Bjo") Trimble) as being among the "First Fandom" of Star Trek. Along with a small cadre of fellow fans and friends, Joanie help plan and pull off one of the first if not the first Star Trek "FanCon". What was planned as an intimate gathering of 300-500 ST fans in NYC turned out to have over 3,000 attendees! Joan wrote about the sometimes touching, sometimes hilariouos and all-the-time entertaining con (along with the sequels, hey, what's ST without sequels?) in "The Making Of The Star Trek Conventions". This is a must read for all ST fans, young and old.
I, myself was lucky to get to see Joan at Starcon in Cleveland. As Mr. Spock would say, "Facinating". I can say that I am the proud owner of a convention guide autographed by Ms. Winston.
The only people that were more important than Joanie in ST history are Gene Roddenberry, all the actors and actresses, and the behind the scene crews. In the tradition of the planet Vulcan, I can only offer this to all the family, friends Of Ms. Winston and the rest of my fellow Trekfen out there: I GREIVE WITH THEE.
The announcement has been made, not only is R. T. Davies stepping down from Doctor Who, but David Tennant is relinquishing his role as the tenth doctor. Just as a trivial note: this is only the second time when both the Doctor and his companion(s) have departed the show at the same time (The first being the transition from Pat Troughton to Jon Pertwee). While this does not mean massive changes or a total overhaul of the series, I would expect some changes to be made. I certainly hope that they do not upset the current situation, since I have felt that the new DW is an outstanding program.
Somewhat of a stickier situation is the departure of David Tennant. According to official cannon, David is Doctor number ten, his replacement will be Doctor number eleven. Again, according to cannon, Time Lords have 12 bodies or regenerations (you see where I'm going with this?). The program is being painted into a corner as they run out of lives for the Doctor.
As mentioned a couple of paragraphs above, there are "Outs" and loopholes that have been sprinkled in and amongst the four seasons of DW already broadcast. But of course, this bridge will be crossed when they get to it.