After ordering episodes so far ahead that when we talked to Colin Ferguson back in May (GWC #273), he was already on the set shooting season five before we’d even begun to see the second half of season four, SyFy announced yesterday the end of Eureka. It was a roller-coaster week for fans of the show as the possibility of cancellation leaked, followed by word that we might receive six “final” episodes. SyFy’s official statement:
“After painstaking consideration, we have had to make the difficult business decision to not order a season six of Eureka. But Eureka is not over yet. There is a new holiday episode this December and 12 stellar episodes set to debut next year, marking its fifth season and six memorable years on Syfy. The 2012 episodes are some of the best we’ve seen, and will bring this great series to a satisfying end. We are very grateful to Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia, their team of incredible writers, and an amazing cast and crew who have consistently delivered a series we continue to be very proud of. We thank the fans for their support of this show and know they will enjoy its final season in 2012.“
I’ve always considered the “original” Spider-Man movie to be essentially a reboot, though I suppose many would consider it simply the modern superhero movie formula: Draw liberally from the hero’s comic roots to create a cinematic story that works on the big screen–and in product marketing. But Batman Begins changed all that, taking us for an altogether darker ride and launching the trend toward portraying the masked and caped more as they existed in the imaginations of comic readers than on the page.
Now Spider-Man looks to get the same treatment. Recent news outed Andrew Garfield as the the upcoming movie’s Peter Parker, to mostly positive critical reaction. As comic legend Todd McFarlane points out in an interview with SuperHeroHype, casting Spider-Man is an entirely different task than, say, Captain America:
Spider-Man is a juggernaut in and of himself, so you have the luxury of getting 500 tests and picking the best talent that will make the character. That’s what they’re saying they did, and I’m going to take them at their word. They didn’t feel pressured to put in a guy everybody knows, who’s one of the sexiest guys under 25 or anything. Peter Parker has a skinny neck and isn’t the biggest guy on the block. He doesn’t usually get picked first when it’s time to put together a baseball team at recess. As I look at images of Andrew Garfield, he sort of falls into that category.
(Check out the rest of the article for additional responses by once-Spider-Man authors Peter David and Mark Millar.)
The human mind can recognize patterns that remain invisible to even the most powerful computers. But we’re stuck with some nasty limitations. We can only see relatively small amount of “raw” data at a given moment. That’s where visualization comes in. By laying out data visually, we encode data into additional channels. When we look at a visualization, we see dramatically more information than when we look at a page full of numbers. And we can see new patterns.
Take, for example, the graph above. (Or better yet, take a look at the large version in its native home, VerySmallArray.com.) What do you see?
Voltron is a recipe for a geek-gasm. Start with a mysterious oppressed planet, uncover five ancient transforming robot lions, insert young, highly-trained warrior pilots, add a galactic monstrous evil villain empire bent on universal domination, sprinkle in glamorous royalty, knead in hilarious dialogue, mix in magical spirits, cook it under the heat of a life-or-death confrontation of good versus evil, and top it off with a giant robot that defends the universe against other giant robots. Originally aired in 1984, Voltron rapidly rose to the top of the ratings in its after-school time slot and arguably became one of the most successful cartoons to date. With talk of a new live-action Voltron movie on the horizon and a revamped Voltron cartoon series set to air on Nicktoons June 16, 2011, I thought that the time was right to give GWCers the low down on the 1984 cartoon. If you’ve never experienced Voltron, and the thought of five magical robot lions who link together to form one mighty magical robot warrior and defender of the universe turns your space knobs — you should give Voltron a try. Perhaps you’re one of the fortunate and have seen all 124 episodes of the original Voltron series and all you require is a refresher. Either way, I suggest you get comfortable and turn on your space communicators to receive and enjoy the basics of Voltron: Defender of The Universe!
I’m usually one to be completely engrossed in watching a movie at home. In fact, to make sure I hear the dialogue correctly, I usually turn on the closed captioning. But with a movie or franchise I’m really interested in, I know I’ll be watching the movie over and over again, like the obsessed geek I am. I’ll watch the movie, the commentaries if they’re available, and the included special features on the DVD or Blu-ray — then I’ll listen to podcasts that discuss the movie. This week I discovered a new way to geek out over a movie with more in-depth material than I’ve seen before: Disney’s Second Screen.
One of the frequent gripes in the SciFi community is the lack of quality programming for our genre. The shows that do come along don’t seem to get the network and/or fan support they deserve and often end up cancelled before they hit their stride. We all whine, wail, and barbarically yelp about this subject all the time.
So imagine my pleasant surprise when I picked up the April 11-17 issue of TV Guide and saw their SciFi Review. Not only did they spotlight upcoming new shows like Falling Skies (TNT’s alien invasion drama) and FOX’s Terra Nova (now set to premiere in the fall), but they reminded viewers of existing standbys set to begin new episodes or seasons this spring, like Chuck, Torchwood, Sanctuary, and Dr. Who. This list didn’t even include other renewed favorites like Eureka, Warehouse 13, and SyFy’s very successful American version of Being Human.
With all these shows (including all the ones I didn’t name), paranormal fare like Vampire Diaries and Supernatural, as well as the Wonder Woman reboot, I’m left wondering, What exactly are we complaining about?
The Andromeda Galaxy as seen by Terry Hancock from Michigan (with permission)
Andromeda. Few words immediately bring forth imagery of science fiction, fantasy and real-life astronomy to me like Andromeda does. Andromeda is our heavens, Andromeda is in our history, Andromeda is in our music and literature, Andromeda is in our oceans and Andromeda is in our science fiction and fantasy. I’ll admit I am less knowledgeable about Andromedas than I am about Enterprises (see my 20 Favorite Ships Called Enterprises post), but several Andromedas are also at the root of my geekdom. Recently I decided to take some time and run through the Andromedas that I’m aware of. I’m confident that there are additional Andromedas of relevance out there. If you know of one, please let me know in the comments section below because I would greatly appreciate and enjoy learning about it. In the meantime, please sit back and allow me to take you through my tour of the Andromedas.
Image from SyFy Mobile Website
In the past two minutes I turned off the final episode of Caprica, hit save on the DVR and turned on my laptop. Almost three weeks after SyFy aired the final five Caprica episodes I was able to complete the January 4th, 2011 marathon. Somehow I had managed to stay Caprica spoiler-free until today and it payed off in spades. My feelings are somewhat like watching the last episode of Firefly: pleased with the show and totally enraged at its network cancellation. The final five Caprica episodes were phenomenal and the final five minutes were even more amazing to me. I will be looking to pick up the DVD of season 1.5 shortly. It was that good. And to those that have not seen the series or the final five episodes you are missing out, especially those of you that were Battlestar Galactica fans. Well Done, Caprica. Well Done!
ABC's V (Image from ABC's Mobile Website)
In the fall of 2009, there seemed to be an endless number of continued and new television shows Shooter Jr and I were looking forward to watching. Eighteen months later, it is a very different landscape on our DVR and TV Guide. Granted, there are still some great shows left but there a quite a few empty holes that will be difficult to replace. In the wake of the SyFy cancellations of Caprica and Stargate Universe in late 2010, I find myself wondering if ABC’s V will be able to survive for another season in the 2011-2012 timeframe.
In 1977, George Lucas modeled his space opera after the matinee adventures he watched as a child. Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Zorro were all garnished with damsels in distress. Beautiful women placed in peril allowing the male hero to rescue them and save the day. The hero fought off armies of foes while the damsel sat by idle, an inanimate object with no power over her own destiny.
A Depiction of Star Trek's Original U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 (Special thanks to Jeff Quan at http://www.jcquan.com for the use of the cool art!)
A few months ago GWCers The Operator, ThotFullGuy, and DawnAZ flooded my Twitter stream with references to the Starship Enterprise. While it was clearly evident The Operator and ThotFullGuy were discussing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from the 2009 Star Trek reboot movie, DawnAZ wasn’t nearly as specific. In fact, I listed off 10 different Enterprises off the top of my head in a reply requesting her to specify. It turned out that the exact ship wasn’t relevant to her Enterprise reference, but the conversation reminded me how fondly I regard the many ships called Enterprise. For those that have served on board an Enterprise or watched the various Enterprise versions on the movie or television screens over the years the name Enterprise has a special reverence in our hearts. If you search the internet you will find many web pages devoted to these fine ships. By no means am I attempting to duplicate the many long hours of work it took to assemble those fine resources. Rather, what follows is simply a list of my favorite Enterprises and where I’ve run into them over the years. I think even the most die-hard Enterprise enthusiast might find a surprise or two. So enjoy the tour and as always, drop a comment below. I’d love to hear what you have to say on the subject.
As I write this blog entry, 2010 is coming to a close and New Year’s is right around the corner. After enjoying Tron: Legacy last week with family and friends, I started to wonder what will be the holiday movie blockbuster next year. From there it was a short trip to wonder what the entire year’s worth of movies would be that interest me. So the list that follows is exactly that: dates and names of movies that I’m looking forward to in 2011 and beyond. Of course the dates get a little more fuzzy the farther out it is, so take them with a grain of salt. If I’ve missed any, please be sure to let us know in comments. If you’re interested in some in particular, let us know that, too! Here’s hoping that 2011 will be a great movie year!
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