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.
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!
The 8 1/2 Foot Tall 2010 Shooter Family Geek Christmas Tree
I’m sure just about everyone reading this article has some sort of a holiday tradition. Our family has several and usually includes the boys in the family going to see whatever SciFi blockbuster is out. This year our plans are to see Tron Legacy together. One of our other long lasting traditions involve each member of the family receiving a Hallmark Christmas Tree Ornament in our stockings. My mother, Mom Shooter, has been responsible for assembling this gift each year for the past 20 or 30 years. Everyone has one or two series that they follow from year to year. My father, Dad Shooter, has received the Classic American Car series every year since 1991. The girls usually end up with a Disney series ornament. I have received the All American Trucks series off and on since 2000, but each and every year Mom Shooter makes sure I receive some sort of a SciFi Hallmark Christmas Tree ornament. In fact, our family have received so many Hallmark ornaments that we’ve had to add a second full-sized tree in our home to handle all of our favorite ornaments. For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you’ve already seen our “geek” tree, but for those of you who didn’t get the chance, here’s a little tour of the vehicle and ship ornaments on our tree.
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The sci-fi film/television production community is surprisingly close knit. Everyone seems to know everyone else, and it would be difficult to come up with two movies or shows that couldn’t be connected “six degrees of separation”-style. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that a lot of sci-fi contains nods to other works in the genre. One of my favorite things to do when rewatching sci-fi is to keep my eyes peeled for robots/ships/props/etc. from other TV shows or movies to make cameo appearances. And believe it or not, it’s actually pretty common. Allow me to be your guide as we take a look at sci-fi past and present to explore some of the coolest — and some of the most well hidden – of these appearances.
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, everyone’s favorite engineer, Scotty, gave materials science a slight nudge forward when he handed the secret of making transparent aluminum to a San Francisco plastics company in 1986. Unfortunately, our world (with its fancy reality) still lags a bit behind. We don’t yet have transparent aluminum — at least not in the Star Trek sense. Several recent advancements in the field of material science have arguably moved us a bit closer to that ultimate goal, though. So while I continue my dream to be the architect of a brave new world of materials (hey, how do you know I didn’t invent the thing?), check out these two fairly new materials that have had the name “transparent aluminum” attached to them.
Sadly, replicators aren’t standard in Earth kitchens. And we don’t live in the Star Wars universe where the only food we see onscreen is a pear flying through the air. Thankfully we’re not forced to choke down algae mash with our algae coffee every morning. But if you’ve ever had a hankering for the food you see in your favorite sci-fi or fantasy series, chances are someone’s come up with a recipe – many of which aren’t much harder to prepare than saying “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
To those of you who don’t already know: Grant Imahara and the gang at Mythbusters will put the theory of the Gorn cannon from Star Trek TOS to the test on next season’s Viewer’s Special episode. Mr. Imahara’s July 8th tweet announcing the event:
“YesssssKirk!!! It’s official. #Gorncannon is a go for next season’s Viewer’s Special. Thanks to all fans 4 your help!
”
Grant appears to be very excited. He also tweeted that he’s ordered a science-blue Starfleet uniform for himself and that Buster will be wearing (appropriately) a red shirt. Read on for details on the original Gorn cannon — and a serious look at the science involved.
Trek XI opens and we’re there! Highlights: we enjoy the sports-jerseyesque new TOS uniforms, discuss the effect of alternate timelines on continuity, explore Trek XI’s new and unusual character relationships, dig into Uhura’s job description, and… hell, I’d love to tell you more, but I don’t want 5,000 “why did you spoil me” emails. Bottom line: we had a great time at the movie and really enjoyed this podcast. We hope you do, too. If you’d like to talk live with the GWC crew for the Trek wrap-up call show, give us a call at 214-296-9229 x701 and let us know what specifically you’d like to discuss!
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In our penultimate Trek movie arc podcast we leap into Nemesis and get ready for next week’s Trek XI premiere! Highlights: we note the seeming popularity of Betazoid weddings (and Picard’s joy in attending one), enjoy Nemesis’ disco-friendly patent leather villian suit, discuss the strategy of firing weapons while cloaked, hear Sean’s description of Reman knives (he owns a couple), suggest there might be better tools for blood testing, recommend solid doors for villains wishing to hide their medical secrets, love the Scimitar’s cool visual design, try to remember if we’ve ever heard about Romulan money, kid about the videogame-y re-mastered HD TOS Enterprise, talk Corbomite Maneuver (read: BS ‘em all!) and Ron Howard’s Trek-prolific brother, and look very, very forward to next week’s premiere!
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Up this week: Insurrection! Highlights: we search our memories for non-crapbag Trek admirals (and speculate on how Starfleet’s admiral training assures such uniform crapbagdom), hear Audra’s boob report (featuring Anij’s dunk in the lake, Crusher and Troi’s discussion, and Data’s mimic), wonder what else happened during Picard and Anij’s time-stop date, note LeVar’s awesomely-expressive eyes (and wonder why writers didn’t direct the Enterprise to the Baku back in, say, TNG season three or so), wonder what secret messages might be encoded in @BrentSpiner’s Tweets, discover the best way to shave, and detail Audra’s argument with Mark Sheppard regarding Icheb’s father’s dick-ness.
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We’re in the end run of our Trek arc leading up to the new movie! Highlights: we note the fact that LeVar Burton seems to get more buff as he ages, debate the hotness (and moistness) of the Borg Queen, discuss Picards newer, kinder way of jacking mercilessly with the timeline, wonder what happens when the Borg add the distinctiveness of lazy-asses to their own, suggest that maybe Lily should’ve landed a little more credit for actually building humanity’s first warp ship, and call Sean’s father for some midnight Trek advice.
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