Category: Ramblings

Former STAR TREK producer Brannon Braga talks to Sci Fi Wire about the future of his new sci-fi show, THRESHOLD.

“It’s worth noting that the weekly stakes of the show will be out in the real world, involving everyday people like all of us,” Braga said.
“And [wherever] the team is going, … whether it’s Miami or Ohio or Indiana or Baltimore, they’re going to be going out to investigate strange occurrences, all related to what the aliens are doing, and trying to put out fires, save the people who are in danger and try to figure out what the hell they’re doing and how they’re doing it.”

Asked about future episodes, Braga said “There’s also an interesting aspect to the show, though it’s more of a sub-aspect, which we call the West Wing aspect. In one episode there’s a senator who doesn’t know about Threshold, who discovers $50 million has been diverted to something called Threshold, and he wants to know what the hell is going on. And the lid is almost blown off the whole operation. So the team is not only trying to figure out what’s going on, they’re trying to keep
people from finding out.”

More from Braga can be found at Sci Fi Wire.

The notorious “Borg Collective” of Star Trek fame have attempted to make a ‘first contact’ style infiltration of Earth, today in the 21st century. In this day and age of politics and political correctness, the borg were immediately confronted by lawyers with fierce objections to the methods of the space faring collective.

The objections voiced have been largely issues to do with the Borg’s famous introductory statements. Traditionally, upon contact with a seperate party, the Borg would transmit a message saying something along the lines of: “We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile”. While there have been several variations in the past, the general idea has been the same.

After a complicated argument about the minds of the Borg legal representatives being shared with those of all others, a condition of access to Earth was finally reached, detailing among other things – a reform to the classical Borg introductory statements in order to bring them into the current era.

The altered version reads thus:
“We are the Borg – a collective minded entity consisting of a variety of intelligent species including but not limited to: Human; Klingon; Romulan and Betazoid – with equal inclusion of genders male, female, androgenous and undecided.

The probability of your assimilation is calculated to be extremely high, but may depend on a number of factors including firepower; shielding and speed capabilities of the targeted party.

Resistance is futile*

* Futility of resistance not guaranteed due to factors identified in the preceding statement.”

Since the Borg are now required to say that every time they want to attack someone, it gives the victim plenty of time to run away. Just goes to show, red tape isn’t ALL bad.

Night Watch
From Russia, with horror, comes the stylish horror fantasy film that has revolutionized post-Soviet cinema: NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR). The film brings to the fore the cutting-edge vision of director/writer Timur Bekmambetov (whom Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov called “our Tarantino”) and is the first instalment of a trilogy based on the best-selling Russian sci-fi novels of Sergei Lukyanenko (which also include Day Watch and Dusk Watch). Featuring a dazzling mix of state-of-the-art visual effects, adrenaline-fuelled action sequences and nail-biting terror, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) was an instant smash hit in its native Russia when it was released in July 2004 shattering all previous box office records. Made for a mere $4 million, the film surpassed both LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING and SPIDER-MAN 2 at the Russian box office. In a country that had not seen a native film make more than $2 million, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) went on to gross eight times that number. Internationally acclaimed, it was also Russia’s contender for the 2004 foreign language Oscar®.

Set in contemporary Moscow, NIGHT WATCH (NOCHNOI DOZOR) uncovers the other-world battle that upholds a 1000-year-old truce between the forces of Light and the forces of Darkness. For centuries, the undercover members of the Night Watch have policed the world’s Dark Ones –the vampires, witches, shape-shifters and sorcerers that wage treachery in the night — while the Dark Ones have a Day Watch that in turn polices the forces of Light. The fate of humanity rests in this delicate balance between good and evil but that fate is in jeopardy …

Ancient prophecy foretells that one day a “Great One” will arrive who can end the apocalyptic battle between Light and Dark conclusively. That time has arrived in Moscow – but which side will the Great One choose?

Trailer Links
QuickTime – High Quality
QuickTime – Medium Quality
QuickTime – Low Quality

Serenity has reached the top 250 movies of all time at the International Movie Database, almost a month before it is even released.

The movie has had almost a hundred screenings over the world so far, with the world premiere taking place last week in Edinburgh.

Written and directed by cult legend Joss Whedon, the movie tells the story of Captain Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and his rag-tag crew of scoundrels and honourable thieves. Set six months after the TV show on which it was based (Firefly) ended, the movie revolves around River Tam (Summer Glau) and the evil Alliance attempting to get her back.

The movie has received almost universal critical acclaim so far, and getting into the IMDB’s top 250 before release is an amazing achievement.

SuperHeroHype.com has a report by a fan who met Patrick Stewart (Picard) on the X-Men 3 set.

There are photos of Jolene Blalock (T’Pol) at the G-Phoria Videogame Awards at Just Jolene Blalock.

SF Gate has a story on a pub tribute to James Doohan (Scotty). Thanks to Soul of Star Trek.

Obituaries and memorial fund information for Brock Peters (Joseph Sisko-Admiral Cartwright), Herta Ware (Yvette Picard) and Loulie Jean Norman (theme singer) are available at StarTrek.com.

TV Squad has a review of Marina Sirtis (Troi)’s appearance on “The Closer.”

Sev Trek has posted the finalists of the latest Troi cartoon caption contest.

Totally Kate! has a new article on Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) and Tea at Five in Pasadena.

John Rhys-Davies (da Vinci), Tommy Lister (Klaang) and James Callis (Baltar) star in the soon to be released epic two-part movie One Night With the King. Thanks to TrekWeb.

Gateworld names Andrew J. Robinson (Garak) as part of a fantasy cast for a Stargate fan series.

Gregg Henry from Star Trek: Insurrection will appear in the movie The Hunt for the BTK Killer shooting in Canada, according to The Futon Critic.

The UFP has learned that the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise will launch on Channel 4 in the UK on September 18th.

Mac Video Pro cites the trailer for Star Trek: Nemesis as “a good example of a contemporary action trailer.”

TrekPulse has DVD caps from the first seven episodes of the original Star Trek series.

The Star Trek CCG official site has posted an overview of the Star Trek 1st Edition X-List.

Washington, DC mayor Anthony Williams uses Star Trek phrases in his blog, reports USA Today.

Star Trek-style surgical instruments are becoming the norm, claims Australian IT News.

The San Bernardino County Sun introduces Brannon Braga‘s Threshold‘s supporting cast.

Broadway World reports on The Unholy Secrets of the Theremin, a tale of sex, spies, and sci-fi soundtracks which features references to Star Trek and its musical instruments.

An interview with author David Mack about the new book series Star Trek: Vanguard is available at Sci Fi Pulse.

TrekWeb has a review of S.C.E.: Breakdowns.

Excerpts from a new interview with Ron Moore about Battlestar Galactica are at The Great Link.

Austrek: The Star Trek Fan Club of Melbourne, Australia will be hosting a Klingon wedding.

The Arkansas Democrat
reports that Google is slowly taking over Microsoft’s well-established
nickname of “The Borg” for its ever-expanding business endeavours.

Robot dog K9 will be reunited with Doctor Who in the new series after 24 years apart, say the show’s producers.

K9, who helped Tom Baker’s Time Lord between 1977 and 1981, will join new Doctor David Tennant for one episode.

The show, to be screened on BBC One next spring, sees the team investigate sinister events at a modern-day school.

It will co-star Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Anthony Head and Elisabeth Sladen, who is returning as 1970s Doctor’s assistant Sarah Jane Smith.

K9 and Sarah Jane will join the Doctor and his current sidekicks, Rose and Mickey, in a fight against the evil Krillitanes.

Producer Phil Collinson said it was “great” to be welcoming back K9.

“A whole generation fondly remember him as an ever faithful companion and best friend to Tom Baker’s Doctor,” he said.

“I hope the new generation of viewers will fall in love with him in the same way.”

When will it end? Google are rolling out an endless line of different (albeit high quality) products. GMail, GoogleEarth, GoogleDesktop and now GoogleTalk… there seems to be no end in sight.

When coupled with the fact that Google apparently want to enable the entire city of Los Angeles for WiFi (yes, the entire city), one could almost be forgiven for thinking some kind of world-takeover was in progress.

Today though, Google is set to take on online voice and instant messaging service like MSN, Ventrillo and Skype. They have just released a free piece of software in BETA called GoogleTalk which lets GMail account holders talk to each other via a PC, microphone and speakers.

Anyone interested? Of course you are. The advantage is its a lot, lot cleaner than MSN Messenger (although MSN does some more clever things). The interface here is delightfully simple and clean.

http://www.google.com/talk/

“Zelenka and McKay have a complex relationship based on the character foibles of each of them. Neither one of them wants to let on that there’s more than just professional competition between them. As always, character is revealed in circumstane. “

A little something that cropped up the other day. Much better quality, both sound and picture.

Plus, no announcer.

Love the music. It’s kind of generic, but man, it gets your heart pumping.

Love some of the look…

But will this film eclipse Prisoner of Azkaban as my favourite of the three?

Trailer gives me hope.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Trailer 2.0

Right click and save as I do believe. I don’t particularly want to steal their bandwidth. And I’m sure as soon as Chris is at a computer, he’ll do some extremely clever and technical to make it more fair. Or something.

Thanks to Mugglenet for the grab.

Well, about five episodes have aired. They don’t have the scripts for most of the second half of the eighth season and yet… they have the episode titles. Gateworld reports that the…

We’ve added a Baseball Jersey variation of our “I’m With Genius” t-shirt (our best selling item to date).

You can buy it now from our Store

While the space agency NASA is still searching for life on the planet Mars, NASA may may have put it there already.
The British newspaper The Sunday Times reports a bacteria from Earth might have escaped to Mars.

NASA believes the two rover spacecrafts Spirit and Opportunity, scuttling across the red planet, are carrying a bacterium from Earth.

Nathan Fillion today made a rather bizarre request of the Firefly and Serenity community – to boycott a comic store.

The actor who plays Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the show and movie, posted this on the official forum.

It is times like these that I feel like Malcolm Reynolds. This is something that would surely get you kicked into an engine. I just went to a comic store to purchase the Serenity comic for my mom. The sweetheart that she is, gave her issues (with her favorite character on the front) to relatives who were having trouble tracking one down. Please bear in mind that Canada is a wonderous place where the service industry is polite and helpful, and that this experience is not the norm. The store I chose, which shall remain nameless (Warp 1 Comics), at an undisclosed location (just off Whyte Ave), has the singlemost sanctimonious, condescending, dishonest a$$hole I’ve had the misfortune of meeting. My brother and I called ahead to find out they had one issue left, but upon arriving, found out they are gouging people $20 bucks for the damned thing! “That’s what they’re worth.” he sneered at me. I asked him to show me a listing of some sort to back it up. “Well, I just know what I paid Dark Horse for it.” He wouldn’t show me that, either. I am aware that Dark Horse wasn’t expecting these books to sell as well as they are, and that they are going into a second printing, but I just picked up three of them two days ago at cover price at another store. My brother piped up with a, “What an interesting attitude you have.” Let me tell you folks, this fella had an attitude, and a smirk that you wanted to knock off his face with a baseball bat dipped in dog poop. Of course, my brother couldn’t help letting this guy know who he was trying to hose by holding the issue next to my face. “This guy look familliar? This isn’t some JoJo off the street! He knows what he’s talking about!” Check this out- the reply of this one-eyed crap-catcher, who shall remain nameless (Darryl) was, (and imagine a dullards voice- how we make people we don’t like sound in a story) “Well, then you can call Joss Whedon and ask him.”
Wouldn’t a smart business man ask me to sign an issue and sell me one at a fair price? Wouldn’t that fetch a prettier penny than ripping me off for one issue? Congratulations, dude! You are now on the Browncoat $hitlist.
Never have I tried to wield power in this way, but if being Malcolm Reynolds has taught me anything, it’s to follow my over-developed sense of vengeance. BOYCOTT WARP ONE COMICS! If you are in the neighborhood, drop by to tell “Patchy” that Browncoats don’t take $hit from anyone. Tell your friends not to shop there, and lock ’em in the airlock if they do. Copy this post and e-mail it to fellow Edmontonians. Bump it to keep it alive.
Thank you. Thank you for letting me rant. If you feel I’m overboard, please feel free to, as Joss would say, contemplate silently.

The Captain

After a fortnight away in the faraway land of France, I returned home at about 3AM. Leaping into the pile of post by the door, I rummaged through until I found what I was looking for. Two tickets for the World Premiere of Joss Whedon’s “Serenity”.

When the Edinburgh International Film Festival launched its ticket sales several weeks ago, they clearly had no idea that “Serenity” was to become one of the most successful films the Festival had ever seen. 44,000 people flooded in to purchase tickets to the event, in the end resulting in nothing more than a complete crash of the web server, and jammed phone lines. The EIFF simply couldn’t cope with the demand. As some people grumbled and gave up, others swore at each other, but others (myself included) continued to attempt to make bookings despite being bombarded by error messages. After boxing around these for several hours, I managed (even after it had “Sold Out”) to get two tickets into my basket. I suspect this was because during the confusion, overbookings had occurred, and tickets were being released.

Anyway, with the golden jewels now in my basket, I hurried to the checkout, only to get slapped quite violently in the face by the site’s mathematical incompetence.

I just finished a rewatch of the entire first season of “Lost” today, and in the closing few minutes, something struck me. As Hurley sits down in the plane at the end…

This Browncoat got up early, and was most displeased. GMTV were scheduled to air the new, international trailer for the highly anticapted upcoming sci-fi flick, “Serenity” this morning. However, the wake of…

A series of bomb attacks on London’s transport network has killed more than 30 people and injured about 700 others. Three explosions on the Underground left 35 dead, two died in a…