First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome! | Tor.com

UPDATE: FRAK!!!!! Click here to find out more.

It LIVES!!!! The first bit of exciting scifi news I had today and this is a winner in my book. From just this preview alone, I can tell that this is not Caprica-ish in the least respect. Not that Caprica was bad but the slowness of the story telling and lack of action made this prequel unworthy to be mentioned in the same breath as BSG. They only sticking point is the SYFY logo in the trailer which kills me. The SYFY Channel is an empty husk of what I used to love about the channel. Even back in the days of SCIFI, there was the long lull between seasons and even mid seasons episodes when BSG was on the air. Farscape was this first series to have suffered this fate and thus, I have yet to see seasons three and four. Hell, MAD MEN took 17 months off between seasons. Stop the nonsense and the fans will support the show. Don’t yank the fans, SYFY!!!!

Enjoy the trailer below!!!

First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome!

STUBBY THE ROCKET

The second spin-off of Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica reboot looks to be a bit closer than we thought. Here’s the first footage:

So, ignoring the strange choice to basically make the trailer the bastard cousin of the U.S. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trailer, what are we seeing? Well, to start, we’re seeing little Bill Adama! In a viper! Being awesome!

In all honesty, it looks like this was the BSG prequel we’d really been waiting for. A lack of movement (and enough likeable characters) killed Caprica off pretty quickly, and Blood and Chrome is already looking a lot more like the BSG we know and love. It’s possible that this spin-off may rely more heavily on action, and CGI will clearly be a sizeable component since we’ve got lots of early cylons to contend with.

What are you hoping to see? And do you think Blood and Chrome has what it takes to be the “gamechanger” Syfy is heralding it as?

via First Footage of Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome! | Tor.com.

Aliens vs. Predator Chess Set: Alien Queen to Predator King, Checkmate!

Reblogged from memoirs on a rainy day:

I have always liked both Alien and Predator – at least individually. When they were first combined, it wasn’t a stellar result, but this chess set looks pretty awesome. It will allow you to pit your own Aliens versus Predators and see who will come out on top.

Read more @ Technabob

This is absolutely sweet. Though I can't play Chess to save my live and would at least play A v. P checkers.

Future Not So Bright For ‘Torchwood’ | Airlock Alpha

Starz remains mum on whether it will be a part of the show’s future

by MICHAEL HINMAN, posted Oct-31-2011 Source: Digital Spy

Kelsey Grammer was just two episodes in on his series “Boss” when Starz excitedly hit the start button for a second season. But when it comes with “Torchwood,” all that can be heard from the premium cable channel is silence.

And fans of the “Doctor Who” spinoff might not be able to expect more than that.

“I don’t know if there will be more,” Executive ProducerJulie Gardner recently told Digital Spy. “The things about there being more or not — you look at ‘Torchwood’ and it’s always had such a labyrinthine history.”

“Torchwood” premiered in 2006 on BBC Three, and earned a second season that moved it to BBC Two. For the third season, however, BBC opted to dispense with a full season, and instead do a five-episode miniseries that aired on consecutive nights on BBC One to critical acclaim in 2009.

The series then went dark for a couple of years while BBC looked for an American producing partner. The Fox network was first onboard, but then bailed on the project before Starz stepped in to produce 10 episodes.

via Future Not So Bright For ‘Torchwood’ | Airlock Alpha.

I am not surprised to hear this news. I as well as many other fans of Torchwood where left wondering – WTF. After watching Series 3 – Children of Earth, which is amazing, how could Torchwood top itself? Apparently, Series 4 could barely scratch the surface of what made the series great in the first place let alone surpass the high bar they set themselves on Children of Earth. I believe the American-izing of this BBC show was the first mistake. I know that the story premise needed to have a global perspective but in doing so, it lost the very essence of what make Torchwood fun to watch. The old Torchwood crew of Jack and Gwen had the old chemistry but it was not enough to gel the newest members Rex and Esther into the fold. I miss the old gang: Suzie, Ianto, Owen and Toshiko.

Reassignment: Enterprise « Page 49

This is an overdue post but seems appropriate to do this now. In the past, I’ve used various Star Trek ships to convey the changes I had experienced as I was transferred from one library branch to another. For the past five + months, I’ve been stationed at a store front library branch. The reason I picked the NX-01 starship is because it fits my particular situation. Enterprise itself was the 4 spinoff series from the original Trek series bringing it to the total of five not including the animated series or the movies. Since I started with the library back in 2006, I have now worked in five different branches. Now having said this, I carry this connection forward,  the series was heading for cancellation by the end of the fourth season and nearly killed off the franchise forever. As I’ve mentioned before, I am facing a possible separation from the library is the next couple of months. Could this move kill off my career as a librarian forever?

As I am writing this, almost 1am Monday, I just finished a pint of ice cream and watching an Enterprise episode called Mauraders. To sum it up, think of this episode as a retelling of A Bug’s Life with the Klingons as the Locust. As I groan in pain from the late night dessert and tv watching, I am reminded that someone wrote this crap. Someone got paid to write this crap. I too want to write and get paid for writing crap. Several years ago, make that more than a decade ago, I wrote a spec script for the then upcoming Star Trek: Deep Space Nine series. I recently found it again which led me to believe, I need to write again and fail again. Yes, I did say fail again.

via Reassignment: Enterprise « Page 49.

Hulu – Misfits: One – Watch the full episode now.

Hulu – Misfits: One – Watch the full episode now., posted with vodpod

Tired of the summer blahs even though summer begins tomorrow? I don’t know about you but I am in need of something big to rev my scifi appetite and having to wait for the next half season of Doctor Who was not making this fan happy. As I was reading the numerous blogs for my google reader, I came across this bit about Misfits. This show is not on cable or regular channel. Syfy or whatever the channel had better not monkey up with an US version like what they did to Being Human. No, this show in on Hulu. This online video content provider has always been a favorite destination to visit and now that I dumped cable several months ago, I am truly rewarded with a scifi series that has the right elements to make this a HUGE hit in my book.

When describing this series, I would have to do this kind of mashup – think The Breakfast Club meets Teen Titans meets X-Men. This is a must watch series and can rival my once beloved Heroes Season 1. (Still saddens me that the series never continued after that; I wonder why?) I really don’t want to get into further details because I don’t want to give anything else away. All I can say, if you follow this blog and recently noticed the lack of postings, this show has re-energized my passion for all things scifi. I hope you will agree with me.

Okay, ’nuff chat. What the show posted on the blog and tell me what you think. FYI – NSFW due to language and adult themes but then again, why would you be watching this at work?

Doctor Who S6 E1: The Impossible Astronaut – Commentary

******SPOILERS AHEAD******

Anxious to see something new in the world of scifi, Doctor Who Series 6 was the perfect fit to fill that void. It is by no means, one of the best episodes of the Doctor but it does cram in a great deal of storytelling in 1 hr.

One of my favorite moments belong to River Song. I have not only grew to love but watching her throughout the episode and remembering the loss of Elizabeth Sladen – Sarah Jane, I could easily see a spinoff series for this character.  For the first time, I truly had a sense of who she was and what she was about. There was a line where she was talking to Amy about her first meeting with the Doctor and the profound impact that had on her life. Much like Sarah Jane, River can hold her own against the Doctor and whatever the universe will throw her way. I want to see her more.

Amy’s revelation about her pregnancy to the Doctor as I read over the weekend will play a larger role over the course of the series. My thought was the reveal of the little girl in the astronaut suit to be Amy’s child in some weird timeline experiment going horribly wrong. We’ll see how it turns out but I did have a gripe how it ended. Towards the end, we see the astronaut that killed the Doctor at the beginning of the episode. Amy was able to get a shot from the gun belonging to the unconscious Canton Everett Delaware III and in an almost cliché scene, we don’t know who Amy shot but at the last moment, we know that the Doctor was okay but then there was this look of horror on Amy’s face. While we, the audience, are led to believe that Amy injured or killed the astronaut, we see in the upcoming previews shows the astronaut alive with a grazed bullet mark on the helmet. I’m not sure if Moffat, the show’s runner, meant for this to happen but this poor decision does not leave me with an OMG moment but now I know that the astronaut is okay for the most part.

Rory. Poor Rory. As I was beginning to see an all to familiar pattern with the third wheel à la Mickey as seen in earlier series,  no longer was he the bumbling idiot, Rory became something more towards the end of Series 5. In my eyes, he was a worthy companion to break up the potential unrequited love scenario between Amy and the Doctor. Finally, we had a trio that would show us some light-hearted fun that the series really needed. The 2 mini episode “Time” and “Space”, after last year’s christmas episode, best exemplifies my point about the fun aspect of watching this show. Sadly, in this premiere episode, Rory remains not as major player but just someone along for the ride. Granted, this is just the first episode but I want Rory to continue to be a wonderful character as I remember him from the last season.

Finally, we get to the Doctor. Matt Smith as our latest doctor picks up his almost maniacal pace of always being several steps ahead of his companions. However, this time around, I felt a sense of ease watching Matt playing the Doctor. It’s as if Matt broke in a new pair of shoes and he is truly comfortable to play the Doctor his way. There was a great moment between the Doctor and Amy which rewarded fans who paid attention. As this story goes, the Doctor, age 1103, was killed only to see the early Doctor, age 908, show up several scenes later. Fearing that telling this early Doctor of what had happened would cause a paradox, they needed this Doctor to go back in time to 1969. Not believing anyone, Amy came up to bat.  The Doctor asked Amy to swear on something that mattered to her. Her response, “Fish fingers and custard.” “My life in your hands, Amelia Pond” was the Doctor’s response. Brilliant!!!

The overall story still left me wondering how all of this will be worked out. Then again, isn’t that the point of watching Doctor Who?

Who’s The Boss???

As the Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) era comes to a close in the near future, I’m sure we can all relate to bosses who just generally sucked day in and day out or worse. This led me to start thinking about bosses in the genre that I love; SCIFI. Who are the real standouts when it comes to the boss of bosses? If you thought your boss was hard to work for try working with those below. (A word of caution, I’m cursing more than usual in this blog. Ye have been warned.)

Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars) – Is there a more wretched hive of scum and villainy? Yes and it’s name is Emperor Palpatine. Talk about being a non team player and backstabber.

Poor Count Dooku did the bidding for Palpatine for many years only to find himself beheaded Gladiator style. So, there’s a job opening, Annie! So foolish Anakin takes his rightful place after slaughtering all the youngling Jedis. And how does Palpatine reward his new lacky when Obi-Wan beat down Skywalker? Annie gets a new suit, impressive, and new arms and legs; most impressive. Plus, a new shiny hat which will smell like ass down the road. When Annie now Darth Vader asked what happened to Padme, the Palpatine lied to him and said that he killed her. Unable to wipe his tears from his helmet, Vader utters no again and again. Meanwhile, Palpatine smirks like the devil and could almost feel a Mutley laugh coming. Yes, Palpatine is a dick.

Gilbert Huph (The Incredibles) – When I used to work as a stage manager for a table top commercial production house, there was a producer who the crew affectionately called Tippy or Tip for short. The producer was not very tall but very big in attitude and condescending of other peoples’ shortcomings. Basically, Tip stood for “Tiny Insignificant Prick.” Flash to Mr. Huph the boss of Mr. Incredible, I mean, Bob Parr, at Insuracare. Mr. Huph is also not a very tall man and his love for the Insuracare’s bottom line is reprehensible. As seen in the movie, Mr. Huph has no problems in belittling those who he oversees. This would lead one to believe that he was sexually abused by his uncle who was an accountant. Mr. Huph, tell the police where on this business ledger did your uncle touch you.

Jabba The Hutt (Star Wars) - I want to be the head of this organization where I can dress up a princess in slave outfit and have a muppet for a little buddy; I want that gig. Jabba is the big cheese or the big slug in the crime syndicate underworld. Still to this day, I’m not sure how this fat bastard amassed so much power and wealth.  I mean, how much money did have to get the huge ass Rancor in his basement and then willy nilly offs Oola the Twi’lek because she didn’t shake her tentacles the right way. Jabba sure has a lot of balls or least a lot of something like… balls.

Future Guy from the 28th Century (Enterprise) – How many times did you have a boss where he told you to do x, y, and z and I’m going to be out of the office?  Those who watched Enterprise, I’m sorry,  can generated a soft spot for the Suliban. These made up creatures with no back history suddenly came into Trek’s existences; may be the Future Guy’s help and maybe not. Sure, FT, Future Guy sounds stupid by now, gave the Suliban technology and genetic upgrades to do FT’s bidding. It’s amazing how much faith the Suliban are placing on FT since this really amounts to Moses talking to God a burning bush. Here’s the a conversation between two Sulibans:

Suliban #1 – Hey did you hear the good news?

Suliban # 2 – What good news?

Suliban # 1 – Future Guy is going to help us.

Suliban # 2 – (pause) What’s a future guy?

Suliban # 1 – He’s someone from the 28th century that needs our help.

Suliban # 2 – (pause) Right and what does he look like?

Suliban #1 – Well?!? He… He… looks tall.

Suliban # 2 – You know that’s Henry screwing with you, right? You’re a suli-tard.

Walter Skinner (X-Files) – Here is a man that looked down on Fox Mulder on his beliefs in UFOs. Like Mulder, I and countless others also believe that the truth is also out there. So in many ways, Skinner is also looking down on us.

He is the type of man that will tell you in front of the other co-workers to take your toys off your desk. When you try to explain to him that these are not toys but action figures, he gives you that stare that scares the living soul out of you. It’s that same stare that he is giving you right now as you are reading this. Dude, stop reading this. He’s gonna fire you and then kick your ass in the parking lot. Word of caution, never fuck with a balding man. We ain’t got nothing to lose.

Mr. Montgomery Burn (The Simpsons) – Ah, yes; my namesake. Charles Montgomery Burns is probably the most vile and greedy husk of a man but you gotta love him. How low in the totem pole of being the most hate man in all the world do you have to be where a baby almost shoots you dead. Nevertheless, this is someone who chooses to work hard to stick it to the small guy or that fat guy that like donuts. Whether he is disregarding public safety or releasing the hounds, all one could say is that Montgomery is pure E-V-I-L. Excellent!

Zapp Branigan (Futurama) – In a far, far future from now, there is no worse leader of men than our own Captain Zapp.

Brannigan is a senior member of the military of the Democratic Order of Planets (D.O.O.P.) though his title varies; he has been referred to as a “25 star General“, Captain, Rear Brigadier, “General Major Webelo“, Christopher Rossi, and Commodore 64. He is arrogant, incompetent, chauvinistic, cocky, vain, and painfully stupid.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapp_Brannigan

For god’s man, he’s not wearing any pants. How wrong is that???

Honorable Mention Quintus Lentulus Batiatus (Spartacus). Many thanks goes out to my Domina, V who kept bugging me to what this series and wow, why did I wait so long? Super props to John Hannah who has brought such a passion and vigor to the role originally played by Peter Ustinov. If you have not watch Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Gods of the Arena, do yourself a favor watch it now. Aside from seeing Xena’s (Lucy Lawless) boobies, heeheeheehee, and the constant sausage shots, AAARRRGGGHHHH, watching John utter lines like, “Once again the Gods spread the cheeks to ram cock in fucking ass,” is not only funny as shit but so true to his nature. Batiatus wants so much to be much greater than what he is right now and is willing to play the game. While his ultimate doom is seen at the end of the first series, we really get a great sense of a man coming into his own and despite numerous setbacks.

Gail Berman on Why ‘Firefly’ Had to Be Cancelled | Ology

Throwing in my two cents on this topic, there are a few things that I want to chime in about on Firefly. Having just come off watching Buffy/Angel only on dvd, I was eager to see this show despite it being on a friday night. The first episode that aired was, “The Train Job.” This turned out to be the second episode in the show but the first one to be aired.

Watching the first couple of minutes, I quickly got it. What nailed my love for this show was Mal kicking one of the henchmen into the Serenity‘s air in-take vents when he refused to take the money back. Mal tried it again with another henchmen and it worked but it was one of those moments, “He f$%&ing killed a bad guy” and yet it was one of the funniest moments of Firefly I truly loved.

Having said all this, I remembered that Joss hated the fact that Fox played the episodes out-of-order. I understand this completely but for once, I agreed with Fox on delaying the pilot episode till much later. The Train Job quickly filled in to us as to who are these people are and the world they lived in. I’m all for a pilot to show how this group came together but I had I watched it in the original order I might not have loved the show in the same manner. It’s like watching Star Wars Episode 4 first and then 5, 6 and then the prequels 1, 2, 3. If you watch it numerically the impact and the reveal of Vader as Luke’s father is completely lost. The same can be said for Mal’s humor and point of view.

So, where does this leave us? Back where all of us are, wanting more Firefly. Can lightning in the bottle be captured again? I don’t think so. Let Firefly rest in our hearts and dvd players as is.

Gail Berman on Why ‘Firefly’ Had to Be Cancelled

By NATALIE ZUTTER

Whedon on the set of ‘Serenity’ with Gina Torres, Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, and Alan Tudyk.[ Image Source ]

Firefly, Joss Whedon’s short-lived space western from 2002, has been in the news lately, with fans getting extra revved over the announcement that The Science Channel would air reruns of the show. After Nathan Fillion made an offhand comment about wishing he could buy the rights, fans launched a campaign to do just that; Fillion gently told them to calm down.

Why all the hubbub? Perhaps it’s because for many, Firefly represented the best of Whedon’s gritty, funny worlds, with commentary on government control, religion, and morality. Perhaps because it’s his show with the shortest run. (Even Dollhouse got two seasons on Fox, from 2009-2010.) But as evidenced by charity screenings and comic continuations, the Browncoats’ love will never waver.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette got a chance to chat with Gail Berman, who served as the Fox Entertainment president during Firefly’s run and had to be the one to cancel the show. Despite her personal connections to Whedon–indeed, she’s served as executive producer on Buffy and Angel–Berman knew that she had to make the painful decision.

via Gail Berman on Why ‘Firefly’ Had to Be Cancelled | Ology.

Fans Unite To Help Nathan Fillion Buy ‘Firefly’ – Screen Rant

Nuts, I say, nuts. Huh? Exactly not in the terms that this is crazy. Let me explain myself with Jericho. In the past month, I bought Jericho Season 1 on dvd super cheap. I knew about the series and the situation with CBS cancelling this show. Fans of Jericho mounted a campaign that was on par with Futurama, Family Guy, and Firefly (to a lesser degree) to bring back these shows back on the air and theaters in Firefly’s case.

Nuts played an important part in Jericho and the fans rallied behind this cause. I never understood the connection until I came to the final episode of season 1. In a nutshell, pardon the pun, Jake Green (main lead) and other town members are gearing up for war with a neighboring town. In the episode, we see numerous flashbacks of Jake right before his brother’s wedding. The important scene is Jake with his grandfather.

His grandfather recalls the story of the World War IIBattle of the Bulge, in which US Army forces under the command of Gen. Anthony McAuliffe were outgunned and outnumbered by Nazis who surrounded them at the town of Bastogne. When Gen. McAuliffe was offered the option to surrender, his response was simply “Nuts,” which Jake’s grandfather said meant “Go to Hell.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_We_Fight_(Jericho)

As the episode progressed, we see Jake facing a similar situation as stated above. He tells the Mayor of the war mongering town, “Nuts.” I can see this very dramatic moment became the war cry for many Jericho fans to say, ”Nuts” to CBS. As such, there was a second season, shorter, but nonetheless Jericho was bought back on the air.

Flash forward to this remark by Nathan Fillion, whereby, if he had won the state’s lottery and had $300 million dollars, he would try to buy the rights to Firefly. Of course, fans of Nathan and Firefly have started the process of seeing if this could become a reality. This begs the question, would you support Nathan to buy the right for Firefly? Never minds the legal issue or how to raise funds from fans on this matter; I am just curious to see how much fans are willing to support a show that they love rather the showing (they’re) their nuts (heeheehee). But aside from this, how would you want to see the series – taking place right after the Serenity with several new cast members or continue the story prior to the movie and bring back Wash and Book?

Feb 23, 2011 by Michael Crider

After an offhand remark by Nathan Fillion, a social network campaign has begun to obtain the rights to ‘Firefly’ from Fox and start the series anew.

Nathan Fillion created a movement by accident when he said he’d buy the rights to Firefly if he won the lottery.

Last week, we reported that cult-classic TV show Firefly was getting a new run of its first and only season on Science Channel. After the news broke, star Nathan Fillion waxed poetic, saying that he’d buy the rights to the series and start it up again if he won the lottery. Die-hard Firefly fans – never ones to let a lost cause die quietly – have begun a grassroots movement to raise the money for him.

Speaking to an Entertainment Weekly reporter, Fillion said that “If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.” Almost immediately, fans of the 2002 series started organizing on Twitter and Facebook to see if a donation drive was plausible. After a groundswell of initial support, HelpNathanBuyFirefly.com was created.

via Fans Unite To Help Nathan Fillion Buy ‘Firefly’ – Screen Rant

Shadow And Act » Watch The Official 12-Minute “Lost” Epilogue! (Where’s Walt?)

Before it gets taken down, here is your chance to see the Lost Epilogue that is being touted as part of the final Lost DVD season.

Shadow And Act » Watch The Official 12-Minute “…, posted with vodpod

First impressions: We get to see Linus act under the direction of the “New Boss” to close down Dharma offices. This office in Guam could be one of many or the start of many scenes Linus will have to perform. What is interesting is how Linus offered to answer one question from each soon to be unemployed employees. One of the questions was about the Polar Bears on the island. While I am not going to discuss the details, I will say that I am still left with more questions about their presence on the island and yes, the bears are not your friend (It’s in the video clip). However, the bulk of this short video is taken up by a Dharma orientation dvd which was great but not exactly what I had in mind about the Hugo/Linus new partnership.

Next, we see Linus visiting Walt in the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. He is trying to convince him that he has work to do and to help his father. Those who followed the series will remember that Walt’s dad Michael could not leave the Island for his past sins. Although he is dead, Linus insists that Walt can still help him. At the end of this scene, we finally get to see Hugo who is offering him a job – which is THE JOB. This left me more anxious to learn what happens next but the show is over; no mas.

So, do we care what happens after the long and complex series of Lost? If so, do you think another tv series – spinoff – would work? Or should the series be done differently such as a comic which would make sense since Walt was into comics at the beginning of the series. I for one would love to see the later come to play as this could a very unique product that is not all about superheroes.