Disorderly Content

Much as I know to distrust second hand stories, this one is too good not to share. A Scaper friend of a Scaper friend was at Comic-Con this weekend (yeah, I know; her and 175,000 other crazies). In the spirit of the thing, she was dressed as The First Lady of The Uncharted Territories, Our Beloved Raven Haired Goddess Aeryn Sun. Which went unremarked for quite some time, until some geek spotted her, yelled across the room, "Hey! You're Aeryn Sun!" and came over to talk about the show for the next half hour.

The name of that geek? Joss Whedon. And suddenly I have a new reason to respect the man.

Regular readers know about my fannish devotion both to Farscape and to the Jossverse. (To translate for the less fixated, the former is a television program that once graced the Sci Fi Channel and is now available in syndication at your finer local stations; the latter refers to the oeuvre of one Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and most recently Firefly and its movie sequel, Serentiy.) There's quite a good overlap between the two fan bases, actually, with folks who appreciate the irreverence, the depth and the rollercoasterish nature of one seeing the same desirable mix in the other. So it should come as no surprise that one of my Scaper friends passed on a rather good parody of The Ballad of Jayne from Firefly. Said friend included the lyrics to The Ballad of Joss. But even better, he pointed me at Bedlam Bards, the Celtic duo responsible for this bit of filksinging (no, that's not a typo). They too are Joss fans. And they're at work on a whole album of Browncoat-related material. Which, if they can get it on the iTunes store, will let me revisit them for my other blog. Which is what they used to call synergy in the dotcom era.

I'm sure you've all missed me terribly and were wondering why I seemed to have dropped off the face of the blogoplanet. Yes, it's true; I was actually out of network access for the past four and a half days. In Burbank of all places, at my annual Farscape pilgrimage. I'll have a writeup of the festivities up in a few days; you can read about previous years' cons in the meantime. But let's just say that there was a lot of fun, a lot of laughter, perhaps a little too much drinking and carousing and not nearly enough sleep. Scapers are about the best people to be around, both the fans of the show and the cast. And interestingly, although the line between the two hasn't blurred, it's certainly beginning to run a bit around the edges. The con's organizers finally understand they don't have to protect the cast from us. Heck, on occasion we're the ones who need protecting!

To misquote Forrest Gump, "Geeky is as geeky does." Guess that means I qualify, as I head up to Sacramento today to join some Scaper friends (some of whom I've actually met) for a showing of Serenity. But let's make it clear that I'm not driving three hours to see a movie; I'm driving three hours (each way) to hang out with friends and like-minded individuals.

By the way, if you're a Firefly fan or just want to look like one, you'll likely get a kick out of today's installment of The Joy of Tech. I know I did.

Update 10/01: Finally back from Sacramento. Serenity is an amazing flick, both more poignant and more exciting than anything I've seen in ages. I hope people who haven't been hooked by the Firefly DVDs will give it a chance; I think they'll pick up on the situation and the characters without much trouble. And then they can get those DVDs and see what came before.

And no, it didn't take this long to drive back after the movie. I stayed in town to spend the day visiting with a couple of very good Scaper friends. Which reminds me that my Farscape fixation is about more than the show; it's also about the people who are also fixated on the show. Scapers are like family, except without the baggage.

In one of those strange coincidences that ought to have conspiracy theorists bouncing around their easy chairs, the Dead People Server reports on the death of Michael Billington on June 6th, followed two days later by that of Ed Bishop. If those names are vaguely familiar, you would have to be a fan of UFO, Gerry Anderson's live action (but just barely) science fiction series from the 70s. Mr. Billington and Mr. Bishop played Colonel Paul Foster, the young heartthrob, and Commander Ed Straker, the hardbitten leader of SHADO, the supersecret alien invasion defence organization with the most excellent logo.

So long, guys. Thanks for the memories, cheesy as they were.

It doesn't happen often, but every now and then science fiction writers get the future right. Think Arthur C. Clarke and geostationary communication satellites in 1945. Isaac Asimov and the pocket calculator in 1951. Murray Leinster and the Internet in 1946.

Murray who? Despite being one of the earliest and among the most prolific of the Golden Age SF writers (his first story was published in 1919; his last in the late 60s), I can't recall a list of SF greats that ever mentioned him. And yet I can remember reading and enjoying several of his novels and short stories. Leinster (real name Will F. Jenkins) had a deft touch for dialogue and a comic sense of timing that reminds me a little of Keith Laumer's Retief stories.

Which is why I picked up a copy of A Logic Named Joe, a new collection of his work, when I was browsing in Borders recently. And was stunned by the title story, where Leinster draws the broad strokes of the World Wide Web. Not so much the technology, although he's kind of in the ballpark. But the implications for business, news, entertainment, communication and some aspects of society we haven't yet seen play out. And to think, it's only taken us sixty years to catch up.

Of course, his version is funnier than the real thing.

So today I went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy for the second time. This time I went to the local digital projection theater, which I should have done the first time. Believe it or not, there were imperfections in the print I saw on Friday, despite it being the first public performance. Digital's nice that way; the quality is the same at every showing.

The reviews have been mixed on Hitchhiker's. But I liked it. A lot. As is obvious by the fact that I went back after just four days. Interestingly, I think I enjoyed it a little more the second time. I suspect that's because I was past being bothered by changes from the book and the radio series and was focused on enjoying the movie for itself. If you've seen it and enjoyed it, I wonder if you'll have the same reaction on a second viewing.

Oh, and in other news, BBC 4 is now broadcasting the new Quandary Phase radio series: eight episodes that cover books four and five. For those of us outside the British Empire, the website offers each episode starting each Tuesday afternoon and for a week after.

Major thanks to Elkit, our local Reine du Meetups, for telling me about Starship Dimensions, a website with gorgeous drawn-to-scale images of spacecraft from life and fiction. It's another example of people with talent and way too much time on their hands. Reminds me of why I love the web!

(I bet you're surprised I didn't use some of the ships from Farscape to illustrate this item. Yeah, me too.)

For anybody who's been waiting breathlessly, my advice is to breathe!. But seriously, folks; I've finally finished my con report from OzScape, Australia's first Farscape convention. Took nearly a month, mainly because I was too busy enjoying Australia to write about it. Or, if you want to be more charitable to your humble narrator, it took less than a week from my return to the Land Up Over.

Next I start on the Tasmania and South Australia pages. Trust me, it'll be worth it. But don't hold your breath. Seriously, dude; breathe.

...that somebody won't try to steal it. A favorite movie of mine is Matinee, Joe Dante's fictionalized tribute to 50s schlockmeister William Castle, here called Lawrence Woolsey. Woolsey's latest opus is the hilariously bad Mant, about a nuclear accident that turns a man into a giant ant. "He's half man/half ant! He's... Mant!"

Now flash forward ten years to the latest from The Sci Fi Channel. It's Mansquito, about a half man/half...

Co I really need to finish this one? I didn't think so.

With all the noise over Star Trek: Enterprise, its demise and fan hostility to Berman and Braga for wasting all that Trekkie goodwill, you have to love the folks behind Star Trek: New Voyages. New Voyages is an effort to recreate the ambience of the original series, giving us new episodes of Kirk, Spock and the gang with a new cast and modern visuals, but that 60s sensibility we (mostly) remember so fondly. It's an amateur effort; all those trademarks are used without Paramount's permission. And it's amateurish, in both the worst and best senses of the word.

Episode two is now available on newsgroups and through the use of BitTorrent. If you're late to the series, as I was, you can go digging through the alt.binaries.startrek newsgroup for episode one. Or you can get yourself a BitTorrent client (I've found that Tomato Torrent works really well on my Mac) and start downloading a 3.6 GB DVD image using this .torrent file. It'll take a long time to download even with broadband. But trust me; it'll be worth it. Just try to watch without getting a goofy smile on your face!

My second volume of the Farscape Starburst Edition DVDs finally arrived from Amazon, courtesy of its poky but free shipping via snail mail. And I got to listen to the long awaited commentary track for Jeremiah Crichton. The title of this entry is the subtitle of the commentary; even by the more forgiving standards of a television series' first season, Jeremiah Crichton is not great entertainment. But it's fun to listen to executive producers Rockne O'Bannon and David Kemper and stars Ben Browder and Claudia Black wax poetic on what went wrong and why. They're far more critical than I ever was about JC, pointing out embarrassing coincidences and little bits of unavoidable miscasting. Like a native civilization of mostly slender dark skinned people, except for the bulky white guys when stunts are called for.

As the commentators themselves say, no other commentary would be as honest as this one. Or, I would add, as witty.

"Ya gotta have a gimmick." I learned that from watching Gypsy, although I was far too young to realize that that's what they were talking about. But I'll assume that they're right. And what was true of strippers is just as true for websites. A gimmick can make all the difference.

Like this one. Babes in Space is a gallery of cover art from 50s SF pulp magazines, with a focus, one might even say an obsession, with the depiction of women. Sometimes human, sometimes not. All categorized and analyzed. And like Playboy, the kind of thing you'll claim to enjoy for the articles.

The world of Farscape fans is reeling from the news that Ben Browder has been signed for a regular role on the next season of Stargate SG-1. There's more than a bit of irony here, since Farscape's cancellation by the Sci Fi Channel was at least in small part due to SG-1's better price-performance: higher ratings at a lower cost. To make matters even more interesting, SG-1 star Amanda Tapping will be away for the first part of the season, taking care of her upcoming arrival. So Farscape's Claudia Black, who has a guest role in an SG-1 episode this season, will return for at least five more. Ben and Claudia together; just the sort of thing to gladden any Scaper's heart. But did it have to be Stargate?

Okay, I really need to stop with the bad pun titles for these entries. But not just yet; I'm having way too much fun coming up with them.

Anyway, I just finished my writeup of the fifth annual Burbank Farscape convention, put on by the folks at Creation Entertainment. And a gushing account it is too. If there's a better way to spend a weekend than with a thousand of so close friends, many of whom you're meeting for the first time, I'd like to know what it is. This isn't about a science fiction show, or at least it's not only about that. There's something about Scapers. It's like getting together with family, only without the aggravation and the arguments about inheritances and who mom liked best. A real shame we can't gather together more often.

Thanks to a fellow Scaper for posting part of an interview with Jolene Blalock that appeared in the Christmas issue of SFX Magazine. I'd given up on Enterprise quite a while ago, after following every Trek series religiously, even the second rate Voyager. But you have to give credit to someone who's willing to nibble at the hand that feeds her:

SFX magazine Christmas 2004 has a big interview with Jolene Blalock, in which she talks about Enterprise and her feelings about it with impressive honesty. I've never heard someone in an ongoing show let rip like this *cough*notevenRobertBeltran*cough*.

On the plus side, she really likes Manny Coto's work, and thinks he's making the changes that need to be made:

"... what's interesting is that I opened the first script of the fourth season ... and it was good! And that was weird! Then I got the second script - and it was good too!"

But she doesn't hold back about the stuff she's been unhappy with previously. When SFX mention that some of the semi-nudity and "Vulcan neuropressure" seems a little, uh "... unecessary", she replies:

"I agree. It was. You can't substitute tits and ass for good storytelling. You can have both, but you can't substitute one for the other, because the audience is not stupid. You can't just throw in frivolous, uncharacteristic ... well, bull and think it's gonna help the ratings. Because that's not our audience. I'd like to appeal to their intellect. I mean, God forbid we inspire the question, 'What if?' 'What if we travelled in space?' 'What if we met other species?' 'What if?' So it has been frustrating for me. But I don't have any say in it."

"If you can't find consistency in your character, then it's a transparent character, and that's very tough, because it turns out that you are a different person from episode to episode. And it's not fair, because I don't know what to count on!"

When asked if she flagged up her concerns with the show's creators:

"Absolutely! Well ... I did at first. Now, I've got to the point where I raise my hands. I wave my little white flag!"

On the positive changes in the show:

"It's bizarre that all of this is happening in our last season. Unfortunately, it takes people upstairs to turn their heads to a distraction in order for others to come in and freshen the concept and make the show good ..."

" ... I mean, you're talking about a show where the captain doesn't sweat! T'Pol's hair doesn't move - even in battle! And if it does, we reshoot it. We don't bleed here, and nobody dies. Give me a break! And we're all-knowing. Where's the risk? Where is the danger? Where's drama? Where's the challenge? Where's the story? Give me a break, I'm bored!"

Character consistency:

"You can't take T'Pol and say 'Okay, you're a Vulcan' and take away the Vulcan characteristics. You might as well clip the ears! For example, eating food with their hands - they don't do that! And yet they'll throw in episodes where she's eating popcorn, and I'll say, 'Can I use a napkin? How can I ...'" Jolene cuts herself off in the booming, uncaring voice of The Man. "'No! Use your hands!'"

Not very logical, say SFX:

"It's not, but that's not what they care about. They care about ... " Jolene sighs. "I don't know what they care about. But y'know ... I'm resigned."

On why she cares so much:

"... being a part of the Star Trek legacy is very important to me. It deserves a bit of respect. You can't just crap on it! It means something."

And despite her faith in Manny Coto's work, she seems to believe it's too late and this will be the last season:

"I think this will be our last season. I do. You can feel it. And after this show is over it's gonna be the first time in 17 years that Star Trek isn't on television. I don't know how people feel about that, but I know I'm affected by that thought. But I'd rather let it go than let it die a slow death. It deserves the respect it's due, and if we can't do that ... then let it go."

Thanks to Boing Boing for noting that Godzilla is finally getting the recognition he so richly deserves: his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And who deserves it more? Rampaging through Tokyo all those years is hard work!

The Farscape mini is now history, at least for me. And it was everything I'd have hoped for, although if they'd stretched the story over another dozen hours I wouldn't have minded. For those of us hooked on this show, especially those of us who've been to cons and spent a little time with the cast and crew, it's a bittersweet moment. We got the conclusion we wanted to this chapter. And even if we get more Farscape, it will be different. Because Rockne O'Bannon and David Kemper, those magnificent bastards who scripted the mini, have changed everything.

I won't reveal any details, in case you haven't seen the mini; you should be as stunned as I by what happens. But for anybody who thinks we're all a little nuts for being so emotionally involved with anything as ephemeral as television, well, what is more central to humanity than storytelling? And a story told well, as this one has been, tells us about ourselves and what we hold dear. This latest (I won't call it the last) chapter closes some doors. But it leaves much unanswered and points toward all sorts of possible continuations and spinoffs. And if we can get them, I'll be there to enjoy them.

In the meantime, I'm still trying to come to terms with what we have. And I now have a new entry on my calendar, to go with the Burbank con in November and the Sydney event next April. Yes, one day after seeing the second half of the mini, we have a date for the DVD release: January 18, 2005. I can't wait. But then you knew that, didn't you?

As I write this, I'm seven hours away from part two of Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars, the miniseries we Scapers fought for for a year after the cancellation and then waited for over another year after the almost announcement last November. Part one rocked mightily, especially for the crowd at Seattle's Science Fiction Museum who saw a special commercial-free (as in no commercials, not as in commercials we didn't have to pay for) presentation. Hope you all were watching, as were all of your Nielsen family friends.

I have more than ten reasons myself, but this article at teevee.org makes a pretty good case for why you really, really ought to give Farscape a try. Too late to convince you to turn in to the miniseries, maybe it'll get somebody to go looking for the DVDs or catch a rerun on Sci Fi. You'll want to thank me. And then you'll want to curse me for your brand new addiction.

Just got back from Seattle's Science Fiction Museum, former Microsoft founder Paul Allen's effort to show off his collection and his obsession. A seriously cool place, albeit one you can knock off in an hour or so. Sadly, they don't permit photography inside, or I'd be able to share some of what I saw. But there are tributes to SF in written, small screen and big screen form, with props and recreations from dozens of memorable characters. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

Like every other genre, science fiction has its standard plots. And one that's been used to death is the time travel/fouling up the timeline story. The original Star Trek used it in Harlan Ellison's famous The City On The Edge Of Forever, where Captain Kirk has to let depression angel Joan Collins get run over by a car to keep the Nazis from winning the war. Farscape used it in an episode called Different Destinations and made it new by not letting our heros off the hook -- turns out their actions do have consequences and their efforts to undo the damage they've caused only leads to even greater damage.

I mention this because the latest and, God willing, last incarnation of Star Trek has gone back to that hoary plot yet again. Not that I saw it; I gave up on Enterprise a year and a half ago. No, I only keep up through the offices of Television Without Pity, a website whose recaps of series episodes are far more entertaining than the shows themselves. (How much better to read about the atrocities Brenda Hampton foists on diehard 7th Heaven viewers than to have to experience them firsthand.) And the latest Enterprise recaplet makes it clear the show's writers have learned nothing. Yet another timeline undone by the Intergalactic Reset Button.