Doctor Who is coming back to BBC One in 2005. It will be a new live-action series, written by Russell T Davies. —New Doctor Who TV series (BBCi/Doctor Who News) My son Peter will be thrilled, as will my wife. She has old videotapes from her teenaged years, and pulled them out to amuse our…
The fact is, in science fiction you can have any kind of reading experience you want–the highest art of the word, pure escapism, rattling good stories, dreamy tea drinkers musing on matters of great significance. Explore your favorite political/moral/religious stance. It’s the literature of ideas, isn’t it? —Rose of Charon —SF’s Death Greatly Exaggerated (Rose of…
Narratives are the border. Nevertheless, as we talk about stories in my college classroom, I find that references to mainstays such as Star Trek and Star Wars are more difficult to sustain. Not because these items are old or out of date, but because the people with whom I speak have such diverse habits and…
Time for me to get back to my day job, which means that it’s time for me to stop blogging. — William Gibson —William Gibson is an Ex Blogger (William Gibson) I can’t say that I followed his blog much, but I enjoyed coming across other bloggers’ links to his online work. He invented the term…
Science Fiction seems always to be looking back at something — often at childhood. Standing baffled and dazzled in the imperial spaceport of Trantor, we recall the trip from the shtetl to the City and on the the New World. Dreaming of Electric Sheep, we’re alone in the long city night, our parents gone, and…
I’ve been fretting and procrastinating over another definition I’m writing for the Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, you see, this one’s on cyberpunk (the genre) and I’ve never published a thing on cyberpunk. — Jill Walker —Definition: Cyberpunk (jill/txt) Jill is taking comments on the draft of her definition of cyberpunk. Neal Stephenson says that cyberpunk…
Three short steps into the New Millennium, written SF is paradoxically in sharp decline. …. And the reason is depressingly clear: Those few readers who haven’t defected to Tolkienesque fantasy cling only to Star Trek, Star Wars, and other Sci Fi franchises. | Incredibly, young people no longer find the real future exciting. They no…
The anonymous e-mail offered $5,000 to any vendor capable of promptly delivering a collection of far-fetched gadgets for conducting time travel. Among the mysterious devices sought by the message’s author were an “Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built-in temporal displacement” and an “AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing the GRC79 induction motor.” —Brian…
Like most new college students, Carabella will spend the week before the start of classes doing routine tasks that we take for granted: opening a bank account, receiving new checks, using a credit card, and shopping at a grocery store that has a “club card”. She will learn how such simple activities can have major…
“As an investor, are you Mr. Spock, a rational, unemotional decision-maker who weighs all the options, or Captain Kirk, who is likely to respond with his feelings in making a decision?|At first glance, Mr. Spock would seem to have the advantage and make the best judgments about which stocks to buy.|Not necessarily, say a trio…
One of the stars of cult sci-fi series Blake’s 7 has signed a deal to bring the show back to screens more than 20 years after it ended. Paul Darrow, who played the ruthless anti-hero Avon, is in a consortium that has acquired the rights to the show from the widow of its creator, Terry…
“The parents of Ghyslain Raza, the Quebec teenager who became a celebrity this spring after classmates posted on the Internet a video of him mimicking a Star Wars character, allege that their son was so humiliated by the experience that he had to get psychiatric care.” —Parents File Lawsuit over Star Wars Video (Globe and…
“Walter ‘Matt’ Jefferies, the art director who designed the original Enterprise vessel for the first Star Trek series has died, the official website of the sci-fi series has announced.” —Star Trek Enterprise Designer Dies (BBC) True Star Trek nerds will know Jefferies from the eponymous “Jeffries Tube,” where Scotty was often found reversing the polarity of…
“Edward James Olmos, the star of the new ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ has some advice for devoted fans of the 1970s sci-fi series: Don’t watch the remake.” Charlie McCollum —New Galactica Star to Fans: ‘This Program… Will Hurt Them.’ (Kansas City (Mercury News)) Frack! Only the Lords of Kobol could get my interest in this daggit of a…
“The Virtual Broomcloset is proud to announce the release of Jeff Stewart’s Space Quest 0: Replicated, an all-new AGI fan game set prior to the events of the Sarien Encounter! In the tradition of The Lost Chapter, Space Quest: Replicated offers fans an untold tale of Roger Wilco as our hero finds himself posted aboard…
“This study provides an exopolitical analysis of the policy dimensions of an historic extraterrestrial presence that is pertinent to Iraq and a US led preemptive attack. It will be argued that competing clandestine government organizations are struggling through proxy means to take control of ancient extraterrestrial (ET) technology that exists in Iraq, in order to…
“I am having trouble remembering the last time I was bored. You must realize that I’m alone with myself which is endlessly fascinating!” William Shatner —Quotable Quotes (WilliamShatner.com) Thanks for the link, Rosemary. And, while I have the attention of the Trek Classic fans, here’s James Lileks’s Best 404 Message Ever (It’s a reference to the…
“This video was uploaded to humiliate an awkward and overweight computer geek. But the truth is, he’s not too different than many of us (were) in 10th grade. I was furious at the hypocritical comments being posted to my site … all these geeks and dorks were trashing one of their own…. I’m hoping he…
“Yes, Neo has to save humankind. Yes, it is a job for the mind over computer-simulated matter. And yes, he is Jesus….There is no end to the biblical parallels that have been found. There are names like Trinity and Zion. There is a baptism and a betrayal. After a while though, the parallels start to…
“Every once in a while, in order to remind myself of the quality of information typically reported, I trace down the source of a particularly ridiculous story. The ‘Klingon Language Interpreter’ myth, which is spawning now, provides an amusing case study of the process of pack journalism.” Seth Finklestein —Klingon Language Interpreter Story DebunkedKuro5hin) See…