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2771 lines
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Copyright 1993, Cyberspace Vanguard Magazine
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| PO Box 25704, Garfield Hts., OH 44125 USA |
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| TJ Goldstein, Editor Sarah Alexander, Administrator |
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| tlg4@po.cwru.edu aa746@po.cwru.edu |
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Volume 1 October 26, 1993 Issue 6
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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--!1!-- Ramblings of a Deranged Editor (& a few deranged readers ...)
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--!2!-- Within the Realm of Extreme Possibility: Creator CHRIS CARTER
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on the X-FILES
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--!3!-- The Highlander's Heart: An Interview with ADRIAN PAUL
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--!4!-- The Art and Science of Leaping Tall Buildings
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--!5!-- A Writer's Guide to STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
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--!6!-- Reviews by EVELYN C. LEEPER
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--!7!-- THE OLD COMIC CURMUDGEON: R-E-S-P-E-C-T ...
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--!8!-- The Infamous Reply Cards and What You Said
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--!9!-- SF Calendar: What's Coming Up in the Near Future
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--!10!-- All The News That's Fit To Transmit
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--!11!-- Spoilers Ahoy! Including TWILIGHT ZONE Episode Guide
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--!12!-- Contests and Awards
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--!13!-- Conventions and Readings
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--!14!-- Publications, Lists and the like
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--!15!-- Administrivia
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--!1!-- Ramblings of a Deranged Editor (& a few deranged readers ...)
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Well, we're certainly growing! This issue we welcome not one, but four
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new regular writers, taking on French-language news, Japanese news,
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HIGHLANDER news, and those ever accumulating reply cards. Also, with all of
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this renewed interest in Superman generated by successful debut of LOIS AND
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CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, we bring you John McGervey's "The Art
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and Science of Leaping Tall Buidlings," a fun piece guaranteed to answer all
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those "hey, if Superman did that, wouldn't ..." questions that will
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inevitably come up. (Dr. McGervey is also the author of PROBABILITIES IN
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EVERYDAY LIFE, the source of one of my personal favorite quotes: "If you had
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purchased one square acre of Manhattan in 1850, you would now be ... dead.")
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Also on tap is an interview with Chris Carter, creator and producer of
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what seems to be turning out as this season's sleeper hit, X-FILES, and
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another with screen "immortal" Adrian Paul, star of HIGHLANDER. We're also
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continuing the episode guide thing by bringing you season one of the classic
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Twilight Zone. (We'll run season two next issue.) Finally, for those of you
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with big dreams and itchy word processors, we send Kris Voelker to one of the
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workshops given by the people at STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION to give the
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rest of us a report on everything you need to know about writing for STAR
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TREK.
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One brief comment more and I'll get on with it. If you've been reading
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the magazine for a while you may notice that the relative amounts of
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different things seems to change. If you would like to see more or less of
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something, please let us know. This is YOUR magazine, but we can't read all
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of your minds. And on a related topic, we are trying to expand the base of
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our foreign coverage. If you are outside the United States and would like to
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help us out by covering the scene in your part of the world, please drop us a
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note. CV is read in more than 30 countries on 6 continents. (And if you're
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reading this in Antarctica, please let me know!)
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That's it. That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to let our readers
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take it from here. (Yes, we listened to all those people who asked for a
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"letters to the editor" column, and here it is!)
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THE READERS SPEAK UP (catchy names for the letters column eagerly welcomed!)
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[Letters to the editor may be sent to cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu. Please
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start your subject line with LTE - whatever it is you want to say. We will
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keep your name and e-dress confidential if you ask. Letters may be edited for
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space.]
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Thanks for your moving account of John Williams's final performance as
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conductor of the Boston Pops. [News, Issue 5] Your statement "this man wrote
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the soundtrack to my adolescence" eloquently expresses my own feelings about
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Williams. In fact, his music has a special resonance in my life right
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now, because my children are listening to it.
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I decided a few months ago that it was time they were exposed to Star
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Wars, so I bought videotapes of all three films. (E.T., too.) Both
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kids (Ruth, 7, and Ben, 4) are now enthusiastic Star Wars fans. They
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don't know or care that these movies are old -- to them, it's all fresh
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and wonderful. They've now watched the films several times through, and
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they know the music well enough that when I play my soundtrack albums,
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the kids tell me what scenes go with which tracks.
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This week, I explained to Ruth that there are special musical themes for
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most of the characters, and now she's listening even more intently,
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determined to figure out which theme is whose. Even as he retires,
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Williams is casting his spell over a new generation . . .
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-- pat@berry.Cary.NC.US (Pat Berry)
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I'd like to say that I've enjoyed reading CV whenever it comes out and
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I'd love to see you keep on producing it! But, I have a small gripe/question
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about the movie section and movies in general.
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According to your chart [Movie news, Issue 5] E.T. was the top grossing
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film of all time which is probably true, but it doesn't tell me anything about
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which movie was the most popular of all time. When Star Wars came out, it
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cost about $1.50 - $2.00 to get a ticket. Nowadays you can't find first run
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movie for under $6.50 - $7.50, depending on where you are. So obviously
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movies that come out now are going to automatically equal the gross take of
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Star Wars with 3.5 to 4 times LESS people, and this disparity will only grow
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with time. And this disparity is even bigger as you go back farther in time
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to the 50s, 40s and 30s.
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Just spouting out the gross take numbers is a cheap way of trumpeting
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your movie(s), without saying anything meaningful. I'd much rather see which
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films have had the greatest ATTENDANCE so we would have better idea of which
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films are the most popular. Or if they would keep track of the box office
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gross in constant dollars it would be a much more useful metric for comparing
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movies. How many people have seen GONE WITH THE WIND or PINOCCHIO or other
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classics from tha era? Now THAT's a number I would like to see.
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---- John Stoffel <john@WPI.EDU>
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[Editor's Note: John is certainly correct. Since that report, JURASSIC PARK
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has broken the record for world-wide grosses and has taken the #2 spot on the
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US list, but adjusted for inflation, the highest grossing film of all time is
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GONE WITH THE WIND.]
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In the recent issue of Cyberspace Vanguard, it was mentioned that
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possibly [a prominent actress] is pregnant. Though it was marked
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UNCONFIRMED, I believe it is really in poor taste to speculate on the
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fecundity of any woman actor, unless you are willing to pass speculation
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on the father of the unborn child. The rumor has it he is a certain actor on
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[another show] (I will not name him), yet I see no mention of his name either
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here or in the posting on the INFORMATION board on the USENET area devoted to
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[the show.]
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I firmly believe that if it is okay to bring up the speculation she is
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pregnant (which is slanderous) then the prospective father is not exempt from
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the potential heat just because he is famous.
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---- Teresa Joan Waterkuetter, dj984@Cleveland.freenet.edu
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[Editor's Note: Good point, Teresa. The name of the father was not included
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for a couple of reasons. 1) We didn't know, and 2) the news was included
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not because we wanted to speculate as to the actress's social life, but
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because it had a possible impact on a popular television show. We have a lot
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of respect for this actress, and did not mean to offend her. In the future,
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however, you won't find that kind of speculation here.]
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One more thing: we'd like to publicly congratulate Evelyn C. Leeper on
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her win as "Best Fan Writer" in the Electronic Science Fiction Awards, and
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Carol Wang, our esteemed correspondent, who has successfully defended and is
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now Master Wang. Congratulations, ladies!
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------------------------------------------
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DISCLAIMER: At the moment most of the issue is written personally by the
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editor, but the other writers take sole responsibility for their writing -- in
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other words, we take no responsibility for copyright infringement by other
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writers. (My own stuff I know isn't stolen.)
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REPOSTING: CYBERSPACE VANGUARD may be reposted in its entirety without
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requesting additional permission as long as all notices are retained. News
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items, EXCLUDING the french-language, Japanese, and Highlander columns, may
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be reposted as long as credit is given. For all other items, you MUST
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contact us prior to reposting so we can get the permission of the authors.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--!2!-- Within the Realm of Extreme Possibility: Creator CHRIS CARTER
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on the X-FILES
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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by TJ Goldstein
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For a show that snuck up on everybody, X-FILES seems to be the sleeper
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hit of the year. Quietly, and with little promotion, it has staked out
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its territory on Friday night and seems to be holding on, at least well enough
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to convince Fox to pick the show up for a full season.. We spoke to the
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creator and producer of the show by phone from Los Angeles shortly before
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X-FILES debuted.
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Chris Carter isn't a stranger to producing. He's done some shows for
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Disney, including THE NANNY, a 1/2 hour show he created for the Disney
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Channel. Despite all that, the nervous excitement came through in his voice.
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He sounds almost like a kid who has managed to pull the wool over the
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exectives' eyes, sneak into the studio, and produce what HE thinks television
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should be.
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It's easy to pin him down on what the show IS, but not what it's LIKE.
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What it IS is an hour-long series that focuses on two Federal Bureau of
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Investigation agents who investigate, as the name suggests, the "X-Files."
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These are the files that the FBI has put aside because there simply is no
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rational explanation, such as UFO abductions or other "unexplainable
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phenomena."
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Fox "Spooky" Mulder is a Believer. His sister was (he believes) the
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victim of a UFO abduction when he was 12, and he has dedicated himself to
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studying and hopefully solving the mysterious cases the Bureau doesn't want
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to touch. More than just a crank obsessed with UFO's, Mulder is trained in
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psychology and science and merely insists on not discounting possibilities
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simply because they don't fit in with preconceived notions of what is
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possible and what is not.
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The Bureau, in order to keep an eye on him, sends in Agent Dana
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Scully, a physician and devout skeptic. She is more rational, but though
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she rarely believes Mulder on the first try, she does at least have an open
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mind -- most of the time. She's more trusting of due process than Mulder,
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and that can get them -- and the people they're trying to help -- into
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trouble. It's not to say that she's bumbling; not at all. She is
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intelligent and extremely competent. She just doesn't always have as much
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skepticism about the known reality as she does about the unknown.
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Naturally, since they are a man and a woman paired together, the first
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thing people think is: romance. Will they end up together on their own
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time? "No, it's a relationship that is much stronger and more passionate.
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First of all I would call it a cerebral romance in that these characters
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sort of delight in each other's approaches and it isn't the pat or standard
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or expected television romance between them. There is no physicality
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between them. I don't see it in the near future here. They don't end up
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in the sack together. At least I don't see it happening yet. I think it's
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refreshing. I mean I was raised on shows like THE AVENGERS which are smart
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and the characters were very attractive for those aspects. They didn't have
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to end up in bed together."
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The very creation of the show, in fact, was heavily influenced by Mr.
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Carter's childhood television habits. "I felt there wasn't anything scary
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on television. I loved the show NIGHT STALKER as a kid so when I was signed
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to an exclusive contract by 20th Century Fox TV they asked me what I would
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like to do -- which is a nice position to be in -- I told them I'd like to do
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something like NIGHT STALKER but I didn't want to do something that was
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limited to vampires.
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So how did he decide on aliens as a substitute? "I had the
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coincidental experience of spending time with a friend who works as an Ivy
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league researcher, and he had shown me the Dr. Mack -- the Harvard psychology
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professor -- survey on what he called the alien abduction syndrome. It
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showed that 3% of the American public actually believes they have been
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abducted by UFO's. I thought that was fascinating. A larger percentage
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actually had experienced contact with extraterrestrials or something
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otherworldly.
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"I found that amazing and I thought, well, aliens have become the new
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vampires of sorts. I thought there was a lot to explore. I didn't want to
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limit myself to just the bad world. I wanted to explore all paranormal
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phenomena and unsolved crimes that involved these or any phenomena."
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So how does the show treat these "phenomena," as the hallucinations of
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unstable people, or as something much deeper? "It makes a strong case for
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the alien abduction syndrome. Someone is suffering from something for
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reasons that are logical and believable. I'm a natural-born skeptic, but
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the more research I've done and the more people I've come into contact with
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by doing the show, the more they've chipped away at my skepticism. I'm much
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more open-minded and there are certain things I take for granted, if not as my
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truth, then as their truth.
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"I should also say that if you throw a rock, you hit 3 people who
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actually know more about this stuff than I do. I'm a relative babe in the
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woods compared to a lot of people who have quite an extensive knowledge
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about these and other phenomena, but actually I think that serves me. I
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come at it with a very fresh perspective ... do you try and access these
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people to try and get more information, or are you going at it from a partly
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imaginative point of view? Sometimes we use an amalgam of information to
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create an idea but ... we are doing all this from imagination, so it's
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fiction but it's fiction that takes place within the realm of extreme
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possibility."
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When he got his first producing credit six and a half years ago on THE
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NANNY, he "didn't know what producing entailed." Certainly, that had
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changed by the time X-FILES came along. What DOES a producer do?
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"Everything. Producers function as quality control people. You hire
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people to do certain jobs, then you oversee those jobs. You make creative
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decisions, you make decisions of taste, tone and style. You shape a movie
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or TV show by the people you hire both as talent and as technical staff.
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"A person has to earn my trust, generally. When you hire qualified
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people, that is something that happens very soon, but I tend to have very
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strong ideas about what it is I want and I try to keep an eye on all areas,
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from an actress's makeup to the way a cameraman shoots a certain scene."
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First and foremost, however, Mr. Carter is a writer. "Yes, I wrote
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the pilot episode and now I've written 2 episodes past that, so a writer is
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what I am first and foremost. That's who I am. I've become a producer by
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circumstance but I love it. Producing is very social, writing is very
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lonely."
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And if he had to pick one? "I'd have to say in TV I can't pick one
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because to be a writer in television the only way to do it is also be a
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producer. It's a producer-driven medium. It's a writer-driven medium
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also, but you have to want to have your stuff done well. You have to carry
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it through to physical production. Writing screenplays is not like writing
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prose. You're creating a blueprint with dialogue for a visual thing. So
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if you're in TV it serves you best to work in both writing and producing
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mediums.
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"Being a producer in TV makes you a better writer in TV in that you
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understand what can and can't be done. Sometimes I'll read a writer's spec
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script and I can tell when he has not produced TV because he will assume
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that certan things can be done which can't be done. That's one of the
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things that helps you as a writer by being a producer."
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Being a producer can help the writing as well as the writer. "As a
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writer you've imagined something that's perfect in your mind, and so when
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you see it actually take physical shape or electronic shape it can be very
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depressing. It looks to you like a series of compromises ... Your original
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concept is degraded from the moment it goes into somebody else's hand. There
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is this whole process. It's like a bucket brigade; it is handed to a
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series of people who do their job. If they do it well, they can make your
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script better, and if they don't do it well it makes it worse. It's amazing
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to me when the process actually creates a magical moment."
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His descriptions evidence the ongoing nature of production, but "each
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episode will function as a complete story. We put information out there
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and they learn things that are going to shape our characters. They're not
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going to go backwards once they see something. They're not going to then
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not believe in it later on, so there will be an accumulation of knowledge
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and experience but each episode will function as its own open-and-shut
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case."
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This is unlike mainstream television where, at the end of an episode,
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the world essentially returns to precisely the state it was in before the
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opening credits rolled. I asked him if he's afraid of not being able to
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top himself. "That's a nice thing to do, I'm not afraid of that. This is
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such a wide open field that the fear of having to top yourself is self-
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limiting. If you fear that then you're not going to attempt to do so. I
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have to go sorta boldly into the future here and hope that I can top myself
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each week that I can."
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Like Donald Bellisario, the creator of QUANTUM LEAP, Mr. Carter
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doesn't feel that his show is "science fiction" per se. "My buzz phrase
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is that the show takes place within the realm of extreme possibility. I
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think it's the same area that Michael Crichton might work in. The
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ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE TERMINAL MAN, or JURASSIC PARK were all taking those
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possibilites into account. We explore them as if our stories could
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actually be happening." For those of you who look for scientific accuracy,
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while there is no science advisor credited, "it's really easy to pick up
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the phone and call your brother and get him to give you very technical
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advice." His brother is a physicist.
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So, when you come right down to it, what exactly IS it? It deals with
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alien abduction, but it's not science fiction. It's scary, but it's not
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gory. It's been compared to everything from NIGHT STALKER to early TWIN
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PEAKS. So how does Chris Carter describe it? "You know, there's nothing
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on TV like it. I've been asked this question and I'm always at a loss to
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compare it to anything because when you start to compare it to anything you
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start to do yourself a disservice. People say it's like that or oh it's
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like that. I just don't think there's anything like it on TV. I call it a
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cross between SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and UNSOLVED MYSTERIES."
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--!3!-- The Highlander's Heart: An Interview with ADRIAN PAUL
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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(c) Linda Knights - KnightWriter Press
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It didn't take long to arrive at a first impression of Adrian Paul,
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one that would last through the length of the afternoon. Ask him about
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himself -- the man, not the character -- and he pleasantly, dutifully,
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answers your queries. Yet, despite his answers, this is clearly a very
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reserved man, one who values his personal privacy as the one thing he has
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chosen not to freely share with his fans.
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And yet, he took time out for this interview while working through
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rehearsal after rehearsal of a scene for the upcoming HIGHLANDER episode "The
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Zone." They were filming a flashback sequence to a time when Duncan MacLeod,
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an immortal, was aiding a handful of miners who were struggling for better
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working conditions. They were working on the site of a historically
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reconstructed mining camp, and Mr. Paul seemed very at home in his
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"vintage-era" clothing, amidst antique cars and old, weather-worn
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buildings.
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His English heritage is obvious to the observer in more than the
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delightful traces of British accent which linger in his speech, but he is
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married to an American. She is Meilani, one of the Pepsi commercial Uh-Huh
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girls, and he speaks with obvious fondness for her. Meilani is currently,
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along with the group she is in, in the process of launching a new musical
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career. Between her busy work schedule and his (which takes him to two
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continents) they rarely get to see each other for more than a few days at a
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time. Yet they've managed to buy and remodel a home in Los Angeles -- the
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place they still theoretically still call home. (Mr. Paul confided that his
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"hobby" before coming to HIGHLANDER was doing all the remodeling himself, from
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rerouting the wiring to building arches and doing the drywalling.)
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His immediate family, he said, remains in England. His more extended
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family of uncles, aunts and cousins spreads out more broadly into Italy and
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the U.S. One of the major advantages for him in shooting half a season in
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France is that London is thus commuter-close for him, so he has frequent
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chances to fly home and spend time with his family. This year he'll get to
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spend some time with relatives in Italy as well.
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Yes, these were all very polite answers, and there was even a slight
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glimmer of animation as the subject switched from him personally to his
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family.
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But ask this man about HIGHLANDER or Duncan MacLeod and his eyes light
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up, his expression becomes more intense, alternatingly either more
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thoughtful or with a sly smile and a laugh so obviously heartfelt that it
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was impossible not to join with him in the laughter.
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From the very first question about the series it was clear that this
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was an actor who loved his role, not just someone who comes to work in the
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morning and forgets it at night. He's also an actor involved in many
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aspects of the series.
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Duncan MacLeod, a 400-year-old immortal alive during the time of the
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Gathering, is a very active character, a man who is likely, at any moment,
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to need to go from the midst of a loving, tender moment into the heart of a
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battle to the death with another immortal. He is a man who must learn to
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balance the pluses and minuses of his own immortality against the short
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lifespans of those he has chosen to call friend ... or lover.
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MacLeod's had, of course, four hundred years to learn to find those
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delicate balances.
|
|
Mr. Paul hasn't had ... quite that long.
|
|
Yet, surprisingly, when he spoke of the life and lifestyle that led
|
|
him to this point in his acting career you almost got a feeling that he
|
|
might have had a couple hundred years to "get it right".
|
|
Originally a dancer working with small groups across the face of
|
|
Europe, he learned to do what he called "... street stuff, jazz ballet,
|
|
funk. I took ballet and jazz when I was younger, but then I trained. A lot
|
|
of the stuff that I did in Paris and with people I knew from London was
|
|
sort of on-the-job training."
|
|
He brought his skills as a dancer to the U.S. where he landed a brief
|
|
role in the network production of THE COLBYS -- working as a Russian ballet
|
|
dancer. "I did more ballet there ... although there was no way I could
|
|
become a fabulous ballet dancer in six months."
|
|
So how did a man go from that background to the sword-wielding
|
|
warrior strength of a Duncan MacLeod? Well, six years of martial arts
|
|
experience (Taekwondo, Aikido and other forms) and personal trainers helped
|
|
pave the way, as did a couple of years of previous training with the Japanese
|
|
sword (katana) that Duncan uses on the series.
|
|
"... I knew what I was doing a little bit (with the sword) but then
|
|
Bob Anderson, who is the fencing coordinator, helped me out. I worked with
|
|
him on it and now I understand a lot more about different styles."
|
|
There will actually be a new style -- a Chinese style -- incorporated
|
|
into his work this upcoming season. "I feel that he (Duncan) is one of
|
|
these people who has picked up a little bit, pieces, from everything he's
|
|
seen. He does the best he can. Whatever works for him."
|
|
And what do you get from the mixture of all of this training in dance
|
|
and martial arts, sword skills with a perfection of movement that is a
|
|
pleasure to watch? You get a man who often finds himself all but in charge of
|
|
choreographing the majority of the fight scenes, and whose input is
|
|
frequently sought out by those who are charged with the duty of
|
|
choreography. "I help choreograph most of the fight scenes, because we
|
|
shoot so fast that I come up with a lot of ideas that work for me and
|
|
incorporate them into the fights. John Woodlands, fight director, says
|
|
that I'm the assistant fight coordinator."
|
|
Assistant fight coordinator, star of the series, his own stunt man ...
|
|
what other hats could he wear? Well, in this case he is also a type of
|
|
walking bible for the series.
|
|
"I'm basically the person who knows Duncan and this show better than
|
|
most anyone else around here, because I've done it so long. Not that I'm
|
|
right all the time."
|
|
Mr. Paul clearly enjoyed talking about MacLeod, about what has brought
|
|
the character to this point in his life and about what is waiting for him
|
|
in the upcoming season. What does he, personally, want to see happen with
|
|
the series and the character?
|
|
The question actually arose while talking about a previous role he had
|
|
done, as John Kincaid, during the second season of WAR OF THE WORLDS. The
|
|
discussion had turned to how dark (and depressing) that series had become
|
|
by its second year. "I don't think that people want to sit down, whatever
|
|
night of the week it is and watch this deathly destruction happening all
|
|
around them. They want to be entertained.
|
|
"That is the same with Duncan, in a way. Duncan was relatively dark
|
|
in the first season. He lightened up a lot more toward the Paris episodes
|
|
but he was coming out of an era where he had a lot of problems. He was
|
|
constantly getting involved in a battle. He had to force himself into
|
|
becoming an immortal again, whereas he had wanted to be out of the game,
|
|
but now he's forced back in because it is the time of the Gathering. So it
|
|
is a different Duncan you are going to see this year.
|
|
"Now I (as Duncan) accept what I am ... what has been given to me.
|
|
So, I'm going to go ahead and try to do my best to actually do something
|
|
right for people, for the world around us. He is a good immortal, but he's
|
|
also a person. He's not perfect.
|
|
"He's human like everyone else, the only difference is he can't die
|
|
except by having his head severed from his body. But he has all the human
|
|
frailities and strengths. He has anger. He has patience. He has love.
|
|
Hate. Pain."
|
|
There are a number of major changes coming up in the next season, some
|
|
of which we've been told, some of which haven't, according to Mr. Paul,
|
|
even been fully delineated yet -- changes which will occur as the series,
|
|
once again, returns to France to film the end of the second season.
|
|
Were there differences in filming in Canada as versus filming in
|
|
France? "In America (Canada) you have a ... it's faster, they're quicker,
|
|
they do things on the line. Whereas in Europe there is a more creative
|
|
process, it can take longer to do things, which can be annoying at times.
|
|
But they have a longer process and they are more artistic in some areas.
|
|
This year we are amalgamating what we found worked in Europe with what
|
|
worked here."
|
|
They'll be amalgamating some other things they learned in France as
|
|
well -- including the importance of characterizations, of relationships, to
|
|
the series.
|
|
"What the thing is about is relationships ... the idea this year is
|
|
to work on the relationships between Duncan and other immortals. The story
|
|
lines have been opened up a lot more."
|
|
Relationships? In a series that was once characterized by TV Guide
|
|
Magazine as a "male-oriented action/adventure?"
|
|
His answer was relatively clear on the subject. "I think it is much
|
|
more important to watch the characters involved and have something that
|
|
they're going after, rather than watch people running around in a story,
|
|
because therefore you don't care about them."
|
|
And this is a man who has had a surprisingly varied amount of acting
|
|
experience for his years in the business. He lays his acting experience
|
|
mostly at the feet of his last acting coach (a man who has also worked with
|
|
Sharon Stone, John Belushi and Robert Downey, Jr) with whom he worked in
|
|
Los Angeles, although he admits that he learned a little in England, a
|
|
little in New York and is "still learning today. Nothing is static."
|
|
Yet how would he explain his own style?
|
|
"I think my way of working is all making things very real to me, to me
|
|
personally. We all do that, we mask things very easily in our lives but we
|
|
still have the emotions that are underneath and that's mostly where I pull
|
|
my work from."
|
|
So does the actor who plays a role he so clearly loves have favorite
|
|
episodes? Yes, he does, and he was quick to produce the names (something
|
|
that's impressive in light of how few actors ever seem to know the name of
|
|
the individual episodes). He especially enjoyed "Eye of the Beholder" and
|
|
"Lady and the Tiger". One episode that brought a particularly vivid story
|
|
to mind was "Band of Brothers", where Duncan must face off against an
|
|
extremely ancient immortal, one whose two thousand years of accumulated
|
|
evil he might well inherit, along with his Quickening, if the inevitable
|
|
duel ends with the ancient's death.
|
|
He was, Mr. Paul said, struggling to keep the fear of absorbing the evil
|
|
foremost in his character's mind, but it wasn't necessarily an easily
|
|
accomplished job:
|
|
"It was probably the hardest show we shot here because we were
|
|
shooting very heavy duty hours. The fight scenes we shot twelve hours in
|
|
the rain. The following day we shot twelve hours in the snow. Physically
|
|
it was exhausting because there is so much physical activity in that one
|
|
and the weather really drains it from you. You're cold, you're miserable,
|
|
you're trying to work, and you have an assortment of emotions going through
|
|
you."
|
|
And then there was "The Hunters", last season's finale where viewers were
|
|
first are made aware of the "Watchers" (or in this case the Hunters -- a
|
|
renegade branch of the Watchers).
|
|
"That was a very difficult show because we found out two days before
|
|
we were about to shoot the episode that Werner Stockard, who played Darius,
|
|
couldn't be there do the shoot.
|
|
"I saw a flashback they did there when he dies. They did a flashback
|
|
of a certain moment when I say 'Is there anything I can do for you? Is
|
|
there anything you want to talk about?'
|
|
"And he says 'I wish I could, I wish that I could.'
|
|
"And to me that moment is probably one of the most touching moments in
|
|
the show because the actor died a month and a half later. I believe he
|
|
knew there was something wrong with him, at that stage. For me it was
|
|
heartrending because I liked Darius very much -- Werner Stockard."
|
|
The interview wound down with a discussion of hobbies and interests --
|
|
jazz music and volleyball games. The day was coming to an end, the early
|
|
sunset of late summer bringing lighting changes and a breath of cool air to
|
|
the location.
|
|
Some actors want to speak only about themselves. Some will speak with
|
|
intelligence, but little emotion, about their show and their characters. A
|
|
few, very few, speak with animation and love about a character they are
|
|
helping to personally fashion. Adrian Paul is one of those few.
|
|
|
|
*******************************************
|
|
This article has been edited and reprinted with the permission of the
|
|
author. For information on Knightwriter Press publications -- including
|
|
the complete 15 page transcript of this interview -- contact Linda Knights
|
|
at LEEKNIGHTS@delphi.com or fax at 206-738-8197.
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!4!-- The Art and Science of Leaping Tall Buildings
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
by John McGervey
|
|
|
|
Mary Poppins can fly. So can Superman. The difference between the
|
|
two is the difference between fantasy and science fiction. Fantasy does
|
|
not attempt to explain why the known laws of nature are being violated, but
|
|
science fiction often includes some scientific rationale for the action,
|
|
which may add to the appeal of the yarn.
|
|
A popular explanation of superstrength, for example, is that the hero
|
|
(or villain) has somehow acquired the "proportionate strength" of an insect
|
|
or a spider. Horror movies get great effects by showing giant-sized bugs,
|
|
which somehow are more terrifying than, say, giant pandas. But many giant
|
|
creatures have walked the Earth, and none of them resembled bugs. Why not?
|
|
Suppose you take a bug and multiply each of its dimensions by 100.
|
|
Its weight would go up in proportion to its volume, so the weight would be
|
|
multiplied by a factor of 100 by each dimension. The cube of 100 is one
|
|
million; a one-gram bug would become a one-ton monster. But your superbug
|
|
wouldn't be able to stand up! The strength of its spindly legs is not
|
|
proportional to their VOLUME, but to their cross-sectional AREA, which
|
|
would be multiplied by the square of 100, or a mere 10,000. If it's
|
|
original legs could support five times its weight -- say five grams -- its
|
|
new legs could only support 50 kilograms, or 1/20th of its new weight. An
|
|
elephant doesn't have those heavy legs for nothing.
|
|
In the early Superman comics, on the other hand, the writers seemed
|
|
to sense a danger in making their hero a purely magical or fantasy
|
|
figure; they invented many explanations, some of them plausible, for his
|
|
feats. Let us examine some of his superpowers (and his one weakness) to
|
|
see how we can "dream things that never were and ask 'Why not?'"
|
|
Superman's superstrength was explained by his origin on the planet
|
|
Krypton, where gravity was so strong that the inhabitants needed
|
|
superstrength just to stand up. Thus it seems reasonable that someone who
|
|
could jump to ordinary heights on Krypton (say about one meter) could "leap
|
|
tall buildings in a single bound" on Earth. There is a germ of real
|
|
physics in that concept; you need only accept the premise that human-like
|
|
creatures could develop on a planet whose gravity is several hundred
|
|
times the gravity of Earth.
|
|
One early leap by Superman was described as covering an eighth of a
|
|
mile. If this was a single leap (following a ballistic trajectory, like a
|
|
cannonball), a simple physics calculation shows that Superman had to leave
|
|
the ground with a speed of more than 100 miles per hour. That is indeed
|
|
"faster than a streamline train," to quote an early Superman description.
|
|
But as Superman matured, the descriptions blossomed. Soon he became
|
|
"faster than a speeding bullet" (about 1,000 miles per hour). The speed
|
|
corresponds to an energy of about ten million joules for a man of normal
|
|
weight. Superstrength doesn't exempt you from the law of conservation of
|
|
energy, and to gain that energy from food requires more than 2,000 food
|
|
calories -- just to reach that speed once. The conclusion: Clark Kent
|
|
must eat like a pig.
|
|
Besides the energy requirement, there are also force and acceleration
|
|
to consider. How much force must Superman's legs exert to reach 1,000 miles
|
|
per hour -- and thus leap a tall building in "a single bound?" If he is
|
|
pushing off against the ground, as people do when they leap, he has to get
|
|
up to this speed before his feet leave the ground. A high-school physics
|
|
student can compute the acceleration that takes you from zero to 1,000
|
|
miles per hour in a distance of, say, two feet; it is 20,000 times the
|
|
acceleration of gravity. This means that Superman's legs have to exert a
|
|
force that is 20,000 times Superman's weight, or about 2,000 tons
|
|
(coincidentally, just about enough to stop a speeding locomotive in a
|
|
fraction of a second).
|
|
But as his greater speed was introduced and Superman's leaps became
|
|
higher and higher, it became clear that they were not "leaps" at all. We
|
|
could see Superman changing direction in mid-air or even circling the Earth
|
|
like a satellite. At this point all traces of science had disappeared; the
|
|
feat had entered the realm of pure magic or fantasy. Nevertheless, it's
|
|
fun to try to apply the basic laws of physics to these flights.
|
|
With a speed of 1,000 m.p.h. at "liftoff," and no air resistance,
|
|
Superman could reach an altitude of three miles and cover 12 miles in one
|
|
leap. But even Superman can't turn off air resistance. Any object thrown
|
|
through the air at great speed will be slowed down by air resistance and
|
|
eventally fall earthward at a constant speed, called the terminal speed.
|
|
For a body of human size, shape, and weight, the terminal speed is about
|
|
120 miles per hour. So even if you could survive a blast that started you
|
|
off at 1,000 miles per hour, you would quickly slow down, and you would
|
|
complete your flight by falling toward Earth at a mere 120 miles per hour.
|
|
Some skiers do a little better than that; they achieve a speed of 150
|
|
miles per hour by streamlining themselves with skintight suits and special
|
|
headgear. Superman needs none of that. Defying the laws of physics, he
|
|
even trails a cape behind him on his supersonic flights!
|
|
To reconcile Superman's flights with the laws of physics, several
|
|
possibilities come to mind. For example:
|
|
1. His superstrength might permit him to propel himself as he flies,
|
|
as an airplane does. Superman's early flights sometimes displayed a
|
|
vigorous thrashing of his legs, as if he were swimming through the air.
|
|
This calls to mind the problem of pushing on the end of a rope. No matter
|
|
how strong you are, you cannot push off something unless that thing pushes
|
|
back. Action must equal reaction, and your souped-up car goes nowhere if
|
|
its wheels have no traction. Pushing hard enough on thin air to sustain
|
|
these flights would create super-hurricane winds. People near Superman's
|
|
launch point would be knocked flat, or worse.
|
|
2. Perhaps Superman has some means of jet or rocket propulsion. If
|
|
that is the case, no evidence of it ever appears. In the comics he often
|
|
moves as if he were simply running on the air; the running motion would be
|
|
superfluous if he were rocket propelled.
|
|
3. He might weigh a lot more than the ordinary mortal. Then his
|
|
initial speed would not be reduced so quickly by air resistance for the
|
|
same reason that you can throw a golf ball farther than you can throw a
|
|
ping-pong ball. This view is consistent with an early episode in which an
|
|
enemy found Superman impossible to lift, and another one in which Superman
|
|
cracked the sidewalk when he landed. (Notice that Superman is a bit of a
|
|
showoff -- he lands on one foot, not even bending a knee to minimize the
|
|
shock! In later sorties, Superman apparently has the magical ability to
|
|
slow down and make a soft landing -- no more cracked sidewalks.)
|
|
What about flying through outer space, as Superman has done almost
|
|
from the beginning? One of Superman's more mindboggling feats of flying
|
|
occurred when he was a boy; he carried his earthling father to the moon.
|
|
He took care to outfit the father with a space helmet, but not a
|
|
spacesuit. You can imagine what problems that would pose for an ordinary
|
|
mortal. Even if the father's clothing didn't burn up from air friction
|
|
during the liftoff, it would not provide any pressurization to keep poor
|
|
dad's blood from boiling in the vacuum of outer space. (Superman often
|
|
carries people through the air or catches them as they are falling. In
|
|
real life, poor Lois Lane would go "splat" all over the Man of Steel after
|
|
a typical catch; the impact on his "steely" body would be just like an
|
|
impact on the concrete below.)
|
|
Although Superman himself has no worries about air pressure (or
|
|
breathing, in space or underwater), flying in outer space has to create
|
|
problems for him. In space there is nothing, not even air, to push
|
|
against. No matter how strong he is, Superman cannot violate the law of
|
|
convervation of momentum in one direction unless he gives an opposite
|
|
momentum to something else. In empty space, this means he must use rocket
|
|
propulsion any time he wants to speed up, slow down or change direction.
|
|
Thus, when Superman is circling the globe like a satellite, he will be
|
|
there for a very long time unless he can eject something in the forward
|
|
direction to slow himself down.
|
|
One possible source for his rocket braking would be his superbreath.
|
|
He might blow his superbreath out in front of him and thereby be pushed
|
|
backward, just as a rifle recoils when it ejects a bullet. If he is
|
|
already moving forward, this recoil would slow him down and let him come
|
|
down from orbit.
|
|
Another way for Superman to slow down would be by using his X-ray
|
|
vision. It is well known that X-rays, like all forms of radiation, carry
|
|
momentum; thus Superman would recoil backward as the rays went forward, and
|
|
you can imagine his slowing down sufficiently to descend into the
|
|
atmosphere, where atmospheric drag could bring him down. (Of course, those
|
|
X-rays would have to be superstrong.)
|
|
Superman's orbital flights pose yet another physics problem when
|
|
superspeed is involved. When Superman is circling the globe seven times
|
|
per second, his speed approaches the speed of light. Even if he had such
|
|
prodigious energy, how could he avoid flying off into interstellar space?
|
|
There has to be a force keeping him in orbit. Gravitational force keeps a
|
|
body in a low earth orbit only if the orbital period is about 90 minutes.
|
|
Could Superman send out Superbreath or X-rays to keep himself in
|
|
orbit? If he did, how much force would these rays have to exert? And how
|
|
does that force compare with the force needed to stop a locomotive in, say,
|
|
one tenth of a second, from a speed of 60 miles per hour?
|
|
The force needed to keep Superman in this superspeed orbit is close
|
|
to a billion tons, even if Superman's body only has the mass of a human.
|
|
This clearly means that Superman is far "more powerful than a locomotive";
|
|
the force needed to stop the locomotive is a few thousand tons -- about 30
|
|
times the locomotive's weight, according to a high-school physics
|
|
calculation. (If his breath is that powerful, Superman could stop the
|
|
locomotive just by blowing on it -- carefully, of course, so he doesn't
|
|
launch it into outer space.)
|
|
The whole concept of motion in outer space is an interesting one.
|
|
Superboy was once shown disposing of a dangerous object by throwing it
|
|
directly toward the sun, saying "There it goes, right into the sun." But
|
|
because of the Earth's motion around the sun, the object still has the
|
|
angular momentum that it had before he threw it, and it will be in an orbit
|
|
that whips around the sun like a comet. To hit the sun in an orbit like
|
|
that, he would have to throw the object at a speed of about ten million
|
|
miles per hour. This object appeared to have a mass of at least 100 tons.
|
|
That would make the required energy more than three quintillion joules --
|
|
ten times the energy of the largest H-bomb ever made.
|
|
A much easier way to hit the sun would have been to throw the object
|
|
in a way that just cancels out his motion with the Earth around the sun.
|
|
That is, throw it toward the east at midday (in the direction that the sun
|
|
appears to move past the distant stars). Then if its speed leaving Earth
|
|
is equal to the speed of the Earth's orbital motion (a mere 60,000 miles per
|
|
hour), the object will be momentarily at rest relative to the sun, and it
|
|
will then fall straight into the sun. If Superboy had thrown the object
|
|
that way, only 100 trillion joules (equal to a 25-kiloton bomb) would have
|
|
been required.
|
|
Actions involving the Earth's curvature as well as its motion are
|
|
sometimes presented in Superman's adventures without regard to the physics
|
|
involved. A good illustration appears in a episode in which Superman became
|
|
a substitute teacher. To show how exciting a classroom could be, Superman
|
|
ground a plate-glass window (with his hands) to make it into a "super-
|
|
telescopic lens." Through this lens students could see a tropical jungle!
|
|
But a lens can only help you to see the light that strikes the lens. The
|
|
light rays from that jungle would have to pass through many miles of earth
|
|
to reach the lens. If teachers other than Superman wanted to show their
|
|
classes a tropical jungle, they'd have to fly them there.
|
|
Superman often displays an astounding ability to manipulate
|
|
materials. A favorite trick is to make huge diamonds from coal. This feat
|
|
depends on the fact that diamonds are a form of carbon that is produced
|
|
when sufficiently high pressure is applied. Superman is shown pressing on
|
|
the coal with one flat palm on each side. A human doing that to a real
|
|
lump of coal with a strong vise would have to watch out for flying
|
|
fragments when the coal shattered, long before it could be turned into a
|
|
diamond.
|
|
The numbers quoted here make it obvious that Superman can't get his
|
|
prodigious energy from food. His ability to generate X-rays suggests that
|
|
he might use nuclear energy -- he might be a walking nuclear power plant!
|
|
But that seems unlikely; if he were, the people of Metropolis would have
|
|
been fried long ago. This, and the fact that his head has a fairly normal
|
|
shape, makes us wonder how he produces those X-rays. Or are they really X-
|
|
rays?
|
|
Superman's X-rays have only one characteristic in common with the real
|
|
rays; they are stopped by lead. Real X-rays are stopped, with varying
|
|
degrees of effectiveness, by many different materials; that is the only
|
|
reason why you can use them to see anything. If the rays went through
|
|
everything, then they would be useless for vision; they have to be reflected
|
|
or absorbed to show us anything. Real X-rays are even stopped by air; at
|
|
sea level they can't penetrate from one end of a football field to the
|
|
other. We now know that some X-rays come from outer space, but to detect
|
|
them we have to fly a detector above 99 percent of the atmosphere (on a
|
|
satellite or a balloon.)
|
|
Superman's X-rays, on the other hand, are magical. They are
|
|
reflected in a convenient fashion; they will go through the wall of a
|
|
building, then bounce off a newspaper so Superman can read it! They are
|
|
also absorbed, but only when Superman wants to use their energy for some
|
|
special purpose, such as starting a fire or melting something. At other
|
|
times Superman can see for an enormous distance with the rays. When he
|
|
wishes to do so, he can even send the rays through miles of earth, as when
|
|
he said, "I'll send an X-ray beam to my Fortress of Solitude hidden in the
|
|
Arctic."
|
|
Giving Superman powers that are more than superhuman -- that are not
|
|
even limited by the laws of nature -- created the potential for something
|
|
really dull. Where is the suspense in the adventures of a creature who has
|
|
no limitations? As a student once wrote, "Achilles was dipped in the River
|
|
Stynx [sic] and he became intolerable." To make Superman tolerable, the
|
|
authors had to give him a weakness, so they invented kryptonite, the
|
|
celestial debris left over from the explosion of his natal planet, Krypton,
|
|
which occasionally falls to Earth in meteorites -- and invariably, into
|
|
the hands of evil persons.
|
|
The original kryptonite simply made Superman weak, without affecting
|
|
anybody else in the slightest. There is a vaguely "scientific" basis for
|
|
this effect. Just as a tuning fork resonates at one frequency and no other,
|
|
the alien molecules in Superman's body could resonate to (and be damaged
|
|
by) the radiation from kryptonite, while our molecules are unaffected. But
|
|
the weakness theme could only be worked so many times before it became
|
|
tiresome, so other forms of kryptonite were conjured up.
|
|
The spookiest of these is "red kruptonite," whose effects add spice to
|
|
the proceedings by being "unpredictable." One consequence of this is to
|
|
threaten the exposure of Superman's secret identity, by producing physical
|
|
changes that show up in Superman and Clark Kent at the same time. For
|
|
example, Superman suddenly grew a beard and ridiculously long fingernails
|
|
after one encounter with this material. How, you ask, could that be a
|
|
problem? Answer: He couldn't cut them; they were superstrong. The nails
|
|
were even too strong to cut with his X-ray vision. How did the writers get
|
|
Superman out of this jam? When all else fails, try luck. By an amazing
|
|
stroke of it, the nails yielded to the combined X-ray vision of Superman,
|
|
Superdog, and Supergirl!
|
|
So we see that a little imagination lets us relate some of Superman's
|
|
feats to the laws of nature. Many of them, though, remain in the realm of
|
|
magic or fantasy.
|
|
|
|
[Permission to reprint "The Art and Science if Leaping Tall Buildings"
|
|
granted to Cyberspace Vanguard by Octavia Press, Copyright 1987. Hardcover
|
|
copies of SUPERMAN AT FIFTY, in which this article first appeared, can be
|
|
purchased at half price from Octavia Press, 12127 Sperry Road, Chesterland,
|
|
OH, 44026, USA. A check for $10.50 (US) (includes shipping and sales tax)
|
|
must be enclosed with each order.]
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!5!-- A Writer's Guide to STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
by Kris Voelker
|
|
|
|
"To boldly go where no one has gone before." What should I write? These
|
|
words invade my consciousness as I sit and write my spec script. Where am I
|
|
going with my characters? What conflicts should I introduce? What story lines
|
|
will keep my audience's attention? What are the producers of STAR TREK: THE
|
|
NEXT GENERATION looking for?
|
|
My endless frustration with these questions led me to Dearborn, Michigan.
|
|
Each year, several writers' workshops are held to help aspiring writers learn
|
|
the craft of writing and submitting a spec script for ST:TNG. I wasn't
|
|
waiting any longer. I was willing to drive 162 miles to spend a day with the
|
|
"pros". This was my chance to ask the writers, in person, how to write for
|
|
STTNG. I was bound and determined to get some answers and this is what I got.
|
|
The three main speakers were: Ronald D. Moore, Co-Producer; Brannon
|
|
Braga, Script Editor; and Lolita Fatjo, Script Coordinator. As I entered the
|
|
workshop room, Ms Fatjo was standing at the doorway. She was tearing off
|
|
ticket stubs and spitting out directions. I followed the line, picked up the
|
|
workshop folder, and ran to my seat. I was ready.
|
|
She began the workshop with an introduction and a brief synopsis of the
|
|
guidelines for use when submitting a script. [You do not need to attend a
|
|
workshop to receive these. Anyone who is interested can obtain them by
|
|
calling (213) 956-8301.] When your script is completed, send it to Ms Fatjo
|
|
along with a Paramount release form. Upon submission a member of the story
|
|
analyst union will read and summarize your story. The following is a list of
|
|
qualities that the readers are looking for:
|
|
|
|
Do you know the characters?
|
|
What is the cost to produce the script?
|
|
How many characters are involved?
|
|
Is it a bottle show? (see explanation below)
|
|
Is it a simple idea?
|
|
Does it have a sci-fi angle that tells a universal theme?
|
|
Does it tell a story that can only be told on Star Trek?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Commit these ideas to memory and keep them in mind when creating your
|
|
story. This is your first step in the door. If you're fortunate, it will be
|
|
passed on to the show's Executive Producer, Michael Piller. THE ONLY WAY YOU
|
|
CAN GET INVITED TO PITCH IS IF THEY LIKE YOUR SPEC SCRIPT AND HAVE SOME
|
|
INDICATION THAT YOU KNOW THE CHARACTERS AND THE SHOW.
|
|
This whole process can take anywhere from 6-9 months to complete. You
|
|
may then get a call inviting you to pitch your story; or the dreaded rejection
|
|
letter.
|
|
During the workshop, Mr. Moore and Mr. Braga simulated a pitch session.
|
|
A volunteer from the audience came up and pitched a story that had already
|
|
been seen on STTNG. Mr. Moore and Mr. Braga extended their hello's and
|
|
cracked a few jokes. They seemed to be aware that most people are filled with
|
|
apprehension when they come, so you can expect them to try their best to help
|
|
you "feel at home." After the volunteer finished, they passed on the
|
|
following tidbits.
|
|
Come prepared to pitch three to five brand new ideas. If you need to,
|
|
type out your oral presentations and read them. The length of each pitch
|
|
should be 1 1/2 pages typed (double spaced). Your pitch should include a
|
|
beginning, middle, and end. Avoid going into excessive detail; sometimes that
|
|
makes a story difficult to follow. Mr. Moore referred to the term "broad
|
|
strokes" when describing the format and contents of a pitch session. In
|
|
addition, Mr. Braga suggested starting your pitch with a line similar to a
|
|
television listing.
|
|
Take the time to follow these guidelines. It can only increase your
|
|
chances of being successful. The most valuable handout they gave out was
|
|
probably the following list of DOS and DONT'S for a pitch session.
|
|
|
|
DON'T DO
|
|
Stories with lots of planet based scenes
|
|
Stories with lots of exterior scenes
|
|
Stories that rely heavily on action and/or special effects
|
|
Cannibalistic stories
|
|
Stories that depend on a prior relationship (ie, A former professor of
|
|
Dr. Crusher's...)
|
|
Stories about guest stars
|
|
Stories which could be seen on any other television series set in
|
|
contemporary times
|
|
Stories which lack an intimate, personal aspect
|
|
Stories about supernatural, fantasies, swords, and sorcery
|
|
Stories which echo the original series
|
|
Stories which are high on the hoke scale
|
|
|
|
DO
|
|
Stories that are character driven, personal stories about one or more of
|
|
the regular characters
|
|
Stories centered around a nifty sci-fi element
|
|
Stories that combine an emotional story with an action/jeopardy
|
|
substructure
|
|
Bottle shows (shows that take place exclusively on the Enterprise)
|
|
Shows about Q and Mrs. Troi (but be careful not to focus exclusively on
|
|
them)
|
|
|
|
One in 25 stories that are pitched get picked up and possibly produced.
|
|
After discussing the pitch process, Mr. Braga and Mr. Moore talked about
|
|
writing the teleplay. This is where the most creative process of writing
|
|
begins. First create a "beat sheet" to work off of and construct your
|
|
teleplay. A beat sheet is a story outline that depicts the sets, characters,
|
|
and action of each act. If you've constructed your story line carefully, you
|
|
will see a visual representation of how each scene leads to the next. It's
|
|
much easier to make revisions off this sheet than, say, page 36 of your spec
|
|
script.
|
|
After revising and rewriting your beat sheet, its time to put your ideas
|
|
into script format. The importance of standard script format cannot be
|
|
overemphasized. If it's not typed in the right format, it will be rejected
|
|
immediately. (Consider purchasing a computer script program. I have used
|
|
SuperScript Pro for Wordperfect 5.1. This program allows me to concentrate on
|
|
writing rather than formatting. You'll save a enormous amount of time. You
|
|
can get these from the Writers Computer Store in West Los Angeles. To order a
|
|
catalog call 1-800-277TWCS. -- Editor's Note: Neither the writer nor the
|
|
magazine are involved with the program or the store.)
|
|
Finally they advised you to WRITE, REWRITE and REWRITE some more. Once a
|
|
script is written it goes through the process of revision. Don't be afraid to
|
|
let other people read and critique your work. It can only make your script
|
|
better.
|
|
At the end there was a little bit of time left for questions and answers.
|
|
Most participants were eager to pick the brains of these three professionals,
|
|
and the questions varied. One of the participants had submitted his script and
|
|
had received a rejection letter. He expressed his frustration in not knowing
|
|
which component led to the ultimate rejection of his script. Ms Fatjo was
|
|
quick to point out that it's impossible to comment individually on every spec
|
|
script submitted. The best advice she could offer was to pay careful
|
|
attention to what was being said at today's workshop. Another member of the
|
|
audience expressed his satisfaction with the open submission policy. He
|
|
received a call from a member of the writing staff and was invited to pitch
|
|
over the phone. I came away convinced that if you followed these guidelines
|
|
and wrote a decent script, you'd get a shot.
|
|
I highly recommend this workshop. If you are interested in writing for
|
|
ST:TNG or ST:DSN, there is a wealth of information to be found at these
|
|
workshops. I also want to emphasize that the producers of ST:TNG and ST:DSN
|
|
are really interested in finding good stories. Mr. Braga said that freelance
|
|
writers have a captive audience and that now would be an opportune time to
|
|
write and submit a script. STAR TREK is the only place in Hollywood where an
|
|
"outsider" can gain some experience. Take advantage of the open submission
|
|
policy. It may be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
|
|
|
|
[Upcoming workshops are in Valley Forge, PA on Oct 23-24 and in Manhattan, NY
|
|
on Nov. 26-28.]
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!6!-- Reviews by EVELYN C. LEEPER
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
THE BROKEN LAND by Ian McDonald
|
|
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
|
|
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
|
|
|
|
THE BROKEN LAND is a well-written book, but the parallels between the
|
|
land of the book and modern Ireland are SO obvious that I found myself
|
|
groaning more often than being enlightened. The Confessors/Proclaimers
|
|
parallel to the Catholics/Protestants was bad enough, but when the
|
|
Confessors gain independence for the land except for the "nine northern
|
|
prefectures," I came very close to hurling the book at the wall.
|
|
Frequently I felt that the parallels were closer to puns in some literary
|
|
sense than to a way to look at an old situation from fresh eyes. This
|
|
might work in a humorous novel, but THE BROKEN LAND is not humorous. It is
|
|
an accurate story of what happens in a land torn apart by religious (or
|
|
racial, or ethnic) strife. This subject is certainly topical (alas), but
|
|
the precise parallels of the problem to Ireland make the book lose the
|
|
universal quality that it could have had. It is not surprising that
|
|
McDonald writes about Ireland, and writes well, as his earlier KING OF
|
|
MORNING, QUEEN OF DAY proves, but he can also write very well in a multi-
|
|
ethnic, non-specific milieu (see his SPEAKING IN TONGUES collection and his
|
|
DESOLATION ROAD), and this makes this book particularly disappointing. For
|
|
someone who knew nothing of Ireland, this would be an excellent book, but
|
|
as it stands, its total obviousness and specificity makes this the first
|
|
Ian McDonald book of the four I've read that I can't recommend.
|
|
|
|
%T The Broken Land %I Bantam Spectra
|
|
%A Ian McDonald %O trade paperback, US$10
|
|
%C New York %G ISBN 0-553-37054-5
|
|
%D October 1992 %P 322pp
|
|
|
|
HARM'S WAY by Colin Greenland
|
|
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
|
|
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
|
|
|
|
As WINTER'S DAUGHTER by Charles Whitmore was science fiction written
|
|
in the style of a Norse saga, so is HARM'S WAY written in the style of a
|
|
Victorian novel (though I would call it science fantasy rather than science
|
|
fiction). We have the poor, semi-orphaned girl who leaves home, has
|
|
adventures, meets all sorts of people, and eventually discovers her true
|
|
identity. HARM'S WAY is set on what is apparently an alternate Victorian-
|
|
era Earth, an alternate in which at some point between Defoe and Victoria,
|
|
space flight was developed (using what appear to be typical large sailing
|
|
ships of that era in our time in their appointments), and all sorts of
|
|
alien races inhabiting the solar system were discovered. (I place the
|
|
"change-point" after Defoe, because in a world of space flight, the sense
|
|
of isolated parts of the earth that Defoe depended on in ROBINSON CRUSOE
|
|
would no longer have been there.) How any of this happened is never
|
|
discussed, and with the exception of space flight and weaponry the society
|
|
is technologically at the Victorian level. The result is extremely
|
|
disorienting -- we never know what to expect from the society because it is
|
|
SO inconsistent. HARM'S WAY is an interesting stylistic experiment, but
|
|
not one I can actually recommend.
|
|
|
|
%T Harm's Way %I AvoNova
|
|
%A Colin Greenland %O paperback, US$4.99
|
|
%C New York %G ISBN 0-380-76883-6
|
|
%D August 1993 %P 310pp
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!7!-- THE OLD COMIC CURMUDGEON: R-E-S-P-E-C-T ...
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Column by Bill Henley
|
|
|
|
In the short history of this column, I've hardly had anything good to
|
|
say about anything. And even I get tired of complaining sometimes. So, at
|
|
the risk of losing my curmudgeon certificate, let me now offer praise for
|
|
the way certain classic comic-book characters are being handled lately.
|
|
BATMAN has been really brilliant for the past year, combining the best
|
|
elements of the "Golden Age" Caped Crusader and the '70s "creature of the
|
|
night."
|
|
SUPERMAN has suddenly become a real delight, with some of the best
|
|
characterization I've ever seen on the Man of Steel and his Daily Planet
|
|
cohorts.
|
|
Even the X-MEN, who I once loved but gave up on years ago, have come
|
|
out with some decent stories lately.
|
|
And a while back there were some very entertaining tales of the FLASH
|
|
and SUPERBOY.
|
|
There's just one slight hitch to all this, from the viewpoint of the
|
|
comic-book fan. None of this good stuff I'm referring to was in comic
|
|
books. All of it appeared on the TV screen.
|
|
It's BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES on Fox TV that has captured the
|
|
essence of Batman, while the comics seem determined to lose it, with a
|
|
crippled Bruce Wayne and a psychotic pseudo-Batman. I'm having fun with
|
|
ABC-TV's new LOIS AND CLARK, not with the overhyped comics featuring Supes'
|
|
death, resurrection and neverending bad hair day. The X-MEN cartoon show,
|
|
though not outstanding like BATMAN, is watchable, whereas the X-comics I've
|
|
seen lately have been unreadable. And CBS-TV's late lamented FLASH show,
|
|
and the underrated SUPERBOY syndicated series, outpaced any recent comics
|
|
featuring those characters.
|
|
This is not the way it used to be. In years past, TV versions of
|
|
comic book superheroes were usually rather disappointing. The original TV
|
|
SUPERMAN with George Reeves had its charm, but even as a kid I noticed the
|
|
cheap production and wondered about the absence of neat concepts like
|
|
Kandor or the Phantom Zone. The BATMAN show was a camp disaster for anyone
|
|
inclined to take the character at all seriously. And shows like WONDER
|
|
WOMAN, INCREDIBLE HULK and the short-lived SPIDER-MAN show were pretty
|
|
flat and dull compared to the best of the comics.
|
|
Why have Hollywood TV producers and writers found the knack of
|
|
handling the great comic heroes, while most of the comic-book producers
|
|
themselves seem to have lost it? Is it that the TV folks are better paid
|
|
and more talented than those who work for comics? Probably not, since TV
|
|
writers have always made more money, but until recently comics writers
|
|
handled comics characters better.
|
|
Perhaps it's that the TV people working on shows like BATMAN: THE
|
|
ANIMATED SERIES and LOIS & CLARK grew up knowing and loving these characters,
|
|
but, unlike the comics writers, haven't been associated with them so long as
|
|
to be jaded and bored. The TV people seem content to stay within and explore
|
|
the basic, established "legend" of each character. On the other hand, the
|
|
comics writers and editors working on the same characters are either too bored
|
|
or too untalented to find new things to say about the old characters. The
|
|
only thing they can think of to do is to twist the characters brutally out
|
|
of shape for shock value.
|
|
Also, the producers of TV shows are forced to seek a wide audience,
|
|
including adults, teenagers and younger kids. The comic books years ago
|
|
gave up any attempt to attract a "mass audience"; they seem content to
|
|
subsist on a relatively small readership of teenage hobbyists, some of whom
|
|
are more impressed by fancy foil covers than good stories and art, while
|
|
others are even more jaded and obsessed by violence, brutality and
|
|
psychosis than the people producing the comics.
|
|
I wish that the producers of the comics would try to imitate the
|
|
virtues of these TV shows. That doesn't mean producing "kiddie versions"
|
|
of their comics which slavishly imitate the TV shows. It means respecting
|
|
the characters and their histories; trying to create an atmosphere of fun
|
|
and excitement rather than despair and nihilism; and trying to appeal to a
|
|
broader audience than the very narrow group on which comics depend for
|
|
their survival today.
|
|
|
|
A NOTE OF PANIC: Those who are enjoying the new LOIS & CLARK show should
|
|
note that its ratings in the first three episodes have been disappointing.
|
|
Though no word of cancellation has been heard yet, it may not be too soon
|
|
to write letters to ABC-TV in support of the show. The address I have for
|
|
ABC is: ABC Audience Information
|
|
77 West 66th St. 9th Floor
|
|
New York NY 10023-6298
|
|
|
|
COMICS TRIVIA NOTE: "Jurassic Park" fans may be interested to note that the
|
|
premise of the biggest movie of the year was anticipated, though briefly,
|
|
by a comic book over 25 years ago. In a story in THUNDER AGENTS #4, April
|
|
1966, by Wally Wood, the superhero Dynamo battles a horde of dinosaurs
|
|
brought to life by the villain Dr. Sparta. In the last panel, after the
|
|
dinos have been subdued, is this dialogue:
|
|
Alice (Dynamo's girlfriend): "Guess what? They're turning Dr.
|
|
Sparta's tropic island into a sort of park... a wildlife preserve..."
|
|
Dynamo: "Oh no! A dinosaur zoo!"
|
|
(As far as I know, though, there was never a sequel story where the
|
|
dinosaurs get loose and start eating tourists.)
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!8!-- The Infamous Reply Cards and What You Said
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
compiled by Linda E. Smit
|
|
|
|
Utopia and dystopia are two sides of the same coin. But,
|
|
according to most of our readers, they aren't really a possibility.
|
|
Even the majority of the ones who felt we are moving toward a dystopia
|
|
don't feel that we will ever make it there. The major reason given for
|
|
moving to dystopia is that the world is overpopulated and we don't know
|
|
how to deal with the crowding.
|
|
"There is no way that I see humans will be able to fix this
|
|
horrible problem in the immediate future. The global doubling rate
|
|
is at something like sixty years. We are running out of many of the
|
|
Earth's natural resources, and continue to deplete them at an amazing rate."
|
|
Extra-terrestrial colonization was suggested as a way to combat
|
|
overcrowding. And, although no one offered a Swiftian Modest Proposal,
|
|
I must admit that it crossed my mind as I read reply after reply choosing
|
|
dystopia because of overcrowding.
|
|
Although the majority of answers included an often grudging choice of
|
|
dystopia, almost as many replies were of the neither category. "Neither.
|
|
I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect society and yet I don't
|
|
think we are going to fall into oblivion any time soon . . . There will
|
|
be worse things, more crime, more violence and better things, longer life
|
|
expectancy, better healthcare. It evens itself out."
|
|
A few brave souls said that both were possible, depending on how
|
|
we act right now. "I think that at the moment the trend is dystopia,
|
|
but I also think we are in the midst of the point where that trend can
|
|
be reversed. The potential is certainly here for a utopia." And several
|
|
others agreed.
|
|
Only a handful of responses supported the idea of utopia. Most
|
|
of the responses stressed that utopia is only a concept or ideal that
|
|
is unrealizable in the real world. And one response stressed, "Utopia.
|
|
I hate this question. We can influence reality with our thoughts . . .
|
|
the more people who say we're heading toward dystopia, the more likely
|
|
it is that we will end up with one! I believe we will eventually
|
|
overcome this, but it is going to take a long time. A VERY long time."
|
|
Finally, my favorite response is one with a definite tongue-in-cheek
|
|
attitude. "Either of the two options is preferable to the present situation.
|
|
We are neither heading towards Utopia or Dystopia . . . we're heading
|
|
towards Myopia."
|
|
All together, you readers of Cyberspace Vanguard sound as though
|
|
you wish for something better than we have, but are guarded in your
|
|
hopes that we will find whatever answers may be available. Oh, and the
|
|
numbers ran something like this :
|
|
Utopia : 7 Dystopia : 31 Both : 5 Neither : 28
|
|
and one very honest "I don't know."
|
|
|
|
Tune in next time, when we will look at the question of paranormal
|
|
realities. Do ghosts exist? Is there such a thing as psychic energy?
|
|
Do extraterrestrials walk the Earth? Can we read each others minds?
|
|
Think about it. Until next time, this is Linda E. Smit, signing
|
|
off.
|
|
|
|
Note : For the sake of anonimity, I have not listed names to accompany
|
|
the quotations. If this concerns you, please pester me, and not the editor.
|
|
He has enough to deal with.
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!9!-- SF Calendar: What's Coming Up in the Near Future
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
BOOKISH
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
If you have a favorite small press that you'd like us to keep track of, drop
|
|
us a note with the company's name and address and we'll see what we can do.
|
|
|
|
OCTOBER:
|
|
DAW: WHEN TRUE NIGHT FALLS - CS Friedman
|
|
DEL REY: UPLAND OUTLAWS (Book 2 of A HANDFUL OF MEN) - Dave Duncan; THE
|
|
STRICKEN FIELD (Book 3 of A HANDFUL OF MEN) - Dave Duncan; THE GUNS OF THE
|
|
SOUTH - Harry Turtledove; THE EARTH SAVER (Sequel to CHILDREN OF THE EARTH)
|
|
- Catherine Wells; MORNINGSTAR - David Gemmell
|
|
ROC: WILD BLOOD - Nancy Collins (England -- US markets June 1994)
|
|
TOR: THE SHADOW RISING - Robert Jordan, THE FIRES OF HEAVEN - Robert
|
|
Jordan
|
|
------------
|
|
NOVEMBER:
|
|
PEGUNIN/ROC: SHROUD OF SHADOW - Baudino Gael
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: THE TRUCE AT BAKURA - Kathy Tyers
|
|
BANTAM/SPECTRA: GROWING UP WEIGHTLESS - John Ford
|
|
DEL REY: THE CHRONICLES OF PERN: FIRST FALL - Anne McCaffrey; WANDERER
|
|
(Sequel to WARRIOR) - Donald E. McQuinn; JACK THE BODILESS (First book in
|
|
THE GALACTIC MILIEU trilogy) - Julian May; SORCEROUS SEA (Third book in the
|
|
ISLAND WARRIOR series) - Carol Severance; THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY (First
|
|
book in the SLOW WORLD trilogy) - Karen Ripley; CHIMERA - Mary Rosenblum; THE
|
|
CHANGING LAND - Roger Zelazny; DILVISH THE DAMNED by Roger Zelazny
|
|
------------
|
|
DECEMBER:
|
|
POCKET: STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: DARK MIRROR - Diane Duane
|
|
DEL REY: KING JAVAN'S YEAR - Katherine Kurtz; THE BLACK LYNX - Elizabeth
|
|
Boyer; PENNTERRA - Judith Moffett; THE BIG EMPTY - James Luceno
|
|
------------
|
|
January 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: TRUCE AT BAKURA - Kathy Tyers
|
|
------------
|
|
February 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: THE LAST COMMAND (P) - Timothy Zahn
|
|
------------
|
|
March 1994:
|
|
KNOPF: DIAMOND MASK (Second book in THE GALACTIC MILIEU trilogy) - Julian
|
|
May
|
|
------------
|
|
April 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: JEDI SEARCH (First book in the JEDI ACADEMY trilogy)
|
|
(P) - Kevin Anderson
|
|
------------
|
|
May 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: THE COURTSHIP OF PRINCESS LEIA - Dave Wolverton
|
|
------------
|
|
June 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: DARK APPRENTICE (Second book in the JEDI ACADEMY
|
|
trilogy) (P) - Kevin Anderson
|
|
------------
|
|
August 1994:
|
|
?: THE DISCWORLD COMPANION - Stephen Briggs and Terry Pratchett
|
|
------------
|
|
Summer 1994:
|
|
GOLLANCZ: SOUL MUSIC - Terry Pratchett
|
|
DEL REY: THE WARDEN OF HORSES (Second book in the SLOW WORLD trilogy) -
|
|
Karen Ripley
|
|
------------
|
|
October 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS : (title to be announced) (Third book in the JEDI ACADEMY
|
|
trilogy) (P) - Kevin Anderson
|
|
------------
|
|
Fall 1994:
|
|
DEL REY: THE ALCHEMIST OF TIME (Third book in the SLOW WORLD trilogy) -
|
|
Karen Ripley
|
|
------------
|
|
December 1994:
|
|
BANTAM: STAR WARS: CANTINA STORIES - edited by Kevin Anderson
|
|
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
Upcoming MOVIES
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
This is not really the "Upcoming Movies" list that Bryan D. Jones
|
|
(bdj@engr.uark.edu) puts out over Usenet every week or so. It's actually a
|
|
pared down version that he was kind enough to let us print. We thank him
|
|
and remind you that if you have any updates or corrections, please send
|
|
them on to him. (Especially if you have access to the National Association
|
|
of Theater Owners listings ...)
|
|
|
|
All dates are US wide release dates. -Bryan D. Jones (bdj@engr.uark.edu)
|
|
|
|
Oct 29: Ghost in the Machine, Philadelphia Experiment 2, Return of
|
|
the Living Dead III
|
|
Nov 5: Robocop 3
|
|
Nov 12: A Dinosaur's Story, The Three Musketeers, We're Back
|
|
Nov 19: Addams Family Values
|
|
Nov 24: Annie and the Castle of Terror, Die Hard 3
|
|
Fall : The Fantastic Four
|
|
Dec 10: Shockwaves, Sister Act II
|
|
Dec 15: Schindler's List
|
|
Decemb: Godzilla (American)
|
|
|
|
1994
|
|
|
|
Spring: Blankman, Cartooned, The Lion King(animated, was King of the Jungle),
|
|
The Muppet Treasure Island, Thumbelina
|
|
Summer: Aliens vs. Predator: The Hunt, Clear and Present Danger, The
|
|
Flintstones, Getting Even With Dad,
|
|
Decemb: Godzilla (American), Spiderman, Batman III, Star Trek VII
|
|
Winter: With Honors
|
|
|
|
1994 : Ed Wood, Interview with The Vampire, The Lawnmowerman 2, The Mask,
|
|
Tremors II
|
|
|
|
-1995-
|
|
Dec : Catwoman
|
|
|
|
Full Moon Entertainment will be releasing the following films directly to
|
|
video. The numbers in parentheses refer to the day of the month they expect
|
|
to release the film. Remember, these dates are EXTREMELY tentative:
|
|
|
|
December: Puppet Master 4 (8), Beach Babes from Beyond (16)
|
|
January: Trancers 4 (26)
|
|
February: Arcade (23)
|
|
March: Subscpecies III (16), Dragonworld
|
|
April: Invisible
|
|
May: Puppetmaster 5, Pet Shop
|
|
June: Lurking Fear
|
|
July: Trancers 5, Prehysteria II
|
|
August: Dark Angel
|
|
September: Shrunken Heads, Beanstalk
|
|
October: Doctor Mordrid II
|
|
November: Shadow Over Innsmouth, Genie
|
|
December: Quadrant
|
|
|
|
They will also be doing two THEATRICAL releases next year: Shrunken Heads in
|
|
February 1994, and Oblivion in December 1994. These dates are, like the
|
|
others, extremely tentative.
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!10!-- All The News That's Fit To Transmit
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
NEWS OF SF IN FRENCH AND FRANCOPHONE SF
|
|
....................
|
|
by Jean-Louis Trudel
|
|
|
|
The twentieth French National Convention was held in Orleans/la
|
|
Source, on August 27-29. Its theme was "Woman in SF" and its guests
|
|
included France's Joelle Wintrebert and Canada's Elisabeth Vonarburg.
|
|
The finalists in the novel category for the 1993 Prix Rosny Aine,
|
|
which are the closest francophone equivalent to the Hugos, were Ayerdhal
|
|
for LE CHANT DU DRILLE (THE DRILLE'S SONG), Jacques Barberi for LA MEMOIRE
|
|
DU CRIME (RECALLING THE CRIME), Serge Brussolo for LE SUNDROME DU
|
|
SCAPHANDRIER (THE DREAMDIVER SUNDROME), Alain le Bussy for DELTAS, Daniel
|
|
Sernine for CHRONOREG, and Elisabeth Vonarburg for CHRONIQUES DU PAYS DES
|
|
MERES. Ayerdhal, Barberi, and Brussolo are French, le Bussy is Belgian,
|
|
and Sernine and Vonarburg are from Canada, thus making for one of the most
|
|
diverse group of finalists in recent years. Vonarburg's novel has been
|
|
translated and published in English---as THE MAERLANDE CHRONICLES in Canada
|
|
and as IN THE MOTHERS' LAND in the United States.
|
|
The final vote was held on-site at the French National convention. In
|
|
the novel category, the winner was Alain le Bussy, for DELTAS, an
|
|
efficiently written adventure on an oceanic planet. In the short story
|
|
category, the winner was Switzerland's Wildy Petoud, for her short story
|
|
"Accident d'amour" (Accident of Love) in the 1992 anthology TERRITOIRES DE
|
|
L'INQUIETUDE.
|
|
The next French National convention will take place in 1994 in the
|
|
"science city" of Sophia-Antipolis, just off the French Riviera. If all
|
|
goes well, it should see the launch of a new professional SF magazine in
|
|
France, filling a vacuum that has lasted for at least four years. Current
|
|
information suggests that it would not be affiliated with any pre-existing
|
|
publisher, that it would be run by a collective with each member having a
|
|
well-defined task, and that it would print both translated and French
|
|
original fiction.
|
|
On the other hand, over in Canada, Quebec's two SF magazines,
|
|
IMAGINE... and SOLARIS, are alive and kicking. After a transition year
|
|
during which several issues were delayed, SOLARIS has managed to catch up
|
|
thanks to an accelerated publication schedule. Covers have been generally
|
|
gorgeous. SOLARIS 105, the late spring and early summer issue, featured
|
|
stories by Yves Meynard, "Le sang et l'oiseau" (Blood and Bird), and Jean-
|
|
Louis Trudel, "Un papillon a Mashak" (A Butterfly in Mashak), and an
|
|
interview of Daniel Sernine, as well as non-fiction and the usual
|
|
assortment of book and zine reviews ranging over two continents, four
|
|
countries and two languages. Meynard's story combined three densely
|
|
poetic reveries on the twin themes of the title, with only some subtle
|
|
echoes to link the intertwined plots, which moved in that borderland
|
|
between science fiction and fantasy. Trudel's text was a science fiction
|
|
tale mixing chaos theory, history, and the fraternization attempts of a
|
|
soldier on a world of conquered aliens.
|
|
SOLARIS 106 just came out; it is a special theme issue on utopias and
|
|
counter-utopias, featuring scholarly articles and an interview of Elisabeth
|
|
Vonarburg. It featured two stories. One, by Stephane Langlois, was a
|
|
competent space adventure tale, called "Ceux qui viennent d'en bas" (Those
|
|
Who Come From Beneath). The other, by newcomer Guillaume Demers, was
|
|
called "Le monde est un parc ou la folie est le dernier plaisir" (The World
|
|
is a Park where Madness is the Last Pleasure). It offered the story of a
|
|
man's madness, as told to him, and inspired by another man's. But was it
|
|
really madness? SOLARIS 107 is announced as a special theme issue on
|
|
time, with stories by Alain Bergeron, Yves Meynard, and Jean-Louis Trudel,
|
|
and interviews of the illustrious French author Michel Jeury and of
|
|
Canadian author Jean Dion.
|
|
Over at IMAGINE..., covers have been no less handsome. IMAGINE... 63,
|
|
the spring issue, was a special issue entirely devoted to SF in
|
|
Switzerland, with stories by Chantal Delessert, Nicolas G. Doegun, Georges
|
|
Panchard, Wildy Petoud, and Francois Rouiller. The stories by Panchard and
|
|
Petoud were the more memorable ones of the lot. H. R. Giger and John Howe
|
|
contributed short art portfolios. Jean-Francois Thomas sketched a
|
|
historical survey of SF in Switzerland, while Roger Gaillard presented the
|
|
MAISON D'AILLEURS, or House of Elsewhere, Europe's first SF museum, of
|
|
which he is director. IMAGINE... 64 was a regular issue. Guy Bouchard's
|
|
story, "Si la vie vous interesse" (A Life in the Forces), won the Septieme
|
|
Continent award and headlined the issue. It was published simultaneously
|
|
in the Belgian periodical MAGIE ROUGE 38-39, in spite of the reservations
|
|
of that magazine's editor. Bouchard's story tells of a future Quebec where
|
|
women join the army to contribute to a new revenge of the cradle... French
|
|
writer Micky Papoz and Canadian writer Sylvie Berard contributed two other
|
|
short stories, while another Canadian, Danielle Tremblay, signed the first
|
|
episode of a four-part serial, involving a non-violent, non-military space
|
|
academy, which reads like the result of miscegenation between Heinlein and
|
|
STAR TREK.
|
|
In other Quebec publishing news, Daniel Sernine's fiction collection
|
|
LES PORTES MYSTERIEUSES (The Mysterious Doors) was released by Heritage as
|
|
a young adult book. Charles Montpetit's young adult novel COPIE CARBONE
|
|
(Carbon Copy), based on an earlier short story which appeared in SOLARIS,
|
|
was put out by Quebec/Amerique. The Editions Quebec/Amerique also
|
|
announced the upcoming release of CONTES DE TYRANAEL (Tyranael Tales) by
|
|
Elisabeth Vonarburg in their juvenile fiction line. Another young adult
|
|
novel, TU PEUX COMPTER SUR MOI (You Can Count on Me), by Jean-Francois
|
|
Somain, originally published in 1990, will appear this fall in Japanese
|
|
translation. Major novels await the opening of the fall season, and
|
|
especially the November Salon du Livre in Montreal.
|
|
Earlier, Jean-Pierre April's novel BERLIN-BANGKOK, which actually came
|
|
close to predicting the fall of the Berlin Wall, was reissued by J'ai Lu
|
|
in France in a somewhat revised edition, four years after its original
|
|
publication in Canada.
|
|
The fanzine scene remains fairly sedate in Quebec. Old-timer SAMIZDAT
|
|
continues to appear sporadically, emphasizing well thought-out reviews over
|
|
fiction. Issue 24 had a story by newcomer Julie Martel as well as a long-
|
|
delayed one by Jean-Louis Trudel. The young and energetic Christian Martin
|
|
continues to pump out TEMPS TOT on a bi-monthly basis, favouring fiction
|
|
over reviews. So far, issues 22 to 26 have come out this year, with the
|
|
end of Jean-Louis Trudel's SF serial, a cadavre exquis by Laurent
|
|
McAllister, and stories by a medley of mostly new writers, including Claude
|
|
Bolduc and Francois Escalmel. Issue 25 was a special issue devoted to
|
|
newcomer Hugues Morin. Issue 26 offered an international medley of
|
|
stories, with Belgian author Alain le Bussy headlining the issue, while the
|
|
three other stories came from France, Rumania, and Canada.
|
|
In other news, Benoit Girard, who, after attending Chicon, launched an
|
|
English-language fanzine called THE FROZEN FROG, has spearheaded the birth
|
|
of a Quebec APA, called APAQ and including several SF writers. There
|
|
have also been rumblings of new magazines coming onto the scene, such as
|
|
CITE CALONNE. The first two issues of a cinema and horror magazine called
|
|
LE REVEUR FANTASTIQUE have actually appeared, with a heavy dose of reviews
|
|
and a cluttered layout. Whether it will last is still unclear, but it
|
|
bears witness to the continued vitality of the scene in that Canadian
|
|
province.
|
|
Jean-Louis Trudel
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
Japan Report
|
|
....................
|
|
by David Milner
|
|
|
|
GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA (GOJIRA VS MEKAGOJIRA), the twentieth
|
|
Godzilla film, opens in Japan on December 11th. The film features not only
|
|
Godzilla and an entirely redesigned MechaGodzilla, but Rodan and a new baby
|
|
Godzilla as well. A special preview screening of the film was held at the
|
|
Tokyo International Film Festival on Sunday, Sept. 26th, where it received
|
|
mixed reviews.
|
|
The Godzilla film TriStar Pictures is getting ready to produce will be
|
|
set in either New York or San Francisco, and feature a woman whose father
|
|
was killed by Godzilla. The special effects will be done almost exclusively
|
|
with computers. Although TriStar has yet to choose a director, it will not
|
|
be either Tim Burton or Terry Gilliam. A December 1994 release date had
|
|
been announced for the film, but sources inside TriStar now say that a
|
|
summer 1995 release date is much more likely.
|
|
The Daiei Motion Picture Company Ltd. has announced that it intends to
|
|
release a new Gamera film in Japan sometime in 1994. Daiei, which produced
|
|
all eight of the previous Gamera films, was recently purchased by the Toho
|
|
Company Ltd., the studio which produces the Godzilla films, and so Daiei
|
|
will produce the film, but Toho will distribute it.
|
|
A remake of the 1959 film JAPAN BIRTH (NIPON TANJO), which tells the
|
|
mythological story of the creation of Japan, is going to be released by
|
|
Toho in 1994. The title of the remake will be YAMATA BECOMES FURIOUS
|
|
(YAMATA TAKERU).
|
|
A new Ultraman television series called ULTRAMAN: THE ULTIMATE HERO
|
|
just finished shooting in Los Angeles. The series, a Tsuburaya Productions
|
|
Co., Ltd. and Major Havoc Entertainment, Inc. co-production, stars Kane
|
|
Kosugi, the son of Japanese martial arts star Sho Kosugi. Kosugi plays
|
|
Kenichi Kai, an armory specialist with the Worldwide Investigative Network
|
|
Response Team (WINR) who becomes Ultraman. Updated versions of the monsters
|
|
created for the first Ultraman series, ULTRA Q, are being used in the
|
|
series. ULTRAMAN: THE ULTIMATE HERO will be released on home video in Japan
|
|
in November and be available for broadcast in the United States in March
|
|
1994.
|
|
GRIDMAN, a television series similar to ULTRAMAN featuring a superhero
|
|
created on a computer, is now airing in Japan. It has received mostly
|
|
unfavorable reviews.
|
|
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
Books, Stories, and SF Literature in General .....
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
CHAD OLIVER, author of MISTS OF DAWN, SHADOWS IN THE SUN, and other novels,
|
|
died of cancer on August 9, 1993. He was a friend and inspiration to such
|
|
other Texas writers as Howard Waldrop and Bruce Sterling. Dr. Symmes C.
|
|
Oliver taught Antropology at the University of Texas for 38 years.
|
|
|
|
The Library of Tomorrow has been "at least put in indefinite hold" due to low
|
|
interest following limited announcements. The project was to be an
|
|
"electronic SF library" available for a flat fee. Presupporting members have
|
|
not been charged. Writers should contact Brad Templeton (brad@clarinet.com)
|
|
"for contract arrangements and more info."
|
|
|
|
TERRY PRATCHETT has said on the net that the major part of the Discworld
|
|
companion out next year will be a sort of "Discworld Brewer's Dictionary of
|
|
Phrase and Fable." It's written by STEPHEN BRIGGS "with some assistance by"
|
|
Mr. Pratchett. He also said he liked the drawings he's seen from MORT: The
|
|
Big Comic by GRAHAM HIGGINS. It'll be out mid-to-late 1994.
|
|
|
|
TERRY PRATCHETT, responding to a neo's request on alt.fan.pratchett for a
|
|
biography: "Born 1948. Still not dead."
|
|
|
|
According to KEVIN ANDERSON, STAR WARS: TALES FROM THE CANTINA is due out for
|
|
Christmas of 1994, though Bantam is still listing it as a "work in progress."
|
|
Anderson is editing the collection of short stories, where various writers
|
|
were assigned a creature from the original cantina scene in SW: A NEW HOPE
|
|
and told to write a story about how they came to be there. The stories will
|
|
be interlaced. The same basic idea is in place for TALES FROM JABBA'S
|
|
PALACE. Several other anthology titles, such as TALES FROM THE ROUND TABLE
|
|
and BESPIN ANECDOTES, have been thrown around on the net, but we have
|
|
confirmed that they were in fact a prank, and DO NOT EXIST.
|
|
|
|
According to the Del Rey Internet Newsletter, DAVID EDDINGS' next books will
|
|
be BELGARATH and POLGARA, stand alones set before the saga of Garion the
|
|
King.
|
|
|
|
NANCY COLLINS' upcoming DC comic, WICK, will reportedly be set in the
|
|
same world as her SUNGLASSES novels. Word is also that Dark Horse may
|
|
adapt the SUNGLASSES books and IN THE BLOOD.
|
|
|
|
ROBERT ANTON WILSON (THE ILLUMINATUS!, SCHRODINGER'CAT) is available
|
|
for lectures. Contact moksha@cats.ucsc.edu for information and
|
|
booking.
|
|
|
|
Word is that Larry Niven will be writing a RINGWORLD vampire story,
|
|
and that he came up with the idea a week before mentioning it at the
|
|
New Zealand natcon. Part of this third Ringworld book is already written.
|
|
|
|
According to the Del Rey Internet Newsletter, Del Rey is planning to publish
|
|
two more books set in ALAN DEAN FOSTER's Humanx Commonwealth universe, a Pip
|
|
& Flink book in 1995, and a Commonwalth Universe book in 1996.
|
|
|
|
...............
|
|
|
|
Movies
|
|
...............
|
|
|
|
VINCENT PRICE has passed away at the age of 82. The star of more than 100
|
|
films, he has said that he didn't mind being remember for his role as a master
|
|
of horror, but he was also a well known artist and gourmet cook. He died of
|
|
lung cancer in his home the night of October 25, 1993.
|
|
|
|
Some movies we haven't seen on the net yet ...
|
|
|
|
In November, look for THE THREE MUSKETEERS, starring KIEFER SUTHERLAND
|
|
(THE LOST BOYS), CHARLIE SHEEN, CHRIS O'DONNELL, OLIVER PLATT, REBECCA
|
|
DEMORNAY, and, as our favorite notion of Cardinal Richelieu, TIM CURRY. It's
|
|
directed by STEPHEN HEREK. (This Disney version beat TriStar to the starting
|
|
line, so that one's been scrapped.)
|
|
|
|
And STEVEN SPIELBERG will roll out the animated WE'RE BACK: A
|
|
DINOSAUR'S TALE, a kid flick about dinosaurs in New York on November
|
|
12. Cast includes JAY LENO, WALTER CRONKITE, and JOHN GOODMAN.
|
|
|
|
Upcoming from Troma: TOXIC CRUSADERS, A NYMPHOID BARBARIAN IN
|
|
DINOSAUR HELL, SGT. KABUKIMAN N.Y.P.D., and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO.
|
|
|
|
Anime fans may want to look for GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, a Japanese
|
|
animated film based on AKIYUKI NOSAKA's story. It's subtitled in
|
|
english, and is supposed to be a "testimony of the human spirit."
|
|
|
|
The live action X-MEN film is scheduled for summer 1995 release from
|
|
20th Century Fox.
|
|
|
|
ANNE RICE has told the press that she is unhappy with the choice of
|
|
TOM CRUISE as Lestat in the upcoming film version of her book
|
|
INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, saying that he's too "mom and apple pie."
|
|
Her choice? Well, she had apparently envisioned the role more like
|
|
RUTGER HAUER. Also, there are rumors that much of the homoeroticism
|
|
present in the book will not appear in the script, but it is unclear
|
|
if this is at Cruise's request or if it's just the realities of big-
|
|
budget filmmaking.
|
|
|
|
According to director STUART GORDON (RE-ANIMATOR) his latest film,
|
|
FORTRESS, was originally planned for ARNOLD SCHWARZNEGGER, not current
|
|
star CHRISTOPHER LAMBERT. He told UPI that it was changed partly
|
|
because "You never worry Arnold is the hero becase you know he can and
|
|
will escape in one piece." He also said that part of the research for
|
|
the film included a trip to Pelican Bay Prison, where they were given
|
|
stab-proof vests and "had to sign releases that said if we were taken
|
|
hostage they would not try to save us."
|
|
|
|
While parts of Europe will be seeing the $300 million grossing
|
|
JURASSIC PARK only this month, a pirated version has ALREADY been
|
|
shown on Russian television. While illegal copies of US films
|
|
dominate the Russian video market -- to the point where the Motion
|
|
Picture Association of America boycotted the Moscow film festival in
|
|
protest, and new foreign releases almost NEVER go to Russian theaters
|
|
-- the August television showing was unexpected because the film
|
|
hasn't been shown on television or released on video anywhere. It was
|
|
apparently shot with a video camera in a US, Asian, or European
|
|
theater (at one point you can see a member of the audience leave his
|
|
seat) and shown in the town of Yekaterinburg, Russia. Yekaterinburg,
|
|
coincidentally, happens to be Boris Yeltsin's home town.
|
|
(Incidentally, the Russian film scene may change. The Samuel Goldwyn
|
|
Company agreed to allow a showing of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING at a Western
|
|
hotel in Moscow -- on the condition that the print have it's own 24-hour
|
|
guard. The price was $10(US), about a week's wages for the average Russian
|
|
worker. (Russian friends here say that's a VERY generous Russian wage.))
|
|
|
|
Terminator comes to New York: The New York City Transit Police Department
|
|
has been testing a laser sighting system for use in the dark subterranean
|
|
world of the New York City Subway System. They think that it will be both a
|
|
deterrent and a help, causing criminals to think twice and helping police
|
|
officers to hit their targets even in a darkened environment or a situation
|
|
where the gun can't be raised to eye level. The sights are made by
|
|
LaserMax Inc., of Rochester, N.Y. and can be inserted right into the Glock
|
|
9mm handguns the department already uses.
|
|
|
|
GALE ANN HURD (ALIENS, THE ABYSS, TERMINATOR (1 and 2)) has signed a 3 year
|
|
first-look contract with Paramount. Hurd owns her own production company,
|
|
Pacific Western Productions, formed in 1982 to make THE TERMINATOR.
|
|
|
|
Following complaints from independent theaters in England that major film
|
|
distributors were holding back hot films, the Monopolies and Mergers
|
|
Commission has been asked to investigate.
|
|
|
|
JURASSIC PARK has surpassed the worldwide box office record previously held
|
|
by ET: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, earning over $704 million. ET still holds the
|
|
domestic record by around $75 million.
|
|
Imagine, for a moment, owning stock in the film JURASSIC PARK. OK, now
|
|
stop salivating over your bank account. Obviously it's too late for that, but
|
|
according to Clarinet and UPI, the next PAUL HOGAN film, LIGHTNING JACK, is
|
|
being financed by a public stock offering on the Australian Stock Exchange.
|
|
American investors should check with the Bank of New York about availability.
|
|
Hogan's CROCKADILE DUNDEE films brought in over $800 million worldwide, so
|
|
this is likely to be a successful test, and nothing breeds success like
|
|
success, so we may see other films financed in a similar manner.
|
|
|
|
STEVEN SPIELBERG'S World War II drama SCHINDLER'S LIST will open December 15
|
|
in order to qualify for this year's Academy Awards.
|
|
|
|
MORTAL KOMBAT will follow SUPER MARIO BROS. and DOUBLE DRAGON in the arcade-
|
|
game-turned-movie field. LARRY KASANOFF will produce the film for Lightstorm
|
|
Entertainment. He will also set up a deal for a television series.
|
|
|
|
RIDLEY SCOTT (ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER) and his brother TONY (BEVERLY HILLS COP
|
|
II) are negotiating a deal with 20th Century Fox, Italy's RCS Video, and
|
|
England's Majectic Films International to produce up to 8 films. The
|
|
brothers would direct a minimum of four.
|
|
|
|
When THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW first sneak-previewed, all but 13 people
|
|
had walked out before the third reel. It wasn't until a few theaters decided
|
|
to take a chance showing the "bomb" at midnight on the weekends and a theater
|
|
owner noticed that it was the same 50-60 people who showed up every weekend
|
|
that producer LOU ADLER decided to push it as a cult film. The rest, as they
|
|
say, is history. Since then the film has taken in about $175 million on a
|
|
$900,000 investment. The then unknown stars, such as TIM CURRY, BARRY
|
|
BOSTWICK, SUSAN SURANDON, and MEATLOAF, have since gone on to fame. The film
|
|
will finally be shown on television October 25 on Fox.
|
|
But what about it's future in the theaters? Three years ago it finally
|
|
broke into Brazil, Mexico, and Spain, and next the producers are shooting for
|
|
Russia and China. The prospects for a wide release? Adler told UPI that
|
|
"Eight years ago Fox tried to distribute it widely and it bombed again. You
|
|
can't surprise people with this film. It frightens them. They don't know what
|
|
to think."
|
|
|
|
JUDGE DREDD is turning out to be one of those movies where you just can't pin
|
|
down the star. Rumors had named CLINT EASTWOOD and ARNOLD SCHWARZNEGGER, but
|
|
apparently 2000AD has confirmeded that it will be SYLVESTER STALLONE. We'll
|
|
see. It will be directed by DANNY CANNON.
|
|
|
|
The nostalgic might want to swallow their pride and see a matinee of
|
|
ERNEST RIDES AGAIN -- for the short that comes with it, MR. BILL GOES
|
|
TO WASHINGTON. The clay Mr. Bill hasn't been seen much since his
|
|
misadventures on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.
|
|
|
|
STAR WARS:
|
|
(With the next movie approaching it's beginning to look like we're
|
|
going to need a separate section for SW news. (And it's still a few
|
|
years off yet!)
|
|
|
|
Part of the resurgence in SW merchandising is the STAR WARS
|
|
ADVENTURE JOURNAL from West End Games. Beginning in February 1994, it
|
|
will be published quarterly -- 288 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches,
|
|
perfect bound with a color cover -- and will go for $12.00 in hobby
|
|
and book stores, with $35.00/year subscriptions available from WEG.
|
|
Now. Having said that, there is opportunity here. Many of
|
|
today's writers honed their teeth on other people's characters and
|
|
universes, writing "fan fiction" often without even knowing it, and
|
|
certainly without getting paid. Now's your chance to use that talent
|
|
to your advantage. WEG is looking for writers for the JOURNAL. While
|
|
it is oriented towards the SW role-playing game, there are different
|
|
sections, from short (1000-1500 words) columns such as "Rebel's Field
|
|
Guide" to longer articles on rules, new characters, or one-act
|
|
adventures. They can run from 3000 to 10000 words, but anything over
|
|
5000 words should be preceeded by a proposal. There will also be
|
|
interviews -- the first issue features TIMOTHY ZAHN, who also provides
|
|
the story "First Contact," about the first meeting of two characters
|
|
from his novels. (Interviews for following issues are already set.)
|
|
The details: First of all, while they welcome new writers, you
|
|
MUST be professional about it if you expect them to work with you.
|
|
It's still a business. Second, the pay is 3.5 to 4 cents per word,
|
|
but there are three catches: 1) They pay on publication, at least
|
|
when they first work with you. 2) That's a flat rate -- don't expect
|
|
royalties. And worst of all: 3) You sell ALL rights. Anything
|
|
written for the SW universe must be approved by Lucasfilm (WEG takes
|
|
care of that) and they then own all rights to the piece, the
|
|
characters, the places, etc. This isn't just WEG, it's anything that
|
|
uses the SW universe.
|
|
For more information on the JOURNAL and/or writer's guidelines,
|
|
write to West End Game Ltd., RR 3 Box 2345, Honesdale, PA 18431-9560.
|
|
Be sure to get the guidelines first, because they include the release
|
|
form that must accompany your manscript or proposal if they are going
|
|
to look at it.
|
|
In other news, as we reported in an earlier issue, Lucasfilm is
|
|
planning to follow the ZAHN books with a series of novels set in the
|
|
New Republic era.
|
|
The first of these is STAR WARS: THE TRUCE AT BAKURA, by KATHY
|
|
TYERS, which deals with the Empire and the Rebellion uniting to fight
|
|
an alien threat. It's due in November. Also, KEVIN ANDERSON will be
|
|
writing a trilogy centered on Luke reestablishing the Jedi Knights set
|
|
7 years after RETURN OF THE JEDI. (For more, check out the Book section.)
|
|
Also due in November is NEW VISIONS: THE ART OF THE STAR WARS
|
|
GALAXY, which features more than 70 full page illustrations, a George
|
|
Lucas intro, and writings from the artists involved with the trading
|
|
card projects.
|
|
On the musical front, Fox Records will be releasing a four CD set
|
|
of music from the movies, ALMOST completing all of the scores. The
|
|
first three will be most of the music from each film, IN ORDER, unlike
|
|
the records Polygram put out, and the fourth will include MOST of
|
|
what's left. The rest may be released on a fifth disc, but that isn't
|
|
definite. The music has been remastered and supposedly sounds
|
|
incredible. The set, called "The Star Wars Trilogy: The Original
|
|
Soundtrack Anthology," will include a 50-75 booklet featuring an essay by
|
|
director NICHOLAS MEYER and previously unreleased color plates from Lucasfilm.
|
|
It also includes track-by-track liner notes from fellow net surfer Lukas
|
|
Kendall, and will cost between $60 and $70. Lukas calls it "money
|
|
well spent."
|
|
And finally, TALES OF THE JEDI #2 is due in comics stores by
|
|
November 19th.
|
|
As for the release date of the next STAR WARS film, here's what we have:
|
|
An Entertainment Weekly sidebar listing the release of the first film as May
|
|
25, 1995 with the rest of the films in the following 5 years, and a USA Today
|
|
report that Lucas "hoped to begin production in the next four years," and
|
|
that he was working to get the costs down because "the development of the
|
|
technology was just as important" as the films.
|
|
We've been saying (privately) for a while that we believe we will see
|
|
the films May 25, 1995. The evidence bears us out. The rumors that he's
|
|
been working on it for a while seem to be true, for one thing. For another,
|
|
the new slew of books that are hitting the stands are slated to stop in
|
|
1995, which makes sense if new movies -- and hence characters and situations
|
|
-- are going to be on screen. And, for those of you who say, "But wait, 1997
|
|
makes more sense because that's the 20th anniversary," you're half right. It
|
|
is the 20th anniversary, but it doesn't necessarily make more sense. The
|
|
films will be made together (ala BACK TO THE FUTURE) and released in
|
|
successive years. That puts the last film right smack on the 20th
|
|
anniversary.
|
|
Of course, we could be wrong. As always, we encourage you to examine
|
|
the evidence yourself.
|
|
|
|
Meanwhile, after saying for years that he felt the character was played out,
|
|
HARRISON FORD will be back in his role as INDIANA JONES. The film will be
|
|
written by JEB STUART, who wrote the script for Ford's enormously successful
|
|
THE FUGITIVE, and (of course) directed by STEVEN SPEILBERG. Hints have been
|
|
floating around since the release of THE FUGITIVE when Ford told interviewers
|
|
that he and his wife, MELISSA MATHESON, had been toying with a couple of
|
|
ideas for another Indy film. There is no word as to whether any of those
|
|
ideas will be the basis for Stuart's script, or if SEAN CONNERY will be
|
|
reprising his role as Dr. Henry Jones Sr..
|
|
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
Television
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
HIGHLANDER
|
|
....................
|
|
by Debbie Douglass
|
|
|
|
The clash of swords locked in Immortal combat returned to the small
|
|
screen when the second season premiere of the syndicated TV series HIGHLANDER
|
|
aired this month. This series and the HIGHLANDER movies on which it's based
|
|
have sparked a fast growing fandom which has already generated a fanclub,
|
|
several electronic discussion groups, one letterzine and three upcoming
|
|
fanzines. Loyal longtime movie fans have finally found a place to share their
|
|
opinions. Meanwhile groups of loyal fans scour dealer tables at science
|
|
fiction conventions searching for anything remotely related to the show and
|
|
the movies.
|
|
This HIGHLANDER fan movement continues to astound me even as I view it
|
|
from the inside. You see I'm caught up in the middle of it. I am a HIGHLANDER
|
|
fan. I'm fascinated by the idea of Immortals living among us, yet apart,
|
|
involved in their own individual dramas. People who have experienced
|
|
centuries of history firsthand, but still remain human. They aren't
|
|
superheroes. They're not supernatural beings. They are just like you and me
|
|
except they can't really die. That is unless a 7 foot tall lunatic takes
|
|
their head off with a broadsword. And yet imagine the tragedy of their lives
|
|
as they watch their friends and loved ones die of old age, a process forever
|
|
denied them.
|
|
My fascination led me to the USENET newsgroups where I discovered other
|
|
HIGHLANDER fans. We started talking as a small email group in February which
|
|
grew into the BITNET mailing list that I manage. We have fun trading tapes of
|
|
episodes we missed and discussing topics ranging next week's episode to the
|
|
history of the real Clan MacLeod. Endless discussions arise about the
|
|
differences between the American and European versions of the original movie.
|
|
Intriguing still is the directions that the producers have taken the
|
|
series so far. We've seen morality plays covering topics ranging from drugs
|
|
and medical experimentation to the angst of adoption. And they promise more
|
|
surprises yet to come. The series will be welcoming two new characters this
|
|
season. Introduced in the season premiere, Joe Dawson, played by JIM BYRNES,
|
|
is a bookstore owner who is really a high-ranking member of The Watchers, a
|
|
secret society dedicated to observing Immortals. Charlie DeSalvo, played by
|
|
PHILLIP AKIN, is a ex-Navy SEAL and martial arts expert who will be
|
|
introduced in a later episode.
|
|
The producers are continuing to follow their successful practice of
|
|
offering guest star roles to rock singers. Last season, we saw JOAN JETT,
|
|
ROLAND GIFT of The Fine Young Cannibals, and The Who's ROGER DALTREY briefly
|
|
transformed into Immortals for our enjoyment. Already this season, famed
|
|
rock star SHEENA EASTON has finished filming her shot at Immortality for an
|
|
early episode. She and ADRIAN PAUL worked together previously in her music
|
|
video 'Strut' during Mr. PAUL'S days as a dancer. Also joining the lists of
|
|
noteworthy guest stars we have ROWDY RODDY PIPER, the wrestler, and GERAINT
|
|
WYN DAVIES. Wyn Davies is no stranger to immortality. He portrays a modern
|
|
day vampire on FOREVER KNIGHT, a late night CBS series. {Note - FOREVER KNIGHT
|
|
is currently on hiatus but will be returning next spring.}
|
|
Twenty-two episodes are planned for the second season, which is ranked
|
|
No. 10 among weekly syndicated series and is shown in 137 US markets.
|
|
Fourteen of the new episodes will be shot in Vancouver and eight in Paris.
|
|
-----------------------------
|
|
NEWS:
|
|
|
|
HIGHLANDER fans were saddened to learn of the passing of actor WERNER
|
|
STOCKER, who portrayed the Immortal priest Darius last season. Mr. Stocker
|
|
suffered from a cerebral tumor and passed away in late May, several weeks
|
|
after shooting was completed on the first season. He will be missed, and we
|
|
will not forget his final role as the peaceful Darius.
|
|
|
|
CHRISTOPHER LAMBERT and his wife, actress DIANE LANE, celebrated the birth of
|
|
their daughter, Eleanor Jasmine on Sept. 8, 1993.
|
|
|
|
THE GUNMEN, described as a modern western starring CHRISTOPHER LAMBERT, MARIO
|
|
VAN PEEBLES, and PATRICK STEWART is scheduled to open in theatres in the US
|
|
on November 24.
|
|
|
|
Filming for the lastest HIGHLANDER movie will start in the middle of November
|
|
in Canada. Scenes will also be filmed at locations in Scotland and New York.
|
|
HIGHLANDER III: THE MAGICIAN will be closer in tone to the first movie
|
|
according CHRISTOPHER LAMBERT in a recent interview on NBC's TODAY show."
|
|
|
|
HIGHLANDER, the first movie, will be re-released on home video by Republic
|
|
Pictures in the USA on November 3rd.
|
|
|
|
"HIGHLANDER - THE GATHERING" will be released on home video by Hemdale films
|
|
in the USA on Oct 27. This video includes the episodes "The Gathering" and
|
|
"Revenge is Sweet" edited together as a feature length movie. Features:
|
|
Christopher Lambert, Adrian Paul, Richard Moll and Vanity.
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
Although the net reaction to LOIS AND CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN
|
|
seems to be mostly favorable, the show has been running third behind MURDER,
|
|
SHE WROTE and the less-well-received-from-what-we've-seen SEAQUEST DSV. The
|
|
group Viewers for Quality Television has asked ABC President TED HARBERT to
|
|
be patient and not start moving the show around, but his response was that a
|
|
network can't always afford t be patient. (Editor's note: A little move
|
|
might be in order, in this editor's opinion, if only to correct the
|
|
ridiculous mistake of pitting it against its major network competition in
|
|
terms of audience. Let's hope, however, that they don't pull a YOUNG INDY
|
|
and make viewers guess when it will be on next.)
|
|
Ratings have been holding steady, however, while those for SEAQUEST DSV
|
|
have been dropping like a ... well, fill in the blank. Every week it loses a
|
|
large part of its audience, and at this rate it will be below L&C before
|
|
long. What's more, while L&C's ratings are certainly not spectacular, ABC
|
|
reportedly likes the demographics of the audience. Don't look for quick
|
|
cancellation of SQ, though, as NBC had purchased the full 22 episodes before
|
|
the season even started.
|
|
Other talk from the producers has established that although S.T.A.R.
|
|
Labs has been mentioned in the show, viewers should not hold their breath
|
|
waiting for characters from THE FLASH to appear. It is simply a matter of
|
|
economics, as it would mean mucho bucks for DC Comics. Also, it has been
|
|
said that if the producers "smell" cancellation, they will proceed with the
|
|
engagement of Clark and Lois.
|
|
And lastly, a bit of Superman trivia: Bessolo was both the name of the
|
|
street where Superman's rocket was being stored in a recent episode of LOIS
|
|
AND CLARK and the real name of GEORGE REEVES, the 1950's SUPERMAN.
|
|
|
|
SEAQUEST DSV will be adapted for comics by Nemesis Comics, starting in
|
|
November with a story detailing the origin of the Seaquest written by DAN
|
|
CHICHESTER with ERNIE COLON doing the artwork. HOWARD CHAYKIN will do the
|
|
cover art.
|
|
|
|
RUSSELL JOHNSON, who appeared in such films as THIS ISLAND EARTH and IT CAME
|
|
FROM OUTER SPACE, was awarded the Ig Nobel Prize at M.I.T. on October 7.
|
|
Johnson is most famous for his role as the Professor on GILLIGAN'S ISLAND,
|
|
for which he received the spoof prize. While promoting his autobiography,
|
|
HERE ON GILLIGAN'S ISLAND, (NOT a steamy tell-all, by the way) he told a
|
|
Toronto writer that his standard answer for why, when he made such fantastic
|
|
inventions, the professor didn't just fix the castaway's boat, is "Fix the
|
|
boat? Wow! That never occurred to me!" (John Mack, whose research helped to
|
|
inspire CHRIS CARTER to create X-FILES, was also awarded the Ig Nobel prize for
|
|
his research into UFO abductions. The prizes are sponsored by M.I.T.'s JOURNAL
|
|
OF IRREPRODUCIBLE RESULTS.)
|
|
|
|
Never underestimate the power of the press. Earlier this month, a fatal fire
|
|
was blamed on the animated BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD, which was shown on MTV in the
|
|
early evening, when younger children can watch it. A five year old was
|
|
reportedly inspired by the pair, for whom "Fire is cool" (huh-huh-huh-huh) is
|
|
a bit of a catch phrase. He set fire to his family's trailer, killing his
|
|
two year old sister.
|
|
The day the story hit the airwaves, early evening news said that MTV was
|
|
denying any responsibility, and that they had no intention of changing the
|
|
program or it's time slot. MIKE JUDGE, who created the pair, said that what
|
|
was good about them was how stupid they made the dumb things they do look.
|
|
An hour later, national news reported that MTV was re-evaluating the pair's
|
|
place in the schedule. By 11pm, MTV had decided to eliminate all references
|
|
to "fire" from the show. Before a week was out, the 7pm showing had been
|
|
moved to 10:30pm (to be replaced with "Videos That Don't Suck").
|
|
Before the controversy, SIMPSONS creator MATT GROENING said that he was
|
|
thrilled with the explosion in animation. He told the Los Angeles Times that
|
|
"After BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD, I think everything is permitted. I love Beavis,
|
|
but I just want to kill that darned Butthead."
|
|
|
|
OK, here we go with more news on the DR. WHO front. According to sources in
|
|
the UK, the BBC will produce at least one special next year. They are
|
|
reportedly considering doing a series of specials as a means of "testing the
|
|
waters," so to speak.
|
|
Also, there's been some talk of "lost episodes" recovered in foreign
|
|
film cans shipped back to the BBC after years in storage, and these seem to
|
|
have been confirmed. There is no word on whether there are any complete
|
|
stories, but apparently there is the additional complication that the copies
|
|
that were returned were not in English. The BBC does have the audio msters,
|
|
however, and is reportedly looking into remastering the films from them.
|
|
As for what happened to the original plans for a fall special, the truth
|
|
is probably somewhere between the official line that the BBC had never
|
|
planned to make the special in the first place and the talk that it was
|
|
cancelled behind the back of high muckety-mucks amid political and
|
|
commericial maneuvering.
|
|
|
|
Here's a scary thought for you: RON PERELMAN, who owns Marvel Entertainment
|
|
Group, told NEW YORK MAGAZINE that he is willing to spend up to $1 billion
|
|
"putting together a real entertainment company." What that says about
|
|
Marvel, we don't know. Perelman paid $100 million for SCI Television, a
|
|
group of television stations, as the base for a national network he would
|
|
like to start. He also said that he wanted to produce his own shows.
|
|
|
|
MATT FREWER (MAX HEADROOM) will be doing the voice for possibly one of the
|
|
most famous mutes in film history, the PINK PANTHER. The panther, who did
|
|
actually do a little bit of dialogue in one of the live action films where
|
|
he first appeared with the credits (sounding very distinguished), will sound
|
|
like "a hyped-up version of my own voice," Frewer told UPI. "What I did was
|
|
sautee a large Spanish onion over low heat, chuck in a little oregano and let
|
|
it happen." He also said that he had a tendency to act out the panther's
|
|
movements in the recording booth. "To the producers and animators watching
|
|
from outside I must look pretty much like a guy having an epileptic fit."
|
|
MGM's newly revived animation department will make produce 40 new
|
|
episodes with Mirisch-Geoffrey-DePatie-Freleng, who created the original.
|
|
Other voices will include DAN CASTELLANETA (HOMER SIMPSON), JO ANNE WORLEY,
|
|
RUTH BUZZI, JOHN BYNER, JOE PISCOPO, and CHARLES NELSON REILLY.
|
|
|
|
First there was SESAME STREET, and later the gang moved on to THE MUPPET
|
|
SHOW. Then there was FRAGGLE ROCK. Now Jim Henson Productions is
|
|
introducing a new generation of Muppets for THE SECRET LIFE OF TOYS, a new
|
|
television series that has already been bought by both the BBC and Germany's
|
|
WDR. There is no word on whether, when, or where the 26 13-minute fantasies
|
|
will turn up in the United States, but international video distribution will
|
|
be handled by Buena Vista Home Video, part of Disney. Disney also has a
|
|
liscensing deal with Jim Henson Productions.
|
|
|
|
If you're decrying the state of children's programming, check out CRO, a
|
|
Saturday morning cartoon that attempts to teach kids a bit of science and
|
|
technology through storytelling. (ABC, 8 am)
|
|
|
|
COLIN BAKER has returned to DR. WHO -- sort of. He has written DOCTOR WHO:
|
|
AGE OF CHAOS, a four issue limited series comic book where the 6th Doctor
|
|
goes on a quest to find one of his old companions (no word on which one.)
|
|
The artwork is by JOHN M. BURNS, and the first issue (which will sport a
|
|
metallic ink cover) will be available from Marvel after November 25th.
|
|
|
|
The third QUANTUM LEAP novel will be QUANTUM LEAP: THE WALL, by ASHLEY
|
|
MCCONELL, about the Berlin Wall. The fourth book will reportedly be written
|
|
by MELISSA CRANDALL.
|
|
|
|
According to DR. WHO BULLETIN, film cans have been returned from Scandinavia.
|
|
For those new to the phenomenon, when foreign countries return film cans to
|
|
the BBC they occasionally contain episodes of DR. WHO that are currently
|
|
"lost". They are the episodes that were originally shipped out to be shown
|
|
on foreign television. This time the rumor is that a full copy of THE POWER
|
|
OF THE DALEKS was included, but the BBC are refusing to say what was in the
|
|
cans, fueling specuation that the story WAS there, and that they are
|
|
withholding an announcement until the upcoming annivesary.
|
|
|
|
FOREVER KNIGHT is reportedly on the way back, taking advantage of the new
|
|
trend of "direct to syndication" marketing. The show is being distributed by
|
|
TriStar to CBS affiliates for the 11:30 Saturday night slot. When
|
|
encouraging your local affiliate to pick it up, be sure to let them know you
|
|
are referring to the second, syndicated season, available in May, 1994. The
|
|
address for TriStar television is 9336 West Washington Boulevard, Culver
|
|
City, CA 90232, if you want to encourage them to make the show available to
|
|
other stations of your CBS affiliate isn't interested.
|
|
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
Star Trek
|
|
....................
|
|
|
|
On the movie front, ST VII will, as we have said, star the cast of TNG, with
|
|
possible appearances by members of the TOS crew. There's been some question
|
|
as to how extensive those roles will be, along with talk that only cast
|
|
members who have appeared in TNG being included. That, of course, narrows it
|
|
down to DEFORREST KELLEY, LEONARD NIMOY, and JAMES DOOHAN.
|
|
Nimoy, however, has made it clear that he has certain requirements for
|
|
his appearance. "I'm not going to walk through and wave," he told the San
|
|
Jose Mercury News. "If they have something interesting for Spock to do, they
|
|
can let me know and I'll be there." He also said that he had not been
|
|
approached about directing STVII.
|
|
|
|
GATES MCFADDEN may direct an episode of ST:DSN this season. Also, convention
|
|
reports cite her as mentioning that WIL WHEATON is currently doing "computer
|
|
work" in Silicon Valley.
|
|
|
|
WALTER KOENIG is back at work after the heart attack that laid him out for
|
|
heart surgery this summer. In addition to his Malibu Comics series RAVER
|
|
(which may be adapted as a video game) he is back to square one in finding
|
|
funding for a television pilot. According to an article from Gannet News
|
|
Service, at the time of his heart attack he was set to start producing the
|
|
show, which they described as "sort of a zany STAR TREK ala MONTY PYTHON."
|
|
Also in on the deal were GEORGE TAKEI and NICHELLE NICHOLS.
|
|
He was to appear in an early episode of BABYLON V, but was unable to
|
|
due to his heart attack. However, according to J. MICHEAL STRACZYNSKI, there
|
|
will be another role created for him.
|
|
|
|
The season's last TNG will be a two hour episde, but it is not clear whether
|
|
it will be a cliffhanger to be resolved in the feature film, due out for
|
|
Christmas of 1994.
|
|
|
|
RUMORS ... RUMORS ... Here's what we've got on the next ST show, to be titled
|
|
(supposedly) STAR TREK: THE NEXT FRONTIER. First off, it will NOT follow
|
|
Wesley Crusher and his cohorts at Starfleet academy. It also will NOT be set
|
|
on a USS Enterprise. It will NOT have any of the regular TNG cast in it,
|
|
although nothing is certain, and both JONATHAN FRAKES and MARINA SIRTIS have
|
|
said that they would be interested in continuing on to the new show, so a
|
|
spinoff where Riker finally accepts a captaincy is not completely out of the
|
|
question, but it is VERY unlikely.
|
|
Plotlines that have been mentioned vary widely, from "prolonged
|
|
exploration" of the Gamma Quadrant to a group of independant traders
|
|
(jokingly referred to as the USS Free Enterprise) to a show set on a Klingon
|
|
ship. The staff writers have reportedly been asked to submit ideas and
|
|
there's still plenty of time, so anything is possible.
|
|
Whatever they decide upon, it will be set in the same time period as
|
|
TNG and DSN to allow for crossovers, and rumors are that the producers are
|
|
looking for a Englishwoman to head the cast.
|
|
|
|
LEVAR BURTON will be appearing in PARALLEL LIVES, a movie for Showtime. The
|
|
interesting thing about it is that there will be no script. The actors, who
|
|
include JOBETH WILLIAMS (POLTERGEIST), and JIM BELUSHI (WILD PALMS), will
|
|
each make up a character and then bring it to director LINDA YELLEN, who will
|
|
weave them together into a story. The final filming will consist of the
|
|
actors ad-libbing according to the script outline.
|
|
|
|
The cast of ST:DSN have signed 7 year contacts, where the original TNG
|
|
contracts were only 6 years. People have been saying that they are moving on
|
|
the TNG movies because the cast wants too much money to continue in the show
|
|
now that their contracts are up, but that's NOT the case. The plan has
|
|
ALWAYS been to move on to movies after the run of the show. In fact,
|
|
originally, they only expected TNG to run for five years, where upon it was
|
|
said that they would move on to STAR TREK: THE NEXT NEXT GENERATION -- well,
|
|
OK, that wasn't the actual title, but it was the general idea -- while the
|
|
TNG people did movies.
|
|
|
|
WILLIAM SHATNER will be the grand marshal of the 1994 Rose Bowl parade. The
|
|
theme is "A Fantasic Adventure." Shatner, who raises horses and plays polo,
|
|
will ride his own chestnut gelding "I Prefer Roses."
|
|
|
|
Well, somebody's listening ... An article in Entertainment Weekly reportedly
|
|
cited comments from fans on bulletin boards and at conventions as part of the
|
|
reason for a shift in emphasis of DSN. There will be more guest stars,
|
|
mostly as Bajorrans, (FRANK LANGELLA and LOUISE FLETCHER we've already seen,
|
|
as well as JOHN GLOVER as a Trill and RICHARD BEYMER.) There will also be a
|
|
new set of villians, tentatively called The Dominion, from the other side of
|
|
the wormole.
|
|
|
|
There probably aren't too many STAR TREK fans who are computer illiterates
|
|
(and even fewer reading this magazine!) but that hasn't stopped JENNIFER
|
|
FLYNN from writing STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION: TWENTIETH CENTURY
|
|
COMPUTERS AND HOW THEY WORKED: THE OFFICIAL STARFLEET HISTORY OF COMPUTERS.
|
|
Put out by Alpha Books, it reportedly carries a lot of actual information
|
|
below the covering of futurist technology.
|
|
|
|
PATRICK STEWART will be performing his one man A CHRISTMAS CAROL in the San
|
|
Francisco Bay Area to benefit Shakespeare/Santa Cruz on November 13.
|
|
|
|
When COLM MEANEY signed for DSN, it was with the stipulation that he could
|
|
disappear for a couple of weeks to make a movie occasionally. If Cannes is
|
|
correct, he made good use of the opportunity with THE SNAPPER, based on the
|
|
second book in Roddy Doyle's Barrytown series, which started with THE
|
|
COMMITTMENTS. The film deals with one Irishman's attempt to deal with his
|
|
daughter's independence when she becomes pregnant and refuses to name the
|
|
father.
|
|
He can also be seen in INTO THE WEST.
|
|
|
|
It is the ultimate ambition of probably most of the people reading this: to go
|
|
to the stars. Though there is not yet a contest that will allow you to do
|
|
that, The Planetary Society, Time Warner Interactive Group, and NPTN's Academy
|
|
One are sponsoring a contest to allow one talented child's art to go to Mars.
|
|
The art contest carries a deadline of November 8 for paper entries and November
|
|
15 for electronic entries, so time is running short. Judges include MIKE OKUDA
|
|
and RICK STERNBACH of ST:TNG. For more information contact TJ Goldstein
|
|
(tlg4@po.CWRU.edu) or Jim Baumgartner (jbum@netcom.com).
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!11!-- Spoilers Ahoy! Including TWILIGHT ZONE Episode Guide
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
STAR TREK: The Next Generation STAR TREK: Deep Space Nine
|
|
|
|
Week of 10/09/93 Gambit, Part I The Siege
|
|
10/16/93 Gambit, Part II Invasive Procedures
|
|
10/23/93 Phantasms Cardassians
|
|
10/30/93 Dark Page Melora
|
|
11/06/93 Attached Rules of Acquisition
|
|
11/13/93 Force of Nature Necessary Evil
|
|
11/20/93 Inheritance Second Sight
|
|
11/27/93 Parallels Sanctuary
|
|
|
|
In "Dark Page," Lwaxana Troi is back, but not her usual bubbly self. A
|
|
traumatic secret has caused her to have a mental collapse that threatens her
|
|
life if Deanna can't help her.
|
|
|
|
In "Phantasms," Data experiences his first nightmare, with disastrous results
|
|
for the rest of the crew.
|
|
|
|
In "Parallels," Worf bounces between alternate realities, one of which
|
|
includes Wesely Crusher. Look for alterations in costume and sets, ala'
|
|
"Yesterday's Enterprise."
|
|
|
|
The "Cardassians" attempt to reclaim young Cardassians orphaned in the war and
|
|
raised on Bejor.
|
|
|
|
Movies that will supposedly appear on season five of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER
|
|
3000: Warrior of the Lost World, Hercules, Swamp Diamonds, Secret Agent Super
|
|
Dragon, The Magic Voyage of Sinbad, Eegah!, I Accuse My Parents, Operation
|
|
007, Girl in Lover's Lane, The Painted Hills, MitchelL, The Brain That
|
|
Wouldn't Die, Teenage Strangler, Wild World of Batwoman, Atomic Brain,
|
|
Beginning of the End, Radar Secret Service
|
|
|
|
HIGHLANDER
|
|
|
|
Second season episode list
|
|
01 The Watchers
|
|
02 Studies In Light
|
|
03 Turnabout
|
|
04 The Darkness
|
|
05 An Eye For An Eye
|
|
06 The Zone
|
|
07 Revenge of the Sword
|
|
08 Amanda Returns
|
|
|
|
ALEXANDRA VANDERNOOT will be leaving HIGHLANDER to continue her career in
|
|
feature films. She had expressed a desire during the second season contract
|
|
negotiations to stay in France to be closer to her family but agreed to stay
|
|
with the show long enough for the writers to write her character out of the
|
|
story lines. Her character, Tessa Noel, will die in an episode early in the
|
|
season. As a result, STAN KIRSCH's character will be expanded.
|
|
|
|
The first episode, "The Watchers" opens in Paris with Duncan MacLeod (played by
|
|
ADRIAN PAUL), devastated by the senseless murder of his long-time friend, the
|
|
Immortal priest Darius (portrayed last season by the late WERNER STOCKER). His
|
|
hunt for the killers takes him back to North America to his old city.
|
|
|
|
"Studies in Light" Duncan discovers an Immortal friend undergoing violent
|
|
psychological changes during a photo art show and is reunited with an old lover
|
|
who is now 73 years old.
|
|
|
|
"Turnabout" Evil Immortal Quenten Barnes escapes from the tomb he was sealed in
|
|
after being convicted and executed for murder 30 years ago. Now, he is after
|
|
those involved in his execution among which is an old friend of Duncan's.
|
|
|
|
"The Darkness" A pivotal episode. Renegade Watcher Pallin Wolf is after the
|
|
death of *all* Immortals, including Duncan.
|
|
|
|
"An Eye for An Eye" Richie decides to be a hero during a terrorist attack on an
|
|
ambassador.
|
|
|
|
"The Zone" A neighborhood so bad that even the police won't go in alone. Joe
|
|
Dawson suspects that the new leader of the ruling gang is an Immortal. He asks
|
|
Duncan to investigate.
|
|
|
|
"Revenge of the Sword" A former student of Charlie Desalvo's has made it big as
|
|
a martial arts movie star. Trouble erupts on the scene of his latest movie
|
|
about street gangs.
|
|
|
|
"Amanda Returns" Our ever-popular sneak thief is back and she claims she's
|
|
changed her ways. Who can blame Duncan for not believing her? Especially since
|
|
Federal agents are hot on her trail.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Editor's note: The TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE GUIDE is reprinted with permission
|
|
from the author. It has not been edited except to condense it space-wise.
|
|
All text is intact. The original is available by FTP from
|
|
gandalf.rutgers.edu.]
|
|
|
|
[This file is from the Sf-Lovers Archives at Rutgers University. It is
|
|
provided as part of a free service in connection with distribution of
|
|
Sf-Lovers Digest. This file is currently maintained by the moderator of the
|
|
Digest. It may be freely copied or redistributed in whole or in part as long
|
|
as this notice remains intact. If you would like to know more about Sf-Lovers
|
|
Digest, send mail to SF-LOVERS-REQUEST@RUTGERS.EDU.]
|
|
|
|
===========================
|
|
TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE GUIDE
|
|
===========================
|
|
Revision of 9/82
|
|
===========================
|
|
|
|
Saul Jaffe
|
|
Lauren Weinstein (vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX)
|
|
|
|
Lauren's rating system
|
|
|
|
* ugh. pretty bad.
|
|
** has merit.
|
|
*** good, solid show.
|
|
**** particularly good.
|
|
***** superlative.
|
|
_________________________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
In this document, comments by Saul Jaffe are preceded by SJ: and
|
|
comments by Lauren Weinstein are preceded by LW:.
|
|
|
|
|
|
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It
|
|
is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is
|
|
the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and
|
|
superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears, and the
|
|
summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It
|
|
is an area which we call... THE TWILIGHT ZONE."
|
|
Rod Serling
|
|
LW: Background
|
|
|
|
The Twilight Zone originally aired on the CBS Television Network.
|
|
It was heavily sponsored by the large tobacco companies. In fact
|
|
Serling did a few of the commercials himself! Serling just was
|
|
not complete without the dangling cigarette, a fact which was
|
|
later to contribute to his untimely demise...
|
|
|
|
It should be noted that there have been rumors that some of the
|
|
shows credited to Serling were actually "ghostwritten" by someone
|
|
else. There is, however, no proof of this. Chalk another one up
|
|
with Francis Bacon and Willy Shakespeare....
|
|
|
|
To an even greater extent than with "The Outer Limits", many
|
|
actors appear in these episodes who later became very big stars.
|
|
Many familiar (but younger!) faces peer out at us from this
|
|
program...
|
|
|
|
FIRST SEASON 1959-1960
|
|
|
|
WHERE IS EVERYBODY? ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Robert Stevens
|
|
Cast: Earl Holliman, James Gregory
|
|
The pilot show for the series concerns a man who finds himself in a
|
|
completely deserted city. In the end, we learn that it was all a test to
|
|
observe how human beings will respond to extreme loneliness during space
|
|
flights. This was the only episode shot at Universal Studios, all others were
|
|
filmed at MGM.
|
|
LW: Earl Holliman later became known as Angie Dickenson's sidekick in
|
|
"Policewoman". Earl is the sole actor in this piece right up to the last
|
|
five minutes or so of the script.
|
|
|
|
ONE FOR THE ANGELS ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Robert Parish
|
|
Cast: Ed Wynn, Murray Hamilton, Dana Dillaway, Merritt Bohn
|
|
Wynn delivers a bravura performance as a sidewalk salesman who makes the
|
|
greatest pitch of his life to save a little girl from "Mr. Death".
|
|
|
|
MR. DENTON ON DOOMSDAY **
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Allen Reisner
|
|
Cast: Dan Duryea, Malcolm Atterbury, Martin Landau, Jeanne Cooper,
|
|
Ken Lynch, Doug McClure
|
|
A has-been gunslinger finds his fast draw abilities have been restored
|
|
after he drinks a magic potion.
|
|
LW: Neither Martin Landau nor Doug McClure had their careers exactly ended by
|
|
this episode, even though it was a poor one. Martin continued on to
|
|
roles in "The Outer Limits", and of course, starred in "Mission
|
|
Impossible". Doug shows up in a variety of places.
|
|
|
|
THE SIXTEEN-MILLIMETER SHRINE **
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Mitch Leisen
|
|
Cast: Ida Lupino, Martin Balsam, Alice Frost, Jerome Cowan
|
|
A former movie queen tries to recreate the spirit of her heyday by
|
|
screening her old movies...and living them.
|
|
|
|
WALKING DISTANCE ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Robert Stevens
|
|
Cast: Gig Young, Frank Overton, Michael Montgomery, Irene Tedrow
|
|
Young's acting and a magnificent score by Bernard Hermann highlight this
|
|
episode. Harried advertising agent Martin Sloane visits his home town and
|
|
slips thirty years into his childhood.
|
|
LW: Rather sentimental, but I'm a sucker for stuff like that. Our hero
|
|
actually meets himself as a child, and turns out to be the cause of an
|
|
old leg injury that bothered him the rest of his life...
|
|
|
|
ESCAPE CLAUSE ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Mitch Leisen
|
|
Cast: David Wayne, Virginia Christine, Wendell Holmes, Thomas Gomez
|
|
A hypochondriac makes a pact with the Devil for immortality. He then
|
|
kills someone for kicks, but instead of getting the electric chair, he is
|
|
sentenced to life imprisonment!
|
|
LW: Rather amusing, actually!
|
|
|
|
THE LONELY *****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Jack Smight
|
|
Cast: Jack Warden, Jean Marsh, John Dehner, Ted Knight, Jim Turley
|
|
This classic episode concerns one James Corry (Warden), a man convicted of
|
|
murder and sentenced to spend forty years on a distant asteroid. He has only
|
|
one companion - a robot made in the form of a woman. Ted Knight, later Ted
|
|
Baxter on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, has a minor role as a nasty space
|
|
crewman.
|
|
LW: I gotta tell ya' ... the closing scene of this episode gave me nightmares
|
|
for many nights as a child when I first saw it. An excellent episode.
|
|
|
|
TIME ENOUGH AT LAST ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: John Brahm
|
|
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Jacqueline DeWit, Vaughn Taylor, Lela Bliss
|
|
In his first of several TWILIGHT ZONE episodes, Burgess Meredith plays a
|
|
nearsighted bank teller who becomes the only survivor of an H-bomb attack.
|
|
He is now able to pursue his only real interest in life: reading.
|
|
LW: At least, he THINKS he will be able to pursue it...
|
|
|
|
PERCHANCE TO DREAM ***
|
|
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Robert Florey
|
|
Cast: Richard Conte, John Larch, Suzanne Lloyd, Ted Stanhope,
|
|
Eddie Marr
|
|
The first non-Serling script of the series concerns a man (Conte) who is
|
|
terrified of falling asleep. He fears that the mysterious woman he meets in
|
|
his dreams will soon murder him.
|
|
LW: To elaborate a bit: Conte has a heart condition, and fears that the
|
|
excitement (so to speak) of dying in the dream will kill him. The last
|
|
time he went to sleep, he ended up in a rollercoaster with this mystery
|
|
woman. He knows that if he goes back to sleep, the dream will continue,
|
|
she will push him out, and that will finish him, both in the dream and in
|
|
reality. This episode involves several "layers" of reality and is a nice
|
|
one.
|
|
|
|
JUDGEMENT NIGHT *
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: John Brahm
|
|
Cast: Nehemiah Persoff, Ben Wright, Patrick McNee, Hugh Sanders,
|
|
Leslie Bradley, Deirdre Owen, James Franciscus
|
|
Murky tale about a passenger aboard a wartime freighter who is certain
|
|
the ship will be sunk at 1:15 AM.
|
|
LW: Serling had a thing about ship stories, and they were almost always
|
|
rather poor. Oh well.
|
|
|
|
AND WHEN THE SKY WAS OPENED ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Douglas Heyes
|
|
Cast: Rod Taylor, Charles Aidman, James Hutton, Maxine Cooper
|
|
After three astronauts return from man's first space flight, each of
|
|
them mysteriously disappears. Based on a short story by Richard Matheson.
|
|
SJ: Serling was so impressed by Matheson's work that he was later
|
|
asked to write more episodes himself.
|
|
LW: A good episode concerning the subject of "what IS reality?"
|
|
|
|
WHAT YOU NEED ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: John Brahm
|
|
Cast: Steve Cochran, Ernest Treux, Reed Morgan, William Edmonson,
|
|
Arline Sax
|
|
Swindler Fred Renard (Cochran) tries to profit from an amiable fellow's
|
|
talent for seeing into the future. Based on a short story by Lewis Padgett.
|
|
|
|
THE FOUR OF US ARE DYING **
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: John Brahm
|
|
Cast: Harry Townes, Beverly Garland, Philip Pine, Ross Martin,
|
|
Don Gordon
|
|
Arch Hammer (Townes) can alter his face to make it look like anyone
|
|
else's. Based on a short story by George Johnson.
|
|
LW: Not one of the best efforts.
|
|
|
|
THIRD FROM THE SUN ***
|
|
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Richard Bare
|
|
Cast: Fritz Weaver, Joe Maros, Edward Andrews, Denise Alexander,
|
|
Lori March
|
|
Weird camera angles and special props left over from MGM'S FORBIDDEN
|
|
PLANET bolster this story about two families planning to leave a war-
|
|
threatened world via spaceship.
|
|
LW: Edward Andrews did at least one other "Twilight Zone", and countless
|
|
other television shows and movies over the years. A great character actor,
|
|
he usually is cast into roles involving rather evil, devious, or just plain
|
|
unlikable men.
|
|
|
|
I SHOT AN ARROW INTO THE AIR ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Stuart Rosenberg
|
|
Cast: Edward Binns, Dewey Martin
|
|
After supposedly landing on another planet, an astronaut kills his
|
|
comrades to prolong his own life. Based on a short story by Madeline Champion.
|
|
|
|
THE HITCH-HIKER ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Alvin Ganzer
|
|
Cast: Inger Stevens, Leonard Strong, Adam Williams, Lew Gallo,
|
|
Dwight Townsend
|
|
Driving cross-country, a woman becomes panicky when she continually sees
|
|
the same ominous hitch-hiker on the road ahead. Based on a story by Lucille
|
|
Fletcher.
|
|
SJ: a personal favorite.
|
|
LW: "Going MY way?" ...
|
|
|
|
THE FEVER ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Alvin Ganzer
|
|
Cast: Everett Sloane, Bibi Janiss, William Kendis, Lee Miller
|
|
A gambling-hating man named Franklin Gibbs (Sloane) battles a Las Vegas
|
|
slot machine with a malevolent mind of its own.
|
|
SJ: Another favorite of mine.
|
|
LW: Well, let's be careful now, he THINKS it has a mind of its own, but we
|
|
don't REALLY know that. Still, it might have at that...
|
|
|
|
THE LAST FLIGHT ***
|
|
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: William Claxton
|
|
Cast: Kenneth Haigh, Alexander Scourby, Simon Scott, Robert Warwick
|
|
A British World War I flyer lands at a modern air base in 1959.
|
|
LW: A minor time paradox is involved in this plot.
|
|
|
|
THE PURPLE TESTAMENT ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Richard Bare
|
|
Cast: William Reynolds, Dick York, Barney Phillips, William Phipps,
|
|
Warren Oates, Marc Cavell, Ron Masak, Paul Mazursky
|
|
Powerful tale about a lieutenant with the ability to predict which men
|
|
in his outfit will be killed in battle.
|
|
LW: Powerful, yes. But I never cared much for it. Dick York, by the way,
|
|
played Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) Stevens' first husband in
|
|
"Bewitched".
|
|
|
|
ELEGY ***
|
|
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Douglas Heyes
|
|
Cast: Cecil Kellaway, Jeff Morrow, Kevin Hagen, Don Dubbins
|
|
Three astronauts land on a world where everyone is in a trance-like
|
|
state. They then encounter an eccentric old gent named Mr. Wickwire
|
|
(Kellaway), who apparently runs the planet.
|
|
|
|
MIRROR IMAGE ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: John Brahm
|
|
Cast: Vera Miles, Martin Milner, Joe Hamilton
|
|
In a nearly deserted bus depot, a woman finds herself haunted by her
|
|
double.
|
|
LW: One of my personal favorites. This episode has a great "creepy"
|
|
atmosphere. Martin Milner later starred in "Adam 12".
|
|
|
|
THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Ron Winston
|
|
Cast: Claude Akins, Jack Wagner, Ben Erway, Lyn Guild
|
|
Hysteria grips a small community as residents suspect a power failure
|
|
has been caused by invaders from outer space disguised as Earthmen.
|
|
|
|
A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE ****
|
|
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Ted Post
|
|
Cast: Howard Duff, Eileen Ryan, Gail Kobe, Frank Maxwell, Peter Walker
|
|
A business man's working world inexplicably becomes the set for a film
|
|
in which he has become a character.
|
|
LW: Another of my favorites. The poor guy suddenly discovers that he is
|
|
talking into a prop telephone!
|
|
|
|
LONG LIVE WALTER JAMESON **
|
|
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Tony Leader
|
|
Cast: Kevin McCarthy, Edgar Stehli, Estelle Winwood, Dody Heath
|
|
An effective horror story in the tradition of "The Man in Half Moon
|
|
Street." History professor Walter Jameson (McCarthy), an expert on the Civil
|
|
War, is actually immortal and well over 200 years old.
|
|
LW: The first of a couple of episodes on this basic theme.
|
|
|
|
PEOPLE ARE ALIKE ALL OVER ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: David Orrick
|
|
Cast: Roddy McDowell, Susan Oliver, Paul Comi, Byron Morrow,
|
|
Vic Perrin
|
|
An astronaut (McDowell) is pleased to find that people on Mars act just
|
|
like people at home. Based on a short story by Paul W. Fairman.
|
|
LW: A TZ classic.
|
|
|
|
EXECUTION ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Ron Winston
|
|
Cast: Albert Salmi, Russel Johnson, Than Wyenn, George Mitchell,
|
|
Jon Lormer
|
|
A western outlaw (Salmi) is snatched from the hangman's noose by a
|
|
modern day scientist (Johnson) and his time machine.
|
|
LW: Russel Johnson, by the way, also had the distinction of playing "The
|
|
Professor" on "Gilligan's Island", some years later! From the Twilight
|
|
Zone to Gilligan's Island. Sigh...
|
|
|
|
THE BIG TALL WISH *
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Ron Winston
|
|
Cast: Ivan Dixon, Steve Perry, Kim Hamilton
|
|
A child's faith in miracles helps a down-and-out boxer win an important
|
|
match.
|
|
LW: Ever since "Requiem for a Heavyweight", Rod also had a thing about boxing
|
|
plots. The Twilight Zone versions of these tended to be comparatively
|
|
poor.
|
|
|
|
A NICE PLACE TO VISIT ****
|
|
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: John Brahm
|
|
Cast: Larry Blyden, Sebastion Cabot, Sandra Warner
|
|
While committing a crime, a cheap hood (Blyden) gets killed and finds an
|
|
afterlife in which all wishes are granted.
|
|
LW: Sebastion is great as the, well, "helper" in the afterlife (he's called
|
|
"Pip".) Sebastion starred in many other roles both before and after this
|
|
of course.
|
|
|
|
NIGHTMARE AS A CHILD **
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Alvin Ganzer
|
|
Cast: Janice Rule, Terry Burnham, Shepperd Strudwick
|
|
Schoolteacher Helen Foley (Rule) is haunted by the recurring image of
|
|
herself as a child.
|
|
LW: Time paradoxes play a minor role in this episode.
|
|
|
|
A STOP AT WILLOUGHBY ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Robert Parrish
|
|
Cast: James Daly, Howard Smith, Patricia Donahue, James Maloney
|
|
Harried by his high-pressure job, an executive falls asleep on a train
|
|
and wakes at a mysterious stop called Willoughby.
|
|
LW: Another "classic", though objectively speaking, not a truly great
|
|
episode.
|
|
|
|
THE CHASER ***
|
|
Writer: Robert Presnell, Jr. Director: Douglas Heyes
|
|
Cast: George Grizzard, John McIntyre, Patricia Barry
|
|
A loser in the game of love purchases a special potion from a weird
|
|
"doctor". Based on a short story by John Collier.
|
|
LW: The doctor's name was somthing like "A. Demon" by the way, to give you
|
|
some idea of what his practice was like...
|
|
|
|
PASSAGE FOR TRUMPET ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Don Medford
|
|
Cast: Jack Klugman, Mary Webster, John Anderson, Frank Wolff
|
|
An unsuccessful trumpet player is given a second crack at life - after
|
|
he is struck and killed by a truck, but first he has to learn what it's like to
|
|
be "dead" in a world full of life...
|
|
LW: The first of several dramatic appearances on TZ by Klugman, later to
|
|
become familiar to us all as the sloppy Oscar Madison on "The Odd
|
|
Couple".
|
|
|
|
MR. BEVIS **
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Robert Parrish
|
|
Cast: Orson Bean, Henry Jones, Charles Lane, William Schallert
|
|
A kindly fellow's life is turned topsy-turvy when he receives "help"
|
|
from his guardian angel (Jones).
|
|
LW: Sigh. Poor Orson Bean (familiar to all) starred in this the first of two
|
|
almost identical (except for details) TZ episodes on the subject of
|
|
guardian angels. Neither was particularly good.
|
|
|
|
THE AFTER HOURS ****
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Douglas Heyes
|
|
Cast: Anne Francis, Elizabeth Allen, James Millholin, John Conwell
|
|
A woman (Francis) discovers that the floor of a department store on
|
|
which she bought an item doesn't exist, and that the salesgirl was, in reality,
|
|
a mannequin.
|
|
LW: Anne Francis we all know. This episode is one of the most memorable in
|
|
the TZ series.
|
|
|
|
THE MIGHTY CASEY ***
|
|
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Douglas Heyes
|
|
Cast: Jack Warden, Robert Sorrells, Don O'Kelly, Abraham Sofaer
|
|
The manager of a baseball team adds a new man to the fold - a robot
|
|
named Casey.
|
|
LW: This episode is told as a fable, and is presented in a rather "tongue-in-
|
|
cheek" manner. Fun if not taken too seriously.
|
|
|
|
A WORLD OF HIS OWN *****
|
|
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Ralph Nelson
|
|
Cast: Keenan Wynn, Phyliss Kirk, Mary LaRoche
|
|
Serio-comedy, as a playwright creates true-to-life characters on his
|
|
tape machine. They are so true that he can make tham appear in the room with
|
|
him!
|
|
SJ: This episode has the strangest and funniest ending of the series.
|
|
LW: An EXCELLENT episode, which indeed has the most bizarre ending of any
|
|
show in the entire TZ run. Highly recommended. Keenan Wynn plays a truly
|
|
delightful character in this comedy/drama.
|
|
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!12!-- Contests and Awards
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
The results of the 1993 Electric Science Fiction Award.
|
|
The nominees were all of the Hugo and Nebula nominees, and the voters were
|
|
users on USENET, Internet, GEnie, other networks, and readers of the 1993
|
|
Hugo and Nebula Anthology from Clarinet. The voting was Hugo-stle.
|
|
|
|
Short Story: "The Mountain to Mohammed" by Nancy Kress
|
|
Novelette: "Danny Goes to Mars" by Pamela Sargent
|
|
Novella: Stopping at Slowyear by Frederik Pohl
|
|
Novel: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
|
|
Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton
|
|
Fan Artist: Stu Shiffman
|
|
Fan Writer Evelyn C. Leeper
|
|
Professional Artwork: Dinotopia by James Gurney
|
|
New Writer: Nicholas A. DiChario
|
|
|
|
The 1993 Hugo and Campbell Awards
|
|
|
|
Best Novel (tie): A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (Tor) and
|
|
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Bantam)
|
|
Best Novella: "Barnacle Bill the Spacer" by Lucius Shepard (Asimov's,
|
|
July 1992)
|
|
Best Novelette: "The Nutcracker Coup" by Janet Kagan (Asimov's,
|
|
December 1992)
|
|
Best Short Story: "Even the Queen" by Connie Willis (Asimov's, April
|
|
1992)
|
|
Best Non-Fiction Book: A Wealth of Fable: An informal history of
|
|
science fiction fandom in the 1950s by Harry Warner, Jr. (SCIFI Press)
|
|
Best Dramatic Presentation: "The Inner Light" (Star Trek: The Next
|
|
Generation) (Paramount Television)
|
|
Best Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois
|
|
Best Professional Artist: Don Maitz
|
|
Best Original Artwork: Dinotopia by James Gurney (Turner)
|
|
Best Semi-Prozine: Science Fiction Chronicle, edited by Andrew Porter
|
|
Best Fanzine: Mimosa, edited by Dick and Nicki Lynch
|
|
Best Fan Writer: Dave Langford
|
|
Best Fan Artist: Peggy Ranson
|
|
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Science Fiction Writer of 1991-1992:
|
|
Laura Resnick
|
|
Special Committee Award for building bridges between cultures and nations to
|
|
advance science fiction and fantasy: Takumi Shibano
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!13!-- Conventions and Readings
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
Submit convention listings to xx133@cleveland.freenet.edu in the format:
|
|
|
|
CON NAME: Month, day, year; Hotel or Convention Center; City, State, Country;
|
|
GUESTS; Cost until deadline, Cost after deadline (please specify currency);
|
|
Full address for information; Telephone (if applicable); e-mail address (if
|
|
any)
|
|
|
|
Convention listings are provided as a public service. Cyberspace Vanguard is
|
|
not affiliated with any of these conventions and takes no responsibility for
|
|
anything to do with it.
|
|
|
|
................
|
|
|
|
SCI-CON 15: November 12-14 1993; Holiday Inn Executive Center; Virginia
|
|
Beach, VA, USA; TIMOTHY ZAHN, DARRELL K. SWEET, BILL SMITH, ALEXIS GILLILAND,
|
|
PATRICK and TERESA NIELSEN-HAYDEN, Greg Barr, William Barton, Michael
|
|
Capobianco, Cathy DeMott, Colleen Doran, Ray Goodman, Steve Hauk, Donna
|
|
Higgins, Aleta Jackson, Zachary Kane, Andrew Greenberg, Anne Parker Marsh,
|
|
Elizabeth Massie, Greg Porter, Mark Rainey, Richard Rowand, Peter
|
|
Schweighofer, Dr. Sheridan Simon, Ellie Sterheim, Stanislaus Tal, Jason
|
|
Waltrip, John Waltrip, Grahm Watkins, Bud Webster, Allen Wold, and Beverly
|
|
Yeskolski. More are expected to come; $25 (US); Sci-Con, c/o HaRoSFA,
|
|
P.O.Box 9434, Hampton VA 23670; p.e.morris@larc.nasa.gov
|
|
|
|
QUANTUM CON '94; February 19-20, 1984; Pasadena Civic Auditorium and
|
|
Conference Center; Pasadena, CA, USA; Chris Ruppenthal, Charles Floyd
|
|
Johnson, Deborah Pratt; $25(US) until 11/1/93, $30(US) until 1/1/94, $35(US)
|
|
until the con, $40(US) at the door, $15(US) non-attending; Quantum Con '94,
|
|
P.O. Box 93819, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; eah4@po.cwru.edu. [Please note that
|
|
this con is NOT put on by Creation, but by the fans. It's for charity - the
|
|
beneficiaries being The American Diabetes Association, Broadway Cares (Equity
|
|
Fights AIDS), ECO (Earth Communications Office), The Juvenile Diabetes
|
|
Foundation, and The Los Angeles Mission.]
|
|
|
|
TECHNICON 11: April 15-17, 1994; Blacksburg, VA, USA;
|
|
ELLEN GUON, TOM MONAGHAN; Technicon 11, c/o VTSFFC, P.O. Box 256, Blacksburg,
|
|
VA 24063-0256 USA; (703) 951-3282; Technicon@VTCC1.cc.vt.edu
|
|
|
|
MEXICON 6: June 1994; "most probably a 'one-day programme, between two
|
|
hotel nights ... in Newcastle'"; #9.50 (pounds sterling); 121 Cape Hill,
|
|
Smethwick, Warley, West Midlands, B66 4SH
|
|
|
|
EUROCON: May 26-29, 1994; Timisoara, Romania; Iain Banks, John Brunner,
|
|
Herbert Francke, Joe Haldeman, Stanislaw Lem, Fredrick Pohl, Franz
|
|
Rottensteiner, Norman Spinrad; $20(US) until 12/31/93, $35(US) until 2/15/93,
|
|
$45 until 3/31/83, supporting/attending for East Europeans $5(US); Sigma
|
|
Club, Post Office 3, Box 49, 5600 Piatra Neamt, Romania; 40-96-136 731, 40-
|
|
96-144 416, fax: 40-96-119 434
|
|
|
|
Science Fiction Research Association Annual Meeting; July 7-10, 1994;
|
|
Woodfield Hilton and Towers; Arlington Heights, IL; SHERRI S. TEPPER; OCTAVIA
|
|
BUTLER, Alex & Phyllis Eisenstein, Philip Jose Farmer, Jim Gunn, Fred Pohl,
|
|
Joan Slonczewski, Joan Vinge, Jack Williamson, Gene Wolfe; $115(US);
|
|
Elizabeth Anne Hull, William Rainey Harper College, Palatine, IL 60067 or
|
|
Beverly Friend, Oakton Community College Des Plaines, IL 60016; 708-635-1987;
|
|
friend@oakton.edu; [CALL FOR PROPSAL OF PAPERS AND SESSIONS (Deadline March
|
|
1) to Hull - send 2 copies. Conference Wn paper proposal possibilities: with
|
|
special emphasis on papers dealing with the attending authors]
|
|
|
|
WISHCON III: July 29-31, 94; King Alfred's Coll, Winchester; #20 until mid-
|
|
November 93, #23 afterwards; 12 Crowsbury Close, Emsworth, Hants, PO10 7TS,
|
|
0243 376596.
|
|
|
|
WHO'S 7 (DR/BLAKE EVENT): October 29-10, 1994; Wueens Hotel; Crystal
|
|
Palace, London, UK; VARIOUS GUESTS; #30 (pounds sterling) until the end of
|
|
'93; 131 Norman Rd, Leytonstone, London, E11 4RJ
|
|
|
|
KATSUCON ICHI: February 17 - 19, 1995; Holiday Inn Executive Center;
|
|
Virginia Beach, VA, USA; SCOTT FRAZIER, DANNY FAHS, C. SUE SHAMBAUGH, JOHN
|
|
WALTRIP, JASON WALTRIP; $22 until June 30, 1994; Katsu Production, PO Box
|
|
1158, Blacksburg, Virginia 24062-1582, USA; katsucon@vtserf.cc.vt.edu,
|
|
listproc@solaris.cc.vt.edu (mailing list)
|
|
|
|
TIMEWARP (TREK): March 4-5, 1995; Grand Hotel; Malahide, Dublin, Ireland; 30
|
|
Beverley Downs, Knocklyon, Dublin 16, Ireland.
|
|
|
|
.............
|
|
|
|
Signings and Readings
|
|
.............
|
|
[Elizabeth Willey's Calander of Fantasy, SF, and Horror readings and signings
|
|
is reprinted with permission. Thanks, Elizabeth!]
|
|
|
|
Please send listing information to, the compiler: eliz@ai.mit.edu;
|
|
on GEnie, e.willey. Thanks to all who have contributed!--Elizabeth Willey
|
|
========================================================================
|
|
|
|
27 October 1993
|
|
Dan Simmons will read at Little Bookshop of Horrors in Arvada, CO.
|
|
19:30. 303-425-1975.
|
|
|
|
27 October 1993
|
|
Poppy Z. Brite and Melanie Tem will sign at Dark Carnival in Berkeley,
|
|
CA. No times. 510-845-7757.
|
|
|
|
12 November 1993
|
|
Debra Doyle and James D. MacDonald will read at Barnes and Noble,
|
|
818 South Road, Poughkeepsie, NY. 19:30. No phone.
|
|
|
|
17 November 1993
|
|
David Dvorkin will read at Little Bookshop of Horrors in Arvada, CO.
|
|
19:30. 303-425-1975.
|
|
|
|
18 November 1993
|
|
Alexander Jablokov and Ian Watson read at Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, New
|
|
York City, NY; part of the New York Review of Science Fiction readings
|
|
series. Admission $5.00; doors open 19:30. 212-219-3088.
|
|
|
|
15 December 1993
|
|
Connie Willis will read at Little Bookshop of Horrors in Arvada, CO.
|
|
19:30. 303-425-1975.
|
|
|
|
16 December 1993
|
|
Michael Swanwick and Jack Dann read at Dixon Place, 258 Bowery, New
|
|
York City, NY; part of the New York Review of Science Fiction readings
|
|
series. Admission $5.00; doors open 19:30. 212-219-3088.
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
--!14!-- Publications, Lists and the like
|
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
|
|
This issue we've got a bit of a diverse view of the offerings floating around
|
|
in cyberspace. Most of it is only available through Internet, but that will
|
|
change next issue. If you have a favorite SF-oriented magazine, fanzine,
|
|
mailing list, BBS, fringe newsgroup, or the like, let us know. Send
|
|
information to xx133@cleveland.freenet.edu. If you are the owner of said
|
|
resource, we would appreciate an informative listing at 10 lines or less. If
|
|
not, we'd appreciate a means of getting hold of the owner -- or better yet,
|
|
tell them to get hold of us!
|
|
|
|
THE BLIND SPOT is Duke's fantasy/science-fiction/horror magazine, and we'll
|
|
be in our third year. We take anything that fits into the above three
|
|
categories as long as it is well written. Anything we get will get a full
|
|
edit during the school year, whether it is accepted or not. We prefer stories
|
|
of less than 10,000 words, but we are flexible. We pay a flat rate of $10 if
|
|
the story is accepted. We are an annual magazine for now, and our next issue
|
|
will be published in the beginning of next year. Sample copies are available
|
|
for $2 + shipping and handling. ---- Andy Whitfield (Ye Olde Editor of the
|
|
Blind Spot)
|
|
awhit@acpub.duke.edu (Andy Whitfield)
|
|
|
|
TWILIGHT ZONE is a bi-monthly fiction-only on-line magazine that
|
|
conentrates slightly on the genres of fantasy and science fiction, possible
|
|
with some added humour. A subscription may be acquired by sending a message
|
|
to r.c.karsmakers@stud.let.ruu.nl. Submissions and general inquiries may also
|
|
be aimed at that address.
|
|
|
|
MAILING LISTS: Please MAKE SURE to send subscription request to the proper
|
|
address and to find out what the lists ground rules are BEFORE posting to it.
|
|
Most lists have rules against flaming, off-topic conversations, and spoilers
|
|
posted without warning.
|
|
|
|
HIGHLANDER: Send e-mail to LISTSERV@PSUVM.PSU.EDU with SUBSCRIBE HIGHLA-L
|
|
<your full name> in the body of the message. Questions, comments, etc.
|
|
should be direct at Debbie Douglass, ddoug@dl5000.bc.edu.
|
|
|
|
FOREVER KNIGHT: Send mail to listserv@psuvm.psu.edu with SUB FORKNI-L <your
|
|
name> in the body of the message. Questions or problems, contact
|
|
JAP8@psuvm.psu.edu. There is also a sister group, FKFIC-L, for FK related
|
|
fiction. (Use the same address to subscribe.)
|
|
|
|
This one isn't really a magazine, but Paul's been nice enough to give us
|
|
archive space on the FTP server, so we thought we'd help him out and let you
|
|
all know that he's looking for submissions. "I am attempting to expand the
|
|
offerings of electronic fiction and poetry files on the anonymous ftp/gopher
|
|
archive server, etext.archive.umich.edu. If you have any materials you'd
|
|
like to share with the universe, in ASCII text, PostScript, or TeX format, I
|
|
would be delighted to have them, regardless of size. The server pays
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nothing, costs nothing, and you are welcome to copyright and retain all
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privileges so long as unmodified distribution is permitted in some fashion
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(otherwise I can't do anything with it)." There's also a huge collection of
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'zines there, for those who are interested. For more info, contact Paul
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Southworth, pauls@umich.edu.
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Also, for those of you who hang out in the IRC (Internet Relay Chat), Rick
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Russell has started to maintain channel #scifi Monday through Thursday 6 - 8
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pm Eastern Time. (Greenwich time - 5 hrs.) Contact him at
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rick-russell@tamu.edu.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--!15!-- Administrivia
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---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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First off, an apology. Part of the reason for this issue's lateness is a
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catastrophic disk crash on the old editor's antiquated machine. (When was the
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last time you saw the letters IBM without other letters after it?) Some data,
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including the "About the Author"'s and a few newsbits and listings were lost.
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If your listing is one of those that did not appear, please re-send it and
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we will make sure it gets into the next issue.
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How to get hold of us: By e-mail, the preferred way to get hold of us is at
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cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu, but we are also available by Fido at Cyberspace
|
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Vanguard@1:157/564. Then, of course, you can always get hold of us by Snail
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Mail at PO Box 25704, Garfield Hts., OH 44125 USA. Writers should contact us
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at xx133@cleveland.freenet.edu.
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FTP access: Cyberspace Vanguard is archived at etext.archive.umich.edu.
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So that's it. Thanks for sticking with us through another issue, and we hope
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that all of you typo pickers will be disappointed this time! (Thanks, Pat, for
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going over things.)
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---- TJ Goldstein, Editor
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Cyberspace Vanguard Magazine
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--
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CYBERSPACE VANGUARD MAGAZINE
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News and Views from the Science Fiction Universe
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TJ Goldstein, Editor | Send submissions, questions, comments to
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tlg4@po.cwru.edu | cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu
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