1365 lines
65 KiB
Plaintext
1365 lines
65 KiB
Plaintext
Copyright 1992, Vanguard Productions
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WELCOME to the first issue of CYBERSPACE VANGUARD!
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Despite the name, CV is NOT a magazine about or in any
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way related to cyberpunk, except that cyberpunk falls under
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the heading of science fiction. We chose the name simply
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because "cyberspace" is quickly becoming the 90's word for
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the world of electronic communications. CV will cover pretty
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much anything that's of interest to the science fiction
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community, regardless of what it is. We're open to
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submissions from anyone, regardless of experience. The
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writing is judged SOLELY on its quality.
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For writers' guidelines, write to
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cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu or, for those of you who prefer
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to communicate on paper, you can write to us at:
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Cyberspace Vanguard
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PO Box 25704
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Garfield Heights, OH 44125
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USA
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But enough about that. This month we've brought you
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interviews with Jeff Kaake of SPACE RANGERS, Peter Donat of
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the upcoming show TIME TRAX, J. Michael Straczynski, creator
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of BABYLON 5, and Eric Radomski, producer of BATMAN: THE
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ANIMATED SERIES. (What can we say, it's a big month for TV!)
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We've also brought you, in the words of one of our readers,
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"more news than hours of net surfing."
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All this is just the beginning. We need YOUR input to
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help make Cyberspace Vanguard THE source of science fiction
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news. Tell us what you like about it, what you hate about
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it, but most of all, what you think would improve it. So
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that we don't wind up with scores of copies of the magazine
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inadvertently quoted back to our mailbox, we've posted an
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electronic reply card immediately after this post.
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Oh, and a note to other editors: CV is registered with
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the United States Copyright Office. We don't mind you
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quoting us, but we must insist on credit being given. All
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rights revert to the author upon publication. You may repost
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CV IN ITS ENTIRETY, but we'd like to know where so we know
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who's seeing it. (People keep asking us, and it's so hard to
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explain ...)
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So here goes ...
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Table of Contents
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--!1!-- Jeff Kaake on SPACE RANGERS
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--!2!-- Peter Donat on TIME TRAX
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--!3!-- Eric Radomski on BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES
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--!4!-- J. Michael Straczynski on BABYLON 5
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--!5!-- Just what is MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 anyway?
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--!6!-- Globalhead, by Bruce Sterling -- review
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--!7!-- All the news that's fit to transmit
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--!8!-- Spoilers ahoy!
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--!9!-- Opportunity knocks
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--!10!-- Subscription information
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-------------------------------------------------------------
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--!1!-- Jeff Kaake
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THE RANGERS RIDE AGAIN: JEFF KAAKE FINDS HIS NICHE
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ON SPACE RANGERS
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[NOTE: SPACE RANGERS premieres January 6 at 8pm on CBS]
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Either Jeff Kaake is a genuinely nice person, or SPACE
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RANGERS has gotten itself a better actor for the lead role
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than any show has a right to have. Personally, I'll lean
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towards the former. Speaking to CV by telephone on the eve
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of SPACE RANGERS' television debut, he had a vulnerability to
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him, one that bordered on naivete'. "I think the guy is very
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sincere, which is, well, I don't know if it's my stronger or
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weaker trait. He IS fairly naive, which I have been accused
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of being for a lot of years, though I don't think of myself
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as being that way." After all, how can a person possibly
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stay naive in Hollywood? "That's my answer. I hope it's a
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good quality to have a little naivete. It's very hard to
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stay naive in this industry because it's so brutal, but I've
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always managed to make a decent living at it and it's been
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pretty good to me. I hope it gets nothing but better."
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But, joking aside, that naivete' is just one of the
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things that Jeff Kaake has in common with the character he
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plays on the show, Captain John Boon. Boon and the rest of
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his crew are basically futuristic policeman who are, as is
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explained in the first episode, "misfits with an
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imagination." Many light years from Central, they must rely
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on their wits, orders or not. Linda Hunt plays Commander
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Chennalt, who sends Boon and his five member team out on
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missions from their home base, Fort Hope, on the planet
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Avalon. It calls for a leader who is not just resourceful,
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but "human," in the best sense of the word. "Outside of the
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obvious fact that he's a hero, he's a well rounded, whole
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person. He's not one-sided at all. He's VERY human, not the
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perfect stereotype of a hero. He has good days and bad days
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but at the same time he's a bit of a hotshot. He's even got
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a family. He's just a whole person. A lot of the other
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characters I've played have been semi-one dimensional, which
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I'm sure is partly my fault, and partly the writing, and
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everything else. But this guy just kind of clicked for me."
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And it would seem that he's got his work cut out for
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him. The Space Rangers are charged with keeping the peace on
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the frontier in the year 2105. "The Space Rangers are cops
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who are sort of a combination of Marines and peace keepers.
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I've said in past interviews that this is kind of reminiscent
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of the old Texas Rangers, but obviously we've got a new
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frontier. So we're out there exploring the furthest reaches
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of the galaxy and trying to tame all the species that we come
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across and get them to intermingle as a society out there in
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space. Our jobs vary from episode to episode depending on
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what the mission might be that week. A lot of rescue stuff.
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There's even drug smuggling in the year 2105. So there's a
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wide range of things to get into."
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So, are these the United States Space Rangers, or does
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this universe sport the traditional "world government"?
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"It's definitely Earth-born, I'm sure. We've now set up
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stations, what we call Central which is well established as
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to what part of the galaxy that controls. Those are the
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people we answer to and sometimes refuse to answer to, and
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that's so many light years away from our home planet.
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There's no technical reference as to how far away Avalon is,
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but it's the furthest reaches of the galaxy. It's a very
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military structure and the conflict with us as Space Rangers
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is that when you're out in space, so many light years away
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from what we know as civilization it's not black and white,
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you don't necessarily follow all orders 100%. That's one of
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the qualities of a Space Ranger. You've got to be flexible
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and make decisions based on spur of the moment things that
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come up. So it's not a typical military kind of thing.
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We're renegades of the military, I would say."
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And the crew? "There's five of us actually in the sling
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ship itself, which is my crew. They've chosen to serve under
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John Boon because he's got a reputation as a man of his own.
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He does things his way, but he always winds up getting the
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job done. John Boon's the guy that when nobody else will
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take the mission, he'll take it. These guys have all chosen
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to serve under me. It's not like they've been assigned to
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me. It's kind of like they've been hand picked. We haven't
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gotten into other Space Rangers but it's inferred that this
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is a large command center and the Space Rangers as a unit are
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to be dispatched from there."
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It's a look that has been described as "Aliens gone
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television." He says that the production values are quite
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impressive. "It's got a great look. These guys have
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obviously come from a very strong film background. It's real
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blue-collar, real gritty, dirty, lived in, if something
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breaks you fix it, you don't replace it. It's what you'd
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imagine being 10000 light years out and not being able to go
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to the hardware store."
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The attentive reader will notice his use of pronouns. In
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a field where many actors go out of their way to distance
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themselves from their roles, Mr. Kaake doesn't seem too
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concerned about it. "I don't know how other actors feel, but
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there's a lot of Jeff Kaake in John Boon, and I'm sure that
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there are traits of John Boon in Jeff Kaake. So it's just
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kind of an intermeshing of the two. It's really a jumbled up
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combination. You can't help but bring part of yourself into
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it. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't worry [about
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typecasting if the show takes off.] It's just something that
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as an actor you really don't have any control over. It's
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like a big roller coaster ride. Once you're strapped in,
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you're in for the duration. So yeah, it's a concern. I
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certianly wouldn't want this to be it as far as roles are
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concerned, but you've just got to take these things as they
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come. I mean, gee, what at pity it would be if the show ran
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for five or seven years," he jokes. "That'll just be a
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challenge, and I'm sure I'll overcome it someday."
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And if it does run for five years, how does he think
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he'll live with the intense schedule of working on a series,
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where the days are seldom, if ever, less than 12 hours long?
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"I've asked myself that question. I can't imagine having a
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family and existing in this business, watching your children
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grow up. It's a grind. It's a minimum of 12 hours a day,
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five days a week, and if you figure 3 to 5 years, or even
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longer. There are people who go from series to series and
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they have kids, and wives. I just don't know how they keep
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it all together. It's not a healthy business in a lot of
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respects -- the hours, getting off on bad eating habits
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because there's always food around ... there's a lot of down
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time. There's a lot of standing around. Basically what you
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have to do is set up an office wherever your working no
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matter how difficult that may be and run your business and
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pay your bills, run your life when you're not actually on set
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shooting.
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"I look forward to [having a family], but I'm not in any
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hurry to do it. I get my dose when my five year old nephew
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comes up. My girlfriend and I spend a weekend a month with
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him. We love him dearly, but it's nice when the house is
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quiet again. We're part-time parents. I'm sure that in some
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way that I'm not aware of he's affected my life as greatly as
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I think I've affected his. I think that any time you're
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exposed to children they bring out some of the vulnerable
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things that are hidden, stowed away for years, and then you
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find yourself opening up to these young, innocent little
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creatures."
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Although it's being billed as a sort of "Top Gun in
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space," Mr. Kaake says that there's a heavy emphasis on plot
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and character development. "Honestly, in every show they've
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managed to squeeze in all of the above. There's no one that's
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like the others. They all seem to have a real driving force
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to them and it's really interesting. The writers are unique.
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They're all family man, family oriented, and there's a moral
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story behind every show. There's always got to be a reason
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to have an episode. They've managed to find it, and
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hopefully we're going to maintain that equation." Planned
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shows include the pilot, in which the Rangers are threatened
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with replacement by experimental 'droids, intermingling of
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species, drug smuggling, and of course, rescues. There is
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also an episode dealing with prejudices that have survived
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into the 22nd century.
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Plus, "there are definitely reccuring characters. They
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did just an excellent job of casting for our alien creatures
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and they recur. In just the 6 episodes I can think of 3
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characters that recur because the actors behind this crazy
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makeup that they put on are just so stong. They've really
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searched high and low to find these cast members, both for
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the regular cast and the guest stars, and their quality is
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quite high."
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Produced by Trilogy Entertainment (the people who
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brought you BACKDRAFT and ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES), the
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show is pretty well unique in television in at least one
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respect. The trio of Pen Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John
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Watson have, over the years, found a way to work around the
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enormous costs of producing a 1 hour science fiction
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television show: overseas sales. While most programs are
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sold overseas years after they have aired here in the United
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States (the British apparently awaited episodes of DYNASTY as
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eagerly as we waited for DOCTOR WHO), SPACE RANGERS has
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already been sold to foreign markets. "There are six shows,
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all finished, all bought and paid for, which is kind of a new
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thing for 1 hr. television." Eight more scripts have been
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ordered by CBS. "What they've done is they've sold them
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overseas, so they're all bought and paid for prior to even
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making them. That's unusual, and possibily more attractive
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to networks. It's an expensive endeavor, which is why one
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hour television has gotten in trouble at times."
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And at $1,300,000 to $1,400,000 per episode, that kind
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of demand had better exist somewhere.
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No matter what happens, though, Mr. Kaake says he can't
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complain. What convinced him to give up a secure future with
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his father in the auto industry? "A year and a half in the
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auto industry. My father was a good provider, but I just
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didn't have it in me to be a factory rat. I had big dreams,
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and they were squelched for a long time. I realized that if
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I didn't make the move I was going to be doing that for the
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rest of my life. I think you've just got to be happy with
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what you do. Because you're reacting to something that
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doesn't exist [for the bluescreen shots] you never really
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walk away completely confident with your work, but I'm in
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this for a lifetime as far as I'm concerned. This is just
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one step for me, but I've never had so much fun as I've had
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filming this project."
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--!2!-- Peter Donat
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PETER DONAT GETS EVIL FOR THE FUN OF IT ON TIME TRAX
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[NOTE: TIME TRAX premieres January 20 at 8pm on the stations
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of the Prime Time Entertainment Network.]
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Perhaps the foundation of science fiction is the mad
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scientist -- the brilliant thinker who, for some reason,
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turns his talents towards evil. In a world where one is
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really never sure whether a scientific advance is good news
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or bad news, this isn't surprising.
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So it's not surprising that at the center of Lorimar's
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new television show TIME TRAX we find Dr. Mordecai Sahmbi,
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the evil genious who as created a porthole to the past.
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TRAX, Trans-Time Research the time machine Experimentation,
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was funded by the military in the 2180's as a means for transporting
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people and objects back into the past. After years of work,
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however, it became clear that the device had certain limitations.
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For one thing, it had a range of only 200 years. For another
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thing, the human body could only withstand one round trip. His
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funding drying up as the realizations dawn of the project's limited
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\military limited military and academic uses, Sahmbi turns to the
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underworld for financial support, sending criminals 200 years
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into the past, where the law won't be looking for them.
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"Just his name makes him exotic in some way," says Peter
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Donat, the veteran actor in the role of Mordecai Sahmbi.
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"That's totally intentional, I think. He's totally
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mysterious. Nobody knows his background, his parentage,
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where he was born, how he was educated, but he's an absolute
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genious in computerdom and high physics and chemistry and all
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of the sciences. I think what happens to him in the series
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is that in his absolute need to control people and things he
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becomes a very evil man. He needs to control people and
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things and he's brilliant enough to do it."
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But the character isn't one-dimensionally evil.
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"Aquisition of power led him into evil. There are some
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indications in the script that he's a good man. Mia Sarah
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has a line in the first episode that she was very attracted
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to him as a young student and it was only later when she
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could see what he was doing and where it was leading him that
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she had to split away. So I think that in the lust for power
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he became evil. It happens sometimes. You know the old
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saying, 'Power corrupts and absolute power totally corrupts.'
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"I think that's the case with Mordecai Sahmbi. So he
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becomes a very very monumentally evil man, and that's what
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makes him so interesting to play, of course. The size of his
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impudence attracted me to the role. It makes him much more
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interesting than just an ordinary criminal. He's an
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extraordinary criminal. Of course, if something he did
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happened to do some good by accident, I don't think he would
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mind. But his aim is personal power and control. He's
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attracted to women, but his only way to control them is to be
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more brilliant. He believes that otherwise he won't be
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attractive to them. In that way, he's vulnerable."
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But it's not all wine and roses for Sahmbi. Darien
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Lambert, Retrieval Expert, is assigned the task of finding
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out why criminal figures are suddenly disappearing off the
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face of the earth. When he gets close to the truth, Sahmbi
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is forced to take refuge in the past, to become "a king among
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primitives."
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Thus is the beginning of the saga. Lambert follows
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after Sahmbi, chasing the criminal of the week. Those who
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have resumed their criminal ways are sent back to the future
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for prosecution, those who have reformed themselves are left
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alone.
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In addition to an enormous amount of training and skill,
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he has one more advantage. While Sam Beckett has the
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holographic Al as his guide, Lambert has Selma, the
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holographic picture projected by his computer, keenly
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disguised as a credit card. Unlike Al, Selma has all the
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feelings of an IBM PC, but she has been known to get jealous
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when Lambert gets too close to another woman.
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Through it all there's Sahmbi. "I just hope that the
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producers and the writers can keep finding interesting ways
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for Sahmbi to operate so that it doesn't become repetitive.
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But that hasn't happened yet. It's just beginning. The
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variety of his approaches and his manner and his various
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means of escapting create problems for the young hero, who is
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highly skilled and educated himself. They become a good
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twosome, like Holmes and Moriarty." Of the 22 episodes
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filmed, Sahmbi is in perhaps 7 or 8 of them, but it is his
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influence that pervades the show.
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To cut costs, the show was filmed Surfer's Paradise in
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Australia, where favorable exchange rates made it possible to
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keep costs at just about $1,000,000 per episode. "I'd
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neverJbeen there before. They're marvelous upfront people.
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The crew is terrific. They bring in quite a number of actors
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from the United States, the rest of the parts are played by
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Australian actors and they're just fine, and they have a
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bigJstudio at their disposal in Queensland. It was nothing
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but pleasure, though they're concerned about the sun because
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of the ozone. They have signs there that say 'Slip, slap,
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slop.' I think it's slip on a shirt, slap on a hat and slop
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on some sunscreen. They warn people, but a lot of people
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don't way any attention to it. They have theseJbeautiful
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beaches. It really IS Surfer's Paradise. It's a huge,
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underpopulated country."
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Each episode, however, will take place in a different
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city. "It will be in various cities in the United States
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through computer matting and so on. It's incredible. The
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actors are in Australia, but there they are in Washington.
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That's what the series is about, in a way: advanced
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technology."
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All of this leaves Mr. Donat as just one of a slew of
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actors exposed to the nuances of filming science fiction for
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the first time. "The shooting techniques and the acting
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techniques are the same. The only differences are physical
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things. Like, in order to be transferred in time, it's a
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terrible agony. You go into an immediate terribly deep
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freeze. So in order to accomplish that, there's a makeup
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that takes three, three and a half hours. You look like
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you're encrusted in ice. The difference between a science
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fiction show and a show where you sit around in living rooms
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sipping martinis are the physical situations you get yourself
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into."
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But a little discomfort seems to be worth it for him.
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"There's quite a bit of comedy in the series. It doesn't
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take itself too seriously. I spent most of my life in the
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theater but I've done tv and film whenever whenever whenever
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possible because there's such a vast audience. And then
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there's more money involved, of course. Let's just say that
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a successful series would be new to me." Though he's never
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been exposed to organized fandom, he seems to be taking it
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all in stride. "I've never been exposed to that. Maybe
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it'll come up with this one. I suppose I would be
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[interested in conventions] because it's all part of the
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promotion of the show, I would think."
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The show itself seems to have a positive attitude to it,
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though it's not above commentary on today's problems. (In
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one episode, Sahmbi makes a fortune by sending nuclear waste
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back into the future, so that it literally disappears and
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no-one has to worry about it for a couple of centuries. "It's
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a good morality play because in a way, if we're not careful,
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that's what we're trying to do -- leave it for the future to
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deal with. But he REALLY does it.") But the future is one
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of optimism, of advances in science, computers and education.
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We will see it approximately 50% of the time, as the
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occasional sidekick comes back to the past, never to be seen
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again once he or she goes back to the future.
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So to what does Mr. Donat think we owe this resurgence
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of science fiction programming? "I think it's because that's
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where we're at. Most of the world, especially the United
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States, is very much into computerdom and scientific
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progress. And fortunately a lot of progress has been made in
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science for the good of people. So some good things are
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|
happening, especially in medicine. It's our present
|
|
mythology. We've become involved in the supercomplication of
|
|
computers. They've become more and more knowledgable in
|
|
helping a human being cope. I think it expresses a reality
|
|
of our life." Of course, this show is an example of how that
|
|
sort of thing can go awry. "I know. Human beings are always
|
|
going to have good and evil, construction and
|
|
destruction."
|
|
All of which leaves one question: What about the people
|
|
who will inevitably say, "Isn't this an awful lot like
|
|
Quantum Leap?" Mr. Donat is quick to answer. "Well, I'd say
|
|
that's a good reason for watching them both."
|
|
|
|
--!3!-- Eric Radomski
|
|
|
|
DARK KNIGHTS IN THE BIG CITY: ERIC RADOMSKI ON
|
|
|
|
BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES
|
|
|
|
Back in the 1960's, everybody who was anybody wanted to
|
|
get some sort of role on the campy television show BATMAN,
|
|
from Vincent price to Talulah Bankhead. It wasn't that the
|
|
show's dramatic quality was all that good, it was just ...
|
|
well, the thing to do. Now, roughly 25 years later, history
|
|
seems to be repeating itself with BATMAN: THE ANIMATED
|
|
SERIES, running in the afternoons on the Fox network. Famous
|
|
voices in major roles include Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Alfred,
|
|
Melissa Gilbert-Brinkman as Batgirl and Barbara Gordon, Mark
|
|
Hamill as the Joker, Roddy McDowell as the Mad Hatter, and
|
|
David Warner as Ra's Al Ghoul. The list is a page long. "I
|
|
really think they were drawn to the property. I don't know
|
|
all the details, but I do know that they weren't paid any
|
|
more because of their status. It was strictly union scale.
|
|
It always shocked us to go to the recording sessions because
|
|
even if you didn't know specifically their names, you
|
|
definitely recognized them from television," says Eric
|
|
Radomski, producer of B:TAS. "It was great working on a show
|
|
where these people came in and just did their best. It's
|
|
great when you work with incredibly talented people because
|
|
they don't need a lot of direction. You kind of point them
|
|
in one direction and they just go with it."
|
|
Of course, some people were more eager than others.
|
|
"Mark Hammill is a big comics fan, and he just wanted to work
|
|
on it no matter what we gave him." Originally cast for an
|
|
incidental part in the Mr. Freeze episode ("Heart of Ice"),
|
|
he was given a chance to read for the Joker when the Powers
|
|
That Be at Fox decided that Tim Curry, who was originally
|
|
cast, was just TOO menacing.
|
|
Mr. Radomski, formerly a background painter for Steven
|
|
Speilberg's Tiny Toons, is in his element as Co-Producer of
|
|
BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. It is he who gets the credit
|
|
for the dark look of the afternoon show. "I was responsible
|
|
for the styling of the backgrounds, which is different
|
|
because we did the opposite of what you usually do. Normally
|
|
you work on a white surface and you paint the background on.
|
|
We started with black and just added color to it, because
|
|
it's, well, the night. It's just a technique that took off.
|
|
For whatever reason, it just worked. It made the show real
|
|
dark and moody. A lot of people resisted it at first because
|
|
it was different. They were saying, 'How are we going to do
|
|
this?' The people overseas were saying 'Nobody knows how to
|
|
do this.' Now it's the marquis of the show. If you watch it
|
|
in sequence with the afternoon programming you have all of
|
|
these bright colors and commercials and then you come back to
|
|
the show and it's, like, 'Wow, what is this doing here?' It
|
|
really seems out of place with the rest of the shows. It's
|
|
pretty weird. The advertising escpecially ... here you have
|
|
this really dark show and then an ad for Little Potty Magic
|
|
or something like that. We get a good laugh out of that."
|
|
All of this darkness coincides with the character, of
|
|
course. "I really dug Batman in the movie because he was a
|
|
hero, and yet he wasn't the hero that ran around carrying a
|
|
flag. He was just a guy that was doing a job for the people
|
|
who couldn't do it for themselves. He had all these gadgets,
|
|
and he was really strong, and secluded." This is part of the
|
|
reason that you won't be seeing any other Superheroes
|
|
crossover into B:TAS. "I think it would defeat his strength
|
|
as a character. I know it's taken place before, but it just
|
|
doesn't work for our interpretation of Batman. The fact that
|
|
we use Robin is enough of a distraction but we've managed to
|
|
make it work. Batman is a vigilante. He's a solo act, and
|
|
he's so strong walking along a rooftop stalking a criminal
|
|
and then along comes Robin in this flash of color.
|
|
"Before that I had taken it only as far as the 1960's
|
|
camp TV show. My partner [producer] Bruce Timm is a
|
|
long-time dedicated fan of Batman, and he followed the comics
|
|
quite a bit. This is a big success as far as he's concerned
|
|
because he always wanted to do the definitive Batman and
|
|
feels we have, so it was nice to work with a few people that
|
|
were gung-ho about doing it. From my point of view, this was
|
|
the ONLY way to do this. So many kids' shows are done just
|
|
for merchandising, but we've tried to do something better
|
|
than that."
|
|
All of this seems to carry a great deal of satisfaction
|
|
for Mr. Radomski, who came to Hollywood from Cleveland, Ohio
|
|
looking to work for Disney. "At the time I was growing up,
|
|
Warner Brothers animation was no longer doing any orignal
|
|
artwork. That had kind of died in the 1960's. Looney Tunes,
|
|
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck were my favorites on television, but
|
|
as far as I knew they were no longer going to be a studio,
|
|
and Disney always interested me. I always hoped to work
|
|
there."
|
|
He got his wish, doing some freelance work with an
|
|
educational branch. "It wasn't working actually AT the
|
|
studio, but it was kind of neat. Over the course of working
|
|
in the industry out here and learning a little bit more about
|
|
the inside of the studios, it ain't what it used to be. You
|
|
hear all these great stories of the '40's and the 50's in the
|
|
heyday and it sounded great when Walt was there, but now it
|
|
seems that although they still do the high quality work, I
|
|
think high finainces come into play. Although they do put
|
|
out a good product, I don't think it's got as much loving
|
|
care as it used to. It's a financial business, very money
|
|
oriented, marketing toys and things, and that kind of
|
|
overrules alot. So it no longer has the big draw for me that
|
|
it once did. I definitely am a bit disillusioned,
|
|
unfortunately. It's the nature of the business, I guess.
|
|
They've put themselves on a schedule of putting a feature out
|
|
every year and a half, and doing all of these television
|
|
shows, and I think you lose a lot of that special feel. They
|
|
still put out a good product, I just think it can be better."
|
|
Is he any closer to that ideal at Warner Brothers? "In
|
|
a sense, in as far as our show went I think we achieved a lot
|
|
more than we could have ever expected, and a lot more than a
|
|
lot of people expected for daytime television, because of the
|
|
amount of work we put out -- 65 half-hour episodes in two
|
|
years. I'm thinking of some of the some of the great
|
|
features of Disney, two hour films, and they've had sometimes
|
|
four years to work on them. We've done close to 15 features
|
|
in two years if you just look at the screen time. So it's
|
|
come out really well, but it's two different monsters."
|
|
It takes an enormous effort. Warner Brother employs 70
|
|
full time staff members for the show, including four
|
|
directors, so that multiple shows can be worked on at the
|
|
same time. And that doesn't include the animation.
|
|
Everything from script to storyboards and (sometimes)
|
|
layout is done in the states and then it's shipped to studios
|
|
overseas for the actual drawing and ink-and-paint. The
|
|
studios then send it back to Warner, which either sends it
|
|
back for retakes or goes directly to post production. The
|
|
studios, which include Spectrum Animation and TMS in Japan,
|
|
which have worked with Disney and Hanna-Barbera. (TMS was
|
|
trained by Disney for their work on the Wuzzles and the Gummi
|
|
Bears.)
|
|
All of this means that they have to worry about whether
|
|
a show is going to come in one time or not. "Because of the
|
|
amount of production that's done overseas, a lot of time you
|
|
can't depend on shows coming in. It really is just a balance
|
|
of production because once it comes down to crunch time the
|
|
studios overseas get overbooked, a couple of the key people
|
|
get sick, and they can't deliver on time ... It's a domino
|
|
effect. They miss a couple of dates and then our music
|
|
people get pushed back a couple of days and the effects
|
|
people, all the way down the line." To ease that pressure,
|
|
they began sprinkling reruns into the schedule as early as
|
|
one month into the show's run.
|
|
Mr. Radomski feels that it was worth it. The reruns ran
|
|
in lieu of some particularly strong shows which were held out
|
|
for sweeps weeks. These shows included "Dreams in Darkness,"
|
|
in which Batman, under the influence of fear gas, must stop
|
|
the Scarecrow from poisoning Gotham's water supply while
|
|
battling both the psychiatrists of Arkham Asylum and the
|
|
hallucinations that put him there, and "Robin's Reckoning,"
|
|
Dick Grayson's backstory. "It's a two part show. It'll tear
|
|
your heart out. His parents die on the trapeze, and he grows
|
|
up with Bruce Wayne because he has no family. With the music
|
|
and the effects and everything, it's really sad. You never
|
|
see actual physical violence, but it's implied, and I think
|
|
that's a lot more effective. It's an implied tragic death,
|
|
and even though you don't see anything, it's really striking.
|
|
It's like, 'Wow, we didn't see anything, but I know they're
|
|
dead.'"
|
|
When I spoke to Mr. Radomski back in October, the show
|
|
had snatched the title of "Top Rated Afternoon Children's
|
|
Show." The closest competition was Disney's GOOF TROOP.
|
|
Ratings have not slipped, and it has been reported that 40%
|
|
of the audience is over 19 years old. It's these statistics
|
|
that convinced Fox to give B:TAS a a slot on Sundays at 7pm.
|
|
"THE SIMPSONS is kind of the adult humor [animation]. We
|
|
want to be the adult drama, and I think we can do that. It
|
|
shouldn't just be for kids, but kids should be able to watch
|
|
it too."
|
|
"For me it's the best artistic expression you can get
|
|
because it incorporates every different art forms. We do
|
|
drawing and painting and photography and directing as
|
|
filmmakers. There are musicians involved, sound effects
|
|
people involved, a band of technicians. It's a nice
|
|
collaboration to get a big group together and see everybody
|
|
working toward the same goal and when it comes out as well as
|
|
our show has, it just makes two years seem like no big deal.
|
|
We could never have planned the show to do as well as it's
|
|
doing, and that's a real plus."
|
|
|
|
--!4!-- J. Michael Straczynski
|
|
|
|
HOW TO INSPIRE CREATIVITY AND DEVOTION IN ONE EASY PILOT:
|
|
|
|
J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI ON BABYLON 5
|
|
|
|
Some people just have a knack for coming up with the
|
|
quotes that people remember. I'm not sure, but I think that
|
|
if we did a study we would find out that most of them are
|
|
writers, or could be. That's certainly the case with J.
|
|
Michael Straczynski, creator and co-producer of the upcoming
|
|
series BABYLON 5. With writing credits that range from
|
|
novels to the syndicated TWILIGHT ZONE, he told CV in a phone
|
|
interview between production meetings, "Some people sell a
|
|
show in order to become a producer. I became a producer in
|
|
order to sell this show."
|
|
It seems like a lot of trouble to go through, but he
|
|
must believe in it. The series, which deals with the goings
|
|
on of a space station named Babylon 5 (hence the title), has
|
|
taken five years to go from idea to reality. They have been
|
|
five eventful years.
|
|
The station, which lies at the junction of five
|
|
previously warring galactic empires, is the fifth of its
|
|
kind. The first three were sabotaged, and the fourth simply
|
|
vanished without a trace. But it has a strategic importance,
|
|
in that it is the jumping off point to all five empires by
|
|
way of string-like entities.
|
|
Hm. For those of you who have been following the
|
|
developments on STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, your reaction at
|
|
this point is probably one of suspicion. The two shows have
|
|
nearly identical premises -- on the surface, anyway. Mr.
|
|
Straczynski has repeatedly refused to accuse Rick Berman and
|
|
Michael Piller, Star Trek producers, of stealing his ideas.
|
|
"All I can say is that we have the paper trail. It was
|
|
brought to Paramount, and they did see the material. It has
|
|
been in production for five years. We announced in the
|
|
trades in November [of 1991] that BABYLON 5 was going ahead,
|
|
and we know that the presentation for DS9 wasn't made to
|
|
Brandon Tartikoff until January [of 1992]. On the flip side,
|
|
though, it is my sincere conviction that neither [Rick]
|
|
Berman or [Michael] Piller ever saw the material. They are
|
|
two honorable men who would never borrow a comma from
|
|
anybody."
|
|
He does seem to think that perhaps the competition might
|
|
be good for BOTH shows. _Cinefantastic_ magazine quoted him
|
|
as saying the show would "kick DEEP SPACE NINE's [butt]," but
|
|
he says it's out of context, and that he meant "that STAR
|
|
TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION has gotten complacent, and maybe if
|
|
we can give them a short, sharp kick in the butt, they'll
|
|
stop being complacent and be more willing to try innovative
|
|
new things." But there's still a twinge of pride in his
|
|
tone. "Best case scenario, in five years both shows have
|
|
gone on to be eminently successful. Worst case scenario, we
|
|
beat the pants off them."
|
|
At any rate, once one looks past the surface, there is a
|
|
galaxy of difference between the shows. While DS9 is set in
|
|
what is pretty much a well established universe -- OK, so we
|
|
don't really know much about the Cardassians, but we know
|
|
pretty much everything else -- BAB5 is meant to be more of a
|
|
"tapestry," an entirely new universe in which to be
|
|
figuratively lost.
|
|
"Nobody's really done that since Star Trek. Battlestar
|
|
Galactica was just the planet of the week. It wasn't really
|
|
a new universe. In this case, we have really done our
|
|
homework." In terms of volume, they certainly have, creating
|
|
new languages, complete environments for the station's
|
|
non-human inhabitants. "Not everybody is human, and
|
|
different parts of the station will be different
|
|
environments, so there would be places that you can't go
|
|
without the appropriate protection, that sort of thing."
|
|
But that's not the only place where Mr. Straczynski has
|
|
done his homework. The show is designed around a five year
|
|
"arc," in which approximately half the shows have already
|
|
been plotted out. "The place where most shows get into
|
|
trouble is where they don't plan ahead, and then they need
|
|
things in a hurry. We have things planned out, so we can
|
|
say, 'OK, we're going to need this shot in the middle of the
|
|
second season," so we can start working on it now. That also
|
|
allows us to amortize costs on sets and that sort of thing."
|
|
Perhaps it was also that careful planning that allowed the
|
|
project to actually come in $1000 UNDER budget.
|
|
That might be surprising, given the big names associated
|
|
with the project. Stewart Copland is responsible for the
|
|
music, John Iacovelli created the sets, John Criswell of Jim
|
|
Henson's Creature Shop created the prosthetics, Richard
|
|
Compton, whose experience includes MIAMI VICE and THE
|
|
EQUALIZER, directed, along with many people who usually
|
|
disdain television work, but were so impressed with the
|
|
project that they had to be involved. The effects, which
|
|
were ALL done with computer, were created by Ron Thornton.
|
|
Even Harlan Ellison has a hand in it. "We wanted a
|
|
manifesto on how to do this show right, so we went to a real
|
|
science fiction writer. He came up with a list of what to do
|
|
and what not to do in a science fiction television program."
|
|
One thing he doesn't want to do is use the show as a
|
|
soapbox. Though there are subtle messages within the show --
|
|
for instance, Laurel Takashima, the first officer, was
|
|
originally named Laurel Chang, but he changed it in an
|
|
attempt to fight Japan bashing -- those messages are mean to
|
|
be subtle. "Some shows do get a little pedantic and you just
|
|
want to say, 'Why don't you just use Western Union?'"
|
|
Embedded within the show are certain myserties. Why did
|
|
the Minbari, on the eve of victory over Earth, suddenly
|
|
surrender? Where did the string-like entities come from?
|
|
And what really happened to Commander Jeffery Sinclair during
|
|
the last 24 hours of the war? All of these things will be
|
|
resolved, of course, but not for a while. And what happens
|
|
when the five year story is complete?
|
|
"This show ends in five years. If somebody wants to do
|
|
another project involving some of the same characters, that's
|
|
another issue. But Babylon 5, as it exists, ends in five
|
|
years."
|
|
|
|
--!5!-- Misty
|
|
|
|
"JOIN US:" INSIGHT INTO THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED
|
|
|
|
_MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000_
|
|
|
|
by Lisa Jenkins
|
|
|
|
Thanksgiving Day was a doldrum of football games and
|
|
unending parades -- except for Comedy Central, an all-comedy
|
|
network shown in 35 million homes across America. Comedy
|
|
Central offered "Turkey Day," 30 straight hours of the worst
|
|
movies ever made. But just because the movies are bad
|
|
doesn't mean they're unwatchable, because the viewers aren't
|
|
watching them alone.
|
|
_Mystery Science Theater 3000_ is the newest, hippest,
|
|
coolest comedy on television today. After all, what else can
|
|
you get when you take two mad scientists who shoot a
|
|
well-meaning innocent janitor out into space and force him to
|
|
watch bad movies with his robot companions? Is this a
|
|
complicated science fiction concept? Not really. If the
|
|
viewers have any questions about the science facts, the theme
|
|
song reminds them to repeat to themselves "it's just a show,
|
|
I should really just relax."
|
|
And quite a show it is, too. _Mystery Science Theater
|
|
3000_, or MST3K, has been acclaimed by many of America's top
|
|
critics, including Tom Shales of _The Washington Post_,
|
|
_People Weekly_'s "Picks and Pans," and _TV Guide_'s "Cheers
|
|
'N' Jeers." _OMNI_'s August issue featured a five-page
|
|
spread on Joel and his robot sidekicks, Crow and Tom Servo
|
|
who all must endure the painful cinematic features dished to
|
|
them by their evil overlords, Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's
|
|
Frank.
|
|
The show is not strictly science fiction, although its
|
|
premise certainly appeals to science fiction fans. It's a
|
|
comedy, a "monster movie" show, a forum for society's
|
|
commentary, imaginative, and very funny. It's homespun look
|
|
and cheap B-movies appeal to any television viewer's sense of
|
|
humor, including the ever-watchful eye of TV critics.
|
|
Critics and celebrities alike got a chance to brag on
|
|
their favorite comedic television show for Comedy Central's
|
|
special, "This is MST 3K." The half-hour special, repeated
|
|
several times during the months of November and December,
|
|
featured interviews with the likes of TV critics Tom Shales
|
|
(_The Washington Post_) and Matt Roush (_USA Today_) along
|
|
with other celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris (star,
|
|
_Doogie Howser, MD_) and Bob O'Shea (producer, _Cheers_).
|
|
Fans of the program were treated to a glimpse of MST3K's
|
|
beginnings, including footage from KTMA TV23, an independent
|
|
station in Minneapolis where _Mystery Science Theater_ first
|
|
aired. Appropriately, MST3K's anniversary falls on
|
|
Thanksgiving Day as its first locally-shown episode aired
|
|
November 24, 1988.
|
|
_Mystery Science Theater_ has come a long way since the
|
|
days at KTMA. The program's very existence seemed in
|
|
jeopardy when KTMA no longer could fund the show's minuscule
|
|
budget of $50 a week. However, with the support of local
|
|
viewers and the determination of show's creator, Joel
|
|
Hodgson, MST3K was bought by HBO's Comedy Channel. When the
|
|
merger between Comedy Channel and Showtime's HA! came to
|
|
pass, MST3K survived and thrived with a growing number of
|
|
viewers across the country, including the number of members
|
|
in the show's fan club. Best Brains, the show's production
|
|
company, receives hundreds of letters a week from fans of all
|
|
ages, and the fan club has grown to nearly 20,000 members.
|
|
MST3K may perhaps get the acclaim its critics and fans
|
|
believe it deserves on January 17, night of the ACE Cable
|
|
Awards. This is its second year for an ACE nomination. Last
|
|
year, HBO's _Dream On_ walked off with "best comedy," but
|
|
this year _Mystery Science Theater_ is up for "best writing
|
|
in a comedy series."
|
|
_Mystery Science Theater 3000_ airs on Comedy Central
|
|
Friday nights late at 12:30 AM and Saturdays at 10:00 AM with
|
|
a repeat at 7:00 PM (all times Eastern/Pacific).
|
|
|
|
--!6!-- Globalhead
|
|
|
|
Globalhead
|
|
|
|
by Bruce Sterling
|
|
|
|
Mark V. Ziesing Books
|
|
|
|
ISBN 0-929480-69-4
|
|
|
|
293 pages; $29.95
|
|
|
|
Review by Rick Kleffel
|
|
|
|
Just like the vampires of horror fiction, the genre of
|
|
science fiction is constantly being resurrected; whenever you
|
|
think it's finally dead, somebody comes along and jerks it
|
|
back into life. It's been nearly ten years since William
|
|
Gibson and Bruce Sterling electronically re-incarnated SF as
|
|
cyberpunk. Now that cyberpunk has hit the grocery racks and
|
|
the skids, who else but Bruce Sterling should come along and
|
|
resurrect SF in yet another guise, this time as "World
|
|
Fiction". In "Globalhead", a collection consisting mostly of
|
|
pieces from the last two years, Sterling deconstructs the
|
|
genre that gave him birth, and puts it back together again in
|
|
a wild cut-and-paste frenzy of ethnic imagination. While all
|
|
of the pieces were published in genre magazines, only a few
|
|
of them appear to have anything to do with SF. Or rather,
|
|
they return SF to what it's strongest proponents always hope
|
|
it will be -- a vivid flight of the human imagination.
|
|
The collection starts with "Our Neural Chernobyl", set
|
|
in a future where scientists have undergone a basic moral
|
|
conversion from "the white coated sociopath of the past" to
|
|
"democratized, media conscious, fully integrated into the
|
|
mainstream of modern culture", with a propensity to write
|
|
articles such as "'The Locus Coerruleus Efferent Network:
|
|
What in the Heck Is it There For?'". Despite the bleak
|
|
events mapped out for us in the next fifty or so years, the
|
|
overall tone is surprisingly playful. In "The
|
|
Compassionate, the Digital", Sterling artfully laces
|
|
together Islamic agit-prop and high- tech magic with results
|
|
that are both frightening and funny.
|
|
Sterling shows his best SF colors in "The Shores of
|
|
Bohemia", a story in which nano-technology, here
|
|
indistinguishable from magic, has subsumed all but a few
|
|
small enclaves. An expatriate architect returns to explain
|
|
that "'Once you learn to live life on the outside, you learn
|
|
to see matters differently. To read patterns of immanance,
|
|
to smell it almost...Perceptions become data, data becomes
|
|
thought, thought becomes...I think you might say 'spirit',
|
|
though that term doesn't really --'". Sterling allows the
|
|
readers to fill in his mysterious blanks in much the same way
|
|
that Lovecraft allowed his readers to see only enough of his
|
|
demons so that their imaginations could complete the picture
|
|
with terrifying accuracy.
|
|
In his non-SF stories, Sterling susbstitutes an ethnic
|
|
setting for the typical techonological premise. "Storming
|
|
the Cosmos" follows two ne'er-do-wells on the fringes of the
|
|
Soviet Space program in 1958 and sends them out to the site
|
|
of the Tunguska meteorite strike. The world he depicts is
|
|
packed with KGB informers, drunken scientists, savage Mongol
|
|
men and women, frozen mud, monolithic tribal Red Army
|
|
brigades, and hallucinogenic mushrooms, jostling one another
|
|
to get in an edgewise word. It's so vivid, it takes the
|
|
reader a while to return to reality.
|
|
This is not to say the book is without flaw. In "The
|
|
Sword of Damocles", Sterling attempts to lampoon the
|
|
deconstructionists, but succeeds only in falling prey to the
|
|
faults he parodies. And while "The Gulf Wars", first
|
|
published in 1987, is reeking with an authentic atmosphere
|
|
and unarguably prophetic, it does seem a bit heavy handed.
|
|
The two best stories feature Leggy Starlitz, a
|
|
small-time smuggler who, in "Hollywood Kremlin" takes the
|
|
reader "under Iranian radar, all the way from Kabul to Soviet
|
|
Azerbaijan." Scenes of opulent rotting splendor in the hotel
|
|
strongholds of smuggling lords and ladies contrast with
|
|
sharply-etched pictures of black-market bribery in the backs
|
|
of rumbling army trucks. In "Are You For 86?", the
|
|
collection's only original work, Leggy makes it Stateside,
|
|
smuggling the controversial French "abortion pill" to
|
|
high-tech Pro-Choice forces, while trying to evade equally
|
|
high-tech Pro-Lifers. Sterling skillfully applies the same
|
|
kaleidescopic vision to the US that he does to the more
|
|
exotic locales. What he does is nothing short of amazing.
|
|
He re-invents our world so imaginatively that his
|
|
descriptions of reality take on the sheen of wildly inventive
|
|
science fiction. And yes, perhaps it is true that in these
|
|
stories, SF is dead; but no one can bring down Bruce
|
|
Sterling's flights of fancy.
|
|
|
|
--!7!-- And now, the news
|
|
|
|
ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO TRANSMIT
|
|
|
|
Amblin About
|
|
|
|
Paramount has signed Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy
|
|
to a production deal. They met during the production of
|
|
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and founded Amblin Entertainment with
|
|
Steven Speilberg in 1981, though Marshall left Amblin in
|
|
1991.
|
|
The pair, who have been responsible for a slew of genre
|
|
movies, such as ET, BACK TO THE FUTURE, HOOK, ARACHNOPHOBIA
|
|
and of course the INDIANA JONES movies, agreed to a
|
|
non-exclusive pact that states they give Paramount first dibs
|
|
on their projects, and will be based on the Paramount lot.
|
|
Kathleen Kennedy is currenly producing Steven
|
|
Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
And speaking of JURASSIC PARK ...
|
|
|
|
When Michael Crichton wrote JURASSIC PARK, a book about
|
|
dinosaurs genetically grown from ancient DNA in order to be
|
|
the basis for a theme park, the made the velociraptors six
|
|
feet tall, in accordance with the fossils that had been
|
|
found. Since these are the most vicious of the reptilian
|
|
beasts, however, Steven Speilberg defied his paleontologist
|
|
advisors and made them much larger for dramatic effect.
|
|
Well, according to the January, 1993 issue of DISCOVER
|
|
magazine, he gets the last laugh with the discovery in Utah
|
|
of a 20 foot long, 1500 pound velociraptor. Nicknamed
|
|
"Speilberg's raptor," it will more likely go down in the
|
|
books as Utahraptor.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
GODZILLA rises again -- at least temporarily
|
|
|
|
This being the first issue of CV, maybe it's fitting
|
|
that we start out the news with one of the granddaddies of sf
|
|
films, Godzilla, or as he is known in Japan, Gojira. Toho
|
|
produced the first of these monster movies in 1954, and while
|
|
the dubbing might not have been the greatest (though it
|
|
certainly has inspired lots of comedy) the original film was
|
|
good enough to inspire sequels that are STILL being made in
|
|
Japan.
|
|
Ironically, while the next Japanese Gojira film will see
|
|
the death of the King of the Monsters, TriStar has reportedly
|
|
paid anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000 for the rights to use
|
|
the characters from the first 15 installments of the series.
|
|
Rumors are flying as to who will be involved, but Tim Burton,
|
|
a huge Godzilla fan, has been mentioned as a possible
|
|
director. The film would be for release in December 1993,
|
|
and would have a budget of $40 million.
|
|
The series WILL continue in Japan, even though Gojira
|
|
will be killed in a battle with MekaGojira, created by the
|
|
Japan Defense Force. The next films will involve Gojira's
|
|
child, Minya (Godzooky in the US version), who will be all
|
|
grown up by the end of the latest film.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Bill Bixby, star of THE INCREDIBLE HULK, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN,
|
|
and many other tv shows, is reportedly responding to
|
|
experimental drug treatment for advanced prostate cancer.
|
|
The drug, Suramin, is giving him no nasty side effects, and
|
|
he told TV Guide that he's "going to beat this thing!" He
|
|
was apparently well enough to joke with his doctors,
|
|
pretending to be dead when they injected him with the drug.
|
|
His doctors' response was "Very funny, Bill. Don't do that
|
|
again."
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Golden Globes
|
|
|
|
Genre and related nominations for the Golden Globe Awards, to
|
|
be given January 23, 1993:
|
|
|
|
Motion Picture, musical or comedy: ALADDIN, SISTER ACT
|
|
Actress, motion picture musical or comedy: Meryl Streep,
|
|
DEATH BECOMES HER, Whoopi Goldberg, SISTER ACT,
|
|
Geena Davis (Earth Girls are Easy), A LEAGUE OF
|
|
THEIR OWN
|
|
Motion Picture director: Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride), A
|
|
FEW GOOD MEN
|
|
Motion Picture Original Score: ALADDIN, by Alan Menken
|
|
Motion Picture Original Song: "Friend Like Me," "Prince
|
|
Ali," and "A Whole New World" (ALADDIN), Alan Menken
|
|
and Howard Ashman
|
|
TV Series Actor: Scott Bakula (QUANTUM LEAP)
|
|
Best Actress in a TV mini-series or motion picture: Drew
|
|
Barrymore (ET), Gun Crazy
|
|
Best TV Supporting actor in a series, mini-series or motion
|
|
picture: Dean Stockwell (QUANTUM LEAP)
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Anthony Hopkins, the cannabilstic killer in SILENCE OF THE
|
|
LAMBS, is now Sir Anthony. He was knighted New Years day
|
|
into the Order of the British Empire.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Meanwhile, over in the Magic Kingdom ...
|
|
|
|
Disney CEO Michael Eisner reportedly grossed $200
|
|
million in 1992, as a combination of salary, perks, and
|
|
selling off some of his studio stock.
|
|
Walt Disney archivist David Smith and Disney employee
|
|
Kevin Neary have written THE ULTIMATE DISNEY TRIVIA BOOK,
|
|
with 999 ways to date yourself and prove that you really are
|
|
a kid at heart.
|
|
Disney has exhausted appeals of at $2.3 million award to
|
|
singer Peggy Lee for using her voice in the video version of
|
|
LADY AND THE TRAMP. Ms. Lee provided the voices of Peg, the
|
|
siamese cats, and Darling, for which she received $4000,
|
|
including that for her part in writing six of the songs. She
|
|
had originally sued for $50 million.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Planet Hollywood is doing well. Arnold Schwartznegger,
|
|
Sylvester Stallone, and Bruce Willis, owners of the New York
|
|
City restaurant, have been so pleased with its success that
|
|
they have opened another in Southen California.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
BATMAN RETURNS took top box office honors for 1992, socking
|
|
away gross earnings of $162 million and helping the industry
|
|
top last 1991's gross of $4.8 billion, though it didn't come
|
|
close to 1991's $204 million for TERMINATOR 2. It also held
|
|
the top spot for 3 weeks and helped to give Warner a 20%
|
|
share of the 1992 market, edging out Disney for the top spot,
|
|
according to Daily Variety.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
The end of the Smurfs: Pierre (Peyo) Culliford, who created
|
|
the blue creatures, died in late September at the age of 64.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
51 Mulberry Street, adress of the house that may have
|
|
inspired the first Dr.Suess book, AND TO THINK I SAW IT ON
|
|
MULBERRY STREET, is now an empty hole. Apparently the
|
|
current owner had it torn down without permission, despite
|
|
the fact that it is on the national Register of Historic
|
|
Places. Dr. Phillip Stone could be ordered to rebuild the
|
|
house exactly as Theodor Geisel saw it in the early 1930's in
|
|
addition to local and state fines.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
QUANTUM LEAP NOVEL #2: TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT is due out in
|
|
January or February of 1993. It's written by Ashley
|
|
McConnell.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Steven King scares Whoopi Goldberg
|
|
|
|
Steven King has a new book out. DOLORES CLAIBORNE, he
|
|
told Whoopi Goldberg on her late night chat show, is along
|
|
the lines of GERALD'S GAME. (As of this writing, BOTH were
|
|
on the bestseller's list.) The pair discussed a wide range
|
|
of topics, from their favorite vampire movies to what it is
|
|
that scares the hell out of them. For those of you who are
|
|
wondering, Mr. King DOES manage to scare himself, and quite
|
|
often, from the sound of it. (While most people are afraid
|
|
of someone joining them IN the shower, he is afraid of
|
|
someone coming OUT of it.)
|
|
He also discussed his stint as rhythm guitar for a group
|
|
of writers who performed at the annual writers' convention in
|
|
Annaheim. Sales of the video will benefit the Write to Rock
|
|
Foundation, which "fights censorship in the music industry
|
|
and also helps homeless writers in Los Angeles. I don't know
|
|
how many homeless writers there are in Los Angeles, but we're
|
|
giving 'em money."
|
|
Mr. King, who says he still catches heat for referring
|
|
to himself as "the McDonald's of literature," also said that
|
|
he knew the movie of his first book CARRIE was going to be a
|
|
success at the end, when Sissy Spacek's hand shoots out of
|
|
the grave and grabs the antagonist around the neck.
|
|
Apparently the man behind him, who had been talking
|
|
throughout the picture, said, "That's it. She ain't never
|
|
gonna be right."
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Upcoming films: Paramount will be hoping for another
|
|
blockbuster with ADDAM'S FAMILY 2, and hitting the nostalgia
|
|
trail with THE CONEHEADS. HBO will be re-making ATTACK OF
|
|
THE FIFTY FOOT WOMAN, and has signed Daryl Hannah.
|
|
Christopher Guest will direct. And for those of you who
|
|
follow that sort of thing, Warner Brothers will star Whoppi
|
|
Goldberg in a film called MADE IN AMERICA, and Harrison Ford
|
|
in a remake of THE FUGITIVE. Also, Fox is reportedly edging
|
|
towards the long-fabled "Aliens v. Predator" movie, but this
|
|
is totally unconfirmed.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
The top 10 films of 1992:
|
|
|
|
1) BATMAN RETURNS $161 million
|
|
2) LETHAL WEAPON 3 $143 million
|
|
3) SISTER ACT $140 million
|
|
4) HOME ALONE 2 $135 million (est.)
|
|
5) WAYNE WORLD $121 million
|
|
6) BASIC INSTINCT $117 million
|
|
7) A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN $107 million
|
|
8) THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE $87 million
|
|
9) BRAM STOKER'S 'DRACULA $85 million
|
|
10) PATRIOT GAMES $82 million
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
In case you think that college students don't have any
|
|
power in the marketplace, have a look at these statistics:
|
|
There are 12 million 18-24 year olds in the United States,
|
|
and 42% of them are college students. On the average, they
|
|
spend $224 in discretionary income, and see two to three
|
|
movies a month off campus. This makes up a whopping 24% of
|
|
studio income.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
European Box office: According to Daily Variety,, BEAUTY AND
|
|
THE BEAST took in $11.2 million at 1241 European screens
|
|
during the week of December 12 - 18, clinching the top spot.
|
|
The closest competitor was HOME ALONE 2. DEATH BECOMES HER
|
|
was fifth, with $1.83 million at 251 screens.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
TERMINATING DEALS AT CAROLCO
|
|
|
|
Carolco, the studio that gave us TOTAL RECALL,
|
|
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, and other films, has been having
|
|
financial trouble for some time. (Although not as much as
|
|
Orion.) Currently under a distribution deal with Sony's
|
|
TriStar, they have made a deal with Metro Goldwyn Mayer and
|
|
associated investors that will bring in $170 million in cash.
|
|
The distribution deal, which takes effect in 1994,
|
|
involves cash, preferred stock, subordinated debt,
|
|
co-production financing, a $50 million bank credit line, and
|
|
a chance for MGM to get back into the distribution business
|
|
after the fiasco of Giancarlo Parretti's tenure at the helm.
|
|
Parretti, who allegedly spent mucho MGM bucks on himself, was
|
|
ousted last year.
|
|
How does this affect investors? Well, Carolco has asked
|
|
stockholders to cut their voting stake from 30.1 percent to 3
|
|
percent in a reverse stock split. The stock had risen 31.25
|
|
cents to $1.125 per share upon announcement of the cash deal
|
|
with MGM, dropped down to 87.5 cents at the announcement of
|
|
the reverse split.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
A ratings "point" means approximately 931,000 households.
|
|
Just thought you'd like to know.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Foreign television: The Swiss will be getting a commerically
|
|
run TV station to compete with the 3 (soon to be 4) state-run
|
|
channels in operation. "Tell-TV" (yes, named for William
|
|
Tell) will run 15 hours of programming in German. And let's
|
|
not forget about the Russians. Turner Broadcasting Systems,
|
|
the people who brought you CNN, colorization and the Cartoon
|
|
Network, have been broadcasting "TV6 Moscow" since May 18,
|
|
1992.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
The Star Trek exhibit at the Smithsonian will run through
|
|
January 31. Passes are needed only on days when the exhibit
|
|
is crowded.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Remember that free month of Prodigy service you got with your
|
|
modem but were "saving for a good reason"? Well, if you're a
|
|
Star Trek fan, now might be the time to use it. Avery
|
|
Brooks, Patrick Stewart, and Rick Berman (Executive Producer)
|
|
will be choosing questions from a pool you can contribute to
|
|
now. Mr. Brooks will be online on the seventh of January, as
|
|
will Mr. Berman, we gather. Mr. Stewart will be on about 2
|
|
weeks later. Questions should be adressed to STAR99E in the
|
|
topic TV (A-K). Use "Ask Avery Brooks" or "Ask Rick Berman"
|
|
as your subject line. (The release didn't say so, but
|
|
presumably you use the same adress and subject line format
|
|
for Patrick Stewart.) [User note: Only a FEW questions will
|
|
be chosen.]
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
Patrick Stewart reportedly told the "Tonight Show" that "In
|
|
1993 I will transfer all my CD's to 8-track tape so that I
|
|
can play them in my `68 Mustang."
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
HIGHLANDER
|
|
|
|
In the preview issue, we reported the unconfirmed rumor
|
|
that production on HIGHLANDER III: THE MAGICIAN had begun.
|
|
The plot reportedly involved a sword maker with the power of
|
|
illusion who has been buried under a mountain for 300 years.
|
|
Since it begins in ancient Japan, it would seem that the film
|
|
would utterly ignore HIGHLANDER II. According to those who
|
|
have seen the ill-fated sequel, this is probably for the
|
|
best. No word on Sean Connery, but Christopher Lambert was
|
|
reportedly signed on to play MacLeod once again.
|
|
The only problem with this is that it seems to be
|
|
completely wrong. According to Christopher Lambert's people,
|
|
the movie is not in production, no director has been chosen,
|
|
and it is unclear if that is even the plot. More info when
|
|
we have it.
|
|
Of course, if you can't wait that long for another dose
|
|
of your favorite immortal, check out the syndicated
|
|
television show HIGHLANDER. While Christopher Lambert did
|
|
make an appearance in the pilot, the series deals with a
|
|
clansman of Connor MacLeod, Duncan. Now about half-way into
|
|
its first season, it seems to be holding up, quality-wise.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
STAR TREK: MISCELLANEOUS
|
|
|
|
Well, well, well, right now we could do pages on this
|
|
one.
|
|
Let's start with the original series. Despite Gene
|
|
Roddenberry's death, Paramount has no problem with continuing
|
|
the series of movies. According to Bjo Trimble, Brandon
|
|
Tartikoff, then-head of the studio, sat at a screening of
|
|
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and asked "Why are we
|
|
stopping making these films?" Someone pointed out that the
|
|
cast was getting old, but he asked "Are the fans still
|
|
buying?" Of course we all know they are, so his question
|
|
became "Then what's the problem?"
|
|
The word is that yes, William Shatner DID try to sell
|
|
the movie studio, now headed by Sherry Lansing, a script he
|
|
wrote involving a romance for Kirk, but word is that it was
|
|
turned down and they are considering a script written by
|
|
Leonard Nimoy. Apparently the only way we're going to see a
|
|
film dealing with Captain Sulu is a major letter- writing
|
|
campaign. The studio simply doesn't believe that enough
|
|
people will go to see a film that doesn't star the Big Three,
|
|
Kirk, Spock and McCoy.
|
|
|
|
And there's yet one more Generation...
|
|
|
|
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE
|
|
|
|
There probably isn't a soul hooked into cyberspace who
|
|
doesn't know about STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. The show, a
|
|
strict spin-off from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, will
|
|
involve an antiquated space station above the Bajorran
|
|
homeworld (Ro Larren's home) which is basically deserted by
|
|
the Cardassian's when they have exhausted the planet's
|
|
resources (and poisoned the wells, and ...). The Federation
|
|
takes over the station, but when a stable wormhole is
|
|
discovered nearby, the Cardassians want it back.
|
|
The only crew members who will be moving over from TNG
|
|
to DS9 will be Miles O'Brien (Colm Meaney) and his wife
|
|
Keiko, who will not be awfully happy about bringing their
|
|
daughter Molly up in such an environment. Cast members
|
|
include Avery Brooks as Captain Sisko, Renee Abourjanous as
|
|
Odo the shapeshifter, and Rosalind Chao reprising her role as
|
|
Keiko O'Brien. The role of the Bajorran was originally
|
|
planned to be Ensign Ro, but Michelle Forbes reportedly has
|
|
no interest in continuing on with Star Trek after this
|
|
season, no matter which show they offer her.
|
|
|
|
[For great Star Trek and genre news, subscribe to Bjo Trimble's
|
|
newsletter, Space Time Continuum. Postmarked before January 31,
|
|
1993, $5/6 issues USA Bulk Rate, $8 USA 1st Class, $9 Canada
|
|
Air Printed Matter, $12 Overseas Air Printed Matter. Send to
|
|
STC, 2059 Fir Springs Dr., Kingwood TX 77339-1701]
|
|
|
|
--!8!-- Spoilers
|
|
|
|
SPOILERS AHOY!
|
|
|
|
QUANTUM LEAP -- from Terri Librande
|
|
|
|
Filming on "Liberation" has been completed. The episode
|
|
takes place in the seventies and features Sam as a bra
|
|
burning woman's libber.
|
|
"Blood Moon", the anticipated 'vampire' episode, has
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|
completed filming. No details as to plot, but Sam will leap
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|
directly into a coffin in this one, and spare me the cemetery
|
|
jokes, please! Written by Tommy Thompson, it promises to be
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|
a leap right into the twilight zone.
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|
The long anticipated 'baby' episode is on the schedule
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|
as is the Dr. Ruth one. The animated episode will be on
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|
sometime in May, if all goes according to plan. The second
|
|
half of the 'dark leaper' will be on during February sweeps.
|
|
The first half garnered 10 extra points on the Neilsen scale,
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|
but on that front, we're still plenty shaky.
|
|
In "Goodbye Norma Jean" Sam leaps into Marilyn Monroe's
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|
driver to prevent her from overdosing. Considering that she
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|
tried this several times before the 'big' one, I assume that
|
|
Sam is there to prevent her from doing it before her time.
|
|
To write to NBC in support of the show, send your
|
|
letters to
|
|
|
|
NBC
|
|
C/O Warren Littlefield
|
|
30 Rockefeller Plaza
|
|
New York, NY 10019
|
|
|
|
Write, keep the Leap alive. A grassroots organization is getting together
|
|
to send NBC calla lillies to draw attention to the shows plight. It's going
|
|
to be nip and tuck until March or April.
|
|
|
|
--!--
|
|
|
|
STAR TREK
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|
The next new ST:TNG will be the week of January 25.
|
|
Called "Ship in a Bottle," it reportedly involves the
|
|
luckless Barclay's accidentally allowing Moriarty
|
|
("Elementary, Dear Data") out of the holodeck.
|
|
The following week's episode, "Aquiel," had Geordi
|
|
falling in love with a member of another species.
|
|
"Tapestry," running the week of February 15, is a Q
|
|
episode involving a tour of Picard's life when he dies on the
|
|
operating table.
|
|
"Birthright" is the anticipated crossover story with
|
|
ST:DSN, involving Worf's discovery that his disgraced father
|
|
might actually be alive.
|
|
As for STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, the week of January
|
|
18 will bring, "A Man Alone," which pits Odo, the
|
|
shapeshifter, against a lynch mob after a murder on the
|
|
station.
|
|
|
|
--!9!-- Correspondents
|
|
|
|
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING
|
|
|
|
You say you don't want to write but you still want to be
|
|
a part of CYBERSPACE VANGUARD? You're in luck. We couldn't
|
|
possibly watch every newsgroup and conference on every
|
|
network out there -- believe me, we tried! So what we need
|
|
is a group of dedicated people to watch the newsgroups for us
|
|
and report on any news or spoilers that turn up. If you want
|
|
to be a Cyberspace Correspondent, send a list of the
|
|
newsgroups you read CONSISTENTLY to
|
|
|
|
cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu (Internet)
|
|
TJ Goldstein@1:157/564 (Fidonet) or
|
|
TJ Goldstein@40:204/564 (AmigaNet)
|
|
|
|
If you're reading this on a network that doesn't support
|
|
these mail systems, you can send a letter with the list and
|
|
your e-mail address to
|
|
|
|
Correspondent
|
|
Cyberspace Vanguard
|
|
PO Box 25704
|
|
Garfield Heights, OH 44125
|
|
USA
|
|
|
|
We are also looking for writers, of course. If you have
|
|
an idea you think would be right for us, drop us a line!
|
|
|
|
--!10!-- Subs
|
|
|
|
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: CV is available on various
|
|
newsgroups, or you can ask to be put on our mailing list. If
|
|
you're really interested, though, you can subscribe to the
|
|
PAPER version of the magazine. It includes all the
|
|
first-rate photos and cartoons that we can't put into the
|
|
electronic version. Rates in the United States are $2.00 per issue,
|
|
or $10.50 for six. Write to us for overseas rates.
|
|
|
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|
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--
|
|
CYBERSPACE VANGUARD MAGAZINE
|
|
News and Views from the Science Fiction Universe
|
|
TJ Goldstein, Editor | Send submissions, questions, comments to
|
|
tlg4@po.cwru.edu | cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu
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