Stingray episode 1, pt 2

Atlanta and Commander Shore worry as they can't contact Stingray.



Commander Shore calls for Battle Stations. All buildings, all cars, are lowered underground.




Troy Tempest recovers conscoiusness to find himself caputured by King Titan of the underwater city, Titanica. The buidings are air-filled. Troy tells Titan that he is from WASP. They are investigators, not fighters.

Commander Shore orders hydronic missiles made ready. Since they've lost contact with Troy and Stingray, they are going to bombard the entire area. (I'm not sure if this warlike intention is intentionally ironic, or just a plot device!)




Troy is on trial. If the fish god Teufel turns away from him within one marine minute, Troy and his crew (Phones) will be put to death.



Teufel turns away. At the exact instant King Titan declares Troy's death sentence, a thousand miles away, Atlanta accidently drops a photo of Troy.



Troy and Phones on their way to the Robot Fish that will take them to Aquatraz where they will be executed. For some reason the mute slave-girl Marina is ordered to accompany them.



The command module of the Robot Fish traveled through the tube and into the fish. Here the Fish has disengaged and is heading out to sea.



Marina unties Troy and Phones.



An amphibian comes to check on Troy. Troy kicks him where it hurts, and then takes over the ship.



Thirty minutes until the missiles launch.



WASP headquarters alerted by scanners that a robot fish is coming toward them.



Underwater interceptors readied.



Atlanta realizes the ship is towing the Stingray.



Troy tells the story to Shore, Atlanta and an unidentified technician. (We never do find out what they did with the two amphibians. Keep them prisoner? Set them free to swim home?)



"How did you manage to tow the Stingray back without your underwater gear?" asks Atlanta. It is only then that Troy introduces Marina, whom he has not told them about at all previously - so he apparently doesn't intend to reveal her integral role in their escape!



WASP finally knows there are underwater races. They finally know what they're up against. Atlanta realizes what she's up against, too.



The mute Marina simply smiles.

The Voice Performers
Don Mason - Captain Troy Tempest
Robert Easton - Lieutenant George Lee 'Phones' Sheridan, Secret Agent X20
Ray Barrett - Commander Sam Shore, King Triton
Lois Maxwell - Lieutenant Atlanta Shore
David Graham - various voices

Stand By For Action! Stingray, 1964

(All 30 minute episodes are divided into two blog posts.)



Sea Probe is destroyed by a missile shot from a giant robot fish, manned by two amphibians.

WASP (World Aquanaut Security Patrol) is alerted.

Commander Shore tells Atlanta to launch Stingray.

Captain Troy Tempest and Phones (navigator) launch Stingray.

En route to destination, Tempest pores over past reports of destruction, while the "automatic bosun" pilots the Stingray.



Meanwhile, the Stingray passes a certain island.

Surface Agent X-2-Zero keeps a sharp eye out. Then he hears a signal and presses a button, which....



sets various ordinary items revolving to reveal their true purpose.



King Titan wishes a report from X-2-Zero. After learning of the location of Stingray, he sends out his Robot Fish.



Phones hears something following them, but too late...


The Robot Fish incapacitates the Stingray.

These photos are for instruction and information only. No ownership of copyright implied.
Nothing replaces actually seeing these shows on DVD, and they are for sale, so buy a copy!

Rocketship XM (released May 26, 1950) pt 1

Rocketship X-M and Destination Moon were the two “spaceship to the stars” movies that made their debut in 1950.

Rocketship X-M (X for expedition, M for Moon, for all that they end up on Mars)

Although Dr. Lisa Van Horn (played by Osa Massen) is a scientist, women’s roles are pretty well defined in this film in a 1950s way. It is her miscalculations that cause them to crash.

“Four men and a woman blast into space on humanity's first expedition to the Moon, a 48-hour journey. At 112,000 miles into their 238,000-mile journey to the Moon, the engines shut down because of a fuel problem. The solution accomplishes something they had never dreamed.”

Rocketship XM was rushed into production after Destination Moon had begun filming. It was shot in black & white and of course beat its competitor to release by three weeks.

According to Bill Warren:

Because Pal’s film was much more scrupulously scientific than Rocketship X-M, and because Lippert’s production was clearly designed to capitalize on the orchestrated and extensive publicity of Destination Moon, Rocketship X-M was frowned on by some critics. Today, however, it seems much more exciting and interesting than Destination Moon, which is austere and cautious. The melodramatics of Rocketship XM are more entertaining, and the warning about atomic warfare is still timely.

Both films make a similar error in dramatics, in having a comic sidekick to the main action, Dick Wesson is somehow more offensive in Destination Moon than Noh Beery Jr in Rocketship XM, but there is little reason otherwise to choose between them. Both derive from war films in which there was generally a comic corporal along for “audience identification.”

Quote:
Floyd: I've been wondering, how did a girl like you get mixed up in a thing like this in the first place.
Dr. Lisa Van Horn: I suppose you think that women should only cook and sew and bear children.
Floyd: Isn't that enough?

Cast
Lloyd Bridges ... Col. Floyd Graham
Osa Massen ... Dr. Lisa Van Horn
John Emery ... Dr. Karl Eckstrom
Noah Beery Jr. ... Maj. William Corrigan
Hugh O'Brian ... Harry Chamberlain
Morris Ankrum ... Dr. Ralph Fleming
Patrick Aherne ... Reporter #1 (as Patrick Ahern)
Sherry Moreland ... Martian Girl
John Dutra ... Physician
Kathy Marlowe ... Reporter (as Katherine Marlowe)

The Perfect Woman (released in US in 1950)

The Perfect Woman is a British film, and released in the UK on May 23, 1949.

The synopsis from the IMDB.

In need of cash, Roger Cavendish and his valet take a job escorting the perfect woman for a night on the town. She is in fact the robotic creation of Professor Belman, but it turns out rather to be the Professor's niece Penelope doing a pretty good imitation of the perfect Olga who winds up with them in the bridal suite at the Hotel Splendide.

Miles Malleson will be familiar to American audiences, perhaps, as the Grand Vizier in Conrad Veidt's Thief of Bagdad (he is stabbed to death by the Silver Maid). He's also the vicar in Peter Cushing's version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Bill Warren's opinion of the movie: While no classic, The Perfect Woman provided sufficient entertainment and novelty for audiences of its day.

TV series that have exploited the idea of a robot impersonating a human. There was a Twilight Zone episode in which Lee Marvin substitutes for his robot boxer and gets beaten to a pulp (one of my least favorite Twilight Zones).

My Living Doll (starred Julie Newmar) Sitcom
Future Cop (drama, starring John Amos and Ernest Borgnine)
Holmes and YoYo (with John Schuck as YoYo) Sitcom
Mann & Machine (starring Yancy Butler, later of Witchblade) - cop drama
Prototype was a TV movie starring Christopher Plummer and David Morse...a reworking it seems to me of Gene Roddenberry's Questor Project

The Cast - The Perfect Woman
Patricia Roc ... Penelope Belman
Stanley Holloway ... Ramshead
Nigel Patrick ... Roger Cavendish
Miles Malleson ... Prof. Ernest Belman
Irene Handl ... Mrs. Butters
Anita Sharp-Bolster ... Lady Diana (as Anita Bolster)
Fred Berger ... Farini
David Hurst ... Wolfgang Winkel
Pamela Devis ... Olga the Robot
Jerry Verno ... Football Fan On Underground
Johnnie Schofield ... Ticket Collector
Philippa Gill ... Lady Mary
Jerry Desmonde ... Dress shop manager
Dora Bryan ... Model in shop
Noel Howlett ... Scientist

The Flying Saucer (released Jan 4, 1950)

The 1950s are known for their science fiction of a certain type - radiation effects everything from ants to dinosaurs, causing them to grow huge and wreak havoc.

But in 1950, there were only six science fiction films released in the United States.

The first of these was The Flying Saucer (available on DVD from Amazon for $5 and up), released on January 4, 1950, which means of course that it was filmed in 1949, just a few months after the first UFOs were seen over the mountains of Washington state.

Bill Warren, in his book Keep Watching The Skies, does not think much of The Flying Saucer.

The film is dull and thuddingly unimaginative.

In real life, flying saucers had been seen over a mountain in Washington in 1949. Film maker Mikel Conrad gets the idea for The Flying Saucer. It doesn't occur to him (at least in the movie) that this saucer could be from outer space. No - it is from a foreign power, and must be found for the United States.

The Flying Saucer is a spy movie, not really a science fiction movie. But if one accepts it on that premise (after all, why shouldn't the flying saucers people see be experimental craft from the US or Russia or China, and nothing to do with outer space at all? Asimov for one, while believing that there wer plenty of aliens in outerspace, believed the distances between planets was far too vast for aliens to come here and waste time kidnapping people for decades instead of just contacting us!)

But for $5 or so for a used copy...it deserves a look-see.

Here's the cast, as per the IMDB:

Mikel Conrad ... Mike Trent
Pat Garrison ... Vee Langley
Hantz von Teuffen ... Hans
Earle Lyon ... Alex Muller
Lester Sharpe ... Col. Marikoff
Russell Hicks ... Hank Thorn
Frank Darien ... Matt Mitchell
Denver Pyle ... Turner
Roy Engel ... Dr. Carl Lawton
Garry Owen ... Bartender
Virginia Hewitt ... Nanette
George Baxter ... Fred Burnside
Philip Morris ... Dreamland Bartender
Robert Boon ... Barge Captain

Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men: The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda

“MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN -- The Fantastic Cinema of Ishiro Honda.” by Peter Brothers

For the first time in America, a book has been published on Japan's foremost director of Fantasy Films: Ishiro Honda.

Known primarily for directing such classic Japanese monster movies as Rodan, Mothra, Attack of the Mushroom People and the original Godzilla, Honda has been a much-overlooked figure in mainstream international cinema.

The book is the first to cover in English print Honda's life -- including his heretofore untold military service in Japan's Imperial Army during World War II -- as well as the first to comprehensively cover all 25 of his fantasy, science-fiction and monster movies. It is also the first to give objective and critical analysis of Honda's filmmaking methods, favorite themes and his relationships with actors and technicians.

Making use of extensive interviews from Honda’s colleagues, as well as a wealth of original source material never before gathered into one volume (including unpublished essays), MUSHROOM CLOUDS AND MUSHROOM MEN is an affectionate tribute to arguably the most-prolific and influential director in the history of fantasy films.

View a video interview with Peter Brothers here: http://www.youtube.com/user/encinostalgia

The Thunder Child will have a review of Mushroom Clouds and Mushroom Men shortly, so stay tuned!

A Plot Device Right Out of Clive Cussler

Just read the news today about Centralia, Pennsylvania. That's an old mining town that, in 1962, had a fire start in a coal seam. Bureaucratic delays allowed it to burn and burn, until now, this fire underneath the town is impossible to put out. It has been burning for 48 years.

The last remaining members of the town believe that the fire was allowed to go on so long because the government wanted the mining and mineral rights. Frankly, knowing our government (both Democrat and Republican) I wouldn't put it past them.

Few remain as 1962 Pa. coal town fire still burns

The fire began at the town dump and ignited an exposed coal vein. It could have been extinguished for thousands of dollars then, but a series of bureaucratic half-measures and a lack of funding allowed the fire to grow into a voracious monster — feeding on millions of tons of slow-burning anthracite coal in the abandoned network of mines beneath the town.

At first, most Centralians ignored the fire. Some denied its existence, choosing to disregard the threat.

That changed in the 1970s, when carbon monoxide began entering homes and sickening people. The beginning of the end came in 1981, when a cave-in sucked a 12-year-old boy into a hot, gaseous void, nearly killing him. The town divided into two warring camps, one in favor of relocation and one opposed.

Finally, in 1983, the federal government appropriated $42 million to acquire and demolish every building in Centralia. Nearly everyone participated in the voluntary buyouts; by 1990, Census figures showed only 63 people remaining.

Two years later, Gov. Robert Casey decided to shut the town, saying the fire had become too dangerous. The holdouts fought condemnation, blocking appraisers from entering their homes. The legal process eventually ground to a halt.

Until recently, Lokitis Jr., who works a civilian job with the state police in Harrisburg, had been one of Centralia's most vocal defenders — star of a 2007 documentary on Centralia. He expressed hope that it could stage a comeback, claiming the fire had gone out or moved away.

State officials say the fire continues to burn uncontrolled and could for hundreds of years, until it runs out of fuel. One of their biggest concerns is the danger to tourists who often cluster around steam vents on unstable ground.

Virus Makers Should Be Shot

And I'm completely serious about that.

A few days ago I got the Anti-virus Live virus on my computer. I managed to get rid of it on my own (wihtout having to take it in to a professional who charges money) but my computer has never been tbe same since.

I tried to play a game called Luxor the other day, that I quite enjoy, for all that I haven't played it in several months. First the screen went white, then black, after I restarted the computer told me I'd had a serious system error. Was it the after effects of the Virus, or was it something than at application called Spyware Doctor did? (I had downloaded Spyware Doctor because its website said it was free. After it's downloaded and runs a system check and tells me it has found 500 potential threats, it says I have to buy it before it can remove those threats.

Now - I'm not above buying a program, but when I've been told on its very website that it's free, then hit up for a charge after I've downloaed it, I resent that. I left it on the computer for a few days, just in case I changed my mind about purchasing it, but its ever-present scanning slowed down my system ridicuously, and I'm pretty sure contribguted to the failure of Luxor. So I got rid of it this morning.

What with one thing and another, I'm way behind on various projects...so today is a busy day of work and I hope my computer problems are behind me.

But here me now and pay attention to it later...anyone who kills a virus maker who has me on the jury will find me very sympathetic to their justifiable homicide.

Number 7 Looks Just Like You

Okay...this isn't an entry on science fiction per se, or the Twilight Zone episode "Number 7 Looks Just Like You," I am just so sick of being bombarded by TV commericals where skeletally thin women tout the use of diet drugs like Hydroxy Cut, or Weight Watchers and Jenny Craid tout their services (at least Valerie Bertinelli and...the new woman she's partnered with...have curves!)

Then there's Yahoo News and other gossip site on the internet, where people get all hot and bothered about the clothing the female actresses wore to some function ("Best and Worst Dressed at the Emmies, Lady GaGa's Style Mistake), crap like that.

Then, because I watch crime dramas like CSI on the Spike Channel, I have to see these revolting commericals for series like Blue Mountain State, and it just makes me think...the coarsening and dumbing down of America is complete.

NCIS Fan Fiction In The Dark is now complete

I wrote a fanfiction for NCIS called The People Out There, in which aliens transported the character of Mark Harmon into that of Gibbs, and vice versa. It was well received, and so I did a follow-up story called In The Dark.

It is now complete, in 12 chapters.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4715154/1/In_The_Dark

Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David switch places with Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo. Can they survive?

Wordsworth's Adventures Continues

I've been writing a blog to help people (such as those taking their SATs, GREs, and ACTs) build their vocabulary.

Now, for $25 a year, that's right, $25 for a whole year!, I'll also be your online English language coach. Build your vocabulary, learn cultural references, learn how to better comprehend what you read, and so on. I'm available 16/7 (rather than the usual 24/7 claim, I'm available 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Of coures, just reading the Wordsworth blog is free.

http://wordsworthandthevisitorfromplanetx.blogspot.com

To enroll in one year's worth of Online Language Tutoring, go to:
http://volcanoseven.com/Wordsworth/

Those who don't wish to enroll in my service can also go to this site to download the free vocabulary sheets, which are uploaded as accompaniment to each Wordsworth blog entry.

Wordsworth and the Visitor From Planet X

If you're studying for the writing segment of the SAT, the ACT, or the GRE, there are plenty of study materials to help you.

One of the most enjoyable ways to do this - to increase your vocabulary, to increase your understanding of similes and metaphors and the usage of language - is to visit my new blog, Wordsworth and the Visitor From Planet X.

It's part of a growing method of study aids... the vocabulary is taught enjoyably by placing it in the context of an interesting story - a mystery novel or a science fiction novel.

Wordsworth and the Visitor From Planet X is a science fiction serial.

Here's the URL:
http://wordsworthandthevisitorfromplanetx.blogspot.com/

And to make it easier for you, if you've got a Kindle, subscribe to this blog and have each entry delivered to your Kindle. It's only $2 a month, or $24 a year.

So if you're studying for the SATs, ACTs, GREs, and need a study guide, check it out. (And of course, best to check it out a year before you actually have to take the tests, to make sure you pass with flying colors.

Tuesday on BBC Radio 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/01/19 (Tuesday, and available to listen to for 6 more days.)

Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
4/6. Captain Vimes tries tracking the dragon and the Librarian travels in time.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
2/5. Hyde is wanted for murder and disappears. But what is his connection to Dr Jekyll?

And that's it for Tuesday!

Girl Scientist Magazine: A Blogzine

So annoyed was I by the pap offered by such magazines as Girls Life and American Girl, which while it offers worthwhile articles written for 8 year olds to 14 year olds on friendship, also offers craft work like making clothes and how to style your hair, and not a single article on toy trains, sports, or career suggestions like getting into science, that I have created the Girl Scientist Magazine. Right now it's a blogzine, but I hope, eventually, to make it a real, paper magazine.

If you've got a Kindle, you can subscribe to it for $24 a *YEAR*, or $2 a month, to have my daily entries delivered right to your kindle. Otherwise, just bookmark this blog, and remember to visit it daily.

http://girlscientistmagazine.blogspot.com

Conquest of Space (1955)

There's a space station orbiting the earth (complete with artificial gravity because the circular station revolves) and a space ship being constructed to rocket to Mars.

















Got this DVD a oouple of days ago. It's a lot of fun.

No African-Americans in this space crew in 1955, but there is a Chinese American (played by Benson Fong).

The biggest star in the movie - although only a co-star at this time, is Ross Martin, of Wild, Wild West fame.

Sunday on BBC Radio 7

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules/2010/01/17 (Chris Barrie, second from left, reader of the new Red Dwarf story)

For the benefit of newcomers to this blog... while radio drama ended in the US in 1961 (when Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar and Suspense aired their final episodes on the same day), it has been alive and well in England forever.

Anyone in the world can listen to archived BBC radio broadcasts, by tuning in to BBC Radio 7. The radio programs here are from several decades - the 50s, thre 60s, and up until the 00s. For example, Doctor Who productions are newly commissioned.

So, go to the link above, and take a look at what's on offer. Don't be put off by the times listed on the left hand side of the screen. Once a program is available to be listened to, you can listen to it at any time you want for seven days, when it drops off the screen.

So what's playing, in the science fiction arena, today, Sunday?

Last Days of Shandakor
2/2. Fear of his captors turns to admiration as Jon Ros learns more about this alien race.
This is based on a novella written by Leigh Brackett.

Red Dwarf
Better Than Life, Episode 1
1/6. Lister, Cat and Rimmer waste away in a computer fantasy. Can mechanoid Kryten rescue them?
This is read by Chris Barrie, who played Lister in Red Dwarf.

Kindle News!

I'm going to be putting quite a few of my blogs on Kindle - so that people with Kindles can have these entries delivered to their Kindles every day, no muss and no fuss.

Costs is only $2 a month - you can't do better than that.

The two available right now are You Fly Girl, my women in aviation blog, and of course Daily Space.

The Ocean Report blog

I've started up a new blog, whch will eventually be a blogzine, called The Ocean Report. This blogzine will report news on the oceans, as well as information on marine science. If you're interested in what goes on in the 3/4ths of the Earth that is blue, please subscribe.

Teen angst is back again

Spiderman used to be my favorite comic book character. The first issue I ever picked up was #106 ... the Spidey vs Professor Smythe issue, and I kept reading until issue 200... I think... by the time I gave up on comics altogether because of the never ending rising prices (and I got upset when they went up to 75 cents, now you can't buy them for less than $3!) I had already given up on Spiderman because the angst and soap opera was just getting on my nerves.

And so although I went to see the first Spiderman movie, I've never bothered to watch it again because of all the angst displayed in it... Spiderman/Peter Parker trapped in the tragedy of his best friend thinking Spiderman has killed his father, who is in actual fact the Green Goblin. I just wanted to see a superhero adventure, not a soap opera.

But apparently the "powers that be" have decided otherwise.

According to Hollywood Reporter:

Spider-Man 4 dead, franchise rebooting
by Doc on Jan.12, 2010, under Movies

After Spider-Man 4 slipped in its release schedule due to an apparent impasse over the script and characters, Sony/Columbia have decided to jettison plans, along with Raimi and the cast, and instead go with a reboot of the franchise based on a script by James Vanderbilt, and getting back to the superpowers vs. teen angst angle. But if they already have the script, how long has the studio been planning this?

Meantime, I'm not sure if I want to go see Iron Man 2 or not. I enjoyed Iron Man 1, for the most part, but thought the ending was ridiculous, and now in Iron Man 2 the plot is that the goverment is going to try to take away his suit so they can mass produce it, and he refuses. Seems kind of dumb. He used to be a munitions manufacturer, selling arms to all who could pay for them, and now he won't sell his suit? (Or perhaps they want him to give it to them, rather than sell it..)

Then the villain, played by Mickey Rourke, with the exo-skeleton and the electrified whips, just looks so stupid. One long range shot from a bazooka, and he's history.

A Word on Haiti

According to news at the IMDB, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $1 million to Haiti quake relief.... that's about 1/5th of what one of them gets for *one* movie, eh?

On the other hand, according to news I read yesterday, China donated *$1 million* also. Well, China doesn't have much money, unless they force the US to start paying back the debt we owe them (they've bought up all our debt).

Other actors and actresses yesterday have urged their fans to make donations... I'm thinking all of their fans together could not donate as much as these actors and actresses could... yet its the little people who must donate?

It's not only the United States government that is sendng material and men to Haiti to help out, other governmets are also helping (some hopefully more generously than China...but on the other hand $1 mil is still a lot of money, obviously).

The question is... two years from now will Haiti still look like New Orleans, or will it look like a modern country at last....thanks to the money and building skills of other countries.

I'm surprised that there hasn't yet been a backlash on Pat Robertson - at least not that I've seen - for his comment that Haiti is so poor (80% of its people live below the poverty line, and that's before the earthquake and the destruction of their one city) because they "made a pact with the devil" 200 years ago... presumably when the slaves threw off the yoke with the help of the French?

He also said that the quake might turn out to be a blessing in disguise because the country would now be rebuilt and probably be better than it was before - that's undoubtedly true...but there will be no lasting improvement until their current government is ousted and one that actually cares about its people is put in its place. How's that going to happen, I wonder?

Dean Jones sings

I'm watching Blackbeard's Ghost, a formulatic but enjoyable Disney film from 1968 that starred one of my favorite actors, Peter Ustinov. Dean Jones was a Disney leading man in this, The Horse In the Gray Flannel Suit, The Love Bug, etc.

I never knew Jones could sing, but giving it a bit more thought I think that probably every actor can sing - they have the vocal training and the necessary lung power.

So here's Dean Jones singing Being Alive from the musical Company, in 1970. He left the production after only two weeks (and after singing in the cast album) apparently because he was going through a painful divorce at the time.



(So, okay, its not science fiction, but he was in a lot of fantasy movies at Disney, so that counts).

What's happening at the space station?

NASA will hold a briefing for journalists with the next set of residents of the International Space Station at 1 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 21, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The briefings will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions also will be taken from participating NASA
locations.

The briefing participants are:
- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson
- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov
- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko

Following the briefing, the crew members will be available for individual round-robin interviews, in person or by phone. There also will be a photo opportunity.

On April 2, Skvortsov, Kornienko, and Caldwell Dyson will launch to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. They will dock to the space station on April 4, joining Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who arrived on the station in December as part of Expedition 22.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For the latest information about Expedition 23 and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Science Fiction on BBC Radio 7

Lots of good stuff on BBC Radio 7 this week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/programmes/schedules

Remember that the times listed don't mean anything, you can listen to each show for seven days, at any time you like.


Monday, January 11, 2010

The Darker Side of the Border: Olalla
5 days left to listen
2/3. Robert Louis Stevenson's mysterious tale of a soldier who falls in love while convalescing

Last Days of Shandakor
Episode 1
5 days left to listen
1/2. Space adventure set on Mars. The proud inhabitants of a dying city want to go out in style


The Recall Man : Doctor Joe Aston Investigates
6 days left to listen
1/4. A scientist is suspected of murdering her boss. Dr Joe Aston helps the police investigate.

Wyrd Sisters (Terry Pratchett)
Episode 2
6 days left to listen
2/4. Can the three witches save the baby heir to the throne and the crown? With Sheila Hancock.

Slipstream , by Simon Bovey
Into the Wolf's Lair
6 days left to listen
1/5. It's 1945. The Allies are certain to win the war. Then a strange aircraft is spotted.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

The Recall Man
Making Waves
7 days left to listen
2/4. When a man claims to have witnessed a murder, the police call in Dr Joe Aston.

Wyrd Sisters
Episode 3
7 days left to listen
3/4. A wife is on the warpath and after the three witches' blood. Stars Sheila Hancock.

Slipstream : The Eagle's Nest
7 days left to listen
2/5. Barton and his team head deep behind German lines, to track down a terrifying new weapon.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Recall Man
Over the Border
3/4. Dr Joe Aston helps police probe a taxi driver who's their only witness to a murder.

Wyrd Sisters
Episode 4
4/4. Lancre's new ruler teeters on the edge of madness and the witches set to work.

Slipstream
The Tomorrow World
3/5. Barton and the team have found what they've been looking for.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Recall Man
Stepping Out
4/4. Dr Aston feels threatened when a rival psychologist investigates a series of attacks.

Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
Episode 1
1/6. Can a stolen library book lead to the reinvention of dragons? With Martin Jarvis.

Slipstream
This Island Earth
4/5. Things can't get much worse for Barton and his team. Or can they?


Friday, January 15, 2010

Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards!
Episode 2
2/6. Could a long-extinct beast have carried out recent crimes? With Martin Jarvis.

Slipstream
Fight for the Future
5/5. Jurgen and Kate are desperate to get the weapon away before all is lost.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Herge's The Adventures of Tintin
Series 2, Episode 4
4/6. The rocket countdown is on for the intrepid boy reporter and his dog Snowy


The Scarifyers
The Devil of Denge Marsh, Episode 2
2/3. Lionheart and Dunning's battle with an old adversary leads them to a strange village.


A Dream of Armageddon
Episode 2
2/2. War is declared and the hero of HG Wells' anti-war story escapes with his wife.


Sunday, June 17, 2010

The Darker Side of the Border : The Brownie of the Black Haggs
3/3. Bossy Lady Wheelhope becomes strangely obsessed with a mysterious servant.

Last Days of Shandakor
Episode 2
2/2. Fear of his captors turns to admiration as Jon Ros learns more about this alien race.

Red Dwarf : Better Than Life, Episode 1
1/6. Lister, Cat and Rimmer waste away in a computer fantasy. Can mechanoid Kryten rescue them?

I'm not a kid anymore, but...

I just got the January Lego calendar in the mail, and there's so much stuff in there I'd love to buy. The fact that these items are described as being for ages 3-12 or 6 to 16 are mere bagatelles. Did I but have the discretionary cash, I'd snap 'em up.


A lot of the issue is given over to what I assume is their new Atlantis line, undersea cities, shipwrecks, squid, manta rays, submarines, jetpacks.


Then theyve got some Toy Story stuff. Though I am not looking forward to Toy Story 3 - the "old family toys" have suddenly been abandoned in a daycare center - never happen! - Toy Story 1 and 2 are two of my favorite movies, and Buzz Lightyear is a favorite character. I wouldn'be be ashed to have a 7 inch tall Buzz LIghtyear Lego figurine sharing my bed!

Then there's some new Star Waes sets - from the original and good Star Wars trilogy as opposed to the newer things.Indeed, for $399 there's a Death Star with 24 minifigs and droids, working trash compactor, moving turrets, something that would be a real joy to have.

Well...perhaps if I ever win the lottery.

I share some of those items here, in case anyone wants to recapture the joyous and imaginative feelings of their childhood...while at the same time supporting The Thunder Child science fiction and fantasy webzine. ; )

How to prepare minority schoolchildren for the techno-future

Why...don't teach them a damn thing about science.

http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/berkeley-high-may-cut-out-science-labs/Content?oid=1536705

Berkeley High May Cut Out Science Labs
The proposal would trade labs seen as benefiting white students for resources to help struggling students.
By Eric Klein

Berkeley High School is considering a controversial proposal to eliminate science labs and the five science teachers who teach them to free up more resources to help struggling students.

The proposal to put the science-lab cuts on the table was approved recently by Berkeley High's School Governance Council, a body of teachers, parents, and students who oversee a plan to change the structure of the high school to address Berkeley's dismal racial achievement gap, where white students are doing far better than the state average while black and Latino students are doing worse.

Read the complete article at the link above.

So instead of helping black and Latino students realize that their futures lie in science and technology, they are going to eliminate the science programs altogether, so that the more motivated children won't be able to learn what they need to know, and the whole student body will sink together. Better than the cream - of all races - rising to the top, eh?

A sad day for the United States when the kids who value education are sacrified so that kids who don't care about it at all won't feel inferior.

Enough with the Post-Apocalypse Movies Already!

I have got to admit that I'm getting sick of these post-Apocalyptic movies .... Denzel Washington is in one now, I keep seeing ads for it, and there's a few others I can't bring to mind right now (I'm busy watching my Vikings lose... I knew Favre would let us down!)

I suppose all the filmmakers have read all the 2012 books predicting the end of days...

Can't we have some nice, uplifting movies instead? That's what we really need right now, especially if the world is gonna end in 2 years!

Read None But Lucifer

"None But Lucifer" is a somewhat famous novelette written during the 1950s by Horace L. Gold, publisher and editor of Galaxy magazine, and L. Sprague DeCamp. It was published in novel form in 2002, but E. L. Gold, Horace's son, has also made it available on the web as part of GalaxyEzine.com's Science Fiction Musuem.

Before I share with you the link to get to the site where you can read the story for free, let me share a couple of tidbits.

First, here is Isaac Asimov talking about the story, very briefly, in "Horace", an essay published in his Asimov on Science Fiction anthology:

In his greatest story, "None But Lucifer," (the most terrifying story I ever read in Unknown) I was pinned to the wall by the manner in which everything worked for the worst. Imagine wishing to have a beautiful girl love you madly and never wanting to leave you; and imagine getting that wish and ending up hating it because she literally couldn't leave you, couldn't even go into the next room, and you couldn't get rid of her.

And here is how it is described by Horace Gold's son, Eugene:



You can purchase it in a nice print volume here:


And finally, here is the link to the Science Fiction Museum where you can read it, and other classic SF works, for free:

http://www.sciencefictionmuseum.com/readingroom/stories/none000.html

And I include the first four paragraphs of the novella.

Hale had plenty of reason for panic. Most men, lying sick, broke, and alone in a cheap, filthy rooming house, would have been terrified. But Hale wasn’t. He was sick, broke, and alone, all right—only that was exactly how he wanted to be. A long time ago he had planned it. Having achieved what superficially appears to be an easy goal, he felt rather successful. He waited impatiently for the next step in his campaign.

He listened to the stairs. He had been listening since early morning. His hungry, wan face brightened. They were creaking, in the exact manner he had anticipated.

The two pairs of feet plodded irresolutely toward his door. Then they halted. Hale listened impatiently for the creaking to resume. Instead he heard muffled, excited whispering.

He fought down his exasperation. If he had dared to expose his eagerness, he would have cried: “I know it’s you and your wife, Burke, coming to dispossess me, if you can get me out while you put a slug in my lock. Don’t worry about that. Don’t waste time thinking up clever schemes to lure me out. I’ve waited for years for the courage to put myself in this position. You’re not going to fail me because of a little pity, are you? Please, man...my destiny’s getting restless.”

So give yourself an extra Christmas present this year, or an early one for next year, and take a look at this classic.

Racism is Where You Want To Find It

Some film critic is calling Avatar racist because the blue people on the planet are "tribal", and it is a white man who saves them....

But here is my question... who is the white man saving the blue people from? Why, other white men, of course!

So how can that be racist? It's the story of a bunch of techno-loaded people invading the land of some aborigines, just as happened in the past on Earth, and those techno-geeks had the most technology, so they were able to massacre the indigenous populations. The indigenous populations had no chance.

So what is so racist about showing a "white man" realizing that what his people are doing is wrong, and try to help the indigenous population fight back?

It's not as if the two populations were equal in armament, so that it was only the "brains" of the white man that saved the stupid and inferior blue people. No, the blue people don't have the kind of armament that the invaders do, so they needed help.

But some people...and I'm pretty sure this reviewer was white...just want to find racism wherever they look.

What the movie really is about, is a castigation of the European explorer and how he took over every country he found, at the expense of the indigenous population! With a little nod to those individuals who didn't believe what they were doing was right, and attempted to protect the rights of those individuals...until finally enough of the Europeans had their consciousness raised, and started making amends for what their ancestors had done.

The minority will get nothing that the majority does not give it. Just ask the women in any Muslim country, if you can find them, hidden as they are in their own homes or behind burkhas that cover their entire faces. Blacks in the US today would not be where they are - in an unsegregated country where anyone with a good education can get a good job - if the white majority in the late 1960s and 1970s had not given it to them. Why? Of course this backfired when the welfare system was created that gave women more money if there was no husband in the picture....which destroyed black families and got us started on the descent into the welfare state and the entitlement generation - of blacks and whites and every other minority that comes here solely to get into our welfare system - who are sucking this nation dry.

Irwin Allen's City Beneath the Sea

Below are two excerpts from Irwin Allen's City Beneath the Sea pilot for a TV series from 1969.

Glenn Corbett stars as the commander of Triton Tower, General Matthews, with James Brolin as Tyler, Lawrence Montaigne as an amphibian (and Mr. Spock clone), Doctor Aguila, and Lloyd Bochner as Temple, the villain. Also in the cast was Cecile Ozorio as the security chief, and Francine York.

The second video repeats the last 4 minutes of the first video, then gives the final four minutes, where Matthews dispatches Temple.

As an aside, Glenn Corbett is about the stiffest actor I've seen





This video is the complete version - all 9 minutes of it! with the very ending and credits that the video above lacks. However, I think the two vids above are of slightly better quality.

OT: NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles Call For Tolerance

Both NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles have new episodes showing today, and, perhaps coincidentally, both shows have the same theme. Muslim soldiers in the US Army are hazed and mistreated and when they turn against their fellow soldiers, it's their fellow soldier's fault.

Well.. that wasn't precisely the theme of NCIS - turns out one sibling, a Christian, kills the other one because he converted to being a Muslim.

In NCIS Los Angeles, the Muslim member of a unit is suspected of setting bombs to kill his squad mates because they let him get disfigured in an explosion. He doubltless will provde to be innocent by the end of the episode...

But let's talk about tolerance... not for Muslims but from Muslims, shall we?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_arabs_sexual_harassment

The suicide rate for women in previously secular Arab nations that have now gone Sharia law is growing, because once again women are being turned into dirt - regarded as less than dogs.

And I'm supposed to be tolerant of this religion? I don't think so.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist. But I'm an atheist woman who can do what I want because I live in the secular USA. And I'm grateful for that.)

Sure, Christian men, and even atheist men, rape and kill women all the time... but when they do it the rest of the Christian community looks on in outrage. Not so in Muslim communities, eh?

Will Men (And Women) Learn From the TIger Woods Debacle?

I wonder, sometimes, what Tiger Woods is doing, while he's holed up in his mansion avoiding the paparazzi, and perhaps watching the news coverage of newscasters (many of whom have probably had affairs themselves) smirking as they tell of each new mistress of Tiger's. Apparently some of them didn't come forward voluntarily, their names were leaked by other people who knew about the affairs, but never blabbed...until there was a chance to make some real money out of it by selling their stories to the tabloids.

Will Tiger commit suicide? That'd probably make the newspapers happy.

If he'd only had one mistress, or even two... things would not have gotten so far out of hand. But the fact that he apparently had thirteen or so..

And now of course the latest woman is older than he is. Oh gasp. Oh horror! She's a "cougar." God I hate that term. What's a guy that has an affair with a woman forty yeasrs older than him? Gramps?

No, I don't really have much sympathy for Tiger Woods. If it'd been one woman or two... but he's just had too many. And apparently he's a jerk in other ways as well. We've all seen the tantrums on the golf course. And apparently he doesn't tip.

But I must say the "media" is really beginning to sicken me, as they are enjoying this so much. And I bet at least 10 authors are out there now paying Tiger's harem for their "exclusive" stories, so they can get their books out by Christmas.

As someone at another site has said, there are heros, and then there are celebrities. Tiger was never a hero, he was only a celebrity, and now the media that built him up is voraciously tearing him down.

And then there's Tiger's women, each of them probably going to make a fortune out of this debacle. Now, I don't think they should be stripped naked, tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail --- Tiger went after them willingly -- but the fact that they're willing to sell their stories for monies, just makes it clear that they are prostitutes, whatever else they are.

But here's the question. How many people who cheat on their spouses are going to stop now, because of what they've seen? Of course, the average person has little to fear from the paperazzi, but what about the actors, and athletes, and politicians who cheat on a regular basis? Now that they see that the media will tear them down in a heartbeat, will they stop their cheating ways?

Planet 51: A for Animation, F for Everything Else

I loved the animation and visual design of Planet 51, but two-thirds of the way through the movie, if I hadn't been there with someone else, I'd have walked out on it. Boring. Worse than boring, annoying.

The plot
The plot is not only simple but simplisticly accomplished. Captain Charles T. Baker lands his ship on ... Planet 51, whose history parallels that of Earth and who has now reached the equivalent of the 1950s, complete with alien invasion movies. ANd indeed, the planet has apparently long been bombarded by space probes from earth, and has put together a team of soldiers to deal with the anticipated invasion.

Baker steps onto the planet not expecting to find any signs of life - when he does he doesn't try to contact it, but instead runs for his life. Even after his initial panic is over, he still doesn't go out and try to be a representative of Planet Earth, instead he just wants to get back to his spaceship and go home.

He enlists Lem to help him, and even remains hidden in Lem's car while demanding that Lem go out and disperse the crowd around his spaceship so he can get back into it!

Criticism
While I thought Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) did a credible acting job in Race to Witch Mountain, his voice work here is sub-par. Of course, it isn't helped by the fact that his character, Captain Charles T. Baker, is a complete wimp. Baker lands on the planet, walks out, sees a bunch of aliens, and runs for his life. That's not how an astronaut is supposed to act - he takes off his helmet, says Hi, I come in peace. Kind of like my hero, Buzz Lightyear.

Later on in the movie, it also transpires that Baker got by on his looks and his charm, which is a slap in the face to all the astronauts who worked their butts off in school and college, and NASA to be astronauts. Of course he "redeems" hismelf in the end, because he has to pilot the spaceship instead of the autopilot when the location where the ship is kept is about to explode.

Equally, Lem, the main character (Justin Long - Mac from the IBM/Mac commercials) is a teenager who gets a job at a planetarium, and is too shy to ask the girl he loves out for a date. At the end of the movie, he kisses her, ya da ya da.

General Grawl, played by Gary Oldman, is a heroic figure in more ways than one. HE's the handsome 51-er (or whatever that planet is called), dashing, etc., and truly believes that Baker is an evil alien come to take them over. But on two occasion he's made to act really stupidly, which just diminishes the character. Oldman's voicework is excellent, though.

John Cleese's voice work is excellent, as one might expect.

There are a few funny bits, and a few salacious bits put in just because.... (the Rover character leaks oil when he's really scared, a character doesn't want to be probed so carries a cork around that is supposed to be inserted into a certain orifice in the nether regions - disgusting and totally unnecessary, the astronaut stands up, completely nude, tho thankfully we only see his chest from the back, and a character says, "I wondered where his antenna were." or something similar to that.

So overall, a disappointing experience. I may see it again, just to enjoy the animation and set dressing...although more than likely I'll wait for it to be shown on TV, as it isn't worth paying more money to see it again.

Dwayne Johnson ... Captain Charles T. Baker (voice)
Jessica Biel ... Neera (voice)
Justin Long ... Lem (voice)
Gary Oldman ... General Grawl (voice)
Seann William Scott ... Skiff (voice)
John Cleese ... Professor Kipple

Gene Barry, star of Original War of the Worlds, RIP

(War of the Worlds)



in The Adventurer)

Just read the news that Gene Barry has died at the age of 90.

http://cbs2.com/local/gene.barry.obit.2.1363319.html

In addition to War of the Worlds, he was most famous as Bat Masterson (with the bowler and umbrella that you'd swear was the inspiration for John Steed!), and as Amos Burke in Burke's Law and The Adventurer.

Journey to the Center of Rick Wakeman

Radio is the theater of the mind. You don't need to watch TV or a movie, you close your eyes and imagine what you're seeing.

Here is a radio show called Crimes Against Music: Journey to the Center of Rick Wakeman.

It's a spoof on prog rock - concept albums like Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, etc.

Stars English singer-comic Mitch Benn, with a guest-star turn by Benn's friend, Rick Wakeman (keyboardist for Yes before making it big on his own.)

A lot of the early humor is very British humor, very topical (Alan Tichmarsh is a gardening host, yet here he is the Prime Minister of England, the Oracle is a palm computer (page loading...while they're waiting for news on what to do) but it really picks up when the Fellowship are shrunk and sent into Wakeman's brain in an attempt to save him.

Star Trek: The Legacy Continues -- This Enterprise is a space ship

Click on photos for larger versions.

When the United States shuttle program started, the first shuttle, used for test flights, was called the Enterprise, and when it was unveiled, on September 17, 1976 Gene Roddenberry and the cast members from Star Trek were there, except William Shatner) .

The name earned criticism in some quarters, as "stuffed shirts" thought it brought the shuttle program into the realm of fantasy. On the other hand, many more people were disappointed to learn that the space shuttle named Enterprise was just a test vehicle, none of the actual shuttles would bear the name.

Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic has remedied that snub. This Enterprise is a spaceship, not a starship, but the honor is much appreciated among Trek fans.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/12/07/2143953.aspx

English billionaire Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Atlantic Airlines, is also the owner of Virgin Galactic. His SpaceShipTwo rocket plane "drew hundreds of paying space tourists and travel agents, rocket geeks and glitterati to the Mojave Air and Space Port."

See the link for the complete article.

Calling All Muggles: Dec 7 HP and the Half-Blood Prince DVD Release Party

CALLING ALL MUGGLES:
BAY- AREA BLOCKBUSTER TO HOST MIDNIGHT DVD RELEASE PARTY FOR
“HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE”

Monday, Dec. 7th Event to Feature Prizes, Magician and Games
WHAT: The magic of Harry Potter will descend on the BLOCKBUSTER
location at 2133 Collier Pkwy. in Land O’ Lakes on Monday, Dec. 7 as
the store hosts a midnight DVD release party for “Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince.” In addition to being the next chapter in the
highly popular series of films based on J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter”
novels, the movie is the highest grossing film of 2009 and is among
the top 10 highest grossing films of all time.

Activities at the event include:

The opportunity for loyal Harry Potter fans to be among the first to
rent or purchase the movie on DVD or Blu-ray, while supplies last.
Those who can’t stay until the midnight release are invited to reserve
a copy for purchase with $5 down.
The chance to win Harry Potter prizes
Special appearance by radio station WFLZ 93.3 FM and WXTB 98-Rock,
magician, games and contests.
Register to win a Samsung Blu-ray player and Harry Potter and the
Half-Blood Prince Blu-ray DVD and lots of other prizes.

WHEN: Monday, Dec. 7

8 pm: Event begins
Midnight: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” DVD and Blu-ray
available for rent or purchase while supplies last. (Those who can’t
stay until midnight can reserve a copy for purchase with $5 down.)

WHERE: BLOCKBUSTER, 2133 Collier Pkwy., Land O’ Lakes, FL

HOW: Admission is free and open to the public.

OFFERING: “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” will be available
for purchase or rent while supplies last at participating BLOCKBUSTER
stores and online at www.blockbuster.com on the movie’s nationwide
release date of Tuesday, Dec. 8. Fans can reserve their copy in
advance by putting $5 down at any participating store.

In addition to the single-disc DVD, BLOCKBUSTER will be offering
several special editions: a two-disc DVD version and a
Blu-ray+DVD+Digital Copy Combo Pack. Also available at BLOCKBUSTER
stores starting on Dec. 8 will be a Harry Potter Years 1-6 Giftset,
featuring all six of the Harry Potter movies, on DVD or Blu-ray.