Sci-Fi Storm

It wasn’t a very good weekend. We have had to say goodbye to Don Knotts (The Andy Griffith Show, The Reluctant Astronaut – a personal favorite as a kid), Darrin McGavin (Kolchak: The Night Stalker among other genre films), and Hugo and Nebula winning SF author Octavia Butler.

We first reported on the show in August, but ABC has has placed an order for 4 episodes of Masters of Sci-Fi, an anthology series that hopes to bring the stories of some of the best SF authors to the small screen. Producers IDT Entertainment and Industry Entertainment, who did the Masters of Horror series, actually plan to put at least 6 episodes into production and hope to do a full 13. Anthology series haven’t done well on network TV recently – lets hope this bucks the trend.

Doom 3 was, frankly, the most frightening video game I ever played. Visually and aurally stunning, I actually had to limit my playing or else I had trouble sleeping. Now turned into a movie, would Doom: Unrated Extended Edition live up to the game?

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I am working full speed at trying to get another job (I’m laid off as of the end of the month), and various other emergencies are eating up my time, so please forgive if I don’t updated the site as regularly as I intended. I do owe a review for Doom – Unrated Edition. And if anyone knows of a senior UNIX/Linux admin position in the Boston area, please let me know…or if Yahoo or Google wants to buy this site it may tide me over 🙂

The man who turned a conniving lizard-like alien into a heroic character, Andreas Katsulas, died yesterday of lung cancer at the age of 59. Katsulas played the Narn Regime ambassador G’Kar on Babylon 5, as well as various guest roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Enterprise, along with film roles such as the one-armed man in The Fugitive. Update: JMS had some good words for Andreas – Read More to read. Update 2/17: There is an excellent tribute video from Z-Team, the ones who did trhe B5 music videos among other things…

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Actor Phil Brown, who played Uncle Owen Lars in the first Star Wars film, passed away last Thursday. Brown also made appearances in Superman, The Martian Chronicles, and even appeared in Richard Hatch’s short film he used to try and revive Battlestar Galactica. Phil was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and acted in New York and Hollywood, but left in “exile” to London in the early 50s due to investigations of the “House Un-American Activities Committee” (a.k.a. the “Red Scare” that ran through Hollywood) and resumed acting there, where he landed his Star Wars role. He returned to the U.S. in the 90’s. He was 89.

Lynne Gryphon writes “A SCI FI Fan girl from downunder Sydney Australia has started a FREE to air video podcast. Including Science Fiction News highlights from around the globe.

Vist her at www.myspace.com/lynnegryphon“

Bryan Singer has teamed up with his partner from The Usual Suspects, Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie, and they’re finishing the script. “I’m taking concepts in the book and the movie, the 1976 movie, and some of my own comcepts and merging them together for my interpretation.” I’m assuming Michael York won’t be one of the things borrowed from the old movie – he was actually over 30 when it was made, and since this is using the book’ original age of 21…Singer hopes to start production later this year, hopefully for a 2008 release.

Angela Duplis writes “Wednesday, February 08, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

– Joss Whedon Track featured at MegaCon 2006 –

Orlando, FL (February 8, 2006) For the first time in Central Florida, the Joss Whedon Universe (or, ?Whedon?Verse? as the fans call it) will have a strong presence at a comic book convention thanks to one fan, Jason Dorough. ?Usually you can only find them in small gatherings at conventions here and there,? comments panelist Stephanie Pando, ?but now there?s an opportunity for die-hard and casual fans alike to really come together and participate in some wonderful events.? From episode screenings and panels with celebrity guests to a ?Whedon?Verse? costume contest, MegaCon will have it all.” Read More for the rest – MegaCon is February 24th – 26th in Orlando, Florida.

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Contrary to previous reports, Disney has announced that Toy Story 3 is still moving forward – but Pixar is taking over. Don’t know if this means that Pixar willingly took it over, or Disney is flexing a little muscle to push forward an established franchise.