Sci-Fi Storm

I have a planned trip to visit family next week, and an unexpected death in the family elsewhere may have me travelling a lot more than expect, so don’t expect a whole lot this week. I will check in as much a possible. If you come across a story of interest, submit it – it will save me some time.

Perhaps the networks are going to rethink the mid-season break plan. ABC’s hit show Lost turned in dismal ratings this week – the lowest ever for the show. IT still drew 12.8 million viewers in its later time slot, and it was on Valentine’s Day, but sponsors don’t see it that way – and perhaps all the plot twists are starting to leave viewers – well, Lost.

Next up on the remastered Star Trek episodes: “Amok Time”, where we get our first glimpses of the surface of the planet Vulcan. Unfortunately, I managed to lose the e-mail with the images from this episode, but there were two shots where they redid some matte images. Once shows Kirk, Spock and McCoy (well, tiny specks) cross a massive stone bridge high in the air to the arena. The second is a shot of the arena, which can be seen to be on top of a tower plateau with two stone bridges leading to it, with the city of Shi’Kahr, where Spock was born and grew up, in the background. If you told me it was a satellite shot of a Stonehenge on Mars, I’d believe it. I don’t remember any shots from the original episode that gave any sense of scale or location before.

Christopher Eccleston is certainly getting work outside of Doctor Who. He has joined the cast of 20th Century Fox and Walden Media’s adaptation of Susan Cooper’s best-selling fantasy books, entitled The Dark Is Rising. Eccleston will play the villain in the story, The Rider. The story is a about a teenager who travels back and forth through time as one of the last of a group of warriors who fight the forces of the dark.