Sci-Fi Storm

SyFy Portal is reporting that a source at Fox says that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles could have the plug pulled within a week due to low ratings. After 4 new episodes, the ratings are off 34% from last season’s average of 5.6/9, and that was way down from the premiere of 11.1/16.

The SCI FI Channel has given the green light to a new investigative series, set to travel around the world in search of legandary and mythical artifacts. Read More for the full press release. It sounds like it is trying to capitalize on the renewed interest in Indiana Jones, and something more likely to be found on Discovery than SFC, but if done well it could be quite interesting, like the old In Search Of…

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Director Andrew Stanton (Wall*E), who is also performing writing duties for the upcoming John Carter of Mars movie, gave more details to SCI FI Wire on the early stages of the film’s production. Apparently the look will differ from the classic bookcover imagery of the Burroughs series, and may diverge from the books themselves. “I’m going to do what I remember more than what they exactly do.” They are still mum on the format, but reports are that it may be a mix of live action and animation.

Despite the pomp and circumstance with the one hour premiere party pre-show beforehand (anyone else think the “bar” scenes were all pre-taped?), the ratings for the 2-hour season premiere of Heroes dropped 25% over last year. I’ve only seen half of the premiere, and despite the recaps provided in the pre-show, I was still somewhat confused as to where everything stood. Bruce Boxleitner was a decent surprise though. Seems I had forgotten about it. Oh, and the train scene? Looked VERY fake.

Star Trek fan Joan Winston, who helped organized the first ever Star Trek convention in 1972 in Manhattan and started a fandom movement never seen before, passed away on September 11th at the age of 77.

Tracey writes “Loud Silence, a free ezine by award winning artist and author William VanDorin. Featuring flash fiction and original art of a very different sort. The best description of his work is a cross between the twillight zone and Edgar Allen Poe. This one is a must see and best of all it’s free with no advertising or pop ups. Have apeek at.
http://loudsilencestudio.com/loudsilence.htm“

Shatner took to a new frontier to dispute a statement by J.J. Abrams regarding a part for James T. Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek movie. Although some reports term it a “blasting”, I think Shatner was in fact very cordial about it and complimented Abrams several times. Read More to see the video.

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There is a new Known Space novel on bookshelves, once again a team effort between Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner, who previous co-wrote Fleet of Worlds. Juggler of Worlds features Sigmund Ausfaller, Earth’s covert agent and a paranoid, seeking to find just what the Puppeteers have been up to. Lerner gave some more details to SCI FI Wire. Now I’m 3.5 books behind on the Encyclopedia. I need to find reading time.

The Thunder Child writes “Last week I shared the info about Bill Cosby’s version of The CHicken Heart That Ate New York. Now, listen to the Lights Out original episode, The Chicken Heart. The audio is accompanied by animation that only an artist with my particular skills could have created.

http://thethunderchild.com/TheChickenHeart.html“

Disney, who has been looking at its theme parks for inspiration, especially with the success of Pirates of the Carribean, may make Tomorrowland its next movie source. According to reports, Tomorrowland is set to be a vehicle for Dwayne Johnson, who recently starred in The Game Plan and is in the upcoming Disney feature Race To Witch Mountain, and the writing team of Jon Lucas and Scott Moore (Rebound) are drafting a script. Disney is denying the title or that it has anything to do with the parks.