Sci-Fi Storm

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 had a test screening in Chicago today (why wasn’t I invited?!?), and the folks at MuggleNet were there, and collecting the feedback. “I just saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. …And it was beyond excellent.” reads the first review.

Wondering what’s up with Myka and Pete next week? Check out this preview for “Merge With Caution”, which airs Tuesday, August 24th at 9/8c on Syfy.

SFX Magazine in the UK posted the results of a number of polls, including the “Favourite Monsters, Supernatural Beings & Fantasy Creatures” – and the Daleks lead the list of the top 20. Other notable entries include Gollum (5), Babylon 5‘s Shadows (6, not bad for a show nearly 12 years gone…still wish we were getting more), The Borg (11), Pilot from Farscape (12), and the Cybermen (13).

For the old-time Babylon 5 fans on the Internet (especially UseNet), you may remember Elana, who made the “jumpgate” pins based on the ASCII “jumpgate” symbol (<*>) prevalent in the UseNet signatures of fans at the time. They were high quality handmade pins (I still have two of the original black pins, although I managed to break the pin back off on one). I just found out via JMS that she recently found some “missing inventory” after having moved several times, and has all sorts of them for sale again on her home page…and she sure could use your help, as she fights breast cancer…as a happy past (and soon to be again) customer, I wish her strength.

Update: Alas, Elana passed beyond the veil, October 30th, 2013. She will be missed.

Eureka, SyFy’s hit “dramedy” currently airing it’s fourth season, has already been picked up for a fifth. The press release didn’t say for how many episodes – the first three seasons were 12, 13 and 18 episodes respectively, with the current season being part of a 20-episode order – but here’s hoping it’s another full order. Anyone have any comments regarding the current season? Was the addition of James Callis good or bad? I admit it took a few seconds to recognize him. How about the alternate timeline arc?

The winner of the 2010 Star Wars Fan Film Movie Challenge’s “George Lucas Selects” award has been announced by Lucas himself – this year, it is “The Unconscious Sith”. In addition all the other winners have been announced, all of them quite good. The Audience Choice award went to “Renaissance (Redux)”. Follow the link to see all the winners.

Some Bothan spies attending Celebration V down in Orlando (along with the “Last Tour To Endor” event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios to celebrate the upcoming Star Tours refurbishment) have transmitted a tidbit – that a Blu-ray release of all 6 movies will hit the streets sometime in the Fall of 2011. Here’s the kicker – at least for the foreseeable future, it will only be a single box set of all 6 movies, and it will be only the remastered version. But there will be new goodies – including some deleted scenes that haven’t been released before. They previewed one scene, from the beginning of Return of the Jedi, where Luke is seen completing his new lightsaber (and someone captured it and put it on YouTube, below). I wonder if it will include the infamous scenes where Luke meets with his friends on Tatooine…

(Video redacted due to copyright claim)

Update 8/16: Interesting…word is also getting out that at Comic-Con in 2009 Mark Hamill was asked about the rumored missing scene, and said he never filmed such a seen – although he did point out that there were some scenes done post-production without him actually being their, like the reconstructed hand closeup. But this begs the question – was this actually filmed, or is this another “update” that didn’t make the actual update?

Update 8/22: Or did he? Someone who was in attendance at the convention commented on Blastr that Mark Hamill was asked about the scene again, and he said he had recently seen it and now remembers it being shot.

Perhaps Shakespeare isn’t far off…”u”, the “First Authentic Klingon Opera on Earth”, will see it’s earthly debut on September 9th, 2010 at the Zeebelt Theater, The Hague, Amsterdam. A later performance exclusively for Klingons will happen at The Celestial Vault, Kijkduin on the 18th of September 2010.

Season 1.5 of Stargate Universe was released a couple of weeks ago on [sfs=1031]Blu-ray[/sfs] and [sfs=1032]DVD[/sfs], and I’ve had a chance to catch up and review the DVD version.

SG-U is a different beast from the previous efforts. It tries to expand the plot that was the genesis of Stargate Atlantis – a team finds itself extremely distant from home at the other end of a one-way stargate trip, mostly in isolation. Whereas Atlantis was still able to receive supplies from Earth (and eventually solved the general problem between starships and the stargate bridge), the team this time is totally isolated except for the ability to use the consciousness transfer stones – which themselves bring up several plot points which are addressed in the series instead of simply ignored. This time as well, the “team” is a combination of military and civilian characters thrown together by circumstance rather than by mission, forced into that circumstance to escape an attack but also through the non-altruistic intents of Dr. Geoffrey Rush (Robert Carlisle), who would rather prove his theories and general greater intelligence than solve problems. And instead of a floating city, they are stranded on an empty Ancient ship (of ancient Ancient design 🙂 ) called the Destiny, where they have very little control over the ship, and few resources.
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Apparently there was a growing optimism among the Tolkien fans that there would be a pending announcement on August 21st – hopefully the greenlight on production of The Hobbit – based on a private event following a “refurbishment” being held at the Weta Cave. But later reports showed that the event is nothing special. But if the sets are indeed being unpacked, there is still hope.