Sci-Fi Storm

I finally got to see The Martian this weekend thanks to several hours free in the middle of my non-stop schedule lately, with nothing to do while trapped in Boston.

I described Gravity as “the worst work day ever”. But it was relentless – a constant series of just bad things happening that just somehow impossibly not end up killing the protagonist. Great visuals, but TOO intense and non-stop.

The Martian is Gravity done a TON better. And more enjoyable.

In The Martian, as seen in the previews, a sudden massive storm forces the abort of the Ares III mission on the surface of Mars. While attempting to reach the ascent vehicle, astronaut Mark Watney is struck by a piece of debris, and his bio monitor indicates that his suit had been ruptured. The rest of the crew are unable to locate him before he would likely run out of air, and are forced to take off.

Miraculously, Watney survives and makes it back to the habitat, and realizes his situation. He’s trapped on another planet alone, communications are out, a rescue mission would take 4 years to reach him without nearly enough food and many things that if they broke would kill him.

The Martian dispenses with the intensity for realism. It isn’t a constant series of bad things happening, but there is the constant threat of it. But Watney is given the chance to think through his options, and not have to improvise every second. He works through the solutions and, for the benefit of the audience, talks through them via the video logs he makes in case anyone can retrieve them.

Matt Damon did a spectacular job as Watney. He managed to effectively bring the humor to a character in a dire situation. He appears defeated when things go south but never gives up. And everything he does is believable, and for the most part, accurate. As part of that, in some cases the technospeak might lose some portion of the audience – such as all the talk about intercept velocities. But it is something that they had to deal with, so the audience had to deal with it too.

Perhaps the weakest parts of the movie may have been with the supporting cast. Not that anything was horrible, but at times I just didn’t connect with the emotion or passion the characters should have been generating. I hate to say this, but I think Sean Bean’s portrayal of flight director Mitch Henderson, who I felt should have been making a more impassioned plea of NASA director Teddy Sanders (Jeff Daniels), but more often looked like someone who just wanted to go to bed. And I LOVE Sean Bean. But keep a watch out for the meeting where they discuss “Project Elrond”…

Visually, the movie is spectacular…the flat Mars landscapes punctuated by tall, wind-carved mountains, looked incredibly realistic. I was VERY impressed. They did a spectacular job of not making it look like he was just filmed in a greenscreen room and everything was just composted in.

I believe The Martian is probably the best movie I’ve seen in years.

LNL Partners, whose proprietary Cinematic Graphic Novels™ was introduced this past summer with William Shatner’s Man O’ War, has launched a special William Shatner imprint entitled Shatner Singularity. In addition to publishing works authored by William Shatner in LNL’s Cinematic Graphic Novel™ format, Shatner Singularity will also offer the latest graphic novel from comic book legend Stan Lee and his company POW! Entertainment.

The specific individual titles from William Shatner and Stan Lee will be revealed during a much-anticipated panel presentation featuring the two pop culture giants to be held at Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo on Sunday, November 1 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“We are thrilled to unveil the Shatner Singularity imprint and its debut releases from William Shatner and Stan Lee at Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo. The team at LNL Partners has enjoyed the privilege of working directly with these two legendary industry icons to deliver to fans worldwide Cinematic Graphic Novels, a new and innovative way to enjoy comic book entertainment. Publishing Stan Lee and his newest literary work under the imprint adds yet another level of tremendous excitement to the Shatner Singularity brand,” said Mariano Nicieza, LNL Partners Co-Owner.

“With its Cinematic Graphic Novels™ LNL Partners has created a unique new genre. After proving to be a powerful and compelling platform for Man O’ War, I am delighted to have the format serve to showcase other works under the Shatner Singularity imprint. It is a particular joy and honor for my imprint to host work from my friend Stan Lee. As Stan himself is fond of saying, ‘nuff said’!” said Shatner.

“I’m thrilled to be working with my friend William Shatner’s new imprint. I look forward to sharing details of my new project at Comikaze Expo!” said Lee.

Jointly developed by LNL and Panelfly, the Cinematic Graphic Novel format delivers a groundbreaking form of digital comics that combines moving panels, a new stylistic dimension in animation, in-story sound effects and a music soundtrack to usher in an enhanced reading experience.

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From our sister site, WDW Untangled…

On the opening night of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on December 17th, Walt Disney World Resort will host a special ticketed event at Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) and Disney’s Hollywood Studios park for fans who want to be among the first viewers of the movie and celebrate with other fans.

Guests will have a confirmed seat at the AMC Disney Springs 24 theater for a showing between 7pm-8pm, and then celebrate over at Hollywood Studios at a private party afterwards until 2am. The party will include special access to the new Star Wars: Launch Bay exhibit, the Star Tours: The Adventures Continue attraction, a DJ dance party, and a preview of the all new fireworks display set to Star Wars music. Costumes are encouraged! But follow standard Disney guest costume guidelines – if you dress like a Disney character, for instance, you may not pose for pictures with other guests or sign autographs, etc.

Characters will also appear at Launch Bay – it is sounding like a private mini-Star Wars Weekends!

Tickets will go on sale immediately after the latest trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens airs tonight during Monday Night Football. And in fact, tickets for showings at theaters around the country will go on sale at the same time!

Ticket prices will depend on which format you see the movie in: 2D ($94.99), 3D ($98.99) and 3D ETX ($99.99).

Note: Direct transportation between Disney Springs and Hollywood Studios will NOT be provided. Parking is free at Disney Springs, and parking at Hollywood Studios is included in the price of the ticket. Guests staying at a WDW Resort will be able to take transportation from Disney Springs to their resort, and then on to Hollywood Studios.

More FAQs can be found here.

Syfy’s drama Defiance has been canceled, not long after the network canceled Dominion.

The show was part of a major experiment by the network, teaming up with videogame maker Trion Worlds to make Defiance a “transmedia” show, existing both as a TV show and a massively-multiplayer game online, with events of one showing as having an effect on the other. Trion Worlds has stated the game will continue.

“I got to collaborate with a group of stunning artists operating at the top of their game, and together we built a world,” said Executive Producer Kevin Murphy. “Because of that, there is no room for anything other than joy in my heart.”

Syfy said in a statement, “Defiance was a truly groundbreaking series, delivering an immersive, cross-platform experience that transcended the television screen in a way that viewers had never seen before. We are incredibly proud of the work of the extraordinary cast, writers, artists and designers — and especially showrunner Kevin Murphy — who together brought the rich world of Defiance to life over its three season arc.”

Ratings fell each season, with shifts in what day it aired, with the finale netting 1.925 million viewers and a 0.51 18-49 rating in Live+3.

The show recently concluded it’s third season in August, and the season finale did have a bit of finality to it, so ending the series where it did is satisfying at least.

Marvel and Fox (who holds the movie and TV rights to Marvel’s X-Men franchise) are working together on a pair of TV projects based on X-Men characters for two of Fox’s networks.

Legion, based on the character of the same name, has a pilot order from FX. Fargo creator Noah Hawley will write and exec produce. Legion is David Haller, who is in fact the son of Professor Xavier, and has suffered from multiple personality disorder for all his life. But his splintered personalities eventually manifest different mutant abilities.

Hellfire (the working title) is still in development at Fox, and follows a Special Agent that discovers that a woman with uncanny powers is working with a secret society of rich people called the “Hellfire Club” in a plot to take over the world – the same group led by Sebastian Shaw in X-Men: First Class. The show was created by Evan Katz (the 24 franchise), Manny Coto (the 24 franchise), Patrick McKay (Star Trek 3) and JD Payne (Star Trek 3).

The X-Men movie heads Bryan Singer, Lauren Shuler Donner and Simon Kinberg will executive produce both series along with Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory from Marvel TV.

Interestingly, neither series will bear the X-Men label, but will be set within the same universe as the movie franchise.

I personally think there is a less alien explanation, but there is a report making the rounds today that scientists have detected a star, KIC 8462852, that experiences very unusual and erratic dips in brightness. The brightness change is around 22%, which is far more than typically observed from planetary transits, which is more like 1%, and are generally more consistent.

While there are probably a number of more rational explanations, astronomer Jason Wright, who specializes in signs of advanced civilizations, put forth the ideal that massive solar panels arranged in orbit, could be an explanation, although even he says we should “approach it skeptically.”

A Dyson Sphere, popularized and named after mathematician and theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, is one of a number of theoretical megastructures in which a partial or complete shell is constructed around a star, allowing for near-complete use of the energy output of the star.

Another similar structure, the Ringworld as conceived by science fiction author Larry Niven, is a ring structure around a star where the inner surface would have millions of times the area of Earth as livable space. But in order to provide something approximating a day/night cycle on such a structure, a second, inner structure exists – the “shadow squares”, enormous panels in orbit that block the sunlight from the star from a section of the Ringworld.

Sound familiar? Perhaps we should be searching for Protectors or Puppeteers in the area…

Season four of The CW’s Beauty And The Beast, which is nearing the end of production, will be its last, after the network decided that it should wrap up.

The remake of the 1987 TV series, it was always considered a long-shot at getting renewed each season, it eked out another year at a time by holding relatively steady ratings (0.2 Live+Same Day in the 18-49 group) and being pretty good on the international market as well as online.

The CW hasn’t announced when the fourth season will air yet.

Syfy has decided not to renew the show Dominion, based on the movie Legion, after the conclusion of its second season. In a statement Syfy said, “Led by Vaun Wilmott, the talented cast, producers, writers and crew of Dominion have done a tremendous job bringing this ambitious, cinematic series to the screen over the past two seasons. We thank them, as well as our producing partners Universal Cable Productions, Bold Films and Film Afrika.”

Dominion had a dismal second season, losing nearly half of it’s viewers from Season 1 and averaging only 0.9 million viewers.

From my point of view, the diverging subplots seemed irrelevant compared to the main plot of Alex, the writings and what it meant to the humans and angels, which seemed to take all season only to move slightly. However, the addition of Lucifer was actually peaking my interest level at the end.

MTV has set January 5th as the debut date for the The Shannara Chronicles with a two-hour premiere starting at 10/9c.

Thousands of years after the destruction of civilization as we know it, magic begins to return. Amberle Elessedil (Poppy Drayton, When Calls The Heart), an Elven princess; Wil Ohmsford (Austin Butler, The Carrie Diaries), a half-elf; and human Eretria (Ivana Baquero, Pan’s Labyrinth) embark on a quest to stop a demon army from destroying the Four Lands.