Sci-Fi Storm

J. Michael Straczynski has probably scored A-list status for his work on The Changeling, which was directed by Clint Eastwood (and is being held until later in the year as a possible Oscar contender), and now he’s getting A-list praise, and a formidable list of projects. New on the list: Lensman, being developed for Ron Howard and based on the novels of E. E. Smith.

Just wanted to update on upcoming U.S. DVD releases for Doctor Who. Newly announced for September 2nd are two Season 15 Tom Baker episodes – “The Invisible Enemy” and “The Invasion of Time”. As a special bonus, since “The Invisible Enemy” introduced K9 for the first time, it also includes the spinoff K9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend. Perhaps more exiting is that September 16th gets us Torchwood Season 2 (I will shortly split Torchwood into its own section on the Sci-Fi TV Store). Near term, on August 5th, we get “The Time Meddler” (Season 2 – William Hartnell), “Black Orchid” (Peter Davison), and a 25th Anniversary Edition of “The Five Doctors”.

Oscar winner Stan Winston passed away Sunday at the age of 62 after a long fight with multiple myeloma. Winston won Oscars for VFX and makeup for Terminator 2: Judgement Day, as well as for VFX in Titanic and Aliens, along with numerous nominations.

Russell T. Davies, who successfully brought Doctor Who back to TV, was named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE), one of the highest honors accorded to British and Commonwealth citizens. This doesn’t make him a Sir though – Knighthoods are part of a higher level in the Order.

It’s been a particularly bad couple of weeks for crew of the Enterprise. Star Trek producer Robert H. Justman, who worked on the original series as well as Star Trek: The Next Generation (and was instrumental in getting Patrick Stewart cast) passed away Wednesday due to complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 81. I’ll leave off the transporter jokes that are being done to death, but I like this quote from his son: “There seems to be a big ‘Star Trek’ convention and everyone is going,” Jonathan Justman said. “Everyone is getting beamed up.”

Alexander “Sandy” Courage, who composed the infamous fanfare theme for Star Trek, passed away May 15th at the age of 88, after years of declining health. He shared an Emmy in 1988 for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction on Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas, had two other nominations and two Oscar nominations as well.

It was announced today that Star Trek director Joseph Pevney passed away May 18th at the age of 96. Pevney directed 14 episodes of the original series including some of the classic episodes like “The City on the Edge of Forever” and “The Trouble With Tribbles”. He also directed episodes of many action-oriented shows, like The Incredible Hulk, Adam-12, and Emergency!, and movies such as Tammy and the Bachelor.

N.E. Lilly writes “Just a brief note to announce SpaceWesterns.com’s first full year of publication.

The new year of SpaceWesterns.com brings: a creative refresh of the home page, the launch of our blog (The Sideshow), and the creation of a (nearly) complete Space Western list.

All that in addition to the publication of Space Western stories and articles. This week we’ve published “Craphound” by Cory Doctorow, and part 1 of an 8 part serial “A Man Called Mister Brown” by A.R. Yngve. Next week we have an interview with David Weddle, screenwriter for Battlestar Galactica.

http://www.spacewesterns.com/“

Alien Nation fans are going to love this one. All 5 TV movies which followed the series after it was canceled in 1990 have now been collected on a single DVD set, called [sfs=813]Alien Nation: The Ultimate Movie Collection[/sfs]. Not only do you get all 5 movies, but full length commentaries by producer/director Kenneth Johnson, behind the scenes featurettes, and even gag reels. Read More for for a review.

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No, it’s not some weird pseudo-reality show. Fox has greenlighted a backdoor pilot for Virtuality, with a script from Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica). The show is about Earth’s first starship, the Phaeton, and the 12 astronauts on a 10-year mission. To cope with the long mission, the ship is equipped with virtual reality modules, allowing adventures in a variety of environments. However, the system has a bit of a bug…