Sci-Fi Storm

Just the periodic SF TV Store update: Andromedia Season 4, Collection 5 (March 8th); Doctor Who: “The Leisure Hive” and “Ghost Light” (June 7th); Farscape Season 1 Collection 3 (Starbust Edition) (March 15th); Highlander: The Complete Series (out); Lost in Space Season 3 Volume 1 (March 1st); Quantum Leap Season 3 (May 10th); and Xena: Warrior Princess – The Complete Series (March 18th).

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America have announced that Anne McCaffrey, best known as author of the Dragonriders of Pern series, will be named a Grand Master at the Nebula Awards in Chicago this year.

With the recent announcements about Enterprise and resting Trek for a while, and a recent SCI FI Wire poll where 48% said J. Michael Straczynski should helm the next Trek series, JMS spoke up – and mentioned that he and Bryce Zabel (creator of Dark Skies) gave a treatment last year to Paramount for a new Trek series, and suggested fans contact Paramount to get them to reconsider. However, he later recanted, given the desire of Paramount to rest the franchise for a couple of years regardless, and his own busy schedule…

Scourge of Worlds Special Collector’s Edition is a re-release of a 2003 “Choose Your Own Adventure” interactive DVD with new scenes and endings added, along with the second disc with special features, set in th Greyhawk world of the venerable Dungeons and Dragons gaming universe. How does it fare? Read More to find out. It hits the streets this Tuesday (2/15).

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mbourgon writes “Jack Chalker, author of 50 novels and best known for “Midnight at the Well of Souls”, passed away yesterday. He will be missed by many. News at http://jackchalker.com/news.htm.
I remember, when I was in high school, writing a couple dozen sci-fi authors. I got a handwritten letter back from him, answering a couple fanboyish questions. An all around nice guy.”

The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films has nominees for the 2005 Saturn Awards. Notables: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban leads the field with 9 nominations; Lost tops TV with 5. Stargate: SG-1 and Smallville each have four, with frosh series Stargate Atlantis taking two.

I’m slowly making progress on Storm 2.0, in between various interruptions of life. Mostly I’ve gotten some theming done, with a combo of CSS and XSLT. Take a look at the Beta Site: the default theme is now dark blue, but grey, maroon, and black will also be available. IE users will get black by default for now to get around PNG transparency issues, but the will be a separate theme for IE (probably only one). I’ve also put in a feathered effect on all the title bars. Backengine work still needs to be done – you can’t actually register yet, but the beginnings of the cookie authentication is in place. Comments? Suggestions?

I mentioned in my review of the Crusade DVD Box Set that JMS was miffed that they had edited the commentary track he did, against his agreement. Well, as part of a larger post, JMS says he and WB came to an agreement that all future pressings of the Crusade DVDs will no longer have the commentary track in question, as per their original agreement of “…use it all, including the explanation of what happened, or use none of it.”

Here is a short review of the Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars DVD that was released earlier this week. I’ve already reviewed the feature in November, which you should read first if you are not familiar with it.

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Wil Wheaton, best know as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, told SCI FI Wire hat he has come to terms with his former role, and regrets asking for a hasty exit. I actually remember when the UseNet group “alt.wesley.crusher.die.die.die” was created as a joke, yet grew to have a life of its own…