Sci-Fi Storm

Grace Lee Whitney, who for a short but memorable time played Yeoman Janice Rand on the original Star Trek, passed away on Friday at home at the age of 85, confirmed by her son. She was the oldest surviving original cast member.

Whitney started as a singer, appearing with Billie Holiday and Buddy Rich, but then turned to acting and appeared in guest roles in a number of TV shows including Gunsmoke, The Rifleman and 77 Sunset Strip, but then landed a role as what was supposed to be a regular “love interest” character for Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek when it went into production.

Her and her infamous blond beehive wig (“I swear they had to nail that thing to my head!”) would only last 8 episodes, however. Numerous reasons for her departure were rumored, including her alcoholism, but according to her the primary reason was that they didn’t want to tie Kirk down and leave him free to mingle with others. Gene Roddenberry claimed it was to cut the budget. But in her [asin=1884956033]1998 autobiography[/asin], she also said she was sexually assaulted by a Desilu (the production company) executive, and was cut from the show a few days later.

Her career after that, along with her addictions, would spiral out of control, but she credited the Star Trek fans who never forgot her for helping her beat her additions and became an advocate for beating substance abuse. She would return to Star Trek and her character with small parts in Star Trek: The Motion Picture as the transporter chief, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home working in Starfleet Command, and Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country and an episode of Star Trek: Voyager as the communications officer on the U.S.S. Excelsior, which they believed might spin off into a series.

Ad astra per aspera, Grace…

I sadly found out just a few minutes ago that author Sir Terry Pratchett, best known for his Discworld series of fantasy novels, passed away today at the age of 66 after suffering from Alzheimers since 2007.

Pratchett’s [asin=038553826X]Discworld[/asin], in which many of his over 70 books are set, was a flat world which was sitting on the backs of four enormous elephants, who themselves stood on the back of a giant turtle traveling through space.

He received an OBE for his services to literature in 1998, and was knighted in 2009. In 2001 he was Britain’s second most read author, only behind J.K. Rowling.

He took his illness in stride, and kept writing with his last bpok, an [asin=0544466594]anthology of children’s stories[/asin], released last summer.

His death was announced on his own Twitter account with a sense of Pratchett’s humor and writing style. The first tweet was written in all upper case as he typically represented his character of Death in his books:

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.

Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.

The End.

The science fiction community has lost one of its icons today…Leonard Nimoy, who (and I know I don’t need to say this) gained fame as the “pointy-eared, green-blooded, inhuman” Vulcan first officer Spock on the original Star Trek, passed away early this morning at home from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to his wife Susan. Nimoy had announced he suffered from the disease last year, likely caused by smoking, even though he gave up the habit 30 years ago.

Nimoy also had some success as a writer and director, doing both on several of the movie installments of Star Trek, and he also directed the successful Three Men and a Baby.

Most recently he starred in the rebooted Star Trek film as well as a cameo in the sequel, plus had a recurring role in Fringe.

All we can say right now is, Live Long and Prosper.

The creator of a big part of my childhood passed away.

Glen A. Larson, best known as the creator of many science fiction shows as well as a variety of other popular shows in the 70s and 80s, passed away at the age of 77.

Larson was responsible for not only Battlestar Galactica, perhaps what he was best known for despite it only lasting one season, but he created such long running shows as Quincy, M.E., Magnum P.I., The Six Million Dollar Man, The Fall Guy, B.J. and the Bear, and Knight Rider.

Somewhat controversial, he was often accused of borrowing ideas from popular movies at the time for his TV shows, although that appears to be how Hollywood operates these days.

Many of his programs have been remade years later (Knight Rider and Battlestar Galactica), or have been floating around in development (The Six Billion Dollar Man, The Fall Guy).

Larson had hopes of doing his own remake of Battlestar Galactica, but Universal instead opted for the version that was produced for Syfy. He still had plans in the works for it, however.

He will be missed.

Artist H.R. Giger, whose surreal, organic designs often struck at the horror strings in viewers, passed away Monday at the age of 74.

He is perhaps best known for his designs of the eponymous Alien, but his nightmarish designs often found their way throughout the music industry, from album covers (such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery), to guitars and microphone stands. He also did artwork for several films, although his designs were not always used. More recently his work was featured in the documentary about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s adaptation of Dune that was never produced.

The Doctor Who community has been saddened by the loss of two notable people…on Thursday directory Derek Martinus passed away at the age of 82 after battling Alzheimer’s. Martinus presided over a number of episodes spanning from 1965 to 1970 and with three different Doctors, including major serials like Galaxy 4, The Tenth Planet, The Evil of the Daleks, and The Ice Warriors, with his final serial being Spearhead From Space, notable for being Jon Pertwee’s debut and the first episode broadcast it color.

Then on Sunday actress Kate O’Mara, who played fellow Time Lord The Rani in a couple of serials in the 1980s, passed away at the age of 74 after a short illness. O’Mara appeared as the evil Time Lord opposite Colin Baker in “The Mark of the Rani”, then again in Sylvester McCoy’s debut episode “Time and the Rani”. She was also perhaps better known to U.S. audiences as Cassandra Morrell, sister to Alexis Carrington on Dynasty. Overall her TV career spanned almost 50 years.

The Chicago Tribune reports that actor/writer/director Harold Ramis passed away early this morning due to complications from a rare autoimmune disease, surrounded by family. He was 69.

Ramis is perhaps best known for his starring roles alongside Bill Murray in Ghostbusters and Stripes, but he also wrote the screenplays to those and several other Bill Murray vehicles including Meatballs,Caddyshack and Groundhog Day, but also directed the latter two as well as National Lampoon’s Vacation, and most recently had directed several episodes of The Office. He got his big break while with the Second City performing group as the first head writer for their SCTV program, which he also performed in.

I sadly report that according to Emily Pohl-Weary, his grandaughter, via a tweet, SFWA Grand Master Frederik Pohl passed away at the age of 93.

Pohl was named the 12th Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America organization back in 1993, and served as its president from 1974-1976. He won the Hugo Award in 1978 for [asin=0345475836]Gateway[/asin], three more as editor of If Magazine from 1966-1968, and Nebulas in 1976 for [asin=0765321785]Man Plus[/asin] and 1977 for Gateway.

Every fan of Star Trek knows who actor Michael Ansara was…he played the Klingon commander Kang in the episode “Day of the Dove”, and then reprised the role not once but twice, on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Ansara passed away Wednesday at the age of 91.

You’ve probably seen him in many other things as well, with his distinctive face and voice…just in the SF and fantasy realm, Ansara had guest roles in Babylon 5, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (as Kane, Princess Ardala’s right-hand man, replacing the original actor from the pilot), Lost In Space (as the father of a young Kurt Russell), Land of the Giants, The Outer Limits and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as well as the 1961 movie – overall, he has 189 different titles to his credit. In the late 50s, he had starring roles playing Native Americans in the series Broken Arrow and Law of the Plainsman.

He received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1960. He was also married to I Dream of Jeannie‘s Barbara Eden for sixteen years.

Richard Matheson, well known science fiction and fantasy author, passed away on Sunday from natural causes.

Matheson is perhaps best known for having written numerous episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the famous Will Shatner episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”, as well as the novel [asin=0765357151]I Am Legend[/asin], which has spawned three official feature film adaptations, the most recent starring Will Smith. He also wrote several other novels that were adapted into films, including [asin=0765308703]What Dreams May Come[/asin],[asin=0899683525]The Shrinking Man[/asin], [asin=0312868855]Hell House[/asin], [asin=0765361396]Somewhere in Time[/asin], and [asin=0765308711]A Stir of Echoes[/asin]. He also wrote the episode “The Enemy Within” for Star Trek.