Sci-Fi Storm

You always remember your first.

I’m not talking your first kiss, or first ice cream sundae, or your first rock concert. In this case, I’m talking about your first science fiction show.

I’m not yet 50 years old, but getting close to it. So I don’t remember when Star Trek first aired. But back in those days where we had just a few channels to choose from and not a lot of competition for your eyes, shows had a second chance at life during the daytime and weekends in syndication. Star Trek was one of those shows that found a second life there, and that’s where Star Trek found me.

I got my love of science fiction from my dad. I’m not sure what it was about the shows, but if Star Trek was on he found it and we’d watch it together. Other shows as well – I still remember watching a mostly forgotten show called The Starlost on a little black-and-white TV in the kitchen with him. I also got my love from old school Disney programs as well from watching Mickey Mouse Club reruns. We watched Lost In Space, Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica together. But Star Trek was the first.

Star Trek influenced me in so many ways. Before I was even in school, I could tell you the entire plot of any episode from the opening act. I recorded episodes on audio tape using an old Radio Shack cassette recorder on Memorex tapes. (The episode “Wolf In The Fold” gets really creepy with just the audio.) I even acted out my own episode recorded on audio tape – it was very short and very lame, and fortunately lost to the annals of time…but it did involve a third adventure into the Great Barrier…I’m afraid my skills as a science fiction writer haven’t really progressed much either.

There were two things that always drew me to science fiction – space and technology. Space, because it brought all sorts of cool spaceships but also a vast universe of settings and stories, and the “advanced” technology that was shown. Sure, I know know they were just plastic buttons with lights on a black backing, but they looked cool and I wanted to know what each of those buttons did! The communicators that became our cell phones, the computer tapes that were later mimicked by floppy discs, and now we’re even getting to tricorder technology. Although in many ways our technology has advanced further than what was shown back then, it was what they showed that inspired people to develop that which we have today. Star Trek likely accelerated our own technology from the dreams of the past.

I was convinced I would be an astronaut when I was eight just so I could be in a spaceship like the Enterprise. That didn’t happen, although my interest in the space program didn’t wane. I still have science and space program books from then, showing actual current theorized future space travel systems. My technology interests translated into other areas of science, ultimately into computers, where I eventually got two degrees in Computer Science. But I always kept one eye on the stars.

For a long while though, what was on TV remained on TV and didn’t really cross into real life. Conventions were a bit difficult for me to attend early on, but by the time I got to high school I was able to attend my first real convention in Boston. It only had a couple guests and was a fairly formal affair (it was a commercial convention and not of the much better fan-run variety), but it is where I met the late Jimmy Doohan in person, and not by spending hours in line for an expensive signature or photo op – by him coming down before the convention actually opened and shaking hands with everyone in line! Forever a fan of his with that. He was so gracious and friendly. He was the first TV celebrity I ever remember meeting.

While in college, Star Trek returned to TV in the form of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was living with a friends family, where he and I convinced the family to get cable TV wired to our room just so we could watch it. Star Trek influenced computer programmers a lot. There were always references to it somewhere. The granddaddy of internet forums, UseNet, had several discussion groups dedicated to Star Trek. Early computer games either paid homage or overtly referenced it (such as the famous “trek” game where you explored sectors and fought Klingons.) When the Internet started to grow in the early to mid-90s (yet before AOL was truly online), an early multi-player graphical game called Netrek ate up bandwidth at many universities. I was working at a university at a time running the computer systems and network, and hosted a pretty popular netrek server and was even involved in the International Netrek League for several years.

All through these years, the love of science fiction that started with Star Trek has never wavered. Now I’ve been doing science fiction news, mainly on the TV and movie side of things, for 16 years next month. I’ve made friends in the industry that work both in front of and behind the camera. Now I have two daughters who are eager to see the new movies as soon as they come out, sharing the same love of SF that I did then, watched “The Cage” with me tonight, and I have high hopes that they will continue to do love science fiction as I have done.

I may not have reached the actual stars myself yet, but I still do keep an eye on them.

For the 50 years you’ve been around and the nearly 50 that you’ve influenced my life, a most heartfelt thank you to all of the casts, crews, and fans that helped created and keep going this long trek to the stars.

Star Trek‘s 50th Anniversary is officially tomorrow, having debuted on September 8th, 1966. And Syfy will be in on the fun with a movie marathon starting in the morning…but to get you warmed up, here are a couple humorous videos from the whales in Star Trek: The Voyage Home…

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Tomorrow, fans and viewers can send photos into the Twitter handle @Syfy with their best Vulcan Salute – Live Long and Prosper. Using the hashtag #SyfyLLAP , they have a chance for their photo and user generated content to be featured on-air during the marathon. Additionally, all day Thursday fans can interact and guess answers to on-air Star Trek trivia by using the hashtag #StarTrekTrivia

A couple quick tidbits for tonight…

Kryption, Syfy’s Superman prequel series, found a lead in British actress Georgina Campbell (After Hours), who will play Lyta Zod, daughter of General Alura Zod and a member of the military caste, who has been having a clandestine relationship with Seg-El, Kal-El’s grandfather, who is trying to restore the honor of the ostracized House of El. No casting of Seg-El has yet been announced.

Across the hall at flagship NBC, the Peacock Network is developing Unidentified, a high-octane thriller with sci-fi elements from Universal Television and Zachary Levi’s Middle Man Productions. Levi recently hosted Syfy’s Geeks Who Drink, and of course helped make nerds cool in Chuck. Levi is executive producing along with Turi Meyer and Al Septien (Smallville, Salem), with Middle Man partner Justin Allen co-executive producing with Sean Finegan, who is writing the script. The show follows a CIA operative trying to protect his family from an unimaginable secret.

Hooray! As the summer shows reach their season finales, Syfy today announced a season three renewal for the space action dramas Killjoys and Dark Matter. Both are currently wrapping their second seasons on Syfy: Killjoys will air its second season finale tomorrow, Friday, September 2 at 9/8c, while Dark Matter will air a double episode on Friday, September 9 at 10/9c and 11/10c, and its season two finale on Friday, September 16 at 10/9c.

From Temple Street Productions (Orphan Black, Being Erica), Universal Cable Productions and creator Michelle Lovretta (Lost Girl), Killjoys follows a trio of interplanetary bounty hunters sworn to remain impartial as they chase deadly warrants throughout the Quad, a distant system on the brink of a bloody, multiplanetary class war. Starring Hannah John-Kamen as Dutch, and Aaron Ashmore and Luke Macfarlane as brothers John and D’avin, this season the Killjoys struggled to find the balance between politics, family and the good of the Quad. The series is produced by Temple Street Productions in association with Space and Syfy. Creator and showrunner Lovretta serves as executive producer, along with Temple Street Productions’ David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg. Universal Cable Productions distributes the series worldwide.

From Prodigy Pictures and Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie (both of Stargate), Dark Matter centers on a crew who awaken on a derelict spaceship with no memories of who they are or how they got there. Facing threats at every turn, they have to work together to survive a voyage fueled by vengeance, betrayal and hidden secrets. This season, the crew found themselves embroiled in an intergalactic conspiracy, seeking a mysterious device that may hold the key to victory in a looming all-out corporate war. Created by Mallozzi and Mullie, developed and produced by Prodigy Pictures, Dark Matter is based on Mallozzi and Mullie’s graphic novel of the same name, published by Dark Horse Comics. The series features Melissa O’Neil, Anthony Lemke, Alex Mallari Jr. and Jodelle Ferland with Roger Cross and Zoie Palmer. Executive Producers are Jay Firestone, Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie.

Grimm was only renewed for 13 episodes in its sixth season back in April, but there were hopes it could get extended. But when it was left off NBC’s Fall lineup, fears were setting in. But now NBC has confirmed that the sixth season will remain at 13 episodes and be its last when they announced that the “final” season will begin January 6th at 8/7c.

The series, which reached the 100-episode milestone last season, has long been a fan and critical favorite, with the Los Angeles Times calling it “terrific and trendsetting… ‘Grimm’ has become a beacon of solid narrative and a weekly reminder of why monsters matter.” The New York Times said “Grimm” is “engaging, clever, tense, funny and well-paced, featuring a remarkably appealing cast.”

As for events leading into the final season, the nefarious forces of Black Claw have been silenced and Nick (David Giuntoli) faces an all too familiar foe in Capt. Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz). Now in the seat of power as the mayor elect of Portland, Renard is poised to bring rise to his own brand of law and order. Nick must take a stand to protect his city and those closest to him, especially his child with Adalind (Claire Coffee). It will take the full force of Nick and his allies to find a way to bring the peace.

Meanwhile, Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) and Rosalee (Bree Turner) grapple with bringing a child into a new and tumultuous world, and Eve (Bitsie Tulloch) faces unsettling identity issues as her former self lurks below the surface.

“Grimm” also stars Russell Hornsby and Reggie Lee.

This may have flown under my radar, but Family Guy creator and voice actor Seth Macfarlane has a straight-to-series order from Fox for a yet unnamed hour long sci-fi comedy series, in which he will also star and executive produce. Also in the cast are Adrianne Palicki (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Scott Grimes (ER, Party of Five), Peter Macon (Friendship!) and J Lee (Family Guy).

Now Jon Favreau, who really got the Marvel Cinematic Universe off on the right track by directing the first two Iron Man installments and has been hitting gold with his latest, Disney’s Jungle Book, has signed on the direct and executive produce the first episode.

Set in space 300 years in the future, the show follows the adventures of the Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth’s interstellar fleet.

Anyone else having flashbacks to Quark?

The second half of Syfy’s upcoming Channel Zero anthology series has its title and its star.

Amy Forsyth (Defiance, A Christmas Horror Story) will headline the cast for Channel Zero: The No-End House, which will be based on a “creepypasta” story by Brian Russell, telling the story of a young woman named Margot Sleator (Forsyth), who visits the No-End House, a bizarre house of horrors that consists of a series of increasingly disturbing rooms. When she returns home, Margot realizes everything has changed.

The first part of the series, i>Channel Zero: Candle Cove debuts September 27th on Syfy. Channel Zero: The No-End House will premiere in 2017.

Things are getting cray-Z – Z Nation Season 3 is coming soon!

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Universal Cable Productions (UCP) and Syfy today announced they have signed Grant Morrison (Batman, The Invisibles) and Brian Taylor (Crank, Gamer) to adapt Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World for Syfy with Amblin Television. Morrison and Taylor will also serve as executive producers, along with Amblin Television Co-Presidents Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (The Americans, All The Way).

Considered one of the most influential genre classics of all time and named fifth among the 100 best English-language novels of the 20thCentury by Modern Library, the 1931 novel looks 632 years into the future and anticipates new developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that combine to profoundly change society.

UCP is also developing Happy! for Syfy, an adaptation of a graphic novel originally written by Morrison and co-created with artist Darick Robertson. Morrison and Taylor are set as executive producers and co-wrote the pilot; Taylor is attached to direct. This grimy crime black comedy features Nick Sax, a corrupt, intoxicated, ex-cop turned hit-man adrift in a twilight world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit goes wrong, Nick finds a bullet in his side, the cops and the mob on his tail and a monstrous killer in a Santa suit on the loose. But his world is about to be changed forever by Happy, a tiny (imaginary) blue winged horse with a relentlessly positive attitude.

This appears to be a second attempt at the adaptation for Amblin and Syfy – way back in May 2015 we reported on the adaptation with some of the same names, except Les Bohem was tied to it as the writer at the time.

At the recent TCAs, ABC entertainment president Channing Dungey said that talks are still ongoing between the network and Lucasfilm, two divisions of corporate parent Disney, for live action prime time series based on Star Wars. “We have had conversations, and we will continue to have conversations with Lucasfilm. It would be wonderful to extend the franchise.”

This comes as no surprise as Disney has been going full-Death Star with the franchise since acquiring Lucasfilm in 2012. A second animated series, Rebels airs on Disney XD, Episode VII was released last year, the first anthology film, Rogue One releases this December, Episode VIII is in production, and Disney’s theme parks are greatly expanding the presence of Star Wars in the parks.

In addition, Disney has already brought two of its other acquired properties, Marvel and the Muppets, to ABC although the latter had trouble finding an audience, not helped by creative issues with the production.

But what will the possible series entail? It could be anything – they may be discussing the possibility of the setting as part of the negotiations. But we are reminded of how five years ago George Lucas was hot on a live action series so much that they wrote as many as 50 multiple draft scripts for a series set between Episodes III and IV, which may still be available. At the time it was too expensive to actually produce. However, this is the same time period already covered by Rebels as well as the upcoming Rogue One and the second anthology movie about Han Solo, making it a crowded space – and it is possible that some of the plots were re-tuned for the other projects.

Personally, with the expanded timeline that the Star Wars universe already has, I’d like to see them explore a completely different time period, perhaps dealing with the initial reformation of the Sith and the early Republic, whether they use the former Expanded Universe as the basis or not.