23 years of this site still chugging along...
Eleventy-First Birthday
by Doc on Jan.03, 2003, under General News
dugh writes “Today, January 3rd, would be JRR Tolkien’s Eleventy-first birthday, a significant date for fans of his work. The Tolkien Society will be having a worldwide toast tonight at 9PM Pacific Time.”
Fan-made Star Trek episode online
by Doc on Jan.03, 2003, under Television
Upset that you don’t see any new episodes of the original Star Trek with those colorful shirts and Klingons without ridges? Well, just make your own – these guys did – and did a good job it seems. So good, that at the time of writing this they had to pull the video, entitled Starship Exeter: The Savage Empire, due to the high downloads (Slashdot phasers were set to stun, and Apple’s Mac.com pulled the plug). Hopefully it will be back online soon. At least the materials available show excellent quality of production.
Strange convergence of time streams…
by Doc on Jan.03, 2003, under General News
Ah, the wonders of IMDb. Through strange happenstance, I ended up watching The Sound of Music. Now I knew Angela Cartwright (Penny from Lost in Space) was one of the kids. Well, with a quick look in IMDb, I discovered that one of the other girls was in fact Heather Menzies, who played Jessica in the Logan’s Run TV series I mentioned previously. AND, the part of the boy Friedrich was none other than Nicholas Hammond, who played the title role in The Amazing Spider-Man TV series, and who also had a cameo in the recent movie, which I finally got to see earlier the same day…
Gandalf == Dumbledore?? Nope
by Doc on Dec.31, 2002, under Movies
This isn’t from some random rumor site. ITV is reporting that the Harry Potter producers have been having trouble finding a replacement for the late Richard Harris, who played Professor Dumbledore in the first two films, and have targeted Sir Ian McKellen – Gandalf of the Lord of the Rings. Warner Bros. is expected to make an announcement after the New Year.
Update 12/30: Well, people are saying that The Sun (about as reliable as Weekly World News here) “broke” this story, so its probably bogus – but most of the refutes I’ve seen seem to be dated prior to this, so they may be refuting the earlier rumor.
Update 12/31: Well, according to E! Online the new Dumbledore is British – and he ain’t McKellen. Michael Gambon (Lyndon Johnson in HBO’s Path to War) is all but confirmed…
Update 1/4:Or not. I give up.
The Two Towers review
by Doc on Dec.28, 2002, under Movies
Finally got out to see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers yesterday. This installment definitely pushes The Lord of the Rings saga into one of the best epics of all time, if not THE best.
Anyone remember the Logan’s Run series?
by Doc on Dec.25, 2002, under General News
IMDB is awsome. Some times just following the various links you end up finding things you may have forgotten. To wit – I came across this page regarding the Logan’s Run TV series starring Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies. The series basically “retells” the movie and Logan’s flight from the City of Domes, with a much smaller budget (reusing some shots from the movie). It lasted 14 episodes, and I managed to catch it again some years ago on SCI FI. This excellent synopsis page is by the same person who did the page for yet another obscure show of the past, The Starlost, which we’ve discussed before.
Happy Holidays
by Doc on Dec.24, 2002, under General News
Well, nothing earth-shattering news-wise has taken place, and of course my time is limited in the coming days, so everyone enjoy the holidays…
SG-1‘s Judge happy for Season 7
by Doc on Dec.20, 2002, under General News
Christopher Judge, who play’s the Jaffa-in-residence Teal’c on Stargate SG-1, say’s he’s glad for the seventh season in a interview for SCI FI Wire. He says, “So it’s going to be great. I’m just glad all the business stuff worked out.” New episodes begin January 10th at 9pm. And head over to the Stargate SG-1 Store – all 5 individual DVDs for season 2 are available for order (released on Feb. 4th), plus a 2003 Calendar.
Lord of Illusions series?
by Doc on Dec.20, 2002, under Television
Variety has a report that Showtime is looking to order a pilot for a series version of Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions, but budget may be an issue. Also reported is that Odyssey 5 could be on the chopping block because Showtime is gearing up Fridays to have just one SF show, and that is Jeremiah.
M-M-M-Max Headroom coming back?
by Doc on Dec.16, 2002, under Television
Could Max Headroom finds his way back twenty minutes in the future? Matt Frewer, who played Edison Carter and his stammering virtual ego in both british and US version of the show, says he is working on a Max Headroom project, but can’t say much else right now…