SF Signal: September 2007 Archives

Saturday September 29, 2007

MEME: Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time

Below is Snarkerati's list of Top 50 Dystopian Movies of All Time. A great topic for a meme!

You know the drill...copy the list and BOLD the movies you have seen. Post yours in the comments, or on your own blog (a link back here would be appreciated!)

Metropolis (1927)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Brazil (1985)
Wings of Desire (1987)
Blade Runner (1982)
Children of Men (2006)
The Matrix (1999)
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Minority Report (2002)
Delicatessen (1991)
Sleeper (1973)
The Trial (1962)
Alphaville (1965)
Twelve Monkeys (1995)
Serenity (2005)
Pleasantville (1998)
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Battle Royale (2000)
RoboCop (1987)
Akira (1988)
The City of Lost Children (1995)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
V for Vendetta (2005)
Metropolis (2001)
Gattaca (1997)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
On The Beach (1959)
Mad Max (1979)
Total Recall (1990)
Dark City (1998)
War Of the Worlds (1953)
District 13 (2004)
They Live (1988)
THX 1138 (1971)
Escape from New York (1981)
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Silent Running (1972)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
A Boy and His Dog (1975)
Soylent Green (1973)
I Robot (2004)
Logan's Run (1976)
Strange Days (1995)
Idiocracy (2006)
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Rollerball (1975)
Starship Troopers (1997)
One Point O (2004)
Equilibrium (2002)

SF Tidbits for 9/29/07

At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, editors of Best American Fantasy.

Bruce Sterling talks Mundane Science Fiction. [via Locus Online]

Here's Stephen King on What Ails the Short Story. "Last year, I read scores of stories that felt ... not quite dead on the page, I won't go that far, but airless, somehow, and self-referring. These stories felt show-offy rather than entertaining, self-important rather than interesting, guarded and self-conscious rather than gloriously open, and worst of all, written for editors and teachers rather than for readers."

UPDATE:

Ellen Datlow responds

Free fiction: "The Last Worders" by Karen Joy Fowler from Lady Churchill's "Robot" Wristlet #20.

Equal time: AfterElton lists the sexiest sci-fi hunks on the small screen. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

From the Heart of Europe has a scanned 1988 interview (and transript) with David Tennant (from a school yearbook>) where he expresses a desire to play Doctor Who.

Starwars.com previews the Yoda stamp.

Friday September 28, 2007

New Philip K. Dick Volume Due

Confirming what was reported earlier, the Library of America will be releasing a second collection of Philip K. Dick's work. The original collection included The Man in the High Castle, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Ubik. The second collection will include:

Martian Time-Slip
Dr. Bloodmoney
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
A Scanner Darkly
Now Wait for Last Year

Also: Gabriel Mckee (SF Gospel) and Matt Cheney (Mumpsimus) have reports of the event where this was announced by Jonathan Lethem, LOA's PKD series editor.

REVIEW: "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison

REVIEW SUMMARY: Still a great story.

MY RATING:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: The rebellious Harlequin causes mischief in a society that is strictly punctual.

MY REVIEW:
PROS: Engaging prose; interesting premise; a parable that's effective 40 years after it was written.
CONS: If I think of any, I'll let you know.
BOTTOM LINE: A classic short story that deserves its great reputation.

In 1965, Harlan Ellison sat down to write a story for submission to a writers' workshop. The result after a mere 6 hours was "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman", a story that went on to win both the Hugo and Nebula Awards and is reported to be one of the most reprinted stories ever. Underwood Press published a nice-looking, 48-page commemorative anniversary edition in 1997 - aptly late considering the story's premise - to celebrate the story's initial publication. This hardback edition comes with some nice looking illustrations by Rick Berry. You know what? Forty two years later, the original story holds up remarkably well.

The setting is a future society that has become overly-punctual, trading freedom for conformance. Being late is a crime here, punishable by having corresponding amounts of the "wasted" time taken away from the offender's life, with the ultimate penalty being death (or being "turned off"). This law is enforced by the office of the Master Timekeeper, also known as The Ticktockman, just not to his face. The Ticktockman keeps the wheels of this well-ordered society moving on schedule. The masked Harlequin is the fly in this ointment. He wreaks havoc armed with bullhorn and Jellybeans, making people late which - thanks to society's rigid structure - snowballs into major economic problems.

Ellison's story is an effective parable for conformance (and the need for nonconformance) that is timeless. The gist of it is summarized by a Thoreau quote included in the book: "He serves the State best who opposes the State most." Harlequin's simple shenanigans cause massive headaches for the leaders of this dystopia, leading its citizens (even the Ticktockman!) to wonder how civilization morphed into its delicately balanced position. Harlequin's seemingly-frenetic behavior, which is really nothing more than childish mischief, is also exhibited by Ellison's unique writing style; part conversational, part free association and thoroughly entertaining. The story is also told non-sequentially - starting in the middle, then showing us the beginning and ending - adding to the theme of nonconformance. This isn't the first time I've read this story and it probably won't be the last.

"'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" is one of those must-read science fiction stories. It's not difficult to see why.

SF Tidbits for 9/28/07

Apparently he will be back...sort of. DVD Review reports that we can expect not just another sequel, but a whole new second Terminator trilogy! One of the films is likely to focus on the war of the machines.

Wired has an interview with Ridley Scott, director of Blade Runner, the last sci-fi film to be made before sci-fi died. "You know, Alien is a C film elevated to an A film, honestly, by a great monster." "I honestly couldn't get into [Philip K. Dick's book, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep]. It's so dense, by page 32 there's about 17 story lines.

Cinema Blend News has the teaser poster for Pixar's WALL-E.

File under "Why, God, why?": Tom Green and Crispin Glover have been cast in the sci-fi comedy film, Freezer Burn: the Invasion of Laxdale, which tells the story of aliens from outer space disguised as Dutch oil company executives who buy a local grain silo and promise to create jobs for a failing farm town, but secretly plan to use crop circles to heat up the temperature of the planet and turn Earth into a Club Med for extraterrestrials.

Interviews (The first 3 snagged from Swivet):
- CHUD interviews Richard K. Morgan (Thirteen). "I'm about telling the story, and I'll create whatever backdrop I need to do that as I go along. I don't like info-dumping, and I try to avoid it."
- Columbus Dispatch interviews Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates). "I've never sympathized with the idea of covertly commenting on the social and political issues of today. That's a fatal error. As soon as the reader notices the parallel, it prevents the suspension of disbelief."
- A Dribble of Ink interviews Brandon Sanderson (Elantris). "In my opinion a good book is a balance be-tween character, setting, and plot with character being the most important of the three. You can have the coolest magic system in the world, but if readers don't care about the characters who are using that magic system, the book won't be very fun to read."
- Simon Haynes interviews Tim Pratt (Blood Engines). "I'm not sure SF/Fantasy has a particular purpose that's different from the purpose(s) of all literature, which are variously to edify, to entertain, and to illuminate the human condition."
- Amazon Daily interviews M. John Harrison (Nova Swing). "SF is an opportunity to have an intense relationship with your own imagination. It's a kind of drive-by poetry, trashy and addictive; it's fun."

In response to their earlier post Does Literary Fiction Suffer from Dysfunctional Pricing?, LitKicks looks at the pleasures of paperbacks.

At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Ben Bova, author of The Aftermath, the fourth and final book in his Asteroid Wars series.

New at ManyBooks.net: "Pagan Passions" by Gordon Randall Garrett. "Adult Science Fiction, with the supernatural making complete sense."

Del Rey will be publishing new Indiana Jones books.

Besides a mini-Seinfeld reunion, the video for Brad Paisley's song "Online" features a cameo by William Shatner (at 3:14). [via Big Dumb Object via Deanna Hoak, who are hereby put on notice for making me listen to country music.]

Friday YouTube: Robot Insurance

OK, this is already a repeat tidbit, but Geekend reminded me of it gaian and I had a good giggle, so I'm going for a video three-fer.

Tube Bits For 09/28/07

The premier of Bionic Woman pulled in decent ratings, especially considering it was scheduled against ratings juggernaut, Dancing With The Stars. It even managed to best Heroes ratings for Monday. We'll see how well it keeps its viewers next week.
Speaking of Heroes, haven't had the time to read all of the online comics for the season? Well, no you don't have to. George from OnOurTV has done the work for you and gives us the quick summaries for all 52 online comics. Truly a dedicated Heroes fan, and a heck of a developer too.
NBC's Digital Insights and Innovations team has done some research about viewer habits for online content. They found that a high number of people who watched Heroes online for the first time continued to watch the show later, both online and off. The take away being that there is an 'opportunity' for cross platform marketing to reach more people. In other words, viewers will be bombarded with more targeted ads on the NBC site. Just what we need. But I still think NBC's online viewing capabilities are the best of the major networks.
Michael Wentz gives us his review of Journeyman. In it, he takes to task those who compare it to Quantum Leap. Not having seen it yet, all I can say is the synopsis makes it sound like a personal QL.
Blog Critics Magazine also has a review of CBS' Moonlight, which premiers tonight at 9pm ET. Sounds bad.

Wednesday September 26, 2007

Pilot Night In America: Wednesday, 09/26/07

Premier week marches on! Today we have only one interesting genre (and real SF) pilot, the oft mentioned Bionic Woman at 9/8C. SF Signal Scott kinda liked what he saw of the pilot and will be watching at least for a few more episodes. I haven't seen the pilot yet, but I have it from Amazon's Unbox so I won't be recording it tonight. I'd be interested in seeing what others think of the show.

Again, if anyone is interested in talking about the show while it is on, or any time after, I'll embed the chat room below the jump.

What 5 Sci-Fi Movies Do You Watch Over and Over?

I was going to title this post as "You, a Deserted Island and 5 Sc-Fi Movies...GO!", but I wanted to bypass the "Is there a DVD player and electricity on the island?" snarkiness.

You know what to do here. Name the five sci-fi movies you would most want to have with you if you could only choose 5. These are not necessarily the ones you think of as "the best", but rather the ones you can (or would like to) watch over and over again....

Here are mine:

Aliens
Independence Day
Star Wars (Episode 4)
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Matrix

There were so many others to choose from that I had to leave off this list because I have only seen them once (Serenity) or they were just overflow (Terminator 2, Back to The Future).

Now let's hear from you!

SciFi Scanner Post Roundup #3

As previously mentioned, yours truly had a guest-blogging gig at AMC TV's SciFi Scanner blog. Here's the final roundup of the posts I did there.

There's also another one that they are holding off until publishing until November so they can tie it in with a promotion.

H.G. Wells' Things to Come

Here's the video for the 1936 production of Things to Come. H.G. Wells wrote the screenplay (!) which is loosely based on his story, "The Shape of Things to Come".

[via Drivers and Sundry]

SF Tidbits for 9/26/07

More Dick on the way: GalleyCat reports that The Library of America will release a second compilation of Philip K. Dick's best novels from the 1960s and 1970's. [via Andrew Wheeler]

Mondolithic Studios shows off the cool cover artwork for the upcoming reprint of The SFWA Hall of Fame Volume 2B edited by Ben Bova.

At SciFi Wire, John Joseph Adams profiles Daniel Abraham, author of A Betrayal in Winter.

Amazon Daily covers the British Fantasy Awards.

Jeff VanderMeer has posted the table of contents for his upcoming anthology The New Weird.

Locus Online has excerpts from Locus Magazine's September issue's interviews with Guy Gavriel Kay and Kathleen Ann Goonan.

Robin McKinley and Brandon Sanderson have been added to the list of sf/f authors who blog.

The Space Review offers this detailed look at Heinlein in Hollywood.

SciFi Scanner asks: Who really trusts George Lucas with the Star Wars television series?

The NYT article When the Space Age Blasted Off, Pop Culture Followed shows how the space race affected on American popular culture and art. "Deciding which cultural offerings from those post-Sputnik years were deep and lasting and which were probably not (space-age bachelor-pad music? 'The Jetsons'? 'Barbarella'? Tang?) will always be topics of impassioned debate among space aficionados. But a half-century into that once-imagined orbital future, it has become a little easier to put the era into cultural perspective."

Scientists have worked out the properties of a variety of weird planet types that they say could circle alien suns. [via Futurismic]

Geek Chic for your feet: Star Wars slippers.

Tube Bits For 09/26/07

Entertainment Weekly has a spoilery interview with George Takei (Heroes).

The Hollywood Reported looks at Monday night's ratings. Dancing With The Stars and Heroes were the winners, while Chuck and Journeyman both tanked, comparatively. After one night, I'd have to say Journeyman is leading the pack for the deadpool, but the new season is still young, with many candidates still to air.

Heroes: Origins has acquired two new writers: Michael O'Dougherty (Superman Returns) and Eli Roth (Hostel!). Roth, especially, is an interesting choice. At least NBC is taking a creative approach to the writers for this spin-off.

The Helia Health Blog takes the occasion of the new Bionic Woman to wonder whether, with the aging of America, replacement parts for humans might become science fact. I'd say it's almost a certainty. The only question is how long will we have to wait? And who will be the first cyborg?

NBC will be producing a Masters Of Horror spin-off, called Fear Itself. Supposedly this will be a network friendly show, but how well will a horror show perform on network TV? To me, this is something for cable.

Tuesday September 25, 2007

About Last Night: Heroes Season Premier

So, with the long wait finally over, NBC debuted season 2 of Heroes, to much fan anticipation. But did the writers and producers manage to shake off the disappointing finale and bring the zest back to the show?

(Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)

Well, yes, and no. First, the good parts. I still like Hiro as a character, and I was interested to see his story. That thread was the one I wanted to see the most of, and I think they did a nice job introducing the situation in feudal Japan (but how much does modern day Japanese and English sound like their counterparts from way back when?). Although I do have some reservations about Hiro's story going forward.

The whole Claire story line was mostly interesting too. Having to move to a new state, new school, new people, then trying to fit in to avoid suspicion. I also liked that Claire is trying to follow what her dad asked her to do, even so far as to take all the crap from the smarmy cheerleader, who needs to be smacked by reality. I can sense the comeuppance in the making here.

The other part of Claire's story was the whole interaction with HRG and his new job. It was freakin' hilarious as the self-important assistant manager tried to intimidate HRG into doing crap work, knowing that HRG could snap that guy like a twig. The whole finger grab ninja move was definitely worth the build up. After asking Claire to lay low, how can he square assaulting his boss with his instructions? Hopefully this will play a role in the stories.

I was all set to be hacked off with Mohinder's research showing a plague among the 'specials'. In reality, it was really just a ploy to get Mohinder back with the Company, and have someone on the inside for HRG to exact his revenge. Mohinder and Parkman are also supposedly taking care of Molly, but aside from showing us there is some really evil guy still out there, there wasn't much to this story. And I don't think Parkman using his power to help him as a cop is cheating, Molly doesn't have the perspective to see that.

It was also nice to see Ando again, this time working with Hiro's father. Then using that relationship to show us there is someone among the original 9 who is apparently knocking off the others was a nice touch. Too bad they actually offed Hiro's dad. I liked George Takei in that role. And using the old 'Sylar' trick of not showing us the face of the assassin, even though Hiro's father knew who it was, was kinda lame. Yet another plot thread to follow.

Seeing Nathan as a broken man, estranged from his mother was, I thought, a nice touch. He basically witnessed his brother's complete destruction and feels responsible for it and escapes into the bottle. This was a nice contrast to the arrogant, self-assured Nathan from last season.

The new heroes didn't really do much for me. Alejandro we don't know much about, but Maya seems to have the same flip-out and kill people power that Niki had, although it's probably something a bit different. And Claire's creepy admirer has flight. Ok, seen it. Thanks. Try something new. Oh, and not having Niki/Jessica was a good thing. I see she is still on the show, which is disappointing. I didn't find her story to be that interesting. Micha's though, is.

Which brings us to the bad.

The biggest issue I had was Peter being shown alive, chained up in a crate, and with amnesia. Amnesia. Good grief, that is an old cliche, and disappointing. You'd think blowing up real good would atomize you, destroy the part of the brain you rely on the regenerate, and result in permanent death. I guess Peter must have saved his game at an earlier spot and restarted. The only two explanations I can think of are: Peter has some sort of Iron Giant ability to pull his scattered parts back together, or he's a clone. The clone thing would really bug me, as that would be yet another old cliche.

Secondly, I'm expecting the Hiro storyline to go one of two ways: Either Hiro does everything he remembers Takezo doing while not getting the credit, or he acts like Takezo's sensei and basically makes him become a hero. Only one of these story lines is interesting. And I'd really like to know how Hiro's power works. Why the heck can't he go back to the future? (Great Scott!) Does he need 1.21 gigawatts of power?

And the other annoying thing, which probably shouldn't, was the product placement of Nissan. It was annoying last year as Hiro kept referring to the Nissan Versa. Looks like this year's car of choice is the Nissan Rogue. If anything, this type of shenanigans will make me less likely to buy a Nissan. I don't care its driven by characters on a show, don't be annoying. Oh, too late.

So, all in all, the season premiere was a good one, but not as good as the best episodes of last season. They haven't done much to annoy me away from the show, so I'll keep watching. And it's still on my DVR.

Tube Bits For 09/25/07

On Oct. 21, the Sci Fi Channel series, Taken, will be released on DVD. You can find out more about the set at TakenDVD.com.

Monsters And Critics gives us their take on Journeyman. Kevin McKidd good, writing bad. For those who've seen the pilot, what did you think?

MSN Canada investigates Hiro's time travel ability and how you could use it to make money. Investing is involved. Me? I'd keep going back and forth and win all the high dollar lotteries. Or find some outrageous parlay bet.

The Dodo Blog takes a closer look at the dodos of ITV's Primeval series. Aren't they cute? IT's time to find me some Primeval to watch.

Great White Snark tells us the secret formula for a great geek TV show. Put them all together and you have a hit geek show.

Tuesday YouTube: Han vs. Khan

Starring Harrison Ford and Ricardo Montalban's chest...

[via Geekend]

SF Tidbits for 9/25/07

Over at The Art Department, Irene Gallo micro-interviews artist Glen Orbik. I'm lovin' that cool, retro-looking cover of Space Vulture.

Baen Books will soon be releasing electronic versions of select Subterranean Press titles through their webscriptions service.

James Patrick Kelly is podcasting his novel Look Into the Sun. Here's Part 28.

Andrew Wheeler reviews The Horror in the Museum by H.P. Lovecraft and Others.

"Girlie" covers on young adult book are apparently turning boys away from reading. "Attempts by parents and teachers to persuade boys to read more are being undermined by publishers whose insistence on using lurid "Barbie" pink covers on books is turning away young male readers in their droves."

At Locus Online, John Shirley looks back at Soylent Green.

Over at SciFi Wire, Michael Shanks talks about the Stargate movies; Stargate: Continuum and Stargate: The Ark of Truth.

Michael Cassutt offers his "biased" review of The Masters of Science Fiction.

Kunochan.com lists The Top Twenty Starship Captains.

Monday September 24, 2007

Pilot Night In America: Monday, 09/24/07

And so the great genre 'revitalization' of 2007 begins! Tonight, NBC does it's part to bring new genre shows to the masses, with two new shows, and one returning. Let's see what they are offering:

8PM ET - Chuck kicks things off, bringing a lighter hearted look at being a Nerd working for a mass market electronics retailer. Mix in some stolen government secrets and special ops ninjas, and you have Chuck. Certainly something I'll be checking out, hoping it can be entertaining in a Eureka-type manner. But of course, Chuck is really the lead-in for:

9PM ET - Heroes returns tonight, and I know its not a pilot but still, it's the first episode of season 2, so consider it a pilot for this season. With many returning cast members and some questions left over from last season, this season has some explaining to do and, in my mind, needs to kick it up a notch to redeem itself from the let down of the season 1 finale. Can NBC keep the fire going this season? We'll see. At least it isn't Flash Gordon bad.

10PM ET - Journeyman follows Heroes in an attempt by NBC to get viewers to stay tuned for another hour. For me, the synopsis just doesn't sound that interesting, being a Quantum Leap type clone that will focus more on characters than anything else. I'm not sure this one will last too long. Our reviewer Scott seems to agree.

So what will you be watching tonight and will you watch it live or recorded? Count me in the recorded group for Chuck and Heroes.

And because we here at SF Signal love our readers, we've created a chat room for everyone to join to discuss the new shows as you watch them! I know, exciting. You can find the room below. I'm not sure when I'll be joining, probably sometime after 9pm CT, for kid based reasons. You'll need to leave the browser set on this page to keep your chat name, but otherwise, the room is active right now so have fun!

See the expended entry for the chat widget!