Author Archives: Ray R.

X-Filing Supernatural

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As I told some of my fellow Cinema Studies students last week, I don’t normally recommend watching Supernatural. The reasons are many and varied, but usually boil down to my viewpoint that the show’s themes aren’t terribly original. That’s changed, over the years, but I’m usually quite bored when I watch it, and the usual reason I do watch it is because it comes on right after Smallville.

Every now and then, however, they have a really well written episode, a seriously funny episode, or one that’s fortunate enough to be both. Such an episode was “Clap Your Hands If You Believe” which carried hilarious subtitle of “Fight The Fairies!” (or at least should have), and then there was last week’s episode, “The French Mistake”, the main characters were transported to an alternate reality where they were actors playing their characters. In the soon to be immortalized words of Castle from an episode a few weeks back, “it was too meta…” Jensen Ackles playing Dean Winchester discovering that Dean Winchester was a character being played by the actor Jensen Ackles… The only way to unfuck that is to realize that Ackles was ultimately playing a unsteady version of himself. Nonetheless, it was a funny and well written episode that undoubtedly made a lot of other cinephiles like myself laugh whole heartedly… Assuming I wasn’t the only one that watched it…

So, being in my usual state, I decided to watch tonight to see if they might do anything interesting. Ultimately, it wasn’t the plot that caught my attention, though it was very X-Files-ish, but it was the fact that it actually had two X-Files alumni appearing. “And Then There Were None” starred Mitch Pileggi, known to X-Files fans as Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and Steven Williams, the legendary Mr. X himself! While I always recognize Pileggi, and knew that he’d been playing the role of Samuel Winchester, the primary character’s previously deceased grandfather, Steven Williams has only appeared in 4 episodes according to IMDB, and I didn’t recognize him right off the bat. As the episode went on, his face and voice began to ring some bells, and I looked him up discovering that it was indeed Mr. X.

It took me a full hour after the show went off to make the connection and realize that everything about tonight’s episode was in essence an X-Files tribute. Mr. Kripke, you’re slowly turning me into a fan!

Review: I Am Number Four

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I saw I Am Number Four on Thursday, when I was in a really bad mood, so take some of the things I say here with a grain of salt. That said, it was a decent movie, with good special effects, and well acted. The thing I liked best about it was that I personally didn’t know of any of the actors in the film. That’s not to say they’re unknowns, I just didn’t know them. I love the big name stars as much as anyone, but they can’t and shouldn’t be in everything, and I was pleased that they weren’t here. That said, the lack of big names is probably the reason this movie isn’t doing as well as it probably should. I’ve only seen a handful of commercials for it since its release a week ago, and the only reasons I watched it were because I remembered something vaguely interesting from the trailer I saw months ago, and it was starting shortly after I got to the theater.

Given what Wikipedia has to say about the film and the book it was based on, I’m no longer surprised by the faults I had with the film. The basic story is that 18 aliens from the world of Lorien came to Earth as their world was attacked by another alien race called the Mogadorians. Half of the Loriens were special children, gifted with special powers called “legacies”, each sent with a guardian to protect them. The goal was that they would be sent to Earth to be raised and taught how to fight back so that they could one day rescue their world, but apparently by the time the film starts things have gone worse than they imagined. The Mogadorians, or Mogs as they’re frequently called in the film, apparently have either completely wiped out their world, or are well on their way to doing such, and have followed the 18 to Earth to finish the job. In fact, before the film even starts, two of the children, and at least three of the guardians have been killed by the Mogs. The film opens with the death of Number 3 and his guardian.

Immediately afterwards we meet Number 4, known to humanity as John Smith. My first, irritated, impression of him was that he was a typical privileged  white kid, living the dream life in a tropical area, just like every one of us would do if we could afford to do so. His good life is interrupted by the a glowing and burning light that erupts from his leg, after Number 3 is killed, while he’s at a party on a beach at night. Needless to say, he and his guardian had to immediately uproot themselves and leave for less green pastures and anonymity in Paradise, Ohio. Thankfully, his guardian is a grumpy, pragmatic and practical man by the name of Henri, which slowly began to make me appreciate the characters and the actors cast to play them.

I’m not going to go any further with the plot, because it’s too simplistic and cliche to require further explanation, and that is my chief problem with the film. Everything in it’s been done before, and been done better. Everything from the revelations of who the characters are to the fight scenes has been done before and little in the film is unique or inspiring. The fight scenes would be right at home in the X-Men or Fantastic Four movies. There are “I Want To Believe” posters in a conspiracy theory organizations’ house/hideout straight out of the X-Files. The secrets to finding the other Loriens is in the hands of a missing man that will probably turn out to have betrayed them in the books or a later film. There’s even predictable and cliche high school angst and pranks. None of this is original and there was no interesting spin put on them to keep me interested while they paraded around in front of me. Don’t get me wrong, these things weren’t bad, they just weren’t special. There was a point I felt I could get up and walk out of the movie and still know exactly how everything would end.

The problem with most teen oriented books and movies is that they reproduce the popular thing of the moment, and rarely do anything completely original. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, while mostly an exception to that rule, gives in to it here and there becoming a teen romance novel briefly instead of a fantasy novel. I Am Number Four clearly focused on being that thing, and as such failed to fully work out the setup of the story. For instance, John clearly knows at the start of the film that he’s not human and that he’s from another world, but he seems to only have a limited knowledge of his people and of his own uniqueness. Henri had to explain to him why he had light shooting out of his hands and how to control it at one point in the movie. If he was from an alien world and he and his fellows were destined to save the planet, shouldn’t he have known how and why they were selected to do so? Otherwise why shouldn’t it have been some other individuals? Similarly, the “legacies” should have had a history on their home-world that would have been carried through legend if not documented fact, so he should have been quite aware of his potential, even if he was only just discovering it. Finally on this point, how could he be properly trained and prepared to save anyone without knowing anything about these legacy powers?

What made John and the other eight so special that the Mags had to hunt them down and eliminate them after conquering their world and wiping out the population? Well, we don’t find out in this movie, and probably will never see an answer in a sequel to this movie because I doubt that there will be a sequel. The book series may or may not have continued, and so the answer may be there, but the marketing support for the film isn’t sufficient enough to keep the movie in the awareness of movie goers, and therefore likely will not net enough revenue to warrant a sequel.

The movie has problems because, I suspect, the underlying story has problems but in truth I’ve seen far worse films than I Am Number Four. Would I pay money to see it again? No, not likely, but I wouldn’t change the channel if I came across it on TV. Review score would be 7 out of 10.

Smallville: Michael Rosenbaum Returns as Lex Luther

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Although I’m a fan of many things, I have always consistently been a fan of Superman. I confess that I haven’t often picked up Superman comics, nor have I bought a lot of Superman memorabilia or spent a lot of money on my Superman interests. But I have always been a fan of Superman. Naturally, I’ve been watching Smallville since the show debuted ten years ago, despite the often tedious formulaic nature of the show. None of the negatives mattered, the show was and is great! And you couldn’t have a better villain than Lex Luthor, portrayed by Michael Rosenbaum. Eventually, Mr. Rosenbaum left the show for multiple reasons, and the producers panicked, and tried to keep Lex Luthor a part of the show without recasting the role.

I think the idea was that they would eventually convince Mr. Rosenbaum to return to the show, so they didn’t want to recast his role. Of course, he left right after filming a season finale centered around Lex Luthor’s final discovery of Clark Kent’s secrets, so they couldn’t just go on without the character either. As a result, they played games with us… Having an actor act out the role, but never showing him from the front, or always in darkness with only enough clothing visible to reveal that it’s supposed to be Lex.  As they probably expected, and you certainly expect, this sucked. Badly. So after a while, they killed off Lex, which completely screws the continuity of the Superman/DC Universe. Since the death of Lex, we’ve been visited by a lot of major Superman villains, and none have had the same staying power as Lex had. I’m sure Smallville‘s ratings have suffered as a result, and they finally scheduled the end of the series with season 10.

But that’s not where the story ends. In season 9, new Lex Luthor clones sprung up, and rumors began to surface that Mr. Rosenbaum was returning for the final season. Those rumors were repeatedly squashed by both sides, but they persisted nonetheless. We eventually saw a clone of Lex that was an old man, and began to think that they finally decided to recast the part, especially since a younger clone was growing up so rapidly.

Then the news finally hit about two weeks ago (when I originally started writing this post): Michael Rosenbaum is returning to Smallville as Lex Luthor in the series finale! This past Friday, Mr. Rosenbaum had this to say via his Twitter account: @mrosenbaum711: “Guess who’s on the SMALLVILLE set right now? Good to see some familiar faces. What a day!!!!!!!!”

Indeed, welcome back Michael, and thank you very much! If I may speak for the entire Smallville fan community, WELCOME BACK!!

A Distant Rumble…

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Storms are interesting. First they start as a distant rumble, nothing more than faint noises on the wind, too distant to be concerned about. Slowly and mostly unseen, they start gathering strength, and the world changes, subtly at first, but with ever growing magnitude. Eventually, you’re caught in a raging storm beyond control of any but God himself!

Sometimes, Hollywood and the television industries operate in the same way. Whispered dreams turn into quiet conversations. Those, in turn, turn into wishful thinking among increasingly large groups of people. The quiet demand becomes a conscious thought in the heads of studio executives, and aides and personal assistants are put into a frenzy. Negotiations take place, money gets allocated, and then finally, the perfect storm of film-making begins.

Today, I heard a distant but welcome rumble. It seems that the Science Channel has taken a strong interest in Firefly. The Science Channel, if you’re unaware, isn’t exactly known for running science fiction television and movies like Siffie, the channel formerly known and loved as The Sci-Fi Channel. No, the Science Channel is owned and run by Discovery, the same as The Discovery Channel, which means its focus is primarily on science fact instead of science fiction. So this matching of Firefly and the Science Channel is unusual to say the least. But it’s a distant rumble nonetheless.

What this means is that there are powers at work, high in the ranks of television executives, that are fond enough of Firefly to negotiate for the rights to air it in its entirety, pay Dr. Michio Kaku a lot of money to do his segments, and of course advertise and promote the airings. This is a lot of money and a lot of effort to put into a television show that was last actively produced (not counting the film Serenity) nearly a decade ago! This rumbling isn’t in your imagination, it’s real thunder.

But it is still at a distance…

As the follow up article at Entertainment Weekly states, there are a lot of hurdles to actually reviving the series and putting in back into production. It would still take quite a large sum of money to buy the rights, bring back Joss Whedon and cast members such as Nathan Fillion, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite and others that are now working on other projects, and actually get to making episodes, but this is a rumble. Maybe nothing will come of it. Maybe fans like myself are just dreaming. Maybe this storm will disperse before it ever gathers critical mass.

But maybe this is the beginning.

Years ago, Fox canceled yet another television series I dearly loved, Futurama. Well, despite Fox’s efforts, the show never really went away. It was dormant for a few years, but now there are new episodes being produced with the original cast. And of course, we are all too painfully aware that a lot of classic television series from prior decades have been revived and respawned as new franchises. So I would say, yes, there is hope that Firefly may return. The storm may yet gather critical mass. If the sale of the rights may be out of the question, it’s possible that a brewing storm of support and interest could spur Fox into bringing it back.

At this point anything is possible.

The question on my mind, is would the actors willingly leave their current projects to return to Firefly? Nathan Fillion seems like he might, though I’d absolutely hate to see Castle end. Would Morena Baccarin leave V? Would Gina Torres leave Huge? How about Summer Glau with The Cape? And what about the actors for characters that were killed off in Serenity, like Ron Glass’ Shepherd Book and Alan Tudyk’s Wash? If this storm is to gather the hurricane strength winds it’ll need, these questions will need to be resolved.

Still, we’ve been in the desert a good while now, and I think we could use a little rain. This distant rumble is good news to me…

My Take on KillZone 3

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Although I’m not going to go into any detail, I’ll confess that I’m biased in favor of my PS3 rather than m Xbox 360. It feels better put together, seems to have more power, and I don’t have to pay to play online with my friends. So, yes, once again I am biased. In the interests of full disclosure, this isn’t exactly a professional, journalism oriented site. Strictly speaking, it’s a blog, though I’m trying to be honest, objective, and fair in most cases. Except for when it comes to my feelings towards Siffie.

Now, I could tell you the basic storyline of KillZone 3, but I don’t even know most of it. I can tell you what I know based on the ending of KZ2 and what I’ve seen in the promos for KZ3, but you can find that on just about any site. Not being a real journalist does hinder a good preview/review because I haven’t seen any more than what the average person has: I didn’t exactly receive a review copy from Guerrilla Games. Still, from what I’ve seen in the open beta, the maps are incredibly detailed, huge, and flat out beautiful. The Frozen Dam map is quite nice, and I love the fact that it’s not even remotely symmetrical. Symmetry is fair, and is often present in multiplayer games, especially in first person shooters, but it makes learning a map entirely too easy. The lack of symmetry makes them interesting and gives players spending time to learn them a huge advantage. I love that.

One of the biggest improvements in the game over KZ2 is the frame rate. In the previous game, the frame rate was usually pretty good but it often would get bogged down if there were a lot of players in the same area, dropping grenades, etc.. From what I’ve seen in KZ3, aside from two occurrences a few seconds apart, there was no noticeable slow down in the 6+ hours that I’ve played in multiplayer. This is good. This is really good.

Guerrilla has tweaked the multiplayer classes a bit from KZ2, and it’s obvious that they learned a lot from the prior game. For starters, they’ve eliminated the Assault class, with the rocket launcher as its default weapon. The Saboteur has migrated into the Infiltrator and the Scout has been renamed the Marksman. The Engineer and Tactician are still there, and still provide similar roles to what they did in the prior game, but there are some things you’ll need to know.

First, the primary and secondary abilities of each class now have three levels each, offering increased functionality and abilities with increasing skill level. For instance, the Marksman primary ability, cloaking, only works for a limited time. Unlocking the next level allows you to remain cloaked until you kill an opponent. Unlocking the top level allows you to remain cloaked even when killing an opponent if you use a silenced weapon. The secondary ability, which works automatically, keeps the sniper off the enemy radar to an extent. Maxing it out, and it completely disables the enemy radar and the Tactician’s marking ability within 15 meters.

This is great. But the drawback, versus KZ2, is that you no longer have the ability to mix and match secondary abilities from other classes. So, my KillZone 2 Combat Engineer (an engineer using the Tactician’s secondary ability to summon air support drones combined with the primary turret building ability) is history.  I understand why it’s gone: it could severely hamper teamwork, and often had results unforeseen when Guerrilla released KZ2. For instance, my Combat Engineer could hold down an area by himself by building two automated turrets, adding air support, and getting behind cover with a shotgun. So far, in KZ3, the only time I’ve been able to have two turrets simultaneously is after I’ve gotten killed, and came back to build another one. A slight irritation I have with the new version of the Engineer is that he no longer comes with the shotgun, but now is equipped by default with a light machine gun that isn’t nearly as effective. On the other hand, one of the maxed out abilities of the Engineer is the ability to hack enemy turrets, and take control of them. I haven’t done that yet, but frankly I’m drooling over unlocking it.

Another change is that the C4 explosives are no longer a secondary ability of the Saboteur/Infiltrator. It is now available to all classes, once unlocked, and can replace grenades. Personally, I prefer grenades over the C4, but I like having the option to use it and still have my normal secondary abilities.

Perhaps the biggest game changer is what has happened to the Tactician. No longer does he wield spawn grenades to give his allies a tactical advantage at any point on the map. Now, like Capture & Hold objectives, there are several specific spawn points on the maps that the Tactician must capture in order to utilize. And just like Capture & Hold objectives, they can be captured by the enemy by simply being within a certain radius of the spawn point. The more Tacticians in the area, the faster it gets captured. This change prevents a common occurrence from KZ2: a Tactician would run into an objective and drop a spawn grenade right there, which would cause extremely chaotic battles and cause objectives to be lost or won entirely too easily. Guerrilla to fix this early in KZ2 by eliminating the temporary invulnerability when spawning in at locations other than the base, but ultimately it still caused a tremendous amount of chaos, and grinding through lives. The new system works better, I think, though it makes camping them entirely too easy. Once you know where the spawn points on a map are located, it’s just a matter of finding a good position to be the spawn camping bastard that everyone hates.

Another minor gripe is that the Marksman’s tier 3 primary skill allows them to remain cloaked after making a kill with a silenced weapon, but the only silenced weapon the Marksmen has regular access to is a silenced pistol. There is no option for a silenced rifle, assault or sniper, in his arsenal. Besides the silenced pistol, I think there’s a silenced submachine gun that the Tactician has access to, but, needless to say, the game’s sniper class should have normal access to a silenced sniper rifle, even if it’s not as powerful as the mid or top end rifle.

All in all, I’m very impressed with the game, and I’m really looking forward to seeing everything else that it has to offer. Though I’m currently unemployed and short on funds, I’ve already pre-ordered my Helghast edition, primarily for the cloaking sniper figurine. I’m even weighing the cost of getting the PS Move and Sharpshooter accessories to try to take the experience to another level, but I’m not yet convinced to do that… For those of you interested in a rating, I’d have to give KZ3 something in excess of 9.0 but not quite a 10. It’s really, really good, but then I’ve only seen a single level.

Serenity

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There are some films that are so amazing that people continue to talk about them and be enamored by them years after they were no longer the focus of attention. As you can guess as a result of that statement and the title, I’m referring in this instance to the movie Serenity, the follow-up and conclusion to the even longer passed television series Firefly.
Perhaps I should start at the beginning.

When Firefly debuted, I refused to watch it because I was seriously pissed at Fox for canceling Dark Angel, especially the way they canceled it. So I didn’t watch it. Friday night would roll around and I’d watch something else, play a game, read a book, or go out with my wife. Then something odd happened.

On a particular Friday night, just before the end of the year, I decided to watch Firefly to know my enemy. And I liked it. Well, I liked it enough to decide to watch another episode, which would’ve been early in the new year. My luck being what it is, Fox canceled the series and never showed another episode.

Part of me was satisfied. Part of me was pissed.

Time went by and I thought little of Firefly during that time. Then one day, I heard that Joss Whedon had obtained permission to release the entire series on DVD ; at the time, this was quite rare and I thought it was pretty cool. But what got me on the Whedon bandwagon was that I figured he was going to use money earned through the sale of the Firefly series to help finance the movie Serenity. That, excuse the expression, took some balls! And a lot of dedication to fans, cast, and story. I still may not be a Joss Whedon fan per se, but I have a ton of respect for the man from that alone.

Without going into a description of the Firefly TV series or the plot of Serenity, let’s talk about why I love this film. (We’re skipping plot and storyline because the series and movie are both a number of years old now, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably already quite familiar with them.) First of all, there’s the cast. You should already be familiar with how I feel about Nathan Fillion, but suffice it to say I love the guy. Add a bit of sexual tension between him and Captain Reynolds’ love interest Inara, played by the drop dead gorgeous Morena Baccarin, and there’s enough to make the movie worth watching already. Zoe, played by Gina Torres, whose loyalties to her ship, captain, crew, and especially her husband makes her the perfect first officer in the very best traditions. (I really want to make a Star Wars comparison here but people would get the wrong idea. )

Alan Tudyk as Wash, the ship’s pilot, and occasional comic relief was awesome. I still think he got some of the best lines in the film. Joss if you’re reading this, I want you to know I borrowed one of those lines for a short story for a class recently! Tudyk was and is an awesome actor, and I was excited to see him in another Whedon show that was prematurely cut short by Fox: Dollhouse. I’m beginning to understand that I hate Fox about as much as I hate Siffie.

Kaylee, Kaylee, Kaylee. I’m not usually into gingers, but I’d make an exception for you. That is, if the lovely Jewel Staite weren’t married. Kaylee came to represent the heart of the series and movie, and was the motherly figure the show needed. But it was Shepherd Book that represented the soul.

While the show never preached any particular moral code, Ron Glass’ Book gave credence to some moral compass and opportunity foe redemption that each character in their own way needed. At the same time, there was a lot of unspoken backstory to Book that we never properly explored. My suspicion is that Book was a high ranking officer in Independents’ military and was granted special immunity by the Alliance at the end of the war. In fact, as I think about it, he may have been responsible for the end of the war, perhaps negotiating the surrender of the brown coats.

While I could cover all the rest of the characters in similar loving ways, I will mention by name just two more. The first is River Tam played by Summer Glau. Although she seems to be typecast to play weird roles, Summer seems to be a young actress with a lot of potential. (I say she’s being typecast because of her roles on the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse.) Between her acting, grace, and physical agility, she’s proven to me she can do anything. When I write a female character into my stories that I want to be a total badass, I need only think of River Tam’s stand against the Reavers.

The final character I want to highlight is known only as the Operative. For years I sought a villain that was self aware and cognizant of his role, and that was never fulfilled prior to Firefly. I say and mean Firefly and not Serenity because the Operative was a rebirth and reimagining of the bounty hunter Jubal Early in the TV series. Again, we have a character that is supremely capable physically and mentally, that has fully embraced their role in the larger story, and that makes him unique and special in my book.

After all of this, you should see that the character development in the film and TV series really was quite special. The characters each play a specific role, but blend together to be an amazing ensemble. But I’m still not done.

You can’t talk about a science fiction movie without talking about the special effects. Although the special effects were nearly all done with blue screens and computer generated imagery as expected with the modern sci-fi films, they were well above average. In fact, I’d compare 2005’s Serenity with 2009’s Avatar favorably any day, and remember, James Cameron spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing the technology to film Avatar the way he felt it should be done. That kind of coup is on par with what George Lucas did back in the 70s with Star Wars: do amazing work years ahead of everyone else trying to do the same, and in particular do it on a budget and better than those later attempts. In my opinion, the only things that Avatar did in a superior fashion to any thing in Serenity were the floating mountains and the huge color palette.

I loved the variety of spacecraft in Serenity and their various states of repair or disrepair. Some of the funniest lines in the film, in fact, center on the title ship’s state of decay. “Stuff don’t fall off my ship”, Mal states at one point, and at another complains to Kaylee “You promised me that buffer panel would last two weeks!” To which she responds, “That was six months ago.”  Not to mention, slightly earlier, Wash’s response to Mal’s inquiry about landing without the buffer panel: “Oh god, oh god, we’re all going to die?” (Which, by the way, is the line I quoted in my short story.) Lots of awesomeness abounds. Hell, there’s something remarkable in Serenity that isn’t even significant to the storyline: when the crew goes to collect their pay for ripping off the bank at the start of the film, the ship is essentially grabbed out of mid-air by a docking arm, and brought to a birth. I’ve never seen anything even remotely close to as unique as that in either books or film.

In all honesty, I believe that Whedon’s Serenity should be considered among the best of modern science fiction films, and should be considered retroactively for an Oscar or two.

Mr. Lucas, Stop Tearing Down That Empire!

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I’ve already confessed to being a major science fiction nut, so I don’t think I need to reiterate that fact. I profess and honestly commit to loving the Star Wars saga & universe as much as I love that of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, and Firefly/Serenity. These shows and films have kept me going when my life seemed unbearable, and they’ve given me much to shoot for in my own life and writing.

So, I’m feeling more than a little angry right now that I’ve discovered that the next book in Star Wars: Republic Commando series has not only been canceled, but the author, Karen Traviss, has been burned, and official Star Wars canon is being rewritten in favor of the Star Wars: Clone Wars PC, kid oriented stories.

Where to start? Where to start?

When Boba Fett was introduced in the Empire Strikes Back, everyone became awed by the Mandalorians, and their history was quickly written into the lore of the Star Wars universe. They were a war like people that had been long at odds with the Jedi, going all the way back to the to the great wars between the Sith and Jedi. So, needless to say, they were a major power. According to the the previously established storyline, at some point the Sith betrayed the Mandalorians and pretty much broke them as a power player in the galaxy. They didn’t, however, become pacifists as the current Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon has declared. Instead, they became mercenaries and assassins; the Mandalorians became some of the most feared and respected warriors in the galaxy. So much so that Palpatine, as Darth Sidious, used one of the best of them, Jango Fett, as the template for the army that he would use to first divide then control the galaxy.

That is how those of us that really know Star Wars have known it; not just from the films, but also from comic books, novels, histories and backstories given on toys, and even the Star Wars web site among other sources. Personally, I’ve read more than 30 Star Wars novels since Timothy Zahn practically single-handedly resurrected the world with Star Wars: Heir to the Empire twenty years ago. Even now, I’m eagerly awaiting the next book in the Fate of the Jedi series, and it was my search to find the next book in that series that reminded me that I hadn’t seen or heard of the next book in the Republic Commando series that I was also reading. The last book, under the new series name Imperial Commando, was 501st chronicling some of the missions of Vader’s elite troops, and furthering the escape plans of some of the major characters from the prior books. I had purchased that book about a year ago, but I’ve been too busy with school to do a lot of reading over the last year, so I thought the next books in the series had just slipped past me. Until my search last night, that is…

When I discovered that the next Fate of the Jedi book, Conviction, wouldn’t be out for some months, I did a search for “Karen Traviss” and “Republic Commando” which lead me to this Wookieepedia article which states that the next book had been canceled. Reading through that article, I found a link at the bottom to Karen Traviss’ blog, and her post on the canceled book. While it is just one side of the story, it’s my gut feeling that it’s probably accurate. Even if I only had one reason, the revision to A New Hope making Greedo shoot first is evidence enough that George Lucas and LucasFilm aren’t shy about making a revisionist history of the Star Wars universe. I can tolerate the less roguish Han Solo. I love Ewoks. (Yes, I said it.) And despite the vast numbers of people that hate him, I’m cool with Jar Jar. But I really don’t know what in the hell they’re thinking by completely nullifying decades worth story telling within the universe, and undermining the work of the numerous authors that have told these stories on behalf of George Lucas and his companies.

Beyond Ms. Traviss and Mr. Zahn, star authors R. A. Salvatore, Troy Denning, James Luceno, and Aaron Allston have all written pivotal and significant portions of the Star Wars universe for Lucas. I know that Star Wars is Mr. Lucas’ child and puts a significant amount of money in his pocket every year, but why undermine the work of these fantastic authors, and alienate the millions of diehard fans like myself that spend fortunes on these books with a new canon history that completely contradicts everything we’ve been told for all these years…

This pisses me off almost as much as the Sci Fi channel becoming Siffie. Almost. I’m not going to go around shouting “‘F’ you Lucas!”, though I really wouldn’t blame all of these Star Authors if they chose to break their contracts with the publishers and Lucas over this kind of revisionist bullshit.

More Bad News for MTV’s Skins

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The number of sponsors that dropped the show is apparently now up to 8, and more importantly, according to the Wall Street Journal, the viewing audience dropped 51%. 51%!!! I may be premature, but I think we can start a death watch for MTV’s Skins as of now…

THE Kiss a.k.a. Castle “Knockdown”

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Before I go any further, I want to make this epically clear: I am highly biased in favor and support of Nathan Fillion. I love the guy. There, I said it, and I’m not ashamed. I loved his character and acting in Firefly and Serenity. He was awesome as Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. I would’ve paid to see him playing Nathan Drake in the upcoming film adaptation of the PS3 game Uncharted. Multiple times even. I follow him (@NathanFillion) on Twitter. If I weren’t heterosexual, I’d probably be stalking him right now. So obviously, I watch Castle. There, that’s out of the way.

Being a [wannabe] writer myself, I connected with Castle, character and television series, right off the bat. Although I can’t write dialogue any better than George Lucas can (sorry Mr. Lucas!!), I’ve always loved witty repartee in movies and television, and there’s loads to be found in every single episode of Castle. Furthermore, I’m also a fan of good police/crime dramas. Add a little humor, romance, and top it off with strong familial connections, and I’m a sucker for a show. Castle has delivered all of this since day one, and I’m incredibly addicted to it. Hell, I even got one of my best friends hooked on it, then got her hooked on Firefly…!

This being the third season of the show, we the audience, and I in particular, have been waiting for the romantic & sexual tension to break between Richard Castle and Kate Beckett, played by the gorgeous Stana Katic. (If you’re reading this Stana, and you have a position open for a stalker, please let me know!:-) ) I think we all knew it was going to happen eventually. We’ve seen the missed opportunities and the longing from both Castle and Beckett. We even know the supporting characters are all pulling for it as well! Until now, things just haven’t worked out… As a writer, especially one being trained to be a screenwriter, I know this couldn’t be dragged out for another season without this sweet release, and tonight we finally got it!

I’ll admit, I haven’t seen the whole episode yet, so I don’t know what leads up to it, but the kiss was amazing! I’m not one for romance movies, but I was cheering nonstop when Castle and Beckett finally kissed! Hell, I’m burning that episode to DVD from my computer (where I recorded it) right now so I can watch that over and over for the next 10 years…! I have never enjoyed watching on-screen kisses before now because they always looked so fake to me, but Nathan and Stana — excuse my French — just fucking went for it! Maybe I was seeing it through rose colored glasses, but that was the best kiss I’ve ever seen in any television show or movie! Hell, I don’t think my ex-wife and I ever kissed that passionately!

In MY book, this kiss should be immortalized forever simply as “THE Kiss”! There’s a line in The Princess Bride that talks about a kiss to which all others are compared, well, the ante just got raised!

This is probably my first and last post ever raving about a kiss or even romance, but THAT is how it’s done, people! Bravo to Nathan, Stana, the cast and crew of Castle!

Sponsors Bailing on Skins

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I know that I’m not responsible for it, because I have zero influence, but it’s interesting to find out that sponsors are not at all impressed with MTV’s version of Skins. So far, they’ve lost at least four sponsors,  because the show is too controversial. Now, I still haven’t watched the MTV version, and I’m not likely to since it conflicts with my school schedule and a far superior show — Castle; more on that in a few minutes — but I find it hard to believe that a company that’s as big and active as MTV would go out and make child porn (as some people are calling it). Nor do I think they would stray too terribly far from the basic formula of the BBC version of the show, which I think would fit in perfectly with my skewed impression of MTV’s programming.

Nonetheless, I’ve been wrong before. As I’ve watched over the years, MTV’s programming has become significantly more “edgy” and risky as they try to capture the attention of the generations they’ve molded over the last thirty years. (Thankfully, they had little influence over me since I didn’t have cable television in any way, shape, or form for most of my life.) The drawback of always pushing the envelope is that you start to lose sight of when the envelope has reached its limits, and though the BBC version of Skins might have once been perfectly at home on the MTV I stereotype, it’s entirely possible that MTV sees it as a “good start” and have taken it to an extreme that it never should have approached.

Even if they’ve only taken it as far as the BBC did, and no further, it’s also entirely possible that the verisimilitude of the series was too much for mainstream America to digest on such a major television network. (One day, I promise you, I shall unleash my wrath on American censorship and conservative restrictions.) In any event, MTV is reaping what it has sown, and I do not foresee a long life for the American series. At least not on MTV.