9.16.05 - 9.25.05

HELLO

And here's the three hundred and tenth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."

If you want to be notified when this newsletter is updated, email me to be put on my "notification" list.

Anyone else following the Snowball dog story?  It's amazing how we can go numb in the face of disaster, then have our hearts broken over little things.  They're just more real to us, I guess.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

First Ron Moore hinted, now SyFy Portal is claiming that Battlestar Galactica has already been approved for a third season on SCI FI Channel. This won't be confirmed either way by SCI FI, most likely, until the current season has a few more notches, but...seriously.  Can there be any real doubt, here?

FIREFLY/SERENITY
 

SCI FI Wire reports that Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, Jewel Staite, Gina Torres and Morena Baccarin have all signed on for at least two sequels to Serenity, if the movie makes bucks, and Joss Whedon is all for it.  Nathan Fillion wouldn't confirm, but most likely he's on board as well.  Whedon says:  "I've actually said once or twice that the difference between TV and movies is that TV shows are a question, and movies are an answer. And so in this we had to have a definitive statement about freedom and humanity and what we need and what we should be allowed to have as people, which is all our flaws. And then I answer that. I make a definitive statement. I put a period or, hopefully, an exclamation point on that, as opposed to just sort of pursuing the question for years, which is what a TV show would do."

New clips available here.

Serenity opens September 30th.

GAMING

Sony Online Entertainment is giving us EverQuest Depths of Darkhollow, the 10th expansion pack for the EverQuest online multiplayer RPG.  SRP $29.99. The pack includes new monsters, raw, bleak caverns, new lands, a new storyline and new characters.  For the first time, players will be about to play as a monster.

President Satoru Iwata has announced that Nintendo will offer "Revolution," a control unit held with one hand, so you can use the other one to drink your Coke and high-five friends.

HARRY POTTER

Let's face it.  We all get pretty annoyed with Cho Chang in Goblet of Fire.  I mean, she's Harry's first crush, and she's such a blech.  But that doesn't mean that Katie Leung should get hate mail just for playing her in the movie!  Fortunately, Scotland Today debunks this rumor:  "I don't know where people are getting it from because it's not true at all.  I've been on the internet but there's nothing there...I mean I don't receive hate mail or anything like that, I get a lot of fan mail, and they're so encouraging and supportive.  I don't know where it comes from."

Watch the trailer at IGNFilmForce or here.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

Why is that Johnny Depp's weirdness just makes us like him more?  The actor told SCI FI Wire: "What happens to me is that with every character, once you've clicked into that character and you really know the guy, you become very close with him, and you love him....So it's always very, very difficult at the end. There is that week to 10 days before wrap where you can feel and hear the clock ticking, and then you go through sometimes a really nasty kind of depression afterwards. There's an odd separation anxiety, because you've just been this person for a pretty good length of time, and then they're suddenly gone. For me, with Captain Jack, I had a sneaking suspicion that I'd see him again....It's a very strange situation where you're as a grown man having separation anxiety with an imaginary character. It's worrisome, because you know it's not normal, but you can't stop yourself, because I just like the guy. He's a pal."

Depp also said that Keith Richards probably won't be doing a cameo in the movie as Depp's father.  In fact, Richard is said to have said:  "The idea of working for Disney gives me the shivers in the first place."

Hey, Richards.  Shiver me timbers! (groan)

STAR TREK

Director of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and winner of seven Oscars for best direction, Robert Wise died of heart failure at UCLA Medical Center September 14 at the age of 91.  Wise's other directing credits include The Day the Earth Stood Still and Run Silent Run Deep, and he edited Citizen Kane.  Look for his memorial picture at next year's Oscars.

TrekToday has a good summary of the TNG spoof in Family Guy.

STAR WARS

This is just wrong.

IGN FilmForce reports that Lucasfilm is looking for screenwriters for the TV version of Star Wars, which should go into pre-production in January: "While the show will apparently revolve around imperial bounty hunters, there could be other directions taken. The series will take place after the Empire has risen to power."

From TheForce.net:  "We've gotten word from Phil Brown's family that he will no longer be filling requests to sign autographs. Please help us spread the word that the 89 year old actor best known as Uncle Owen in Star Wars : A New Hope is putting down the pen for good."

SURFACE

Yet another jerk has told SCI FI Wire that "science-fiction," the same genre that has brought us 1984, The Handmaid's Tale, Solaris, Lathe of Heaven, 2001, and Lost, isn't good enough for his show.  Jay R. Ferguson:  "To me, sci-fi is Star Trek or Star Wars...[My show] is almost like something that could be real. You think of a new species popping up in the ocean, and if you saw that in the headlines of today's paper, you wouldn't be that shocked. It's very, very likely, in fact, that there are several species and several animals that we have yet to see that are in the deep depths of the ocean."

Dude.  "Like something that could be real" is sci-fi.

TRANSFORMERS

IGNFilmForce asks George Clooney if the rumor is true that he'll be the the voice of Optimus Prime in Spielberg's Transformers movie.  His response:   "No. No truth. Is that really out there? No, no one's called me....I am actually able to transform myself into a small RV."

WONDER WOMAN

I dunno.  I want to think the new Wonder Woman movie is going to be great, what with Joss Whedon doing it, and all.  But...uh, it's Wonder Woman, you know?  With her satin tights and invisible plane.  I'm just not seeing it (though I'll be so happy to be wrong).  But Whedon seems to think that her trademarks are to be exploited.  He told SCI FI Wire:  "What's exciting is, like, Batman Begins basically really did a wonderful job explaining exactly why he was a bat and why he had everything on his costume that he did....That's the joy of doing an origin story of Wonder Woman. Why does she wear the bracelets? Why does she use the lasso? Like...where does all that stuff come from?...And I have answers for all of that, and it's really fun. So it's not a reinvention like, 'Oh, she's going to dress like Trinity [from The Matrix].'...I think people want it, and I think I can do it without ... it being campy, believe it or not. And I respect those things. I, in fact, love them."

NEWS BITS

• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the Ringers: Lord of the Fans on DVD on Nov. 22.
• Though critics didn't think much of it and the budget was under $20 million, The Exorcism of Emily Rose took possession of the box office with $30.2 million for its weekend debut.
• The X-Files Mythology: Colonization DVD, with another packaged 16 episodes, comes out September 27
• Stephen R. Donaldson's novel, The Runes of the Earth, has been nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Congrats!
• Shaun Cassidy has an interview up at SCI FI Wire about Invasion.
• Do you have $175 you don't know what to do with?  Well, Bowen Designs will release their Modern Spider-Man Statue in December.
• Poor Tim Allen. He had a huge hit of a TV show, and looked like he was going to make it in movies, and now he's lining up for The Santa Clause III, co-staring with Martin Short, who will play the evil Jack Frost.
• Expect sequels to Robots and Ice Age from Chris Wedge.
• Keanu Reeves told SCI FI Wire that there won't be a Constantine 2, or, if there is one somehow, it would be without him.
• Walden Media has updated their Narnia Educator's Website with a new "Musical Explorations" section. Harry Gregson-Williams, who's doing the score for Narnia, talks about the importance of music.

This Week's Question: What ship does Sisko get to replace USS Defiant?

Send your answer to scifi@about.com. All correctly answering trivia maniacs will have their names mentioned in the next letter. The first winner gets to make a request, anything they like -- within reason -- for the next "Hailing Frequencies" Issue. Please let me know if you don't want me to post your email address if you win.

Last Week's Question: When's the only time we saw Picard and Riker give each other a hug?

Answer: TNG episode "Rascals."

First winner
Suprpntr

Second winner
Bob

Third winner
Sue

Fourth winner
Rissa

Fifth winner
evay

CAPTION CONTEST

Send in your best caption for the picture below. The best (as in, my favorite) entry will appear in next week's issue.

[Insert caption here.]

THIS WEEK'S WINNER:

Passing his gloved hand through the air before the hapless focus puller: "You don't need to do that."
The Focus Puller: "I don't need to do this." - Joe

Honorable Mentions...

 - MelKayeT

"Look, are you gonna click that stupid thing, or do I have to 'USE THE FORCE' to do it?" - Talleyjames69

"Ok, hold your breath till I click this thing; hold, hold, hold, hold..." - MelKayeT

"Aaah," Shatner thought, "they don't know I have Hayden Christensen in the trunk of my car… Luke. I am. Your….Fah-dah!..." - Raymond

"Remember, Bill," he told himself. When the cake stops you jump out and say to George Lucas…. Crap. Line? Line?" - Raymond

"Careful," Vader warned. "I'm not wearing my Jedi codpiece today." - Raymond

"I think he's snoring in there…" - Raymond

Sci-Fi Wire announce cast changes at Alias…again. - Raymond

The World's Biggest Star Wars Fan re-arranges his collection. - Raymond

"Em… He says he was Christian Bale's stand-in for Batman Begins." - Raymond

"I was this close to getting Ron Perlman's part as Hellboy." - Raymond

Bryan Singer directs The Usual Suspects, 2063. - Raymond

"Life-Size Star Wars Figures…Take one!" - Raymond

"Luke, I am your director." - Alex

"Star Bores: The Director Strikes Out." -  Hayley

"Is that Dark Helmet?" - Michele

"I find your mugging for the camera...disturbing." - BTCHONWHLS
 

Darth Vader: "This shot is very important to me, so make sure you get my good side.  Hey, no snickering out there."  - Sue

"Ready, DV. Cialis commercial take one!" - Debra Smith

"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"

This week's topic: Which movie is worse: Armageddon, The Day after Tommorrow, or Independence Day?

***

Oh, you hit a nerve here!  Enter rant mode, those who are not interested  please move along.  I haven't seen The Day after Tomorrow, but Armageddon and Indepedence Day both grate on my nerves sooo much.  I will leave the skewering of the "science" of the movies to the link ttp://www.intuitor.com/moviephysics/ and just talk about the stuff that bugged me in particular.  Note that I'm going from rather hazy memory, since I haven't seen these movies in a long time.  Armageddon: first of all, the whole "revenge against (not of) the nerds" vibe.  "Ha ha, those NASA people are so helpless and brainless, thank goodness they have an oil drilling crew consisting of diamond-in-the-rough characters to beg for help.  And look, they're so snobbish to the main heroes, too!  Good-for-nothing people who make a living with their brains rather than their hands like the Everyman..."  Second, rolling so much into one character of the group (by that, I mean multiple stereotypes rather than just the one that the others in the crew get).  One guy who is the (supposed) Genius, Jokemaker, and Perv.  It felt like the movie was screaming "you MUST like this character!".  Third, stopping at a space station just long enough so it could blow up.

Enough of that, on to Independence Day. First, the aliens' motivation: die, vermin.  How original.  Second, that these smart aliens designed their huge ships in such a fragile way that one kamikaze pilot in a relatively puny plane can do so much.  Third, a computer virus from Earth can take down an alien computer system.  God help us all if such a Universal Virus was released here on planetside.  No more Apple users snickering about the Windows users.  Aaahh, that feels better.  Fist of Death unclenching...

Reid

***

They all sucked, so who cares?

BTCHONWHLS

***

Next week's topic:

***

Send me something if you've got something to say.  It can be about anything that's on your mind! (Please let me know if you don't want your email address to accompany your name in either contest or for the LTE.)

TOP MOVIES FROM THE NUMBERS

1 The Exorcism of Emily Rose.........$36,709,391
2 The 40-Year-Old Virgin..............$84,759,548
3 The Transporter 2.....................$32,482,286
4 The Constant Gardener..............$20,662,000
5 The Wedding Crashers..............$201,103,000
6 Red-Eye..................................$52,326,345
7 The Brothers Grimm...................$34,335,000
8 The Man...................................$5,136,000
9 March of the Penguins...............$67,875,155
10 Four Brothers.........................$69,187,425

TOP SF/F NETWORK SHOWS, NGR, 8/15-21

1. Medium 4.6
2. Desperate Housewives 3.9
3. Lost 3.0
4. Smallville 1.5
5. Charmed 0.9

TOP SF/F SYNDICATED SHOWS, NGR, 8/22 -28

1. Stargate SG-1 1.8
2. The X-Files 1.5
3. Andromeda 1.3
4. She Spies 1.3
5. Buffy 1.2
6. Mutant X 1.2
7. The Twilight Zone  1.2
8. Angel 1.0
8. The Outer Limits 0.9
10. Ripley's  0.7

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY BOOKS, Amazon - 8/19/05

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. Eldest (Inheritance 2)
3. The Da Vinci Code
4. The Historian
5. Knife of Dreams (Wheel of Time 11)
6. Harry Potter paper box set
7. Angels and Demons
8. Chronicles of Narnia box set
9. The Time Traveler's Wife
10. A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander 6)

TOP SCI-FI/FANTASY DVDS, Amazon - 9/9/05

1. Lost season one
2. Batman Begins
3. Star Wars: Episode III
4. Smallville season four
5. Sin City
6. Charmed season two
7. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
8. Toy Story 10th anniversary edition
9.  Firefly complete series
10. Desperate Housewives season one

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED

Visit the "Hailing Frequencies" Archive
http://scifi.about.com/blhailarchive.htm
Julia Houston
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Guide @ About.com
scifi@about.com