Hailing Frequencies, Issue #311

9.23.05 - 9.30.05

HELLO

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

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

As for Rita, I think Jon Stewart summed it up best last night in a question for The Almighty:  "What part of 'God Bless America' do you not understand?"

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

IGNFilmForce reports on an interview in Now Playing (who got a note from Suzy at lunch) with Ron Moore:

"We're sort of looking into larger story arcs as to where the series is ultimately going, and we are talking about what season three would be. We've had preliminary discussions about conceptually what we want the third season to reflect and how we would approach it."

"It was interesting taking somebody whose life was defined by that role – that [Starbuck is] a fighter pilot – and then to take that away from her and see what happens," said Moore in reference to Starbuck's injuries that left her off the pilot rotation for several episodes. "There was a definite decision, that we were going to live with our wounds, live with damage, that we were going to play the aftermath of what happens. You know, Adama was shot in the last episode of the [first] season and he [wasn't] back for a few episodes this year. And even when he is, he's a changed man. It has repercussions. He took a very heavy hit and it was touch and go. It changes who the man is. Not in the philosophical way, but in how he experiences life and how he will go through it. It shook him."

Tonight sees the half-way cliffhanger of "Pegasus," then we won't get more BSG until January.

Pam sends word that Lucy Lawless has agreed to guest-star in two more BSG episodes.  Cool.  :-)  And from Titan Magazines, we're getting a new Battlestar Galactica TV magazine next month.  It will be five issues [bimonthly] with a yearbook. US $39.95.

CHARMED


The new season starts this Sunday, and exec. producer Brad Kern told SCI FI Wire: "We can paint whatever picture we want to paint...We can go anywhere we want to go. But it really does start with the characters and the stars, because they are real women, and they are real sisters. At least that's the way we portray them. And they grow up, and as they grow up they experience different things in their lives. Certainly different, 23 versus 30. And that opens up the door for new metaphors and new demons to resonate and challenge them in their next stages of life."

In the new season, the sisters are letting the world think they are dead while they cloak their identities: "I think that's going to open up more stories for us, because we're able to send the women out into the real world, for really the first time, full-time, in seven years. But at the same time they're going to be challenged by what they see around them, which is bad things happening. Demons taking advantage of the Charmed Ones supposedly being gone. And how are they going to reconcile that while they live their own individual lives? How can they pretend like it doesn't matter? How can they watch bad things happen and do nothing about it? Yet if they decide to do something about it, then they risk losing the very thing that they've wanted, which is normal lives."

EMMY - GOOD YEAR FOR SCI-FI/FANTASY

DRAMA SERIES
"Lost," ABC
ACTRESS IN A DRAMA
Patricia Arquette, "Medium," NBC.
DIRECTING FOR A DRAMA
J.J. Abrams, "Lost" (Pilot, parts 1 & 2), ABC
Animated Program (one hour or more)
"Star Wars Clone Wars Vol. 2" (Chapters 21-25), Cartoon Network
Casting for a Drama Series
"Lost," April Webster, Mandy Sherman, Alyssa Weisberg, Veronica Collins.
Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)
"Lost," Michael Giacchino
Special Visual Effects for a Series
"Lost" (Pilot, Part 1 & Part 2),

FIREFLY/SERENITY

Movies.msn.com interviews the cast of Serenity.  Highlights:

Nathan Fillion, who plays the ship's captain, Mal, says it was three weeks into shooting before he "could stop believing it wasn't going to be taken away from us."

"You just don't think that you're ever going to see these characters again, except maybe late at three o'clock in the morning on the Sci-Fi channel," [says Gina Torres]. "It was a wonderful thing and it was quite miraculous, because this just isn't supposed to happen."

[from Whedon] "I worked for a long time to come up with something epic enough to be a Universal movie and not just a glorified episode of 'Firefly,'" Whedon says. "I wanted to make a movie that made me feel or made people feel the way I felt the first time I saw the first 'Star Wars.' I wanted to be really involved in something very exciting, but not just another big summer ride, because I have had enough of those."

Serenity opens September 30th.

GONER

Way to go, Joss Whedon!  Universal Pictures has shelled out $1 million plus for Goner, Whedon's supernatural thriller spec script, along with Whedon himself as director.  Producers will be Mary Parent and Scott Stuber will produce. Whedon told Variety:  "It's the story of a young woman's journey that involves a great deal of horror and some heroics. It's certainly darker than Serenity, and there are a lot of left turns along the way. It is something I had in mind for a while, and it just poured out of me when I finished my film."

Whedon's current project is writing/directing Wonder Woman. He's also considering a Buffy spin-off series or movie centered on Spike, according to Variety.

HARRY POTTER

Director Mike Newell told SCI FI Wire that "Ralph [Fiennes] was the actor to [play Voldemort], because Ralph doesn't chew the scenery, and he isn't a sort of 19th-century melodrama figure. He's absolutely real and cold and chilling and absolutely dedicated to doing bad. And as soon as you have that, you can do it."

Newell has yet to read Half-Blood Prince:  "It's another huge, wacky novel, and, simply, I've been busy," he said. "I obviously read the fifth one, because that has relevance. But, no, I didn't do that. Nor did I change my view of things for any of the stories that might be coming up. I've been very strongly encouraged by the producers and by Warner Brothers to think of this as a specific one-off film. Perhaps it's a link in a chain."

Scholastic says it sold 11 million copies of Half-Blood Prince in the U.S. alone in the first nine weeks.  Wow.

Goblet of Fire opens Nov. 18. Watch the trailer at IGNFilmForce or here. LeakyCauldron has some high-rez pix.

LOST

Wow.  The second season opener -- which totally rocked and who is that guy?! -- blew out a 10.2 rating among adults aged 18-49, with 23.47 million viewers overall.

Even the not-so-great premiere of Invasion did well with Lost-follow-up:  a 6.8 rating with 16.43 million viewers.

Casting spoiler, highlight to read:  Katey Sagal will guest on October 5's episode as "Helen."

MILLENNIUM

Remember this 1996-1999 X-Files-creator-second-series? With the final DVD set (season three) making a buzz in the marketplace, the series' star, Lance Henriksen, told SCI FI Wire that he'd like to make a Millennium movie.  (What a surprise!):  "I remember when we shot the pilot, I thought it was a movie. It took us a month to shoot the pilot, and it was great. It was a great experience. Doing a film you'd have more language. You wouldn't be straddled by the network censors, and it would be very interesting to get into more detail about certain things."  In particular, Henriksen would enjoy the "closure" a movie would give the show and his character.

STAR TREK

I felt totally ripped off.  Shatner didn't actually sing the theme to TOS.  He just did the "These are the voyages..." part, then stood there for the rest.  harumph

Well, congrats to him anyways for his Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Emmy for Denny Crane on Boston Legal.  He won an Emmy for the role last year, though the category was under "guest stars."

Well, Star Trek is gearing up for a 40th anniversary party, and Paramount's gonna rake it in.  Plans are up in the air about some sort of Star Trek special with clips, bloopers, and boring host segments, but in place for a major convention in Las Vegas from -- of course -- CreationCon.  And we'll be getting new Art Asylum collectibles from Diamond Select Toys, including TNG action figures Riker and Worf and a I.S.S NX-01. Creation Entertainment is also bringing out all sorts of things with a new 40th anniversary Trek logo.

Marina Sirtis has a good video interview up at Sci-Fi Overdrive where she talks about her own feelings that the last hurrah of ENT was more of like a TNG episode.  My favorite line: "I never thought I was going to put that spacesuit back on after Nemesis."

STAR WARS

My favorite SW merchandise this week.

X MEN

XMenFilms says Eric Dane is doing Multiple Man in X3., an ambiguous characters associated with both the Brotherhood and Omega Red's faction. Check out the site for pre-production pix.

NEWS BITS

INSANE TREK TRIVIA

This Week's Question: Which Star Trek actor has officially qualified as a bronze-level international Latin ballroom dancer?

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: What ship does Sisko get to replace USS Defiant?

Answer: U.S.S. São Paulo NCC-75633, which gets renamed USS Defiant.

First winner
Claudia

Second winner
Susan

Third winner
wow

Fourth winner
Patti

Fifth winner
Lucas

Sixth winner
Linda

Seventh winner
Bob

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:

"Romi felt bad. Her pout had killed another man in his prime." - Raymond

Honorable Mentions...

"They were shocked. No one had ever seen Dylan without his makeup…" (I'm not bitter) - Raymond

"The Michael Shanks Clone #55 lived for just 12 seconds." - Raymond

"Go on," Romi urged. "Shock him again. He's the guy who put itching powder in our costumes that time." - Raymond

"Wow," she whispered. "There's gotta be a really great caption you could put here." - Raymond

"He said those blue pills were for his cold. That 'V' stood for 'Virus.'" - Raymond

"The scanner showed them that the shrunken Andromeda Ascendant was quickly making its way through Asimov's sinuses. Soon, they could watch Dylan get bigger…and bigger…" - Michele

"What do you mean, do your hair any way but the way I did mine?" - BTCHONWHLS

"Well, either my batteries are dead, or he is." - Debra Smith

"A scene from a 'lost' episode of TOS, in which Captain Kirk switches bodies with a beautiful woman, and then is split into a good half and an evil half. - Stephen

"He's dead, Jim" - sexualuniverse

"But I followed the directions... bake at 350 for 2 hours!?!" - Joeseph

"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"

This week's topic: Whoops. Forgot one.

***
 
I just had to rush a note to you about the new TV show Bones.  Sorry, but this short "review" is totally negative. I don't know who Emily Deschanel is or what she has acted in before, but I'm not impressed either by her or the character that she is portraying. I imagine if you were to look up the terms, "expressionless" or "deadpan" in the dictionary, they would have a photo of her.

I can't believe that David Boreanaz is so hard up for work, that he signed on to this series. I mean.. what a come down from having the title role in what was a really good show. Anyone can play the part that he has.  This episode was totally boring. Deschanel was walking around like she had a chip on her shoulder, and a stick up her butt. Ohhh.. She is sooo professional and dedicated! Please!!

This show makes "Crossing Jordan" look interesting and real by comparison! Speaking of which.. They just had to throw in a little romantic interest concerning the Deschanel and Boreanaz characters. Like we really care if these two bland characters eventually get together. This program does not deserve to survive past Thanksgiving, (dropping it by Halloween would be even better.)

On another subject.. I really like what I've seen of Supernatural. The storylines look like they will be interesting, the acting looks good. The chemistry between the lead actors has a nice feel to it also.

Larry

***

Next week's topic: Have recent events with Katrina and Rita affected your enjoyment of disaster-oriented sci-fi? Or is there no connection there for you?

And evay has a great topic:  Network TV runs a season of 24 or so episodes from September to May, approximately. Cable networks will run short seasons of 12 episodes or split a season of 20 into two 10-episode pieces, in July and January. Which do you like better?

***

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 Just Like Heaven...............$19,265,474
2 Exorcism of Emily Rose........$54,056,000
3 Lord of War......................$11,682,614
4 The 40 Year-old Virgin........$92,153,078
5 The Transporter 2..............$37,387,313
6 The Constant Gardener.......$25,069,000
7 Cry Wolf............................$5,053,000
8 March of the Penguins........$70,936,644
9 The Wedding Crashers.......$204,165,000
10 Red-Eye.........................$55,708,126

TOP SF/F NETWORK SHOWS, NGR, 8.29-9.4

1. Medium 4.0
2. Lost 3.2
3. Desperate Housewives 2.7
4. Smallville 1.4
5. Charmed 0.7

TOP SF/F SYNDICATED SHOWS, NGR, 8.29 -9.4

1. Stargate SG-1 1.4
2. The X-Files 1.2
3. Andromeda 1.2
4. Angel 1.1
5. Buffy 1.1
6. Mutant X 1.1
7. She Spies 1.1
8. The Outer Limits 1.0
8. Sabrina 0.7
10. The Twilight Zone  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 - 9.20.05

1. Star Wars: Episode III
2. Lost season one
3. Desperate Housewives season one
4. Batman Begins
5. Battlestar Galactica season one
6. Stargate SG-1 season eight
7. Smallville season four
8. Firefly complete series
9. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
10. Cinderella platinum edition

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED

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Julia Houston
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Guide @ About.com
scifi@about.com