Hailing Frequencies Issue #329

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J.J. Abrams told SCI FI Wire that he won't be directing the show's final episode, though he will contribute in other ways. Abrams is working these days not just on Lost, but also on directing Mission: Impossible III. Abrams confirmed that the finale will have the characters played by Lena Olin, Gina Torres, Michael Vartan and Bradley Cooper return in some interesting ways: "I think that the work that they're doing on this season will, I think, prove to be one of the best seasons of the show." Abrams added: "Rambaldi will be part of the finale."

For his part, Cooper (Will Tippin) told SCI FI Wire: "I'm actually going back [today] to shoot the 100th episode, which will be cool....I'm just excited to be a part of the end of it. I just got the script. It's a very exciting episode for Will and Sydney. They do a lot of crazy stuff together." He adds, Is that her picture on page 47 [of the Rambaldi manuscript]? Who the f--k is Rambaldi? Is Sloane [Ron Rifkin] really bad? I think, maybe, ... I think someone needs to kill him. And can people really die and stay dead on the show?"

Very sad news: the wonderful Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) died February 13 of lung cancer in Los Angeles at the too-young age of 59. Katsulas also played Romulan Cmdr. Tomalak in TNG, and a Vissian captain on Enterprise.

The March 10 season-two finale will run two hours, starting at 10 PM. Highlight for spoilers: The outcome of the presidential campaign hinges upon a core debate: whether or not to abandon the search for Earth when the Galactica crew discovers a habitable planet. When the election begins to swing in favor of Baltar (James Callis), a man whom Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) is convinced is a Cylon collaborator, the incumbent president must decide whether or not to take drastic measures for the greater good.

FilmForce reports that Captain America may finally be getting his movie. Marvel Producer Avi Arad told the AP: "Contrary to popular belief, people want this way of life. They want democracy. They want freedom. Captain America takes us one level farther because he's a man out of time. You go through the mind of someone who is emotional and a believer." Arad continues, "Without giving too much away, obviously there'll be a little bit of the origin and then we come into our real world" in the film.

Electronic Arts announced that The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II is ready for manufacture and will be in North American stores March 2. The sequel to the popular real-time strategy game of the same name without the "II" part offers all-new content loosely based on J.R.R. Tolkien's books. You can wage war in the northern regions of Middle-earth, command elven and dwarven armies, or fight on the side of evil, if you prefer, you little megalomaniac, you. Hugo Weaving again voices Lord Elrond. SRP $49.99, collector's edition $59.99.

James Morris, an assistant producer of Star Wars: Empire at War, told SCI FI Wire that in the real-time strategy game: "We wanted to give players the freedom to conquer the galaxy without having to worry about micro-managing an economy....So while there is no resource-gathering in the traditional RTS sense, there is resource management when it comes time to spend your hard-earned credits on new vehicles, soldiers and buildings." Morris adds:"You get to see how Darth Vader came to be in the service of Grand Moff Tarkin and what Han and Chewbacca were up to before their fateful meeting with Luke Skywalker. SRP $49.95, collector's edition $59.95.

Hasbro Properties Group and Activision are getting together to to develop console, handheld and PC games based on the Transformers, in part to promote the Transformer movie, coming out July 4, 2007. Hasbro also plans Tranformer ring tones, mobile gaming, and all that jazz.

LucasArts and TT Games will release the sequel LEGO® Star Wars II™: The Original Trilogy [working title] this fall for PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, Sony PSP™, Xbox® video game system from Microsoft, Nintendo GameCube™, Nintendo DS™, Nintendo Game Boy Advance™ and Windows. From Darth Vader's pursuit of Princess Leia aboard her Blockade Runner to a showdown on the reconstructed Death Star, the game includes even more of the family-friendly LEGO action, puzzles and humor that earned the original LEGO Star Wars such popularity and acclaim. You can customize more than 50 new playable characters by mixing and matching body parts Availability: 2007, rating & SRP pending.

Majesco Entertainment Co. announced that thethird-person futuristic shooter MechAssault: Phantom War will ship later this year for the Nintendo DS.

Gateworld has a detailed report on Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Stargate Worlds, the upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game currently in pre-production.

The Grammy Awards gave Alan Silvestri and Glen Ballard the Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media Grammy for “Believe” from The Polar Express, John DuPrez and Eric Idle the Best Musical Show Album Grammy for Monty Python's Spamalot, and Gordon Goodwin the Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy for “The Incredits” in The Incredibles.

Dead Man's Chest again stars Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. It will take over theatres July 7.

Beau Bridges told SCI FI Wire that he is getting ready to go back to Vancouver for work on the 10th season. "I read the first script, and we've got our hands full with the Ori again, and....It really hits the fan right at the first part of the show this time. The first episode in this 10th season really gets off with a bang. Oh, my goodness, we're in deep trouble. But don't worry. We'll get it together." He adds: "The regulars that were there before—Michael Shanks and Chris [Judge] and Amanda [Tapping]—they've been so nice to me and supportive in my first year. So now I can go back and give them a bad time now that I'm an old vet."

Bryan Singer did his best to shoot down the news that his Superman Returns production budget has topped the $250 million mark. He told SCI FI Wire: "There's some idiot [who] wrote somewhere that the movie was $250 million, which is the most absurd thing I've ever heard....I'll tell you exactly: The movie was budgeted at $184.5 million and will probably climb with visual effects and variables that occur in a movie of this magnitude, with 1,400 visual effects, etc., to somewhere still south of $200 million."

BCI Eclipse now has the Japanese superhero series Ultraman, created by Tsuburaya Productions. The first volume of the original 1966 series will be available in July 2006. How many episodes it will contain, how many volumes will it take to cover the entire run of 39 episodes, and whether they’ll include English dubbed or Japanese versions of the shows have yet to be determined.

Particle Man, Particle Man,
Doin' the things a particle can.
What's he like? It's not important.
Particle Man.

X3, which is reported to have the subtitle The Last Stand, has wrapped filming in Vancouver, Canada, and is now in post (which includes some extra shooting). Look for it to open on May 26.

One of the following news items is false. Can you spot it? (For the answer, highlight below.)

Reveal the fake (highlight): NNerds4Evah, a fan organization celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, has announced a new funding inniative to help sci-fi fans who want to have their ashes shot into space, a la Gene Roddenbery, et al.

This Week's Question: Bashir got the cure to the Founders' disease from what source?

Send your answer to scifi@about.com. All correctly answering trivia maniacs will have their names mentioned in the next newsletter. 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: Who was the first real-life astronaut to make a cameo on Star Trek?

For her request, Sue would like to ask that fans unite to turn Shatner's kidney stone into a Blarney-stone-like good-luck...thing.

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

THIS WEEK'S WINNER:

“Despite CBS’ complete lack of interest in bankrolling a new Star Trek series, no one noticed any reduction in the production values of the new series. Of course, they were all dummies.” - CJ

Honorable Mentions..

"Houston, we have a problem....No, I mean, seriously, we have a problem here. We're friggin puppets!" - BTCHONWHLS

"Off we go into the wild blue yonder..." - Sue

"This Wednesday, Filene's one day sale. 20% off all clothes for men, women and children. Don't let this happen to you." - Elaine

Yeah, my hat sucks, but it keeps the termites out. - Wayne

"LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"

This week's topic: Is Stargate SG-1 weathering the loss of Jack well, or do you think Anderson needs to come back?

The show is ok...that's unless you were actually looking for something that resembles the original Stargate SG-1.

The show has lost the "team" feel. In the earlier years, even when they were apart it still felt like they were a team. Cameron is not Jack but he is good, too bad they aren't using him effectively. The show is too high on the Michael Shanks and Claudia Black characters at the expense of almost everyone else.

It might have been different if Amanda Tapping hadn't needed to be on maternity leave and we hadn't so much Claudia and so little Sam right after losing Richard Dean Anderson. And now I hear we get Claudia as a "regular" next year...ah why?

We won't get RDA back. And even if we did, some things once broke can't be fixed. The several years we suffered with some seriously mediocre scripts so that RDA could have the well-deserved time with his daughter broke the continuity even more than losing Michael Shanks for a season.

They should have just gone on and done a new series...SG-1...the Next Generation and used Shanks, Tapping and Judge as needed to provide continuity.

I know it's not the acting that is putting me off with regards to this Season. I watched the "McKay" episode with Amanda guest starring and it was well-written...true to character and very well executed. So there is life in the characters and in the franchise...just not the current configuration over at SG-1.

"Ripple Effect" could have been so much better of an episode (not that it was a bad one). After all...our team went back in time and messed with the timeline to some extent. There could have been a number of ways to have made "Ripple Effect" tied to those potential changes.

They had the chance to wipe the slate clean honestly and restore some of the characters that had been lost (given us back some of what we lost when Jack disappeared from sight)...but they didn't.

I think it's time that SG-1 packed it in and we move on to Atlantis. There is much more life in those writers and the characters...and we could still see our friends from SG-1 now and again...just not have to suffer through more than one lame story line to find the gem episodes.

Annie

Next week's topic: Stars of sci-Fi and fantasy shows tend to bounce around inside the genre. What actor from a past TV show would you most like to see get a new sci-fi/fantasy TV series?

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.)

1 Final Destination 3..............$24,621,000
2 Firewall.............................$17,404,456
3 The Pink Panther................$24,624,027
4 Curious George...................$17,424,005
5 Brokeback Mountain............$67,816,000
6 When a Stranger Calls.........$35,820,419
7 Big Momma's House 2..........$56,536,648
8 Underworld: Evolution..........$58,332,622
9 Nanny McPhee...................$33,891,150
10 Walk the Line................. $114,359,196

1. Lost 11.2
2. Ghost Whisperer 7.5
3. Medium 7.5
4. Invasion 5.9
5. Surface 5.2
6. Smallville 3.8
7.Charmed 1.8
8. Supernatural 1.5

1. Alias 2.2
2. Smallville 2.0
3. Star Trek: Enterprise 1.7
4. Stargate SG-1 1.6
5. Stargate Atlantis 1.4
6. The Twilight Zone 1.1
7. Farscape 1.0
8. The Outer Limits .9
9. Sabrina .8

1. Cell
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
4. Narnia box set
5. Angels & Demons
6. Micah (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter)
7. Wicked
8. The Time Traveler's Wife
9. The Alchemist
10. Fahrenheit 451

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
3. Bambi II
4. Lady and the Tramp 50th anniversary edition
5. Corpse Bride
6. Lost season one
7. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
8. Serenity
9. Firefly complete series
10. Zathura