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Hailing Frequencies #375
9.6.07

HELLO

And here's the three hundred and seventy-fifth edition of "Hailing Frequencies."

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

Star Trek Voyager Reviews Back Up

Well, the first three seasons, anyway. I'm working on the rest!

September 2007 Desktop Calendar

First game of the Saints regular season tonight!

BIONIC WOMAN

The revamped series will replay on Sci Fi two days after it airs on NBC airing. Bionic Woman is one of four NBC's treating this way, with Life on USA and Chuck and Journeyman replaying on Bravo, USA, and Sci Fi in a rotation.

Canada will get a new digital channel with Teletoon Retro October 1, 2007 at 6 PM. The channel is for 25-49-year-olds who want to watch old cartoons with their families and will feature Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones, Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Jetsons, Fat Albert, Tom & Jerry and the Superfriends, among others.

DR WHO

BBC One has confirmed that David Tennant will continue to play The Doctor in the fifth season in 2010, though he'll show up first in 2009 with two specials. Season Four starts up in the UK next spring.

DUNE

You up for another go? C.H.U.D. passes on the rumor that some studio is making a deal to make another Dune movie. I don't know; maybe it'll be great. But trying to cram all that story into a 2-3 hour theatrical release seems doomed at the start, to me. David Lynch's gawd-awful attempt didn't even manage it in the four-hour restored version. And really, creating actual images of the worms just ruins it, I think, especially when you get little people riding on their backs.

"The worm! The spice! The spice! The worm!"

HARRY POTTER

Helena Bonham Carter will return as Bellatrix Lestrange, the only major role confirmed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince besides Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who are signed till the end.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has a tentative opening date of November 21, 2008.

HEARTLAND

I love Holly Hunter, but this quasi-fantasy stinker is being deservedly canned after only nine episodes. TNT's show failed to keep even half its lead-in viewers from the fabulous The Closer.

HUGO AWARDS

• Best Novel: Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge
• Best Novella: "A Billion Eves" by Robert Reed
• Best Novelette: "The Djinn's Wife" by Ian McDonald
• Best Short Story: "Impossible Dreams" by Tim Pratt
• Best Related Nonfiction Book: James Tiptree, Jr. : The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: Pan's Labyrinth
• Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Doctor Who: "Girl in the Fireplace"
• Best Editor, Long Form: Patrick Nielsen Hayden
• Best Editor, Short Form: Gordon Van Gelder
• Best Professional Artist: Donato Giancola
• Best Semiprozine: Locus
• Best Fanzine: Science-Fiction Five-Yearly
• Best Fan Writer: Dave Langford
• Best Fan Artist: Frank Wu
• John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer: Naomi Novik

MISC...

• Profanity, violence and sex occur once every 3.5 minutes during the family hour, according to a new Parents Television Council (PTC) 2006-2007 study of Family Hour programming (Mondays-Saturdays, 8-9p, Sundays 7-9p). Whoo hoo!!
• Warner Bros. Consumer Products and sportswear manufacturer Salvage are teaming to produce a clothing line based on DC Comics' Super Heroes, Superman and Batman for young men. Look for it in stores early 2008.
• Rumors have it Catwoman may show up in the next Batman Dark Night movie.
• Other rumors say Disney wants the rights to air Clone Wars, the animated series about the SW universe, but George Lucas says that's not true.
• Bloody-Disgusting.com says J.J. Abrams' "Cloverfield" is actually going to be entitled Wreck. (I still like "Cloverfield" better.) Ain't It Cool News has some spoilers posted about the film, whatever it's going to be called, which comes out January 18, 2008.
• Yes, it's true. They're going to make a movie of Joust. You remember? The videogame where you make horses fly while the knights on their back joust each other? You win when your knight knocks the other knights off their horses. And that's pretty much it. It's like making a movie out of Pong...but with flying horses.

MIST

Stephen King's The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont and starring Thomas Jane, Andre Braugher, Laurie Holden, Amin Act Joseph, and Toby Jones, opens November 21. It's a classic sort of tale about people in a small Maine town who find themselves trapped in a supermarket when a mysterious storm filled with mysterious creatures surrounds their town, evidently looking for a special on Brawny paper towels, or at least some human blood. Check out the trailer.

RANDOM DIALOG QUIZ

Can you name the movie? "There's no way of knowing/Exactly where we're going..."

Highlight to read the answer: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

RATINGS

• CBS' Ghost Whisperer rerun won its timeslot with a 3.2/7.
• CW's Smallville rerun on Sunday got a 0.5/1.
• CW/s Smallville rerun on its regular Thursday night got a .6/3, and Supernatural a 1.9/3.

LOOKS LIKE SCI-FI...

A ranger at Lake Tawakoni State Park, Texas, where a 200-yard (183-m) stretch of nature trail has been blanketed in a web spun by millions of spiders. -- Thanks, Pianokeyboardorg!

TRANSFORMERS

Transformers transforms into DVD and HD DVD on October 16 in a two-disc special-edition set, as well as on a single disc from DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment.

UNDERTOW

Elizabeth Bear talks with SCI FI Wire about her latest novel, Undertow, which is about a conjure man, a woman with a past, a hit man, and an amphibian with a price on its head.

TOP US MOVIES TODAY FROM THE NUMBERS

1. Halloween...........................................$32,060,491
2. Superbad.............................................$93,805,303
3. The Bourne Ultimatum........................$203,484,905
4. Balls of Fury.........................................$17,712,000
5. Rush Hour 3.......................................$123,140,000
6. Death Sentence......................................$5,708,387
7. War.....................................................$18,536,527
8. The Nanny Diaries...............................$17,078,006
9. Mr. Bean's Holiday..............................$21,269,470
10. Stardust.............................................$32,379,999

4-Day Holiday Weekend Box Office Estimates: August 31-September 3, 2007
Halloween (2007)(MGM/W)                       $31.0 million - opening weekend
Superbad (Sony)                                    $15.6 million - 3 wk total $92.4m
Balls of Fury (Rogue Pictures)                   $13.8 million - opening weekend
The Bourne Ultimatum (Universal)              $13.2 million - 5 wk total $202.6m
Rush Hour 3 (New Line)                           $10.3 million - 4 wk total $122.2m
Mr. Bean's Holiday (Universal)                   $8.1 million - 2 wk total $21.1m
The Nanny Diaries (MGM/W)                     $6.4 million - 2 wk total $16.5m
Death Sentence (Fox)                             $5.2 million - opening weekend
WAR (Lionsgate)                                    $5.1 million - 2 wk total $17.9m
Stardust (Paramount)                             $3.9 million - 4 wk total $31.9m
Source: Box Office Mojo

TOP BOOKS SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 8.30.07

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
2. Eclipse (Twilight, Book 3), by Stephenie Meyer
3. The Wheel of Darkness, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
4. New Moon (Twilight, Book 2), by Stephenie Meyer
5. The Road, by Cormac McCarthy
6. Dark Possession (The Carpathians (Dark) Series, Book 15), by Christine Feehan
7. The Elves of Cintra (The Genesis of Shannara, Book 2), by Terry Brooks
8. His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman
9. Inferno (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 6)
10. Spook Country, by William Gibson

TOP DVDs SCI-FI/FANTASY @ Amazon, 8.24.07

1. Heroes - Season 1
2. 300
3. Charmed - The Final Season (Season 8)
4. The Secret (Extended Edition)
5. Smallville - The Complete Sixth Season
6. Lost - The Complete Third Season
7. Supernatural - The Complete Second Season
8. Batman Begins [HD DVD]
9. Serenity (Collector's Edition)
10. Shrek the Third (Widescreen Edition)

INSANE TREK TRIVIA

This Week's Question: Name all the musical instruments we've seen Data play.

Send your answer to julia.houston@gmail.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 Shatner made the rounds talking about what it was like to direct Star Trek V, he talked about how he forgot to put a really cool prop into a scene. What was the prop?

Answer: Shatner forgot to put in a self-lighting cigarette for David Warner's character.

First (and only) winner
Dave

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:

"One more duck and the teddy bear is ours!" - tkitfox

Honorable mentions...

Spock : demonstrating TVFP, The Vulcan Finger Point, a new weapon/device idea which was never used on air, and found only in lost episodes, along with TVEN (the Vulcan elbow nudge) and TVNT(the Vulcan Nose Twitch). : "I have a finger and I'm not afraid to point it." -- Pianokeyboardorg

"I have mind-melded with the alien, Captain, and my advice is...FRY HIS A** NOW!" - tkitfox

"There it is! To the left of Ensign Riley! No, no! The left!...You know, Jim, if you wore those glasses the doctor gave you, the away teams might occasionally return intact." - tkitfox

Kirk: "What do you make of that Mr Spock?"
Spock: "I believe it to be the script of Star Trek 11. Logic dictates that it must be destroyed..." - Mac

Photographer: "Ok. Gentlemen, please hold that pose for just a little longer...right. Thank you. Do you realize that in thirtysomething years' time that shot will be used in a caption contest?" - Kathryn

"Sorry, Spock. It's my first ray gun." - Debra

"There's JJ Abrams! Shoot 'em, Jim!" - BTCHONWHLS

"Mr. Spock, tell that kid that's flying around on a broomstick, I don't even know what a Deathly Hallows is, much less where one is!: - ozzygreybeard

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR"

Last week's topic: Who's the best sci-fi villain of all time?

***

Years and years plotting delicious revenge (which he gets!), angst, literate fury, great acting, great scenery-chewing, and check out those pecs!

evay

***

"My name is Talkie Tina, and I love you very much."

BTCHONWHLS

***

Next week's topic: Okay, say you're casting an old-fashioned sci-fi adventure, a trip to the stars on a small spaceship. If you could cast anyone you wanted, to whom would you assign the main roles:

• Captain
• First mate/younger version of captain with somethng to prove
• Engineer (usually the comic relief)
• Security Chief (usually the first one to die)
• Biologist/Botonist (usually the captain's love interest)
• Old scientist (usually dies last because There are Some Things Man was not Meant to Know)

***

Send me something if you've got something to say.  It can be about anything that's on your mind!

HAILING FREQUENCIES CLOSED

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Julia Houston