To Boldly Go!

Wow! This was a fantastic evening. My boyfriend and I, along with another couple, went to the Minnesota Orchestra "Boldly Go. . ." performance. It was a selection of science fiction (or otherwise space-related) music presented by none other than George "Mr. Sulu" Takei. Originally it was supposed to be presented by Leonard Nimoy, but he had a scheduling conflict with shooting for the next "Star Trek" movie, so it was great that Takei stepped in.

Our evening started across the street at "Brit's Pub" for a drink and dinner. I used to work downtown years ago within walking distance of it, it was nice to get there again for a proper pint of cider and some fish and chips. My boyfriend was in his Han Solo costume and our friend was in his "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan" uniform - which, given it was designed after the British "red coat" uniform, he didn't look out of place at all in a British themed pub! LOL. What's with the costumes you ask? Well, thankfully the Minnesota Orchestra isn't all snooty and snobby - they understood their audience enough to realize some would come in costume whether it was kosher or not. So they had a "costume contest" scheduled before the main event. Nobody I knew won anything, and frankly the Trek uniform SHOULD have won - not just because he's a friend of mine, but because so many people in the audience were commenting that he should have. But, alas, the audience wasn't the judge. I should maybe mention that this was also the first time I've ever attended a real orchestra concert in a concert hall. I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

They also renamed the drink offerings at the bars in the lobby area of Orchestra Hall, calling (for example) one of the beers a "Romulan Ale," there were also Tribbles stuck all over the place, and all the staff were wearing Star Trek TOS-era uniform shirts, which made scifi geeks like us feel we were among people who "get it" instead of a bunch of mundanes. Though I suspect some of the staff wouldn't have, under any other circumstances, worn a Star Trek uniform shirt.

The concert itself started with a medley of Star Trek music. Then they played selections from Gustav Holst's "The Planets." Which George Takei mentioned was used as "temp track" music by George Lucas when he was editing "Star Wars." Then came Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" followed by the "Adventures on Earth" composition from "E.T." I should mention that, on a projection screen above and behind the orchestra, they were showing images from the movies and NASA images from the Mars Rover and Hubble Space Telescope.

A 20 minute intermission was a welcome break and gave a much better notion of just how many people were AT this concert. I had actually looked around the auditorium and there were very few empty seats, mostly up front. When my boyfriend had purchased the tickets in November all but some scattered Main Floor seats were sold out. Oh, yeah, we ended up in ROW TWO of the Main Floor - so we were practically on stage with the orchestra. Hopefully it was such a success they'll do more concerts like this in the future!

After intermission the conductor (Sarah Hatsuko Hicks) came out wearing a ST:TOS uniform shirt and pants too - and the Tribbles had multiplied all over the conductor's podium (well, that's what Tribbles DO, right?). The orchestra kicked the second half off with "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss and then into "Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss.

Before going onto the theme from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" the conductor took a moment to explain that the "hand signals" that go with the alien sounds are actually part of a method for teaching music to young children, developed by another conductor. It turned into audience participation as she had everyone doing the hand signals. However, on the last time through the orchestra (which had been playing the tones) finished with the extra loud "response" from the spaceship - which I don't think the conductor knew the orchestra was going to do that because it looked like it took her by surprise - and then she (and everyone else) just about died laughing!

After actually hearing the "Close Encounters" theme they went into another medley of "Star Trek" music, which I felt was better than the first one. It was kind of sweet that the audience erupted into spontaneous applause when an old "Star Trek" publicity photo of "Mr. Sulu" on the bridge of the Enterprise was shown. Finally the concert finished up with two selections from the "Star Wars" saga: "Duel of the Fates" from "Phantom Menace" (which sounded a bit different as it was lacking a chorus) and the main theme from all the "Star Wars" movies.

While it was a nice selection of music, I'm hoping they'll do another such concert in the future so they can maybe include some other pieces I was dying to hear performed live by an orchestra. For example, the theme from the original "Battlestar Galactica" would have been a great addition. I was also sort of disappointed they didn't play the "Imperial March" song everyone knows goes so well with Darth Vader - making him menacing just walking down a hallway. I'm sure I could come up with some other ones if I looked through my MP3s. Nonetheless it was a magical evening.

R2-D2 "Astrocake Droid"

I baked and decorated an Artoo-Deetoo cake for my boyfriend's birthday :) This was an interesting experience since I've never really "decorated" a cake per se before. I mean, sure, I can bake one from a box and smear frosting all over it (who can't?), but doing artwork in the medium of cake and frosting? That's a different matter.

So I got these tubes of decorating frosting in black and blue with these plastic tips for making different shapes - but I really only needed the one that lets you draw lines. Working from a line drawing I'd made of Artoo I set about decorating. Took about an hour or so to carve the marble sheet cake into a vaguely Astromech silhouette and get it frosted. The final touch was to put some cherry Twizzlers on his feet for wiring.

Ok, so maybe I don't have a future as a pastry chef, but it was kind of a fun little "art project" and the best part was that I got to help EAT IT afterwards!

MarsCon Masquerade Ball

What a party! This weekend (being the first one after Halloween) was the First Annual MarsCon Masquerade Ball. I have to say I had more fun in the four hours of this event than I've had in entire weekends of some sci-fi conventions. Ok, now one expects that for the "first annual" of any event there are going to be some bugs to shake out, right? In this case it was the D.J. cancelling at the last minute, which is obviously a major problem for a DANCE! Thankfully the Ball was saved by Matt B. stepping in to spin the tunes off his computer - and considering there was no Internet connection to grab songs off the web, and he had to work with whatever music was on-hand I think he did a fantastic job. Yeah, sure, there are the inevitable songs that clear the dance floor, and I think your generally nerdy/geeky crowd (especially the guys) have a natural aversion to the dance floor - but put on some Wierd Al or Star Wars Cantina music and it's a different story! Ok, yeah, I understand that if your average uncoordinated geek were to go to a trendy dance club (assuming they'd even be let in) it could be embarassing to do a twitchy, spastic dance in front of people who take "looking cool" seriously. But at a dance attended by your fellow geeks? Drink up a little liquid courage and shake your groove thing, baby! Ain't nobody gonna laugh at you.

There was also a costume contest (of course), typical Con-suite type snacks in another room upstairs where they were showing movies, and a cash bar. Whereas a weekend convention can be kind of expensive, admission to this was only $10 at the door! Ok, granted, you could easily spend a King's ransom at that cash bar - just make sure you've got a room for the night too. Speaking of rooms, this dance wasn't in the big ballroom, but one of the "conference" rooms (specifically one used for the Dealer Room at MarsCon I believe). Since it's the first year of this event they didn't know how many people would actually show up, and by the end of the night it was pretty packed in there and maybe more people would have hit the dance floor IF there'd been room for them. Hopefully next year they'll get the actual ballroom and more people will show up.

Ok, now there were a couple of odd things about going to this dance, especially since it's in the same hotel (Holiday Inn Select) as MarsCon. First of all, there was no waiting for an elevator. Yeah, I know, strange!! The other oddity was that there WAS a convention going on at the same time for Overeaters Anonymous (they had the main ballroom). Some of them seemed a little wierded out by all of us in costume running around - as mundanes usually are - though I did get a couple of compliments from their attendees on my costume :) I also explained to one little old lady that we were having our costume party that night because Halloween fell in the middle of the week which I guess made us all seem not quite so bizarre as being in costume in July or March (or any other non-Halloweeny time of year). Some photos from the event are already posted at THIS LINK.

Anyway, so what is my recommendation for the 2nd Annual MarsCon Masquerade Ball? GO, DRINK, DANCE!

FallCon 2007

I finally attended my first MCBA FallCon! Well, the second day of it anyway. Quite a different affair from the other conventions I've attended in the sense that it was more akin to a Dealer's Room on steroids. In fact, most of the same tables of stuff I've seen at CONvergence and MarsCon - but in addition to them were all the "guest creators." Comic book artists, writers, colorists, inkers - you name it.

Really neat seeing all the different artistic styles and self-published/underground comics that are out there. Boggles the mind really. The downside was that it was unseasonably hot that entire weekend, and when you add hundreds of humans' worth of body heat to a confined space? Thankfully no spontaneous combustions.

New Fall SciFi Lineup

I was actually looking forward to the new Fall lineup of shows as it seemed the major networks had a lot of science-fiction shows in them! Well, now that I've seen some of it I'm not so jazzed about it all. Here's my run-down of what I've seen so far:

Masters of Science Fiction: Doing teleplays of short stories by the greats (or "masters" as they call them) of science fiction. Basically like a rehash of the Outer Limits, in fact could easily be mistaken for an episode of that show. Since the tales are based on the "hard sci-fi" (which some people prefer to call "speculative fiction" to differentiate it from the laser-space-battle kind) means this show is going to have a hard time keeping an audience. It's "too intellectual" for your average viewer (just as the stories on which the episodes are based are likely too heady for most casual readers). It had a horrible time-slot, ABC only ordered six episodes and then cancelled the airing of two of them. I highly doubt we'll be seeing any more of this show.

Eureka: The "smartest little town in America" is back with more stories of Global Dynamics and basement mad scientist experiments gone awry. I wasn't too happy with how they made Henry into a vengeful bad guy at the end of last season, and seeing him be so duplicitous with Carter (who *thinks* Henry is his best friend) is just sort of sad. As I write this it's already had it's "season finale" (in that way Sci-Fi Channel likes to show us half the season and then put it on hiatus until next spring) - the so-called last episode was something of a let-down really, compared to last year anyway. There really wasn't any kind of "cliff-hanger" to keep you salivating for the show's return. Makes me wonder if it WILL return, or if this show just went out with a whimper?

Reaper: Ok, not technically "science fiction" but you can definitely tell Kevin Smith's got his hands in it. Seems very much like a story that could take place in the same Universe as "Dogma." In fact, if you liked "Dogma" or "Clerks" you'll probably like this show. Basic gist is that there's a guy who works at a hardware store, college dropout, loser (you know the type) and his parents sold his soul to the Devil - not entirely intentionally, the Devil (of course) tricked them and takes possession of their son's soul on his 21st birthday. Good news! You can legally get drunk! Bad news: you work for the Devil now. If you remember the serious show "Brimstone" the premise is similar, except this is a comedy. Our hapless hero is charged with the duty of retrieving souls/demons who've escaped from Hell. Now that Eureka is done I'll be able to watch this without time-shifting my viewing. Speaking of time-shifting. . .

Journeyman: Kind of like a new version of "Quantum Leap" except he's not inhabiting the bodies of other people and he doesn't have an Al to tell him why he's there in the past. There's no mechanism explained for how he's travelling through time (even he doesn't know) but he's not the only one doing it. It's not necessarily a bad show, but the main character's time trips seem just as confusing and pointless for the audience as for him. At least with Quantum Leap we knew Sam had a mission to "set right what once went wrong." What Journeyman's purpose is could be anyone's guess.

Flash Gordon: If you read my prior review of the premier episode you already know I hate it. I have avoided watching any more of it, though from the ads and the few masochists out there who ARE watching it, I gather it did improve a bit (or their standard dropped, not sure). Still no spaceships in it, and based on what I've read in interviews with the show's creators there won't be. Sad. Really f---ing sad.

Bionic Woman: The premier episode was actually kind of boring until about the third act, which was only salvaged thanks to a half-way decent bionic battle between Jamie Sommers and a previous attempt at making a bionic woman soldier, now gone bad of course. I suppose there are plenty of young pups out there who weren't even alive when the original show aired, so the entire premise of a "bionic woman" had to be set up again, but it was just redundant for those of us who clearly recall the original series. After two episodes now I've seen THREE actors from the new "Battlestar Galactica" slumming it on this show (it's shot at the same studio in Canada, btw). Frankly I'd rather see more BG than BW on the menu, and if any more refugees from the Cylon Attack turn up I'm going to call this show "Battlestar Bionica." It *might* end up being a hit nonetheless, however, because it appears to have no real competition in it's Wednesday timeslot (which is why I'll probably keep watching).

Stargate: Atlantis: Picking up literally right where they left off last season, we finally get some resolution with the Replicator attack on Atlantis. Samantha Carter crosses over into the Atlantis storyline right off the bat, but so far only in a supporting role (though I'd generally describe the show as having an ensemble cast anyway). They not only resolve thier issues with flying the city, finding a new planet to hide out on that is unknown to either the Replicators or the Wraith, it appears they have even conscripted some unwitting allies into their struggle to stop the Wraith threat. I'm sure this season will have it's share of "filler" episodes establishing the character of the new additions to the cast, but it also appears to be advancing the overall plot nicely as well. Hopefully they're just getting going!

Heroes: Saving the best for last, Hereos is back for it's second season. They seem to be having a bit of trouble thinking up new powers for the "mutants" and I'm not feeling quite so anxious about the next episode as I was last season, but so far it's good. Especially the story with Hiro in fuedal Japan. I find it hard to believe that the Bennetts are really hiding out considering they have done nothing to alter their appearances, and Suresh seems rather careless in his communications with Mr. Bennett when they discuss their plans to bring down the "Company" (which Suresh has now infiltrated, but my bet is they're on to him already). Peter, thankfully, is NOT dead. Somehow, though, he's turned up chained inside a shipping container in Ireland with no memory of who he is or that he's got super-powers (though he finds out the latter soon enough). Sub-plots include a "plague" that kills people with powers and a serial killer who is taking out the "old guard" of the Company, like Hiro's dad and Mother Petrelli. Perhaps not as strong a start as last year, and certainly not quite the suspense and mystery now that we know the score, but entertaining nonetheless.

New "Flash Gordon" Fizzles

When I first heard the announcement that they were going to do a "Flash Gordon" series I was excited. One of the books I read over and over when I was growing up was one my Dad had owned as a kid - "Flash Gordon On the Planet Mongo" published in 1934. On New Years Eve one of the local TV stations would run a marathon of Flash Gordon serials through the night and I'd stay up with my Dad and watch them. When the 1980's movie with the Queen soundtrack came out of course I had to see it. Yes it was campy, but also didn't stray too far from the source material. It's too bad Sci-Fi Channel decided to "re-imagine" this classic, because when they did they got it all wrong in every possible way.

Flash is a team player, whether it's on the Polo Grounds or Football field. His name might evoke notions of a marathon runner, but it's wrong for his idiom. Yes, Flash is supposed to be the All-American Boy who is good to his mother, but he shouldn't still be LIVING with her.

If they hadn't made a point of TELLING us Dale Arden and Flash had been a couple you'd have thought they were estranged siblings.

Dammit, I like my Ming's Merciless. Oh, and add Megalomaniacal too. Less like Donald Trump and more like Adolph Hitler. Hmm, my theory is that maybe "Ming the Merciless" was this Ming's granddad, but he's building a kinder, gentler Mongo with at least some mercy. Emperor Ming is supposed to be badass, he's the original "Grim Shady" Palpatine tried to emulate! Chaotica in the "Captain Proton" episodes of Voyager was able to get the character right in style if not in name. Why was this beyond the grasp of Sci-Fi's writers?

Dr. Zarkov is supposed to be a brilliant, if misunderstood, scientific genius. NOT the neurotic lab assistant of Flash's missing Dad (and don't even get me started on the tired old "Find His Father" plot device).

No Zeppelinesque rocket ships? Jeez, dangle them on obvious strings we can see in the shot, stick sparklers in their tailpipe - it's Flash F---ing Gordon, we'd be okay with it! Nope, they decide to go with dimensional gateways, but don't even make them look as nice as the one's from "Sliders," and Quinn Mallory made his with a remote control he modded in his basement! Just how low budget was this stinker, anyway?

And, oh yes, let's shoot yet another sci-fi show in the forests of Canada, pretend it's the United States, and then use bad special effects to connect it to a strange alien world or dimension. Don't you think "Stargate SG-1" beat that dead horse enough in 10 years on the air? I actually miss the days when sci-fi shows did all their location shoots in front of that same angled rock in the California desert. And, you know, if you HAVE to shoot in Canada, the X-Files did the New Mexico scenes of the "Anasazi" episodes in a quarry up there - couldn't THAT desolate backdrop be Mongo? Please?

Let's see, what else? Pacing of the story: slow to stalled. Writing: formulaic and generally terrible. Acting: wooden, with no two actors ever demonstrating on-screen chemistry. Oh, and lastly if Sci-Fi is going to insist on using the Queen theme song in all the ads, the least they could do is actually use it in the show, though Freddie Mercury would probably roll over in his grave and then rise seeking vengeance and succulent brains if they did. But who doesn't want a Zombie Mercury belting out an undead rendition of "Princes of the Universe?" It would certainly be light years more entertaining than this dreck.

Well, if I'm looking for a silver lining, I guess my Friday nights are still free, since there's clearly nothing to rush home and watch.

The End of Doctor Who

If you're going to do a three-part season finale it should be the strongest, bestest story of the whole season. It isn't. "Blink" remains the one really shiny episodes of this series. So what do we find out? Well, who the other of the "Last of the Time Lords" is (though it's not a big surprise, frankly), it's the Master. We possibly find out who the "Face of Bo" is/was/will be - unless it's just a coinicidence - it's Capt. Jack. We also FINALLY get to see Gallifrey (albeit in a flashback sequence).

Extra stupid stuff? The "Darth Vader funeral pyre" ending for the Master, but wait! Let's toss in the "Ming the Merciless pick the ring out of the ashes" ending as well! Clearly the ring holds a Timelord consciousness the same as the pocket watch did, and the woman's hand with the firely red fingernails is obviously the Master's wife - or will be the Master the next time we see him (her). It's not like the Master hasn't stolen a body or two before, right? But, bar none, the WORST part is the whole "Dobby Doctor" effect. Shame on you RTD for subjecting us to that!

The set-up for the next Christmas special is questionable as well. I sincerely hope this show gets back on track in Series 4 because I was - if you hadn't guessed - generally disappointed in with this years' offering.