(1) EPPS HELD BACK. BBC reports U.S. astronaut Jeanette Epps, who was a guest at the 2015 Worldcon, has been taken off her assigned mission to the ISS: “Nasa removes US astronaut from ISS mission”
The US astronaut Jeanette Epps has been removed from her upcoming mission to the International Space Station (ISS) just months before launch.
Dr Epps was to have been the first African-American astronaut assigned to the space station crew.
She would have flown aboard a Russian Soyuz flight in June but is being replaced by another astronaut.
Nasa has not given a reason for withdrawing her but says she will be considered for future missions.
(2) BYUTV SERIES EXTINCT NOW IS. BYUtv has cancelled its pioneering series Extinct, the post-apocalyptic SF show directed by Ryan Little and written by Orson Scott Card and Aaron Johnston. It ran ten episodes since it premiered on October 1, 2017 and was BYUtv’s only second scripted show, (the first being its science-fiction-y Granite Flats).
(3) FORREST J ACKERMAN IN 1996. Fanac.org has posted a recording of a one hour interview of Forry Ackerman, conducted by Rich Lynch.
Forry Ackerman, winner of the first fan Hugo Award, tells the stories behind his creation of the long running magazine “Famous Monsters of Filmland”, Vampirella, and the science fiction service award, the “Big Heart”. Here’s your chance to find out how Yvette Mimieux, Harlan Ellison, Poul Anderson and George Pal had a bit part in Forry’s creation of Vampirella. In this 1996 interview by Richard Lynch, conducted at LACon3, Forry talks about his movie career (over 50 cameos!), and tells anecdotes about the fans and professionals he knew during his long and productive career. Includes great anecdotes about Dr. David Keller, Bela Lugosi and E. Everett Evans. The audio recording is enhanced with more than 50 images.
(4) JOELCRAFT. At Birth. Movies, Death., in “Someone Realized An HP Lovecraft Poem Maps Perfectly to Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’”, see four different versions!
https://twitter.com/OurWorldcomic/status/952683144171450368
To repeat, this individual discovered that this 100-year-old poem by HP Lovecraft tracks almost perfectly to “Piano Man” by Billy Joel. Just reading it, you can almost hear it.
But we at BMD wanted to actually hear it. We saw this tweet yesterday morning and immediately begged a musically talented friend of ours to do the right thing here. He of course agreed. But in the time it took him to arrange, record, and send the song to us, SOMEONE ELSE HAD ALREADY DONE IT. Ladies and gentlemen, the talented and expedient Julian Velard, appearing here as “HP Joelcraft”:
More videos at the link.
(5) CARLTON OBIT. Bob Carlton, who created Return to the Forbidden Planet, has died.
The writer and director created the jukebox rock and roll musical, which is loosely based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in the mid-1980s. It later transferred to the West End and won the Olivier award for best new musical in 1990.
Carlton was also artistic director of the Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch for 17 years, stepping down in 2014.
(6) SHEARMUR OBIT. The Hollywood Reporter says producer Allison Shearmur has died.
Allison Shearmur, who produced the Hunger Games films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story, died unexpectedly Friday at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles after a battle with lung cancer. She was 54.
Shearmur was an executive at Paramount and Lionsgate before making a transition to a producer role, becoming involved in some of the biggest movies in recent years.
She was an executive producer on 2017’s Power Rangers and was casting Disney’s The One and Only Ivan, which she was producing with Angelina Jolie.
(7) COMICS SECTION.
- Can it be Shelob has captured Charlie Brown? See Lio.
SUPERMAN NO LONGER GOING COMMANDO. Or so says John King Tarpinian. Inverse has the story: “Superman Puts On His Red Trunks Again in Landmark ‘Action Comics’ #1000”.
But the costume! This is more than just a special outfit for a special cover of a special issue. It will be Superman’s new outfit going forward, marking yet another change in Superman’s wardrobe within the last few years.
Back in 2011, in an effort to modernize Superman (as well as the rest of the DC Universe), many DC heroes got big costume changes as part of the hard reset, dubbed the New 52. Decked out in armor instead of spandex, Superman also ditched his red trunks in favor of a plain red belt. He also had a turtleneck. Superman went through another change in 2016, during Rebirth, and in early 2017 had a few more tweaks that included the return of his long red boots. Now, an older version of Superman is back, but no matter what Clark Kent is still just a farm boy from Kansas who is now raising his own family.
By the way, Superman never wore “underwear.” As confirmed in an issue of Action Comics #967 in 2016, the red “undies” (as Jon Kent put it) were just a “decorative element.” The suit was all one piece.
(9) ANOTHER COMPANY READIES FOR SPACE COMMERCE. The second test flight of the Electron rocket has succeeded in placing 3 small sats in orbit — “Rocket Lab Electron reaches orbit on second launch”. The plan is for frequent launches (approximately weekly), enabled by the sparse air traffic.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s launch site on New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula at 8:43 p.m. Eastern (2:43 p.m. local time Jan. 21) on the second day of a nine-day launch window for the mission….
As the second stage shut down, launch controllers declared that the vehicle was in orbit. The stage subsequently released its three payloads, a Dove cubesat for Planet and two Lemur-2 cubesats for Spire. Planet later confirmed that its cubesat was in orbit and communicating following the launch.
…The launch was the first for the Electron after the vehicle’s inaugural flight in May 2017 failed to reach orbit. The company said that the rocket worked as planned on that mission, but a telemetry problem triggered range safety systems about four minutes after liftoff, ending the mission.
In an interview earlier this month, Beck said that if the second launch was successful, the company would move ahead into commercial service with the rocket. Beck said in the post-launch interview that was still the case, but didn’t set a date for the next mission beyond rolling the vehicle out at the launch pad “in the coming months.” The customer for that launch, if it is a commercial mission, has not been announced.
(10) A TEACHING MOMENT. Yahoo! News tells that the “ISS astronauts will complete Challenger teacher’s science lessons”.
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded during liftoff. Onboard were seven astronauts, one of which was teacher Christa McAuliffe. She was selected from over 11,000 applicants for the position of NASA’s Teacher in Space. McAuliffe had plans to conduct lessons from Challenger; now those lessons will finally take place from the International Space Station.
Over the next few months, astronauts Joe Acaba and Ricky Arnold will conduct four of McAuliffe’s six planned lessons, focusing on liquids, effervescence, chromatography and Newton’s laws. They will be filmed and then posted online by The Challenger Center, which focuses on outreach to students about STEM topics in memory of the Shuttle and her crew.
[Thanks to Dave Doering, Cat Eldridge, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Bonnie McDaniel, Errol Cavit, Carl Slaughter, Martin Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Kip W.]
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Short scroll today — needing to devote time to my mother’s health care arrangements.
Saw the mention of Christa McAuliffe a few days ago, had the disconcerting moment of realization that I’m now several years older than she was when she died. (And also older than Giles in the earliest seasons of Buffy. I can’t be Giles, dammit!)
There’s an awesome, very short story by Beth Cato over at Daily Science Fiction, and I’ve put it on my Hugo shortlist.
The Library is Open
I’m happy to see the return of Superman’s trunks. The blue bodysuit needs that pop of red in the middle. The current wide red belt is an improvement over the various other things they’ve tried, but it’s still not up to the original. There’s a reason why Superman’s costume went almost three-quarters of a century without significant changes.
Best wishes for your mom, Mike, and for you.
(4)This is why we need the internet. Because no one hunter-gatherer campfire circle is big enough to do this. Though admittedly, even our primary implementation of the internet, RFC 1149, IP Over Avian Carriers would be challenged by this, here in A.D. 1095.
Echoing those wishes for you and your mom, Mike. (Tangentially related: I watched MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW last night and damn near cried myself to sleep. Director Leo “Duck Soup” “Going My Way” McCarey always said it was his best picture, and when he received an Oscar couple of years after it, stated on the podium that they’d given it to him for the wrong movie.) Thanks for the title!
Also, this maybe should go on the alternate Trek thread, but—damn it, Jim! I’m a scroller, not a filer!—so here’s Carol Burnett (and Andrea Martin…) boldly going there:
As I was harvesting that, I saw another one off to the side. I thought this was going to be the Belushi-Chase-Aykroyd Trek parody from early in SNL, but it’s one I never happpened to see before:
Oh, here it is:
Mike, best wishes for your family.
JJ, that short shory was a gut-wrencher. Thanks.
(4) is delightful.
I’d like to pick the collective brains here.
Talking about the purchase of Fox by Disney, the possibility of crossover movies came up. Not an integration of the characters into a single universe, but a dimensional-rift-temporarily-throws-heros-from-separate-universes-togeather kind of deal.
It’s something that’s very comic book and has happened between unrelated lines at a single publisher, between publishers and even between media properties (x-men meets star-trek).
But we couldn’t think of a single example of this kind of story in another media outside of fan fiction. It really surprised us, particularly for novels. There’s enough shared universes and collaborations floating around that you’d think it would have been irresistible.
So my question for the filers is if anyone can think of precedent for this kind of story outside of comic books? Or would an avengers-meet-x-men movie be a first for the media?
Best wishes for your mother, Mike. I know you’ve got a long road ahead, so please know our thoughts are with you.
There was a story where Northwest Smith met Jirel of Joiry; likewise, a story where Eric John Stark met the Star Lords. And maybe the Bran Mak Morn story where he summoned the spirit of Kull?
And adding my best wishes, Mike, for you and your mother.
@Ryan — Batman and Robin met The Green Hornet and Kato a couple of times — does this count?
Exploration of the Tommy Westphall Universe may reveal other examples.
Ryan H: Even if it’s not what you’re looking for in terms of crossovers between characters of different rights holders, there are examples in sf like Farmer’s work under the name “Kilgore Trout.” And didn’t Heinlein write a novel late in his career with a bunch of crossovers like that?
@Mike — Yes, Number of the Beast had them traveling to Oz and the world of the Lensmen, plus probably others I’m forgetting.
Ryan, this was on the radio, so the characters involved were far from canonical. To make it even farther, the show was somewhat parodical. Nonetheless, in the course of “The Kandy Tooth Caper,” which was a somewhat wacky sequel to The Maltese Falcon with radio’s Sam Spade, there was a moment to warm the hearts of detective fiction fans. This took part on “Suspense,” and Robert Montgomery was the producer, so somebody said, “Hey, why not?” As a result, Howard Duff, as Sam Spade, picks up the phone at one point and checks a plot point with Philip Marlowe, played by Robert Montgomery (who played the famed detective in THE LADY IN THE LAKE in a movie and also a Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the movie).
@Ryan H, in A. Bertram Chandler’s The Dark Dimensions Dominic Flandry meets John Grimes because of a… well…the best way to say it is because of a “dimensional-rift-temporarily-throws-heroes-from-separate-universes-together kind of deal”
@Ryan H: The Incompleat Enchanter takes the main characters from the “real world” into various works of fiction, like Norse Mythology and Spenser’s Faerie Queen – but the real meta bit is that L. Ron Hubbard had his characters met Pratt/DeCamp’s “Harold Shea” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shea) in a story he wrote without any finicky permission-getting, leading to Pratt/DeCamp returning the favor in a later story.
Marvin Kay’s The Incredible Umbrella also features characters moving from fictional universe to fictional universe, from the Holmes-verse to the Gilbert and Sullivan universe (where unseen orchestras provide music for any sung-soliloquizing a person might be interested in making).
PJ Farmer has his Newton Wold universe – but that puts Tarzan, Holmes, and Doc Savage into the same world (they’re cousins you know) not into a meeting that occurs via inter-universal travel. But the X-Men have met several generations of Star Trek characters in authorized novels/comics (one Doctor McCoy is actually blue, while the other one is only occasionally out-of-sorts).
There’s also in movies “The Last Action Hero” in which villains from various movie universes are brought together by the main villain to commit villainy.
Don’t forget Nero Wolfe. Farmer tells us he was related to Holmes.
Also, detective fiction writers Richard S. Prather and Stephen Marlowe wrote a novel in which their detectives (each of whom had his own series) alternated chapters: Double in Trouble (1959). I have this on the shelf, but haven’t peeked inside yet.
@Kip: The resemblance is obvious – Wolfe looks remarkably like Holmes’ brother.
It is actually canon by the way, that the Green Hornet is the Lone Ranger’s great-nephew.
One of my favorite movies is Murder by Death, which featured five (slightly renamed) literature heroes. Then there is A league of extraordinary gentlemen (movie was bad though). Oh and the Deathgate cycle from Weis/Hickman featured a character from Dragonlance (Fizban/Zifnab IIRC)
@Peer: Yes, “Murder by Death” is also fun (Peter Falk as “Sam Diamond,” etc.).
Worth mentioning “Ishmael” which has Kirk, Spock, Hoss Cartwright, the 2nd and 4th Doctors, Paladin, and some of the crew of the Battlestar Galactica?
@Andrew, re: “Ishmael.” I don’t remember those characters. I do remember that Spock goes back in time to the town where “Here Come the Brides” takes place, even meeting the character played by Mark Lenard (Sarek).
I’ve always favored the argument that Spock is a descendant of Dick ‘Robin the Boy Wonder’ Grayson, via his mother Amanda Grayson.
“What are the pixels scrollin’ for?” said Files-on-Parade.
“I’ve got to go to the can. Nobody Move. I don’t wanna miss nothin.”
-Peter Falk, MURDER BY DEATH
The Old Phoenix Inn, which crops up now and again in Poul Anderson’s stories, is a nexus of parallel worlds and characters who visit it. The World Serpent Inn, which appeared in a Dragon magazine, turned it into a D&D like setting where characters could meet all sorts of beings from other worlds.
And, of course, there’s Silverlock.
@Greg Indeed!
If we’re opening the door to pro-level fanfic parodies, there’s Murder in Pastiche, or, Five Detectives All At Sea, by Marion Mainwaring, and so many others. I’m not sure we really should go there. The woods are full of them, and they tend to be pretty thick woods.
Andrew on January 21, 2018 at 11:00 am said:
I thought about mentioning it. (It’s a lot of fun trying to identify all those passing characters. I certainly noticed Paladin, and the Cartwright sons.)
@Patrick Morris Miller
Damn! For anyone who recognized, “Danny Deever,” by Rudyard Kipling, that’s spot on!
Ah! Paladin!
There’s a black and white “Maverick” episode I recorded years ago, and in part of the story, Brett Maverick is in some saloon, and Richard “Paladin” Boone is sitting at another table. He never says a word, never identifies himself as his very well-known character, but every so often, Maverick is startled to glance over and see that Boone’s still sitting there, staring fixedly at him.
If memory serves, it’s never explained.
For that matter, Wild Bill Hickok shows up in at least one radio Gunsmoke episode. He wasn’t exactly fictional, though it could be argued he wasn’t exactly factual, either. He added a lot to his own legend, and it was embroidered even more by other hands.
“For it’s Filer This, an’ Filer That, an’ Space the bloomin’ troll!
But it’s Saviour of th’ ‘ugos when th’ Pixels ‘gin ter scroll.”
(110% certain this has been done, though perhaps not in these exact words.) (I have some apostrophes left over: ‘ ‘ ‘ ”’ ‘ )
@Kip W
Proof that Kipling was really a space alien.
I enjoyed the Wade Wellmen’s Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds.
I’m surprised I’m the first to mention Kim Newman in this thread.
One of the Grimjack Graphic Novels features a background image of the TARDIS and what appears to be the Seventh Foctor (Sylvrster McCoy) emerging from it.
I vaguely call an episode of Richard “Paladin” Boone encountering his earlier self and killing him.
I think it was Strange Luck, were the protagonist was asked to contact Fox Mulder, to find out more about his gift (and the show got canceled afterwards),
There also was a crossover between Picket Fences and.. ah… some Hospital show.
@Darren Garrison: (And also older than Giles in the earliest seasons of Buffy. I can’t be Giles, dammit!) Just wait until you turn into one of your parents….
@RyanH: IIRC, in the story BCGrandrath mentions, Grimes also runs into a queen regnant (I think this was from a non-Grimes Chandler series rather than someone else’s), and ends up in the ship’s cabin where Chandler is writing the story. (Might have all been caused by some very powerful paints (or an unconsciously powerful painter — odd how random details stick), putting Cornell’s magic chalk in the shade….) This all comes from back when Chandler was still writing shorts — no later than 1975 (when I remember discussing it), but no earlier than the late 1960’s (when I started reading magazines). Nothing in ISFDB rings a loud bell, but I wonder about “The Kinsolving’s Planet Irregulars”.
The Anno Dracula series has a lot of multi-fictional-world character crossovers in it.
The Wikipedia article has an extensive list. Some of the highlights are Dracula himself, Genevieve from Drachenfels, Daniel Dravot from The Man Who Would Be King, and Mycroft Holmes.
And how could I forget Barbara Hambly’s Ishmael. This starts out as justanother Kirk-et-al-drop-through-time story, but when they end up on the Pacific coast in the later 1800’s they meet both Emperor Norton (yes, I know he’s not fictional) and some of the characters from Here Come the Brides — which I’ve read was a Trekkie fave because it featured Mark Lenard (Sarek in OST ff). I have been told by an ex-Trekkie that Hambly got no money from this because nobody had gotten permission to use the HCtB characters; don’t know whether this is true. I do remember Hambly grumbling (I thought at Conspiracy (1987 Worldcon), but the dates don’t line up) that until How Much for Just the Planet came along she held a peculiar distinction: writer of the only ST book in which nobody got killed (although in both some characters come near to dying of embarassment).
Mike Glyer, echoing good wishes for you and your mom. As we found with my mom, if planning can stay a step or two ahead of changing needs, it really helps.
@ Greg Hullender
Is it really fair to use Silverlock? EVERYbody’s in that. Though it could do with more women.
I was pretty much speechless when I found out that a Paramount-sanctioned Star Trek: The Next Generation and X-Men crossover existed. The thing I’ve never been able to figure out is why anyone thought this would be a good idea.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Planet_X_(novel)
JJ:
The thing I’ve never been able to figure out is why anyone thought this would be a good idea.
It’s usually expressed as $$$$. That the people at Paramount don’t understand the Trek demographics all that well (and they really should, by now!) is sometimes more than a bit of a nuisance.
I can’t believe I forgot Newman!
At Buconneer (if I recall correctly) Hambly said that her contract with the publisher said that the problem of rights would be handled by the publisher (apparently signed by a fellow too young to remember “Here Comes the Brides” existed), which saved her from any problems.
Ah – here’s Hambly’s account https://fanlore.org/wiki/Ishmael
The willingness of actor Richard Belzer to reprise his role as Homicide: Life on the Street‘s Detective John Munch has led to some interesting crossovers… apparently, the gritty hyper-real setting of The Wire coexists quite happily with The X-Files….
7). Of course they aren’t ‘underwear’! Superman’s costume was based on circus acrobats and aerialists. The style included ‘trunks’ to keep too much from showing.
It made money. That’s how they define “good idea,” sometimes.
There were two Trek/X-Men crossovers, one with classic Trek, one with Next Generation Trek.
Star Trek has also had comics meetings with Green Lantern, Doctor Who, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Planet of the Apes. And they were part of a crossover storyline that also involved G.I. Joe, the Transformers and the Ghostbusters, though I’m not sure the principals ever actually met, so much as they were all dealing with a linked threat. There was a sequel to that story that also involved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dungeons & Dragons, the vampires from 30 Days of Night and, believe it of not, Bat Boy from the Weekly World News.
Comics will cross over anything.
Oh, yeah: Archie and The Punisher. Cerebus and Journey (Messner-Loebs). Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary… wait, that last one doesn’t count. Superman vs Spider-Man and a host of cross-company crossovers that followed that.