(1) Arthur C. Clarke’s papers came to the Smithsonian Institution earlier this year. Patti Williams, acquisition archivist for the National Air and Space Museum, blogged about the steps in bringing the materials from Sri Lanka to the U.S.
I have been the Museum’s acquisition archivist for almost 26 years, and during that time over 3,200 archival collections have been entrusted to us. Most of these materials have been personally delivered or shipped, but it has sometimes been necessary for me to travel to obtain a collection, whether to California, New York, or South Dakota. Sri Lanka has certainly been the furthest I’ve travelled for a collection.
Martin Collins, a curator for the Space History Department, gave an overview of what’s in Clarke’s papers, accompanied by many photos.
What emerges from a first review of his papers is a deeply thoughtful man shaped by and creatively responding to his time—with World War II and the first decades of the Cold War as critically formative. From his early 20s through the rest of life he possessed a remarkably consistent vision and purpose of what was important to him: to make sense of a world experiencing tremendous advances in science and technology, the result of which, in his view, augured potentially radical changes in the fabric of social and cultural life. In the years after the war, this dynamic seemed especially insistent, making the idea and reality of the “future” a critical problem in need of understanding. Through his career, this challenge led Clarke to advance his three laws of prediction (easily found via an internet search), an attempt to make serious the future as a shared, collective human concern but do so with a light touch.
From this vantage, Clarke’s interest in science fiction, as is evident throughout his papers, was not merely incidental but central: It was his essential tool, perhaps the best one, for sorting through and understanding this condition and educating readers about the time in which they were living.
(2) In a podcast for Creature Features, Walter Murch, writer and director of Return to Oz, “discusses the long genesis of the 1985 fantasy film, how personal a project it was for him, how tumultuous it became at times, and how happy he is with it after 30 years.”
Soundcloud – Pod People Episode 4 – Walter Murch
(3) The PBS documentary about cosplay aired in 2013 can be viewed online.
(4) The Golden Age Site’s post about “New York Comic Book Conventions ~ 1966-1978 ~ The good old days when Comic Shows were about comics” shows many many fans in those days were involved in both comics and sf, inspiring Andrew Porter to comment, “Gosh, there’s my name at the top, along with a bunch of [now] old pharts!”
I also ran off the program — about 250 copies of a single page, as I recall — for Dave Kaler’s NY Comic Convention, held in 1965 at the Hotel Broadway Central (an impressive pile in Theodore Dreiser’s “Sister Carrie”) on my Ditto machine.
(5) The University of Oregon Libraries will celebrate the acquisition of the James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice B. Sheldon) literary papers with a two-day symposium at the Eugene, Oregon campus on December 4-5, 2015.
The acquisition of the Tiptree Papers enriches Special Collections and University Archives’ growing collection of feminist science fiction manuscript collections, which include the Ursula K. Le Guin Papers, the Joanna Russ Papers, the Sally Miller Gearhart Papers, and the Suzette Haden Elgin Papers.
The symposium will kick off with a keynote talk by Julie Phillips, author of the biography: James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice Sheldon (St. Martins, 2006), and will also feature a panel discussion with other writers who carried on lively and engaging correspondence with Tiptree, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Suzy McKee Charnas and David Gerrold.
(6) Emily Hughes conducts “Updraft: A Q&A with Fran Wilde” at Suvudu.
SUVUDU: Updraft has some of the most original worldbuilding I’ve ever come across – could you tell us a little bit about your process for creating the details of this city built out of bone towers and its residents?
FRAN WILDE: That’s wonderful to hear! The city of bone towers was born late one night at a writing workshop following many cups of coffee. I realized that I wanted to write a story set in a living city with a focus on engineering and flight. (I wasn’t drinking Red Bull, I swear.)
What emerged from that writing session was a short story that had elements of Milton’s Paradise Lost, The Codex Seraphinianus, China Mieville’s short stories about living cities in Looking for Jake, and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities as ancestors. The story contained the man-made wings, bridges, and bone towers that exist today, but the characters and conflict were different. After reading it, Gordon Van Gelder of Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine wrote me to suggest I look at other high-altitude megastructure stories like Steven Gould’s “Peaches for Mad Molly” and K.W. Jeter’s Farewell Horizontal as well.
So my process from the first draft involved a lot of reading. In the end, when the short story had grown into a novel, and the very spare sketch of bone towers and wings had grown into a world, the process also involved getting into a wind tunnel to go indoor skydiving, and talking to cloud and weather experts about wind shear near steep, high-altitude objects, and to biologists about bone growth. I also researched scarcity societies, high-altitude food production, and cephalopods, among other things.
(7) John Plotz recalls A Wizard of Earthsea in “Le Guin’s Anarchist Aesthetics” on Public Books.
Le Guin’s peculiar gift, though, is to make the ordinary feel as important as the epic: mundane questions about who’s cutting firewood or doing the dishes share space with rune books and miscast spells. Her Earthsea has less in common with Narnia, Hogwarts, and Percy Jackson’s Camp Half-Blood than it does with medieval romances and Icelandic sagas, where dragons and death keep company with fishing yarns, goat-herding woes, and village quarrels.
Plotz also interviewed Le Guin for Public Books in June.
JP: And has it always been clear to you which category your books fall into?
UL: Oh no. When I started it was all mushed up together! My first three novels are kind of science fantasy. Rocannon’s World (1966) is full of Norse myth barely disguised. But I began to realize there was a real difference between these two ways of using the imagination. So I wrote Earthsea and Left Hand of Darkness. From then on I was following two paths.
In Left Hand of Darkness I was using science fiction to come at a problem that I realized was very deep in me and everybody else: what is gender? What gender am I? A question we just hadn’t been asking. Look at all the answers that are coming out now. We have really deconstructed it. We really didn’t even have the word “gender” back then. Just, “What sex are you?” So in some respects we really have come a long way, and in a good direction, I think.
(8) Gregory N. Hullender says, “No one seems to have commented on it yet, but I think the December 2015 Analog is unusually strong. After a really weak year, maybe they’re getting their act together.” He has more to say on Reddit.
(9) Irish children’s laureate Eoin Colfer (“Artemis Fowl”) and illustrator and writer Oliver Jeffers have joined forces to create an imaginary friend.
They decided to collaborate on ‘Imaginary Fred’ due to a chance meeting in New Zealand.
“We were there for the Auckland book festival and we met up at a story slam competition,” Mr Colfer said.
“We were giggling like schoolboys at each other’s stories, and at the end of the night we said let’s do something together.”
‘Imaginary Fred’ tells the story of Fred, who becomes the imaginary friend of Sam, a boy in need of company.
The two embark on a series of adventures together, but when Sam meets Sammi, a girl with an imaginary friend of her own, Fred has to move on from Sam.
The story, unusually, is told from Imaginary Fred’s point of view.
“I like to do that with my books,” said Mr Colfer.
“To take what is often a secondary character and make them the main character because they’re a lot more interesting to me.”
(10) An event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Marion E. Wade Center on October 29 at 7 pm Central time will be livestreamed. The Wade is a focal point of Inklings scholarship. Featured speakers will include the Wade’s former director, Dr. Lyle W. Dorsett, poet Luci Shaw, and Dr. Leland Ryken, who is currently at work on a book length history of the Wade Center. The dedication of the new Bakke Auditorium will be part of this special evening. Watch the proceedings online via WETN.
(11) Bradbury-inspired art! Vroman’s Art on the Stairwall presents George Cwirko-Godycki on November 14 at 2 p.m. at the main store in Pasadena.
Join us as we celebrate our newest Artist on the Stairwell! Illustrator George Cwirko-Godycki presents a limited edition poster show inspired by the works of Ray Bradbury. The show is the first in Vroman’s Artists on Authors series in the stairwell where visionary artists interpret the works of renowned authors. The first 25 attendees will receive a signed catalog of the exhibition that details the process of creating this unique show from start to finish. George is based in San Francisco where he provides concept illustration for the entertainment industry and teaches figure drawing at the Academy of Art University.
(12) Frequent File 770 contributor James H. Burns’ writes about the Tri-State losing a major supermarket chain, Pathmark, in a piece for the Long Island Press.
Ultimately, the neatest feature at Pathmark for a youngster may have been a huge paperback section featuring an amazing array of bestsellers and non-fiction books. Pathmark was where I bought some of my very first books on the history of movies, including, in my monster-loving youth, a biography of Boris Karloff!
From its inception in Franklin Square, Pathmark had tried to be unique. At the back of the store was a section invoking the classic Horn and Hardart cafeterias in Manhattan, famous for all the food, sandwiches and cakes and the like, being offered through slots in the wall protected by a glass cover. If you put coins in the apparatus, you could lift the cover and take your treat. Horn and Hardart was famous for the quality of its offerings, and for being a very affordable place for any New Yorker to put together a decent meal. More than one location also became known as a writers’ hangout, with some of the best-known reporters and talent of the era sitting for a long while, sipping their coffee, and enjoying the conversation.
Beginning in the 1970s, Pathmark also had a long running series of television commercials, starring James Karen. Most of us probably presumed he was a Pathmark executive, until he also began popping up as an actor in horror movies like “Poltergeist” and “The Return of the Living Dead.”
(13) Pee Wee Herman’s blog features a gallery of photos of work by the “’Picasso of Pumpkin Carving’ Ray Villafane”.
Until October 31st, the town of Carefree, Arizona is hosting the Enchanted Pumpkin Garden, a one-of-a-kind event conceived by master pumpkin carver Ray Villafane! The Wall Street Journal calls him the “Picasso of pumpkin carving.”
(14) Ray Bradbury is all over the place in this documentary about Charlie Chaplin, first at the 40 second mark
(15) The Nitrate Diva links to “Fear You Can Hear: 31 of the Scariest old Time Radio Episodes for Halloween”
They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but, when it comes to the best old-time radio horror, each word is worth a thousand pictures.
By using voices, sound effects, and snippets of music, masters of radio terror turned what could’ve been a disadvantage of the medium—we can’t see what’s happening—into their greatest asset.
Radio writers and actors spawned monsters that the technology of the time couldn’t have realistically portrayed on film. They suggested depravity and gore that screen censorship would’ve banned. And they could manipulate the imagination so that listeners themselves collaborated in the summoning of their worst fears.
In case you can’t tell, I adore old-time ratio (OTR) horror. After countless hours poring over archives of old shows, I’ve selected 31 bloodcurdling episodes, from 1934 all the way up to 1979, for your pleasure.
(16) Oh noes! “William Shatner Isn’t a Huge Fan of the New ‘Star Wars’ Trailer”.
Millions of Star Wars fans may have eagerly devoured the trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, due out on December 18, but William Shatner—captain of the starship Enterprise and star of the original Star Trek series—wasn’t among them. “To me there isn’t a controversy,” the actor tells Newsweek. “Star Trek is far superior to Star Wars.”
(17) Would Dr. Sheldon Cooper agree? He certainly has plenty of reason to be happy with Star Trek.
Fans of The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek can rejoice because an upcoming episode the geektastic TV sitcom will feature a guest appearance from the son of Mr. Spock himself, Adam Nimoy! Plus, we have an exclusive first look at the episode, which airs on Thurs., Nov. 5 at 8/7! In “The Spock Resonance,” recurring guest star Wil Wheaton will appear alongside Adam, an accomplished writer and director in real life, who asks Sheldon Cooper to be in a documentary about his beloved father, Leonard.
(18) Natalie Luhrs has a terrific post about “World Fantasy’s Harassment Non-Policy” at Pretty Terrible.
The final progress report from World Fantasy was emailed to members this evening. It included the harassment policy, which is legalistic and is essentially useless. For posterity, here it is…
[Thanks to Bill Menker, Michael J. Walsh, Andrew Porter, Bill Burns, James H. Burns, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Jack Lint.]
Discover more from File 770
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.
What has it got in its bracketses?
1. TOS.
4. Ziggy wants you all to know that Sam’s victory is a matter of historical record. QL.
5. Lois & Clark.
6. Ouch. Terminator.
7. Enterprise.
8. Voyager.
How did three Treks get into the same region?
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Star Trek Voyager (15)
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Life on Mars (9)
Abstain
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Doomwatch (12)
Abstain
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
The Middleman (13)
Abstain Actually, a half-vote against Quantum leap, which I hated, but haven’t seen the other, so don’t count the half-vote.
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Lois and Clark (14)
Abstain
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
Abstain
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)
Abstain
Slings and Arrows!
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
2. Life on Mars – not least because Ashes to Ashes was a great idea for a sequel
3. Doomwatch
4. Quantum Leap – oh boy
5. Blake’s 7 – Clearly B7 wins, but I just went to wikipedia to remind myself of something about Lois and Clark, and it tells me that there was a tie-in novel written by CJ Cherryh.
6. The Avengers – actually tricky, because I think T:SCC is underrated.
8. Farscape – get that cheese to sickbay
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
(Was Life on Mars the US or UK version. Not that it matters to me as my vote’s for Fringe regardless.)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Neither.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Lois and Clark (14)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
Argh. This region contains pretty much all the shows I would have nominated, so the outcomes here are bound to be horrible for me. I am forcing myself not to abstain, much as I want to.
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Life on Mars (9)
Whilst Fringe was solid, Life on Mars was both clever and fun.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Doomwatch (12)
Xena will win this category, which is OK, but hopefully this will put Doomwatch on some people’s radars.
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
The Middleman (13)
I only saw this show for the first time last year, and I’ve already watched it through three times. QL is by far the more interesting show, but The Middleman has that meta quality that I love.
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Lois and Clark (14)
OK, I said I was not going to abstain. I lied. I just can’t do this one.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
I’m a Tara King fan myself, but any era of the show is just fabulous.
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
Clearly not the best Star Trek, but any Trek is better than almost anything else…
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)
…except in this case. Now if these two Treks had been the other way around, I wouldn’t have felt anything like so bad. But I really like Voyager; it’s just that Farscape is in a class of its own.
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series
Of course.
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Abstain. I saw the first season of Fringe, and the first episode of the second season, but then I found out that the interesting supporting character in that episode was dropped instead of developed further and I kind of lost interest after that. And I never really warmed to Life on Mars.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Doomwatch (12)
In truth the only episode of this I remember is the one where the nuclear bomb is mistaken for an arcade machine. And the opening credits, which had the almost subliminal message to WATCH DOOM WATCH amid the mushroom clouds, which I thought was a bit cheeky.
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
Don’t know the other show.
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
L&C was fun, but B7. Blake, Avon, Servalan! Episodes by Tanith Lee! Despair and the best/worst ending of an SF series ever!
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Steed and Mrs Peel, what more to be said?
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Abstain
Don’t know much about WWW besides the movie; I might have seen an episode, once upon a time. But Enterprise wasn’t great, not really bracket-quality, I feel.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Headcloth, please. I quite liked ST:Voyager; the ropeyness of the first season gave me a lot of room for headcanon and suggested stories that could have been developed. But the hyper-evolved newts…
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
The Middleman (13)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Star Trek back when it was allowed to be interesting.
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
I’m having hoops.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Robert Powell vs Lucy Lawless? He doesn’t stand a chance.
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
Hey, remember when Scott Bakula got to do acting?
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
I’m not expendable, I’m not stupid, and I’m not going.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Emma Peel vs Sarah Connor? I’m not saying it wouldn’t be an epic fight, but you know who’s gong to end up relaxing back at Steed’s place with a glass of bubbly.
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
I know nothing about Wild Wild West, but I’m assuming it’s the better show on the grounds that I’ve seen Enterprise.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
I was going to slag off Voyager but I fell asleep.
@Rev. Bob:
Fair question! One region was going to get at least two, and Voyager snuck into the tournament with a single nomination. In two possible brackets it would have gone up against DS9 or TNG in the first round. In the other possible bracket it would face Sapphire and Steel, which would have been fine, but I liked matching S&S to Carnivale better. Hence, three teams from the same conference ended up here.
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
The Middleman (13)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe
NO! Why didn’t I buy a headcloth when I had a chance?
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
Abstain as I’ve never seen, or heard of, Trueblood
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Doomwatch (12)
I liked the Xena I saw, but Doomwatch sucked me in and held me
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
IMO TSCC shpuld have had an arc and an end
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
Tie One from my youth and one from later. I don’t know how I’d feel if I watched TWWW now. I don’t thonk I want to know.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)
Abstain I don’t care much for Farscape, but it could have been glorious and Voyager is okay.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
True Blood (16)Even with some incredibly bad ST:TOS episodes, this is no contest. Spock, tribbles, dog with a cone on its head…
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Life on Mars (9)I liked Life on Mars, but Fringe had some very interesting concepts and wasn’t afraid to play with them. Also, Walter Bishop is such a great character.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Doomwatch (12)4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
The Middleman (13)5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Lois and Clark (14)6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
Still complain bitterly about this show getting cancelled.
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Star Trek Enterprise (10)Kinda surprised to be voting for Wild Wild West, but I enjoyed it and I hated Enterprise.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)I feel like this choice should’ve been harder. But it wasn’t.
ETA: Apparently my taste in this region is mostly conventional. I picked the top choice all but once.
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Trailing Region – Round One
1. Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. Abstain
3. Doomwatch (12). My cousin was in one episode. That’s not the only reason, though.
4. Abstain
5. Blake’s 7 (3)
6. The Avengers (6)
7. Abstain
8. Abstain
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT – abstain
3. Xena: Warrior Princess – I love a show where pretty much anything in reach can be and was used as a weapon. After so many years of watching movies and tv shows where people – especially women – would stand round and scream helplessly or swat ineffectively a bad guy/thing/giant rat attacking their friend/love/companion it was wonderful to see a show where Xena would simply clobber bad guys with the nearest chair, candelabra, or collection of pots. Yes!
4. Quantum Leap (4) – I remember really liking this show.
5. Blake’s 7 !!!! I adored this show as a kid.
6. The Avengers (6)
7. Wild Wild West (7) vs Star Trek Enterprise (10)
Argh! Conrad’s leather pants verses some truly offensive and icky episodes like Unexpected. The squick factor is high for both of these show.
Okay – I can’t stand Robert Conrad, and for some reason it seemed like Scott Bakula forgot how to act. I liked Artemus though. So WWW.
8. Farscape (2)
Getting my doomed votes in early!
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
TOS was formative for me, and the only installment of the Trek franchise I ever truly loved. While it’s aged unevenly, I wasn’t compelled by Trueblood the first time around. You just have to compare Deborah Ann Woll’s work in Daredevil to get an idea of how poorly Trueblood directors handled actors.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
My fondness for Xena is more notional than integral. But hey.
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Lois and Clark (14)
Dammit, people – You ‘sploded them! This was a deeply human show about a deeply humane alien and a remarkable human woman and all the ways they deserved each other.
Also, and I’m just mentioning, Terry Hatcher was…
Oh, sorry! I went to my happy place there for a minute. VOTE FOR LOIS AND CLARK! (Even if the S1 Jimmy was better for the part than his replacement.)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
Kind of a pity vote. I wasn’t a dedicated follower of either show, but what doesn’t grab me about The Avengers annoys me more.
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
8. Haven’t seen Farscape. I thought about casting a pity vote for Voyager, but I remembered that I turned savagely against it a half-dozen or so episodes in because it was leaning on the arbitrariness of the technobabble in ways that destroyed my enjoyment. I get that some amount of technobabble has to exist, but there were one too many instances of faux suspense about whether someone could Reverse The Polarity of one too many things in time.
Did I miss this?
How did I miss this?
If not, here goes….
FILE 770 LIVE-ACTION TV TOURNAMENT AND BRACKETS
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Life on Mars (9)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Doomwatch (12)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
The Middleman (13)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Lois and Clark (14)
Nope
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)
It was me.
I put Voyager into the brackets.
Hmm
Wen’t to look at the google doc thing, and the template I worked with only did the first two.
Is the rest of it somewhere I’m not looking?
If I don’t find it in time, the current lot would be:
Trailing Region – Round One
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
2. Life on Mars
3. Xena: Warrior Princess
4. Quantum Leap
5. Lois and Clark
6. The Avengers
7. Star Trek Enterprise
8. Farscape
But these are predictions, not my votes.
Now I have to go see where all this stuff is….
Bracketage:
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
I would have voted for this even if I didn’t kind of hate True Blood.
3. Xena: Warrior Princess
What Jim Henley said.
4.Quantum Leap
5. Lois and Clark
6. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
8. Star Trek Voyager
Red would hurt me if I didn’t vote for her.
@Lauowolf: The Google spreadsheet is wide. The Trailing and Rimward-region brackets are way to the right.
Ah, found them, filled them out, sent them in.
I gotta say, these brackets are turning Very Ugly very soon.
I’m laying in a supply of smelling salts and soothing music for the assorted round twos.
The matchup between Farscape and Star Trek: Voyager is an interesting one for me; although I’ve more often cited the Battlestar Galactica reboot as an example of a show doing right what I thought STV got wrong, I could have used Farscape just as easily (and I consider it the best show of the three overall.)
(To veer off on a tangent for a minute, the BSG/STV comparison is, I’ve just found out from poking around the web, perhaps no coincidence — possibly everyone here but me already knew this, but key BSG writer Ronald Moore worked on Voyager briefly and had the exact same problems with it that I did, e.g. from an interview with him: “[Voyager] was going to have problems. It wasn’t going to have unlimited sources of energy … That didn’t happen. It doesn’t happen at all, and it’s a lie to the audience … If it were true, the ship would not look spick-and-span every week, after all these battles it goes through. How many times has the bridge been destroyed? How many shuttlecrafts have vanished, and another one just comes out of the oven? … These people wouldn’t act like this … Wouldn’t they have to start not only bending Starfleet protocols, but throwing some of them right out the window? … You’ve got the Maquis onboard. From the get-go they are supposed to be the anti-Starfleet people. They behave exactly like the Starfleet people …” Not many years later, BSG comes out, with ships in crisis unable to make repairs and genuinely slowly falling apart, near-revolutions onboard in protest of the leadership, conflict between the military and non-military portions of those onboard …)
But Farscape another very good example of a show that takes some similar dynamics and gets them right. In the early days of Farscape, the crew of Moya is thrown together by circumstance and forced to work as a team … and they DO NOT LIKE each other. Really at all. Why should they? They don’t know each other well, most are criminals, one was one of their jailers, and one is a weird primitive on board by mistake. Zhaan is the only one who mostly gets along with everyone else. That dynamic changes only very, very slowly. It takes quite a while before the members of Moya learn to respect, like, and in some cases even fall in love with each other (and even when that happens, it seldom goes smoothly.) Even though season 1 of Farscape was rocky compared to the rest of the series, by the time they start going out on a limb for each other, it’s because they’ve earned that, through their actions and interactions.
This is quite a contrast to the “Welp, guess we’re all Starfleet now!” attitude of STV, which really makes little sense for the premise. It finally changes a little in season 4, when Seven of Nine shows up as a breath of fresh air, since for once there was a character willing to call out the fact that this is pretty much bullshit. But even that turned into “Seven of Nine learns a lesson about being human” more often than it really questioned “Why are we following the procedures of an organization none of us will ever live to see again which many of us never belonged to in the first place that requires us to follow the commands of a captain whose dumb decision got us trapped out here in the first place?”
Anyway, just my two cents.
In the public library, using public WiFi.
FILE 770 LIVE-ACTION TV TOURNAMENT AND BRACKETS
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Life on Mars (9)
Abstain
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Doomwatch (12)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
The Middleman (13)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Lois and Clark (14)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)
Now, off to apply Cally’s forehead cloths, and do some research.
@Jim Henley
Sorry for multiple sends.
Last bracket prediction 11:54? is final one.
1. ST:TOS
Watched when it was first on and my dad gave up the remote, well it was before remotes but you know
6. Avenger
Watched with my dad. I liked the SFish spy stories, he liked Diana Rigg
7. Wild Wild West
Was must see tv with the whole family
8. Farscape
Trailing Region – Round One
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
2. Life on Mars
3. Xena: Warrior Princess
4. Quantum Leap
5. Lois and Clark
6. The Avengers
7. Wild Wild West
8. Star Trek Voyager
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Trueblood (16)
Not even that big a fan of TOS, but I quit True Blood early in s3 and never looked back.
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Life on Mars (9)
The wonderful alterations of the credit sequence. Anna Torv playing Fauxlivia pretending to be Olivia and Oliva brainwashed into thinking she’s Fauxlivia in the same episode. John Noble everything.
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
The Middleman (13)
Ouch. Quantum Leap was a good show. But The Middleman is so fantastic and insanely on point.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
Google “Delilah Sarah Connor Chronicles” or the season 2 opener. Spectacular.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Star Trek Voyager (15)
Voyager had brief moments of glory. Not enough.
(3,5,7= all abstain, never seen any of them.)
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9) — The UK one. Otherwise abstain.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
If only for the “Man of La Mancha” episode.
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Abstain.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Lois and Clark (14). Not a huge fan of either option, but I prefer L&C.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6). Argh. Finally, a difficult choice. Emma Peel by a nose.
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7). No contest.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2). I would have picked ST:V over a lot of things on this list, but not over this.
1. Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. Fringe (8)
3. Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. The Middleman (13)
5. abstain
6. tie
7. Wild Wild West (7)
8. Star Trek Voyager (15)
Mark on October 29, 2015 at 1:24 am said:
Yup, and I bought it when it first came out. Mostly because of the author of course. Not her best work, but still quite entertaining.
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Good in spite of Shatner
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Doomwatch (12)
Very British, and some interesting approaches to issues.
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
Oh boy…
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
@Jim Henley
Well, if somebody who shall remain nameless hadn’t put it up against my second favourite science fiction show of all time I probably would have done! :p
(Also I just had a look at what Warehouse 13 and Due South are up against next region/this round. Argh!)
Bracket
1. Star Trek: The Original Series
2. Fringe
3. Xena: Warrior Princess
Got to be the awesome and fun Xena. Doomwatch was just too depressing.
4. Quantum Leap
5. Blake’s 7
If only for the cardboard cut out special effects.
6. The Avengers
Ah, Emma Peel and her catsuits. Pass the forehead cloths, it’s getting a bit warm in here.
7. Star Trek Enterprise
Don’t know why Trek fans are so down on this show – I liked it.
8. Farscape
Muppets in space!
> “Muppets in space!”
I must have been watching nothing but reality television for the past few decades.
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
Trailing Region – Round One
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Fringe (8)
Took a little thought but no forehead cloths.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
Doomwatch (12)
Abstain
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
He may not be expendable, and he’s certainly not stupid. But he did end up going after all.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (11)
Aaand now it’s forehead cloth time…
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
Cancelled just as it was starting to get good. But the finale really was an insult to the fans.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
This one is so lop-sided it isn’t even funny. Voyager had occasional moments of charm (Seven pulling the guts out of Chaotica’s robot while snapping “we are borg” springs to mind) Farscape just hit it out of the park. I could go on for ages about their gleeful sci-fi trope smashing but it is its emotional range that really sells it.
Right at the end of the three parter “Look at the Princess” there’s a scene between Aeryn and John where there is no dialog between them at all but they share more emotional interaction than there is in just about any single season of Voyager.
@Meredith:
I feel like Magneto right now.
@Jim Henley
Does that made me the Toad?
@Elisa
Got to agree on the “anything as a weapon” front. It was one of the things I liked most about Agent Carter too. Especially the stapler. And if all else fails she just hits them, really hard.
John Reese from Person of Interest is another of these combat pragmatists. Hitting someone on a motorbike with a fire extinguisher is going to hurt a lot…
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
Totally no contest here.
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
OK, this one took some thought, but I finally decided that Life on Mars was the more interesting and original of the two. Fringe was… just too close to being an X-Files rehash. Life on Mars went in an interesting direction.
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Doomwatch (12)
Never much cared for Xena. Doomwatch had its flaws, but also its strengths. Going to go with Doomwatch here.
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
Quantum Leap (4)
“Oh, boy”. Quantum Leap, possibly just out of nostalgia on my part.
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
Blake’s 7 was a superb piece of TV SF, and I will defend it while there is breath in my body. So there.
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
Nostalgia, again? Or just a deep appreciation for those utterly bizarre and often supremely witty stories? Or maybe just a deep appreciation of Diana Rigg in skin-tight leather? Whatever, I’m voting for The Avengers.
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Star Trek Enterprise (10)
Not the easiest, because I’m not that fond of either. But Wild Wild West is one I care about even less than I do about Enterprise.
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Besides, it’s not like Enterprise was actually the low point in the Trek franchise. Farscape in all its farty-muppetty goodness for me, please.
@Meredith:
Not in a bad way….
If people want good video reveiws of SF programming especially the Treks but also lots of other things too, check out SFDebris. Chuck does a great job and is informative and entertaining.
For the Trek episodes he has a trope list he has named and lets you know about at the end of each review(shuttle accidents get a Burn, baby. Burn.) along with the episode’s Stupid Neelix Moment (Troi and Wesley get most of them in TNG).
Chuck was hit by the close of Blip, but is back up and with a new message board so people can coomment and chat.
1. PON FARR AND FANGBANGERS IS THE NAME OF MY NEXT BAND
Star Trek: The Original Series (1)
2. TIME OUT OF JOINT
Life on Mars (9)
3. SCIENCE VS. FANTASY DEATHMATCH GO!
Xena: Warrior Princess (5)
4. SOMEONE GOES ON A JOURNEY. A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN.
The Middleman (13)
5. I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS ALIENS. BUT IT WAS ALIENS.
Blake’s 7 (3)
6. FEMMES FATALES AND JUST GENERALLY FATALES
The Avengers (6)
7. RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE THRILLING DAYS OF (RELATIVE) YESTERYEAR
Wild Wild West (7)
8. WHAT’S SPACE OPERA, DOC?
Farscape (2)
Voting will close in a little over an hour!