Pixel Scroll 4/9/22 Pixelscrollia As The Key Insight

(1) NEVER MIND. Roseanne Roseannadanna asks, “What’s all this I hear about Paramount walking back Spock’s canonical first name?” That’s what Collider says in an update to their post “Spock’s Full Name Revealed on Star Trek Strange New Worlds Poster”.

Update: We’ve been contacted by CBS Studios, and they’ve sent us a statement about our story:

“At Star Trek: Mission Chicago, we inadvertently displayed posters with Spock and M’Benga’s names that were incorrect. Sometimes when you work at warp speed, mistakes are made. While Spock and M’Benga do indeed have first names, they have yet to be revealed.”

Barbara Hambly, whose novel is the source of what was announced as Spock’s complete name, responded on Facebook:

Well, fooey. My 15 minutes of fame seems to have lasted about 18 hours. Evidently – so Randy Carter informs me on a comment to my post – Paramount has now walked back on that announcement and said that the poster was in error and they haven’t yet revealed Mr. Spock’s real name.

So it all remains to be seen. But it did make me smile.

But for one brief and shining moment, it was Camelot.

Meanwhile, discussion of Spock’s real name continues unabated in social media and has prompted several funny replies, like these two.

(2) ERUPTION IN BOOK BANNING. Publishers Weekly has details from the research: “PEN America Report Documents Massive Spike in Book Bans”.

Free speech defender PEN America this week released a new report that seeks to put numbers to the current wave of book banning across the nation. The report titled Banned in the USA: Rising School Book Bans Threaten Free Expression and Students’ First Amendment Rights includes an Index of School Book Bans, a spreadsheet that documents “the alarming spike in censorship of books in school districts across the country over the past nine months” with 1,586 book bans and restrictions in 86 school districts across 26 states, targeting some 1,145 unique book titles.

In its report, PEN also found that the vast majority of book bans, some 98%, did not adhere to established guidelines and best practices in place for challenging materials is school and on library shelves….

(3) PERFORMANCE ART. PW reported that a Congressional hearing on the same subject delivered a mixed bag: “Congress Investigates Book Banning in School”.

The U.S. House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties marked National Library Week this week by holding a three-hour hearing April 7 to discuss the recent spike in book bans in school classrooms and libraries across the country.

While the speakers were sincere in relating their personal experiences with book banning and its impact upon them as students, teachers, librarians, parents, the proceedings at times veered into political theater, with subcommittee members springboarding from book bans to Hunter Biden’s laptop, the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and subcommittee member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio)’s complaint that conservatives are victims of “cancel culture.”

After calling the meeting to order an hour late, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) provided a short history of court cases in the U.S. that addressed relevant First Amendment issues.

(4) LUCKY 13. “Mystery Science Theater 3000: Season 13 Exclusive Trailer and Release Date Announcement” at IGN.

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaignMystery Science Theater 3000 is returning for Season 13, and this time the MST3K crew are self-distributing new episodes via their own platform dubbed the Gizmoplex. New episodes premiere May 6-8, 2022.

… Returning for the next season are the Mads – Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day), loyal henchman Max (Patton Oswalt), and grandmother Pearl Forrester (Mary Jo Pehl) – as well as a few other familiar faces.

(5) JUDITH CHAPMAN (1948-2022). LASFSian Judith Chapman died April 4 reports the Orange County English Country Dance Facebook group. She is survived by her husband John.

(6) MEMORY LANE.

1955 [Item by Cat Eldridge.] Again tonight, I’m reaching back into early days of the genre in broadcast terms by talking about the television premiere of Science Fiction Theatre which sixty-seven years ago started off in syndication. It would end rather quickly two years later on the sixth of April with a total of seventy-eight episodes over the course of just two seasons. The first season was in color but to save money the second was not. 

It was the product of Hungarian born Iván Tors who had earlier done the Office of Scientific Investigation trilogy of SF films (The Magnetic Monster which recycled footage from a German horror film, Riders to the Storm and Gog which average twenty percent among audience reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes). He’s also responsible for Flipper and Flipper’s New Adventure which surely are genre adjacent, aren’t they?

Hosted by Truman Bradley, a radio and television announcer and a Forties film actor, its schtick, snd I use that Yiddish word in its fullest sense, was that they were doing a quasi-documentary series that what Ifs of modern science. Now mind they were to a great extent re-using the stories that had been earlier on Dimension X, so they were recycling existing stories. Or so say several sources.

The program never aired over a network. All seventy-eight twenty-six minute episodes were syndicated across the country in package deals of thirty nine episodes each with Bradley doing custom commercials for each market. If you watched it later on PBS, you got the entire episode, but when the Sci-fi channel broadcast them they were cut by five minutes to cram in more blipverts, errr, I mean advertisements.

(7) TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS.

[Compiled by Cat Eldridge.]

  • Born April 9, 1913 George F. Lowther. He was writer, producer, director in the earliest days of radio and television. He wrote scripts for both Captain Video and His Video Rangers and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.  You can see “The Birth of The Galaxy” which he scripted for the first show here as it is in the public domain. (Died 1975.)
  • Born April 9, 1921 Frankie Thomas. He was best remembered  for his starring role in Tom Corbett, Space Cadet which ran from 1950 to 1955. He had been slated as a special guest of L.A.con IV (2006) but died before the convention. Though definitely not genre or genre adjacent, he was in the Nancy Drew film franchise that ran in the late Thirties. (Died 2006.)
  • Born April 9, 1935 Avery Schreiber. He’s had a long history with genre fiction starting with Get Smart! and going from there to include More Wild Wild West!Fantasy IslandFaerie Tale Theatre: PinocchioShadow ChasersCavemanGalaxinaDracula: Dead and Loving ItAnimainiacs in which he voiced Beanie the Brain-Dead Bisonand, of course, The Muppet Show. (Died 2002.)
  • Born April 9, 1937 Marty Krofft, 85. Along with Sid, his brother, are a Canadian sibling team of television creators and puppeteers. Through Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, they have made numerous series including the superb H.R. Pufnstuf which I still remember fondly all these years later not to forget Sigmund and the Sea MonstersLand of the Lost and Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.
  • Born April 9, 1949 Stephen Hickman. Illustrator who did done over three hundred and fifty genre covers such as Manly Wade Wellman’s John the Balladeer and Nancy Springer’s Rowan Hood, Outlaw Girl of Sherwood Forest. His most widely known effort was his space fantasy postage stamps done for the U.S. Postal Service which won a Hugo for Best Original Art Work at ConAndian in 1994. (Died 2021.)
  • Born April 9, 1954 Dennis Quaid, 68. I’m reasonably sure that his first genre role (but as always I stand by to be cheerfully corrected if I’m wrong) was in Dreamscape as Alex Gardner followed immediately by the superb role of Willis Davidge in Enemy Mine followed by completing a trifecta with Innerspace and the character of Lt. Tuck Pendleton. And then there’s the sweet film of Dragonheart and him as Bowen. Anyone hear of The Day After Tomorrow in which he was Jack Hall? I hadn’t a clue about it.
  • Born April 9, 1955 Earl Terry Kemp. Author of The Anthem Series: A Guide to the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Weird Specialty Publishers of the Golden Age and The Anthem Series Companion: A Companion to The Guide to the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Weird Specialty Publishers of the Golden Age. He did publish several databases devoted to the same including The Golden Age of Pulps: SF Magazine Database: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror (1890-2009). No idea what happened to those after his passing. (Died 2020.)
  • Born April 9, 1972 Neve McIntosh, 50. During time of the Eleventh Doctor, She plays Alaya and Restac, two Silurian reptilian sisters who have been disturbed under the earth, one captured by humans and the other demanding vengeance. Her second appearance on Doctor Who is Madame Vastra in “A Good Man Goes to War”. Also a Silurian, she’s a Victorian crime fighter.  She’s back in the 2012 Christmas special, and in the episodes “The Crimson Horror” and “The Name of the Doctor”. She’s Madame Vastra, who along with her wife, Jenny Flint, and Strax, a former Sontaran warrior, who together form an private investigator team. Big Finish gave them their own line of audio adventures which I really should listen to soon. 

(8) COMICS SECTION.

  • xkcd turns this “Frankenstein Captcha” into a Gotcha.

(9) MAJOR LEAGUES. MLB.com noticed a fashion trend among pro ballplayers on opening day: “Xander Bogaerts wore Wolverine-inspired X-Men cleats” – see photos of the various comics and movie-inspired footwear at the link.

Xander Bogaerts, the Red Sox’s longest tenured player, has a pretty simple nickname: X-Man. When your first name starts with an X and you have enough talent to be considered a superhero, it just makes sense. So, for Opening Day against the Yankees on Friday, Bogaerts put on the most fitting cleats possible, even giving himself Wolverine-style claws.

…Bogaerts isn’t the only Red Sox player with some flashy feet, though. Christian Vazquez joined in with a pair of Toy Story cleats. He’s got one shoe for Woody and another for Buzz Lightyear. Sadly, Rex has been overlooked again.

(10) SHOW BIZ. Long before Virginia Gerstenfeld married Robert Heinlein, before she ever joined the Navy, she was part of a local Brooklyn drama troupe. If you’re curious, view this clipping from the Brooklyn Eagle’s 1939 profile of the Tophatters (located by Bill).

(11) JEOPARDY! On last night’s episode of Jeopardy!, reports Andrew Porter, a contestant may have confused Clark Kent with Philip José Farmer.

Category: What kind of place is this?

Answer: Smaller than it sounds, this Illinois place was designated “Home of Superman” in 1972

Wrong question: What is Peoria?

Right question: What is Metropolis?

(12) STINKERS. BuzzFeed lists “21 Laughably Bad Sci-Fi Films” – but you probably don’t need their help to come up with that many.

… I’ve assembled 21 of these out-of-this-world sci-fi duds with the “can’t look away” quality saved for the most laughably half-witted of the genre….

18. Solarbabies

This over-the-top post-apocalyptic film feels like a second-rate Mad Max with a group of rollerblading orphans, but has achieved newfound popularity as a long-lost “so-bad-it’s-good” gem.

(13) EATS, SHOOTS, AND LEAVES. The New York Times has a surprising example of new uses for warehouse space: “Vertical Farms Expand as Demand for Year-Round Produce Grows”.

The term vertical farm was popularized by Dickson Despommier, a professor emeritus of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. Vertical farming is expected to grow to $9.7 billion worldwide by 2026, from $3.1 billion in 2021, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com, a data analysis firm. Pitchbook, a financial data and software company in Seattle, tracked 33 deals worth nearly $960 million in 2021, up from $865 billion the year before and $484 million in 2019.

AppHarvest, a greenhouse grower, recently went public via a merger with Novus Capital. And in August, BrightFarms, another greenhouse operator, was acquired by Cox Enterprises in Atlanta.

Scientists caution that technology has limitations, with LED lights, sensors and operating systems adding to utility costs. “They don’t want to be warehouses, they want to be food production facilities,” Professor Giacomelli said. “And food production facilities have never had this kind of money.”

The money is creating demand for warehouse space. Kalera, a vertical farm company based in Orlando, Fla., harvests greens and culinary herbs there and in Houston and Atlanta. Farms in Denver, Seattle, Honolulu and St. Paul are opening later this year, and one in Columbus, Ohio, is planned for 2023. Farms are also open in Munich and Kuwait.

Details are hard to come by because the farms closely guard their intellectual property, growing system designs, material and structures….

(14) NOW ARRIVING AT THE I$$. In the Washington Post, Christian Davenport launched the first crew of private citizens towards the International Space Station, including three entrepreneurs who paid $55 million to secure their slots and Axiom Space vice-president Manuel Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut, as pilot. “SpaceX launches first all-private mission to International Space Station”.

… A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 11:17 a.m., carrying three wealthy entrepreneurs, each of whom paid $55 million for the mission, and a former NASA astronaut, who is serving as their guide. While private citizens have for years flown to the space station on Russian rockets, the mission — which was commissioned by Axiom Space, a Houston-based company — is the first all-private mission to the station. It also is the first time private citizens have flown to the station from American soil.

The international crew is composed of Larry Connor, the managing partner of an Ohio real estate group; Mark Pathy, the chief executive of a Canadian investment firm; Eytan Stibbe, a businessman and former Israeli Air Force Fighter pilot; and Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut who serves as an Axiom vice president. They are expected to reach the station Saturday at approximately 7:45 a.m. Eastern. They will spend eight days on the station before coming home in SpaceX’s autonomous Dragon spacecraft….

(15) HERE’S THE WAY THEY DO IT IN CHICAGO. Gizmodo tells us “Star Trek: Lower Decks’ First Season 3 Trailer Teases a Chaotic Kidnapping”.

… Revealed at this weekend’s Star Trek Mission Chicago, the first trailer for the new season shows our quartet of screw ups get ready to hijack their ship, which is noticeably missing its outer plating now that it’s been grounded….

(16) HOT ON THE TRAILER. Marcel The Shell With Shoes On comes to theaters on June 24.

[Thanks to Martin Morse Wooster, JJ, John King Tarpinian, Andrew Porter, Lise Andreasen, Bill, John Hertz, Larry Hansen, Michael Toman, Cat Eldridge, and Mike Kennedy for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Danny Sichel.]

14 thoughts on “Pixel Scroll 4/9/22 Pixelscrollia As The Key Insight

  1. (7) Thank you Marty Krofft for making my Saturday mornings weirder and more wonderful.

  2. I got to work for several years with Joy Mckenzie, nee Campbell, who was in several Krofft shows, beginning with HR Pufnstuff where she played Orson, Witchiepoo’s vulture henchman. She had wonderful stories about all the series, including Witchiepoo’s original wand, which was pewter, and was quite painful when struck by it. When Billie Hayes (Witchiepoo) learned this, she demanded a balsa wand. On the Bugaloos the producers told everyone “Martha Raye is very old Hollywood so everyone should address her as Miss Raye.” When Raye arrived on the set, she whistled loudly and yelled “Ok everyone, the name’s Maggie, and you’re all invited over to my home tonight for spaghetti!”

  3. (1) I thought his first name was Spock, and his family name is unpronounceable. Or possibly his first name is “Mr”.

    (5) Dang. Way too young.

  4. I had no idea Patton Osawlt was in Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

    That piece about Virginia Gerstenfeld Heinlein is a major find. Thanks, Bill!

  5. I’ve been having major fun in a Kroft tribute group on social media lately, enjoying old clips from Pufnstuff and the Bugaloos and Lidsville.

  6. 6) The Magnetic Monster and GOG are both tremendously fun films for their time, so that reflects poorly on the Rotten Tomatoes crowd I’d say.

  7. 2: Right! Who needs learnin’ in skuls when you can sit the kids right down in front of the Fox Learnin’ Channel all day and they can learn all about “stuff” like who to vote for and who to throw a rock at.
    “Captain’s gotta teach stuff!”

    10: “She’s a chemist – Honest!”
    Well, there go HER chances for matrimony. The whole piece reads like an advertisement for “Brooklyn Brides Want to Meet YOU!”. Virginia must have made the reporter jealous or something. And interesting that she plays an “innocent 16 year old wanting to be kissed”. Reminds me of one of Heinleins characters. Two of Heinlein’s characters. Three…

  8. Meredith Moment: The ebook version of Elizabeth Hand’s Winterlong Trilogy is available at Kindle and Apple Books for $2.99.

  9. I ordered another bromeliad, a Fireball Neoregelia, today as I found one that was really bright red in color. They thrive really well as do all houseplants here as my apartment as it’s really warm here, somewhere in the mid seventies all the time if not higher. And yes I like because my brain trauma caused me not to like cold at all.

  10. 12: What would I add to the list? Armageddon. My kids dragged me to it, and I managed to get out to the parking lot afterwards before I started screaming and ranting.

  11. but but but…. Everybody knows that Metropolis is in Delaware, not too far west of Gotham, which is in New Jersey.

    Given Ginny Heinlein’s charisma, I would have no trouble believing her in that part. One of those women far too beautiful to be approached, even if she had not been Heinlein’s wife. I mean, can you even imagine suggesting a kiss with Kathryn Hepburn? But I did get to dance with her. Er, Ginny, not Kathryn…

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