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The Cyberspace Vanguard 2.3
Copyright 1994, Cyberspace Vanguard Magazine
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| C Y B E R S P A C E |
| V A N G U A R D |
| News and Views of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Universe |
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| cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu Cyberspace Vanguard@1:157/564 |
| PO Box 25704, Garfield Hts., OH 44125 USA |
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| TJ Goldstein, Editor Sarah Alexander, Administrator |
| tlg4@po.cwru.edu aa746@po.cwru.edu |
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Volume 2 August 15, 1994 Issue 3
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
--!1!-- Ramblings of a Deranged Editor (and a few deranged readers ...)
--!2!-- Riding off Into a Strange Kind of Sunset: Bruce Campbell
--!3!-- Keeping the Peace on BABYLON 5: Jerry Doyle
--!4!-- What IS a Cinematographer, Anyway? (Steven Poster, A.S.C.)
--!5!-- Reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper/Mini Reviews
--!6!-- The Infamous Reply Cards and What You Said
--!7!-- Shoelaces of Truth: The News, The Whole News, and Nothing but the
News
--!8!-- Spoilers Ahoy! (And season 3 of the TWILIGHT ZONE Episode Guide)
--!9!-- Contests and Awards -- Including Freebies (Cleveland, OH)
--!10!-- Conventions and Readings
--!11!-- Publications, Lists and the like
--!12!-- Administrivia
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REPOSTING information: This ASCII version of CYBERSPACE VANGUARD may be
reposted IN ITS ENTIRETY anywhere and everywhere without further
permission, but we would appreciate knowing where it's going so we can keep
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All rights revert to the authors upon publication, however, so we insist on
being contacted for permission to repost individual articles. News items
may be reposted without further permission, but must include our contact
information. CYBERSPACE VANGUARD: News and Views of the Science Fiction
and Fantasy Universe is registered with the United States Copyright Office.
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--!1!-- Ramblings of a Deranged Editor (and a few deranged readers ...)
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by TJ Goldstein
Well, I'll be honest with y'all. I've never been so terrified in my
whole life. I suppose it's justified. After all, what we're about to do
is no small thing.
So, you may ask -- go ahead, ask! -- just what IS it that we're
planning on doing?
Some of you have made close guesses. For over a year, we've been
splashing text over networks, BBS's, and screens all over the world. Now
we're ready to move on the the next step. And, as Bugs Bunny would say,
that first step's a doozy.
Oh, no the paper version. That goes without saying and of course I
hope it goes well.
No, I'm talking about the other half of the plan. Science fiction has
always dealt with the cutting edge, and we deal with sf. So how can we
stay with the "traditional" forms of publishing?
No, CYBERSPACE VANGUARD is expanding into interactive multimedia.
That's right, graphics, music, animation on a CD-rom for something less
than an arm and a leg apiece. You won't just read the interviews, you'll
hear them. And when YOU want to. We've put together a small draft demo
for you to look at and comment on. It'll be available at the usual archive
site, etext.archive.umich.edu. There'll be more info on it at the end in
Administrivia.
But we're NOT leaving the net. This thing was founded with the idea
that the fans should have a voice that's really theirs, and we're not
forgetting that, so there was one more thing I wanted to mention.
As I said, this is YOUR magazine too. So, we've decided to give a
FREE subscription to anyone who persuades their local bookstore, comic
shop, etc, to carry it.
And ... well, I could go on for quite a while after having it bottled
up for so long, but let me just say this: we want to make the first issue
something really special. In Administrivia we've included a list of all
our past interviews. What were your favorites? What would you consider
the "best of" CV?
And what special interviews or articles would you like to see in the
first issue? Let us know. Don't worry if you think it's too much of a
long shot. Getting THIS far's been a long shot! Anything's possible!
And so, as we get ready for all this, we put out another summer mini-
issue. This time we've got Bruce Campbell, star of the recently deceased
ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY, JR. and the EVIL DEAD movies, a reprint of the
interview with Jerry Doyle of BABYLON 5 for those who missed the last
Extra, and an interview with Steven Poster, A.S.C., who is the Director of
Phography for the upcoming Shotime film ROSWELL and who also worked on
BLADERUNNER and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. He's also involved in
the technical battles over HDTV.
Some of the usuals aren't in this issue, but they'll of course be back
starting next issue, along with some new features. One of those new
features are promotions in the Contests and Awards sections. We've managed
to wangle some free tickets to the Cleveland area preview of Universal's
TIMECOP, a tradition we'd like to continue. And, of course, there's the
usual news, reviews, and feedback.
And speaking of feedback ...
TO FICTION OR NOT TO FICTION ...
"Puh-LEEZ don't put fiction into CYBERSPACE VANGUARD! Fan fiction is
99% crud. (Of course, ALL fiction is 99% crud, but the 99% of fan fiction
is worse than the 99% of professional fiction ;-).) Unless you're willing
to actively solicit stuff from the known good authors and spend a *lot* of
time sorting out the wheat from the chaff, you'll have a tough time coming
up with anything halfway decent.
"CV is a great news-and-reviews magazine that's just now beginning to
fulfill its potential. I can't imagine any way to add fiction to it
without causing its current strengths to suffer from lack of time or
space. Please don't do this!"
- David D. Levine, Intel Supercomputer Systems Division
davidl@ssd.intel.com
TRAVELLING THE CYBER-HIGHWAY WITH WILLIAM GIBSON
[In the last issue, William Gibson asked reporter Marisa Golini where she
got her hard copy of AGRIPPA, the mysterious vanishing text. She replied
"It's still on the Internet...just ask and you shall receive!"]
"So, I'm asking, how can I get a copy of AGRIPPA? Can you send one to me
via e-mail?"
Michael Cook
MLC@IBERIA.CCA.CR.ROCKWELL.COM
[Editor's Note -- AGRIPPA is available by anonymous FTP from
english-server.hss.cmu.edu in the file /English Server/Fiction/Gibson-
Agrippa. Mr. Gibson has expressed delight that it is still available in
more than one interview. CV will email a copy upon request, but please,
only if you can't get it any other way.]
BACK ISSUES ...
"I've just gotten your subscriber notice. I was wondering if there was
anyway to get past issues. Can you mail them to me, or is there a specific
host where I can go to get past issues? Thanks."
The Stoner
mxs7265@hertz.njit.edu
[Editor's Note: The official archive site for CV is
etext.archive.umich.edu, but a search around gopherspace will turn it up in
various places. They all, however, seem to stop with May of 1993. We'd
love to correct the situation, but have not been able to locate the actual
sitenames. If you find a site that is out of date, please let us know so
we can take care of it, or let the maintainer know where they can get the
rest of the issues. Thanks!]
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--!2!-- Riding off Into a Strange Kind of Sunset: Bruce Campbell
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by TJ Goldstein
[Editor's note: A multimedia version of this article is available for
Macintosh. Check etext.archive.umich.edu or write to
cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu for more details. ---- TJ]
One of the great things about the information revolution is that the
people about whom fans talk are more and more often talking back to them.
For instance, when ARMY OF DARKNESS hit the theaters last year, the star,
Bruce Campbell, did a promotion with the online service Prodigy, answering
questions. "I had a secret password that got me in, and it allowed me to
fiddle around for about 30 days after the interview, so I could watch the
responses and plug in cryptic messages saying 'Oh yeah? This is what
really happened.' You know. And then just sign off and they'll know it
was me because it was this special thing. Then I kind of went away like
the phantom after 30 days. I don't know, it's just very fun."
At the time all that was going on, though, there was something else
going on in his life. For the past several years he had been auditioning
for TV roles without success. "So I figured it must be me or television or
something. And I started to lose all enthusiasm for television whatsoever.
I thought, well, ok, fine. Let's face it. TV sucks. So I started to
phase out the whole TV auditions and stuff and I got very involved in ARMY
OF DARKNESS, and never thought about TV. Then after it was over, I get
whiff that there's this cool western pilot that Fox is doing. And Fox has
always been known for their edginess, and kind of being hip and cool and
new, and I thought, 'well, that's a good sign.' Then I found out that
Jeffrey Boam was one of the people involved in creating it, and he comes
from features. So I felt a kind of kindred relationship there, because
that was my background - action, adventure, carnage, mayhem, that sort of
thing."
So he auditioned. Six times. "You see, you go up the food chain.
You have to start at the casting guy and go up from there, all the way up
to the network, and there are five stops in between." In the end, of
course, he got the role and literally made it his. But how much of Brisco
comes straight from Bruce Campbell?
"Well, you know, what happens is that it becomes an adaptive process.
If you look at the pilot, it's probably less me, but if you look at the
show now it's probably more me. Because after a while the writers hear
that I'll change dialogue -- not extensively -- but I'll change phrases or
such so that it's how I would say it. Or if something is clunky, you have
to work it out, because you have to say it. Then the writers see that, and
they focus on the stuff that you're good at, and they stay away from the
stuff that they think you're not as good at, and they finally wind up
adapting to what you're all about. There's a lot of stuff abut Brisco
that I'd LIKE to say is me. I don't want to tick off a list, but the
important thing is that I try to make him as likeable and interesting as I
can because you run a risk of being a hero but putting everybody to sleep.
It's really the bad guys who are interesting. So hopefully, we're trying
to combat that by making him a smart guy, by giving him a sense of humor."
One of the ways they tried to do that is to give him quite a range of
things to do. Though the show has ridden off into the sunset, they've
already done quite a bit.
"I've laughed, I've cried, I've died in my friend's arms, he's died in
my arms ... you don't always get to do that in the course of ONE feature.
On a TV show, hopefully if it's ambitious, you get to do everything, and
that's great.
"I wouldn't mind more of seeing the character with his hair down.
They work for the government now. I've always wanted to do an episode
where they go on a two-week paid vacation. So Bowler and Brisco go
fishing. You get to learn a lot about them, and of course they come across
something ... the most ridiculous plot, out in the woods, and their
vacation is screwed, but for that first 10 minutes, you get to do fishing
gags, leisure gags, talking about paid vacations ... it's a new dimension,
but you're stuck with those characters. You HAVE to like them, or you can
have the biggest action scenes, the best directors, the best writing, but
if you don't like these guys, you're going to watch FAMILY MATTERS."
Now that the decision not to renew the show has been made, he is free
to move on to his film THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN, which had found
solid financial footing but had to be put on hold while BRISCO was up in
the air.
"Contractually, if Warner Bros calls, I have to answer. And I didn't
want to be in the middle of shooting and get my 30 days' notice. And on a
film that I have to direct. Who's going to edit, who's going to do the
sound, when is all THAT going to happen. I felt it was ultimately a little
irresponsible, so I backed out. I told them to wait. If the show doesn't
get picked up, I'm your man. I'm very available." Well, he'd better be,
since he not only wrote it and plans to direct, he stars in the picture,
which he is also producing.
"See, now, that's the world that I came from. Back in Michigan, I did
two great movies with my friends and everyone did everything. So I never
got into this regimented 'Oh, you're just an actor' or 'Oh, you're just a
director.' And I don't like believing in that anyway. I think you're just
a person. I think the entertainment business should show a broad range,
and frankly, I like a mixed bag because it keeps things interesting. A few
years ago I just ran off and produced this low budget movie in Michigan and
it was the best time I ever had. I had a little tiny part in it. I really
didn't act, I just hands-on produced it and it was wonderful." The film,
LUNATICS: A LOVE STORY, is out on video, but is apparently difficult to
lay hands on. One of the stars is Ted Raimi, currently of SEAQUEST and
brother to director/producer/effects wizard and Mr. Campbell's movie-making
partner, Sam Raimi.
Mr. Campbell has done lots of straight-to-video films, such as
MINDWARP, MOONTRAP, MANIAC COP -- "all these lovely family films." In
fact, much of his early film history is on video -- privately, including a
short he and Sam Raimi made called WITHIN THE WOODS.
"I've got all our Super-8 movies on video. We did at least 50 of
them. I've got hours and hours and hours of these Super-8 movies we did.
But they're just experimental. They're not really for mass consumption.
The only interesting thing about WITHIN THE WOODS is that that's the tool
that we used to raise money for the first EVIL DEAD movie. So it had
historical value. Later on we lifted an entire sequence directly out of
that Super-8 movie." There's no legal copy of it, but he'll tell you that
"I'm sure it's out on bootleg." It's a sore spot.
"It means somewhere along the line, either a guy in transfer or a guy
in the editing department, or a guy in the post-production sound
department, or a guy in the office, or his buddy, got a hold of it for like
2 hours, duped it, and then sent it somwhere else, where they were supposed
to. It just kind of gives you an uneasy feeling when you can trust the
people who are working for you. It's so funny. Steven Spielberg is just
SO secretive. He's the only one who can guard against bootlegging because
every video copy that he makes, he puts your initials on it. So if it
shows up somewhere in the future, he knows where it came from. And he'll
come and take your firstborn. But we're just two fellas trying to make a
movie. We don't have a 60 million dollar budget. We can't do all that
very expensive, time-consuming stuff."
So far he's been in every one of Sam Raimi's films, including the
upcoming THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, with Sharon Stone. "I was just going to
come and hang with him on the set. I wanted to see his big shot movie
being made, and he says 'C'mere, put this on.'" He plays a scumbag hitting
on a girl. But he's best known as Ash in the EVIL DEAD movies, which have
been described as "horror movies for people who like 'The Three Stooges'."
"Exactly. It's like, if Moe really did poke Larry in the eye, what
would happen? Kind of like that." Well, what would probably happen is
that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) would refuse to give
it a rating. That's what happened to EVIL DEAD, which was a cult success,
but wasn't widely seen. As a result, there is much debate over whether
EVIL DEAD 2 is a sequel or a remake. "Well, I don't know WHAT it is. It's
very different, though. It's a wild film. SPIN magazine gave it it's
first #1 rating ever because it's just so bizarre. Totally bizarre movie."
There is also talk that some scenes were cut from ED2 because of excessive
violence.
"No. It's not true. We did our own censorship on it. Because EVIL
DEAD had no rating, we were contractually obligated to Dino di Laurentis to
deliver an R-rated movie. And while we shot it, we used every different
color bile than blood red. We used black, we used beautiful turquoises, we
used bright greens, everything in hopes of saying 'look, this is just a
movie, folks.' A lot of dismemberment scenes we did in silhouette. It's
not a graphically violent movie. It's horribly violent. There's no doubt
about that. It's not for the squeamish. We did our own editing on it
but then the ratings board said 'I'm sorry, no. Non-rated on this one
too.'"
There were similar controversies over EVIL DEAD 3: ARMY OF DARKNESS.
The ending was changed, and the original has not and will not be released
on video. "It's out on bootleg. I mean, I was at a convention and someone
said, 'Hey, why'd you change the ending? I liked the original one.' I
said 'Oh yeah? Where'd you get THAT?' I've even refused to sign some of
them that people have given me, not to be mean, but because that's not the
sanctioned version. They say 'Director's Cut,' yeah, but it still is a
bootleg copy and I'm not sure that we would have released that copy if we
had had more time to fiddle with it. That was our cut, yes. The 96 minute
version of ARMY OF DARKNESS was, but we still worked with the studio when
they cut it down. It wasn't just them.
"I feel that it's just as appropriate shorter. And let's face it:
how can you sit and argue with an executive in an impassioned plea, 'no,
we've GOT to have the shot where the skeleton's head gets crushed! It's
important!' When you sit down and you argue with these guys, you realize,
well, OK, it's no big deal. You can have three shots of skeletons blowing
up or ten. Some kids would probably like ten, but three's not that much
different than ten. It's just shorter to handle. And it helps the
viewing. It helps the audience participation if it's easier to stomach.
At least that's just my feeling. I saw the 96-minute version play in
Spain, and it turned people into jello because it just kept coming in waves
and waves. It's like we beat them up for seven reels and then the battle
began. We cut ten minutes of battle out because people couldn't handle
it. They had sensory overload.
"These things are always funny. I keep hearing 'How come on the
laser version there aren't all the missing scenes?' Well, there's sort of
a reason why."
So now Mr. Campbell is free to move on to THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING
BRAIN. While Fox was deliberating BRISCO's future, he waxed philosophical
about it.
"You know what, at the end of the day, if they don't pick up the show,
I can still look everyone in the eye because we really killed ourselves.
We're not there just sloughing through it, we're actually attempting to do
fun, old-fashioned kind of entertainment, but still with a modern twist to
it. What else can you do? I'm not going to beat myself up if they don't
pick up the show. I'll be confused. But I won't put my head through a
wall."
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--!3!-- Keeping the Peace on BABYLON 5: Jerry Doyle
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by TJ Goldstein
On the outside, it doesn't look like security chief Michael Garibaldi
has too much in common with Jerry Doyle, the actor who plays him on BABYLON
5. Mr. Doyle has had acting success in a relatively short period of time,
is a hyper-busy person but thinks that "there's nothing better on a Sunday
than blowing off a day of your life watching football," has graduated from
flight school, has flown and sold business jets, and has spent nine years
as "one of those illustrious investment bankers" on Wall Street. "It seems
like we were acting then too. 'This is good for you, do it. Come on, it's
the best thing.'"
Mr. Garibaldi, on the other hand, has a different history. "They've
flawed him about as much as you can," Mr. Doyle told CV by phone during a
break in filming as the cast and crew finished up for the season. "They've
fired him three or four times. There's so many you can't keep track.
You'd think they'd *know.* He has relationship problems, he's an
alcoholic, always getting in fights, getting beat up, beating people up,
throwing stuff, he just tells everybody off, he's irreverent, cynical ...
you know, he's a very cool character to play."
Not that he knew all that when he took the role. "I didn't get a lot
of the backstory, like the relationships and the alcohol and all that.
Just from the writing style and the situations and the way that he reacted
to them I could see that he was kind of a twisted individual."
Now, as the first season wraps up filming, he doesn't know much more.
"I haven't read the bible, the 5-year plan, the arc for the show and the
characters. I like getting a new script every couple of weeks and kind of
seeing what's happening and going 'wow, that's cool, all right! That's
exciting.' So I just told the head writers, Joe Straczynski and Larry
Ditillio, that I love what they're doing with the character, no input from
me is required, just keep doing what you're doing. It's great, so why
change it?"
For many people, Garibaldi's checkered background that drew them to
the show in the very beginning, when series creator Straczynski (pronounced
Stra-ZIN-ski) was trying to drum up support and teasing people with
glimpses of things to come. Promises he made about Garibaldi's past are
kept in the upcoming episode called "Survivors."
"Well, pretty much by the title I think says a lot about the
character," Mr. Doyle says. "He's a survivor. Past life situations come
back to haunt him, and he's put in a situation of not only dealing with a
relationship -- not a love relationship, it's a past relationship with a
friend of mine's daughter whose father was killed in a tragic accident that
they blamed on me. And whether she believed it or not ... we had to
rectify that situation. Plus, you've got losing your job, getting
suspended, dealing with her, trying to convince people that you're not who
they say you are. It's basically about surviving this period when it all
seems to go wrong at once. It's a fairly physical script, there's a lot of
fights. I think I get the snot beat out of me ... one guy once, two guys
the next time, three guys the next time ... I feel like it's the WWF.
You're going in the ring and there's like 19 people there. It's like the
survivor series or something like that. I thought the script was very
good. I had a lot of fun shooting it with director Jim Johnston.
Hopefully my performance is equal to the script because I think there was a
lot of great stuff in there."
But while JMS talked about Garibaldi changing as a result of the
experience, Mr. Doyle has doubts. "I'm not sure he ever really changes,
but the character tends to become more and more enlightened. And in
some scripts he'll put the wall up higher and higher and thicker and
thicker and in others a brick or two will come down, but Garibaldi tends
to keep things and people and situations at a distance and not let them
get too close. It's a great way to avoid being hurt. It's the old
saying: would you rather hurt or be hurt. Garibaldi tends to choose to
hurt rather than be hurt. He's always dancing, chucking, jiving,
hey-hey-hey-hey-hey, but pretty much keeping people and things at a
distance." Of course, that's not to say that Garibaldi never gets the
girl. Later this season he'll have to deal with past choices in the
romance department when a past girlfriend is caught in the flare-up of
war on the Mars colony, trying to decide if he made the right decision
in leaving her to take his current position.
It's not as serious as it sounds, though. "Somebody asked me what
acting was like compared to working on Wall Street and I said this was like
a 3-year vacation with a couple of rainy days. This is just way more fun.
You go in in the morning, somebody makes you up, and does your hair, and
feeds you. And I'm not making these words up. Somebody tells me what to
say, how to say it, where to stand, the editors make you look good -- or as
good as you possibly can, they tell you what time to be back the next day,
and they pay you. Not a bad gig. Plus in this business if you're at a
movie and you don't like what I do, I can give you $7.50 and tell you to
shut up. On Wall Street, I'm not givin' you back 50 million dollars.
Sorry. You're out of luck. Next!"
Plus, there is already a "gag reel" for the show, including an
incident that occurred during the episode "Parliament of Dreams," where
Garibaldi is supposed to search the quarters of Narn Ambassador G'Kar,
played by Andreas Katsulas, for evidence in a murder. He finds a pair of
pink panties, and when he asks G'Kar if they're his, the Ambassador tells
him to get out. At least, that's what finally made it to the small screen.
Originally it went a little differently. "I said 'Are these yours?' and he
said 'No, your momma's.' So I stretched them as far as I could and said
'No, THIS is more like my momma's.' And then he said something back and
then 'Oh, get out of here.' So I said 'I would, but I'm feeling strangely
stimulated.' So he said 'Would you care to tango?' We have a lot of great
moments that don't hit the air."
So with situations that lend themselves to such silliness, how does he
get serious when he needs to? "Mmm ... I just think about getting fired,
and I'm right there. 'Time to do what we paid you to ...'"
Long before the show even hit the air, Joe Straczynski teased
net.users with the statement "Today was pajama day. Don't ask." It is
apparently not unusual for things ... out of the ordinary to go on. "You
have to have fun on the set. We're there 12, 14 hours a day, sometimes
it's hot, ticky-tack camera setups that take a long time, but when you're
spending that much time in one place with that many people, you have to
have fun. There's only so much you can talk about as it relates to the
show or acting, or whatever. So we try and make it as enjoyable an
experience as possible on the set and I think that that transforms itself
into what you see on screen. When everybody's loose and grooving and
having a good time, hopefully it shows up on screen. Every Friday we have
a day where we do something silly, like 'Not matching shoe day' or 'Pajama
day' or 'Trashy lingerie day.' I think last Friday was 'Wear as many
pieces of clothing with shows that you've worked on before day.' So you
have the QUANTUM LEAP pants, and the MURDER SHE WROTE t-shirt, and
the crew jacket for MAGNUM on top of that, with the hat from SNEAKERS ...
it's the ultimate in logo display."
But "logo display" is not Jerry Doyle's thing. "What's the deal with
wearing everybody's name on the outside? I don't get it. They want you to
have a picture of the President for fifty bucks or a hundred bucks. And
I'm saying to myself, does he have a picture of me on his desk? Until he
does, I'm not interested in having him on MY desk."
If you're beginning to get the idea that he might be a little bit
cynical, you're wrong. He's a LOT cynical. "I've met a lot of different
people in a lot of different positions in various companies, not only in
this country, but around the world. And it's amazing. They have an
ability to shake your hand while they're sticking the knife in your back at
the same time. And they'll do it in such a nice way that you smile while
you're bleeding to death."
He coughs and lights up a cigarette. "You have to empower yourself.
Everybody lives under this thinking that there's a certain formula, or a
certain way of living that you have to live, a certain road map that you
have to follow, and I just don't buy into it. My dad was a cop, and he
died when he was forty-one and I was eleven. Now when you're eleven,
forty-one is ancient. But when you're thirty-seven, forty-one is around
the
corner. And I decided when I go out, I'm going kicking and screaming,
doing exactly what I want to do, and my last check's gonna bounce. That's
the philosophy. That's what I've decided to do."
But while he talks tough, he's not unapproachable. Asked the reader-
submitted question "Is he aware that he will soon have droves of screaming
sci-fi geek-chicks running after him," he said "Cool. I look at it this
way. I came into this business because I wanted to. Nobody invited me.
No one said, 'hey, we really want you to quit what you're doing and come to
LA and get on TV.' So what we do lends itself to introducing ourselves to
the public. And the public, they are the ones who keep the show on the
air."
But in a genre that has become lulled by the pacifist philosophy of
Gene Roddenberry's STAR TREK, B5 sometimes hits hard, causing some people
to accuse the show of appealing to the "lowest common denominator" in
television audiences. It doesn't seem to be an opinion Mr. Doyle shares.
"I've gotten feedback from doctors, and heads of corporations, and brokers
and traders, and truck drivers, engineers and computer guys that dig the
show. I don't think there's one constant demographic that this show is in
tune with... I think we've done a good job of addressing relationships, the
power structure, we can take a look at modern day events and really put
things in a futurist tone. What do you do with career criminals? What do
you do with murderers? What's the penal system like, what's the medical
system like? Is there a welfare system? All these things come out in kind
of weird ways because looking at it from my standpoint, the world is just
as trashed in 2258 as it is today. You'd think we'd get something right.
I mean, we still eat meatloaf, which isn't a bad thing but ... We still
have the same problems and situations, the same upheavals and backstabbing
and conniving and wheeling and dealing that you have today. We deal with
issues of prejudice. And now it's not necessarily Earther against Erther.
It's pro-Earth versus anti-Mars or things like that. In the year 2258
we're still pretty wacky."
His philosophy on the crux of the matter can probably be summed up by
an answer he once gave a convention-goer who asked him he if thought
science fiction fans were geeks. He pointed out that the chairman of IBM
can drive down the road at 2 a.m. on Halloween with an arrow through his
head and it's considered normal. "Forget about it. Do what you want to
do, and have fun with it. That's what it's all about. If we have fun
making it, and you have fun watching it, then we all have fun, and what the
hell else is there?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!4!-- What IS a Cinematographer, Anyway? (Steven Poster, A.S.C.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ask 100 people coming out of the average movie theater what a
"cinematographer" does, and chances are you'll be lucky if 5 of them can
tell you. And four of them will probably have only a vague idea.
It's surprising, considering that the cinematographer, also called
the "Director of Photography," is the person responsible for making sure
that what is in the Director's mind is what finally makes it to the
screen. He (or she) supervises camera angles and lighting and works
with the director to establish a "style."
Steven Poster is one of those exceptional cinematographers who
belong to the American Society of Cinematographers, entitling him to
place the coveted "A.S.C." after his name. You can catch his work on
cable in the movie ROSWELL, directed by his friend Jeremy Kagan.
ROSWELL is a film based on the book THE ROSWELL INCIDENT by Charles
Berlitz and William L. Moore, which chronicles the events surrounding an
alleged UFO landing at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947.
"Every event in the movie is corroborated by at least two signed
affidavits of people who were interviewed for the book. So with this
film, we're not saying 'this is real, this exists, this is what
happened.' What we're doing is we're showing, from various people's
points of view, what they experienced."
Accuracy wasn't the only challenge of this film. It is a "frame"
story, centering around Major Jesse Marcel, the first man called to the
scene, retuning to a base reunion in 1977. "Jesse Marcel was
discredited for talking about this publicly, and never knew really what
went on, because he was taken out of the loop so early in the game.
"Probably the greatest challenge was developing the styles and
carrying them out so that they were on one hand subtle enough to not be
glaring. -- you know, 'Bang, this is a new style -- but also different
enough to be able to give the audience the perception that this was
somebody else's point of view. It's kind of a delicate balance. The
thing that Jeremy is great at is carrying these out through the
performance and the staging. So I was able to develop the ideas and
work with him on it and come to a consensus so that we could then work
as you have to on the set -- almost automatically."
But Poster is no stranger to challenges, or to UFO's. ROSWELL is a
tiny film compared to some of his past work, such as BLADERUNNER and
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.
"Oh God it was like a gift. It was wonderful. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
was like doing a masters thesis for me. I was the Second Unit Director
of Photography. I was there for fourteen weeks, working on the set
closely with Phil Sigmond the cinematographer and Steven [Spielberg].
"I was very young at the time and got to play in different
playgrounds that I had never been able to experience before. I mean it
was one of the largest movies ever made. It was definitely the largest
movie ever made at the time. I had a lot of time on my hands during
that work so I really got to spend time with the special effects
department, with the visual effects department, with all the various
departments and learn a tremendous about what was going to be my
profession.
"It was a fascinating summer. We all kind of expected all summer
to see a real UFO. Nothing like that ever happened [but] we were all
anticipating, we were all there ready for the experience. So it was
quite a wonderful summer of just learning and being involved with the
genre that I was very much fascinated by, from the time I was ten."
"BLADE RUNNER was different. I was there for about three or four
weeks. I was brought in towards the end to do one shot and managed to
accomplish that shot in a way that caught [director] Ridley [Scott]'s
eye and he decided to keep me on and gave me a lot more to do. So I
consequently did. While they were doing the major effects sequences,
which meant that they would be doing one or two or three setups a day,
Ridley and I would run off to other sets and do complete scenes with a
small unit. So that was quite fun."
These days, Poster also has other important events on his mind.
Head of the A.S.C.'s committee formed to educate the United States
congress about High Definition Television (HDTV), he has his hands full.
"I've been involved in digital both on a practical level and a
political level for quite some time now. As you know the government is
now making choices for what HDTV is going to be. We have been presented
with a standard that's being chosen at this very moment that was chosen
by the engineers. So there's this digital and technical standard that's
being dictated to us by engineers and by the manufacturers of video
equipment, most of which are Japanese. So recently the American Society
of Cinematographers got involved in making some recommendations on how
we feel the visual presentation of material on television should be
handled. We were never asked to be involved and so after all this
development was done we finally came out and said we can't in all good
consciencness let this go on without making a statement about it. So we
have gotten involved politically in the development of HDTV.
"It's one of my pet projects. I'm the chairmen of this ad hoc
committee that we have that's making these recommendations. What we're
recommending is progressive versus inlaid scan, which means that we'd
rather have the kind of display that goes on a computer than goes on a
television. That's entirely possible. We're also recommending the
aspect ratio -- the size and shape of the frame -- which was chosen as
what they call 16 x 9 ratio. We wanted it to be a two to one ratio
that would fit the motion picture standards that have existed for forty
years now.
"Of course, there's a big fight going on with this right now. They
don't want to hear that in fact it is technically possible to do
everything we are saying we feel is better for the public. There saying
'Oh but we spent so much money developing this.' Well, there is no
American company that has spent money, it's all Japanese companies.
And it's all Americans working fo Japanese companies that are trying to
push this forward without any involvement in the artistic community.
"We already have had some success, and the government has paid some
attention to us because they realize what we're saying is better for the
people than what the Japanese are saying. You know there have been
certain factions of this country that have been in bed with the
manufactures for a long time and they don't want us to say these things.
It's our position we have to, because it's so important. We are going
to be stuck with a mediocre standard for twenty years if we don't, when
in fact the new technology is coming so quickly and it can be flexible.
If we accept their standards it won't be flexible."
And as for the Information Super Highway... "you have to
understand, it's really a bunch of media hype. First of all who cares
if there is five hundred channels if there's no good material on them to
watch. If you got a thousand people together and said 'OK all you
people who want bigger and better TV, raise your hands', and 'all you
people who want better programming raise your hands'. I think you'd see
a thousand people raise there hands for better programming. Who cares
if there's five hundred channels. I think the public should be aware
what's put forward about all of this and take it all with a grain of
salt. I think we're being sold a bill of goods. Fortunately the
Clinton government and Al Gore particularly and people like Ed Markey
are very much in tune with this. And if they get the right information
they will make the right decisions. But its very important for them to
get the right information and that's what we're trying to do."
ROSWELL began airing on cable beginning July 31, 1994. You can also
catch his work in the film for which he was nominated for an American
Society of Cinematographer's Award, Ridley Scott's SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER
ME.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!7!-- Mini-Reviews
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
TONGUING THE ZEITGEIST by Lance Olsen
Permeable Press, (bcclark@igc.apc.org) ISBN 1-882633-04-0
review by TJ Goldstein
It's probably a good thing that I had asked for a reviewer's copy
of this book BEFORE I read the sample chapter posted on-line. With only
one typeface, it seemed a bit too weird for me. But with the more
esoteric passages identified as song lyrics, it became tolerably
strange. It's a wild ride through a possible future that seems all too
possible in a present where image is everything. Some passages are a
bit explicit, but Olsen has produced an enthralling piece of work.
SUMMER OF LOVE by Lisa Mason
Bantam/Spectra, ISBN 0-553-37330-7
review by TJ Goldstein
It starts slowly and drags a little in the middle, but it's worth
sticking it out. A time traveling classic we-have-to-save-one-
seemingly-insignficant-person-in-the-middle-of-major-events-in-order-to-
save-hstory-as-we-know-it plot with an overused ending, but Mason makes
it worth the ride. The setting is the Haight-Ashbury during the summer
of 1967 (hence the title) and it is obvious that Mason has a) done her
research and b) not lost what got her into sf in the first place. Lots
of in-jokes for the sf-lover.
FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER by Steven Brust
Tor, ISBN 0-312-85179-0, currently available in hard cover
review by David Gibbs
FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AFTER is the much-awaited sequel to THE PHOENIX
GUARDS, though there is no need to have read TPG before reading this
story. It is set some 500 years later, though with many of the same
characters. For anyone not familiar with TPG, the style is quite
unusual. Its internal story is that it was written by a historian (of
the portrayed world) named Paarfi, and translated by Brust. Paarfi is
quite long-winded, and the dialogue style of the characters is similar,
but the characters are engaging, and well-drawn, the situation is
interesting and the story still flows well. It is easily strong enough
to overcome the unusual style. (It could best be described as a Dumas
pastiche, in fact.) On the whole I strongly recommend this book, I am
not unhappy to have bought it in hardcover, and it is definitely worth
buying in paperback.
DAGGERSPELL by Katherine Kerr
Del Rey Fantasy, ISBN 345-34430-8, (1986)
review by David Gibbs
The core element of DAGGERSPELL is the idea of reincarnation, with the
actions of past levels creating a karma or "wyrd" that must be played out
in future lives, and the book tells of a small group of people whose fate
has been tied together. Since it deals with reincarnation, this does
involve happenings at different times, and despite the insulting Editor's
Note on the title page of the prologue ("Editor's Note: These dates are
important for an understanding of the story...") it is quite easy to
follow, and is actually an interesting and enjoyable tale. There are also
interesting larger events going on in the background, which interact with
and influence the core group of characters, and we see these events
primarily through their eyes. It does end leaving room for a sequel, and
the sequel exists - DARKSPELL, though the sequel leaves the expectation of
more books.
UNCHARTED TERRITORY by Connie Willis
Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-56294-0 (1994)
review by TJ Goldstein
Most Americans know that there is a feeling in this country that when
the first explorers and colonists arrived, they pretty well screwed things
up for the indigenous people who were already here. This book is based on
the concept of exploring a newly discovered planet based on the rules that
hindsight would place on those explorers, such as ecological responsibility
and respect for the indiges. It's a light and humorous read, however, as
things are complicated by the fact that the fines levied for violations
(such as footprints -- "disturbance of land surface") got to the indiges,
so they're getting fined left and right. Add a little bit of light
romantic entanglement and you've got a great read for a rainy afternoon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!8!-- The Infamous Reply Cards and What You Said
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Linda E. Smit
[Issue 2:2 asked two involved questions. We'll cover this one now and save
the question about world dependence on the net for next issue. -- TJ]
Do you think there is a lack of strong female roles in written and visual
science fiction today, and why?
Rather than spouting numbers, this question asks for some careful
consideration. I can't repeat all the comments our readers made, but I can
say that the vast majority of you, men and women alike, feel that female
roles are getting better but still have a long way to go. Several of you
mentioned that written science fiction has moved ahead of visual in its
portrayal of women, because more women are writing science fiction. One
reader suggested that "younger writers mostly have a more modern view of
women" and are therefore more able to portray women realistically. Several
folks said they felt women are not the only minority poorly portrayed in
visual science fiction; most minorities are only represented so that the
show can be "politically correct".
But since so many of you are better at forming your opinions into
words than I could possibly be at paraphrasing them, I thought a few direct
quotations would be in order. So, here's what you had to say :
"I didn't like SQ-DSV, the Woods Hole guy at the end seemed like an
apology or afterthought for science. There was not enough character
development in the writing, or cohesion in the crew. Wherever you have well
written characters the stories are always more convincing because you
identify with them and again are able to suspend disbelief. Maybe it needs
good writers to develop characters well so it lifts the whole standard of
what is written?"
"I don't think so, because when it comes right down to it, any role
could be played by a man or a woman. Picard may have been written for a
man, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have cast a woman in the role.
(Jenny-Luc Picard?)"
"As for visual arts, TV and movies, they are lagging behind, but not
merely as science fiction. I think there is a lack of good roles for women
in most TV and movies regardless of genre. Those that are good are the
exception, not the rule, yet."
"Science fiction is, as it has always been, the most gender-friendly
artistic medium. I see no lack of female roles, and they are far ahead of
other entertainment genres."
"It is not so much a lack of strong female roles as a lack of the
ability to write them properly. All too often, a strong female role is
portrayed as either a tough masculine character, like Ivanova on Babylon-5,
or an irate rebellious character, like Kira on DS9. However, if you look
at the business world today you see women who are strong but still retain
their femininity."
"Yes and no. Many of my favorite characters are strong women--but
these are frequently the 'gun-totin' babes' that set feminists' nerves on
edge, so they are often left out of the tallies. In my experience, more
men are interested in sci-fi than women, and I don't believe that this can
simply be chalked up to social conditioning. I am willing to admit that my
testosterone level predisposes me to certain themes--most of which are
portrayed very nicely in sci-fi. Some women are less willing to admit
corresponding tendencies. However, I believe that as the genre matures,
women will find a larger place within it."
Okay, so who did you think was a strong female character?
Ripley from Aliens (some said too strong)
Worf's mate K'Ehleyr (killed off quickly)
Dana Scully from X-Files
And, finally, three terse thoughts to leave you with :
"Yes! Sci-Fi has this image of only being enjoyed by geeky boys and
men who have never seen a real woman. So producers tend to cater to this
stupid image. Personally it irritates me."
"Yes. Things are getting better--it's possible to see some good
female roles (LeGuin and Bradley come to mind), but they're still
outweighed by the stereotyped acolytes of the Laws of Commercial Appeal.
The scene is better in literature than in TV and movies."
"It is not as bad as it used to be of course, but there is still room
for more women who aren't bitch-radical-feminist-can-only-be-a-good-leader-
if-I-pretend-to-be-a-man slop roles. Did that make any sense? What I mean
is most female roles in sci-fi (Aliens, Leviathan, etc.) were all IMHO too
far over the edge."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!9!-- Shoelaces of Truth: The News, The Whole News, and Nothing but the
News
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Dedicated to Mark Twain's principle that "A lie can travel halfway around
the world while the truth puts on its shoes."]
....................
BABYLON 5 NEWS
....................
by TJ Goldstein
Big changes are apparently on the way for BABYLON 5. In a mutual
decision between him and the producers, MICHAEL O'HARE is leaving the show.
This is NOT a matter of him being fired, nor is it a matter of him leaving
in a huff. His character, Jeffrey Sinclair, is being written out to allow
for what is supposed to be fantastic plotlines surrounding his departure.
O'Hare is still committed to the show, and will be returning from time to
time, but is reportedly glad to be able to pursue other offers. Sinclair's
exploits may be followed in the upcoming DC comic based on the show. The
comic will be a landmark in continuity, with events in the show being
mentioned casually in the comic -- and vice versa.
Commander Jeffrey Sinclair will be transferred to the Minbari
homeworld at the beginning of next season and will be replaced by Captain
John Sheridan, a war hero-rned-diplomat to be played by BRUCE BOXLIETNER,
lately seen on tv in SCARECROW AND MRS. KING and BRING 'EM BACK ALIVE and
known to sf fans as TRON. Sheridan will be appointed as head of B5 over
the opposition of the Minbari, in response to Earth's concerns that the
Minbari have too much influence over the station. In contrast to
Sinclair's war history, Sheridan is the only Earth commander to score a
victory over the Minbari as Captain of the ship Agamemnon. He will appear
in the first episode of the new season. (Look for Sinclair's future in
SPOILERS AHOY.)
The season premiere has been moved to October to put it closer to the
standard television season.
In other casting news, actress CAITLIN BROWN, who played G'Kar's aide
Na'Toth, is also leaving the show to pursue other offers. Her role,
however is being recast. The show's creator, J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI, has
joked that they considered having a running joke involving Narn aides and
airlock accidents, but Na'Toth's character possesses knowledge that is
necessary later in the run of the show.
....................
STAR TREK NEWS
....................
by TJ Goldstein
There's been quite a fuss about a script for STAR TREK: GENERATIONS
that was posted to the Internet and on various BBS's. It's authenticity
was in dispute, but it agreed with all tidbits that had already been
released to the press. Then Paramount lawyers reportedly descended on the
persons responsible, which was tantamount to proof that the script was
indeed genuine. It's authenticity is now being generally acknowledged. JM
Dillard will be writing the novelization, which is scheduled for December.
STAR TREK: VOYAGER is also moving along, though it has been nicknamed
by the fans as "Gilligan's Trek" due to the basic plot. Some rumors have
placed LINDSAY WAGNER (THE BIONIC WOMAN) at the helm of the Voyager, but
others have claimed that the quest for a female captain has been abandoned.
The ship is sucked into a sort of galactic Bermuda Triangle while chasing
after a ship full of renegade Starfleet officers (possibly related to DSN's
"Maquis"). Thrown to the far reaches of the galaxy, they spend the series
interacting with new species and trying to find thier way home.
On a final note, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) has confirmed that the ashes of Gene Roddenberry did indeed fly on a
shuttle mission sometime after his death, but will not specify which one.
The Great Bird of the Galaxy was listed as a "personal effect."
....................
SEAQUEST DSV NEWS
....................
by Edwin Yau
As you will all know by now, NBC recently released a statement saying
that SEAQUEST DSV has been renewed for a second season of 22 episodes, with
production moving to Universal Studios in Florida. This will help keep the
costs down. Sets will be redesigned for the second season, in particular
the bridge will see a major change. The series will be leaning towards
more SF-orientated plots. It will still be aired at 8pm on Sundays, which
means it will continue it's battle with LOIS & CLARK. Although ratings
have been showing improvement, we will have to wait for season 2 ratings
before we will know if the new changes will work better in the series'
favour.
Meanwhile, Stephanie Beacham, who plays Dr. Kristen Westphalen in
the series, is not willing to move to Florida and has left the series.
This is a great shame as she did a great job as Westphalen and bought a
grace to the series. In addition to Stephanie Beacham, Stacy Haiduk
(Katherine Hitchcock), John DiAquino (Ben Kreig) and Royce Applegate
(Chief Crocker) will not be returning to the series, although they may
occasionally guest star. This is reportly due to the producers wanting
a younger cast, which is a bit strange in the case of Stacy Haiduk and
John DiAquino.
The new season includes five new cast members: Edward Kerr (from
SECRETS OF LAKE SUCCESS) stars as Lt. James Brody, a cocky special
weapons and tactics expert; Rosalind Allen (from RAY ALEXANDER: A TASTE
FOR JUSTICE) plays Dr. Wendy Smith, a biophysicist and psychologist
gifted with unusual ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception) powers; Michael
DeLuise (from NYPD BLUE) is Tony Piccolo, a misfit who was physically
altered as a result of a scientific experiment; Peter DeLuise (21 JUMP
STREET) plays Dagwood, the ship's janitor, who comes from a genetically
engineered race known as Daggers. Finally there's Kathy Evison who
stars as Ensign Henderson, a naive newcomer to the crew.
The first season of SEAQUEST DSV survived the onslaught of it's
main competitor, LOIS AND CLARK, and was a ratings success for NBC
among key demographics, being placed first in the highly competitive
Sunday, 8-9 p.m. ET, time period among adults 18-49 years of age.
A new seaQuest ship has been built by the year 2021, the first
ship having been destroyed at the end of it's first tour of duty in the
year 2019. The second season starts off in the year 2021 with the
seaQuest being staffed with a workforce of top scientists, explorers
and naval personnel. Bristling with high-tech equipment, the seaQuest
remains battle-ready as she and her crew patrol and explore the
wonders of the vast undersea canyons, shelves and mountains on its
mission of peace and exploration.
No news as of yet when the show will return to UK screens. There
is talk of a UK video release of the series later in the year. It is
hoped that when released, the pilot will be the unedited 90-odd minute
version, and not the ITV TV version which was edited to approximately
73 minutes!
The Washington-based Center for Media and Public Affairs has
produced a list of the ten most violent shows on American TV. SEAQUEST
DSV is listed among them, placed 7th above STAR TREK:DEEP SPACE NINE,
WALKER - TEXAS RANGER and SOUTH OF SUNSET. Having seen over half of
the first season, I do not believe they are correct as listing the
series as a violent one. The only really violent episode in my opinion
is the SEAWEST episode which did have a lot of fighting involved.
As far as merchandising is concerned, SEAQUEST DSV action figures from
Playmates are now available here in the UK. They cost #6.99 UK pounds each
and come with usually 6-7 accessories.
Finally, the latest monthly updates of the SEAQUEST DSV episode
guide, FAQ and timeline guide are available for ftp at
ftp.hyperion.com, gandalf.rutgers.edu and src.doc.ic.ac.uk.
....................
OTHER TV NEWS
....................
EARTH II: STEVEN SPIELBERG'S Amblin Entertainment is busy on the
television front. The show is set in a time when mankind has rendered the
Earth unlivable and occupies space stations. Against government orders, an
expedition sets out for a new home 22 light years away, but crashes,
destroying all their advanced equipment. Head of the expedition is Devon
Adair, played by DEBORAH FARENTINO. Included in the cast are JOEY
ZIMMERMAN, CLANCY BROWN, J. MADISON WRIGHT, JESSICA STEEN, SULLIVAN
WALKER, ANTONIO SABATO, JOHN GEGENHUBER and REBECCA GAYHEART. The show
will debut in November and we will have more information next issue.
TEKWAR, the series of novels by WILLIAM SHATNER turned series of television
movies, has been turned into a weekly series. Plans have been made to
spend $36 million on 24 episodes to continue with the same cast, including
GREG EVIGAN as Jake Cardigan. It will run on CTV in Canada and in first-
run syndication in the United States.
The focus of LOIS AND CLARK: THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN will be changing
for the second season, with a heavier emphasis on action and adventure and
an almost complete replacement of writing staff. The Daily Planet has been
reassembled, and rumors are that Luthor will wind up in jail and begin
directing other criminals from there. (There is no word as to how he
survived plunging to the streets of Metropolis.) He will appear in 6
episodes.
The staff of the show, however, has suffered a massive shakeup.
Executive Producer DEBORAH JOY LEVINE has been replaced and will now be
listed as a Executive Consultant. This is rumored to be partly her choice
due to an unwillingness to be a party to the changes in the works. One of
those changes will be the departure of MICHAEL LANDES and his replacement
by JUSTIN WHALEN as Jimmy Olsen. The new producers, who include ROBERT
SINGER as executive producer and JAMES CROCKER (formerly of STAR TREK: DEEP
SPACE NINE) as producer, reportedly felt that Landes was too old for the
role. TRACY SCOGGINS (Cat Grant) has also left the show, reportedly
because she was unhappy with the shallow nature of the writing for her.
She had filmed a pilot for a SF spoof called GALAXY BEAT, but CBS "decided
not to go ahead with the project," according to the producton company.
JURASSIC PARK author MICHAEL CRICHTON will be writing and producing E.R.
for NBC about interns in a Chicago hospital. Stars reportedly include
ANTHONY EDWARDS and SHERRI SPRINGFIELD.
THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR. has been canceled and replaced by
M.A.N.T.I.S., however recently Fox has been showing it sporadically at
various times of the week, so the time to get letters of support in is
right now. The address is FOX, Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213.
M.A.N.T.I.S. has been completely revamped from the pilot. Basically, the
only thing that remains is the basic idea and the main character. The
costume, producers, attitude, and cast have been changed. The characters
will not be drawn as broadly, nor is the attitude as campy as it had been
in the pilot. The cast will also be more multi-cultural. There will be a
heavy anti-violence slant, and Miles (the hero) comes out strongly in favor
of gun control.
The new costume is not as bizarre as the old one, and is more the
silver-leotard-and-fiberglass look. There will also be more special
effects and gadgetry. Also, Miles' hideout, so to speak, has been
redesigned, and has been described as a cross between the batcave and the
bridge of the Enterprise-D.
CARL LUMBLY will remain as the main character, and will be joined by
ROGER REIS (NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS, CHEERS) as Miles'
best friend and inventor John Stonebrake. Also joining the cast are GALEN
GORG as the love interest, a detective who thinks she knows who
M.A.N.T.I.S. is, and CHRISTOPHER GARTIN as Taylor Savage, a bike messanger
who DOES know.
The show will premier August 26th on Fox.
WEIRD SCIENCE will also be returning for a second season on USA. Look for
more special effects this year.
SCOTT BAKULA has reportedly signed a long term deal with Warner Bros.
He'll also be providing one of the voices in Turner Pictures' CATS DON'T
DANCE.
Television newsman LARRY KING will be hosting a live investigation in the
U.S. Government's (allegedly) secret UFO research site, Area 51. Airing on
TNT October 1, it will be called THE UFO COVER-UP: LIVE FROM AREA 51-A
TNT LARRY KING SPECIAL.
The short-lived SPACE RANGERS is out on video, including the two episodes
that never aired. It is reportedly available only as a complete 3 tape set
for $99. For more information, contact garyblog@aol.com.
Mark Hammill is reportedly doing the voice-overs for FIREMAN SAM, a BBC
kids puppet show.
....................
MOVIE NEWS
....................
A number of rumors seem to have been started by an April Fool's day joke.
Just to clear them up: Jack Nicholson has NOT sued Warner Bros. to have
himself replace Mark Hammill as the voice of the Joker on BATMAN: THE
ANIMATED SERIES. JURASSIC PARK is NOT being made into a series of TV
movies on ABC (though a sequel is apparently in the works for a 1996
release). Fox is NOT creating a show about experts in Clipper Chip
technology called TALES FROM THE CLIPPED. There will NOT be a show about
two science fiction writers living in a run down tenement called GHOST
WRITERS IN THE STY. WILD CARDS is NOT being made into a series. Neither
is X-MEN (aside from the cartoon, of course). The Sci-Fi Channel is NOT
going to do a show called REAL CON GAMES.
The budget for JOHNNY MNEMONIC is reported to be about $28 million.
PIERCE BROSNAN has been officially hired to play the next James Bond. He
had been selected to replace ROGER MOORE in the early 1980's, but NBC
refused to let him out of his contract for REMINGTON STEELE. According to
the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, last month supposedly signaled the start for
filming on LAWNMOWER MAN II, starring Brosnan.
It seems that Arnold Schwarznegger
is no stranger to military equipment --
even before his run as an action superstar. According to Reuters, in 1966
he was a conscript in the Austrian army, and he just purchased the 45 ton
M47 tank he drove at the time to place on display outside on of the Planet
Hollywood restaurants he jointly owns.
Rumors: RAY BRADBURY is reported to be writing the screenplay for a film
version of FAHRENHEIT 451, to star MEL GIBSON. Also, TOM CRUISE in a film
version of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, directed by BRIAN DEPALMA and (re)written by
JURASSIC PARK scriptwriter DAVID KOEP.
....................
WRITTEN SF NEWS FROM ANSIBLE
....................
[Excerpted with permission from ANSIBLE. E-subscriptions available from
by Dave Langford
PAT CADIGAN's mysterious affliction of Progressive Syllable Loss
means (she confides) that following MINDPLAYERS, SYNNERS, and FOOLS,
her next novel has to be called S. After which....
ROBERT SHEA died of cancer on 10 March. He's best remembered for co-
writing ILLUMINATUS! with Robert Anton Wilson (still with us, despite a
tiresome Internet death hoax a week earlier).
WHO HE? Galaxy-famous fantasy hack Robert Jordan began life as Jim
Rigney; the celebrated (ANSIBLE, passim) William James of SUNFALL is
said to be really James William Bell; but who lurks behind the mask of
gossip columnist Eva D. Fanglord?
STAR TREK NEWS: "KIRK SPLIT ON HOMOSEXUALITY," says this headline
from the Catholic mag THE TABLET, and, er.... [MP] [] SOCIOLOGY OF
RELIGION (55:1, 1994) features "Star Trek Fandom as a Religious
Phenomenon," by Michael Jindra: "Star Trek fandom involves a
sacralization of elements of our culture, along with the formation of
communities with regularized practices that include a 'canon' and a
hierarchy. Star Trek fandom is also associated with a popular stigma,
giving fans a sense of persecution and identity common to active
religious groups." Visions of stigmata in the numinous shape of Starfleet
insignia....
FIRE AND WATER, HarperCollins's sf newsletter, "is undergoing a
radical rethink. The reason for this is that copies were not going out
of bookshops as had been the original intention. So a new, revamped
edition is forecast." Real books which suffer this problem just get
dumped.
ALMOST CENSORED! I rather hoped to give the vexed subject of Harlan
Ellison a rest, but Dan Steffan is made of sterner stuff: "On a recent
episode of the Sci-Fi (gag) Channel show SCI-FI BUZZ, Harlan (their
weekly crabby commentator) took a camera crew into his house and showed
them the scene of his earthquake nose-break, accompanied by his out-of-
breath running description of the events -- we saw the staircase he
tumbled from, the books (now piled on a pool table) that fell from their
shelves and the ominously empty spot that once held a framed bit of
artwork that nearly ended his career when it leapt from the wall,
straight for HE's head. It was just like watching Oswald get shot or
seeing the Shuttle explode." [] Chris Priest's THE LAST DEADLOSS
VISIONS has its first trade publication in May from Fantagraphics
($6.95), tastefully retitled THE BOOK ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER. In lieu
of an enthusiastic Ellison jacket blurb, a huge drawing of him dominates
the cover. Brits can obtain CP's own revised edition directly from him
at 32 Elphinstone Rd, Hastings, E.Sussex, TN34 2EQ ... #7.50 post free.
...........
Japan Report
............
by David Milner
GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA, which is going to be released in Japan on
December 10th, will feature Godzilla, the baby Godzilla introduced in last
year's GODZILLA VS. MECHAGODZILLA, Mothra, an updated version of Mogera,
the robot seen in THE MYSTERIANS, and Space Godzilla, a monster somehow
created from the remains of the one Godzilla defeated in GODZILLA VS.
BIOLLANTE. Space Godzilla will somewhat resemble Godzilla, but he will be
white instead of gray (Godzilla isn't green -- he's gray) and have a
crystal on his forehead.
Akira Ifukube, the person who scored just over half of the Godzilla
films, has turned down an offer to work on GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA.
So, a young composer is going to score the film.
In the upcoming TriStar Godzilla film, Godzilla reportedly will attack
both San Francisco and New York. It was rumored some time ago that Alex
Cox, the director of SID AND NANCY and REPO MAN, would be working on the
film, but this has turned out not to be true.
YAMATO LEGEND, the first of a trilogy of films based on the
mythological story of the creation of Japan, is scheduled to open in Japan
on July 9th. It features not only a giant eight-headed snake, but also a
giant robot modeled after a Samurai warrior, a sea serpent and a robot
bird.
Filming already is underway on GIANT MONSTER AIR BATTLE -- GAMERA.
The film, which is due out in Japan next April, will pit Gamera against
Gaos, the giant vampire bat seen in both GAMERA VS. GAOS and GAMERA VS.
GUIRON.
Katsuhiro Otomo, the person who wrote the highly-acclaimed animated
film AKIRA, is now working on a script for a new film featuring Majin, the
giant samurai warrior made of stone seen in MAJIN -- MONSTER OF TERROR, THE
RETURN OF THE GIANT MAJIN and MAJIN COUNTERATTACK. The film will be
produced only if GIANT MONSTER AIR BATTLE -- GAMERA proves to be
successful.
ULTRAMAN: THE ULTIMATE HERO, a television series shot in Los Angeles
last year, was recently released on home video in Japan. However, it still
has not been picked up by a distributor in the United States.
Rights to GRIDMAN, a series similar to ULTRAMAN, were recently
purchased by Twentieth Century Fox. The show will begin airing on Fox's
television network under the title SUPERHUMAN SAMURAI CYBER SQUAD within a
few months.
....................
The UK Connection
....................
By Edwin Yau
Welcome to a new column which I hope will give you the latest SF/
fantasy news etc. here in the UK.
BABYLON 5 started on Channel 4 on Monday 16 May at 6pm. This
excellent series which has been doing well in the US should be a hit in
the UK. I'm surprised that Sky satellite did not snap it up like
they do everything else! Channel 4 plan to show all 22 episodes
consecutively, which means that, barring any last minute breaks or
unforeseen problems, UK viewers will have seen the entire first season
by 10 October, which means that we will have seen the entire season
only a couple of months after our U.S. cousins would have seen the last
episode!
Interestingly, Channel 4's package does not include the B5
documentary "THE MAKING OF BABYLON 5", but does include the pilot movie
"THE GATHERING." This pilot will be screened later in the year, the
date of which has yet to be scheduled. It is presently mooted for
around the autumn. However, B5 fans will be interested to hear that
they can now purchase the pilot on video sell-through for #10.99 UK
pounds.
The first episode, MIDNIGHT ON THE FIRING LINE, did well in the
ratings. The second episode, SOUL HUNTER, was edited. A two-second
shot was cut which should have shown a close-up of a knife used by a
tramp to kill another tramp. This shot was understandably cut for a
number of reasons such as the early showing of the series, the current
debate going on with regards to the violence and horror in movies and
the recent murders etc.
A UK version of the BABYLON 5 episode guide will soon be available
on the Internet, and expect to see one in the national SF/fantasy
magazine TV ZONE near the end of the year. The magazine is available
from all large news agents around the country.
QUANTUM LEAP has nearly finished its entire run on BBC2, with only
5 episodes to go at the time of writing. However it has been rumored
that the BBC have purchased the rights to show the entire series again
at some point in the future.
TIME TRAX fans are still waiting to hear whether their local ITV
regions plan to air the series. ITV purchased the series last year and
originally planned to air it in October '93, but have been holding it
back for reasons unknown.
The excellent X-FILES continues its run on Sky One having recently
been shifted to a Monday 8pm time slot. Meanwhile, the remaining
episodes of THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES are now being aired on
Sky One, Saturdays at 6pm. Again, this means UK viewers will have seen
the entire run of a U.S. series BEFORE our U.S. viewers - probably the
first time in UK/U.S. TV history unless anyone knows different.
One bit of trivia you may be interested in is that UK viewers have
already seen 3 of 4 episodes not yet aired in the U.S.. These are:-
"FLORENCE, MAY 1908", "PRAGUE, AUGUST 1917" and "PALESTINE, OCTOBER
1917". The other episode our U.S. neighbors have yet to see is the
"TRANSYLVANIA, JANUARY 1918" episode, which UK viewers should have seen
on 14 May 94, but Sky One aired a repeat instead. Due to the nature of
the contents, it is planned for a later time slot.
Finally, staying with Sky One, they have purchased the rights to
show Stephen King's TOMMYKNOCKERS, THE ADVENTURES OF BRISCO COUNTY JR.,
and WALKERTEXAS RANGER in the summer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!11!-- Spoilers Ahoy! (And season 2 of the TWILIGHT ZONE Episode Guide)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Babylon 5 (Info from John Hudgens and Arne Starr)
Week Of Prod # Title
---------------------------------------------------
08/08/94 118 Babylon Squared
08/15/94 117 The Quality of Mercy
08/22/94 105R Believers
08/29/94 TBD
09/05/94 111R Survivors
09/12/94 116R Signs and Portents
09/19/94 114R By Any Means Necessary
09/26/94 109R Grail
10/03/94 122R Eyes
10/10/94 120R A Voice in the Wilderness Part 1
10/17/94 121R A Voice in the Wilderness Part 2
10/24/94 112 Chrysalis
10/31/94 Points of Departure [Season Two Opener]
Highlander (Syndicated)
(Info from Linda Cooksey)
(airs on WGN at 10:30 pm ET Thursdays the week following "Week Of")
Week of WGN Prod # Title
08/08/94 8/18/94 93202(2R) Studies in Light
08/15/94 8/25/94 93203(2R) Turnabout
08/22/94 9/01/94 93208(2R) Revenge of the Sword
08/29/94 9/08/94 93204(2R) The Darkness
09/05/94 9/15/94 93205(2R) Eye for an Eye
09/12/94 9/22/94 93209(2R) Run For Your Life
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Time Trax (PTEN/Syndicated)
(Info from Steve Monares and Steve Kuczaj)
Week of Air Ep # Title
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[ALL Shows are repeats, the remaining season two episodes will air
this fall]
8/08/94 Mysterious Man
8/15/94 Framed
8/22/94 Beautiful Songbird
8/29/94 Photo Finish
9/05/94 Perfect Pair
9/12/94 Catch Me If You Can
9/19/94 Dream Team
9/26/94 Almost Human
Robocop: The Series (Syndicated)
(info from dennys)
Week of Title
-------- --------------------------------------------------
8/08/94 Zone Five
8/15/94 Provision 22
8/22/94 Faces of Eve
8/29/94 When Justice Fails
9/05/94 Heartbreakers (NEW)
9/12/94 Mother's Day (NEW)
9/19/94 Nanno (NEW)
9/28/94 The Human Factor
10/03/94 Inside Crime
10/10/94 Robocop VS Commander Cash
10/17/94 Illusions
10/24/94 Tin Man
10/31/94 Sisters in Crime
11/07/94 Irish Jack (NEW)
11/14/94 Corporate Raiders (NEW)
11/21/94 Public Enemies (NEW)
11/28/94 Heartbreakers
[Editor's note: The TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE GUIDE is reprinted with
permission from the author. It has not been edited except to serialize it
and condense it space-wise. All text is intact. The original is available
by FTP from gandalf.rutgers.edu.]
[This file is from the Sf-Lovers Archives at Rutgers University. It is
provided as part of a free service in connection with distribution of
Sf-Lovers Digest. This file is currently maintained by the moderator of
the Digest. It may be freely copied or redistributed in whole or in part
as long as this notice remains intact. If you would like to know more
about Sf-Lovers Digest, send mail to SF-LOVERS-REQUEST@RUTGERS.EDU.]
===========================
TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE GUIDE
===========================
Revision of 9/82
===========================
Saul Jaffe
Lauren Weinstein (vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX)
Lauren's rating system
* ugh. pretty bad.
** has merit.
*** good, solid show.
**** particularly good.
***** superlative.
[Season One was carried in Issue 1:6, Season Two in 2:1, and Season Three
in 2:2.]
FOURTH SEASON Jan-May 1963
SJ: These episodes are one hour in length. They WERE sold into syndication
but none of the networks air the episodes since they only allow half-
hour slots for the show.
LW: Further investigation on my part seems to indicate that they were
indeed made available for syndication at one time, but apparently
nobody picked them up. Two things should be noted. First of all, the
"networks" never buy syndicated programs. Local stations (be they
independents, network affiliates, or network owned and operated) are
the entities that buy syndicated programming. Oddly enough, at least
two major markets (L.A., and apparently N.Y.) have independent stations
which run the half-hour shows back to back in a one-hour slot. Clearly
they COULD in theory run the one-hour shows if they wanted to, but
either nobody wants to or else there are some sort of legal/logistic
complications in doing so, even assuming they are still available for
syndication.
IN HIS IMAGE ****
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Perry Lafferty
Cast: George Grizzard, Gail Kobe, Katherine Squire, Wallace Rooney,
Sherry Granato, James Seay, Joseph Sargent, Jamie Forster
The first hour installment of THE TWILIGHT ZONE concerns a young man
who murders an old woman for no apparent reason. He also discovers all
sorts of discrepancies in his memories of the town where he THOUGHT he was
currently living. In the end he discovers a horrible truth about himself.
LW: I like this one. It does a good job of portraying fear and confusion
as our hero finds himself deeper and deeper within a nightmarish
situation. By the way, the opening scene of this episode is a REAL
winner, something to gladden the heart of many of us.
THE THIRTY-FATHOM GRAVE ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Paul Lafferty
Cast: Mike Kellin, Simon Oakland, David Shiener, Bill Bixby, Tony Call,
John Considine, Conlan Carter, Derrick Lewis, Charles Kuenstle
The crew of a Navy destroyer hear strange tapping noises coming from a
submarine that sank 20 years before.
LW: This was another famous nightmare producing episode. Bill Bixby? He
was later of MY FAVORITE MARTIAN and several more recent programs,
such as THE MAGICIAN and THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
THE MUTE ***
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Frank Overton, Barbara Baxley, Ann Jillian, Irene Dailey, Hal
Riddle, Percy Helton, Oscar Beregi, Eva Soreny
A little girl raised on telepathic communication must adjust to the
spoken word after her parents are killed in a fire.
JESS-BELLE ***
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr. Director: Buzz Kulik
Cast: Anne Francis, James Best, Laura Devon, Jeanette Nolan, Virginia
Gregg, George Mitchell, Helen Kleeb, Jim Boles, Jon Lormer
Thrilleresque occult yarn about a woman (Francis) who sells her soul
to the Devil to recapture the love of a former suitor (Best). Rural
witchery from the creator of THE WALTONS.
DEATH SHIP ****
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Dan Medford
Cast: Jack Klugman, Ross Martin, Fredrick Beir, Sara Taft, Ross Elliot,
Mary Webster
Sets, props, costumes and stock footage from FORBIDDEN PLANET enhance
this tale about three space travelers who discover their own crashed ship
and dead bodies when they investigate a strange reflection on a planet
surface.
LW: This is really a good episode. It has true recursion, and is one of
the
more memorable episodes. Klugman we know from previous TZ's. Ross
Martin played James West's "sidekick" Artemus Gordon in THE WILD WILD
WEST.
VALLEY OF THE SHADOW ***
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Perry Lafferty
Cast: Ed Nelson, Natalie Trundy, David Opatoshu, James Doohan, Suzanne
Capito, Dabbs Greer
A reporter (Nelson) wanders into a backwoods town and discovers an
incredible secret that might cause the end of the world.
HE'S ALIVE **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Cast: Dennis Hopper, Ludwig Donath, Curt Conway, Howard Caine, Barnaby
Hale, Paul Mazursky, Bernard Pein, Jay Adler
The "he" of this title refers to Adolf Hitler. A young reactionary
(Hopper) is guided by a shadowy figure on methods to control and mesmerize
the populace.
LW: Not too good.
MINIATURE **
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Ralph Senesky
Cast: Robert Duvall, Pert Kelton, Barbara Barrie, Len Weinrib, William
Windom, Claire Griswold, Nina Roman, John McLiam
An unhinged man (Duvall) escapes into a fantasy world by visiting
a museum's miniature replica of life in the 1890's.
PRINTER'S DEVIL ****
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Ralph Senesky
Cast: Burgess Meredith, Robert Serling, Patricia Crowley, Charles Thompson,
Ray Teal, Ryan Hayes, Doris Kemper
A dying newspaper is rescued from oblivion by a mysterious fellow
(Meredith) whose Linotype machine predicts tomorrow's news.
LW: This is a pretty good episode. In fact, most of the episodes that
Burgess had anything to do with turned out well. He can really be a
sinister fellow in this one ...
NO TIME LIKE THE PAST **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Justus Addiss
Cast: Dana Andrews, Patricia Breslin, Robert F. Simon, Violet Rensing,
James Yagi, Tudor Owen, Lindsay Workman, Reta Shaw
A moody scientist (Andrews) travels into the past to prevent the major
catastrophes of history.
LW: One of the problems with the third season was that plot elements of
previous shows began to repeat, and the one-hour format was really too
long. This show is an example of both problems.
THE PARALLEL ???
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Alan Crosland
Cast: Steve Forrest, Jacqueline Scott, Frank Aletter, Shari Lee Bernath,
Phillip Abbott, Pete Madsen, Robert Johnson, Morgan Jones
Following a routine seven-day space flight, an astronaut is catapulted
into a strange parallel universe.
LW: The brain cells in charge of remembering this episode seem to be
on the blink, I cannot remember enough details to rate it. Oh well.
I DREAM OF GENIE ***
Writer: John Furia Director: Robert Gist
Cast: Howard Morris, Patricia Barry, Loring Smith, Mark Miller, Robert
Ball, Jack Albertson, Joyce Jameson, Bon Hastings
A genie pops out of an old brass lamp and offers one magic wish to his
unwitting liberator.
LW: The bulk of the show consists of our hero visualizing the various
things he could wish for and what the outcome of each wish might be.
Eventually he finds the perfect wish... You may notice a surface
similarity with a previous episode ("The Man in the Bottle"), but
unlike that episode, this one is tongue-in-cheek and rather humorous.
THE NEW EXHIBIT ***
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: John Brahm
Cast: Martin Balsam, Will Kuluva, Maggie Mahoney, William Mims, Billy Beck,
Robert L. McCord, Bob Mitchell
Another episode reminiscent of TV's THRILLER. Much to the
bewilderment of a museum custodian (Balsam), wax figures of five notorious
murderers come to life and begin a series of killings.
OF LATE I THINK OF CLIFFORDVILLE ****
Writer: Rod Serling Director: David Rich
Cast: Albert Salmi, Julie Newmar, John Anderson, Mary Jackson, Wright King,
Jamie Foster, Guy Raymond
A heartless, very rich man (Salmi) desires to return to the small town
where he was born and start life again. He figures he will end up even
RICHER this time, since he already knows where all the big oil fields will
be, which stocks will go up, etc. A demon (Newmar) obliges him.
LW: This is the TZ adaptation of the classic story "Blind Alley", by
Malcolm Jameson. It is very well done.
THE INCREDIBLE WORLD OF HORACE FORD **
Writer: Reginald Rose Director: Abner Biberman
Cast: Pat Hingle, Nan Martin, Phillip Pine, Ruth White, Vaughn Taylor,
Mary Carver, George Spicer, Bella Bruck
Toy manufacturer (Hingle) literally becomes a child again when he
visits his old neighborhood.
ON THURSDAY WE LEAVE FOR HOME ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Buzz Kulik
Cast: James Whitmore, Tim O'Conner, James Broderick, Russ Bender, Paul
Langton, Jo Helton, Mercedes Shirley, John Ward, Daniel Kulik
Space settlers on a barren world finally get the chance to return to
Earth, but the group's leader (Whitmore) protests. Episode plusses: strong
performances and FORBIDDEN PLANET hardware.
PASSAGE ON THE LADY ANN *
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Lamont Johnson
Cast: Joyce Van Patten, Lee Phillips, Wilfred Hyde-White, Gladys Cooper,
Cecil Kellaway, Alan Napier
Disillusioned young couple (Patten, Phillips) book passage on the
final voyage of an ancient cruise ship inhabited by elderly folks.
LW: Another ship story ... poor, as usual.
THE BARD ****
Writer: Rod Serling Director: David Butler
Cast: Jack Weston, Henry Lascoe, John Williams, Marge Redmond, Doro
Merande, Clegg Hoyt, Judy Strangis, Claude Stroud
On-target satire. Hack writer Julius Moomer (Weston) conjures up
William Shakespeare (Williams) to help him write a television script,
but network and sponsor representatives suggest a few changes.
LW: This is a funny one! Willy writing TV scripts. A lot of familiar
character actors in this episode, and a bit part is played by a young
(and relatively unknown) Burt Reynolds!
FIFTH AND FINAL SEASON 1963-1964
LW: The one-hour format almost killed the show... it was just too long
and plots tended to really drag. Still, the show returned for one
more season. Things still continued downhill though; much of the
magic of the series was gone forever.
IN PRAISE OF PIP **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Joseph M. Newman
Cast: Jack Klugman, Connie Gilchrist, Billy Mumy, Bob Diamond, John Launer,
Ross Elliot, Gerald Gordon, Stuart Nesbet
Jack Klugman is outstanding as a soul-searching bookie who tries to
make up for the way he raised his son when he learns that the boy has been
seriously wounded in Vietnam. Both Billy Mumy and Bob Diamond play the
kid.
LW: Klugman's performance is the only really positive aspect of this
episode.
STEEL **
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Don Weiss
Cast: Lee Marvin, Joe Mantell, Merritt Bohn, Frank London, Tipp McClure
In the early 1970's boxing was ruled too violent a sport for human
beings, so sophisticated androids took their place in the ring. A
small-time promoter (Marvin) is forced to enter the bout when his robot
protege gets damaged.
NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET ***
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Dick Donner
Cast: William Shatner, Christine White, Edward Kemmer, Asa Maynor, Nick
Cravat
A newly-recovered mental patient (Shatner) on an airplane flying home
peers out the window and sees a bestial creature on the wing, tampering
with one of the engines. Naturally, nobody believes his story. Tale is
enhanced by he marvelous William Tuttle monster make-up, especially in one
shocking close-up.
LW: A classic.
A KIND OF STOP WATCH ****
Writer: Rod Serling Director: John Rich
Cast: Richard Erdman, Herbie Faye, Leon Belasco, Doris Singleton, Roy
Roberts
A talkative and rather unpopular fellow (Erdman) stumbles upon a watch
that can stop all action in the world.
LW: Another classic. Very humorous. Nice effects too.
THE LAST NIGHT OF A JOCKEY *
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Joseph Newman
Cast: Mickey Rooney
Rooney is the sole star of this predictable yarn about a jockey who
thinks that being tall will solve all of his personal problems.
LW: I never liked this one at all.
LIVING DOLL ***
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Richard Sarifian
Cast: Telly Savalas, Tracy Stratford, Mary La Roche
A child's new doll has a most unusual vocabulary. It says things like
"Momma," "Papa" and "I'm going to kill you!"
LW: A lot of people remember this one! Telly in an interesting role.
THE OLD MAN IN THE CAVE ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Cast: James Coburn, John Anderson, Josie Lloyd, John Craven, Natalie
Masters, John Marley, Frank Watkins
A group of survivors from a nuclear holocaust continue to survive
through the help of a mysterious "old man in the cave". From a short
story by Henry Slesar.
LW: This was Coburn's only appearance in the series, and he does a
good job.
UNCLE SIMON ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Don Siegal
Cast: Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Ford, Ian Wolfe, John McLiam
Robby the Robot is featured in this episode. The spirit of an old
inventor avenges himself on his greedy niece when he dies at her hands.
NIGHT CALL ****
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Jacques Tourneau
Cast: Gladys Cooper, Nora Marlowe, Martine Bartlett
The ladies are great in this tale about a lonely spinster (Cooper) who
suddenly starts receiving mysterious phone calls.
LW: A really good one which really manipulates your emotions.
PROBE 7 - OVER AND OUT **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Ted Post
Cast: Richard Basehart, Antoinette Bower Frank Cooper, Barton Heyman
The lone survivors (Basehart, Bower) of two annihilated planets must
begin new lives together on a new world.
LW: Ho Hum type episode.
THE 7TH IS MADE UP OF PHANTOMS **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Cast: Ron Foster, Warren Oates, Randy Boone, Robert Bray, Wayne Mallory,
Greg Morris, Jeffrey Morris, Lew Brown
Modern-day soldiers on the site of Custer's Last Stand encounter the
warring spirits of the 7th Cavalry and the Sioux nation.
LW: Thee is a funny story behind this episode that I will have to relate
some time. It involves a personal friend of mine. In any case, the
episode itself is largely a loser.
NINETY YEARS WITHOUT SLUMBERING **
Writer: George C. Johnson Director: Roger Kay
Cast: Ed Wynn, Carolyn Kearney, James Callahan, Carol Byron, John Pickard,
Dick Wilson, William Sargent
An old codger (Wynn) is convinced that his life will end the moment
his grandfather's clock breaks down.
LW: Even Wynn can't help this poor plot.
RING-A-DING GIRL **
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr. Director: Alan Crosland, Jr.
Cast: Maggie McNamara, Mary Munday, David Macklin, George Mitchell,
Bing Russell, Betty Lou Gerson, Hank Patterson, Bill Hickman,
Vic Perrin
Movie star Bunny Blake (McNamara) saves her home town from tragedy by
heeding a weird ring of hers that predicts the future.
YOU DRIVE ***
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr. Director: John Brahm
Cast: Edward Andrews, Hellena Westcott, Kevin Hagen, Totty Ames, John Hanek
A hit-and-run driver (Andrews) is harassed by his own car.
LW: Andrews returns to the TZ, and somehow makes this plot work pretty
well.
NUMBER 12 LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU ***
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: Abner Biberman
Cast: Suzy Parker, Richard Long, Pamela Austin, Collin Wilcox
The actors play multiple roles in this futuristic drama about the loss
of individuality. A young woman (Wilcox) rejects treatments that will make
her physically flawless like the rest of the people in the drab society she
lives in.
LW: There is a great flub in this episode. In one scene, if you know where
to look, you can see some cigarette smoke wafting in from a stage hand
standing off camera! A pretty good episode overall.
THE LONG MORROW **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Robert Fleury
Cast: Robert Lansing, Mariette Hartley, George MacReady, Edward Binns
A scientist hopes that by refusing to use a suspended animation
apparatus on a thirty year space probe he will remain in the same age ratio
as the woman he loves.
LW: The cast is the only quality element of this segment. Otherise it is
pretty dull and boring.
THE SELF-IMPROVEMENT OF SALVATORE ROSS **
Writer: Henry Slesar and Jerry McNelley Director: Don Siegal
Cast: Don Gordon, Gail Kobe, Vaughn Taylor, Douglass Dumbrille, Doug
Lambert, J. Pat O'Malley
A man (Gordon) tries to parlay his strange ability to trade traits
with other people into a perfect life.
LW: Not one of the better ones.
BLACK LEATHER JACKETS ***
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr. Director: Joseph Newman
Cast: LeKinsolving, Shelly Fabares, Michael Forest, Tom Gilleran, Denver
Pyle, Irene Harvey, Michael Conrad
The three young motorcyclists who ride into a sleepy community are
actually invaders from space who intend to contaminate the Earth's water
supply.
LW: Somehow, this one actually comes out rather good.
FROM AGNES-WITH LOVE ***
Writer: Barney Scofield Director: Dick Donner
Cast: Wally Cox, Ralph Taeger, Sue Randall, Raymond Biley, Don Keefer
Serio-comedy, as an advanced computer falls in love with its
technician (Cox).
LW: Wally Cox is excellent in this fable for programmers.
SPUR OF THE MOMENT ***
Writer: Richard Matheson Director: Elliot Silverstein
Cast: Diana Hyland, Marsha Hunt, Roger Davis, Robert Hogan, Phillip Ober
Odd melodrama about a woman (Hyland) who confronts the frightening
vision of her future self.
LW: Time recursion plays a major role in this episode.
STOPOVER IN A QUIET TOWN ****
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr. Director: Ron Winston
Cast: Barry Nelson, Nancy Malone, Denise Lynn, Karen Norris
A married couple (Nelson, Malone) wake up one morning in a strange
town where everything is artificial, and the air is filled with a child's
laughter.
LW: A TZ classic. Very good indeed.
QUEEN OF THE NILE **
Writer: Charles Beaumont Director: John Brahm
Cast: Ann Blyth, Lee Phillips, Celia Lovsky, Ruth Phillips, Frank Ferguson
An inquisitive reporter (Phillips) tries to find the key to the
apparent immortality of a glamorous movie star (Blyth), who is currently
playing the "Queen of the Nile." Prepare yourself for an unusually
gruesome finale!
LW: The ending may be gruesome, but that doesn't save this episode, which
steals elements from other TZ episodes.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX ***
Writer: Martin Goldsmith Director: Dick Baer
Cast: William Demerest, Sterling Holloway, Herbert Lytton, Howard Wright
Cab driver (Demerest) sees himself killing his wife on the television
set. Later remade as the premiere episode of William Castle's GHOST STORY.
LW: Demerest (Uncle Charlie in MY THREE SONS) and Holloway (a favorite of
mine, he played one of the wacky professors in the SUPERMAN
television show and has had many character roles), do their best in
this basically weak plot. It too stole plot elements from vrious TZ
episodes.
THE MASKS ****
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Abner Biberman
Cast: Robert Keith, Milton Selzer, Virginia Gregg, Brooke Hayward, Alan
Sues
Another grisly horror tale that benefits from William Tuttle's make-
up. A dying millionaire forces his evil, greedy family into wearing
grotesque masks that match their inner selves. Alan Sues, a few years
before his LAUGH-IN success, has a minor role as the man's sadistic nephew.
LW: Not well known, but deserving of "classic" status. A minor favorite of
mine.
I AM THE NIGHT-COLOR ME BLACK *
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Abner Biberman
Cast: Michael Constatine, Paul Fix, George Lindsay, Terry Becker, Ivan
Dixon
Symbolic, talky message piece. On the day an idealistic young man is
to be executed for the willful murder of a bigot, the sun fails to shine on
a small western town.
LW: Awful. Terrible. Bad. One of the worst.
CAESAR AND ME **
Writer: A. T. Strassfield Director: Robert Butler
Cast: Jackie Cooper, Suzanne Cupito, Stafford Repp, Sarah Selby, Don
Gazaniga, Sidney Marion, Ken Konopka
Continuing a gimmick started earlier in "Dead of Night", a
ventriloquist's dummy comes to life and offers his master some pretty
unusual advice. This was one of the first television scripts to be written
by a woman.
LW: Another "dummy" story. Sigh.
THE JEOPARDY ROOM ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Dick Donner
Cast: Martin Landau, John VanDreelen, Robert Kelljan
A defector is captured by a hired assassin and given three hours to
earn his freedom.
LW: Landau returns in this well-executed episode (no pun intended).
MR. GARRITY AND THE GRAVES **
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Ted Post
Cast: John Dehner, Stanley Adams, J. Pat O'Malley, Norman Leavitt
A traveling salesman (Dehner) tells the backward members of a small
community that he can raise the dead. Later remade (sort of) as an episode
of NIGHT GALLERY called "Dr. Stringfellow's Rejuvenator."
THE BRAIN CENTER AT WHIPPLE'S ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Dick Donner
Cast: Richard Deacon, Paul Newlan, Ted DeCorsia, Burt Conroy
Robby the Robot makes another Twilight Zone appearance in this story
about a callous executive (Deacon) who hopes to improve his corporation by
replacing all the employees with machines.
LW: A slightly different model of Robbie appeared in each of these
episodes, by the way...
COME WANDER WITH ME **
Writer: Tony Wilson Director: Dick Donner
Cast: Gary Crosby, Bonnie Beacher, Hank Patterson, John Bolt
Haunting tale about the doom awaiting a fraudulent folk singer who
persuades a backwoods girl to sing him an authentic folk ballad.
THE FEAR ***
Writer: Rod Serling Director: Ted Post
Cast: Hazel Court, Mark Richman
Everything is relative in this story about an unhinged woman and a
state trooper who sights a giant alien in a California park.
LW: Not bad at all.
THE BEWITCHIN' POOL ***
Writer: Earl Hamner, Jr. Director: Joseph Newman
Cast: Mary Badham, Tim Stafford, Kim Hector, Tod Andrews, Dee Hartford
The last show of the series is about two neglected children who escape
their constantly bickering parents by diving into their swimming pool and
emerging in a mysterious, but loving, world.
NON-SYNDICATED EPISODES
-----------------------
The following episodes were originally broadcast on the network
but have been pulled out of syndication. Unfortunately, no cast or
credits are available.
SOUNDS AND SILENCE ???
A SHORT DRINK FROM A CERTAIN FOUNTAIN **
LW: A man wants to become young again, and obtains a rejuvenating potion in
the hopes of accomplishing this.
THE ENCOUNTER ???
OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE *****
This was actually an award winning French short subject picked up
by Rod Serling for one network play on the TWILIGHT ZONE. Based on a
classic tale by Ambrose Bierce, it is set during the Civil War and
concerns a man about to be hanged.
LW: EXCELLENT!
LW: Epilog:
And so it ends. By the end of the series, Serling had already lost
substantial control over the production of the show, and was rapidly
becoming disgusted by the start of the fifth season. He began having
as little as possible to do with the series since he did not have the
control he wanted. He began filming several show intros at once in
front of a neutral gray backround, instead of placing himself in the
action as in earlier shows. These intros could then be simply edited
into the series as production continued.
He had hoped that "Night Gallery" would provide the situation he needed
for h creativity, but such was not to be the case. He ended up with
even less control over this series, and the show was quickly
degenerated by management into a series of dull episodes on ESP.
Serling NEVER liked this show.
It goes to prove that television is indeed a magic medium. It can
destroy anything that crosses its path, however good that thing was to
start with. But at least we have lots of GOOD Twilight Zone episodes
to look back at and reflect on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!12!-- Contests and Awards
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you could go back in time, would you make changes? Would you
change the world ... or maybe your life? In Universal Pictures'
upcoming film "TIMECOP," action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Max
Walker, a time enforcement cop who must make just that choice. He's
chasing a corrupt politician, played by Ron Silver, who's gone into the
past to alter history and ensure his own personal fortune.
Walker also must confront the temptation to prevent a personal
tragedy from happening -- the murder of his own wife.
"TIMECOP" is scheduled to hit the theaters September 16, but you
can catch it more than a week early with tickets to a special advance
screening on September 7 at the Hoyt's Tower City Cinemas, courtesy of
CYBERSPACE VANGUARD. Fifty winners will get passes for two. We also
have a few goodies from Planet Hollywood in honor of "TIMECOP" for a
selected group of winners.
Imagine what YOU would do if you had the chance. What would you
change, if anything? Why? Entries must be _received_ by noon Eastern
time, September 1, and should be sent to cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu on
the Internet, or to Cyberspace Vanguard at 1:157/564 on Fidonet. If you
prefer the traditional postal system, entries may be sent to PO Box
25704, Garfield Hts., OH, 44125, USA. Include your name and postal
address along with your answers to the above questions. Winners will be
chosen by random drawing.
TIMECOP also stars Mia Sara, and Gloria Reuben, and is directed by
"OUTLAND" and "2010" director Peter Hyam. It's written by Mark
Verheiden and Gary De Vore, and Produced by Robert Tapert, Sam Raimi,
and Moshe Diamant. The Executive Producer is Mike Richardson. It's
rated R.
-!-
Nominees for the Arthur C. Clarke award, for the best new novel published
in the United Kingdom in 1993 were Vurt by Jeff Noon (Ringpull) -- WINNER,
A Million Open Doors by John Barnes (Millenium), Ammonite by Nicola
Griffith (Grafton - HarperCollins), Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
(Ringpull), The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick (Roc - Penguin),
and The Broken God by David Zindell (HarperCollins)
-!-
World Fantasy Award nominations, 1994:
NOVEL: Peter S. Beagle, THE INNKEEPER'S SONG (Roc); Poppy Z. Brite,
DRAWING BLOOD (Delacorte/Abyss); Kathe Koja, SKIN (Delacorte/Abyss); Lewis
Shiner, GLIMPSES (Morrow); Peter Straub, THE THROAT (Dutton, Borderlands);
Michael Swanwick, THE IRON DRAGON'S DAUGHTER (Millennium; Morrow AvoNova);
Judith Tarr, LORD OF THE TWO LANDS (Tor)
NOVELLA
Jack Cady, "The Night We Buried Road Dog" (F&SF 1/93); Harlan Ellison,
"Mefisto in Onyx" (Omni 10/93; Mark V. Zeising); Elizabeth Hand, "The Erl-
King" (Full Spectrum 4); Terry Lamsley, "Under the Crust" (Under the
Crust); Walter Jon Williams, "Wall, Stone, Craft" (F&SF 10-11/93; Axolotl)
SHORT FICTION
Terry Bisson, "England Underway" (Omni 7/93); Fred Chappell, "The Lodger"
(Necronomicon); Les Daniels, "The Little Green Ones" (After the Darkness);
Charles de Lint, "The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep" (Snow White, Blood
Red); Neil Gaiman, "Troll Bridge" (Snow White, Blood Red); Terry Lamsley,
"Something Worse" (Under the Crust); Ian McDonald, "Some Strange Desire"
(Omni Best SF 3); Dan Simmons, "Death in Bangkok" (Playboy 6/93; LOVEDEATH,
as "Dying in Bangkok")
ANTHOLOGY
Lou Aronica, Amy Stout, & Betsy Mitchell, FULL SPECTRUM 4 (Bantam Spectra),
Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED (Morrow AvoNova);
Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling, THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY & HORROR: SIXTH
ANNUAL COLLECTION (St. Martin's Press); David G. Hartwell, CHRISTMAS
FOREVER (Tor); George Hatch, SINESTRE (Horror's Head Press); Alison Lurie,
THE OXFORD BOOK OF MODERN FAIRY TALES (Oxford University Press)
COLLECTION
Ramsey Campbell, ALONE WITH THE HORRORS (Arkham House); John Crowley,
ANTIQUITIES (Incunabula); Charles de Lint, DREAMS UNDERFOOT (Tor); Neil
Gaiman, ANGELS AND VISITATIONS: A MISCELLANY (Dreamhaven); Garry Kilworth,
HOGFOOT RIGHT AND BIRD-HANDS (Edgewood); Terry Lamsley, UNDER THE CRUST
(Wendigo); Darrell Schweitzer, TRANSIENTS AND OTHER DISQUIETING STORIES (W.
Paul Ganley)
ARTIST
Rick Berry; Thomas Canty; Alan Clarke; Jason Eckhardt; Harry O. Morris; J.
K. Potter
SPECIAL AWARD -- PROFESSIONAL
John Clute, for reviewing; Ellen Datlow, for editing; David J. Skal, for
THE MONSTER SHOW: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF HORROR (Norton); Underwood-Miller,
for publishing; Terri Windling, for book editing; Mark V. Ziesing, for
publishing
SPECIAL AWARD -- NON-PROFESSIONAL
Richard Chizmar, for Cemetery Dance Publications; George Hatch, for
Horror's Head Press; Marc Michaud, for Necronomicon Press; Brian
Stableford, for Small Press Reviews; Joe Stefko & Traci Cocoman, for
Charnel House
-!-
(And, saving the biggest for last ...)
Seth Goldberg
1994 Hugo Award Administrator
goldberg@bayvax.decus.org
****************************************************************
VOTING BALLOT FOR THE 1994 HUGO AWARDS AND JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD
This ballot must be postmarked by JULY 31, 1994,
and received by AUGUST 6, 1994
Mail to: 1994 Hugo Awards
Seth Goldberg, Voting Administrator
P.O. Box 271986
Concord CA 94527-1986
U.S.A.
Name:______________________________________________
Address:___________________________________________
___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________
Signature:_________________________________________
Please check one:
__ I am a member of Conadian; my membership number is _______________
__ I enclose $125 US/$165 CDN for an attending membership in Conadian. (If
you select this option, your ballot must be postmarked by July 15, 1994.)
Cheques payable to Conadian.
__ I enclose $25 US/$30 CDN for a supporting membership in Conadian. (If
you select this option, your ballot must be postmarked by July 15, 1994.)
Cheques payable to Conadian.
If you wish to pay for your membership with your credit card, please
provide the following information:
__ Visa __ MasterCard
Card Number: ________________________________
Expiration Date: ____________________________
Please read these instructions carefully before casting your ballot.
ELIGIBILITY TO NOMINATE
Only attending and supporting members of Conadian are eligible to vote.
You must include your name, address, and signature in the appropriate
spaces on this ballot. (Including your membership number too will save us
a little work.) Please print or type.
If you are not already a Conadian member, you may purchase a membership by
completing the appropriate information and enclosing payment for the
membership fee. If you are already a member, do not send any money with
your ballot.
DEADLINE
Ballots must be postmarked by July 31, 1994, and received by August 6,
1994, to ensure that they will be counted. Please mail as early as
possible.
Overseas members should send their nominations airmail.
Mail your ballot to: 1994 Hugo Awards, Seth Goldberg, Voting Administrator,
P.O. Box 271986, Concord, California, 94527-1986, U.S.A. Within Canada,
you may mail your ballot to the Conadian main office: Conadian, Attn: Hugo
Awards, P.O. Box 2430, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3C 4A7. However we cannot
guarantee that last-minute ballots sent to this address will be received in
time to be counted. We strongly recommend that you use an envelope;
stapled mail will usually be mutilated or rejected by the post office.
Taping the ballot shut is permissible in U.S. domestic mail only. You can
fax your ballot to (707) 746-5195. Do not E-mail your ballot.
Please be sure to fill in the previous page and mail all four pages. We
cannot count your ballot if you do not do this. For faxed ballots, it is
not necessary to send the instruction page or a cover sheet.
HOW TO VOTE
This ballot uses a modified version of the Alternative Vote system,
sometimes known as the "Australian ballot". To vote, mark your choices in
each category in order of preference: "1" for first place, "2" for second
place, and so on.
You are not required to rank all the nominees in any category, and we
recommend that you not vote in any category in which you are not familiar
with a majority of the nominees. If you decide not to vote in a given
category, leave it blank. Note that "No Award" is not an abstention, but a
vote that none of the nominees should be given the award in question. When
the ballots are counted, all the first-place choices will be tabulated. If
no nominee has received half or more of the votes, the nominee with the
fewest first-place votes will be eliminated, and its votes transferred to
the nominees marked "2" on those ballots. This process of elimination will
continue until one nominee receives half or more of the votes, at which
point it becomes the winner (unless its votes are outnumbered by "No Award"
votes under specific conditions described in Section 2.9.3 of the WSFS
Constitution). A few tips may help you in voting:
1) Please keep in mind that second and further preferences play no
part in the voting unless and until your first choice is eliminated. This
is not a point system where many voters' second choice can overwhelm a few
voters' first choice. We suggest that after marking your first choice, you
proceed by imagining that it has disappeared from the ballot, and placing
your "2" by the remaining nominee you most prefer, and so on. This mimics
the way the ballots will actually be counted. Thus, even if your heart is
set on one nominee, don't hesitate to give "2"s and other high rankings to
other nominees you consider worthy of the award.
2) Nevertheless, if your top choices are eliminated early, your lowest
preferences could be the tiebreaker between the remaining nominees, so
choose all your preferences carefully! No matter how much you dislike a
nominee, if you rank it the vote will be counted if the counting gets down
that far. We recommend that you not rank a nominee that you do not
consider worthy of the award. In this way you can be sure of casting your
vote against it in all circumstances.
THE NOMINEES
The nominees that follow were chosen by popular vote by 649 members of
Conadian or ConFrancisco who submitted valid nominating ballots. In some
categories more than 5 nominations appear due to tie votes. In the
"Original Artwork" category only 3 nominees appear, as no other candidates
appeared on at least 5% of the ballots cast in that category, as required
by Section 2.6 of the WSFS Constitution for 4th and 5th nominees.
Owing to a severe disparity among the short fiction categories in the
number of nominations received by the leading candidates, to achieve a
fairer balance the administrators exercised the option provided by Section
2.2.1 of the WSFS Constitution to relocate stories within 5,000 words of
the category limits into adjacent categories. Three stories were
relocated: "Dancing on Air" to Novelette from Novella; "Death on the Nile"
and "England Underway" to Short Story from Novelette. As a result of this
relocation, the threshold for appearing on the ballot in all three short
fiction categories is the same: 28 nominations. (What is now the 5th place
short story received 35 nominations, but no short story received between 28
and 34 nominations.) If no relocation had been made, the threshold would
have varied from 28 to 60 nominations (a range of 32), and two stories with
28 or more nominations would not have appeared on the ballot.
Hard Landing, by Algis Budrys (Warner Questar), received enough votes
to be nominated for Best Novel, but was ruled ineligible due to having
first been published in magazine format in 1992. Nicola Griffith received
enough votes to be nominated for the John W. Campbell Award, but was ruled
ineligible due to professional publication of fiction in the science
fiction and fantasy field prior to 1992.
REPRODUCTION
Reproduction and distribution of this ballot are permitted and encouraged,
provided that it is reproduced verbatim (including voting instructions),
with no additional material other than the name of the person or
publication responsible for the reproduction.
-- David Bratman and Seth Goldberg, Hugo Awards Administrators
Best Novel
__ Moving Mars, by Greg Bear (Tor)
__ Glory Season, by David Brin (Bantam Spectra)
__ Virtual Light, by William Gibson (Bantam Spectra)
__ Beggars in Spain, by Nancy Kress (Morrow AvoNova)
__ Green Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperCollins UK; Bantam Spectra
US)
__ No Award
Best Novella
__ "The Night We Buried Road Dog", by Jack Cady (F&SF, January 1993)
__ "Mefisto in Onyx", by Harlan Ellison (Omni, October 1993; Mark V.
Ziesing)
__ "An American Childhood", by Pat Murphy (Asimov's, April 1993)
__ "Into the Miranda Rift", by G. David Nordley (Analog, July 1993)
__ "Down in the Bottomlands", by Harry Turtledove (Analog, January 1993)
__ "Wall, Stone, Craft", by Walter Jon Williams (F&SF, October/November
1993; Axolotl)
__ No Award
Best Novelette
__ "The Shadow Knows", by Terry Bisson (Asimov's, September 1993; Bears
Discover Fire (Tor))
__ "The Franchise", by John Kessel (Asimov's, August 1993)
__ "Dancing on Air", by Nancy Kress (Asimov's, July 1993)
__ "Georgia on My Mind", by Charles Sheffield (Analog, January 1993)
__ "Deep Eddy", by Bruce Sterling (Asimov's, August 1993)
__ No Award
Best Short Story
__ "England Underway", by Terry Bisson (Omni, July 1993; Bears Discover
Fire (Tor))
__ "The Good Pup", by Bridget McKenna (F&SF, March 1993)
__ "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle", by Mike Resnick (Asimov's, March 1993;
Alternate Warriors (Tor))
__ "The Story So Far", by Martha Soukup (Full Spectrum 4 (Bantam Spectra))
__ "Death on the Nile", by Connie Willis (Asimov's, March 1993)
__ No Award
Best Non-Fiction Book
__ Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography, by Robert Bloch
(Tor)
__ The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute and Peter
Nicholls (Orbit UK; St. Martin's US)
__ PITFCS: Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies,
edited by Theodore R. Cogswell (Advent)
__ Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, by Scott McCloud (Tundra;
Kitchen Sink; Harper Perennial)
__ The Art of Michael Whelan: Scenes/Visions, by Michael Whelan (Bantam
Spectra)
__ No Award
Best Dramatic Presentation
__ Addams Family Values (Paramount Pictures); Producer, Scott Rudin;
Director, Barry Sonnenfeld; Screenwriter, Paul Rudnick
__ "The Gathering" (Babylon 5) (Warner Brothers); Executive producers,
Douglas Netter & J. Michael Straczynski; Director, Richard Compton;
Writer, J. Michael Straczynski
__ Groundhog Day (Columbia Pictures); Producers, Trevor Albert & Harold
Ramis; Director, Harold Ramis; Screenwriters, Danny Rubin & Harold
Ramis
__ Jurassic Park (Universal); Producers, Kathleen Kennedy & Gerald R.
Malen; Director, Steven Spielberg; Screenwriters, Michael Crichton &
David Koepp
__ The Nightmare Before Christmas (Touchstone Pictures); Producers, Tim
Burton & Denise DiNovi; Director, Henry Selick; Screenwriter, Caroline
Thompson
__ No Award
Best Professional Editor
__ Ellen Datlow
__ Gardner Dozois
__ Mike Resnick
__ Kristine Kathryn Rusch
__ Stanley Schmidt
__ No Award
Best Professional Artist
__ Thomas Canty
__ David Cherry
__ Bob Eggleton
__ Don Maitz
__ Michael Whelan
__ No Award
Best Original Artwork
__ Cover of F&SF, October/November 1993 (illustrating "The Little Things",
B. McKenna), by Thomas Canty
__ Space Fantasy Commemorative Stamp Booklet, by Stephen Hickman (U.S.
Postal Service)
__ Cover of Asimov's, November 1993 (illustrating "Cold Iron", M.
Swanwick), by Keith Parkinson
__ No Award
Best Semi-Prozine
__ Interzone, edited by David Pringle
__ Locus, edited by Charles N. Brown
__ The New York Review of Science Fiction, edited by David G. Hartwell,
Donald G. Keller, Robert K.J. Killheffer, and Gordon Van Gelder
__ Pulphouse, edited by Dean Wesley Smith and Jonathan E. Bond
__ Science Fiction Chronicle, edited by Andrew I. Porter
__ Tomorrow Speculative Fiction, edited by Algis Budrys
__ No Award
Best Fanzine
__ Ansible, edited by Dave Langford
__ File 770, edited by Mike Glyer
__ Lan's Lantern, edited by George "Lan" Laskowski
__ Mimosa, edited by Dick and Nicki Lynch
__ Stet, edited by Leah Zeldes Smith and Dick Smith
__ No Award
Best Fan Writer
__ Sharon Farber
__ Mike Glyer
__ Andy Hooper
__ Dave Langford
__ Evelyn C. Leeper
__ No Award
Best Fan Artist
__ Brad W. Foster
__ Teddy Harvia
__ Linda Michaels
__ Peggy Ranson
__ William Rotsler
__ Stu Shiffman
__ No Award
John W. Campbell Award
for Best New Science Fiction Writer of 1992-1993
(sponsored by Dell Magazines)
__ Holly Lisle (2nd year of eligibility)
__ Jack Nimersheim (2nd year of eligibility)
__ Carre Richerson (2nd year of eligibility)
__ Amy Thomson (1st year of eligibility)
__ Elizabeth Willey (1st year of eligibility)
__ No Award
-!-
Genre and related nominees for the 14th annual Razzie Awards, sponsored by
the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation:
Worst Picture: LAST ACTION HERO
Worst Actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger, LAST ACTION HERO
Worst new star: Austin O'Brien LAST ACTION HERO
Worst Director: John McTiernan LAST ACTION HERO
Worst supporting actress: Sandra Bullock DEMOLITION MAN
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--!13!-- Conventions and Readings
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submit convention listings to xx133@cleveland.freenet.edu in the format:
CON NAME: Month, day, year; Hotel or Convention Center; City, State,
Country; GUESTS; Cost until deadline, Cost after deadline (please specify
currency); Full address for information; Telephone (if applicable); e-mail
address (if any)
Convention listings are provided as a public service. CYBERSPACE VANGUARD
is not affiliated with any of these conventions and takes no responsibilty
for anything to do with them.
................
CONADIAN/WORLDCON 52: September 1-4, 1994; ; ; $125 (US) to July 15; ; ;
204/944-1998.
ICON 19: October 14-16, 1994; ; Iowa City, Iowa; ; GREGORY FROST, ROBERT
DANIELS, JR., JOE HALDEMAN, others; ICON 19, P.O. Box 525, Iowa City, IA
52244-0525.
REINCONATION IV: September 9-11, 1994; Regency Plaza; Minneapolis,
Minnesota; $20 until August 20; ALEXEI & CORY PANSHIN; Minn-STF; Hotel
reservations - $59.50/night, 339-9311 or 1-800-423-4100.
ARCANA '94: September 30-October 2, 1994; Holiday Inn Bandana Square; St.
Paul, Minnesota; $23 until June 30; MELANIE 7 STEVE RASNIC TEM; John
Brower, 3136 Park Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55404-1525.
FIRST CONTACT: September 30-October 2, 1994; Grand Milwaukee Hotel;
Milwaukee, Wisconsin; $20 until September 10, $25 at the door; ELEANOR
ARNASON, MURRAY LEINSTER, SUSAN VAN CAMP, DENNIS CHAMBERLAND, LEE
SCHNEIDER; MSFCI, P.O. Box 92726, Milwaukee, WI 53202; ;
welch@warp.msoe.edu; hotel reservations - 414/481-8000 or 800/558-3862.
ICON 19: October 14-16, 1994; ; Iowa City, Iowa; ; GREGORY FROST, ROBERT
DANIELS, JR., JOE HALDEMAN, others; ICON 19, P.O. Box 525, Iowa City, IA
52244-0525.
RUDICON 10: October, 21-23, 1994; Rochester Insitute of Technology;
Rochester, New York, United States; ; , ; Rudicon 10, c/o Student
Government, 1 Lomb Memorial Dr, Rochester, NY 14623; ;
JJB7763@ritvax.isc.rit.edu
EASTLEAP: October 21-23, 1994; Comfort Inn; Essington, Pennsylvania; $30; ;
SASE to EASTLEAP, c/o CJR Press, 733 Turnpike Ave., Suite 117, North
Andover, MA 01845.
BIG "E" CON: October 28-30, 1994; Omni Waterside Hotel; Norfolk, Virginia;
$40 for adults, various prices for youths, children, and various workshops;
MAJEL BARRETT-RODDENBERRY, JIMMY DOOHAN, ARMIN SHIMERMAN, BILL CAMPBELL,
ROBERT O'REILLY, MICHAEL O'HARE, SONIA HILLIOS, GIRARD ROUNDTREE, ANN C.
CRISPIN, HOWARD WEINSTEIN, ARNE STARR, DAN MADSEN, CAPT. RICHARD NAUGHTON,
US NAVY ATLANTIC FEET BAND, GRUMMAN AEROSPACE FLIGHT SIMULATOR, NASA/SPACE
TELESCOPE SCIENTISTS, plus more guests TBA; Trek Rec Deck In., P.O. Box
10658, Towson, MD 21285-0658; 410/825-3017 or 301/735-3957; hotel
reservations (prior to September 26, 1994) 804/622-6664.
VISIONS '94: Nov 25-27, 1994; Hyatt Regency O'Hare; Rosemont, IL, USA; from
Red Dwarf: CRAIG CHARLES, DANNY JOHN-JULES, ROBERT LLEWELLYN, ROB GRANT,
DOUG NAYLOR; from Doctor Who: JON PERTWEE, LALLA WARD, NICHOLAS COURTNEY,
JOHN LEVENE; from Blake's Seven: PAUL DARROW; from Robin of Sherwood:
NICKOLAS GRACE, MARK RYAN; from Blackadder: TONY ROBINSON; $50 until 4-30-
94, $60 until 10-31-94, $75 at the door; Her Majesty's Entertainment, P.O.
Box 1202, Highland Park, IL 60035, USA; (708) 405-9461;
fergus@areaplg2.corp.mot.com.
SMOFCON: December 2-4, 1994; Burbank Hilton; Los Angeles, California; $30
pre-registration (payable to SCIFI), more at the door; ; SMOFcon, P.O. Box
8442, Van Nuys, CA 91409; hotel reservations - 80/643-7400 (mention you are
with SMOFcon for $72/night discount rate).
NOVACON '95: January 13-15, 1995; Radisson Hotel; Newcastle, Oz; ; ;
Novacon 95; P.O. Box 140, Kotara Fair, NSW 2289 Australia; Aaron (049)
575 109 or Matt (049) 432 666.
MICROCON 15: March 4-5, 1995; Exeter University; all other details to
follow.
THE TIME MACHINE (H.G. Wells Society Centenary Symposium): July 26-29,
1995; Imperial College; London, UK; ; Titles/abstracts of proposed papers
to Hon Sec, HGW Soc, English Dept, Nene College, Moulton Park, Northants,
NN2 7AL, UK (by October 31, 1994)
EVOLUTION (Eastercon): April 5-8, 1996; Metropole Hotel; Brighton, UK; #20;
VERNOR VINGE, COLIN GREENLAND, BRYAN TALBOT, JACK COHEN; 13 Linfield
Gardens, Hampstead, London, NW3 6PX, UK.
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--!15!-- Administrivia
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Well, as stated in the ravings up top, we're going multimedia. CV-CD
is on the way! We expect the first issue to be out around September,
assuming that Macromedia keeps it's promises as to when the Windows version
of Director 4.0 will be shipping! We've arranged for a demo to be placed
on our FTP site, etext.archive.umich.edu. It's only for the Macintosh,
though CV-CD will be for the Windows platform as well. It features the
Bruce Campbell interview from this issue with graphics and sound.
There will also, of course, be a hard copy version, as we've finally
found funding to do it properly, with color and such.
We've arranged for special "early bird" prices for anyone who sees
this on the net or a BBS. All you have to do is mention this offer.
Inisder Prices for the paper version are $8.95 for six issues, $15.95 for
twelve. For CV-CD, the Insider Price is $49.95 for six, $89.95 for twelve.
(We will accept installments. Write for more details.) Newsstand prices
will be $2.50 for the paper verson, $9.95 for CV-CD, which will also
include the paper version.
But, tere's an easy way to get your subscription for FREE. This
thing started out as a grass roots type of publication, and we want to keep
it that way. YOU are the most important part. So, if you can convince
your local comic shop, bookstore, etc., to carry CV, you'll get a free 12
issue subscription of what they order. (Ie, if they order the CD's, you
get the CD's. If they order paper, you get paper.)
So, for more information on any of this, you can either send us e-mail
at cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu or Cyberspace Vanguard at 1:157/564, snail
mail at PO Box 25704, Garfield Hts., OH, 44125, or you can CALL us at 216-
491-2178.
As mentioned in the Ravings, we'd like to know what your favorite
interviews and features were. Here's a list of past issues.
Issue 1:1
--!1!-- Jeff Kaake on SPACE RANGERS
--!2!-- Peter Donat on TIME TRAX
--!3!-- Eric Radomski on BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES
--!4!-- J. Michael Straczynski on BABYLON 5
--!5!-- Just what is MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 anyway?
Issue 1:2
--!1!-- LeVar Burton in Firestorm: 72 hours in Oakland
--!2!-- An interview with Katherine Kurtz
--!3!-- Mike Carlin discusses why he killed Superman
Issue 1:3
--!1!-- Effects Guys Are Bizarre, or "Isn't that Sam Elliot's dead
body?" (An interview with Howard Berger, effects for ARMY OF
DARKNESS)
--!2!-- On the Past and Future of Science Fiction, by CRAWFORD KILIAN
--!3!-- What to Expect From Babylon 5, from J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Issue 1:4
--!21-- DC Comics' Second Massacre: Batman's Crippling and why Editor
DENNY O'NEIL Thinks It's a Good Idea
--!3!-- From Space Opera to the Grateful Dead: LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD on
Plot, Character, and Other Things on the Way to Perfection
Issue 1:5
--!2!-- Mysteries from Beyond the Scifi Channel: Why
DR. FRANKLIN RUEHL Can't Be Abducted By Space Aliens
--!3!-- The Illusion of Falling: KENNY BATES Makes His Mark On Filmmaking
--!4!-- PETER CUSHING And The Mystery Of The Missing Films: Trying
To Write A Book About The Master Of Horror
Issue 1:6
--!2!-- Within the Realm of Extreme Possibility: Creator CHRIS CARTER
on the X-FILES
--!3!-- The Highlander's Heart: An Interview with ADRIAN PAUL
--!4!-- The Art and Science of Leaping Tall Buildings
--!5!-- A Writer's Guide to STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION
Issue 2:1
--!2!-- Getting Away From It All: Taber MacCallum and Life Inside
Biosphere 2
--!3!-- Virtually There: Writing the Screenplay for DOUBLE DRAGON
--!4!-- Either Here or There: Mike Resnick on Terrestrial Looks at
Extraterrestrial Societies
--!5!-- Past, Present, and Future Filk
--!6!-- Computer Mediated Communication and Science Fiction Media Fans
Issue 2:2
--!2!-- Traveling the Cyber-Highway with William Gibson
--!3!-- Stephanie Beacham: Dr. Westphalen's Cure For SEAQUEST'S Ills
--!4!-- Getting Blown Up for Fun and Profit: The Indiana Jones Epic
Stunt Spectacular
--!5!-- Mind Uploading: Downloading Your Brain to a Machine
--!6!-- The Business Side of Conventions: Building a Better Hotel
Relationship
About the Authors:
PAT BERRY (Copy Editor) is a 34-year-old freelance technical writer and
self-described "computer geek" living in Cary, North Carolina. He has two
children, saw STAR WARS over 30 times during its theatrical run, and annoys
his friends by quoting lengthy passages of Dave Barry's writings from
memory.
DAVID GIBBS (Mini Reviews) works for an OS company in Ottawa, Ontario in
order to pay for his recreational activities which include reading SF,
attending conventions, riding motorcycles, and playing bridge. He claims
to be a recovered net.addict, but no one believes him.
TJ GOLDSTEIN is the editor of this monstrosity and is probably responsible
for anytypos that made it into this version. TJ has learned more about
interactive multimedia in the last 2 months than any human being should be
forced to absorb.
ESTHER JENKINS (Convention listings) is a bored, single, 27-year-old femme.
She's overqualified for most every job she applies for with her two BS
degrees (one in Applied Math from Georgia Tech and one in Industrial
Engineering Technology from Southern Tech). Originally from Germany, she
moved to the States in 1973 and has been living in Georgia ever since.
Esther got introduced to science fiction and cons by an ex-boyfriend many
years ago, and is an avid reader (and collector) of books of all kinds and
comics. Right now she is working as a temp while looking for a
manufacturing job and has lots of free time on her hands to compile this
little column for CYBERSPACE VANGUARD.
DAVID MILNER (Japan News) is a big Japanese monster movie fan who has
written for a number of different publications such as CULT MOVIES AND
VIDEO, MARKALITE and THE KAIJU REVIEW.
LINDA E. SMIT (Reader Responses) lives in Athens, GA, surrounded by Bulldog
fans, Braves fans, and a healthy enclave of scifi and fantasy fandom. Her
real job is in library acquisitions, and she works her tail off in
community theater. Guess which one she prefers to do.
CAROL LEON-YUN WANG (Correspondent/Reporter) is a recently defended Masters
student in Computer Graphics Animation who has replaced thesis deadlines
with conference submission deadlines. She is on a slow westward migration
that started in Regina, SK and is currently stalled out in Calgary, AB.
She is a voracious reader of genre books and comics, and completely
nocturnal. She still likes Capt. Kirk better than Picard, even though
William Shatner was a lousy actor and a truly atrocious director.
--
CYBERSPACE VANGUARD MAGAZINE
News and Views from the Science Fiction Universe
TJ Goldstein, Editor | Send submissions, questions, comments to
tlg4@po.cwru.edu | cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu
