Closet Sci-Fi Geek

Petition for New Leadership at the SciFi Channel

Well, after watching the whole Dresden Files clusterf@#$, and seeing how completely bad Flash Gordon is, I finally decided it was time for we the people to take our channel back from Bonnie Hammer.

If you agree, take a gander at this petition and sign and pass it on:

http://www.petitiononline.com/newscifi/petition.html

The 4400: Tom Baldwin’s Roving Eye

After being initially lukewarm to The 4400, I found myself getting sucked in via DVD and now I’m looking forward to the show every week. It’s a sci-fi soap opera. And just when you think they’ve wound the story arc down, they find some new way to take it up a notch.

Spoiler Alert!

This season, though, I’ve been very disappointed with the way they’ve handled Tom Baldwin - up until Sunday night’s episode. Alana disappears and he just accepts it, only to bed his way-too-young blonde boss without blinking? Gimme a break. The whole thing was just way out of character and plain icky. The Tom Baldwin I knew would have fought tooth and nail to get Alana back, not just move on without nary a care and then shack up with the first pretty young thing to catch his attention.

But now we have a twist. Tom Baldwin is now bad Tom Baldwin. And I hope there’s some sort of gruesome outcome with this whole thing with his bland blonde boss. Because then I can experience some satisfying schadenfreude over the whole thing.

And bring Alana back, please!

Space: 1999 - Season 1, Episode 2 - “Matter of Life & Death”

Now we get to the first “real” episode of Space: 1999. In this episode, the moon passes by a mysterious planet that could support human life. The crew of Moon Base Alpha wants to land there and start a new life, since they have no hope of getting back to earth. But wait! How on earth did Dr. Russell’s dead husband show up in the spaceship that was probing the planet? How mysterious! Oooh!

Hey, it’s been done before, but it still works. We’re hooked because there’s a mystery to be solved: We know that the dead husband is not really the dead husband, but in what way? Is he an alien? A projection of their minds? Or something else completely?

We also get to see our first planetary excursion. This is shades of Star Trek, complete with unrealistic technicolor sets (with parrots on fake trees?) and muddy brown water that tests as “drinkable.” For a planet that is supposed to be similar to earth, you think they would have just walked outside and shot something in the woods - but this is the 70s, remember, back when sci-fi was weird and goofy and not this ultra-realistic nonsense they push on us today on shows like the new Battlestar Galactica.

Decent, if just for the kitsch value. And oh - that theme song! Who doesn’t love wocka wocka 70s guitar! Let’s bring that back already!

Flash Gordon - Do We Care?

The initial reviews of SciFi’s Flash Gordon are not good - but do we care anyway? If it is halfway decent, they’ll cancel it soon. If it sucks, plan on it sticking around for a while.

Female Love Interests on Supernatural?

Why do they keep trying to add recurring female roles to Supernatural, especially as on-going love interests? They tried it last year with that blonde chick from the Roadhouse, and thankfully nipped that in the bud. (She was boooorrring.) Why are they messing with a good thing? What makes the series work is the relationship between the two brothers. If you add in a third wheel it’s going to mess things up. Do the producers honestly think all males are so shallow and stupid that they can only enjoy a show with a hot female lead in it somewhere? I really think guys aren’t that dumb. Besides, that’s what Internet porn is for.

David Blaine Spoof: Not Really Sci-Fi, But Funny

This is about as sci-fi as Derren Brown’s show…but I just had to include it here, since it is soooo funny. (Please note: The clip involves multiple profanities!)

SciFi Lamely Cancels The Dresden Files…as a Footnote

The Dresden Files went out with a whimper, with the official cancellation “announced” in a footnote to an article about Paul Blackthorne’s new role on ABC’s Big Shots. In fact, the footnote was apparently appended later, after the article was first put online.

Dresden fans are in a frenzy over at the SciFi boards, not just because their beloved show was canceled, but due to the feeling by some that SciFi is trying to blame Blackthorne (Dresden’s star) on the cancellation. If anything, the method of announcement has apparently only made people hate SciFi that much more.

Rumors have abounded for at least a month that Dresden was toast. The show was not just canceled Friday. So what’s amazing to me is that SciFi had decided to can the show but took at least a month if not more to “officially” announce it…and they apparently only did so when forced to by the news that the show’s star was appearing on another network.

This is once again demonstrating that the Powers That Be at SciFi are completely clueless as to how to properly run a sci-fi network. This whole thing is just a public relations fiasco. Many Dresden fans are vowing to never watch SciFi again - never mind that the rest of us have pretty much left already out of disinterest.

And the questions remains: WHY cancel a decent show about a wizard, and keep wrestling on the air? The numbers might add up more if money wasn’t being spent on crap.

Masters of Science Fiction on ABC

Masters of Science Fiction, a short-run series featuring stories from top classic sci-fi writers such as Robert Heinlein and Harlan Ellison, will be premiering this weekend on ABC.

Now my question is, why on earth did the AP reporter have to say that these shows would only appeal to the imaginations of 14-year-old boys? Excuse me, but I was a 14-year-old girl who gobbled up sci-fi and I know there are many other females out there who like it too. We women seem to still be very much ignored in the sci-fi world. It’s 2007…let’s get over the sci-fi stereotypes please!