Archives for August 2008

Stargate: Atlantis Cancelled, Universe on Its Way…

August 22, 2008 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

Here’s a bit of two-for-one geek-news: The Sci-Fi Channel continues its tradition of cancelling shows that people like. This time on the chopping block, Stargate: Atlantis. At the same time, it’s green lit a third Stargate series, Stargate: Universe, to air in early 2009.

Okay, so I was miffed when they cancelled SG-1, severely irritated when they cancelled Farscape way back when, and continually bothered to find out that the new Battlestar Galactica was still on the air. (It’s going to be gone after this season, fortunately, and I’ll have to rely on possible reruns or episodes on Hulu.com to remind me just why I disliked it so much. At this point I can’t remember specifics, and I suppose I’m not likely to bother re-watching to let myself be reminded. Darn.)

I seem to have lost my train of thought here. Oh! (Yes, revel, revel in the concise blogging style!) My point is that I find I honestly couldn’t care less about Atlantis getting the axe. Sure, I watched some episodes–some were quite good, some not so great–but I never really got deeply into the story or anything. I couldn’t tell you much about the Wraith (aside from my finding them rather dull) or the various characters, few of whom really got me to care. (Okay, so McKay’s always fun, and it was nice to see Jewel Staite working after Firefly, but that’s about it.) My impression, admittedly fragmented, was that the show seemed to be in search of a purpose but often failed to do anything unique or better than what SG-1 had done before it.

And, really, enough with the Replicators, huh?

As for Universe, Sci-Fi describes it as follows:

After unlocking the mystery of the Stargate’s ninth chevron, a team of explorers travels to an unmanned starship called the Destiny, launched by The Ancients at the height of their civilization as a grand experiment set in motion, but never completed.

What starts as a simple reconnaissance turns into a never ending mission, as the Stargate Universe crew discovers the ship is unable to return to Earth, and they must now fend for themselves aboard the Destiny.

The crew will travel to the far reaches of the universe, connecting with each of the previously launched Stargates, thus fulfilling the Destiny’s original mission.

Challenges will arise though as the ship comes into range of Stargates placed centuries ahead of the Destiny, but only for a brief period of time before carrying on with its pre-programmed navigational schedule. If someone is left behind, there is no way to go back for them, adding to the drama of encountering new races, enemies and adventures.

“A grand experiment set in motion but never completed.” Hey, good trick. They’ve created a plot device that doesn’t need to ever be explained because it was never finished! 😀 There’s a mystery of the ninth chevron? That’s a new one on me, but maybe I’m just not up on my lore.

As for the rest of it…I guess we’ll see. I’ll give it a shot, but the description isn’t wowing me. Maybe it’s just that I miss the SGC and O’Neill. It sounds somewhat like Star Trek meets Sliders, which is…workable. If they can come up with some engaging characterization, it could be decent, though I’m leery of the statement that Universe will have “a cast that gives it a younger vibe.” Something about that just smells a little too much of executive tampering. Perhaps they took an O’Neill template, made him an experienced twenty-two, gave him some “attitude,” and then Rasta-fied him “by about…ten-percent or so.” [End Simpsons reference.]

So I’m not holding my breath. What with professional wrestling, Ghost Hunters, and constant monster-of-the-week movies penned by monkeys at best (at worst, by the folks who bring us Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Lousy Movie, and Meet the Spartans), Sci-Fi seems, like Atlantis, organizationally confused and in search of a purpose. Or maybe some Replicators.

But that’s another blog.

Speaking of other blogs, click here for the full story in The Hollywood Reporter by James Hibberd.

Michael G. Munz
www.michaelgmunz.com

(Technorati tags: Stargate, Atlantis, Universe, Sci-Fi Channel)

Speedily Submitting Short Stories (or something)

August 13, 2008 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

One of my favorite quotes (which for the longest time I mistakenly attributed to Dan Simmons, having read it first in Hyperion–it’s actually Peter De Vries) is “I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.”

I bring it up in this case because actually SUBMITTING my writing for publication is something I don’t do nearly enough as I probably should. I like writing stories, I hate writing cover letters (or even the short email prefaces for electronic submissions).

However, since it’s been a little while since one of my short stories found a home (okay, not too long; “Playing with Hubris,” one of my favorites, was in NexGen Pulp a few months ago), I’ve thrust my butt into the self-booting machine ($199.95, Sharper Image catalog) and sent out a flurry of submissions.

…by which I mean about four. Here’s a quick teaser/rundown of the stories I’ve sent to various fiction magazines, otherwise known as a few children I hope to hear about finding homes for soon:

“The Atheist and the Ferryman”
Many of us have lots of things in our basement. Old clothes, washing machines, giant Olmec heads of Xtapolapocetl, etc. Marcus just happens to have a cave leading to Hades. This is one of my favorite stories that I’ve written, if not THE favorite, though I’ve not yet found a place for it. Do I like it so much that I can’t see it’s flaws, I wonder? Then again, it mixes Greek myth with modern times and a somewhat macabre sense of humor, so it IS an odd one to try to squeeze into a genre label.

“Beyond Memory”
This one’s a bit different from what I usually write and probably closest to magical realism than anything else I’ve written. If you could connect with the actual spirit of a lost loved one when you dreamed, would it be worth it if you couldn’t remember when you woke? What price would you pay to not forget your time together? I came up with this one for a PNWA contest a while back, but at the time I had to rush it and quite honestly it wasn’t ready then. After some polishing, I’m sending it out into the world once more.

“Katy’s Deal”
This is a short one that I wrote a while back and recently polished. It’s pretty short (only 975 words) and makes for an amusing diversion if you like the idea of a technophile teenager trying to both get a job as Death’s assistant and help him to get Wi-Fi access. (Yeah, I write weird ones.)

“Pen Pal”
Another short one, this time without humor and going more toward creepy. How would YOU feel if after three years of agoraphobia you started receiving death threats demanding a murdered man’s gold watch hidden in your attic?

(Hmm. Attics, basements. I should write something dealing with a scaaaaaary linen closet! The towels! The towels are scratchy! Ruuuuuuun!!)

Michael G. Munz
www.michaelgmunz.com

(Technorati tags: speculative fiction, short stories)

Visual Geekmusement

August 9, 2008 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

My week’s been pretty busy with somewhat dull stuff, so this blog entry’s just going to be a few simple (but amusing) things. Then again, life’s made up of simple (but amusing) things (e.g. Ralph Wiggum), so yes! This is a celebration of LIFE!

(What, too exuberant?)

First, under not terribly geeky but still pretty darned neat is this video from Today’s Big Thing: Slow-motion lightning! The beginning in particular is spectacular. What I want to know is how long it took them to GET that shot, and whether or not a DeLorean was involved.

(Blogger seems to be having trouble with the embed, so here’s a direct link.)

Following sight, now we go to sound…or sight and sound, I suppose, which is what makes this next video so cool. The best way I can think of to describe it is Half-Life 2 meets the iPod advertising crew:

Continuing on the Half-Life 2 trend, this is probably the funniest thing resulting from fan-fiction that I’ve ever seen. Half Life: Full Life Consequences is apparently the result of a 9 year-old’s HL2 fan-fiction and a bunch of animators with a good collective sense of humor. Sure, it’s essentially the visual equivalent of a kid playing in his backyard with his action figures, but then again so was Star Wars: Clone Wars.

And finally some non-video…sort of. Language translation in the film industry is tricky, at best; more so when it comes to pirated movies. And so it came to be that copies of Revenge of the Sith turned up in Hong Kong were translated as “Backstroke of the West.” I could say more, but frankly this blogger does it much better, so link on over to take a look at what happens when you translate “Jedi Council” into “Presbyterian Church.” Here’s the link. (You’ll have to scroll down a bit there to get to the content.)

Michael G. Munz
www.michaelgmunz.com

(Technorati tags: geek, lightning, Half Life, Star Wars)

Stargate Continuum DVD Review

August 1, 2008 By Michael G. Munz Leave a Comment

So Stargate Continuum, the last (for now, anyway) made-for-DVD Stargate SG-1 movie came out a couple of days ago. I originally started watching the show about midway through its ten-season run and caught up on the episodes I’d missed in reruns on Sci-Fi. Though it wasn’t the same show by the time the final season rolled around, I was still sorry to see it go, so I gladly picked up the DVD. Without further ado, here’s a brief review. (Rhyme not intended.) This ought to be as spoiler-free as any of the ads are, so feel free to read on mostly safely…

An initial summation for those of you with no patience: I’d have to say it’s above average. It’s not great, but good, and enjoyable enough for the time it asks of us. With the Goa’uld once again as the main antagonists it’s actually quite reminiscent of the earlier seasons, especially when a number of familiar faces start showing up. I won’t say just who here–and there are a number of them–except to mention that it’s good to see (spoiler-text follows) the late Don S. Davis again.

But what’s that you say? Didn’t the Replicators utterly wipe out, put in a box, and stick a fork in the Goa’uld? (Yes, I can hear you; it’s the magic of the Interwebs!) Well, let’s just say that Baal’s a jerk, and he’s got a time machine.

Yes, it’s a time travel movie, which will likely turn some of you off, but even so it’s decently done. One thing I liked was how they came at it in part from an angle that’s not seen quite so much–that of the point of view of those people who’ve lived their lives in an alternate (and screwed up, from SG-1’s point of view) timeline. To them, it’s SG-1’s timeline that’s the alternate; they like their own just fine, thank you very much, and why the hell should they bother to help and mess up THEIR billions of lives? (As an alternate-Landry put it, “The arrogance of what you’re asking us to help you do is mind-boggling!”) Who’s to say which is more correct? This question leads to a middle of the film that’s really rather poignant and interesting in terms of the characters themselves.

I’m not sure if SG-1 virgins or casual viewers would find that section quite as interesting, however, as they’re not nearly so familiar with these characters. As a fan of the show it’s hard for me to judge. I will say that the writers did do a decent job of catching up the new viewers to the Stargate setting without getting bogged down with it.

The plot as a whole is pretty well done, at least until you get to the end, but I’ll talk about that in a moment. There was one genuinely unexpected twist that I was quite happy to see. I only wish they’d had more time to develop the ramifications of it. That’s perhaps why the ending is where I had the most problem. It’s just…missing something. (Jack O’Neill maybe? He’s in much of the first half before fading away.) It all wraps up too quickly, and I found myself wondering what they could’ve done if this were a four-episode arc of the show. One thing I will say: Character death shouldn’t be milked for tragedy points when you’re operating around time machines–or at the very least, not when you’re standing IN time machines. Going to slow-mo just gives the viewer more time to realize that, oh, hey, they can fix that fairly easily right now.

One more thing I did find interesting: Baal’s a jerk, yes, but oddly he’s NOT quite up to his old tricks. He seems to have learned from his mistakes…or at least most of them, which leads into part of that twist I mentioned.

As for the DVD extras, along with the usual DVD previews there’s a commentary by the writer and director as well as three featurettes. I haven’t yet had time to listen to the commentary, but I did take a look at the featurettes.

First, The Layman’s Guide to Time Travel. Being a speculative fiction writer, I have a weakness for scientific theories like time travel, alternate dimensions and such explained in layman’s terms so those of us who don’t have the benefit of a PhD in mathematics can see the wonder in them. My only complaint here is that at nine minutes, it’s too short. It would’ve been great to see them explore the two theories of how time travel might work a little bit more, for instance. Still, what we do get is interesting and fun, at least for us geek-types.

The twenty-minute Making of Stargate Continuum featurette is fun to watch, too. (Anyone who’s seen any of the SG-1 making-of specials that have aired on the Sci-Fi Channel knows what they’re in for here, style-wise if not content-wise, so I won’t go into detail.)

The best of the three would have to be the Stargate Goes to the Arctic featurette, which documents the experience of actually traveling to the Arctic Circle to film on a sheet of ice in negative twenty-degree temperatures. With all of the to-do about the cast and crew filming on-location (seen online and on the preview for Continuum on the Ark of Truth DVD) I was expecting more of the movie to take place there than we see on-screen. Don’t get me wrong, the Arctic is certainly in the movie, but I suspect that going there was a much bigger deal for the actors and crew than it is for us viewers who sit down to watch in our warm living rooms. Indeed, the twenty-two minutes of the featurette certainly show a more interesting (real) adventure. In fact it may be my favorite part of the entire DVD, and I say that with no slight to the movie itself.

So, bottom line, if you’re a fan, it’s worth picking up. (And that means YOU, Denise.) If you’ve never seen the show, well, at least give it a rental so you can help support the show, ’cause I want another DVD, dangit! 🙂

…And I really did mean for this to be a BRIEF review when I started. Ah, well.

Michael G. Munz
www.michaelgmunz.com

(Technorati tags: Stargate, Continuum, DVD review)