Site of the Week -- Sept. 7, 1999
lliance Atlantis Entertainment is working to bring best-selling author Anne McCaffrey's The Dragonriders of Pern series to television, and Pern.com is the official--though not yet complete--site for the new show. Despite its "in progress" status, now is a good time to bookmark this site for those interested in keeping up to date on all the series' developments, such as casting, images, merchandise and everything that accompanies the birth of a new TV show.
Currently the best section of Pern.com is the FAQ in the Have Your Say area, which has the scoop on how the show will relate to McCaffrey's novels, and also explores some of the challenges involved in bringing such a rich world to the small screen. There is also a survey that asks questions like "Which tale do you favor most?" This appears to be a chance for Pern fans to influence the direction the show will take.
In the site's News and Events section, a time line outlines significant dates of the production schedule (casting begins in November 1999, so get those head shots sent in soon). Currently the Events area has photos of McCaffrey and other members of the Pern team at the 1999 Dragon*Con. There's also a biography of McCaffrey, a QuickTime movie of her speaking, and a listing of the many awards she's won for her writing.
This site is professionally designed and informative, and it will only get better with time. One thing to note is that while the Flash plug-in is not required, it is helpful.
-- J.B. Peck
Site of the Week -- Aug. 30, 1999
he end of Back to the Future, Part III is just the
beginning for the Hill Valley Telegraph, a fan site that chronicles
the famous Back to the Future movie trilogy in minute detail.
The site is home to the Back to the Future fan club, a successor
to the official club and a backer of all things BTTFish. It opens with
an unnecessary splash page that leads into a newspaper-style news page.
The news follows the happenings of all the major--and some of the minor--characters in the movies, fanatically digging up briefs about Steven
Spielberg's doings, Michael J. Fox's Spin City sitcom, and even
Elisabeth Shue's recovery from a torn Achilles tendon.
Aside from the news page, the Telegraph also has many more goodies, like
stills of Eric Stoltz as the "original" Marty McFly, a short rumors page and
a detailed FAQ section. Finally, the Back to the Future, Part
IV area serves up lots of juicy (and controversial) rumors about a
possible sequel, passed on by the site's version of Deep Throat.
-- Kenneth Newquist
Site of the Week -- Aug. 23, 1999
ree Sci-Fi Classics, a site created by Blake Linton Wilfong (who
calls himself "The Wondersmith"), presents without charge 14 science fiction
stories now in the public domain, all originally published before 1920.
Wilfong also adds a pair of his own short-shorts to the selections.
Only four of the 12 authors featured are known primarily for
science fiction: Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Murray
Leinster. But the other eight are among the most renowned writers of the
last 250 years, including Hans Christian Andersen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard
Kipling, Jack London, Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Mark Twain and Voltaire.
Saki's "Tobermory," surprisingly, is the most enjoyable story on the site.
It's a hysterically funny tale about what happens when a scientist
teaches a cat to talk. Voltaire's stories "Micromegas" and "Plato's
Dream" are witty challenges to both the secular and religious
philosophies of his time. And Wells' "A Dream of Armageddon" is a brilliant
drama about a man who has a strange dream of the future that seems all
too real. Most of the other stories are also enjoyable, and they give readers
some interesting insights into the early development of SF.
The downside to this site is that Wilfong has taken it upon himself to do some
editing, which he describes as minor. The most egregious example
of this is Twain's "From the
London Times of 1904," in which his changes "fix a plot flaw" and eliminate
one of the endings. Without being able compare these altered tales to the original versions,
it's impossible to tell what the real impact of Wilfong's changes is. But, aside from this
bizarre caveat, Free Sci-Fi Classics is a site well worth
visiting for readers interested in SF's origins.
-- Clinton Lawrence
