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just read an article in SCI FI Wire that talked about how the Star Trek franchise had to be defended by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.
I would like to say that I think Enterprise is the all-time best Star Trek series ever produced. I find it to be the most enjoyable and most dramatic. I love the fact that they are closer to us technologically. By the time they got to Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was way, way too advanced on too many fronts. So advanced, in fact, that if you really watched the episodes, you could always pick a technology they demonstrated in one episode to show how the conflict of another could easily have been overcome or avoided altogether. It was only by the writers "selectively forgetting" about past advancements that they could ever put the crew in harm's way.
Nemesis failed in the box office because of that, people became bored with the story lines of TNG, all of them ended up being too contrived, all due to the incredibly advanced technology and infrastructure. The challenges always had to be so over the top to even be minimally believable.
I know several people who share my views that Enterprise is the best, most enjoyable version of the franchise to date. But, and here's the kicker—I have been trying to write to UPN to tell them how much I love the show and to lend my support to its continued production, but their Web site doesn't accept any feedback!
If there is flagging support for the show, it's because UPN doesn't listen to its viewers.
Nick M.
galvorniii@yahoo.com
n response to Fullen Andrews' question ("Galactica Remark Is Olmos Famous") as to why cast members of the new Battlestar Galactica miniseries would ask the die-hard fans of the original series to refrain from viewing, the answer is most likely a very simple one. This new revival is making a lot of changes, such as making Starbuck a woman, among other things. These alterations may infuriate, or rather, they will infuriate some if not all of the old-school fans as they watch the series become bastardized in their eyes.
While the actual fan reaction will be hard to gauge until the miniseries premieres, Olmos has justification in his request that the hardcore fans of the original Battlestar avoid the remake. I hesitate to use the term "fanboyism," but it's really the best description of what he would like to see be avoided. The idea that anyone should be offended in a sense bordering on religious heresy because the new isn't anything like the old is disappointing, to say nothing of ludicrous. However, there is a large population of these sorts of fans out there in every segment of fandom, ranging from Battlestar Galactica, to anime, to the ubiquitous overzealous Trekkie. I'm quite frankly surprised that more actors in similar situations haven't taken the opportunity to give similar warnings.
So if I may, I'd like to echo the sentiments of the cast of the Battlestar remake. If you deeply, deeply love the original television series and can't stand the thought of anything being seriously altered, you should think twice before watching it.
Justin Graham
jgraham_70@hotmail.com
ancy Myers ("Sci-Fi Ain't What It Used to Be") is largely correct about the deterioration of SF on television. Brandy "I hate Star Trek" Braga shoves his girlfriend into a fake Starfleet suit 12 sizes too small for her implants and calls it Star Trek? I think not. Star Trek: Enterprise, to use the series' original, unBragafied title, treats T'Pol a little bit better—at least she can think for herself without relying on certain attributes not connected with cognition.
Scare Tactics? How is that show connected in any way to SF? Is it fantasy in the vein of The Matrix, trying to convince us that "reality television" is reality? I have news—the show in question is not SF, is not tasteful and is not worthy of its place on the SCI FI Channel.
There have been a few really good SF films out this year. Personally my favorite was the maligned Star Trek Nemesis.
And finally: Leave Battlestar Galactica in its grave. Please.
Henrik Harbin
kirneh1@cox.net
have read many reviews about the movie 28 Days Later. The reviews say that
it is "scary as hell." I disagree. While I thoroughly enjoy a good scare, this one did not even give me a chill bump. The only thing I enjoyed about this film was the excellently done gore. I must say that if Hollywood is going to call this movie "scary as hell" I may as well give up on that genre and try something else.
Stephanie
Janeway_omega@yahoo.com
hanks for the review of the Alien Legend site. I've been a longtime fan of
the Alien franchise (mostly the first two movies), and it was great to get reacquainted with my once-favorite heroes.
I'd also like to comment on something wonderful that the creators/moderators of the site did: They gave us the option of opening the site in a new, full-screen window, or keeping it in the active window. Too many sites out there deprive users like me from making that choice ... they don't even inform me that they're going to change my preferred mode of viewing!
So thanks for your review, and thanks to the folks at Alien Legend. I wish that more Web designers followed their example.
Mayumi-H
saveen@dhmail.net
ost people are completely missing the point of casting a new and younger Batman to tell the story of Batman: Year One (before he decided to don the bat-cowl). While I personally have no objection to, say, maybe Clint Eastwood or David Boreanaz, they seem to be a bit too old for the part ("Angel Deserves to Be Batman", "Batman Must Decide on Campy or Dark", "Gibson Should Prowl Gotham"). I'm really excited about the possibility of Orlando Bloom playing the new Superman, but not Ashton Kutcher playing Batman. We need someone young with a dark edge to him ... say Brendan Fehr (Roswell), Nick Wechsler (Roswell) or how about Nick Stahl (T3)? Even Elijah Wood could play the twisted soul that is Bruce Wayne.
Now, while I feel that Orlando Bloom is a good pick for Superman, I don't think Drew Barrymore is Lois material. Could I suggest someone with a more "rigged/sexy/independent" edge, such as everyone's favorite bad-girl, Eliza Dushku? Let's face it, Superman needs a tough independent woman to even him out.
T.W. Wallcae
toysoldiers_2000@yahoo.com
n response to the letter from Tom Nguyen promoting Angel as a candidate to play Batman ("Angel Deserves to Be Batman") ... it is pure folly! Boreanaz is a one-dimensional actor who can barely pull off Angel.
A much better choice would be Xander [Nicholas Brendon] from the now-defunct Buffy the Vampire. He is personable, versatile and looks the part. He has the muscles and could even play Superman.
Stephen LaFevers
stevelafevers@hotmail.com
ruth is stranger than fiction, the adage goes, but it's rare when a grim tale gives us much-needed insight on the most fantastic of literature.
In 1943, returning from a mission over Nazi Germany, an American bomber crashed into the Mediterranean. Five survived aboard two life rafts. It was cold, dark and the wind was howling, but the airmen remained confident even after the rafts separated; when dawn broke, an Army Air Force seaplane would rescue them. Standard operating procedure accomplished time and time again.
As sharks began circling, the two men aboard the second raft discovered that their rubber dinghy was leaking. Refusing to panic, they took turns pumping. Their hands swelled up and bled, but they kept at it until the morning sun brought the rescue plane. Shivering and exhausted, but alive, they joined in the search for their fellow crewmen.
The other raft, fully inflated, was recovered less than a mile away. All three aboard were dead, victims of hypothermia and exposure. Only then did the two remaining survivors realize that their leaky boat had inadvertently saved their lives.
Scott Edelman's editorial on Michigan State University's no longer funding the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop is but the tip of the iceberg in the genre's sea of troubles.
In Great Britain, Simon & Schuster announced that it was shutting down Earthlight, its SF & F imprint and hinted at further cutbacks in the United States. Del Rey, once a fixed star in the SF & F Universe, will soon be a shadow of its former self as its editor-in-chief has been slotted to Ballantine and another editor is quitting. Other Random House employees will soon be offered early retirement or summarily fired. The Star Trek line, which helped float so many other boats, is sinking fast and taking jobs down with it.
Throughout the industry, heads are rolling as sales plummet even among the biggest names. Market experts are predicting huge losses and massive layoffs. Smaller, independent publishers will be forced into bankruptcy or be gobbled up by entertainment conglomerates who will control more and more of what we read, further homogenizing the genre top-heavy with movie, TV, computer game and comic-book tie-ins and spinoffs. Is this the end of science fiction and fantasy publishing as we know it?
Before we buy into this gloom and doom and are overwhelmed with waves of despair, let us remember the heroic crew of that WW II American bomber. There are those, disillusioned by past successes, who maintain that the industry is cyclical and that if they sit back and stoically wait out these dark times, the dawn of a better tomorrow will surely save them. Others have already given up and abandoned the ship, seeking safer waters elsewhere.
Indeed these times will decide who survives and who succumbs, but in crisis I see opportunity. Publishers, editors, agents and especially writers, pump as you've never pumped before and never let up. Our leaky boat needs fresh, vibrant air created and energized with fervent originality and enthusiasm. Let those not up to the task disappear without a splash. Science fiction and fantasy will sail on to bigger, better and brighter things without them.
Kevin Ahearn
KEVTOMA@aol.com
here's a point which seems to have slipped under the radar of correspondents, concerning the lack of Christianity in sci-fi ("There's No Shortage of Religious SF", "SF Won't Preach to the Converted", "Christian SF Already Exists"). That being, the sackloads of criticism and vociferous hostility that any such attempt inevitably attracts. Not from the ordinary, amiable folk, who happen to hold religious beliefs. But from what, in the UK, are known as God-botherers. We have one as our Prime Minister, and anyone not taken in by the showbiz and perma-grin, will know what a ghastly problem he presents. PC madness, as heavily endorsed by Blair and Co., has stifled creativity in all areas of the UK media. Worse still, there are currently moves afoot to introduce laws which would make it a criminal offence to write anything which may be considered offensive to anyone else on religious or ethnic grounds! This is regardless of its intent, or
origin. For example, a writer poking good natured fun at a national stereotype—think any English character in a Hollywood movie or SF TV series—could be fined, or even imprisoned on charges of inciting racial hatred!
The idea of wasting huge amounts of time dealing with God-botherers must surely put SF writers off using Christianity as part of a plot. In the worst cases, the more fanatical of these people think God wants them to kill anyone who doesn't agree with their interpretations of His
word. Interpretations which, 100 percent of the time, are written down by other men. The same is true with regard to fanaticism within Judaism and Islam. The author Salman Rushdie wrote a work of fiction, and as a result was placed under a Fatwah from the fanatics in Iran. Many more authors have been accused of anti-semitism, when all they've really done is include a nasty character who happens to be Jewish.
As the continued nonsense generated by the misguided against Harry Potter shows, authors are damned if they do and damned if they don't. The only Potter story which the fundamentalists would ever accept, is one where he abandons all magic, prays incessantly and ignores all of those dirty teenage thoughts. Unfortunately, that kind of story would be hell for the rest of us.
Nathan Brazil
nathanbrazilREMOVETHIS@freeuk.com
would just like to keep you up-to-date on our ever-growing campaign to save the show ABC threw away, Miracles.
Ever since the show was canceled, ABC closed down their large message board dedicated to the show, leaving the fans to find a new place to go and discuss it. This place ended up being hosted on ezBoard. Please take a moment to browse through the thousands of posts that have accumulated since February.
In addition to the Miracles Message Board on ezBoard, we also have been swamping SCI FI's own message board with Miracles talk. Again, please take the time to see what we have to say about the show on [the Channel's] own message boards. This is the largest thread in the TV Colony category.
I am sure [SCI FI has] received many, many emails from fans pleading for [them] to take up the show, and I will be just another to ask for a miracle. Please save our show. Please give the people who do not have the SCI FI Channel the opportunity to get it simply to watch one show. In my case, I have no reason to pay extra for the network as it stands now, but if you air Miracles, I will subscribe faster than anyone else has in the past. Please help us to become life-long fans of the SCI FI Channel.
Lastly, I would like to direct your attention to another Save Miracles campaign site, which has been circulated in ads in Hollywood Reporter and the daily edition of Variety magazine. You will find other important information on our campaign here: http://www.miraclestv.com/MiraclesTVHome.htm
Thank you so much for your time. It is greatly appreciated.
Heather Link
kikoutei_rekka@hotmail.com
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