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— Scott Edelman, Editor-in-Chief
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lthough it is hairsplitting, try to be accurate in your titles. ... [in Science Fiction Weekly's review of Underworld] you printed [in the subhead]:
"Kate Beckinsale sports fake leather, fangs and a nifty pair of Glocks to hunt an ancient race of werewolves."
[Kate Beckinsale's character] didn't use Glocks. She used a modified Beretta 93R capable of full automatic fire, and an HK USP. An example of the 93R can be seen here: mcp.cpu.lu/handguns/database/Handguns/BM93R/bm93r.htm
Next time don't guess.
Robert Kirk
rbkirk@hotmail.com
Editor Scott Edelman responds:
We appreciate that bit of weaponry wisdom, Robert. (And since we're a Web publication, we can go ahead and make that correction right now!)
Best,
Scott
nderworld is arguably the most influential vampire's love story since Bram Stoker's Dracula or Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
Science fiction has always been helpful in finding a place for these mythical creatures. Such as Doctor Who with two vampiristic stories: "State of Decay" and "The Curse of Fenric," and a female werewolf named Mags (played by Jessica Martin) in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy."
Dracula, the most legendary vampire in human lore, has been portrayed in a variety of forms by Bela Lugosi, Gerald Butler, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella and Gary Oldman whose performance as a tragic anti-hero Dracula who goes to Heaven instead of back to Hell, helped
display the enduring character's potential.
Kate Beckinsale is set for another vampire story called Van Helsing. It is obvious that vampirism will always be an inescapable factor of Earth fiction.
As for werewolves, Wolf with Jack Nicholson in his most animalistic performance (and with another happy ending) is arguably my vote for the best werewolf epic in recent years.
Frankenstein (the original with Boris Karloff) has been voted by AFI as one of the best films of the past millennium and has inspired its own variety of science-fiction formats including Doctor Who's "The Brain of Morbius." The epitome of its dimensionalism is arguably Young Frankenstein with Gene Wilder as the comedic mad scientist and Peter Boyle as the spoof of the monster.
Monsters such as these classics will always have their share of appeal in the science fiction universe.
Michael Anthony Basil
mike.basil@sympatico.ca
egarding Carl Thompson's letter in [Science Fiction Weekly's] Letters in Issue #335 which is titled: Original BSG Ripped Off Star Wars.
He has made a mistake that some have gotten wrong.
Glen Larson came up with a science fiction TV series called Adama Ark in early 1970s after the writings of Daniken's on the Ancient Astronauts theory was starting out. Unfortunately, at the time, TV networks as well as movie studios were not interested in doing anything in the area of science fiction. [They thought it was] too expensive to make and also thought [that] the viewing audience would not want to watch such programs.
Also, 20th Century Fox did sue Universal Studios on copyright infringement on BSG saying it ripped off their Star Wars picture. A judge and federal court heard the arguments and threw out the case. Citing that there were many instances where similar ideas showed up in literature and comic books [in recent] years (if not decades earlier). George Lucas just happened to get his version onto film first.
Also, many may remember the anime TV series called Space Cruiser Yamato released in the USA in 1979 under the title of Star Blazers. When this was shown on American TV many people said, "Oh, look the Japanese animators ripped off Star Wars..." Did they?
Starblazers was released on Japanese television in the year 1974, it was also a popular comic-book series in Japan in the late 1960s to early 1970s. Star Wars came out in movie theaters in 1977. Let's see if my math is correct: There is a three-year difference between Star Wars and Star Blazers. I believe in 1974 George Lucas was still celebrating the success of American Graffiti.
There is a robot character on Star Blazers called Analyser (in USA version it's called IQ-99) which looks like alot like Star Wars' cute little robot R2-D2. [There are also similarities with the] spaceship dogfight battles ... So who is actually ripping off who?
One thing I can say is the success of Star Wars got the movie executives in Hollywood to take notice and say, "Hey, there is a big market in all this sci-fi stuff!"
Anyways, Gene Roddenberry had been trying to do a Star Trek movie for years. Paramount Pictures kept looking into this, put some money into this and dropped it, again and again. After Star Wars became a big money-making hit in the theatres, Paramounts' suits went to Roddenberry saying they would like to take a much closer look at Star Trek.
So Mr. Thompson, saying BSG ripped off Star Wars is not true.
Sharon Booker
sharon25booker@yahoo.com
nough is enough—no more belittling, apologizing or reminiscing of the youthful Battlestar Galactica long gone ("Original BSG Ripped Off Star Wars", "Galactica's Magic Is No More", "A Better Battlestar Awaits").
The strategy now for Battlestar Galactica, and its brave squadrons of
Colonial Warriors is becoming Stargate's sci-fi wingman, taking its first maiden steps into the new millenium—a Phoenix rising from the ashes of its short-lived past, and becoming a permanent fixture on SCI FI for many years to come, brilliantly spreading its wings in creativity and drama.
The past is prologue—let the destiny of Battlestar Galactica finally begin...
George Person
phxrox2002@yahoo.com
know this is nitpicky, but some of the information in the 2003 SF TV Preview Part II was incorrect. Concerning the preview of Stargate SG-1, it is stated that SG-1 is: "... by far the longest-running sci-fi series on the air, and comes in only second to The X-Files as all-time longest-running series."
While I have no problem with the accuracy of the first part of the statement, the latter portion is incorrect. The X-Files lasted for nine seasons but that doesn't even reach halfway to the longest-running sci-fi show of all time. I am, of course, talking about the financially and special effects-challenged Doctor Who. This British sci-fi staple ran for 28 seasons on the BBC and is celebrating its 40th birthday this November. If SG-1 plans on taking the longevity title, they may have move the stargate to an old-folks home.
James Blake
jblakeiii@yahoo.com
Reviewer Kathie Huddleston responds:
Dear James: Of course you're right about Doctor Who and its long run on BBC. I should have added "on American television" to my statement. I'm sure others were thinking the same thing. Thanks for writing to clear that up.
Take care,
Best,
Kathie
s if the first episode of the new season of what is now called Star Trek: Enterprise (re-named because watching the show no one would guess this has any connection to Gene [Roddenberry]'s wonderful universe) was not bad enough with a pink lip-glossed Vulcan in a June Lockhart Lost in Space blue uniform, angry captain and total lack of plot, but the second episode shows that [Rick] Berman has decided to continue down the path of Trek ruin.
We have a "cloak" on the Enterprise—excuse me—there can be no cloak as Kirk has [yet] to steal the technology from the Romulans! Technology that Scotty has never seen before—thus the prototype Enterprise can not have a cloak.
Next episode, number three for the season—we have three Enterprise crewmembers turning into another species. Where have we seen this before—oh yes—on Next Generation as Geordi and a few others became reptiles; on Voyager—three times—one, when Janeway and Paris become lizards, two, Enterprise a la re-tread of needing to add to a alien population, when Voyager's ensign grew spots, and three, when the Voyager crew was brainwashed into serving as mechanics!
As if all this is not bad enough—along with the total lack of anything for the Enterprise helmsman to do (oh, yes, he did get to sit in the big chair for about as long as a commercial break)—next week we have the promise of another nearly naked alien. A "beautiful slave girl" wearing—of course to attract those young male rating desirables—a thong!
I know that in the original series the women wore mini-skirts—but they were skirts—not thongs!
And since Berman has said over and over that he can not follow all canon for props and aliens because he needs to update the show to attract young viewers—then why does he not follow this into social norms. Why does he not update that fact that women in the year 2003 have careers and do not appreciate being used as sex objects? Do the women in his family approve of his displaying women on the show as thong wearers? Do they like the fact that he has turned a full-blooded Vulcan—a race known to meditate in long robes before bed—into a belly button massage therapist for angry crewmembers? That the doctor's best solution to anger is to use an officer as a sex therapist?
All this hype about a new direction that will save the show when what Berman really means is just sex-up the show, add lots of gun battles and forget that Roddenberry created a universe of IDIC, of pacifists, of equality and so much more that generated legions of fans worldwide. If Roddenberry saw what his show has become he would run screaming not just from the set—but from the planet!
I have heard some people say that Berman is going for new younger viewers and that he doesn't fear losing the longtime fans because he believes such devoted fans are a lock. Well, I disagree and so do many of my longtime fan friends. If he keeps dragging down the Star Trek we know and love that "lock" will be broken and the series will end up tossed out an airlock by the network. And this time, unlike in the 1960s—there will be no loyal fanbase to mount a campaign to keep the series on the air!
Thank you for allowing me to express my views. I know their are fans who like the show. I appreciate that there is room for everyone's opinion.
Gloria Hoffner
Gloriah311@aol.com
n a recent issue of Science Fiction Weekly, reader Dan Ware wrote ("Today Is Not Bradbury's Future"):
Please. More alarmist worrying. Today's society is far from the dreaded future depicted in Fahrenheit 451. As for your example above, please don't forget that these book/CD burnings are not state-sponsored but the actions of a few raving fanatics. Constitutionally, it is as much their right to burn the books as it is for the books to be written in the first place.
This would be nice to believe, but if you read this article from Ditch in 1995, you can see not only did Ray Bradbury predict decades ago the ever-increasing movement towards political correctness, he clearly predicted the ever-increasing censorship of books written both today, and in the past. And you may be surprised or shocked to learn the extent to which Mr. Bradbury's work, a cautionary tale of censorship, has itself been the victim of politically correct censorship over the years: www.thornwalker.com/ditch/dtw_451.htm
Pay particular attention to the following section:
A final irony is revealed in the new Ballantine edition's afterword, in which Bradbury discusses how his own works, and those of others, have fallen victim to the same tendencies he prophesied. He gets letters suggesting that he "do over" short stories to enhance the roles of women and blacks. Editors of an anthology for students remove a reference to God. He describes a one-volume collection of 400 short stories—four hundred—edited for high school kids:
Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito—out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron's mouth twitch—gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer—lost!
Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like—in the finale—Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant's attention—shot dead. [p. 176] ...
... Only six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some 75 separate sections from [Fahrenheit 451]. [p. 176]
Now while Mr. Ware may be right that the state isn't sanctioning the burning of books, there certainly seems to be an inescapably growing movement for publishers pressured by school boards, special interest groups and lobbyists to at least put the words within those books to the torch.
Sean Huxter
sean@turbinegames.com
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