I’ve spent all week reading articles about which shows are getting axed and which shows are getting picked up. For an avid sci-fi television fan, this time of year can be the most brutal. Networks just don’t seem to give good sci-fi a chance. Past shows like Jericho, Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Flash Forward come to mind. Even this year, freshman drama, Limitless, is facing imminent cancellation. One thing that those sci-fi shows have in common is that they aired on broadcast television, as opposed to a cable network. What if I were to tell you that there is an amazing sci-fi show, currently on the air, that has the production value of a feature film, a legitimately talented cast of actors, rich characters, and a deep mythology rooted in a film with an established fan base?
There is. It’s called 12 Monkeys and it’s on the cable network Syfy.
The holiday season is upon us friends. Gathering around a table full of food, sitting on couches listening to your father and brother scream at the refs in a football game because obviously that is going to help, watching your niece and nephew eat their weight in Christmas cookies, and spending that quality time with your grandmother as she tells you to never have children because they are such a bad idea.
So in a week filled with overnight lines and shoulder-to-shoulder crowds, Comic Con was crammed with hundreds of panels and booths. The one I had the most fun at though, was the one that closed out my weekend. Starting at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, in a room of around a thousand people, I saw a panel of Sci-Fi geeks who seemed like they were truly enjoying themselves. The group, moderated by Mark Altman (Free Enterprise) has been doing this panel since 2002, and it seemed pretty unanimous that this was the best version to date. The whole idea is to nominate a bracket full of famous Sci-Fi Starships, and argue out who would win each matchup in the bracket.
Altman’s panel included the lovely Madison Dylan in her full-out Star Trek Geek glory, dressed as an ‘Orion slave girl’, and playing Altman’s ‘Vanna White’ as she worked the board. Among the panelists Thor and X-Men: First Class writer Ashley E. Miller, Rob Burnett who just finished an extensive documentary for the ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation 25th Aniversary Blu Rays‘, Star Wars Comic Book writer and artisit Chris Gossett, Clone Wars writer Steve Melching, former Millennium writer Kay Reindl, and Geek Magazine executive editor Jeff Bond. Mr. Bond, who has, what I’m sure his wife would call “an excessive amount” of Starship models, worked with Geek Magazine to create a poster of all the ships built to scale. The poster, which will be available in the upcoming 2nd issue of Geek (on Newsstands in August), was distributed to the audience as a guide.
Once it got started, it quickly turned into a comedy routine as the panelists tore apart the ships almost as quickly as each other. The level of comfort between them was obvious, and made for a good viewing experience. And I’m not just saying that because I was seated next to Nikki Griffin, who was in the midst of a rather convincing ‘Emma Frost’ Cosplay.
Here is some lucky son’abitch posing with Madison and Nikki…
The headline stealing real event of the day though came near the end of the panel (which by that point had run more than 30 minutes over) when renowned astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson emerged from the audience to comment.
Tyson as he is know to most of the internet…
This was not planned, and the spontaneity of the whole thing left even the most veteran panelists star struck…
It’s funny, as I was sat there, watching the girls on either side of me (Nikki Griffin and my friend Anna in her Sookie Stackhouse Cosplay) totally Geek out over Dr. Tyson’s appearance, I think it was still a little lost on me just how special a moment I had witnessed. Rob Burnett popped such a nerd boner I thought he was gonna flip the table. And now, in the few days since, while collecting my thoughts (and traveling) this story has blown up all over the place. I think the Hollywood Reporter put it best though:
“For all of its overblown, over-inflated, hyper-stimulated mania, sometimes the San Diego Comic-Con can deliver a moment of glorious inspiration, one that reminds us why we love the things we love and how that love knits us together. And that Kirk’s Enterprise is just friggin’ cool.”
And with influence from Trekkies like Altman, Madison Dylan, Jeff Bond, Rob Burnett, and Dr. Tyson – it’s not surprising that they out voiced Star Wars loyalist Steve Melching to end with the original ‘Enterprise’ won out the whole bracket this year.
This is one of Jeff Bond’s models featured on the poster…
The apple does not fall far from the tree. In the world of Femme Fatales though, it just means that apple will fall off the tree, find some poor sap and have sex with it until she gets her way. This episode of Family Business is an interesting one as it operates as a direct sequel to an episode from the first season called Angels & Demons. You can obviously read the review by clicking here in case you need to get reacquainted but we will just assume that you read it or saw the episode and want me to get to the good stuff.
A couple weeks ago we showed you 2 trailers for the impending second season of Femme Fatales, which premieres tonight on Cinemax. So to get everyone ready, we’ve got some more stuff now. This includes a sneak peak and several interviews with some of the people involved, including such beauties as Nikki Griffin and Madison Dylan. Check it out, and then watch the show tonight. Also, a lot of people who have HBO may also have Cinemax and not even know about it, so double check.
Grizzly Bomb 