A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
The first trailer for Stranger Things 2 is here. It’s 1984 and the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana are still reeling from the horrors of the demogorgon and the secrets of Hawkins Lab. Will Byers has been rescued from the Upside Down but a bigger, sinister entity still threatens those who survived.
Season 2 premieres October 27, 2017.
Oh, boy, "Dragon's Lair," "Thriller," and "Ghostbusters" -- I don't need the Reagan/Bush lawn signs to tell me that it's 1984, specifically, Halloween 1984.* That written, as soon as I watched it, I told my wife she had to as well. We both loved it and it made us excited for the series' return. It also convinced me to make today's post about San Diego Comic Con trailers, something I hadn't done heresince2015. Follow over the jump for trailers from "Westworld," "The Walking Dead," "Star Trek: Discovery," and more television shows.**
Once again, I put the topic of today's entry up for a vote. This time, all the votes came in as comments to the blog entry instead of the blog's Facebook page. Infidel 753 requested "Westworld" while Paul Wartenberg cast a write-in for "Doctor Who." That left me to break the tie, which I did in favor of "Westworld." Sorry, Paul. Maybe next time.
Infidel made the follow argument on behalf of his choice:
Enough preliminaries -- time to talk about the show itself. I begin with this bit of promotion barely disguised as a news report, Wochit Entertainment's What Is HBO's Westworld About?
Westworld, the new sci-fi drama series from HBO, promises to explore the current human fascination and dependency on technology, while exposing what our darkest desires are without having any consequence. Of course the series is getting the HBO treatment, meaning more sex, more violence, and more shockers than the original film.
The similarities between Jurassic Park and, by extension, JurassicWorld, and "Westworld" hit me very early in my watching. Both explore the concept of using advanced technologies, genetic engineering in the case of the "Jurassic Park" movies and artificial intelligence plus robotics in the case of "Westworld," to create the attractions in a theme park. Of course, both works originally come from the same author, Michael Crichton, and "Westworld" came first, so the inspiration probably flowed from the cowboy robots to the genetically engineered dinosaurs. It seems that the influence has now flowed from back to its source, with "Jurassic Park" now coloring HBO's "Westworld." Watch Westworld is Just Jurassic Park from College Humor to see even more commonalities between the two franchises.
Imagine a theme park populated with things from the past that eight year olds love...
Just because it's a joke doesn't mean it's not all true. Just the same, I doubt the parallels involving the park's creators were there in the original "Westworld" movie. Instead, I suspect they were added by executive producer J.J. Abrams and showrunners Jonathan Nolan and wife Lisa Joy, especially J.J. Abrams. Not only did he suggest that the remake be a TV series from the androids' point of view, his "mystery box" philosophy of storytelling runs through the show. I wouldn't put it past him to bring in some of the tropes from "Jurassic Park" to flesh out the current miniseries.
I have more to write about "Westworld," but I'll save it for another installment. Stay tuned.
I may geek out more about "Star Wars" on this blog than "Star Trek," but the universe of the United Federation of Planets and Star Fleet was my first science fiction media fandom. As such, last week was a good week for me and others who share this particular enthusiasm. First, Wednesday saw Star Trek Television Logo and First Look Teaser Revealed by CBS.
At the CBS Upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall in New York on May 18, CBS unveiled the logo for the new STAR TREK television series within the first-ever promotional video for the highly-anticipated program.
It's been more than a decade since "Star Trek: Enterprise" went off the air, resulting in no more new "Star Trek" on television. The movies have had to fill the gap. In fact, for once, the movies are leading the TV series.
To survive, they must go beyond. Watch the new trailer for Star Trek Beyond now!
Looks even more action-packed than the first two, which is saying something. Then again, the director is the same one as for "Furious 7"; he knows how to film action.
Aside from debuting the second trailer to the Justin Lin Directed Star Trek Beyond, JJ Abrams revealed to the Paramount's Star Trek event audience that CBS and Paramount Pictures would be dropping the lawsuit against Alec Peter, who was behind the upcoming fan film Star Trek Axanar. Abrams also let the crowd know that it was actually Beyond's Justin Lin who convinced Paramount and CBS to drop the suit. Usually fan-made projects are not a problem, but the assumption that most have come to is that because of the immense amount of crowdfunding that was done (over 600,000), the companies got uncomfortable with the project's large size.
Good news worthy of the series' fiftieth anniversary!
J. J. Abrams – Star Wars: The Force Awakens Guillermo del Toro – Crimson Peak Alex Garland – Ex Machina George Miller – Mad Max: Fury Road Peyton Reed – Ant-Man Ridley Scott – The Martian Colin Trevorrow – Jurassic World
Out of this distinguished group, I'd vote for George Miller. He was able to tell a great story with lots of visuals and very little dialog. My second choice would be Ridley Scott and the third would be Alex Garland. As for who will win, I expect this electorate might give the award to J. J. Abrams, who is my fourth choice.
For Entertainment Sunday, I'm sharing a TED talk by J.J. Abrams,* one of my favorite directors, about the object that represents his philosophy of story telling: The Mystery Box.
J.J. Abrams traces his love for the unseen mystery - a passion thats evident in his films and TV shows, including Cloverfield, Lost and Alias -- back to its magical beginnings.
As the Emmy-winning creator of the smart, addictive TV dramas Lost, Alias and Felicity, J.J. Abrams' name looms large on the small screen. As the writer/director behind the blockbuster explode-a-thon Mission: Impossible III, Cloverfield and the new Star Trek movie, these days Abrams also rules the big screen -- bringing his eye for telling detail and emotional connection to larger-than-life stories.
Abrams' enthusiasm -- for the construction of Kleenex boxes, for the quiet moments between shark attacks in Jaws, for today's filmmaking technologies, and above all for the potent mystery of an unopened package -- is incredibly infectious.
What others say
“As a boy, JJ Abrams was fascinated with magic. As a television writer, director, and producer, he has beguiled audiences with a masterful use of suspense, plot reversals, and special effects.” — Wired
While J.J. Abrams went to great lengths to free his movies from the strictures of Star Trek canon by creating a new timeline that diverged just before Kirk's birth, he also went to great lengths to ensure that the characters would stay as intact as possible.
The characters were important to him, not the events, although the next movie had echoes of what occurred in the TV show and second movie.
Happy Monday the 13th! This weekend was San Diego Comic Con, which has become a massive Hollywood hype event in the middle of the greatest nerdstravaganza of the year. There are panels for TV shows and movies at which the studios unveil their latest long-form trailers. It astonishes me that I've only mentioned it once before in The Hunger Games: Dystopia as entertainment.
Since dystopia has become even bigger entertainment since then, it should come as no surprise that a number of trailers for post-apocalyptic and other science-fiction films and TV shows were premiered at this year's event. I'll begin with the one that is probably the most anticipated, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Fans at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H were treated to a special look behind the scenes of Star Wars:The Force Awakens by director J.J. Abrams, producer and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and writer Lawrence Kasdan. The filmmakers were joined on stage by cast members Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford to the surprise and delight of fans.
At the end of the Hall H presentation, the entire Hall H audience of more than 6,000 fans were all invited to continue the celebration and join cast and filmmakers at a surprise Star Wars Fan Concert. The San Diego Symphony performed the classic Star Wars music from John Williams at the Embarcadero Marina Park South.
Vox had the following to say about the behind-the-scenes clip.
The video captures the joy of the people in front of and behind the camera and the appreciation they have for the opportunity to work on such an iconic franchise. It treats Star Wars more like an experience than a movie, and for the fans in SDCC's Hall H, that's exactly what it was.
I think it’s fair to say that Abrams and his team were having fun, and fun, if you are a fan of Star Wars, if Lucas’s original films fired your childhood imagination and fueled your childhood play, is exactly what you’d hope anyone working on a Star Wars movie would be having. The Force Awakens may yet turn out to be lousy, but moviegoers—and Disney shareholders—should be heartened that it is being made in an appropriately imaginative and playful spirit.
Here's to all that fun that the cast and crew are having coming through on the big screen.
Stay tuned for more trailers, including one each for "The Walking Dead" and "Fear the Walking Dead." Zombies!
Last week, not one, not two, but three trailers for new Star Wars products were released, one each teasing the movie, a new season of a TV show, and a video game. For the first of two Sunday entertainment entries, I take a break from DOOM to present all three, along with reactions to the movie trailer.
I begin with the trailer generating the most buzz, the one for the upcoming movie.
Follow over the jump for reactions along with the two other trailers.
For tonight's entertainment-themed entry, I'm taking advantage of today being the original Star Wars Day, which is the anniversary of the premiere of Episode IV, to make good on my promise to post reactions to last month's cast announcement for Episode VII, which I made first in Pyramids on Star Wars Day and then in Music for Revenge of the Sixth.*
First, here's what I posted at fandom_lounge on JournalFen last month.
StarWars.com: Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Announced (Warning: page seems to display properly with Internet Explorer only; Firefox and Chrome just retrieve text, missing the photo of the entire cast at Pinewood Studios.)
The Star Wars team is thrilled to announce the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII.
Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, and Max von Sydow will join the original stars of the saga, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Kenny Baker in the new film.
Director J.J. Abrams says, "We are so excited to finally share the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. It is both thrilling and surreal to watch the beloved original cast and these brilliant new performers come together to bring this world to life, once again. We start shooting in a couple of weeks, and everyone is doing their best to make the fans proud."
Star Wars: Episode VII is being directed by J.J. Abrams from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan and Abrams. Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, and Bryan Burk are producing, and John Williams returns as the composer. The movie opens worldwide on December 18, 2015.
One of the items that only displayed properly using Internet Explorer is this publicity still, which is much easier to see at Space.com.
The Space.com article pointed out an imbalance in the cast.
It should be noted, there are only two women and nine men (and two droids) in the cast announcement. Of course, with a large "space opera" ensemble, there will be many more cast along the way, and this doesn't preclude the possibility of more cameos for returnees to the franchise.
Follow over the jump for more about that angle and others dealing with the casting and Disney's reviving the franchise.
As I promised yesterday,* I'm beginning the reverse countdown of most viewed posts from the past year. I'm departing from the procedure I used the past two years, in which I ordered entries according to what I call the primary counter as the first resort, then used the secondary counter for the remainder of the top 20 entries not listed in the primary counter's top ten, as I did first in The first year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News: last of nine parts, where I called it "the alternative counter." Instead, I'm ordering them strictly according to the secondary counter, which I find much more complete, as well as more useful for an annual retrospective.
The primary counter is what I see on the blog dashboard for top posts by past two hours, day, week, month, and history of the blog, while the secondary counter is what I see when I look under all posts. It does not give a listing for the past year, which would be very convenient. The primary counter's page view statistics also tend to reach a maximum and decrease over time as duplicate page views from the same IP address and page views generated by "referrer spam" and other bots gets culled. The secondary counter tallies all page views regardless of source or duplicate views. That one does not decrease over time. It also gives stats on all entries, not merely those that make it into the top ten during one of the time frames listed above.
That explanation out of the way, the most viewed entry of the third full year of the blog is Finally, a Ringworld movie! That entry from May 23, 2013 had 1317 page views according to the secondary counter and four comments.** It was not among the all time top ten according to the primary counter, even though it has more That's the one in which I repeated my twenty-year-old grousing about how I wrote an adventure for Chaosium's Ringworld table-top RPG, but lost all that effort because the movie rights to the book were sold and the movie production company asserted that they had the game rights, too. To add insult to injury, there was no movie. Apparently, that will change, as SyFy announced that they will develop the book into a four-hour miniseries. If so, good news, but no Farnsworth until it reaches the little screen. According to this video review, that might be this fall, but I have my doubts, as IMDB lists it as 2015 and beyond.
Status: In-Development
Based on the 70s Space Science Fiction Novel "Ringworld"
Notes: Announced as a 4 Hour mini-series in development in the spring 2013...Writer "Michael R. Perry" will adapt the 1970 Science Fiction Novel for a TV show by SyFy.
As for how this entry became so frequently viewed, that's easy--the power of search terms. The phrase "ringworld movie" currently has 129 results, tying it for seventh with the URL of the blog itself among all search terms for the entire history of the blog and making it the most searched new term for the past year. In this way, the entry is similar to Detroit "what people think" meme and Dungeons and Dragons alignments for Game of Thrones characters from 2012, both of which became top entries through web searches.
As for how I feel about this, at least hundreds, if not thousands, of people have read about my misadventures with the Ringworld game and my disappoinment that there hasn't been a movie--yet. Knowing that people have heard my complaints and that something is being done about them, even if I had nothing to do with the action, will generally get me to shut up about them. It may also be enough to get me to buy a Larry Niven book again, too.
Both major science fiction franchises were in the news this past week as the government acknowledged their importance.* First, Star Trek received a consolation prize from NASA, as Mike Wall of Space.com reported in 'Star Trek' on Pluto? It Could Really Happen, Scientists Say.
While the naming gods have swatted away an attempt to christen one of Pluto's newfound moons "Vulcan," the "Star Trek" universe may still leave its mark on the dwarf planet soon enough.
After NASA's New Horizons spacecraft gets the first up-close views of Pluto in 2015, craters, mountains and other features spotted on the dwarf planet's surface could bear the names of famous "Star Trek" characters, researchers said.
"We might have craters called Sulu and Spock and Kirk and McCoy and so on," Mark Showalter of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, Calif., said during a Google+ Hangout today (July 2).
It's official! Two tiny moons orbiting the dwarf planet Pluto finally have new names: Styx and Kerberos.
The International Astronomical Union — the organization responsible for naming celestial objects — has approved "Kerberos" and "Styx" as the new monikers for two of Pluto's moons that were previously called P4 and P5 respectively, but fans of TV's "Star Trek" might not be too happy about the new names.
The IAU selected the names based on the results of the Pluto Rocks Internet poll sponsored by SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), but the top vote-getter, Vulcan, ultimately wasn't chosen as a name for one of the tiny moons.
(Reuters) - Citing the power of artists and academics to open minds, President Barack Obama on Wednesday awarded 24 medals to people including "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and writer Joan Didion who he said touched his life and the lives of Americans.
"They challenge us to think and to question and to discover, to seek that inward significance," Obama said, awarding the winners of the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal at a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.
This year's winners included filmmaker George Lucas, creator of "Star Wars," whom Obama applauded for transforming movies.
"I remember when I first saw 'Star Wars,'" Obama said. "There's a whole generation that thinks special effects always look like they do today. But it used to be you'd see, like, the string on the little model spaceships.
I bet that got a good laugh.
*Yes, that's the connection. It beats J.J. Abrams.
'Star Trek' superfans Adam and Leslie Schneider unveil the fully restored Galileo shuttlecraft, a life-size prop from the iconic 1960s TV science fiction series while fans cheer on June 22, 2013. The Galileo will be donated to Space Center Housto[n.]
A life-size spaceship prop from TV's original "Star Trek" series, once lost and in shambles, has been lovingly restored to its former glory by die-hard fans so it can live long and prosper as a museum piece.
After nine months of restoration, the Galileo shuttlecraft — a life-size spaceship prop from the iconic 1960s science fiction TV series — was publicly unveiled last week in a ceremony amid loud cheers from a crowd of "Star Trek" fans and friends on hand to see the ship before its sendoff to its final frontier. It shipped off Space Center Houston, the visitor's center for NASA's Johnson Space Center, on Wednesday (June 26).
"This is amazing," "Star Trek" superfan Adam Schneider told a crowd of more than 350 friends and fellow fans as he unveiled the restored Galileo on June 22 in Atlantic Highlands, N.J. Schneider bought the huge Trek spaceship prop at auction with the specific goal of restoring it and donating it to a museum for the public to enjoy. "Despite spending [nearly] 50 years basically outdoors, for a prop built to last a year or two, she's ready for her next journey."
Follow over the jump for more science fiction news, including the latest on the newly continued Star Wars franchise.
Disney confirms J.J. Abrams to direct next 'Star Wars' After speculation leaked out of Hollywood yesterday, it's official: One man will be in charge of both 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' at the same time.
by Daniel Terdiman
January 25, 2013 9:06 PM PST
Disney and Lucasfilm confirmed this evening that 'Star Trek' director J.J. Abrams will direct the next 'Star Wars' film, expected to be released in 2015.
The news is not unexpected. Yesterday, word leaked out that Abrams was the likely choice, setting off a flurry of discussion online about the same director being in charge of both the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" franchises at the same time. But tonight, the news was officially announced.
As one can read over at another copy of this announcement over at fandom_lounge on JournalFen, the reaction has been all over the map, although the tough crowd there has been mostly cautiously positive. However, a common theme has been snarking about the lens flares in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie making their way into the new Star Wars. Discovery News even got into the act with J.J. Abrams Lens Flares: How They're Made.
The King of the Lens Flare (aka JJ Abrams) is set to direct Star Wars Episode VII. But what are lens flares they exactly and how are they made? And how do filmmakers like Abrams use them to their advantage? Anthony goes behind the lens for answers.
I already asked the question. Here's to hoping either there will be no lens flares, or that they will be doubled. After all, Tatooine circles a binary star, complete with binary sunsets.
I also mentioned The Hunger Games. I've read the first book and have the movie recorded. I'll write something after I watch the movie.
My wife and I watched The Hunger Games last night, right after we saw the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. It was enough to make me sing "Science fiction, double feature, late night show." Combined with the previous night's viewing of Revolution, we got a good dose of J.J. Abrams and post-apocalyptic science fiction. In fact, Star Trek qualifies as both, just like Revolution. As I responded to a PoliticusUSA article asking "where's my Star Trek future?"
[T]he author is premature in his being disgruntled. After all, the original series is set in 2265 according to Wikipedia. That's 250 years off. We have plenty of time to get there, including a nuclear world war. Memory Alpha, the Star Trek Wiki, has that conflict running from 2026 to 2053. According to the future history of Star Trek, a horrible 21st Century isn't a bug, it's a feature. We might have the Star Trek future he wants after all. We'll just have to suffer for the next 50 years to get there.
Not only is this true of Star Trek as a whole, it's true of this particular movie, as we get to watch the planet Vulcan implode into an artificial black hole at its core. Talk about collapse!
While J.J. Abrams went to great lengths to free his movies from the strictures of Star Trek canon by creating a new timeline that diverged just before Kirk's birth, he also went to great lengths to ensure that the characters would stay as intact as possible. Kirk is just as much a cocky, skirt-chasing wildman as ever (we even get to see him in bed with a green-skinned space babe), if not more so because he's younger and more damaged than the original. It's easy to see this 20-something grow in to the character who inspired "I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" demotivational posters.
McCoy is the same pessimistic curmudgeonly worrywort, just a little younger. Spock is a bit more emotional than the original, highlighting his human side, but he's can be as logical and efficient as ever. It's not a bad change at all. Speaking of changes, Uhuru gets a major personality upgrade, something she needed from the original. She also gets to be Spock's love interest. Are we going to see a love triangle involving Nurse Chapel in this timeline? Another changed character is Scott, who is a little more fun-loving and rambunctuous. I'm not worried about that; he'll have plenty of time to become more dour as the series goes on. While all of the above are interesting differences in the portrayal of the characters, the differences all work.
On the other hand, Sulu and Chekov's characters are more like McCoy--just younger versions of themselves. That's not bad at all. In fact, one of my favorite moments came when Kirk asked Sulu what his hand-to-hand combat skill was. I just about fell off my couch laughing at the response--"Fencing." For someone who had been a Star Trek fan since the series first aired in 1966, it was perfect.
Finally, I got to see one of my alma maters as Star Fleet Academy. Even before I watched the movie, I just knew that it would feature the Oviatt Library at CSUN. That building was so monumental that the students called in the Soviet Library. I was not disappointed.
As for how I felt about the movie, it left me feeling that the franchise was in good hands--and there will be a next movie in the franchise.
That's it for the first part of the science fiction double feature. The next installment will be about The Hunger Games.
I mentioned the TV show Revolution last May,* when I wrote that the trailer looked intriguing. My wife and I finally watched the first two episodes last night, and I have to say that the show lived up to my expectations. I found the characters interesting, the action exciting, if bloody (the show has a TV 14 rating, and deserves it), and the handling of the post-collapse setting fairly realistic. For a taste of the setting, characters, and violence, here's a clip of a particularly dramatic and action-packed scene.
Captain Tom Neville comes to Sylvania Estates in search of Ben Matheson.
As you can see, it pulls no punches.
Even the weird science that underlies the premise has been handled well so far. The show acknowledges that shutting off electricity permanently violates the laws of physics, but notes that if it's man-made, it's not only explainable, but reversible. That premise will be driving the plot for years as the characters pursue their epic quest. It's also what will make this world different from Kunstler's "A World Made by Hand" series, which it strongly resembles on the surface. While I've only read excerpts of his books, I know enough to say that he likes the post-collapse world he's created. I have difficulty imagining him making anyone who wanted to turn the power back on as the heroes of his fiction.
As for the plot, well, this is J.J. Abrams, who created Lost. It took me until the polar bears showed up in that show to realize that I was watching a science fiction program. At least with Revolution, I know it's a science fiction series from the get-go. Also, since this is J.J. Abrams, I'm looking forward to seeing how deep the rabbit hole goes. I'm sure it will take several seasons to get to the bottom, let alone explore all the side tunnels--and there will be side tunnels, as the show's creators and the actors hint to in this promo clip.
Get the lowdown on the premiere episode from the actors and creators of Revolution.
As someone who used to work at a now-closed roadside attraction, I find the abandoned amusement park in the first episode creepy. I should get used to it, as the rest of the first two episodes have lots of derelict vehicles of all kinds littered all over the landscape, to say nothing of all the ghost cities and empty highways.
In case you are wondering, there is already a TVTropes page for the show. Keep an eye on it as the list of tropes and examples expand.
*I also mentioned The Hunger Games. I've read the first book and have the movie recorded. I'll write something after I watch the movie.
EscapefromWisconsin over at The Hipcrime Vocab notes that people seem to be interested in a Future Imperfect.
They say fiction is a representation of the mood of its consumers. Based on what's coming out, what's on people's minds is disaster and decay. So despite the chirpy prediction that "America's best days are ahead of us" that you're sure to hear ad nauseum from both prequalified political candidates this season, clearly the mood in America is somewhat darker.
After making the shiny, optimistic future of Star Trek, J. J. Abrams has apparently jumped on board the doomer bandwagon.
After 15 years of darkness, an unlikely group sets out to save the world.
EscapefromWisconsin is onto something here. This video has 6,700,000+ views in five days, enough to make it the most popular recent video in the Entertainment category on YouTube right now, and it's still getting views at the rate of 20,000 every hour.
I think the show looks intriguing, but Escape seems less than impressed.
Their clothes look contemporary. Did J.C. Penney survive the blast?
I suspect he'd have like Hunger Games better. Then again, a search of his blog indicates that he hasn't mentioned it. Maybe I should step in to fill that void.
