BSG birthday bash continues…

Perhaps the greatest gift for fans of the original series has just gone live over at GALACTICA.TV (if you’ve never checked it out, it’s easily the best BSG site on the web – especially for original series fans).  Curators Marcel Damen & Mike Egnor have put together a huge post of never before seen interviews,  images and info about the making of the show and they deserve three cheers for their tireless effort in continuing to unearth great material.  If seeing that above image of the tiny landing bay matte painting gives you a stiffy, you better have a change of shorts on hand before you click over!  

 

happy birthday battlestar galactica (audio post)

On September 17, 1978, ABC television first aired “Battlestar Galactica” and in doing so (damn them), sealed my fate.  Ever since then I’ve had a special place in my heart for the show and, for reasons still unclear, my enthusiasm for the beast simply will not wane.  For a while there, being a Galactica fan was something you kept to yourself (even the Star Wars and Star Trek fans looked down on us), but, thanks to Ron Moore, BSG fans can once again wear their T-shirts proudly and in public.  To help celebrate this auspicious occasion, I’ve dusted off a rare piece of Galactica memorabilia that each and every one of you can download and enjoy on this special day…

start the countown: the greatest concert of all time

Simply put, if you enjoy hearing sci-fi film & television music performed by a full orchestra – and if you have a particular fondness for Battlestar Galactica – you’ll want to be at the Warner Grand theater in San Pedro, California on October 24th…

free 3D glasses from verizon

For a limited time, you can get several pairs of free 3D glasses from Verizon!  Just follow this link, fill out the form and wait for the postman to deliver the goods.  Then you’ll be able to enjoy all the cool pictures I’ll be posting in the weeks (and years) to come.  Be sure to get on board and join the 3D party, you can’t beat free glasses!  [special thanks to Double-O-Five for the heads up]

introducing: 3d Trek

They say that the secret to success is to simply please yourself.  Since it’s impossible to predict what people are going to love or hate, people are often told “make the movie you want to see, or invent the thing you want to buy.”  Recently, I was approached to come up with an idea for a new Star Trek product; as part of the process, I found myself wondering, “what would I be interested in?”  Sadly, the programmable Orion Slave Girl Clone  didn’t quite pan out, but I came up with something else that I think is even sexier…

the final frontease

Ladies and gentlemen and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri, here is the third and final “teaser image” of the new whatchamacallit I’ll be announcing on Monday.   Yes, that means this weekend I’ll be slaving long and hard at putting together a post with all sorts of juicy details and cool stuff to look at.   I wish I could tell you more, but I have to get busy with another post that is totally unrelated to this, I swear.  It will be just above this one…

another hint

Last week I posted a small snippet of an image (just a few posts down) and said it had something to do with a cool new project I’m working on.   There were a lot of great guesses, but no one quite hit the nail on the head (and, no, as far as I am aware no one is redoing the visual effects from “First Contact”).  In about a week I’ll blow the lid off, but in the meantime I thought I’d be a cruel, cruel man and post another hint.  See what you can make of it!

stay tuned!

Hey gang!  You may have noticed  a distinct lack of postings lately… no, I haven’t been kidnapped by Borellian Noman or “silenced” by JJ Abrams, but I have  been hard at work on a very cool new project that is slated to premiere in a few short weeks at San Diego Comic Con.  At the moment, mum’s the word, but I promise to fill all of you in on the details shortly before the rest of the world finds out.  Suffice it to say that I’m giddy with excitement and can promise you that what we’re about to unleash boldly goes where no one has gone before.  The image above is a tiny hint of what we’ve got in store, so stay tuned!

marching orders: go see “moon”

Eventually I’ll find the time to write a full review of the recently released “Moon,” but I wanted to at least get a post up telling all of you to go see it immediately.  This $5 million dollar wonder is easily the best sci-fi movie of the summer, and I guarantee it will earn a place in history right next to 2001, Alien and Blade Runner.  It’s not often we get a genre film that’s entertaining, thought-provoking and will have you and your friends in heated, philisophical debate the moment the lights come up.   “Moon” has a terrific story, lots of sci-ficandy and a tour-de-force performance by Sam Rockwell that should make the Oscar folks take notice of one of our own.  Go see it.  Now.  [please, no spoilers in the comments section – I’ll write a review soon and we can have a free for all then].  Trust me, this is the one everyone’s going to be talking about for years to come.

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galactica marathon, supermodels thrill crowd

Last Saturday night the Aero Theater in Santa Monica was packed with hardcore original-series Battlestar fans, ready to take in all three feature length movies (two of which had never been screened in the US).  Not only was the lobby was packed with jaw-dropping models (sadly, not the bikini-clad type), a rare treat was in store and several special guests were in the house…

movie review: land of the lost (vs star trek)

There’s been so much attention focused on Star Trek this summer, people have barely taken notice of the other popular sci-fi television franchise that has been rebooted into a big-budget feature film: Land of the Lost.  Despite the disparity in popularity, these shows sit pretty much right next to each other on the “memory lane” shelf for a lot of folks.  Anyone in their late thirties to early forties probably grew up watching both simultaneously, since Land of the Lost aired at around the same time that Star Trek was reaching its apex of initial popularity.*  It makes sense that sci-fi fans would enjoy both, since, while on the surface, the shows appear to be entirely different, they have a lot more in common than you might think…

greatest night at the movies – ever (updated)

This coming Saturday (June 20, 2009) the American Cinemateque’s Aero Theater in Santa Monica will be screening the single greatest night of filmed entertainment in motion picture history: for this first time ever in this country, not one, not two, but all three old school Battlestar Galactica  feature films will be shown.  What’s that?  You knew the original pilot was shown in theaters in Sensurround but what the hell is all this gibberish about three  feature films?  Read on, old friend…

bsg vfx: anatomy of an (ancient) cylon

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched the second half of the Battlestar Galactica’s 4th (and final) season, you may want to stop reading now.

After discovering the depressing wasteland that turned out to be Earth, the crew of the Galactica did some digging as part of their search for answers about the burnt-out planet’s past. One key find was an excavated, centuries-old Cylon head (as seen below in a scene from the episode).  This “ancient Cylon” was only on screen for a few seconds so viewers never really a very good a look at it… until now!

how to survive a cylon uprising

There’s been a lot of talk about Battlestar Galactica  and its shiny metal co-stars of late, and it’s all coming to a head on Friday (June 12) when the 92nd street Y in Manhattan hosts a panel entitled  Battlestar Galactica: Cyborgs on the Horizon.   The discussion will feature several cast members from BSG as well as real live roboticists all trying to answer the question “is the robot uprising that will spell doom for us all inevitable?”   Galactica Sitrep has two interviews with experts in the field who naively believe that a robot rebellion is about as likely as a reboot of Galactica 1980.   While it’s all fine and dandy to play Mr. Optimist and dismiss the repeated warnings of our favorite movies and TV shows, one question begs to be asked – what do we do if they’re wrong?   Luckily for all of us, I’ve got the answer.

new star wars trailer released, fans go apeshit

A few days ago a trailer was released for The Old Republic, an upcoming Star Wars  MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game).  It’s a pretty impressive piece of animation and while it doesn’t actually represent gameplay, it has served its purpose – to get people excited about the game.  For the most part, the mini-movie is an action piece pitting Jedi vs Sith and if you’re looking for a three minute fix of Star Wars  action, you’ll be hard pressed to do better.   Most of the comments being left by fans on the websites are along the lines of “wow, this is so much better than anything in the prequels, too bad the movies weren’t like this!”  But what do the folks at DarthMojo think?  Let’s find out…

happy birthday star wars!

Thirty two years ago today (May 25, 1977) The Force was born and Star Trek  finally got some competition.  Thanks to George Lucas, an entire generation suddenly received their calling, as just about everyone I know who’s involved in some sort of creative occupation owes their inspiration to the original trilogy.  For some inexplicable reason, “The Homing Beacon” (the official site’s newsletter) is trying to get people to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Episode One, but the cool kids know the lucky numbers are 4, 5 and 6.

movie review: terminator salvation (spoiler-free)

It sucked sucked sucked sucked SUCKED. 

I saw it Friday night at Grauman’s Chinese theater in H0llywood, the unofficial home of genre movies.  Basically, if you’re a fan and live anywhere near Hollywood, it’s an unwritten law that if a new sci-fi movie opens at the Chinese, that’s where you must  go to see it.  The theater is big and loud and you’re guaranteed to have an audience of die-hards that love to love movies like this.

But the built-in affection of the opening night crowd wasn’t enough to stop them from laughing not once, but TWICE at overly ridiculous moments in the film…