Bet You Never Thought Classic Star Trek Was THIS Old-Fashioned

Rabittooth.com has created some great faked photos of Star Trek's lead characters in Victorian dress and settings. You can see the images at How to Be a Retronaut for pointing it out, and thanks to SFX to pointing out How to Be a Retronaut, which, BTW, has lots of interesting things to waste an hour or more of your time, such as the two-second-long first motion picture.

http://www.rabittooth.com/

Gundam 00 Season 2 Theme Played on the Piano

This is a very well-done piano version of the pop theme song from the opening credits of the second season of Gundam 00.

Hat's off (and, apparently, pants off) to the talented piano player.

Wisconsin GOP Gov-Elect Doesn't Want High-Speed Trains, Still Wants the Pork

Ever since voters in my home state of Wisconsin shot themselves in the feet last month and replaced Sen. Russ Feingold and elected a conservative Republican to succeed a Democratic governor, we've witnessed the usual short-sighted decisions that this brand of populist conservative has unleashed on our country.

In the latest move, Governor-elect Scott Walker has rejected about $810 million in federal stimulus money that was restricted for high-speed rail, arguing that the high-speed train line would cost the state (horrors!) $7.5 million a year after it was completed.

Now, Wisconsin is not profligate California, but neither is it poor Mississippi. It performs much better than average economically and it has much better than average schools. Though it is now facing large budget deficits as a result of overspending and the bad economy, it will not always face that situation. It will, however, always need innovation and leading-edge developments to stimulate its economy, make use of its world-class educational institutions, and attract talent and investment from outside the state.

If Walker was just worried about the short-term financial situation, then the train project would have been ideal. It is, after all, stimulus money, intended to stimulate economic activity during times when the financial and business systems are unable to do so themselves. Such as, oh, now. But Walker is displaying none of the vision that long-time Governor Tommy Thompson used to show. Thompson, a very conservative and very independent Republican, was vocal in his support for trains in general and high-speed trains in particular. He got it. Walker doesn't, and it will harm Wisconsin's businesses and families in future years as their state falls behind states that are innovating in this technology – and it will increase America's distance behind countries that are leading in high-speed train technology, countries such as China and Germany and France and Japan.

Oh, Newser points out, Walker still wants the money from Washington. He wanted to stimulate other parts of his economy, perhaps, or he wanted to spread it around to projects that made him happy. Either way, he's not making the investment that would have real short- and long-term benefits for his state. The money will instead be redistributed to other states that aren't technophobic.

I think this is just the latest case of short-sighted Americans learning to feel good about giving up the lead in innovation and science and creativity.

Photo from Wikipedia/Creative Commons by Sese Ingolstadt.

More Stupid Moves by China

And the award for overacting and tin-eared political moves goes to ... the People's Republic of China.

China continues its scorched-earth campaign against the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to activist Liu Xiaobo, this time banning some major Western news web sites in the lead-up to the Nobel ceremonies. The country is also boycotting the ceremonies, as to be expected; what's disgusting is the rogue's gallery of countries that are joining the boycott: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Iraq, Morocco, Iran, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Egypt, Sudan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Some of those countries just want to maintain good ties with their powerful new business overlord, China, and others want to protest the award of the prize to dissidents – after all, they don't want their own dissidents to get the crazy idea that their authoritarian governments might not be universally loved. Some, of course, are both worried about their economic overlord and about dissidents. Either way, it's a disreputable list to be on.

This is good timing in that this is happening as Julian Assange's arrogant Wikileaks attack on the West (and it is mostly an attack on the West and the way the current Western leader, the United States, exerts influence in the world) is getting some push-back from governments; we are seeing the true colors of the Assange movement, as techno-anarchists are attacking anyone who disagrees with them. If you don't like the look of American influence around the world, take a look at China's actions and its list of pals above, and envision what the world will look like as American influence wanes. It ain't pretty, and it ain't democratic.

Let's not forget the ridiculous competitor to the Nobel Peace Prize that China's communist government dreamed up, the Confucius prize, which was immediately rejected by the first awardee. At least Taiwan continues to be a bright spot of democratic brazenness. Through a mixture of free expression and open media, they are giving China the black eye that Wikileaks could only hope to give it:

Mike Howlett Unleashes "The Weird World of Eerie Publications"

Lookie what the mailman just delivered from Amazon.com: A brand new copy of The Weird World of Eerie Publications (Feral House), a wonderfully illustrated history of a pulp magazine publisher. The 310-page oversized hardcover, written by Mike Howlett, is definitely going to be my holiday reading.

Longtime readers (or even half-awake casual visitors) of this site know that I devote more than is a healthy amount of time and attention to the now-defunct Starlog Group, a New York-based periodicals publisher that lasted from the mid-1970s until the early part of this century. Starlog produced a ton of magazines – regular ones plus zillions of one-shots and limited-run titles – in nearly every category, ranging from genre films to sports to women's fashion to ethnic music to automobiles and beyond. Like Starlog Group, Eerie (under its various names) produced a ton of magazines in a wide variety of categories, but unlike Starlog, Eerie's were usually on the quick-and-dirty-and-cheap side. Eerie was a true exploitation publisher, and just as it's usually more fascinating to read about the escapades of an independent exploitation filmmaker than it is to hear about a corporate studio filmmaker, I can tell from my first scan through the book that this is filled with interesting stories that will tell us a lot about a bygone era in publishing.

So I'm looking forward to reading Howlett's book on the company. I'm sure it'll be amusing to me as a magazine editor and publisher, and it'll be enjoyable to me as a genre reader.

I suppose it's time someone wrote a book about the Starlog company. Me, maybe?

Batman Takes Over: The Starlog Project, Starlog #179, June 1992

We are still living in the wake created by the passage of Tim Burton’s bat-films through American film culture. Nearly 20 years later, the films in the cinemas might be by Christopher Nolan and a Christian Bale suffering from a speech impediment, but I think it’s safe to say that those movies would not have existed or would at least have been nowhere near as dark as they are if Burton hadn’t first paved the way with Batman and Batman Returns.

In fact, when his Batman originally came out, the talk about it was that his vision of Gotham City and its caped crusader was too dark – visually and thematically. For an aging Bat-audience that was still pining for Adam West’s camp version from 1960s television, it was the height of presumption on Burton’s part to recast the story in a darker, scarier, more violent direction. And “recast” was only part of the controversy; people howled at the casting of quirky (I mean that in the best way) actor Micheal Keaton as Batman.

Burton proved them wrong, and with the 1992 release of Batman Returns, he made a sequel that was arguably better than the first movie. With another casting twist that was laughed at before people saw the film, he picked Danny DeVito to portray the Penguin, and DeVito delivered a fireworks-and-send-them-all-home-happy performance.

Batman Returns was big, and Starlog plays it up big-time. This issue, the magazine includes a 16-page color portfolio of preproduction paintings from the film, plus other coverage. The movie is also on the cover for the second month in a row; in fact, I believe Batman Returns sets an all-time record with the next issue when it achieves a three-consecutive-months reign on the cover.

Starlog #179
100 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $5.95

Speaking of the cover, it’s actually a very striking photo they chose, with the raised bat-symbol shining out from under blowing snow. Were I designing the cover myself, I would have reduced the text below the image, because as it is now, it kind of detracts from the power of the photo. But it‘s still a strong cover that reflects the cold metal feel of the film.

The rundown: The Bat-cover kicks off the magazine, and Beauty & the Beast is featured on the contents page; David McDonnell’s abbreviated Medialog column warns us about The Forever King, featuring a reincarnated King Arthur who’s a “10-year-old Chicago boy and the proud owner of the Holy Grail”; Booklog reviews The Catswold Portal, Cloven Hooves, Mother Lode, Kalimantan, Bicycling Through Time and Space, Remaking History, The Trinity Paradox, and The Face of the Waters; the Communications section sprawls over seven pages and actually manages to include topics other than Star Trek, namely everything from Eerie, Indiana to Freejack to Time Tunnel to Highlander II to … well, Star Trek, plus there’s Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile of the Alien from the movie of the same name; David Hutchison’s Videolog announces the laserdisc release of the George Pal “ultra-classic” The Time Machine, plus other releases; and, in his From the Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn highlights the High Fantasy Society, “ a live-action role-playing club” with fake swords.

Production designer Martin Asbury talks to Stan Nicholls about his designs for Alien3, illustrated with many of his storyboards for that underrated film; Marc Shapiro interviews Bo Welch, production designer for Batman Returns; Abbie Bernstein chats with actor Clive Mantle, who discusses his roles in Alien3 and Robin of Sherwood (and who utters the timeless words, “[F]or two episodes, I wore this wig. It had a personality all its own; it was like a dead poodle on my head.”); Lee Goldberg profiles writer Don Ingalls,who discusses his Star Trek scripts “A Private Little War” (which aired under a pseudonym) and “The Alternative Factor,” and he notes that he later worked with Shatner again on T.J. Hooker, but by then “the young eagerness of his Star Trek days was gone . … However, all stars over the years acquire a certain arrogance and sometimes lose a little of their acting edge by doing that. They become too confident.”; Kyle Counts interviews actor Bob Colbert about his career, in particular his starring role in Time Tunnel; a 16-page center section features preproduction designs from Batman Returns; and Rich Harvey makes his first appearance in the pages of Starlog with a look at the new Indiana Jones novels by Rob MacGregor.

Edward Gross interviews writers Linda Campanelli and Shelly Moore about their work on the late fantasy TV series Beauty & the Beast, and Gross co-writes a sidebar with Stephanie Wiltse about a possible Beauty & the Beast film; Marc Shapiro talks to B-movie star Tim Tomerson about his roles in Trancers, The Twilight Zone, and Quark (remember that late-1970s NBC SF sitcom?), about which he says, “It was a real wacky show. I would come in each week, take one look at the script and just die laughing.”; Sandra Brandenburg and Debora Hill contribute their first article to the magazine with an interview of fantasy novelist Katharine Kerr (The Dragon Revenant, Polar City Blues, and others); Pat Jankiewicz profiles television director Leo Penn, who talks about working on the original Star Trek series (and he has nice words about Shatner), as well as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (yes, girl), Lost in Space, and more; the Fan Network pages includes Lia Pelosi’s usual directory of science-fiction fan clubs and publications (including the German Terminator Fan Club), plus the convention listings; Pat Jankiewicz talks with director Herb Kenwith, another Star Trek vet (“The Lights of Zetar”); and ye kindly editor, David McDonnell, pens his Liner Notes column, a plug for Starlog contributor Will Murray’s Doc Savage novels.

“My take on Gotham City is as this hideous, grotesque thing laying beneath an infrastructure that’s overlayed on a legitimate city to hold it together. It’s a more American look that reflects bad zoning and decay sitting next to beauty. Gotham Plaza is a good example of what I’ve attempted to do with all of this movie’s architecture. It’s a caricature whose scale has been totally exaggerated. It also contains an idea I had: To combine neo-fascist and 1930s World’s Fair architecture. The result has been a city that literally overwhelms its occupants in a massive, dehumanizing way.”

–Bo Welch, production designer, interviewed by Marc Shapiro: “Dark Designs”

For more, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

The Julian Assange Wikileaks Poison Pill

Supposedly Wikileaks provocateur Julian Assange – now languishing in a UK prison on suspicious rape allegations from Sweden – and his fellow Wikifreaks have a "poison pill" of information that gets automatically released if anything serious happens to them.

That might be true and it might not. Maybe we'll find out. But if this organization has some bombshell of information, why won't it just release it already? I thought the whole point of that group was to make secret information public, to take down what it sees as evil manipulative governments regardless of the cost.

So some information is worth keeping secret by Wikileaks, but governments don't get to keep information secret? And Wikileaks is the arbiter?

Governments have millions of shortcomings, but at least they are more responsible to their citizens than is Wikileaks.

He's Batman, and He's Returned: The Starlog Project, Starlog #178, May 1992

On page 26 of this issue, readers are invited to join Starlog's reader opinions panel. As I recall, sister magazine Comics Scene also announced one of these at this time, so probably did Fangoria. Such reader-input efforts are used by magazines all the time to help them guide editorial direction for the publication. It's just another method of finding out what will sell the magazine most effectively; magazines also do mail-order surveys, phone surveys, live focus groups, and – these days – web and e-mail surveys.

In the short questionnaire applicants are asked to fill out and mail to the Starlog panel, there is a section for them to choose their age bracket, ranging from "under 12" to "12-17" and so on, until it reached the upper limits: "40 or Over." Makes me feel old.

Here's something that will make you feel as "young as when the world was new" – a classified ad listed under the "Miscellaneous" category this issue: "PROPERTY DEEDS OF MARS! For FREE brochure, send SASE to ..."

Also this month is an ad for SFX magazine – no, not the UK science-fiction magazine that is still going strong. This SFX was a one-shot publication edited by David Hutchison that focused on special effects. I suspect it would have spawned a continuing series of SFXs, had it been a success. But alas, that was not to be.

Starlog #178
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

With the addition of four extra pages to the magazine, Starlog also converts four of its non-full-color pages to full color, so the higher cover price is finally starting to pay off for the readers. The magazine also rearranges where it places the uncoated (non-glossy) pages, and as a result it runs its first feature article right after the contents page and thus before the front-of-the-book departments. Not a big change, that, but I have dedicated this article series to chronicling the publishing as well as editing facets of Starlog over the years. Plus, I like to have an extra paragraph before I get to the article rundown. Speaking of which ...

The rundown: The second Michael Keaton caped crusader film, Batman Returns, takes over the cover, while Sean Patrick Flanery's Young Indiana Jones Chronicles assumes control of the contents page. Marc Shapiro interviews last month's cover boy, Chevy Chase, about his new film Memoirs of an Invisible Man; Communications letters cover the gamut from Star Trek to ... well, Star Trek, but at least Mike Fischer's Creature Profile cartoon steps out and features Quintopus, which I'd never heard of, and neither have you; David McDonnell's Medialog reports that Eddie Murphy's next movie, Boomerang, will feature Grace Jones and Eartha Kitt; Booklog reviews The Crafters, Earthgrip, Griffin's Egg, The Flies of Memory, and Elsewhere; David Hutchison's Videolog column announces the continued release of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes on video; the Fan Network pages include Lia Pelosi's ongoing directory of science-fiction fan clubs and publications, plus the convention listings; in a one-page Tribute obituaries section, Anthony Timpone says good-bye to actor Angelo Rossitto, and John Sayers does the honors for Dame Judith Anderson; and Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column returns to a theme that had been common in his columns years earlier: the need for SF fans to have more in their lives than just fandom.

Bill Warren interviews actor Rick Moranis about Honey, I Blew Up the Kid; one of the big-screen misfires of the early 1980s, Cool World, had enough star power behind it (director Ralph Baksi, stars Kim Basinger, Gabriel Burnes and Brad Pitt) to give it attention but not box office – nonetheless, Marc Shapiro goes behind the scenes to talk about the making of this film; British correspondent Adam Pirani visits the set of Shadowchaser, a killer-cyborg flick that might remind you of Terminator, sans success; a more successful film of the time, Barman Returns, is previewed with a set visit by Marc Shapiro and tons of color photos (just wait until next issue, though); Adam Pirani goes to see the filming of the Kim Cattrall-Rutger Hauer film Split Second; and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles writer Frank Darabont tells Bill Warren about the highly touted new series.

Ian Spelling visits the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation to get the behind-the-scenes take on the filming of an episode; Tom Weaver interviews actor Robert Cornthwaite, who speaks about the classic 1950s' film The Thing from Another World; Kim Howard Johnson looks at the making of the Dolph Lundgren/Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring punch-em-up Universal Soldier; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes column, where he explains this issue's focus on behind-the-scenes reports on upcoming films.

"Another project that [Chevy] Chase claims is 'still a possibility' is a Roger Rabbit-type film with the working title of Bugs Bunny & Chevy Chase, to be directed by Richard Donner. Chase, surprised that anybody recalls that long-dormant concept, remembers: 'It was an idea of mine that I threw out on an airplane one day. Dick and a couple of Warner Bros. executives were sitting there and they all said it was a great idea. It's a lot like Roger Rabbit, half-animation and half-live action, that would be about Bugs Bunny and myself.'"

–Marc Shapiro, writer, "I'm Invisible and You're Not"

For more, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

Darth Vader at Brandenburg Gate

Some photos just need to be explained.

For more, see Xinhua. (Xinhua/Reuters photo)

National Lampoon Editors Live: Fora's Upcoming Live Streaming Event

On December 4, Fora.tv will present a live internet video program featuring many of the editors and creators from National Lampoon magazine's greatest decade, the 1970s. The event is part of a series of public programming from the New York Public Library.

Notes Fora's web site:

RICK MEYEROWITZ, HILTON ALS, JOHN WEIDMAN, SEAN KELLY, BRIAN MCCONNACHIE, CHRISTOPHER CERF, FRED GRAVER, TONY HENDRA, MICHEL CHOQUETTE, LARRY "RATSO" SLOMAN, JOE RANDAZZO, PETER REIGERT and others!

The National Lampoon rose like a rocket: Launched during the late Vietnam years, it climbed through the drug-addled counter-cultural haze of the early 1970s to orbit an American scene desperately in need of a laugh. If the magazine had a point of view, it was that everybody and everything was fair game: raving, right-wing lunatics, tie-dyed peaceniks, tedious noodniks; all were offended by their stick-in-your-eye style of humor. This irreverence seemed to work. The National Lampoon blazed like a comet for a decade, spinning off innumerable special projects, books, magazines, theater pieces, films, television shows, and eventually writers and artists. The mainstays of the magazine moved on, finding their way to other mediums. Over time, the National Lampoon pedigree faded from their resumes, and the magazine, like some of the contributors, returned to earth.

To celebrate the publication of Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who made the National Lampoon Insanely Great, LIVE from the NYPL will reunite many of those editors and artists who were the core of the National Lampoon's staff in the 1970's for a once-in-a-lifetime evening of reminiscence and laughter. Listen in as they and their special guests tell hilarious and outrageous behind-the-scenes stories about the formative days of America's greatest humor magazine!

So, no P.J. O'Rourke, but that might not be a surprise. Visit Fora.tv for more info. For more on the book Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, see my earlier short article.