BlackGeekdom Science-Fiction from a Different Perspective

I am really disappointed in the Smallville finally.   A whole seasons worth of build up for one super jump and a explosion and the doomsday fight was over. I feel cheated, but its my fault for have any sort of decent  expectations.    Despite the disappointing showdown,  the writer have left wth two interesting questions and one interesting twist.   Where did the legion time ring take Lois?  Is that really Zod making an appearance at the end?   The best part of the whole episode occured at Jimmy Olsens funeral (who was killed by Davis) or should I say Henry James Olsen,    Chloe gave James (Jimmy) Olsen  his older brothers camera the implication is that the younger Olsen is the “Jimmy Olsen” from the comics

I finally watched all of  season two of  Primevial just in time for the season premiere of season 3 on BBC America     The show follows a team of five scientists tasked with investigating the appearance of temporal anomalies across Great Britain and containing prehistoric and futuristic creatures which enter the present.  Its great sci-fi television.   You can catch reruns of the first season on the Sci-fi channel on Friday nights 

New episodes this week  and DVD releases after the break 

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Posted under Television

I’m referring to the actor Walter Emanuel Jones who played the original Black Ranger  Zack Jones on the Power Rangers television show.   He was written out of the series midway through the second season after appearing in 81 episodes, apparently due to disagreements over wages and fee.   Since then he has been doing voice over work , starred in several independent films and made appearances on several television shows like  “CSI” and “The Shield”.

Walter currently resides in Los Angeles, California and spends his free time Salsa Instructing and Dancing, Camping, Scuba Diving, Snowboarding, and Traveling.

Posted under Television

Friday the 13th: The series was a first run syndicated show that made its debut on Oct 3, 1987. The show lasted 3 seasons and aired 72 episodes. The show had no connection to the film franchise other than the name.

This series revolved initially around the adventures of two cousins, Ryan Dallion and Micki Foster, who inherited an antique shop, “Curious Goods,” from their Uncle Vendredi. We find out in the first episode that Vendredi made a pact with the Devil, to sell cursed antiques. He recanted at the last minute and tried to recover the antiques, but was claimed by Hell. The cousins, aided by Vendredi’s partner Jack Marshak, used the store’s manifest to track down the cursed antiques, each of which fell into the hands of someone who inevitably used them for evil.

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Posted under Uncategorized

Source: Variety

MGM Domestic Television Distribution has optioned U.K.-based online graphic novel “The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore” for development as a series. MGM execs say the move is part of a burgeoning effort to put the Lion back into the TV production biz in a significant way.

Studio aims to develop “Jonas” into an action-drama, with a U.S.-U.K. co-production deal a possibility, according to Chris Ottinger, exec VP of worldwide TV for MGM. Film Collective’s Ruth Vitale is attached to the project as an exec producer.   “Jonas” revolves around a fugitive vidgame player in a futuristic world where the British empire still reigns supreme and America is just one of thousands of virtual worlds in a global game network.

Howard Webster created and produced the graphic novel for his London-based Factory Publishing imprint and Triumph Motorcycles.

As for distribution of TV skein, “It’s more likely to be a cable series here in the U.S.,” Ottinger said. “But it has a real shot to be on terrestrial TV in the U.K.”

MGM is shopping for a writer to adapt the novel for TV. Ottinger hopes to have a script commissioned in the fall so the series is ready to go next year.

“We’re really trying to restart our television business, and we’re looking for hot properties that we can turn into hourlong dramas,” he said.

The “Jonas” novel is available for download on iPod or PC as a combination of traditional comicbook animation and 3-D animation. Brit thesp Colin Salmon provides the voice of the lead character. The graphic novel incorporates 3-D animation, live-action photography and newsreel footage.

Posted under Television

Posted under Animation, Comics

My hope is that this will be Marvels answer to Justice League/Unlimited cartoon. Marvel nails live action films, but they have a real crappy record when it comes to animated television shows. I think they are trending upward recently with the direct to DVD films (Ultimates, Ultimates 2, Iron Man, etc.) and the Sensational Spiderman cartoon, but they have a long way to go before they can match the DCAU.

Posted under Animation, Technology, Uncategorized

Source: eonline.com

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

What We’re Hearing:  The crown jewel of the Sci Fi Channel should finish out its fourth and final season, but per writer Jane Espenson, it’s almost certain that, schedule-wise, the story will be split into two separate miniseasons. The show completed 14 episodes before the strike hit, and at least the first 10 will air beginning Apr. 4. The second batch could premiere in the fall or even sometime in 2009.

HEROES (Updated)

What We’re Hearing:  It looks like Heroes won’t return until next season-but it could launch a little earlier than usual (late summer). Insiders tell us Milo Ventimiglia just signed a movie (scheduling conflict) and, moreover, executive producer Tim Kring is busy at work crafting a “series bible.” Word is, he wants to map out exactly where the series is headed (for many seasons) before Heroes goes back into production. We hear from crew members that they’ve been told they aren’t expected back on set anytime before June. 

LOST 

Executive Producer Damon Lindelof Says:  “Indeed, it would appear that we are in the endgame of the strike. Personally, I couldn’t be more psyched to be part of this union. Like any negotiation, some parts suck and some parts surpassed my wildest expectations for what we could accomplish, but most of all I’m left with a feeling of pride.

“As for Lost (pending the actual lifting of the strike, which we vote for on Tuesday), a game plan should begin to manifest by the end of the week. All I can say is that Carlton and I and the rest of the writers have every intention of making sure you guys get more episodes this season beyond the eight already completed. How many and how they will be aired is a conversation we’ll be having with our bosses, but as soon as we’ve got a plan, we’ll tell the fans first.”

What We’re Hearing:  Lost’s actors are on standby, and the show is expected to produce more episodes this season. Fingers crossed! The bigger question is who’ll keep the golden Thursday at 9 p.m. time slot once those Seattle Grace docs also return…How ’bout we put Sawyer and McDreamy in a cage and let ‘em duke it out? (‘Cause we know who’d win…)

SMALLVILLE

What We’re Hearing:  Our all-time favorite Smallville source (SWAK!) tells us the CW wants the show to produce five more episodes this season.

Posted under Television

I’ve watched the first two episodes of Terminator:  The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and I must say that I am somewhat impressed. I don’t know if it’s because of the lack of new shows due to the writer’s strike, and one can only take so much of American Gladiators.  The effects are good for a television show.  The writing has been pretty good so far, especially how they’ve managed to work much of the existing Terminator universe into the story.  I usually have problems with time travel, but the writers seem to have handled any issues fairly well.    They start out in 1999 and by the second episode they’ve traveled to 2007.  This totally dismisses Terminator 3 as if it didn’t exist, but from what I read the producers like to think of this show as existing in its own version of the Terminator universe.  That’s fine with me.  They do however hold over the fact that Sarah’s going to develop cancer.  Consistency is good. 

Summer Glau brings her kick ass attitude to her Terminator “Cameron”  model character.  But her dead pan performance is, in a word, dead.   Thomas Decker, as the savior, John Connor, comes off as a whiney brat.  Richard T. Jones shows up as Agent James Ellison, the FBI agent tasked to bring in the fugitive Sarah Connor.  I won’t dog the brother for collecting a paycheck, but I will say he needs to either watch The Fugitive or U.S. Marshals and see how much passion Tommy Lee Jones brought to the role of Sam Gerard as a fugitive hunter.  If anything, he should watch a few episodes of the original Fugitive series, because he looks like he’s sleeping through his lines.  But he does have a few episodes to shape up since Sarah had dropped of the map for 8 years.  The bright spot is Lena Headey of 300 fame.  She brings a level of complexity to the titular character that echoes Linda Hamilton.  She makes the show worth at least giving it a chance.

Posted under Television

I recently watched the “Roots The Gift” on TVONE which features two characters Kunta Kinte and Fiddler from Alex Haleys ground breaking 1977 mini series “Roots”. In this movie the two of them accompany their owner to another plantation at Christmas time and they learn that the son of the owner helps slaves escape.  The two of them try to help him and also see this as an opportunity to escape themselves. While watching my geekdar picked up a couple of familar faces. I saw two Captains and two Lt. Commanders from Star Trek.  Then again Q may have transported them all to 1775.

Posted under Television

“Tin Man” is the Sci-Fi channel’s re-imagining L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. I watched the first and second night of this three part miniseries. Sci-Fi promoted this series almost as much as Flash Gordon was promoted. That should have been my first warning. The second was Sci-Fi’s scheduling of the second night to run against Chuck and Heroes, which are two of the Sci-Fi channel’s target audience’s favorite shows, especially since these were the mid-season finales. Thankfully, Sci-Fi repeats their “television events” almost immediately after airing.

Briefly, the story follows D.G. (originally Dorothy Gale) who works a dead end job as a waitress dreaming of bigger and better things. We find out that she isn’t from this world but from another world called the O.Z. (Outer Zone) and that she is the key to saving it from an evil sorceress, Azkadellia (the Wicked Witch). She is joined on her journey down the old road by Glitch, a man who lost half his brain as a punishment for being a criminal, Raw, a cowardly beast with psychic abilities, and Cain, a former cop, known as tin men in the O.Z. We get the classic characters of munchkins, the Mystic Man (the Wizard) played by Richard Dreyfuss, and even the flying monkeys who spring from the cleavage of of Azkadellia. Literally.

The effects aren’t bad for a television series. Obviously, the network wanted this to be a success. The visuals are pretty good, despite the filter that the director, editor, or director of photography went with. What I mean is that everything seemed to be in perpetual early evening, an almost dusk. It’s a decent story for the most part, but it could have been done better. Many of the puns and allusions to the original story don’t have to be so blatant. Anyone watching has probably seen the Wizard of Oz dozens of times. I can do without lines like “If he only had a brain,” or “They’re off to see the Wizard.” Side note: It may not be suitable for your under 5 crowd, but that’s a parent’s call. There are hookers, a pimp, torture, some pretty gruesome scenes, and the Mystic Man is a drug addict who uses on screen. But I digress.

If you don’t have anything else to watch, especially with the writer’s strike, give this a shot. If you miss it, you won’t miss much. Rent The Wiz.

Two fists for making Toto a black man.

Posted under Movies, Television