Happy New Year and Happy New Monthly!
A brand new edition of the SLA Monthly news is now available – click here:
Foxy
SLA Publications Chair
Happy New Year and Happy New Monthly!
A brand new edition of the SLA Monthly news is now available – click here:
Foxy
SLA Publications Chair
Here you go guys, the first Monthly for me as your new Publications Chair.
As it is the first Monthly, this is just an experiment to see if you guys handle it well. Please come to me with any opinions that you may have.
Captain David Williams
Publications Chair
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I, Captain David Williams, have taken over the position of Publications Chair. As such, I am working on the March issue of the publications and am looking for anyone that wants to help out. Please contact me if you are interested.
I know, I’m a day late. Blame it on life, because that’s what actually happened. 🙂
Take a look at our spotlight sim for the month of May, the recently relaunched Starbase 27!
What’s the premise of the sim?
SB 27 is set 2 years after the Dominion War. The Treaty of Trivas System is to be ratified by a newly formed Depata Council. Empok Nor became StarBase 27.
Conquered Civilizations are looking to meter out vengeance on a weak Cardassian Military while Starfleet stops helping until the Cardassian Government ratifies the Trivas Treaty. One Cardassian Liason Officer became StarBase 27’s Commander
One Starfleet Officer became a Cardassian’s XO.
Their mission: to protect the Station, and Defend the Trivas System at all costs!
What sets the sim apart?
It’s run by a Cardassian, it’s on a Cardassian Station in Cardassian territory with a half-Nausicaan XO and the rest mostly Star fleet crew. It’s on a station… so its unique in every way.
Why should I be interested in SB27?
Welcome to the first installment of GNW! This is a weekly feature that Foxy will be helping me out with covering sci-fi news from around the globe! That’s enough of an introduction, let’s see what’s been happening lately!
Star Trek
William Shatner has had a second series commissioned by the Bio Channel. In addition to his offbeat celebrity interview series “Shatner’s Raw Nerve”, he will interview ordinary people who found themselves in the news unexpectedly on “Shatner’s Aftermath”. He is also reported to have been cast as the lead in CBS television pilot “Stuff My Dad Says”, based on the popular Twitter feed with a slightly different title…
Patrick Stewart has revealed that he offered his services to tutor Gordon Brown on public speaking prior to the UK election televised debates, but the Labour leader declined to take him up on the offer. Gordon’s loss…
In related news, the BBC production of Hamlet, starring Stewart and the Tenth Doctor David Tennant, was just released on DVD in the US.
Alexander Siddig is joining the cast for the fourth season of UK SF show Primeval, as a charismatic scientist who owns (partly) and operates the Anomaly Research Centre. This is due to premiere on ITV1 early in 2011. Primeval also airs on BBC America, but no news on the airdate as yet.
The planned opening date for Star Trek XII is 29th June 2012, putting it half a week ahead of the Spider-Man reboot, three weeks ahead of the next Batman film, and right in the middle of the most genre-heavy year in recent history. Star Trek XII (or Trek 2 if you prefer) will also compete in a year featuring the Marvel mega-movie The Avengers, Pixar’s Monsters Inc. 2, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Hobbit, Men in Black III, John Carter of Mars and the recently announced Clash of the Titans sequel.
Stargate
Science-fiction programs Sanctuary and Stargate Universe have each received 17 nominations for the 2010 Leo Awards, which honour the best in British Columbian film and television, including international co-productions providing they have a BC co-producer. Both series received nods for best dramatic series, as well as direction, screen-writing, picture editing, visual effects and production design.
Over on the Associated Press’ You Tube channel, there is an interview with Ming Na containing teasers for upcoming Stargate Universe episodes.
Rage of Angels, a fantasy series created by Chris Judge (Teal’c), has been picked up by the Starz! network. The series features Judge as an angel on Earth, trying to find one of his fallen comrades. The only other announced cast member is Judge’s longtime co-star, Michael Shanks, playing the devil himself Lucifer!
Shanks, meanwhile, will be reprising his role as Hawkman/Carter Hall in the season finale of the CW’s Smallville.
Star Wars
Disney are planning to shut down the Star Tours ride at the Hollywood Studios on August 14th, prior to a re-imagining in 2011, btu they are going out with style. An event entitled “Last Tour to Endor” will include Symphony in the Stars, a Star Wars fireworks spectacular.
According to their Facebook page, LucasArts has announced that Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 will be released on October 26th 2010. No launch platforms have been stated at the moment but expect to see it on the XBox 360, PS3 and the Wii, with significantly different versions also arriving on the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS. A PC version is possible but if so would likely be a few months following the initial launch date.
Rumors are flying about several Star Wars television series, including a live action series set between Episodes 3 &4, and a “sitcom” set shortly after the Battle of Endor. Let’s hope that sitcom is an adaption of the comic book “Tag & Bink Are Dead.”
Torchwood/ Doctor Who
Fox has pulled out of the proposed US version of the show. BBC Worldwide issued the following statement, that both companies had “mutually agreed not to progress together with a 13-episode serialized Torchwood format”, but added that discussions with other networks were continuing.
While this is going on, it seems unlikely that Russell T Davies will be working on the UK version and the space previously used for the Hub standing set appears to now be being used for the new TARDIS interior.
Meanwhile, John Barrowman is appearing in ABC’s Desperate Housewives and Gareth David-Lloyd’s band Blue Gillespie have a tour coming up – see http://www.garethdavid-lloyd.co.uk/ for dates.
Firefly
Firefly: Still Flying comes out on May 25 from Titan Books – a behind-the-scenes book of photos, props, artwork and original stories. Amongst the many revelations contained within it – a photo of real-life astronaut Steven Swanson and his DVD boxed set floating in zero-G.
Nathan Fillion has described the season finale of Castle as “emotional”, featuring a love triangle including his character and the female lead.
A one-shot comic book by comedian Patton Oswalt titled Wash Out was recently released by Dark Horse Comics. The story features several characters coping with the events of Serenity, and the fate of Wash from the film.
Odds & Ends
Geek legend Joss Whedon is apparently adding another notch to his belt- by directing Marvel’s The Avengers! Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed, it’s all but there. So far the leads of Marvel’s other movies- Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America- and Samuel L. Jackson (Colonel Nick Fury) are the only confirmed cast members, with appearances by Don Cheadle (War Machine) and Scarlett Johansen (Black Widow) heavily rumored. No word on the film’s villain, other cast or whether Edward Norton (Bruce Banner/The Hulk) will be making an appearance.
Incredibles director Brad Bird has been confirmed as the director of “Mission Impossible IV”. JJ Abrams and Tom Cruise are producing the film.
A new Planet of the Apes film, tentatively titled “Rise of the Apes”, has been announced, with a premiere date of June 2011. Both date and title are subject to change.
Multiple US genre TV shows are currently “on the bubble” and in danger of cancellation. Some of the most notable entries include NBC’s HEROES, ABC’s V and FLASHFORWARD, and CBS’s MEDIUM.
The May 23rd series finale of LOST has been supersized. The episode- titled “The End”- will run two and a half hours, plus a two hour recap special prior to the episode and an hour-long Jimmy Kimmel Live! immediately afterwards. Fitting send off to one of the more unique sci-fi/fantasy shows in TV history.
CBS’s short-lived vampire detective drama MOONLIGHT has found a new life, sort of. The complete series will run in its entirety on the CW this summer, paired with reruns of CW’s hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean new episodes- series star Alex O’Loughlin is set to headline an update of HAWAII FIVE-O in the fall.
And now we can announce the new title holder of Manheim Fleet Captain.
Ryan, AKA popcornman on Ten-Forward, will take the role of Manheim FC. Congrats to Ryan!
No, I’m not featuring the sim of the month this early in the month. What do you think I am? Crazy? Well… yeah. But that’s not the point.
Our spotlight sim this month is going to be the newly relaunched Starbase 27. Watch for more about SB27 in the coming days and weeks!!
A few major announcements of note.
A longtime SLA-er, Fleet Captain Warp has been offered a promotion to the rank of Admiral!
Starbase 27 has recently changed hosting hands and wants you!!
Elections are wrapping up, and we’ll soon have full results, but the partial results follow:
Finance Chair: Zania
Publications Chair: Brawl
Engineering Chair: Jean-Luc Morimame
Personnel Chair: Tine Applegate
The final result- Manheim Fleet Captain- will be in soon!
You know, the old saying goes- you can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.
I’m Tony, or Brawl, whichever you prefer, and I’ll be taking over the publications side of the SLA. This is just the first post of what I hope to be many, and just the beginning of some exciting new stuff here. Hang on tight! It’s going to a wild ride!