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
56
News Update
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!
Star Base 27 is in this alone.
It’s a game of Tongo with the lives of the crew and civilians aboard the Station hanging in the balance.
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?
It’s Action and character development. Just show up. Crew assignments will be given by preference on first come first serve at every sim.
No complicated application necessary to sim the ship. Regular crew get preferential assignments.
There will be no R and R sims… If there will be no cancellations if there is 1 or 31 people in the chat there will be a sim.
Anything else we should know?
It’s run ‘old school’. Fast-paced with tags to keep everyone straight about who is what position talking to whoever and action, action, action.
Come join the fun Sunday’s at 6pm EST
IM : DelpharNeebu@aim.com, or PythasKrai@aim.com Sunday.
or
email: PythasKraiglin@aol.com or DelpharNeebu@wyldeside.com
or
email: PythasKraiglin@aol.com or DelpharNeebu@wyldeside.com
For the AIM link
Fringe
Jasika Nicole, who plays Astrid, has teased about the season finale in an interview with the New York Post.
“The season two finale is the most shocking script we’ve had since the pilot. The season one finale was so good I assumed there was no way they’d be able to top that, and this year’s finale is so freakin’ good. We finally get to go to the alternate universe and meet everyone in their altered state. But that’s not even what I’m talking about – the very end of it, what’s going to keep audiences on the edge of their seats is in the last minute.”
Lost
With the end of Lost imminent, the executive producers are aware that they may not please everyone with the show’s ending. In an interview with HitFix, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof explained that they had to introduce new questions in the final episodes, rather than answer all of the outstanding ones.
The series finale of Lost will air on May 23 at 9pm on ABC in the US and on May 28 at 9pm on Sky1 in the UK.
If you can’t wait til then, here is a fun take on how it could end… http://www.atom.com/funny_videos/lost_scooby_doo/
Heroes
It’s currently looking like Heroes may not get another season after all. One site reports that while NBC was once considering ordering a new season of the show to keep in case one of its new drama series didn’t attract an audience, they are now so confident in their five pilots (including JJ Abrams’ “Undercovers”), they are ready to cut their losses with “Heroes.”
Remember, this isn’t official yet and won’t be until NBC announces its full schedule this weekend (Sunday, May 16).
Caprica
Due to return later this year for the remainder of its season. Expected to be in the Autumn, with the remaining episodes airing on Syfy in America and Sky One in the UK.
Chuck
No official announcement yet, but a usually reliable site has revealed that their usually reliable sources are telling them it’s going to be renewed for another season of 13 episodes with an option for another 9 in the autumn, rather than midseason as some sites had reported.
Watch out for an announcement on Sunday…
V
The ABC remake lives to fight another day! Reliable sources indicate that V will return in the fall with a 13-episode second season. Unfortunately…
FlashForward
…Will not. ABC’s other sci-fi series is officially dead, alongside supernatural crime drama Happy Town.
Odds and Ends
Several sci-fi shows have been picked up for fall, including ABC’s No Ordinary Family (starring Michael Chiklis of The Shield and Julie Benz of Dexter), NBC’s The Event (starring Jason Ritter of Parenthood and Friday Night Lights) and Fox’s Terra Nova (created by Mr. Jurassic Park himself, Steven Spielberg).
Sam Worthington has been cast as Allan Quartermain in a sci-fi/ cyberpunk re-imagining of the character.
Animated short PIXELS, about an invasion of 8-bit video game characters, has been picked up for development into a full-length film by Happy Madison Productions.
Firefly star Alan Tudyk has joined the cast of Transformers 3, which now includes the principals from the first two films plus John Malkovich, Frances McDorrmand and Patrick Dempsey.
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!