This TRON video came out just today and is sure to be a viral hit — so I'm doing my part and sharing it with Showbits readers, my favorite Internet denizens.
Has TRON's light cycle scene ever been so masterfully recreated than by this work of TRON Guy? I met Jay Maynard at ROFLCon a few years ago, and this advertisement for Duck-brand duct tape is the perfect amalgamation of his stereotyped perception and actual personality. Besides, what genius is it to advertise a specific brand of tape? It's like comedian Steven Wright has said: you never see an advertisement for string. All it takes is one ad to put your product ahead of the competition. I'd say Duck Tape just soared well past the other brands on the grid.
Star Trek has long been known for its technobabble — a quantum fissure ruptures space-time and is sealed by reversing the polarity and emitting a tachyon pulse from the deflector dish — but occasionally, its cast is concerned by dilemmas as low-tech as the equipment used to make the show. This was especially true of TOS, which once pitted Captain James T. Kirk against a slow-moving lizardman:
A cannon fashioned from bamboo, charcoal, sulfur, and diamonds? That's simply not feasible… or is it? The Discovery Channel's cult favorite, Mythbusters, tackles this classic scenario next Monday, December 28, at 9 PM. Here's a preview:
Poor Gorn. The lizardman had only the best of intentions:
For more of Captain Kirk's ham-fisted battle strategies, check out the independent film, The Kirkie.
The traditional television schedule seems to be a thing of the past, with new series starting whenever in the year they please. One recent example is Defying Gravity, which ABC premiered on August 2nd. While it's common for shows like Heroes and Sarah Connor to stream its new episodes on their Web sites, I've never been satisfied with the experience of watching a television show in a Web browser. So imagine my pleasant surprise to find that the first three episodes of Defying Gravity were, for a limited time, available as a free download from iTunes, allowing me an opportunity I'd otherwise get only on DVD.
The year is 2052, eleven years before First Contact. The International Space Organziation (ISO) is set to launch a single six-year manned mission to the solar system's seven planets (discounting Earth and Pluto). Eight astronauts and their ground support are eager to confront the unknown… but before they know it, the unknown comes to them. A mysterious entity is pulling the mission's strings, which only the upper echelons of the ISO are aware of — and oddly, they seem more than willing to cooperate.
Ron Livingston of Office Space is the show's main character and narrator. In the eyes of the public, Maddux Donner is a fallen hero, ever since he abandoned two astronauts on a mission to Mars, although the movie's pilot makes clear he made the right decision and obeyed orders. He opens and closes each episode with a monologue, with other storytelling elements including the flashbacks, personal video logs, and one character whose sole purpose seems to be to document the ship's happenings for the edification of terrestrial grade school students.
More central to the plot than Donner's public image is his relationship with the rest of the crew, and them with each other. Multiple flashbacks to five years prior show us how this crew came to know each other during the application and training for the mission, at which time it seems everyone slept with each other at least once. Now spacebound, the astronauts are supposedly limited by HALOs — hormone-activated libido oppressors that impact one's physical performance but not emotional desire, thus doing nothing to prevent sexual awkwardness.
HALOs are one of the few technological developments humanity has achieved in the next 50 years. The Antares ship must have some sort of improved propulsion to make a six-year solar tour, but there's no evidence of warp drive. Further, the application of antigravity is inconsistent. It's stated early on that nanofibers in the crew uniforms keep them upright and attached, and we see tossed objects and even vomit moving laterally across a room in support of that theory. But in other scenes, baseballs sail in graceful arcs, and an exercise room's weight machine functions normally. Perhaps crew quarters rotate, offering centripetal force that isn't present elsewhere. Regardless, Defying Gravity is closer to our own level of advancement than most science fiction.
Likewise, culture and society has seen few changes, though I appreciate that the possibility for more sweeping evolution is subtle. The existence of the ISO suggests a a world unification, or at least collaboration beyond a single space station. Home pregnancy tests are now illegal. And Donner longs for "the mountains and what's left of the beaches", suggesting some consequence of global warming. But the broader environment in which this mission was launched is not the show's focus, and picking up on these clues is more a reward for the astute viewer than being hit over the head with more jarring differences would be.
If only the rest of the show was as shrewd. The macguffin of the unknown puppet master is intended to keep viewers hooked, but it's too obvious a plot device for me. I prefer hidden elements to be subtle and not critical to the show's very foundation. A particular character can have a secret, or a particular episode or story arc may need a deus ex machina — but this entire show seems driven by a creature named "Beta" who we may not be seeing for some time.
Fortunately, any problems I have with the script do not extend to the cast. Livingston seemed somewhat clueless in Office Space and has a similar air here, but at least he's earnest about it. Ty Olsson, who played Captain Aaron Kelly on BSG and Magento's guard in X-Men 2, is tough but thoughtful Rollie Crane. Among the astronauts, there is a lack of independent female role models, but mission control includes Karen LeBlanc as assistant flight director Eve Weller-Shaw and Claire Dereux as Maxim Roy, who know how to get a grip (when they're not pining for their cosmic boyfriends).
Defying Gravity, which has been described as Lost in space (har, har) or Grey's Anatomy in space, came strongly recommended from someone who said these three episodes had justified committing to the rest of the season. Such a strong first impression is rare: if I'd had to judge Star Trek: TNG or DS9 that quickly, I might not have stuck around. Defying Gravity may likewise mature into a fine show, but since I have no television service, I'm left with the decision of buying the show online or on DVD, or not at all. Given what I've seen so far, I'll save my money and leave others to boldly go. In the meantime, only the behind-the-scenes featurette remains a free download from iTunes, while full episodes can be watched on ABC.com by installing their spyware plug-in.
Summer is a popular season not just for blockbuster films, but also for highly technical ones. Last year featured Batman and Iron Man, and their associated gadgetry, while the previous summer marked the 25th anniversary of Tron. My employer's sister publication, PC World, recently capitalized on this seasonal trend with an article blandly titled "Five movies starring computers". Showbits contributor and former co-worker GeneD. and I felt we could could compile our intimate knowledge of the genre into something better than a brief and unthematic list of 20-year-old movies. Since our outlet would be Computerworld — "The voice of IT management" — we chose a correspondingly relevant thesis: how sci-fi movies predict the development of technology, and whether reality is approaching or diverging from that future. We further categorized our topic into six specific kinds of technology: artificial intelligence; genetic engineering; virtual reality; cybersecurity; surveillance; and military.
GeneD. and I each tackled three of the six sections (can you tell which are mine?). We collaborated on the introduction and conclusion, I arranged it all into a cohesive whole, and editors Val and Barbara applied some insightful packaging, including the "At the movies/In reality" contrast. GeneD. and I are both pretty pleased with the final article, "Do sci-fi films get advanced tech right?", feeling it hits upon a variety of significant sci-fi films without requiring a previous knowledge of the more esoteric ones.
If you like science fiction and technology, I think you'll enjoy our Computerworld article. What other genres of films (such as James Bond and his gadgets) or science (like space exploration) do you think would make for a similarly interesting read? Point us in the direction of our next article, and we'll see what we can do!
