/** ************************************************************************ * ************************************************************************* * The Non-Sequitur Express * (This --> <-- space left intentionally blank. Not this -->xx<-- one.) * Published at fortnightly or random intervals by Phillip Thorne * http://home.earthlink.net/~pethorne/NonSeqExp/ * * Volume 2, Issue 11: Monday, 1 May 2000 * *********************************************************************** * *********************************************************************** */ OBSERVATIONS: TV, HSP, Flint. UPCOMING: D&D, Appleseed, BE, Dinosaur, AM, etc. ANALYSIS: Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. ERRATA: Columns, links, episode numbers. plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. /** ************************************************************************ * OBSERVATIONS * Lightweight TV, HSPs, my VCR and Flint * *********************************************************************** */ This is one of those lightweight issues I transmit to keep the TV listings current. The 30-apr edition of glossy syndicated newspaper supplement _USA Weekend_ includes an article asking: are you an HSP? Not a hypersonic plane, but a highly sensitive person. Do you react badly to crowds? Jump when a coworker enters the room behind you and calls your name? HSPs seem to be genetically predisposed to possess above-average sensory acuity; to detect details, nuances, subtleties. It's probably a prerequisite for being a nitpicker. I think my VCR was trying to protect me from "Flint the Time Detective;" for three weeks it refused to tape the show. It finally caved to my demand on 22-apr (while I was at Balticon), and my reaction upon screening it: "Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?" was better. Carmen just has *so* much more panache than this "Petrafina" woman who flies through time in a cat-shaped spaceship with a fish-shaped sidekick, using a raygun to "fossilize" enemies, and collecting various "timeshifters" who might look like flying pink ammonites. The moral of that week's episode: Count Dracula, Vlad Tepes, was really a nice person and not an evil vampire at all. (Hey, that's not what "G.I.Joe" claimed! After all, Doctor Mindbender used DNA from "Vlad the Impaler" while synthesizing the evil new Cobra leader, Serpentor.) /** ************************************************************************ * UPCOMING * Series, Seasons, Episodes, Movies, Books * *********************************************************************** */ HEADS UP: Sat-29-apr-11:00 : FoxKids moves "Flint" to 11:30, replacing it with "Dungeons & Dragons" (1983). That 1980s-era animation really looks cruddy when set against today's computer-aided ink-and-paint. I suspect it's a promotional component for the upcoming live-action film. Thu-4-may-19:50 : Well well, it seems MOVIEPlex has a *sixth* anime title in its inventory. If memory serves, "Appleseed" (1988, 70 minutes) follows Deunan Knute and her partner, the combat cyborg Briareos Hecatonchires, members of the Olympus City ESWAT department, as they work to foil a terrorist who's stolen an experimental multi- legged tank to destroy the city's master computer, Gaia. (Repeat on fri-5-may-03:40.) Fri-12-may : "Battlefield Earth" premieres in theaters. Mon-15-may : the episodes of "Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles" start airing in order, on both syndicated BKN and the Sci-Fi Channel. For the petition to Sony-Tristar, see issue 2.10. Fri-19-may : Disney's CGI "Dinosaur" premieres in theaters. Sat-20-may-09:30 : FoxKids presents an hour-long preview of "Action Man," the new Hasbro/Mainframe CGI series that debuts this fall. NON-PRIMETIME ANIMATION: (Blank) PRIMETIME ETC: * Ros Max to the Max 119 pg wb m 0501-2100 * Buf New Moon Rising 419 14 wb t 0502-2000 FGy (None) 0502 * Ang Sanctuary 119 pg wb t 0502-2100 * 7D Witch Way to the Prom 220 pg upn w 0503-2000 Appleseed (1988) 14 plx r 0504-1950 70 * Chm Astral Monkey --- pg wb r 0504-2100 Appleseed (1988) 14 plx f 0505-0340 70 * N+A The Eggman Cometh (season finale) 122 pg cbs f 0505-2100 B5 Objects at Rest 522 pg tnt z 0506-0700 BCJ High Treason, part 2 126 pg tnt z 0506-1000 * TR2 Brightness Falls 113 -- nbc z 0506-1400 DS9 Afterimage 7-- pg 29 z 0506-1500 * EFC One Taelon Avenue 320 g 17 z 0506-1600 s 0514-2330 * SG1 Show and Tell 220 pg 29 z 0506-1700 s 0514-0400 * Cle Last Stand 1211 pg 17 z 0506-2000 z 0513-1300 * JAT Up the Creek 1317 pg 17 z 0506-2030 z 0513-1330 SI1 Star Wars 112 -- 35 z 0506-2200 Who City of Death, part 3 --- -- 35 z 0506-2200 Who City of Death, part 4 --- -- 35 z 0506-2230 * Fut My Problem with Popplers 218 -- fox s 0507-1900 * Sim Last Tap Dance in Springfield 1115 -- fox s 0507-2000 r Chm Give Me a Sign --- pg wb s 0507-2000 * XF Fight Club 720 -- fox s 0507-2100 * Ros The White Room 120 pg wb m 0508-2100 * Buf The Yoko Factor 420 14 wb t 0509-2000 * Ang War Zone 120 14 wb t 0509-2100 FGy (None) 0509 * 7D Mr.Donovan's Neighborhood 221 pg upn w 0510-2000 * Chm Apocalypse Not --- pg wb r 0511-2100 STAR TREK: VOYAGER: Flashback 302 m 0501-2200 Janeway visits Excelsior in Tuvok. The Chute 303 t 0502-2200 Tom, Harry angry in alien prison. * Fury 623 w 0503-2100 New - Kes returns! Remember 306 w 0503-2200 Torres remembers alien genocide. Future's End, part 1 308 r 0504-2200 Voyager destroys future Earth?... Future's End, part 2 309 f 0505-2200 ...No! It's a computer tycoon! r Fury 623 z 0506-1800 Ibid. The Swarm 304 m 0508-2200 Aliens attack while Doc loses mind. Warlord 310 t 0509-2200 Warlord's mind snatches Kes' body. * Life Line 624 w 0510-2100 New - Doc Zimmerman, Troi! The Q and the Grey 311 w 0510-2200 Q causes a war among the Q. Macrocosm 312 r 0511-2200 Janeway/Ripley fights flying viri. /** ***************************************************************** * ANALYSIS * New Roddenberry series: "Andromeda" * Anticipated: fall 2000 * *************************************************************** */ Space.com has posted several new articles regarding this latest Roddenberry-from-beyond-the-grave project. To summarize: "Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda," due fall 2000 but still in preproduction, is being produced by Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks Media (Highlander, The Raven), with Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Majel Roddenberry as executive producer, and Robert Hewitt Wolfe (prolific ST:DS9 writer) as co-creator. Tribune has already committed to 44 episodes, two seasons. Roddenberry's son, Eugene Jr. will be technical advisor. This particular set of 1970s notes yielded two possible projects, planet- and starship-based (originally titled "Andromeda" and "Phoenix Rising," respectively); RHW originally (when?) pitched the latter to Paramount as a "Trek" spinoff, but all those links were easily excised. They swapped titles and Sorbo attached himself to the starship; he'll be playing Captain Dylan Jericho. Keith Hamilton Cobb (All My Children) has also joined, signing a four-year contract. The premise involves Jericho gathering a crew of aliens to save the Systems Commonwealth from civil war and a new dark age. RHW claims the series will be filmed in an action-oriented, overlapping-dialogue "sci-fi verité" style akin to "ER," and downplays any preplanned story arc; he thinks the concept's been overhyped. He's eager to use every space opera trope available -- aliens, robots, starship combat -- but in a non-clichéd way. He's also pushing for scientific accuracy; there are no transporters or FTL communications. The sentient starship's FTL drive is based on string theory (superstring, cosmic string or m-brane?) and requires a human observer in the loop to collapse the quantum wavefunction -- he compares it to Zen archery. (The archer becomes one with the bow and target, so he can't miss.) http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/andromeda_tech_000428.html http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/andromeda_verite_000428.html http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/andromeda_cobb_000127.html http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/tv/andromeda_roddenberry_000428.html http://www.tribtv.com/andr.htm /** ************************************************************************ * ERRATA * *********************************************************************** */ I transmitted 2.10 with my mailer set to linewrap at 72 columns, resulting in a mess, so I had to retransmit. The link to issue 2.10 on the NSX homepage was dead for a while. I haven't been providing episode numbers for "Charmed." /** ************************************************************************ * ************************************************************************* * The Non-Sequitur Express * http://home.earthlink.net/~pethorne/NonSeqExp/ * Volume 2, Issue 11: Monday, 1 May 2000 * Copyright 2000 Phillip Thorne, pethorne@earthlink.net * ************************************************************************* * *********************************************************************** */