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- Welcome to the Archive for January, 2007
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- January 1
The Oz Factor is a feeling that UFO witnesses get, either before or during a UFO experience, that reality has slightly shifted. They may be aware of a sudden absence of bird-song, or a lack of traffic on a normally busy street.
The term was coined by prolific paranormal author Jenny Randles in her 1983 book, UFO Reality. It is inspired by the line from the Judy Garland movie version of The Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy says, "Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
Explanations
A number of explanations have been proposed for the Oz Factor:
1. The percipient (another term for witness, but with a subjective interpretation) is entering an altered state of consciousness. This could be . . .
- January 2
Raider (BSG 2003)
- Name: Raider
- Type: Fighter
- Registration: Cylon military
- Specifications: L: 29.34' W: 18.33' H: 5'
- Description: Information is scarce about this ubiquitous Cylon fighter. The Raider is extremely fast and as maneuverable as the Viper. Another trait this dangerous craft shares with the Viper is the ability to operate within various atmospheres. It packs a serious punch, too; its standard armaments include armor-piercing and high-explosive projectile weapons, and tactical nuclear ordnance for strategic bombing. Colonial pilots have confirmed that Raiders can execute hyperlight jumps and seem to be highly accurate at rapid jump calculations that exceed the capabilities of Colonial technology.
Pressing questions about the Raider remain unanswered. Colonial pilots have reported that Raiders are unmanned. Are they directed remotely? Or do they contain highly sophisticated computer guidance systems? How and where are they manufactured? While Colonials search . . .
- January 3
The Ancient Database is a vast collection of records created by the Ancients and located in the city of Atlantis. The database holds an enormous amount of information regarding Pegasus Galaxy planets and scientific research as well as a complete listing of all the Ancients who returned to Earth through the Stargate during the first siege of Atlantis.
An extensive Ancient repository of knowledge was found in the Milky Way on two planets. The information can be downloaded directly into a human mind. Humans, however, are not yet evolved . . .
- January 4
Classic Battlestar Galactica #1
Dynamite Entertainment’s “Classic” Battlestar Galactica series is set before the end of the 1970s television series, adding new adventures to the established continuity.
The Council of Twelve alerts Commander Adama to the existence of a set of historical books on the planet Maytoria, a satellite planet to the Sagittaron colony. Set in the outer boundaries of the system, Maytoria was the planet hardest hit by the Cylon assault on the colonies and is still completely overrun by the mechanical tyrants.
Starbuck, Boomer, and Apollo are tasked with locating the books and retrieving them, if they still exist. Adama and the Council believe that these ancient texts may contain the location of the fabled Thirteenth Colony, a planet known as Earth. After their missions planning session and a brief farewell from Serina, Boxey, and Muffit, the three pilots set out in Viper fighters equipped with virtually untested (and potentially unreliable) stealth . . .
- January 5
Battlestar Galactica Comic - Number 0
Dynamite Entertainment’s Battlestar Galactica series is set during the continuity of the re-imagined SCI FI Channel series. The initial storyline takes place specifically after Episode 207 (“Home, Part 2”) and before Episode 210 (“Pegasus”).
The story begins onboard a ship identified as Medivac 12 of the Caprican Expeditionary Fleet. Several sleeping human passengers are awakened by smoke. They appear confused and disoriented; one begins to ask “where the hell is this place” but he is interrupted by the arrival of Cylon Centurions. A violent explosion is seen on the outer hull of the ship as it floats amid a sea of destroyed spacecraft.
Onboard the Battlestar Galactica, President Laura Roslin is giving a press conference in front of an older model Cylon Centurion . . .
- January 6
Replay is Ken Grimwood's best known novel, published by Arbor House in 1986.
Born in Pensacola, Florida, in 1944, Ken Grimwood wrote five novels before his death by heart failure in 2003. His Replay won the World Fantasy Award for best novel in 1988.
Replay's hero is Jeff Winston, a man who has lived 43 years of a regular—one could even say humdrum—life. His career disappoints him, his wife harries him, and something even worse is in store for him—an untimely death, heart failure while sitting at his desk with the phone in his hand. That's the set-up by page three of the book.
What happens next is remarkable. Because Winston wakes up. He wakes up, in his bed in his dorm room at college. It's 1963 again. He is 18 years old again. He hasn't forgotten or lost the years he has lived, but he has a chance to replay it, make it different and better.
And he . . .
- January 7
"Postpaid to Paradise" is a 5,000-word short story by Robert Arthur about some magical stamps that send packages to the mythical country of El Dorado. It was first published in the June 15, 1940, issue of Argosy Weekly.
Plot
Murchison Morks inherited a stamp collection from his father. It included five stamps from a country called El Dorado. A dealer told him those stamps were fakes, but later he put one of the stamps on a letter to a friend, Harry Norris. That letter then disappeared, and arrived at Harry Norris’s house, on the other side of the country, in just three minutes, with the stamp cancelled.
Harry Norris comes to visit, and the two decide to try mailing a box with their pet cat in it. They make up an address, put the stamp on the box, and the box . . .
- January 8
Lois Lane is a fictional DC Comics character created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in Action Comics issue #1 in 1938. She is the main love interest of the iconic superhero Superman.
Lois Lane has been played by several different actresses in film and television. Each has brought something different to the character.
Superman (serial) and Atom Man vs. Superman
Noel Neill played Lois Lane in these two serials (released in 1948 and 1950) (and was brought in to replace Phyllis Coates in the tv series: see below). Her Lois is smart-alecky and reckless. She also had a cameo in the 1978 Superman movie and a more substantial role in the 2006 Superman Returns.
Adventures of Superman
Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the 1952 television series Adventures of Superman for the series' first 26 episodes. She was later replaced by Noel Neill . . .
- January 9
Happily N'Ever After is a 2007 computer-animated film, directed by Paul J. Bolger. The film was written by Robert Moreland , based on the fairy tales of Brothers Grimm. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddy Prinze Jr., and Sigourney Weaver lend their voices to the film, which is scheduled for theatrical release on January 5, 2007.
Plot
Wizard, who maintains the balance of good and evil in Fairy Tale Land, goes on vacation, leaving Munk and Mambo in charge. Cinderella's (Ella) stepmother, Frieda, accesses the Wizard's lair during Prince Charming's ball and manages to upset the balance, tipping it in favor of evil. Ella, and her best friend, dishwasher Rick, must stop her and . . .
- January 10
Johnny Depp (b. John Christopher Depp II on June 9, 1963) is a popular Academy Award-nominated American actor born in Owensboro, Kentucky to civil engineer John Christopher Depp Sr. and waitress Betty Sue Palmer. Depp came to fame in the 1980s playing Officer Tom Hanson on the series 21 Jump Street. Since then he has been known for his off beat roles and versatility. He is best known to genre and young fans as the quirky and roguish pirate Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Early Life
Johnny was the last of the Depps' four children. Depp was preceded by Danny, Christi, and Debbie. The family is of Irish, German, and Native American ancestry, and Depp has joked that in German, their surname means "idiot." Depp's parents moved several times in his childhood years before settling in Miramar, Florida, when he was seven years old. His parents divorced in 1978 and not long after, he dropped out of high school to pursue a career as a rock musician. He tried . . .
- January 11
Roswell, which ran from 1999 to 2002, took its inspiration from the first in a series of ten Roswell High young adult novels by Melinda Metz, which were published from 1998 to 2000. The premise of the novels and the television program is that the Roswell, New Mexico, UFO crash of 1947 was real, and that the aliens emerge from "incubation" years later, looking like ordinary children with extraordinary powers and an unclear destiny. They conceal their existence from humans and appear to be ordinary teenagers.
History
The television series varied from the books almost from the outset, although some of the characters retained the backgrounds assigned to them in the novels. The original threesome of aliens was played by Jason Behr as Max Evans, Katherine Heigl as Isabel Evans, and Brendan Fehr as Michael Guerin. The first two are brother and sister and were adopted . . .
- January 12
Harry Dresden is the lead character in a series of books written by Jim Butcher. The Dresden Files series tells the story of wizard Harry Dresden, who solves crimes in modern-day Chicago. With eight books published to date, the series is going strong. Harry Dresden will also make his screen debut with the SCI FI Channel's The Dresden Files TV series in 2007.
Storm Front
Harry Dresden is the best at what he does. Well, technically, he's the only at what he does. So when the Chicago P.D. has a case that transcends mortal creativity or capability, they come to him for answers. The "everyday" world is actually full of strange and magical things—and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in. Takes a wizard to catch a . . .
- January 13
Beau Bridges as Gen. Hank Landry
Beau Bridges, born Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, is a well known actor, director, and producer. He was born December 9, 1941, in Hollywood, California, to actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart Dorothy Dean Bridges. He was nicknamed Beau after Ashley Wilke's son in Gone with the Wind, a book his parents had recently read. He has two siblings, a brother, Jeff Bridges, and sister, Cindy Bridges.
Career
Beau began acting as a child, mainly with small roles in films such as No Minor Vices, Force of Evil, and The Red Pony. He was not seriously interested in film and had a strong interest in basketball. He played on the UCLA basketball team and also at the University of Hawaii but soon realized his height of only 5'10" would be a hindrance as a professional player. He dropped out of university and . . .
- January 14
Alexis Cruz born September 29, 1974, is an American actor of Puerto Rican heritage, best known for his role as Skaara in the film Stargate and its spin-off series Stargate SG-1. Cruz was born in The Bronx, New York. He attended the High School of Performing Arts in New York and then went on to Boston University where he majored in Independent Technical Theatre.
Cruz's first acting job was in a Spanish-language commercial for macaroni and cheese. His first role of significance was a 1985 guest sport on The Cosby Show as Enrique Tarron. He followed up with a lead role in the PBS series Gryphon.
His film career began with roles in such films as The Pick-up Artist in 1987 and Rooftops in 1989. He acted with Anthony Quinn in the The Old Man and the Sea and played himself on the beloved TV series Sesame Street.
By age 17 he was directing . . .
- January 15
Hauntings are cases where it appears that a disembodied entity is tied to a specific location, such as a house.
Hauntings typically involve the appearance of a ghost (or ghosts), although indirect evidence (such as sounds, smells, EVP, and so on) may also be considered a haunting.
People who live in a haunted house may find it unpleasant, or even threatening. In such cases, an exorcism may be performed. A special kind of non-clergy parapsychologist may also be employed: these people are commonly called ghostbusters (after the movie of the same name), although some find that term too confrontational.
Theories
The popular theory of witnesses is that they are dealing with the spirit of a deceased person (or, more rarely, animal). In such cases, an attempt . . .
- January 16
Summer Glau (b. July 24, 1981) is an American actress born in San Antonio, Texas. She is best known for her role on the short-lived series Firefly and the spin-off film Serenity as River Tam.
Career
Glau is classically trained in ballet as well as flamenco and tango. During her youth she focused on dance which required her to be home schooled. She performed professionally during her teen years but a significant injury sidelined her and during her recovery she visited a friend in Los Angeles. While in LA, she auditioned and landed her firs acting job. She moved to Los Angeles and began her career in acting and dance, appearing in several commercials.
She won her first television role on the series Angel. She played a prima ballerina in the episode "Waiting in the Wings." She followed up with the role of River Tam on the FOX series Firefly. The series was canceled after only a few episodes but gained a cult following that led to the feature film Serenity. Following Serenity, Glau appeared . . .
- January 17
Batman Beyond, also known as Batman of the Future, was a 1999 animated series created by The WB Network. It is a part of the DC Comics Batman franchise. Batman Beyond premiered on January 10, 1999. The final episode aired on December 18, 2001. It produced one spin-off series, The Zeta Project ,and had crossovers with Justice League and Static Shock.
Premise
In the future, an elderly Bruce Wayne has been forced to retire from his life of crime-fighting. He encounters a young boy, Terry McGinnis, who lost his father to to a gang of criminals. Terry accidentally uncovers the Batcave and borrows one of Bruce's highly advanced Bat-suits to avenge his father's death. He ultimately takes . . .
- January 18
Futurama is a half-hour animated comedy series, which premiered in 1999 after cartoonist Matt Groening, creator of the wildly successful animated show The Simpsons, went back to the drawing table with a vision of rocketships filling his head.
Billy West provides the voices for three of the main characters, Philip J. Fry, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, and Dr. John Zoidberg, as well as for Zapp Brannigan and a host of minor characters. Other cast members include Katey Sagal as Turanga Leela, John DiMaggio as Bender, Lauren Tom as Amy Wong, and Phil LaMarr as Hermes Conrad.
Futurama is set in the year 3000. Fry, a 20th-century pizza delivery guy, is accidentally sealed in a cryogenic tank for a thousand years. On awakening, he hooks up with a cigar-chomping, alcohol-swilling robot named Bender and a cyclopean mutant babe named Leela. The three are . . .
- January 19
In The Butterfly Effect (2004), writer/directors Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (who also co-wrote Final Destination 2) created a movie that expresses the "butterfly effect," or what is known in the field of chaos theory as "a sensitive dependence on initial conditions." In other words, altering so little as one flap of a butterfly's wings can result in an enormous change in the world.
Ashton Kutcher plays a college psychology student named Evan Treborn, who has suffered blackouts since childhood. While reading his journals, he discovers that he can temporarily return to his past and choose different actions. Each episode, corresponding to his blackouts, results in a new reality. His past is filled with harshness and terror, including an encounter with a child pornographer, and he becomes obsessed with creating a new reality in which he and his friends will find happiness and fulfillment. Most of the changes lead to even worse situations. Perhaps the most interesting dilemma in the movie occurs when Evan's changes result in good lives for his friends but crippling injuries for Evan himself.
A disturbing and dark experience, The Butterfly Effect did . . .
- January 20
It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), a prototypical 1950s monster movie, is often said to have borrowed some of its plot points from noted SF author A. E. van Vogt’s classic novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle. Along with Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires (1965) and Curtis Harrington’s Queen of Blood (1966), it is also widely regarded, in turn, as providing the unofficial inspiration for Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).
It! was one of three SF films scripted that same year by Jerome Bixby; the others were Curse of the Faceless Man, also directed by Edward L. Cahn, and Lester William Berke’s The Lost Missile. Bixby’s short story “It’s a Good Life” was adapted by Rod Serling into a memorable episode of The Twilight Zone, and he later contributed to both Fantastic Voyage (1966) and the original Star Trek.
Cahn directed dozens of Our Gang shorts between 1939 and '42, and his hundred-plus credits include many genre films of the '50s. Among the best known are The She-Creature (1956), Voodoo Woman, and . . .
- January 21
The Dresden Files is a 2007 Sci Fi Channel original series based on Jim Butcher's fantasy novel series The Dresden Files. The series stars Paul Blackthorne as Harry Dresden, a private detective with unusual abilities. He is a wizard who uses his abilities to solve crimes natural and supernatural in nature. The series premieres on January 21, 2007.
Plot
A local gangster, Tommy Tom, and his girlfriend, Jennifer Randall, are found dead; their hearts have mysteriously exploded from their chests. Police officer Connie Murphy, calls in Harry to help solve the inexplicable . . .
- January 22
Dominic Purcell (b. February 17, 1970 in London, England) is an Australian actor best known in the title role of the short-lived series John Doe. He is also known in the role of Lincoln Burrows on the FOX series Prison Break.
Purcell was born in England and is of Norwegian and Irish descent. He is the eldest five children. The family moved to Australia when Purcell was two years old.
Career
Purcell was working as landscaper when he made the decision to attend drama school. He was rejected by the National Institute of Dramatic Art on his first audition but a year later, after attending the Sydney Acting Studio, he auditioned for NIDA as well as the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts and Victorian school for Auditions. He chose to attend WAAPA.
Following his graduation he landed a role on the Australian series Raw FM. He appeared in in the TV Movie First Daughter and guest starred on Heartbreak High. Before landing the lead role as John Doe, he appeared in Mission: Impossible II and guest starred on The Lost World and BeastMaster. He also appeared in Invincible, and Equilibrium.
Following the single season of John Doe, Purcell appeared in Blade: Trinity as Dracula and . . .
- January 23
Star Trek: Enterprise, originally titled Enterprise, is the fifth live-action television series in the Star Trek franchise. The series was created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It is set one hundred years after first contact with the Vulcans but before Captain Kirk's five-year mission of exploration. The series premiered in 2001 and ended in 2005.
Cast
- January 24
The Vampire Bat is a 1933 horror film directed by Frank R. Strayer and written by Edward T. Lowe Jr.. The Vampire Bat is a Majestic Pictures Inc. production starring Fay Wray, Lionel Atwill, Melvyn Douglas, and Dwight Frye. The Vampire Bat opened in theaters on January 10, 1933.
Plot
The inhabitants of the village of Klineschloss become victims of mysterious death by blood loss. The villagers soon suspect vampirism but skeptics, police inspector Karl Brettschneider (Melvyn Douglas) and Dr. Von Niemann (Lionel Atwill), aren't so quick to believe. They soon come to suspect Herman Gleib, a simple man with a love for . . .
- January 25
Ronald Dowl Moore (b. July 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and producer born in Chowchilla, California. He is best known for his work as an executive producer for Battlestar Galactica and a writer on producer on three Star Trek series.
Moore attended Cornell University and graduated with a degree in political science. Following college, he moved to Los Angeles hoping to work as a writer. After struggling and giving serious consideration to joining the US navy, he was called on to write for Star Trek: The Next Generation and eventually joined the writing staff. He later served as a producer on the series and his work with the TNG team led to an Outstanding Drama Series Emmy nomination. His work with fellow writer, Brannon Braga earned them a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation for the TNG episode "All Good Things...". Moore and Braga also collaborated on the plot of Mission: Impossible II. His other work for Star Trek included the Star Trek films Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact. He also wrote and produced for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. He became well known as a Klingon expert on the series and wrote several episodes that developed Klingon culture in the Star Trek Universe.
Moore ended his work in the Star Trek universe after only . . .
- January 26
The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne (SAJV) was a 22-episode steampunk television series that aired in Canada in 2000 on the CBC and the U.S. in 2001 on Sci Fi Channel and in fall 2002 in syndication to local stations.
The show followed the fictional adventures of a young Jules Verne before he bacame the famous writer and first author of science fiction. In the series, Verne hooks up with Phileas Fogg, his manservant Passepartout and Fogg's cousin, Rebecca and they travel on The Aurora, a lighter-than air flying ship.
Originally created by Gavin Scott, the show was sold to a partnership of UK, Canadian and U.S. producers, including Nicolas Clermont, Pierre de Lespinois, Neil Dunn, Michael Huffington, and Richard Jackson. They worked under a company called "Talisman Crest" to produce the show for sale to a major U.S. network.
The show filmed during 1998–99 in Montreal, Canada.
Unfortunately, after none of the big networks would buy the $22 million series, Talisman filed for bankruptcy. Canada's CBC picked up the series as a Saturday morning children's series in 2000. A few months later . . .
- January 27
Starship Troopers was originally intended to be part of Robert Heinlein's string of young adult novels, but it was turned down by the publisher, reportedly because of the violent content. Heinlein then sold it to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and it was released as a novel for adult readers in 1959. The main plot is a coming of age story in which a young citizen of Earth enlists in the military in order to help in the fight against a race of intelligent insects that have attacked human assets among the stars. Earth itself is a quasi-military state because military service is a prerequisite to being able to vote. The protagonist undergoes training and is tested in combat, in which he is aided by an environmental suit that makes him virtually a self-contained armored vehicle.
The surface story is exciting and well constructed, but it is merely the facade for what is essentially a Utopian novel. Most early Utopian fiction consists primarily of grand tours of a society constructed along the lines the author believes are more sensible and rational than the one in which we live. These stories have two essential literary flaws. First, they tend to be boring, more lecture and description than narrative. Second, they make little attempt to explain the transition from our society to their benevolent new system, and they assume against all experience that people will universally . . .
- January 28
Bill Pullman (December 17, 1953) is an American actor born in Hornell, New York, to Dr. James Pullman and Johanna Blass. He is the sixth of seven children. He graduated from Glenbard West High School in Chicago and went on to attend the University of New York at Delhi and and the State University of New York at Oneonta. He later received his Masters in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts.
Pullman joined a theater company and performed in South Dakota and Montana. He also taught theater at Delhi and Montana State University. At 28, he moved to New York to further his acting career.
Career
In the early '80s, he worked primarily in theater in New York. He moved to Los Angeles in 1985 where he continued working on stage. He made his film debut in Ruthless People. A year later he won the starring role of Lone Starr in the Mel Brooks Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs. Other noteworthy roles include The Accidental Tourist, Brain Dead, Newsies with Christian Bale, A League of Their Own, Sommersby, While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock, Casper, Independence Day, Lost Highway, Lake Placid, Titan A.E., The Grudge , Revelations, Alien Autopsy, and Scary Movie 4. Upcoming roles include . . .
- January 29
Radar Men from the Moon is a twelve-part serial from 1952, with spaceships both miniature and full scale, a high-flying rocket suit, and assorted sci-fi gizmos that include an early model female robot that wound up featured in the Lost in Space episode "Ghost Planet.” Released by Republic Studio, Radar Men from the Moon offers special effects from master Howard Lydecker (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space (both from 1965–1966), Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), Our Man Flint (1966), and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)).
The story pits scientific genius Commando Cody and his rocket suit against a shady gang of Moon men, who are using what might very well be an atomic weapon against Earth. They must be stopped, even if it means Cody has to take an experimental rocket to the moon to deal with Retik and . . .
- January 30
Marc Singer (b. January 29, 1948) is a Canadian actor born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Singer is best known as the title character in the 1982 fantasy film The Beastmaster. He has also appeared in the miniseries V and its sequels V: The Final Battle and V: The Series as Mike Donovan.
Genre Filmography
- "Bonafide Hero: Captain Duck Dodgers" as Kirk Manlord
- "Honey, It's Doomsday" as Bob
- January 31
M.A.N.T.I.S was a short-lived 1994 sci-fi action TV series created by Bryce Zabel. It was produced by Renaissance Pictures and Wilbur Force Productions and filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia. The series lasted only one season.
M.A.N.T.I.S stands for Mechanically Augmented Neurotransmitter Interactive System. It is an exoskeleton designed by scientist Dr. Miles Hawkins (Carl Lumbly) to overcome the paralysis that resulted from a shot to the back. The exoskeleton did more than return the use of Hawkins' legs. It gave him increased strength, speed, and agility. With the power to do something, he is unable to stand by and watch the corruption and violence around him and he, somewhat reluctantly, becomes a superhero. He takes on the identity of MANTIS.
In addition to his suit, he uses his knowledge of science and technology to create tools to help him fight crime. He uses a prototype police vehicle known as Chrysalid that is able to fly and travel under water. His tools aren't his only resource, however. He also has the help of John Stonebrake, a friend and colleague and Taylor Savidge a bike courier.
Despite his efforts in preventing and eliminating crime, he is not appreciated by . . .
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