SCIFIPEDIA:Today's Featured Article/May 2008

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May 1

Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) wrote many sf and mystery novels and stories. His novels took different approaches than did most of the science fiction of the time. What Mad Universe (1949) sent the editor of a pulp sf magazine into the kind of future imagined by his readers; The Lights in the Sky Are Stars (1951, published in the UK as Project Jupiter) featured an older protagonist and more characterization than expected; and Martians, Go Home (1955), perhaps Brown's best-known work, came up with an alternative to the two traditional space-invasion motifs—enlightenment and enslavement—with aliens who merely made pests of themselves. It also included bawdy humor and an actual sex scene, though hardly an exciting one.

His first published story, "Not Yet the End" (1941), set the tone for his work . . .

May 2

Ellen Tigh is the sexually voracious and emotionally manipulative wife of Col. Saul Tigh. As much his enabler as his partner, she constantly goads and pushes him to embrace more ambitious goals. She tells herself that she does it for his own good, but her own advancement is her main concern. It's likely that Ellen truly does love her husband and it becomes clear she would do anything necessary to help during the occupation of New Caprica. Her marriage to Saul Tigh drove him to drink and her well known sexual promiscuity throughout their marriage proved embarrassing for him.

Tigh and Ellen were estranged at the time of the Cylon attacks. She was presumed to be among the billions of dead. Adama found her on a ship in the fleet and brought her back to Saul. Ellen claimed to have been at an airport on Picon during the attacks attempting to get home. She says an unknown person got her on a transport leaving the planet. She was unconscious aboard the Rising Star for three weeks before Adama found her.

Ellen's claims prove suspicious as no one on the Rising Star . . .

May 3

May 3 is the annual Free Comic Book Day event!

The Sandman is a name used by several DC Comics characters, though the Wesley Dodds superhero Sandman character was the first. He is often referred to as the "Golden Age Sandman," since his original series was during the 1940s, referred to as the Golden Age of Comics. Though he has been considered a DC Comics super-hero for decades, in the 1990s he had a critically acclaimed series entitled Sandman Mystery Theatre under the Vertigo label. Vertigo is DC's line of horror, fantasy, and science fiction titles for mature readers.

The Sandman is known as one of the truly seminal "Mystery Men" of the 1940s, combining both the elements of pulp fiction heroes like The Shadow and what would become the superhero genre. He can be looked upon as a sort of missing link between the two genres. He dressed in a green business suit, fedora hat, and a gas mask which serves the double purpose of hiding his identity and shielding him from the effects of his own gas gun . . .

May 4

Masi Oka is a Japanese-American actor and digital effects artist born Masayori Oka, in Tokyo, Japan. He moved to Los Angeles with his family at age six. He is fluent in Japanese and also speaks some Spanish. Oka graduated from Brown University with a degree in computer science and took a job with George Lucas's special effects house, Industrial Light & Magic. He has worked as a Visual Effects artist on the films The Perfect Storm, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, The War of the Worlds, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

In addition to his work behind the scenes, Oka is also gaining respect and acclaim for his work in front of the camera. His career began with small roles on the sitcom Dharma & Greg, Gilmore Girls, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. He has had roles in the films Uh Oh!, Along Came Polly, and Chester's Big Night, House of the Dead 2: Dead Aim and God Wears My Underwear. He has also had a recurring role on . . .

May 5

Doctor Who, Season 4 of the classic series (1963–1989) would bring shocking change to fans of the program. Lead actor William Hartnell was becoming increasingly difficult to work with. He suffered from arteriosclerosis, commonly known as hardening of the arteries, and it was obviously beginning to affect him both mentally and physically. But this was not the key problem. Perhaps due to his illness or perhaps due to the loss he felt after the departure of his original castmates, the actor increasingly exhibited the irascibility of his on-screen persona when the cameras were off. Coupled with the fact that the program's ratings had dropped sharply the previous season, producer Innes Lloyd and BBC management became convinced that it was time for change. It was decided that Hartnell would appear in only two stories in Season 4.

A new actor, Patrick Troughton, would be cast in the lead role. This, however, posed the obvious questions of "How do we explain this?" and "How will the new actor portray the character?" The first question was . . .

May 6

Lost in Space remains one of the few truly enduring science fiction TV adventures from the 1960s. Although the program often featured contrived plots, cheap effects, and outrageous overacting, it somehow managed to fire the imaginations of young fans who, even as they've aged, have enjoyed reliving their youthful flights-of-fancy through reruns of the show.

Folks familiar with the series will recognize that the action in the movie to some extent mirrors that of the program's early episodes. Professor John Robinson (William Hurt) and his wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers) plan to journey with their three children Judy (Heather Graham), Penny (Lacey Chabert) and Will (Jack Johnson), plus pilot Don West (Matt LeBlanc), aboard the Jupiter 2 to Alpha Prime. The crew's physician, Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman), sets out to sabotage the mission soon after the launch of the vessel and is trapped on the craft when it takes off.

To avoid being killed, Smith . . .

May 7

Perry White is a fictional comic book character. Perry Jerome White is the Managing Editor of the Daily Planet, a "great Metropolitan newspaper". In his role as boss to Clark Kent (Superman), Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen, he has been portrayed in every medium as the personification of the very "tough" but fair employer.

Perry grew up in Suicide Slum, a really rough neighborhood in Metropolis. He started as a newsboy, then copy boy at age 10. Eventually, he married Alice Spencer and worked his way up to becoming the leading reporter. He and Alice had a son, Jerry White, who later died of a gunshot wound. Lex Luthor once owned the Daily Planet, but Perry arranged for a consortium to buy it from him, on the condition that he come on as Managing Editor.

Perry had a battle with . . .

May 8

Lair of the White Worm is a campy 1988 movie directed and written by Ken Russell based on the novel of the same name by Bram Stoker, the last novel from the writer. It stars Amanda Donohoe, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, and Sammi Davis.

The story takes place in early spring in and around a rural England on the D'Ampton estate. And a local legend of the D'Ampton Worm (worm and wyrm are early English word variants of what is now known as a dragon). According to legend, hundred of years ago, the local dragon was slain by a brave Sir John D'Ampton.

Here, Angus Flint, a young Scottish archeologist (played by Peter Capaldi) is excavating an area of the yard of a local boarding house.

He discovers what appears to have been an early convent from the Roman Empire era. The boarding house is on the D'Ampton estate and run by the two Trent sisters (played by Catherine Oxenberg and Sammi Davis), who were presumed orphaned when their parents went missing some years back.

He also finds the skull of a creature—that looks like it could be . . .

May 9

Helipolis is a fictional planet in the Milky Way in the SCI FI Channel series Stargate SG-1.

Heliopolis is the nickname of the planet, designated PB2-908, on which Dr. Ernest Littlefield became stranded in 1945. He was sent through the gate during one of Professor Langford's experiments in trying to uncover the mysteries of the stargate. During the experiment, the gate shut down, leaving Ernest trapped on the planet for over 50 years.

On Heliopolis, the stargate was located inside a castle on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Dr. Littlefield was able to determine that it was once a meeting place for four great races to exchange knowledge and culture. The races were later identified as The Asgard, The Nox, the Furlings and the Ancients. Ernest discovered a DHD-like device inside one of the castles rooms. It activated a holographic projection of the basic elements, a universal language that Daniel Jackson believed held enormous meaning, possibly the answers to . . .

May 10

Joanne K. Rowling (b. July 31, 1965, Yate, England, UK) is an English author best known for her best-selling Harry Potter novels. The enormous success of the novels has made Rowling the world's first billionaire author and among the wealthiest women in the world. Rowling has won the Hugo Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Whitbread Award for Best Children's Book and has also been named an Officer of the British Empire.

After graduating Wyedean Comprehensive, Rowling attended Exeter University where she studied French. Following college, she became a secretary but her natural tendency towards disorganization and daydreaming caused her to move on to a new career. She moved to Portugal at 26 where she taught English and began working on her story ideas. In Portugal, she met her husband, a journalist and the two had a daughter Jessica. They divorced a short time after their daughter's birth and Rowling and her daughter moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to be close to . . .

May 11

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May 12

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May 13

The Dead Zone is a 2002 TV series based on the Stephen King novel, The Dead Zone. It is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia and is produced by Lionsgate Television and CBS Paramount Television. It airs on the USA Network. Season five of the series began airing on June 18, 2006. The sixth season ended on September 16, 2007 and proved to be the final episode of the series. The announcement that the series was canceled came from USA in December, 2007.

High school teacher Johnny Smith survived a car accident only to spend the next six years in a coma with no expectation of ever waking up. He unexpectedly regains consciousness however, and finds he has a disturbing new gift. When he touches things or people, he can . . .