FRIDAY MORNING GALACTICA!

Apologies for being away for awhile. I've been spending more and more time working on stuff for the show, along with @ThePeterPixie. Here's a recap of the past couple of weeks:

* This past Sunday, we talked about online comics, particularly Longbox, an iTunes-like service that will debut in the fall.
* The week prior, I wasn't available - that's a story I owe you - so I left Peter not one, but two guests: The Nerdy Bird filled in for me as a guest host, and we were visited by a new Twitter friend of mine, Kat Hill, aka the Action Flick Chick.

This Sunday, though, we'll talk to our biggest guest yet: Richard Hatch of BSG fame - both of them. We'll cover topics like:

* His involvement with a new geek-centric dating service, SoulGeek
* His work as a motivational speaker
* His prolific workrate in the '70s - seriously, dude appeared on just about every show for a few years there
* Playing not just the original Apollo, but Tom Zarek
* His connection to the original BSG, which inspired him to make his own trailer for a sequel to it:



Plus we'll be announcing an ... experiment I'll be undertaking on behalf of the show. Hope you can join us Sunday - 7pm PST, 10p EST!

Notes on Torchwood: COE Part 5!

* Brutal. Just brutal. Brilliant, but brutal. This episode - the best RTD finale ever - took us to the unimaginable, and then pulled the trigger.
* In an indirect way, the events here proved the worth of characters like Harriet Jones - and, yeah, that other guy, who gets name-checked. And how not everybody can reach that level, try as they might.
* The big question: Now what?

Racialicious Responds To Star Trek

New at The R, the Heroes roundtable follows Zachary Quinto over to his newest project -- iTrek! Among the topics up for discussion:

* Why Uhura matters
* The surprising new "cool" character among Trek fans
* The guest-stars we want to see next in the new series
* What to do about the Klingons?

Head on over and check it out!

Wack To The Future: Arturo vs. Terminator Salvation!

Forget the easy “No wonder Christian Bale was mad” jokes, just believe the hype: this is the anti-Trek, in all the wrong ways.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Actually, director McG does a good job setting the table in Salvation, which takes place after the events of Rise Of The Machines, with Los Angeles and the rest of the west coast devastated and the human resistance forced, literally, underground. And here's where this new series could've set itself apart from Trek: As a war story with sci-fi trappings, showing John Connor and the human Resistance trying to hold on to their morality while battling for survival, we might have gotten a good, gritty couple of films out of this “tentpole,” the no-frills alternative to Trek's iPod shinyness.

Instead, trapped by a PG-13 rating – little blood, no cursing and no much-needed gallows humor – McG and writers John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris have to build a “blockbuster” out of cherry-picked bits from other franchises and increasingly forced shout-outs to Salvation's predecessors.

The set-up, such as it is, isn't horrible: Connor's mission is to ensure the beginning of the movie timeline (namely, his mom getting knocked up) comes to pass, so that he can grow up to be Marty McFly Neo the spiritual, if not actual, leader of La Resistance. And the key to that happening is lost in the badlands of Los Angeles – from the lack of upkeep and basic supplies, I'd guess somewhere in Orange County. Christian Bale tries to give us a glimpse into Connor's increasing desperation, but the script doesn't let him do much but be Action Hero Guy, all gruffness and Jack Bauer-like pronouncements of doom, even when he's broadcasting an inspirational message via CB radio.

Hope arrives on two fronts: the sudden discovery of a means to win the war, and the arrival of Marcus Wright, who we meet in the past as a Death Row inmate and, to be honest, is a bit of a d-ck. Yet somehow, Wright re-emerges being able to hotwire cars that've been out of commission for years, and instantly battle-ready, not even needing to stop for food. And none of these Hardened Resistance Fighters even raises a finger of suspicion against their new friend Marty Stu.

Of course, the trailer already spoiled it for us – Marcus is a Cylon Terminator built to infiltrate Connor's forces and set them up for defeat. Wouldn't you know, though, Marcus is still convinced he's human, thus revealing that Skynet is not a sophisticated form of cyber-intelligence; it's actually a Bond villain with a higher screen resolution. And the moment Connor and co. find out what we already know, the "plot" accelerates past plausibility and off the deep end. In a little more than an hour, Marcus gets the girl, confronts his masters, renounces his origins (complete with “throw the chair through glass in anger” slo-moment) and helps save the day.

The problem with this character arc, though, is that it's undone from the get-go. We never find out exactly what he's in for, and we never see the moment where he decides, “Okay, I guess I won't be a douche.”

Like Bale, Sam Worthington is asked to be as plastic as an action figure, more robotic than Summer Glau ever was on The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- which, this film inadvertently(?) reminds us, doesn't "count" in movie canon. And that's all the sadder, because between that show's cancellation and this film's lack of ... well, humanity, Salvation is exactly the opposite: it's the death-knell for a series that used to offer us a lot more.

RaceFail '09 and FOC_U

As mentioned in the latest Heroes Roundtable, there's been some pretty acrimonious discussions online between some science-fiction authors and a group of fans on LiveJournal.

The affair has been dubbed RaceFail '09, and Seeking Avalon has a timeline of events here. Snacky at LiveJournal has one here. And there's another timeline with specific dates at the RaceFail Wiki.

As noted on Seeking Avalon, the debate began in January over the work of author Elizabeth Bear, specifically Blood & Iron. Eventually, fellow authors Will Shetterly, Emma Bull and Kathryn Cramer got involved, and the arguments degenerated to the point that peoples' real names were posted without their consent (though they were subsequently taken off the web).

In the wake of the controversy, another LJ community, has emerged, Fen Of Color United, aka FOC_U. (Fen, it should be noted, is a plural term for fans.) Here's what The Angry Black Woman wrote about the community and today's efforts, specifically:

As RaceFail 09 continues, it has become clear that there are those who are hellbent on marginalizing and silencing people of color. In the past few months, minorities have been denigrated by bigoted authors and publishers who have also asserted that Fen of Color are rare and pratically non-existent. Despite numerous discussions and attempts to enlighten on the fact that POCs are fans, writers, artists and just as integral to this genre as our white counterparts, we are continuously dismissed.

On Monday May 18, 2009, we are asking anyone who identifies as a POC/non-white to post this banner, their speculative short stories, artwork, poetry or simply write a post on their favorite fandom on their blogs as an act of protest to show we will not be silent or invisible. The day of protest is entitled Fen Of Color United or more aptly, FOC_U.

White allies can also show solidarity for this event by posting this banner and expressing the need for diversity and speaking out against the bigotry in the genre, through posts and/or their creative work as well.

In addition, a new community entitled FOC_U has been created. It’s designed to be a safespace for POCs/non-whites and white allies to discuss the issues pertaining to RaceFail and a place to counteract its destructive effects. And it’s also a fun place for everyone to also discuss their favorite fandoms. While memberships and posts are under moderation for the time being (until the community gets more established and input is welcomed), everyone is encouraged to join and make this a home.

You can help out by spreading the word and reposting this banner on your personal blog or creating one of your own if you’d like.

The gauntlet’s been thrown and I for one think it’s past time for us to take a stand and let our voices be heard, whether some people want to hear them or not.

Another LJ user, Oyceter, wrote about some of the bigger issues spinning out of the controversy:

Even though this started as RaceFail, it does not affect "just" race. For one, that assumes that people of color only suffer from a single oppression. Secondly, as many, many people have noted, outing can be threatening on many levels, and I would like to highlight that it can seriously harm women who are being sexually harrassed, GLBT people who are not out, POC who have been threatened, and etc. Media fandom is a safe space for some people. Again, this is something I never thought I would say, as it has proved time and again that it is not a safe space for all people. But in this particular case, it is more of a safe space than SF book fandom because of media fandom's lack of business deals and money-related matters, because of the general lack of ways to retaliate in the offline world. The act of outing comes out of the attempt to control conversation and thereby acts as an attempt to control the people having the conversation, and it comes from not just from two individuals trying to silence an anti-racist ally, but also from a community with more power in terms of gender and race.

WS and KC did not do this in a vacuum; they did it in an environment in which they could reasonably not fear many consequences (and as far as I can tell, they will not suffer consequences at all, save being banned from some blogs they probably never visited). They may not have knowingly taken advantage of this power, but they did regardless. And right now, that same environment's reaction is saying that it's ok.