Warp Section

It looks like earlier predictions that production of the film adaptation of Halo were incorrect, as it has now halted at Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films.

A statement has gone out about the delay, and fans are going to have mixed feelings about it:

As was previously confirmed, we deeply regret that both Universal and Fox did not choose to move forward with financing the Halo film under the original terms of the agreement. At this time Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh, along with their partner, Microsoft, have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game universe until we can fulfill the promise we made to millions of Halo fans throughout the world that we would settle for no less than bringing a first class film to the big screen. We are fully supportive of Director Neill Blomkamp’s vision of the film. Neill is a tremendously gifted filmmaker and his preliminary work on Halo is truly awe-inspiring. While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait.

Everyone wants the best Halo film possible, but many of us Halo fans don’t want to wait. Why can’t Microsoft just fund the project? I really hope that something happens to get the project rolling soon, or they will probably have to start over.

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Season 4, Episode 8
First Aired: August 18, 2000

A creature attacks Daniel Jackson and drags him away. I have always loved SG-1’s opening scenes. Most of the time, they know how to grab their viewers and make them go “what!?” or “wow!”

Am I the only one that loves the iris for the Earth gate? The effect of it sliding open and closed is far more cool than the forcefield that Atlantis has.

I love watching older episodes, back when Richard Dean Anderson also known as the character Jack O’Neill was around. His presence alone in an episode is enough to bring a smile to my face.

The creature that took Dr. Jackson is an Unas, a species that has been used by the Goa’uld as hosts. It is humanoid and very tough looking. The rest of SG-1 as well as another team go to the planet to rescue Daniel Jackson.

Jackson tries to communicate with the alien multiple times, but is mostly unsuccessful.

The two other SG teams slowly make their way tracking the path the Unas took, but they have to deal with a Goa’uld taking over two people on their way. Teal’c and O’Neill take care of the Goa’uld quite nicely.

In the end Daniel Jackson earns his own way out of the situation just as SG-1 comes to save him.

A decent episode but like most episodes where the entire plot focuses on saving someone it is a little boring, and does not bring much to the main storyline of the show.

Interesting Note: You might recognize Major Coburn from later episodes of SG-1 as Camulus. Yup, it is the same actor, Steve Bacic. I knew I recognized him from somewhere when I saw him.

I give The First Ones a 2.5 out of 5.

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Season: 5 Episode: 5
Original Air Date: 19 October 1991

When I was a bit younger, I watched Star Trek: The Next Generation all the time. I did not see the first season or two until it was in re-runs, as I was pretty young then, but from about the third season on, I was hooked.

At the start of Disaster, there are a few people in ten forward discussing Keiko’s unborn child. William O’Brien is Riker’s suggestion for the child’s name. Chief O’Brien wants it to be Michael. It is a little sad to me, as they end up having a girl, and you’d think that Star Trek technology would be able to tell really quickly what sex the child would be.

Picard has to deal with children that won the science fair. The Captain hates dealing with kids. Even Wesley as a young man was still a child in Picard’s eyes. Of course a plot twist early on gets him stuck with the children in a turbolift leaving Diana Troi as Captain of the ship in the emergency.

Troi wears her ugly purple one piece suit that was supposed to be sexy or something, and looks almost clueless as the bridge is cut off from the rest of the ship.

Picard deals with crying children, and basically commands them as though they were adults, rather than annoying children. His words only lead to more crying. Children really can’t act.

Troi is horrible as a command officer, as she muddles about dealing with her newfound responsibility. Chief O’Brien is great at helping her by giving suggestions, but she looks like a deer in the headlights.

The plot tries to focus on many of the main characters in different areas of the ship trying to get out of their various problems. It makes it too much to write about here as the episode is very compartmentalized and fragmented.

Star Trek wouldn’t be Star Trek without imposing some time line on getting things fixed though. So of course some field is losing power and the ship will blow up if the Councilor does not get it fixed.

So Geordi and the Doctor are in the cargo bay. They have to open the cargo bay door to let the air out to stop a fire and some cargo containers from exploding. And someone has to walk over to another console to close the doors after the air is gone. How ridiculous is this? Have they never heard of timers?

By the end of the episode Data’s head saves the day, and Keiko has her daughter thanks to Worf playing doctor. Definitely one of the stranger episodes I have seen.

I give Disaster a 1.5 out of 5.

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Over on TV Squad Wil Wheaton reviews some Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. It is interesting to see it all from his point of view as he was Wesley Crusher, a super smart prodigy child that was quickly given duties on the bridge of the flagship of the Federation.

Recently, he reviewed Where No One Has Gone before. He reviews it in such a way that I can barely tell what the heck he is talking about, but if nothing else, it is humorous to read.

Kosinski whizzes on Riker’s leg a little bit to mark his territory, sniffs at Argyles butt, and goes to engineering to work his totally awesome brand of warp drive magic. When he leaves, Troi tells us that he’s loud and arrogant. (Riker must be so happy he brought her along for that deep and difficult to observe insight.) But she then adds that she doesn’t feel anything from the mysterious assistant, like he isn’t even there. (This theme is widely repeated in Troi and Riker fan fiction on Usenet.) Eerie music swells up, so the slower kids in the audience know to be worried, and for the really slow kids in the audience, Riker says that the safety of the Enterprise is in their hands.

His reviews are also a bit on the long side, so if you don’t want to read all afternoon, you might want to skip it, but if you need some humour in your day, give it a read.

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Season 5 Episode: 1
Air Date: September 30th, 1996

Turning on the television I saw an old episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The first thing of note is that Odo does not have his shape shifting ability. It was an interesting twist in the story line that I enjoyed. It was one of those things that reminded me of how easy it is to humanize his character.

We watch as he drinks alcohol and deals with the shift in perspective he has had.

The mission for this episode is trying to expose Gowron, a prominent Klingon leader, who may be a Changeling.

I was never a big fan of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It was not because it was stuck on a station for most of the seasons. I originally thought that was the problem, but I really enjoyed Babylon 5, and it was mostly surrounding the station.

Of course Starfleet has some great technology to help them expose the probably Changeling. A grenade-like device that supposedly stops a Changeling from holding his form.

I love when O’Brien turns around and is dressed up like a Klingon. Sisko, O’Brien, and Odo all look like Klingons and its ridiculous. I’m surprised in Star trek’s era that there are not more cosmetically modified spies.

They get a Klingon Bird of Prey from the Cardassians. Gul Dukat looks absolutely pleased that they are attempting to pretend to be Klingons.

Worf tries to give them all lessons on acting like Klingons. Probably the most hilarious scene in Star Trek history. Commander Sisko is the only one that can even come close to acting like a passable Klingon.

Of course before the episode ends they are discovered because that is what happens when you send well known people into a mission that requires being close to those that may recognize you, no matter how much makeup you wear. They are imprisoned by the Klingons. They find they have an ally in the Klingon empire who thinks that Gowron might be a Changeling.

They ally tries to help the Federation in killing Gowron, and Odo realizes it is not Gowron that is the changeling, but instead the person they thought was an ally: Martok.

Hundreds of Klingon disruptor shots later, the Changeling is destroyed.

The episode was a little slow going, but it moved the Dominion versus everyone else plot forward. Worf really was not given much play time, event hough he was in almost every scene. Just filling out the mission team I suppose.

I give Apocalypse Rising a 3 out of 5, thanks to the comedy in the episode.

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Many video game fans are eagerly awaiting the Halo movie, but that does not mean studios are as excited to fund the feature film adaptation of Microsoft’s popular game.

Universal Pictures and Fox have decided to no longer be a part of the Halo movie due to skyrocketing costs. The project was supposed to have a budget of around $135 million USD, and is rumoured to be approaching the $200 million dollar mark.

Ken Kamins, the representative for director Peter Jackson and producer Fran Walsh, has worked on combatting the rumour and has been quoted as saying:

“The only budget the filmmakers ever spoke about was $145 million less the 12.5% rebate that you get from shooting in New Zealand, which would put it at about $128 million,” Kamins said. “That was the only number that was ever discussed.

“What happened was this: Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and [Halo game designer] Bungie, respectfully declined.”

Bungie has let it be known that production on the movie continues forward, while Microsoft looks for new distribution partners which could be Paramount and/or Warner Bros.

I think that it was stupid for Universal and Fox to back out. I bet that the movie will easily be a box office hit, DVD sales will be pretty decent, and best of all merchandising will be easy. But who knows. It could cost hundreds of millions to make, and only bring in a hundred million worldwide, but I highly doubt it.

Premise: After they crash-land on an artificial ring-world called “Halo”, a marine captain, his surviving marines, and a genetically-and-surgically-enhanced supersoldier called “Master Chief” must find out what the Covenant, the genocidal alien race they are at war with, are looking for on the ring. However, Halo holds more secrets than either side imagined.

Expected Release: Summer 2008

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If you are only able to catch one show a week, make it Heroes. It started this fall season on NBC, and is already a hit show. Hopefully you can “find” the episodes you have missed online, or watch the last episode on NBC’s site.

The series premiere received the highest ratings for any NBC drama premiere in five years, attracting 14.3 million viewers overall, thus being the most watched show for adults 18-49. Not a bad start if I do say so myself.

The series tells the story of people who “thought they were like everyone else … until they woke with incredible abilities.” The premise is that these people have a role in saving mankind.

According to the official NBC website, not only do the characters discover what having superpowers means to them, but also uncover a larger picture concerning the origin of their superpowers. The characters eventually become involved in each other’s lives as they attempt to evade the series antagonist, who wishes to harness their “super DNA” for his own ends.

So far the superhero powers we have seen include super fast healing, precognition, time/space manipulation, telepathy, flight, and proximity power copying. There is also one character whose powers we are still not sure of, as she has a split personality thing going on.

My favourite character thus far has to be Hiro. The Japanese man who believes in comic books and super powers right from the start, and wants to be a superhero. He is able to control time and space, and currently is the person moving the plot forward the fastest.

It is amazing to watch the show unfold and the people come to grips with their powers. The show works hard to retain as much realism as possible, though sometimes it becomes hard to suspend my disbelief due to the nature of the show, but for the most part, I would say that this is the only show on television right now that everyone should be watching.

Catch it Monday nights at 9pm Eastern on NBC.

Source Material via Wikipedia.

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AvP as it is more commonly known started out as a comic, became a game, and eventually became a movie. What I am going to talk about here today is the movie.

Released to the world on August 13th, 2004, Alien vs. Predator did not become the box office hit that many were hoping, but did better than critics gave it credit for.

Interestingly enough the 20th Century Fox must have thought the film did well enough as Alien vs. Predator 2 is filming. The release date looks like it should be December 21st 2007. A little too close to the holidays for it to do exceptional in theatres, but I am no marketing guru.

The story of AvP revolves around an expedition of archaeologists on Earth to the Antarctic because of the discovery of an Aztec style temple hidden under ice. What they don’t know is that the temple was made to train Predators in the ways of hunting, thus making them adults. The human expedition team gets caught in the middle as many are used to awaken some Aliens for the Predators to hunt.

For the most part, I enjoyed this movie. I felt that they went right into the meat and potatoes of the story, and that helped leave more time for the important bits: Aliens and Predators fighting.

What I did not like was the last half an hour or so of the film. When the sole surviving person in a battle of Aliens and Predators is a human woman that is not someone strong looking like Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) was in the Alien movies, then I am left wondering what is going on.

Another thing that bugged me was the way they dealt with the Aliens. When I first saw the first two Alien movies, they really had you on the edge of your seat. They wanted to scare you and help you understand the way that Aliens hunt. In Alien vs. Predator, everything is so in your face. They keep all the gore and major violence off screen. They are trying to get you to be shocked, and that does not work for the type of characters both Aliens and Predators are. You are left feeling a like you are watching a censored movie and that really is what a PG-13 rating did to Alien vs. Predator.

Overall AvP gets a 3.5 out of 5. It could have been way better. I feel they wasted a golden opportunity on being sensational. I hope that Alien vs. Predator 2, with its rumoured “R” rating really knocks our socks off.

DVD Special Features:

• Alternate Beginning not shown in theatres.
• Full Length Audio Commentary by Director Paul Anderson and Actors Lance Henriksen and Sannaa Lathan
• Full Length Audio Commentary by Visual Effects Supervisor John Bruno and Creature Effects Designers Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr.
• Deleted Scenes
• “Making-Of” Featurette
• Dark Horse Comics AVP Cover Gallery
• DVD Rom - First Edition AVP Comic Book
• AVP Background Study
• Preview of the AVP Graphic Novel

Don’t buy the DVD for the special features because as you can see from the list above, it really isn’t worth it. The alternate beginning and deleted scenes are the best part, and I would not even say those things are worth the space they took up on the DVD.

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Bethesda Softworks is currently working on getting Star Trek: Legacy out the door. It is being called an epic real time strategy game, as it spans the entire timeline of the Star Trek television shows and movies. With ships ranging from the NX-01 Class all the way to the Sovereign Class.

As the Admiral of the Fleet you choose the ships, equipment, and captains that you will lead into battle. The game is designed to provide dramatic large-scale battles with easy-to use controls.

Not only do you get to partake in missions ranging in the Star Trek timeline from Enterprise, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, but you also get a storyline written by the D.C. Fontana with her partner Derek Chester. And if that is not cool enough as it is, they also got all five captains to do voice overs for the game.

One of the things that got me excited about the game is the damage modeling. This means you can blow off pieces of an enemy ship. The only downside of that, is that they will probably be able to carve off hunks of your ship as well, but never the less, it will make for some great gameplay realism.

If you think you would get bored only playing the Federation, don’t worry, Bethesda has got you covered as you can command the Klingon, Romulan, and Borg races as well.

The system requirements for the PC version are a little steep. It looks like I am going to have to upgrade, as my processor does not mean their requirements. Maybe I will be lucky and my video card as well as my RAM will take some of the load, so that I can run it without too many problems.

PC System Requirements

• Windows XP (Home, Media Center or Pro Editions) with Service Pack 2
• DirectX Version 9.0c
• Intel Pentium 4 (2.66ghz or higher) or AMD Athlon XP 2800+ or higher
• DX9 compatible AGP 8X or PCI Express video card, 128 MB VRAM, Pixel Shader 1.4
• 16-bit Direct Sound compatible sound card, speakers or headphones required for audio
• 512 MB RAM
• 5 GB free space
• LAN or Broadband connection (DSL or Cable Modem) for Multiplayer
• Windows compatible Keyboard & Mouse

If this game looks exciting, that is because it probably will be. By now you are probably wondering when you can pick it up. It was originally slated for sometime in September, but was pushed back to November 7th. The sad part is that it was recently pushed back again, but only to November 21st.

Hopefully, it will come out in the third week of November, so we can get some Star Trek gaming going on.

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The co-writer of Terminator 4, Michael Ferris, has given a few details out to Entertainment Weekly on what we can expect from the next installment.

The first and most important thing he brings up is the lack of Arnold in the next movie.

“‘Terminator 3′ kind of closed the book on Schwarzenegger, as did his gubernatorial career.”

So far, it looks like a pretty different group at the helm of the next movie for the franchise as producer Gale Anne Hurd, who worked on the previous films is not involved in this project, and neither is Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow, as of yet anyways. Will this effect how the movie is created and presented? We will have to wait and see, but would a shift away from what they have done in the past be such a bad thing?

The best thing that Ferris offered to tease us science fiction fans is a little bit on the plot:

“You will learn about Skynet and what that postapolyptic future is like.”

I have been waiting to see more about what happened after SkyNet took over since I saw the short scene in Terminator 2, and even more so when it started happening in Terminator 3.

My hopes are that all the changes don’t destroy a movie that could have amazing potential. Let’s just hope they don’t take a page from the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix).

Terminator 4 should start shooting in early 2007, and be released at some point in 2008.

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