And the rest: What is Nathan Fillion doing?

Is it… Robot Elvis? What kind of pose is Nathan Fillion doing on the cover of the new Entertainment Weekly? Topless Robot readers have many, many answers. Your reward: Looking at Nathan Fillion.

Shocking facts! A survey of 5,041 Star Trek fans found that 57% of them were female. Fascinating.

Brain a moose. Check out the manuscript for George R. R. Martin’s A Dance With Dragons. Or check out the HBO features on House Stark, House Baratheon, House Lannister and House Targaryen.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry… A funny Regretsy post involving Roseanne Barr, Carrie Fisher and (of course) a puzzling crafted object.

Your indie moment(s) of zen. Mario and a trailer for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off recut as an Sofia Coppola-esque coming-of-age film.

Can fans help Nathan Fillion buy Firefly rights?

Oh, Nathan Fillion, you should know better than to put something out there as tantalizing as a wish to buy the rights to Firefly.

Just a few days back, he made a comment to Entertainment Weekly that he’d happily buy the rights to Firefly and put new content on the internet if he won $300 milion in the lottery. Now that same wacky spirit that helped the Browncoats get a movie made out of a cancelled series is pulling together to raise the funds. (Smartly, no actual funds are being collected. They have learned from past Trek-related disasters.)

As Entertainment Weekly rightly points out, even if folks could raise the funds, it would be difficult to convince 20th Century Fox to let go of the rights. And then there’s the whole “gettin’ the band back together” problem.

But still. Nearly everyone in the cast and production team have a mighty love for the franchise. And it’s hard to tell a Browncoat something can’t be done. They might be just the people to figure out how to pull off a mass funding of a television/movie production. Ya just never know.

Wouldn’t that be shiny?

Art you can appreciate: Sci-Fi Heroes

Artist Martin Firrell has begun developing a series of art videos about heroism and has changed his focus from real-life soldiers to sci-fi heroes.  It’s a mix of artistic video and interview. 

Some very interesting comments from Joe Flanigan, Kate Mulgrew and Nathan Fillion.

I’m not sure what the female fan’s reaction will be to Joe Flanigan’s opinion on what attracts women to the hero (second video in).  He raises an interesting point, though.  And Kate Mulgrew has some interesting comments about the difference between the male and female Starship captains.  Worth checking out.

TV Round-Up – It’s that most wonderful time of the year

Ah, don’t you just love the smell of a new TV season?

There be some spoilery (yet oh, so intriguing) tidbits on Watch with Kristin‘s weekly spoiler chat about returning shows Heroes Smallville and Supernatural.

Speaking of Heroes, TV Guide is also offering up a bit of a sneak peek into the sexy of Season 3.  (Hey, if we can get more shirtless Mohinder?  I am all for it.)

As for the new shows, JJ Abrams talks to them about Fringe and a little film he’s doing for the Trek franchise.

Firefly and Dr. Horrible‘s Nathan Fillion has had his new series picked up.  Not sci-fi, but we wish him luck, all the same.  (And could we get a little shirtless action there, too?)

Yup.  Smells like a new season!

Dr. Horrible Breaks the Internet

Apparently geek musicals are popular, these days. A big sorry to those of you who were excited to hear that we had another Whedon musical on our hands only to find yourselves unable to get there.

It appears that Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog was so popular that it took out the website; along with Whedonesque.

While Joss sent word through E!’s Watch with Kristin that they would soon be back up, it appears to still be down this morning. (US Eastern)

Those willing to pay can try their luck with iTunes. It seems to be holding up under the strain. (A season pass is only US$3.99)

Support a Canadian charity on Canada Day

A Happy Canada Day to all our Canadian members and friends.  There’s something you can do in celebration.

We’ve told you previously about Michael Shank‘s on-going auction to support the Canadian National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Looking over the list today, there are some cool items from Firefly (Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk) and SuperNatural (Jared Padelecki, Jenson Ackles) that aren’t getting much action.  This might be your chance to pick up some nice items from those fandoms and still support a good cause.