Author: Paula

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Book Review: Steve Sansweet’s 1,000 Collectibles

1,000 Collectibles: Memorabilia and Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away by Stephen J. Sansweet and Anne NeumannAdmit it.  You’ve always wanted to see Steve Sansweet’s collection.  I mean he has the World’s Largest Star Wars Collection.  (I’m sure that has to be trademarked, by now.  But it’s true.)

We’ve gotten to enjoy a video tour in the past, but that doesn’t allow you to really look at all the cool stuff close up.  The new book “1,000 Collectibles:  Memorabilia and Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away” lets you do that without trying to win a charity auction or do something really drastic.

The book is divided into sections based on the type of collectibles.  Sections like “Wear It” and “Eat It” are particularly amusing.

The photography by his curator and co-author, Anne Neumann, really allows you to see the detail in each of the selected pieces.  This is particularly useful for some of the more insane collectibles that just have to be seen to be believed.

For me, though, the best part of the book are the stories.  You can find out how he started.  He tries to answer all the usual questions he gets when he’s giving a tour.  But the captions for each of the items are the most entertaining.  They’re often a large paragraph long and include fun stories about how they were created and the odd ways in which some of them came into his collection.

This is like getting to take a tour of Rancho Obi-Wan without having to go there.  And even though you don’t get to be washed over with the full show, the sheer volume of the book will help make up for it.

If you’re looking to add this to your holiday wish list, tell your loved ones that they can find it in the collectibles section of the bookstore.

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Gate Geek – Let there be Light

Stargate Universe is back tonight with the episode “Light.”  (As opposed to last week’s episode, “Darkness.”  Seeing a pattern?) 

Ratings were down 14%, but it was considered to be okay as it was in competition with baseball and a new horror film.  We’ll see if they’ll still be happy if the ratings are that way this week; although I think there’s more baseball.  Still, November will be critical as Dollhouse will be off the air.  I think they’ll be expected to gather some eyes from that audience.

At any rate, one of the more interesting parts of SGU are the Kino diaries.  The Official Site is now starting to post them.

In other Stargate news, Atlantis won two Gemini Awards.  One for makeup in the episode “Vegas,” and the other for writing in “The Shrine.”  (One of my favorite episodes ever.)  SG1 alum Amanda Tapping’s series Sanctuary won for VFX.

And finally, as reported on our Twitter feed, Jason Momoa will be in HBO’s Game of Thrones series.  (Women everywhere rejoice.  Nude scene!)

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Gate Geek – Someone gets SGU!

Well, judging by the ratings, Stargate Universe is off to a fine start.  However, there are some folks still not decided on whether or not they want to start watching a Stargate show.

Alasdair Stuart does one of the most interesting character analyses I’ve seen yet on the show.  I suspect this might convince some of you to start watching.

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Genre TV – Where things stand

It’s a cut-throat world out there in TV, these days.  So even though we’re only in the first few episodes for most of scripted TV’s fall season, we already need to be watching the numbers.

So how is genre TV faring this year?  I crawled through TVbytheNumbers to see what I could piece together.

  • Eastwick – Not lookin’ too healthy right now,  but still holding on.
  • FlashForward – A fairly solid hit, as long as they keep everyone interested in the story.  (Although, can this show go beyond one season without getting annoying?)
  • Ghost Whisperer – Still doesn’t pull in big numbers, but they’re loyal numbers.  So if they want to keep going, it’s looking good they will.
  • Big Bang Theory – The network’s ratings winner amongst scripted shows.  They will be hanging around in all their geeky glory.
  • Vampire Diaries – Proof that the vampire phenomenon still reigns supreme, even if they don’t sparkle.  This is the highest rated scripted show for the CW.
  • Supernatural – Still huge.  Not going anywhere.
  • Smallville – Wow.  Still going strong.  (How far are they going to take this show, anyway?)  It’s the most-DVR’d show, as well, so folks are still interested, if not primarily loyal.
  • Heroes – Still way down from their series high.  But this website still thinks they’re strong enough for a renewal.  (Of course, it’s not as if NBC has much to offer, anyway, right now.)
  • Sanctuary and Stargate Universe have made SyFy the #3 cable network.  I suspect that means they’ll be hanging around.
  • Dollhouse – Much beloved by those by DVRs.  Per this website, it’s looking like Fox will cling to those happy numbers and keep the show.  But they’ll have to continue getting some live eyes to really solidify this.
  • Fringe – It’s hanging on the edge.  If it can start to inch back up, it could have a chance.

Hopefully the networks will continue to think that genre TV is worth pursuing.  It could be a very different landscape come next fall.

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Gate Geek – SGU increases viewership

Stargate Universe actually increased its viewership for Air, Part 3 this week.  (Sorry, Dollhouse.)  And they scored the biggest gains among the coveted target markets between 18 and 45.  Apparently a ratings increase is quite rare.   Hopefully it can be sustained.

It may have been helped along by the return of Sanctuary.  SG1 alum Amanda Tapping’s show also saw a huge increase in ratings.

Ugh.  Let’s hope SyFy doesn’t think this is because of their name change.

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Battle of wits with an unarmed man

SFX has pulled together their favorite sci-fi insults.  And there are some good ones!

Wanting to ensure that we have a complete journalistic review of this subject, we’d welcome your favorite sci-fi insults in the comments.  No cuss words, please.  And please provide the character name and show or movie.

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Trek Talk – It’s the story, stupid

Well, you knew you couldn’t interview JJ Abrams and Leonard Nimoy about Fringe and not start talking about Star Trek.

Leonard Nimoy talks about what makes good science fiction and what’s wrong with these sci-fi kids today.  (Spock Prime.  Hee.)

Speaking of story,  JJ says that they’re starting to tackle the next script.  They want to have fun going through old storylines, but not make it too inaccessible to those who haven’t been watching it the entire forty years.

They talk about Fringe, too….

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Gate Geek: Doctor Jackson, I presume

The part of SGU that people universally wanted more of has arrived.  The official site has Dr. Jackson‘s Stargate Tutorial on their site.

Okay, not the many hours of Stargate theory promised, but still funny.

And speaking of Stargate alum, Amanda Tapping has now been sufficiently harassed by her Stargate and Sanctuary families to get on Twitter.

Also, in anticipation of Friday’s episode, GateWorld talks to David Blue (Eli).

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Gate Geek: SGU Starts Strong

Stargate Universe had a lot of folks intrigued, apparently.  They beat Dollhouse (poor Dollhouse) with 2.3 million viewers in the US.  In Canada, they set a record for the highest episode ever on Space.  And its UK premiere last night was the highest rated show in its timeslot for the night.

Now they just have to keep this going.  (I was pleased, but reactions around the web do include a fair percentage of folks who weren’t.)

Yesterday was SyFy Press Day in Vancouver.  Expect all sorts of articles to be cropping up in the next few days and weeks about Stargate and the other SyFy shows (Sanctuary, Caprica).