The SciFi Diner Classic Ep. 26

Our Interview with Dr. Star Trek

(Larry Nemecek)

In our twenty-sixth episode of the SciFi Diner Classic, we interview Dr. Star Trek (Larry Nemecek). Since we do a news and interview show, it goes without saying that the news portion of our episodes often date themselves fast. And while the interviews with the people that make Science Fiction happen remain relevant and in our opinion important, most listeners will not listen back 100 episodes and wade through old news just to get to the interview. So what the SciFi Diner Classic aims to do is to share these interviews with you. If you have been with us from the beginning, then bear with us as we introduce some of our newer listeners to voices from the past. We're bringing you just the interview and nothing else.

Larry Nemecek

Larry Wayne Nemecek (born 18 January) is a noted Star Trek author, editor, archivist, consultant and producer. He is married to onetime script coordinatorJanet Nemecek.

A native Oklahoman, Nemecek began considering news and communications as a career in high school after being inspired by a teacher in his journalism class. He majored in theater at college with a journalism minor, and began writing aboutStar Trek because "all the Will Rogers and Sooners football books had been written." He also cites Stephen Edward Poe's classic The Making of Star Trekand Bjo Trimble's Star Trek Concordance as seminal influences in entertainment and genre writing.

As an undergrad at East Central University, Nemecek started a science fiction fan club with his best friend Kevin Hopkins, called "Starbase ECU." His favorite TOS character was Leonard McCoy and in make-up class chose a Tellarite for his non-realistic character project.

While a young newspaper reporter and editor, he chaired publicity for Oklahoma City's SoonerCons and in 1991founded ThunderCon there as an all-media/Star Trek charity convention. In 1993, after the publication of his first professional book, Nemecek began sharing his stories and archives with humor as a guest at conventions worldwide.

Nemecek had a long-distance correspondence with fellow Star Trek fan and artist/author Geoffrey Mandel growing out of points in the Starfleet Medical Reference (Ballantine). Nemecek's early drafts of Star Trek star maps led them to work together when Mandel intended to publish them in fanzine form, but when Mandel was asked to finish the incomplete Star Trek Maps for Bantam Books he managed to include Nemecek's data in the revised format scale.

In 1989, after beginning an annual episode guide and concordance fanzine for the new Star Trek: The Next Generation, Nemecek met with Gene Roddenberry in his office. He was personally thanked by Roddenberry for writing the reference works, which the staff used as an ongoing update to their writer's guide.

From 1998 until 2005, Nemecek served as managing editor of Star Trek: Communicator, overseeing the planning, writers, content and look of the licensed magazine of the Official Star Trek Fan Club. He has been a regular contributor to Star Trek Magazine since 1995, and contributed dozens of articles to Star Trek Fact Files, for which he worked all six years as Los Angeles photo editor and consultant. The topics researched and obscure references and sources tracked fueled the work of the UK-based Fact Files, later seen in the US in Star Trek: The Magazine.

Since 1986, Nemecek has conducted over 500 archival interviews of Star Trek writers, designers, crew and actors, most of them multiple or annual updates over the years and unpublished.

He also appeared in two episodes of the fan film Star Trek: New Voyages, in 2004 and 2006, and in the recently-released vignette No-Win Scenario as a Tellarite.

Contributions to Star Trek 

In 1990, the shuttle Nenebek, featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Final Mission", was named in his honor by Jeri Taylor. She had not yet met him but, like other writing staffers, had his fanzine concordances on her desk. She did not think to tell him the story until 1998.

In 1992, Nemecek was the author of the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion. He would later update this in May 1995 and in 2003. His text commentary also appeared in the CD version.

In December 1994, Nemecek and his wife Janet pitched and sold a story, "Reflections," for the yet-to-air series Star Trek: Voyager. It was shelved for six years before being updated and written as "Prophecy", an episode for Voyager's last season in 2001.

Nemecek co-wrote The Making of Star Trek: First Contact, published by Titan Books in the UK from material he,Ian Spelling and Lou Anders wrote for Titan's magazine specials on the film. He also wrote the chapter openers and other research for Star Trek: Star Charts – a reunion of sorts with onetime Star Trek Maps colleague Mandel. He authored the original museum artifact placards and recent timeline update in the museum area of Star Trek: The Experience, and was a consultant there as well as on such projects as the Star Trek: Federation Science European tour and the Star Trek World Tour guidebooks and image references.

In 2002, Nemecek was interviewed for the bonus features (Star Trek Moments and Memories) on the seventh season DVD for Star Trek: The Next Generation. He spoke again in interviews for the new 20th anniversary DVD set for TNG in 2007, and served as Special Consultant on the overall project.

In 2005, Nemecek appeared with other cameo guests and crew in "These Are the Voyages...", the last episode ofStar Trek: Enterprise. His costume was a reuse of Avery Brooks' suit from DS9: "Far Beyond the Stars". Nemecek recounted his experience filming the episode in his "Endgame" column in Star Trek Magazine issue 124.

For many years, Nemecek was a contributor and producer on the official Star Trek website. In 1996, he was its first-ever chat guest. In December 2007, however, he and the rest of the StarTrek.com production team were laid off by CBS Interactive, the result of restructuring at the company.

He is also the sole contributor to Star Trek - Best Episode Collection, a Fact Files DVD project for Japan, and continues his two columns for Star Trek Magazine. He hopes to work again soon with Communicator publisher Dan Madsen as well.

The SciFi Diner Classic Ep. 25

Our Interview with Kevin Sorbo

(Hercules & Adromeda)

In our twenty-fifth episode of the SciFi Diner Classic, we interview with Kevin Sorba ( Hercules and Andromeda). Since we do a news and interview show, it goes without saying that the news portion of our episodes often date themselves fast. And while the interviews with the people that make Science Fiction happen remain relevant and in our opinion important, most listeners will not listen back 100 episodes and wade through old news just to get to the interview. So what the SciFi Diner Classic aims to do is to share these interviews with you. If you have been with us from the beginning, then bear with us as we introduce some of our newer listeners to voices from the past. We're bringing you just the interview and nothing else.

Kevin Sorbo

Kevin David Sorbo (born September 24, 1958) is an American actor best known for the roles of Hercules in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Captain Dylan Hunt in Andromeda and Kull in Kull the Conqueror.

Early life

Sorbo was born in Mound, Minnesota, where he attended Mound Westonka High School. He is the son of Ardis, a nurse, and Lynn Sorbo, a junior high school mathematics and biology teacher. He is of Norwegian descent and was raised in a Lutheran family. Sorbo attended Minnesota State University Moorhead and worked as a model for print and television advertising in the 1980s.

Career

Sorbo started his acting career in the late 1980s making guest appearances in several television series such as 1st & Ten, Murder She Wrote and The Commish. He was considered for and lost out to Dean Cain as Superman in Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and was a possible contender for the role of Agent Mulder in The X Files which went to David Duchovny.

In 1994, he shot to fame when he played the role of Hercules in the television film Hercules and the Amazon Women. This was the first in a series of television films that served as pilots for the TV seriesHercules: The Legendary Journeys, which ran from 1995 to 1999.

Sorbo also guest-starred as Hercules in episodes of the 1995-2001 spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess and provided the voice of Hercules in the 1998 direct-to-video animated film Hercules and Xena - The Animated Movie: The Battle for Mount Olympus.

Other voice-over work followed, with Sorbo providing the voices of Reiko and Quan Chi in the 1997 video game Mortal Kombat 4. In between the years playingHercules, he played his first leading film role in Kull the Conqueror (1997).

In 1997, while on a publicity tour for Kull the Conqueror and between the 4th and 5th seasons of Hercules, Sorbo experienced an aneurysm in his shoulder, which led to three strokes.  As a result, he was weakened for the next several years, a condition that he and the producers of Hercules kept secret from the public. (Sorbo only revealed the details in 2011.) During the last two seasons of Hercules, the 5th and 6th, which aired in 1998 and 1999, Sorbo was given a reduced filming schedule to accommodate his condition, and more guest stars were brought in.

After Hercules came to an end, Sorbo played the starring role of Captain Dylan Hunt in the science-fiction drama series Andromeda from 2000 to 2005. In 2006, he played a recurring role on the final season of The O.C and guest-starred in the sitcom Two and a Half Men. In 2007, he starred in the direct-to-video film Walking Tall: The Payback, which was a sequel to the 2004 film Walking Tall. He reprised his role in the second sequel, Walking Tall: Lone Justice which released later that year. He also starred in the Lifetime Channel film Last Chance Café, the Hallmark Channel film Avenging Angel, co-starring his real life wife Sam Jenkins and guest starred as a bounty hunter in the season-two episode "Bounty Hunters!" of the series Psych. He appeared in the 2008 spoof film Meet the Spartans, which was a box office success despite being universally negatively reviewed by critics. He starred in the Albert Pyun directed SciFi Vampire flick Tales of the Ancient Empire.

Sorbo voiced one of the main protagonists, Prometheus, in the Wii video game The Conduit.

Sorbo returned to the role of Hercules, albeit in a more sinister portrayal, in the video game God of War III released for the PlayStation 3 in March 2010.

SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 153

Our Interview with Mackenzie Mason

(Cortana from Halo 4)

The SciFi Diner Podcast

A 2012 Parsec Finalist

Please call the listener line at 1.888.508.4343,

Email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com

or visit us on Twitter @scifidiner.

Facebook Fan Page.

And check out our YouTube channel.

Tonight’s Diners: Scott & Miles

Welcome to the Diner.

If you have listened to the show for sometime, we would love to have you leave feedback on iTunes. We know not all of you use iTunes, but for those that do, it helps us become more visible. If you don’t use iTunes, your feedback is still valuable. Visit our webpage at http://scifidinerpodcast.com and leave a comment on the show notes or email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com We want to know what you are thinking about what we are saying and what shows you are watching.

Menu:

• Interview: Our Interview with Mackenzie Mason (Cortana from Halo 4)
• Trivia:  Kate Mulgrew Give Away
• TV News: Last night's Walking Dead S3 premiere shambles to a HUGE record, Rumor of the Day: Firefly Animated Series?, Defiance Trailer
• Movie News:  Movie News:  Robocop movie delayed.  James Bond: Sky Fall Trailer
• TWIST: Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton To Guest Star Again On Big Bang Theory
• SciFi Five in Five:  Top 5 Philip K. Dick movies from Wayne Henderson

New Trivia:

Trivia: Since no one, and I mean NO ONE was able to answer last months trivia, we're trying a different tactic to give away an autographed picture of Kate Mulgrew, Captain Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager. All you need to do is write in and explain why you are the biggest fan of Kate Mulgrew. Please include your address and the code word mentioned in the first 15 minutes of the show. We'll be drawing a name the middle of October.

Prize: An Autographed copy of Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway)

Winner: Ken Warford

Promos

Trekcast Podcast

Fringecasting with Wayne and Dan

 Our Interview:

Mackenzie Mason

Mackenzie was born in the Philippines and since has lived in Puerto Rico, Germany, Virginia and San Diego. After attending The International School of Stuttgart, Mackenzie went on to finish high school at the prestigious Miss Porter's School in Farmington Connecticut. She continued her higher education at The University of Southern California where she studied Communication and Theatre.

In college she began appearing in many performances and plays, and was quickly noticed for her stage presence and on set natural abilities.

Mackenzie has a very strong sense of comedy and has a natural ability to make people laugh. She trains at the improv schools, The Groundlings and The Second City and is currently writing sketches with a comedy group she formed with fellow classmates.

She is a self-proclaimed bookworm, spiritual guru, Sci-Fi geek, and horror fanatic who doesn't take herself too seriously.

To see a video of Mackenzie in action, click here.

TV News:

Walking Dead S3 premiere shambles to a HUGE record

Last season, The Walking Dead opened and closed its second year with record-setting numbers for a basic-cable drama. Now the season-three numbers are in, and they're enough to make even the broadcast shows quake with fear.

Last night, the third-season premiere, "Seed," racked up 10.9 million viewers and a powerful 5.7 demo rating. When you factor in the encore showings late last night, the episode was seen by more than 15 million people (and that's not even counting the people who recorded it to watch later), a number second only to prime-time football viewership on the night.

If you're wondering how that stacks up with last year, it's about a 50 percent increase in viewers from the kickoff of season two. In terms of ratings, the episode has eclipsed the season-two finale as one of the highest-rated basic-cable dramas in the 18-49 demo ever, surpassing the finale demo score by a full point. We were expecting the show to post gains, but this is just ridiculous.

Though we've still got a few more premieres on the horizon in the coming weeks, The Walking Dead's definitely got our top vote for most impressive debut of the 2012-2013 season so far. They've gotta be having a party over at AMC right now.

Rumor of the Day:

There's a Firefly animated spinoff in the works?

It's been nearly a decade since Fox canceled Firefly, and the show's rabid following still hasn't stopped clamoring for more. We've got a movie, we've got comic books, and a reunion special is on the way, but could we get something else? Could Firefly go animated?

Just as they did at San Diego Comic-Con over the summer, Firefly cast members reunited at New York Comic-Con over the weekend to talk about the show's past and future. This time it was a smaller group, featuring only Nathan Fillion, Jewel Staite and Sean Maher, but during their session they managed to unleash a tidbit of maybe-news that's liable to get Browncoats everywhere excited.

"If we're dreaming, tell me what you think about this: Firefly the animated series," Fillion said during the panel.

Really? Could our beloved Serenity fly back onto our screens as a cartoon, or was Fillion just messing around? According to Maher, the idea's actually been toyed with.

"I know somebody who is actually trying to get that done, who has approached Joss [Whedon about it," Maher said after the panel. "He used to work with Guillermo del Toro."

Just who this person might be remains a mystery (for now), but this actually seems like a viable way to carry on the series without worrying about the ages of the characters. Plus, voice acting takes less time for the cast (and you don't have to build sets and coordinate locations), which could mean that even the always-busy Fillion might make time to play Cartoon Mal and star in his hit series Castle simultaneously.

Of course, it's just a convention rumor at this point, but what do you think? Could Firefly continue in the cartoon world, even with someone other than Whedon at the helm?

Defiance Trailer: 

Movie:

You'll have to wait a little longer for that RoboCop reboot

It's a bad day for sci-fi. Sony Pictures is pushing back two of its most anticipated releases: RoboCop and Elysium. We'll have to wait a little longer for Jose Padilha's remake and Neill Blomkamp's follow-up to his Oscar-nominated District 9.

According to THR, RoboCop has been delayed a year. Instead of debuting Aug. 9, 2013, it will hit theaters Feb. 7, 2014. We're not sure why the move was made, but the extra six months will give the film ample time for post-production.

After shuffling the schedule, RoboCop's old release date has been given to Elysium. The film was originally slated for March 1, 2013, and will now open Aug. 9. The film is "set on a space station occupied by the very wealthy while the rest of humanity lives on a ravaged, overpopulated Earth." Elysium stars Matt Damon, Jodie Foster and Sharlto Copley.

What do you think of the scheduling shakeup? Is it a good or a bad move?

Looking forward to Skyfall

This week in Star Trek:

Wil Wheaton and LeVar Burton To Guest Star Again On Big Bang Theory

By Crewman Becky | October 5, 2012 - 10:14 pm

Short but sweet! …short story…sweet news.

Turns out that on an upcoming episode of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon is making a new “Fun With Flags” webisode, this time focusing on the flags of Star Trek. While it’s not totally clear how Wil and LeVar will play into it, we’re guessing we won’t be disappointed.

This newest Star Trek heavy episode is currently scheduled to air November 8th.

The Big Bang Theory airs Thursdays on CBS

Scifi Five In Five

Top 5 Movies of Philip K. Dick by Wayne Henderson from the Fringecasting with Wayne and Dan Podcast

SciFi Diner Conversations 67

Listener's Discuss the Walking Dead,

Arrow, Looper, Revolution,

And More.  

SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 152 Part 2

Our Interview with Claton Faits and Jeffery Gardner

from the Post-Apocolyptic Podio Drama Our Fair City 

The SciFi Diner Podcast

A 2012 Parsec Finalist

Please call the listener line at 1.888.508.4343,

Email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com

or visit us on Twitter @scifidiner.

Facebook Fan Page.

And check out our YouTube channel.

Tonight’s Diners: Scott & Miles

Welcome to the Diner.

If you have listened to the show for sometime, we would love to have you leave feedback on iTunes. We know not all of you use iTunes, but for those that do, it helps us become more visible. If you don’t use iTunes, your feedback is still valuable. Visit our webpage at http://scifidinerpodcast.com and leave a comment on the show notes or email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com We want to know what you are thinking about what we are saying and what shows you are watching.

Our Interview:

Our Fair City is a campy post-apocalyptic science fiction radio epic…for the internet.

A darkly funny, highly whimsical look at corporate consumerism all grown up, Our Fair City is set in the not so distant future: the skies are stormy, and the landscape is a vast frozen tundra. Lightning rigs high above the city gather energy from thunderstorms, mad scientists walk the earth, and adorably monstrous Molepeople dig tunnels deep underground to expand the city’s habitable space.

You can out more about o Our Fair City and listen to episodes here.

Clayton Faits: Creator/Head Writer:

Clayton Faits grew up in Southwick, Massachusetts, where the days are short and the winters are long. After studying theater and history at Tulane University, he moved to Chicago where conditions are much the same. In addition to writing for Our Fair City, he enjoys games of all kinds, toys that fly, and jokes that aren’t funny.

Jeffrey Gardner: Co-Creator/Director:

Jeffrey is a stage director, adaptor, and dramaturg living and working in Chicago, IL. During the day, he can often be found working as an Operations Coordinator at the Museum of Science and Industry.

In his copious spare time, Jeffrey enjoys playing folk music slightly faster than it was meant to be played, complicated board games, and commuting via bicycle.

SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 152 Part 1

Stuck in Amber, The Earth Sings,

Star Trek Klingon Style, and More.

The SciFi Diner Podcast

A 2012 Parsec Finalist

Please call the listener line at 1.888.508.4343,

Email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com

or visit us on Twitter @scifidiner.

Facebook Fan Page.

And check out our YouTube channel.

Tonight’s Diners: Scott & Miles

Welcome to the Diner.

If you have listened to the show for sometime, we would love to have you leave feedback on iTunes. We know not all of you use iTunes, but for those that do, it helps us become more visible. If you don’t use iTunes, your feedback is still valuable. Visit our webpage at http://scifidinerpodcast.com and leave a comment on the show notes or email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com We want to know what you are thinking about what we are saying and what shows you are watching.

Menu:

• Trivia:  Win Kate Mulgrew
• TV News: Fringe News & Walking Dead news. Revealed: 1st details for Whedon's new S.H.I.E.L.D. TV characters
• Movie News:  Siri on Robot Movies, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has a directors, Iron Man 3 set pics show new Iron Patriot armor in all its glory
• Special: The Earth Sings
• Podio Book/Drama News:  Our Fair City
• TWIST: Title of Star Trek movie sequel announcement, Ron D. Moore on bringing Trek back to the small screen
• SciFi Five in Five:  Top 5 Warehouse 13 quotes

New Trivia:

Trivia: Since no one, and I mean NO ONE was able to answer last months trivia, we're trying a different tactic to give away an autographed picture of Kate Mulgrew, Captain Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager. All you need to do is write in and explain why you are the biggest fan of Kate Mulgrew. Please include your address and the code word mentioned in the first 15 minutes of the show. We'll be drawing a name the middle of October.

Prize: An Autographed copy of Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway)

You will have until October 15th to send us your answers. Please include the code word mentioned in the first 15 minutes of the show. Send your answer with your mailing address to scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com, call us at 18885084343, or DM us on Twitter at @scifidiner. Make sure you include your e-mail with all entries! Only one entry per person.   The SciFi Diner is not responsible for any injuries occurring if you secretly decide to go all shiny and dress in a browncoat and walk into your local bar.

Promos

Walk the Fire Promo

Fringecasting with Wayne and Dan

TV News:

Fringe showrunner reveals surprising truth about amber's origins

Over five seasons, the team behind Fox's Fringe has built a dense sci-fi world full of quirks and nuance, all leading to the future-jump we saw this past Friday with the premiere of season five. But did you know one major plot point that has run the length of the series was actually retconned?
In an interview promoting season five, producer J.H. Wyman told Collider that the concept of using amber to seal cracks between the universes, which showed up early in the first season encasing a bus and has been used and referenced numerous times in the show's run, wasn't actually "re-contextualized" into the larger story until later:
"Well, it's been such a long road of twists and turns, and ideas come from all over.  Sometimes something you thought wouldn't really be as big as it was blows up into something else. There are certain episodes that, all of a sudden, just really touched people. 'White Tulip' came from a dream.  I thought, 'Why did that episode touch people?'  We like to be clever and say, 'Well, we knew a lot of stuff,' because we did, but the truth is that we didn't know a lot of stuff, as well. We did not know, at the beginning on the bus, that the amber was amber from the alternate universe. It was re-contextualized. It just fits like a puzzle and you go, 'Wow, that's really interesting.'
You find the things that work and the things that don't work, and you go from there.  It's like a living, breathing organism that you listen to. Sometimes we don't hear so well, but if you listen to it, it indicates where you should go, naturally. So, that idea has changed where we're going to end up, even up until the last episode. My thinking on the episode was fluctuating and vacillating between several different ideas."

Considering how twisty the show has been the past few years, from introducing multiple universes to setting the final year in a future nanny state, it's not surprising to hear that the writers made some course corrections along the way to get us here. But it's extremely interesting to see just which concepts were adapted into the plan and not part of it from the start.
The full interview is well worth a read, as Wyman discusses some of the big ideas behind the series.
What do you think of where we've ended up in season five? Do the writers have us on the right track, or do you miss the alt-universes of yore?

Get ready for Walking Dead S3 with 4 creepy new webisodes

It may be two weeks until the highly anticipated third season of The Walking Dead begins, but the network is continuing its recent trend of whetting our undead appetite with a series of webisodes. This season? A claustrophobic tale of survivors seeking refuge at an abandoned storage facility.
As the show has grown into its own, the webisodes have gotten more and more elaborate. They still feel a bit low-budget, but the storyline and casting are top-notch—with Lost alum Daniel Roebuck (Doc Arzt) in a co-starring role.
Plus, we even got a peek at Rick Grimes' past life, via his old storage unit.
Here's the synopsis:
Cold Storage tells the story of a young man, Chase (played by Josh Stewart), trying to reach his sister in the early days of the zombie apocalypse. He finds temporary shelter in a storage facility run by a former employee named B.J. (Roebuck); however, things are not what they appear.

The new season premieres Oct. 14 on AMC.

You can find the webisodes here.

Revealed: 1st details for Whedon's new S.H.I.E.L.D. TV characters
Joss Whedon and company sure don't mess around. It seemed like only yesterday that we started getting the first details on the TV series that would play home to the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and now we're already getting the first details on our main characters.

All right, let's dive right in and then see where we land. Our first character details are:

SKYE — This late-20s woman sounds like a dream: fun, smart, caring and confident—with an ability to get the upper hand by using her wit and charm.

AGENT GRANT WARD — Quite the physical specimen and "cool under fire," he sometimes botches interpersonal relations. He's a quiet one with a bit of a temper, but he's the kind of guy that grows on you.

AGENT ALTHEA RICE — Also known as "The Cavalry," this hardcore soldier has crazy skills when it comes to weapons and being a pilot. But her experiences have left her very quiet and a little damaged.

AGENT LEO FITZ and AGENT JEMMA SIMMONS — These two came through training together and still choose to spend most of their time in each other's company. Their sibling-like relationship is reinforced by their shared nerd tendencies—she deals with biology and chemistry, he's a whiz at the technical side of weaponry.

Is it just us, or do those first three characters sound an awful lot like Inara, Mal and Zoe from Joss's old show, Firefly? Not calling it a bad thing, just that it is a bit of a thing.

Otherwise, this is all very general. These are the kind of details that aid the writers as they map out where their characters' strengths and weaknesses might lie and how those characters will or will not interact with each other. They also serve as a nice little tease for us fans as we try to figure out what this show will be like or, even better, who should be cast in each part.

Movie:

It's official! Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has found its director

20th Century Fox has finally selected one of the seven names in contention to direct the sequel to last year's Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Can you guess which one it is?
According to Deadline, the studio has made an offer to Matt Reeves, director ofCloverfield and Let Me In. Fox chose Reeves over a list of other highly touted filmmakers that included Guillermo Del Toro (Pacific Rim), Rian Johnson (Looper), Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter), Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage), Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) and J. Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed).
The chance to direct the film came about quickly last month after Rupert Wyatt, who was behind the camera for Rise, dropped out of the sequel. Wyatt allegedly walked away because he wasn't sure he could make the movie's May 23, 2014, release date; Reeves apparently has complete confidence that he can.
The writers of Rise, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, have already handed in a script for Dawn that the studio is apparently very pleased with, so it looks like a big old green light for the return of Caesar (Andy Serkis) as he leads his new breed of superintelligent apes into a full-scale, worldwide revolution against a human race decimated by the same virus that enhanced the apes' brains (at least, that's the story we want to see!)
What do you think of Fox's choice? Is Reeves a good pick to usher in the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes?

This is what happens if you ask Siri's opinion about robot movies

Apple just keeps innovating. Last fall they released the personal assistant application known as Siri, and everyone's iPhones started answering questions and reading text messages out loud and giving directions. Now Siri's taken another step forward, into the realm of film criticism.
Last month, Apple released iOS 6, the latest version of its mobile operating system, and it included a number of expansions to Siri's abilities. It can now dictate Twitter updates for you, tell you sports statistics, make restaurant reservations and launch apps. It can also pull up movie information, but apparently if you ask it about films that feature artificial intelligence, it gives a little added commentary of its own.
Check out the responses to Blade Runner, Wall-E and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As you can see, Siri's very sympathetic to both the Replicants and HAL. That's why we're recommending to you right now that you never, ever ask it about The Terminator. There are too many iPhones out in the world to risk a Siri-led uprising.

Iron Man 3 set pics show new Iron Patriot armor in all its glory
Marvel's next phase of films is well on its way, and flagship standalone series Iron Man is currently shooting its third entry in Florida. Luckily for us, some bystanders snapped some fantastic shots of the new armor Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and company will be rocking.

According to set reports, the filming took place at a replica of the restaurant Neptune's Net, and shows off both the new Iron Man armor and the mysterious Iron Patriot suit we've been seeing around.

The third film follows the popular Extremis storyline from the character's comic run, which should make for some great nanotech intrigue.

Sadly, we still don't know how the Iron Patriot suit fits in to the latest sequel, but rumor has it that it could be adapted as a new version of War Machine. That idea makes the most sense, as the comic version of the character is played by Spider-Man's Norman Osborn, who is currently unavailable due to a separate Spidey film deal.

Check out the new armor below and let us know what you think:

Special:

Listen to the sound Earth makes when its radiation belts sing

Unless you're a fan of Queen's soundtrack for the Flash Gordon movie (and really, who isn't?), you probably don't associate space with singing very much. But that's about to change. Thanks to NASA, we can now hear the music of the radio waves coming from Earth's radiation belts, and it's spectacular.
Back in August, NASA launched a pair of Radiation Belt Storm Probes into the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth. Each probe carries a device called an Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) receiver, designed by University of Iowa physics professor Craig Kletzing and his team. The probes, and the receivers, are in the radiation belts to study the effect that highly energized "killer electrons" might have on satellites and astronauts traveling through the otherwise harmless radiation.
But there's something else out there worth checking out, and it's known as "chorus." Chorus is the term used to describe the audio version of radio signals emitted by plasma waves as they travel through the belts.
"This is what the radiation belts would sound like to a human being if we had radio antennas for ears," Kletzing said.
Radio operators have been able to hear low-quality versions of chorus for years, but this is the first time such high-powered instrumentation has captured the sound. Take a listen.

Weird, right? Like a combination of crickets and sonar. As spectacular as that is, though, it's actually only a mono recording from the testing phase of the probes. Kletzing said he hopes to get a stereo version of chorus after the probes complete their 60-day checkout phase in the coming weeks. It'll be like Pink Floyd in space.

Podio Drama:

Our Fair City

Our Fair City is a campy post-apocalyptic science fiction radio epic...for the internet. It is a collaborative work of prophecy, a story of the future told through the art forms of the past, a mashup of steampunk, cyberpunk, film noir, and classic horror that will blow your mind.

Check it out here.

This Week in Star Trek:

Exclusive: Sequel Title Confirmed – ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’

As for the title itself, "Into Darkness" does not reveal anything specific about the plot. So for those who Exclusive: Sequel Title Confirmed – ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ September 7, 2012

by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: Star Trek sequel (2013) , trackback

TrekMovie has an update on our earlier story regarding the title for the Star Trek sequel We can now confirm the title that has been chosen by JJ Abrams and Paramount for the 2013 movie. More details below.

Sequel title: "Star Trek Into Darkness"

TrekMovie has confirmed with multiple sources that "Star Trek Into Darkness" has been selected as the title for the 2013 sequel to JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movie. This is a title that comes out of a long process of discussion amongst the creative team. As reported earlier, Paramount tested a number of titles for the film over the summer, including at least one title that did not include "Star Trek." Also noted in our earlier article, the title (by design) does not include a colon, like were used for the past franchise films such “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” "Star Trek: First Contact," etc.

While Paramount will not officially confirm the news, multiple sources have told TrekMovie this is the title they are going with as of now. It has also been reported by ComingSoon that Paramount has secured the domain names to both www.startrekintodarkness.com and www.startrekintodarknessmovie.com, neither of which has any content.

If you were hoping for "Star Trek Khan" or "The Revenge of Gary Mitchell" you are out of luck. However, "Into Darkness" certainly gives us a hint that this film could have a serious tone and perhaps darker theme than the 2009 Star Trek film. On the other hand the title is also evocative of Star Trek’s core mission of going into the “darkness” of space, to seek out new life and new civilizations. Of course the current Trek team often point to Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy as inspiration, with the second film in that series being titled "The Dark Knight" which itself had some very dark themes. Is this Trek sequel Star Trek’s "Dark Knight"? As that film grossed $1B world wide, I imagine Paramount is certainly hoping it is.

According to sources, the creative team are still working on how they will officially roll out this new title. The first acknowledgement will likely be made with some kind of visual treatment, either a type treatment for the title or possibly even a teaser poster or image. Indications are that this official roll out should be coming soon.

What do you think?

Ron Moore explains what it would take to make a new Trek TV series

While Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller and X-Men director Byan Singer are still dreaming about bringing Star Trek back to TV, Star Trek vet Ron D. Moore explains what it would take to return the sci-fi series to the small screen.

Moore was a writer and producer on many Star Trek series and films, starting with Star Trek: The Next Generation, then Deep Space Nine and Voyager, before he went on to reboot Battlestar Galactica successfully for TV.

So what does Ron D. Moore think it would take to bring back Trek on TV now in the wake of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek films?

People have to understand that the Star Trek films are a different animal. And that goes for the original series' movies, as well as those from The Next Generation, and from J.J. By their nature, the Star Trek films are much more action-oriented, with space battles, big villains, lots of running and jumping. The stakes for Earth and the universe are always enormous.

But the lifeblood of Star Trek's television shows is its morality plays and social commentary. It's sci-fi that provides a prism on human society and culture. The movies are never really going to do what the episodes do, like split Picard into two in a transporter beam and then talk philosophically about the nature of humanity, which parts of our strength come from good and which from evil. The movies are never going to do that. Star Trek: The Next Generation was about those moral issues, about how societies grow and are differently affected. None of these are topics that the movies are going to tackle.

To create Star Trek in the form that people are familiar with requires another television series, and I think it will be successful again in that medium. You have to spend some time talking about its form and structure, and how to update it again for a new audience. You still want the "boldly go where no one has gone before" part with a ship, crew and ongoing mission. That's part and parcel of the franchise.

But you have to be able to tackle big ideas, which are larger than chasing the villain of the week. That's really not what the series was very good at. I mean, you could look back at the original Star Trek series or The Next Generation and find some cool action-adventure episodes with space battles, but the show is about so much more than that. If you were trying to do that flavor of Star Trek on television every week, it would just fail.

Do you guys agree with Ron D. Moore?

See an awesome Trek Gangnam Style parody done entirely in Klingon

We've seen a lot of sci-fi parodies of Korean pop star PSY's worldwide hit "Gangnam Style," but more keep beaming in. A new, extra-nerdy version of the tune just hit the 'net, and this time it's done in an alien language.

This particular version comes courtesy of the nerdy chicks at Comediva, who decided that getting into costume and doing the dance, or writing their own weird lyrics, just wasn't enough. No, this called for boldly going where no parody video has gone before. So they translated all the lyrics into Klingon, dressed up and gave the world "Klingon Style."

Scifi Five In Five

Warehouse 13 quotes

5. Artie Nelson: Y'know what the Talmud says? When someone's comin' to kill ya, get up early, kill 'em first.

 4.Claudia: Does this mean i'm an agent now?

Artie: No it means i can reach you anytime of day or night.

Claudia: Okay not so good.

3."' I knew you were not Myka when you kissed me, Myka would never kiss me even if her life depended on it"

2.Steve: Wait, Pete and Myka get a dagger and we get a plague? Why don't we stop being the B-Team?

Claudia: We are not the B-Team fool, we are the second A-Team.

2.Myka: Listen, when Cody hit you, I think that I saw something.

Pete: All I saw were stars oh and little birds.

1.Myka: You sure you are ok? You still look a little woozy.

Pete: That's my look.

SciFi Diner Conversations 66 - Listener's Discuss the Fringe Premiere, The Rumored Shannara Series, Other Fall Series And More.