Cow’s Blog

July 15th, 2008

Hi guys! I’m back in England… I spent the last two weeks in sunny America and had the delight of seeing Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon as well as spending July 4th in America (odd being British and in America on Independence Day but there goes). You’ve been treated to a couple of scheduled posts over the last two weeks; hopefully we’ll be back to full operation soon!

photo: Todd Huffman

When I was in America, I had plenty of opportunity to experience the wonders of American cable television (which also seems to have a ridiculous number of commercial breaks).

I saw a discussion programme about UFOs and there was a theory about UFOs and why “aliens” haven’t yet made contact which I thought was pretty concieved and quite funny.

Now, the standard theory about UFOs is that they are aliens of extra-terrestrial origin. They crash landed at Roswell and the government has been covering it up ever since, either because they feel we are not ready to know or because the military feel it is a tactical advantage to keep such information secret.

They’re actually time travelling humans…

The theory put across by one contributor to the TV show was that they are not actually aliens, but humans from the future. They believe that time travel was discovered in the Philadelphia Experiment. The laws of physics don’t actually prevent time travel; they are apparently possible using wormholes. Some people have claimed to have made small particles travel in time. It is perfectly conceivable that a time travel device could be constructed in the future for humans or spacecraft. This time travel device might arguably be easier than a civilisation developing the capabilities to traverse great distances to make contact with extra-terrestrial civilisations (in this case, us). They argue that UFOs are actually time travellers from the future who have come back to prevent us from making big mistakes which would impact the future (like the temporal agents of “Star Trek: Enterprise”).

The reasons why we can never know the truth about UFOs is because if we know, we’d change the future. We might panic and destroy ourselves.

Why has it been documented that people in circumstances where they might experience more stress (e.g. during Wars) see more UFOs? Psychologists say that these people are more likely to “imagine” or make up stories about being abducted by aliens. But theorists say it’s because those are also the occasions are the ones which we might need more help to stop us from doing what is wrong.

photo: Jami Dwyer

If there are indeed aliens swarming around in UFOs everywhere, why aren’t there more documented cases, especially with the number of camera phones around these days? Because the future human in their UFOs wouldn’t visit us unless there was something in history to correct.

I thought this was a totally genius theory because it manages to answer why the governments can’t disclose anything about UFOs and the paradoxes of believing UFOs are of extra-terrestrial origin as well as finding a solution for a paradox of time travel.

I thought it was certainly a rather interesting, although rather concieved theory for the origin UFOs. Of course, I’m very skeptical about it as am I about the existance of UFOs. The beauty of the theory is it can’t be disproved. But I’m sure that my future self will be able to come back in time and stop me from making this post to prevent me from the embarrassment of having to admit I’m wrong.

• Sci Fi , Science
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June 8th, 2008

photo: izarbeltza

The society of Star Trek invented by Gene Roddenberry is sometimes held up by fans as something we should strive towards. In the Star Trek universe, they don’t use money: people strive towards bettering themselves and humanity. Doesn’t that sound like communism to you?

If we tried to apply these principles in our world today, it certainly wouldn’t work. That’s been demonstrated in communism. Money is a much better way to carry out transactions than bartering: with bartering there needs to be a double-coincidence of wants. A baker may barter a few loaves of bread in exchange for a haircut with a hairdresser. Now, the baker only needs his hair cut once every month or two. Between haircuts, the hairdresser has nothing to barter and thus cannot have any bread on the table.

As for striving towards bettering ourselves and humanity? It doesn’t work in communism: communism gives people incentives to do as little as possible as they aren’t individually rewarded. Free-market economics (or capitalism) works simply because it gives people individual incentives to work and perform better: wages for workers, profits for companies and dividends for shareholders. Economics uses the fact that people act in their own self-interest to lead to an optimal outcome for society. I’d argue that economics is the single most important invention ever: one which paved the way for science, technology and pretty much every single aspect of life we experience today.

I was watching Visions of the Future on the BBC the other day and it did lead me to wonder whether we might be on the verge of this Star Trek age where we might be able to do without money. There are two bits of technology which I believe would allow this to happen.

photo: mugley

First of all, nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion promises to be an abundant source of energy which is inexhaustible. Limitless and pollution-free, nuclear fusion could render the assumption of scarcity in economics out of date (that society doesn’t have enough resources to meet human wants). With an infinite amount of energy, we could do anything: mitigate global warming, travel to other planets, whatever we like.

Secondly, molecular assemblers or “replicators” as they are known in Star Trek. The development of replicators depends on further research into nanotechnology but the promise is that they can produce more or less anything at the touch of a button by constructing objects atom by atom. The only limitations would be the amount of energy required to replicate the objects and knowing what we want to produce with them.

Many scientists believe that nuclear fusion and molecular assemblers are both viable technologies and may only be about 50 years away.

In a world with limitless energy and the means to create anything that we wanted, nothing is scarce. We could immediately create anything that we want in order to fulfill our wants and needs. And it’s that fact which would render economics redundant. If everything costs nothing to make, why would you need money?

photo: fdecomite

So what would be the effect of such technologies on society? Wealth is more or less meaningless and there is no reason for money to exist, so there will be no such things as city stock traders or economists. In fact, anyone working in the primary and secondary sectors would be made redundant by replicators. The important people in such a society would be the scientists and engineers: in a world where we aren’t limited by resources, we are only limited by our ideas. Scientists and engineers are the people who will come up with those new ideas.

At first glance, the utopian society as described in ‘Star Trek’ can seem like a communist society which would never function in the real world. I believe that today we are beginning to see the glimpses of technology which would bring society into a new age where we are no longer constrained by resources, scarcity and economics. The only constraints would be our ideas and dreams. Gene Roddenberry’s dream of our futuristic society might not seem so farfetched afterall.

• Economics , Sci Fi , Science
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May 30th, 2008

A friend of mine recently sent me a few videos from the musical version of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds: an absolutely stunning musical based on the HG Wells’ book. Some of you might be familiar with Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds album which is 30 years old this year.

The musical starts with the song Eve of the War and two other notable songs include Forever Autumn and The Spirit of Man and features Justin Hayward, Tara Blaise and of course Russell Watson who is also responsible for the Star Trek: Enterprise theme tune

The tour was really well produced. There is an huge orchestra on stage and the production perfectly blends stage action with computer generated films and giant 3D robots which shoot laser beams into the audience.

I strongly urge people to get the DVD of the live tour, recorded at Wembley Arena, which is simply stunning. And for those of us who didn’t manage to go to the live tour earlier this year, there is good news! Jeff Wayne writes on the official forums:

This new year, for TWOTW, will be quite active again - the 30th Anniversary of the release of the original recording looms, (30 years, incredible!) and there are some new special projects being planned to help celebrate that event, for release commencing around June. We also expect to announce a third UK tour during that period for sometime early 2009, which will hopefully have, yet again, a number of new and exciting ingredients that take our live show to even greater heights - a true Mark 3 version.

• Reviews , Sci Fi
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April 13th, 2008

Gateworld has a review of Stargate Continuum, the upcoming Stargate SG-1 film which is released to DVD on July 29th. Gateworld calls it the best Stargate (film or TV show) in years and possibly of all time. Plot according to Wikipedia:

While SG-1 attends the execution of Ba’al, the last of the Goa’uld System Lords, Teal’c and Vala inexplicably disappear into thin air. Carter, Daniel and Mitchell race back to a world where history has been changed: the Stargate program has been erased from the timeline. As they try to convince the authorities what’s happened, a fleet of Goa’uld motherships arrives in orbit, led by Ba’al, his queen, Qetesh (Vala), and his first prime, Teal’c. The remaining SG-1 members must find the Stargate and set things right before the world is enslaved by the Goa’uld.

The upcoming film had a budget of $7 million, will feature Richard Dean Anderson and producers hope it’ll spawn a series of follow-up movies.

• Season 2 of Heroes starts on BBC Two on Thursday 24th April at 9pm. This will be the first time season 2 has been shown in the UK so we’re all pretty excited!
• This year’s finale to Torchwood sure was something. It was by far better than the first season and I thought the last episode was very powerful. Digital Spy has a review.
• Season 4 of Doctor Who just got under way. I was a bit unsure about Donna (Catherine Tate) as a new assistant but I think she’s done a great job so far! Author of “The God Delusion” Richard Dawkins will feature in this series of Doctor Who.

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April 8th, 2008

About this time last year, people started talking about Stargate Universe and I speculated on what it could be about. Well, more information about the series has now been released!

The new series is still in a concept stage but the series is based on a ship which was part of an Ancient experiment - an experiment which was set in motion millions of years ago. The experiment is to send two ships across the universe: The first ship seeds galaxies with Stargates. A second ship then follows up and uses those Stargates to explore the galaxies. The ninth chevron is to get to that ship. The experiment was never started/completed because the Ancients got busy ascending.

Sounds complicated. However it’s possible that the series won’t materialise for a couple of years yet. It has already been delayed by the writers strike in America, is fairly expensive to produce and producer Brad Wright has indicated that he isn’t anxious to return to a schedule of filming 40 hours of television a year. My thoughts are that “Universe” is unlikely to begin until Atlantis or at least the SG-1 movies have concluded.

I must admit though, I can’t say I’m particularly excited about the sounds of this series. Atlantis has done the whole Ancients thing and SG-1 and Atlantis have both become more ship-based towards the recent years. Of course I’m not privy to all the details but it’s definitely not a huge departure from what we’ve already seen.

• Sci Fi , Television
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March 4th, 2008

After the cancellation of Stargate SG-1, it was decided that SG-1 would be finished off with two movies: The Ark of Truth which would wrap up the Ori storyline and Continuum which will have some time travel and all that malarkey. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to seeing The Ark of Truth, especially as it’s a movie: it’ll be interesting to see whether it’s a lot more epic than the TV series given the larger budget.

According to Gateworld, it’ll be aired in the UK on Sky One on Wednesday 26th March at 8pm. It’ll then go onto DVD for the 14th April.

The Ark of Truth stars SG-1’s Ben Browder, Michael Shanks, Amanda Tapping, Christopher Judge, Claudia Black, and Beau Bridges in a story that spans the galaxies. With our own galaxy under seige by the armies of the Ori — powerful ascended beings who demand worship from “lower” life forms — SG-1 must take the Odyssey through the Supergate into the enemy’s own territory. There they hope to find a device created by the Ancients millennia ago, which they hope will stop the Ori worshipers from killing millions of innocents.

For the Americans, it’ll come out on DVD on Tuesday 11th March. I’d be really interested in hearing from the Stargate fans who read this blog what they think of “The Ark of Truth” when they see it!

Looking forward to it!

• Sci Fi , Television
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June 2nd, 2007

According to The Sun, Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) has been axed from Doctor Who for weak performances in later episodes.

DOCTOR Who actress Freema Agyeman has been axed from the next series, The Sun can reveal.

…

And they are planning a storyline where the Doctor, played by David Tennant, will lose her and travel through the universe searching for her.

The decision to dump Freema comes as a bolt from the blue after her performance for the first couple of episodes was praised.

Make of this what you will; remembering The Sun was also the source of the rumour that David Tennant was leaving Doctor Who.

Now, there have already been some hints Martha isn’t a proper assistant… you’ve seen how they’ve mentioned shes just tagging along for the ride, and in todays episode he asked some other woman to join him. But anyway, it’s all speculation.

Good news though: Captain Jack is back in the 11th episode! 

• Sci Fi , Television
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March 25th, 2007

Gateworld reports that the third series of Stargate has the working title "Stargate Universe" and that it will deal with the ninth chevron.

Gateworld: 

The new series has been conceived to be "a completely separate, third entity," Cooper said in an interview — "much more so than Atlantis was. Atlantis was much more of a spin-off seires of SG-1 and was sort of born out of SG-1."

Like many of the producers ideas, Cooper said, the idea for Stargate Universe was originally conceived as a stand-alone movie. "When we originally were sitting around talking about this we were trying to come up with ideas for a Stargate feature — not an SG-1 feature or an Atlantis feature, but a feature that would fit into the Stargate franchise that we feel we have created," Cooper said. "We were thinking, ‘How do we create a third arm to the franchise that is very connective and that fans will feel is born out of the material that has come before, but at the same time is very much something that stands alone?’

What We Know

• Targeted for early 2008
• Ninth Chevron plays big role in series
• Will be separate from SG-1 and Atlantis, rather than spin-offs.
• Will be gate-based rather than ship-based
• Will be set in the present; will not be a prequel or a sequel
• Will relate to existing mythology but will have separate storylines
• Will have a team on adventures (presumably a team from Earth)

The Name

My first reaction when I saw the name "Stargate Universe" was really of shock. It’s a terrible name, almost something you’d expect from a children’s television programme. It doesn’t really seem to capture any of the magic but it is only a working title so may change. 

The Ninth Chevron 

We know that the show will involve the 9th chevron. It has been hotly debated amongst fans of what this chevron does. 

We know that most gate addresses use 7 chevrons. The 8th chevron is used to add an extra distance calculation like a area dialing code; it was required to travel to Atlantis and the Asgard galaxy. The name "Universe" implies that the show will perhaps be set in a much larger area than SG-1 which is set in the Milky Way, and Atlantis which is set in the Pegasus galaxy. The 9th chevron perhaps will add yet another distance calculation - like an international dialing code.

Some have suggested the 9th chevron could account for time or parallel universes. The first is unlikely, as the show is set in the present, and the producers of Stargate have made it quite clear that they don’t want to dabble with time travel, causality.

The second is a possibility. We know that the idea for Stargate Universe originally was for a movie. It’s quite easy to imagine a movie which is set in a parallel universe. However, there is already a quantum mirror to travel between universes. Effects such as the entropic cascade failure have already been established. And the title of the series is Universe, singular, not Universes.

My bet would be on the 9th chevron being an additional distance calculation. 

Mythology 

We also know that the show ties into existing mythology. So the chances are, the Ancients will come into it somehow. The whole Ancients storyline has been done in Atlantis and the Ori have been done to death and finished in SG-1. It’s hard to imagine a series which will be able to relate to the Ancients again, without having it tie in to existing story lines in SG1/Atlantis. 

Stargate also has a lot of mythology about the Goa’uld, but as far as we’re concerned they’ve been finished off. But it’s possible there could still be Goa’uld around, who have perhaps worked out how to use the ninth chevron, and escape to another galaxy. Then again, coming back to the Goa’uld could make a very, very tedious TV show. 

Movie Tie-In?

The original plan was for one of the SG-1 movies to "dovetail" into the third series. We know of two SG-1 movies at the moment:

The Ark of Truth, where SG-1 travels to the Ori home galaxy in an attempt to stop their onslaught.

Continuum, where the timeline has been altered, meaning the Stargate programme never existed.

It is unlikely a movie could be spun from Continuum. In some ways, it would provide a reset button and allow us to go back to the mythology of the original movie. This is unlikely, and certainly discovering the ninth chevron when the Stargate programme doesn’t even exist. Then again, if the ninth chevron travels between universes…

More likely, a third series could be launched from The Ark of Truth. There would be opportunities for tie-ins with the Ancients storyline, and presumably the Ori will be destroyed, leaving a whole galaxy to be explored.

Just Speculation

Of course, we know very little about the third series, and it’s all speculation.

• Sci Fi , Television
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December 14th, 2006

TrekMovie.com has information from long-time Trek producer David Rossi about plans for a new Star Trek series set in the 26th century. The new series will be animated (like The Animated Series continuation of TOS) and CBS have given the go ahead for test artwork and scripts for 5 mini episodes to be developed.

The series will probably be broadcast online on the Star Trek website; a first for the franchise. With the success of sites such as YouTube, this is the natural next step forward in television broadcasting and it’s not too surprising. As well as that, it may also be shown on TV and DVD.

The series will be set 150 years after Picard and Star Trek: Nemesis.

The setting is the year 2528 and the Federation is a different place after suffering through a devastating war with the Romulans 60 years earlier. The war was sparked off after a surprise attack of dozens of ‘Omega particle’ detonations throughout the Federation creating vast areas which become impassible to warp travel and essentially cut off almost half the Federation from the rest. During the war the Klingon homeworld was occupied by the Romulans, all of Andoria was destroyed and the Vulcans, who were negotiating reunification with the Romulans, pulled out of the Federation. The setting may seem bleak and not very Trek-like, but that is where the show’s hero Captain Alexander Chase comes in. Relegated to border patrol, Chase is determined to bring the Federation (and a ship called Enterprise) back to the glory days of seeking out new life and new civilizations.

There are some really interesting twists - for example the chief engineer of the ship “Mr. Zero” needs to wear an environmental suit to survive on the ship. There will also be a security team with some Borg technology.

The TrekMovie report contains more details and some artwork from the series in works.

The project is currently believed to be in a holding pattern until the release of the 11th Star Trek film in 2008.

I think opinion amongst Trek fans is going to be divided. In some ways, I still feel Enterprise should get another 3 seasons and to be finished off. An animated series would be interesting but should it be considered part of the Star Trek canon? Or perhaps this is a last desperate attempt to revive Star Trek?

• Sci Fi
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September 28th, 2006

A load of rumours floating around the science fiction world recently…

Doctor Who Movie

Digital Spy reports that producers plan to produce a Doctor Who movie with Billie Piper (Rose) who left the show at the end of last season:

The decision was prompted by the realisation that the show’s budget was constraining it in terms of sets and effects, according to the Daily Star.

A source told the paper that the proposed movie would also see assistant Rose Tyler, played by Piper, reunited with David Tennant.

It was reported only earlier this month that David Tennant was to leave Doctor Who for Hollywood so he could get onto the big screen. This movie is perhaps a way for the BBC to try and retain Tennant.

It isn’t clear to me whether they mean a TV movie or a theatrical production but I’m assuming the latter. I’m unsure whether there are restrictions on movies made by the BBC but I know that the BBC isn’t allowed to publish a book based on a television show and consider it canon because people should be able to follow the story with nothing more than the license fee. It’s possible the same could apply to a movie or maybe they can get around it by showing it on television.

Stargate

After the cancellation of Stargate SG-1, there have been various campaigns on the internet to get the show back. It has now been reported that SG-1 will come back as a series of television movies. I’m really not sure whether this is a good thing; movies cost more and longer to make and you only get two hours or so of content, compared to a whole TV series which is some 14 hours.

Perhaps it’s time SG-1 came to a close; it doesn’t seem to have the same magic, fun or challenge about it. Or MacGyver.

Spoilers: Atlantis fans may be quite shocked to hear of a character death which is thought to happen in the second half of season 3. There is quite a lot of evidence for it and in some ways I think it is the right thing to do; but theres gonna be a lot of fan outcry.  

• Sci Fi
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