Site Columns
By KristineDecember 31, 2003 - 3:31 AM
Hello World!
It's that time of year again. We're on the cusp of a new year--2004. Are your New Year's resolutions in order?
Breathe a sigh of relief--I promise not to bore you with mine! I toyed with that as the subject of this last Hello World column at TrektToday for 2003, but instantly rejected it. New Year's resolutions are pretty personal, and who wants to read some else's anyways?
Instead, I'd like to raise a cyber-toast to an individual I admire a lot, and have this whole year (and well before that, too). That person is Joss Whedon. Most of you know him as the creator of the shows Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly.
Joss is a personal hero of mine, for many reasons, but in large part for his determination and can-do attitude. I can't think of anyone else (if someone is slipping my mind, please e-mail me!) who turned a movie in large part deemed a failure into a hit TV series so influential that its heroine, Buffy, has been turned into a feminist icon. Essays and philosphical musings have been written about the show, and its spinoff, Angel.
Joss suffered a setback with Firefly this year. As creative, exciting, and innovative as the show was, it gained a devoted audience but not a full season, thanks to episode shuffling and preempting done by the network it aired on. Only 11 episodes aired in the U.S., 14 overseas, and yet the show proved in those few episodes to have a compelling cast of characters, who I wanted to sit down with in their kitchen at mealtime while Mal and Zoe told war stories, or Jayne made some outlandishly inappropriate comments. The show also built up an exotic and often dangerous world, mixing the old west with technology that ranged from the very sophisticated (thin blue wands that could cause a person to hemorrage to death) to the more haphazard (the engine of Serenity comes to mind, though it almost never failed its crew). Like Buffy and Angel, Firefly created a world I was totally immersed in.
Did Joss give up on Firefly when it was cancelled? Did he throw his hands up and think maybe he'd better give up on it and turn his thoughts to something more practical? Not hardly. He's currently working on a script for a Firefly movie. Many shake their heads, but if anyone can (and I believe will) make it happen, it's Joss.
So please, join me in raising a cyber-toast to Joss. When I grow up, I want to be just like him. Which is to say, I never quite want to grow up so completely that I lose my capacity to imagine or believe one should give up on a dream.
Trek BBS Today
Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:
-Most underrated ENT episode
-Why TOS can never be done again
-To Firefly Fans, Re: Civil War Elements
More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!
Trek Two Years Ago
No Romance For Picard In Trek X, Stewart Says
Patrick Stewart revealed to Conan O'Brian that while his Trek alter-ego Jean-Luc Picard wouldn't be falling in love in the tenth Trek film, the film would be action packed, and he'd even get a chance to drive. He remained tight-lipped about the film's plot, only revealing, "I'm sitting in the captain's chair of the Enterprise."
Keating Excited By 'Enterprise' Paycheck
Dominic Keating, the man who brings Malcolm Reed to life on Enterprise, raved about his new job, and the nice paycheck it brought in. He said he took a photograph of his first paycheck, which to date was the largest he'd ever received for an acting job. Keating also mentioned he'd met fellow Brit Patrick Stewart, who told him to enjoy his new role.
Satellite Providers To Carry UPN
Direct TV and EchoStar's Dishnetwork picked up UPN and began airing the network on January 1, 2002. The satellite companies recieved a court order that said if they carried any public channel networks, they had to carry all the public networks. It was a boon for both UPN and the WB.
Poll Results
Below are the results of the most recent TrekToday poll:
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39.3% - (181
Votes),
New Year's resolutions? Maybe not! Check out the results of our poll on what our readers were planning. Also, please vote in our new poll about the upcoming year for Enterprise and what you'd like to see!,
Today's Television Listings
On Wednesday night, the final day of 2003, UPN will show a rerun of the Enterprise episode "Exile". Here is a TV Guide description of the episode, which was directed by Roxann Dawson:
"A powerful telepath named Tarquin (Maury Sterling) becomes smitten with Hoshi and offers to part with key intelligence on the Xindi if she's allowed to visit his planet. But when Enterprise returns to pick up Hoshi, Tarquin refuses to let her go."
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