Cblakes Just Turned 29. Will He Run?

Stardate 07-31-2007

Sometime in the 23rd century...
the survivors of war, overpopulation and pollution
are living in a great domed city, sealed away from the
forgotten world outside. Here, in an ecologically balanced world,
mankind lives only for pleasure,
free by the servo-mechanisms which provide everything.
There's just one catch:
Life must end at thirty unless reborn in the fiery ritual of Carousel.



I just finished watching a Sci-Fi gem; Logan's Run. I'd seen and heard references to it for a while now and I saw that Bryan Singer of X-Men and Superman Returns is planning a remake so I thought I had better check it out. I must say that I loved it. Here is a synopsis:

Its the 23rd Century and the world is in a state of decay and ruin. In order to avoid its perils, a civilization has created a huge dome that keeps them safe from the outside world. They live in this Utopia with only one purpose; pleasure. In order to maintain this Utopia and prevent overpopulation, the inhabitants must obey one rule. When they turn 30, they must take their chances and enter Arcade. It is in Arcade that they will either die or renew. Those who choose to Run, rather than take their chances in Arcade, are pursued by the Sandmen. A Sandman's job is to chase the runners and kill.

Logan 5 is a Sandman. He is 25 and has five years of pleasure left in his life. He is confident that when he turns 30, he will go to Arcade and will not die, but will renew. However, when he receives a special mission from the computer, things change. Logan 5 is told of an under ground railroad type group that helps runners escape to a place called Sanctuary. The computer assigns Logan 5 the task of infiltrating Sanctuary and killing all those who ran. In order to do this, he must run himself. The computer makes changes to the internal system that monitors age and these changes show that Logan 5 is of age. After Logan accepts the assignment, he asks if he will get his five years back after completing the mission. When the computer does not answer, Logan has a change of heart and decides that he needs to find Sanctuary, not to kill them, but to hide with them.

Not only is this movie great because of its story, but you will enjoy the amazing special effects. They will actually make you laugh pretty hard. The view of the city scape under the dome is the best. It couldn't be more obvious that it is a model and at times it looks like they made the city out of old shoe boxes and toilet paper roles. If you enjoy old Sci Fi stuff, you'll really enjoy Logan's Run.



Be warned. The same guy who gave Sixteen Candles a PG rating probably was assigned Logan's Run as well. There is even more nudity and has the same rating.

So, Cblakes, will you run or will you try for renewal?
What would you do?

Project: Cloverfield

Stardate 07-12-2007

Captain's Log:
Those who have been blessed enough to have seen Transformers caught a glimpse of a mysterious untitled monster movie. All you could really tell from the trailer was that it looked pretty cool and that it was produced by JJ Abrams.

Take a look if you haven't already seen it. The best is seeing the Statue of Liberty's head go flying by at the end.



I've looked into things a little bit and found that the project name and story line is top secret. Not even the studios behind it will give out any information. I've decided that not only is JJ Abrams a sci fi genious, he is also a marketing genious. Two offical web sites have already hit the interweb. One is called Ethan Haas Was Right and the other is Ethan Haas Was Wrong People are already going crazy about this stuff and its creating quite a buzz on the interweb. The movie is supposed to be out 1/18/08 which is about a half year away. It will be interesting to see if this type of marketing strategy will work better than the traditional approach. Both sites include puzzles that people are already working on and trying to figure out what they say or mean. Looks like most people think that they crazy writing is Sanscrit. Some of the more interesting things that I am guessing about from what has been said on these web sites is that Ethan Haas is some type of prophet who prophisied that a war between the Gods would take place for a brief time on earth.

Ever Feel Like You Were an Alien in High School?

Stardate 07-05-2007

Captain's Log:
Its taken me a few years, but thanks to my sister-in-law and blockbuster online, I've finally been able to finish all three seasons of Roswell. For those who don't know about the TV series Roswell, just think about this formula: Coming of age teen drama + Roswell aliens = an amazing viewing experience. Here is a brief run down and my thoughts on each of the seasons.




Season 1
This season starts off at the Crash Down, which is basically the sci-fi themed version of the Peach Pit. Beautiful Liz Parker works as a waitress in her families cafe. She witnesses an argument between two bozos and is caught in the middle of a gun fight. With guns a'blazin', Liz gets shot and goes down for the count. Max Evans, a seemingly ordinary teen, rushes over to her and places his hand on the wound and magically heals her. After coming back to life, Liz has questions and turns to biology, her forte, to get the answers. She secretly takes a saliva sample from Max during science class and finds that his cells look nothing like Human Cells. She confronts him about this and Max comes clean. He tells her that he, his sister and best friend are all aliens who survived in the Roswell incident of 1957. The rest of the season deals not only with the blossoming romance of Max and Liz but with the aliens struggle to fit in with humans, gain control of their powers, and learn who they are and where they come from. By the end of the season we have learned that the aliens are Royalty and have been sent from planet Antar, which has been overthrown by bad aliens. After being killed, the good aliens melded the DNA of the deceased aliens with the DNA of earth humans and sent them here to protect them so that one day they could rise up and return home and free them from the evil aliens. However, this plan was never able to come to fruition because of the unexpected crash of their ship.

Season 1 is excellent. Its a pretty good balance, about 60/40, of romance vs. sci-fi. Its fun to meet the characters and be along side of them as they discover who they are and what their purpose is. There is also plenty of evading local and federal law enforcement as they strive to keep their alien identities a secret.


Season 2
In the second season we find out about The Skins. The Skins are the group of bad aliens who overthrew the aliens when they were still on their home planet. They have since found out about the hybrids and the plan to have them return to Antar and take the planet back. Because they didn't have the time, these aliens have a lesser technology that allows them to walk among humans and blend in. They are basically required to shed their human skin and then regenerate in a pod. This season also focuses on Max and his new love Tess. Tess is the fourth alien sent down from Antar. She was once Max's wife and still in love with him. Eventually Max's alien desire becomes too strong and he makes sweet alien love with Tess and impregnates her. By the end of Season 2, Tess has betrayed Max and takes his baby with her as she returns to Antar where she will give his son to Max's alien enemy.

The first 8 or 10 episodes of the second season are by far the most creative as far as science fiction goes and were by far my favorite. This is largely due to the new executive producer that they brought on board, Ronald D. Moore. Moore is well known as a writer and executive producer of Star Trek: TNG, Deep Space Nine, and is the creator and Exec. Producer of the new Battlestar Galactica.


Season 3
The main story line of the third season deals with Max trying to figure out a way to get back to Antar and save his planet and child. He is also trying to rekindle his relationship with his true love, Liz Parker, which is a very hard task because of the fact that he got another alien pregnant. This season also deals with how the lives of the aliens are changed after their parents and the rest of the public find out that they are aliens.

The other two seasons are much better. This season jumps back to the romance aspect of the story and it drags a bit. Even though I didn't like how things ended up, watching this third and final season was worth it. Its still good and entertaining.