California Dreaming: Comic-Con International San Diego 2015

It's been a few years since I last attended Comic-Con International in San Diego. It's on in full geeky glory right now, and while it would be nice to be there, I'm home in Ottawa and living vicariously through Facebook postings instead.

What thinking of San Diego does do is inspire me to work on my contribution to Hope Nicholson's The Secret Loves of Geek Girls. It's already a Kickstarter success, and will be a fantabulous collection when it's done. The line-up screams for exclamation marks. Margaret Atwood! Sam Maggs! Trina Robbins! Megan Kearney!, Danielle Corsetto! Brandy Lynn! Adrienne Kress! Stephanie Cooke! Diana McCallum ! Jen Aprahamian!  Katie West! and so many more. I love the cover by Gisèle Lagacé.


My story is called "Both Sides of the Table and Between the Sheets," and it will draw on my wonderful, awkward, funny and fun personal experiences as a geek girl. I don't think I'd have the gumption to go up against the A-list cosplayers at Comic-Con in San Diego now, but back in the day, I took a prize for entering the costume competition as Supergirl (along with Don Hutton as Brainiac 5).

My con cravings will be satisfied again in September when Ronn Sutton and I will be guests at Fan Expo Canada, taking place from September 3-6, 2015 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. It's a big show, and growing each year. While I will be behind the table taking commissions and the like, I am also hoping indulge my inner fan-girl and score a photo with Kate Mulgrew, who was a dynamite starship captain on Star Trek: Voyager and has impressed a whole new generation with her turn as Red on Orange is the New Black.

Still... despite the long travel, hefty hotel room prices and insane crowd, it would have been nice to be at San Diego. I'm thinking maybe next year, and maybe I better start planning right now.

-- Janet Hetherington

The Lone Ranger vs. Sharknado

I went to see Disney's The Lone Ranger at the SilverCity Cineplex movie theatre last night, wanting to catch it before it closes. It was a good-looking production featuring interesting portrayals of the iconic characters of my youth, and it provided some strong moments typical of the western genre. Still, my overall reaction was: "It's trying too hard to be a hit."

Contrast this to the crazy-wild interest and success of Sharknado, which played on TV last week (SyFy and Space). This was utter B-movie fare: sharks swept up by a tornado and dumped into flooded California. According to this movie, your best defense against a tornado waterspout is to have a chainsaw handy in case sharks rain down on you.

It may seem like I'm comparing apples to oranges here, but I believe these two movies speak to why audiences embraced low-budget Sharknado and have had underperforming response to high-budget The Lone Ranger.

The key word here is underperforming. While there was a lot riding on Silver, there was less sink or swim for Sharknado. Sharknado was intended to be over-the-top and silly. The producers made a movie they wanted to see. Based on the Facebook and Twitter response, others wanted to see it too.

(To The Lone Ranger's credit, the  ticket-seller said the film had sold out the night before and the theatre was pretty packed when I was there.)

The Lone Ranger had its over-the-top moments too, with a horse that defied gravity and a Saloon Madam's leg that doubled as a firearm (think Cherry in Planet Terror). But rebooting a treasured icon for modern viewers is a tricky business, and while it has worked for some films like Star Trek (2009), The Lone Ranger suffers upfront from an audience disconnect to the "western experience." What interest is there for today's kids in the need to build a physical cross-nation connection (the railway) when they can pick up their phone and reach anyone anywhere around the world? The Twitter generation is also more of a collective mindset, more Borg than John Wayne, so the notion of a "Lone Ranger" who will right wrongs may not have the same appeal or impact as it did for young audiences in the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

So, why would Sharknado, which also had a 1950s vibe, fare so well? As absurd as its premise may be, Sharknado likely resonated with viewers who recently experienced mass flooding in the US midwest, Canada and other disasters. The best science fiction and horror movies exploit the fears of the time. The price was right too: free to watch or PVR. In addition, while movie theatres politely lecture  patrons to turn off their cell phones during screenings, the home-viewing audience can partake of alcoholic beverages, tweet and FB post to their heart's delight during the broadcast. This can be seen as equivalent to watching flicks from the comfy seats of big-finned cars at the drive-ins of the 1950s.

Going back to Star Trek, it's interesting to note that Gene Roddenberry pitched and sold the original TV concept as "Wagon Train to the stars." The western was in its heyday. People were connected to that genre's theme. The Lone Ranger may yet ride again, when the time is right for a white-hat hero rather than a  chainsaw-wielding one.

Quantum Quest to premiere January 22

Star Trek Voyager's Robert Picardo and producer/director/writer Dr. Harry Kloor will host the U.S. premiere of Quantum Quest, the 3-D computer animated large format adventure film, at the gala preview party of "Science With A Twist: An Evening Aboard The Enterprise" on Saturday night, January 22, 2011, at the Louisville Science Center museum.

Quantum Quest interweaves animated sequences with actual space imagery captured from seven ongoing NASA and NASA/ESA space missions. In addition to Picardo, the film boasts an A-list voice cast including two Captain Kirks (veteran William Shatner and Chris Pine), two Jedi Knights (Mark Hamill and Samuel L. Jackson) and two Darth Vaders (James Earl Jones and Hayden Christensen) – a first for Hollywood and the galaxy.

Quantum Quest will be released in large format and conventional theaters in spring 2011. 

Quantum Quest is the first time that NASA’s iconic Jet Propulsion Laboratory has ever initiated a film project and the first time that Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the surface of the moon, has participated in a feature film, lending his voice to one of the characters.

Combining solid, “real” science with Hollywood-style narrative story-telling, Quantum Quest is designed to communicate the excitement of space exploration and science discovery to students K through 12.  Quantum Quest will provide more free educational materials, prepared by leading educators, scientists, space and science organizations (including the Fleet Museum and the Planetary Society), than any previous large screen film.

“This is a stealth science education film disguised as fun Hollywood entertainment,” says Dr. Kloor. “Whenever we talk about science, it’s exact, but QQ’s message is to tell kids – and grownups of all ages – that science is cool.”