Astrographer

I just found this very cool, in depth geek out: http://astrographer.wordpress.com/

If you're a fan of Star Trek (especially), Traveller, or basically anything else sci-fi related, you will not be disappointed.

I'm following through my primary blog: http://realmwright.blogspot.com/

Tag along, won't you?

To Infinity And Beyond

Nils from Enderra.com sent me this link.

Futuristic Mega Projects

I cannot believe people (yes, we upright bald apes) thought this stuff up, but perhaps more incredible is the fact that it's not that far fetched. All of it seems entirely plausible given the necessary research, funding, and supply of . Mustn't forget the qualified engineers, astrophysicists, and of course the brave guinea pigs to go test it out first. You can currently catch the mega pyramid episode of Extreme Engineering on Netflix. 

It got me thinking about what it would take to colonize a new, habitable planet with humans. That led me to look this up.

Wonderquest.com
 
Another buddy of mine (Marcus) and I are always jabbering about BSG, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc and how crazy it will be the day mankind undertakes long term space colonization. We're talking pre-FTL "rudimentary" generation ships with "simple" ion engines. He thinks it's ludicrously exciting and wants to be one of the first on board. I think he's out of his mind! Let someone else wear the red shirt, that's what I say. I get nervous just hearing about current talk concerning Mars and Moon colonies within the next 20 years. Maybe it's because I hate to travel, hate flying, hate the idea of foreign germs and gigantic man-eating bugs, but color me Earthbound. I ain't going nowhere! Picture B.A. Baracus from A-Team getting knocked out and put on a plane. Now picture him a gangly, bearded worldbuilder.....I pity the fool, indeed!

Concept Ships

In the last few posts I have shared various pics of ships from different series. It seems a bit backwards to now share the link the really got me interested in ships designs. I have lots of ideas, but my hand just doesn't gravitate towards the geometry needed for craft design. Maybe as I get better at programs that produce cleaner results than pen and paper scribbles.

Anyway, without further chatter, I present to you:

http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

Starlight: Chronicles of the Empire

My buddy Nils was trying to think of what to call his sci-fi setting. I suggested the name “Starlight” because it’s generic and recognizable. He ended up going with "Somnium" as it is Latin for "the dream". We agree it's pretty awesome....and he tells me "Starlight" was the name of an RPG back in the day, so he wasn't sure if copyright was still valid. Anyway, I came up with this as an intro cinematic.

[Title] Be Careful What You Wish For

A mother tucking a little girl into bed. On the bedside table is a picture of her father in military dress.

"Mommy, will daddy be home soon?"

"Maybe if you wish really hard, he will be sweetie" [mom exits]

The little girl rolls over and looks out the window as the first star winks through a passing cloud.

She begins reciting "Starlight, star bright, first start I see tonight..." [close up on her eye with a star reflected in it] the eye morphs from that of an innocent child to the haunted eye of a soldier "I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight" [her voice fades as a male voice comes up] As it pulls out again, it's a soldier. He looks down from the star to a tattered photo of his daughter.

[Sounds of battle and explosions nearby]

He tucks the photo away and dons his helmet.

[commander yelling] "Ten seconds!"

Heartbeat, huffing inside the helmet. He checks his clip, pulls the slide on his rifle.

commander: 3...2...1...Go. Go! GO! They rush out into battle.

(battle scene here) ends with him hunkered behind some kind of ruins for cover. A grenade lands in from of him. He watches the red light blinking on it, looks up to the star, closes his eyes as the grenade explodes. A wash of bright light fades to black.  

Intro scene ends with his wife and daughter crying as his coffin, draped with the flag of the Empire, is loaded into the back of a hearse. Wish granted. Daddy’s home to stay.

Camera pans up to an overheard shot as the coffin is lowered into the grave. Fade to black except for the insignia. Then the red and gold letters come up “Starlight: Chronicles of the Empire”

Space, The Final Frontier

I'm only now starting to get into Star Trek (and it's various spin offs). My mom is a fan of the original with Capt James T. Kirk and my dad is a TNG/Picard guy. I haven't seen enough of all of it yet to declare a favorite. Let's just hope it all stays available on Netflix some I can get all caught up without having to buy the multitude of seasons and series.

Sites like this really come in handy.

Star Trek Minutiae.com - the Starfleet Academy stuff is pretty cool, because it breaks down those hard to understand astrophysics 

And these are just awesome for the pretty ship pics.

Starfleet Ships 1

Starfleet Ships 2

So Say We All

I blogged about Star Wars first because it was my earliest foray into science fiction, and thus remains my favorite by default of seniority. It has its issues, but what film/series doesn't? It is wonderful for it's mythos, pioneering, and good ol comforting nostalgia.

Third on my list is easily the redux of BSG. I'm not Mormon, or at least not anymore, but having grown up surrounded by that particular religious culture I couldn't help but glean some of the beliefs. Some may know this, some may not, but the Mormon mythology played very heavily on the writing of Battlestar Galactica. 

I never saw the original Battlestar Galatica, which lasted for one season in 1978, but I loved loved loved the remake that ran multiple seasons 2004-2009. When I first watched the pilot episodes to the remake I was quite lost. Thus I began at the beginning, with the prequel Caprica. I was instantly hooked with the characters, happenings, and over all establishment of the story. Sadly it was dropped after only 1 season.
All told, both Caprica and BSG were fantastic shows and I cannot recommend them enough. I have had discussions with other fans regarding the preference of the original versus the remake and people seem to like Edward James Olmos as Adama, whether or not they favor him over Lorne Greene I haven't heard. I think it's cool that Richard Hatch was in both. The one complaint that has been voiced many times is that Starbuck was a girl in the remake. I say it works anyway, besides...she's not very girlie.

Anyway, enough of the rambling here's some ships to ogle

 BSG ships

Can't Stop the Signal

Just barely behind Star Wars as my favorite sci-fi show/movie is Joss Whedon's Firefly and the subsequent "revival" movie Serenity.

I really can't say enough about this phenomenal series. I know I'm not alone in my feelings of being a Browncoat that would love to give the folks at Fox the finger. They should be bound and tossed to Reavers.

I have been Mal for Halloween at least twice, which is easy since I usually dress like that anyway (minus suspenders). I love translating random phrases in to Chinese. Hell, I even have a few pages of fan fic notes and ideas.

For all you other Firefly junkies out there that just can't get enough of the 'verse, check this out:

http://serenitytales.typepad.com/

It hasn't been updated in a while, but it's a great source of untold tales. My favorite is "The Black" by Bill Mudron because I've been a fan of his art for over 10 years now.

They also have a great script for "Browncoat".

On the Firefly wiki you can find the script for an episode titled Dead or Alive that was scrapped. I would love to try my hand at doodling panels for both this and "Browncoat", but I'd rather just sit back and watch the episode in my head.

In the meantime I settle for watching as many Firefly/Serenity related youtube videos as I can find.

Maybe later I'll post some of my fan fic ideas...

A Long Time Ago...

I was never that into sci-fi. I guess you could say I'm still not. But I'm getting there, thanks to Netflix.

I know I saw Star Wars when I was a little kid, but it didn't really click for me until the digital redux when I was in high school. I learned to appreciate it even more in college when we studied the philosophy of Joseph Campbell that so much of the story is based on. To go back to the simple truth of the first post, HAN SHOT FIRST. That is one of the first things I remembered from the original. That and the trash compactor scene and thinking "hey this guy looks a lot like Indiana Jones."

My favorites changed over the years, sometimes it was Empire Strikes Back, then Return of the Jedi, then The Clone Wars. NEVER Phantom Menace (shudder). I understand Mr. Lucas was waiting for effects technology to improve enough so that we could see the movies on the screen the way he saw them in his head, but c'mon man. Was it necessary for the story to suffer just because the visuals were better? I will never forgive, only wish I could forget, the intro of Jar Jar Binks.

Why oh why couldn't all the movies have had his genius storytelling combined with showmanship like this.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Videos

For the record, no I haven't played swtor. Maybe now that it's free... What I really liked was the old school Atari game, Shadows of the Empire and Rogue Squadron on N64.

**UPDATE**

Just announced today, Disney has purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas for $4.1 billion. Episode 7 is due out in 2015, with Disney planning to release subsequent feature films every 2-3 thereafter.

Disney Buys Lucasfilm

Thoughts? Opinions? Predictions?

HAN SHOT FIRST!

That is all you need to know to begin. It is truth, plain and simple.

**UPDATE**

I found this yesterday and loved every word of it

Han's legal justification for shooting Greedo first