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Fans Will Battle(star)
Fans fed up with Farscape being cancelled are now up in arms about
the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, they're calling
for a boycott.
It
seems that many in science fiction fandom have been less than chuffed
of late with the Sci-Fi channels recent programming decisions.
Farscape fans are still irate over the recent decision to
cancel that popular program, despite what they claim are strong
ratings.
Now it is some very vocal Battlestar Galactica fans who
are up in arms about what they say is a disrespectful re-imagining
planned for the classic show.
A
boycott of Sci-fi Channel's advertisers has been proposed by the
group. The target of the boycott would be the new production of
Battlestar Galactica, and a
website and petition have been created by several fans promoting
this effort.
Why would fans boycott the revival of one of their beloved shows?
"Because it's not a revival." says one disgruntled fan.
"They call it a re-imagining."
Steve Parady, one of the organisers of the boycott, explains:
"An early script, penned by Star Trek's Ronald Moore was covertly
leaked to several fans. There is very little resemblance to the
original show. Starbuck and Boomer are now rewritten as women! The
Galactica is retired as a museum. Apollo is now named Lee
and is estranged from his father Adama."
"The enemy Cylons now appear as humanoid androids created
by humans, rather than the robotic warriors from an alien race as
they were in the original. No original actors in their original
roles."
"In short it's Battlestar Galactica in name only. That's
just the beginning of our list of problems with this production."
"Fans have been lobbying Universal and Sci-fi Channel for
years to create a follow up to the original Battlestar Galactica.
Richard Hatch, the actor who portrayed the character Apollo
in the original, went so far as to create a short film demonstrating
the fans' concept."
"He reunited with several of the series original actors to
create a movie trailer showing what the Battlestar Galactica
crew might be doing twenty years after the events of series.
The trailer was received enthusiastically by SFF convention audiences
all around the world. Universal and SciFi Channel had different
ideas."
"Their proposed re-imagining idea has not been received
with the same enthusiasm. In fact, fans have been quite hostile
to the concept of a remake."
"Fans have written thousands of letters to SciFi and Universal
asking for a continuation of the series with original cast members,
as well as some new characters. No one I know of asked for a remake.
Our efforts and pleas have been ignored. Reluctantly, we have one
last avenue of protest left, a boycott."
"If we can't convince them with words, we'll hit them with
our pocketbooks! That's why we are targeting Scifi Channel's advertisers.
We haven't started to boycott anyone yet, but we are gathering supporters
and warning the advertisers that this is coming. Hopefully Universal
and SciFi Channel will get the message that we are serious."
"Maybe now they will do the right thing and give us the proper
continuation of Battlestar Galactica we've been asking for."
If you want to sign the petition, or heck, maybe you actually like
the idea of a BSG re-imagining and want to take the contrarian
view, you can communicate your thoughts to these miffed Battlestar
fans over at ...
http://www.bsgboycott.cjb.net/
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OTHER CONTENT - March 2003
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Discworld
Divinity
An interview with the man with a trademark floppy hat. No, not Indiana Jones
(or even Dr Who), but ... Terry Pratchett. He talks about his latest works,
Discworld and, well, the art of being Terry.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
McMullen'ing
it Over
One of the brightest new voices in science fiction writing to hit the genre
for a long, long time. And struth cobber, he's Australian. Author Sean McMullen
is most definitely interviewed.
(AUTHOR INTERVIEWS)
Hart
to Hart
Publishing guru David Hartwell, currently filling the hotseat as a senior editor
at Tor, chats with Stephen Hunt about why only one per cent of the SFF slush
pile is of publishable quality, the joys of owning The New York Review of Science
Fiction, and the contribution made by the Philip K. Dick Awards to the field.
(PUBLISHING SPOTLIGHT)
Windy
Miller
Frankly, what science fiction and fantasy illustrator Ron Miller doesn't know
about fine painting could be etched onto a pinhead using nanotechnology. And
he's not really windy … we made that bit up because it sounded good as a title.
Paul Barnett of Paper Tiger interviews Ron for the Nest.
(ARTIST INTERVIEWS)
Noreascon Four News
Next year's world science fiction convention is about to put up its prices before
opening its doors, so jump in quick.
(CONVENTIONS)
Fans Will Battle(star) Fans fed up with Farscape being cancelled are now up in arms about the re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. In fact, they're calling for a boycott. (NEWS)
Darkness Falls Darkness Falls is the latest slight and extraneous scarefest to hit the big screen in dull, meaningless fashion. Director Jonathan Liebesman helms a ridiculously familiar and arbitrary cheesy horror tale that doesn't effectively challenge the simple conventions of the fright genre. (FILM REVIEWS)
Daredevil
There were elements of grandeur thrust upon writer-director Mark Steven Johnson’s
dark superhero flick Daredevil. Despite the anticipation of the famed stoic
blind crime-fighter’s arrival on the big screen, Johnson’s sensationalistic
fantasy is, surprisingly, another arbitrary stunt-infested movie that has plenty
of kinetic movement yet never really goes anywhere with its energizing format.
(FILM REVIEWS)
Dawn After Trip's shuttlepod is attacked, he finds himself stranded on a rapidly heating moon with an already inflammatory enemy. More Star Trek Enterprise deconstructionalism from the pen of Timothy W. Lynch. (TV REVIEWS)
Eulogy for a Dream Marianne Plumridge asks, with the Columbia shuttle disaster, just what happened to our dreams of space? And will we ever dare dream them again? (ARTICLES)
Offworld report: February 2003 William Gibson makes a break from the world of science fiction with his much lauded Pattern Recognition, Peter Jackson is interviewed - about Lord of the Rings, what else - and Gary Westfahl stirs up a storm over the space shuttle disaster. (NEWS)
Wooden Rocket update The 'Oscars' of the online science fiction world have opened with over 3,000 votes for 632 different web sites in the first month. Jessica takes a look at some of the early nominations in the Wooden Rocket Awards. (AWARDS)
Arthur
C Clarke Shortlist
The Arthur C Clarke Awards shortlist has been announced and includes M. John
Harrison's 'Light' and China Miéville's masterpiece 'The Scar'.
(AWARDS)
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