Once Upon a Geek

While on the cruise, I finally got around to reading the Eureka graphic novel from BOOM! Studios.  I was pretty exited to see the story was by the Eureka TV show creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia.  That tells you right away that it’ll be faithful to the series.  In interviews the creators have referred to their Eureka comic work as Season 1.5 of the TV show, and that the comics should be considered official Eureka continuity.  As a fan of the TV series and an avid comic reader, I was pretty thrilled about this!  This story was originally published as a four-issue mini-series and then collected.  It was to be the first of four Eureka graphic novels, however, only two have been produced to date.

Here is the graphic novel description from BOOM! Studios:

Sci-Fi Channel’s smash hit TV show comes to BOOM! The first arc of Eureka is collected in this volume, masterminded by the creators of the show and told completely in continuity! It’s a game of cat and mouse when Sheriff Cater is on the hunt for an escapee from Global Dynamics. But what connection does this dangerous stranger have to Carter’s partner, Jo Lupo?  Story by Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia, Script by Brendan Hay, Art by Diego Barreto, and Cover Art by J.K. Woodward.   112 pages, Full color, 9″ x 6″, MSRP $15.99

Overall this was a good read.  The story was solid, the characterization was dead-on, there was a good dose of humor, and it truly felt like an episode of the TV series.  We get to see most of the show regulars, such as: Sheriff Carter, Allison Blake, Deputy Jo Lupo, Zoe Carter, Nathan Stark, Henry Deacon, Douglas Fargo, Vincent, and even Taggart.   A major portion of the plot revolves around Jo Lupo’s past, which is nice to see explored here.

One of the chapters (or issues depending on how you look at it) featured a cliffhanger ending with the surprise return of Warren King.  That’s right, Warren King!  I know what you’re thinking, Warren King!  Seriously!  Wow!  … … okay, I didn’t know who he was either.  I had completely forgotten that the Director of Global Dynamics in the pilot episode was Warren King.  Remembering that character was made even more difficult by the interior art.  The panel layouts, action, and storytelling are all fine in the comic, but the artist did a poor job capturing the likenesses of the actors.  With the obscurity of the character and the weak art, I’m not sure anyone could have got the full effect intended in the cliffhanger.  By contrast, the painted covers for the individual issues, which were presented in the graphic novel, are really gorgeous.  The covers capture the spirit of the show as well as the likenesses of the characters.

Overall, any fan of the Eureka TV series would enjoy this graphic novel.  I would say this story is the equivalent of one really good episode of the TV show.  However, at the price of $15.99 for the graphic novel, I’m not sure it’s worth it.  After all, you can get an entire season of Eureka on Amazon.com right now for $21.99.  My recommendation, borrow the graphic novel from a friend.

Science comedian Brian Malow explores some real science behind time travel. He asks will a time machine ever be possible? Running time 3 minutes 37 seconds.

If you can’t view the embedded video above, please click here.

I finally got my copy of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Roleplaying Game, and turns out I’m in it!  Well… I’m not exactly IN the game, but I am mentioned in the credits and some of my playtesting group’s contributions made it into the game!  Sorry to subject you to what follows.  I’m not trying to brag, I’m just sharing my excitement!  Here is a picture of me going all Gollum with my new prize.

I’ve only just started flipping through the set, but I gotta say this is a truly gorgeous game!  Each book has glossy, full-color pages.  There are several loose character sheets, each printed on heavy-cardstock.  There are punch-out cardboard tokens for Story Points.  It’s just well put together and beautiful.  For a video walk-thru of the box set contents click here.  For a seven-page PDF preview of The Player’s Guide, click here.  I’ve only scratched the surface of the contents and can’t wait to read it cover-to-cover.  For now though, here are a few things I’ve noticed that relate to my playtesting group…

CREDITS

Here are the credits listed on the inside cover of The Player’s Guide.

And a close up on the Playtester’s paragraph…

Hooray!  My thanks to Cubicle 7 for the shout-out!  My group, called THE UNIQUE GEEKS, consisted of Sterling, SGhoul, Scott C, Shavenger, and myself.  We read through early drafts of the rules, ran a few adventures, and created lots of characters and gadgets.  Then provided feedback to Cubicle 7 on all of this.  I’m happy to say some of our contributions made it into the final draft!  Now, I hope I’m not breaking some unspoken playtester rule by talking about which contributions were from my group.  If so, I deeply apologize to the almighty playtester gods and humbly offer to sacrifice myself on the altar of the omniscient 20-sider.  Additionally, I’m not trying to take anything away from David F. Chapman or the folks at Cubicle 7.  They’ve created a great game and deserve to be praised for everything they did.  They did all the heavy-lifting creating the game from scratch, we just came along and piggybacked on their ideas and made a few suggestions.  I’m honored to have been invited to the playtest and honored that the folks at Cubicle 7 thought some of our suggestions were good enough to include.

GADGETS

For one particular adventure, I developed four different gadgets.  Gadgets are unique devices or tools characters carry with them for specific purposes.  While going through the new box set, I was blown away as I stumbled across two gadgets I created printed right next to the Sonic Screwdriver and Psychic Paper!  Wow!  I created the “Engineer’s Mate” and the “Engram Eraser”, both shown below.  Click the image to enlarge.  I created these gadgets for an earlier draft of the rules, so some of the stats have changed since I came up with the concepts.  However, the gadget name, traits, and purpose remain the same.  My compliments to whoever wrote the descriptive paragraph.  They did a great job taking the idea and explaining it succinctly and effectively.  Nicely done!

You can’t tell from this scan, but each gadget on the page below is perforated so you can pop them out of the page!  So cool!

TRAITS

One of the areas we provided lots of feedback and suggestions on was “Traits”.  I’ve noticed looking over the new box set that several of the “Traits” we suggested have been incorporated.  Now it’s quite possible that several other playtesters suggested the same particular “Traits” that we did, so I’m not claiming that we’re solely responsible for these.  “Traits” we suggested that appear in the final game include: Sense of Direction, Animal Friendship, Owed Favour, Unattractive, Owes Favour, Argumentative, Dark Secret, Impulsive, and Selfish.  Again, my compliments to whoever wrote the lengthy descriptions for each of these.  We just shared a germ of an idea from a game mechanic perspective, whereas someone at Cubicle 7 beautifully wrapped explanations and examples around it.

That’s it for now.  I’m going to take a deep-dive into these books and savor every detail!  In fact, I may be so wrapped up in this game that I fail to post here for a few days. 

I’ve been watching the second season of Eureka on DVD recently.  This series is really so much fun!  I especially like that the whole family can enjoy it.

If you’ve never seen the series, it’s really fun and worth checking out. It’s sort of popcorn-Sci-Fi, or a gateway drug to real Science Fiction. Even my non-geek wife enjoys the show. It’s about a high tech community located in the Pacific Northwest that is inhabited entirely by brilliant scientists working on new scientific advancements for the United States government that frequently go disastrously awry. While there is a great cast, the main protagonist is Sheriff Jack Carter. Carter, a former U.S. Marshal that reluctantly took the position of Sheriff, serves as the “regular guy” on the show so that we the viewers can connect. He is consistently dumbfounded by the wonders Eureka produces, as well as their propensity to produce things that often threaten the entire town, if not the world.

Here is one of my favorite commercials for the show.  And no, it’s not normally a musical.

If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.

The TV show Family Guy is doing another Star Wars parody.  This time out it’s The Empire Strikes Back that gets the Seth MacFarlane treatment.  The hour-long episode is titled, “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side” and will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 22 prior to being aired on television.   This is a follow-up to the Family Guy spoof of A New Hope entitled, “Blue Harvest”.  There are already plans for a parody of Return of the Jedi entitled, “We Have A Bad Feeling About This”.

Below you will find the hilarious trailer for “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side”.  Not only is this a spoof of The Empire Strikes Back film, it’s also a spoof of the original trailer for the film.  Watch the Family Guy trailer below, then watch the original Empire trailer (further below).  The Family Guy trailer is patterned after the Empire trailer.

Click here if you can’t see the embedded trailer above of Family Guy’s “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side”.

Click here if you can’t see the embedded trailer above of The Empire Strikes Back.

Did ya notice the horrible voice-over guy in the Empire Strikes Back trailer… yeah, that’s Harrison Ford.  Don’t believe me, go back and listen again.  He might be able to make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, but he sure can’t do a voice-over.

My thanks to Ed from The Unique Geek for directing me to the Family Guy trailer.

I recently picked up a very good book called The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman.  In five days I’ve read 240 pages, and I’m about 15 pages from finishing the book.  While I love reading, I’m rarely able to fly through a book this quickly unless I’m on vacation (which I’m not).  It’s a testament to how good it is.  Here is the description from the publisher:

“Grad- school dropout Matt Fuller is toiling as a lowly research assistant at MIT when he inadvertently creates a time machine. With a dead-end job and a girlfriend who left him for another man, Matt has nothing to lose in taking a time-machine trip himself—or so he thinks.”

Maybe I’m the last person on Earth to discover Joe Haldeman, but I’m impressed.  He’s imaginative, creates interesting characters and settings, and his prose feels comfortable making for a swift read.  There is a quote from Stephen King that helped convince me to pick up the book: “If there were a Fort Knox for the science fiction writers who really matter, we’d have to lock Joe Haldeman up there.”

I heard about the book through the Science Fiction Book Club.  On a whim, I decided to give it a try.  I’m glad a I did.  It’s an original take on time travel, with some very creative extrapolations of the future.  I will definitely be reading further Joe Haldeman books.

If you’re a time travel nut like me, it’s definitely worth checking out!

Music is not a frequent topic here at ONCE UPON A GEEK, however, the artist known as “LIGHTS” is a fellow geek and her music is definitely worth talking about.  She is a 22 year old up-and-coming musician who describes herself as, “a fairly small-sized, Canadian girl who makes intergalactic-electro music”.  Her style is very much pop music, with a heavy influence from electronica (she calls her music “electro-pop”).  Typically pop music turns me off, but her stuff really grabbed me.

LIGHTS has a fair amount of geek cred.  She’s an avid gamer, particularly World of Warcraft, and a fan of science fiction.  She states that her look is inspired by Laura Croft and Wonder Woman.  Check out her web site for several issues of a sci-fi motion-comic called “Audio Quest: A Captain Lights Adventure“.   “Audio Quest” has aired on MTV and MTV.com.

I’d never heard of LIGHTS until a few weeks ago when someone from Warner Bros Records contacted me suggesting that as a fellow geek I might enjoy her music.  They were kind enough to send me her debut album, The Listening, which I’ve really enjoyed.  Again, I’m not a pop music kind of guy, but this stuff appeals to me.

The album immediately grabs you with the first track, “Savior”.  Without a doubt the strongest track on the album and one with real hit potential.  I’ve found myself humming the chorus all week.  I played this track for my wife and was surprised to see her tapping her toes unconsciously along with the music.  In addition to strong lyrics and vocals, it’s got some of that voice modulation that Cher popularized with “Believe” back in 1998.  The modulation give it that extra something that makes it that much cooler.  I love this song!  Demonstrating her geekiness, the video is heavily influenced by science fiction.  Check out the “Savior” music video below.


"Saviour" Music Video

LIGHTS | MySpace Video

If you can’t see the embedded video above, click here.

The entire album is enjoyable, however, a few other stand-out tracks include: Drive My Soul, Ice, and February Air.  LIGHTS should be applauded for cleverly working in the lyrics, “Ice, Ice, baby” into her song “Ice”.  This girl is cute, clever and cheeky!

One of the things that impressed me the most about LIGHTS is that she built her fan base by herself.  She isn’t some pre-fabricated pop star created by a major music label.  Her own online efforts are what built her popularity.  MySpace was one of her primary channels to get the word out about her music, along with her web site.  In 2008 she released her first EP for which she won the 2009 Juno (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy Award) for New Artist of the Year.  Impressive!

The Listening is really enjoyable, amazing as a debut LP, and definitely worth your time.  Check out LIGHTS at iamlights.com.

Tomorrow the Visitors arrive and they’re here to stay… again.  On Tuesday at 8:00pm the Visitors of “V” once again grace our screens after a 24 year absence. Long time readers of ONCE UPON A GEEK may remember that I’m a big fan of the 1980s phenom “V” (click here for other “V” related posts), so I’m pretty interested in this new series.  Check out the sneak peek below.

Looks pretty cool, right?  Good news is that early reviews of the pilot have been positive.  You can also view the first 8 minutes of the new pilot over at io9.  If that’s not enough Visitor action for you, check out ABC’s official site for the show.

If you’re jonesing for some classic “V” action, here are some memory joggers for you:

Recap of the original mini-series that ran in front of V: The Final Battle (greatest voice over guy EVER!)

V: The Comic Book

V: The Novels

V: The Video Game (in all fairness, I had never heard of this until today)

Ahhhh… good times.

Worth noting is that Kenneth Johnson, the writer-producer-director of the original “V” mini-series, is not involved in this new “V” television series.  In fact, he’s hoping to produce his own theatrical movie that continues his original story.  He wrote a novel fairly recently entitled V: The Second Generation that follows a similar premise.  You can read my review of the book by clicking here.

This isn’t the first time a relaunch of “V” has been attempted. Back in 1989 Warner Brothers commissioned J. Michael Straczynski (who would later go on to create Babylon 5, and write several successful comic books) to write a pilot screenplay for a proposed new series, tentatively titled V: The Next Chapter, that would have continued the “V” storyline. Picking up five years after the end of the NBC series, it would have followed the efforts of a new Resistance movement on a conquered Earth to make contact with the “Outsiders”, the faction of the Visitors’ own people who oppose their Leader, who had finally responded to a summons put out at the end of the original miniseries. The only character from the older “V” to appear in this script was Ham Tyler. After numerous drafts, the script, entitled “The Rebirth”, was finally abandoned when the studio decided it would be too cost-prohibitive to produce. You can find the first three acts of that script here.

Remake attempt after remake attempt.  Well… ABC gets the first shot and I’m really looking forward to it.

With Halloween rapidly approaching, enjoy this ghost-themed beat-boxing to help you get in the mood.  Dude, he did it in 14 part harmony.  Wow!  Bustin’ makes me feel good!

If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.

Thanks to my buddy Adam for tipping me off about this musical ditty.

After seeing three hours of Stargate Universe, I’m very impressed.  According to Wikipedia, the “industry” (whoever they are) has dubbed Stargate Universe as “dark and edgy”, a sentiment I would agree with.  It’s a solid show and I’ll continue to watch.

So far I’ve only seen the pilot and the first episode.  After seeing just the pilot, I felt it was incomplete and I wasn’t totally vested in the series.  While I enjoyed the concepts, it just didn’t feel right.  I chalked it up to new series jitters, but wasn’t sure I’d be coming back for more.  Then I watched the first episode. Now I would recommend any new viewers watch the pilot and the first episode together.  The pilot is entitled “Air” Parts 1 & 2, the first episode is entitled “Air” part 3.   After seeing “Air” part 3 it all came together for me.  Together it’s a complete story that encourages the viewer to come back for more.

Being a self-respecting Geek, I simply have to find things to pick apart about the show.  First, the show doesn’t feel like any previous Stargate series.  I jokingly refer to Stargate Universe (SGU) as “Stargate Galactica” with my friends.  The series creators appear to be going for the high-drama, super-high-tension, claustrophobia, shaky-cam, and folksy music from the recent Battlestar Galactic series.  That isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a big departure for Stargate.

Second, I find it ironic that the Stargate franchise has followed Star Trek’s path pretty faithfully.  Stargate SG1 = STNG (new planet each week); Stargate Atlantis = DS9 (fixed location deep in space); and Stargate Universe = Voyager (Lost in Space formula).  I guess that means the next Stargate series will be a prequel.  Maybe it will be about the Stargate program of the 1950s.  Given the Lost in Space aspect of SGU, Dr Rush is totally Dr Smith.  He’s also got some Gaius Baltar in him.  I like to call him Dr. Gaius Smith.

Third, while I like the character of Eli, it’s a little too obvious what he’s supposed to represent.  He represents two things: (1) the humor of the previous Stargate series, and (2) he’s supposed to be our geek-window into the show.  My guess is that some producer thought us geeks wouldn’t associate well enough with the characters, so they added someone like us in the show for us to relate to.  Again, I enjoy his character, but it feels a bit forced.

Fourth, I find nearly all the characters on the show interesting, with the exception of Chloe.  She doesn’t do anything for me and is already grating on my nerves.  I’m usually pretty accepting of characters.  I even find Lou Diamond Phillips character and the Dr Rush character interesting.  Both are jerks and I wouldn’t want to hang with them in real life, but on the show they are fascinating characters to explore.  Chloe… nothing, nada, zip.  Hopefully she’ll become more interesting, or fall out an airlock.

That’s really all the griping I’ve got.  I really dig Colonel Young, the commanding officer.  His willpower and presence is inspiring (and he looks like Stallone – cool!).  I also like Lt. Johansen, the field medic.  She’s tough and interesting.  I think her character has lots of potential.  The ship itself, Destiny, is really interesting and I look forward to learning more about it.

In conclusion, I like the show and will watch more.  I need to catch the two more recent episodes over on Hulu.

This post began life as an e-mail to my friend, Ed.  Thanks Ed for inspiring this post!