Thursday, April 26, 2007

Links du Jour: Drive cancelled, Flash Gordon DVD, and Steve Niles joins the Borg

Flash Gordon DVD coverMystery

  • That cool Lost episode about Nikki and Paulo a while back wasn't the original intention of the writers, according to an Entertainment Weekly article. "Originally, the diamond-swiping crooks were to have anchored a winking arc of stories ... But faced with mounting disdain toward the abruptly introduced characters — and ramped-up viewer frustration with the show's aggressively enigmatic storytelling — the producers decided in December to telescope their ideas into a single kiss-off episode." The article also quotes producer Damon Lindelof as saying, ''Back when we had more good faith with the audience, we could have gotten away with these shenanigans. Given the backlash against (Nikki and Paulo), we had to clean up the mess.'' There's other good stuff in the link too, like teasers for the final episodes of this season and a reminder that the rerun-free fourth season probably won't start until January 2008. There's also an interesting quote from producer Carlton Cuse about how Lost has always been "a cult show at heart" and how this season's drop in ratings may just be indicative of its finding its real audience again.

  • I've had Crime and Punishment on my bookshelf for years, but have never taken the time to read it. Now is probably a good time because I'm a sucker for sequels to literary works. In the case of Mr. Timothy it was because I love the characters, but for The Gentle Axe (thanks to Bookgasm for pointing it out) I think it may be the writer's hubris in even attempting it that I want to see.

  • Dammit! FOX cancelled Drive.

Science Fiction

  • I'm not ready to watch it yet, but I've been a little worried that when I finally get around to wanting to revisit the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, it wouldn't be available. As of August 7th, I'll be in the clear. And nice cover art by Alex Ross, by the way.

  • At the end of an interview about 30 Days of Night, Steve Niles reveals that he's working on a Borg story for IDW's Star Trek comics. I gotta hug whoever came up with that idea. (He also talks about having "a couple new things brewing with IDW and a certain artist," which makes me itchy to know what "certain artist" he's talking about.)

Superheroes

  • One of these days, I'm going to have to get around to thinking about why I like Mary Marvel so much. She's an appealing character, but why do I like her more than the other Marvel Family members or Supergirl (in any incarnation, not just the current one)? In the meantime, Newsarama has a nice article about the history of the character.

  • Steve Bunche found a frightening still from The Man Who Laughs that's pretty much inarguable proof that Conrad Veidt's character was the visual inspiration for the Joker. You have to see it to believe it.

1 comment:

West said...

* That's great news about Flash Gordon, at least for me. I'm looking forward to that, even though I've got a copy, already.

* The Borg thing kinda makes sense, even though I don't follow that creator's work.

* Were you exposed to Mary Marvel at a very young age, maybe? (That sounds bad.) Maybe before you'd heard of or seen Supergirl?

* Yeah, that connection has been making the rounds for some time, now, and I have to agree that there's far more than a passing resemblance.

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