>From cn577@cleveland.Freenet.Edu Sun May 23 13:45:37 1993 Copyright 1993, Cyberspace Vanguard Magazine ================================================================ |----------------------------------------------------------------| | C Y B E R S P A C E | | V A N G U A R D | | News and Views of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Universe | ================================================================ | cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu Cyberspace Vanguard@1:157/564 | | PO Box 25704, Garfield Hts., OH 44125 USA | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | TJ Goldstein, Editor Sarah Alexander, Administrator | | tlg4@po.cwru.edu au001@po.cwru.edu | ---------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 1 May 20, 1993 Issue 4 The Mini Issue ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS --!1!-- Ramblings of a Deranged Editor --!21-- DC Comics' Second Massacre: Batman's Crippling and why Editor DENNY O'NEIL Thinks It's a Good Idea --!3!-- From Space Opera to the Grateful Dead: LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD on Plot, Character, and Other Things on the Way to Perfection --!4!-- Cancellation Time: How YOU Can Use this Medium to Help Save QUANTUM LEAP and THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES --!5!-- AND I HAVE TO ADMIT, THE MAN LOOKS GOOD STANDING NEXT TO PUPPETS: Joel Hodgson Steps Down From MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Role --!6!-- The Old Comics Curmudgeon --!7!-- News and SF Calendar: What's Coming Up in the Near Future --!8!-- SPOILERS AHOY -- Your guide to the rest of the season for THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES and TIME TRAX --!9!-- Administrivia ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!1!-- Ramblings of a Deranged Editor ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Why the mini-issue? Simple. It's because what started out as a little thing to entertain a few people has grown to something beyond any of our wildest dreams. In just six months CV has gone from a couple of interviews and snippets posted in a few places to a virtually complete source of news read literally around the world on perhaps a dozen networks, never mind local BBS's. We even have a section of our own on the Free-Net, and hope to be on the Usenet backbone before long. The volume of information processed is mind-boggling, and we decided we needed help. Earlier in the month e-mail subscribers received a list of things we need help with, and we've been slowly but surely getting reorganized. We hope to be in full form both electronically and on paper by the end of the summer. If you didn't get the e-mail appeal, it's not too late. Just drop us a note at any of the addresses in the masthead and ask for writers' guidelines or let us know you're interested and we'll tell you what we're looking for. No skill is too insignificant. In the meantime, however, here's what's in this issue. The suspense has finally ends in the Batman controversy, and DENNY O'NEIL explains why he thought it would be a good idea to so drastically alter the Gotham City landscape. Novelist LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD talks about what she looks for in her own writing. We have a news flash on the future of MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000. Then, of course, there's the "reader participation" feature. It's coming down to the wire for QUANTUM LEAP and THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. Here's what you can do to help save them, whether you are in New York or Hong Kong. Our resident Comics Curmudgeon is back, wondering why comic book companies want him to feel his age. Then there's just a little bit of news, including the beginnings of the Calendar, a feature we hope will grow as time goes by, and Spoilers Ahoy, which in sports a real treat -- all upcoming episodes for YOUNG INDY and TIME TRAX. (Actually, in terms of size, it's not really "mini." I just doesn't have all the regular features. So let us know what you think, whether you'd like to help out or just let us know what direction you think we should be taking. As always we can be reached at cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu (comments, questions, FREE subscriptions) xx133@cleveland.freenet.edu (submissions, news, maintenance) Cyberspace Vanguard@1:157/564 (FidoNet) CVANGUARD (Delphi) or Cyberspace Vanguard PO Box 25704 Garfield Hts., OH 44125 USA The paper version is on hold temporarily while we regroup, hence no subscription rates this issue. (No checks have been or will be cashed until it gets up and running again.) WORLD WATCH: We have received letters from readers in: the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, England, Republic of Ireland, Netherlands, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Malta, Sweden, Iceland, Italy, South Africa, Hong Kong, Austria, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and from one reader who says that Norway is nice, but he lives in OSLO. As always, if you're reading this somewhere else, particularly via FidoNet file request or local BBS, please drop us a line and let us know. REPOSTING: Cyberspace Vanguard may be reposted anywhere IN ITS ENTIRETY, with all headers and warnings intact. News items may be reposted as long as credit is given. For interviews and articles you must contact us so that we may obtain permission from the authors, to whom all rights revert upon publication. (Articles with no byline were written by TJ Goldstein.) We would also appreciate knowing where you're reposting, but it's not a necessity. Cyberspace Vanguard is registered with the United States Copyright Office. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!21-- DC Comics' Second Massacre: Batman's Crippling and why Editor DENNY O'NEIL Thinks It's a Good Idea ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (Denny O'Neil's appearance at MARCON 28 was co-sponsored by Central City Comics, East Main St., Columbus, OH (614) 231-1620 4347) "You take writing courses and they tell you, 'write what you know,'" Denny O'Neil told fans at MARCON 28 in Columbus Ohio. "Well, I have never in my life hung out on a rooftop at midnight waiting for a maniacal serial killer to show up so I could punch him. Not even once." So given this lack of experience, Mr. O'Neil thought that perhaps this philosophy was nonsense -- after all, he'd been writing and editing the BATMAN comic books for years, and sitting on rooftops occupies a great deal of the Dark Knight's time. On the other hand, he did have a lot of trouble writing for DC Comics' other megastar, Superman. "I finally figured out that it has to do with fantasies. I've never fantasized about being omnipotent. I've never fantasized about being God, which is what Superman is, in effect. I've fantasized about human perfectibility, about running the marathon in less than two hours. I never would. Nobody ever would. But it's within the realm of human possibility. So it has to do, I think, with dreams, which characters you can relate to, and which characters you can't." Mr. O'Neil was nice enough to give us a bit of time that evening in the lobby of the hotel, though by then it was getting late, and he looked like a rooftop might be a little more peaceful. The BATMAN comic books are in the midst of "Knightfall," a major plot running through all of them which has some of he same feel as the recent "Doomsday" story, in which Superman was killed. Aside from wanting to know what happens (we'll get to that), fans were asking the obvious question at the panel, and he looked like it was far from the first time he'd heard it. "Of COURSE it's a marketing ploy," he told them. If there's one thing you can say about him, it's that he doesn't pull any punches. "We're in the business of selling comic books. We're in the business of entertaining as many people as we can. Maybe when I was a long haired hippie I would have found that reprehensible, but look at it from a slightly different angle. Every storyteller wants to tell his story to as many people as possible. We are taking this character, as a character, and putting him through hell. But that's one of the things fiction writers do. It's what drama's about. I think people are responding to the drama, and that pleases me a lot. They're not responding to marketing ploys or stunts." But ... "'Knightfall' ends with Batman 500," which will have an "enhanced cover." Which, of course, brings us back to the subject of media hype and, as one reader put it, preying on a financially strapped public. "I don't remember ever putting a gun to anyone's head and saying 'you've got to by all four covers," he countered in the relative quiet of the lobby, referring to the debut of LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, which sported four different colored covers. "At least at DC, we have provided an economical alternative to every enhanced cover. I mean, those are for the collector's market. If I were a reader, I don't know that I'd be buying them, but we can't begrudge the people for whom that is important. Also, we only do it when we're trying to call attention to a special story. We don't ever do it indiscriminately. "Sure, Batman 500 is going to have an enhanced cover. You bet! It's the 500th issue of the magazine. It's also going to have a new artist and a major story point and a new costume, so SURE we do cover enhancements, but we always have a newsstand edition. Likewise bagged editions. I just have a lot trouble wrapping my head around those objections. You don't have to buy those things to get the story, but if they're important to you we provide them. Again, though, only when there's something special inside." The costume change is the only one in Batman's history (unless you count Julie Schwartz adding an oval around the bat in the 1960's), and the new artist is Mike Manley. "Jim Aparo will do half the book, then at a logical break in the story, Mike will pick it up. It's a graceful way to make the transition. It's also to give Jim some of the royalties on what looks like it will be a tremendous seller because he's a great guy and a terrific artist." The rumors are flying. "I haven't heard anything that was completely true. I've heard rumors that were 70% true, but nobody's guessed it exactly. The most prevalent rumor is that Batman is going to die. No, no, a thousand times no. Batman is NOT going to die. Nobody is going to die. Well, nobody major, anyway." That was three weeks ago, and when we asked him about the rumor that Bane was going to cripple Batman his face took on a sort of trapped quality. He refused to either confirm or deny it then, but a few days ago he did confirm it to Mike Sangiacomo of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, explaining that Azreal was going to take over as Batman and that Bruce Wayne would be in a wheelchair for at least six months, having to "prove that he really is the world's greatest detective" while letting other costumed heroes do the legwork as he tries to track down the villains who have kidnapped the father of Time Drake (Robin) and Bruce's love interest (who also happens to be the one doctor who might be able to restore his mobility. What a coincidence.) After "Knightfall" ends in BATMAN 500, "Knightquest will split into two parts, with "The Search" in BATMAN and DETECTIVE and "The Quest" in JUSTICE LEAGUE TASK FORCE, SHADOW OF THE BAT and LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT. (CATWOMAN will spin off into her own monthly book from one of the last issues of "Knightfall.") But why does a comic book company bounce a story around between so many books? "Um ... because we can?" He goes on to explain that there were several purposes to the "Knightfall" storyline. "The genesis of this was my perception that Batman would be running out of steam at about this point. It turns out I was wrong. Batman ran out of steam last year. In terms of sales, I thought the movie and the TV show would kind of carry us through the end of last year. Not true. So I (with some creative people) thought of this a couple of years ago on the assumption that Batman would need a boost in the arm, so all we tried to do was think of a big, major story we could do, and then like Topsy it kinda growed, partially so that I could write some of it and put it in magazines that I don't edit. The other thing it might do for some of those magazines is help them." Of course, taking on a story that can have consequences of such magnitude had got huge consequences for the continuity, or "official history" of the fictional universe. "As a writer, and also as an editor, I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea that continuity is so important. However, first of all, it's city hall; we can't fight it. The audience demands it. "But in another way, in another sort of revelation/realization, we're doing something that's never been done before in the history of narrative. Narrative in western culture goes back 15000 years to Gilgamesh. Nobody has ever tried to do what Mike [Carlin, editor of SUPERMAN] and I and some of the other guys are doing, which is to build this incredibly complex story that coordinates the efforts of a dozen or more creative people, and then integrate it into the DC universe. There's this huge megastructure that takes over everything." He adds that the computer in his office sports a tight timeline for all the Batman and related books and that on it he can find any event "unless we specifically label something as out of continuity. "It's what makes our jobs the most interesting in all of publishing, and also it's why we have grey hairs and twitch a lot." The timeline is not, however, ironclad in terms of the future, even when it comes to the unfinished sections of the "Knightfall" storyline. "I keep a very loose reign on my guys. I want to leave it open enough so that if they have a good idea somewhere along the line we can accommodate it. Also, I work with very good people. Maybe for the first time in my life I am working with all good writers. I trust them to write good stories. I don't need to plot everything with them. They're very good writers. They know what a story is. They won't ever fail me on that." And what about his writing? Does he prefer the editing he does now? "I found out about four years ago when I didn't have to write after doing it for so long to put food on the table that it's pretty deep. I've been telling stories since I was maybe seven years old, and I finally realized that I would define myself as a storyteller. I didn't realize that until a couple of years ago. I hadn't really thought about it. It wasn't important to define myself. But I tried to figure out what the hell it is I've been doing all these years, and that's what it comes down to." He also took a little time to answer questions from some of our readers. One was about something he wishes he could forget: a little known book by Dennis O'Neil called BITE OF THE MONSTER. "Yeah, I wrote it," he admits, cringing as a passing fan tells him that he actually has a copy of it. There have been stories in the past that he has tried to buy back the remaining copies so he could destroy them. "I wish G-d would work a small miracle and let me re-write it. I didn't know anything about science and damn little about fiction when I wrote that. In fact as a result of this book I said, 'you know, it says right here that I'm a science fiction writer and I don't know what an atom is.' So I started reading books like ONE, TWO, THREE -- INFINITY and I've got BIOGRAPHY OF PHYSICS by George Gamow up in my room. I don't have any of the math, but I became interested in the part of physics that you can get from words. So in a way, that was an educational book for me in that it forced me to realize everything that I don't know and to start to fill in those gaps." And what about the movies? Mentioned specifically was the un- Batman-like violence of BATMAN RETURNS, such as Batman's use of the Batmobile's jet engine to set a villain aflame. "A lot of people, particularly parents, commented on that. What can I say? I have nothing to do with the movies. I see the scripts, but that particular shot wasn't in the script, so I didn't know about it until I saw the movie. It's Tim Burton's interpretation of the character. I read the scripts [not because I had input but] because I did the adaptations. "Batman is an archetype, and there are different ways to interpret an archetype. In the comics there have been at least five different versions, all of which I think were the right version for their time. Tim Burton is a very bright man who feels that his version is the right one for his medium and his time." And things do change. As he told the panel, "DC Comics is at a very crucial point in its history, and we all recognize that. DC Comics has made a lot of mistakes in the last 10 years. Done a lot of GOOD things, but in terms of selling comic books, we've made a lot of mistakes. Some were mistakes that we could possibly control. But I would say that our biggest mistake, and I'm going to bite my tongue and not say what it was, but it wassomething that we possibly had no control over. ... We've made some enemies in trying to focus those problems. Specifically, we've canceled the JUSTICE SOCIETY while it was still selling pretty well. Every show I work there are hard core JUSTICE SOCIETY fans who want to lynch me, but I'll take one-third responsibility for that decision. It was made for this reason: DC Comics are the comics your father -- your GRANDfather read. That series only reminded people of that. "We've made a lot of other mistakes in that area, but we're correcting them in slower, more gradual ways. We have to convince the 13 and 14 year olds that we're not fossils if we're going to survive. We have taken steps towards doing that." And as he told us, "We're going to redouble our efforts to do what DC has traditionally done best, which is to provide the best writing and the best stories. Let us know if we're doing it." Thanks to Bill_Keir@kumear.apana.org.au, MORROW@FNAL.FNAL.GOV (Greg Morrow); ab028@freenet.carleton.ca (Timo H. Jaakkimain); castle@ug.cs.dal.ca (JULIAN GUTHRIE CASTLE); djohnson@Willamette.EDU (Dane Johnson); arendt@bme.ri.ccf.org (Joe Arendt) and vbv@lor.EEAP.CWRU.Edu (Virgilio B. Velasco) for submitting questions. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!3!-- From Space Opera to the Grateful Dead: LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD on Plot, Character, and Other Things on the Way to Perfection ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lois McMaster Bujold is mostly known for her space opera -- and while for some that is a derogatory term, she doesn't mind using it. "I call it space opera because it has the trappings of space opera: the spaceships, that sort of thing." But what IS her science fiction, really? Most of those books have been the Miles Vorkosigan adventures, about a man who doesn't fit the description of a classic space opera hero, who is usually tall, muscular, a straight shooter with a laser rifle, able to fight his way out of anything. In contrast, Miles is reasonably short, and afflicted with a disease that makes his bones brittle. "So as a result of this, he has to think is way out of a situation because he can't fight his way out. He can't very well punch somebody because he'll break his arm. "I don't do too much pushing the envelope of the genre outward trying to take space opera and turn it into something else. What I do is more of a 'down and in,' doing my experimenting on the inside of the genre, depth of characterisation, that sort of thing, coherent themes. In a sense, I almost write science fiction as though it were fantasy because my concern is character, character development, how do people grow and change, how do they deal with moral dillemmas, these type of questions rather than technical questions, or futuristic extrapolations. My space world is a psychological landscape." For her, it seems, character is more than just an abstract notion, a necessary evil. It's a goal in and of itself. "I want to make people who live inside your head the way certain characters live inside my head long after the book is closed. The supreme example I always use for a character who has taken on this kind of extra-literary life is Sherlock Holmes. This is a character who not only out-lived his author but who takes over other writers and makes them write him." That may be part of the reason that she writes a series of novels, as many science fiction and fantasy novelist do, as opposed to isolated stories. "I would read series like Dorothy Lindsey's Peter Wimsey stories, or like C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower stories. I wanted to get into these characters, and one book isn't enough to do a character right. I'm an old series fan from way back." But, she insists, there's more to a book than just character. "There's a wonderful book by Dorothy Sayers called THE MIND OF THE MAKER. It talks about the right relationship of plot, character, and theme. Basically, not any plot goes with any character. The example she uses is if you dropped Othello down in Hamlet's plot and Hamlet down in Othello's plot, in neither case would you get a five act tragedy. Othello would run the wicked uncle through in act one, and Hamlet would dither around and dither around until maybe he established Desdemona's innocence. You might get a mystery out of it, but you wouldn't get HAMLET. "So you have to have the right character and the right plot. A plot should be a test of character, so when I start, as I usually do, with the character, I'm looking for a plot that shows who this character is, that tests him right to the edge of destruction to find out what this guy is made of. It really is 'character torture.' But in the end, you've created this live person. You are what you do, so plot and character are like this interlocking figure ground thing. You can't separate one from the other." On the other hand, however, there is a kind of "character torture" that's NOT something a writer should engage in. Asked if she ever felt bad about what she was doing to her characters, she laughed. "Actually, there's nothing worse for the poor reader than when the writer's working out their therapy through their fiction. The writer feels much better afterwards, but the reader is stuck. You put them on this roller coaster and strap them down and push them off the top and say, 'have a nice trip,' whereas you, the writer, have some psychological control over the material in the course of writing it. So for you it's a different trip. You get to pick the curves. The poor reader, who is stuck going along with you, has a much rougher ride." So, there's character, and there's plot, and that's all there is to it, right? Wrong. "There's another level to drop down on to try and figure out what's the BEST one, and that's the level of theme. the level of what's this story REALLY about, deep down. It's not the plot, it's about something. In the case of BARRAYAR, we have this young woman making her way on the planet that she's got to marry into and all these bizarre political things happen, but the theme of the book is the cost of being a mother. What does she have to give up in order to perform the act of parenting and become a mother. And in her case she has to give up a great deal of what she thought was part of herself. She was a pacifist, for example, and in the climax of the book she involves herself in a political execution. This was kind of the last part of her identity that she had to give up to save the life of her child. There were a whole bunch of nice illusions about herself that had to go. It was the cost of being a mother for her. So the book is really about the cost of being a parent. That would be the theme. "There's a level even under theme, which I've come to call 'world view.' It's the basic choice about what kind of story to tell. Every writer always writes their world view, no matter what else they're doing. That's even under the level of theme. It's the choice of what to see and what not to see, and that's REALLY insidious. The perfect writer would be in control on every level. They would know what theme they were working in, they would be conscious of their world view, and everything would work like clockwork. You'd get dynamite results that way." World view can even, at times, be the reason a reader picks up a book. Ms. Bujold says that "one of the fantasy writers that I actually pay money to read is Terry Pratchett. He writes a funny fantasy full of amusing incidents and funny stuff, but underneath there is this very humane world view. I read a Terry Pratchett book when I really need to step into that world view for a while and return refreshed." So she's obviously no stranger to fantasy, but how is it that she came to write her own fantasy novel, THE SPIRIT RING, after all these space operas? "The book that really started the fantasy novel was something that came down through my family. It was my great uncle's Ph.D. thesis, a monograph on the legend of the Grateful Dead. It was published in 1907, and it was the story of a young man who goes out to seek his fortune and comes across a situation where he finds the body of a debtor who lays unburied until his debts are paid. So he forks over his grub stake, gets the guy planted, and goes down the road to further adventures in which he is helped by the grateful ghost of the dead man. This is a story that appears in all these versions in all these cultures, and I thought wow, this is one of these basic stories that can be told and re-told in a thousand different ways. And it's NOT one that people have done a bunch. We've done certain of the tales over and over and over again, but this was a folk tale tropy that has not been exhausted. So I thought, OK, good, I'll stake this one out and it'll be all mine. "It was the most researched book I ever did, because I decided to make it historical. I originally had the idea that I was going to make it a fantasy world with a renaissance flavor, and as I got through about the 10th of my background books I thought, wait a minute, I can do this too. I'll just make it a real renaissance world, and hopefully I'll pick up the historical novel readers too. Broaden the audience. "I've recently decided that mainstream literature is the world's largest shared universe series. If I'm going to do all that studying for a shared universe, let it be one that I can recycle. Why study up on a universe you can only use once when you can learn the history and use it again?" Maybe that's the reason that she does so much studying. "I don't read much fiction anymore because I need the nonfiction because I can steal it. When I read a nonfiction piece, a historical piece or a biographical piece I'm getting new ideas that I can put into my bag and take out later and transmute into my fiction. When I read a piece of fiction I remove ideas from my bag because somebody else has used it, so I can't use it too. So reading fiction subtracts from my pool of available ideas. Unless you're stealing techniques or something. Like, this is how you handle a flashback. You can take that from other writers. Then there's the time factor. Time doesn't exist." It's a give-and-take process that seems to be essential not only in her work, but in her outlook towards both print and visual media, which seem to suffer a well-defined division in the science fiction and fantasy universe. "I'm in print media. I write novels because I like doing what novels do, which is to get into people's heads. That's what fascinates me. Movies move. That's movies job. It's an interesting thing the way the reader or viewer helps partake of the creation of the story. With print media, you give them what's going on in the person's head and they project the image of the motion. It's amazing how much you can make the reader make up in terms of exterior view if you just give them what's going on in the character's head. That's what the reader wants, and that's what they get. "Now, it was a belated insight for me to realize that film is just like that in reverse. What we see is the visuals and what we make up and project onto the screen as a viewer is what's going on inside the characters head. We supply the emotional interpretation and project it onto this otherwise ambiguous sequence of actions. Something like background music can supply emotional cues as to how we're supposed to interpret what we're seeing. "So both kinds of fiction are interactive, but they're complementary in the way they're interactive between what the artist presents and what the reader or viewer brings to it. But it's this mutual dance, and in neither case do you have art unless you have both the artist and the viewer or the reader. "I'd like to see my stuff translated to media simply because it reaches such a huge audience and it might bring more readers back to my books. But the book is where it's at for me. This is where I'm in control. It takes an army to make a movie but with a novel you can write alone, and I like that." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!4!-- Cancellation Time: How YOU Can Use this Medium to Help Save QUANTUM LEAP and THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At least when it came to American television, September, 1992 looked better for science fiction programming than any September had in years. STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION had established itself as the top rated syndicated program in the country, DEEP SPACE NINE was on its way, and a whole slew of programs were set to blast onto the airwaves. Now, in mid-May, it doesn't look quite as hopeful. SPACE RANGERS was a dismal failure, lasting less than a month. JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH was, in many viewers' estimation, a complete and total waste of bandwidth, bordering on the embarrassing. George R.R. Martin's DOORWAYS didn't even make it to the screen, despite strong support from the few who knew about it. But still, TIME TRAX has been holding its own, HIGHLANDER is still in negotiations for next fall, and the word is that BABYLON 5 has been picked up for next year. Unfortunately, it's not all wine and roses. The past weeks have brought news of the cancellation of two of the genre's best loved programs: QUANTUM LEAP and THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES. Both suffered from network sabotage, either in terms of time slot or pre-emptions (or both), and both have the disconcerting handicap of being ... well, intelligent. But there's no reason that we have to give up on these shows. In our last issue we brought you J. Michael Straczynski's broadcasted request that viewers who liked the show write to their local TV stations. The appeal was carried over many conduits (not just this magazine, by any means), and a month later CV was told by Warner Bros. that they had not made a decision yet, but "the stations really seemed to have liked it." The official announcement has not yet been made, but as of now it looks very much like a "go." YOUR LETTERS DO HAVE AN EFFECT. So, in the interest of preserving two pieces of the genre, we are doing two things: 1) We're giving you some background on the programs and how you can help to save them, and 2) we're accepting your electronic sentiments and will forward them to the people who need to see them. At the end of this article you'll find instructions on write- in campaigns in general and submitting letters for forwarding in particular. ********************** QUANTUM LEAP: Some people found it confusing at first. Here was this scientist who had "leaped" into somebody else's life. So was he there, or wasn't he? Eventually, plenty of people either got over their confusion (he was really there) or decided that it really didn't matter. Here was intelligent, sensitive television that wasn't afraid to tackle the issues of both history and the present, from racism to homosexuality. The show garnered plenty of awards, both from professional organizations and from viewers. However, with the ratings this season as bad as they were (having been moved from 10pm to 8pm, when most of the people likely to watch the show probably had not yet settled in for the night,) it probably didn't come as much of a surprise to many people when they heard that QL had been canceled. Add to this the fact that the show has probably been pre-empted more than it's actually been shown this season, and it seems almost inevitable. The feeling was reinforced by shows with a distinct "ratings grabber" feel to them. As it happens, the "celebrity" episodes (Marylin Monroe, Elvis, etc.,) were not the idea of the producers, but the network, which had hoped to improve the ratings. The fans didn't wait for the official decision to act. At one point NBC, the network on which QL airs in the United States, was receiving 50,000 letters a week, many of them postcards asking the network to "Leap us back to Wednesdays at 10," where the shows ratings had been great in past years. The show was canceled anyway, and rumors are that letters and faxes in support of the show are actually being shredded. Fans led a march on NBC that was really more of a rally, opting for professional dress to show NBC that the demographics of the masses outside their door were what advertisers wanted. They gathered petitions and lots of attention, but not a change of heart from NBC. Finally the effort has turned to Belisarius Productions and Universal, who produce the show. They are currently "shopping the show around" to find another place for it, either on another network or in syndication. Your letters will help Universal to see that there really is an audience for the program, and perhaps more importantly, to prove it to potential buyers. Here are the addresses to write to: *** Harriet, c/o "Quantum Leap", Universal Studios, Universal City, CA 91608 Petitions with lots of names should be mailed or faxed to her at 818-777-0144. This is the production office for QL. They will collect letters and forward them, as they don't want Universal to be annoyed by a deluge of letters. They are collecting letters there because Universal is "shopping the show around" for another network. The current plan is for postcards saying "Count on me to help KEEP THE LEAP." To let other networks know you would like them to pick up the show, write to: Mr. Ted Harbert, Entertainment President, ABC, 2040 Avenue of the Stars, Century City, CA 90067 Mr. Sandy Grushow, Entertainment President, FOX, Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213 Mr. Jeff Sagansky, Entertainment President, CBS, 7800 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036 and, if you're REALLY idealistic, Mr. Warren Littlefield, Entertainment President, NBC, 3000 W. Alameda Ave., Burbank, CA 91523 -- Viewer Relations (212) 408-9100 ********************** THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES: You might not know it by that name. Besides the United States and Canada, the show is being aired in some form in Japan, Spain, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, Turkey, and Argentina. England will be picking it up on Sky One any time now, and Italy will begin broadcasting it in June -- and apparently it goes by different names in different countries. It's the story of the character made famous by Harrison Ford, archeologist/adventurer/hero Indiana Jones, before he became any of those things. Much of the time it's not quite the adventure you'd expect from one of the movies, but it succeeds at creator George Lucas' goal of doing for history what STAR WARS did for science -- it's giving kids a "hook," some reason to take a closer look at, say, the Russian Revolution, or World War I, with a sensitivity and characterization that is sadly lacking in most American television, and perhaps even better, with accurate research into the real history involved. If you've ever wondered what might have happened if Indy had ever talked to Mata Hari (or Ho Chi Minh, or ...), this show is for you. Lucasfilm even has a study guide for the series, which includes a synopsis, pictures, and a short biography of the real people involved in each episode. The current guide covers the second season's episodes, and a complete guide, which will cover every episode produced, will be available soon. The cost for the guide is extremely reasonable: it's free! Send a letter requesting your copy to Lucasfilm Ltd., Young Indy Research Dept., P.O. Box 2009, San Rafael, CA, 94912. Though the show has not been renewed for the fall, it will not be disappearing from the airwaves. Put on hiatus during May "sweeps," in the United States the remaining 11 episodes will air beginning in June. Soundtracks from the series are available now. There are two collections available from Varese-Sarabande Records. They are: 1) Verdun 1916, Peking 1910, Paris 1916, Barcelona 1917, and 2) Vienna 1908, German East Africa 1916, Congo 1917, London 1916, British East Africa 1909. A third collection will be available June 8. It is: Chicago 1920 Parts 1 & 2, New York 1920 Parts 1 & 2, Princeton 1916. In addition to Varese Sarabande, these collections are available on CD and cassette across the United States at stores such as Tower Records, The Warehouse, Sam Goody, etc. The CD's line notes include individual musician names as well as synopses and color photos from each episode. For more information please direct inquiries to: Mr. David Hamilton, Customer Relations, Varese-Sarabande Records, 13006 Saticoy Street #2, N. Hollywood, CA 91605, USA. If you would like to show your continued support of the show, the best person to direct your correspondence to is: Mr. Ted Harbert, President of ABC Entertainment The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles 2040 Avenue of the Stars Los Angeles, CA 90067 (Note that contrary to usual practice, they want you to put the series name on the envelope so that it will be processed as quickly as possible.) The request comes with an acknowledgment that the science fiction community has probably known for quite a while. "I realize that this is an unusual request but we are beginning to recognize that keeping quality programming on the air requires an unusual effort." It also requires an unusual budget. Some viewers have suggested taking the show to PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, which specializes in educational programming, but PBS simply cannot cover the cost of $1.6 million per episode. And that's using the cost-cutting techniques of computer animation and editing -- not everything you see is real. So the network needs to hear from YOU in support of the show to convince them that more episodes are worth the effort. Check SPOILERS AHOY for the episode guide to the rest of the season. ON THE SENDING OF LETTERS: We at CV recognize that many of you receiving the magazine fall into the category of those who will respond to e-mail within seconds but wouldn't know a stamp if it sealed your mouth shut, so we are providing the following service: Send your letter of support for either of these shows to cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu or Cyberspace Vanguard@1:157/564 and we will print them out, gather them up, and send them to the relevant producers and networks. Please make sure the Subject: line identifies your letter, and that you include your name, address, and phone number so that they know you're not just a randomly generated string of numbers and letters. Also, by popular request, we are reprinting Bjo Trimble's rules for a successful letter writing campaign. (You know Bjo -- she's the one who organized the campaign to save the third season of STAR TREK.) ========== HOW TO WRITE EFFECTIVE LETTERS =================== 1. Write a short, sincere individual letter to EACH network, sponsor, what-have-you, in support of the television show in question. When mail is counted, your letter will truly make the difference. 2. Then, ask 10 people to write letters. They write the letters and then ask 10 people to write letters, and on and on (get the idea?). Don't be judgmental; there are many "closet" fans out there: fellow workers, neighbors, church groups, classmates, civic and other clubs, etc. 3. Don't (ever) address a V.I.P. (executive) familiarly, act smart, use insulting language, or tell a corporation how to run their business. You are asking for a favor. The wrong attitude will nullify your letter. 4. Be pleasant. Corporations seldom get anything but complaints, so a cheerful, upbeat letter can make a CEO more receptive. 5. Don't use form letters, mimeographed (photocopied) or multiple carbons. Such letters give the impression that only a small segment is doing all the writing--but computer letters are OK. 6. Sign the letter!! Anonymous mail is sleazy and is either thrown away or put in the "nut" file. 7. Use company letterhead or club stationery if you have a right to. Corporations are sensitive to potential "Pressure groups." But ... 8. Don't misrepresent yourself. Corporations are geared to ferret out spurious claims. Such tricks will not help your cause and someone may check it out for a news story. 9. Use petitions to get the names from those who won't bother to write a letter themselves. Corporations understand that only a percentage of people will get off their fat apathy to write letters; signatures on a petition can show how many MORE people want support a television show. The petition should have at least one contact address. [Bjo Trimble also runs a great newsletter called SPACE TIME CONTINUUM, and can be reached at 713-359-4284. The address is 2059 Fir Springs Dr., Kingwood TX, 77339-1701, USA. This list of guidelines was originally published in Issue 2 as part of an article about Bjo's part in the fight to get the Space, Fantasy, and Adventure Network off the ground and onto the cable networks. Several phrases have been changed to reflect the slightly different goal of this campaign, but the rest is hers.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!5!-- AND I HAVE TO ADMIT, THE MAN LOOKS GOOD STANDING NEXT TO PUPPETS: Joel Hodgson Steps Down From MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 Role ------------------------------------------------------------------------ by Lisa Jenkins On May 11, 1993, Comedy Central announced in a press release that creator and star of the comedy hit series MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (MST3K), Joel Hodgson, will step down from his on-screen role of Joel Robinson. Fans fear not, MST3K's head writer and frequent guest star Mike Nelson will continue the role starting midway into the fifth season, now in production. Hodgson will remain behind the scenes writing, producing and directing. Hodgson has considered leaving the role for quite some time. "I just feel like there comes a time when I have to just stop," he said. "It will live on. I'll still be an executive producer and participate with it from a writing standpoint, but I won't be on camera." "We are both excited about the creative possibilities that Mike's new character will bring to the series and delighted that Joel's influence on the show will continue," said Mitch Semel, senior vice president of programming at Comedy Central. "We know this will give the fans something to look forward to." Fans have enjoyed nearly 100 episodes of rubber monsters, bad movies and off-the-wall comedy. The character of Joel Robinson and his robot companions Tom Servo (voice of Kevin Murphy, associate producer) and Crow T. Robot (voice of Trace Beaulieu, set designer) have endured the worst of the worst from Hollywood and around the world with box office movie bombs such as "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" and "Fugitive Alien." They are subjected to these cinematic horrors by some good old-fashioned mad scientists, Dr. Clayton Forrester (also played by Trace Beaulieu) and "TV's" Frank (Frank Conniff, writer) in some science fiction-like experiment. Joel and his robots provide witty commentary throughout their ordeal. The role of Robinson will be a hard one to fill. However, Nelson is already well-known to viewers in special appearance characters including LEAVE IT TO BEAVER's Hugh Beaumont, TIME MACHINE's Jack Perkins and pianist Michael Feinstein. Nelson also played a visiting Russian astronaut, Sorri Andropoli, who was very much like Joel, stuck out into space with no one but his crudely hand-made creations for company. "Naturally, I'm excited and more than a little frightened," said Nelson. "It's my goal to build on what we've done in the past while exploring new directions for the show and my role as host. Kind of like the new Monkeys." "Mike Nelson is a real comic discovery," added Hodgson. "All of us at Best Brains are enthused and excited about what he'll bring to the position and I have to admit, the man looks good standing next to puppets." As a kind of precognition, Nelson predicted back in February 1992, "We know our licks on the show well enough now that we could move on to other things and let someone else take over. MST might even be able to continue without Joel. I mean, it's possible, if Joel found the right person. This is a show that could go on forever -- like DOCTOR WHO." Hodgson has played the role of Joel Robinson since Thanksgiving Day 1988 when the show appeared on an independent UHF station in Minneapolis. The show was picked up a year later by HBO's Comedy Channel. MST3K also survived the merger between the Comedy Channel and Viacom's HA!, making its four years with Comedy Central very stable indeed. The series has even been nominated for an ACEcable Award for the past two years, one for best comedy series and another for best writing in a comedy series. MST3K's new season starts July 17. The change is expected to take place during the thirteenth episode to air this fall. MST3K currently airs Friday nights at Midnight and Saturdays at 10 AM and 7 PM (all times Eastern/Pacific). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!6!-- The Old Comics Curmudgeon ------------------------------------------------------------------------ by Bill Henley "Aren't you too old to be reading comic books?" I heard that a lot in my younger days. Many adults and even some of my peers couldn't understand why a reasonably bright kid kept on reading and collecting comic books -- then widely assumed to be strictly for young children and idiots -- past the age of 10 or so. I shrugged the query off, or sometimes tried to explain why I thought the exciting new kinds of comics appearing in the '60s and early '70s were worth the attention of a young adult. In the years since then, I never have quite "outgrown" comic books; as the '70s and '80s went by, there always was something new coming out that held my interest, in addition to my nostalgic love for the Silver Age comics that I started with. But at last, at age 40 minus 6 months and counting, I may finally have gotten too old to read comic books. After all, I've been told as much -- at least by implication -- by no less an authority than DC Comics senior editor Denny O'Neil. The reference is to a statement O'Neil made during one of the panel discussions at the recent MARCON 28 science fiction convention in Columbus, Ohio. He happened to mention the cancellation of JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA, which was one of the last few DC titles I was still reading regularly. The JSA is, of course, the very first superhero team in comics, dating from 1940; and the most recent take on the characters by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck emphasized their status as "old- time" characters, paying homage to the Golden and Silver Ages in the writing and art style, and even depicting the heroes as showing physical signs of age. (Not as old as they actually would be in real time, but they've been rejuvenated a couple of times.) The cancellation of JSA, a fun title, was disappointing, but I had at least assumed it was justified by low sales. However, Denny O'Neil reported that in fact it was selling well enough to make money and justify its publication. But, he said, he and the other senior editors decided in a conference to kill the book -- because they feared that having a DC book on the stands with "old" heroes would serve only to remind DC's 13 and 14 year old "target audience" that "DC comics are the comics your father, your GRANDfather used to read". Apparently, those gray hairs on the JSA members were contaminating the whole DC line! Denny, I'm starting to show a few gray hairs myself. Would you rather I stayed out of the comics shops and did not let myself be seen buying DC comics, lest I scare away the younger readers? Now, this column should not be taken as a personal attack on Denny O'Neil, who was very gracious in his panel appearances and personal interview with the CV staff at Marcon, and who in fact seems to have much more sensible ideas of which way comics should go than a lot of other management folks at DC and other comic companies. To tell the truth, I myself thought it was possibly a mistake to make the JSA members in the recent series physically aged. Since they had been rejuvenated anyway (after being rescued from Ragnarok in the "Armageddon" crossover series) it might have been just as well to go all the way and make them physically young again, while leaving them with their years of experience and memories. But this decision by the DC editors still shows a disturbing attitude. DC used to take pride in attracting older readers and even used the slogan "DC Comics: They're Not Just for Kids Anymore". Has the company now decided to write off both its older characters and its older readers? Someone will perhaps point out that DC still has its Vertigo line "for mature readers". May I suggest that "adult" is not necessarily synonymous with "cynical, despairing, ultraviolent and near- incomprehensible"? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!7!-- News and SF Calendar: What's Coming Up in the Near Future ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1993 Hugo and Campbell Award Nominees ConFrancisco, the 51st World Science Fiction Convention, has released the nominees for the 1993 Hugo Awards and John W. Campbell Memorial Award. This year is the 40th anniversary of the Hugo Awards, which will be presented at a ceremony in the Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco, California, on Sunday, September 5, 1993. The nominees that follow were chosen by popular vote by 397 members of ConFrancisco or MagiCon (the 50th World Science Fiction Convention) who submitted valid nominating ballots. In some categories more than 5 nominations appear due to tie votes. The nomination ballots were counted and verified by the ConFrancisco Hugo Administrators, David Bratman and Seth Goldberg. The final ballots will be sent to ConFrancisco members in Progress Report no. 6, due to be mailed in late May. Only attending and supporting members of ConFrancisco are eligible to vote. Ballots must be postmarked by July 31 and received by August 6 to be counted, and must be mailed to: 1993 Hugo Awards, Seth Goldberg, Voting Administrator, P.O. Box 271986, Concord, California, 94527-1986. Until July 16, ConFrancisco memberships are available for $125 attending or $25 supporting from ConFrancisco, 712 Bancroft Road, Suite 1993, Walnut Creek CA 94598. BEST NOVEL: CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG by Maureen McHugh (Tor)/RED MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson (HarperCollins (UK), Bantam Spectra)/STEEL BEACH by John Varley (Ace/Putnam)/A FIRE UPON THE DEEP by Vernor Vinge (Tor)/DOOMSDAY BOOK by Connie Willis (Bantam)/No Award BEST NOVELLA: "Uh-Oh City" by Jonathan Carroll (F&SF June 92)/"The Territory" by Bradley Denton (F&SF July 92)/"Protection" by Maureen McHugh (Asimov's Apr 92)/"Stopping at Slowyear" by Frederik Pohl (Axolotl/Pulphouse, Bantam)/"Barnacle Bill the Spacer" by Lucius Shepard (Asimov's July 92)/No Award BEST NOVELETTE: "True Faces" by Pat Cadigan (F&SF Apr 92)/"The Nutcracker Coup" by Janet Kagan (Asimov's Dec 92)/"In the Stone House" by Barry N. Malzberg (Alternate Kennedys)/"Danny Goes to Mars" by Pamela Sargent (Asimov's Oct 92)/"Suppose They Gave a Peace ..." by Susan Shwartz (Alternate Presidents)/No Award BEST SHORT STORY: "The Winterberry" by Nicholas A. DiChario (Alternate Kennedys)/"The Mountain to Mohammed" by Nancy Kress (Asimov's Apr 92)/"The Lotus and the Spear" by Mike Resnick (Asimov's Aug 92)/"The Arbitrary Placement of Walls" by Martha Soukup (Asimov's Apr 92)/"Even the Queen" by Connie Willis (Asimov's Apr 92)/No Award BEST NON-FICTION BOOK: ENTERPRISING WOMEN: TELEVISION FANDOM AND THE CREATION OF POPULAR MYTH by Camille Bacon-Smith (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press)/THE COSTUMEMAKER'S ART edited by Thom Boswell (Lark)/VIRGIL FINLAY'S WOMEN OF THE AGES by Virgil Finlay (Underwood- Miller)/MONAD NUMBER TWO edited by Damon Knight (Pulphouse)/LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE DEAF MAN by Dave Langford (NESFA)/A WEALTH OF FABLE by Harry Warner Jr (SCIFI)/No Award BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: ALADDIN (Walt Disney Pictures)/ALIEN 3 (20th Century Fox)/BATMAN RETURNS (Warner Brothers)/BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (Columbia Pictures)/"The Inner Light" (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION) (Paramount Television) BEST PROFESSIONAL EDITOR: Ellen Datlow; Gardner Dozois; Beth Meacham; Kristine Kathryn Rusch; Stanley Schmidt; No Award BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST: Thomas Canty; David A. Cherry; Bob Eggleton; James Gurney; Don Maitz; No Award BEST ORIGINAL ARTWORK: Cover of ARISTOI (W.J. Williams) by Jim Burns (Tor)/DINOTOPIA by James Gurney (Turner)/Cover of F&SF, October- November 1992 (illustrating "Bridges", by C. de Lint), by Ron Walotsky/Cover of ILLUSION (P. Volsky) by Michael Whelan (Bantam)/Cover of ASIMOV'S, November 1992 (Asimov portrait), by Michael Whelan/No Award BEST SEMI-PROZINE: INTERZONE, edited by David Pringle/LOCUS, edited by Charles N. Brown/THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION, edited by David G. Hartwell, Donald G. Keller, Robert K.J. Kilheffer, and Gordon Van Gelder/PULPHOUSE, edited by Dean Wesley Smith/SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE, edited by Andrew Porter/No Award BEST FANZINE: FILE 770, edited by Mike Glyer/FOSFAX, edited by Timothy Lane and Janice Moore/LAN'S LANTERN, edited by George J. Laskowski Jr./MIMOSA, edited by Dick and Nicki Lynch/STET, edited by Leah Smith/No Award BEST FAN WRITER: Mike Glyer; Andy Hooper; Dave Langford; Evelyn C. Leeper; Harry Warner Jr.; No Award BEST FAN ARTIST: Teddy Harvia; Merle Insinga; Linda Michaels; Peggy Ranson; Stu Shiffman; Diana Harlan Stein; No Award JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER OF 1991-1992 (sponsored by DELL MAGAZINES): Barbara Delaplace (2nd year of eligibility); Nicholas A. DiChario (2nd year of eligibility); Holly Lisle (1st year of eligibility); Laura Resnick (2nd year of eligibility); Carrie Richerson (1st year of eligibility); Michelle Sagara (2nd year of eligibility); No Award The category "Best Translator" included on the nominating ballot was eliminated due to lack of interest. A few voters commented that a knowledgeable vote in this category would require linguistic expertise beyond what can reasonably be expected of Hugo voters. DINOTOPIA by James Gurney received enough votes to be nominated in both the Original Artwork and Nonfiction Book categories. The administrators judged that it is a single sequential work of art, and thus best placed in Original Artwork. Two nominations were withdrawn from the ballot. Michael Whelan declined nomination as Best Professional Artist for this year. Boris Vallejo declined the nomination for Best Original Artwork for his cover of Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP, saying that it is against his principles to enter in a competition among professionals. Both artists thank the voters who nominated them, and feel honored to have been chosen. Maureen F. McHugh and Poppy Z. Brite received enough votes to be nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer, but were ruled ineligible due to professional publications of fiction in the science fiction and fantasy field prior to 1991. -!- And from the other side ... The 1992 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards: Novel: Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (Bantam) Novella: James Morrow, City of Truth (St. Martin's Press) Novelette: Pamela Sargent, Danny Goes to Mars (Asimov's SF) Short Story: Connie Willis, Even the Queen (Asimov's)Grand Master: Frederik Pohl --!-- SF Calendar: What's Coming Up in the Near Future This Upcoming Movies list is an abbreviated version of the list compiled and maintained by Bryan D. Jones (bdj@engr.uark.edu). Unless we know the plot, films are included or excluded by their titles or by actors who make them relevant to the genre (ie Harrison Ford in THE FUGITIVE). May 28: CLIFFHANGER, MADE IN AMERICA, SUPER MARIO BROS. Spring: BODY SNATCHERS, DEADFALL, THE GIVING, NEMESIS, STARFIRE Jun 11: JURASSIC PARK, THUMBELINA Jun 18: DENNIS THE MENACE, THE LAST ACTION HERO, ONCE UPON A FOREST (animated) Jun 25: METEOR MAN June : THE WITCHING HOUR Jul 2: ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES (re- release), SURF NINJAS Jul 9: GHOST IN THE MACHINE Jul 23: THE CONEHEADS, TOM & JERRY: THE MOVIE (animated) Jul 30: A TROLL IN CENTRAL PARK (animated) Aug 6: THE FUGITIVE, HEART AND SOULS, SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER Aug 13: JASON GOES TO HELL: THE FINAL FRIDAY (WAS FRIDAY THE 13TH PART IX), NEEDFUL THINGS Aug 20: THE CROW, JUDGMENT NIGHT, THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE Aug : FATHER HOOD, JOHNNY ZOMBIE Summer: CARNOSAUR, ENCHANTED FOREST, WIZARDS 2, THE SPEED RACER MOVIE SHOW Oct 1: WILDER NAPALM Upcoming Books: All books in the list at this time are from DEL REY: June: THE FALSE MIRROR [The Damned], by Alan Dean Foster (SF); LADY OF MERCY [The Sundered], by Michelle Sagara (F); DEPARTURES by Harry Turtledove (SF); KNIGHTS OF DARK RENOWN, by David Gemmell (F) July: POWERS THAT BE, by Anne McCaffery & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (SF); THE LOST PRINCE [Wolfking], by Bridget Wood (F); DOMES OF FIRE [The Tamuli], by David Eddings (F); MINING THE CORT, by Frederik Pohl (SF); THE SPELL OF THE BLACK DAGGER, by Lawrence Watt-Evans (F); STAR TREK LOG 4/LOG 5/LOG 6, by Alan Dean Foster (SF); DEL REY DISCOVERY: BRIGHT ISLANDS IN A DARK SEA, by L. Warren Douglas (SF) --!-- Space News -- by Micael McAfee * JPL has announced the Clementine mission, which will orbit the moon and visit an asteroid. In January, 1994, the small spacecraft will be launched, then orbit the moon for a couple of months, then make its way to the asteroid Geographos, reaching it in late August 1994. * The Japanese moon probe Hiten apparently crashed onto the moon's surface on April 10, 1993. Further information as to the cause has not yet been posted. * Data from NASA satellites show that gamma ray bursts may originate far beyond the Milky Way galaxy. The Ames Research Center reports that the bursts seem to be evenly distributed in space. One of these bursts, dubbed the Super Bowl Burst since it was seen on Super Bowl Sunday, had 10 times as much energy and was 100 times brighter than any known source outside our galaxy. This data has put two popular theories of gamma burst origin in question. The first, that bursts come from neutron stars, would not explain the even distribution. The second, that explosions, collisions, or black holes are responsible, would not explain the kinds of energy from the Super Bowl Burst. The data is being shared by scientists around the world to help unravel the puzzle. * Some preliminary results of the ATLAS-1 probe are available from NASA. Increases in hydrogen fluoride and hydrogen chloride match predictions of the effects of chlorofluorocarbons in the stratosphere. Predictions about solar radiation output and the number of sunspots observed also matched up with the data. Results concerning movement of molecules will be compared with the Venus and Mars missions. Some artificial aurorae were created by the shuttle which carried out the ATLAS mission, which the probe recorded. Most of the data will be correlated with other projects, the results of which will be available at a later date. * The Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association has announced the third annual Grand Canyon Star Party, to be held June 12-19, 1993. They will be setting up on the South Rim near the Yavapai Museum. For more information call (602) 293-2855 between 8 and 10pm Mountain Standard Time, or e-mailing ketelsen@as.arizona.edu. * From an article in the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic comes an article by Robert Bunge about the need for control of "light pollution." Much of the lighting used for security and safety reasons is "wasteful," in that much of the light escapes upward without providing useful illumination. This not only uses up fossil fuels, but ruins views of the night sky in many urban areas. This can also affect telescopes located in desolate areas far from cities, causing some telescopes to be shut down as they can no longer ignore the constant glow. Fortunately, communities are starting to combat this problem through educating companies of alternatives in lighting. Unnecessary lighting is discouraged, and better light fixtures, such as the "shoebox," are becoming more popular as they reflect more of the light downward to where light is needed. Also, monochromatic low pressure sodium lamps are recommended unless it is necessary to differentiate colors. Lights are also often installed improperly, so a quality consultant should inspect lighting systems. Those who are interested in more information can contact: International Dark-Sky Association Dave Crawford, Executive Director 3545 N. Stewart Tucson, Arizona 85716 U.S.A. Telephone: 602-325-9346 Fax: 602-325-9360 Internet Address: crawford@noao.edu or dcrawford@noao.edu ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!8!-- SPOILERS AHOY -- Your guide to the rest of the season for THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES and TIME TRAX ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As promised ... THE YOUNG INDIANA JONES CHRONICLES Movie of the Week: "Young Indiana Jones and the Mystery of the Blues": As a student at the University of Chicago in 1920, Indy is more interested in the world of jazz than in his studies. He meets jazz greats Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong in the legendary jazz clubs of Chicago, and gains insight into the racial problems of the times. In the second part of this two hour movie of the week, while Indy is working his way through college as a waiter in a famous Chicago restaurant, its owner, Jim Colosimo, is murdered. Indy, along with his college roommate Eliot Ness and fledgling reporter Ernest Hemingway, tries to solve the case. Paris, 1908: Ten-year-old Indy meets a young American art student named Norman Rockwell at the Louvre. While sneaking out to comb the cafes of Paris, they find themselves caught up in an elaborate scheme devised by a brash new artist, Pablo Picasso, to prove a point to Edgar Degas. Vienna, 1908: Ten-year-old Indy feels the pangs of first love when he meets Sophie, the daughter of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. When the royal family prevents Indy from seeing Sophie, he turns to two of his father's acquaintances, noted psychoanalysts Jung and Adler, to help him understand his strange new feelings. France, 1916: Sixteen-year-old Indy visits Paris on leave from the front in World War I and learns about the erotic side of love from the infamous dancer, Mata Hari. He becomes acquainted with the subtleties of self-deception through his relationship with her. Benares, 1910: Ten-year-old Indy meets Krishnamurti, then a boy of Indy's age, at a cricket match in India and travels with him throughout the sacred city of Benares. Along the way, Indy gains profound insight into several of the world's great religions. Paris, 1919: Indy serves as a translator at the Paris Peace Conference and witnesses history being made through his own eyes and those of several notable participants, including T.E. Lawrence and fellow Arabist Gertrude Bell, historian Arnold Toynbee, and Prince Faisal of Arabia. Indy is taken with a Vietnamese waiter he encounters, a young Ho Chi Minh, and uses his connections to enable Ho to make a presentation to the conference on behalf of his people for their civil rights. Prague, 1917: Indy goes undercover as a women's lingerie salesman to Prague where he is to await an important phone call from a double agent. Upon arrival, Indy discovers there is no phone in the apartment and he must arrange for a new phone to be installed before the deadline. His quest for the phone turns into a bureaucratic nightmare, a comedy of errors, in which he meets an insurance clerk named Franz Kafka. Peking, 1910: While visiting the Great Wall with his mother and tutor, ten-year-old Indy falls deathly ill. They are forced to seek shelter with a peasant family isolated in the countryside, and Indy's mother must rely on Chinese medicine. Petrograd, 1917: At a time when the Allies are trying desperately to learn if and when the Czar will be overthrown in war-torn Russia, Indy is working for Allied intelligence. In Petrograd, Indy is living with a group of friends active in the Bolshevik movement, dramatically dividing his loyalties. Princeton, 1916: While in high school, Indy and his girlfriend -- the daughter of pulp adolescent fiction author Edward Stratemeyer, famous for his Tom Swift and Nancy Drew novels -- witness a kidnapping at Thomas Edison's laboratory and find themselves in the middle of a mystery adventure worthy of Nancy Drew herself. Clues lead them to discover a plot involving secret government documents. New York, 1920: During Summer vacation from college, Indy travels to New York where he finds work as an assistant stage manager on Broadway. He mixes in theatre, bohemian, and high society circles, bringing him into contact with the young George Gershwin. His life becomes increasingly complicated when his falls in love with three different women and tries to deal with the consequences. Ireland, 1916: Indy and Remy have arrived off the boat from Mexico with no money and find themselves stranded in Dublin. While working in a local pub, Indy meets Sean Lemass, a young member of Irish Volunteers. The two idealistic 16-year-olds argue over political philosophies, and Indy witnesses the Easter Rebellion for Irish independence in which Sean was involved. Northern Italy, 1918: While working as a spy in the mountains of Italy, Indy falls in love with a local girl and soon discovers he has serious competition. His pal Ernest Hemingway, then an American Red Cross ambulance driver, explains how love is a battle and encourages Indy to fight for her affections. A comical situation arises when the two suitors are mistakenly invited to the same dinner party and each tries to outdo the other to prove his love. Florence, 1908: During a tour of Florence, Italy, nine-year-old Indy is fascinated by opera composer Giacomo Puccini and his generous attention to the family. Indy becomes frightened and confused when he realizes his mother is receptive to Puccini's romantic overtures. British East Africa, 1916: Indy and Remy arrive in Mombasa and are told to report to the location of the Belgian Army about 1000 miles inland. The two get lost in transit and find themselves in the camp of Frederick Selous and the British 25th Royal Fusiliers, a colorful group of elderly adventurers known as the "Old and the Bold." Selous recruits Indy for a mission to find two large phantom German guns which are inflicting serious damage to British positions. German East Africa, 1916: After their adventure with Selous, Indy and Remy must now cross German lines to reach their unit. Selous suggests they disguise themselves as Boer settlers and travel cross-country in covered wagons. They are taken by the Germans and then discover it was all a plot by Selous to capture the brilliant and undefeated German General Von Lettow-Vorbeck. Istanbul, 1918: While working undercover for French intelligence as a Scandinavian journalist in Istanbul, Indy falls in love with a stranded American schoolteacher named Molly. After a series of murders, Indy finds a missing file and discovers a Turkish plot to kill all of his French agents. He meets the future leader of Turkey, Mustapha Kemal. Beersheba, 1917: Indy receives orders to assist the British in an attack on the ancient mid-east town of Beersheba, known as the Place of Seven Wells. His undercover mission includes escorting Mia, a beautiful spy disguised as a belly dancer, to Beersheba to obtain vital information from the Turks who hold the town. The story culminates in a daring cavalry attack by Australian Light Horsemen, a key turning point in the downfall of the Ottoman forces. [Editor's note: Science fiction fans may recognize one of the Turkish officers as COLIN BAKER, formerly of DR. WHO.] Transylvania, 1918: On a spy mission in the eastern part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, Indy comes upon a castle in Transylvania filled with a strange army of soldiers from different nations. When Vlad the Impaler, the leader of this army and master of the castle, tries to force Indy to join his army, Indy realizes Vlad rules by an evil power, the spell of which can only be broken by driving a stake through Vlad's heart. TIME TRAX Show 11: DARROW FOR THE DEFENSE: A female lawyer from 2193 comes back to tell Darien that a fugitive has been found innocent and she wants to find him and make sure he gets "home" alive. Show 18: BEAUTIFUL SONGBIRD: Darien discovers that beautiful country singer Kaitlin Carlyle, a legend in his time, is gaining her popularity faster than history indicates. He and Selma learn that Kaitlin is getting unexpected help from a mysterious "guardian angel" who also happens to be a murderous fan of hers from the future who wants to control her career and life. Show 19: PHOTO FINISH: When Darien detects tampering on a successful string of wins for a racehorse, he learns that a fugitive has been injecting horses with a futuristic steroid which gives them an incredible -- yet fatal -- burst of energy. Show 20: ONE ON ONE: Darien catches up with his arch nemesis, Dr. Mordicai Sahmbi, who has invented a dangerous mind controlling device and is intent on using it on Darien, forcing the two into a deadly showdown. Show 21: A WANTED MAN: Darien is framed for the murder of a noted FBI agent by a dangerous fugitive, who is planning to take over the Bureau. Show 22: THE IMPOSTER: Darien is led in circles by an unemployed actor from the future who wreaks havoc upon unsuspecting marks in the 20th century with intricate con games and elaborate disguises. STAR TREK The season finale of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION will have a very special guest star: physicist STEVEN HAWKING. He will play himself, in the holodeck, playing poker with Data, Albert Einstein, and Isaac Newton. A fitting tribute to his genius. Hawking has been a Star Trek fan for years, and the producers were only too happy to give him a part on the show. It will reportedly involved the return of the Borg, who have been somewhat humanized since the Hugh incident from "I Borg." Instead of softening them, however, they become even MORE dangerous, as they have discovered the power of rage. Unfortunately, Data suffers the same fate, and eventually sides with a returned Lore against the Enterprise. On DEEP SPACE NINE, look for episodes involving crew conflict between supporters of Sisko and Kira, Odo stuck in a turbolift with Lwaxana, and Keiko having problems with Bajoran religious fundamentalists over what she teaches. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --!9!-- Administrivia ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Just a few acknowledgments and reminders. We'd like to thank Bjo Trimble for her letter writing tips. [The address for SPACE TIME CONTINUUM is 2059 Fir Springs Dr., Kingwood TX, 77339-1701, USA] Also, many thanks to Adrienne Biggs and Carol (wangc@cpsc.ucalgary.ca) -- couldn't have done it without you! As for reminders, Cyberspace Vanguard can be reposted anywhere IN ITS ENTIRETY, but if you are reposting individual articles (except for the news) you MUST contact us for permission from the authors FIRST. FREE electronic subscriptions are available from cn577@cleveland.freenet.edu. 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