Flashback to b/w

Therin of Andor at the gala premiere of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan",
State Theatre, Sydney (1982).





The young guy above is the professional photographer sent along by Paramount Pictures. We'd previously met him at the relaunch of the original TV series on Network 7, and he remembered the Andorian! The photo at right features local "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" identity, Fleetwood Coup de Ville and a feathery friend.

The Admiral is still dead. So far.

When it was leaked that Admiral Janeway was likely to die in a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" original novel, "Before Dishonor", I happily consigned the rumour to the "she'll be back in time for the next big anniversary" pile of story arcs. Margaret Clark, then-Pocket editor, later explained the reasoning that went into choosing this new direction for the "Star Trek: Voyager" characters. And being promoted to the Admirality in the canonical movie, "Star Trek: Nemesis" meant that Kathryn Janeway really couldn't suddenly return to her old ship, and her original Delta Quadrant storyline was done and dusted. The old "demoting the admiral to captain" chestnut had also been done - several times - with James T Kirk.

I remember another then-editor at Pocket Books, Marco Palmieri, saying he'd rather a ST novel polarise the audience with strong reactions than to produce a bland, throwaway novel that offended no one and was quickly forgotten. If I may say so, many of the numbered VOY novels were bland, throwaway novels that offended no one. I do tend to remember plot details of ST novels I read, but the early VOY ones were very hit-and-miss, with lots of misses.

Was it about a year after the character died that a group of TrekBBS Janeway supporters heard that the licenced fiction had dared to kill off their favourite character while they weren't looking? Some of us tried to say to them, "Don't worry, science fiction deaths of regulars - especially in licensed spin-offs - are rarely/never permanent", but some of their bizarre reactions seemed to make the possibility of Janeway actually staying dead an interesting, refreshing change from the status quo. If I'd been a Pocket editor, I'd be tempted to do something radical just to keep everyone on the hop. Despite Margaret Clark saying that, as far as she was concerned, Janeway was dead and never coming back, I've seen the same things said by others about Jean Grey, Spock, Superman, Batman, Tasha Yar, Kirk, Wonderwoman, Wondergirl/Troia, Bruce Wayne, The Joker, Captain America, The Flash, Ben Sisko and Data/B-4. And they've all come back! Even Janeway is in "Star Trek Online", a game which is long set after the events of "Before Dishonor" and "Full Circle". Not the same timeline, but she is back!

I still think Janeway will be back in time for the next big anniversary of VOY. However, even that will not satisfy the avid Janeway supporters - many of whom stated, very proudly, that they gave up on licensed ST tie-ins many, many years before Janeway was killed off - since they also seem to want her to undergo a demotion back to captain and somehow end up back in command of the USS Voyager, which is, I suppose, supposed to be her 'first, best destiny"? The solution we offered some of them was the concept of in-series novels, set during Voyager's seven year mission, but no, those stories would be forever tainted because they'd know that Janeway would be slated to die. This really is a "no-win scenario" for them. But it was a problem with its roots waaaaay back when they stopped supporting VOY novels. I wish I could offer them some advice that would be worth having, but I'm really at a loss as to what would pacify them. A personal re-set button? A Klingon bird of prey to slingshot themselves around a sun and reverse history? I really don't know.

From what I've heard, the recent VOY novels have sold extremely well and have been positively reviewed. The old numbered VOY numbers did not do the sales figures Pocket wanted, and that was when the series was on-air, providing a theoretical prominence for those books. I started reading "Voyager: Full Circle" recently, and really only got through the prologue before I had to do other things - but it was beautiful! Can't wait to get back to it. I still think it's inevitable that Janeway shall return from her sojourn with Lady Q. It won't be to pacify anyone; it'll be because a clever idea comes along. The challenge will be giving her storylines that will make the most of the character's renewed potential. Spock, Kirk and Sisko returned from the afterlife changed people. As you would.

Captain's Log: Supplemental.

Before Admiral Janeway was killed off, there was a huge, angry, raging thread in the TrekLit section at on TrekBBS, which was polarized into two groups:

* One side demanding that Pocket Books "grow some balls at last" and be brave to kill off a regular character of "Star Trek", to make the ST novels more like real life.

* And the other side defending the fans of individual fans who might be advocates of a particular ST actor/character.

Some measure of begrudging consensual leeway was suggested that, when a regular ST actor dies, maybe it was time for that character to be "retired". eg. it was suggested that McCoy could be killed off now that DeForest Kelley had departed. (Mind you, that elderly TNG McCoy had already had a death scene in a comic didn't seem to ruffle anyone's feathers).

Then Margaret Clark started teasing about the then-forthcoming "Death in Winter" hardcover, and then the cover art sent the Crusher fans (and the ST Anti-Death Lobby) into a frenzy. The debate was renewed but, ultimately, there was no "death in winter" and the book seemed to disappoint a lot of people, probably because the book ended up covering very different ground to their expectations.

But the challenge had been issued: Pocket Books might soon "grow some balls at last" and be brave to kill off a regular character of "Star Trek". Who would it be. I recall Marco Palmieri and Margaret saying that, if it ever happened, it would be because the death set up the most, best story opportunities for all the other characters, and I do think they chose well.

Lurking in the background were "No more Re-set Button!" lobbiests. Hilariously, every time Paramount, CBS or Pocket grows some balls, someone else wants the Re-set Button to be pushed. Poor ol' Janeway.

Then along comes JJ and Bad Robot. They avoid the temptation to push that Re-Set Button at the end of their 2009 movie - and different people are angry and upset.

Tribble Lotto!

The long-awaited return of "Hey! Hey! It's Saturday!" (on a Wednesday), and its wacky "Chook Lotto" segment, had me scratching around today to see if I could find some photographic evidence of "Tribble Lotto", a live game show I hosted at a Sydney-based science fiction media convention called TimeWarped, way back in 1986.



While the costume parade (above left, me as an Aurelian) ran at the regular convention hotel at Hyde Park, everyone adjourned to the ballroom of the Koala Hotel on Oxford Street for a huge banquet and dinner/dance. The between-courses entertainment was... "Tribble Lotto", hosted by (above right) The Greatest Australian Hero.



The tribbles were all numbered and a lucky Klingon was selected to randomly choose them with a burrundi wand (actually a "bear-undi wand", because it had a little teddy bear tied to the end of it). She was assisted by my co-host, Athena, the Girl from the Green Dimension ("Lost in Space"). The audience ticked off numbers on their entry forms.

Watch out for the Supplementary Glommer (below)!

Convention guests, Walter Koenig (Chekov of "Star Trek")
and his wife, Judy Levitt, play along with the game.

The first contestant to fill their squares of tribbles has to do a "Chekov scream" to win.


Tribbles on the night came from the Lincoln Enterprises catalogue!


The game is over; back to the dance floor!

I found Wally!

Coincidence time?

Okay, so I went looking for my passport today - missing for a decade, and long-expired, but missing nonetheless, and I need to hand it back to get a new one issued - and I searched and searched, in all the same places and I found... Wally! (AKA "Waldo" in the USA, of "Where's Waldo" puzzle book fame. Don't ask me why he's Wally Down Under; the evil Wally is still Odlaw, ie. "Waldo" spelled backwards).

Wally's the perpetual world traveller - I'll bet he's never lost his passport - and it seemed rather ironic to me that I could find Wally in the garage and not the elusive passport. Again. This has been going on, this search, for almost ten years. Admit defeat? Never! How weird was it that, in the same box, was my 1970-vintage autographed fan card of Aussie celebrity Skeeter the Paperboy (the late James Kemsley, of "Skeeter's Cartoon Corner" and a former "Ginger Meggs" cartoonist)? And here were Skeeter and Wally with matching shirts!

Well, after a short break for a photo shoot with Skeeter and Wally, I went back to the garage. Another hour or so of rummaging, with the torch batteries faltering... I found my passport. The very last box in the furthest corner! Of course. Murphy's Law. Or Odlaw's Law?

Impossible memories

Today's tribute is to "The Impossibles", superheroes extraordinaire! My two brothers and I loved playing "The Impossibles" in the 1960s. I was always Fluid Man. He had the best sense of humour. Such terrible puns; I think I developed my punning ability from them. We first saw "The Impossibles" in glorious black & white, because Australia didn't get colour TV until 1975! It was a bit of a shock to see that Fluid Man's costume was green. I'd always assumed blue = water.

"The Impossibles" contributed two adventures to each episode of "Frankenstein Jr and The Impossibles" (1966), topping and tailing a cartoon of the giant, robotic version of Frankenstein's Monster. As kids we were horrified to hear that "Frankenstein Jr and The Impossibles", probably our favourite Saturday morning show, was being canned after only one season because the American censors, under pressure from lobby group complaints, had decided that cartoon superheroes were "too violent". Sigh.

Coil Man, Multi Man and Fluid Man animation cels!

The Hanna-Barbera cartoon show had a single Gold Key comic tie-in, which is very rare today, but luckily the reprinted material, plus an all-new text story, appear in a UK "Annual" (for 1969?), published by Atlas. Thank you eBay. Thanks also to eBay for the Whitman's frame-tray jigsaw puzzle.

Above: Keyrings (dated 1998) of the superheroes and their all-singing, all-dancing band member alter-egos. Like the (once-boxed) figurines at the top of this blog entry, the carded keyrings are made in China for JUN Planning Co. Inc, of Japan. Thanks for these to Steve Gidlow, now living in the USA. When we started our eBay auction negotiations, Steve and I suddenly realised we knew each other from several "Number 96" screenings in the 1990s.

Jurassic Uhura

Playtrekker Steve Kelley says:
"I should have some great pics of Miss Playtrek at the Arecibo Observatory in a few days. I am just trying to find time to get there when they are open and when it is not raining... aaargh! Then I will pack her up to ship out to the next person on the list.

"In the meantime, here is a picture of her as a cave woman.. sort of. I think she named the tyrannosaurus rex 'Fido'. Go figure."


Miss Playtrek poses with Steve's 1974 Aurora "T-Rex Prehistoric Scenes" model.

Click here and scroll to see her other adventures on her world tour.

Carpet vehicle

Carpet warehouse vehicle in Penrith. I like the juxtaposition with the huge bare feet in the front window.

Grayson!

Although I'd heard of this amazing fan film trailer, I'd never bothered to seek it out, and here it was on Youtube.



I love it. For fans of Robin the Boy Wonder, "Grayson" (2004) is an alternate, Batman-less future, where Dick Grayson decides to come out of retirement, threatening his happy family life with Barbara Gordon (Batgirl). The costuming and makeups are excellent. Some fun cameos by various DC Comics' heroes and villains. It is written and directed by a guy named John Fiorella, who also stars in the trailer as Dick Grayson and Robin.

Enjoy!

Getting the point

The Australian native grass tree in the front years grows a new flower spike every second year, but each time the resulting spike had had quite a different appearance. Hopefully no one steals the spike this year.

Sushi irony

Goldfish tank in a sushi bar. No wonder the goldfish seemed nervous.

Sweet treat

Cakes, tortes and desserts cabinet, at Sittano's restaurant.

I went for the Hungarian "Choc Rock" dobos torte, with only minor regrets. It was an amazing dessert, but almost a meal in itself.

Library on the move!

After one false start last Tuesday, the school library finally leaves Penrith Public School (almost) the way it came two decades ago... in ten segments.

I say "almost" because the segments leave us, each one decorated with a portion of mural, dating back to 1998.









To see the mural in closeup, please click HERE!

Night blooms

Still flourishing after at least two years, and never a day
without a flower! Supposedly a "winter blooming" azalea.

The 70s called - don't forget to ring back

I've gone all 70s and bought an Ericofon! And it works!

It was in the window of a flea market-style second hand store in Glebe today, with a price tag of $60 - and a little Internet research has just shown me that the current asking price for a reconditioned phone is $AU 289.00!!

"The Ericofon is a Swedish telephone handset created by Ericsson. It was designed in the late 1940s by a design team including Gösta Thames, Ralph Lysell and Hugo Blomberg. A specific feature of the telephone is that the two major components--the handset and the dial--are combined in a single unit. This one-piece design anticipated the evolution of the typical cordless phone and cell phone by several decades. The Ericofon is considered a landmark in plastic industrial design. The serial production began in 1954. The earlier models were only sold to institutions, but in 1956 production for the open market begun in Europe and Australia. In Sweden it is known as the cobra telephone, due to its similarity with the serpent."

When my family moved house in September 1977, we excitedly put in a request for a "Harvest Gold"-coloured Ericofon, like the "Ivory"-coloured ones we'd seen the "Homicide" TV detectives use, but we were notified by the then-PMG that, even though the model was still depicted in the brochures, the Ericofon had just been discontinued. We had to make do with a more standard 70s two-piece rotary dial telephone in Harvest Gold, and my paternal grandmother took custody of the more classic, angular black model the family had used had since the early 60s.

Since I now have a very 70s writing desk with Aussie showbiz connections, I figured it really needed an Ivory-coloured Ericofon somewhere on its surface.

Sunflowers

Sunflowers at the Bowlo, Penrith.

Royal Easter Show 2010

Photo of the day!

Can you tell...?

... that the hour was late and that I hadn't done very much of interest all day?

This foliage is from the china doll plant that is now scraping the ceiling of the decking area, begging to be transferred to a new location.

Am off to the Royal Easter Show tomorrow and will hopefully have some more interesting photos to share.

See Jack run

Jack runs and runs and runs.

Easter foolery

The school was visited by the Easter Bunny today, coincidentally on April Fools' Day.

Meanwhile, Central Station's restored paybus has again been decorated for the season. A friend posted a pic yesterday before one of its ears went floppy:



Strangely enough, my friend, Jeff Campbell (below left), posted two Easter pics to his Facebook page yesterday: himself having an Easter ear malfunction, and the original version (below right) of what the Easter paybus was supposed to look like. Looks like the paybus went out in sympathy by the time I wandered past:



Archival pics: