science fiction

While the sci-fi paperback genre has always been replete with busty warrior women who are impossibly ill-equipped to deal with marauding dragons, or impractically designed space vessels hovering above rainbow-hued planets, or if you’re lucky, a really freaking insane monster that’s mostly made of teeth, some of my favorite covers include none of these obvious things. While I’ve had a difficult time finding any that were published after the 1970s, I’m a fan of the ‘human abstraction’.

There’s no doubt that once you see a warrior chick or crazy beast on the cover of a sci-fi book, it’s the image that’s planted firmly in your head from introduction to final chapter, whether or not these descriptions fit what the author actually describes. Much of the time, the illustrator is given a brief synopsis of what the story entails, and a quick outline of what the main character may look like. There’s little nuance, and an illustrator on a deadline usually won’t have time to sit down and read through the entire book to seek all of the vital details out.

While Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Food of the Gods‘ (1964 Popular Library Eagle Books edition) isn’t an ‘abstraction’ as much as a non-literal interpretation of a human head, it doesn’t ruin the form of what might be inside of the book itself. This particular painting, ‘Head’ by Pavel Tchelitchew, was not created specifically for this book, but the publishers thought that it fit. Tchelitchew was actually a well-known Surrealist painter who died seven years before this edition of ‘Gods’ was even published.

‘Earthblood‘ by Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown uses another abstracted humanoid figure on its 1966 Berkeley Medallion edition. A little bit of digging reveals that the artist of this cover is Richard Powers, who dabbled equally in Surrealist designs and the obligatory ‘hot alien’ chick cover. He’s considered revolutionary enough, and justifiably so, to have warranted a book completely about his artwork.

‘Odd John’ by Olaf Stapledon is regarded as a fairly important work of science fiction, and if the blurred signature in the corner of the image says what I think it does, this is another beautiful work by Powers. There aren’t many reliable web resources about Powers.

This is also a title that saw a few more interpretations which aren’t quite as creative. We have the alien-faced cover…

… and the sensationalist, sexy cover. The fact that one book can be interpreted so many different ways is either a really great, or really terrifying, thing.

Early Penguin paperbacks also explored a more abstracted view of science fiction also, with beautiful results. Forget about the starships – I want the vague implication of a human head and my imagination.

And for no really good reason, except that it’s my new favorite paperback cover, I present to you ‘Who?‘

I’ve collected the works of Kurt Vonnegut for many, many years – and usually in multiples when I find them cheaply. I can mail the extra copies to friends and have them treat me oddly until the eventual demise of our relationship. I dated a girl once because she read Galapagos. Vonnegut’s entire bibliography is pretty easy to assemble, with a few weird odds and ends to be scraped together inexpensively.

The great thing about Vonnegut’s body of work is that each story is part of a larger picture of a Vonnegut-driven universe. Stories have characters and locations that bleed into other stories, and nowhere is this thread of commonality more strong than with the character of Kilgore Trout.

Trout was originally created to act as an homage to Vonnegut’s friend, Theodore Sturgeon – one of Vonnegut’s typically blunt, heavy puns. As the character grew, it became clearer that Trout, who is a struggling (and often pathetic) author of science fiction, was also very much an aspect of Kurt Vonnegut himself. The fictional Trout lived in obscurity, having roughly three fans in the whole world (all dedicated collectors), and writing hundreds of novels and short stories that didn’t really exist. Which made it very strange when I found a paperback with ‘Kilgore Trout’ listed as the author.

This book, allegedly by Kilgore Trout, is called ‘Venus on the Half-Shell‘ and was published in 1975, and for a considerable amount of time, readers assumed that Vonnegut himself penned it. In actuality, the book was rather upsetting to Vonnegut. While indirectly derivative of his work, the association with Vonnegut was inevitable. This title was mentioned by Vonnegut in 1965’s ‘God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater‘.

In actuality, ‘Venus’ was written by noted author Philip Jose Farmer. Farmer intended on writing at least a few books under the Trout pseudonym, but communicating with Vonnegut only through publishers and agents, it became clear that Vonnegut wasn’t interested in the project. Garbled interviews with both parties only made things worse, and after ‘Venus’, no more books were ever published under the Trout name, out of respect for Vonnegut’s wishes.

Many Vonnegut collectors consider this weird piece of meta-fiction to be an essential part of a truly complete Vonnegut library, even if it was not written by him. The original story was serialized in ‘Science Fiction and Fantasy Monthly’ in 1974, but was collected in paperback form a year later, still under the Trout name. When the story was reprinted in 1988 and subsequent collections, Farmer’s name had replaced that of Trout.

It’s definitely not hard to obtain a copy for under ten dollars (or far less if you’re okay with Farmer’s name on the cover), but it’s a piece of Vonnegut lore that’s very neat, and very easy to overlook.

If there was ever, ever a series to snag all in one place, it’s Farscape. Well, Farscape and Lost, where one’s appreciation of the show is absolutely dependent upon enjoying it sequentially, and understanding why the hell the show is happening in the first place. Finally, I can enjoy Farscape all in one place with Farscape: The Complete Series on DVD.

I’ll be the first to admit that I had a really, really hard time getting into Farsape during its initial run between 1999 and 2003. The stories can be a bit complex, the characters are complicated and the circumstances of the show are politically charged. This can either be a rich and fulfilling experience, or it can be frustrating for the casual viewer. I recall one particular college day when I was invited to watch some Farscape VHS tapes on a dorm couch and I could barely contain my plethora of questions that were inherent to my enjoyment of the show. Refusing to be a TV talker, I endured in bewildered silence.

The sleepy-eyed, smarmy, externalizing-every-internal-monologue hero represented by character John Crichton may a bit too much to sympathise with, but when you see him a guy who needs to act around giant, terrifying puppets with weirdly cartoonish personalities, it’s probably the only way he can keep his head above the metaphorical water and not fade into the scenery. It’s just right, once you get used to it, and the same can be said for every exaggerated character in the show. It’s extremely experimental, extremely human science fiction about a bunch of weird escaped convicts who have hijacked an enormous, living space monster-slash-spaceship and are on the run from the law. Some of them just happen to look like greasy puppets, and one is a severely displaced human.

While the digital special effects are all the best that the early 2000s had to offer for a cable science fiction show, much of the makeup and monsters were created and managed by the incredible Henson Studios. It’s almost impossible for them to make something that isn’t completely mysterious, fun and beautiful. Even brief sojourns onto alien planets are full of amazing costumes and aliens that rival anything you’d find in Star Wars. In short, it’s a far more entertaining show than I’d ever experienced before, now that I can watch it from the beginning. This approach is important.

This new DVD set completes the entire series, which consists of four seasons across 26 DVDs and over 68 hours of wild science fiction. The series was suddenly cut short after season four, so the rest of the narrative was quickly tied up in a four episode miniseries that cannot be included here due to ownership by a different company (but can be purchased for ten bucks, if you want everything in one place). This set has a suggested retail of $150, but can be snagged for under $80 – much less expensive than what these sets used to cost as I ogled then in the old Suncoast.

Five plastic cases are housed in a thin, but attractive, cardboard box. Each season contains six discs in a regulation sized DVD case, and a 5th case contains a 2-disc set of ‘archives’, which comprises tons of extras not icluded with the original seasons. Anything at all that incorporates ‘behind the scenes’ stuff relating to the Henson Creature Shop is always worth the investment (and this includes the rarely seen stuff included on the various Muppet Show DVDs). The DVD episodes themselves also include many commentary tracks and isolated score tracks, interviews, cut scenes and alternate scenes, so this handsome set is genuinely an archive of all things Farscape – a boon to hardcore fans and a blessing to people who want to step on into this whole Farscape thing which was previously a bit inaccessible. And yes, there are Farscape conventions – that’s how huge four seasons of a TV show can become if they’re done well. You don’t see any ‘The Hills’ conventions – and if you do, please tell me where they are so I can disperse them accordingly with fire.

The whole set was released this month, and with the plummeting cost of DVDs, it’s an awesome, enthralling buy to complete your cult sci-fi TV collection.

I’m an oldschool sci-fi geek when my schedule affords it, which should hardly come as a surprise. The weirdly simple or alternately overcomplicated approaches to scientific exploration, the attention to the space-age aesthetics of high-tech devices, and the general awesome strangeness of it all. I dig it.

And of course, when anyone is asked to name a black and white sci-fi hero, Buck Rogers is one of the first that will come to mind. Even my college dorm has a barely-functioning ‘Buck Rogers And The Planet Of Zoom‘ arcade game in the basement. What I’m saying is that the dude’s been a fixture in the sci-fi lexicon and culture itself for countless years. So, why has it taken so long to get a real action figure of this famous hero? We really got a Mr. Bean figure before we got Buck Rogers?

It was worth the wait. GoHero’s been giving us glimpses into the production process of their impossibly cool 12” Buck Rogers for a very long time now, adding extra features, fixing minute aspects of the figure, and finally, releasing him into the world. It’s a labor of love by GoHero’s Steve Forde, because the process definitely hasn’t been that easy. That happens when parts of your action figure are made of glass and their guts are made of fancy computers.

This is definitely one of my most anticipated toys of the year, and like many people in the flagging economy, I’ve severely cut back on my collecting. Buck Rogers, however, still had to happen. I can give up a few tiny Iron Men for this. Food? Food is for the weak.

Buck arrives in a wooden box, much like the previously released Buck Rogers Disintegrator Pistol, making the two pieces complement each other even in their packaging. The retro-awesome is revealed as you slide the front panel upwards to reveal the figure inside. The front panel itself has been burnt with the Buck Rogers logo, as well as the specific edition number of your figure. Mine is #675 our of 1000. Classiest packaging of the year, by the way – but I’m a total sucker for wood anyhow.

Inside, the figure itself rests in plastic packaging. Because of shipping issues from the overseas factory, the glass dome that rests over Buck’s head was shipped separately, but can still be stored within the plastic frame that the figure sits in. The removal and replacement of the figure in the package is supremely easy. The package itself contains a set of gloved hands, a holster to loop onto Buck’s belt, his die-cast iconic Disintegrator Pistol, a helmet, a certificate of authenticity, and a USB cable with some instructions. But why would an action figure need a USB cable? Because it is amazing is why. We’ll get to that part in a moment.

The figure itself has a great 1/6th scale body, and there are a LOT of them out there. Sideshow, Enterbay, Hot Toys, Medicom, Triad Toys – everyone’s got a 1/6th scale body. This one, which is proprietary to GoHero, is highly flexible, and I found no joints that wouldn’t to exactly what I wanted them to. While a few are a little wiggly, it doesn’t affect poseability, ultimately. The portrait of Buster Crabbe is incredibly solid and leaves nothing to be desired. It’s really just a stupendous figure.

The clothing is also immaculately detailed and finely sewn together. The pilot pants and red shirt are very impressive and fit the figure very well. The boots and ‘leather’ vest are both made of a thin rubber, as are the extra gloved hands. I didn’t attempt to remove either, because I just didn’t want to test the elasticity of the rubber. I was gentle, and had no problems, nor do I anticipate any. None of this impedes figure motion either, which is a feat.

To put the gloves on the figure, you pop off the existing bare hands and slip the gloves onto the pegs which are left. It takes some considerable skill and force to thread the new hands onto the pegs, but it can be done with a minimum of profanity. The helmet is slipped on very easily, and the holster is also placed on the figure’s belt once it’s unlatched and threaded through a loop or two. The awesome glass dome, however, is another thing entirely.

It’s a beautiful addition to the figure, and probably the first time that real glass has been used as a major figure component. It’s a serious coup towards giving the figure some real veracity, it’s bold, and it didn’t come without its trials. My giant monkey hands just can’t get it onto the figure securely. The glass dome is surrounded by a rubber lining around the bottom, which is both decorative and functional, as it has two minuscule straps which can be buckled under the figure’s armpits to hold it in place. This rubber is held onto the glass with a wire wrapped and soldered around it, and set into a groove. Fair enough, however, is the fact that the dome can rest rather comfortably on the shoulders of Buck, without the stretching and prodding necessary to buckle the straps. I love the realness of actual tiny buckles, though I would not object to a snap or a magnet.

One other tremendous aspect is the jetpack, which slips into the rubber vest. It’s sleek and beautiful, and with the press of a button, it lights up bright red. What more do you need to know? Glowing jetpack. Boom.

But what’s this about a USB cord? See, the ATOMedia 12” body actually contains a 1GB MP3 player, and in this case, it is preprogrammed with a whole mess of Buck Rogers radio programs. By sneaking a finger under the tight vest, you can switch the internal player on and control it with an external remote. The included USB cable can be used to load up the MP3 player with any music or programs of your choice, and you can even directly record your own voice into the figure. It’s a little bit of innovative madness, and when you need to charge him up, the USB cord is used once again, transmitting power right into the internal battery. The speaker quality is solid for an action figure – but I guess there’s no real standard for that established just yet. Everything is perfectly clear, and it’s really a whole surreal experience to have these sounds emerging from this guy. Yet another first from GoHero, who are really revolutionizing the genre.

Buck Rogers is a nearly perfect action figure experience. Check out the gallery right here on CQ to see many, many more photos of this guy – aided by a stand from Enterbay to get some of the fancier poses goin’. When you have a dome of glass delicately balanced on your head, it sometimes helps to have a stand to support your figure, lest disaster strike and you run crying into your room and kick at the sheets until it all goes away in a sobbing miasma of defeat. But enough about my nightly routine. It’s worth the investment – be careful, and you’ll have a stellar space hero to display for as long as you can imagine.

At first glance, I was unconvinced that Sanctuary was anything beyond a Torchwood clone, but without the clever anagrams or handsome swagger of John Barrowman. The DVD cover featuring a team of paranormal explorers defiantly challenging the audience, a team leader with a mysteriously prolonged life and a very dark past, the indoctrination of a newbie, a ridiculously equipped hub of advanced scientific equipment in an unexpected place – all things that would imply a dangerous similarity.

Sanctuary quickly moves into creating its own presence, though, even if it owes a lot to the science fiction shows and films that have preceded it, including the ‘monsters messed up my life and I want answers’ X-Files guy and the ‘menagerie of interesting beasts’ of Hellboy. Born from a limited series of internet shorts (which are repeated with slight variation and presented as the first two episodes), Sanctuary is certainly an interesting series, if only for the ‘what kind of wacky monster are they gonna find next?’ factor.

The series distinguishes itself by being filmed entirely on green screen, with at least ninety percent of the environments and creatures added in post-production. Perhaps it’s the unrealistically cavernous, sweeping interiors of the Sanctuary itself, or maybe it’s the camera angles that seem to come straight from video games, but it’s immediately obvious that the details which the actors are negotiating aren’t quite right. Perhaps this skepticism comes immediately from the thought that any show on the newly-christened ‘SyFy’ network couldn’t afford a set larger than a modest food court, but it’s a show that is very reliant upon technology. The bonus features spend a little time being impressed with all of this technological stuff, but while it’s not a bad show, I still feel like I need a little more convincing. Things all feel way too clean, even when they’re desperately trying to be gritty. Once I let go of my conventional TV wisdom and understand that I’m watching a cartoon, it’s a little more comfortable – but it’s important to remember that while computers can do neat things, they won’t be insulted if you build a set.

The series seems to exist in Gotham City – always dark, always rain-slicked, and with destroyed bridges just left to rot over the city’s rivers for displaced Dr. Zoidbergs to chill out on. It’s like the apocalypse is just around the bend, but again, it’s just a little too perfectly decrepit to be immersive.

Fortunately, the only real aspect of the show, the actors, are solid, and it takes some good actors to create a sympathetic bigfoot and a truly interesting villain. While it promises to be something greater than a ‘monster of the week’ show eventually, at least the monsters have nice personalities, and for what it’s worth, characters are developing. A serious injury sustained in one episode won’t magically vanish by the time the next episode comes around, and the team displays a winning chemistry, and are far, far less obsessively troubled than the Torchwood folks. I’m sorry – the comparisons make themselves.

The DVD set itself is very slick – shiny slipcase, four DVDs in a smart little cardboard folder, episode guide. The set spans thirteen episodes, and with each, the show seems to very slowly develop a little more depth and interest. The final disc is full of extras, including the original webseries, and some brief explorations into behind-the-scenes stuff, a few minutes of outtakes, and a few photos. It has the potential to explode into something enormously exciting and involving as anything I’ve ever seen, based on the exciting premise of protecting and rehabilitating potentially dangerous anomalies, rather than just gunning them all down with laserbeams.

I think that this is an excellent beginning to a series with much potential. Go out and pick it up to see for yourself.