@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 08/18/89 -- Vol. 8, No. 7 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 08/30 LZ: TBA _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 08/19 NJSFS New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Lunarians Picnic (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday) 09/09 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: A. C. Farley, illustrator (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzx!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3D-212 949-5866 homxb!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. I have often spoken well of the BBC's productions of science fiction and fantasy. They have very good writers who can accurately turn works of literature into television productions. Among the best I have seen are _D_a_y _o_f _t_h_e _T_r_i_f_f_i_d_s (not to be confused with the rather weak film adaptation) and _A_n _E_n_g_l_i_s_h_m_a_n'_s _C_a_s_t_l_e. On Thursday, August 24, at 7 PM we will show their adaptation of the King Arthur legend. Legend of King Arthur THE LEGEND OF KING ARTHUR (1974), dir. by Rodney Bennett This is the most complete and accurate dramatic version of any version. In fairness I should add that it is, perhaps, a little slow and deliberate. There are no car chases. This is a very liberal interpretation. It has been shown in both half-hour and full-hour installments on American television, but never complete. THE MT VOID Page 2 In 214 minutes you will see the whole story from before the birth until the death of King Arthur. 2. The following further information on endorphins was provided by Karen Morrissey: So you want endorphins? Try phenylalanine. Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid -- one that is not manufactured by the human body, so it must be gotten from food. Among other things, phenylalanine (and its artificial cousin DL-phenylalanine) slows the uptake of endorphins; it makes them hang around longer, acting as an anti-depressant and a pain-killer. Interestingly, this is one of the two amino acids that make up aspartame, the sweetener (trade names NutraSweet, Equal). This would make psychoactive products using this sweetener. I wonder if anyone has studied the effects of these products on those suffering chronic pain or depression, or on those who are chronically boring. (Then again, it may be part of the Illuminati conspiracy.) It's downright scary what you don't learn about food items unless you search out the information yourself: many spices (e.g., sage, nutmeg) are toxic in easily ingested quantities; some spices (e.g., nutmeg) are hallucinogens, or otherwise psychoactive. Before you go home to try nutmeg, be warned: nutmeg is quite lethal in hallucinogenic quantities -- one has to consume 1-2 nuts and 2 nuts is at least an LD-5 dose (5% likelihood of death). Hmmm... Think of the book possibilities: "Poisons in your Spice Rack!" "Deadly Herbs" "The Nutmeg Cookbook" "Getting High on Food" [-kam] Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 ...mtgzx!leeper There is no perfect knowledge which can be entitled ours, that is innate; none but what has been obtained from experience, or derived in some way from our senses; all knowledge, at all events, is examined by these, approved by them, and finally presents itself to us firmly grounded upon some pre-existing knowledge which we possessed; because without memory there is no experience, which is nothing else than reiterated memory; in like manner memory cannot exist without endurance of the things perceived, and the thing perceived cannot remain wher it has never been. -- William Harvey (1578-1657) THE ABYSS A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1989 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: A science fiction and adventure film that just misses a +4 rating. Alistair-MacLean-type action combines with _2_0_0_1-type vision to make a whale of a film that blows _B_a_t_m_a_n right out of the water. Rating: high +3. If only it had more interesting science fiction ideas. [Note: _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s is a fairly long film at 140 minutes. Enough happens that it would be impossible to say much about the film without revealing a surprise or two. I will try to keep my comments general enough to avoid marring the enjoyment, at least for some one who has seen other reviews--still, _I wouldn't want to read what follows before seeing the film.] _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s has two kinds of scenes: exciting scenes where suspense is building and exciting scenes where there is slam-bang action. And they must have about equal screen time. As such, it may well out-Lucas the "Star Wars" films. In style most of the film resembles less fantasy films than films in the Alistair MacLean tradition. In fact, embedded in this long film is really a normal-length MacLeanesque adventure that would not even be science fiction. Not that MacLean adventures are not somewhat far-fetched themselves. And like a MacLean film _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s is not above throwing in the occasional far-fetched coincidence to keep the story going. But the pacing and adventure-plotting are reminiscent of a film such as _T_h_e _G_u_n_s _o_f _N_a_v_a_r_o_n_e or _I_c_e _S_t_a_t_i_o_n _Z_e_b_r_a. The action is not even delayed for opening credits; the film starts under a single opening title and we cut directly to the action. The U. S. S. Montana, a nuclear submarine, has picked up something unusual on sonar: a very fast-moving craft. They see it accelerate to over 130 knots before the sub is physically grasped by something. They are freed, but not in time to avoid piling into the edge of the Cayman Trench. A team of civilian divers from a nearby oil driller is brought in by the Navy to try to rescue any survivors. The chief diver is Bud Brigman (played by Ed Harris), a strong-willed commander in the process of divorcing the designer of the drilling facility, Lindsey Brigman (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio). The antagonistic couple, a team of four Navy SEALS, and the divers go to the site of the downed sub. But there is something else there, an apparent intelligence--perhaps alien, perhaps indigenous--that is watching the mission with marked curiosity. The script of _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s shows definite James Cameron touches. Cameron's films usually feature strong, intelligent, self-reliant women and never more so than in _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s with its character of Lindsey Brigman. The dialog is crisp, but also very humanizing. As usual, Cameron's heroes are common, blue-collar types. Abyss August 13, 1989 Page 2 One of the virtues of a good science fiction film can be to make technology comprehensible. _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s uses state-of-the-art technology- -such as recently developed breathable fluid that will allow exploration of greater depths. It also required new technology to be developed simply to allow the film to be made. In this category are diving masks designed to let the camera see who is behind the mask, but which coincidentally also allow a much wider field of vision for the divers than previously available. Like _B_a_t_m_a_n, this film also had a large budget and was kept very much under wraps until its release. _B_a_t_m_a_n turned out to be a film that was visually fascinating, but which short-changed the story elements. _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s is rumored to have a pricetag of $43 million and, unlike in _B_a_t_m_a_n, there are no big-name stars to soak up large pieces of the budget--or rather there is one, but it is the Atlantic Ocean, and shooting underwater made the film much more complex to produce. As with any major film that has been kept under wraps, _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s has generated a certain amount of rumor. One rumor on the positive side is that Hugo-winning science fiction author Orson Scott Card participated strongly in the scripting. He supposedly was on the set to ask the actors, "Ignoring the script, what would you do in this plot situation?" The next morning the revised script would have the character doing just what the actor wanted. And Card would add his own science fiction influence so that it is at least claimed that _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s ranks with _T_h_i_n_g_s _t_o _C_o_m_e and _2_0_0_1 for the degree of participation of a science fiction author in determining plot. A second and more negative rumor is that the life form was much better explained in the pre-release (and in Card's novelization) but that the film was cut by 25 minutes, down to 140, to make it more marketable. In the cut the real logic of what is happening was considered to be the dispensable portion. (This is strongly rumored to be what happened to the film _H_i_g_h_l_a_n_d_e_r, also from Twentieth Century Fox.) Cameron denies that any logic was cut from the film and says instead that where Card's book varies, it is purely Card's invention. But even as it stands, _T_h_e _A_b_y_s_s is one of the best science fiction film ever made. This remains true in spite of a rather superficial treatment of the some of the science fiction elements. It is very much a _2_0_0_1 with all the slowish parts replaced by a good fast-paced adventure film. It is entertaining, educational, and exciting, and has compelling (albeit manipulative at times) drama. All it lacks is a sufficiently engaging concept. Perhaps that was left on the cutting room floor, perhaps not. I would give it a high +3 on the -4 to +4 scale. It could not do much better than that. WAITING FOR THE GALACTIC BUS by Parke Godwin Bantam Spectra, 1989 (1988c), ISBN 0-553-28066-X, $3.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper _W_a_i_t_i_n_g _f_o_r _t_h_e _G_a_l_a_c_t_i_c _B_u_s seems to owe a slight debt to _H_i_t_c_h_h_i_k_e_r'_s _G_u_i_d_e _t_o _t_h_e _G_a_l_a_x_y, though not as much as the back cover blurb implies (the blurb doesn't mention it explicitly, mind you). Two stranded aliens, Barion and Coyul, "uplift" prehistoric primates and then have to deal with Roy Stride, the neo-Nazi product of several million years of evolution. If Stride's planned marriage to Charity Stovall goes through, their child will destroy the human race. So the two of them are taken on a roller-coaster-tour of hell, with the assistance of Judas Iscariot, John Wilkes Booth, and Florence Bird, a bit of London crumpet. Tours through hell are becoming a bit of a sub-genre themselves. Dante started it all. Yes, there were visits to Hades by various people in Greek and Roman mythology, but I think it's safe to say that the Western literary tradition of "hell tours" began with Dante's _D_i_v_i_n_e _C_o_m_e_d_y. (It's interesting to note that while Dante also wrote of tours through Purgatory and Heaven, few people find those as interesting. Fewer still have written pastiches of them.) Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle did an updated "Inferno" many years ago, and there have been various other attempts since then. (The "Heroes in Hell" series doesn't count here, of course, since everyone in them is dead and no one is taking a tour.) Godwin adds a more off-beat humor than most, with touches such as the man of Charity's dreams talking like a television commercial, because that's how Charity's dreams were shaped. Yet under the humor there are some important points, and if his position on television evangelists and fundamentalism (of any religion) is a bit unsubtle, he makes up for it with the rest of the book. I would describe _W_a_i_t_i_n_g _f_o_r _t_h_e _G_a_l_a_c_t_i_c _B_u_s as Hobanesque (as in Russell Hoban--see my review of Hoban's latest book, _T_h_e _M_e_d_u_s_a _F_r_e_q_u_e_n_c_y), but that's not very informative for most people. So let me just say straight out that I highly recommend _W_a_i_t_i_n_g _f_o_r _t_h_e _G_a_l_a_c_t_i_c _B_u_s. A Trio of Books Book reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1989 Evelyn C. Leeper Every once in a while I end up with a few books on my review stack about which I want to say something (or feel I should say something), but don't have enough to warrant a separate review. Such as now.... I would like to recommend Russell Hoban's _M_e_d_u_s_a _F_r_e_q_u_e_n_c_y (Picador, 1987, ISBN 0-330-30194-2, L3.95), a fable of a second-rate author's meeting with the head of Orpheus (well, "second-rate" may be overstating it--he writes for "Classic Comics," the cultural arm of a pornography house). Unfortunately, this 1987 novel does not seem to have been published in the United States. If you see the British edition, though, buy it. While not Hoban's best--that honor being held by _R_i_d_d_l_e_y _W_a_l_k_e_r or _P_i_l_g_e_r_m_a_n_n--it provides a new insight into art and artists. When I reviewed Kevin Randle and Robert Cornett's _R_e_m_e_m_b_e_r _G_e_t_t_y_s_b_u_r_g! I said that the characters were not well developed and perhaps the authors assumed readers would have gotten all their information about the characters from the first book. Well, I just found (and read) _R_e_m_e_m_b_e_r _t_h_e _A_l_a_m_o! (Charter, 1986 [1980c], 0-441- 71325-4, $3.50). The characters are still flat and uninteresting. As with the sequel, _R_e_m_e_m_b_e_r _t_h_e _A_l_a_m_o! seems to be aimed at those who like war stories packaged as science fiction, consisting mostly of long detailed descriptions of troop deployments and battles. James Morrow's _T_h_i_s _I_s _t_h_e _W_a_y _t_h_e _W_o_r_l_d _E_n_d_s (Ace, 1989 [1988c], ISBN 0-441-80711-9, $3.95), came highly recommended. But I found this story of the survivors of a nuclear war placed on trial by the now never-to-be-realized population of the future a bit too preachy and propagandistic for my tastes. COMMANDO AND HIS LOST SCIENCE FICTION FAN Comments by Mark Leeper Copyright 1989 by Mark R. Leeper I have never really considered myself to be a really strong science fiction fan. I have liked science fiction more than most people, but I am really not all that well read. Recently, however, I have been thinking over what distinction I do have and have come up with one way that I am pretty much unique. I know of very few people who were already science fiction fans at the age of five. Even Forrest J. Ackerman claims not to have really become a science fiction fan until he was ten. I figure that I have something of a head start on him, of sorts. It was from Saturday morning TV that I came under the influence of science fiction, and at that time it was really coming under the influence of _C_o_m_m_a_n_d_o _C_o_d_y_, _S_k_y _M_a_r_s_h_a_l_l _o_f _t_h_e _U_n_i_v_e_r_s_e. This show was the TV adaptation of Republic's serials about the same character. _C_o_d_y was every bit as seductive an influence for me as _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k was for so many others. It was an entirely unfair influence on a young and susceptible mind. Cody's chief gimmick and claim to fame was that he had build for himself a flying suit. It was kind of a natural gimmick to put into a serial. Republic had worked out the special effect -- such as it was -- years earlier when they had made their serial _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _M_a_r_v_e_l. It was a simple enough special effect. You film your star taking a running jump, end the shot just before the character starts to fall, then cut to a shot of a rather stiff-looking wooden model being pulled along on an invisible wire. That is how Captain Marvel flew. Except in those days they did not have the editing of the film just right so you actually saw Captain Marvel start to fall in the last frames of the shot. This is, of course, much the same effect that Columbia borrowed when they filmed _S_u_p_e_r_m_a_n. Of course Captain Marvel and Superman flew more or less by magic. One was given his powers by a wizard, one came by them being born an alien. The problem with those explanations of the flying power is that you want a hero you can identify with. I think that even at the age of five I knew that in West Virginia -- I lived in West Virginia at the time -- there were not a whole lot of wizards around who could give me the power to fly. And supreme realist that I was, I knew I'd already muffed being an alien from the Planet Krypton. As a rule of thumb, if you do not _k_n_o_w you are Superman, you're not. Super heroes make really useless role models. I think the entertainment masters at Republic knew that something different was needed for kids to think "that could be me." Well the obvious thing to do was have technology come to the rescue. Technology Commando Cody August 13, 1989 Page 2 has always been magic for the common man. Republic decided that their character would fly by means kids would think they had some chance of achieving themselves, something logic and rational. They were going to strap jet engines to their hero's back. That was not really a new idea. Legend has it that a Chinese Emperor tied rockets to his throne in the hopes of flying. It wasn't a pretty sight. Later some publicity hound was stupid enough to strap rockets to his back as a means of speed skating for the benefit of newsreel cameras. He succeeded in knocking himself over and setting himself on fire -- you have probably seen the old newsreel footage. Well, Republic apparently had to find a way of convincing audiences that these were rockets that were strapped to Cody's back. But, very logically, they did not want to have them burn like real rockets. The result was less than satisfying. They sort of blew out a puff of smoke and they put on the soundtrack a weird electronic tonality that sounds nothing at all like a rocket. Actually, they did not even blow out the puff of smoke from the rockets on Cody's back, it seemed to be mostly coming from some place off screen. The prop man attached these rockets to a leather jacket by a harness and then, as their one vague concession to aerodynamics, they gave Cody a bullet-shaped helmet. As a kid that seemed pretty reasonable and something I could do. Of course, personal flying suits or something vaguely similar did come along some years later--James Bond uses the real thing in the prologue to _T_h_u_n_d_e_r_b_a_l_l--but they were considerably more limited than Cody's backpack. Cody used to open up a hatch on one spaceship, fly out, land on another spaceship in mid-slight, just open the hatch and step inside. It doesn't sound like much now, but to a five-year-old that's great stuff. The whole idea of these lumbering, slow-moving spaceships that you can fly from one to another was pretty great stuff. Serial spaceships were all about the size of a large truck. I didn't know it at the time, but the spaceships on _C_o_m_m_a_n_d_o _C_o_d_y were sort of a modernized version of the old _F_l_a_s_h _G_o_r_d_o_n spaceships. They didn't take off straight up; they sort of scraped their bellies along the ground until they got airborne via some lift principle as yet undiscovered by science. Figuring from what we see of the inside and the outside, the fuel tanks and engines apparently fit into about the last three or four feet of the rocket, the rest is passenger area. Again, my adult mind notices something about the take-off of the rocket ship that I never noticed as a kid. You never see the nose of the rocket at the time it takes off. You see the smoke shoot out the back (though it could be coming out of a pipe from off-screen because you do not actually see the rockets) and the rocket starts to move. It is plain to see that something off-screen was pulling the rocket, probably a truck with a chain to the nose of the sky marshall's craft. Still it was a pretty impressive effect when I saw it. Certainly the rocket engines sound a lot batter than the rockets did in Universal's _F_l_a_s_h _G_o_r_d_o_n and _B_u_c_k _R_o_g_e_r_s serials. The nose of the rocket is painted with Commando Cody August 13, 1989 Page 3 flamboyant rally stripes. And, dammit, when I see the scenes of the rocket in flight I still get a thrill. That's the real science fiction, and anything that doesn't have rockets like that is just a pretentious imitator. The interior of these babies were about the most fantastic that could be done on a lunch-money budget. The seats are clearly old office chairs that have been fitted with seatbelts and from which the castors have been removed. The walls have obvious piping hanging from them and old radios -- WWII vintage -- hang on the sides of the ship. What looks like a Van De Graf generator is stuck on the control panel. There are modernistic looking overhead lights, but a window could have been as useful. In the serials there was no such thing as the inky-blackness of space. Between the planets there was nothing but blue sky and fleecey clouds. For a _s_k_y _m_a_r_s_h_a_l_l _o_f _t_h_e _u_n_i_v_e_r_s_e, Cody did not get around very much, even with the nifty rocket ship. His beat was almost exclusively on Planet Earth with occasional field trips to the moon. That was, of course, the enemy's territory where Retik, Ruler of the Moon, had a fantastic, futuristic city. The outside of the city looked like something out of ancient Greece, but if you lived to get inside, you saw something very different. The rooms themselves were filled with plastic tubes, condenser plates, retorts of bubbling chemicals, electrical Jacob's ladders, fantastic calibrated instruments of no apparent purpose, and big round windows. Outside the city limits, most of the moon looks like Arizona. That was fairly typical, in fact. It was generally thought in 40's serials that alien planets and moons all looked a lot like Arizona. In _B_u_c_k _R_o_g_e_r_s life on Saturn was seen to look a lot a Chinese community in Arizona. Retik, himself, not coming from so alien a planet but only from the moon, did not have to look so incredibly alien that he had to be played by a Chinese actor. He looked human (in serials that usually meant "American") but he wore flowing robes and a chain-mail wimple. His civilization seemed to be made up entirely of men -- in spite of the commonly held belief that moon civilizations would be entirely made up of women as in the film _C_a_t _W_o_m_e_n _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n. Retik's weaponry was a sight to behold. He had these terrific tanks that were stream-lined and had fins. The guns were fitted right into the frame so that aiming really required steering the tank. It didn't matter. I don't think I ever saw the guns fire. The tanks looked suspiciously like a wooden frame fitted over jeeps, but who really cares? Of course it was only for use defending the moon itself. On Earth Retik would use a strategy that would consist of sabotaging trains and robbing banks. It was pretty tough to see how these actions fit into his overall plan, particularly because they always failed, but who can say how a really alien mind reasons? It is clear that it would be pretty tough to convince authorities that they were facing _b_a_n_k _r_o_b_b_e_r_s _f_r_o_m _o_u_t_e_r _s_p_a_c_e. Commando Cody August 13, 1989 Page 4 Well, that is it. _C_o_m_m_a_n_d_o _C_o_d_y_, _S_k_y_-_m_a_r_s_h_a_l _o_f _t_h_e _U_n_i_v_e_r_s_e is what made me a science fiction fan and a retrospective on the TV show has long been overdue. This is particularly true when I realize that most people seem to know Cody's name through the rock group _C_o_m_m_a_n_d_o _C_o_d_y _a_n_d _H_i_s _L_o_s_t _P_l_a_n_e_t _A_i_r_m_e_n. (Of course this is an error in itself. _L_o_s_t _P_l_a_n_e_t _A_i_r_m_e_n was the feature film version of the serial _K_i_n_g _o_f _t_h_e _R_o_c_k_e_t _M_e_n which did have the flight suit, but not Cody himself. Its hero was Jeff King, who lent his name to make the serial title more impressive.) While I cannot remember the show in detail, I have re- watched _R_o_c_k_e_t _M_e_n _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n, the serial that the TV show was based on. It squares with my memories of the space ships and rocket suits. It may not sound like it was all that great as a piece of science fiction, but it sure made a fan of me. Let's see what kind of fans cyberpunk recruits.