Readers send even more feedback on the Todd Moyers/Battlestar Galactica interview, plus the solution to one of the universe's oldest and most perplexing conundrums: static cling.

August 16, 1999

Tobor: A 1200 baud modem on the information superhighway of life. We have the best-educated American people in the world. Canada's running a close second, seeing as how all those draft dodgers ran up there back in the 60s, but they're trickling back, one by one, once again tilting the balance in our favor. If you detect a note of half-heartedness in my scribbling today, it's because Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander has dropped out of the Republican primary, leaving no one left to fight for flannel shirts and blue jeans in the upcoming race. Might Governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura -- or at least somebody in the WWF -- take up this important cause? No. The flannel lobby is leaderless. Online pajama shops are shutting down. What does that have to do with Battlestar Galactica, or static cling for that matter? Normally I'd pull a weird link out of my patented collection that would somehow tie these three disparate threads altogether into a neat little package, sort of like a fancy ribbon on a box of flannel shirts symbolically "presented" to Governor Ventura by Candidate Alexander, but not today. My grief is too deep. Ricky Martin sold out. --Tobor

Battlestar Redux I hope Moyers is at least talking to Richard Hatch about the movie. I think it would be a mistake is he doesn't. Yes, the Wing Commander movie was OK but it left out the interaction between the Kilrathi and the Humans. I think that would have helped it as well as introduced the Kilrathi better. Hatch's idea is very good and would have great fan appeal. Taking BG on a different path would hurt the series (like BG 1980's). TrYour1

If there's any talking between those two at this point it's probably being done in the flowery, elegant prose of lawyers. --Tobor

Very good article. I enjoy being kept up to the minute on issues and stories that don't always see the light of day in periodicals such as Newsweek, Time, or USA Today. I have always been a fan of the Battlestar Galactica series and this article left me feeling very satisfied. Thank you for a timely, well developed piece of news. Christopher

Thanks Christopher, we are pleased by the considerable response that has been accorded the Cosmian League at its first appearance. Above all, we note with interest how many seem to have caught the spirit that motivated it. Others have queried further; they want to know why we are so firm in our belief in the future, why we seem so positive in our assertion that science can master interplanetary space and can survive the present dark days? Above all, everyone wants to know what Cosmians can do about it? --Tobor

You guys gave Moyers an appallingly easy ride here. I mean, c'mon, let's face it, Wing Commander stunk on toast. If it came down to watching that film or getting my eyes gouged out with a wooden spoon, the spoon looks pretty appetizing. Another thing: Why do we get so hyped up whenever Hollywood takes a mediocre television show and revamps it for the big screen? Have we forgotten how bad the original program was? I really don't want to see the CGI rendered Moffit 2000. Sure I watched it when I was a kid, but I was an idiot! When I was eight they could put a test pattern on TV and I was entertained. The show wasn't even bad enough to be campy fun in reruns like Speed Racer. There is a reason why it has remained off the air for so long. Why take a crummy TV show and try to spin straw into gold? How about this for an idea: Come up with an original concept and leave the bad-show baggage behind. For every Addams Family they kick out Hollywood makes 20 clunkers. Beverly Hillbillies. Car 54 Where Are You? The Mod Squad. Leave It To Beaver. Remakes of TV shows actually have a worse track record than original concepts. But, original concepts take vision and creativity. Rights to mediocre shows are easier to explain to suits who dream of tapping the millions anxiously waiting to see who replaces Dirk Benedict -- as if he could be replaced -- as Starbuck. John M.

How dare you run down Hollywood in such a roughshod, Juicemobile-wearing manner. Hollywood is our Dream Factory, our Celluloid Temple; without it, would we have The Blues Brother 2000? I know a guy, a friend of a friend, who is such a fan of the original Blues Brothers movie that he simply refuses to acknowledge the existence of the cash-in crapola sequel. He literally refuses to acknowledge its existence, you can mention it and he'll say, "I don't know what you're talking about," or "There's no such thing." You can even hold up an article about it and he'll develop a blind spot, blinking dumbly at the page, "I don't see anything like that at all." It's a remarkably well developed defense mechanism that so far several psychologists have been unable to penetrate. George Lucas and the entire LucasFilm organization seems to have developed a similar blockage when it comes to the 1977 Star Wars Christmas Special. By all accounts, you can't find a copy of this film anywhere, it's never re-broadcast, and teams of Imperial agents have combed the country seizing and destroying contraband copies. --Tobor

I am not against the concept of Commander Cain being the focus of a Battlestar Galactica Movie. I am not against the concept of evolutionary change in some of the spacecraft on B.G. However when Todd Moyer talks about vipers going into walk mode I get the feeling we are going to wind up with a childish movie that nobody is going to want to see. I thought some of his points were valid on his casting for Wing Commander and on a pure action level it held my interest for the last hour of the film, but for a film to be considered good it must have good writing and in the case of Wing Commander that's where it really fell short. Battlestar Galactica has built a cult following and in this circumstance requires that any changes in evolving characters or hardware have a look and feel that is a logical and respectful progression of the original series. If those spider devices on their web site are Colonial Vipers (I thought they were human extermination devices to find search and destroy the remaining humans after a Cylon attack) then I will have to reluctantly agree with the critics that this movie is going to be a non starter Richard B. Cylons: what did they really want? My father and I talk about movies sometimes. What we'd like to see and all that, which I assume a lot of other people do out there. Well, a series he liked ages ago and I kinda didn't mind was Battlestar Galactica. We talked about it just a couple weeks back. Today I go into your web site and see the story about it. I was pretty happy. "Kewl, they're gonna make another sci-fi movie... I'll bet it'll be good." Then I started reading the article. Is it me? Or does this Todd Moyer sound like the perfect stereotype of a big studio head type guy? "Oh, nobody cares about the script, the story doesn't matter at all. What THEY want is big special effects and I have to give it to them cheaply so when nobody sees the movie I'll still make a profit off of it." This is the impression I get from everything said in your article/interview. It just so happens one of the few movies my dad and I have seen together this past year was Wing Commander. We both walked out of the show shaking our heads and wondering how we could have spent those two wasted hours. It was the worst sci fi movie I've ever seen. And now when I tell my father that Battlestar Galactica, a movie he's been waiting years and years to see, will be made by the same LOSER that made Wing Commander... it's gonna break his heart. Jeffrey I was mildly interested to read your article on Todd Moyer and his point of view on the recent developments of the Battlestar Galactica project. I was more than a bit disappointed though at the lack of any really critical questioning of Moyer's planned "vision." Personally, having followed the Galactica's travails online for a while, I think it's an outrage to fans of the series that this hack is involved at all. With his piss-poor "Wing Commander" film, and the double-dealing he's used on Richard Hatch to try and short circuit Hatch's fan-based revival campaign... no mention of which made it into your article. It's a travesty that Hollywood more often favors people like Todd Moyer, who are out simply to make a buck off whatever they can get their hands on, as opposed to people who have a genuine concern for the material and the fans (like Richard Hatch). It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but I for one hope that Todd Moyer and his production flop. I won't be wasting my money on anything that has his name associated with it. Mike Johnston

Judging from the ferocity of the readers' attacks on Moyers (a ferocity I've not seen since Katsacali Tobor the Great battled me for the right to use the name 'Tobor the Great' online), Todd Moyers' version of Battlestar Galactica will go over about as well as a lead balloon. Which is to say, not very well at all. However that has never stopped Hollywood before, as demonstrated so ably by such sterling genre nuggets as Uncle Sam or The Giant Spider Invasion. (Did anyone catch that one on the MST3K rerun this weekend? Ugh.) Anyway, once the machinery is set in motion, fan influence is about as powerful as an attack by the Superfriends' Wonder Twins. "Jana, in the form of monkey!" "Zann, in the form of a puddle!" It only takes one zookeeper with a mop and a banana trap to take care of it. --Tobor

F.A.K.K. 2 Unlike Blair Witch, where the real hype didn't hit until right before the release, or Phantom Menace, where the anticipation was years in the making, Eastman has been stoking the hype-furnace about this film for years. A significant portion of each issue of Heavy Metal seems to be dedicated to the film, and we have been barraged with t-shirts, statues, and portfolios featuring Julie in all her Bisley-rendered glory. This is not to say that I am not excited about the project. Heavy Metal holds a dear place in my fanboy heart. It just seems that this project has taken priority over all else. The overall quality of Heavy Metal has dropped. The Eastman owned Words & Pictures museum in Northampton MA is now closing. All of this because of a film which, to be quite honest, appears to be about an animated Julie Strain running around with a big gun. If Eastman was determined to keep the hype simmering for so long, he may have tried showing us what else was in the film, or a bit about what it is about. Neither Melting Pot (on which it is based) nor the FAKK2 special were really strong on plot. It all reminds me far too much of when the pre-Alan Moore Rob Liefeld used to promote an upcoming book with one piece of ad art, and then milk that art for months before the issue came out, only to have the issue feature ten pages of his work and a bunch of ads. In other words: yes, I will see it on opening day, but I am expecting disappointment. Jeff Patterson

You could be right. I've not seen too much to get me excited about this one so I'm taking a cautious, "Wait and see" attitude, sort of the same mindset I adopt when opening my birthday presents and hoping for -- praying for -- the Darth Maul Cloning Facility action playset and receiving instead only more Amidala-Disguised-as-Padme figurines. Which will Heavy Metal 2 turn out to be? Cloning facility or disguised handmaiden? We shall see. --Tobor

X-COM TV Speaking of X-Com, Tobor, if your want X-Com type programming SCI-FI Channel used to run on Sundays a show called UFO, which is completely what the X-COM video game is based off of. Space interceptors, Alien Mind control, Transports and landing parties, hidden bases, and a silly cover story. Ok it was fairly cheesy, but you can't expect a lot more from a show that predates the 80's, but it was definitely still fun. I'd rather get to see that daily than the crap they play now, or even if they'd just run them late night, instead of just repeating there lineup. I still await a 24-hour sci-fi channel. Not to say anything bad about Farscape, but that's just once a week. voidness (lower case please)

Hmm, never heard of that show but it sounds right up my alley. And yeah, I wish the Sci-Fi channel would run more old shows when they're not doing their main lineup, and what's the point of re-running the lineup? And those infomercials, they start way too early. True Sci-Fi fans want to stay up until 3:00 AM watching old black and white movies. Right folks? Movies are just scarier late at night. I once made up a hypothetical science fiction TV schedule, a whole week, 24 hours a day, for a contest we decided not to run. If anyone's interested I'll post it. --Tobor (mixed case please)

Piers Piece I just want to say that I enjoyed the interview. Even though I never read any of his books, it was informative. One is that I write somewhat, and though I don't intend to make money on it, who knows someday...? Anyway, thanks for the interview. Steven Mattes I thought your Piers Anthony article was great, but I had to write in to defend the honour of my favourite author, Terry Pratchett. I know you did say that "virtually" no one else had written as many books in a single series, but the twenty-third book in his Discworld series, Carpe Jugulum, came out in May in the U.K. and Canada, and will be out in the U.S. this month (if it isn't already). I just had to stick up for Terry, the funniest man in fantasy writing. Hey, maybe you could try to get an interview with him. Pretty please? Chris Walsh

No problems on this end Chris, and we'd love to interview Terry Pratchett. However, since the traffic on our Moyers and Frakes interviews were a lot higher than the Piers Anthony piece, expect more TV/film interviews than author chats in the future. --Tobor

Frakes Flub Nice interview, but you need to get your facts right. The new series "Roswell" is NOT on UPN, it is on The WB. Such a simple fact to check :-( MB

Actually Roswell's in New Mexico. Ka-ching! But you're right, we goofed, as usual, so the offender has been set adrift amidst the Sandwich Islands with a hatchet, some fish hooks, and a few back issues of Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamsters. --Tobor

Earth Final Conflict "Will Liam Kincaid be a better character without his powers?" No. I like him just the way he is, thank you very much. And that underground chick they've introduced (who is a potential Lily replacement), is lousy, uncompelling, and needs to get lost. Oh, and one more thing the producers need to put on the "kill list:" That Lily-duplicate personality for Augur's computer. The novelty wore off after one episode, and the whole pregnancy thing was insufferable. Chris Hart

Will the above letter be improved with a sarcastic response? No. I like it fine just the way it is. --Tobor

The Blair Witch Parody Watch Did Doogie Howser ruin The Blair Witch Project? I just saw a commercial on NBC for some new forgettable "Odd Couple" type show staring Doogie Howser, that mocked the Blair Witch Project. But unlike the Bowfinger and Two Guys, Girl, and a Pizza Place, which parody scenes from the film's commercial, this "parody" basically shows the entire $%&#$* ending of the film. It shows a panicky Neil Patrick Harris rushing into an abandoned house complete handprints on the wall and with a camcorder while someone "a la Josh" screams for him. He reaches the basement only to find the guy who plays the roommate come out of a shower and tell of how great it was, and then Doogie drops the camera "a la last shot of the film!" and rushes to the shower. Now if I hadn't seen the film and saw this first, and then saw the film, I would be pissed because their would be no doubt to what happened as soon as you see the house. I would also be pissed if I made a film and saw a bunch of vapid fools put what is basically the ending of it, on TV to promote a one joke show, before the film was even out of the theater. It would be like watching TV shortly after "Empire Strikes Back" came out and seeing a clear parody of the scene where Vader tells Luke he's his father with in a lame sitcom promotion. Does anyone else think it's a bit unfair to the potential audience who haven't seen the film yet, the makers of the film, or even to us, for having to put with yet another unimaginative ploy to get people to watch an Odd Couple rip off? Roguetide

I feel your pain, Roguetide, and not in a hollow, State of the Union-address kind of way, but with deep sympathy for the agony that another sentient being must feel while being forced to watch Neil Patrick Harris (TV's Doogie Howser) do anything, anything at all, in front of the business end of a camera. And then they have to go and ruin the ending of the movie for everyone too. Thanks Doogie. Thanks a million. Hope your new show's a hit. But savor this sweet revenge with me: there is only one Neil Patrick Harris fan site listed under the Yahoo Actors & Actresses directory, and it's closed. Even Hans Moleman, minor character on The Simpsons, gets more love. --Tobor

COMICS: San Diego Comic Con Round-up - (8.16.99)

MOVIES: Final Fantasy Fantastic - (8.16.99)

MOVIES: X-Men Update - (8.16.99)

TV/ANIME: Robotech Returns - (8.16.99)

MOVIES: Matrix Musings - (8.16.99)

TV: Mulder's New Conspiracy - (8.16.99)

TV: Starship Troopers First Impressions - (8.16.99)

MOVIES: Freddy vs. Jason Gets Slashed - (8.16.99)