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SFFTV: The 9 Lives of Chloe King Pilot Review

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I just finished watching the Pilot episode of ABC Family’s summer show The 9 Lives of Chloe King and let’s just say I am pleasantly surprised that I haven’t killed myself yet. This is the sort of series that I would have loved at the age of 16 (I had Buffy the Vampire Slayer – which is still the awesomest). Based on the Young Adult series by Kim Brazwell, the show has moderate to solid acting, fun and quick dialogue, an intriguing back story, and good looking people, which I figure is enough to make any show on ABC Family a hit. More than that, though, this is a show with some genuine heart which will inevitably be what draws people back week after week (unlike Teen Wolf, which I’ll start reviewing next week, but I don’t want to because it’s painful). Be warned, this does contain spoilers. The 9 Lives of Chloe King: Pilot Chloe King (Skyler Samuels) is a fairly typical teenager with typical teenage insecurities. She’s afraid that her life is a little boring and concerned she’s doomed to never kiss another boy (the first one having been her best friend at the age of 8). On the cusp of her 16th birthday, she’s about to find out just how exciting her life can be. The pilot episode begins with a chase through a San Francisco Park, at the end of which Chloe is pushed from the top of Coit Tower by a mysterious man with a gnarly scratch on his face. One can only assume that this means that there won’t be a second episode, as Coit Tower is 210 feet tall and no human could possibly survive that. Luckily, the title of the series pretty much spoils any tension this scene might have had, but we’re left waiting till over half way through the episode to find out what happens after Chloe hits the ground. Flashback to two days earlier, 1 day before Chloe’s 16th birthday. After a quick and cute morning recap with her mother (Amy Pietz), Chloe is off for a pre-birthday birthday breakfast muffin with her best friends, Amy (Grace Phipps) and Paul (Ki Hong Lee). As Chloe bemoans the fact that the only boy she’s ever kissed is Paul and that her life is super boring, she walks effortlessly across the top of a park bench, leaving her friends amazed at her abilities. This is the first sign that something about Chloe is changing and it’s practically ignored by our heroine. She glosses it over as “easy” even as Paul proves it’s quite difficult. That evening, instead of doing their usual pre-birthday dinner, Chloe convinces her friends to be a little bit more daring. The trio sneaks into a club, where Chloe meets a boy and spends the evening dancing. Chloe’s happiness that her wish might actually come true is palpable and she makes the snap decision to kiss the boy before heading home. As first kisses go, this one is sweet and endearing. Even though Skyler Samuels isn’t that convincing of a wall-flower, it’s still easy to believe that this is her first. Her excitement is shared by pal Amy at school the next day and, after impressing the school and the head jock Alec (Benjamin Stone) with a long basketball shot into a trash can, it seems that Chloe may have more luck with the opposite sex than she could have ever dreamed. Boy Number three walks into her life when he stops at the boutique clothing store she works at. Brian (Grey Damon from Friday Night Lights) is the adorable every man, with boyish good lucks and a bumbling geeky charm that immediately piques Chloe’s interest. However, since this is guy number three, I was starting to wonder if she started putting off some weird pheromone. Meanwhile, as the trials of boy and girls are played out on screen, Chloe is discovering that her 16th birthday is coming with a whole slew of surprises – catlike reflexes, increased energy, eerie good hearing, and, of course, claws. All of this is a little disturbing, but the newness is exciting enough that Chloe is willing to let it slide, until she takes a header off of Coit tower. Having not read the books, I was genuinely surprised when it’s revealed that Alec (the sexy and very forward jock) and Jasmine (a brooding girl who you first think is Alec’s girlfriend until Amy says she’s his cousin – confused? Yes, so am I) have been watching Chloe and only stepped in when they realized her life was in danger. When Chloe demands an explanation (she’s as confused as I was), they reveal that they were there to watch until she makes her change at which point, presumably, others would step in to explain things about who Chloe really is. Chloe, Alec, and Jasmine are Mai, an ancient species that is neither human nor god, but born of the Egyptian goddess Bastet. Centuries earlier they broke their sacred pact to protect humanity and now they are hunted by a mysterious organization known only as “The Order”. However, Alec and Jasmine are confused why The Order (who consider it their duty to hunt down Mai) is actually trying to kill Chloe, since normally they just twiddle their thumbs (or something) and most Mai live a perfectly normal life. We also find out that Mai and humans can’t mate, which really puts a damper on Chloe’s relationship with Dance Club Boy (who is killed by her kiss) and Brian. This is probably the clunkiest scene in the entire episode. Whereas a good portion of the interactions between characters is just as effortless as Chloe on a tightrope, when Alec (Benjamin Stone) and Jasmine (Allysa Diaz) are forced to act, the entire thing falls apart. Of course, it could just be that they have to wrap up an entire mythology into a 2 minute scene, but bad writing isn’t an excuse for their weak

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Terry Pratchett Has Begun the Doctor-Assisted Suicide Process in Switzerland

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Take this news how you will.  Pratchett has been a fervent defender of doctor-assisted suicide in the last year or two, spearheaded, we can assume, by his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s.  The Guardian reports that Pratchett received the forms from Dignitas, a clinic in Switzerland: Pratchett, whose BBC2 film about the subject of assisted suicide is to be shown on BBC2 tomorrow, revealed he had been sent the consent forms requesting a suicide by the clinic and planned to sign them imminently. “The only thing stopping me [signing them] is that I have made this film and I have a bloody book to finish,” he said during a question-and-answer session following a screening at the Sheffield documentary festival Doc/Fest. I can’t speak for everyone who has been on this show, but I’m sure we all wish Pratchett the best, whether he goes through the process or not. Let’s hope that no more fantasy icons have to experience the same similar things and that a cure is found (sooner rather than later).

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SFFTV: Torchwood: Miracle Day coming soon to Starz

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Fans of Doctor Who are probably quite familiar with the Torchwood franchise, but the new series Torchwood: Miracle Day aims to bring the secretive government organization Torchwood to a whole new audience.  Torchwood has been bumped channel to channel over the years, due to increasing audiences and, consequently, higher budgets, but in 2009, due to budget cuts, it was limited to only five episodes that were released as a serial called Torchwood: Children of Earth.  Not only did it recieve high ratings, but critical reviews were good and Torchwood started to look for a new home.  After a deal with Fox fell threw (thank goodness), BBC Cymru Wales, BBC Worldwide, and Starz partnered up to bring us the next Torchwood series, Torchwood: Miracle Day. Torchwood: Miracle Day reunites the only three remaining members of Torchwood:  Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), the immortal, bisexual, ex-con that originally appeared in Doctor Who; Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), a former South Wales Police officer who stumbled into the world of Torchwood and acts as the audience surrogate; and Rhys Williams (Kai Owen), the bumbling “everyman” now husband of Agent Cooper who was drawn into the fold when Gwen revealed the truth of her employment.  New to the Torchwood mythology is a whole slew of characters due to the relocation to America, but most notable among these will be: Rex Matheson (Mekhi Phifer), a typically heroic CIA operative; Esther Drummon (Alexa Havins), an optimistic CIA Watch analyst; and Bill Pullman as Oswald Danes, a convicted murderer turned celebrity. The Premise is essentially that people on Earth have ceased to die.  They can get sick and get hurt, but they cannot die.  The sudden unending population boom puts a huge strain on Earth’s resources and the powers that be decide that someone has to be behind it.  CIA Agent Rex Matheson keeps finding Torchwood when he looks for the source of the conspiracy and Gwen Cooper and Captain Jack Harkness have no choice but to plunge back into the adventure. I, personally, couldn’t be more excited about Torchwood coming back on the air and am ecstatic that it was dropped by Fox and picked up by Starz.  This is a show that needs to be able to cross some lines that most of America isn’t comfortable with.  Not to mention that Starz has the buying power to up the production values of Torchwood dramatically.  The issues tackled in the third season (Torchwood: Children of Earth) were some of the most difficult, harrowing, and deeply disturbing that I have ever seen from a television series and season 4 promises more of the same.   Plus, I sorta have a thing for Captain Jack (seriously, he’s sexy). Torchwood: Miracle Day premieres July 8, 2011 on Starz.

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Feed the Machine: Viral Time

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Welcome to Feed the Machine, my weekly column for this ne’er-too-oft visited corner of the Interweb.  Here, I take a science article and twist it to make science fictional ideas that you all can have, free of charge. For the first installment, read this article called “Viral Time” by Carl Zimmer on the Long Now blog.  Oh, and if you don’t follow the Long Now blog, drop their RSS feed into your reader.  SF is all about the future, and these are some of the most forward thinking people on the planet. From this article, a few ideas can be easily divined just from a preliminary skim.  “One French scientist revived from our genome a functioning 2-million-year-extinct virus just by deducing the original code from the current variety in that stretch of DNA.”  What other dormant viruses exist within our DNA?  Are they helpful or hurtful?  Do they have any commercial use, like creating ultracapacitors or ethanol?  If the code for a unique virus that split oxygen and hydrogen from water was found on my DNA, could I sell vials of my skinflakes to venture capitalists?  But these are all rather too easy. Let’s dig deeper into the article.  For me, the last line of the article is the most intriguing.  ”One hypothesis is that viruses took primordial RNA and generated DNA to better protect the genes.  They might have created life as we know it, a long time ago.”  Does this mean that virus’ are our god(s)?  If this were proven to be true, would we worship the almighty Ur-virus, and hope to be saved from the Luciphage?  Would churches be decorated with double helices instead of crucifixes?  Where would bacteria fit into all of this?  What could we do if we found the ur-virus?  Could we send ten thousand samples on microprobes into interstellar space, hoping to bring about an intergalactic panspermia in a few billion years?  Is this how we began?  Would the panspermers be our gods then? But I’m neglecting the “it” genres of greenpunk and mundane SF.  “ Every day half of all the bacteria in the oceans are killed by phages.”  What if this changed by a single percentage point up or down?  How would life on earth differ?  What if earth became a dustbowl, would someone start impregnating any virus or bacteria they came across with photosynthesizing capabilities to try and restart the carbon cycle?  How would that change the earth” And for you transhumanists out there.  “About 8 percent of our genome—some 100,000 elements—comes from viruses, and some of those genes now work for us (enabling the mammalian placenta, for instance). “  What if all of the virus-given genome was removed  from a prenatal human?  How would they differ from us?  Could they survive?  What if we tweaked this virus code to give us latent abilities?  What if humans became biofuel or hydrogen factories, only to be decanted by those who hold the rights to their genes? One last thing.  Viruses seem to live outside the fourth dimension, like some metabeing.  They can die in microseconds or live in ice for millions of years.  The efficiency with which they go about life is astounding.  This begs the question: would a sufficiently advanced civilization, who have outgrown their world and want to explore the universe, model their interstellar body type on viruses?  A small, dormant protein shell housing a few million bioquantum bits.  How many quintillions of beings could be transported across the galaxy in a slowship the size of the space shuttle?  Why doesn’t time matter for a virus?  What about it allows it to live the way it does? I’m doing this all stream of conscious like.  These were the first ideas to pop into my head, generated by the smallest lifeforms we know of.  Imagine what would happen if you sat down with the article for ten minutes and just thought.  Hugo award, anyone? –Adam

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New Content: SFFTV

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Jen here and I’m just going to come out and admit it:  I’m a TV whore!  In my defense, the vast majority of what I do watch is science fiction and fantasy genre television, but that doesn’t really lessen the fact that I watch way too much television.  To that end, we’ve decided that I should just run with this sad little obsession of mine and share it with all of you.  This means I’ll be sacrificing my summer for hours and hours in front of the boob tube, but I think I’ll manage (as long as someone is willing to bring me margaritas).  So check back with the Skiffy and Fanty show for reviews, news, and probably some ranting, about all things Science Fiction and Fantasy TV. Summer SF/F TV True Blood HBOs True Blood is entering its fourth season, which will loosely follow the story of the fourth book of Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mysteries, Dead  to the World.  This means we’ll get more werewolves, were-panthers, witches, fairies, and sex with Eric Northman (guess what I’m most excited about).  HBO has done an amazing job taking what is a solid summer reading urban fantasy series and turning it into a dark, well-crafted television show with enough variation from the original books that readers are still left guessing what is going to happen next.  I was blown away by the first season, less enamored of the second, and am still catching up with the third, but I have yet to be disappointed. Teen Wolf Teen Wolf premieried on MTV on June 5, 2011.  That means it should be easy to catch up on, but at an hour in length and the fact that it’s MTV programming and targetted at people half my age – this is going to be torture.  Those of us who remember the original Teen Wolf movie will be sorely dissappointed by this “reboot.”  The only things that have stayed the same are apparently the name of the main character and the fact that he’s in High School.  Gone is basketball, fuzzy dad, and Michael J. Fox;  in is Lacrosse, a werewolf bite, and some kid named Tyler Posey.   I’m just hoping I don’t get completely sucked into it, because the only thing redeeming about it might just be the fact that the werewolf teenager falls in love with a girl from a family of werewolf hunters. Haven When Haven debuted last year it took me a few episodes to get into it, but once the show had me in its claws… Well, let’s just say I’m looking forward to Season 2.  Haven is loosely based on Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid, which I haven’t actually read, but I imagine that was enough to give the show some street cred to draw viewers in initially.  The show was intriguing enough, with low enough production costs, that it’s back for a second season.  It centers around an FBI agent, Audrey Parker, who traveled to the small town of Haven to hunt down an escaped criminal.  She stays after discovering that the town is beset with supernatural emergencies and that her mother may have a connection with it.  I’ve enjoyed the dynamics between the characters of Haven, but I’m hoping that in Season 2 we’ll see that the rest of the town is actually beset with “The Troubles,” as opposed to the few highlighted in each episode.  Haven has just enough mystery to keep me coming back for more, but I have a feeling there are only so many tricks up their sleeves.  That said – the cliffhanger last season was REALLY weird and left me with my jaw dropped, so we’ll see what happens! Warehouse 13 A series about a couple of Secret Service Agent screw ups who are relegated to a super secret Warehouse full of supernatural artifacts?  What’s not to like!  It’s like watching the Raiders of the Lost Ark, MacGuyver, X-Files, and Moonlighting all at the same time.  Warehouse 13 is quirky, humorous, and exciting, with just enough darkness and dramatic tension to keep it from becoming completely ridiculous.  Unfortunately, at the end of Season 2, Myka – one half of the dastardly duo – left Warehouse 13.  The relationship between Myka and Pete was such a large part of the charm of this series, that the show may suffer for this decision.  That said, they did struggle with finding a balance between Pete and Myka as a romantic possibility, and Pete and Myka’s familial comaraderie. However, the testorone quotient jumps up with Myka’s replacement and SyFy risks alienating their 50% female viewership. Eureka Ahh, Eureka, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways…  Eureka has been going strong for four seasons, and based on the twists presented in Season 4 I don’t see it losing steam anytime soon.  There were some nearly show-killing plot decisions in Season 2 and 3, but the veritable reboot at the beginning of Season 4 has almost erased that, leaving a world of possibilities open for the quirky little town of Eureka.  Throw in some Felicia Day and more WIl Wheaton and we should have a good summer on our hands.  SyFy had some issues (I honestly don’t know what they were) releasing Season 4.5 (usually they have a winter season), but those episodes have presumably become the Summer session episodes.  Hopefully the exceedingly long gap, with only 10 episodes in the previous season, won’t kill the viewing numbers, because Eureka is the only thing in Summer television that I actually look forward to. Falling Skies Six months after a devastating Alien invasion, the few survivors of Earth have banded together to fight back.  Falling Skies stars Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, and Will Patton, so we’re at least assured of a great cast and solid acting.  TNT has aired some excellent programming and with Steven Spielberg as Executive Producer, it’s hard to come out and say that this show is going to fail, but it

Viking Amoeba

A New Viking Amoeba Recruit from Sam Sykes

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We have a new recruit, and this one is definitely on fire.  He’s going to light things up.  The Internet will be ablaze with heated conversation.  We’re pretty sure you’ll have the hots for him.  Really.  We do. How are you enjoying my puns?  Not even a little laugh?  Really?  Fine.  If you’re going to be that way, then I’ll leave you with the following: The Vastatiotor — Castellan Ustulanthis Strength 6; Intelligence 5 Special Ability:  Scorched Earth (If Castellan is involved in combat, inflict 1 point of damage to all enemies on the field oncecombat has ended and an additional 2 if Castellan dies) (Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes)  If you want to see the other additions to the army, check out our Viking Amoeba Army page.

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