Science Fiction

Leonard Nimoy will be narrating the second part of a three part Microwarriors series. The series focuses on the health benefits of probiotics. Microwarriors: The Origin and the Destiny, narrated by Nimoy, will “present probiotics in an entertaining and interesting light, featuring front-line medical information, the latest scientific research, and commentary from leading experts in the field, including Dr. Gregor Reid, Professor of Microbiology and Surgery at the University of Western Ontario and Chair of Human Microbiology and Probiotics at the Lawson Health Research Institute.” “As a pioneer in the industry, we are both honored and thrilled to show our support for this educational film featuring cutting-edge, expert information on probiotics,” said Alan Murray, CEO of GoodBelly, a probiotic juice drink manufacturer. “We feel it’s crucial to help advance public knowledge about probiotics so consumers can make responsible and informed decisions, which is why we’re proud to play a part in growing awareness through Microwarriors on the workings of probiotics.” Microwarriors: The Origin and the Destiny will debut on DVD in December.

Later this summer, the second season of Star Trek: Enterprise will be released on Blu-ray. The second season will include six discs with all twenty-six episodes, and deleted scenes, outtakes and other newly-produced features. Some of the new features include: In Conversation: The First Crew (a reunion with the main cast and some guest stars), Destination Unknown: Uncharted Territory, and commentaries from Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, James Conway and Connor Trinneer. Star Trek: Enterprise Season Two will be released on Blu-ray on August 20. UK fans can pre-order the set now on Amazon UK, and fans in other countries will be able to pre-order their sets soon. The trailer below is courtesy of TrekCore.com. StarTrek.com

A new limited-edition MIMOBOT flash drive features Star Trek‘s Mr. Sulu. The Mr. Sulu MIMOBOT is available in up to 128GB and USB 3.0 capabilities. The Mr. Sulu MIMOBOT is the fifth in the Star Trek series, following Spock, Kirk, Picard and Data, and the flash drive comes preloaded with “with bonus Mimory and the MimoDesk personalization suite of wallpapers, icons and avatars. It also comes equipped with MimoByte sound software powered with an offering of iconic Star Trek sounds and Sulu character dialogue that plays each time Sulu MIMOBOT is inserted or ejected from one’s computer.” Pricing ranges from $24.95 for an 8GB capacity, to $129.99 for a 128GB capacity. The Mr. Sulu MIMOBOT can be ordered here.

http://www.themarysue.com/exclusive-saoirse-ronan-scarlet-witch/ The Mary Sue asked her about that story of her being a prototype for the Scarlet Witch.

While filming a scene for Star Trek into Darkness, actor Zachary Quinto sustained a burn. The scene in question was the one in which Spock was trying to stop a volcano from erupting and wiping out a civilization. Part of Quinto’s skin was exposed in spite of wearing a protective heat shoot for the scene. “My neck skin got caught in between the helmet (and my shoulder),” he said. “I didn’t know how serious [the burn] was. I didn’t know what was happening.” J.J. Abrams told Quinto that “It looked like there was a caterpillar on your neck!”

Just busy. Amuse yourselves in my absence. Be back later.

In response to the controversy about Alice Eve‘s Marcus underwear scene in Star Trek into Darkness, J.J. Abrams released a cut scene featuring a showering Benedict Cumberbatch‘s John Harrison. Abrams appeared on Conan last night, where Conan addressed the Marcus underwear scene controversy. “You’ve been taking some heat for a scene that I didn’t personally see what the fuss was about myself,” said Conan. “I was quite happy about the scene.” Abrams explained the intent behind the scene, and then defended the scene, saying it was a “balance,” or a “trade-off” because earlier a scene showing Kirk undressed had been shown. To further prove that there were sexy scenes for both men and women, Abrams introduced a clip of a short scene of Cumberbatch taking a shower, which ended up being cut from the movie.

As per usual Star Trek Into Darkness has sparked much fan discussion and even disagreement, but but if there’s one thing we can all agree on: we love seeing Alice Eve in her undies! True, of course, until anyone bothered to ask a woman. There has always been scantily clad females throughout Trek history – it’s a part of what makes Kirk so Kirk – so, why should this one scene be causing such a stir? Why have female fans responded so strongly in this case? Read my analysis below, but beware of SPOILERS. [WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD] Gratuitous Underwear: How did we get here?As if you need me to, I’ll set the scene. Kirk accompanies Carol Marcus to a shuttlecraft to discuss sending her to a nearby planetoid to try and diffuse some of these mysterious photon torpedoes aboard the Enterprise. She’s the logical choice since, as we learned in her introductory scene, she holds an advanced degree with a specialty in weaponry. Great, nothing out of the ordinary here, I’ll just go ahead and OH! You’re in your underwear! That’s just great. But, let’s back up a second. Why exactly is she in her underwear? She tells Kirk to turn around, doesn’t mention why (were we expecting here to require a change of wardrobe?) and then acts coy when Kirk sneaks a peak at her half-dressed body. The scene was flat out gratuitous. It had no point. There was no reason for her to change clothes. There was no reason for her to change in front of Kirk. There was no reason for her to change in a shuttlecraft with the back door hanging wide open. The writers threw the scene in for pure, testosterone-driven shock value. (Side note: lucky she was wearing her brand new Victoria Secret push-up bra. I’m sure that’s real comfortable under her uniform, especially in a combat situation) Think I’m being harsh? Even Damon Lindelof himself, co-writer of Into Darkness, publicly apologized for the scene saying over a few tweets: “I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely clothed actress. We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies. Do not want to make light of something that some construe has mysogenistic [sic]. What I’m saying is I hear you, I take full responsibility, and will be more mindful in the future.” Damsels in Distress: Where are all the women?But, we’ve seen our fair share of half-naked women (and men!) throughout Star Trek. Even in Star Trek (2009) we had one hot Orion woman in her undies as well as Uhura changing for us all to see. Why was it okay then but not now? Two reasons: 1. Those scenes were built into the story well (i.e. it was not gratuitous), and 2. Those scenes did not detract from their characters. She undressed with purpose! The Orion girl was undressed because, well, she was getting naughty with Kirk! As for Uhura, she was changing because she was in her personal quarters and unaware that some “mouth breather” was looking on from underneath her roommate’s bed. Those moments had purpose; they made sense. Randomly disrobing in the back of a shuttle craft? Gratuitous. Secondly, and most importantly, the Marcus underwear scene detracted from the only truly strong female role in the entire film. Let’s start from the beginning. A terrorist attack has occurred (after a MAN bribed the FATHER of a dying child), and all of Starfleet’s finest are gathered together at a round table to talk options. Who do we see? A bunch of old white human males (with maybe a token woman thrown in). Cut to our introduction to Carol Wallace (aka Carol Marcus). She’s cute, she’s sexy, she’s got great hair! But, she’s also brilliant and trained in advanced weaponry — a force even Mr. Spock is threatened by. Meanwhile, Uhura does little more than follow Spock around moaning about him having a death wish. For the girls, it’s Carol

Afternoon sugar cubes. OK you may have seen this around Bloglandia already but just in case you haven't, you must must must check out Sync's 2013 list of free audiobook downloads. Thank you AudioGo, Blackstone Audio, Bolinda Audio, Brilliance Audio, Christian Audio, Harper Audio, L.A. Theatre Works, Macmillan Audio, Listening Library, Recorded Books, Scholastic Audio, and Tantor Audio for your generosity and for what is sure to be a great summer of audios. Can you tell I've been looking forward to this since last summer? If you've been considering audios, this is your chance to try them out for FREE.So set your calendars. The FREE audios start one week from today and continue through August 21st.Content Copyright © 2009-2013 Tales of Whimsy. All Rights Reserved.

Terry Weyna and I attended the 2013 Nebula Awards Weekend in San Jose, California last week. The event focused mostly on the Saturday awards banquet, and programming was rather light, but I did attend a panel called “Writing the Other,” subtitled, “How do we write about what we cannot know?” Ken Liu, moderator “Writing the Other” looked like the staff of a think-tank. Saladin Ahmed (Throne of the Crescent Moon), Kim Stanley Robinson, (2312, which won the Nebula), Ken Liu (“Paper Menagerie”) and Aliette de Bodard (who would win for the novelette “Immersion”) made up the panel. Liu, who moderated, said that originally the theme of the panel had been how to write space aliens. Robinson said he agreed with Stanislaw Lem in Solaris; no one could write a believable space alien story because we wouldn’t ever be able to communicate with aliens. End of story. You can’t. De Bodard then weighed in with the argument that even if you could, you mustn’t, because “alien” equaled “non-human” and had been used as propaganda for centuries to dehumanize people of color and justify enslavement and genocide. So, writing aliens: 1) You can’t, and 2) you shouldn’t anyway. While I was sighing deeply and writing “I am very disappointed right now,” in my notes, the panel went on to discuss the challenges of writing “the human other.” They did all agree that this could be done, although at least two of them, again, thought you probably shouldn’t, (although they had). This got pretty lively. Saladin Ahmed raised an interesting issue when he talked about writing Islamic characters. Ahmed was raised Muslim and is Arab-American. When he wrote Throne of the Crescent Moon, he was not writing “the other.” He was writing what he knew. Those of us reading it who did not grow up in that culture might have been reading “the other.” A person in the audience, though, brought up the fact that Ahmed’s main character is an elder; elders might represent “the other” for Ahmed. What do you think? Is there a benefit in writing about, and reading about, cultures that are different from your own? Are there risks? And, to you, just what is “the other,” anyway? One commenter wins a book from our stacks.