'Firefly' Fridays: 'Mal Makes Everybody Cry... He's Like a Monster'

Honestly, I don't see what Mal's so peeved about. Saffron's a lovely girl...

'Wit's End' and other jaunts across pop-culture boundaries

"No one in novels watches TV," a character declares early in Jane Austen Book Club author Karen Joy Fowler's Wit's End, by way of explaining why she no longer thinks printed literature is a truly living medium. There are several levels of irony included in that casual dismissal: This character happens to be a wildly successful novelist herself, for one. And Wit's End happens to be a novel in which lots of people watch a lot of TV. Fowler's characters chat casually about Lost, Prison Break, 24, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica, Bones, and more. She really does capture what it's like to be a post-millennial pop-culture junkie without beating the theme into readers' heads, and that alone makes me respectfully differ with the solid B that Wit's End received in EW recently. I wolfed it down over the course of two recent plane flights, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Wit's End has also gotten much attention for the way its plot turns on characters' use of Wikipedia, LiveJournal, and fanfic sites. The websites themselves come to life practically as vividly as some of Fowler's secondary characters. As io9's Annalee Newitz has put it, this makes the novel a kind of "science fiction in the present": "While there are no aliens here, or artificial intelligences who come to life, Wit's End manages to skirt the edges of science fiction themes beautifully, hinting at the ways our lives have become the stuff of science fiction without us noticing." And these big, explicit nods to the world that Web 2.0 has wrought aren't so different from those incidental TV references, are they? In both, Fowler is playing with the communities created by a popular medium — the incredible collective experiences shared by people who watch a series or user-edit a website.

I think the reason I like Wit's End so much is because it fits into one of my favorite kinds of entertainment: pop culture about other kinds of pop culture. The Truman Show was a movie about TV; the fourth-season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm was a TV episode about Broadway (Mel Brooks' The Producers). Have any of you out there read Wit's End? And even if not, do you have any other favorite cross-media works of art like this?

Watch out, Skynet — Common's comin' for ya

Chi-town rapper/actor Common's very cool upcoming album, Invincible Summer, has a much more synth-based sound than his last couple efforts — shiny circuitry in place of organic soul, you might say. (More on this in EW's summer music preview coverage, in print later this month.) But don't tell that to the character he'll be playing on-screen in the new Terminator sequel. According to Variety, Com's just been cast in T4 as a human "freedom fighter," working closely with John Connor (Christian Bale) to take down those evil, murderous machines... so, probably not a guy who listens to a lot of mechanistic electro-rap.

But word! This almost makes up for that Ghostface/Iron Man snub. In all seriousness, this sounds great to me. I'm a fan of his music, of course, but I also thought he showed surprising sensitivity in his few American Gangster scenes last year, where he played one of Denzel Washington's brothers. What do you say? Bale's a pretty intense dude to share a screen with — think Common can hold his own alongside him?

'Firefly' Fridays: I Need A Hero

Why? Because I was feeling a little musical...

(Yes, that's two Jayne-centric clips in a row. So? Besides, this episode was written by the great madman Ben Edlund, who created The Tick. Which is almost as awesome as Firefly. The animated version, that is. As you were.)

'Firefly' Fridays: This is my rifle, this is my gun. This one's for fighting...

For Mr. Jayne Cobb (the consistently, criminally underrated Adam Baldwin), happiness is, indeed, a warm gun...

The best things you've overheard at a fan convention

My experience with fan conventions is admittedly limited: I've got one Buffy con to my name (it was the summer after the show's 2003 series finale, and it was held at a Catskills resort named the Friar Tuck — I'm only human!), and last weekend's New York Comic Con. Since I was actually taking notes at NYCC, here are a few of my favorite overheard comments.

1. I knew I was headed in the right direction, toward the Javits Center where Comic Con was held, when a young woman in front of me teased her walking-and-primping-at-the-same-time friend, "Ooh, you've got to look good for your boyfriend, Seth Green (pictured)."

2. In the ladies room, I walked into a debate between two young women over who was going to sweat more in their costumes. One of them shouted a snotty, "Are, too!" The other's comeback? "D2!"

3. Waiting in line for the Disney/Pixar panel, a guy behind me called out the costumes as he spotted them: "We've got a sexy Robin and a sexy Batgirl. I don't know why I said sexy. I guess because they're in short skirts." (Check out our gallery of costumes captured on the Comic Con floor.)

4. At the Moonlight panel, when a woman saw that her friend was getting up to ask a question of stars Alex O'Loughlin and Jason Dohring, she called out, "Don't embarrass me!"

I'm sure you can top those. Let's hear read 'em.

New York Comic Con: How I learned to stop worrying and love hosting 'Battletar Galactica' panels

On Saturday afternoon, I moderated my second panel featuring an assortment of stars from the Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica — which is, now that The Wire is over, officially the best show on television. (That kind of smoke-up-the-hoo-hah blowing is precisely why they keep asking me back. Because they mustn't be reading my occasionally scathing TV Watches.)

It went much better than my first, which was "The Women of Battlestar Galactica" at last year's San Diego Comic Con. Why? Because last time, I Freudian-slipped up and introduced Lucy Lawless as a man. Which, if you couldn't surmise, most women and all former Xenas don't take kindly to. (If you care to see Ms. Lawless flip me the bird in front of 7,000 people, just scan about 20 minutes into this — and pay no attention to the idiot behind the mic. Bounce over here for the explanation as to why I called her a man. There's totally a legitimate reason. Honest.)

Moderating a panel like this is more than just avoiding boneheaded gaffes. It's not a time for hardcore investigative journalism. Whoever is on the panel — and this time, I had three of the final five Cylons (Michael Trucco, Rekha Sharma, and Michael Hogan, pictured) — can't answer the tough questions. And the last thing I want is for them to get stone-lipped and reticent in front of a packed house. Silence is deadly. So I've gotta offer them questions that they can answer at length while being both interesting and non-revelatory. In other words, cheat the crowd without them being upset about it.

Click through the jump for some of my favorite questions.

Has a stellar TV guest star ever driven you to IMDb or Netflix?

A couple of days ago, I gave my husband rare control of the DVR decided to catch up on some backlogged hours of Doctor Who, and caught a particularly awesome (albeit atypically structured) episode called "Blink." The plotline centered on a young woman named Sally Sparrow, who had to solve the mystery of her best friend's disappearance with help from the Doctor (who happened to be trapped in 1969 and transmitting messages through DVD "Easter eggs"). The episode was riveting -- filled with romance and thrills and terrifying stone-angel statues -- and hinged entirely on the star-making performance of the actress playing Sally. Thanks to the power of IMDb, I found her name (Carey Mulligan, pictured) and a list of her credits within seconds of shutting off my TV, then added her 2005 miniseries Bleak House to my Netflix queue. (I'd been meaning to watch it anyhow, and now I've got the perfect excuse.)

All this got me wondering: Who was the last unfamiliar actor you became obsessed with thanks to a TV guest spot? And did your fascination continue after you'd seen them in a followup role? All must be revealed, PopWatchers!

'Firefly' Fridays: Wash it like you mean it

Okay, so sue me. I like to watch this scene. You know, because Ron Glass is so good as Shepherd Book. That's totally why.

'Firefly' Fridays: Two for the price of none

Because of the love I have for each and every one of you, here are two clips to send you into the weekend. What you do with them is between you and your deity of choice.

The other clip is after the jump.

My encounter with Charlton Heston

I met Charlton Heston only once, in 1996, but that brief interview cemented for me an admiring fondness for an actor whose politics I disagreed with, whose acting style I often found hammy and quaint, and yet who gave me and millions of other moviegoers enormous pleasure watching his performances over the years. At the time, Heston was promoting the film Alaska (pictured), directed by his son Fraser, a minor film that gave him a rare villainous role, which he bit into with his usual gusto. (Years later, I'm still tickled by his typically clenched-jaw reading of such lines as, "Magnificent creature, the polar bear. Nature's most perfect carnivore.") Heston was proud of his son's work and modest about his own, feeling that, at age 71, he was still just a working actor hoping to get it right one of these days. He talked about his recently completed role as the Player King in Kenneth Branagh's film version of Hamlet (and told a hilarious, unprintable story about one of his fellow cast members in that film, a tale made even funnier since I was essentially listening to the voice of God using the f-word). I asked why, at this stage of his career, with no more worlds to conquer, he'd take a walk-on role in a Shakespeare movie. He replied, again with that famously tightened jaw, "No actor with the brains God gave a goose would turn down the chance to waltz with the old gentleman from Avon." Yes, Heston really spoke that way. It was awesome.

All right, maybe he was putting me on a little; he certainly had the capacity to laugh at himself, as was evident from his self-parodic cameo in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake, or his role as a crazy, trigger-happy coot in Town and Country. Even talking about politics, about which he was famously passionate, he was capable of being tongue-in-cheek. I asked him if he was going to stump for the Republicans in the 1996 election, and he said he might, but that right-leaning actors were generally leery of campaigning because they feared losing work in liberal Hollywood, just as outspoken leftists had during the Hollywood blacklist of the '50s. I told him that sounded disingenuous, especially since he was there at the time and would have remembered seeing film folk not just lose their jobs but sometimes even go to jail or flee the country; surely he didn't think conservatives in Hollywood faced similar peril in 1996, did he? Well, he replied, it still felt that way to him, and he asserted, "There are more conservatives in the closet in Hollywood than there are homosexuals." "You've used that line before, haven't you," I said. "Yes, it's a good line, isn't it?" Now, I don't think Heston had anything against gays or anyone else; back in the '60s, he'd been an active Hollywood supporter of the civil rights movement and had joined Martin Luther King's march on Washington in 1963. Rather, whether Heston was campaigning for the National Rifle Association or selling a character to moviegoers, he was a showman first, an entertainer, and he knew how to please a crowd and play to an audience.

'Firefly' Fridays: 'Mal' means 'bad' in Latin

And he is a bad man, indeed...

That will be all. Carry on.

Taking a moment for National Autism Awareness Day

In case you didn't know, today is National Autism Awareness Day. Of course, if you're one of the parents of the 1-in-150 children born today that suffer with autistic spectrum disorder, every day is autism awareness day. I initially thought I'd commemorate the day by writing a gallery of Great Depictions of Autism in Movies and TV — but when I started to look, I didn't find all that many. There are a few terrific documentaries out there, like Autism Every Day (which I saw at Sundance a few years back, and wrecked me) and HBO's Autism: The Musical, but I couldn't find enough to fill out a decent list.

The acknowledged cinematic standard-bearer is Rain Man — a fine movie, to be sure, and Dustin Hoffman's performance was deft and heartfelt. But he was playing an autistic-savant, a very rare autism subset which doesn't reflect the condition as it resides in most households.

Oddly enough, I found one of the most mature, knowing, tender portrayals of a child with autism in the last place I'd have thought to look. Maybe because I'd been looking at it all along.

'Battlestar Galactica': Starbuck speaks! For the last time*!

For the third and, sadly, final part of my interview with Katee "Starbuck" Sackhoff, we talk about working with the dudes at Robot Chicken (link kinda NSFW), what she sees in her future post-Battlestar Galactica, and whether attending BSG sci-fi conventions will be a part of it. (And mea culpa: Yes, that's me laughing after Katee's answer about the conventions, but in my defense I had, uh, just remembered that Robot Chicken sketch about pratfalling Cylons. Er, yeah, that's totally it. Not making light of sci-fi conventioneers at all. Nope.)

*At least, the last time this week! In the final Battlestar PopWatch post of the day**!

**Probably!

'Battlestar Galactica' recap video: Who the frak is that?

If you can't tell by our feature story this week (as well as this, this, this, this, and this), we at EW are pretty psyched for the April 4 return of Battlestar Galactica. (And if you're not psyched, here's a photo of Tricia Helfer, a.k.a. Number Six, for you.) So, of course, I had to watch Sci Fi's recap video "What the Frak Is Going On?" and while I did, I found both the narrator's voice and the curt, snarky style very familiar. ("Then she shoots Adama... Bad Boomer.") Turns out it's the same woman — and production company — that did the "Lost in 8:15" recap video earlier this year, and that voice belongs to Mary O'Brien, senior writer/producer at Met|Hodder in Minneapolis, not a voice actor. O'Brien was the interim voice on the rough cut that the company sent to ABC. "We tried a real voice talent. We hired a guy, a real proper union dude, and placed him in and showed it to ABC again and they were like, we want to go with Mary's snarky feel," says O'Brien.

O'Brien co-wrote the summary with a video editor; the prose style comes from O'Brien's personal log while watching the episodes. "You know, 'Main dude tells drunk guy to cut the crap.' Or like, 'Apollo and Starbuck almost do it. And then they don't. Bummer,' that kind of thing because we're watching hours and hours and hours of the shows and you kind of get that shorthand." Battlestar's co-exec producer Ron Moore was apparently a fan of the Lost video and asked Met|Hodder for something like it. "And I was like, actually, um, that was us. And that's me!" she remembers.

So what's next for O'Brien? Well, she has enjoyed her oddly anonymous notoriety: "Someone on YouTube said that I sounded like I was from a mental institution," she laughs. "But people have been pretty complimentary, 'Oh, she sounds hot.' And I'm like, Okay. Awesome!" And while she's not quitting her day job to run off to Hollywood any time soon (Met|Hodder is actually working on a new recap for Lost's April 24 return), she does now have an agent and will be doing more voiceover work for Sci Fi promos. And she does have an idea of how to capitalize on this notoriety.

"What I really want to do is have my own booth at Comic-Con. And I can record people's voicemail messages for them or something. And I'll be like, 'Where the frak is whoever?' I think that would be funny." So do I. Get in line behind me, PopWatchers. I call dibs on her first.

'Battlestar Galactica': Starbuck speaks! Again!

For part two of my three part interview with the lovely Katee Sackhoff, I asked the actress about what she'll miss least now that the show is coming to a close, and whether she ever says "frak" in real life (like, say, certain geeky entertainment journalists do). And don't worry, this video's spoiler-free! Part three, in which Sackhoff looks to The Future, hits the web on Monday.

Welcome to 'Firefly' Fridays

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a new-and-totally-random feature of der PopWatch. Thanks to the awesome free-ness of Hulu.com, we now have the capacity to raid each and every episode of Joss Whedon's late, lamented sci-fi western, Firefly, and present unto you the sweetest nuggets.

So, without further ado...

'Battlestar Galactica': Starbuck speaks!

In anticipation of the April 4 season premiere of Battlestar Galactica, let us take a moment of silence to mourn the (impending) passing of this frakking genius show, as it begins its 20-episode march to its final episode and, we hope, Earth.

[ silence ]

Moment's over! Now for some Starbuck-ian fun. Last week, I got the chance to catch some time with actress Katee Sackhoff, a.k.a. Capt. Kara Thrace, a.k.a. Starbuck, a.k.a. the most kick-ass female character since a certain teenage vampire slayer moved to Sunnydale (IMHO, anyhow). We holed up inside a spookily atmospheric warehouse as she took a breather from the photo shoot for this week's EW feature story on Katee, and at this point, I should ask those who have not fully caught up with the show to calmly and quietly scroll to the next PopWatch item lest they endure even the whiff of a spoiler. This includes you, Mom and Dad. Ya gone?  Really? Promise? Okay. In part one of our three-part interview, I interrogated Sackhoff on what's what with the new season, the apparent resurrection of her character and what it's like for the cast now that so many of them are suddenly Cylons. Enjoy!

'Fanboys': If you cut my film, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine

In the war between the Fanboys fanboys and the Weinstein Company, Harvey Weinstein has blinked. Well, sort of. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Weinstein Company has agreed to release both versions of Fanboys — the long-shelved comedy about Star Wars geeks featuring Kristen Bell (pictured) — on DVD. There's the filmmakers' cut, supported by the fans (who've seen only part of the film, screened at Comic-Con), which tells the story of four pals who travel to Skywalker Ranch in 1999 in the hopes of sneaking a screening of The Phantom Menace before one of the quartet succumbs to cancer. And there's the Weinstein cut, which tested marginally better among general audiences, which excises the whole downer cancer subplot. When the fan community heard that the latter version was the one being released, they started an online protest, threatening to picket at this weekend's release of the Weinsteins' Superhero Movie, and to boycott all future Weinstein releases (well, except Kevin Smith's movies, 'cause he's one of them).

Was it that threat, as well as the protesters' jeering reference to Harvey as "Darth Weinstein," that led the distributor to back down? (Hey, as nasty nicknames goes, "Darth Weinstein" beats "Harvey Scissorhands," the name the indie mogul earned back in the '90s at Miramax, where he had a reputation, deserved or not, for making similar draconian edits to art-house movies to make them more marketable.) For that matter, is it really backing down to agree to release the director's cut on DVD — which is standard operating procedure these days — when there may not be a theatrical release in the first place? (Right now, Fanboys is without a multiplex release date.) Is there any irony in sci-fi/fantasy film fans demanding a grittier, more realistic movie? Do you have a dog (or a Wookiee) in this fight? I don't (I'm finding it hard to root for either side here, or even care much about this whole fiasco), but I will offer this four-word warning about letting the fanboys dictate the content of a movie that hasn't been finished yet: Snakes on a Plane.

Remembering Arthur C. Clarke

The word "visionary" gets tossed around a lot, but it really fits Arthur C. Clarke — though the author, who died early Wednesday at 90, would have disdained it out of modesty. Still, the creator of such sci-fi landmarks as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Childhood's End really did imagine a future destiny for humanity and, through the influence of his writing, helped move us in that direction. Astronauts have credited him with inspiring them to become space travelers, and telecommunications pioneers have credited him with envisioning the global satellite networks we have today. And millions more have read his books, or watched Stanley Kubrick's groundbreaking film version of 2001, and pondered mankind's future.

USA Today has a fine tribute to Clarke today, noting that his speculative work was grounded in his academic study of math and physics, and recommending as must-reads among his 80 books Childhood's End (a much-emulated tale about alien visitors who eradicate human misery at the cost of human liberty), The City and the Stars, The Nine Billion Names of God (a short story collection), 2001 (his novelization of the movie, based in turn on his short story "The Sentinel"), and Rendezvous with Rama (a novel that won pretty much every sci-fi award imaginable). Clarke fans should also visit the website of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation, which continues to promote his ideals of using science and technology to improve people's lives. Clarke believed that, through applied science, anything that could be imagined could be achieved. He made readers and moviegoers believe it, too.

Do we really need a third version of 'Dune'?

News from Variety that Paramount is moving ahead with yet another adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune prompts the question in this item's title. Obviously, I disagree with my colleague Marc Bernardin on this one. His argument is that filmmakers should try again because the previous two versions (the 1984 big-screen adaptation, which frustrated the creative gifts of even a director as visionary as David Lynch and left most viewers with unsettling visions of Sting in a silver Speedo; and the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries, which didn't stumble as much) didn't quite get it right. He's correct, but unlike Marc, I don't think the third time will be the charm. For one thing, Peter Berg isn't the director I'd trust with a sprawling fantasy epic; he seems more the type for gritty, real-world dramas (The Kingdom, Friday Night Lights). Second, I think the Sci-Fi Channel version is about as close as we're going to get to Herbert's original vision. The book is a sweeping epic that needs more time and space than a feature allows; at the same time, it's a culty, arcane tale, full of byzantine galactic political and economic intrigue of the sort that not even George Lucas could make cinematically compelling in The Phantom Menace. The Sci-Fi Channel was probably the right place for it, not the multiplex.

What say you, PopWatchers? Am I being too pessimistic? Does Berg deserve the benefit of the doubt? Or should Herbert fans just call it a day and make do with the Dunes they've got?

Are these streaming reruns really vintage, classic shows?

Because in the age of cable and Internet video nothing old is ever truly dead, NBC Universal has announced that it's going to be streaming free reruns of ancient series on its various websites — some fondly remembered, like The A-Team, Kojak, Night Gallery, and Buck Rogers, and some less fondly, like the original Battlestar Galactica, TekWar, Emergency, Tremors, Swamp Thing, and Simon & Simon. (The full list of shows and websites is here.) Which prompted this question from EW.com TV overlord Tom Conroy: Is there no defunct series so unwatchable, so devoid even of camp and kitsch value, that there isn't someone somewhere who still wants to watch it and will refer to it unironically as "classic" or "vintage"? Conversely, are there some old shows you're dying to see brought back, even if just on streaming Web video? Holla back, PopWatchers, while Adrienne Day and I jump up and down as we eagerly await the return of Buck Rogers' adorable robot sidekick Twiki (pictured).

Nice Kirk if You Can Get It: Set Your Phasers on Smooch

I was trying to think of something witty and suave to go along with this clip, but the best I could come up with was "We have lip lock, Captain" and "Space: The Frottage Frontier." (Look it up.) Both of which kinda suck. So I'm going with what PopWatch poobah Gary Susman suggested: "Chris Pine has his work cut out for him."

Trailer Blazer: 'Doomsday'

Take a heaping cup of I Am Legend, add a soupçon of Road Warrior, and then deep-fry that mutha in Escape From New York and you'll have the awesomeness that is Neil Marshall's Doomsday.

This is like the geek equivalent of stuffed french toast: goodness, injected inside of goodness, lathered in goodness. Malcolm McDowell as the Duke of London and Rhona Mitra as Snake Plissken? C'mon! Sure it looks derivative, but it's derivative of stuff that I love: car chases, genetic mutants, beautiful women kicking ass.

An Open Letter to the Sci-Fi Channel

Dearest Sci-Fi,

Why are you not way more awesome?

Don't get me wrong, when you're good—like with Battlestar Galactica or Eureka (and I'll even give you credit for Doctor who, despite that being a BBC show you just imported)—you're a phenomenal destination network. But let's be honest here, there's not a lot of "good" on your schedule. The Stargate franchise is stale, Flash Gordon (left) is a derisible, stillborn remake, and ECW Wrestling is…wrestling! (And I swore an oath never to speak of Who Wants to Be a Superhero again.)

The thing that infuriates me is that you have so much potential. We're living in the Age of the Geek, where pop culture has finally come around to our way of thinking. Where the most-watched shows on TV are geek-nip like Heroes, Lost, and Bionic Woman; where we buzz about movies like Pan's Labyrinth, Spider-Man, I Am Legend, and Iron Man. The audience could not be more primed for this material, so why are you offering them Ghost Hunters International and crappy "original movies" like Mansquito?

Again, why aren't you more awesome? After the jump, some friendly advice.

A farewell to (the apparently cancelled) 'The 4400'

According to this message board post by creator-executive producer Scott Peters, the USA Network has pulled the plug on The 4400. It's unclear if this cancellation was prompted by the WGA strike or if USA just thought the show had run its course, but either way, it's a sad day in sci-fi fandom. Because when it was good, The 4400 was every bit the superhero TV show that Heroes is. And when it was great...let's just say that it blew the second season of Heroes out of the water.

The story of 4,400 people who were abducted from earth (I won't ruin it by saying by whom) and then sent back enhanced with wondrous powers might've felt like a pure sci-fi show — especially with the two Mulder and Scully-esque government investigators and all that abducting — but it was a comic-book drama to the core. These people were ripped from their lives and came back as mutants, for all intents and purposes, and had to learn to coexist in a world not ready for them. Like all good superheroic fiction, it used the powers themselves to illuminate facets of the human condition: What would you do if you could do anything? What happens to your life if you disappear from it and come back super?

Was The 4400 a perfect drama? No. It could veer off into melodrama with frightening speed. And it was shot in Vancouver, which is almost never a good thing (because everything's so damned green). But it tried. It went for it. Sometimes it fell short, but that's what happens when you reach.

Now the world has one less sci-fi/comic book TV show of substance in it. And that just makes me a little sad.

Kirk's Kittens: The Foxy Femmes of the Final Frontier

If you wanna roll like James T. Kirk, these are the women you've gotta get into your intergalactic whip.

Okay, let me start again, in a manner that doesn't sounds so desperately Jamie Kennedy.

Here's a mostly complete gallery of all the women from classic Star Trek: you know, the ones that made the final frontier a slightly less lonely place.

And that's today's allotment of Geek Public Service.

Trailer Blazer: The Fourth Season of 'Lost'

Leave it to the Lost boys to craft a trailer for the fourth season (now set to debut Jan. 31) that's as cryptic as the show itself.

While I've got my own thoughts — is that the skull of a cyclopean vampire? — I figured I'd go straight to the source for all Lost commentary, Doc Jensen, who peeked up from a dusty tome, shifted his calabash pipe, fixed his monocle and, in his trademark Scottish burr, gave me this:

"The most intriguing images in this trailer to me are the stack of stones on the beach (Charlie's grave?), these fleeting images of military-looking dudes storming the island (remember what Desmond told us about what would happen after Charlie's death, per his flashes of the future: that a chopper would land on the island and take Claire and baby Aaron to safety — Charlie's whole motivation for sacrificing his life), and the glimpse of an ominous new character, who looks to be Jeremy Davies. Clearly, the trailer is setting up a major concern of the season: Can the castaways trust the folks on the freighter? Let us also wonder this: If Ben is correct — that the freighter people are wicked — are we being set up for a classic reversal: the bad guy (in this case, Ben) becoming a good guy? But the trailer doesn't address what will obviously be another major concern of season four: the future. What happened to Jack, Kate, and... whoever else made it off the Island? That's what I want to know. Can't wait for the show to tell me."

To which I add, "Like he said."

Best and worst entertainment-related gifts

I'm going to seriously geek out for a minute here, so please bear with me. For my birthday this year, I got a gift from a friend who was determined to get me something a little unusual, while indulging me my passion for British sci-fi TV programs. Specifically, the original BBC Dr. Who series that aired from 1963 to 1989 (though I have to admit that the new series, currently starring David Tennant as the Doctor, is worth geeking out over too).

Anyway, said unusual gift arrived via messenger in a big box marked "fragile." I opened it, and among a blitzkrieg of packing fluff was the neatest thing I'd ever seen — a giant porcelain Dalek cookie jar.

Oh my yes. It's got really nifty-looking gold-colored knobs all over it and a telescoping robotic manipulator rod, and the head twists off and everything. (It doesn't scream "EX-TER-MI-NATE!!!" when I walk by in the morning to make coffee in the kitchen, but hey, nobody's perfect). And no worries — nothing so messy as a COOKIE is ever going to crumble and muck up the innards of The Coolest Thing I Own.

A Chunk of 'Cloverfield'

Can't quite call this a trailer, as it looks like simply a chunk of the film...

You know what really excites me about this? The fact that January 18th doesn't feel all that far away anymore. (But I still think I'm gonna bring some Dramamine with me because all of that handheld camerawork — while a very neat storytelling conceit — is bound to make me hurl.)

Trailer Blazer: 'Jumper' redux

The last trailer we saw for Doug Liman's sci-fi flick Jumper (opening Feb. 14) was just a teaser. More of a complete and utter mystifier, to be perfectly honest — and mystified is what PopWatch's Marc Bernardin was at the time: "The special effects are cool and all, but I have no idea what this movie's about." Harsh but true, folks. Well, Fox recently put out a second trailer which adds some new things...

...such as an actual semblance of a plot. I'm gathering that Hayden Christensen's character discovers his teleporting talent in a childhood accident, then grows up into the super-powered layabout from the last trailer. (Still apparating from his couch to his fridge!) Can't quite tell whether Samuel L. Jackson is out to protect him or if he's one of the evil dudes who wants to destroy all teleporters, but that's probably the point. This trailer also gives us some more context for Rachel Bilson's role — she's not just some random lady asking Christensen not to lie, she's his girlfriend and she's also being hunted by those aforementioned evil dudes. Not the most original or profound characterization in the history of cinema, but at least we're getting a sense of this thing's narrative arc. Plus, those CGI effects are still really sweet.

That leaves us with the troublesome matter of Jamie Bell — actually, Bernardin's right, there is absolutely no reason to call this kid anything other than Billy Elliot. Anyway, I am still in the dark about what Billy's doing in this movie. But that's a small price to pay for a film that, overall, looks like a high-stakes reboot of The Tomorrow People, which I was totally obsessed with for a portion of my youth. (Megabyte!) I am hereby upgrading Jumper from "meh" to "may well see" on my list of early-'08 movies. Are you, P-Dubs, or is this trailer still too, well, jumpy to entice you?

Have Gold Bikini, Will Travel: Kristen Bell Gets the Leia of the Land

In the interest of covering the geek waterfront, I've uncovered an image of Kristen Bell — she of Heroes and Veronica Mars fame — in the upcoming film Fanboys.

And, yes, she's wearing the infamous "gold bikini" that Princess Leia sported in Return of the Jedi. That sound you just heard? Millions of nerd heads exploding.

Clean up on aisle awesome.

You Say You Want a (TV) Resurrection?

I need a castle, preferably someplace in Eastern Europe. Nice living quarters, natch. Central air is a must. But it absolutely needs a spiffy Frankensteinian electric rig in the attic — because I want to bring stuff back to life. (And I'd love it if said castle were in black and white. I'm a purist, what can I say?)

Specifically, I want to bring some long-dead TV shows back from the dead. But the electric mojo will only work on programs that were taken before their time, snuffed just as they were revealing their true potential. In a world where there's no TCA press tour because there aren't really gonna be any new shows, reaching into the abyss and yanking back some gems is a perfectly valid dream.

And, since it's my dream, here are the shows I want back:

Trailer Blazer: Welcome to 'The Machine Girl'

There are times when I think that the cultural divide that separates Japan's pop sensibility and America's is one that will never be bridged. That two great nations, once united by a common love for Godzilla and Jennifer Love Hewitt, can never again see eye to eye.

Then I see things like this — which, viewer beware, is ridiculously bloody — and realize that their brand of awesome-crazy is almost identical to ours:

To paraphrase Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, revenge is a dish best served with a Gatling gun for an arm and a "drill bra."

It's Joss Whedon vs. J.J. Abrams in the battle of the fake commercials!

What do Joss Whedon and J.J. Abrams have in common, aside from resoundingly resonant bodies of work (Buffy, Angel, Firefly for Whedon, Alias and Lost for Abrams) and the love of a grateful geek nation? Get the scoop, after the jump.

Jonathan Coulton's 'Chiron Beta Prime': The next holiday classic?

Most of us welcome hearing a favorite holiday recording, whether it’s sung by Ella Fitzgerald or Adam Sandler or Josh Groban. But then there are the perennial parade of artists who eggnog it up with cringe-inducing results (the Spice Girls’ 1998 cover of “Christmas Wrapping” comes to mind — lumps of coal all around for that one!), causing an early onset  Fa-la-la Fatigue. Well, here's my gift for the geek in everyone: a most excellent Xmas tune that isn't about angels or Santa or pine trees. Call it a sci-fi Christmas carol.

The dark, hilarious lyrics of Jonathan Coulton's "Chiron Beta Prime" (click here for a listen, or check out an embedded, fan-made video after the jump) can only be described as a holiday-newsletter-meets-cry-for-help, sung by a man enslaved on an asteroid by robot overlords ("Did I say overlords? I meant protectors.") I genuinely mean it when I say the 2006 recording, which sounds as if androids with synth skills are providing the menacing accompaniment, charms me every time I play it. And I can't stop playing it!

JoCo, as fans call the singer-songwriter, is beloved in the blogosphere for "Code Monkey," his oddly sweet rocker about life as a lovelorn software programmer (the tune is the theme song for the G4 channel's animated series Code Monkeys.) Coulton is also actively involved in the movement known as Creative Commons, in which artists forgo traditional copyrights to retain more freedom in sharing their work. (Coulton's site makes it easy, but not mandatory, to donate a few bucks if you decide to listen to his work. I'd recommend "Millionaire Girlfriend," for a mellow chuckle, "Tom Cruise Crazy" for a snarky laugh, the rock-out ode "Curl" for fans of the winter Olympics and/or frostbite, and the absurdist folk cover of "Baby Got Back" for fans of Sir Mix-a-lot and/or the banjo.)

So, will one little ditty about meanie robots make your whole season bright? I hope so! Meanwhile, I'd like to know how many PopWatchers are reveling in all the Yuletide music wafting through the air right now — and how many can't wait until January?  And by all means, if you have a favorite (or least favorite) holiday-themed recording, chime in!

The New 'Transformers': Crappy or Not?

Tell me...if you were 12 years old, and totally dug cartoons and lobbied your parents for months to go see the Transformers movie even though it was PG-13 and had strong language and sweaty ladyparts and you studied for weeks to get that B- on your history test but it qualifies because they asked for a B and the minus doesn't render the B a not-B...

I'm sorry. Memory lane.

If you were 12 years old, would you watch this, the new Transformers: Animated series, coming (allegedly) to the Cartoon Network in early 2008:

I'll tell you why I wouldn't after the jump.

Robocalypse Now: Robot Guitars

Every now and again, you can see the future on the horizon. You can make out, if just barely, the shape of things to come. And I tell you, things like this —

—are the first steps. Up next: Skynet and the Rise of the Machines. You just wait.

Take Me Down to 'The Silent City'

I don't know how much they spent on this little gem of a post-apocalyptic short film, directed by a bloke named Ruairi Robinson, but the producers squeezed every last penny onto the screen. (And, if you don't blink, you'll catch Cillian Murphy as one of the soldiers.)

(Thanks to Warren for the tip.)

The Worst Title Sequence on TV. Ever.

Tell me, if you were flipping channels one idle evening, looking for something to watch, would this tickle your fancy?

That just might be the worst title sequence I've ever seen. You can't even tell what the name of the show is (after looking it up, it's O'Hara, U.S. Treasury). It's as if some early '70s TV exec said, "Badges! All I want is stinking badges!" And don't give me the "It was the '70s... nobody knew anything about anything in the '70s" excuse. Not when a mere three years later they hatched this, the best main title sequence in the history of television:

Swagalicious: Check out our 'Beowulf' blanket!

Ever wake up in the morning and think to yourself, ''I'd really like to dress like a Saxon warrior/furry pimp but I've got nothing in my closet?'' Well Paramount's PR department has just the thing for you: a 4-foot x 5-foot fake-fur blanket in a lovely stripey brown pattern. Seriously, cooler swag has not crossed our desk since the magical Transformers pen (which, at the touch of a button, transforms from a plastic wedge into something you can write with).

Why is this Beowulf item so great? Because it's got tons of uses: makeshift bear rug, car-seat cover, Quest for Fire Halloween costume, really comfy adult diaper, tiger pit cover, luxury parachute, etc.

Thanks, Paramount! That's two for two. Can't wait to see what you guys come up with for next year's Star Trek. (But you can't just slice up this blanket into squares and pass 'em off as tribbles. That'd be cheating.)

Been there, 'Dune' that

There's a rumor floating around the intarwubs that Paramount is thinking about taking another stab at adapting Frank Herbert's seminal sci-fi novel Dune. Here's why I think this is an awesome idea:

1) It's a fantastic book. Really. One of a handful of unqualified sci-fi masterpieces. And if you think it's all about Sting (pictured) in awkward codpieces and sand wedged in uncomfortable places, peep this quote, attributed to Herbert: "I had this theory that superheroes were disastrous for humans, that even if you postulated an infallible hero, the things this hero set in motion fell eventually into the hands of fallible mortals. What better way to destroy a civilization, society or a race than to set people into the wild oscillations which follow their turning over their critical judgment and decision-making faculties to a superhero?"

If that's not perfectly in sync with our current Heroes/comic-book pop-culture obsessions, I don't know what is.

2) Neither of the previous adaptations have lived up to the book's promise, not David Lynch's 1984 film (with Kyle MacLachlan as the superhero in question) nor the Sci-Fi Channel's 2000 miniseries. (I have a weird fondness for the Lynch. It doesn't make sense, but it absolutely feels like we're peering into an alien world, and you can't say that for most movie science fiction.) This material ripe for reinvention.

Good idea or bad idea? What other classic sci-fi texts would you love to see on the big screen? Asimov's Foundation saga? Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land? (Personally, I vote for Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game.)