Greg Cox is one of the most prolific, and successful, authors of media tie-in novels, and he's won a loyal following for his many Star Trek books, including a trilogy filling in the backstory of much-loved villain Khan Noonien Singh. He's also written tie-in novels based on Alias, The 4400, Roswell, Underworld, Fantastic Four and Iron Man. He's also novelized the movies Ghost Rider, Daredevil and several others, plus DC Comics' big crossovers.

We talked to him about his new Terminator Salvation tie-in novel Cold War, out now from Titan Books, plus some of his other recent projects.

Cold War uses the same timeline as McG's recent movie, but only includes a couple of characters from the film: The main character is Losenko, the Russian general who appears briefly in the film, mentioning that Skynet is looking for Kyle Reese, and we learn all about Lysenko's backstory. Says Cox, "When I watched the movie, I was probably the only person who was mentally hanging on every scene with general Losenko," watching for every detail about the character to include in the book. Also in the book is General Ashdown (Michael Ironsides), the resistance leader who lives on a submarine. John Connor only pops in the book as a sort of mythological figure, giving inspirational speeches over the radio.

The new book takes place in Alaska and Russia, in two different time frames: 2003, right after Judgment Day, and then 2018. In 2003, the survivors are coping with the aftermath of the nuclear war, and Skynet is attacking them with really primitive Terminators, and the technology is close to what really existed in 2003. And then in 2018, Skynet has all the same tech it has in the movie — plus snowmobile Terminators, to navigate those frozen northern areas. It sounds like Cox had a lot of fun with the frosty settings:

My big gimmick was snowmobile Terminators. There's also a giant Terminator train. The trick is to try to find stuff in the [same] universe, that's slightly different. What haven't we seen yet? We haven't seen a Terminator train. The main reason for setting it in Alaska [was to include things like] dogsled chases, grizzly bears, avalanches, volcanos... We've seen so many chases on California highways, with fire trucks and emergency vehicles. I was looking for a whole different environment, not just recapitulating what people had done before.

Cox is somewhat surprised that the Terminator/grizzly bear fight has been the main thing people have talked about in his novel. "You can't have a Terminator in Alaska and not have him fight a grizzly bear. Okay, it's gratuitous, but how can I resist having a grizzly bear fight a Terminator?" And now that people have been so excited by it, "from now on, I put a grizzly bear in all my books." Spoiler alert: The bear doesn't stand a chance against a Terminator, says Cox.

There's also a Western-style train heist and loads of detail on a Russian submarine, plus lots of gritty war-movie-style action. Cox watched tons of World War II movies on TCM, read every Tom Clancy novel for the submarine details, and did loads of research on the world right after a nuclear war.

Cox says he watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles "religiously," but Titan Books and Halcyon were adamant that his book couldn't contain any references to T:SCC continuity. So don't expect Cameron to show up, but if anyone ever green-lights SCC novels, Cox will be first in line. The Terminator people were very keen to make sure Cox's book fit in with their vision of the universe, including making sure Skynet wasn't developing high technology too early after Judgment Day — and that meant loads of conference calls, notes and intensive feedback at every stage of the process.

Wrapping up The 4400

The amount of feedback you get from the licensors on a licensed property depends heavily on whether it's an ongoing concern, says Cox. With The 4400, for example, Cox wrote one tie-in novel while the series was on the air, and went through four different drafts in response to feedback. But when Cox wrote the first of two novels wrapping up the series after it ended, Welcome To Promise City, he got a more-or-less free hand. (The other novel, available now, is written by David Mack.) Cox, Mack and their editor cooked up an ending to the series together.

Except for tons of feedback from the fans. Cox says as soon as it was announced that he was writing a 4400 novel explaining what happened after the show's cancellation, he was bombarded with emails from fans all over the world demanding to know what he was going to do with their favorite subplots and characters. "I can't claim we wrapped up every loose end, but we tried to wrap up the important one," says Cox. He and Mack debated with their editor whether to tie up the end of the series with a neat bow, or leave a few things slightly open-ended in case they ended up doing more novels. They settled on the second approach, so if the books sell amazingly well, you might see further continuations of the story.

Novelizing Final Crisis

Cox novelized Infinite Crisis, 52 and Countdown for DC Comics, and now he's novelized Final Crisis, Grant Morrison's narrative-shredding uber-crossover starring the evil Darkseid. How on earth do you take Morrison's loopy storytelling and convert it into a single novel?

There was a lot of condensing involved, Cox admits:

There's not a lot of connective tissue in that series. [There are] a lot of scenes that jump from place to place. I've got to admit, the book is probably a bit more linear than the comic book, especially issue seven, which was jumping all over time. I actually just tried to tell it a bit more in chronological order, and maybe simplify it a bit.

The biggest problem with novelizing one of these sprawling DC crossovers is figuring out what subplots and tie-ins to leave out. The first week Cox was working on the Infinite Crisis novelization, he was trying to include all of the spin-off issues, including things like Rann-Thanagar War One-Shot, and every other miniseries and crossover issue, "and I realized this book is going to take me ten years, and it's going to be the size of The Wheel Of Time." So he began paring things down. Similarly, the Final Crisis book ignores a lot of tie-ins, sadly including the 3-D Superman tie-in series. "I apologize if your favorite scene is not in this book, but there's no way I can get in the 3-D tie in superman issue and the Batman issues and the special tie-in issue of Secret Six."

With novelizations of comics crossovers, "it's all about streamlining." It's the opposite of novelizing movie scripts, which is all about fleshing out the story and characters and adding new stuff to turn a 90-page script into a 300-to-400-page novel. "The script for Ghost Rider was not a terribly long script," notes Cox. He recalls coming across the novelization for Snakes On A Plane and marveling that Christa Faust had managed to get 400 pages out of that film. He felt like sending her fan mail.

Should Khan Come Back?

As the author of three Khan books, Cox is conflicted about whether Khan should appear in the next Star Trek movie. On the one hand, recasting Khan seems almost impossible, given how much Ricardo Montalban put his stamp on the character. On the other, Cox might have said the same thing about recasting Kirk, Spock and McCoy — and J.J. Abrams and crew pulled that off. The real question is, "do you do Botany Bay Khan, or crazy burned-out Wrath Of Khan Khan? There's the young virile but not quite crazy Khan, and then there's the obsessed spent-15-years-in-Hell Khan. And then there's the whole messy [subject of the] Eugenics Wars — when exactly did they take place? Did they take place during the Bill Clinton years?"

Cox is writing one of four new novels that take place in the movie's continuity, picking up where the movie left off. He's written a draft of his novel, but hasn't gotten feedback from Paramount yet, so everything is subject to change. But at least for now, his novel takes place six months after the end of the movie, and follows Captain Kirk and his crew on a stand-alone adventure. And he hints that, if Paramount approves, the fact that the Vulcans are refugees scattered across the universe will play a part in his novel's plot.

So here are the most insane SF soaps we could think of — but I bet we missed some good ones. What are your favorites? Pipe up in comments with the lurid details!

Top image by Dennys Ilic. Additional reporting by Josh C. Snyder.

Heroes

You can pick any character from this show and get a headache trying to figure out all the story twists he or she has gone through. Take Matt Parkman: He's trying to keep his marriage together — No, wait! Now he's living with Mohinder and co-parenting Molly the mutant-detecting girl! — No, wait! Molly is out of the picture! And now Matt is becoming an African-esque shaman! — No, wait! Now Matt is in love with Daphne the speedster, who's the Love Of His Life! — No, wait! Now Matt is back with his wife, and will never think about Daphne again! — No, wait! Etc. etc. etc. My favorite, though, is probably Peter's girlfriend trapped in an alternate dystopian future — whom we will never mention again! Ha ha ha ha urk. (Matt Loves Daphne wallpaper from Fanpop.)

Alias

This show started off pretty coherent — but around the third brainwashing or the tenth revelation that Sidney's mother's cousin was really the spy behind brainwashing Sidney to think her half-sister was a chicken. I defy anybody to explain to me the tangled backstory of the Bristow family.

The Cat Who Walked Through Walls by Robert A. Heinlein:

I made a dreadful mistake: This was the first Heinlein book I ever read — and it may have ruined me for Heinlein forever. In the late Heinlein novels, every character ever shows up, and they mostly have sex together, interspersed with a lot of drama and philosophizing. It's a sequel to The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress as well as Number Of The Beast, and features characters from several other books — including Jubal Harshaw, Lazarus Long and Hazel Stone, and it turns out that all of Heinlein's characters have previously unsuspected connections to each other. As reviewer James W. Harris puts it:

Having all of his "good" guys sound like a convention of smarmy talking wife-swappers is just gross. I hate to sound like a teenage girl, but damn, Heinlein's kissy-kissy talk and innuendo just made me want to puke. And making his classic characters act out in this limp-dick porn flick is just tragic. Having them go on and on about how they were going to kill people for bad manners is just a little psycho to me. Evidently a lot of people and situations annoyed the hell out of Heinlein and he used this book to vent. Some people want to call this satire but I think that's whitewash.

Maybe Heinlein lost his mojo and these multiverse stories were the best he could do. Personally, I thought The Rolling Stones was a perfect novel, and bringing back Hazel Stone was a fictionally fuck-up of an idea, ditto for the cast of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Maybe I am a prude because I just don't want the Hazel Stone, grandmother of Castor and Pollux, joking about being stretched out of shape by giant 25 centimeter cock.

All of Heinlein's personally favorite characters get put into a fictional juicer and blended into weird rabble of sex obsessed mob that chirp a weird innuendo patter and are almost impossible to tell apart. When I read these multiverse stories I can't help but believe that horniness was driving Heinlein crazy. These later stories are preoccupied with sex, killing people, responding to annoying people, the reliability of witnesses, rude people deserving capital punishment, and so on.

Venture Bros.:

At least this show is ridiculous on purpose — the ultra-demented story of the Venture clan has gotten more and more involved, with Sergeant Hatred's struggle against his pedophilic past taking center stage, and deformed clones and weird villain love affairs aplenty. Most of all, there are the labyrinthine family elements crossing over into everything, like the revelation that Dean was also the head of the Guild. The same characters and their families end up being connected in ever more improbable and weird ways, making our heads spin.

Battlestar Galactica:

I have four (or possibly five) words for you: "Hotdog is the father." Whaaa? There's also the great way Baltar went from being a slimy scientist to being a slimy politician to being a slimy cult leader — and what happened to the baby that Baltar and Six were going to have together? Oh and while we're on the subject, what about Saul Tigh being crazy-chicken in love with Caprica Six — until she has a miscarriage, and then he never thinks about her again? It all makes you want to grip your television and scream (in a Krazy Starbuck voice) "You're going the wrong way!"

Sonic The Hedgehog (comics):

According to the always great TVTropes website, this comic-book tie-in to the popular video game went whirling off on crazier tangents than a flying hedgehog on crack. To quote TVTropes:

The Archie Comics Sonic The Hedgehog series twisted Sonic's love life into a Gordian Knot: Originally hooked up with Sally Acorn, she got stuck ruling the country and shoved the relationship to the side to focus on her new duties, prompting Sonic to fall in with Mina Mongoose, starting a rivalry between the two women for Sonic's affection. He then started seeing Fiona Fox on the side, which not only pissed off Mina and Sally, but Tails, as well, who had a crush on her due to falling in love with a robotic duplicate created by Robotnik several years earlier (don't ask). Eventually, Mina got her own boyfriend, Sally got Sonic once again, and Tails got tossed into a brick wall by Fiona, who gave them all the finger to have a relationship with Sonic's evil clone from another universe. And that's not even counting the mini-tangle between Antoine, Sally, Bunnie Rabbot, and Antoine's evil clone from the same universe Fiona's new beau comes from.

Got it? Great.

Gundam Wing:

Okay, let's get this straight... Relena Darlian discovers she's really adopted, and her real name is Relena Peacecraft, one of the last survivors of the pacifistic (duh) Peacecraft tribe. And then it turns out that Zechs Marquise is her long lost older brother. Meanwhile, she gets obsessed with Heero, a young whackjob who keeps announcing he's going to kill her, not unlike the "I'm going to rape you" guy in Welcome To The Dollhouse. And that's just scratching the surface of the most confusing, tangly saga of all time, involving endless backstory and weird family crap.

Angel:

I was going to do Charmed, Angel's fellow WB series which had the whole "my ex-husband is a half-demon" thing, but Angel is so much more ridiculous — mostly because of Cordy, who is in love with Groosalugg, until she's in love with Angel instead, but meanwhile she's turned into a half-demon and then she becomes a Higher Power, until she comes back and has sex with Angel's son — who, as someone points out, is practically her stepson since she helped care for him as a baby — and then becomes pregnant and evil — until she gives birth to an evil god. Nothing on parent show Buffy was as incestuous and ridiculous as Cordy's arc on Angel. Oh, actually, wait — Cordelia was pregnant twice on Angel.

Robotech:

Sure, it was supposedly about the giant mechas, but it was really all about the tragic loves and the tormented Rick-Minmei-Lisa love triangle. To quote Wikipedia,

In early 2013, while sitting at an outdoor cafe, [Lisa] contemplates the love triangle between the three of them when she overhears two men talking about how women were "dealt all the aces" when it comes to relationships, to which Lisa says to herself "that's all you know...here's one woman who would trade every ace in the deck for one Rick Hunter.

Sigh. Twoo Love. Here's a great fanvid featuring the music of White Town. Yay!

X-Men (comics):

This, of course, is the most insane soap opera imaginable. At this point, the X-men have had illegitmate babies from the future, secret love affairs, doomed passions and multiple bad transcriptions of all sorts of accents, from Cajun to Scottish. My favorite ridiculous soap-opera twist might be Madrox's night of passion with two female members of X-Factor: Siryn and Monet, resulting in a pregnancy that isn't quite a normal pregnancy. But then there's also the whole insane Rogue/Gambit thing, the Scott/Jean/Wolverine/Emma love doodaddle, and of course Professor X turning out to be secretly in love with Jean Grey. That's just scratching the surface, really. If you want more info, check out the X-Men relationship map — which is probably already out of date!

The truth is, it's more of a comedy with drama and action than a straight drama. It's certainly sweeter and more fun in tone than Alias was.

No wonder there's talk of this show appearing next to Chuck. Now the only question is, how science-fictional will this show's crazy gadgets and supervillain plots get? [EW]

In making their selection, Total Sci Fi pointed to the character's iconic status and particular blend of traits:

An appealing combination of toughness, self-reliance, vulnerability and sexiness, Ripley is far from a conventional damsel in distress. New layers were added to the character in Aliens, which saw Ripley proving to be tougher and smarter than a unit of marines, yet still finding time to form a motherly bond with Newt. The two subsequent sequels added even more dimensions, leading to one of the most critically analysed characters in the history of cinema.

To be honest, I'm not sure how any self-respecting list of women in science fiction - particularly one that zeroes in on those who "shook" the genre - could put anyone other than Ripley in the top spot, so no arguments there. I'm a little less sure when it comes to some of the other characters they chose, however. Without further ado, here's the complete list:

1) ELLEN RIPLEY (Sigourney Weaver, Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection)
2) BUFFY SUMMERS (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
3) STARBUCK (Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica)
4) DANA SCULLY (Gillian Anderson, The X-Files)
5) SARAH CONNOR (Linda Hamilton, Terminator, T2)
6) PRINCESS LEIA ORGANA (Carrie Fisher, Star Wars)
7) ROSE TYLER (Billie Piper, Doctor Who)
8) SAM CARTER (Amanda Tapping, Stargate SG-1)
9) NYOTA UHURA (Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek)
10) LEELOO (Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element)
11) CLAIRE BENNET (Hayden Panettiere, Heroes)
12) STORM (Halle Berry, X-Men)
13) PRIS (Daryl Hannah, Blade Runner)
14) CATWOMAN (Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns)
15) BARBARELLA (Jane Fonda, Barbarella)
16) KATHRYN JANEWAY (Kate Mulgrew, Star Trek: Voyager)
17) MIKAELA BANES (Megan Fox, Transformers)
18) SUSAN IVANOVA (Claudia Christian, Babylon 5)
19) NUMBER SIX (Tricia Helfer, Battlestar Galactica)
20) SARAH JANE SMITH (Elisabeth Sladen, The Sarah Jane Adventures / Doctor Who)
21) WILLOW ROSENBERG (Alyson Hannigan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
22) WONDER WOMAN (Lynda Carter, Wonder Woman)
23) XENA (Lucy Lawless, Xena: Warrior Princess)
24 ) SYDNEY BRISTOW (Jennifer Garner, Alias)
25) MARINA (Stingray)

There are definitely a lot of great choices here, such as Buffy, Starbuck, Uhura, and Sarah Jane Smith (and the Gerry Anderson fan in me absolutely loves that they included Marina), but Claire Bennet? Mikaela Banes? I'm not sure that either of those really "shook" science fiction, and I'm skeptical they'd make a similar list made even five years from now. It's telling that even the listmakers admit Mikaela's inclusion pretty much comes down to the fact that Megan Fox is pretty.

Still, it's a good list, and the authors rather sportingly asked readers to let them know what they think are the biggest omissions. I'll go ahead and nominate Leela - either the Doctor Who or Futurama version, it doesn't really matter which. Which woman in science fiction would you vote for inclusion?

[Total Sci Fi]

Actually, even before we get to that masterpiece, there are a few interesting oddities hitting stores this week. DC is launching the first of their Final Crisis spin-offs, the wonderfully bad-mooded Final Crisis Aftermath: Run, as well as the long-awaited first issue of Power Girl's solo series.

Meanwhile, Marvel revives The New Mutants for the first issue of their brand new series. (Also, Brian Michael Bendis' Alias gets a paperback reissue; if you haven't looked at his mature-readers private detective take on the Marvel Universe yet, it's worth checking out).

Elsewhere, you can compare the faces of horror comics through the years; Dark Horse puts out some classics with their first Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery hardcover, while Todd McFarlane's Spawn returns to its roots with an Origins collection. The modern face? Well, that comes from the wonderfully-named Jesus Hates Zombies: Lincoln Hates Werewolves, something sure to make at least one reader very happy (Hello, Bonnie!).

Otherwise, though, it really is all about Plan 9 From Space Strikes Again. Quite why anyone thought that the original movie needed a sequel, I'm not quite sure, but it's now got one in the form of this $3.99 special that promises zombies, aliens and shadowy government conspiracies... and former professional wrestlers, of course. If nothing else, you know that curiosity will make you want to take a look.

As usual, a full list of all comics reaching stores can be found here, and your closest comic store can be found by clicking here, although, of course, your iPhone could also tell you, if you want. Just remember Ed Wood when you visit.

The essay, "JJ Abrams' Condemned Couples," argues that, whenever we see a moment of what looks like shared happiness between two people on an Abrams show, it's just a sign that something bad is about to happen:

The main focus of the opening episode of JJ Abrams' Fringe, aside from the flesh-eating toxin gobbling up plane passengers, is the crumbling relationship between Special Agent Olivia Dunham and her duplicitous partner John Scott. It all started off sweet and sincere, as the pair soon confess their love for each other after shacking up in a motel. Consider that the kiss of death in the world of JJ.

Before long, Olivia's world is torn apart as she witnesses John being caught up in an explosion that also releases the skin-devouring plague upon him. Olivia desperately pulls a few strings to save her loved one, only to find out that he was the murderous part-instigator of the plane attacks in the first place. After a high-speed car chase, Scott crashes and shuffles his mortal coil as he lies, blood-splattered, in Olivia's arms.

At least Olivia had the chance to say farewell to her amour, unlike Sydney Bristow in the opening episode of Alias. Freshly engaged to her beloved Danny, the undercover CIA Agent (or so she believes) opts to confess the true nature of her work to her man. Bad move!

This isn't the first time that writer Ben Rawson-Jones has complained about a "Down With Love" mentality in Abrams' shows - he wrote a similar piece about doomed relationships on Lost earlier this year - but we're still not convinced. We're actually kind of convinced that Abrams is, if anything, a closet romantic. Look at the evidence: Alias actually had an ultimately happy ending for its heroine - Sydney ended up with her husband back from the dead and living a reasonably spy-free life on a beach with her family - and in the middle of all of Lost's disasters, Desmond found Penny despite everything; even Fringe's Olivia is haunted by a ghost of her not-so-dead ex-lover, trying in some way to make up for his betrayal.

Yes, there's not really any long-term happiness in relationships on any of Abrams' shows, but isn't that simply the nature of the genre (or all drama, for that matter)? Plot should be driven by character conflict, and if you don't blow up a boyfriend every now and again, how are you supposed to make that happen?

JJ Abrams' Condemned Couples [Digital Spy]

 
 
Meg Ryan And Dennis Quaid:
The two met on the set of Innerspace, the movie about shrinking down a man so he can pilot a teeny tiny plane through Martin Short's body. Nothing says romance like piloted colonoscopy. Unfortunately, after a round of he-cheated-then-she-cheated, the two called it quits, thus ruining my chances for an Innerspace sequel with the original cast.

Tom Baker And Lalla Ward:
Ah, the lovely Lalla, otherwise known as Romana from the late 70s Doctor Who. She eventually married the Doctor (Tom Baker), but they separated after a short period. But the crazy genius fetish was never far from her heart, because she eventually married evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.

David Tennant and Sophia Myles:
Poor Sophia Myles, she fell hard for David Tennant's manic Doctor Who acting. Her role on the episode "The Girl In The Fireplace" set everyone's hearts ablaze and the chemistry was undeniable. Plus you got to hear the Doctor say, "I just snogged Madame de Pompadour." These two would date for few years before he dumped her flat, upgrading to his own TV offspring.

David Tennant and Georgia Moffett:
The real-life daughter of 1980s Doctor Peter Davison, Moffett played Tennant's blonde bubbly daughter and this relationship makes us all a little woozy. After watching the Doctor shed tears over his fake daughter's supposed demise, it's a little off-putting to see them hitting the town together. Granted, they're not actually related but still, come on. No worries — we can only assume once she turns 30 she'll be upgraded as well.

Ben Browder and Francesca Buller
Sexy science fiction geekery at its best. He's known for steaming up the screen in Farscape and Stargate (SG-1), and she's known for playing hella crazy war monger Ahkna. Buller also played M'Lee, Ro-NA, and Raxil. The two are still happily married, because Browder is a fox and from watching years of him having almost-sex in Farscape's puppet world, I think we can all assume he knows what he's doing.

Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman:
In 1998, these two were married, a year after they stared in Gattaca, but were splitsville in 2004. I blame their genes. It's too bad because while her career has soared with ass kicking films like Kill Bill, his has taken a turn for the so-so, apart from Training Day.

Jessica Alba and Michael Weatherly:
Who could forget the 12-year age gap in the relationship between Alba and Weatherly? For four years, Dark Angel viewers didn't know whether to be excited or uneasy that Weatherly was taking out someone 12 years his junior. When she was 20 years old, he proposed. Their four-year relationship eventually ended, but not without making Dark Angel just a little bit creepy for the audience.

Jennifer Garner And Michael Vartan:
Jennifer Garner's resume kind of reads like her love life until she started getting better movie deals. This one breaks my heart, because I was all in favor of the wig-rocking Garner, until she dumped poor Scott Foley from Felicity (my high school crush) for Michael Vartan of Alias (my college crush), only to break his heart too, for Daredevil star Ben Affleck. Leaving two lovely men in her wake. I'll pick up the pieces of your hearts, boys.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie:
Argue all you want that Mr. And Mrs. Smith isn't science fiction, but I believe there's enough wild gadgetry and crazy "Father" corporations to make it either a strange not-too-distant future or the seedy scifi underbelly of the present. Either way something about beating the hell out of each other turned on Brad Pitt enough to cast of everyone's favorite Friend for a sexy seductress. As of right now they are still together and popping out Earthlings as fast as they can with a brood of six.
 
 
 

Hayden Christensen And Rachel Bilson:
Perhaps this relationship is the one good thing that came out of the movie Jumper. They are both indie-adorable and if it's her love keeps him from making more scifi films then more power to this fedora favoring couple.

Geena Davis And Jeff Goldblum:
Their love made Earth Girls Are Easy and The Fly even better than they already would have been. While it's hard for me to imagine Goldblum having chemistry with anyone (he's such a strange bird, that Jeff) watching these two hook up on Earth Girls was incredibly sweet. The two were married for a few years and separated. The separation lead to another genre-based hook-up (and later engagement) for Goldblum, with Jurassic Park hottie Laura Dern.

Helena Bonham Carter And Tim Burton:
If there was an award for possibly the craziest couple of them all it's the Carter Burton clan hands down. They met on the set of his remake of Planet of The Apes in 2001, and from then on it was dark and gloomy love all around (the two have two children now).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Rose McGowen And Robert Rodriguez:
I think everyone knows our opinion of the McGowin Rodriguez pairing, but ever since they were brought together on film and in real life with Planet Terror, they've decided to remake all genre films including my sacred Barbarella and for that reason alone, they scare me.

Milo Ventimiglia And Hayden Panettiere:
Ah, young love — okay, half-young love, because Panettiere is 19 years old and Ventimiglia is 31. But hey, Heroes loves knows no bounds, and the Cheerleader and her emo uncle should live happily ever after, until the show in which they met gets canceled at least.

You won't have to watch the first three episodes to understand episode four, Abrams promised. The show will have an overall storyline and an "endgame," and there will be arcs. But individual episodes should stand alone. And Abrams will be heavily involved in the show, writing scripts and doing rewrites when necessary, especially where "arc" episodes are involved.

Separately, the show's producers insist they didn't put the pilot episode online on purpose, and the final version will be somewhat different. They also explained why the pilot was shot in Toronto (as Boston), but the series is being shot in New York (as Boston): tax incentives. [THR Feed and 660 News]

S.H.I.E.L.D.

What does it stand for? Originally, it stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division. In the 1990s, it was changed to Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage Logistics Directorate. Then, in the Iron Man movie, it was changed again to Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division. No idea if this final change is cannon or not. Will the comic books start calling it by its new, DHS-inflected name?

Where can you find it? Marvel comic books.

Key members: Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, Gabriel Jones, Tony Stark, Maria Hill, Clay Quartermain

Its mission, as far as we can tell: To protect the world from bad things like Godzilla, terrorists, aliens, giant robots, and communism. In the recent series Civil War, SHIELD had to uphold the Superhero Registration Act and force all heroes to register with the U.S. government. This resulted in a major pissing match between Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D., and ended in Captain America's death. S.H.I.E.L.D. is randomly associated with the U.N. or the U.S. (People from the U.S. have a hard time figuring out the difference between their country and the rest of the world.)

Any counter-organizations? HYDRA, which is spelled in all caps but is not an acronym. Warren Ellis made fun of S.H.I.E.L.D. with a group called H.A.T.E., which stands for Highest Anti Terrorism Effort.

SD-6

What does it stand for? Section Disparu 6 (French for Disappeared Unit 6)

Where can you find it? Alias TV series

Key members: Sydney Bristow (though she's tricked into it), Jack Bristow, Arvin Sloane, Jean Briault, Edward Poole (played by Roger Moore!)

Its mission, as far as we can tell: Weird spy shit. Digging up semi-mystical objects, retrieving semi-mystical objects from the bad guys, working with the CIA sometimes, killing people who know about SD-6, propagating weird family psychodrama.

Any counter-organizations? K-Directorate (with the wondrous Gina Torres) and FTL.

CONTROL

What does it stand for?

Unknown

Where can you find it?

Get Smart TV series

Key members: Agent 86 (Maxwell Smart), Agent 99, The Chief

Its mission, as far as we can tell: To work with the United States government to protect the nation from bad guys. Usually bad guys with bombs.

Any counter-organizations? KAOS, which is a Russian group nominally headquartered in Delaware for tax reasons.

U.N.I.T.

What does it stand for? United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, now shortened to Unified Intelligence Taskforce

Where can you find it? Doctor Who, Torchwood

Key members: the Doctor (in the 1970s), Doctor's former companion Dr. Martha Jones, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Dr. Elizabeth Shaw

Its mission, as far as we can tell: To protect the planet, and especially England, from alien invaders. They're barely secret at all, and work with the United Nations. Their first great battle was with the Cybermen.

Any counter-organizations? None.

The Dharma Initiative

What does it stand for?Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications

Where can you find it? Lost TV series

Key members: Founders Karen and Gerald deGroot, from spooky University of Michigan

Its mission, as far as we can tell: Funded by the mysterious Hanso Corporation, its mission was to be a scientific collective where people could study meteorology, psychology, parapsychology, zoology, electromagnetism, and what is hinted to be utopian socialism (the scariest discipline of all!).

Any counter-organizations? The Others, who gassed them and took over their research stations.

The Syndicate

What does it stand for? Not an acronym, but perhaps a metanym. It's also known as the Elders, the Consortium and the Group.

Where can you find it? X-Files TV series

Key members: The Smoking Man, X, Alex Krycek, William Mulder (Fox's dad), Alvin Kurzweil (no relation to Ray)

Its mission, as far as we can tell: Like an old-fashioned Illuminati-style group, they secretly influence world affairs in government and business. Originally they banded together to fight a group of aliens who wanted to colonize Earth using the black cancer, or black oil. But somehow they are also involved in lots of other ooky-gooey projects to hybridize humans and aliens, as well as create creepy diseases.

Any counter-organizations? The colonizer aliens.

M.I.B.

What does it stand for? Men In Black.

Where can you find it? The Men In Black movies.

Key members: Agent J, Agent K, Agent L

Its mission, as far as we can tell: To deal with alien life on Earth, which sometimes means protecting humans from aliens but mostly seems to mean protecting aliens from each other.

Any counter-organizations? Unknown

It's Variety's Cynthia Littleton who pointed out that anyone looking for a new Mulder and Scully was headed for disappointment:

About five minutes in to the [press] screening, I realized I've done this show a terrible injustice with the loglines I've been using the past few months, and the suggestion that it would be very "X-Files"-ish. It's not. It's right there in the patented Abrams-conspiracy chiller/thriller/action milieu with a wildly intricate plot. It's a good sign that the pilot — penned by Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and helmed by Alex Graves — does not feel too derivative of "Lost," even as it opens with mayhem on a commercial airline flight bound for Boston's Logan airport.

Casting really is the strongest suit here. The pilot script and story is very compelling. It's not "Lost"-level instantly addicting, but it leaves you very curious about what's gonna happen next week. There's a big twist toward the end of the pilot that I never saw coming. The direction is very fast-paced and not-showy. There's a few stretches that seem over-loaded with action-action-action but I'm guessing that's easily fixed in the editing process... There's a bit of wooden-ness here and there in the dialogue...but again, nothing that probably can't be fixed in post.

Fringe: First impressions [Variety]

Once we've seen Abrams' Star Trek and his new X-Files revamp show Fringe, we'll have a much better idea of whether Abrams really is brilliant — or just a clever hack. But already, there's plenty of evidence for both sides of the argument. Here's our list of reasons to believe either point of view:

Genius:

- Cloverfield. Once you got past the hype, it really was a great ride, and the nihilistic ending was sort of awesome in a Blake's 7-y way. For once, the fact that everything's a mystery didn't seem to matter, because the mystery was just in the background. In the foreground, you had this you-are-there spectacle of the city falling into ruins and Rob struggling to find Beth despite the pointlessness of it all.

- Lost. It's another thing we won't really be able to evaluate yet, because a lot depends on how well it ends, and how much sense it actually makes in the end. But last week's time-travel episode recharged our faith in the versatility of the concept. When the show works, it's intense and Hobbesian. The whole flash-forward tapestry storyline thing has the makings of a compulsive DVD rewatch.

- Mission Impossible III. Okay, so the make-your-own-defibrillator thing was sort of wack. And what the heck was the rabbit's foot that Tom Cruise has to find anyway? But considering this was a movie starring Tom Cruise, with "III" in the title, it was way better than we had any right to expect. It was sort of a goofy extended episode of Alias.

He hires geniuses. This is probably the best argument for J.J. Abrams being a genius — he recognizes genius in others and hires appropriately. Case in point: Drew Goddard, the Buffy scribe who now writes for Lost and also wrote Cloverfield. Another case in point: Brian K. Vaughn, another Lost writer who also created Y: The Last Man.

Hack:

- All the viral marketing. During the long Lost hiatus, we were bombarded with "clues" on viral sites, where you could track down a phone number that led to another web site that led to a riddle. Did any of it add up to anything in the end? Meanwhile, Cloverfield was two movies: the stark masterpiece you saw in the theater, and the over-complicated version all the online fans were privy to, with all the clues about Tagruato and Slusho! and news reports in Spanish.

- Armageddon. Abrams co-wrote the script of this Michael Bay splode-fest. I watched it recently, and it's just as nonsensical and bizarre as I'd remembered... but much slower moving.

- Alias. It was a fun show at first, but after a while all the daddy issues (and then mommy issues) and the endlessly spiraling "everything you know is wrong" plots started to give us a headache.

- Forever Young. I pretty much covered this one yesterday. But the treacly plot, with the nonsensical motivations — why would being in suspended animation make his girlfriend's supposedly impending death easier to handle? — is pretty hard to take. The film pretty much slides into the ick zone the moment two cute kids revive Mel in the present day. And then there's the fact that he starts to age rapidly, as a side effect of cryogenic suspension. Wha huh?

- Just the fact that he's so prolific. Besides Lost, Fringe and Trek, he's got a show about cancer patients, a show about a notary, and Cloverfield 2 on his plate.

So is he a genius or a hack? Decide for yourself, and then vote in our poll.

If nothing else, the press release smacks of desperation. The Weinstein Company's announcement says the fog coated the LA area "in preparation for the opening of the highly anticipated Thanksgiving release The Mist." Then it says: "A publicity stunt? Or a eerily timed Stephen King-style wake up call to moviegoers? You be the judge!" [IESB] More news:

• Nicholas Cage will provide one of the voices for G-Force, Jerry Bruckheimer's live action/CGI project about a group of super-intelligent animal commandos. Cage will be a mole named Speckles. Steve Buscemi will provide the voice of Bucky the hamster, and Tracey Morgan (Saturday Night Live) will be a guinea pig named Blaster. [Moviehole]
• Stop ragging on my Batman movies, Tim Burton pleads. They were cutting edge, but they never got the respect they deserved. And they still don't. "Nobody really acknowledged the fact that ['Batman'] was slightly different at the time from other comic book movies. So lay off, will you?" [MTV Movies Blog]

• The two biggest SF magazines struggle with declining circulation numbers, says SF/comics author Warren Ellis. Ellis' post touched off a blogstorm about how (and whether) Analog and Asimov's can be saved. Apart from Charles Stross and Tim Pratt, few important writers have launched their careers in either magazine, argues John Scalzi. Not surprisingly, most bloggers think the Internet is the future of short fiction publishing. [Lou Anders]
• The fictional drink that stars in the viral marketing campaign for monster movie Cloverfield showed up in the latest Heroes episode. There are also many behind-the-scenes photos of various Heroes actors vamping with cups of Slusho!, which also appeared in an episode of Alias. At what point does "random" become the operative word in "random clues"? [Slashfilm]

Abrams is also producing a new show for ABC, about a notary who gets involved in her clients' lives. He's also producing his as-yet-unnamed monster movie, due out in January 2008. According to IMDB, he's also directing a drama for HBO about the lives of cancer patients. And then there's Star Trek. J.J. Abrams isn't a man, he's a cottage industry.

Fox Flocks To Sci-Fi Project Fringe [Reuters]

Famous names: Jennifer Garner, Ron Rifkin, Victor Garber, Michael Vartan, J.J. Abrams

Crunchy goodness: 3

Spinoffs/Sequels/Copycats: The Alias video game, released by Acclaim in 2004, features the voices of Garner and other stars of the show. Says UGO.com: "Alias is a poor action-stealth title that is nothing but a guilty pleasure for fans of the series. "

Elevator pitch: She's like James Bond with breasts, a blue wig — and huge daddy issues.

Deadliest spoiler: Sydney and Michael (her former CIA handler) have a daughter — who scores high on the spy-aptitude tests, thus ensuring her future in the same business as her parents, her grandparents, her cousins, and her cousins' orthodontists.

alias.fannesite - an Alias fan site