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Battlestar Galactica – The music of a new era
Adama. Apollo. Boomer. Starbuck. The names are the same. The characters, the genders, the show itself, entirelly different. The re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica, one of the finest shows currently produced for television, sheds the more optimistic, 1970s worldview storylines. In its place, a dark, somber, harsh world. With this drastic shift in tone came a shift in music. Gone is the famous theme from the original; in its place, dark, percussive, tribal music from Bear McCreary.

Star Wars Outbound Flight
It began as the ultimate voyage of discovery–only to become the stuff of lost Republic legend . . . and a dark chapter in Jedi history. Now, at last, acclaimed author Timothy Zahn returns to tell the whole extraordinary story of the remarkable–and doomed–Outbound Flight Project.

The Clone Wars have yet to erupt when Jedi Master Jorus C’baoth petitions the Senate for support of a singularly ambitious undertaking. Six Jedi Masters, twelve Jedi Knights, and fifty thousand men, women, and children will embark–aboard a gargantuan vessel, equipped for years of travel–on a mission to contact intelligent life and colonize undiscovered worlds beyond the known galaxy. The government bureaucracy threatens to scuttle the expedition before it can even start–until Master C’baoth foils a murderous conspiracy plot, winning him the political capital he needs to set in motion the dream of Outbound Flight.

A Scanner Darkly
The first audience screening of A Scanner Darkly in progress has been shown in Houston. As mentioned before this movie is an adaptation of a Philip K Dick book of the same name.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Rider and Woody Harrelson it promises to be somewhat of a difficult to market movie. A snippet from one of the review on Ain’t It Cool reads, ‘The audience is not pandered to in any way. Complicated story ideas are rendered faithfully, directly, and without obvious techniques to clarify Dick’s convoluted story.‘

Comments on the effects were interesting, where it was mentioned that they weren’t overly done and managed to portray a reality where physics is only a little bit whacked.

This, for me, is one of the most eagerly awaited movie releases in years.

A thrilling scifi movie
The premise, at first glance, looks quite simple. It is 2023. Scientist David Proctor is running for his life. On his trail is Saskia Brandt, a detective with the European FIB. She has questions. Questions about a bomb that exploded back in 2002. But someone is hunting her too. The clues are in the shattered memories of her previous life. She has only hours to decipher them.

From the on in, it becomes a mesh of time lines which you really need to concentrate on - which is actually part of the fun of reading it. It is nicely written and has many suprises, especially in the first half and right at the end. It encompasses classic time travel with other SF ingredients (which I won’t mention specifically) - but which work together very well.

It is action packed, much like a (dare I say it) Bond story, in so much as it encompasses many countries, includes fast vehicles (sprinkled with technology), has some pretty cool weapons (though, not over the top so), fight scenes and some neat gadgets. Scene structure is pulled off well, with each flowing nicely into the next.

The story balances technology and people nicely, having the right mixture of both - the character building doesn’t overshadow the technology, and visa versa. There are some well thought out uses for technology, some of which I think are unique. Interaction between the characters is well thought out. I feel a prequel could easily be expanded using the character which is Saskia - especially in the context of her earlier life.

It is always a nice suprise to see a debut novel such as Déjà Vu. Thoroughly recommended.

Galactica Gets a Prequel "Caprica"
The New York-based Sci Fi Channel is developing a new series, "Caprica," described as a prequel to its popular revival of "Battlestar Galactica."

The prequel will be set more than 50 years prior to "Galactica" and the devastation of humanity, Zap2it.com reported Thursday.

"Caprica" will center around two families -- the Graystones and the Adamas, who are ancestors of future Galactica commander William. The Twelve Colonies are at peace and on the verge of a technological breakthrough -- the first Cylon, Zap2it.com said.

"Caprica" will be more about the families and less about the space battles compared to its predecessor. Its executive producers are "Galactica" veterans Ronald D. Moore and David Eick..

A non-military team will be making the journey each episode in SG-Atlantis, and the discovery of the Atlantis base is expected to be brought about in the concluding episodes of season 7.