Sex & the single alien: SPECIES II speaks!

SPECIAL MILLENNIUM EDITION..99/$6.50 CANADA U.K. £2.95 June 1998 #251

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Ralph McQuarrie's full-color Star Wars lithograph featuring Jabba the Hutt and a cast of out-of-this-galaxy

characters is here. Each piece is numbered to an edition size of 2,500 and personally autographed by Mark

Hamill and the artist. Plus it comes complete with a cell from the film and a certificate of authenticity.

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FLIGHTS OFFANTASY

In the early decades of this cen-

Itury. spiritualists and their

seances were still seriously

regarded by legions of people.

Ironically, one of the most ardent

spiritualists was Sir Arthur

Conan Doyle, creator of the

world's most famous paragon of

observation and deductive think-

ing. Sherlock Holmes. In the

other camp, the person most

known for his single-minded

crusade against phony medi-

ums and their tricks was that

master of magic and illusion

Hairy Houdini. The two were

friends and received reams of

press coverage for their cru-

sades. Perhaps one of the

most famous of these

involved two young girls

who claimed to have seen

and photographed living

fairies in their backyard.

Fairytale—A True Story is

based on this incident and

features Peter O'Toole as

Doyle and Harvey Keitel as

Houdini—both investigators

of the girls' claims.

Though the special FXscenes with the fairies are

beautifully handled and

director Charles (Gulliver's

Travels) Sturridge succeeds in

authentically wrapping his story

in the period, the film strays from

the facts of the case and puts

words in Houdini's mouth that

would have him turning over in

his grave. Fairytale—A True

Story is priced for rental in VHSand Beta, but the laserdisc ver-

sion is only S34.95 in CLV. Inci-

dentally, the famous photos

survive to this day, and you can

see one of them for yourself at

the web site: www.parascope.

com/articles/0397/ghost08.htm

Ten episodes of Star Trek:

The Next Generation drop out of

warp this month. Look for

"Time's Arrow, Part II," "Realm

of Fear," in which Lt. Barclay

overcomes his intense fear of the

Transporter, "Man of the Peo-

ple," "Relics," which features a

visit by Classic Trek engineer

Montgomery Scott (James

Doohan). "Schisms," "True Q,"

"Rascals," where a molecular

mishap transforms Picard and

three other crew members into

children, a trip to the Old West

via Holodeck in "A Fistful of

Datas," "The Quality of Life"

and "Chain of Com-mand, Part I," which

guest stars Ronny (Robo-

Cop) Cox.

And after you finish viewing

those, you can turn to some new

second season episodes of Star

Trek: Deep Space Nine. Quark

feels the sting of a competitor,

Martus (Chris Sarandon) in

"Rivals." Odo's origins are called

into question in "The Alternate."

There's also "The Armageddon

Game" and "Whispers" in which

O'Brien's popularity seems to

take a sudden nose dive. All

Look for stylish animated

adventure in Batman & Mr.

Freeze: SubZero.

episodes feature stereo surround

sound, $14.95 each in VHS.

Now in stores is Batman &Mr. Freeze: SubZero, a direct-to-

video animated adventure in

which Batman (voice of Kevin

Conroy), Robin (Loren Lester)

and Batgirl (Mary Kay Bergman)

tackle the chilling Mr. Freeze

(Michael Ansara). Filled with a

stunning mix of computer-gener-

ated and standard animation, as

directed by Boyd Kirkland, Sub-

Zero is a special treat from Warn-

er Home Video (VHS. $19.96),

Due out mid-month is yet

another version of Steven Spiel-

berg's Close Encounters of the

Third Kind. The story is this:

Spielberg claims the original

release version (1977, 135 min-

utes) was hurried and unfinished,

then came the Special Edition

(1980, 132 minutes) which delet-

ed some scenes and added others,

including the shots of Richard

Dreyfuss inside the Mothership,

and now finally we get a third

version, a Collector's Edition

(1998, 137 minutes) which adds

scenes and deletes more scenes,

most notably dropping Dreyfuss'

Mothership visit, which Spiel-

berg was apparently not happy

with. No pricing at presstime,

though the studio promises both

widescreen and pan/scan edi-

tions in VHS. There have been

suggestions for an Ultimate Edi-

tion, which would run about 148

minutes if all of the footage were

put back in, but Spielberg hasn't

expressed any interest in this

idea.

All 39 half-hour episodes of

the Flash Gordon TV series star-

ring Steve Holland (see page

64), which were filmed in

Germany and haven't been

seen since 1954, have been

acquired for home video dis-

tribution by Englewood

Entertainment of Indepen-

dence, MO. Check their web

site for the latest info:

www.englewd.com.

After realizing a mod-

icum of success with its live-

action remake of the cartoon

feature 101 Dalmatians,

Disney turned to another stu-

dio's (UPA) animated shorts

for the live-action feature

Mr. Magoo (for rental only

in VHS and Beta) starring

Leslie Nielsen as bumbling

Quincy Magoo.

Laser: Ripley has been

dead for 200 years, but now

researchers think they have the

technology to breed and tame a

new brood of aliens. ALIEN Res-

urrection is a widescreen transfer

from CBS/Fox in Dolby Digital

Surround Sound ($39.95) or

DTS ($49.95).

Image Entertainment has an

interesting trio of new SF releas-

es beginning with director

Andrei Tarkovsky's metaphysi-

cal SF journey Solaris, newly re-

issued in a cheaper edition,

$34.95 in Russian with English

subtitles. Robocop 2 continues

the story of the cyborg cop with

Peter Weller and Nancy Allen,

$29.95 in CLV widescreen. The

pilot for Showtime's Stargate

SG-1 series, ($39.95) stars

Richard Dean Anderson and

Christopher Judge (see page 50).

LIVE Home Video has a new

widescreen, THX approved,

Dolby Digital Surround Sound

edition of director James

Cameron's Terminator 2. Also

receiving the DDSS treatment is

the widescreen transfer of

Beetlejuice directed by Tim Bur-

ton. Both films are priced at

$29.95 each in CLV.—David Hutchison

President/PublisherNORMAN JACOBS

Executive Vice PresidentRITA EISENSTEIN

Associate PublisherMILBURN SMITH

V.P./Circulation DirectorART SCHULKIN

Executive Art DirectorW.R. MOHALLEY

EditorDAVID MCDONNELL

Managing EditorKEITH OLEXA

Assistant EditorJEANNE PROVOST

Special Effects Editor

DAVID HUTCHISON

Contributing Editors

ANTHONY TIMPONEMICHAEL CINCOLDTOM WEAVERIAN SPELLING

ConsultantKERRY O'QUINN

Senior Art DirectorJIM MCLERNON

west Coast correspondentsMARC SHAPIROBILL WARREN

Financial Director: Joan Baetz

Marketing Director: Frank M. Ros-

nerCirculation Manager: Maria Damiani

Designers: Yvonne Jang, John Dins-

dale, Rick Teng, Dmitriy ostrovskiy,

Marco Turelli.

Executive staff: Debbie Irwin, DeeErwine, Jose Soto, Sarah Assalti.

correspondents: (West coast) Kyle

counts, Pat Jankiewicz, jean-Marc &

Randy Lofficier; (NYC) David Hirsch,

Mike McAvennie, Maureen McTigue,

Joe Nazzaro, Steve Swires, Dan Yakir;

(Boston) Will Murray; (Chicago) Kim

Howard Johnson; (west) Bill Flo-

rence, Jo Beth Taylor; (South) Lynne

Stephens, Michael Wolff; (Canada)

Peter Bloch-Hansen, Mark Phillips;

(England) Stan Nicholls; (Booklog)

Scott schumack; (Cartoons) Kevin

Brockschmidt, Alain Chaperon, Mike

Fisher, Tom Holtkamp, Bob Muleady.

Thanks: Gillian Anderson, Rob Bow-man, Chris Brancato, Chris Carter,

Dalisa Cooper Cohen, Dean Devlin,

Fredrik Du Chau, David Duchovny,

Terry Erdmann, Heather Graham,

Mary Alice Green, Natasha Hen-

stridge, Steve Holland, Jennifer

Howd, Christopher Judge, PennyKenny, Leah Krantzler, MattLeBlanc,

Mimi Leder, Hudson Lelck, Carol

Marks-Ceorge, Tom Phillips, Steve

Pilcher, John smith, Frank Spotnitz,

Jeff walker, Alex Worman.Cover Art: Xena: Copyright 1998 Uni-

versal; X-Files Movie: Copyright 1998

universal TV; species II: copyright

1998 MGM; Godzilla: Copyright 1998

Sony Entertainment; Deep impact:

Copyright 1998 Paramount Pictures.

For Advertising information:

(212) 689-2830. FAX (212) 889-79SS

Advertising Director: Rita Eisen

stein

Classified Ads Manager: Tim Clark

For Ad sales: Dick Faust, The Faust

Co., 24050 Madison St. Ste. 101, Tor-

rance, CA 90505 (310) 373-9604 or 8760

international Licensing Rep: Robert

J. Abramson & Associates, inc., 720

Post Road, scarsdale, NY 10583

LOTS MORE SF-TVShowtime has agreed to do two

further seasons of Stargate

SG-1 (the series' second cable

season begins next month with

the syndication debut this fall).

This brings the SG-1 adventure

total to 88 episodes.

Likewise, Showtime has

authorized two more seasons of

The Outer Limits, although the

projected sixth year is currently

only a 12-episode order. This

Outer Limits, already in syndica-

tion, will thus rack up at least

122 episodes.

But that's not all! The Sci-Fi

Channel has aquired rerun rights

to both series

—

Outer Limits

begins there in 1999, SG-1 in

2002. Showtime, however, isn't

renewing Poltergeist: The Lega-

cy for another season. Instead,

Poltergeist will, like Sliders,

move to the Sci-Fi Channel. The

all-new 22-episode fourth season

debuts on SFC in January.

Genre TV: TNT has made it

official and will offer two new

genre series next year: Crusade.

the Babylon 5 follow-up from J.

Michael Straczynski (STAR-

LOG #249), and the comics-

based Witchblade (STARLOG#244) from producer Oliver

Stone. The third B5 TV movie,

meanwhile, has a title: Baby-

lon 5: The River of Souls.

Athough Gene Roddenber-

ry's Earth: Final Conflict will

be back for another season,

Kevin Kilner won't be. The

series lead is being recast.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

has been renewed for a third

season. Seth Green (Oz)

becomes a regular.

NightMan, greenlit for a

second season, may movelensing from California to

Canada. Expect cast changes.

Going in the other direc-

tion, The X-Files will movelensing from Canada to LA.

Pray for Prey. It isn't, as of

yet, cancelled, but its low rat-

ings on ABC make it an

unlikely candidate for sur-

vival.

Both The Adventures of Sin-

bad and Ghost Stories have been

cancelled.

Bryce {Dark Skies) Zabel has

been named executive producer

of the syndicated The Crow:

Stairway to Heaven series. Mark(Island of Dr. Moreau) Dacascos

will star.

.M ii wrjnrm .... .1 1 nun i n ..y _

Elizabeth Ward Gracen,

ex-Miss America and High-

lander vet, will star in the

* new syndicated spin-off

Highlander: The Raven.

Filmmaker Manny (Dr. Gig-

gles) Coto, Universal and NBCare developing a new TV series

version of Rod Serling's Night

Galleiy.

Novelist Michael Marshall

Smith is adapting Clive Barker's

Photo: Copyright 1998 Universal City Studios

Johnson for DreamWorks).

A&E Cable will air a two-

hour TV movie adaptation of

Edgar Allan Poe's oft-filmed

Murders in the Rue Morgue. It's

from Robert Halmi's Hallmark

Entertainment.

Craig Zadan and Neil

Meron—who produced Cin-

derella—will mount Daniel

Keyes' FlowersforAlgernon as a

CBS TV movie. Its 1968 film

Look out for unusual sights when you visit the Lizard Lounge in

Terry Gilliam's Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, based on the

Hunter S.Thompson novel. It opens later this month.

Art: By & Copyright 1998 Mentor Huebner

Legendary production illustrator Mentor Huebner helped envision

Blade Runner, Forbidden Planet, Flash Gordon,Soylent Green, Dune,

Westworld, The Time Machine, Planet of the Apes, the unmade Spider-

Man (pictured) and 220 other movies. Now, you can see his amazing

work on display at dual solo exhibits this month only in Los Angeles'

Eagle Rock suburb: at the Eagle Rock Community Cultural Center

(daily, noon to 5 p.m.) and at the Eagle Rock City Hall (weekdays, 8

a.m. to 5 p.m.). The exhibits commemorate their survival of a 1 997

canyon fire which partially destroyed the Huebner home and salute

the LA firefighters who helped to save the work of an artistic lifetime.

Weaveworld for a BBC TV pro-

duction. Two Smith novels are

headed for filming: One of Us

(an SF thriller about memorycollecting, to be produced by

Denise Di Novi for Warner

Bros.; Bantam publishes it in

hardcover this August) and

Spares (scripted by DonMcPherson. produced by Mark

incarnation. Charly. won an

Oscar for Cliff Robertson.

Fox airs a giant monster-on-

a-rampage TV movie on May 19.

No, it's not Godzilla (which

opens the next day), but Gargan-

tua. Coincidence or something

more? You decide.

Updates: John Cleese will

guest star in two episodes of 3rd

Rock from the Sun early this

month.

Lucasfilm has made it offi-

cial. 20th Century Fox will dis-

tribute the first three Star Wars

films, beginning with the untitled

Episode I in May 1999.

The film version of Michael

Crichton's Eaters of the Deadhas a new title (The Thirteenth

Warrior) and a new release date

(July).

Genre Films: Chris Lambert

plays Beowulf'in the futuristic SF

version of the classic tale. Gra-

ham (Alien Nation) Baker is

directing the movie. Gotz Otto

—

Stamper in Tomorrow Never

Dies—is also in the cast. Dimen-

sion Films will distribute the

movie.

The remake of The Tenth Vic-

tim has gained a stylish direc-

tor—David Nutter. Matt (Mimic)

Greenberg is scripting. Both this

and the original movie are based

on a Robert Sheckley novel.

As for The 13th Floor, nowshooting under writer/director

Josef Rusnak, it stars Craig

Bierko. Armin Mueller-Stahl and

Vincent D'Onofrio.

Producers Lawrence Gordon

and Lloyd Levin have acquired

rights to the Tomb Raider video

games (with heroic Lara

Croft). Brent (Dark Skies)

Friedman may script the Para-

mount film.

David Campbell Wilson

scripted Supernova, the SF

thriller from United Artists

which focuses on a hospital

spaceship. Walter (ALIEN)

Hill directs. The film stars

James Spader, Robin Tunny.

Wilson Cruz and Peter

Facinelli.

Movie rights to Masque

have been optioned by Poly-

gram Pictures and Tom Cruise.

The SF novel by F. Paul Wil-

son and Matthew J. Costello.

just published by Warner

Aspect, follows a futuristic

hero on his last Blade Runner-

like mission. He's a genetical-

ly engineered mime, a member

of a slave race designed to

mimic anyone else.

Small Soldiers will march

to the beat of a Burger King

promotion, a Coca-Cola tie-in

and toys from Hasbro.

Filmmaker Luc Besson will

reteam with his Fifth Element

star (and real-life love interest)

Milla Jovovich in another

retelling of Joan of Arc. He'll

direct; she'll have visions, lead

armies and burn to death.

—David McDonnell

The

COLLECTOS.D. Studios brings you the finest, fully-licensed

reproductions of the weapons and spy equipment

from the most successful film series of all

time...James Bond.

Each replica is recreated from a direct study of the

original filming prop, including the use of original

studio blueprints. Thestudios prop makers

and art directors were

also consulted to insure

absolute accuracy.

The finest materials

available are used in

die production of our

replicas. The Golden

Gun and the Breathing

device from Thunderball

are heavily plated in

24 karat gold.

Other licensed James

Bond replicas being

produced by S.D. Studios

include: the From Russia

ith Love Attache' Case,

die GoldenEye Control

Panel, Belt Dart Gun and

Piton Laser Pistol. Also

: ieduled are the Walther

PPK, a miniature of Little

Nellie from You Otily Live

Twice, the 007 Dossiers and

so much more...

Each replica is shipped in a solid-walnut presentation

?, complete with the 007 logo laser-etched into

.- glass lid. Also included are operating instructions,

: vie stills and rare information about each film

—

^2

—C__3

NameAddress,

All replicas are non-firing

reproductions only.

City State Zip

PhoneCREDIT CARD ORDERS MAY BE FAXED TO (212) 889-7933

STARLOG475 Park AvenueNew York, NY 10016

New York residents add 8.25% sales tax

CARTOON TUNESEdel America Records has

released a delightful gift for

kids of all ages, The Harvey

Comics Collectible Box Set

(0037142EDL). Besides the 27

audio tracks, the two enhanced

CDs are packed with 19 Quick-

time musical moments from the

original animated cartoons that

can be run on both Mac and Win-

dows. Tucked into the package are |

an informative 26-page book on ii

the history of Harvey cartoons and|

full-color reproductions of three gclassic comic books

—

Casper #14 <

(October 1959), Richie Rich #7

(November 1961) and Baby Huey

#9 (January 1958), all complete

with original ads.

New Scores: Trevor Jones

enhances the nightmarish quality

of Dark City (TVT Soundtrax

TVT 8160-2). The album features

three songs from the film, includ-

ing "Sway" and "The Night Has a

Thousand Eyes" by Anita Kelsey.

Also new by the same composer

is the score for Desperate Mea-

sures (Velvel Reelsounds 79715-

2), which stars Michael Keaton as

a crazed killer.

Jerry Goldsmith offers a

thrilling mix of horror and action

in the monster fest Deep Rising

(Hollywood Records HR-62120-

2). If you must have "The Girl

from Ipanema," it can be found on

the soundtrack to Four Days in

September (Milan 35836-2) with

music by Stewart Copeland, whoscored the original Babylon 5 pilot.

James Newton Howard deliv-

ers over 50 minutes of music for

The Postman (Warner Sunset

46842-2), which also contains

Kevin Costner's singing duet

with Amy Grant, and seven other

songs by Jono Manson and John

Coinman.

Reissues: Thanks to PEGRecordings, the sought-after

soundtracks to James Horner's

Cocoon (PEG013CD). Danny

Elfman's Big Top Pee-wee (PEG

016) and Laurence Rosenthal's

Clash ofthe Titans (PEG014) are

available once again. Unfortu-

nately, two other Rosenthal genre

scores are only in print as hard-

to-find promotionals. Both Mete-

or (42348) and the 1977 version

of The Island of Dr. Moreau

(42347) were produced by the

composer's own Windemere

Music Publishers, who also

released his classic score for

Becket (42349). However, ardent

fans can find copies at collector

stores like Intrada Records (415-

776-1333).

Classic Horror: One of Star

Trek composer Jay Chattaway's

earliest works was the music for

the cult classic Maniac. Accom-

panying the film's reissue on

video are three imported versions

of the soundtrack. The first is an

enhanced CD (SouthEast

Records SER289B05), which

contains a massive dual-platform

CD-ROM section loaded with

Quicktime movies and stills,

including a photo gallery of pin-

up queen Caroline Munro.

There's also a music-only CD cut

in the shape of Joe Spinell's head

(BOSS) and a limited-edition red

vinyl LP (B05V).

For the last several years,

Britain's Channel 4 has been

restoring classic silent films and

commissioning new orchestral

music to accompany them. Whobetter than James Bernard, the

master melody maker of Ham-mer Studios, to score the 1922

version of Nosferatu (Silva

America SSD 1084)? The 64-

minute symphonic suite was

recorded in Dolby Surround, and

the booklet features detailed liner

notes.

Two original scores for direc-

tor Mario Bava have been reis-

sued once again on CD. Black

Sunday and Baron Blood

(Citadel STC 77110) were both

composed by Les Baxter for the

American releases of these Ital-

ian films, notable for the direc-

tor's unique visual techniques.

Previously released on the

defunct Bay Cities label, this new

20-bit digital transfer sounds

superb and includes liner notes

by actress Barbara Steele detail-

KEEP GOING! We haven't yet qualified

for federal disaster relief!

ing her experiences making

Black Sunday.

Also new from Citadel is Leg-

endary Hollywood: Miklos Rdzsa

(STC 77111). a compilation of I

previously released materia

which includes the overture to I

the 1959 post-nuclear holocaust I

drama The World, the Flesh .

the Devil. Lee (Beauty & the I

Beast) Holdridge's score to the I

real-life horror Into Thin Air: I

Death on Everest (STC 77 1 12) is I

also available.

Compilations: The Essential

James Bond (Silva America SSD

1034), a collection of 19 theme!

has been reissued with different

cover art, in Dolby Surround and

including a new recording of the

GoldenEye theme. The Virgi-

Megastores are importing Thun-

derbirds Are Go: TV Themes faGrown-Up Kids (Pulse PLS CD195), a rehash of the Barry

Gray/Gerry Anderson themes and

various cover versions of The

Avengers, The Return of the Sain:

and The Champions, all of which I

appeared on the first two volumes

of TheAtoZ ofBritish TV Themes(Play It Again 004 and 006).

Songs: Babylon 5's Julie

Caitlin Brown is also an accom-

plished singer/songwriter—as

demonstrated on a new CD of he-

own songs. Shedding My Skin.

It's available for $15 plus S3.50

postage & handling per CD.

S4.95 if international (or

Hawaii/Alaska), from Illumina

Productions. P.O. Box 1988.

Manhattan Beach, CA 90267-

1988. (California residents add

8.25% sales tax.) For a limited

time, each CD will include an

autographed Na'toth card.

Promotionals: Craig (The

Last Starfighter) Safan was

apparently ahead of his time

when he wrote the score to the

1981 urban horror fim Wolfen

(Miles End MED 3004). Full of

dissonant tones and wild orches-

tral flourishes, it bore no resem-

blance to any of his other work,

or to the more contemporary

Horner score that replaced it. It

does remind one of the wort

Elliot Goldenthal did on ALIEN3

over a decade later.

The latest privately produced

offering from the composer of

Superman II and /// is Arabian

_ Adventure: The Film Music of

| Ken Thorne Volume 3. The CD^ features selections from his score

| to the British-made fantasy star-

c ring Christopher Lee.<

Got Any Questions? Write

dhirsch9 1 8@ earthlink.net

—David Hirsch

TO ORDER HIGHLAND MINT PRODUCTS

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: = -a:;an orders add 10% tax and $10 s/h in U.S. funds only. Sorry, we cannotship to other foreign countries.

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Ca-c^ 475 PARK AVENUE SOUTHSignature Exp. date Allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery. NEW YORK.NY 10016

MANY EVILRETURNS

Wcdead, but boy, were we

wrong. You can't just kill

what's become an immense-

ly popular video game that's

spinning off into toys, shirts,

books and even a movie. You

just have to face evil again

on the SonyPlayStation, this

time for Resident Evil 2.

Talk about an ambitious

sequel—this game's twice as

hard and twice as chilling as

its predecessor, and takes

two discs for the whole story

to unfold.

In the first Resident Evil,

we had a haunted house full

of zombies and mutated mon-

sters. This time it's an entire city

torn asunder, with a good deal of

the problem leading back to the

Raccoon City Police Department

headquarters.

Take your pick of the two

main characters to play from

—

Leon S. Kennedy or Claire Red-

field. Leon's a rookie cop whocelebrates his first day by fight-

ing for his life in the police sta-

tion that has been overtaken by

the evil. Claire has come to Rac-

coon City in search of her miss-

ing brother, Chris, who was one

of the main characters in the first

Resident Evil. Of course, it does

not matter which character you

use—thanks to the game's

extended gameplay system.

Whether you finish Disc One as

Leon or Disc Two as Claire,

the system alters the bear-

ings and outcomes when you

continue your adventure on

the other disc. In other

words, if you take a machine

gun as Leon, don't expect it

to be there for Claire.

We meet other charac-

ters, including Ada Wongand Sherry Birkin. Ada's a

condescending mystery

woman and good shot, and

can be used for certain sce-

narios with Leon. Sherry is a

small 1 2-year-old who fits in

vent holes and other areas

Claire would have problems

getting through. Both char-

acters are integral to the

story, and they can die just

like the main characters.

Then, there are the mon-

sters. The zombies are hard-

er to kill. There are also

Art: Mike Fisher

Darth Tater

wall-clinging beasts with razor-

sharp tongues called Lickers,

giant tarantulas, killer bees and a

one-eyed beast that sends little

sluglike companions to suck the

life out of you—just to name a

few. And if creatures like that

aren't enough, your mission's

twice as hard as you try to find

missing keys and solve puzzles

to advance. Those of you who

can master the game quickly and

efficiently will be happy to know

that there's another character you

can use in an advanced game. Of

course, you may want to think

twice before using him, her or it,

since it's actually a stick of tofu

armed only with a knife. Seems

there are some poor deluded

souls out there who want to make

the same more challenging for

themselves.

There's so much to Resident

Evil 2 that trying to chronicle

each level would take several

columns. This game is downright

creepy (and not recommended

for children at all). Try playing it

late at night with the lights off

(even better, during a thunder-

storm)—there are so many dan-

gers popping out of nowhere that

you'll be spooked right out of

your wits. In addition to eye-pop-

ping graphics, the computer-gen-

erated cinematic sequences are

stunning (especially the opening,

which introduces Claire to Leon

and then forces them to split up

and have their own adventures).

Rarely does a successful video

game sequel live up to expecta-

tions, but Capcom and Resident

Evil 2 exceed those expecta-

tions. It's the video game to

beat in 1998, which may be

upsetting for many competi-

tors, since it came out at the

) year's beginning.

Spellbound Sagas: If

monsters aren't your bag.

then how about magic? Bet-

ter yet. how about Micro-

Prose's Magic: The

Gathering—"Duels of the

J Planeswalkers," an expansion

1 of sorts of the original Magic

j PC game which covers every-

I thing you need to know about

I this strategy card game.

More than 400 cards from

I the Fourth Edition set are

5offered in "Duels of the

Planeswalkers." including a

set of 80 cards which come

from Magic's Legends and

The Dark sets, all of which

are supported and handled by

the game's Deck Builder feature.

From there, you can have a

greater hand than ever in creating

your own magician, courtesy of a

Face Builder feature which

allows you to add personality to

your champion as you see fit.

Gamers everywhere have

been looking to buy, sell and

trade Magic cards over the Inter-

net in their quest to become the

most powerful magician of all.

Thanks to a ManaLink feature in

"Duels of the Planeswalkers,"

players can now surf the elec-

tronic highway to do battle in

Shandalar. Connected players

wage war with each other and

become registered opponents,

from which they choose the

appropriate dueling deck, and

match parameters and do battle.

When the fight's done, Man-

aLink keeps track of your

Duelists' Convention Inter-

national (DCI) record and

ranking, helping your oppo-

nents determine who they

can challenge to a Duel or

even a Gauntlet session.

Other features in "Duels

of the Planeswalkers"'

include superior AI (artificial

intelligence) logic, a multi-

media tutorial and new user

interface screens for greater

ease of use. In addition.

MicroProse has also come

out with Spells of the

Ancients, a PC expansion

which adds 143 more cards

to your arsenal. Whether or

not you can use all this to

become the greatest wizard

of Shandalar is, well, all in

the cards.

—Michael McAvennieArt: Mike Fisher

Two new comics collections of CODZILLR tales.

Each 272 black St white pages!

le:

nglish•anslation of themanga classic!IB BScW pages!

(jOMtt

Please send me Godzilla: Past, Present & Future(s) @ S17.95 ea

Please send me Godzilla: Age of Monsters(s) @ S17.95 ea

Please send me Godzilla (manga)ls) @ S17.95 ea.AMOUNT ENCLOSED

plus S4 shipping & handling first book, add S2 each additional book.

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Secret Realms by Tom Cool

(Tor, hardcover, 304 pp,

$22.95)

In a future China at war with

Japan, a group of children are

raised from infancy in virtual

reality, where they're trained to

become warriors. Secret Realms

unfolds the story of the chil-

dren's discovery that their world

is artificial, and of their move to

escape.

Tom Cool presents us with an

interesting variation on the

cyberpunk mythos: this time. VRis the heroes' natural environ-

ment, and "reality" is the context

they must adapt to. The story's

breakneck pace helps sweep

away any lingering doubts that

Cool's pat explanations might

engender in readers, and the pro-

tagonists' charm does the rest.

Still, Cool leaves too much of

this world, and this story, unex-

plored.

—Jean-Marc Lofficier

Godheads by Emily Devenport

(Roc, paperback, 334 pp,$5.99)

Emily Devenport uses a typi-

cal espionage storyline to

explore themes of identity and

autonomy. The plot is somewhat

unwieldy, but fortunately, well-

rounded characters compensate

for this shortcoming.

Agents Edna and Aten pair up

to infdtrate a collective of tele-

pathically linked minds (the

Godheads' Net), find its secrets

and deliver them to the powerful

OMSK agency. Edna and Aten

enjoy a dubious alliance with

male contacts from a matriarchal

society, but these men have their

own agenda—one that doesn't

coincide with OMSK'S. AndEdna and Aten are not what they

seem to be. !

Godheads is possibly Deven-

port's best book. Though she

needlessly convolutes the plot, her

characters are intriguingly com-

plex, and she handles them adroit-

ly. Edna and Aten are probably

Devenport's best heroines yet.

—Penny Kenny

Hand of Prophecy by Severna

Park (Avon/Eos, trade paper-

back, 320 pp, $14)

Frenna is a slave. The out-

break of war allows her to flee

her brutal owner, but mere run-

ning can't free her; all slaves

carry a bioengineered disease

, i

- -

-r- P-m nmnr-rrmr iw inin«nnTnMinfflt« ii1iTir

that grants two decades of

youth and health, followed

by agonizing death. Frenna's

hopes ride on a perilous treat-

ment that might cure the disease.

But when she's forced to join a

troop of gladiators, she encoun-

ters an exile from the clan of her

former masters—a ruthless, pos-

sibly mad, prophet who sees

Frenna as either a tool to be used

or a rival to be killed.

Hand of Prophecy draws a

grimly ambiguous picture of

freedom and slavery. Severna

Park depicts, with sensual, sick-

ening intensity, the slaves' plight.

Her sweating, unwashed charac-

ters seem to wade constantly in

filthy water or blood. For them,

freedom is a mixed blessing; the

hope Frenna offers the gladiators

ignites a massacre and further

twists the perverse love-hate

bond between master and slave.

Readers with strong stomachs

and open minds should find the

depiction of Frenna's struggle

grueling, yet fascinating.

—Scott W. Schumack

Helm by Steven Gould (Tor,

hardcover, 384 pp, $24.95)

An Earth space colony adopts

a medieval feudal system in

order to survive and maintain sta-

bility. Several centuries later, the

youngest son of a local nobleman

subjects himself to mental

imprinting by the '"helm," a

device which holds the knowl-

edge and personality of one of

the colony's original Moon-based architects.

The young hero Leland de

Laal must live with this ancient

voice in his head, and, at the

same time, defeat an invasion by

an evil neighboring baron. As in

Christopher Stasheff's Warlord

series, the "sword" element is

teamed with a pseudo-scientific

gimmick rather than a "sorcery"

one, but this makes little differ-

ence. The novel is at its best

when it deals with the hero's

training in aikido, an art for

which Steven Gould obviously

has a special affinity. Helm is a

competent and entertaining

adventure.—Jean-Marc Lofficier

The Timeless Tales of Reginald

Bretnor edited by Fred Flax-

man (Story Books, trade

paperback, 223 pp, $12.95)

The late Reginald Bretnor

was a master of the short story,

and this collection shows him at

his keen, whimsical best.

Bretnor is usually remem-

bered as a humorist, and the

delightful fantasy "Fungo the

Unrighteous" and the grotesque

SF piece "Dr. Birdmouse" are

still hilarious. Comedy doesn't

age well, though, and pieces like

"Cat," "Maybe Just a Little One,"

or "Without (General) Issue" that

rely on academic, international

or sexual politics seem dated.

Still, there are timeless stories

here, like "Aunt's Flight" and

"All the Tea in China," that

resemble folk tales and share that

medium's wit and voice.

Most impressive, though, are

the serious stories. "Man on

Top," justly Bretnor's best

known story, is still powerful,

and "The Murderer's Circle" is

clever and biting. "Beasts That

Perish," an eerie ecological fable,

is perhaps even more disturbing

now than it was 20 years ago, and

"Mating Season" offers a cruel

snapshot of American Gothic.

Above all there's "UnknownThings," a flawless story of evil

and obsession that stands com-

parison with Nathaniel

Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe.

—Scoff W. Schumack

Ports of Call by Jack Vance

(Tor, hardcover, 384 pp,

$24.95)

Returning to the colorful

worlds of the Gaean Reach, Jack

Vance introduces us to MyronTany who, after being unjustly

kicked out of his shrewish aunt's

spaceship light years from home,

is forced to work his way through

the cluster.

Ports of Call is not unlike a

cosmic version of South Pacific,

featuring Vance's traditional dio-

rama of alien societies, intricate

customs and lonely protagonists

capable of facing the odds with

aplomb and equanimity. Struc-

turally, the novel is reminiscent

of Vance's earlier Big Planet and

Showboat World. Buyers beware,

however: the narrative ends

abruptly. Myron does not return

home, get the girl or achieve

revenge by the novel's close.

Ports of Call appears to be the

first in a new series, and it ought

to be sold as such.

—Jean-Marc lofficier

The Moon Maid and Other Fan-

tastic Adventures by R. Garcia

y Robertson (Golden Gryphon,

hardcover, 275 pp, $22.95)

This fine collection is both

entertaining and enlightening. R.

Garcia y Robertson's commandof historical detail redeems the

cliches of amazon/barbarian fan-

tasy in "The Moon Maid" and

makes the retold Scandinavian

myth of "The Wagon God's

Wife" a bawdy romp.

Also striking are the fantasies

that show American history from

odd angles, like "Four Kings and

an Ace," in which a virtuous Chi-

nese girl escapes prostitution in

rowdy old San Francisco, and

"The Other Magpie," which

approaches Little Big Horn from

a native American and sexually

alternative viewpoint.

Robertson's heroes are often

Maidand

Other

Fantastic

Adventures

R. GARCIA Y ROBERTSON

i

clever and determined outsiders

who beat seemingly superior—if

evil—forces, like the time travel-

er who dupes the Nazis in

"Gypsy Trade," or the abused

humans who con a cruel alien in

the exotic "Cast on a Distant

Shore."

Even the weaker yarns like

"Werewolves of Luna" are still

fun, and Robertson's concern for

the underdog, his willingness to

depict sometimes ugly aspects of

history and his exuberant crafts-

manship make The Moon Maiddelightful and illuminating.

—Scott W. Schumack

—-r---rr-T-

Wormhole 3D Mouse PadJem'Haddar ships emerge

from the wormhole.

$17.50 Item #08346

on Aai

round

em #0

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Voices of Chaos:A Novel ofStarbridge by A. C. Crispin

and Ru Emerson (Ace,

paperback, 316 pp, $5.99)

The feline Arrekhi are

tired of being junior partners

in the Cooperative League

of Systems. They want full

partnership. ..now. But the

CLS suspect the Arrekhi of

keeping secrets, and this is

where the empath, MadamePerez, comes in. As part of a

CLS survey team, she can

psychically ferret out the

Arrekhi's clandestine

doings. It also doesn't hurt

that she has shared a few

slow dances with an Arrekhi

prince.

But the team's arrival

lights a fuse that could lead

to planetary civil war. Andcan clairvoyant Magdalena

trust her powers when her

feelings are involved?

The Arrekhi setting is

developed better than those

of many series novels. Char-

acters are multi-faceted, and

the tips of the hat to classic

films provide an added treat.

A.C. Crispin and Ru Emer-

son neatly balance palace

intrigue, personal relation-

ships and tense action in this

thoroughly enjoyable story.

—Penny L. Kenny

Barrenlands by DorannaDurgin (Baen, hardcover,

343 pp, $5.99)

After a year seeking the

murderer of his king and

friend, Ehren is abruptly

pulled off the trail. The royal

magic and knowing things

he shouldn't about the late

king.

In many ways, Barren-

lands is a by-the-numbers

book. Doranna Durgin pro-

vides no real surprises

(despite overplotting on the

villain's part), but she does

offer some good characters.

The conflicted, dedicated

Ehren is a hero to root for,

and a female character's

crush on him comes across

plausibly. Durgin also treats

the various confrontation

scenes with style, and leav-

ens the mix with humor.—Penny L. Kenny

Summon the Keeper by

Tanya Huff (DAW, paper-

back, 333 pp, $5.99)

Tanya Huff is such an

entertaining writer that read-

ers may well finish Summonthe Keeper before they real-

ize nothing has happened.

But Huff writes engagingly

enough about nothing that

her audience may not mind.

Keeper Claire Hansen

must prevent evil from run-

force and a rushed ending.

Still, the cat and Hell have

some great lines.

—Penny L. Kenny

Between the Rivers by

Harry Turtledove (Tor,

hardcover, 384 pp, $24.95)

Between the Rivers pre-

sents a quite convincing

re-creation of ancient

Mesopotamia, where civi-

lization and human con-

sciousness are newdevelopments, and gods,

ghosts and demons remain

accepted components of

daily life.

Sharur, a young mer-

chant of the city of Gibil,

finds his hopes for wealth

and marriage ruined when

the other cities of the land

refuse to trade with him.

The lazy god of the Gibil

has granted his folk free

will, and the gods of the

other cities see this as a dan-

gerous blasphemy that they

must eradicate. To save

Gibil, and his own happi-

ness, Sharur must perilously

juggle subservience and

rebellion, provoke a war,

plot a theft and learn

whether the human spirit

can defy the gods them-

selves.

Harry Turtledove's

intriguing story about the

nexus between gods and

mortals reads more like a

fable than conventional fan-

tasy adventure. Readers

who can accept the mock-

archaic style (everyone

UiRTLEDOVS

wizard Varien sends him to a

troubled border area where

men and magic run amok,

and if Ehren survives it will

be because of a young manwith a talent for seein

ning amok. Ordinarily, she's

a quick, no-nonsense fixer

I type. Now, she has been"i handed the keys to a board-* ing house with a furnace

| area linked directly to Hell

S and an evil Keeper asleep in

< room six. If she wakes the

~° sleeper. Hell breaks loose. If

c she closes the gateway to

£ Hell, the sleeper awakes.10This might take longer than

Claire anticipated.

Huff has woven various

incidents around a set of

quirky characters. This

accrual of anecdotes results

in a story with no driving

seems to say everything

twice) should find Sharur's

struggle to outwit his pow-

erful, if petty and fallible,

foes enthralling.

—Scott W. Schumack

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SEEKING SPACESHIP...Trendmasters, Inc. the great folks who

recently marketed an excellent toy/model of

the original Lost in Space Robot that even

speaks his classic lines while his "mouth"

lights up, is strongly considering producing a

similar toy/model based on the classic space-

craft the Jupiter II. The original Lost in Space

robot toy/model was an absolute sell-out in

toy stores, and they will only consider pro-

ducing a model of the Jupiter II if the

demand is there. They need to hear from all

Space fans as well toy collectors. The e-mail

address for Trendmasters is customerser-

vice@trendmasters.com. I really do believe

that fans and collectors alike deserve a decent

model of the Jupiter II.

Christopher Krieg

653 Orpington Road

Baltimore,MD 21228

\OE TrtC lAooM.

QUESTWATCH...As a huge seaQuest fan, I often ask myself

what the show's actors have been doing since

it was cancelled, because unfortunately it

isn't easy to get the latest news here in Ger-

many. For that reason. I was very happy to

read Joe Nazzaro's article in STARLOG#247 about Ted Raimi and his role in Xena.

There Raimi says that seaQuest "found its

stride in its third season." I think that the con-

cept of the first season was just the right way

to do it. The show had excellent characters

and marvelous stories with lots of wit and

charm. The second season still was very

good, but the show never again reached

its initial high level. I hated the way more

than half of the crew was killed off during

the second and third seasons, leaving

only three of the original cast (Raimi.

Jonathan Brandis. Don Franklin) and totally

changing the show's message by focusing on

military aspects only. It was wrong to think

giving seaQuest a younger, sexier crew

would solve all problems and bring the need-

ed ratings. When looks become more impor-

tant than the storyline, it always results in a

drop in standards. Characters like Chief

Crocker and Ben Krieg gave the show that

certain something. When I want to see bodies

in action, I turn on Baywatch.

Voelligbaf

Voelligbaf@aol.com

IMAGES OF CONFLICT...Just picked up STARLOG #248 and appre-

ciated Peter Bloch-Hansen's piece on Von

Flores of Earth Final Conflict. I initially-

feared another Star Trek retread, but this

show is written just as well as The X-Files. I

hope you keep up the coverage on this show!

One thing I haven't seen yet is a story on the

show's visuals. The Taleon shuttle is one of

the highlights of the series—one of the finest

spaceships I've seen come out of somebody's

imagination.

Matt McPhee5918 W 35th Street #GMinneapolis, MN 55416

STORMSHIP TROOPERS...Something stinks in the arena of interstellar

war. Starship Troopers is the most disturbing

piece of xenophobic tripe I have ever seen.

Humanity has evolved into a fascist society

where only those people who are or whohave been in government service are allowed

to vote. An Army "scientist" blasts a limb off

of a caged alien soldier causing obvious

extreme pain, turns to the camera, coldly pro-

nounces the alien still 86 percent combat

effective, and then turns back around and

kills it with another blast. This same "scien-

tist" walks up to a captured alien creature

which is securely wrapped in a large net,

using telepathy to read its mind, turns around

and smugly announces to the surrounding

horde of assembled, blood-lusting soldiers.

"It's afraid." No kidding! This same captured

alien is tortured (large probes stabbed into its

side and mouth—not carefully inserted but

thrust in like a spear puncturing the skin and

body of the alien with a satisfying pop and

resulting scream of pain) while it's restrained

and unable to move, in order to "study" it.

The characterization of the aliens by the

human government is as unintelligent,

brutish creatures only fit to be ground under

the heels of mankind. There's an especially

disturbing scene (which I suppose was meant

to be funny) of children stamping insects on

a sidewalk while their parents cheer them on,

and the TV announcer encourages everyone

to "do their part" in defeating the enemy. All

of this is supposed to make the audience

cheer in triumph, since it was this alien race

that sent an asteroid crashing into Buenos

Aires after a colony of humans had built a

city on one of their planets, and had the

temerity to kill (quite painfully and gorily)

human soldiers who came to defend Earth by-

attacking and wiping out the alien races.

These are, after all, aliens that can kill

humans by stabbing them in the tops of their

heads and sucking out their brains.

Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that if

you took away the SF trappings and changed

the alien "Bugs" to humans, all I was watch-

ing was a film that could have been made by

Josef Goebbels or Joseph Stalin 40 or 50

years ago. The human "Master Race" exer-

cises its "right" to go wherever and do what-

ever it wants with no consideration of other

alien races. Government officials and the

media tout service to the state as the highest

calling to aspire to in life. Weak, sniveling

parents oppose their son joining the Army,

after which he will become a "Citizen."

These same parents are later killed by the

alien asteroid (and, by the way, eliminated

from society) which inspires their son to

reconsider his "mistake" of resigning from

the army. Smiling, young, sexually robust

humans charge off to war to kill and be

killed. Director Paul Verhoeven doesn't even

make a very good effort to disguise the fas-

cist trappings. The Army "scientists" are

dressed in long, black trenchcoats and black

caps, very reminiscent of the Nazi Gestapo.

The head "scientist" is even blond-haired, for

God's sake.

I suppose all of this wouldn't bother meso much, except that these people are the

fcSUEEPl

^ACTORV WftcTS IN -WE -v-\ooo

Mopeu stak-v -to swow/

movie's heroes—the ones we are supposed to

identify with. At least when Verhoeven and

writer Ed Neumeier did a similar thing in

RohoCop, it was the hero who opposed the

fascist institutions of the government. In

Starship Troopers, the fascist government is

the hero of the movie. No amount of spectac-

ular FX. blood-lusting gore and pulse-pound-

ing action can cover up the stink that

emanates from the core of Starship Troopers.

EdwinGene@ aol.com

OFFICIAL BABYLON 5 FAN CLUB MERCHANDISEIlltlJI KIIMG INFORMATION:Name:

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B5 Mac/Win CD-ROM Reference $29.99

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The A-Z Guide of Babylon 5 $6.99

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THE RENEGADE ARMADAA club which supports any and all works of

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Sanctioning: None.

Address: Renegade Armada

P.O. Box 0622

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Dues: S15 yearly for individual. S25 for

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Membership Includes: ID card, handbook,

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GTFC GEORGE TAKEI, FRIENDSHIPGeorge Takei fan club.

Sanctioning: George Takei.

Address: c/o P.E. Lewis

261 1 Silverside RoadWilmington. DE 19810

Dues: Send SASE for info.

Membership Includes: Bi-monthly

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ings with Takei in attendance, auction items

donated by Takei, pen pal listing.

THE SCI-FI NITPICKERS CLUBA club for nitpicking all SF

incarnations.

Sanctioning: None.

Address: Sci-Fi Nit

c/o Yul Tolbert

P.O. Box 02222

Detroit, MI 48202-9998

Dues: $1 per issue plus 55 cents postage.

Membership Includes: The Sci-Fi Nitpick-

er's Club Newsletter.

STARFLEET MARINESINTERNATIONALIs looking for a few good life forms in NJ,

DE, NY, PA, MD and VA to join the ranks.

Sanctioning: None.

Address: Major David Sladky

217 S. 3rd Street

Millville, NJ 08322

Dues: $10. Send SASE.

Membership Includes: Membership guide.

Passing the Word subscription, ID card,

opportunity to win awards.

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MAYWONDERFESTMay 8-10

Executive West Hotel

Louisville, KYWonderFest USA, Inc.

P.O. Box 5757

Louisville, KY 40255-0757

http://www.wonderfest.com

Guests: Joe Viskocil, Chris Walas,

Bob Burns

OASIS 11May 15-17

Radisson Plaza Orlando

Orlando, FL 32801

OASIS 1

1

P.O. Box 940992

Maitland, FL 32794-0992

(407) 263-5822

http://www.gate.net/~popovich/

OASIS.html

Guests: Larry Niven. Mary Hanson-

Roberts. Tom Smith

VULKONMay 16-17

St. Petersburg Hilton & Tower

St. Petersburg, FLVulkon Conventions

c/o Joe Motes

12237 SW50th Street

Cooper City, FL 33330-5406

http://www.scifinetwork.com/

startrek/

Guests: Andy Robinson. Aron Eisenberg,

David McDonnell

ACAMEMCON II

May 22-24

Burbank Airport Hilton &Convention Center

Burbank. CAAgamemCon II

24161-HHoIiyoak

Laguna Hill, CA 92656

E-mail: orrock@ix.netcom.com

http://www.primenet.com/

-shadocat/agamemcon .html

Guests: Stephen Furst. Richard Herd

LIBERTYCON 12May 22-24

Ramada Inn South

East Ridge, TN 37412

LibertyCon 12

P.O. Box 695

Hixson. TN 37343-0695

(423)894-6110

E-mail: libcon@cdc.net

http://www.cdc.net/~libcon

Guests: Lois McMasterBujold. Wilson

"Bob"' Tucker

CREATION STAR TREK,XENA & HERCULESMay 30-31

Civic Plaza

Phoenix, AZCreation Entertainment

664A West Broadway

Glendale, CA 91204

(818) 409-0960 x225

Guest: Leonard Nimoy

JUNEJURASSICONJune 5-7

Howard Johnson Midtown

Atlanta, GAJurassiCon, Inc.

P.O. Box 9830S

Atlanta. GA 30359

E-mail: JurassiCon@juno.com

Guests: Craig Hamilton. Rick C. Spears.

David Schwimmer

DUCKON VIIJune 12-14

Ramada Plaza Hotel O'Hare

Rosemont, IL

Duckon Vll Registration

P.O. Box 4843

Wheaton, IL 50189

(847) 827-5131

http://shoga.wwa.com/-duckon/

Guests: Glen Cook. David Lee Anderson,

Pete Grubbs

VULKONJune 13-14

Holiday Inn Independence

Cleveland, OHVulkon Conventions

See earlier address

Guests: Robert Duncan McNeill. David

McDonnell

INTERNATIONAL TOY &COMIC CONJune 27-28

Holiday Inn Jetport

Elizabeth, NJK&S Promotions

c/o Ken Laurence

1 020 Arlington Road

New Milford. NJ 07646

(201) 20.

SPECIAL SECURITY DIVISIONNon-profit Star Trek club promoting Federa-

tion security.

Sanctioning: None.

Address: c/o Eric Wolf-Den

P.O. Box 556

Albany, NY 12201

(518)433-1917

Dues: Send SASE for info.

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scription, club constitution, agent question-

naire, character generation worksheet,

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Against Heavy OddsLike many creative ideas, it didn't begin

with a big bang. It was born with the

help of a few beers, on a hot summer night,

as a few friends sat around laughing and

complaining.

They were mostly fans who had met in

Cepheid Variable, the SF/fantasy/horror/

gaming and comics committee at Texas

A&M University. They were laughing

about strange subjects they all enjoyed, but

they were complaining about the stale

nature of the comics industry. They were

hungry for fresh air, but they were merely

students, struggling to pass and graduate,

so of course all they could really do was

complain.

Two of the students, Shane Heckethorn

and Adam Richards, had formed a lasting

friendship, and their complaints that night

later developed into discussions. A few

weeks later, Shane was able to attend the

annual Comics Con in San Diego. He met

Meloney Crawford Chadwick of Dark

Horse Comics and DCs Mike Carlin. He

talked about comics publishing with many

professionals and returned to Texas with an

obsession.

Shane called Adam, and they started

making plans. Soon, they took the biggest

leap of their lives—this year, they will

launch Katt Butt Comix.

The new company will premiere with a

three-volume series called Litterbox—an

anthology of stories by several creative

names familiar to fans. Brian Stelfreeze.

known for his Batman cover art, will create

their first cover. Joe R. Lansdale's short

story, "Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disney-

land," will be adapted. A story by former

STARLOG contributor Tom Knowles, in

which Jack the Ripper is the hero, will also

be included.

Shane says. "We're after anything and

everything the creators who are working

for us want to do. We're interested in

quirky, offbeat, short tales by known

authors—probably three stories per issue."

The boys have approached award-win-

ning illustrator Bob Eggleton to write and

draw a story of his choice, and author Scott

Cupp will either adapt one of his short sto-

ries or write an original. They're just get-

ting started. The idea is to allow writers

and artists a showcase in which they can

explore graphic storytelling in ways that

allow them to stretch creatively. They want

writers to draw and artists to write. Expect

surprises in each issue.

"The wonderful thing about comics,"

Shane says, "is that it's a shared medium of

art and storytelling—and it can grab read-

ers at an early age with rather mature mate-

rial. We hope our audience will start at 15.

or maybe even younger."

Their project faces tough challenges.

Shane is still in school, and Adam is work-

ing at a rent-paying job. They don't have

big money, and they're learning the busi-

ness from scratch. They're located in the

boonies of East Texas, not New York or

Los Angeles, and neither one of them is a

high-powered wheeler-dealer.

For years, both Shane and Adam have

been STARLOG readers, and they've

grown up on the success stories of other SF

fans who turned. their passions into profes-

sions. They're filled with the desire to

make their own dreams come true, and Katt

Butt Comix is their dream.

If they fail in this endeavor, they will at

least know that they didn't just sit around

complaining. They tried. And they will

learn from the experience. Some of the

greatest learning experiences Norman

Jacobs and I had in the early days of our

publishing company

came not from what

worked, but from

bright ideas that

failed to work.

If these two

young men can learn

enough, have enough

luck and get enough

help from their

friends—they might

actually succeed in

building a dream out

of solid materials

that endure. If that

happens, they will

also fling open some

doors and let fresh

air into the field they

love so much.—Kerry O'Quinn

Explore the Historyof Science Fiction in

Order now while issues last!

Note: All issues include numerous articles &interviews. Only a few are listed for each entry.

#2 Gene Roddenberry.Space: 1999 EPGuide. Logan's Run.War of the Worlds.

S50.

#3 Space: 1999 EPGuide. Nichelle

Nichols. George Takei.

DeForest Kelley. S35.

#4 3-D SF MovieGuide. RichardAnderson. Outer Limits

EP Guide. S50.

#5 3-D film history.

UFO & Space: 1999EP Guides. S15.

#6 Robert Heinlein onDestination Moon.Animated Trek. 325.

#7 Star Wars.Rocketship X-M.Space: 1999 Eagleblueprints. Robby. S35.

#8 Harlan Ellison. Star

Wars. The Fly. S25.

#10 George Pal. RayHarryhausen. IsaacAsimov. S20.

#1 1 CE3K. Prisoner

EP Guide. Incredible

Shrinking Man. Rick

Baker. S20.

#12 Roddenberry.Doug Trumbull. StevenSpielberg. Dick Smith.

CE3K. S10.

#13 David Prowse. Pal.

Logan's Run EPGuide. S5.

#14 Project UFO. JimDanforth. SaturdayNight Live Trek. $5.

#15 Twilight Zone EPGuide. Galactica.

Richard Donner. This

Island Earth. 35.

#16 Phil Kaufman.Fantastic Voyage.Invaders EP Guide. S5.

#17 Spielberg.

Roddenberry. JoeHaldeman. RalphMcQuarrie. S5.

#18 Empire. JoeDante. Dirk Benedict.

Richard Hatch. S5.

#19 Roger Corman. Gil

Gerard. Star Wars.

CE3K FX. S5.

#20 Pam Dawber. Kirk

Alyn. Buck Rogers.Superman. S5.

#21 Mark Hamill. Lostin Space EP Guide.Buck Rogers. S5.

=22 Special FXcareers. Lome Greene.Veronica Cartwright.

ALIEN. $5.

=23 Dan O'Bannon.Prowse. Dr. Who. TheDay the Earth StoodStill. ALIEN. S5.

=24 STARLOGs 3rdAnniversary. William

Shatner. LeonardNimoy. S6.

#25 Ray Bradbury.

ST.TMP. Thing. S5.

#26 ALIEN. Ridley

Scott. H.R. Giger.

Gerry Anderson. S5.

#27 Galactica EPGuide. ST: TMP.ALIEN FX. NickMeyer. S5.

#28 Lou Ferrigno.

Wonder Woman EPGuide. $5.

#29 Erin Gray. BusterCrabbe. S5.

#30 Robert Wise.Chekov's Enterprise.

Questor Tapes.

Stuntwomen. S15.

#31 Empire. 20,000Leagues Under the

Sea. Chekov'sEnterprise 2. S5.

=32 Sound FX LP.

Buck Rogers & Trekdesigns. Chekov'sEnterprise 3. S6.

#33 Voyage EP Guide.Ellison reviews Trek.

S5.

#34 Tom Baker. Irv

Kershner on Empire.Martian Chronicles.

Buck Rogers. $15.

#35 Billy Dee Williams.Empire & Voyage FX.S5.

#36 4th Anniversary.Nichols. Prowse. GlenLarson. YvetteMimieux. S6.

#37 Harrison Ford.

Terry Dicks. First Menin the Moon. S5.

=38 CE3K. BuckRogers EP Guide.Kelley. S5.

#39 Buck Rogers. TomCorbett. Erin Gray.

Fred Freiberger. 35.

#40 Hamill. Gerard.Roddenberry. JaneSeymour. Freiberger 2.

Empire FX. S4.

#41 Sam Jones. JohnCarpenter. S5.

#42 Robert Conrad.Mark Lenard. Dr. Who.Childhood's End. S6.

#43 Altered States FX.David Cronenberg.Hulk EP Guide. S5.

#44 Altered States.

Bob Balaban.S5.

#45 Peter Hyams.Thorn Christopher.

Escape from NY. $5.

#46 Harry Hamlin.Superman II. GreatestAmerican Hero. $5.

#47 Takei. SarahDouglas. Doug Adams.Outland. 35.

#48 5th Anniversary.Bill Mumy. Ford.

George Lucas.Carpenter. S6.

#49 Kurt Russell.

Adrienne Barbeau.Lucas 2. Takei. 007 FX.Raiders. S15.

#50 Lucas 3.

Spielberg. SeanConner/. LawrenceKasdan. Ray Walston.Heavy Metal. S50.

#51 Kasdan 2.

Shatner. Harryhausen.Roddenberry. Jerry

Goldsmith. S5.

#52 Blade Runner.Shatner. $5.

#53 Bradbury. Patrick

Macnee. BladeRunner. S5.

#54 3-D Issue. BobCuip. Connie Selleca.

Terry Gilliam. Leslie

Nielsen. Raiders FX.Trek bloopers. S5.

#55 Quest For Fire.

Philip K. Dick. EdBishop. Culp 2.

Trumbull. Trekbloopers. S5.

#56 Zardoz. Triffids.

Trek bloopers. S5.

#57 Lost in SpaceRobot. Conan.Caroline Munro. RonCobb.510.

#58 Blade Runner. TheThing. Syd Mead. Trek

bloopers. S5.

#59 The Thing. ArnoldSchwarzenegger.Kirstie Alley Merritt

Butrick. S35.

#60 6th Anniversary.

Star Trek II. Carpenter.

Scott. TRON. S6.

#61. Trek II 2. WalterKoenig. Sean Young.Road Warrior. S15.

#62 RicardoMontalban. Koenig 2.

James Doohan. KenTobey. Dr. Who. 35.

#63 Spielberg. Nimoy.Russell. Rutger Hauer.James Horner. S25.

#64 David Warner.Peter Barton. Dr. Who.S100. Rare.

#65 Arthur C. Clarke.

Hamill. E. T. FX. DarkCrystal. S5.

#66 Dark Crystal.

Frank Herbert. FrankMarshall. $5.

#67 TRON. "Man WhoKilled Spock:' Trek II

FX. 35.

#68 007. HarveBennett. RichardMaibaum. S5.

#69 Anthony Daniels.

Tom Mankiewicz. Jedi.

S5.

#70 Man FromU.N.C.L.E. DebbieHarry. Chris Lee. JohnBadham. 35.

#71 Carrie Fisher.

Judson Scott. DanO'Bannon. V. S5.

#72 7th Anniversary.Bradbury. Hamill.

Shatner. Roger Moore.June Lockhart. S6.

#73 Cliff Robertson.Robert Vaughn. RoyScheider. JasonRobards. Hamiil 2. S5.

#74 Molly Ringwald.Michael Ironside.

Malcolm McDowell.Lorenzo Semple. S5.

#75 Nancy Allen. JohnLithgow. GeorgeLazenby. McQuarrie.Semple 2. S5.

#76 Buster Crabbe.Sybil Danning. S6.

#77 Phil Kaufman.Chuck Yeager. TomBaker. Trumbull. S5.

#78 Ferrigno. Meyer.Clarke. Trumbull 2.

Scott Glenn. LanceHenriksen. 35.

#79 Dennis Quaid.Kershner. Jon Pertwee.David Hasselhoff. 35.

#80 Billy Dee Williams.

Anthony Ainley. JediFX 1.S5.

#81 Alan Dean Foster.

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Leick (pronounced "like") is pleasant and would be like, 'Yeah!' How sick is that? I

candid, taking her character's huge populari- play a psycho character and they're saying,

ty in stride. She admits that Callisto's rise to 'Can I hug you?' " Leick laughs. "Sometimes

fame is something she finds more than slight- you have to wonder about them."

ly confusing, but she knows who put her

where she is today. Villainous VirtuesNo, not Xena, Ares, Hercules or even her Callisto is quite a tough customer. Her

agent, but the fans. own family was killed by Xena and her mer-

If it wasn't for the fans of both shows, cenary horde long before Xena's reforma-

"first of all, there would be no me. I know tion. Maddened, Callisto has sought bloody

they would have killed my character a long vengeance by bringing pain and death to both

time ago—it's the fans who keep the charac- Xena and Gabrielle. But that doesn't really

ter alive. Essentially, the fans are the ones make her a bad girl—or so Leick believes. "I

who feed me—it's the truth. But overall, Cal- don 't see her as a villain," the actress

listo is a fluke. I had no idea that people announces. "You can't play a bad guy and

iains pour down, flooding the

' West Coast. People are being res-

' cued by helicopter from their cars.

Hudson Leick has this to say

against the forces of nature:

*'We think we're so power-

ful—we're nothing." Leick knows a thing or

two about power; she plays Callisto, the very

powerful, vengeance-driven foe of Xena:

Warrior Princess.

"Do you really think she's powerful?" the

actress asks. Lightning and fire shoot from the

fingertips of the now immortal Callisto, and

Leick notes,"Pretty fancy, huh? But bad hair.

When you're a god, you can have bad hair."

STARLOG//H/ie 1998 27

Her family destroyed by Xena's army, the blonde berserker played by Hudson Leick

seeks revenge in "The Return of Callisto."

In the "Armageddon Now" two-parter,

Callisto's efforts prompt lolaus (Michael

Hurst) to explore a Hercules-free

alternate universe.

see them as completely bad. If you play Cal-

listo completely bad, she becomes one-

dimensional. Though she is a god, she needs

to be somewhat human, which is why I think

she has a good reception from people; there's

something human in her. And the fact that

she's a woman is interesting—women are

brilliant creatures, and if you have a bad

woman, it's more exciting."

Questioning her alter-ego's sanity is a fas-

cinating topic for Leick. The actress defends

the character's motivations, but not her

actions. Leick insists that Callisto isn't

insane, but "she's also not well. She has a few

emotional problems, but I wouldn't want to

say insane. Insane is too black and white, and

that leaves no room for change."

And change is something Leick is count-

ing on. "I hope that's how they would end

her—finally forgiving Xena and getting on

with her life—but that would leave no open-

ing to bring her back as the bad guy. And the

producers wouldn't want to close her off

completely.

"I enjoy playing Callisto, but, personally,"

she admits, "I think it's time for Callisto to

die. It's not my choice whether she lives or

28 STARLOG//wie 1998

dies—well, it is my choice essentially, if I

were to say, T don't want to do this any-

more,' which I haven't done. I know that they

have talked about killing her off, and I don't

have any problems with that. I just think that

it's very hard for them to continue to think of

things to do with her. How interesting is it

that: 'There's the blonde girl and she's after

the brunette girl, and she's going to kill

Xena; she's going to kill Xena; she's going to

kill Xena?' That's dull! And now she's a god?

"At first, playing Callisto was open. There

was much I could do with her, but now I'm

finding it a bit limiting. They need to get

other bad guys, keep it interesting and have

other plots. I completely understand that. I've

enjoyed playing the part, though I think it

definitely needs an ending."

Dangerous DeceptionsCallisto has been killed off before. In the

second season's "Return of Callisto," she

drowned, by Xena's inaction, in quicksand.

But a little thing like death can't stop such a

popular character. Take Spock, Superman or

Sherlock Holmes. In these fantasy worlds,

resurrection is always just around the corner.

In "Ten Little Warlords," Leick faced a

great challenge: portraying Xena as played

by Lucy Lawless in Callisto's body. It's a

chore Leick doesn't want to repeat any time

soon. "It was terrible," she confesses, "really

hard to do. It wasn't just hard to do itself, but

I was going through a lot of personal, emo-

tional stuff at the same time, and it was hard

just going to work. I remember returning to

New Zealand for one of the shows where

Callisto was going to be killed and that

would be it. I had bought books for Lucy and

Renee O'Connor just to say goodbye and

thank them for everything, and then I was

"Callisto

doesn't give

a crap aboutbeing pretty."

asked to come back and fill in for Lucy [who

had been injured during a talk show stunt]. I

remember feeling," Leick takes a deep breath

and draws out the word, " 'No.' But of course

I would go back.

"I didn"t believe anyone would buy mebeing Lucy Lawless. I mean. I"m nothing like

her, and to fill those shoes was so overwhelm-

ing. I remember feeling that they would all be

saying. "What are you doing? Are you

insane? Where's Lucy? Why are you show-

ing this blonde woman? She's not Xena!'"

Leick laughs now, but, "I just felt really pres-

sured to be Lucy, and to play that role was so

difficult because it's just so far from me. Our

mannerisms are so different, the way wespeak, the way we walk. It's not playing a

role. It's literally having to imitate somebody,

which doesn't leave room for creativity. It's

all boxed in with how it's supposed to be, and

Lucy wasn't around to tell me what to do."'

Lawless, though, "was very generous and

very kind about my performance, but I don't

remember a word she said," laughs Leick.

"I'm very bad with compliments, with what

other people say. I believe what I believe and

I'm just like 'yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.'"

Despite the character's allure, Leick has

not been stopped by fans on American streets

as of yet; in New Zealand, it's a different

story. "The accent gives me away though,

too." Occasionally, Leick hears "You know,

you look a lot like that girl on Xena." But she

notes. "It's said in the way that they really

don't think I look like her."

Obviously, Leick has played other roles.

She appeared twice on Touched by an Angel,

though she probably won't be returning to

that show. Had the Knight Rider 2000 TVmovie spin-off gone to series (as the later

Team Knight Rider did). Leick, who was in

the pilot, would have gone along for the ride.

However, doins such a series "would have

"When you're a god, you can have bad hair," notes Leick of her alter-ego as seen here

in "A Necessary Evil."

been only for the money. I was young and

could have used the work."

Wondrous warriorsLeick has brought Callisto's wild warfare

to Xena ("Callisto," "Return of Callisto,"

"Intimate Stranger," "Ten Little Warlords."

"A Necessary Evil," "Maternal Instincts," the

musical "The Bitter Suite") as well as Her-

cules: The Legendary Journeys ("Surprise,"

"Armageddon Now" and "Yes, Virginia.

There is a Hercules" in which she played the

series' tough producer Liz Friedman). She

recently filmed new episodes of both series.

Her battles as Callisto began very simply.

"I auditioned," the actress says matter-of-

factly. "I was standing in a room filled with

scantily clad women, wearing just pieces of

cloth." Leick, however, wasn't. "I went in

with dignity. I didn't go in wearing a bikini. I

was completely covered from head to toe

with regular clothes, no leather bikini at that

point. I knew the show was like that, and I

didn't want to get cast for that reason. I stood

there and I just played it as a psycho. The

producers said, 'Well, we're all scared of her,

she should get the part.'

"I was psychotic, totally psychotic,"

Leick laughs. "Recently, I was at dinner with

Liz Friedman, one of the show's producers,

and we were talking about what it was like

that day. I walked in and there were seven

people in the room—to me there were 20, I

remember the room being filled—and they

asked if I had any questions. By that time,

they were bored, it had been 'get them in, get

them out' [with auditioning actresses] all day.

But I said, 'Yes. What are your names?' and I

went through every one of their names and

made direct eye contact with each one of

them. They were like, 'She's spooky!'"

Leick enjoys acting opposite Lawless,

whether they're exchanging words or swing-

ing blades. "It's very nice working with

Lucy. I don't work as much with Renee. Myacting chemistry with Lucy is great. We just

have so much to bounce off of each other. Wereally work well together.

"I just finished a whole lot of fight scenes

with Kevin Smith [Ares] for Hercules, and

I've done them with Kevin Sorbo as well

—

but Lucy is the best person to do fight scenes

with. I can make body contact with the men,

but it ends up hurting me. I'm in this frenzy

and start to believe I'm really powerful, so I

throw myself into them—and you've seen

them! They're like brick walls," she laughs

"It's the fans who keepthe character alive.

Leick announceseven while wondering about the

outpouringof affection

for a

"psycho."

MmSTAKLOG/Jime 1998 29

Despite Callisto's nasty actions, Leick

doesn't see her as a villain or clinically

insane. "She has a few emotionalproblems," the actress admits.

heartily. "If you watch me fight with either

one of the Kevins, I'm thrown around like a

rag doll because I move with it. The mendon't move with it as well; they're stationary.

They just stand there. For Lucy and me, it's

dancing; the fighting is simply dancing. Andwe really dance well together."

Picking a favorite episode, however, is an

after-the-fact experience for Leick. "How I

do it is, I watch the end result and I like howit turned out. I really like the one where I

turned into a god ["Intimate Strangers"]. I

watch it, and I can see how happy I am. I was

really in a good mood that day."

Leick still sees the young warrior with

questionable motives as someone special,

someone she enjoys being part of the time.

But honestly, "I have no idea why people are

drawn to Callisto.

"It's so interesting to me that people are,"

Leick says philosophically. "I can only guess

why I would be drawn to her character, if it

wasn't me in the role. I think because of her

amount of rage, and how she expresses her

anger and doesn't want to take responsibility

for her actions. I just think there's something

very human about Callisto, not in a healthy

sense, but very human. She throws fits and is

powerful.

"It's like this," Leick explains. "My char-

acter, when you look at her, she's this pretty

skinny little blonde thing, but she breaks the

Leick looks forward to a finale for Callisto: "I hope that's how they would end her

—

finally forgiving Xena and getting on with her life."

mold as to what you imagine her to be like.

And people like that, and that she has power.

It's the power all people do have, but hers has

gone askew. But this is what I think: She

denies, she says no to being what society

wants her to be. I mean, she really says no. I

think that's why I love her so much."

f/

1 think it's timefor Callisto

\ to die." /

Appearances are deceiving when it comes

to Callisto. "She's dressed as a bimbo-there's

no doubt that she's a superhero, comic-book

outfitted creature. And yeah, my body looks

good on screen and there's my blonde hair

and all that crap, but Callisto just doesn't buy

into that," Leick says. "She screams and

spits, and that's what makes her so amazing.

And that's what gives me so much pleasure

playing her, because it's really hard, in soci-

ety, to be what the idea of pretty is and what

you're supposed to do with it. I find it really

confusing. And you can't keep beauty. It's

not yours—it fades away.

"Callisto really doesn't have a clue about

all this, and I love that about her—the 'pret-

ty' shit and the boobs and the face, that's not

her thing. When I'm on the show, I have to

beg for dirt and blood: 'Come on! Make medirty!' But no, they have to keep me pretty,"

Leick groans. "Callisto doesn't give a crap

about being pretty, not one iota of crap. AndI think the same goes for Lucy. My favorite

[non-Callisto] episode is the two-parter,

when Xena first starts to learn her power with

the Asian man. It's in her past, her hair is real-

ly long [and Lawless is covered in muck and

dirt most of the time]. I thought it was a bril-

liant job and what I love about Lucy's acting.

"There is a difference between Hercules

and Xena in the way women are portrayed

[damsels in distress and very pretty war-

riors]. And Lucy doesn't buy into the crap

either. We're both very base, full of grit.

We're still dressed up so that the viewer can

have the fantasy. It makes it exciting. I still

like to watch it. It's pretty and it's sexy," says

Hudson Leick, "but it's the mixture of grit

and everything else which makes it kind of

forbidden, which makes it great."

30 STARLOGX/wie 1998

Available for the first time in the

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The follow-up volumeincludes music from all the

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Visa/Mastercard # Exp.

By IAN SPELLING

As Don West, Matt LeBlanc gets

the Jupiter 2 really Lost in Space.

I'ma fan of good movies, well-told stories, and some of

them happen to be in the SF genre," notes Matt

LeBlanc. "I saw Star Wars 10 or 15 times."

Now, the star of TV's hit sitcom Friends is hoping JMthat people all over the country and the world (lock to

Lost in Space, his first tour of duty in the science fic-

tion universe. If the fates smile kindly on Lost in

Space, LeBlanc could gain entry to the rarefied

realm of genre megamovie stardom. "From your

mouth to God's ears," LeBlanc announces. "Real-

ly, though, I don't think like that. I don't think

about box office. I'm aware of it. I know that good

numbers afford you more opportunities. I did myhomework on Stephen Hopkins and I really liked his 'Vj

work as a director. Our writer [Akiva Goldsman] has a

good track record. So, I thought, 'Hey, I'm happy to be

aboard.'"

And aboard the Jupiter 2, LeBlanc plays Major Don West, the

heroic pilot who guides the Robinson family—William Hurt and

Mimi Rogers as husband and wife John and Maureen Robinson;

Heather Graham, Lacey Chabert and Jack Johnson as siblings

Judy, Penny and Will Robinson—through wild adventures after

Dr. Smith (Gary Oldman) sabotages the family's mission.

Throughout the film, of course, West and Smith—as well as West

and John Robinson—frequently butt heads, though West and

Robinson must eventually make peace in order to overcome

Smith's threatening presence.

The film essentially retains the overall story of the campy Lost

in Space series, but puts a more modern and decidedly dramatic

spin on it. LeBlanc considers that a wise choice, though he

admits a fondness for the original show. "I think I've proba-

bly seen every episode of Lost in Space. It was in reruns

when I was growing up, and I would watch it after I got

home from school," remembers the actor, who was born

and raised in Newton, Massachusetts and made his film

debut in the comedy Ed. "The first few episodes were

very serious, then it got kind of campy. By the end, you

could tell they chopped all kinds of money out of the bud-

get. It was a great escape for me as a kid. You never knew

what was behind that next big styrofoam rock."

Winning West

RLeBlanc arrived at the Shepperton Studios in England,

where all of Lost in Space lensed, shortly after production

began in order to take over the West role from Sean Patrick

lanery, the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles star who exited

s project after a few days of rehearsals. It would be easy to

me that LeBlanc felt uncomfortable with the situation, but

an assumption would be wrong. "Our paths never crossed,

so I never had to look him in the eye," LeBlanc explains. "That

woiddn't have been so bad, either. Sean is a good actor. I don't

have anything against him, nor did anyone in the movie. I think

the main thing was that I'm just physically bigger than he is.

William Hurt is 6 feet 2 inches tall. They needed someone who

was big enough physically and who could play the role, of course.

There are a few scenes where Hurt and I go head to head. It has to

look as if my character could win. West has to be able to instill

that physical fear in him, and that's just a matter of size."

When SF fans heard of Lost in Space's casting choices, many

scratched their heads in confusion. Super-serious Hurt as family

"When they fitted my space suit and gun belt for the first

time, it was very, very cool," Matt LeBlanc raves about

costume designer Vin Burnham's form-fitting creations.

Maureen Robinson (Mimi Rogers), West (LeBlanc) and

Judy Robinson (Heather Graham) explore the alien planet.

Production designer Norman Garwood's sets depart vastly

from the TV series"'campy" look.

man Robinson? Sitcom funnyman LeBlanc as action hero West?

Party of Five heartbreaker Chabert as Penny? Scenery-chomping

Oldman as scenery-chomping Smith? OK, one example of perfect

casting. "It is a very.. .interesting.. .cast," LeBlanc acknowledges. "I

was just so amped to work with Gary and William. They're great

actors. Heather was fantastic to work with. I didn't have much to

do with Mimi, but she was very supportive. Jack and Lacey were

great, too."

On the set, LeBlanc felt like a kid in a candy shop amidst all the

massive sets and funky weapons. The special FX, though, were

mother matter entirely, as LeBlanc had never before stood in front

of a blue screen. "When we got started and they fitted my space

suit and gun bell for the first time, it was very, very cool. My pilot's

chair on the Jupiter 2 was custom fit to my whole body. Whenyou're a kid, you play Cowboys and Indians, or Spacemen. I got to

do that all over again. It was really pretty fun.

"The special FX scenes were tough. I did a lot of blue screen,

green screen, any color screen you want to pick. There was so

much of that. Acting is sort of an emotional recall deal. There are

all different methods, but it's a very organic process. To react to

in action, to words, is one thing. To react to a non-action,

where you're imagining the action, is another. It just takes a

great deal of focus. A three-story high green-screen wall

K that was a couple of hundred feet wide was supposed to

{ be the asteroid field we were flying through. That's tricky

H to play. I had to ask Stephen many questions. We all did.

I We would say, 'OK, what's right there?' Then, it was,

'How big is it?' or 'How close are we to it?' He even had

Bt everything storyboarded, so he could show us as best he

m. could what things would look like, what he was after

I and how we would fit into the frame."

west worldHopkins, LeBlanc adds, went to great lengths not

\only to answer all of the actors' questions to their sat-

I isfaction, but also toiled overtime not to let the FX

[ overshadow the actors or their acting. "Stephen was

I up-front about that in the beginning. He said he was

not going to let that happen," LeBlanc notes.

"Stephen's idea of a good effect is one that's, in a

sense, thrown away. Where it's not in the center of

the screen, but in the corner. He couldn't do that all

the time. The FX have to take precedence in some

scenes, but Stephen always wanted the humanaspects to be the most important parts of the movie.

Stephen was great. He brought such a clear, sharp vision

that it was really inspiring to be around. Whenever he

would speak of a scene or the whole movie, he had the

entire thing in his head."

There was one on-set incident, however,

that Hopkins simply couldn't have predicted.

It involved LeBlanc and Oldman, and

LeBlanc describes it as his single strangest

experience while shooting Lost in Space.

"We had a fire," he says, laughing. "Every-

body started freaking out. We were on a plan-

et set, with FX everywhere. A squib set

something on fire. Gary and I were shooting

a scene where I have him by the arms, and

he's teetering perilously over a cliff that's

collapsing like a giant sinkhole. We suddenly

Acting is sort of an emotional

recall deal. ..It's a very

organic process," LeBlancmuses about this action

film punctuated with

brooding drama.

realized that there was a real fire. We turned

around and went, 'What? What! Let's get out

of here!

' So I pulled Gary up, for real, and weboth took off. It's on the blooper reel."

Among the production's high points was

the opportunity for LeBlanc to share a scene

with Mark Goddard, who portrayed Major

West on TV's Lost in Space (STARLOG#190). In the film, Goddard puts in a cameo

appearance as the general who assigns West

to the Jupiter 2 mission with the Robinsons.

"I have a couple of moments with him, and

that was a lot of fun. He's a very interesting

person," LeBlanc enthuses. "Talk about a

rock-solid, down-to-Earth guy. He was a lit-

tle nervous, not having been in front of a

camera for a long, long time. He works with

delinquent children outside of Boston now.

He gave me the coolest 8 by 10 photo of him-

"Heather was fantastic to work with," LeBlanc praises his bombshell co-star of Boogie Nights fame.

34 STARLOG/Jwrce 1998

"You never knew what was

According to LeBlanc, Sean Patrick Flanery left the film partly because of his

unthreatening stature. The more physically commanding LeBlanc replaced him.

West's brawn, contrasted with the

Robinsons' brilliance, is technologically

enhanced with 21st century armor andthese special lenses.

self from when he was younger. It was a shot

from the series, with him in that great tinfoil,

shiny suit he wore. He wrote, 'From the old

Don West to the new Don West.' It's framed

and hanging on my wall at home."

It's very possible that LeBlanc and God-

dard could be paired again if Lost in Space

performs in cosmic fashion and merits a

sequel. LeBlanc reveals that he has already

signed up for two more Lost in Space adven-

tures, and jokes that sequels never seemed to

hurt Harrison Ford's career. For the moment,

though, he's still struggling to get used to the

tremendous scope of Lost in Space's market-

ing campaign, which encompasses every-

thing from convention appearances and

action figures to Robot key chains and a

transforming Jupiter 2. "I just got a whole

big box full of toys from the movie. Myaction figure doesn't look at all like me,"

Matt LeBlanc mock-complains. "I'm a bit

overwhelmed by it all. It's a little surreal."-^-

STAKLOG/June 1998 35

Though Heather CBy KIM t/ARD JOHNSON

in Space has gone

from a '60s campy, fam-

ily romp to a '90s dark,

deadly serious adven-

ture. The cast has also

undergone a metamor-

phosis, but that's something all but lost

on Judy Robinson alter-ego Heather

Graham.

"I never saw it," the actress admits of

the Lost in Space TV series. "I can't

remember it being on TV. Actually, I

never even heard of it. I was unlucky,

because I guess it was a great thing. I've

watched it a few times since then, but

not very many. I've tried to get hold of a

few episodes, but I get the feeling that it

was more funny and campy, more of a

family series."

Graham's lack of familiarity didn't

stop her from trying out for the movie

role, which she discovered was an

exhausting rush right from the start. "I

read the script and met with the director

[Stephen Hopkins], and we talked. Then,

I came back in and read again with dif-

ferent actors," she explains. "I was in

New York working on something else

when they called and said, 'You got the

part, but you have to fly out to LA this

weekend and do a body mold.' I was

already working six days a week, but

that Saturday night I flew to LA. They

had to take an impression for the space

suit, so they covered me with plaster,

and I flew back to New York later that

night. It was exciting, but crazy!"

Unlike Graham, most people knowthe original Lost in Space story—the

Robinson family, setting out to colonize

a new planet, is diverted by the devilish

machinations of Dr. Smith. Lost, they

encounter endless adventures and count-

less offbeat aliens in their attempts to get

back to Earth. Not much has changed in

the movie—only the stakes have beenEven 6 foot 2 John Robinson (William Hurt), is dwarfed by the huge Defense Robot,

which, according to Graham, broke down frequently during filming.

36 STARLOG/7«ne 1998

Judy Robinson(Heather Graham) I „

acts as ship's | |

1 physician in this I C

l "Intellectual family. \ |

I _ .

'»

!

It

5l

iam may be Lost /n Space, she never fears a challenging role.

raised. Now, humanity is doomed to extinc-

tion if the Robinsons don"t succeed. Dr.

Smith, once the cowardly, alliterative misfit

played by Jonathan Harris, is now given a

malevolent twist, compliments of Gary

Oldman. While TVs Judy (Marta Kristen)

was originally little more than a cute

damsel, suffering capture at the hands of

space baddies or helping with dinner, Gra-

ham is now a smart, independent, gun-tot-

ing equal. It's an evolution the actress

appreciates.

"They definitely updated the women's

roles, which was cool." says Graham. "I

thought that would be fun. and it seemed

like a very imaginative story. I also liked

that my character gave the romantic lead a

hard time. Since I had never done anything

like this before, I wanted to see what it

would be like."

Judy Robinson is the ship's physician,

leaving Graham with her share of technob-

abble to spew. Though this is only her sec-

ond foray into science fiction—the actress

also starred in the Outer Limits episode

"Resurrection" (1995)—she manages her

subtext like a professional. "There are all

these strange medical instruments in the

movie, and I just make up uses for them,"

she laughs. "They got me some books and

hooked me up with a cryobiologist to talk

to, but when you're dealing with stuff in the

future—well, it's hard to study something

that hasn't been invented yet. You just have

to use your imagination. They had a lot of

great futuristic drawings and drawings of

the spaceship. I hung them up all over the

house I was renting and tried to think about

the amazing things these guys had created

for the future."

The futuristic elements, fancy as they

may be, underscore the story's dark thread:

The Robinsons are headed into space to

save Earth from environmental collapse

brought on by humanity's excesses. This

irony is not lost on Graham. "It shows the

good and bad aspects of what man can ere-

ate," she says. "How they can destroy their

own world, and at the same time create

these amazingly brilliant things."

Stellar FamiliesThough a far-flung futuristic adventure,

Lost in Space has a very down-to-Earth

theme, that of responsibility to the family

and the bonds between parents and chil-

Judy's icy demeanor mirrors her father's

emotionally closed professionalism.

"Becoming a physician is a way for Judy

to show she looks up to her father."

dren. "It starts out with this dysfunctional

family," Graham says, "and in the end, it

goes beyond family values. It's about mak-

ing your kids feel loved and how important

it is to bring up your kids knowing that

you're there for them. It's about the power

of parenting. In the end. the movie shows

that parents can make such a huge impres-

sion on kids when they're growing up."

The focus of this dysfunction is brilliant

&&&&&&&&&&&&& W0 0 g

scientist and potential Earth savior Dr. John

Robinson (William Hurt) whose single-

minded dedication to his job alienates him

from his son, Will (Jack Johnson). But that

isn't the only conflict. Penny Robinson

(Lacey Chabert) also has problems with her

parents, particularly regarding the mission.

Judy has her own issues, ones that Graham

happily explains. "Judy has grown up in

some ways lacking the affection that she

wanted, and so she put all of her energies

into her work. I think Judy looks up to [her

father] and emulates him in a way," she

says. "He's a bit cold and removed from the

family, and my character is a bit like that,

too—cold and unemotional. Judy is trying

to imitate him by being brilliant at work,

but not having an [emotional] life. In the

course of the movie, I try to have Judy

become more alive by having other things

going on in her life besides work. Becom-

ing a physician is a way for Judy to show

she looks up to her father as a brilliant manwhom she wants to work with. Of course,

Judy is pretty brilliant, too—the whole

family is made up of geniuses!"

This cool intellectualism gets in the way

of her budding romance with the Jupiter 2's

pilot, the not-quite-as-brainy Don West

(Matt LeBlanc). leading to a great deal of

friction before the ice finally melts. Gra-

ham likes both the strength of her charac-

ter's resolve and the growth she

experiences thanks to West's brashness.

"Their relationship is certainly antagonis-

tic, something like Moonlighting," she says.

"Judy thinks he's a stupid, macho jerk. He's

trying to seduce her, but he thinks she's a

bitch. But they're the only eligible people

around, so they have no choice. I think West

is good for Judy, though. He brings her out

of her shell because he has more fun in life

than my character does. In the beginning,

Judy thinks he's an idiot, and then she starts

to see his good points. It's a long flight!"

Graham was born in Milwaukee, WI,

but grew up in Virginia, where she first rec-

m

MmAmm

mmmMMhi

STARLOG/June 1998 37

HHmGraham consulted a

cryobiologist to help

subtext Judy's manyfuturistic props, but

she often had to "just

make up uses for

them."

"Judy thinks [Donwest] is a stupid,

macho jerk. He's

trying to seduce her,

but he thinks she's a

bitch."

"Every day we wouldask, 'is the Robot

working?'

"

£5

ognized her interest in acting. "I wanted

to do it as a kid," she recalls. "It was just

a way of getting attention, and some-

thing I had fun with, just make-believe

games. Then, when I was in high

school, I was shy, and acting was a way

to not be shy."

Student Exchange (1987) was her

first role, and it wasn't long before she

was landing work in such films as

Drugstore Cowboy, O Pioneer! and

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (repeat-

ing her TV series role as Annie Black-

burn). The bulk of Graham's work has

been in small, independent films, which

is fine by the actress, who is very seri-

ous about her artistic choices. "I go by

my gut reaction to the whole script."

says Graham. "As a female, I look for a

little more depth than there often is in

female characters. I try to get a little

something more to do than the usual."

This might also explain why she isn't

concerned about cornering the market

on leading roles, either, though that's

not to say she eschews such parts. "It

depends on how well-written the char-

acter is," she says. "If it was a really

well-written supporting role, that's

cool, but it's also fun to play leads."

The eclectic Graham worries more

about her performance in a role than

about the tally of a given character's

lines. "I fear not doing good work and

not living up to whatever potential I

have," she says. And though this is her

first foray into genre films, her career

mantra still applies. "I like a good story."

she explains. "A good story is a good

story, whether it's SF or whatever."

This wasn't problem with Lost in

Space. Not only did Graham take a

shine to the script, she also took a liking

to the director. Stephen (The Ghost and

the Darkness) Hopkins won Grahamover professionally with his enthusiasm

about the project—as well as personal-

ly. "I think he's a great director, really

amazing—of course, he's my boy-

friend." she laushs. "When I met and

talked to him at the very beginning, I

thought this movie would be more than just

a commercial movie, because he had really

interesting ideas. He's a really cool, fun

person with great energy."

Graham and Hopkins became an item

while shooting Lost in Space, and Graham

admits the job can get harder when you're

dating the effective boss. "It's probably bet-

ter not to be involved with the director, but

sometimes you meet someone and you

can't really help it," she says. "Then, you

have a personal relationship that isn't just

work. It can be great in some ways, but

there are other things that go along with

your relationship besides just focusing on

the work. We were pretty discreet about

even going out, and hopefully we got

through it OK."

Cosmic EffectsWhile the script and the director both

made an impact. Graham was clearly awed

by the special effects, most notably the intri-

cate Lost in Space sets. 'It was really excit-

ing when we saw all the sets for everything

we were going to do," she says. "We went on

the stages to see the planets and the space-

ship—that was really cool."

Sets, CGI and good old-fashioned tech-

nical wizardry combine to make Lost in

Space a futuristic marvel, though some of

the effects were less cooperative than oth-

ers. "Lots of days the Robot would break

down," Graham notes of her massive yet

temperamental co-star, "and we wouldn't

work for the whole day. It was a nightmare

for Stephen and the technical people. Every

day we would ask, 'Is the Robot working?'

wondering. 'Will the Robot start working or

not?' But it was a beautiful piece of work

—

it looks great!"

Like many genre veterans, Graham

would be the first to concur that it's hard to

work with special effects, especially CGI,

even when they do work. "It's more diffi-

cult than I had thought," she confesses.

"Many times the FX [in the finished film]

are so much more cool than I could ever

imagine. I'll say, 'If only I had known it

was that great, I would have done that scene

totally differently!' This animated creature,

a lizard/monkey that I work with, is like a

puppet [the Blawp], It didn't look real then,

but now that I see it in the movie, it's great!

It's hard to know how something is really

going to look."

Graham's role also called for stunt

work, something the actress clearly

enjoyed, having had few opportunities to

get physical previously. "It is fun, though I

didn't have many stunts. Matt had tons of

stunts, but I only had a few. They take a lot

of time, but when you look at them on the

screen, they go by so fast," she laughs. "You

say, 'I spent weeks on that!' and it goes by

in two seconds!"

It's only in the past few years that Gra-

ham's rocket to fame has begun to hit the

stratosphere. Such films as Two Girls and a

Guy, Swingers (as Girl Next Door) and

Graham's next genre venture will be a

segment, directed by Danny Boyle, in

the Alien Love Triangle trilogy. Sheplays an extraterrestrial.

Boogie Nights (as Roller Girl) put her face

on the map—and on the covers of several

magazines—while roles in Scream 2 and

Lost in Space have introduced her to the

world of bis budget moviemaking. Graham

points to one of the many things that make

these experiences enjoyable.

"I like directors," she laughs, claiming

that Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas

Anderson was "a lot of fun. He made us feel

like we were part of a family when we were

working on his movie. Everyone got along

really well, because he created this great

environment where we all respected and

liked each other."

Graham also enjoyed "meeting with

Wes Craven and him being so sweet and

quiet—nothing like what you would expect

a horror director to be." As for Twin Peaks

guru David Lynch, he's "really a cool, inter-

esting person."

Next up for her are Bofinger's Big

Thing, a comedy co-starring Steve Martin

and Eddie Murphy, and Committed, a

drama in which she will portray a wife

searching for her errant husband. Graham's

next genre outing comes as an extraterres-

trial in the Alien Love Triangle trilogy. Her

segment is helmed by Danny (Trainspot-

ting) Boyle. "My part of the trilogy also

features Kenneth Branagh and Courteney

Cox—it's a very funny story. Actually,

Courteney plays an alien, too, but she's in

the body of a human.

"I have a spacesuit, but it's pretty sim-

ple, not like a Lost in Space type of incred-

ibly complicated suit," she explains. "I wear

a bald cap and a lot of makeup."

Lost in Space may garner her even more

success, and it will certainly get her more

attention. Not every actor has a ludy Robin-

son doll fashioned after her, looking ready to

jump from the toy store shelves. "It's a very

strange thing!" laughs Graham. "All of myfriends made me promise to get them one."

Plans for a Lost in Space sequel are a def-

inite possibility, and it's a given that Heather

Graham will reprise her role of Judy Robin-

son. The actress is eager to face space danger

again, but she has no illusions about the

effort involved. "It's hard work, pretending

to see these things that you don 't see ! It was

kind of exhausting," she blurts out, laughing.

"It was the longest shoot I've ever worked

on, six months, but it was still fun." ^

4A

G/June 1998 39

) V J

By BILL WARREN

Art: Tom Hoitkamp

When he's asked for

the plotline to the X-

Files movie, direc-

tor Rob Bowman is only too

willing to reply. "OK, here's

what happens—but first, get

out your wallet..." That's his

way of acknowledging that

the storyline of the first movie

based on the hit TV series is

shrouded in as much secrecy

as the Manhattan Project.

Internet X-Files sites (and

others) buzz with rumors:

lizard-like aliens who spray

animated black goo? Mysteri-

ous "Elders" from space?

Mulder's sister? Scully's sis-

ter? When asked if he has

been spreading deliberately

phony plotlines, Chris Carter,

the big kahuna of The X-Files,

cheerfully admits that "there

is propaganda out there." But

that doesn't stop the studio

from allowing a few glimpses

behind the scenes.

Back in 1968, the entire

entry street at the 20th Centu-

ry Fox lot near Beverly Hills

was re-dressed as an 1890s

New York avenue for the movie Hello,

Dolly. Big facades went up in front of the

drab studio buildings, and, in vivid contrast

to usual Hollywood practice, those facades

stayed up. They're still there. It's only fit-

ting then, that to reach the soundstage

where the X-Files movie (code-named

"Blackwood") is shooting, you have to step

sideways through one of these facades; if

ever a TV series took a left turn from con-

ventional Hollywood wisdom,

it's The X-Files.

The hit series itself has been

shot in Vancouver, British

Columbia, but the movie

filmed in California—partly at

the Fox lot, partly on various

locations, including Bakers-

field, a resolutely, even proud-

ly, ordinary town.

Today, however, centers

around the apartment set of

FBI agent Dana Scully, played

by Gillian Anderson. It's a sim-

ple scene that gives nothing

away: Scully comes to the door

in a bathrobe and lets in her

partner, agent Fox Mulder

(David Duchovny), and they

talk in hushed tones. Between

takes, Duchovny consults

intently with Bowman, another

X-Files series alumnus, as they

examine the video playback of

the scene.

Nothing whatsoever can be

gleaned about the movie's plot

from watching the scene, or

even from examining the other

sets on the soundstage. In one

location is what might be a

cave with a circular chamber, or maybesome monoliths like those of Stonehenge.

Some monitors show what the special FXunit on another soundstage is filming. Abroad field of fluffy pink material, like cot-

40 STARLOGX/une 1998

ton wool, stretches out from the

camera's point-of-view: in the

background, several large,

square green screens are sus-

pended from the ceiling, while

a scissors-lift raises people up

in front of them. Doubles for

the leads? Set workers? Is the

pink stuff supposed to be

clouds? What will go onto the

green screens? No one is sav ing

anything.

X-FilmsCarter, creator of the show

and writer for the series and

movie, admits, '1 don't want

my primary goal to become

making sure no one know s

what the story is, to the detri-

ment of everything else." But

secrecy still prevails, even to

comic lengths. When director

Bowman is asked about "Ciga-

rette-Smoking Man" (William

B. Davis), he quickly responds,

"I didn't say CSM was in the

movie." Though it's pointed out

that Davis is mentioned in the

official press notes, Bowman is

still reluctant to discuss any-

thing about the character, other than that he

arrives in a helicopter with a large

entourage.

The only aspects of the script that any-

one will admit to is that it resolves the

Creator Chris Carter

trusts no one when it

comes to discussing

the X-Files movie, but

fans want to believe

the film will be worththe suspense.

cliffhanger final episode of the fifth TV sea-

son (at this point, yet to be filmed), and that

it begins with "the mysterious bombing of a

Dallas office building," which prompts

Mulder and Scully to discover the usual X-

Files intrigue. The movie does

deal with the X-Files "mythol-

ogy:" the government cover-

up, and how this affected

Mulder and his family. Also,

the movie features series regu-

lars and recurring characters,

including FBI Assistant Direc-

tor Walter Skinner (Mitch

Pileggi), the Well-Manicured

Man (John Neville) and con-

spiracy investigators the Lone

Gunmen (Dean Haglund, TomBraidwood and Bruce Har-

wood). Non-regulars whoappear include Oscar-winner

Martin Landau, Blythe Dan-

ner, Jeffrey DeMunn, Lucas

Black, Glenne Headly and

Terry O'Quinn—who is not

playing the character he does

on Carter's other TV series,

Millennium.

Carter, who looks as muchlike the surfer he used to be as

he does the well-respected cre-

ator of the hottest genre TVseries, says that he really had

only one plot in mind for the

X-Files movie. "I knew things

I had to do, so really the fea-

ture owes everything to the mythology that

will have been set up by—at that time—five

years of mythology episodes, and the con-

spiracy that Mulder and Scully have been

trying to penetrate. It was just figuring out

STARLOGX/ime 1998 41

This film will attempt to keepthe TV series' flavor, with some

cinematic additions, like

Oscar-winner Martin Landau.

aroundal

While I'm dealing with the epic size of the

tale, I'm also always thinking about the

relationship between Mulder and Scully,"

director RobBowman explains.

ments I had already Anderson, very tired in her bathrobe,

In a believable, scary points out, "There's a little bit more action in

viewers. Related to that was hanging it off

five years of the TV show, while having it all

still make sense as a self-contained story.

That was the balancing act that was in our

minds while coming up with the story. Howdo you reward five years of having followed

the continuing storyline faithfully, with big

revelations, and at the same time make it all

understandable for people who have never

seen The X-Files before?"

Writing the story wasn't as hard as Spot-

nitz expected, partly because of Carter's con-

viction as to where the story had to go. "This

movie, in a sense, is an ending, but it's also a

new beginning for the characters. It's really a

kind of pilot again—it relaunches everything.

I think it took us about two days of just talk-

ing [continuously] about where we had been

and what we were going to say, and how wewere going to get to the place Chris had

always imagined we were going. Then, it wasahnut fivp rtjiv*: nf Hnina the*, wnrlc fioilrinp

y into ine movie.

After some prodding, everyone admits

—

some more reluctantly than others—that

despite being in widescreen, the X-Files

movie is basically a giant version of the TVshow. "The scope and scale are bigger,"

Carter says, "and we're getting to go places

we wouldn't get to go in the series. Mulder

and Scully are Mulder and Scully, and people

who play a big part in theTV series show up,

too; nothing there has changed."

But everyone also acknowledges that the

movie audience will include lots of people

who know little or nothing about the series.

"I want to make a movie for everyone,"

Carter says, "even people who may not have

seen The X-Files. The trap we fall into there

is that I might forsake the hardcore viewing

audience, even the casual viewing audience,

by having to go over some material that

would insult their intelligence or not be true

to the series. I've tried, and I believe I've

been successful, in doing three things at

once, which are to re-establish their charac-

ters, make it interesting so it will appeal to

everyone, and get on with telling a good X-

Files story."

Lilt lllUVlt, 1111*11. O lllVyi^ .HUH. L/LIL lt

like a big version of an episode, which I think

is necessary at this point, because we're

drawing in not only people who are devoted

to the show, but people who've never seen it

before. If it were tremendously different

from the series, if they were to tune in the

series after seeing the movie, they might be

disappointed or have some kind of adverse

reaction."

X-FightsFrank Spotnitz is co-producer of the X-

Files movie and, more grandly, the co-execu-

tive producer of the TV series (STARLOG#244). He has become known as the keeper

of the mythology, as he writes or co-writes

many of the episodes involving the extensive,

complicated, and always growing backstory.

He co-wrote the film's story with Carter, whowrote the final script alone.

"We usually write in a four-act structure,"

says Spotnitz, "and this was really a seven-

act structure. The biggest difference, I think,

was two-fold. One was explaining the story

to new audiences who had never seen the TVshow, and also making it work for longtime

uuvsui ' ' ' J " • ' •- , — -o

out the seven acts of the story."

Spotnitz and Carter resisted pressure (or

temptation) to turn the X-Files movie into a

standard summer action picture. "Suddenly,

you're doing a summer action movie," Spot-

nitz says, "and the truth is, most action

movies released in the summer are roller-

coaster rides, very cartoonish and unbeliev-

able. There's a certain amount of pressure to

bend to that; we really resisted, and I think

the people who know The X-Files are going

to feel it's true to the show's spirit."

The movie does have some action scenes,

but they're in character for the series. "I get

banged around," Duchovny admits. "I do

have fight scenes. In fact, I like the fighting. I

don't know if you've noticed in the show, but

I drop my gun a lot. That's because I can't

actually kill anything, because if I do, then I

have evidence. I actually have to drop the

gun, which is too bad. I do have a fight scene

in this, where I'm climbing out of the...Well,

it's more of one of those scenes where you lie

on your back and kick."

Anderson concurs. "I don't think either of

us draws our guns for the entire film; it's

STARLOGX/une 1998 43

mostly just running and climbing." Howev-

er, she also reveals that there's more

romance in the movie than in the series.

"We find ourselves in a situation that draws

us closer together."

"There is some action in here," Carter

says, "but I wanted to be true to The X-Files.

so the elements in it are elements that I

would use in any X-Files story—they aren't

bigger just to be bigger, they aren't

more elaborate just to be moreelaborate. The amazing thing is

that we're still scrambling to finish

our work. It's not like making a

movie is glamorous, with everyone

taking siestas at lunch and every-

thing. You are really hustling to

make your days; we could have

used 20 more days of shooting

on this picture, and maybe then

we could have more of what I

consider to be a movie experi-

ence. I don't want to fall into the

trap of saying it's just a big TVshow, because it's not, but we are

certainly working as hard as wework on the TV show."

X-FlightsThe challenge for Bowman is

simple: "How can we do some-

thing worthy of the big screen

that's going to exceed what peo-

ple expect on Sunday nights?

And I tell you, I didn't know if

we could do it, ;/ Chris wasgoing to come up with some-

thing—but he did. It's a matter

of trying to execute on the samelevel every moment of every day

what we do on the TV show, but

with a little more time. We do a

few more takes, a few more shots

to fill the sequences out morethan I have time [to do] on the

TV show." And he should know:

In the series' first four seasons.

Bowman directed 23 episodes

—

more than anyone else.

"Potential stumbling blocks,"

Bowman says, "are abandoning

some of the things we use to tell

[the story on] the TV show

—

some out of limitation, some out

of the way we tell the stories, which is in a

minimalist fashion—and not to get sucked

into the big-budget Hollywood version of

how to make a movie and just throw every-

thing at the screen. The die-hard X-Files fan

has become accustomed to filling in the

blanks, and they enjoy that interactive part

of the show. If we give them everything,

they're going to feel like when we got our

first opportunity to go big, we abandoned

everything that got us here, and we danced

with a different person.

"The emotion is something that you

have to distill down. The size of this

mythology is enormous—and I'm sure it's

not going to get any smaller—but what is it

about? Who drives it? The key moment is

when Mulder's sister is abducted; this

changed Mulder's life—he is in pursuit of

finding out how he can undo what has been

done."

As part of his quest, Mulder has joined

the FBI, but "this is a person who is ostra-

cized by his peers," Bowman continues.

"His partner is Scully, and although her

mission initially was to spy on him, at the

"The T>eoi>le vho kriovThe X-Files are goine to X cci

it's true to the show'sspirit."

Typical X-Files brooding and drama drive the film, but

audiences can also expect startling extra action.

core of it is the relationship between these

two people, the fuel for the whole story. So,

while I'm dealing with the epic size of the

tale in the movie, I'm also always thinking

about the relationship between Mulder and

Scully, and what it is that Mulder needs to

pursue, or even complete, his journey."

Bowman and Duchovny agree that they

work well together. "You know," says Bow-

man, "if I could comment on this..."

"See?" Duchovny interrupts. "He asks

me."

"You know," Bowman pushes on, "I'm

going to comment on this..."

"Go ahead," says a grinning Duchovny;

noblesse oblige.

"I think we work well together because I

started with the show early on. I was there

when the show wasn't as big, and we devel-

oped a relationship then, and it's just about

going back to that core relationship. There's

a lot more distraction now, but there has

always been a kind of shorthand between

David and me."

Duchovny adds, "We got through our

bumps in the beginning, testing [the water]

and stuff like that. Rob has a good ego

in that he has a strong point-of-view,

but he's not married to it. He doesn't

have a lot of false pride about his

ideas or his perceptions. In terms of

the creative process of [Mulder], he's

mine, he's not Rob's, he's not anybody

else's. So when we work, I'm allowing

him to come into my creative

processes. He takes care of the

camera, Chris takes care of the

script with the writers, but once I'm

on set and I have the script and

everything, I have the ball now and

you really have to fight to get it

away from me."

For Carter, the challenge on

both the movie and the TV series is

keeping it fresh. "To be honest,

that's the reason to keep doing it

—

that's the problem to solve every

day. And as you start to say, 'I'm

tired of trying to solve that prob-

lem,' that's the time to get out.

What's interesting, and this plays

into the whole fifth season and the

movie, is the recent denial by gov-

ernment agencies of Roswell, with

the CIA telling us, 'Yes, we did lie

to you, but this is the truth now.' In

other words, 'We're liars, but we're

not the liars you think we are.' I

love that these elements have just

surfaced in a timely and interesting

way."

Spotnitz says that—besides sci-

ence fiction—the X-Files movie

most closely resembles a political

thriller. "We looked at some movies

from the '70s, of a kind they don't

make any more, like The Parallax

View and All the President's Men.

It's more akin to that kind of thing,

where you're unraveling this con-

spiracy and you don't know who to

trust, and there are forces that are unseen

and keep the tension going.

"The truth is, we've always tried to do

the TV show like a movie; we've tried to

make mini-movies every week. To have the

extra half-hour, 45 minutes, whatever it

turns out to be, was liberating for us. Fox

has been enormously supportive; they seem

to trust us and think we know what we're

doing. I think the only issue is that we don't

have the budget a typical blockbuster would

have, but I think we're all happy with what

we've been given and what we've been able

to do with it," Frank Spotnitz says. "I think

we've accomplished what we set out to

accomplish. We've told the story we want-

ed. It just feels right." -Ar

44 STARLOG//«/!<? 1998

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Top-billed Robert Duvall is the astronaut leading a desperate mission into space that

will take them off on a comet

So then why. given the logistics and just

plain hard work that went into The Peace-

maker, did she willingly take on the even

more grueling assignment of Deep Impact'!

"'When Steven Spielberg says jump, you say

how high," she offers. "I asked him, 'What

makes you think I can do the end of the

world?' And he said, 'Well, you did The

Peacemaker—you can do anything." So whowas I to argue with that kind of logic? I

mean, he obviously had the confidence to let

me direct the very first DreamWorks movie

[The Peacemaker}. So he must have felt that I

could handle Deep Impact!'

Striking EmotionsLeder didn't really require too much per-

suasion. She liked the fact that Deep Impact

''dealt with human issues" and "how people

would live their last lives." And, she explains,

it was the very things she liked about the film

that would prove to be her biggest chal-

lenges.

"The challenge has been to really be on

my toes and to tell the story the best way I

can," she says. "Trying to get the right emo-

tion and the right attitude out of the humanactors in the face of this big comet's

approach can be rough. It would have been

easy to just let the comet take the lead and

make this into a stereotypical disaster movie.

But I went into this film trying to combine

vastly different emotions.

"Just look at what we've got going on

here," she notes, gesturing to the crowded

location around her. "I've been out here for

days shooting this scene with hundreds of

human extras and thousands of animals

attempting to get the gravity of this terrible

crisis across in an emotional way. That's

tough. Consider the scene we shot where

there's a massive traffic jam of cars and peo-

Deep Impact is the ultimate disaster

movie—a combined original

screenplay, remake of When Worlds

Collide and adaptation of Arthur C.

Clarke's Hammer of God.

The President (Morgan Freeman)announces a comet will collide with

Earth, and Leder asks how people will

"live their last lives."

pie trying to escape the city. On the surface, it

didn't seem like anything special. We've seen

that scene a lot. But there is a definite human,

emotional edge that I wanted to comethrough, so I kept at it until I got it right.

There's also the real personal things—like

when Vanessa Redgrave is alone, staring into

her mirror and contemplating the last days of

her life—that just cried out for something

more than the predictable. Then, I had to turn

right around and try to get emotion out of

guys in space suits dangling on wires.

"I believe the SF elements highlight the

emotional power in the film. I didn't see myjob as trying to put square and round pegs in

the same hole. I never saw the two elements

in competition with each other, but more as

complements. Of course, some of the SF ele-

ments were more tedious to shoot, but that

was just a matter of logistics."

Deep Impact is the ultimate disaster

movie—a combination remake (When

Worlds Collide), film adaptation (of Arthur

C. Clarke's novel The Hammer of God) and

original screenplay by Bruce Joel Rubin,

Michael Tolkin and John Wells. It chronicles

what may be the last days of man on Earth. Acomet is on a collision course, and only a

small portion of the population can be saved

in underground "arks." The drama derives

from how people react to these traumatic

events—approaching death unveils what

they're really made of.

"I realize Deep Impact is a science fiction

film, but it has a very strong sense of reality.

I believe in finding the action in the drama.

Good action sequences have to have dramat-

ic tension in order to make them exciting and

exhilarating to watch. There are no car chas-

es in Deep Impact, but that doesn't mean

there is no action. The sequence on the

comet's surface is very fast-paced, and the

STARLOG/7i«!i? 1998 47

Tea Leoni plays a pulp journalist on The Naked Truth, but she

goes legit as newswoman Jenny Lerner in Deep Impact.

As Robin Lerner, Vicki's mother, Vanessa Redgrave

contemplates the end in the days of the comet.

"it would havebeen easy to

let the comettake the lead

and make this

into a typical

disaster

movie."

end sequence where the comet hits Earth is

absolutely breathtaking."

End GamesThe movie is filled with talented actors.

In addition to Redgrave, there's Morgan

Freeman (the U.S. President). Robert Duvall

(leader of a space mission to destroy the

comet), Tea Leoni, Denise Crosby, Elijah

Wood, Kurtwood Smith. Maximillian Schell,

Charles Martin Smith, James Cromwell,

Bruce Weitz, Mary McCormack and Blair

Underwood. It should come as no surprise

that as the world ends, most of them die.

With such a cast, Leder was able to fash-

ion apocalyptic drama. "It has been painfully

hard on them, but I think once they realized

this was not the typical disaster movie, they

were willing to do everything they could to

make this work," she says. "There are three

very strong human stories here, and I think

the actors appreciated the fact that I allowed

them to behave like real people rather than

cardboard cutouts."

Leder offers that Deep Impact has "physi-

cally and emotionally" been a mixture of

"pleasure and pain." But, in the end, she has

been driven by the personal challenge of

"wanting to get it right. A perfect example

was this huge crowd scene we were shooting

the other day," she reports. "We had this bit of

dialogue going on between two of the actors,

and it just didn't feel right. Finally, it dawned

on me that the reason the scene was not work-

ing was that it was being bogged down with

terrible dialogue. It just didn't sound right, so

I went in there with a pencil and cut about six

lines. We were telling the story instead of

feeling it, and it didn't sound right."

Additionally, Leder is quick to quash the

impression that any direction came by rote.

"First of all, nothing is ever easy," she says.

'The minute you begin to think that, you're

going to be in a world of hurt. However, the

comet sequence was definitely the most ardu-

ous. The actual physical set was extremely

48 STAKLOG/June 1998

Where's HarveyFierstein's cell phonewhen you need it?

Leder looked for newangles on classic

scenes like this pile-

up of cars leaving a

doomed city.

difficult to shoot. Add on top of that bulky,

uncomfortable space suits and weightless-

ness, and you have very complex elements to

blend together to make the whole scene seem

natural. There was very limited space on the

stage for the crew to work. We had practical

effects—snow flurries, debris, etc.—flying

everywhere, and it was quite dark most of the

time. After a few weeks of conditions like

those, one tends to get a little burned out and

want to take a very long vacation."

Of course, Deep Impact features state-of-

the-art computer-generated special effects.

But such effects were not an enticement for

Leder. "I really hate computer-generated

images," she candidly admits. ""I'm fascinat-

ed by what you can do with them, but they

don't really consume me. I think the effects

in this film will be very good. We have a tidal

wave unlike anything you've ever seen

before. But my interest was not to make a

movie that had CGI in it. It was the script and

the emotion that sold me on Deep Impact.

"I see the techno side as a device to

enhance the human drama. This movie has it

all—great action and great heart—but ulti-

mately it is about the human element, the

decisions you take for granted every day ver-

sus how you would live your life if you knewit was going to end at a decisive point."

Thanks to recent media fervor over an

asteroid initially projected to strike Earth,

Deep Impact has gained a "torn-from-the-

headlines" aspect. Like everyone else, Leder

"I asked Steven Spielberg, 'What makes youthink l can do the end of the world?'

"

"I hope to be not somuch recognizedas this hot newirector as for

aking a good, movie," offers

•Leder, at work

is frightened by the idea of Earth's end. "Sure,

it scares me," she admits. "I think anyone whotells you different is lying. It's one thing to

know that you might die—which is tragic in

itself—but the helplessness in knowing the

people you love are going to die is heart-

breaking. Then, factor in the pandemoniumand panic that would transpire—and the

world would be an extremely terrifying place.

It is not as if you would have quiet time with

your loved ones to say your goodbyes."

Meteoric RiseLeder, who admits to growing up on a

healthy diet of European films, came to the

attention of movie execs thanks to her hyper-

kinetic direction on TV's ER. She admits to

being shocked and surprised when Spielberg

plucked her away from the small screen to

direct The Peacemaker.

"Everyone was telling me, 'This is the

first DreamWorks movie, and you're a

woman director.' My response to all that was,

'Yeah, so?' I felt that thinking about the pres-

sure would only add to it. So finally what I

really had to do was think about the movie,

the story, and to try to tell it the best way I

could."

Adding to her challenges on The Peace-

maker was a personal loss shortly before

shooting. "My father died a month before westarted filming," she painfully recalls. 'That

was the most difficult part of doing the

movie. I was in a position of not being able to

be in an emotional depression, to mourn his

death and celebrate his life. But what I found

was that, by directing that movie the best way

I could, I was indeed able to work through all

those emotions."

After two massive productions, Leder is

no longer intimidated by the enormity of the

filmmaking process. "My intimidation factor

is pretty much nil at this point," she notes. "I

mean, I was terrified, and in a sense I still am.

It wasn't like I started out with an intimate,

low-budget drama as my first film. I jumped

right into action in a big way. So I'm always

asking myself the questions—

'Can I do

this?' or 'How can I do this?' or, at my most

insecure, T can't possibly do this! I don't

even understand this.'

"But when I get to that point, that's when

I dig really deep and remember something

that my father [director Paul Leder] once told

me. He said, 'Mimi, what are you afraid of?

You know what you're doing.'

"

Mimi Leder laughs out loud wheninformed that, based on The Peacemaker and

the advance word of mouth on Deep Impact

(which opens this month), she's being touted

as the hot new Hollywood director. "Am I

reallyV. It sounds nice. I hope I can live up to

it. I know it sounds great because that kind of

recognition is, in a sense, my dream. But ulti-

mately, I hope to be not so much recognized

as this hot new director as for being able to

make a good movie. That's my dream."

And it's a dream that hinges, to a large

extent, on the results of Deep Impact. "I real-

ly hope people get the message of this movie.

I hope all three stories cut together. I've got

my fingers crossed." •^f

STARLOGX/ane 1998 49

As stern alien bruiser Teal9

Christopher Judge plays guardian & guide

on Stargate SG-1.By KYLE COUNTS

hristopher Judge can laugh about it now,

but an ill-timed haircut might well have

cost him the role of Teal'c, Jaffa alien

warrior, on Stargate SG-1. "I went in for

a reading with [casting director] Mary Jo

Slater and felt it went pretty well," says

the commanding, 6-foot-3, 230-pound

actor. "It got to be Christmas time and I

hadn't heard anything, so I pretty much had given it up for

dead. At the time, I had shoulder-length hair, and I decid-

ed to cut it off because I thought the audition process was

over. The day after I cut all my hair off, I got a call saying

they wanted me to come in and screen-test for Teal'c!"

But unlike Samson, Judge turned his new, close-

cropped look into an advantage—Teal'c (pronounced

"tealk"), as it turned out, was intended to be bald in the

series. "For all the other principal roles, there were three

actors at the audition. But there were eight other guys for

Teal'c. I thought to myself, 'Wow, they have no idea what

they want.' After the reading, they read off the names of

the people who would no longer be needed. The list

included the names of every other person who had read

for Teal'c. So I had a pretty good idea that I was going to

be hired. It was either me or nobody," he laughs.

Bom and raised in Los Angeles, Judge (who claims his

age as "somewhere between 28 and 35") attended the

University of Oregon as a telecommunications/film major

with a psychology minor, and achieved Ail-American

football status three of his four years on campus. "But I

always knew I wanted to be an actor," he recalls. "The

television set was my babysitter growing up. I can remem-

ber wanting to invoke the feelings that I was getting from

television—I wanted to be the one who was the catalyst

for those feelings in other people. Performing was some-

thing I've always known I was going to do."

His inspirations were varied: "the Sidney Poitiers of

the era, the old Batman series and Star Trek. Every Friday

I would go to work with my father, and we would stop on

the way home and pick up burgers. Then, we would come

home and watch Planet of the Apes [the TV series]. I

would never miss an episode of Planet of the Apes—

I

lived for that show."

In 1989, he began studying acting at the Howard Fine

Studio in Los Angeles, applying what he learned in such

films as House Party II, Cadence and Bird on a Wire, as

well as several TV shows, including Gabriel's Fire, 21

Jump Street, Wiseguy and MacGyver, the latter starring

future Stargate SG-1 colleague Richard Dean Anderson.

He was also a regular on the little-seen police drama

Sirens.

Warrior waysGetting into an alien mindset for Stargate SG-1 was no

big stretch for Judge, even though it's his first genre out-

ing. "I didn't get a script right away, I just got sides

[pages] for the audition. But even in those pages, I knew

something more was going on [in terms of the character]

than met the eye. So, I played it very focused and hoped I

was right. It turned out I was. When I stepped on set, with

the armor and prosthetic stomach I had to wear, it was

easy from that point on to become an alien."

Teal'c, he explains, is "a Jaffa. The Jaffa race is

enslaved by the Goa'uld ["ga-oold"]. Some of the Jaffa

are the actual guardians of these particular gods; they

make up the military stronghold of the Goa'uld, and they

select candidates to become hosts for the Goa'uld. But

they are slaves nonetheless. My character is dissatisfied

with the Jaffa life. He realizes that they are, in fact, not

gods—just a parasitic life form that thrives on the lives of

others. So, I take it upon myself to influence a change.

And in my first contact with the humans from the SG-1

team, I realize I might have an ally that actually has the

strength, the wherewithal and the weaponry to be of some

[use against] the Goa'uld."

In the series' two-hour premiere, "Children of the

Gods," Teal'c escapes his enslavers and joins the Stargate

SG-1 team. Why does he choose that moment to leave his

people? "In the scenes where they were selecting a female

host for the Goa'uld symbiont [a snakelike creature that

guarantees the host perfect health, once implanted], the

larva chose not to go into the host I selected, and she was

killed. Any other host who wasn't selected for the process

was also killed. I've been going through this process

much longer than what the audience sees. That's my back

story: I've long been dissatisfied with the means by which

they procure these hosts, and the devastation resulting in

the lands from which they get them."

For Judge, Stargate's first season has been about his

character "finding his way in this new world, where he fits

in, places where his input is needed and where it isn't."

Judge points out that Teal'c has more complex reasons for

being than simply functioning as extra muscle for the SG-

1 team. "Not only do I serve as a guide to some of the

planets the SG-1, team explores, but you also learn that I

50 STARLOG/iwne 1998

Selected Photos: Shane Harvey

The rigid persona Teal'c projects does not

mean he's bloodless, Christopher Judgeinsists. It represents his passionate focus on

"If I let everything...play on the

surface, I would be out of control."

Judge compares SG1 peers Anderson, Amanda Tapping

and Michael Shanks to an extended family. Anderson,

they all agree, is the curmudgeonly uncle.

have a wife and child that I left behind. Part

of my character's storyline is to go back and

make peace with that situation. I don't want

my son to become a Jaffa. Once you have this

symbiont implanted in you, as I do, your

immune system is, from that point on, depen-

dent upon the symbiont for your health.

When I left, he had yet to be implanted with

his first symbiont. So, I want to go back and

make sure that he never becomes a Jaffa. Mysuper-objective, in the long run, is to free all

Jaffa from the enslavement of the Goa'uld.

That supersedes everything."

The Goa'uld larva living inside Teal'c is

intended to be carried to maturity—its

removal would result in his eventual death.

"It's a mutual kind of symbiosis," Judge

offers, "I nourish it, and it nourishes me. It

allows me to go many days without sleep,

without food. It heals any injuries I might

have. But in turn, it feeds off my system. I

breathe for it. I eat for it. I nourish it. I carry

it for seven years; at that point it's mature

enough to leave my body and exist on its own

in another host. It can also, after that time, be

strong enough to control the host it inhabits."

In one of Judge's favorite episodes,

"Bloodlines," Teal'c returns to his home

planet and is reunited with his wife and son.

But their joyful reunion is short-lived. "They

had been outcasts from their village, but mywife had gotten back into favor with the local

priest," he explains. "My son was going to

undergo this implantation ceremony, where

he was going to get his first symbiont. Unbe-

knownst to me, she agreed to it because he

had scarlet fever and was dying, so he need-

ed the symbiont to live. I mistakenly thought

it was my wife's selfishness in wanting to get

back into the upper levels of this society. I

stop the ceremony and end up giving him mysymbiont, and Daniel and Carter go to the

temple and steal another one, which I'm

implanted with." In another episode, Teal'c

undergoes an experiment to see if he can sur-

vive without his symbiont. "We found that I

could not. They're working on some artificial

means to give me an immune system, but up

to this point, I am forced to keep the sym-

biont."

Like Star Trek: The Next Generation's

Worf, Teal'c is portrayed as a rigid, unemo-

tional soldier who could definitely stand to

lighten up a bit. Judge chuckles at the com-

parison, adding, "It's not that I'm not emo-

tional, it's that I'm so emotional that if I let

everything boiling inside of me play on the

surface, I would be out of control, and that

might prevent me from reaching my super-

objective. Also, if there's a situation that

other people find life-threatening, I don't

consider it life-threatening, because I know

that my symbiont protects me. Much of myrole is playing against what I would tradi-

tionally play as an actor. What my gut

instinct tells me to play in a given scene, I

tend to play the opposite.

"It's sometimes hard for me to play

scenes where I find things funny but can't

52 STARLOG/7«ne 1998

laugh, because I have to play that there's

something the character needs that he's not

getting," Judge continues. ''Anything else is

kind of lost on me until I can get back to mywife and son, until I can free my people.

There are episodes later on where I actually

smile, and I do show some emotion. My first

smile this year was not exactly successful,

but it was an attempt at smiling nonethe-

less."

Regarding the show's slaver}' angle, the

African-American actor admits he was

"kind of worried" about possible flak from

critics and friends for taking a role as a slave

on a TV series, until he saw that his charac-

ter would quickly emerge as a leader. "I saw

[the slavery angle] right off when I read the

script, and that's why I was attracted to the

character. He was going to have the chance

to rebel and free his people from their

oppressors. That, to me, directly parallels

the horrible American legacy of slavery,

even all the way up to the '60s and the [Civil

Rights] movement, where things start to

change and an aggressive leader emerges at

the movement's forefront. That's very muchhow I see Teal'c. Most people see him as

very heroic and very noble."

For the most part, the actor says filming

in Canada has been "great." even though the

first week caused him serious trepidation.

"When we arrived in Vancouver, shooting

was. ..difficult. The first w^eek. it was torren-

tial downpours every day. It tested your

patience at times. Then, the weather got

nice. I'm in Army getup for most of the

episodes, but there are a few where I go

back into my serpent guard outfit, which

unfortunately happened at the honest time

of the year. 'Cumbersome" is a good word to

describe how it felt to be in that costume all

day."

Actor's AdventuresWhile the principal cast shoots an aver-

age of 12 hours a day. Judge's

work day generally lasts 13 and a

half hours, as he arrives 90 minutes

early to get into his alien makeup.

"That's not bad," he interjects. "On

Sirens, I had 17, 18, 19-hour days,

and that was the norm. There w ere some-

thing like 900 people in the principal cast on

that show, or at least it seemed that way.

Talk about conflicts between cast members!

It was a nightmare. Compared to that situa-

tion, Stargate SG-1 has been Nirvana."

As Judge relates his feelings about his

fellow cast members, he realizes he sounds

a bit effusive. "Michael Shanks is like myyounger brother. We get along fabulously,

and we spend a lot of time together, even off

set. Amanda Tapping is like my sister. It

sounds almost too rosy, I know, but we get

along that well. At the screen test, the three

of us talked almost the whole time, while

everyone else was preparing or sulking,

whatever actors do. We had such a natural

camaraderie. It's almost as if it was predes-

tined [that we would be working together]."

The mere mention of series headliner

Anderson elicits a hearty laugh from Judge.

"Rick is like our crotchety uncle. He can

add levity to absolutely any situation. In the

MacGyver I did with Rick years ago, I

played a high school student, a cocky foot-

I breathe for the symbiontl eat for it. I nourish it."

ball player who thought the classroom was

just a place to go while the football field was

being cleaned. MacGyver taught me a les-

son about fulcrums and levers, and I was

that much wiser in the end. Our makeupartist, Dan Newman, brought a tape of the

episode to the set. and everyone got a good

laugh over how much younger we both

looked. If anything, Rick has gotten more

amiable since then. He's a pleasure to be

around."

Judge realized that his five-year contract

with Stargate SG-1 (with a 14-week hiatus

between mid-November and early Marchthat allows him to pursue other career

opportunities) meant he would have to movehis family to Vancouver from LA. All are

adjusting well, he says. When asked what

kinds of considerations he had before sign-

ing on the dotted line, he names only one: "I

have three kids, so basically I'm thinking,

'Hey, their college education is paid for!'"

In a more serious vein. Judge's hopes for

Stargate SG-1 center partly around his char-

acter. "I hope Teal'c continues to grow, and

that more is learned about the

whole mythology of the Jaffa and

Goa'uld and where they fit into the

universe. We have a chance to

explore not only our universe, but

anywhere in the galaxy, and all the

life forms we could ever imagine.

"There's an endless oasis of ideas that

could be harvested. And to have this vehicle

to do it, and to have a long-term commit-

ment so that you don't have to be constantly

looking over your shoulder to see if the net-

work is coming at you with an ax to cut your

show.. .what an enviable position to be in.

"Already, we're Showtime's highest-

rated show. We've been picked up for [syn-

dication beginning this fall]. We've done a

helluva job of carrying on the legacy of the

StarGate movie. So, we've got our fan

base," says Christopher Judge. "As long as

we can keep the level of our shows up, and

stay true to our fans and never take their

intellect for granted, we have a chance to

have a really long run." ^

STARLOG/Jime 1998 53

ean Devlin is a cheerful, talkative guy, still jazzed over having risen

swiftly from a relatively unknown actor to the co-writer and co-

producer of several blockbuster hits. Devlin is also pleased that his

successes are in the science fiction genre, not the easiest medium to

garner such merits. "SF fans are the toughest fans in the world to

please," he says, "because they have the highest standards.

"When SF movies are made by people who would actually stand in line to see

one on Friday night, they're better because they're made without any cynicism.

But when people sit around in Hollywood and say, 'Let's do what audi-

ences are buying right now,' it's crap. And SF fans can smell it

a mile away. If they feel you're doing it cyni-

cally, they will just walk away." Thequestion is—will they walk

toward his latest endeavor,

^s month's new big-

s'!^cale Godzilla?

j initios'uiihilz iiJi) LI.£J. film

W*r. Z?..nn "i like to see a cieve.and j started

Devlin, who co-wrote and

produced Independence Day and StarGate

with director Roland Emmerich, wouldn't

normally be found hanging out in a run-down

neighborhood, but that's where the co-

writer/producer of this colossal movie is on

this sunny afternoon, near the corner of Fifth

and Main, the heart of Los Angeles' Skid

Row. Of course, a few minutes ago, it was

Chernobyl, and soon it will be a rainy New-

York, but between takes on Godzilla, it's the

street of the down-and-outers.

113 I blHI 1

3

Devlin is happy to talk about how Godzil-

la came to be, and how he and his partner

Emmerich got involved in it. "Chris Lee [of

Sony Pictures] came to us a few years ago

about doing Godzilla, and we actually turned

it down. We wondered how you would over-

come the 'cheese factor.' You don't want to

make fun of Godzilla, because there are too

many fans who really love the character. Wedidn't know how to make it properly, so wepassed on it. Later, when [director] Jan De

Bont got involved, he developed a really

good script" by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.

However, budgetary problems sank the very

ambitious De Bont version, which involved

two monsters, fleets of ships and toppling

skyscrapers.

So Sony went back to Emmerich and

Devlin at their own Centropolis Films com-

pany. "Roland and I sat down and asked our-

selves, 'Why do we keep turning it down?'

We decided that it was because we were

scared of it—and if we were so scared, then

we had to do it. That's the challenge: to pull

it off in a way that's convincing, that's fun

and yet that's terrifying."

Emmerich and Devlin decided to abandon

the De Bont/Elliott/Rossio script, though

they respected it—in fact, that script made

Devlin and Emmerich realize "that it could

be done in a way that wasn 't cheesy. Roland

talking about story ideas, and the direction

we would go with it, what we would do.

Then, we were in Europe promoting Inde-

pendence Day when [ID4 production design-

er] Patrick Tatopoulos came over with his

drawings of the new Godzilla, what our ver-

sion would look like. The second we saw the

drawings, we said, 'OK, that's it, we've gotta

do this.'

"

"THIS GODZILLAIS NOT A

DINOSAUR.They began from scratch with a new

script, going in a new—but also old—direc-

tion. In the original Japanese movie, released

in the U.S. as Godzilla, King ofthe Monsters,

Godzilla is a dinosaur-like creature revived

by radiation from A- and H-Bomb tests, and

that's similar to the origin of the Big G in the

new film. "It's something we felt pretty

strongly about not abandoning,'" Devlin says.

"In some of the earlier drafts, Godzilla was

created by aliens, and that made it cool." But

radiation was how Godzilla was originally

created. "That was not just a story idea,"

Devlin maintains, "but represented Japan's

thinking about nuclear radiation. So wethought it was too important to what Godzil-

la is all about, and we found a way to mod-

ernize that." However, their Godzilla is not a

dinosaur, but Devlin is cagey about saying

just what he, she or it really is.

"We wanted to go in a completely differ-

ent direction" from the De Bont project,

Devlin says, "but his script assured us that it

could be done elegantly, that you could do it

straight. I mean, still with a lot of humor, but

respectfully. In a sense. Roland and I did that

with War of the Worlds. Sure, Independence

Day was a gas, and it was fun, but it wasn't

Mars Attacks! We took it seriously, we did it

straight—it wasn't a farce. And that's what

we're trying to do with Godzilla—reinvent

him as an original, but yet be respectful to the

origins and intent of the first.

"The moment of inspiration for the origi-

nal Godzilla came when [producer] Tomoyu-

ki Tanaka was flying over the Bikini Islands

[the notorious site of nuclear testing]. There

was an enormous amount of significance to

the Japanese people about Godzilla's origin.

But both Roland and I believed that today the

world isn't as worried about nuclear war.

We're more concerned with the results of

nuclear testing, nuclear waste getting into our

environment, so we stayed true to the spirit of

Godzilla while not staying true to the facts."

Of course, the cheese factor still lurks,

given all the Japanese sequels. In two distinct

series, the films eventually total more than 20

titles. Godzilla is both respected, and teeters

on the edge of a cultural joke, so Devlin and

Emmerich had a fine line to walk. "If you

remember before the first Batman came out,

there was enormous criticism about Tim Bur-

ton changing the look and casting Michael

Keaton. Everybody was sure that it would be

awful, and it was actually pretty cool,"

Devlin says. "When we wrote this one, wedidn't limit ourselves at all. We decided to

write it in a fantasy way, to make the film that

we couldn 't make.

"Because of the limitations of technology,

the Godzilla of the other films was this lum-

bering, giant Frankenstein coming down the

street. But we thought, 'When we do that

shot, we're going to have to develop a tech-

nology that doesn't exist.' We have this agile,

quick, scary, wild creature, so suddenly all

the possibilities opened up, and what you

could do in a film seemed really endless."

One stumbling block that De Bont and

Elliott/Rossio faced were the many restric-

tions that Toho, the Japanese company that

owns the rights to Godzilla, constantly-

placed on their script, and on the monster's

design. Godzilla had to be so high, have this

many spines on his back, that many toes and

56 STARLOG//;me 1998

fingers, and so forth. "Jan De Bont told us

that he had problems, that every time they

wanted to make a change, it was a big ordeal.

We went for a completely different look, not

slightly different. We brought the designs to

Toho, and said that this is the way we would

doit.

"They looked at it, and they took a long

time in deciding. They finally said, 'It's so

different that we don't even want to commenton it, other than yes or no. But we love this

Philippe Roache (Jean Reno)says he's an insurance adjuster.

And where Godzilla goes,damage follows.

other planet. But the new Godzilla is "com-

pletely American in origin," Devlin asserts,

"in that I'm an American, but, well, Roland's

German. In one sense, we wanted to distance

ourselves from the other films, and on the

other side, pay homage to them. So there's a

lot we're borrowing, but we wanted to do this

as though we had just come up with this idea,

and there was no history. It takes place in the

United States, and with the exception of Jean

Reno, has a primarily American cast.

In Godzilla, Broderick plays NickTatopoulos, the scientist who's trying to fig-

ure out a way to destroy Godzilla before

Godzilla and offspring destroy the world.

Offspring? Yes—one of the most firmly

established rumors is that this Godzilla is

asexual, capable of laying hundreds of eggs

that will hatch out into more bad-tempered

monsters that will, no doubt, each be

assigned a city to stomp. Can Tatopoulos

(named for the designer) put a stop to this

"WE HAVE THIS AGILE. QUICK. SCARY, WILD CREATURE.M

look, we love your idea, we back it 100 per-

ent—go do it.' This is a whole new rebirth of

jodzilla, and I think they appreciated that.

)ur story is more like the original film than

any other Godzilla movie. We want to give

birth to the whole legend again."

Titanic StarsDevlin and Emmerich holed up in Mexico

for five-and-a-half weeks and pounded out

heir Godzilla script. "Of course, we're con-

stantly revising it as we work on it, but struc-

rally it hasn't changed at all. We work on

characters and try to make that a little better,

nake moments scarier, and then as our spe-

cial FX company keeps coming up with newgizmos, we try to have new gags."

One of those new gags not directly con-

nected with the special effects company is

being rigged on Fifth Street as the interview

continues. Large hydraulic jacks are careful-

ly placed under the cars on the street, then

connected to big gas drums. When "action"

;called, the jacks will make the cars bounce

up and down, in time with the footsteps of the

approaching Godzilla. Who, unlike the sky-

scraping monster of the Toho films, is a mere

20 stories tall in this version, which seems

big enough, all things considered.

In all the Japanese films, Godzilla either

menaced Japan, or places where there were

many Japanese people, including at least one

"We wanted to work with both Matthew

Broderick and Reno for a long time, but

especially Broderick. However, every time

we've done a film, they were unavailable. So

this time, before we even started writing, weset up meetings with both of them and said,

'Look, we want you to be in this picture

—

don't take another job.'"

large-scale family planning?

Best known in this country for his roles in

The Professional, Mission: Impossible and

La Femme Nikita, Reno plays Philippe

Roache, who purports to be a French insur-

ance adjuster—and one can well imagine that

insurance claims would loom large in

Godzilla's wake.

STARLOG/June 1998 57

Others in the cast include Hank Azaria

and Harry Shearer, who voice many charac-

ters on The Simpsons, Barton Fink's Michael

Lerner as Mayor Ebert of New York, Maria

Pitillo as Audrey Timmonds, Tatopolous'

once-and-probably-future girl friend, Arabel-

la Field, Kevin Dunn and Doug Savant.

A life-long SF movie buff himself (who

dressed as a droid at age 1 3 and took third in

a SF con costume contest), Devlin agrees that

it's not all that surprising to find Broderick

—

a veteran of WarGames, Project X and Lady-

hawke—in Godzilla. "He has a passion for

this kind of film," Devlin says, "but he really

hasn't done it in a long time. In a sense, he's

a little like Jeff Goldblum, in that he's such

an intelligent actor, you have the opportunity

to have a lead action hero who does things

out of smarts rather than brawn. I'm tired of

super-muscle-bound heroes in movies. I like

to see a clever hero."

Devlin is forthcoming about many ele-

ments of Godzilla, but he's keeping others as

secret as he can. He won't admit whether

Godzilla breathes fire, as in the Japanese

movies, but does say, "he has a few tricks up

his sleeve, some you've seen before, some

that are brand new. We've given him some

abilities he has never before had, especially

the speed at which he can move."

Graphic MonstrosityThe filmmakers are allowing only a few

glimpses of Godzilla: an eye here, a foot

there, a toothy mouth gaping in front of

Broderick. Devlin does admit, "He's not a

dinosaur, but I think he's much more realis-

tic-looking than the original Godzilla, in that

when you look at this, it feels like a creature

you're familiar with. And the movements,

obviously, are much better, because the tech-

nology is better. But this Godzilla is not a

dinosaur, and it's bigger and wilder than

we've ever seen before." Devlin proudly

claims that Godzilla will be able to run sever-

al hundred miles an hour—but won't admit

whether this is on two feet or all fours.

Such diverse talent as actress Maria Pitillo and cartoon funnyman Hank Azaria join the

Godzilla cast. You can learn more about the film in FANGORIA#173 and THE OFFICIAL

GODZILLA MOVIE & POSTER MAGAZINES—all on sale later this month.

actually eat anyone. He can step on all the

people he encounters, but he (or she or it)

doesn't chow down on anyone—at least in

our range of vision. "Toho has a big issue

about that," Devlin admits, "but we found

some ways around some of that."

One reason for making this beastie, if not

exactly a kinder, gentler Godzilla, at least not

an openly carnivorous Godzilla, is that

"Godzilla's an unusual creature, because he's

both hero and villain," Devlin points out. "On

the one hand, he's the antagonist of the pic-

ture, and he's causing us enormous amounts

of problems, but at the same time, the audi-

ence roots for Godzilla. So it's a unique lead

to have in a picture."

In the Toho movies, Godzilla was virtual-

ly always a man in a suit; there are only a

original stuff, unless a really compelling idea

comes along. We just signed recently a deal

with Sony. We're going to try to make as

many of these 'event' films as we can, try to

turn out at least one film a year."

Just what those movies will be remains to

be determined. They may include two pro-

jects Centropolis set up originally at 20th

Century Fox—a Fantastic Voyage remake

and Supertanker—which Devlin believes

could become Sony-Fox co-productions or, if

Fox relinquishes them, Sony-only films.

Sony is dangling the prospect of a James

Bond movie in front of the duo (but it's the

subject of litigation from the MGM/UA 007

film series owners). As for Disney's live-

action Gargoyles—which Devlin, without

Emmerich, did an early script of, based on

"OUR MAIN GOAL IS TO CREATE FILMS THAT WE LOVETo preserve the monstrous secrets, Devlin

and Emmerich have taken unprecedented

steps, embargoing all prerelease photos of

their star, providing journalists with few

details, even engineering a sort of "sting

operation" (in which each licensee was given

one easy-to-trace Godzilla design, and the

inevitable Internet leak was tracked down

and exposed). They're also trying to keep the

flotilla of licensed merchandise from ending

up in any stores before the movie's debut.

Devlin makes no apologies for the secrecy:

"We feel very strongly that Godzilla should

be seen in the context of the new movie. Iso-

lated, he won't have anywhere near the

impact that he does in the film. We're just

asking as filmmakers, 'Please let us premiere

Godzilla first as a movie, then you can have

all the toys and everything else.'"

Although Toho did sign off on the design

of Godzilla, and mostly kept their hands off

the movie, they insisted that Godzilla not

handful of shots in all the 22 films when he's

anything else. While this necessarily gave

Godzilla his distinctive shape, it also severe-

ly limited what the monster could do; those

suits were heavy. In the new: Godzilla, the

Big G is being rendered via computer graph-

ics, which makes him much more limber and

nimble.

While Devlin still maintains that he and

Emmerich will never do a StarGate follow-

up and are unlikely to attempt an Indepen-

dence Day sequel, he does note that with

Godzilla, they are planning a series of three

films. "I think we came up with a unique way

of doing a sequel, so it's not totally pre-

dictable. We spent a lot of time on trying to

figure it out in that sense, and yet still have a

franchise. I think we solved that.

"And we have plenty of good stuff on the

horizon. We're doing a smaller film in our

Streamline division called The 13th Floor, a

really unique SF film. We would rather do

the animated series—he has been replaced by

another writer.

For now, all their attention is focused 20

stories skyward, on their gigantic star.

"Godzilla is a very expensive movie," Devlin

concedes. "This film will cost more than

we've spent before, more money than wewanted to spend. But the big difference

between Roland, me and many of the people

in Hollywood is that we don't make these

films so we can go look at some other film:

we're not doing this biding time to make a

film we really want to make. These are the

films we really want to make."

Dean Devlin concludes, "Our main goal

is to create films that we love. And while I

don't know if every film we're going to do

will be science fiction, we do want to make

genre films. We like films that are basically

mainstream, big event pictures. It's good for

us because it gives us a focus, and it's the

kind of movie we fell in love with."

58 STARLOG/7i<ne 1998

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IocSavage doesn't

live in New York

anymore. Until

a few years ago. you could

walk down the streets of Man-

hattan, turn a corner and unex-

pectedly confront Clark Savage

Jr. in the flesh. Sure, he was a lit-

tle older. He lacked the metallic

helmet of hair, but it was unmistak

ably the Man of Bronze.

This experience befell many a

startled fan. Others were stunned to

walk by Flash Gordon or the

Avenger, or even to spy a short- ^haired Conan the Barbarian play-

s

ing handball in Central Park.

The people who reported these

sightings weren't suffering from UFO-induced delusions. Until recently, those

supposedly fictitious characters did haunt

parts of Manhattan. In fact, they were all

embodied in the same flesh.

Steve Holland had perhaps one of the

most hauntingly familiar faces outside of

TV or the silver screen. Over the last 40

years, he was Doc Savage, the Spider. Sher-

lock Holmes, Nick Carter, Mike Hammer,

Shell Scott. Nevada Jim and many other

classic heroes on the covers of assort-

ed paperback novels and comic

books. It was a career he pursued

almost until the end of his life

Years ago, SteveHolland—TV's Flash Cordon

& the paperback Doc Savage-posed for adventure.

For actor-turned-professional model Hol-

land, it all began in Seattle. "I was born in

Seattle, Washington a long, long time ago,"

Holland reminisced in this interview', con-

ducted a few months before his death. '"I was

in the Merchant Marines and went to Alaska,

worked up there in Anchorage for about a

year and a half. Then. I came back down to

California and went to Laguna Beach and did

pottery. It was a lot of fun. I had a good life. I

was a youngster then."

But a rugged man's man couldn't make a

career out of pottery. A visit to the old RKOStudios where his brother Dave worked as a

writer led to a chance encounter and a quin-

tessential Hollywood discovery story.

'"Mervyn LeRoy was there," Holland

recalled. "He saw me and

said, 'Do you want to get

signed up for a contract?'

I said. 'Sure.' He did a

screen test on me, which I

don't think was any good. I

didn't see it. So. I was under con-

tract to him for six months. I didn't do

any films. I decided at the end of those six

months to go to New York to get some back-

ground. Meantime, I got married. The two of

us went to New York City. My wife was born

and raised there, so she knew the town. I did

not. I was frightened to death. New York was

a big city, and I was a little boy from Seattle."

In the Big Apple, another chance

encounter brought new opportunity. "I met

John Hartrider. who had a modeling agency. I

was looking for work, naturally, so he signed

me up and I started modeling."

In the beginning. Holland posed for every

conceivable kind of magazine, from the

dying pulp magazines to comic books. Faw-

cett built a comic, Bob Colt, around photo-

graphic covers featuring Holland as a movie

Western hero who wasn't in movies!

'Then, paperbacks came out and the

whole thing exploded!" he exclaimed. "I

was working day and night. I got to

know about 200 illustrators and started

painting myself. I did that until recently,

when I left New York."

Eventually. Holland was lured back

to acting. "I quit for a while," he stated.

"I did a show, Mr. Roberts, in London. I

did six months over there and [Mr.

Meet the Man of

Bronze: Steve

Holland, the

actor whoembodied DocSavage andcountless other

paperbackheroes.

As television's Flash Gordon, Holland

sailed the spaceways in a 1950s series

lensed in Germany and broadcast on the

DuMont Network.

Roberts director] Joshua Logan brought meback and gave me a bigger part. Instead of

Shore Patrol, he gave me the part of Manion.

I did that for six months on the road, and

Logan put me in South Pacific, which was

great! For two years. I was in South Pacific,

and then I met Marty Poole. He got me Flash

Gordon."

Hero of the SpacewaysThe DuMont Network's Flash Gordon

series is probably the most obscure filmed

version of the famous King Features comic

strip character, despite having run two sea-

sons and some 39 episodes. It starred

Holland as Flash, Irene Champlin as

Dale Arden and Joseph Nash as Dr.

Zarkov. This syndicated show, filmed

in Berlin, updated Alex Raymond's

space opera fantasy for the 1950s.

Flash worked for the hokey-sounding

Galaxy Bureau of Investigation in 3063

and careened around the universe in his

personal rocketship. the Sky-flash.

Holland heard about the project in

acting class and read for it. Probably it

was his blonde good looks, reminiscent

of Buster Crabbe, that won him the

part. It was no plum role. The produc-

tion was mounted to utilize money

frozen in post-war Europe, but Holland

saw it as a golden opportunity.

"It started off hip, hip. hurrah!" he

laughed. "I don't remember the first

episode. I imagine I was learning lines,

and I wanted to make it special, bring

as much acting ability as I had to the

role. By the time I had done three of

them, I found out to my chagrin they

were all the samel Each one was 'go

save Dale Arden somewhere.' It was

work. It wasn't fun.

''Of course," he added, "there wasn't too

much of the character to bring to it. Flash

Gordon was pretty flat—I mean, the writing

and everything. It was go into combat, sub-

due your enemy, save Doc or Dale and go on

to the next script. As a matter of fact, by the

time we had done three or four shows, they

designed a way of shooting to do three at

once. We would do all the spaceships for

three of them. Then, we would do all the out-

door scenes for three, and so on, and put

them all together."'

By one of the many coincidences that

would keep bringing Holland into contact

with the same famous characters, one of the

writers of Flash Gordon. Bruce Elliott, had

Always pleased to chat with fans, Holland

nevertheless admitted he had "never felt

like a hero."

previously scripted Doc Savage in comic

books. But Holland had no inkling of the

Man of Bronze at that point. Once he realized

he was on a treadmill. Holland simply did the

work of fighting and ray-blasting his way as

Flash Gordon through episodes with such B-

movie titles as "The Micro-Man Menace,"

"Return of the Androids" and "The Witch of

Neptune." On his off-hours, he enjoyed the

sights, which included many bomb-damaged

areas that ultimately found their way into the

show.

""To see those bombed-out buildings in

Berlin was really something!" he marveled.

"I was over there for six months, and

then I was in New York again looking

for work. Marty Poole said. "Well,

we're gonna do 13 more in Marseilles.'

We had done 26 in Berlin. So the fol-

lowing year we all shipped out for

Marseilles. I was over there for six

months, and we did them with a differ-

ent director."

Gunther V. Fritsch was the new

director, replacing Wallace Worsley.

There were other changes: GBI Com-missioner Torgenson was replaced by

Commander Richards. (Neither actor

received screen credit.) Flash traded in

his snappy uniform for a white light-

ning bolt-insigniaed T-shirt, and his

old rocketship for the Skyflash II.

Edward Gruskin. who had scripted

Doc Savage in comics and on radio a

decade before, produced and wrote the

French season. Otherwise, the stories

were the same round of low-budget

melodrama and fist fights. In his TVincarnation. Flash battled Akim the

Terrible, the Great God Em of Odin

and the Electro Man. (Ming the Merci-

less was ignored.) Flash traveled back to

post-war West Berlin—no coincidence

there!—and in ""The Lure of Light," he

STARLOG//wi<? 1998 65

became the first man to pilot a faster-

than-light spaceship in 1950s TV.

Both versions of the Skyflash were

toy rockets augmented by animation or

fire effects. Although they seem absurdly

ersatz today, they were state-of-the-art

then, when Captain Video and His Video

Rangers and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet

typified SF TV.

"As far as the spaceship traveling into

space," Holland offered, "I always felt

that I couldn't believe it. I mean, I had

very little sense of it. The writing was

down to Earth, so there was no explosion

of joy or anything."

Holland preferred spending his off-

hours with local artists, learning to ride a

motorcycle and immersing himself in

other cultural experiences alien to mak-

ing space opera. "I came back and start-

ed modeling again. By then the

paperbacks had come out. There was a

lot of work to do, and I was doing a lot of

it," Holland laughed. "And of course, the

fact that 1 had done some acting

enhanced my modeling career. They

both enhanced each other. So, it worked

out; it was pretty nice."

But it didn't work out for DuMont's Flash

Gordon. When it hit the airwaves in fall 1953.

the show's violence drew criticism, and it dis-

appeared from many markets. "The way I

remember it, Flash Gordon was panned."

Holland recalled. "We did have fight scenes

in every episode. They brought in a couple of

wrestlers from Marseilles, and we would have

a wrestling match. The guy would slam meover the head with a rubber gun!"

Man of BronzeFor a time, Holland stood poised between

two careers, acting and modeling, much as

his contemporary James Garner did. Holland

did several Studio Ones with Charlton Hes-

ton, but no big breaks came his way. "By the

time I was back into acting after South Pacif-

ic and Flash Gordon, there were so manyactors, and I was getting older," Holland

admitted frankly. "I was about 35-40 years

old. I would have been fine in a character

part. As far as being a leading man went,

there wasn't too much around. I was compet-

ing with Heston and people like that, whohad college backgrounds. I was competing

not too well," he added wryly.

Turning his back on acting wasn't diffi-

cult. There was plenty of modeling work, and

Holland found to his surprise that artists

loved working from his poses, and that his

acting had enriched his modeling.

"I remember doing a session at one of the

studios. A group of students had come in

with a teacher to watch what was going on.

They were learning how to illustrate. So, I

took the pose of a guy on a horse with a gun,

shooting. And at the end of my thing, they

applauded me! I was amazed! I almost fell

off the rocking chair I was on. I had a real

feeling that I was on the horse riding down

the plains. Maybe that added to it."

Early on, Holland hooked up with top

paperback illustrator James Bama (STAR-

66 STARLOG//»>!<? 1998

Holland modeled as

Savage in the sametorn shirt for years

—

until a cleaning

accidentally

threw

it out.

LOG #198). posing for countless paperback

and magazine covers. In 1964. Bama was

commissioned to paint the covers for Bantam

Books' revival of Doc Savage. Bama had def-

inite ideas of what he wanted; a lifelong fan

of Raymond's Flash Gordon, Bama, after

adorning Holland in the traditional Docripped shirt, deliberately had Holland strike a

Raymond-style Flash Gordon pose. The

result was a classic. Holland became the per-

sonification of Doc Savage. After Bama quit

the series in 1971, his replacements, Fred

Pfeiffer, Bob Larkin and Joe DeVito all

turned to Holland. When Boris Vallejo made

the mistake of using himself as a model

for the Man of Bronze, fans howled,

and Boris was replaced. Ultimately,

Holland posed for all but a handful of

the more than 100 Doc Savage paper-

back covers, going through only two

ripped shirts in 30 years. (A cleaning

woman accidentally threw out the orig-

inal shirt.)

"Usually what happened was that

Jimmy would bring in sketches of poses

that he wanted. Then, I would take

those positions and add to them or

change them and make them more than

the drawing."

Holland's interest in art, and his own

practical painting knowledge, are

among the reasons his poses stood out,

regardless of who painted him. Particu-

larly, Holland used his awareness of

how his body would translate to canvas

to create zones of contrast for the artist

to exploit.

"I would twist my body so that part

of it was in light and part of it was in

shadow," he explained. "And they com-

plemented each other that way. You feel

it across your body—the shadow and the

light. It's instinct."

When Doc sales prompted imitators. Hol-

land posed as the Avenger and Nick Carter

for George Gross. One Doc Savage artist,

Bob Larkin, had Holland perform double

duty as Marvel Comics' version of Conan the

Barbarian. For Bama, he was also Nevada

Jim. a Western hero. Holland's face became

so overexposed on the paperback racks that

art directors started asking that Holland not

be used. When other models proved that

there was only one Steve Holland, the order

was rescinded.

Posing as DocSavage for leg-

endary artist

James Bama, Hol-

land became the

character—and a

paperback icon.

BERKLEY fr\^\ HIGHLAND BOOKSY710 40c

For Holland, modeling was a chal-

lenge. He used his body as a can-

vas, twisting it to create artistic

areas of shadow and light.

THE MOST

DANGEROUS

GAME

Model of ArtistsHe studied painting throughout his mod-

eling career. When he found time, he painted

paperback covers himself. But modeling bet-

ter suited his active lifestyle. Strangely, the

man whose face and body were transmuted

into the image of so many classic American

heroes resists the label.

"I've never felt like a hero," he stated. "I

never thought of it as special. It was always

down to Earth. It was always some person,

some human being. No hero, no autographs,

not anything like that."

Modeling enabled Holland to raise a fam-

ily and pursue philosophical interests with-

Eventually, Holland left the acting arena,

emerging as the premier paperback model

for artists painting Mike Hammer, Sherlock

Holmes, Conan and many others.

out being stuck in a 9-to-5 job. The secret of

his success, he felt, boiled down to one cre-

ative goal: "The feeling that you are what

you are trying to portray," he said. "The thing

is, I had so many years of doing it. They can

tell, people who are watching or taking the

picture to draw from, if the hands are right. If

the hands have nervous energy in them when

riding a horse or shooting a gun or whatever,

that's the tell-all. Because some of the mod-

els, their shoulders are right, but the hands

are wrong and the knees are wrong. So, you

get a broken-up kind of thing.

"In New York, I had a place upstate. Six

acres. I used to go upstate on weekends. Two

LUKE SHORTTHE MAN OHTHE BLUEA HEADLONG NOVEL OF THE OLD WEST-A CROOKED SHERIFF AGAINST

A MAN WHO HAD TO LEARN THAT HE WAS BIGGER THAN HIS GUN:

When Holland posed as a Western hero,

he had the "real feeling that I was on the

horse riding down the plains."

or three artists waited for me to come back. I

was amazed. They said, 'These pictures are

no good. We've got to wait for Steve Hol-

land.' So, I would come in and shoot some

more pictures. But the pictures always trans-

mitted from the brain to the fingertips and

toetips. You know what I mean?"

Holland looked back on his long modeling

career with understandable wistfulness. "I

was pretty successful. If I had implemented

speech with what was going on, I would have

been successful as an actor. In those days, welackadaisically went into acting. But I didn't

know what I didn't know, so I stumbled

along. I tried to join Studio One. I tried to join

a few acting groups, but I was turned down. I

didn't have much of a place to go."

Likewise, Holland reported that his old

Flash Gordon co-stars received no career

boost from the show, which still pops up on

cable now and again. (All 39 episodes have

been acquired by Englewood Entertainment

of Independence, Missouri for video

release.) "Irene Champlin was in upstate

New York last I heard. Joe Nash went into the

technical side of the stage. I don't think any

of us got anything after Flash Cordon."

In 1992, Holland posed for a last spate of

Doc Savage covers, left New York for a brief

stab at stage acting, then retired to paint. Hedied on March 10, 1997 after a brief illness.

He was 72.

As for Doc Savage and Flash Gordon, the

two characters he was most identified with,

Holland noted, "Their missions—what they

stood for—I think they were similar. Both

were good characters."

After Holland had retired from modeling,

his phone continued to ring with requests to

pose. "Bob Larkin called a few times while I

was down here, and Joe DeVito wanted me to

come back. I'm not interested in doing a cou-

ple of jobs. If it's a lifestyle, yeah. So. I'm

painting. I'm interested in painting, and I'm

actually most interested in anti-heroes. I'm

not interested in heroes." WSTARLOG/Jwne 1998 67

Inthe early days of Camelot," says Fred-

erik Du Chau, director of the animated

feature Questfor Camelot, "King Arthur's

sword, Excalibur, gets stolen by Ruber, an

evil knight, and his griffin. Then, our heroine

Kayley, a young girl who believes that she

can be a knight, goes in search of that lost

sword. The griffin steals it, but he drops it

somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. On Kay-

ley's way, she finds a blind guy, Garrett.

Together, they're going to get Excalibur and

save the kingdom, so it's about people whodo things against all odds."

That pretty much describes what the new

animated feature, Quest for Camelot, is try-

ing to do. Against equally daunting odds, it

hopes to become a success in a field almost

totally dominated by movies from the Disney

Studio. Only a handful of successful full-

length American cartoon features didn't

come from Disney, and the only recent exam-

ple, really, is 1997's Anastasia, from DonBluth and 20th Century Fox.

Swords in StonesIn 1995, however, Warner Bros, decided

to take on Disney, and began the Warner Fea-

ture Animation Division. Their opening vol-

ley was Space Jam (STARLOG #233), but

that was a special case, a mixture of live

action and animation, and featured the clas-

sic Warner Bros, cartoon characters. The first

original, all-animation feature from Warner

is Quest for Camelot, a fantasy in the tradi-

tion of two of Disney's lesser entries (The

Sword in the Stone, The Black Cauldron) and

a trio of Ralph Bakshi animated-via-roto-

scope epics (Wizards, Lord of the Rings, Fire

& Ice). Quest began under the direction of

Bill (FernGully) Kroyer, with his wife Sue as

producer, but they left the project over cre-

ative differences. Subsequent producer Frank

Gladstone also exited. "So many of the

changes in a film like this one have to do with

starting up a division. It was just a tremen-

dous amount of work," says Dalisa Cooper

Cohen, who ended up producing the film,

"and there were many growing pains that

went into setting up a division and making a

movie at the same time."

Major talent was hired. Multiple Grammywinner David Foster and Oscar-winning Car-

ole Bayer Sager wrote the songs, with Patrick

Doyle doing the score. Among the actors pro-

viding character voices are Cary Elwes (Gar-

rett), Gary Oldman (Ruber), Jane Seymour

(Lady Juliana), Pierce Brosnan (King

Arthur), Sir John Gielgud (Merlin), Gabriel

Byrne (Sir Lionel) and Bronson Pinchot (the

Griffin). Don Rickles and Eric Idle play the

68 STARLOG/Jwne 1998

Our heroine, Kayley (voiced by Jessalyn

Gilsig) is out to do the impossible—be the

first woman knight in Quest for Camelot,

directed by Frederik Du Chau.

same character, in a sense: the separate—and

disparate—noggins of a two-headed dragon

who assists Kayley and Garrett in their quest.

"We had read-throughs at the beginning,"

Du Chau explains, "with scratch actors whotake you through the whole script so you can

get a sense of the pacing and how a script will

sound, because scripts are there to be heard,

not read. And once you know that your dia-

logue is working, then the actors come in, or

you fly wherever they are. Sir John Gielgud.

for instance, wasn't going to fly to LA to do

a few lines, so we flew to London. Gary Old-

man was shooting Lost in Space in London,

and we went there for him, too."

In terms of the actors, Du Chau asserts,

"The biggest challenge for an animation

director is to create a sense of a real scene,

with pacing and a rhy thm, with only half the

people in the room. When Ruber, Oldman.

comes in to overtake the house that Juliana.

Seymour, lives in, it's very hard for the actors

to imagine all that and get a sense of pacing,

because acting is reacting. If you don't have

something to react to, it's really tough. So it

happens in stages; most people come back

[to record voices] four, five, six times, some-

times more.

"In live action, when you create a scene,

you go to the set, block it out, and you play

it—and then something happens, like one

actor will try a line a different way, which

surprises the other; they react to that, and

before you know it, you have a really tense

scene. In animation, you basically don't have

any happy accidents, unless you do the scene

over and over again, so you can play back the

other actor's lines. And that's what we did."

Du Chau began his career in his native

Belgium, then moved on to Disney France.

He came to the U.S. where he worked at sev-

eral companies, eventually spending time at

Chuck Jones Productions. Warners noticed

him just as their Feature Animation Division

was starting up, and before long he had his

Garrett (Cary Elwes), Kayley's blind ally,

represents a prominent theme in Questfor Camelot—the need to fight against all

odds for what you believe in.

Evil Ruber (Gary Oldman) threatens King

Arthur's reign. The voice cast also

includes Jane Seymour, Pierce Brosnan,

Gabriel Byrne and Sir John Gielgud.

first director job—with Quest for Camelot. was the one everybody felt was the most

He explains the two-headed dragon further, promising and the most interesting. Every-

"Devon [Idle] and Cornwall [Rickles] are the body loves the themes and ideals behind

runts of the dragon pack. Devon, the taller Camelot, but there was a very strong desire to

head, is the more erudite character, who actu- tell a new story, so the whole Camelot idea

ally dreams of the theater, and all these things was used as a backdrop for that story. The

in Camelot. Cornwall, the short, stocky head, desire was to utilize all the things that people

a guy from Brooklyn, thinks of all the wait- know Camelot to stand for, like valor, honor,

resses he can chase in Camelot. They think truth, courage. The usual Arthur stories have

it's a good idea to go with our heroes." been told, and I don't think any of us felt that

The movie is loosely based on the novel they needed to be told in the same way. In

The Queen 's Damosel by Vera Chapman; the animation, there may have been things left to

screen story is by Jacqueline Feather and tell, but we didn't necessarily want to tell the

David Seidler, with final screenplay credit story of Arthur only, because people have

going to Kirk De Micco and William already seen that."

Schirfin. The original novel was much darker

than Quest for Camelot and, in fact, doesn't ROUIlCl T3DI6Sseem to involve King Arthur at all. In Quest, Du Chau says, "Arthur gets

Producer Cooper Cohen explains that the wounded, so he cannot search for the sword

Warner Feature Animation Division had himself. He really wants to, but Merlin advis-

developed several projects. "Of those, this es him not to, because it makes him a

STARLOG//Hfi<? 1998 69

"The whole Camelot I

idea was used as a

backdrop." I

stronger person to rule and take care of his

people than going after Excalibur himself,

and getting more badly wounded or even

killed. The knights of the Round Table go

after it, but they can't find the sword on any

of their searches. And of course, nobody goes

into the Forbidden Forest, which is where the

sword was dropped."

Kayley (voiced by newcomer Jessalyn

Gilsig) is determined not to be bound by the

conventions of her day, which dictate that

women cannot be knights, and sets out in

search of Excalibur, helped by the blind Gar-

rett. Ruber, though a knight, is also an evil

magician. He has a way of magically cross-

breeding human beings—and other crea-

tures—with weapons. "Ruber transforms his

henchmen, who are just dumb, drunken

slobs, into war machines. He drops some

magic potion into a well, and then asks all

these dumb, fat guys to jump into the well.

They get catapulted back out as big, caul-

dron-like creatures, like medieval robots. But

before anybody else jumps in to test it, Ruber

finds this chicken we've seen around since

early in the movie. His main thing is to

always be in the wrong place at the wrong

time, so he's strolling along during the vil-

lain's song, and gets grabbed and thrown into

the well. Ruber also tosses in an ax, so what

comes out is this chicken with an ax nose

—

Bladebeak. Since he's an experiment, he's

the only one who has the ability to turn good

again. He's a fun character, and Jaleel White,

who did the voice, made that performance

really funny."

Eventually. Du Chau reveals, "Ruber uses

his own potion and turns himself into half-

man, half-weapon, using Excalibur itself

—

the ultimate good turns into the ultimate

bad."

Rubers principal

hench...creature.. .the griffin

helps the knight steal Excalibur

from Arthur, but then loses it in

the Forbidden Forest. Will noone go to find it?

Though Ruber creates an army of half-

human weapon warriors via an evil

potion, Bladebeak (Jaleel White) is an

ax/chicken mix with the "pluck" to do

some good.

"Traditionally, of course," says Cooper

Cohen, "particularly in stories about

Camelot, there's magic and wizards, and we

have this Forbidden Forest that comes alive,

and it works very well in animation. It would

have been prohibitively expensive to do in

live action."

"We also have a dragon country." DuChau says, "which comes with big, mean

dragons who fly and blast fire. In order to get

away from the dragons, our heroes have to

cross an acid lake which eats at everything

that touches it. The Forbidden Forest is con-

stantly alive; you never know if a tree is a

tree, or if a leaf is going to take off and fly

around you. We paid a lot of attention to the

details, to make sure this world is alive.

"At one point, a gigantic rock comes to

life. It's CGI combined with 2D in a way that

I've never seen in animation. We have this

gigantic, skyscraper-tall rock monster climb

into an enormous empty cave. Once our

heroes go in, you can hear him snoring—he's

sleeping—but the cave appears empty.

"The camera points at the cave—it's com-

pletely empty where we just saw the thing go

in, and he's pretty much the size of the whole

mountain. But suddenly, it's a trick of the

eye—we've made our ogre and all the texture

of the moss on the rocks blend so perfectly

with the painting that you can't tell he's

there. Then, we switch on our 3D and he

comes alive, and sits up. It's a pretty impres-

sive scene."

Holy GrailsThis particular tale of Camelot is set fur-

ther back in time than most such stories

—

don't expect knights in shining armor. "We

decided to place it more in Celtic times," says

production designer Steve Pilcher, "when

there were fewer humans and more ogres,

giants, dragons and trolls."

Ogres, trolls, dragons and magic weapon-menproliferate in Quest for Camelot, but the

mythology of the legendary kingdom—pursuing

valor, honor, truth and courage—endures.

70 STARLOG/Jime 799,5

The griffin and Ruberepitomize Quests dark

theme—but even they

don't compare to the

movie's inspiration, the

novel The Queen'sDamosel.

Going for a

more ancient,

Celtic feel,

Quest features

fewer armoredknights, moremonsters and a

fabulously ani-

mated Forbid-

den Forest

This is Pilcher's first feature cartoon, after

a career in illustration, and both Cooper

Cohen and Du Chau praise his contributions.

"I developed character drawings, designs,

inspirational art. paintings, and generated a

lot of artwork based on the original concept.""

says Pilcher. "I did a few paintings, like Kay-

ley in a gigantic forest where she was

dwarfed by everything else. I worked with a

few other artists, and they executed drawings

based on the conceptual ideas I worked on

with the director."

Pilcher created many large-scale pieces of

art, some in pencil, some in oils, many done

in gouache on colored paper. ''I work a lot

with lighting. I use it in the characters, the sit-

uations and everything." While many of the

final designs were initially created by Pilcher.

his major contribution was in the movie's use

of color. "I did 150 to 200 tiny paintings," he

says, "about one inch by two inches, little

impressions. I would do key drawings for

sequences, one at the front and one at the

back, and then a few in the middle. I did the

entire film like that. I then put them on a foam

core board, tipping them into little squares, so

I could pull them off and change them."

Du Chau praises Pilcher's work. "He did

a great job. Our story, color-wise, goes

through all the peaks and valleys that, dra-

matically, the script went through. It's not

one of those things that will leap off the

screen at you, but subconsciously, everybody

in the audience will be drawn more into the

picture and into the emotion that we're trying

to convey because of those color choices."

"It's about peoplewho do things

against all odds."

"I read the script," Pilcher explains fur-

ther, "and figured out the fixed things that are

in it—which sequences are night, which are

day. I followed the emotional track of the

whole story, supporting the story with the

color. If a sequence spans a certain time of

day, then I'll tie in a color. I'll always try to

keep it fresh each time, and have a comple-

mentary color, if I want contrast or an emo-

tional change in a sequence.

"For example, if Kayley's running away

from danger at night—and there is a

Sf "

i

Devon and Cornwall provide the movie'smusical comedy antics. But are they

spoofing Madame Butterfly, Phantom of

the Opera or Sideshow?

sequence like that—I've got the sky very

dark, almost pitch black, and I've got the

ground light. As she goes through the

sequence and starts to get away from danger.

I have a little bit of dawn light that comes up

on the horizon, which gives a bit of warmth,

and it just hits her. You also want to makesure it drives home the emotional point, the

mood of that sequence. If it's scary, you want

to have dramatic, contrasting lighting, dark

darks, eerie lighting from below."

As everyone ultimately does when talking

about animated features. Pilcher mentions

Disney, and even director Du Chau admits

that though he has worked in animation a

long time, "I've always wanted to do some-

thing completely different. No big studio is

going to gamble on something that's outra-

geously different for their first movie out the

gate. What Warner Bros, did do. though, was

to trust in the people that make the movie. Wedon't have the same rules that Disney pic-

tures have. Yes, our movie probably does

look close to Disney, and for most people

may look almost the same as a Disney pic-

ture. But it's a little edgier, a bit darker. This

is not as far away from Disney as I am sure

I—and anybody else—would want it to be.

But this was the movie they picked to start

the division up with.

"Questfor Camelot made way for differ-

ent movies that are being made at Warner

Bros. Feature Animation," says Frederik DuChau, commenting on future works from this

rival to the old guard. "We do a movie they

know how to do because it's a little closer to

the Disney way, and at the same time, other

films are in development here that are com-

pletely different than anything Disney would

ever attempt. Iron Giant [a forthcoming WBanimated fantasy] is a big step away from

animated movies as we know them, and I

think that's only possible because we built

the machine with Questfor Camelot" ^STARLOG//(»ie 1998 71

in Species II, Natasha Henstridge flirts with aliens—and success.

n the beginning, I wasn't happy at all with

M anything about Species," comments

I Natasha Henstridge, the stunning, non-

man-eating actress who starred in the 1995

SF blockbuster as the stunning, man-eating

alien, Sil. "I wasn't happy with the film. I

wasn't happy with me. It was the first time I

had ever seen myself on screen, which prob-

ably was a big part of it. I had a real hard time

with that film. But the response to it was so

good, and I finally started to watch Species

for what everyone else was watching it for.

Even that was hard. People liked the SF ele-

ments of it. and I don 't like SF. I never, ever,

By IAN SPELLING

watched SF at all. At first, it was all kind of

stupid to me, but I got into it. I eventually

thought, 'Oh, it's all right. I'm all right.'

"Don't get me wrong. I appreciate every-

thing that Species did for me and my career.

It really did everything for me. I had no

career before Species came out, and after the

film, I suddenly did have a film career. I got

opportunities. I had people willing to take a

chance on using me in their movies. Species

made a lot of money, and I got a lot of recog-

nition because I was a part of it."

Once Species catapulted the Canadian

actress into the limelight, she promptly

turned up in two thrillers, namely Adrenalin:

Fear the Rush, with Christopher Lambert,

and Maximum Risk, with Jean-Claude Van

Damme. And now. of course. Henstridge

graces the screen anew in Species II. "I was

not contracted to do Species II in any way,

shape or form. But the first one did so well

and people wanted to see more," she notes.

"Species II isn't the same exact movie as

Species. I was not asked to do the same exact

thing. The script was good, and I loved the

idea of working with the director. Peter

Medak's fantastic. So, I said yes."

Alien ingenueAs directed by Medak. whose diverse

credits include The Ruling Class, The

Changeling and Romeo Is Bleeding, Species II

begins with America celebrating the success

of a manned mission to Mars, and welcoming

home its handsome hero, Patrick Ross (Justin

Lazard). Problem is that Ross has been infect-

ed with alien spores that transform him into an

alien creature in human form—like Sil before

him—and cause him to go on a killing spree.

Enter Press Lennox (Michael Madsen), pro-

fessional assassin and survivor of several vio-

lent brushes with Sil in Species, who

reluctantly agrees to do battle with this new

threat. Reuniting with fellow survivor Dr.

Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger), he discov-

ers that she has been occupied for the past

three years with a top-secret project oversee-

ing the development of a half-human/half-

alien descendant of Sil, Eve (Henstridge).

Sil is dead. Long live Eve. Natasha %£wtHenstridge plays a calmer, morehuman creature in Species //—until

she's freed to track a fellow alien.m . . . - ... „ - - nuts*

72 STARLOG/Jime 1998

"Sil was basically a killing machine total-

ly ignorant of human emotions and feelings.

Eve has been grown around humans, so she

understands humanity much more than Sil

did," says Henstridge. The actress did not

read—happily—the alternate sequel script

producer Frank Mancuso commissioned,

which she heard "started off with two giant

rats fighting" and went downhill from there.

"Eve has a very close relationship with Dr.

Baker. She lives in this Habitrail-like place

that has been her home, but she has been

treated in every other way like a humanbeing. Until they reawaken the alien mating

gene in her—which they had suppressed to

help keep her calm and controllable—she's

really very human. When they awaken that

gene, because they want her to help track

down the Patrick monster, things get pretty

complicated."

For Henstridge, the differences between

Species and Species II. between Sil and Eve,

were vast. "I had done several other films

between the two Species movies, so I hope

Eve grown as an actress. I certainly felt muchmore comfortable in front of the camera,

much more comfortable all around," she

explains. "Species was my very first film. It

was all new to me. The sequel has a lot of sex

in it, but Peter wasn't obsessed with repeat-

ing every element of the first one, and that

included the nudity. Sil was not at all human,

and she didn't know from clothes. Eve is

much more human, so it didn't make sense

for her to be running around naked anymore.

That was areat for me. But there has to be

some sex in the movie. When her mating

genes are reawakened, there is some sexual

tension going on between her and the Patrick

monster, but Species II is definitely not as

much about sex as Species was.

"I think Species II is more gory than the

first one. It's at least as gory. It's certainly

faster-paced than Species. The first one had a

few places where the characters lagged

around trying to figure out what to do and

how to do it. This one doesn't have much of

that. The characters go from one thing to the

next. It's a very fast-moving movie. It's also

more physical for me. I got to do a bunch of

my own stunts. I get shot down a few times,

and I got to wear all of these squibs. I had a

lot of running around to do. When you see

Eve bust through the glass wall of the Habi-

trail, though, that's not me. Sorry to ruin it

"Species ll is definitely

not as much aboutsex as Species was."

for you. But I did do a lot of the jumping off

tables, the running toward the glass and the

jumping at it. But a stuntwoman actually did

the dirty work. Welcome to Hollywood."

ingenuous ActressSpecies II also afforded Henstridge the

opportunity to share time on and off screen

with Species veterans Helgenberger and

Madsen. to befriend Lazard and to take direc-

tion from Medak, whose earlier films the

"I wasn't happy at all with anything aboutSpecies" says Henstridge, who nonetheless

enjoyed the new script enough to give the

series another chance.

While there was noshortage of nudity for

Henstridge as Sil, she's

pleased that in SpeciesII, Eve at least gets to

keep more clothes on.

STARLOG/Jarae 1998 73

Henstridge isn't shyabout mentioning the

driving force behind

Species II. There's "a

lot of sex in it."

actress had long admired. "I had a lot of

scenes with Marg and a bunch with Michael.

It was great to do Species II in that sense,

because I was being chased the whole time

by them in the first one," she explains. "I

never really had the chance to work with

them. This time the characters have a closer

relationship and we actually had more scenes

together, so I got to hang out with them and

talk and get to know them. Also, I was just a

lot more comfortable with myself this time,

and I could let myself spend more time with

them. And I had a good time with Justin. He's

a very intense guy, very cool to be around. As

intense as he is. he's also easygoing, if that

makes any sense. He's a very good actor.

"Species //is more gorythan the first one."

"Peter is such a supportive, father-figure

type of a director. His big thing is that he's

extremely visual. Every scene is all about

how he sees it, and he works from that place.

Because Eve is in the Habitrail for so much

of the movie, it's hard to keep something like

that interesting for everybody—for the

actors, for the audience. Peter worked with a

great art director, and they came up with this

amazing Habitrail set. There were different

spots within it that looked visually interest-

ing, where the camera could go. Then. Peter

came up with camera moves to make it seem

even more interesting than it was. He's a

great guy to have around on the set. He never

raises his voice. He's very calm, but he gets it

74 STARLOG/June 1998

all done. He's just a very talented man, and I

learned so much from working with him."'

The film, of course, taps into the very

timely issue of genetic engineering and its

myriad ramifications. Henstridge liked the

idea that with each passing day Species II

more resembled science fact than science fic-

tion, though she's quick to admit that she's

no expert on Dolly the sheep or anything

relating to DNA or the scientific possibilities

that Chris Brancato broaches in the screen-

play (see page 76). "It's all a little scary to

me. I have such mixed feelings about it.

Genetic engineering can do great, great

things. But in the wrong hands," she argues,

"it can do horrible things. It would be great if

scientists could find the cure for cancer, but

what if they could find a way to give people

cancer, too? It would be great if they could

reproduce body parts for people who need

them, but horrible things could also be done

with that. It's all so beyond me in many ways,

but it has really worked well in our films."

As she did when she completed Species,

Henstridge moved on to a flotilla of new and

challenging film ventures once Species II

wrapped. Her only other foray into the genre

came in a Showtime Outer Limits episode

called "Bits of Love," where she played a

hologram who turns the tables on her human

lover (Jon Tenney). For more Earthly fare,

she stars with Robert Sean Leonard in the

thriller Prairie Fires; with Luke Wilson in

the romantic comedy Dog Park: with

Michael Vartan and Olivia D'Abo in another

romantic comedy. It Had to Be You; and in

Belladonna, a dramatic love story shot on

location in Brazil. All of these films, which

should reach theaters later this year, are inde-

pendent features. It represents the route Hen-

stridge realized she needed to take in order to

prove to Hollywood's decision-makers that

she could stretch far beyond the lethal SFvixen.

It's that very goal which leaves the actress

ambivalent about the prospects for a third

Species film. Should Species II scare up big

bucks at the box office, the producers will

surely ask her back for another stint. What to

do? "I don't know," replies Natasha Hen-

stridge. "My fear is getting caught up in the

All she can do is Species' thing. Species was

the first thing I did. and it has yet to let me out

"Sil was basically a

killing machine totally

ignorant of humanemotions and

feelings."

of its grip. I'm shooting a romantic comedy

right now in New York City. Sometimes I'll

shoot a scene and somebody will say, 'Watch

out, man. She might kill you.' I still get that

all the time. It's so weird how Species affect-

ed people. That makes it a little worrisome

for me to continue doing them, because I

really want to move on and do different

As Sil, Haistridgedidn't really work muchwith her co-stars. In

Species II, she hasmany exchanges,particularly with fellow

alien Justin Lazard.

things. But, sure, I would certainly consider

Species III. It would really depend on the

director and on the script. It would have to be

interesting for me, and I would really have to

have something worthwhile to do.

"I would have to feel about it like I did

about Species II." -^f

Would Henstridge alienate herself again in

Species 1117 "I don't know," she says.

"Species has yet to let me out of its grip."

STARLOG/J/me 1998 75

Xfe)ans of the original Species get more

gf for their money in the sequel, says

Species II screenwriter Chris Bran-

\l? cato. There are twice as many mon-

sters in the new film, Brancato says,

and a story that overlaps with plot

threads from the original. An Ail-

American hero returns from the first manned

trip to Mars, unknowingly affected by alien

DNA from the red planet, and officials want

to employ a genetic duplicate of the original

Sil creature (from the first film) to track

down the alienated astronaut.

"When the studio decided to do a sequel,"

Brancato explains, "the attitude of [producer]

Frank Mancuso Jr. was 'Let's not do some-

thing typical. Let's approach this from a dif-

ferent angle, so that we don't have a tired

retread of the original, as sequels often are.'

"In fact, my original idea was a little bit of

a retread, and Frank asked me to re-do it. So

I went back to the drawing board. I've always

been fascinated with The Manchurian Candi-

date, and with the idea that somebody on a

mission comes back, apparently a hero, but

actually with some terrible demon inside.

"It so happened that when we were devel-

oping this thing, the notion of a grand, unex-

plored place was the planet Mars. So I pitched

Frank the idea of a heroic astronaut returning

from our first manned mission to Mars, which

is actually, according to the NASA people I

spoke to. a possibility—just a very expensive

one. This person was tragically and terribly

Scripting thesequel, Chris

Brancato doublesthe monstermayhem.

By KIM HOWARD JOHNSON

infected with alien DNA on Mars. Frank real-

ly warmed to the idea and said, 'Go full steam

ahead and get this going.' This also allowed

us to bring in a new villain, for whom we can

briefly feel a strange, Wolf Man-like sympa-

thy—he's not responsible for having been

turned into a monster. We decided to create a

new alien villain for this piece and use

Natasha Henstridge for his adversary, and

invariably create some suspense as to what

might happen if these two aliens got together

for a battle—or a lovemaking session, which

would yield an offspring of tremendous

destructive potential."

Doubled DangersBrancato says he took a chance to get the

opportunity to write the new film. "I was at

MGM working on The Outer Limits. I knew

that they were going to develop a sequel to

Species, so I walked across the lot from the

television department to the feature depart-

ment," he says. "My aggressiveness was

rewarded with a meeting with Greg Foster,

the studio executive who shepherded both

films through production. Greg listened to

my sequel idea and liked it—it wasn't a bad

idea, just fairly standard, in the sense that

Species II would be about two beautiful alien

women running around and causing havoc.

Greg said, 'Let's see what Frank has to say.'

When Frank heard my idea, he said, 'Just try

to create a great stand-alone movie, and then

we'll let it fit the form of Species later."

The writer developed a storyline based on

Mancuso's suggestion. Because he couldn't

be sure at that point whether Henstridge

(who played Sil in Species) would be return-

ing. Brancato chose a scenario that would

allow for either possibility. "Always being

alert to the realities of production, and com-

ing in from a television background. I knew

that we were going to create a male adversary

for this piece," he says. "I also knew that for

the sake of conflict in the movie, the govern-

ment would have secretly re-created a female

alien to run tests on this alien species, really

as a military preparedness exercise to devel-

op toxins that would be destructive to them

should they ever return. Of course, this

species returns a hell of a lot sooner than any-

body expected. I wrote the character of Eve,

which is what she's called in the second film,

to be any particular woman, either Natasha or

a similarly beautiful woman. The role would

work no matter how they cast it."

Other characters who survived the first

Species also return, and Brancato wrote his

script accordingly. "I felt that the characters

played by Michael Madsen [as alien-hunting

Press Lennox] and Marg Helgenberger [sci-

entist Dr. Laura Baker] were essential to

bring the audience back in." he says.

"Despite the fact that Forrest Whitaker

played a big role in the first one, I knew that

he was off directing movies and the chances

of getting him to return were slim. I hoped

that we could set Madsen and Helaenberaer

back, and we created a new team character to

replace Forrest. We cast Mykelti [Forrest

Gump] Williamson in the role, and he's

absolutely wonderful."

Another sequel idea was being scripted

simultaneously, but that didn't affect Branca-

to's work. "I came in after they had already

been developing another script," he explains.

"Sometimes studios want to cover all the

bases when they know they're going to make

a sequel, and they want to double the chances

In writing the sequel, Brancatopaid homage to the original,

but added plenty of new twists,

particularly making the aliens

"a little tougher."

I,.f

pedes veterans Press Lennox/lichael Madsen) and Dr. Laura

Baker (Marg Helgenberger)return, now accompanied byastronaut newcomer DennisGamble (Mykelti Williamson).

Thanks to screenwriter Chris

Brancat<& astronaut Patrick

Ross (Justir>Lazard) will be the

first man to experience the

fusion of human and alien DNAin Species II.

STARLOG/fitfie 1998 77

Catching the WaveSpecies II screenwriter Chris Brancato is hard at work on The

First Wave, a new syndicated science fiction TV series that he

created with Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope Television.

"It's the story of a man who comes to believe that there is a ter-

rible conspiracy afoot," says Brancato. "If any invading alien force

were going to attack this planet, they would send a first wave of

spies to chart the topography, infiltrate the institutions and lay the

groundwork for the horrible invasion to follow."

In the world of First Wave, an alien race has done just that.

"Cloaked as human beings, they have seamlessly infiltrated our civ-

ilization and done quite a good job of assimilating themselves.

They're performing all manner of experiments—psychological,

military and others to lay the groundwork for a terrible second

wave: a massive invasion. Our hero discovers that 300 years ago,

Nostradamus predicted Earth's destruction by these terrifying

waves, and that our hero was prophesied to be the leader of human-

ity's rebellion."

These are no ordinary human-looking aliens, however, says

Brancato, but some of the sexiest invaders Earth has ever seen.

"Because the aliens exist on a planet very far away, they've created

genetic human husks into which they pour their consciousness,

bodies designed especially for the purpose of infiltrating our soci-

ety. Since their planet is so far away, their vision of human beings

was stolen from television signals that have bounced off our satel-

lites. Their conception of human beings is that they are very good-

looking—the Baywatch factor. An unintended benefit of these

human husks, because they're so good-looking, is that it has made

it very easy for the aliens to assimilate into our culture. They have,

in fact, slept their way to the top."

Though there have been many other "aliens amongst us" stories,

First Wave approaches the subject differently. "As a writer, I've

come to discover that there's nothing new under the Sun," Brancato

observes. "What you have to do is figure out an angle or spin to the

show that allows you to tell many different and intriguing stories.

The idea has been explored in shows like The Invaders, 'Vand

even Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict, but I think our take

is different. Our hero, having been part of a terrible alien experi-

ment designed to test human will, emerges from his test as the only

human survivor, and goes on a Fugitive-like quest to explore things

that might be the work of these aliens. Much like The Fugitive, he

involves himself in the problem of a sympathetic client who's being

harmed in some way by these experiments. Invariably, he will wind

up helping them, while the larger goal of exposing this terrible con-

spiracy will remain just a hair's breadth out of his grasp."

Like Species II, First Wave also employs the concept of sexy

science fiction. "What we're trying to do is merge the concept of a

always looked at Species as sexy SF. and I

think there's a very large market for that kind

of science fiction. And the movie was fun

—

you can poke holes in certain sections, but

essentially, it's fun to watch."

Brancato's upcoming TV series First

Wave also combines those elements.

"Inspired by that formula of sex, SF and hor-

ror, I am currently working very hard on First

Wave [see sidebar]. It isn't related to Species

in any way story-wise, but it merges science

fiction and drama with a real sensual slant.

That's the type of SF I like to watch, and the

kind that's fun to write. Species II wasn't a

chore at all—it was really a fun script.

"Tm a fan of the real Joe Average vari-

ety," he notes of his interest in SF "I am not

a terribly well-versed aficionado of the

genre. I like good, traditional science fiction

like 2001 and the ALIEN movies, and I came

about writing it in an interesting way. Years

ago. I had the opportunity to meet Chris

Carter just as he was beginning The X-Files.

My partner at that time [Voyager's Ken

Biller] and I got to write an episode. Science

fiction allows you to bend the rules more

than traditional drama. I found that I liked it.

Probably my most profound childhood influ-

ence was Twilight lane, which is fantasy SF.

I've always loved the way it comments on the

human condition in a very alluring way. And

that's what drove me to try to spend more

time writing SF."

Brancato and Biller co-wrote the first sea-

son X-Files episode "Eve." "It was about two

malevolent eight-year-old girls who both

murder their fathers, and Mulder and Scully

criss-crossing the country trying to deter-

mine if it's a serial killer," he says. "They

learn it's the work of twin girls who were

both born in the same fertility clinic, where

both their I.Q.s were raised to a very high

level, inducing psychosis. My partner and I

were very interested in The Boys From

Brazil, a movie about genetics experiments

to reproduce Adolf Hitler. We thought doing

of getting a script that works. Part of the rea-

son Frank may have encouraged me to come

up with a more 'out-there' concept was

because there was a more traditional script

going, and he wanted two scripts to evaluate

so he could have a real choice. I was happy

that the studio was going to allow two writers

to get work instead of just one. My attitude

was to write the best script I could, let them

make a decision and be happy either way."

Altered AliensThe writer believes the original Species

scored due to its combination of sex and the

single alien. "I think part of the success of the

first Species was the merging a very sensual

character with a science fiction concept, the

idea of getting a DNA code from outer space

and combining it with a human embryo. I've

The face of a new Species. But what will

happen when the alien Eve is sent to

track this creature? Will she side with

humanity—or with her own?

hero's journey with a sexy angle," Brancato says. "These aliens

know, now that they're here, that their good looks and sexuality can

be of enormous benefit to them. We play on that a lot in the series.

The mantra of sexy SF really hangs over this show, and at the same

time, we're trying to tell really smart, i

wonderful SF stories."

The main character. Cade Foster, is a jSfr-former Chicago thief who was reformed ViWaby a woman who becomes his wife. Heputs aside his burglary tools, but picks

them up again after the aliens make them- \ ^^BWselves known to him. %\^B\vi

"When the aliens got here, they deter-m^llffl

mined that there were 1 17 different human\ftSv II III

psychological archetypes. They found a mm i||

human being to lit each archetype and liltiVlll

subjected them to a series of terrible tests. Chris Brancato (with Justin Lazard, right)

Most of the people whom they expected to takes his "mantra of sexy SF" to television

show leadership potential caved in after with his new series The First Wave.

days, weeks or months of testing. The one

guy who emerged from these tests as a strong leader was Cade Fos-

ter. Framed for his wife's murder as a part of the experiment, he's

now a fugitive on the run using his skills to expose this conspiracy."

First Wave will premiere in worldwide syndication this fall with

22 episodes. Coppola is serving as executive producer. "We're pro

ducing a full season's worth of shows," says Brancato. "We'll really

be able to create a wonderful journey for this character, without

having to worry about whether we'll be off the air in six episodes

That gives us a chance to find an audience

and get people excited about the show.

The writer has gotten some valuable

•m suggestions from Coppola himself. "I

\ iSHk . _v went up to his vineyard in Napa Valley at

- '4f fc»f>A& the beginning," says Chris Brancato.

g A j *2s55^Bfc "He's a fascinating man. We talked a little

pi i ia^B|^K9n bit about his interest in science fiction

—

AiVv^H Bt! it's a relatively little-known fact that his

* * ^altSB initial professional experiences w ere w ith

H Roger Corman, many of them horror and

SF based, and he has a great love of

tin Lazard, right) science fiction. He believes, as I do, that it

/ SF" to television is a fertile ground for telling great stories

-/rsf Wave. and commenting on the human condition.

Of course, he's a very busy man, but he

has a sophisticated computer system set up where e-mail is always

flowing back and forth, so he's constantly aware of what we are

doing every step of the way."

,—Kim Howard Johnson

an X-Files with a genetics experiment gone

awry as its basis was a very interesting story

to tell. Our story came about through the love

of a movie from years before, and we found

our own themes and characterizations to

explore that were totally different. It's proba-

bly my most-seen piece of scripting.

"I went from there to writing two

episodes of Outer Limits. I had a wonderful

time because it's an anthology. You get to tell

a brand new story in an hour every week,

with new characters. One script was called

'Resurrection,' about a bio-holocaust that has

destroyed human beings and the only sur-

vivors are a town of androids being tested for

military purposes. They don't die in this bio-

logical holocaust, and two science androids

try to re-create human beings from DNA that

they've found. And so they are responsible

for the second coming of humankind.

"The second show was 'Beyond the Veil.'

It's about a guy placed in a special psychi-

atric ward for people who believe they've

been abducted by aliens. He comes to believe

that the doctor running the institute is actual-

ly an alien himself, probing their minds for

what they know. From there, I segued into the

feature world."

Sexy SpeciesAlthough MGM/UA is hoping to turn

Species into a franchise, the writer says that

too had little effect on his work. "In this com-

petitive film world, studios are always look-

ing for brand identification," he says. "The

success of the first movie has a lot to do with

a beautiful woman. When people talk about

Species, they talk about the woman. They

don't usually talk about specific sections of

the movie, other than the moment when she

kisses the guy and rams her alien tongue

through the back of his head.

"My guiding principle in writing the

sequel was that I liked coming into the story

in a different way than the first one. I didn't

have to rely on the somewhat tacked-on

Though Ross "is not responsible for having been turned into a monster^says Brancato, that doesn't mean we can take much pity on this.

moment at the first movie's end where a rat

eats another rat. I didn't feel constrained by

those early decisions, but I did keep in mind

what this was conceptually—a horrific alien

put in sexual situations with humans.

"Frankly, I also wanted to pay some

homage to the rules and regulations set up in

the first movie about what the aliens were

capable of and how our heroes were able to

track them. At the same time, I wanted to

make sure it was difficult for people to catch

the aliens. In the first movie, you could pret-

ty much just shoot them and kill them, and I

wanted to make them a little tougher."

If Species continues to multiply, Brancato

would be happy to rejoin the present team for

Species III. "I've had such great experiences

working with Greg Foster at MGM and with

Frank Mancuso Jr. in particular. Frank pro-

duced Hoodlum, the first feature I ever had

made, and I love working with the guy," he

says. "He's a great producer and has a great

mind for SF and horror.

"The merging of a very sensual character with

a science fiction concept," will make Species

II a success, says Brancato. But gratuitous

goriness never hurt either.

STARLOG//«ne 1998 79

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