SciFi Surplus Podcast #003
October 26, 2007
Welcome to episode number 3. We’ve got a big one for you today. The headline is that Albus Dumbledore has been outed by J.K. Rowling as gay and we’ve got the details on the way. Casey also sat down with BriAnna and Dan for a discussion about LGBT themes in Science Fiction.
Also in the show, Wonder Woman has been cast in the Justice League movie. We’ve picked the five worst villains EVER and we amuse ourselves with idle speculation about the future of the Stargate universe and its possible third spinoff.
The quote at the beginning of the show was from Torchwood.
Anti-witness News
J.K. Rowling: Albus Dumbledore from “Harry Potter” is Gay - http://www.cnn.com/…/harry.potter.ap/
George Lucas talks about “Star Wars” TV Show - http://www.latimes.com/…?coll=la-entnews-tv
SciFi Channel: New Show is “Earthlings” - http://www.scifi.com/…?category=2&id=44620
Will Ferrell to Star in “Land of the Lost” - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/…/1678771/
The Grudge 3 and Sarah Michelle Gellar Rumors - http://www.variety.com/…&cs=1
“Justice League of America” Casts Teresa Palmer to Play Wonder Woman - http://www.moviehole.net/…new_wonder.html
“Stargate: Atlantis,” Amanda Tapping, Jewel Staite Get Season 5 - http://www.scifi.com/…&id=44970
Event Continuum
Martian Child is in theatres on Friday, November 2 - http://imdb.com/title/tt0415965/
Angel: The Complete Series Collector Set on DVD Tuesday, October 30
Spider-man 3 (2-disk Special Edition) on DVD Tuesday, October 30
Twin Peaks (Definitive Gold-box Edition) on DVD Tuesday, October 30
Iowa Icon XXXII - Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 - http://iowa-icon.com
UberCon IX - Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 - http://ubercon.com
October 27th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Great episode! Makes you think on more than one level. The gay thing is interesting. Seriously, people are going to spend years in space someday. It’s not way off that some people will be gay but that is only a part of their whole being. There will be various people ranging from science freaks, to explorers that put 99% of their mental effort into their work, and the gay thing is not the only unique thing about them. I also like the sci fi stuff. That’s what I’m about - geeky/tech/science and movies. I love this podcast for stimulating me into thinking about something other than my awesome Mac, and what I’m going to do for my major.
November 12th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Sometimes I feel like ya have to go overseas for any decent gay characters in sci fi. I just finished reading “Troll: a Love Story” by Johanna Sinisalo (translated from the Finnish by Herbert Lomas). Most of the characters are gay, but being gay isn’t the theme of the novel. It’s just one part of their lives. It’s a good read and the ending was a bit of a surprise.
Maybe sometime Sci Fi Surplus will have a segment on Sci Fi overseas? Based on the short stories in “The SFWA European Hall of Fame: Sixteen Contemporary Masterpieces of Science Fiction from the Continent” by James and Kathryn Morrow (which is where I discovered the author who wrote “Troll”) I’d say the US has taken a back seat in cutting edge Sci Fi lit.
January 7th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I just discovered this podcast (thanks to a promo button on iTunes), and I have to say that I was positively surprised at how entertaining and informative it was. I’m definitely tuning in from now on and I’m in the process of catching up on previous episodes.
As for the discussion on gays in sci-fi on the #3 podcast, THANK YOU!
I have to add that there’s been way too few gay and lesbian characters on sci-fi shows but one recent comes to mind is on the Battlestar Galactica movie Razor. Michelle Forbes’ character Admiral Cain was portrayed as gay and very nonchalantly for their credit. The fact that she was sleeping with a woman wasn’t a big deal, it was a bigger deal that she was sleeping with a Cylon and consequentially went bat*hit crazy cause of it but at least they didn’t put emphasis on any type of coming out thing, it was just portrayed so casually which I appreciated.
When I first started to watch the show and I was really hoping they’d make Starbuck gay, but they already made her a woman so I guess that was pushing it
Anyway, Starbuck is gay, even if she doesn’t sleep with women, she’s gay in all other aspects of her personality 
And as a huge Star Trek fan, I was really disappointed that none of the Trek shows had the courage to create a gay character on the show, meaning as part of the main crew. That would have been awesome. Gay or lesbian, either one would have been great, but alas, no. I’m hoping that next time if there’s going to be a Trek series, we’ve evolved enough and network TV has evolved enough to include a gay character on the show as part of the crew.
Anyways, cheers for a great episode and I’m looking forward to many, many more! Keep up the great work.
January 21st, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Just started listening to the podcast and am now listening to older episodes.
Loved your “worst villians” list. If you had done a top 10 I would nominate Glory from Season 5 BtVS. Gha! They should have had Sunday the vampire from episode 5.1 be the big bad.
love the cast!
Megan