SFSurplus-2008-06-20 #049 [44:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Casey: Thank you for taking your valuable time to listen to us. This is ‘cast number 49 on the feed June 20th, 2008. Our Big Topic today is Melee Weapons in Science Fiction and Fantasy. In the news is Bond on Blu-Ray, what you can expect from San Diego Comic-Con, and the American Film Institute’s ranking of Genre films.

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Casey: You can make contact with SciFi Surplus using the Temporal Temps Hotline by calling 801-938-5525. Our Skype username is “scifisurplus.” For all of this information again or to send mail go to scifisurplus.com and click “talk to us.”

Casey: I’m Casey and joining me on the show today is:

Randy
Jeromy
Darren

Now that the introductions are out of the way, Let’s get our geek on!

Casey: The American Film Institute has compiled the top 10 greatest movies in 10 classic American Genres. On a previous show, we picked out the genre stuff from the AFI’s 100 greatest movies and discussed them. These lists were presented in a CBS special this past week.

Randy: Top 10 Science Fiction Films
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
3. E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
4. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
5. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
6. Blade Runner (1982)
7. Alien (1979)
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
10. Back to the Future (1985)

Jeromy: Top 10 Animated Films
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
2. Pinocchio (1940)
3. Bambi (1942)
4. The Lion King (1994)
5. Fantasia (1940)
6. Toy Story (1995)
7. Beauty and The Beast (1991)
8. Shrek (2001)
9. Cinderella (1950)
10. Finding Nemo (2003)

Darren: Top 10 Fantasy Films
1. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
3. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
4. King Kong (1933)
5. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
6. Field of Dreams (1989)
7. Harvey (1950)
8. Groundhog Day (1993)
9. The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
10. Big (1988)

Casey: Classic double-oh-seven is headed to Blu-Ray. High definition James Bond will be available in a six-disk set that includes Dr. No, Die Another Day, Live and Let Die, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia with Love, and Thunderball. The remasters films will be available as part of the ramp up to the theatrical release of Quantum of Solace, the 22nd Bond film in November.

Casey: SciFi Surplus is presented to you by Audible.com. A-U-D-I-B-L-E. The Internet’s leading provider of spoken word entertainment. Audible has over 40,000 audiobooks available– tons of Science Fiction and Fantasy titles– and more are being added every week. The beauty of audiobooks is that you can take them anywhere you take your iPod or mp3 player. The gym, the garden, your commute to work. You listen to the stories the same way you listen to us. Just for signing up with Audible using our special web address, you get a free audiobook of your choice. It can be anything. Simply go to audiblepodcast.com/scifi. I’ll repeat it for you but you can always get the link from our website as well. Go to audiblepodcast.com/scifi and get your free audiobook today!

Casey: SCI FI Channel’s Visions for Tomorrow campaign has announced the results of an online poll to determine the top 10 things to read, watch and do to save the world. The poll asked readers to vote on which science-fiction films, television series and literary works resonate most with them and which positive courses of action they inspire. More than 20,000 votes were cast in each of the four categories.

Randy: Top 10 Films to Watch
1. Blade Runner
2. The Matrix
3. The Terminator
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey
5. Jurassic Park
6. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
7. The Day After Tomorrow
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still
9. Children of Men
10. Armageddon

Darren: Top 10 Television Series to Watch
1. Firefly
2. Battlestar Galactica (2004)
3. The X-Files
4. Heroes
5. Stargate: SG-1
6. Doctor Who
7. Star Trek: The Next Generation
8. Babylon 5
9. Star Trek
10. Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Casey: Top 10 Books to Read
1. 1984 by George Orwell
2. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
3. Dune by Frank Herbert
4. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
5. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
6. The Stand by Stephen King
7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
8. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
9. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
10. The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

Jeromy: Top 10 Things to Do
1. Read.
2. Recycle.
3. Register to vote. Cast your ballot in November.
4. Eat healthier.
5. Be kind.
6. Empower children and yourself through education.
7. Protect wildlife.
8. Conserve energy by switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).
9. Plant a tree and print less paper.
10. Give blood.

The Council of Great Relevance - Melee Weapons

Introduction (Randy)
Today’s discussion focuses on one of the coolest aspects of science fiction and fantasy — Weapons! Throughout literature, television and movies we are introduced to all sorts of fascinating weaponry. Lightsabers, ray guns, and bat’leth’s are just some of the weapons that have intrigued geek culture over the past century. Knowing how involved the Council’s discussions can be, we’re going to limit ourselves to melee weapons today and at a future time we can discuss ranged weapons and explosives. For those unfamiliar with the term melee, a melee weapon is a weapon which directly damages the intended target as opposed to shooting a projectile.

One more thing. We all remember the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and how they used the Bo, Sai, Katana, and Nunchucks as weapons. As cool as the Turtles were, we’re going to focus in on the imaginary weapons that were created by our favorite authors, writers and prop masters, unless we come across a weapon that is too awesome not to mention, a la Indiana Jones’ bullwhip.

Discussion

I’ll start by starting in the Star Wars universe. After Star Wars is played out, we’ll move on to Star Trek. After Trek we’ll have an open discussion and I’ll ask each council member their favorite melee weapon. Hopefully we come across some weapons not already mentioned and that will spur on the discussion even further. I’ll start the discussion myself with the Minbari Fighting Pike from Babylon 5.

List of weapons (Series if possible, and notes).
Please feel free to add to this list. This might help jog people’s memories.

Lightsaber - Star Wars
Electrostaff - Star Wars - used by Gen. Grevious’ bodyguards
Gaffii Stick - Star Wars - used by Tusken Raiders
Vibroblades - Star Wars - swords with sonic emitters
Gamorrean Cleaver - Star Wars - Gammorean guard weapon
Force Pike - Star Wars - Emperors’ Red Guard
Minbari Fighting Pike - Babylon 5 - used by the Rangers and Minbari Warrior Class
Sword of Godric Gryffindor - Harry Potter
Bat’leth - Star Trek
D’k Tahg - Star Trek - Klingon Ceremonial Knife
Kut’luch - Star Trek - Klingon Assassin’s Knife
Mek’leth - Star Trek - smaller Klingon blade
Lirpa - Star Trek - Vulcan weapon Kirk and Spock fought with
Electro Whip used by Ferengi soldiers in Next Gen’s first season
Whip used by Indiana Jones!
Metallic Whip used by the vampires against the Lycans in Underworld

Darren - Courage and Honor

Casey’s Ideas—————————

Weapons that are potentially just a lethal to the weilder

Darth Maul’s double-ended light-saber
Buffy’s slayer scythe
Ash’s stump-arm chainsaw from Evil Dead

I’m also a big fan of warhammers (pain in the ass to lug around everywhere though)

Andromeda has the High Guard Force Lance a dual purpose weapon

Hulk used a police car as a melee weapon

Long history in SciFi of picking up whatever garbage you can find to fight with

Of course it’s easy enough to enchant an existing regular weapon. Like Excaliber or Sting.

Wolverine’s Claw-things

Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth

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Check out our Facebook group and keep those geeky pictures coming!

I want to let you know that SFS will be making a few changes to the format of the shows. The ‘casts are going to hit the feed on Tuesdays and Fridays and they will to be about an hour long each. When we can score an interview with someone cool, we’ll probably have that in the Friday show and there will be a Council Meeting every Tuesday. On the Fridays that we don’t have an interview, which will probably be most of them, we’ll have a Council meeting as well. Both shows will feature news and talk on current events and we’re going to get lots of fun in there as well. It’s probably going to take a couple weeks to get the really fun stuff going but we’ve got some new voices that are going to help out and we’re always looking for more. If you’d like to help out the show with your voice or if you’d like to write skits, commercials, or news, send an email to feedback@scifisurplus.com

Casey: San Diego Comic-Con is coming up and you should know that this is one of the first places for people to get the geekiest information and sneek peeks at upcoming SciFi, Fantasy, and genre projects. Comic Con will take place July 24 through the 27th at the San Diego Convention Center. Here’s a list of things expected to take place.

Randy:

20th Century Fox

Footage and presentations for “City of Ember”, “Mirrors” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, Amy Smart and Alexandre Aja rumored to attend.

Lionsgate

A large presentation for Frank Miller’s “The Spirit” with Miller, Jaime King, Eva Mendes, Gabriel Macht and Samuel L. Jackson all rumored to be attending. Some “Punisher: War Zone” footage may also be screened.

Paramount Pictures

There’ll be a full screening of “Tropic Thunder”. It’s expected there’ll be some presentations and footage from “G.I. Joe” and “Star Trek”

Sony Pictures

Horror flicks “Quarantine” and “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans” with the likes of Rhona Mitra, Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen, Jennifer Carpenter, Chris Brown and Jay Hernandez rumored. There’s also been rumors of something for “Quantum of Solace” (footage likely, slim chance of but a possible Daniel Craig appearance rumored).

Summit Entertainment

A large presentation for “Twilight” with Catherine Hardwicke, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Cam Gigandet, Rachelle LaFevre, Edi Gathegi, Taylor Lautner and author Stephenie Meyer confirmed.

Universal Pictures

Brendan Fraser, & Will Ferrell are rumored to appear for presentations of “Land of the Lost” and “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Zack Snyder and the cast of “Watchmen” looks to be the big panel of the entire con. Christian Bale and Jared Padalecki are also tipped to attend. Footage from the likes of “Ninja Assassin,” “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, “Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins” and “Friday the 13th” could be screened.

The Weinstein Company

Kyle Newman’s “Fanboys” will likely be screened in full during the Con.

Casey: Thanks go out to Randy, Jeromy, and Darren. Great job everyone! If you like SciFi Surplus and you’d like to help out, please take the time to make a donation at SciFi Surplus dot com. Even a dollar or two helps. We want to keep this ‘cast on the feed as long as possible and we need your support. Just find “Support SciFi Surplus” on our website. For everyone here, I’m Casey and we’ll talk to you next time!