This is post 1 of 6 related posts which together make up our July 10, 2021, DIY, MonSFFA e-Meeting!

1) ZOOM CHAT OPENS RIGHT NOW!

We officially open today’s Zoom chat now, at 1:00PM, the exact same moment we’ve put up this first post of the afternoon. Our Zoom will run in parallel to the Web site-based content that will be presented throughout this e-meeting and will afford folk opportunity to catch-up, talk about the latest in sci-fi, discuss today’s presentations and ask questions directly of our presenters.

To join our Zoom session today, click below and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Zoom

If you’re not fully equipped to Zoom by computer, you can also join in by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. If you’re from out of town, find your Zoom call-in number here: International Call-In Numbers

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 831 5550 8837
Passcode: 456227

 

Summer Sci-Fi QUIZ Number 1

Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi famously filmed under the title Blue Harvest. Big-budget franchise movies in particular often use a false title or code name while in production so as to deter unwanted attention. Blue Harvest was supposedly a horror movie; fake marketing materials sported the slogan “Horror Beyond Imagination” and the production crew even wore Blue Harvest T-shirts! The idea was to throw off the scent any overly curious fans or nosy entertainment journalists eager to uncover spoilers and let the cat out of the bag. In this modern age of social media, especially, movie studios will go to great lengths in order to keep things a secret until a film is released.

Rival studios looking to pilfer plot twists, rip off a successful franchise and open a competing film first, or swipe a really cool title, are also thus deceived. So are any suppliers only too ready to overcharge when they know they’re dealing with the producers of a big-budget franchise like Star Wars rather than a run-of-the-mill horror movie production called Blue Harvest.

And sometimes, it’s simply that a final title has yet to be selected, and cast and crew labour under a “working title.”

Below is a list of 30 code names or working titles used by the producers of well-known genre movies. Can you name the actual film title to which each refers? We’ll reveal at least some of the answers in our Zoom get-together during the mid-meeting break, and list all of answers in our final post of the afternoon (5:00PM), for anyone who may have missed the live online chat.

1. Monster from Beneath the Sea
2. Star Beast
3. Oliver’s Arrow
4. A Boy’s Life
5. Prime Directive
6. Corporate Headquarters
7. Rory’s First Kiss
8. Magnus Rex
9. Changing Seasons
10. Wimpy
11. Babysitter Murders
12. House Ghosts
13. Rasputin
14. Frostbite
15. Group Hug
16. Watch the Skies
17. Grand Tour
18. Till Death, For Glory
19. Artemis
20. Caesar
21. Genre
22. Autumn Frost
23. Red Sun
24. Paradox
25. Project 880
26. Pacific Air Flight 121
27. Incident on 57th Street
28. How the Solar System Was Won
29. Farewell Atlantis
30. Yellow Harvest

3) TODAY’S MEETING: INTRODUCTION

We’ve got a busy, busy agenda, today, so we’ll get right to it!

Just real quick, suffice it to say that the inoculation programs across the land are unfolding quite successfully, and the country now stands at about 40 percent of Canadians fully vaxxed! Authorities expect to achieve stated vaccination goals well ahead of initial projections. Meanwhile, things are getting back to normal and many of the safety restrictions we’ve all been living with for over a year, now, have been relaxed or lifted.

As we gather online for this month’s virtual club meeting, we take a moment to encourage all MonSFFen, if they haven’t already, to book their second vaccine shot as soon as possible, and to please continue to take all necessary precautions in order to keep themselves and others as protected from the virus as can be. Even as many restrictions are removed, it is important that we not let up quite yet on those recommended safety protocols that do remain in place. The nasty variants, as always, a still a concern, but seem to be in check at the moment, which is good!

This is our 16th virtual MonSFFA meeting. The afternoon’s get-together will unfold right here on the club’s Web site over the course of the next few hours, beginning with this first post, and followed by subsequent posts at 1:30PM, 2:30PM, 3:00PM, and 4:00PM, with a concluding post at 5:00PM. All content will also be available concurrently on MonSFFA’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MonSFFA), however, note that the interface best suited for taking in this meeting is this very Web site.

Today we welcome a special guest speaker via Zoom, local sci-fi cartoonist François Vigneault, author of the graphic novel Titan and the monthly comedic series Orcs in Space (click here to visit François’ Web site). We’ll also be looking at the actors who have portrayed Doctor Who over the decades, and talk Shakespeare in SF! All that and more over the next few hours!

As we cannot quite, with complete safety for all, yet assemble in larger numbers indoors, this July virtual meeting has been prepared especially for you, MonSFFA’s membership. Sit back, check out each of the afternoon’s posts, scroll down leisurely through the proffered content, and enjoy! And join our Zoom this afternoon, as well (see first item for details)!

Don’t forget to comment on what we’ve presented. Let us know what you think of specific topics or the meeting overall. Your input helps us to tailor these virtual meetings for maximum interest and enjoyment.

4) MEETING AGENDA

 In This Afternoon’s Virtual Meeting:

1:00PM, Post 1 of 6 (Introduction, Zoom Opens)

1) Zoom Chat Opens

2) Summer Sci-Fi Quiz Number 1

3) Today’s Meeting: Introduction

4) Meeting Agenda

5) Summer Sci-Fi Quiz Number 2

1:30PM, Post 2 of 6  (Who’s on First?)

6) Presentation: Doctor Who’s Who: Guide to the Doctors Before Who and After Who!

2:30PM, Post 3 of 6 (Break)

7) Mid-Meeting Break (Display Table, Raffle, Zoom Continues, What Are You Reading?)

3:00PM, Post 4 of 6 (Guest Speaker!)

8) A Zoom Conversation with Local Sci-Fi Cartoonist François Vigneault (Titan, Orcs in Space)! 

4:00PM, Post 5 of 6 (“And Thereby Hangs a Tale…”)

viagra uk sale Children are usually highly dependent on adults. overnight cialis soft Incontinence This is the sudden passing out of urine. For such people the right mode of payment would be buy cialis brand cash on delivery. Impotence condition levitra generika in men is sometimes caused due to symptoms such as *High blood pressure*Arteriosclerosis*Diabetes*Obesity*High cholesterol*Anxiety, stress and depression As you can see from the above mentioned symptoms most of them are cardiovascular in nature. 9) Shakespeare in SF: A Presentation in Four Parts!

5:00PM, Post 6 of 6 (Wrap-Up)

10) Answers to Our Summer Sci-Fi Quizzes!

11) Thank-You!

12) Membership Renewals

 

5) Summer Sci-Fi QUIZ Number 2:

 As sci-fi film fans know, Ridley Scott’s 1982 classic Blade Runner was based on Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” Many if not most films are derived from a published work of fiction. And said work is not necessarily a full novel! Often, a short story or other short-form piece is all that’s needed to inspire a producer to make a movie.

Our second challenge to those of you joining us for this afternoon’s MonSFFA e-meeting is to correctly match the genre film (Blue List) to the work of short fiction upon which it was based (Beige List). Answers will be published later this afternoon, in the meeting’s closing post (5:00PM).

1. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
2. Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)
3. Fiend Without a Face (1958)
4. Target Earth (1954)
5. Stand by Me (1986)
6. Hellraiser (1987)
7. The 10th Victim (1965)
8. John Carpenter’s They Live (1988)
9. The Beast Must Die (1974)
10. Die, Monster, Die! (1965)
11. Total Recall (1990)
12. The Thing from Another World (1951)
13. She Devil (1957)
14. Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity (1987)
15. Arrival (2016)
16. The Turning (2020)
17. Millennium (1989)
18. Death Race 2000 (1975)
19. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)
20. Charly (1968)
21. The Haunted Palace (1963)
22. Maximum Overdrive (1986)
23. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
24. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

A) “The Sentinel” (short story, Arthur C. Clarke, written 1948, first published as “Sentinel of Eternity,” 1951)

B) “There Shall Be No Darkness” (novelette, James Blish, 1950)

C) “The Hellbound Heart” (novella, Clive Barker, 1986)

D) “Air Raid” (short story, John Varley, 1977)

E) “The Adaptive Ultimate” (short story, Stanley G. Weinbaum, 1935)

F) “The Thought Monster” (short story, Amelia Reynolds Long, 1930)

G) “Deadly City” (novelette, Paul W. Fairman as Ivar Jorgensen, 1953)

H) “Trucks” (short story, Stephen King, 1973)

I) “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” (short story, Brian W. Aldiss, 1969)

J) “The Most Dangerous Game” (short story, Richard Connell, 1924)

K) “Story of Your Life” (novella, Ted Chiang, 1998)

L) “The Racer” (short story, Ib Melchior, 1953)

M) “The Body” (novella, Stephen King, 1982)

N) “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” (novella, H. P. Lovecraft, written 1927, first published, in abridged form, 1941)

O) “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” (short story, Philip K. Dick, 1966)

P) “Flowers for Algernon” (short story, Daniel Keyes, 1959)

Q) “The Cosmic Frame” (short story, Paul W. Fairman, 1955)

R) “Seventh Victim” (short story, Robert Sheckley, 1953)

S) “Who Goes There?” (novella, John W. Campbell, Jr. as Don A. Stuart, 1946)

T) “The Turn of the Screw” (novella, Henry James, 1898)

U) “The Colour Out of Space” (short story, H. P. Lovecraft, 1927)

V) “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” (short story, Ray Nelson as Ray Faraday Nelson, 1963)

W) “The Fog Horn” (short story, Ray Bradbury, 1951)

X) “Farewell to the Master” (novelette, Harry Bates, 1940)

 

 

This is Post 6 of 6 this afternoon and will bring to a close our June 2021 virtual meeting. If you are just now joining us, scroll back to today’s Post 1 of 6 to enjoy the whole meeting, start to finish.

12) POST 1’S TRIVIA CHALLENGE: OUR LIST OF 25 “WINTER” SF/F MOVIES!

How many genre movies did you list that take place, at least in part, on an ice planet or during winter? Here, in no particular order, is our list of 25 such films for you to compare to your own:

1) The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), the opening 15 minutes of which takes place above the Arctic Circle, where an atomic bomb test unleashes from its eons-long icy repose Ray Harryhausen’s prehistoric Rhedosaurus, the titular beast that promptly heads south to rampage through New York City.

2) Snowpiercer (2013) is a dystopian tale that takes place in the context of a future Ice Age brought about by failed attempts at climate engineering in order to halt global warming. Endlessly circumnavigating the globe is the Snowpiercer, a train aboard which ride the remnants of humanity, segregated into elites, who live in the luxury coaches at the head of the train, and commoners, who are housed in the squalor of the tail cars.

3) The Colony (2013), a Canadian production, is another dystopian story of a frozen future. Weather machines deployed to quell global warming break down when it begins snowing one day and doesn’t stop! To shelter from the resultant bitter cold, mankind must retreat to underground bunkers and live in these colonies. Finding a means of producing enough food and controlling disease becomes a preoccupation but eventually, cannibalism breaks out in one bunker while in another, a ruthless individual vies to depose his leader and rule the colony himself.

4) The Abominable Snowman (1957) is a British film scripted by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale about scientists on a Himalayan expedition to find the fabled Yeti. One of the scientists, a glory-seeking American, hopes to capture a living Yeti and present the beast to the world’s press. His British counterpart is driven simply by scientific curiosity and a desire to learn more about the so-called Abominable Snowman, and later determines that Yetis appear to be intelligent creatures bidding their time until they may inherit the Earth after mankind has destroyed himself.

5) Snowbeast (1977), savaged by critics, this is an NBC made-for-television movie about a Sasquatch that terrorizes a ski resort in the Colorado Rockies.

6) Snow Beast (2011) follows a wildlife researcher and his team, along with his daughter and a couple of local rangers, as they investigate the recent disappearances of a number of tourists near a ski lodge in the Canadian wilderness. They discover that a huge Yeti has been stalking and killing vacationers on the slopes and in the forest.

7) Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2008) was produced for the SyFy Channel. When a college football team’s plane crashes in the Himalayas, the survivors must find food and fend off the legendary Yeti lest the bloodthirsty monster make a meal of them!

8) Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast (2012). Don’t even ask!

9) 30 Days of Night (2007) is a vampire flick based on a comic-book series. Barrow, Alaska, situated north of the Arctic Circle, is a town that endures month-long “polar nights” during the winter, the opposite of the “midnight sun” phenomenon experienced during the summer. A group of vampires cuts off the town’s communication and transportation links with the outside world before taking advantage of this extended night to feast on the townspeople in an uninterrupted orgy of blood. The town’s sheriff and a handful of others manage to evade the slaughter by hiding in the concealed attic of a boarded-up house. They must hold out until the sun rises again and disperses the vampires.

10) The Empire Strikes Back (1980), sequel to Star Wars and the fifth chapter in the chronology, opens on the ice world Hoth and features Luke’s encounter with an ape-like Wampa snow monster, as well as an assault on the Rebel’s secret Echo Base by an imposing phalanx of Imperial Walkers.

11) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), in which Kirk and McCoy, convicted of assassinating the Klingon Chancellor just as peace talks are about to begin between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, are sentenced to imprisonment at a Klingon penal colony on the frozen planetoid Rura Penthe.

12) The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998), the first X-Files feature film, includes Mulder’s climatic rescue of Scully from an underground Antarctic facility, and the break-out from beneath the ice and departure skyward of an enormous flying saucer.

13) Alien vs Predator (2004), bringing together two popular sci-fi/horror franchises, is set on glacial Bouvet Island near Antarctica, where explorers discover an ancient pyramid buried beneath the ice in which Predators test their mettle in Coliseum-like battle against Aliens.

14) The Thing from Another World (1951), Howard Hawks’ classic about Air Force men and scientists at an isolated Arctic research station battling an ambulatory, plant-like alien monster they’ve discovered encased in the ice beside a flying saucer crash-site. Astoundingly, the creature is still alive, even after countless years frozen!

15) The Thing (1982), John Carpenter’s paranoia-infused remake of the above, the storyline of which follows more closely the source material, John Campbell’s novella “Who Goes There?” The alien, here, is a shape-shifter able to assume the form of any living being with which it comes in contact.
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16) The Thing (2011), a prequel to the Carpenter film.

17) The Thaw (2009) takes place at a remote facility in the Canadian Arctic and is about a research team’s discovery of a lethal prehistoric organism released from the thawing carcass of a Woolly Mammoth. Before too long, almost everyone is infected and dying, with humanity at risk should a survivor manage to get back to civilization carrying the bug!

18) Dreamcatcher (2003) is based on the Stephen King novel of the same name and involves four friends with uncanny telepathic abilities, strangely acquired in childhood, who get together for their annual, mid-winter, deep-woods hunting trip in Maine. A blizzard blows in and they soon find themselves contending with parasitic worms from outer space capable of possessing bodies and minds, and an elite military unit tasked with eradicating these alien invaders, as well as anyone with whom they may have come in contact.

19) The Shining (1980), Stanley Kubrick’s screen adaptation of this well-known Stephen King novel, tells the story of Jack Torrance, a writer and recovering alcoholic who takes a job as the off-season caretaker of the historic and very much haunted Overlook Hotel, a resort in the Colorado Rockies that closes during the snowbound winter months. Staying with him for the duration are his wife and young son, who come under increasing threat when the hotel’s ghosts slowly drive Torrance murderously insane. Kubrick makes good use of a wintery palette, particularly during Torrance’s climatic, homicidal, axe-wielding chase of his family through the resort’s famous hedge maze.

20) Dead Snow (2009) is the English-language dub of a Norwegian film, Død snø, inspired by Scandinavian folk tales of the undead draugar, who zealously guard their ill-gotten booty. A group of students partying over the Easter break at a cabin in the snow-covered mountains of Norway find an old, wooden box filled with gold coins and trinkets, and are later attacked by zombies dressed in World War II-era Nazi military uniforms! Seems that during the war, these Nazis terrorized the people of the area and looted the nearby town of its valuables. But the locals rose up and took their revenge, either killing the soldiers or chasing them into the mountains where, presumably, they froze to death before coming back as cursed zombies.

21) Legend (1985) is a fantasy film directed by Ridley Scott in which a dark, icy winter descends upon the land when, at the bidding of the Lord of Darkness, goblins slay a magical unicorn, sever its alicorn, or horn, and deliver it to Darkness. A plucky princess and an assortment of forest-dwellers, including her green-man paramour, a couple of dwarves, an elf, and a fairy are instrumental in retrieving the alicorn so as to reattach it and return the fallen unicorn to life, thus lifting the curse of darkness and winter.

22) Quintet (1979) is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film helmed by non-conformist, satirical director Robert Altman in which a new Ice Age has enveloped Earth and mankind is close to extinction. Quintet is a violent and deadly board game in which people act as the game tokens. It’s played at a gambling resort in a deteriorating metropolis doomed by the relentless advance of a glacier that will eventually crush the city. The film was shot here in Montreal during the frigid winter of 1978 on the site of the Expo 67 World’s Fair, which post-exhibition had been rebranded Man and his World. The fair’s former pavilions and structures looked the part of a crumbling, ice-encased city of the distant future.

23) The Day After Tomorrow (2004), a cautionary but overblown, big-budget disaster movie premised on catastrophic shifts in ocean temperatures triggering extreme weather events. Scientists warn of impending doom, politicians ignore them, and we all know too well the result when that happens! Soon, massive and devastating hurricanes, tornados, tsunamis, and flash-freeze events develop around the world as the northern hemisphere is blanketed in ice and snow, plunging the planet into a new Ice Age. Vast populations migrate to the warmer, equatorial regions of the globe, including droves of Americans fleeing south who illegally cross the border into Mexico!

24) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Frank Capra’s heartwarming, perennial Christmas favourite, about a guardian angel’s efforts on Christmas Eve to convince despondent businessman George Bailey of the value of what the suicidal man believes has been his pedestrian and worthless life. The film features a chilling alternate-history sequence in which Bailey is shown how much worse things would have been for his family and friends had he never been born.

25) Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), a Ray Harryhausen mythological pastiche in which Sinbad and crew sail to the polar wastelands of Hyperborea. Here, Sinbad hopes to break an evil spell which has turned a prince into a baboon so that said prince may be restored to human form and crowned Caliph of his kingdom.

13) THANK YOU!

We hope you have enjoyed your time with us this afternoon, and we ask all of you to check in regularly here at www.MonSFFA.ca for additional content during this continuing vaccination push/gradual reopening, and for any news as to when the club expects a return to face-to-face meetings. Thank you for your interest and attention, and don’t forget to comment on today’s meeting!

We’d also like to thank Keith Braithwaite, Joe Aspler, and Cathy Palmer-Lister for putting this June 12, 2021 DIY, Virtual MonSFFA e-Meeting together, with a nod, as well, to our supporting contributors today, Brian Knapp, Wayne Glover, and Lindsay Brown.

Until next month, when we will gather virtually once more on July 10, please continue to exercise all recommended safety practices, and get your shots as soon as the vaccination is made available to you! Continued patience and discipline, folks; we’re almost there!

14) A CLOSING SONG BY THE HOLDERNESS FAMILY

We wrap up with this Father’s Day ditty from the zany Holderness Family (www.youtube.com/TheHoldernessFamily):

 

 

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Join our video-chat (click here) if you haven’t already as our “fancrafters” showcase, show-how, and discuss their current scale-modelling and pyrography (wood-burning) projects over the next hour.

This is Post 2 of 6 and part of this afternoon’s MonSFFA e-Meeting. Join us, as well, on Zoom (click here) as we offer a live presentation/discussion of Syd Mead’s career, and an appreciation of his art.

• Sydney Jay “Syd” Mead
• Born July 18, 1933, Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA
• Died at age 86, December 30, 2019, Pasadena, California, USA
• Industrial Designer/Concept Artist

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Syd Mead’s fascination with the future was sparked in childhood by his father, a Baptist minister himself artistically inclined, who read to his young son Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon science fiction stories published in pulp magazines and encouraged the boy’s artistic pursuits. Mead’s innate artistic talents soon became apparent; he was a natural, drawing as early as age 3. “By the time I was in high school, I could draw the human figure, I could draw animals, and I had a sense of shading to show shape,” he recalled. “I had a very accurate sense of perspective and colouration.” Mead knew by the sixth grade that he was going to make his living drawing pictures. “I could draw them so much better than anybody in my age group.” His father made certain that young Syd had at his disposal an ample supply of drawing papers, pencils, pens, and India ink, and Mead fast became adept at brushwork and various illustration techniques. His early work was rendered using crow-quill ink pens, watercolour washes, and Prismacolour pencils. Gouache, a water-based, matte, opaque paint would, in due course, became his preferred medium.

From these early fundamentals, Mead would go on to a stellar career as an influential industrial designer, noted for his futuristic automobile concepts, and later in the Hollywood arena, for his outstanding design work on Ridley Scott’s acclaimed neo-noir science fiction film Blade Runner (1982), for which Mead is perhaps best known and revered today as the “Grandfather of Concept Art” by practitioners of the trade. He is credited in Blade Runner as “Visual Futurist,” a term which he suggested ad hoc at the behest of producers, and which, serendipitously, is an apt description of the overall body of work for which he is celebrated.

Before we proceed further, a word about industrial design, which is the creative act of determining the features and form of a product to be mass-produced. As an applied art, industrial design seeks to perfectly meld functionality with beauty. Ideally, the intuitive, user-friendly product must operate as intended while at the same time exhibiting an attractive shape for maximum visual appeal. In colloquial terms, it has to work, and it has to look good! Form, however, must remain firmly in the service of function, never the reverse, and a variety of disciplines and considerations are typically applied to industrial design—science and engineering, ergonomics, materials, production processes, aesthetics, prevailing social trends and marketing factors, etc.

Mead’s family moved often throughout his childhood years, finally settling in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he attended and in 1951, graduated high school. His first job was as an animation cell-inker, background artist, and character originator for the Alexander Film Company, a producer of short advertisements/announcements that ran in advance of featured theatrical presentations or during intermissions.

He would one day revisit the animation field, contributing vehicle designs to Disney’s landmark TRON (1982), one of the first motion pictures to significantly employ computer animation. Further, he worked on a few Japanese productions, including Yamato 2520, a mid-’90s, ultimately unfinished OVA (Original Video Animation) and sequel to the popular Space Battleship Yamato series, as well as Turn A Gundam (1999), for which Mead became the first foreigner to design a mecha.

Shortly after his stint at Alexander, Mead enlisted and was stationed on Okinawa with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which saw him first exposed to Asian culture and captivated by what he described as “decorative geometry” and the “stylized depiction of scenario,” such motifs influencing his work thereafter. A month of R&R in Hong Kong before leaving the service later played a role in inspiring his cityscapes for Blade Runner.

Returning to civilian life, Mead designed window displays for women’s wear retailers The Lerner Shoppe before studying at the prestigious Art Center in Los Angeles, later renamed the ArtCenter College of Design, from which he graduated with honours in 1959.

Mead is among the Center’s esteemed alumni, this school having trained foremost artists like Ralph McQuarrie and Ryan Church (Star Wars concept artists), painter James Gurney (Dinotopia illustrated book series), and commercial illustrators Bob Peak and Drew Struzan (designers of numerous science fiction and fantasy movie posters). Automotive stylists Larry Shinoda, known for his work on Chevolet’s iconic Corvette, circa early 1960s, and Ford’s Mustang in the early 1970s, and Frank Stephenson, who beginning in the early 2000s, designed high-end touring and sports cars for European automobile manufacturers Ferrari, Maserati, and McClaren, also attended the school, as did genre film directors Zack Synder (Watchmen, 2009; Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2016; Zack Synder’s Justice League, 2021) and Michael Bay (Armageddon, 1998; Transformers film series, 2007-2017).

After graduating from the Art Center, Mead was recruited by Elwood Engel, head of Ford’s Advanced Styling Studio in Dearborn, Michigan. The Studio encouraged free-thinking, imaginative originality, asking artists to conceive of visionary car and truck concepts for a space-age, Jetsons-come-to-life future. It is here that Mead’s career began in earnest, with automotive transportation quickly becoming a favourite theme of his work.

For full-colour illustrations, Mead limited his palette to about a dozen pigments and placed his gleaming, super-streamlined coupés and limousines in elaborate, fully detailed scenarios, whether at the busy street level or overlooking vast cityscapes and exotic locales. He peopled these vistas with a chic, elegantly, and sometimes rather scantily attired leisure class of “beautiful people,” often depicted arriving for some kind of event amid the stylish, technologically forward constructs of a wonderfully bright, shining future. Thereby was presented a whole picture, a marvelous and complete vision of tomorrow to anticipate with enthusiasm, and in which the automobile plays an integral part.

I have always admired Mead’s expertise as a draughtsman, his understated approach to creating the illusion of precise detail, and a certain flair in his painterly brushwork.

Mead was at Ford for a little over two years, contributing during that time to the design of a two-wheeled, gyroscopically balanced concept car dubbed the Gyron, and the sleek Ranger II pick-up truck, which, among other advanced features, sported a passenger compartment that would expand from a two-seater pick-up to a four-seater sedan configuration at the push of a button.

He left Ford in 1961 to pursue a golden opportunity, becoming partner at a small Chicago PR firm, the Hansen Company, soon to be renamed the Mead-Hansen Company, and receiving a considerable salary boost in the bargain. He enjoyed complete creative freedom at this agency as an illustrator of promotional catalogues for a variety of corporations, including U.S. Steel, for which he produced a number of illustrations that really put him on the map as a designer/illustrator. One of these paintings, depicting an all-terrain cargo transport traversing a winter landscape, later served as the inspiration for Star Wars’ Imperial Walkers.

In 1970, Mead formed his own company and landed several major clients, most notably Philips Electronics. He relocated to Southern California in 1975, opening new avenues in the motion picture industry for the exercise of his skills. In the 1980s he established working relationships with such Japanese companies as Sony, Minolta, Honda, toy manufacturer Bandai, PR/advertising firm Dentsu, and others.

Throughout the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s, he turned out architectural drawings and paintings, illustrations for the hospitality and consumer electronics sectors, as well as industrial equipment manufacturers. He produced commissions for Playboy magazine, and vehicle designs and concept art for a variety of Hollywood science fiction films. He had also, since 1973’s documenta 6 contemporary art exhibition in Kassel, West Germany, maintained a schedule of one-man shows and lecture appearances across the globe.

In 1983, he was invited by the Chrysler Corporation to lecture on automotive design, leading to other corporate and academic speaking engagements for Disney, universities like Purdue and Carnegie Mellon, and New York City’s Society of Illustrators. He worked with Hollywood’s Gnomon School of Visual Effects in 2004 to produce a four-part tutorial on DVD entitled Techniques of Syd Mead, in which he discussed and demonstrated his process.

Always a supporter of technological advancement, Mead was not resistant to modern digital illustration, as some traditionalists in the art world are, but nonetheless largely refrained from adopting the new technology. “I admire a lot of guys that do beautiful digital work,” he once pronounced. “I know how it’s done. It’s just that for me to learn that technique as well as I know gouache, which I’m very familiar with…just doesn’t strike me as worthwhile.” The artist’s toolkit will always change over time—“the tool has been changing ever since early man scratched pictures of animals on cave walls”—but the instrument utilized is not as important as the knowledge of how to make a good picture. “I put paint on board with animal hairs on the end of a stick,” Mead joked, a method that served him well, and at which he was extraordinarily proficient. But the key to his success, he believed, is that he knew how to get the perspective right and combine that with adroit compositional geometry within the picture frame.

Mead announced his retirement shortly before his death in 2019, his designs for the Las Vegas of Canadian director Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner sequel, Blade Runner 2049 (2017), having been his last major project. Transportation remained a dominant theme throughout his 60-year career, whether by space-age automobile, luxury yacht, personal travel pod, spacecraft, or his polished, ultramodern Hypervan, which Mead described as a “high-speed, intercity, highway transport.”

After a three-year battle with lymphoma, Syd Mead passed away peacefully at his Pasadena home on December 30, 2019, with husband Roger Servick at his side, surrounded by Christmas decorations and an array of his artwork. “I am done here,” Mead said by way of final words. “They’re coming to take me back.” He was 86.

This is Post 1 of 6, first of six related posts which together make up our June 12, 2021, DIY, Virtual MonSFFA e-Meeting!

1) ZOOM CHAT OPENS RIGHT NOW!

We officially open today’s Zoom chat now, at 1:00PM, the same moment we’ve put up this first post of the afternoon. Our Zoom will run in parallel to the Web site-based content that will be presented throughout this e-meeting and will afford folk opportunity to catch-up, talk about The Nevers, Jupiter’s Legacy, Army of the Dead, Loki and other recent genre offerings, discuss today’s presentations and ask questions directly of our presenters, and of course, this being Montreal during the playoffs, cheer the Habs on as they pursue a remarkable 25th Stanley Cup! Go, Habs, Go!

To join our Zoom session today, click here and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Zoom

If you’re not fully equipped to Zoom by computer, you can also join in by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. If you’re from out of town, find your Zoom call-in number here: International Call-In Numbers

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 880 4618 9993
Passcode: 282522

2) HOPE RECEIVES A SHOT IN THE ARM!

As millions more doses arrive weekly, Canada’s national rollout of vaccines continues apace, and while provinces like Ontario and Manitoba have been facing a sudden stretch of exceedingly high infection rates, the COVID-19 numbers are generally coming down across the country, precipitously so here in Québec! Montreal and Laval having been moved into the less-critical orange category just a few days ago, there are currently no high-alert red zones anywhere in the province—none, nada, zip! In fact, numerous of Québec’s regions have recently been reclassified safer yellow, and even green zones, something we have not seen since late last summer! We also learned this week that in just two days, on Monday, June 14, authorities fully expects to downshift all regions of the province again, into either yellow or green zones! Also, Québec’s unpopular, interminable but apparently effective nightly curfew was finally lifted province-wide at the end of May, much to the joy of a weary populace. Some Public Health-imposed restrictions, too, have cautiously been relaxed as we gingerly edge toward a return to normal.

Most Québecers have, by now, received their initial jab, with first-shot percentages in some age cohorts ranging into the high 80s and 90s! A number of workplace vaccine operations and pop-up clinics have been set up in an effort to jab as soon as possible those who have yet to receive their first shot.

And, officials recently authorized that the second shot be offered sooner than originally scheduled and hopes to have inoculated the majority of citizens by the end of August! Meanwhile, youngsters and teens have been cleared to receive the vaccine and that process is underway with all urgency, the aim being to have school-aged children fully vaxxed by the time classes resume this fall.

At the moment, officials report that Quebec’s population as a whole averages out to between 75 and 80 percent having received their first shot, a significant marker achieved some three weeks ahead of schedule, which has allowed the government to get started in earnest on administering those important second shots to all. In just a week, second-shot numbers have climbed from 5 or 6 percent of the population having received the shot to about 10 percent!

There have been set-backs and missteps. Delays in vaccine shipments earlier in the rollout caused some concern but now seem to be largely behind us. Provinces like Ontario and Alberta had too soon rescinded safety measures and ended lockdowns in order to quickly reopen, leading to the explosive spread of new and considerably more transmissible variants of the virus, a situation which, fortunately, is now slowly abating. Several instances of extremely rare and sometimes fatal blood clots resulted from our use of the Astra-Zeneca shot, fueling the off-the-beam arguments of anti-vaxxers, and poor and contradictory messaging from authorities, not surprisingly, engendered general public mistrust and an avoidance of that vaccine.

But a reasonable evaluation cannot but conclude that Québec’s vaccination program so far has been especially well managed and successful. The key to our ultimate victory over the virus will be to resist the immediate and understandable urge to deconfine, unmask, and gather together again in small groups or large as the warm, sunny weather arrives. We can start to slowly, carefully, one step at a time do just that, but we must always remain mindful of the possibility that moving too quickly and carelessly could open the door to new variants which might be more resistant to the vaccines.

So follow the government’s rules religiously, lest we risk extending our collective misery longer than is necessary!

Globally, wealthier countries like ours will have to help poor countries get the virus fast under control in those jurisdictions so as to prevent humanity from suffering any further from COVID-19. If we vanquish the virus here at home but the contagion continues in India, for example, Canada, the U.S., Europe, and other nations would remain under potential threat. We’ve all experienced first-hand the terrible world-wide consequences a rampant, deadly virus precipitates, and none of us wants to live through another period like the last year-and-a-half!

Finally, of course, we’ve learned some valuable lessons these past many months. In retrospect, we probably should have closed our borders more quickly and completely, and shutdown more thoroughly at the outset. Canada will certainly have to regain the domestic vaccine-production capacity it once had, and rethink its approach to medical research and development. We should also strive to produce in-country our own supply of PPE in future. Canada, and indeed, the whole world should be better prepared for the next pandemic, unfortunately an inevitable eventuality!

3) HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

Next weekend, on Sunday, June 20, we celebrate Father’s Day! Those of you fortunate enough to still have your dad, give thanks. We are all coming off a particularly grim year during which many of us found ourselves separated from family by safety protocol-driven necessity, so as the pandemic begins to wane, give your dear ol’ dad a big, hearty hug, if that’s at all safe and possible! Otherwise, call to chat and wish him a Happy Father’s Day—he’ll surely appreciate hearing from you. Luke Skywalker exempted.

4) MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

We remind club members that MonSFFA has resumed the collection of annual membership fees. Note that every active club member has benefitted from a full year of fees-free membership.

For most MonSFFen, our 2020 renewal dates became 2021 renewal dates. So if your annual membership fees were due in June 2020, that’s been bumped up a year to June 2021. If your fees were due last July, they are now due this upcoming July; August 2020 shifts to August 2021, and so on.

But what about those few MonSFFen who had, in fact, paid their fees last year, most prior to pandemic lockdowns going into effect and our suspension of in-person meetings? These folk, having paid last year’s dues, will not miss out on the fees-free year enjoyed by their fellow club members! Those who fall into this category will see their annual fees next become due beginning in 2022.

Of course, we welcome back any former members who may have let lapse their memberships, and we invite to join our ranks any prospective members who may have discovered the club via our virtual meetings.

Note that there is no change to our fee structure. A standard one-year membership is still only $25; the premium Platinum Level membership, $35; a family membership (up to four people, single postal mailing address), $40; and the Platinum Family Level, $50. Make your cheques or money orders out to “MonSFFA” and mail to our new postal mailing address:

 

MonSFFA, c/o

125 Leonard

Châteauguay, Québec, Canada

J6K 1N9

 

To those MonSFFen who have recently renewed their memberships, we thank you for your prompt attention and patronage of this club.
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5) TODAY’S MEETING: INTRODUCTION

As we gather online for this month’s virtual club meeting, we take a moment to encourage all MonSFFen to book their second vaccine shot as soon as the option becomes available to them, and to please continue to take all necessary precautions in order to keep themselves and others as protected from the virus as can be. Even as some are eased, it is important that we not let up quite yet on those recommended safety protocols that remain in place. Summer has begun, the city, province, and country are slowly reopening, and the last thing we want to see is case numbers starting to spike upwards again!

This is our 15th virtual MonSFFA meeting. The afternoon’s get-together will unfold right here on the club’s Web site over the course of the next few hours, beginning with this first post, and followed by subsequent posts at 1:30PM, 2:30PM, 3:00PM, and 4:00PM, with a concluding post at 4:45PM. All content will also be available concurrently on MonSFFA’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MonSFFA), however, note that the interface best suited for taking in this meeting is this very Web site.

Today we’ll be celebrating the art and career of “visual futurist” Syd Mead and quaffing Romulan ale or Klingon bloodwine in the bars, lounges, taverns, and saloons of SF/F, served by likes of Star Trek’s Guinan and Spider Robinson’s Mike Callahan. We’ll also talk further on sci-fi scale-modelling projects, and during our Show-and-Tell, demonstrate genre-themed pyrography! All that, and more over the next few hours!

As we cannot yet safely assemble in person indoors, this June virtual meeting has been prepared especially for you, MonSFFA’s membership. Sit back, check out each of the afternoon’s posts, scroll down leisurely through the proffered content, and enjoy! And join our Zoom this afternoon, as well (see first item for details)!

Don’t forget to comment on what we’ve presented. Let us know what you think of specific topics or the meeting overall. Your input helps us to tailor these virtual meetings for maximum interest and enjoyment.

6) MEETING AGENDA

In This Afternoon’s Virtual Meeting:

1:00PM, Post 1 of 6 (Introduction, Zoom Opens)

1) Zoom Chat Opens

2) Hope Receives a Shot in the Arm!

3) Happy Father’s Day

4) Membership Renewals

5) Today’s Meeting: Introduction

6) Meeting Agenda

7) Trivia Challenge!

1:30PM, Post 2 of 6 (Science Fiction Art)

8) Presentation: Syd Mead—Visual Futurist

2:30PM, Post 3 of 6 (Break)

9) Mid-Meeting Break (Display Table, Raffle, Zoom Continues)

3:00PM, Post 4 of 6 (The Saloons of SF/F!)

10) Presentation: A Science Fiction Writer Walks into a Bar… 

4:00PM, Post 5 of 6 (“Fancraft!”)

11) Zoom Chat: Show-and-Tell

4:45PM, Post 6 of 6 (Wrap-Up)

12) Trivia Challenge: Our List of 25 “Winter” SF/F Movies!

13) Thank-You!

14) A Closing Song by the Holderness Family

8) TRIVIA CHALLENGE!

We are well into the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Montreal Canadiens—Nos Glorieux, le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, les Habitants, or the Habs—are in serious contention, which the storied team has not managed for many years! The last time Lord Stanley’s Cup was hoisted in Montreal was in 1993, the trophy’s centennial year. The Canadiens have won the cup a record 24 times and are in the hunt this year for a 25th championship.

Go, Habs, go!

The team endured a lengthy period of mediocrity beginning in the late 1990s, during which time les boys failed to advance much past the first round, if they made the playoffs at all!

As the pandemic nears an end, a Stanley Cup victory would make for a welcome signal of our return to normal! After all, it was once quite normal for this city to boast of hockey supremacy. We were all thrilled a couple weeks ago by the Habs’ come-from-behind, game-seven series triumph over the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs, our long-time rivals. We followed in short order with a sweep of the Winnipeg Jets! And now it’s on to Las Vegas to face the Golden Knights in the conference championship, with a ticket to the Stanley Cup final as the prize! Finally, after so many years of frustration for Montreal hockey fans, does ultimate victory await?

Go, Habs, go!

All of that to set up a trivia challenge in honour of this city’s famous ice hockey team and the drive for 25! Thus are we tasking sci-fi fans to name 25 science fiction and fantasy movies set, at least in part, on an ice planet or during winter! We’re talking feature films, here, or TV movies, not episodes of an SF/F television series. So Star Trek’s “All Our Yesterdays” or The X-Files’ “Ice” would not qualify. Miniseries do not cut the mustard, either, so John Snow’s exploits beyond the Wall don’t count! Animated cartoon movies, like Disney’s Frozen flicks or the multi-film Ice Age franchise, are also out.

Now, when we say “in part,” we mean that at a minimum, one scene of some substance in the film must be set in icy, snowbound conditions. So a brief shot of snow-capped mountain peaks in the background during a sequence of dialogue or action is not enough. And because, of course, most Christmas-themed movies are set in winter, and the whole Santa Claus thing is, technically, fantasy, and there are a lot of these films, we will allow you to include in your list only one Christmas/seasonal movie.

While many sci-fi films are set in futuristic cities, on barren, rocky planets, or lush, tropical-jungle worlds, there are nevertheless more than 25 “winter” movies in the genre film catalogue, obviously! We’ll post our list of 25 in today’s closing Post 6 of 6 at 4:45PM for you to compare to your own. But as long as you’ve written down 25 SF/F movies that meet the criteria outlined above, you’re good!

Have at it, and go, Habs, go!

MonSFFA’s next virtual meeting will take place this Saturday, June 12, beginning at 1:00PM, and you are invited to check it out!

As always, we’ll be posting on the club’s Web site throughout the afternoon a variety of interesting and entertaining presentations. In tandem, we’ll also host a Zoom get-together throughout the course of the afternoon so that folk may chat and discuss with, or ask questions of our presenters directly on the agenda topics!

Our June 2021 meeting will offer as principal programming first an overview of the career of foremost “visual futurist” Syd Mead, and an appreciation of his artwork!

Mead is regarded as one of the most influential industrial designers and concept artists of the modern age. He has been described as “the artist who illustrates the future,” and for some 60 years beginning in the late 1950s, his outstanding design work, architectural drawings, and striking concept illustrations for the automotive, consumer electronics, and steel industries, as well as for some of Hollywood’s most prominent science fiction films, have been termed “reality ahead of schedule.” Mead’s sleek, ultramodern styling has defined a technological future that continues to influence contemporary designers and filmmakers.

We’ll also have some fun with an exploration of the bars, taverns, lounges, and saloons of SF/F, from The Prancing Pony in Bree to Callahan’s Place to Star Trek’s Ten Forward to that seedy cantina on Tatooine!

These establishments are convivial places for an adventurer, space-farer, swordsman, or warrior to sip a whiskey and soda, quaff some ale, enjoy warm blood wine, or an iced raktajino! So raise a glass of your favourite and come hear tales of hard science fiction, or of the mysteries of magic swords; tales that might begin with “A science fiction writer walks into a bar…”

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And don’t forget to tip your bartender, Barliman Butterbur, Mike Callahan, Guinan, and especially Quark!

We’ve also booked a couple of our sci-fi scale model-builders for a Show-and-Tell, and arranged for a live “fancrafting” demonstration of pyrography!

Be advised that at this point in the meeting, we will be allowing Linzi to wield a red-hot metal poker! What could possibly go wrong?

All of that, and more…

So don’t miss MonSFFA’s June 12, 2021 e-Meeting, beginning 1:00PM this Saturday at: www.MonSFFA.ca

 

This is post 6 of 6 this afternoon and will bring to a close our May 2021 virtual meeting. If you’re just now joining us, scroll back to today’s Post 1 of 6 to enjoy the whole meeting, start to finish.

12) MORE STAR WARS DAD JOKES!

Here’s another baker’s-dozen of cheesy Star Wars dad jokes!

1) Darth Vader walks into a vegetarian restaurant, seats himself, and peruses the menu. He calls a waiter over and says, “I find your lack of steak disturbing!”

2) Biology question: what is the internal temperature of a Tauntaun?… Lukewarm!

3) How long has Anakin Skywalker been evil?… Since the Sith grade!

4) How did Darth Vader know what he was getting for Christmas?… He felt his presents!

5) Does R2D2 have any brothers?… No, just transistors!

6) Is BB hungry?… No, BB-8!

7) Darth Vader cheats at poker! He always wins because he alters the deal!

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9) What is Chewbacca’s favourite Web site?… Wookieeleaks!

10) What is Jabba the Hutt’s middle name?… The!

11) What do you call a droid that takes the long way around?… R2 Detour!

12) Darth Vader and the Emperor attend a Star Wars collectibles auction. Vader turns to the Emperor and asks, “What is thy bidding, my master?”

13) Why did Chapters 4, 5, and 6 come out before Chapters 1, 2, and 3?… Because in charge of the release schedule Yoda was!

13) THANK YOU!

We hope you have enjoyed your time with us this afternoon, and we ask all of you to check in regularly here at www.MonSFFA.ca for additional content during this continuing pandemic, and for any news as to when the club expects a return to face-to-face meetings. Thank you for your interest and attention, and don’t forget to comment on today’s offerings!

We’d also like to thank Joe Aspler, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister for putting this May 8, 2021 DIY, Virtual MonSFFA Meeting together, with a nod, as well, to our supporting contributors today.

Until next month, when we will gather virtually once again, please continue to exercise all recommended safety practises, and get your shots as soon as the vaccination is made available to you! Continued patience, discipline, and emotional fortitude is key to seeing us all safely through these final months of the pandemic. Stay strong!

11) STARLOST EPISODE GUIDE

Following on our March virtual meeting’s article about the creation of the ignominious, early-’70s, Canadian-made sci-fi program The Starlost, we offer this afternoon a brief episode guide! Star SF writer Harlan Ellison created the series but famously walked off the show before the first episode had even aired, unhappy with budget cuts, the niggling and nonsensical changes made by producers to his pilot script, and what he characterized as the dumbing down of his concept. The resulting series was not well received and quickly tanked, earning from TV critics and fans alike an “honoured” place in the pantheon of truly bad sci-fi TV shows!

Join us, as well, on our Zoom for discussion and video clips!

Title: Voyage of Discovery (Pilot Episode)

Written by Cordwainer Bird; Directed by Harvey Hart; Original Airdate, September 22, 1973

Devon is a young man who questions much about his small world, an Amish-like agrarian community called Cypress Corners. He loves Rachel, and she him, but according to the Elders, the “Creator” has ordained that she marry his friend Garth. Devon refuses to accept this, is accused of blasphemy, and later discovers that the “Creator” is, in fact, one of the Elder’s speaking through a voice machine. Devon realizes that the strict laws under which his people live are not those of the Creator at all, but simply the wishes of the deceitful Elders. He attempts to expose this truth but is chased into the hills and escapes capture through a mysterious door on which is marked “Beyond is Death!”

On the other side of the door Devon finds that Cypress Corners is but one of many “biospheres,” modules attached to a giant spaceship carrying the survivors of the dead planet Earth to a new home among the distant stars. However, some kind of accident has thrown this galactic Noah’s Ark off course and set the vessel on a fatal collision course with a “Class G solar star.” Yes, a solar star!

And so is set up the premise of the series.

Devon returns to Cypress Corners to tell of what he has discovered, but is silenced by the Elders and condemned to death. With a sympathetic Garth’s help, he escapes his holding cell. Garth implores him to run away, and to just leave Rachel alone, but Devon steals away into the night to fetch Rachel, and the couple escape through the door together, where Devon begins showing Rachel the astounding wonders of the ship. Meanwhile, Garth volunteers to follow after them and bring Rachel back home. He soon finds his quarry, but Rachel refuses to return with him to Cypress Corners. Garth reluctantly decides to join Devon and Rachel in their strange adventure.

These three form the heroic group that will explore the Ark every week, travelling from biosphere to biosphere, adventure to adventure, searching for a way to save the great ship.

Norman Klenman’s rewrite of Harlan Ellison’s original “Phoenix Without Ashes” teleplay was the shooting script used for this series opening episode. An unhappy Ellison had obliged producers to scrub his name from the credits as writer and substitute his notorious Cordwainer Bird pseudonym, which he employed whenever he was acutely chagrined at someone having severely messed with his work. This mocking pen name was used as Ellison’s series-creator credit, too, appearing boldly onscreen at the beginning of every episode, much to the displeasure of producers.

Title: Lazarus From the Mist (Episode 2)

Written by Douglas Hall and Don Wallace; Directed by Leo Orenstein; Original Airdate, September 29, 1973

Our trio locate a medical center and while Garth attempts to hold off a band of scruffy ruffians who live in the access tubes outside the facility, Devon and Rachel enter to bring one of the Ark’s designers and engineers out of cryonic suspension in hopes that he might know how to save the ship. These specialists of indispensable skill were preserved so that they could be brought back in future when needed. But the man they revive happens to be a communication’s specialist, not an engineer or pilot, and in any case was placed in cryonic sleep because he’d been afflicted with a deadly “radiation virus” that will kill him within a couple of hours now that he’s been awakened. They put him back in deep-freeze, never thinking, apparently, of trying to revive another of the individuals frozen there who might be better able to help them save the Ark.

Title: The Goddess Calabra (Episode 3)

Written by Martin Lager from a story by Ursula K. Le Guin; Directed by Harvey Hart; Original Airdate, October 6, 1973

Our heroes enter the Omicron biosphere, where they believe can be found information that will help them save the Ark, and are quickly intercepted by a squadron of guards whose attire suggests an amalgam of Roman centurion and glam rock cover band! Awestruck at the sight of Rachel, they kneel in adoration, believing her to be their Goddess, Calabra. Taken to Omicron’s governor, Rachel and her companions learn that this is a martial, all-male society. And the governor has designs on Rachel!

Title: The Pisces (Episode 4)

Written by Norman Klenman; Directed by Leo Orenstein; Original Airdate, October 13, 1973

The small scout ship Pisces returns to the Ark after completing a ten-year mission searching for habitable planets. But time displacement is at play, here; the Pisces has been away for over 400 years, Ark-time, and the commander and his crew are beginning to feel the effects of space senility!

Title: Children of Methuselah (Episode 5)

Written by Jonah Royston and George Ghent from a story by Jonah Royston; Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan; Original Airdate, October 20, 1973

Devon, Rachel, and Garth may have found the Ark’s back-up bridge! But they discover, instead, a crew on children manning a flight simulator. Problem is, the youngsters don’t realize this, believe they’ve actually been navigating the Ark, and dismiss Devon’s claim that the ship is damaged and off course!

Title: And Only Man is Vile (Episode 6)

Written by Shimon Wincelberg; Directed by Ed Richardson; Original Airdate, October 27, 1973

Entering bucolic “Leisure Village,” our Cypress Corners nomads are unaware that they have walked into a scientist’s cruel experiments regarding human behaviour! Garth falls for the scientist’s assistant, who has been manipulating him and the others for the purposes of the experiment.

Title: The Alien Oro (Episode 7)

Written by Mort Forer and Marion Waldman; Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan; Original Airdate, November 3, 1973

Star Trek’s Walter “Ensign Chekov” Koenig guest stars as the titular alien in this episode, an explorer from the planet Xar whose flying saucer crashes into the much larger Ark, stranding him aboard.

Devon, Rachel, and Garth discover that Oro has been cannibalizing the Ark for parts to rebuild his ship, and plans to take with him on his return to Xar the woman with whom Garth has fallen in love!

Title: Curcuit of Death (Episode 8)
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Written by Norman Klenman; Directed by Peter Levin; Original Airdate, November 10, 1973

Riffing on the popular film Fantastic Voyage (1966), Devon and Garth are miniaturized and join a scientist inside a critical microcircuit that must be repaired in order to prevent the Ark from blowing up!

Title: Gallery of Fear (Episode 9)

Written by Alfred Harris and George Ghent from a story by Alfred Harris; Directed by Ed Richardson and an uncredited Joseph L. Scanlan; Original Airdate, November 17, 1973

Keir Dullea returns to familiar territory in this episode, his Devon character compelled to pull the plug on a powerful A.I. which has created weird illusions, including a strange art gallery and its beautiful curator!

Title: Mr. Smith of Manchester (Episode 10)

Written by Arthur Heinemann and Norman Klenman from a story by Arthur Heinemann; Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan and an uncredited Ed Richardson; Original Airdate, November 24, 1973

Our heroes are brought in chains before Mr. Smith, president of the heavily industrialized, militaristic biosphere Manchester, who suspects them to be enemy infiltrators or saboteurs. Our heroes must contend with a mad, paranoid, harsh, industry-über-alles, gun-happy society of savage atrocities, lies, deception, betrayal, threats, murder, a Monty Pythonesque method of dealing with the dead, and even a gun fight and gas warfare before they are able to slip safely out of this nightmarish dome unseen.

Title: Astro-Medics (Episode 11)

Written by Paul Schnieder and Martin Lager; Directed by George McCowan; Original Airdate, December 1, 1973

Devon is seriously injured pulling Garth out of a dangerous situation and an orbiting medical ship is dispatched to render aid. But the lead doctor seems more interested in lending assistance to a stricken alien vessel nearby than he is in saving Devon, until Garth, feeling responsible for having carelessly endangered his friend, takes drastic action!

Title: The Implant People (Episode 12)

Written by Helen French and Martin Lager; Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan; Original Airdate, December 8, 1973

A monarch’s power-hungry servant plots to rule their biosphere, in which the poor starve and the elites are forced to suffer implants that inflict pain! When he takes Rachel and Garth hostage, will the elites find the courage to step up?

Title: The Return of Oro (Episode 13)

Written by Alex C. James; Directed by Francis Chapman; Original Airdate, December 15, 1973

Oro returns, offering to repair the Ark’s faulty systems and fly the great ship to Xar, where he proposes to settle all of the Ark’s people, claiming the planet is much as Earth was. But Devon discovers he is lying and must engage Oro in a robot-monitored debate to the death!

Title: Farthing’s Comet (Episode 14)

Written by Douglas Hall; Directed by Ed Richardson; Original Airdate, December 22, 1973

The Ark’s chief astronomer had changed the ship’s course to closer inspect a comet, but now, with cometary debris pummeling the vessel, Devon must make an EVA to repair the thrusters that can move the Ark to safety!

Title: The Beehive (Episode 15)

Written by Norman Klenman; Directed by Bill Davis and an uncredited George McCowan; Original Airdate, December 29, 1973

Giant bees! Okay, I’ll give you a little more information than that! A dome dedicated to a tropical garden and lab cultivates millions of bees to pollinate the plants on humanity’s eventual new home world, but the head scientist is breeding giant, mutant bees with the ability to take over human minds!

Title: Space Precinct (Episode 16)

Written by Martin Lager; Directed by Joseph L. Scanlan; Original Airdate, January 5, 1974

Garth decides to go back home and says goodbye to his companions, only to find himself recruited by the Ark’s police force, who are working with police from an alien system to avert an interplanetary war. Their efforts, however, are being thwarted from within!

This seemed to me like a storyline that might lead to a spin-off series featuring Garth as a space cop, but it proved the last episode to be broadcast before the show was unceremoniously cancelled.

Two more episodes were in the pipeline at the time, “God That Died” and “People in the Dark,” but of course, where never produced.

The Starlost is on YouTube! View all 16 Starlost episodes here: Starlost Playlist

And, listen to episodes of the Fusion Patrol Podcast to hear co-hosts Ben and Eugene scoff at the show, review and ridicule each and every Starlost episode, and in general chortle derisively at the series: Fusion Control Podcast, Starlost

Explore the rest of the Fusion Patrol site for more entertaining critiques of science fiction television and film from Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 to The Questor Tapes and Forbidden Planet to Man from Atlantis and the original Battlestar: Galactica: fusionpatrol.com

This chapter of today’s meeting will take place as part of our ongoing Zoom session, running in ED is characterized by the inability to attain and maintain an erection for satisfying sexual intercourse. buy sildenafil canada This product has been launched in a smooth orange and greyish 180 ml/6 ounce levitra uk bottle, and this is an opportunity for you to shop around. Due to the stressful modern life and race of leading ahead has provided depleted effects on the male reproductive system very fruitfully. amerikabulteni.com levitra buy levitra Alcohol rehabilitation is clinics and certain canadian viagra store centers which help in permanent enlargement. tandem with the Web site-based material we’ve been posting this afternoon. Join our Zoom to take part!

This is post 1 of 6 related posts which together make up our May 8, 2021, DIY, Virtual MonSFFA Meeting.

1) QUICK CORONAVIRUS UPDATE!

It has come down to a race between the vaccines and the variants!

Québec is faring fairly well through this third wave. While the variant forms of the coronavirus are far more transmissible—and if some cases, rather deadlier—than the original, this necessitating enhanced restrictions in some areas, the good news is that the vaccine supply has largely stabilized and is robust, with hundreds of thousands of doses now arriving regularly. The roll-out is proceeding apace and by the end of next week, all adults in Quebec will be eligible for a first jab, so book your appointment as soon as possible! To date, almost 50 percent of Québec’s adult population has received at least that first shot, and with the recent approval of Pfizer’s vaccine for children as young as 12 years old, officials expect that teens will have had their initial dose by the end of June, with the second to follow before the start of the next school year.

All good! We anticipate an almost normal summer, so hang on just a while longer. And even if you have had your first shot, continue to practice all recommended safety protocols so as to protect those who have not yet received theirs.

2) HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day! For those of you fortunate enough to still have your mom, give her a big hug, and if that’s not possible, call to wish her a happy Mother’s Day. It has been an especially difficult year for us all, separated from family as so many are, so she will surely appreciate hearing from you. We can all take the opportunity of this day in particular to celebrate with fondness our beloved moms!

3) MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

 We remind club members that MonSFFA has resumed the collection of annual membership fees beginning officially in April. Note that every active club member has benefitted from a full year of fees-free membership.

For most MonSFFen, our 2020 renewal dates now become 2021 renewal dates. So if your annual membership fees were due in May 2020, that’s been bumped up a year to May 2021. If your fees were due last June, they are now due this upcoming June, July 2020 to July 2021, and so on.

But what about those few MonSFFen who had, in fact, paid their fees last year, most prior to pandemic lockdowns going into effect and our suspension of in-person meetings? These folk, then, having paid last year’s fees, will not miss out on the fees-free year enjoyed by their fellow club members; their annual fees will next become due beginning in 2022.

Of course, we welcome back any former members who may have let lapse their memberships, and we invite to join our ranks any prospective members who may have discovered the club via our virtual meetings.

Note that there is no change to our fee structure. A standard one-year membership is still only $25; the premium Platinum Level membership, $35; a family membership (up to four people, single postal mailing address), $40; and the Platinum Family Level, $50. Make your cheques or money orders out to “MonSFFA” and mail to our new postal mailing address:

MonSFFA, c/o

125 Leonard

Châteauguay, Québec, Canada

J6K 1N9

Download here the latest issue of MonSFFA’s news bulletin, Impulse, for all the details: ImpulseApril-May2021(PDF)

4) TODAY’S MEETING: INTRODUCTION

As we gather online for this month’s virtual club meeting, we take a moment to strongly encourage all MonSFFen to get their vaccine shot as soon as available, and to please continue to take all possible precautions in order to keep themselves and others as protected from the virus as can be. It is especially important that we not let up on those safety protocols prematurely.

This is our 14th virtual MonSFFA meeting. The afternoon’s get-together will unfold right here on the club’s Web site over the course of the next few hours, beginning with this first post, and followed by subsequent posts at 1:30PM, 2:30PM, 3:00PM, and 4:00PM, with a concluding post at 4:30PM. All content will also be available concurrently on MonSFFA’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MonSFFA), however, note that the interface best suited for taking in this meeting is this very Web site.

Today we’ll be talking comedy, parody, and puns in SF/F, scale-modelling, feature a brief Starlost episode guide, and more!

We will officially open today’s Zoom chat at 1:30PM, running in parallel to the Web site-based content that will be put up throughout the afternoon. Our Zoom will afford folk opportunity to catch-up, chat about the disappointment of Godzilla vs. Kong, and discuss with or ask questions of our presenters directly. If our Zoom is interrupted, that’s likely a temporary technical glitch, but this weekend, could also be an errant rocket booster falling out of the sky and crashing through our roof! Just refresh.

As we cannot yet safely assemble in person, this May virtual meeting has been prepared especially for you, MonSFFA’s membership. Sit back, check out each of the afternoon’s posts, scroll down leisurely through the proffered content, and enjoy!

And don’t forget to comment on what we’ve presented. Let us know what you think of specific topics or the meeting overall. Your input helps us to tailor these virtual meetings for maximum interest and enjoyment.

You may also wish to Zoom with us during the course of the meeting. To join our expanded Zoom session, beginning at 1:30PM, click here: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Zoom

If you’re not fully equipped to Zoom by computer, you can also join in by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. If you’re from out of town, find your Zoom call-in number here: International Call-In Numbers

Have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 823 6592 4425
Passcode: 768740

5) MEETING AGENDA 

In This Afternoon’s Virtual Meeting:

1:00PM, Post 1 of 6 (Opening)

1) Coronavirus Upate

2) Happy Mother’s Day

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4) Today’s Meeting: Introduction

5) Meeting Agenda

6) Cheesy Dad Jokes, These Groaners Are!

1:30PM, Post 2 of 6 (Sci-Fi Laughs; Zoom Opens!)

7) Space—The Final Frontier (Humour, Parody, Puns in SF/F)

8) Zoom Chat Opens

2:30PM, Post 3 of 6 (Break)

9) Mid-Meeting Break (Display Table, Raffle, Zoom Continues)

3:00PM, Post 4 of 6 (Modelling Hour!)

10) Zoom Chat: Scale-Model Building Show-and-Tell

4:00PM, Post 6 of 7 (Internet Gems!)

11) Starlost Episode Guide

4:30PM, Post 6 of 6 (Wrap-Up)

12) More Star Wars Dad Jokes!

13) Thank-You!

6) CHEESY DAD JOKES, THESE GROANERS ARE!

Star Wars fans celebrated their favourite sci-fi franchise earlier this week, on May 4 and 5, respectively, Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be With You), and Revenge of the Fifth. In honour of this, we offer for your amusement 13 cheesy Star Wars jokes and puns, dad-style, plus a few cartoons, all culled from the Internet! (Cartoons by Scott Nickel, Jon Carter, and Nathan Cooper.)

1) Luke Skywalker’s love life hasn’t exactly been stellar! I mean, he was hitting on his own sister at one point! He seems to be looking for love in Alderaan places!

2) At breakfast, how does Darth Vader like his toast?… On the dark side!

3) What do you call a Rebel princess who eschews the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides in her vegetable garden?… Leia Organic! 

4) What Rebel commander runs a hotdog stand on the side?… Admiral Snackbar!

5) Where do Sith shop?… At the Darth Mall!

6) Where did Luke buy his cybernetic hand?… At the second-hand store!

7) Hear about the big discount sale down at the Darth Mall?… Half off!

8) There’s this Star Wars fan who really likes it when fangirls dress up as bounty hunters! He has a Boba fetish!

9) Who is short, green, and plays the cello?… Yo-Yo Da!

10) What is the Emperor’s favourite Québecois delicacy?… Palpoutine!

11) As a child, Luke rode a do-cycle…because there is no tri!

12) What do you call an evil procrastinator?… Darth Later!

13) What was Governor Tarkin’s favourite brand of toilet paper?… Charmin, to the last!