WGA Strike Ends! The World Rotates Once More!

A deal was reached this past weekend, a contract that should end the Writers Guild of America strike. By all accounts, it is not a fantastically positive deal that will make all writers fabulously wealthy, but it is a good deal, an improvement from the deal offered in November, the deal that started this whole ordeal (does that count as a pun? Uh...no, I don't think so). And the writers of Battlestar Galactica support it.

The WGA has announced a vote on Tuesday, February 11th, in order to ratify the new contract, and popular opinion is that it will indeed be ratified. What does this mean? More episodes of LOST, hopefully. A full season of Battlestar (which will sadly prove to be it's last). And, hope against hope, possibly a pinch more episodes of Pushing Daisies? I'll keep you posted, as I continue to read news articles then post about them, as if I uncovered this information in a fit of solo journalism.

For now, though, clap your hands and laugh, for the world which had once been stopped on its hinges, not by John Galt, but maybe by several smaller Johns (John August, John Logan, John Locke) and variously named career writers, has now begun to turn. And hopefully churn out more Battlestar.

Luda Says I'm Taking Trips from Here to Rome

There's this television show called Pushing Daisies which is pretty good - it's a clever murder-mystery-supernatural-comedy-pie-making-really-cute-girl show that makes me laugh. But the best part of the show is the entire world that it takes place in. It feels like a Christmas claymation world, with a pie-shaped pie shop, color saturated fruit, and mosaic tiled sewers. In this town (which has a French name; remember, when not used as an insult, French language and customs equal magic in fiction), there is even a narration by a very nice old man, or at least someone who sounds like a nice old man. I wish he was my grandfather.

The point it, this show Pushing Daisies is how I imagine Rome is: bright colors and entire shops devoted to pop-up books. It's a retreat from here to a Technicolor world, where, I imagine, some wonderful people who always wear scarves will feed me delicious free gelato.

Oh yeah, if you didn't know, I'm going to Rome. Sorry. But I don't mind.

Someone said I should have a blog, and when I said I'd think about it I was really lying, because back in November I created a blog and furiously related science fiction to the world. I was just trying to get more people to watch Battlestar Razor.

So I'm in Rome for a semester, and if you feel like it, you might read this blog once in a while. I strongly suspect the whole trip will be one extended picnic, with some mixed pastas and wine, so if you're into that sort of thing you should do it yourself and not read about it. But if you don't like the outdoors, old ruins, democracy, history in general, the Catholic Church, or the last Winter Olympics, yet have a sincere interest, maybe you might read this once or twice more.

Comprehensive SciFi Rundown

Steve, my apologies. It's been a good deal over a week now, and you've had no updates. So I'll give you the Cliff Notes version.

Heroes: HRG dies, HRG comes back to life, Mohinder is a terrible field operative, secret or not, Kristen Bell was mishandled as a child (ambiguous?), West is now creepy in a winning sort of way, and Adam Morton is trying to kil everyone...but that's kind of obvious.

Mass Effect: Greatest story ever told (yes, Jesus appeared), shortest Bioware game ever told (if you hold the run button continuously), worst vehicle combat ever experienced. Okay, that last one was not true, I just put it in there for purposes of flow.

Battlestar: Admiral Cain was a lesbian, Commander Adama was the person to discover the organic Cylon project, the Cyclon's god is actually destroyed by an American nuke. Or Caprican, but those two are basically interchangeable.

Specifics, you say? Heroes is steadily climbing upward. There's only two episodes left, and since the series has done nothing but gain steam, I'm assuming that the series finale is actually going to be in 3D, like Beowulf, but this time it will actually grab you but the throat and make you cry tears of black that kills the rest of your housemates. I have to say Battlestar was kind of a letdown. It was pretty much two episodes put together, and if these two episodes occurred in season, they would have been spectacular. However, since I've waited six months for this, and have carved "RAZOR" into the floorboards under my bed, I'm kind of ticked that nothing amazing happened. In all seriousness, I expected a revelation of series finale caliber, some sort of dramatic irony that we could carry into the fourth season, which we know, yet no characters do.

I have declared that Thanksgiving from now on will be called ThanksMassEffect. My Monday night happened just the way I planned it, and, wouldn't you know it, the batteries and Arizona Iced Tea lasted until Friday, when I finally defeated Saren and the Reapers. Using my comprehensive knowledge of video games (I own three) I will rate this game 956 moose out of a thousand possible moose (if you didn't know, the Moose Grading System, or MGS, is the next big thing in terms of scales. It's all the rage in Europe). Pluses: great story, great graphics, American; minuses: short game, a very bad vehicle, a few accents.

Battlestar + Mass Effect =

I like to backup many of my assertions about science fiction with hard science fact, and so here it is. Back in June, scientists fielded an impromtu question about the results of combining the greatest television show ever, Battlestar Galatica, with what will prove to be the greatest video game, Mass Effect. After several minutes of whispering, the scientists answered that they did not know, but they guesstimated that it might look like look like all the worst parts of the Bible, but with a positive spin. Four of the five then voiced their opinion on Trident gum.

Well, these scientists are about to find out.

Battlestar Galatica and Mass Effect are like the two hottest kids in school, who realize their position and agree that there's no other option than to start dating. In a move that the Bible predicts will trumpet the second coming of Jesus, Mass Effect is funding big screen showings of the new Battlestar movie, Battlestar: Razor, in several cities around the states.

There are so many things I want to say, I just don't know in what order to put them. Relevance? Importance? Alphabetical?

First, there are only two things that could improve Battlestar: like the Sith, no more, no less. One, if Kristen Bell joined the cast, but two, if it could be seen on a gigantic screen and receive the grandeur that it deserves (and if Gaeta came out of the closet; that would just be ironic).

Second, Mass Effect is the godsend of games, coming just in time to save console gaming from imminent death. You may say, console gaming is no where near imminent death. Well, after you see the new levels of gaming Mass Effect unlocks (with no cheat codes), you will remember this time we're living in as the brink of a gaming famine. Some diplomats discussed sending Mass Effect to Africa, but then decided against it, citing that without any world problems they wouldn't have jobs.

Third, in case you haven't been watching (and I'm talking to you, Steve, since you're the only one reading), the Battlestar webisodes have been blazing a virtual trail that has shut down servers and served justice to several internet criminals in the past couple of weeks. I'm talking about the two minute pieces concerning a young (and blue eyed?) Adama, as he carries out his first mission, beats a Cylon to death, and discovers the cast of the 1978 Battlestar Galatica, along with their Cylon model battlebots. Is that Leoben behind the mysterious, blood covered door? Steve, you and I will have to wait until Friday to find out.

Hopefully there's a crossover project planned for sometime late next year, where you get to save humanity as Helo and sucker punch Felix Gaeta (Cylon sympathetic trout!).