In the 2000s and 2010s, that purveyor of quality entertainment, the SyFy channel, released over 200 original made-for-TV movies, which, given the network’s name, could only peripherally be called science fiction. Most were what was once called B-movies, variations on disasters, monsters both mythic and human-created, and horror… and often all three, with the addition …
Tag: Media
Jan 19
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/19/22: The Best of Twittersnips
xxxx(Playing in Another’s Sandbox)
Very occasionally over the past years I’ve stepped out and created random characters for existing media — books, movies, or even toy lines. Here’s a selection. Franchise and fanfic characters Middle Earth (J. R. R. Tolkien) Smerri Peachlake, Nol Bluffbuggin, Gosti Threeclasp (Hobbits) Yevenglazar, a giant spider Prince Thrindhöil Gandian Graymurgh, a wizard Islands …
Jan 12
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/12/22: Mermaids
Mermaids are one of those mythological creatures everyone thinks they know everything about, yet no one knows anything about. To begin with, in spite of a certain mockumentary, they are not real. I repeat, mermaids are NOT REAL. Any sitings purported to be mermaids in ancient sailor’s tales and the like are probably of sea …
Dec 08
Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/8/21: Let’s Talk About
xxxxCamelot
The British comedy troupe Monty Python famously skewered the legend of King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, destined to live forever in the minds of a certain generation who encountered it first during a fundraising drive on PBS. ** The Pythons did not have much of a budget, so there were no …
Nov 29
Worst Dressed Superhero
I’m aware that the list is very long, as comic book heroes and heroines have been doing their thing in questionable costumes for decades. But 1973’s dystopian gladiator Killraven takes my vote for worst-dressed: black leather boots with over-the-knee epaulets and modified slingshot thong (with lacing.) I feel dirty just by looking at him. Not …
May 19
Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/19/21: Beatles Songs
The Fab Four in their Western cartoon version (above) from the 1965 Saturday morning cartoon, and an Eastern version of them as Japanese manga figures, below. One thing about the Beatles is that their song titles evolved over time. Here’s a listing from A Hard Day’s Night, released in 1964: And then Abby Road (1969): …
Dec 23
Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/23/20: Christmas Songs
Most Christmas songs are recognizable by their titles. There’s something Merry, something Snow, maybe something God or Jesus. Sometimes there’s an anomaly, like “I Want a Hippopptamus for Christmas.” But mostly it’s white bread. Here’s some titles yet to be used for your self-created Christmas tunes. Christmas Carols Young Father Christmas The Old Gray …
Dec 16
Worldbuilding Wednesday 12/16/20: Christmas Characters
Santa, and Father Christmas and Sinter Klaas before him, is the penultimate character representing Christmas spirit, but he has many helpers. In Germany, there’s his evil counterpart Krampus, and since 1823 (when A Visit from St. Nicholas — better known as The Night Before Christmas — was first published) his reindeer. In the twentieth century …
Nov 25
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/28/20: Scooby-Doo
If you were an American child of the 1960s, I can’t emphasize how awesome Scooby Doo, Where Are You? was when it debuted on Saturday Morning TV in 1969. It was radically different from anything that went before. The animation was top-notch and the storylines more complicated than animals chasing each other around with hammers. …
Nov 18
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/18/20: Rock Bands
It’s not an easy task to worldbuild a fictional rock band. You need to have polished writing skills, a finger on the pulse of contemporary culture (or history of pop culture, if set in the past) and an in-depth knowledge of the music world. That’s a rare order. Nevertheless, some writers in recent years …