It's probably not a surprise that my favourite part of Disneyland is Galaxy's Edge - after all, I'm a science fiction fan. But there's more to it than that - every time we visit the park, I fall in love with Black Spire Outpost yet again, thanks to its unmatched ability to take me away to a different time and place.
Fantasyland, Adventureland, Frontierland and Tomorrowland are all conceptual umbrellas
for a wide range of source material, which prevents them from being too specific in their overall look. For example, Adventureland hosts attractions based
on Indiana Jones and Tarzan, along with the Jungle Cruise, none of which have any connection outside of their shared location, and as such it has to be somewhat generic in its style.
Galaxy's Edge doesn't have to compromise - and the result is
brilliant. Radiator Springs runs a close second, but there's nothing
that really ties together its storefront elements, whereas Black Spire
is a perfectly conceived community from the Star Wars universe,
with every part designed and decorated so as to completely evoke the
feeling of being in an alien locale in a galaxy far, far away.
The outpost's buildings*, archways and storefronts share an aged, distressed aesthetic, marked with the occasional pitted memory of a blaster bolt impact, whereas the port buildings surrounding the central plaza have a more formal, industrial look and feel.
The attention to detail is impressive and effective. Set decorators for the first Star Wars moviereferred
to the props used for layering and detailing of the film's sets as
greebly dressing, and Black Spire Outpost beautifully maintains and
extends that original design philosophy throughout the venue.
Even the bathrooms have a rough and ready outpost vibe.
To add to the illusion, Smugglers Run and Rise of the Resistance both cleverly extend Black Spire's reality with storylines that
logically transport guests away from the outpost's location on Batuu for
adventures in space, and then returning them to the surface as part of
each ride's continuity.**
I have no idea what lies behind the various facades in Black Spire - logic says that there would be real-world storage spaces, dressing rooms for cast members, coffee rooms and lockers, meeting rooms and so on, but in my hopeful imagination all the backstage spaces maintain the Star Wars look and feel from the exteriors. How great would it be to work in an office space that looked like it belonged to Han Solo?
- Sid
* The building in the above photo is a nod to the colony's Disneyland home - the two circles and the beaklike canopy are an abstracted portrait of Donald Duck.
** The strange thing about Radiator Springs is that you walk through the town to get to Radiator Springs Racers, which then duplicates many of the town's landmarks within the ride itself.
A monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.
H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
“He was written in the script as a big, whale-like creature. A massive behemoth – it was called The Behemoth. And in designing the movie – we were done shooting, but we obviously never shot the behemoth cause we were gonna do him later – I just basically was like… we were early enough in the design that was able to shift more to a mystical being. So that’s where we started going Lovecraftian. So I was like alright, [we’re] making Cthulhu here.”
Director William Eubank, Underwater
Whenever I travel, I generally load a few movies onto my iPad, just in case the inflight options leave something to be desired. For this year's trip to Disneyland, one of my entertainment choices was Underwater, the 2020 science fiction horror film starring Kristen Stewart, and I ended up watching it on our flight to Anaheim today.
At the time of its original release, Underwater failed to perform at the box office, with an international gross of $41 million against a budget of about $65 million. Personally, I rather liked the film, in spite of its poor reception - it might not break any new ground in terms of moviemaking, but I appreciated its abruptly disastrous opening scene, the underwater sequences are well shot and surprisingly claustrophobic, it has good art direction, and its little repertoire cast does strong work with a bare-bones plot.
Kristen Stewart brings a lot to the table in terms of acting ability in her portrayal of mournfully defiant mechanical engineer Norah Price - at first I felt that she was slumming a little bit in doing a monster/horror genre film like this, but I can't deny that she doesn't hold back in her performance.
But, all other comments aside, I was completely unaware that Underwater was a Cthulhu Mythos film - the gigantic humanoid monster that dominates the climax of the film is never explicitly identified as H. P. Lovecraft's Great Cthulhu, but in context, it's obvious that it's based on the Great Old One who lies dreaming in R'lyeh. (Thereby making the smaller creatures the Deep Ones from the Mythos.)
However, it's really more of a cameo than a starring role. As far as I know, Lovecraft's short fiction is now in the public domain* - let's stop wasting our time doing horror versions of Winnie the Pooh, isn't it time that someone does the definitive Mythos film that we've all been waiting for?
- Sid
* I have the impression that there's some grey area here legally speaking - Lovecraft's work may be public domain, but there have been enough comics, games, and tributes referencing Cthulhu that there may be some challenges regarding explicit use of the name.
Today I asked the Adobe generative AI for a female longshore worker in coveralls, and to my intense amusement it obligingly created the following image:
Why was I amused? Well, there is always more than one solution to a problem. Presumably at this point, many many MANY users have complained to the AI about hands coming out strangely or with too many fingers. The AI's response? "Damn it, I give up - I'm just going to put her hands in her pockets. I hope you're happy now!"
- Sid
P.S. My wife's response was interestingly different:
"Oh that's awesome! But also scary! It's hiding the thing it knows we know to use to identify it."
My lovely wife needed to venture out into the cold this morning to buy a book for her sister's birthday, and invited me to join her on her shopping trip. I'm always happy to visit a bookstore, so I accepted her invitation, and after breakfast we headed off to our neighbourhood Indigo.
After finding the requested gift book, we wandered around the store a bit, and stopped for a minute at a display of books that had been adapted to television or film, which included Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel. I'd already read the original text in digital format shortly after watching the miniseries on Prime, and unexpectedly found that I preferred the visual adaptation to the novel. Nonetheless, I was willing to support the author by buying a paper copy of the book, so I casually picked up the display copy. To my amazement, it was priced at $50 CAD.
I've complained in the past about the high price of books, but hardcover or not, that's just a ridiculous number - and I can't help but feel that somehow, ultimately, this is Donald Trump's fault.
Kruge: How can that be? They're hiding! Torg: Yes, sir. The ship appears to be run by computer. It is the only thing that is speaking. Kruge: Speaking? Let me hear it. Enterprise computer: 9-8-7-6-5... Kruge: Get out! Get out of there! Get out! Enterprise computer: 2-1...
The Search for Spock
When I saw the footage of the debris from the SpaceX Starship explosion this week, I was immediately reminded of the scene from 1984's Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, where the remnants of the U.S.S. Enterprise destructively re-enter the atmosphere of the Genesis planet that was created during the climax of The Wrath of Khan.
The various photos and videos of the SpaceX iteration actually look more impressive than the Star Trek version - lots of scatter, brighter flare from the re-entry burn, and more details in the debris - but then, Elon Musk is estimated to have spent at least $100M USD on creating this one shot, which is a lot more than Industrial Light & Magic had in their budget for the entire movie back in 1984.
- Sid
P.S. Hey, trivia fans - until researching this posting, I had no idea that a young John Larroquette played the role of Maltz, a member of the Klingon Bird of Prey's bridge crew:
Kirk: You! Help us or die! Maltz: I do not deserve to live! Kirk: Fine, I'll kill you later!
[Later, once safely in warp] Kirk: Take care of the prisoner. Maltz: Wait! You said you would kill me! Kirk: I lied!
Take position for firing rites, and receive the holy sacrament of ammunition. Keep your aim true, and your bolt rifle charged with death.
Ultramarines Chaplain, Defenders of Avarax
Without ever considering myself a virtual reality fan, I've had a surprising number of VR experiences - VR light at Gundam Front in Japan; touring the International Space Station, first in New York and more recently in Vancouver; as well as owning a entry-level Oculus Quest 2 VR headset. I don't know where that places me comparatively in the VR marketplace, but it certainly indicates the degree to which virtual reality has been quietly establishing itself as an entertainment option.
My latest and perhaps most enjoyable VR encounter took place this week, when I joined four other team members in playing Defenders of Avarax, a 30-minute Warhammer 40K Space Marine VR gaming experience hosted by Zero Latency, an international free-roam virtual reality gaming franchise with over 100 locations in 26 countries around the world.
Defenders of Avarax debuted in September of 2024 in conjunction with the release of Space Marine II by game developer Saber Interactive. The original Space Marine game was a fun third-person shooter with spectacular art direction, so I mentally took note of the new version and its VR companion for future reference.
A couple of months went by without really giving it any consideration, but some conversations over the holidays about gaming reminded me of the Space Marine VR option, and I decided to do a bit of research and perhaps give it a try.
The first challenge was to find three other people with an interest in a Warhammer 40K VR adventure to make up the minimum four-person team requirement. For example, my wife was honest enough to confess that she would be too intimidated to function in an immersive gaming experience that involved being attacked by gross aliens, guns or no guns.*
Fortunately, I knew that my co-worker David is a bit of a gamer, and he was eager to give the VR experience a shot as well (no pun intended). He was able to find two other players (one from his Tuesday Dungeons & Dragons group, which provided some extra gaming cred), and Karli's friend John, who came to Disneyland with us last year, was also interested. We picked a mutually agreeable time, made a private reservation for five at a cost of $61.60 each, and we were good to go.
The appointed evening came this week, and we assembled at the Zero Latency location at Main and Broadway.
Zero Latency gets full points for how well they managed the experience. They suggest that you all arrive 15 minutes in advance so that your group can start its one-hour booking on time; they provide free lockers for storing personal possessions; there's a detailed orientation on how the experience will proceed; and they provide a staff member to act as a game master for the 30 minutes of the actual VR portion. The game master sets you up with your gear, gives pointers on how to navigate things like ramps that aren't actually sloped, and monitors your group throughout the game in case of VR problems or other issues. Post game, Zero Latency provides player scores and side-by-side in-game and game-space videos of the experience, along with a link to their Twitch channel.
Each player is equipped with a custom high end HTC VIVE Focus 3 headset and a generic light gun that stands in for a variety of weapons throughout the game. Headset comfort can be an issue in VR, but I found the Focus 3 to be completely comfortable, to the point where I largely forgot that I was wearing it. The pre-appointment guide suggested that users with glasses wear contacts if possible, but I had absolutely no problems with fogging or focus throughout the game.
According to the Zero Latency web site, the actual gaming space is about 1500
square feet - I'd estimate that the room was about 25 x 60 feet. However, full points to the game's developers, who use a multitude of tricks to create the illusion of a
detailed and extensive environment. Over the 30 minutes of our mission to the hive city of Fervastium, we travelled by train, rode multiple elevators, climbed ramps, and at one point floated in the void as reality literally broke into pieces around us, without experiencing any discomfort or
disorientation.
Even more impressively, at one point the game splits your group into two teams that perform tasks at separate locations at different levels - the illusion was so convincing that it never occurred to me that the other team must still be in the same room with me, regardless of the fact that they seemed to be hundreds of feet away.
The MacGuffin of the experience is a powerful dormant artifact hidden in the depths of the hive city, a relic that could change the tide of the struggle against the invaders. You and your squad are tasked with securing the relic, and successfully reaching the rooftop extraction point for pickup by an Ultramarine Thunderhawk gunship. Your opponent: the insectoid Tyranid hordes, an army of specialized bio-sculpted organisms controlled by a distant hive mind.
The Tyranid aliens attack in hordes, very much in the Starcraft "Zerg Rush" approach to combat, which creates a target rich environment - perhaps too target rich, I would have enjoyed the opportunity to get a better look at my opponents. In order to help even the odds, the game is equipped with weapon upgrade points, where you can temporarily trade your standard bolter/grenade launcher for a melta gun, storm bolter or flamethrower to give your firepower a boost.
(NOTE: This video is cropped from a five-person POV collage - the actual in-game quality is much better)
Overall, the game is notably well executed. The environments are detailed and varied, the Tyranid attackers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, all of which blow up impressively under a hail of grenades and bolter fire, and my fellow Space Marines were well rendered and animated.
I only have two trivial criticisms of the experience. First, automatic fire would be an enormous boon - after a while my hand got tired from repeated triggering. Second, I was disappointed that I had no visible body. All that I could see of myself was my weapon, when what I really wanted was more feedback on where my feet where, especially when it came to climbing the non-existent ramps.**
But those are just minor points - the consensus of opinion was that all five of us really enjoyed the experience, and would happily do it again. David is already recruiting more players from our department at work, using the game recordings as promo material.
And finally, full credit to my Ultramarine brothers in arms, as below: Connor, Aidan, David, (myself) and John - we fight for the Emperor, and we will know no fear!
- Sid
* When we did the Doctor Who: Time Fracture event in London, Karli did not enjoy being chased by Cybermen AT ALL.
** Pro tip: shuffle your feet to avoid losing contact with the floor when attempting to climb a slope that's actually flat.
A BRIEF SIDEBAR: SPACE MARINES
In the Warhammer 40K gaming universe, the Adeptus Astartes, more commonly known as the Space Marines, are the elite of the elite, heavily armed and genetically enhanced warriors in massive suits of powered armour. Acting as the spearhead for the armies of the Emperor, they face foes such as the expansionist alien T'au, the monstrous Orks, the twisted entities of Chaos, the enigmatic Eldar, the swarming Tyranid hives, the undead robotic Necron, and the Traitor Legions - former Space Marines possessed by Chaos. The Space Marines are divided into monastic Chapters such as the Ultramarines, the Blood Angels, the Space Wolves, and the Iron Fists, each with their own heraldry and traditions.
"Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number.
- Yevgeny Zamyatin
Yevgeny Zamyatin was a philosopher, author and dissident in a time and place that tolerated none of those roles - Stalin's Russia. His dystopian science fiction novel We, written in 1920, never saw publication in Russia. He died in Paris in 1937, exiled from Russia at his own request.
For me, his quote expresses the essential shared nature of science fiction and fantasy: a revolution that never ends - an infinite revolution.
Introduction
I've been reading science fiction and fantasy for as long as I can remember - in fact, my involvement goes back further than that, my mother used to say that she had read the Narnia books to me when I was a baby. I've maintained my interest over the years, and after my friend Colin started HIS blog (Campbell Brothers Winery), I thought to myself, hey, if no one stopped HIM*... I make no claim to being an authority in any way, shape or form, and since there are lots of lists, biographies and bibliographies out there on the net, this is just going to be a place for me to vent some of my thoughts and opinions.
*And the Campbell Brothers may be desperately in need of stopping, based on all evidence.
