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UNCLASSIFIEDS

MAKE DUKE ENERGY SUPPORT  YOUR STAR TREK/STAR WARS HOBBY?

CALL GARY “SEVEN” AT 513-497-5069.

Ø  STARWARD BOUND INC., P.O. BOX 20064 , Dayton , OH 45420 . Join the science fiction and fantasy association of the Miami Valley ...and beyond. One year membership (from the date the check is received) Individual: $10; Group $12 (2 members + $2 for each additional member living at the same address); corporate $25.

Ø  Steve Murtaugh – Klingon paraphernalia - SIS Hegh tai murDa
5654 Sandra Drive , Pittsburg , PA 15236 . E-mail: murtausm@msha.gov

Ø  Bumper Stickers & Window Signs - Various sayings or have your own saying put on. Contact Greg Turner gturner359@aol.com for more details.

AREA MEETINGS

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Upcoming Events

No book discussion this month!  You're welcome to come to Conference Room 1 (in the basement of the Covington Library for games and such at 11 AM;  we'll have an Editorial Staff Meeting to discuss Talon's Edge related matters at 1 PM.  Next month, we'll discuss Orson Scott Card's Ender in Exile. 

USS Aquila Meeting 2 PM follows immediately.  We hold meetings at the Mary Ann Monaghan Library, Covington KY Basement board room, but this month, look for us in Conference Rom 1.   (Ask librarian for escort below). 

U.S.S. Aquila  Briefing Room March 2010

Attendees of the March 13 meeting of the USS Aquila:  Diane Baker,. Charles Infosino, Rob Langenderfer,  Steve Profitt, Steph Rechtin. 

Charles Infosino now bears the rank of Chief Petty officer.  Congrats!

We discussed SF news:  Sequel to the Star Trek film not yet begun.  It's due for release June 29, 2012.  Linda Loft (Cowboys and Aliens) may appear in it.  Steve asks how long will it take to film?  Not known.  What might they cover?  Possibly:  development of Vulcan culture, without a home world.  

Star Wars live action show is committed to 100 episodes, but the Clone Wars animated show will come first.  Wayne Pygmi (Scorpius on Farscape) will appear.  (Vicki Meece, source for this info is into Farscape,.)  Merlin debuts a second season on Syfy Channel; first episode airs April 2. 

We discussed panel topics for Millennicon, particularly Trek.  How does the film differ from Gene Roddenberry's original vision?  The discussion was lively and wide-ranging. 

Our April meeting is on the 10th in Conference Room 1.  No book discussion before the Aquila meeting. 

April 23-24 is the Camp Dover reunion; a Klingon oriented relaxacon, which Robert O'Riley (Gowron) has attended in the past.  March 17 is the deadline for banquet tickets.  <NOTE from Webmaster: The Con has been cancelled. Some friends and family are going to Dover that weekend to hold a Memorial Candlelight Service at the gravesite>

Rob has joined the Mars Society on an individual basis ($25 for memberships).  Their international convention will take place in Dayton OH, August 5-8. 

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Briefing Room (continued)

The Flying Pig Race is looking for volunteer assistants May 2.  The former Renegade Garage Players (now Marjorie Book Continuing Education) will receive $400 if they can obtain 30 assistants.  This would comprise a major chunk of their budget.  They need one week's lead time;  transport will be supplied. 

Panel discussion circled around the question of the meaning of 'true Trek."  Rob is of the opinion that J. J. Abraham's film is not true to Gene Roddenberry's original vision.  Blowing up Nero was shocking;  he can find no examples (as of meeting discussion) that Kirk behaved in such a violent way.  Battlestar Galactica has a dark view of humanity;  Roddenberry is more idealistic.  Humanity has value;  BSG ep with Odama vs. Kane presents Cylon version:  humanity has no value.  Diane argued that Kirk is young;  he might well behave differently with more seasoning, but even so, Kirk always had a "hair trigger" penchant to violate the Prime Directive,, often using physical force to solve conflicts. 

Very Sad News:  Joe Manning Passes on to StoVoKor

I learned on March 17, that local Star Trek  fandom lost one of its pillars.  Joe Manning, the organizer of the Camp Dover Peace Conference, which became the yearly reunion of Star Trek fandom of OH and even KY and MI, which although it was Klingon-dominated, was always a place where even us Federation-types could always have a good time (and, seriously, was something Joe developed to try to build ties among fans and break down  divisions), died earlier today, apparently of heart problems.  (RL)

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USS Aquila:  The First Ten Years

In February of 1993 there was a special Starfleet wedding to commemorate the marriage of newsletter editor Terrie Holahan to John Drummonds after the club meeting where Erin Pence was named the new Cadet Corps Commander for the ship, a position that he would hold for the next eight and a half years until he and Glenna moved to Texas.  I had been formally assigned to Security the previous month as a Petty Officer on the Aquila, and I did not take a large part in the  proceedings, but I was there.   Attendees at this event were Joy Menges, Cindy Paugh, Jason Paugh, Greg and Vanessa Turner, Linda, Tina, Tammy, Adam and Brian Widener, Glenna Juilfs, Erin and Jessica Pence, Pam, Crissie and Nikkie Paynter, Stephen Pence, Tonya Rutledge, Tammy, Shawn, and Heather Borchardt, Brooke Johnson, Katie McManus, Gary Donner, June Gunter, Ben Stull, Dave Slaughter ,  Terrie and John Drummonds, Alan Collier, Alice Farley, David Alexander, John, Carolyn and Jody Cook, Christina Shafer, Leonard and Shirley Robinson, Dave Borcherding, Dennis Schwendemann, Alan Wright, Rob Langenderfer, Freda Kurtzman, Tom Kummer, Charlie Kersker, and Shelley Wagner attended.  It was the last Aquila event held in Crescent Springs Presbyterian Church for word had gotten out that church member Jennifer Alexander was no longer regularly attending Aquila meetings and the church no longer had a reason to agree to serve as a meeting place for the club.

For the next several months the club met at Bonanza Steakhouse.  In April Joy Menges stepped down as CO, and the club finally established a set procedure for choosing the command staff on a regular basis, something that the group had not had prior to this point.  Cindy Paugh was elected CO, Greg Turner was elected 1^st officer, Glenna Juilfs was elected 2^nd officer and Dennis Schwendemann was elected 3^rd officer.  After the meeting several members, including myself, Tammy Borchardt and her family, Glenna and some of her family and possibly Cindy and her family went to have an Easter Egg hunt at a local park.  Later that evening, Pam Paynter, Erin Pence, Tammy Borchardt, Gary Donner and myself went out to a Malts After Midnight outing.  Cindy was there as was Bev Hater, Joan Riley (having recently stepped down as Polaris  CO), and a lot of other people from the Polaris and from Tri-State Online (which was not as active as it once was Trekwise but still maintained  Trek and SF forums).  There was even an admiral from Starfleet in town from Washington state who was head of one of the Starfleet regions from the West coast talking a bit with Joan about financial issues at the international HQ of Starfleet between the retiring Fleet admiral, Jeannette Maddox and her successor, Rob Lerman.  It was great to be there, and Gary Donner even treated me to an ice cream, but all of us actually had more fun talking and joking in the car on the way over than at the Malt Run itself!  Fourteen Aquila members attended the Dover Peace Conference later in April, including Cindy and Ken Paugh, Glenna Juilfs, Tammy Borchardt, Heather Borchardt, Brooke Johnson, Greg Turner, Pam Paynter, and Jessie Pence were there, among others.  The game Bounty Ball, where you toss a roll of paper towels around until the plastic comes off, which was later played in great fun at Maryanna and Terry Willacker’s among other places, was created on this Dover trip.   Dover had become THE place for people from many different Trek clubs all throughout OH to gather together in a fun setting.

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In June the Aquila began to meet regularly at Boone County Public Library in Florence.  Cindy’s command style was less formal than Joy’s and much more relaxed and laid back.  I hosted my first party for the ship that month even though the weather was quite uncooperative.  I sought to bring together members from the Aquila and The Friends of the Time Lord, the Dr. Who  group in which I had been a regular member for two and a half years and through whom I had originally gotten information about the Polaris and through their newsletter editor at the time, Renee Alper, found out about the  Aquila two years before.  Linda, Tammy and Brian Widener were able to attend as well as F.O.T.L.  president Joe Link as well as Tom Kelly (who, at the time, was Chancellor of Commuications of F.O.T.L. but would move up to the Vice-Presidency the next year and then have six years as the group’s president after that) and her room-mate Anna Kelley.  Anna in particular (as well as her husband Wayne) would maintain ties to Aquila members (particularly myself, Linda Widener and Glenna Juilfs) for many years thereafter.  In spite of the terrible weather, which had kept many people, including Glenna Juilfs and Tammy Borchardt from attending, those who were able to make it had an excellent time.  Fourteen Aquila  members attended Paramount’s King’s Island on June 6^th that had special Star Trek  content at the time.  Terrie stepped down as newsletter editor during the summer, but in early August Glenna assumed the post and would remain as the club newsletter editor until she moved to Texas eight years later.   In August there was a fun gathering of members of many different clubs, including the Aquila  and the Polaris at the planetarium where we got to see an interesting space-related program on their big special screen, and Anna and Wayne Kelley were also there.  Sixteen members of the U.S.S. Aquila attended the club picnic at Indian Lake Wildernes Preserve in September, including Cindy Paugh, Glenna Juilfs, Erin and Jessie and Dustyn Pence, Janet Burgoon, Pam, Nikkie, and Crissie Paynter, Stephen Pence,  Billie Jo Rutledge, Carson, Linda, Tina, and Brian Widener and Rob Langenderfer.  I remember this event particularly well as it was the first time I met Linda’s husband Carson, and it was the first major lengthy outdoor event with the Aquila that I had attended.  The sense of family among the club was never more evident.  Earlier that month I had attended my first Engineering Blueprints meeting at Cindy’s house, and ten Aquilans (although not me, who had other plans that night, seeing Kenneth Branaugh’s Much Ado About Nothing with Joe Link) saw the special Star Trek festival later that night at the Emery Theatre. 

Late that month five long-time members of the ship left the group to help form a correspondence ship with one other long-time member joining them in the not-too-distant future.  However, that was not able to darken the mood on the ship as the club had its commissioning party in October with Cindy Paugh, Glenna Juilfs, Erin Pence, Leonard and Shirley Robinson, Greg and Vanessa Turner, Tammy, Shawn and Heather Borchardt, Alan Wright, Linda, Carson, Tammy and Brian Widener in attendance.  They partied from 9 P.M. until 3:30 A.M.!  If I had not been at my uncle’s wedding, I would have been there!

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Although this may say seem somewhat personal and arbitrary, I can’t neglect to mention when reviewing these particular months all of the help that I received from Linda, Tammy, and Tina Widener in helping me to construct my Cyberman costume for Visions ’93 in Chicago (the big 30^th anniversary convention in honor of Dr. Who).  Although Anna and Wayne Kelley and Tom Kelly and Anne Cox-Espenlaub and Erb Hansel from the Dr. Who club also helped vitally in the process and should not be forgotten, the help of the Wideners at their house, my house and going with me to stores late at night and even working on aspects of the costume when I was practically asleep was particularly invaluable and is representative of many acts of the Aquila that have not been mentioned in this ship’s history. (My costume was finished, and I did wear it in the Visions Costume Contest and received an honorable mention and later wore it at other events.)    ---Submitted by Rob Langenderfer

SF News by Rob Langenderfer

Sir Ian McKellan confirmed that the first of the two films based on Tolkien's LOTR prequel The Hobbit will start filming in July of 2010.  He will of course return to his role of Gandalf. (The film  will split the book - contrary to prior reports, the second film will not be based on a new original story.)

Brian Singer will produce the upcoming X-Men: Origins film. However, it does not look like he will direct the movie at this point.  (Singer did direct X-Men and X2.)

There was recently a report that noted that the live-action Star Wars series is still very much on track and in development.  The Clone Wars animated series has just taken up most of everyone's attention.  I was not sure whether to laugh or cry when I heard this, but I heard on good authority in an interview that George Lucas indicated that if Avatar was successful in revolutionizing film technology that he might make some new Star

Wars films.  I tend to think that in terms of live-action films, the ending of Episode III was so perfect with baby Luke being held up with the two Tatooine suns blazing in the background and the theme music playing that he should end the film series on top and any further live-action films will damage Lucas's reputation even more than the 3 prequels did, but he will do what he will do.

The new season of Dr. Who premieres in the UK on Apr. 6th (if I remember correctly), and it begins to air on BBC America on Apr. 17th. The Sarah Jane Adventures has been renewed for 2 more 12 episode seasons.

Smallville has been renewed for another season. * We should hear something on the fate of Heroes soon. * There have been reports of a new Battlestar Galactica theatrical film unconnected to the SF Channel series.  Has anyone heard about this lately?

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Fantastic Voyages: Avatar:  High tech, low plot and character

Avatar is a beautiful moving comic book.  No doubt:  visual elements in this film are some of the loveliest I've ever seen.  It's almost on a par with seeing Wizard of Oz switch from black and white to color.  Pandoura's setting is exquisite, even spiritually portentous.  The characters (especially those we are supposed to sympathize with) are suitably well-drawn, with ordinary, likeable qualities.  From first frame, our heartbeats synchronize with Jake Sully (I hear echoes of that beloved New York airplane  captain), as he emerges from cryogenic sleep.  Who doesn't love that gritty determination, combined with  his disability; a hero established in a single scene.  Sam Worthington lives up to his name in an easy slide.  Grace, played by all-time favorite Sigourney Weaver, is curmudgeonly, evoking Alien and Gorillas in the Mist at once.  Even minor characters are well drawn.  Too bad they didn't take as much trouble for the villains.

Underneath all those visual thrills and dollops of nobility, however, we have a two dimensional plot-line.  I don't know what the scenery is like in 3D, since I can't use the glasses, but I know what well-rounded (3D)   characters are.  Just watch any episode of Babylon 5. 

Indeed, I have begun to formulate a rule for films:  the more tech elements you see on screen, the thinner the chances that film-spinners will produce a complex, satisfying script.  All those glorious colors are great:  except when they're all that's on screen.  Consider the valued element that "The Company" is after: Unobtanium.  Puh-leez!   A friend of mine pointed out that the ore provides a super-conductor effect---at room temperature, which means tremendous energy.  The problem?   My friend should not have had to point this out to me.  The writers should have.  Yes, the stuff floated (as do the mountains).   Visually powerful, but Cameron made no connection as to why they need the stuff, especially since The Company has Avatar units, sleek space ships, neat floating data screens that everyone carries around like sheets of plastic.  Nor do they seem to lack energy.  We have no notion of what Earth must be like, except for a single line indicating that "they trashed their own planet."  Even the smarmy Company rep isn't talking.   

In many films, broad strokes are necessary to get the story moving.  Arthur C. Clarke's books (and films) are good examples.  You know, when watching 2001 and 2010  that all the scientific architecture is under there, solid enough to walk upon.  Clarke, though not a full scientist, is at least scientific.  Cameron's story is as slender as one of those limbs Sully crawls along as he gets used to his Avatar. 

What do you get when you finish watching this film?  A parable---and not a very good one.  Bad Company exploits Noble Tribe for Greed.  Add in Totally Evil Military Star who subverts Sully's mission with promises of a full body---and blows up the Tribe's ancestral home.  Jake plays Last Samurai, even evoking a mythical character from the tribe's past as he harnesses the Most Dangerous Flying Beastie to unite them.  This is

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AFTER the tribe discovers he's betrayed them.  I'm sure a number of Earth Indian tribes would not keep him around after such a betrayal.  Scalping might have been their response. 

I kept thinking at every juncture, Cameron is far too easy on his characters.  At least a few of the Tribe speak English.  How did that happen, asks Sully.  He gets no response.  (Maybe they got it by sticking their long braids into the Great Shining Tree, which knows all, of course.)  He falls for a tribal princess (Zoe Suldana)  And the great military strategist can't figure out that he needs to pull the plug on Jake's Avatar?  Grace is smart enough to figure this out, since they move the science base to a location unknown to higher-ups.  Sure, there's a time or two when he's away from the slumped Avatar, which is in danger, as he wolfs down a hurried dinner out of the tank.  So the Tribe picks him up and takes him along.  (At one point, the war-chieftain points out that this is a "false body.")   And of course, Grace gets killed off.  Will she return as a ghost in the next film?  Anything's possible!

All these inconsistencies soon niggle past every thrilling scene.  Who can't enjoy all those flying scenes, the psychedelic effect of those paisley creatures, the subtle blues of the Na'vi skin, the glorious lights of the Home Tree, the colors which  light up underfoot as people step on the purple ground-cover?  ("Billie Jean" kept running through my mind as I watched---an effect James Cameron couldn't have anticipated.)  However, none of this involves the mind.  It affects only emotions.  That's because this is only a moving comic book.  Lovely to watch, but after all the colors fade, there's not much to think about or take home with you, save for a giant "WOW" factor.  I love a good SF film, but this barely rises to the level of "pulp."  At least, when E. E. "Doc" Smith created his Lensman series, he did a little more than spray around a few pretty color-clouds.  Appropriately, they won Oscars for the right elements:  visuals. 

A final note:  since I couldn't see the 3D effects, I had to imagine that the flying was a bit more exciting to those who can.  I was told that the effects were much better than past attempts, but that I didn't really miss out on that much.  I'd like to know what others think.  --Submitted by D. J. Baker

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NCC 42297

Talon’s Edge

The Wings of Tomorrow”

Editor : Diane Joy Baker

2021 Emerson Ave.

Cincinnati, OH  45239

E-Mail: uss. aquila@juno.com

The USS Aquila is an independent science fiction and fantasy fan club based in Florence, KY and modeled on the TV series Star Trek.  By coming together in practicing the Infinite Diversities in Infinite Combinations credo as outlined in the Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry, we can rejoice in our differences as well as our commonality, and benefit as human beings as we perpetuate the ideals portrayed in Star Trek. While pursuing these ideals, the club members discuss, debate, and share ideas and memories about all things SF and fantasy. They include books, movies, TV shows, games, and comics.