Review: World Enough And Time

Star Trek: New Voyages, after having technical issues during the scheduled premiere, and subsequent loss of the feeds, finally was able to release the latest episode of the series World Enough and Time.

World enough and Time Starring George Takei as the Alumni guest, along with a cameo by Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand is an episode based around the memories of now Captain Sulu on board the USS Excelsior remembering a mission, and a life...

During a rescue mission, The Enterprise proceeds into the neutral zone, and is met by three Romulan vessels who triangulate, and destroy the ship Kirk and crew try to rescue, and are discovered to be in the neutral zone, and the Romulan Warbirds turn to pursue. Enterprise destroys the warbirds, but end up in a multi-layered time shift, where upon Sulu is commissioned by Kirk to take a shuttle, and retrieve the data one of the warbird's computer cores.

Sulu, and a Computer tech named Lisa shoot across the area to the disabled Warbird, and gain the information, only to encounter major problems, and Kirk calls for Scotty to beam them both back, even though the conditions are dicey at best. Scotty locks on, but is only to bring back Sulu Fully, and he's aged 30 years, but was only gone 30 seconds! But, there my be hope for a second person to be saved! And Scotty locks on to a signal, and beams aboard Alana...Sulu and Lisa's adult daughter. Alana is also not fully materialized, so she's being held in suspension between real world, and the pattern buffer that is keeping her live.

As the story unfolds, Alana seems to be tied to the anomaly, and to save the ship, they must try to retrieve the data Sulu recorded, but Sulu just can't remember even with the aid of Dr. McCoy, and some "medical cocktails" he mixed to jog the memory. Spock and Scotty work on a way to release the ship that fails, and end up with 32 minutes to find out that Alana is wholly tied to the anomaly, and could never be freed. The only way to get the ship out of danger is to use an old copy of Sulu's pattern, taken just before he was beamed back to the ship during the beginning of the episode. We'll leave the rest for you to see...

This was one of the best episodes produced to date, and seems to only get better with each new show coming down the pipe. Kudo's to James Cawley, and the gang for a great action packed, well told story, and an ending that was WELL WORTH the wait!

To catch World Enough and time, you can see it either via video stream (Max 300 users at a time) or download as a bit torrent file for viewing!

BSG Split?!?!?!?

Written by: Michael Hickerson (SoSF Staff Journalist)

First “Flash Gordon” now this….

According to reports from the “Battlestar Galactica” panels at DragonCon, it appears SCI FI is considering splitting the final season of the hit show into two halves…with a long wait in between. If the rumor is true, SCI FI would air the first ten episodes of season four in Febuary of 2008 and then take a hiatus until February of 2009 to air the final ten episodes, according to a report at Buddy TV.

Before you come completely unglued and go Cylon on your co-workers and friends, remember this is just a rumor coming out of DragonCon. We’ve had no official confirmation from The SCI FI Channel that they would do this or wouldn’t do this.

Hopefully, if SCI FI is considering this move, the swell of fan protest might cause them to reconsider the position or realize that ten episodes a year just isn’t enough for the fandom. And how they could easily destroy the momentum and goodwill the fans and critics have given them for “Battlestar Galactica.”

Awww Frack! NBC Pulling Offerings From iTunes...

In a report posted on TV Guide.com, NBC-Universal is said to "not be renewing its fall contract" to release shows like Battlestar Galatica, 30 Rock, and USA Network's Psych along with the rest of their digital offerings, which total 40% of all sales on iTunes.

Though negotiations are continuing, the primary issue is said to be pricing-iTunes wanting to keep the .99 and 1.99 pricing currently listed, NBCU wants to offer different packages, at different price points.

A VP at iTunes has said "We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," then revealed that all NBC-Universal shows would be removed from the library at the onset of the current fall season.

We'll keep you updated as the story unfolds...

Billingsley to Join 24...

John Billingsley (Phlox-ENT) has been reported to be joining the cast of 24, Fox's action thriller starring Keifer Sutherland. Billingsley's character, called "Latham" will be a recurring role for the trek actor, although the rest of the details are being kept tightly under wraps until the 7th season premiere in January '08.

Look for 24 on you local Fox stations!

Holodeck Comming Soon?

Source: Slice of Sci-Fi
Written by: Sam

A technology dubbed “autostereoscopic light field display” makes the claim it is able to present interactive 3D graphics to multiple simultaneous viewers 360 degrees around the display.

The USC developers of the device — Andrew Jones, Ian McDowall, Hideshi Yamada, Mark Bolas and Paul Debevec — describe it this way in their abstract:

The display consists of a high-speed video projector, a spinning mirror covered by a holographic diffuser, and FPGA circuitry to decode specially rendered DVI video signals. The display uses a standard programmable graphics card to render over 5,000 images per second of interactive 3D graphics, projecting 360-degree views with 1.25 degree separation up to 20 updates per second.

We describe the system’s projection geometry and its calibration process, and we present a multiple-center-of-projection rendering technique for creating perspective-correct images from arbitrary viewpoints around the display. Our projection technique allows correct vertical perspective and parallax to be rendered for any height and distance when these parameters are known, and we demonstrate this effect with interactive raster graphics using a tracking system to measure the viewer’s height and distance. We further apply our projection technique to the display of photographed light fields with accurate horizontal and vertical parallax.

The display was highlighted at the opening of the new USC Stevens Institute for Innovation.