SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 78 – Our Interview with Catherine Hicks from Star Trek: The Voyage Home, Chucky, and Seventh Heaven.

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Listener Question:

How important is Science Fact in Science Fiction? We'll be discussing it on October 12th.

Our Interview:

Catherine Mary Hicks (born 6 August 1951; age 59) is the actress who portrayed Dr.Gillian Taylor in the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Hicks is best known for her starring role as Annie Jackson-Camden in the television series 7th Heaven. Fellow Star Trek film performer Stephen Collins co-stars with Hicks on this series as her husband, Reverend Eric Camden. Prior to this, Hicks was a regular on the daytime soap opera Ryan's Hope, playing Dr. Faith Coleridge from 1976 through 1978. Also starring on this program at that time were Star Trek: Voyager star Kate Mulgrew and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine actor Andrew Robinson. Hicks went on to play Dr. Emily Rappant on the short-lived series The Bad News Bears, co-starring Star Trek III: The Search for Spock'''s Phillip Richard Allen. In 1994, she and Ed Begley, Jr. played husband-and-wife in another short-lived series, Winnetka Road, also starring Richard Herd. Aside from Star Trek IV, Hicks can be seen in many other motion pictures throughout the 1980s, having had major supporting roles in such films as Death Valley (1982, co-starring Stephen McHattie), The Razor's Edge (1984), Peggy Sue Got MarriedLife Father Like Son (1987, with Armin Shimerman, Kitty Swink, Michael Horton, and Dakin Matthews), Secret Ingredient (1988, with Jeff Corey), SouvenirChristopher Plummer), and She's Out of Control (1989, with Wallace Shawn and Derek McGrath). Possibly her best known film role, however, is that of a mother vicitmized by her son's doll in the popular 1988 horror movie Child's Play, co-starring Chris Sarandon and Brad Dourif. (1986), (1989, co-starring Hicks also had the lead role of Marilyn Monroe in the 1980 made-for-TV movie Marilyn: The Untold Story (also featuring Brad Blaisdell). The following year, she starred in Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, a 1981 TV movie also starring Jean Simmons and Janet MacLachlan. In 1989, she played Bruce Greenwood's ex-wife in the TV movie Spy. Her later film credits include 1991's Liebestraum (with Zach Grenier and Thomas Kopache), 1995's Dillinger and Capone (co-starring F. Murray Abraham, Jeffrey Combs, Clint Howard, Bert Remsen, and Time Winters) and 1997's Turbulence (with James MacDonald and Scott Lawrence). She was also seen in such TV movies as Hi Honey - I'm Dead (1991, with Gregory Itzin) and For All Time (2000, with Bill Cobbs).

On the menu tonight: Interview Catherine Hicks Trivia A New LOST show. Nine Inch Nails Batman 3 This Week in Star Trek SciFi Five in Five Trivia:

Old Trivia: Question: BSG Trivia   What was Laura Roslin's position in the government before she became President? Answer: Secretary of Education Prize: First two books in the autumn rain trilogy.  "And it seems appropriate that you would give aways books for knowing this, because she doesn't lend them out.  Books are always gifts." B. Hardin Winner: Kathleen G. New Trivia Question: What popular African American comedian back in the 80s was originally considered to play the cetacean biologist in Star Trek The Voyage Home? Prize: Am autographed photo of Catherine Hicks with William Shatner. You will have until October 12th to answer this question. Send your answer with your mailing address to scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com, call us at 18885084343, or DM us on Twitter at @scifidiner.

Podcast Promos:

Fringecasting with Wayne and Dan

Alex Fenson's New Forest Podcast The Main Course: TV News: Linus and Locke team up for new J.J. Abrams TV series

Ever since Lost started winding down, Michael Emerson has been joking about reuniting with costar Terry O'Quinn for a TV series in which they'd both play suburban hitmen. Turns out it was no joke! While we have no idea whether the hitmen concept is still part of the equation, the word out of NBC today is that the two men's TV reunion is a go. According to The Hollywood Reporter, NBC has made a pilot commitment to a new series starring Emerson and O'Quinn. While no details have yet been released, it's been reported that the pair would be playing ex-black-ops agents. This marks Abrams' second project for NBC, following up on Undercovers, which premieres tonight. Are you looking forward to seeing Linus and Locke together again for the first time?  

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor developing sci-fi miniseries NINE Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor is developing a science-fiction miniseries based on his album Year Zero.

The Year Zero miniseries will be produced by Lawrence Bender, producer of several Quentin Tarantino films, and Kelly Brown, executive producer of the TV series Roswell, the Los Angeles Times reported. Daniel Knauf, writer of the HBO series Carnivale, is writing the script. "It's exciting. I probably shouldn't say too much about it except that I understand that there's a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing," Reznor said. "I've learned that [television development] moves at a glacial pace." Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero, released in 2007, is a sci-fi concept album set in a dystopian 2022. Reznor said on the Nine Inch Nails website that the story deals with "erosion of freedoms" and "the way that we [the United States] treat the rest of the world and our own citizens." The album was promoted with a viral campaign that included messages hidden on the prints of tour T-shirts, a network of websites relating to the Year Zero story, and USB drives containing songs and hidden messages left in public bathrooms around the world.  

'Eureka' Audience Finishes With Another Record   Most of the time, audiences for shows shrink. Even if they do grow, it's usually for a season or two before it starts to fade. Not with Syfy's "Eureka," however. For the fourth consecutive year (yeah, the number that comes after three), the quirky comedy starring Colin Ferguson has added to its already sizable audience base, finishing with 3.16 million total viewers over the course of the season. That's up slightly from the 3.15 million that tuned in for Season 3, and is leaps and bounds beyond the 2.48 million that were around for Season 1 back in 2007, according to a press release from Syfy. The numbers include not only live viewers, but those who DVR as well -- a growing segment of television's viewer base. Among the more than 3 million who tuned in each week, 1.4 million were adults between 18 and 49 (up 1 percent from the year before), a key demographic appealing to advertisers. Of that, 584,000 were adults under the age of 34, up 8 percent from the year before, marking its best audience in this particular demo ever. The growth has slowed for "Eureka," starting with a 20 percent jump in Season 2 to a 6 percent rise in Season 3. However, the fact that it's growing -- and remains one of Syfy's top-rated programs, means that there will be plenty of "Eureka" to go around in the coming years, and will remain the network's longest-running current program. The show already has been renewed for a fifth season -- something the network pretty much does without hesitation -- and will air a Christmas episode in December, like its sister show, "Warehouse 13." "Eureka" might be strong in the ratings, but it's not stopping the producers from taking chances. This season, the addition of James Callis from "Battlestar Galactica" allowed the entire show to virtually reset itself. It also featured a crossover with "Warehouse 13," bringing Allison Scagliotti to town for a single episode. The show also included some interesting guest stars including Ming-Na from "Stargate: Universe," Wil Wheaton from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," Matt Frewer of Max Headroom fame, and Felicia Day. Besides Ferguson, "Eureka" also stars Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Joe Morton, Erica Cerra, Neil Grayston, Niall Matter and features Jordon Hinson. Movie News: Star Wars is getting redone in 3-D with a new theatrical release! http://bit.ly/bIUX4h

We probably all knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but Lucasfilm says it's going to remaster the entire Star Wars saga in 3-D and release the movies in theaters (again). You can expect Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace to kick things off in 2012, which also happens to be the year of the Mayan apocalypse. Hm... Depending on your view of 3-D, this is either a great moment in the history of Lucasfilm or a horrifying moment in the history of Lucasfilm. Deadline has the details:

This is big news and Lucafilm intends to make a big announcement about this long-awaited live-action Star Wars Saga conversion to stereoscopic 3D tomorrow. Can you imagine the Death Star trench run and the Tatooine Podraces in that format? Yikes! Plus, with Industrial Light & Magic supervising the project, led by John Knoll, this won't just just another cheezy 3D conversion. According to tomorrow's announcement, obtained by Deadline, ILM's visual effects supervisor Knoll says, "Getting good results on a stereo conversion is a matter of taking the time and getting it right. It takes a critical and artistic eye along with an incredible attention to detail to be successful. It is not something that you can rush if you want to expect good results. For Star Wars we will take our time, applying everything we know both aesthetically and technically to bring audiences a fantastic new Star Wars experience." Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is expected to be released theatrically in 2012. A release date has not yet been set for the other five films in the saga. This is sure to be a cash cow for everyone involved. Star Wars creator George Lucas acknowledged publicly earlier this year that the 3D conversion had been stalled but that seeing first Avatar and then Alice In Wonderland become such successes gave him new impetus to make the conversion. Though never a fan of 3D, Lucas has said he'd been looking "for years and years and years" to add 3D to the Star Wars Saga but felt the technology hadn't measured up until Avatar changed his mind. Chris Nolan admits (yes!) he's directing Batman 3 http://bit.ly/dfq9B3 Everyone's always assumed Christopher Nolan would be back to direct Batman 3, but the man himself has been cagey about it pretty much since completing The Dark Knight back in 2008. Well, we can at last breathe a sigh of relief: Nolan confirmed that he will in fact be getting behind the camera for his third go-round with the Caped Crusader. Of course, he wouldn't say it straight out at first, telling Empire, "It's becoming inevitable, I'll put it that way. I feel myself falling into it, I guess. And getting it all figured out and I'm pretty excited about what we're doing, so ... If I haven't announced it, I think that people probably all know at this point that I'm doing it." When asked if we could take that to mean he's officially, really, truly directing the thing, Nolan replied, "I think you can at this point, yes." The director also confirmed that he is currently working on his own draft of the script, which has been written by his brother Jonathan. No word, of course, on villains, plot, or anything like that, but apparently Michael Caine told BBC Radio 1 that he's been hearing about a May 2011 start date for production and that he assumes he'll be back as Alfred Pennyworth. Batman 3, or whatever they end up calling it, is scheduled to arrive on July 20, 2012. Let the speculation begin! DVD Review: Yes! The restored "Metropolis" is coming 11/16 on DVD and Blu-ray. Info, trailer: http://j.mp/dsozrJ Metropolis takes place in 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor. The tense balance of these two societies is realized through images that are among the most famous of the 20th century, many of which presage such sci-fi landmarks as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner. Lavish and spectacular, with elaborate sets and modern science fiction style, Metropolis stands today as the crowning achievement of the German silent cinema. Kino International is proud to announce the DVD and long awaited first time ever Blu-ray release of the new restoration of Fritz Lang's 1927 science fiction masterpiece METROPOLIS, now with 25 minutes of lost footage and the original Gottfried Huppertz score. This new 147-minute version (being released as THE COMPLETE METROPOLIS), opened theatrically in April 2010 earning over $350,000 at the box office, and since it’s original restoration, has gone on to earn $1,000,000 in theatrical ticket sales! When it was first screened in Berlin on January 10, 1927, the sci-fi epic ran an estimated 153 minutes. After its premiere engagement, in an effort to maximize the film's commercial potential, the film's distributors (UFA in Germany, Paramount in the U.S.) drastically shortened METROPOLIS, which had been a major disappointment at the German box office. By the time it debuted in the United States later that year, the film ran approximately 90 minutes (exact running times are difficult to determine because silent films were not always projected at a standardized speed). METROPOLIS went on to become one of the cornerstones of science fiction cinema foreshadowing BLADE RUNNER and THE MATRIX to name just a few recent examples. Testament to its enduring popularity, the film has undergone restorations in 1984 and again in 1987. The 2001 restoration combined footage from four archives and ran at a triumphant 124 minutes. And at the time was widely believed that this would be the most complete version of Lang's film that contemporary audiences could ever hope to see. But, in the summer of 2008, the curator of the Buenos Aires Museo del Cine discovered a 16mm dupe negative that was considerably longer than any existing print. It included not merely a few additional snippets, but 25 minutes of "lost" footage (about a fifth of the film) that had not been seen since its 1927 debut in Berlin. The discovery of such a significant amount of material called for yet another restoration, carefully executed by Anke Wilkening of the Murnau Stiftung (Foundation) (the German institution that is the caretaker of virtually all pre 1945 German films), Martin Koerber, Film Department Curator of the Deutche Kinemateque and on the music side, by Frank Stoebel. Regarding the quality of the added footage Ms. Wilkening has said: "The work on the restoration teaches us once more that no restoration is ever definitive... Even if we are allowed for the first time to come as close to the first release as ever before, the new version will still remain an approach. The rediscovered sections which change the film's composition, and at the same time always be recognizable through their damages as those parts that had been lost for 80 years." DVD ITEM#K690 UPC# 7 38329 06902 5 SRP: $29.95 DVD Features: - Original 1927 score by Gottfried Huppertz, performed by the Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, conducted by Frank Strobel presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround - Limited Edition Collectible "O-Card" Packaging - Voyage to Metropolis, a 50-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film - Interview with Paula Felix-Didier, curator of the Museo del Cine, Buenos Aires, where the missing footage was discovered - 2010 re-release trailer BLU-RAY ITEM#K713 UPC# 7 38329 07132 5 SRP: $39.95 Blu-ray Features: - Original 1927 score by Gottfried Huppertz, performed by the Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, conducted by Frank Strobel presented in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 - Limited Edition Collectible 3-D Lenticuar Box Packaging - HD Video: 1920 x 1080p - Voyage to Metropolis, a 50-minute documentary on the making and restoration of the film (presented in HD) - Interview with Paula Felix-Didier, curator of the Museo del Cine, Buenos Aires, where the missing footage was discovered - 2010 re-release trailer This Week in Star Trek

Life After Star Trek w/ Chris Wood Available on ITUNES.

The SciFi Five in Five Five movies that are a must see for non-Scifi watchers - today.... 1. Avatar 2. Star Trek XI

3. Wall.E

4. The Matrix 5. Independence day