In Memoriam: Ralph McQuarrie

We're sorry to report the passing of SF visionary Ralph McQuarrie, aged 82.
Along with artists such as Chris Foss, Roger Dean, Frank Bellamy and Mike Noble, Ralph McQuarrie's singular vision was another influence in my love of SF art that continues to this day. His design work on the original Star Wars universe and the orignal Battlestar Galactica TV series will be most remembered by many, but he also brought his singular vision to other creations, even if some were not used - a remake of Forbidden Planet, for example.

His contribution to SF art is and always will be, immense. His influence on many young artists, inspiring them to follow in his footsteps, is incalculable.
A tribute posted on his official web site reads:

"It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the passing of Ralph McQuarrie.

"People say you should never meet your heroes. Ralph was the exception to that rule. We were all fans of his amazing art long before we were blessed with his friendship. But once you got to know Ralph it was impossible not to become a fan of Ralph the man.

"Ralph was a very special person for many more reasons than his undeniable brilliance with a brush. He was an especially kind, sensitive, deep, modest, funny and fascinating gentleman. And as fine a role model as any one could have wished for.

"His influence on design will be felt forever. There's no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say...

'that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted.'"

He will be much missed and our thoughts go out to family, friends and all those whose work he influenced on this sad day.

- Ralph McQuarrie, 13th June 1929 - 3rd March 2012. Official web site: www.ralphmcquarrie.com

Flights Of Fancy: Sci-Fi Air Show

What do ILM special effects men do in their time off? For Bill George, who has an impressive CV that includes original and new Star Wars movies as well as Indiana Jones, Star Trek, Harry Potter and Twilight films, his time off is used to create models of old TV and film spaceships and then to insert them into a real world situation where, if they were indeed real, members of the public would be able to interact with them. To this end he has created the impressive Sci-Fi Air Show.

The website's concept is that the spacecraft that we saw in TV series such as Space:1999, Planet Of The Giants or original Battlestar Galactica were not special effects models but real flying vehicles built for the series that they were used in. Once the filming was completed, they passed into collectors' hands in the same way that older military aircraft can pass into civilian hands and they now have joined the real airshow circuit as many older military aircraft have.

In the same way that a real air show would show off aircraft in the air or in static displays with fighter cockpits and transport aircraft holds open so that visitors can see into them, the Sci-Fi Air Show has photos of Vipers with their canopies up and Eagle transporter pods open for visitors to walk through. George has taken this one step further by providing backgrounds for some of the vehicles, from how they were designed, manufactured and flown in the series, to how they came into the hands of the current owners and the problems those owners had in getting and then keeping them air, and even space, worthy.

The Sci-Fi Air Show currently has three Vipers and a Galactica shuttle from original Battlestar, an Eagle transporter and Hawk attack craft from Space:1999, the Spindrift from Land of the Giants, the Flying Sub from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea and the Orion shuttle from 2001: A Space Odyssey. You can also see Star Trek shuttlecraft and a 2001 Moonbus in the backgrounds of some of the photos.

The flying craft are shown on the ground with their undercarriages deployed and often with people queuing to get a better view which, of course, then shows off the size of the original craft. It would be even nicer to see them beside real aircraft with, for instance, the Galactica Vipers beside F-16 Fighting Falcons, the real jet fighters that are nicknamed Vipers by their pilots, or a Space:1999 Eagle beside a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter that was the spaceship's original real world inspiration. Perhaps such ideas will come in further updates to this already impressive site.

• The Sci-Fi Air Show can be found here.

Woo Who! Another Hugo?

Can we drag you away from last night's interminably cute Adipose (and how much do you want to bet that a few of them missed getting picked up by the mother ship and will turn up on Sarah Jane Adventures?) and return to some considerably more scary Doctor Who creatures?

The 2008 Hugo award nominations have been announced and Russell T Davies' new Who empire has taken three of the five nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. Torchwood has one nomination with Captain Jack Harkness while Doctor Who has two with the Human Nature/Family Of Blood two parter and, what must be the bookie's favourite for the award, Blink. The Star Trek New Voyages/Phase II episode World Enough and Time, and the Battlestar Galactica telemovie Razor complete the Short Form nominations.

As for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form the nominations are Enchanted, The Golden Compass, Stardust, Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, and the entire first season of Heroes.

The awards will be presented on 9 August 2008 at Denvention 3, the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, being held in Denver, USA.

Frak Those Toasters!

I don't know much about Jo Storm's Frak You! other than it is an unauthorised guide to the modern Battlestar Galactica TV series and so cannot use copyright photographs from the production. That said, I love the lateral thinking and audacity of their cover.

Those of you who do not watch the series are probably now wondering why on earth there is photograph of a chrome pop-up toaster on the front of a Battlestar book.

Go watch the series and find out!

In Space No One Can Hear You Build...

If the Forbidden Lego book hasn't sparked your imagination for something to do with the kids' Lego once they have become bored with it after Christmas, maybe this website will give you a few ideas.

Lego Sci-Fi has Lego representations of the Tardis and Daleks from Doctor Who and the Liberator from Blake's 7. US TV isn't left out either with the Galactica from the original series of Battlestar Galactica and a Starfury from Babylon 5.

Even Lost gets the Lego treatment with a brick and minifig version of the excavation of the first hatch.

The challenge with building from scratch with Lego is to see the pieces as something other than what the Lego designers intended them to be.

From this website my favourite piece of lateral thinking has to be the use a circular Lego tree as the green engine dome of the Liberator.

Battlestar: The Final Curtain

(Thanks to FG for this item): Several sites, including MediaBlvd Magazine have posted transcripts of the telephone press conference held on Friday, 1st June with Battlestar Galactica producers Ron Moore and David Eick.

E! Online's Kristen also reported on the event and indicates she will be attending a BSG event on 6th June and will be reporting on it.

As fans of the show know, it's just been announced the series will end after four seasons and Eick says it was a decision that took some time to arrive at.

"Like all decisions this large, there were a number of questions that we had about it, internally, and a creative agenda that we wanted to serve," he explained. "We all had to collectively decide when it was time to be definitive about it, and that time is now."

Despite the decision, the show's strong ratings and critical acclaim may yet prompt further explorations of the new BSG universe beyond series end.

"The plan is to end the show and bring it to a definitive conclusion," Moore revealed. "There are no plans, or even thoughts, in our heads of then doing a feature or mini-series, or anything beyond that, but you never say never because who knows how we’ll feel when we actually write the conclusion.

"Will there be a plotline or a story that springs to mind, or that we create on the page that then opens a later door? It would be foolish to say, 'Absolutely not.' But, right now, the plan is for a definitive end."

Eick also paid tribute to the cast of the show. "We’ve inadvertently stumbled upon the greatest collection of actors that I’ve ever been a part of," he commented, hoping to work with many of them again beyond series end.