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FeatureAstrojive: Yes, But Not the Green Lantern You're Thinking Of

Richard Lee Byers comments on the 'outing' of a comic icon

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You may have heard that henceforth, Green Lantern is gay. And if you think that’s a worthwhile change in the service of inclusiveness, I agree. But it doesn’t quite mean what some people imagine. The most prominent character called "Green Lantern" is Hal Jordan, the test pilot-turned-spac ...

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FeatureSometimes It's Best To Just Move On

The shuttlecraft Galileo really isn't worth all this attention

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Not too far from where I grew up in northern Pennsylvania, there was a railroad bridge 301 feet tall and 2,052 feet long built after the Civil War called the Kinzua Bridge. It was designed to connect from the top of one mountain to the other in the Allegheny Mountains portion of the Appalachians ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Acting Is Usually About Being Someone Else

That is why they call it 'acting,' right?

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All I can think of is that Madonna is the cause of so much of our discourse in the world. Seriously. In the mid-1990s, producers were looking for someone to play a singer who slept her way to the top and couldn't act for a little film they were doing called "Evita." And the first person that came ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Careless People Destroy History

A celebrated 'Star Trek' prop should have never been left to rot

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I'm sure you've heard the story by now. When the original "Star Trek" was cancelled by NBC in the 1960s, there were no auctions to sell off pieces of the set or anything like that. Instead, television shows would get the plug pulled, and the next day, demolition crews would be destroying sets and to ...

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FeatureThe Fannish Life: Event Horizon

Here's what you can look forward to this summer!

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What keeps you going when you are having a bad day, week, month, year? When you are a fan there’s always something grand ahead -- a fannish event horizon. In one of the episodes of my favorite telly show, "The Big Bang Theory," Leonard has just broken up with his girlfriend and is feeling blue. ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Making Portal Awards Choices Is Very Hard

The Nominating Committee is now hard at work on this year's ballot

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When I was putting together the idea of having a reader-influenced award for genre shows, movies and actors to make up for the lack of attention from the Emmys, I never thought that I'd still be knee-deep in the Portal Awards more than a dozen years later. Despite the tens of thousands of votes w ...

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Feature'Once Upon A Time' Finds Some 'Lost' Magic

Fantasy and mystery create a fascinating mix in ABC series

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In the television world, an arc-driven, sustainable, water-cooler show that finds ratings success is a bit of a fairytale. ABC found the sweet spot in 2004 with "Lost," but a worthy successor has eluded the networks since then. But if anyone has come the closest to finding that magical formula, ...

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FeatureAstrojive: How To Spoof (And How Not To)

Richard Lee Byers comments on the fine art of parody.

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This column contains possible spoilers from the new Tim Burton film "Dark Shadows." The first science-fiction-related parody I recall experiencing was "Superduperman" by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood in the fourth issue of Mad. I’ve read or watched many others over the years, including "Qu ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Once Upon A Time On ABC ...

After a slow start, this fairy tale really starts to grow on you

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It's so hard to find time to watch all the great television programs out there, and I know that I am missing out on a lot. "Once Upon a Time," which was just renewed for a second season, almost became one of the victims of shows I never got around to watching. I stuck it out for the first handful ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Kickstarter Model Makes Me Nervous ... Sometimes

Raising money for film projects is great, but it's not investing

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As someone who is a champion not only of the creative arts behind television, film, Internet and other media we write about on this very site, it's hard to not support anything that helps create as much of these projects as possible. Kickstarter is one of those sites that help make it possible. D ...

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FeatureThe Fannish Life: Seeking Treasure And Finding Gold

Ann Morris gives you the inside scoop on Syfy's movie event, 'Treasure Island'

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One of the perks of writing for Airlock Alpha is getting to be in on press conference calls with actors, creators and the powers that be of the cool stuff. Having the screener of Syfy’s version of “Treasure Island,” which airs May 5 beginning at 7, was particularly fortuitous for me this pa ...

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Feature'Fringe' Renewed: Fox Deserves Forgiveness Now

It's been almost a decade since 'Firefly' was cancelled

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Genre fans don't really have a big place in their hearts for Fox, and it's probably rightfully so. Fox would order great science-fiction, only to never give it a chance, canceling it after mere episodes. "Firefly" was the biggest one that sticks out in most people's minds, and to some extent, ...

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FeatureAstrojive: Tax Time In Superland

What do citizens of the DC and Marvel Universes complain about when it’s time to file taxes

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Whether we’re Tea Partiers, Progressives, or fall somewhere between the two on the political spectrum, all us Americans bitch about our taxes. We gripe about how much we pay, who else pays too much or too little, and what the money gets spent on. As this year’s filing deadline looms, it occur ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Let's Abolish The MPAA ... Now

The fight to create competition in film ratings begins with theaters

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It's easy to not like the Motion Picture Association of America, because there are too many times we're sitting around scratching our heads on how some films are rated the way they are. You know the MPAA. They are the group of people representing the movie studios, theaters and supposedly the ave ...

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FeatureSciFriday: Digital Domain Needs A Different Approach

Charging students to generate free labor could hurt rather than help

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As much as I love writing for Airlock Alpha, I've never made it a secret over the years that my ultimate dream would be the chance to develop abilities to create great fictional stories that at the very least my mom and people I bribe could enjoy. If I were to ever follow through with that, you k ...

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