Irvin Kershner, Director of Empire Strikes Back is Dead

Irvine Kershner, image: Lucasfilm

The Hollywood Reporter and New York Times are reporting that Irvin Kershner, director of Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back has passed away. I'm so sad to learn this as Empire has long been my favorite of the original trilogy movies.

Empire was the dramatic engine of the trilogy and turned a wild and wooly ride into the stuff of myth. Here's to a sharp, creative mind that will be deeply missed.

A slight interruption

So, at the beginning of the month I was all psyched about getting back to the blogosphere after some reoccurring computer virus nastiness. Well fate intervened and took one look at my eagerness and promptly blasted it into atoms by snapping the hinge on my laptop, thus rendering it a flop-top.

While the computer itself still works, the monitor is shot. Factor in the holiday, an uptick in real-life work, and a new RPG side project, and it's no wonder the lot of blogs lain fallow for a few weeks. This past weekend I remedied the situation by picking up a new little netbook to get me by and I'm quite pleased with it. I finally finished transferring my project files to it last night, so blogging will resume shortly. Thanks for hangin' in there.

As a consolation, I offer this sweet collection of retro-space art. Enjoy!

Friends of Starship Warden: Gamma World Creator Jim Ward is Very Ill

I'm a bit behind the curve on this, but still wanted to pass along that Jim Ward, author of Metamorphosis Alpha, the original Gamma World, and one of TSR's founding editors has fallen seriously ill and is in need of some help. His family and close friends have set up a website to help alleviate some of the cost of his care. From the website:

He has been diagnosed, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, with a serious neurological disorder. The gaming world came close to saying goodbye to yet another of the pioneers of RPGing several months ago. The experts say that Jim's condition is treatable and manageable, but will remain very serious forever.

Jim is very, very slowly recovering; every day is a new skirmmish with the disorder. He still suffers from acute bouts of dizziness and a pervasive lassitude due to bodily energy issues.

While Jim and his family are fortunate to have some health insurance, the co-pays are mounting at an alarming rate, having hit five digits some while ago and showing no signs of abating any time soon.

Having had a grandmother treated there for Alzheimer's, I can vouch that the Mayo Clinic provides amazing neurologic care. If you've enjoyed any of Mr. Ward's fine work, this Thanksgiving weekend would seem to be an ideal time to visit Friends of Starship Warden and share your appreciation.

Is "The Lost Future" SyFy's Foray into Gamma World?

Either I don't watch enough TV (that hardly seems possible!) or this is bound to be so bad that they didn't bother promoting it. But the SyFy Channel is premiering a new movie-of-the-week that skirts very close to Gamma World territory. It stars Sean Bean (of LotR fame) as a primitive tribesman living among civilization's ruins. Check out the trailer and this blurb from IMDB:

A group of post-apocalyptic survivors, struggle to survive in a world where jungles and forests and primeval wetlands and deserts have obliterated civilization. They staunchly face genetically mutating beasts and mysterious diseases in an attempt to re-establish the human race as masters of Earth.

SyFy's webpage is even more sparse on details, but I did spot a mention that the mutations are caused by a disease, rather than nuclear radiation or the happy-black-hole-maker.

Here's another preview (which looks hokey/generic):


Ah man, I'm sorry you had to see that. (And I doubly apologize for SyFy's atrociously obnoxious vid player). But the trailer looks slightly more GW-like. Might be worth checking out for some B-movie fun. For me, it's going to have to wait until it's replayed since I'll be seeing Skyline Saturday!

• Official SyFy page 
• IMDB page

Interstellar Inspiration: Hover Stuff