On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

I am seeing boxes of Kellogg's product in my suburban Ottawa grocery store. Branded Wednesday and Stranger Things Demogorgon Crunch.

My brain, of course, takes in the packaging on the latter, and flashes back to a first-season episode of Space: 1999 called "Dragon's Domain". Scared the hell out of grade-school-me when I first saw it on CBC Regina TV. I cannot help suspecting that if the the modern marketing mavens at Kellogg's saw that episode of that series, the title critter would be cartoonified on the front of boxes of something called Space: 1999 - Dragon's Delight.

I need a Space: 1999 avatar for this. I'll probably cobble one together later.

But, anyway, this made my night:

https://twitter.com/JamesSACorey/status/1447706201295257602

Yes, one of the Expanse novel-writers' partnership posted that tweet tonight. And after nine novels and six seasons of the TV series those novels spawned, they just might get some interest from ITV. Maybe.

Timing is worth a lot, right? No guarantees on any of this right now, I know.

Now here's a blast from my childhood. In this case, the detonation of the atomic reactor and weapons-grade fissiles that were dumped in a couple of what were supposed to be graves on the Moon in an alternative future that could've been....provided certain smart choices and mistakes and maybe even a few crimes alike had been made instead of what did happen in the real worlds. And if physics, biology and chemistry were slightly other than we knew - and still know - them to be, too.

Some of you reading this will remember the TV series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson's team for ITC back in the mid-1970's. Martin Landau, Barbara Bain, Barry Morse, Catherine Schell and a bunch of other actors in front of the cameras. The first season was more a gauntlet of horrors for the surviving crew of Moonbase Alpha to either endure or die of. The second, closer to classic action-adventure tropes of past series.

Others of you watched it years or decades after the original broadcast fact via syndicated re-runs or the side roads of the Internet. There was going to be either a remake from scratch set further into the possible futures for TV, or a sprucing-up of the VFX and whatnot by a fan-run crew under the brand Space: 2099. But both of those came to grief in different ways.

So now we're going to have this audio-only revival and recasting from the same people who do the audio adventure stories licensed from the Doctor Who and Blake's 7 studios.

I am somewhat surprised, of course. Not sure how high my interest level is at this point. But we'll see.

Picked up a couple of books yesterday.

1. Space: 1999 - Aftershock and Awe by Andrew Gaska, Grey Morrow, Miki and David Hueso

Collected edition from Archaia Black Label, featuring old and new material in the "Awe" story - a retelling of "Breakaway" with elements from several sources, including an earlier script for the pilot of that TV series, and older material from Power Records and Charlton Comics as well...and characters from later episodes thrown into the mix as well.

And then there's "Aftershock", telling the tale as experienced by those left behind on Earth. As you might guess, catastrophe physics has its way with the lives of millions. Also mildly surprising was the decision to go straight to "alternative history" as well, with elements like John F. Kennedy surviving all the way from 1963 as a driving political force behind the organization(s) that built Moonbase Alpha.

Recommended.

2. Star Trek: The Fall - Peaceable Kingdoms by daytonward.

This wraps up the pentalogy begun with Revelation and Dust four months ago. It ends pretty much as I hoped it would, with consequences meet for many future writers in this particular Trek novel-'verse to play with for years to come. At least one character ends up in a place where there's hope for many political adventures to occupy more nights.

(Yes, I do believe politics can be an adventure. If practiced well, in fiction or reality. Sometimes, it can even be inspiring and in several good ways. But I digress...)

There was one revelation that I considered a false note - not sure I want to get into details yet - in what was otherwise a very good yarn indeed.

Recommended.

The oldest memory I have of this actor is his role as Prof. Victor Bergman on Space: 1999. When Fred Freiberger came in as line producer, he left. I didn't get to see his work on the original Fugitive until decades later, thanks to the family's move to Ottawa. It was one of the many cultural benefits of that move, looking back.

I never had the chance to actually meet him, of course, although I'd heard of his attendance of assorted conventions and festivals over the years.

The thing I'm sorriest about is that we won't see any more new work of his.

Good-bye, sir.

For those interested: the CBC obituary notice.