Charmed... and Dangerous

Okay, I admit it. For no reason I can come up with, I am hopelssly addicted to Charmed.

Yes, Charmed. The long-running WB supernatural drama.

I started watching reruns on TNT a few years ago; the post-Doherty stuff that focused mostly on Cole. And I was pretty darn impressed. Enough so that I bought the first season on DVD (cheaply, I might add). I was inexplicably hooked. It's not the fact that the show features three uberhot leading ladies (although they're certainly far from being eyesores). It's not that it says something deeply profound or breaks any kind of ground whatsoever. It's not that it's overly thought-provoking or laden with deep spiritual or cultural observations. And I don't particularly believe in magic as it's portrayed on the show (which is kind of a generic mythos anyway) so it's not that.

The only explanation I can come up with is, I find it entertaining. Sometimes in a funny way, sometimes in a heartfelt way. For whatever reason, I'm drawn to the Halliwell sisters and their various plights and problems.

I'm approaching the end of season three on DVD and I just bought season four... as anyone who has seen the show knows, this is a pivotal moment in the series as it sees the departure of Doherty's "Prue" and the arrival of Rose McGowan's "Paige". I've only got five episodes left to watch with Prue in them, and I have to say I'm approaching this milestone with some trepidation. Regardless of whatever really went down on the show that prompted Doherty to leave, I'm very fond of Prue and of the three sisters as portrayed in the first three seasons. I like a lot of the early Paige episodes too, especially leading up to the 100th episode (the stuff I saw on TNT) but I can already tell it's going to be tough to see Prue leave. At the risk of sounding absurdly, patently, terribly cheesey, there was a real magic to how Prue, Piper, and Phoebe interacted. So I'm both looking forward to and dreading the end of season three.

So go ahead and laugh. I don't mind. I don't have a good explanation for being addicted to this show, except that it entertains me. It mixes a bit of supernatural thriller, a bit of melodrama, and a bit of humor and the result is a show I've found to be consistently good in its formative years. I've heard terrible rumors about the more recent stuff, but I'll reserve judgment until I get those on DVD. And I may just have to resist watching the series finale in May. (Charmed and 7th Heaven have both been axed by the new supernetwork, "The CW"... the bastard love child of the WB and UPN.)

Okay, so witches aside, let's talk my other great syndicated love: Star Trek. Or better still, let's talk about a script-based adaptation of that syndicated love.

Progress on the Frontiers movie was made this week. How much? Well, lots. And with lots more still to come. This movie is definintely shaping up to be one of my most enjoyable and challenging writing experiences since Frontiers launched. It's our first film, and VST's first film. And it's an event picture - a LOT of stuff happens that will fundamentally change the universe in which Frontiers is set. And there's a certain risk to that. When you take a formula you know works well and change it, you risk losing some fans. Not unlike, say, replacing one uberhot leading lady with another uberhot leading lady, and shaking up the basic mythos of your series. No, Salea's not going to be replaced by another uberhot alien babe... but the core of what Frontiers is about will shift.

And everyone in the cosmos is going to feel it.

Movie Update and More...

What's up, Frontierland? I had a bit of free time on my hands, so I thought I'd throw in my second post here.

For those of you who don't know, I do part-time videography. Mostly weddings. My beast of a PC has been giving me so many problems... one of the fans quit working, the motherboard went bad, it was plagued with performance problems, and it constantly froze up on me. Imagine doing forty minutes or more worth of editing and rendering only to have the machine freeze seconds before you hit the save key.

I thought about buying a new motherboard, but there were other problems with the machine. It was a thrown-togther unit, not really built terribly well. I decided it was time for a new machine, and my research led me to a place I never thought I'd go; Apple.

Growing up a Microsoft brat, I was indocrtinated with ideas about Apple computers. Even though the first computer I ever turned on was an Apple IIe. I still remember playing Oregon Trail back in sixth grade on one of those clunkers. But for a Microsoft Certified Professional as myself, we were taught to look down upon Apple; they were lesser machines, of lesser quality, not even worthy to be called computers. You couldn't rip them open and play with them like you could a PC. They didn't support Windows. They were to be avoided.

But now that I'm not in that field anymore, my opinion of Apple has changed; specifically, the all-in-one wonder that I'm entering this blog from... the iMac G5. I bought this machine specifically for video editing. I don't care about being able to open it up and play, or reinstall the OS five hundred times. This machine serves one purpose: to edit video. And from what I can tell so far, it does a damn fine job. It doesn't bother me in the slightest that my high-end, dual layer DVD burner is built into the back of the machine. I don't care that my 20" flat panel monitor is integrated into the unit. And the fact that everything is altogether like that saves me a great deal of desktop space, which I can use for my camera, tape decks, and all the other gadgets I need to do my job.

That, perhaps, best sums up the contribution of the iMac to the creative individual - it stays out of the way. Physically, and technologically. I've experienced no system crashes or malfunctions. It hasn't locked up, froze, or hung. It doesn't demand a great deal of technical knowledge to run it. It just sits there and lets me do what I need to do.

There are of course some problems, that segue nicely into my Frontiers topic of the day. For some reason, I can't read most of the video clips Paul has rendered up for the season three premiere video. I suspect it's a codec issue, but I'm still working it out. This won't affect my professional use of the machine in the slightest, so if I need to do our fairly small, modestly sized Frontiers video on my XP laptop it's not a big deal. But, it would be nice to do it on the iMac.

Speaking of the video - I've gotta tell you guys, it's really amazing. This is by far Paul's best work. I hope my editing is up to the task. Our latest staff writer - who is helping us out with several things, actually - Henrik - is scraping together some sound effects for the teaser as well. I really think Paul has raised the bar with this video. Everyone involved - from Jay Everington laying out the scenes to Paul's animation - has worked hard to get this thing looking great. I can't wait to release it.

As to the movie, I had hoped to be started on it by now but we've changed the fundamental concept a bit, so I'm still adapting the rest of the storyline. It was going to deal with three or four plotthreads, but the fact is that's just too much. I wanted to tighten the focus and explore Sito. This is Frontiers' first movie (and VST's for that matter) so it needs to have a strong focus on the captain and a tight storyline. As I told Henrik in the forthcoming premiere of the VirtualStarTrek Podcast, things happen in this film that begin setting up the rest of the series - threads begin here that will be easily traced all the way to our final episode.

And then season three will start with a bang. We've got a huge two parter planned for season three's opening, and it just keeps going from there. It's going to be an exciting time for fans and staff members alike. And for those of you who have passed over Frontiers, there couldn't be a better time to join us. The feature film will get you caught up on Frontiers lore so that you can jump into season three all caught up.

So, be sure to watch for the premiere VirtualStarTrek Podcast, coming later this month to VirtualStarTrek.com. Aside from an interview with yours truly, we'll be hearing about Knight's Haven (one of VST's forthcoming shows), a nod to our blog and the one from Star's End, some information on the upcoming Virtual Trek Awards, and more.

Keep checking back!