Be sure to check out shapeshifter's review of Pursuit, below, at right.

Welcome to the Rosblog of shapeshifter (aka lizmythologistshapeshifter aka liz aka Nancy aka therealshapeshifter aka shapeshift-her). Anyone who sends thoughts in an email will be considered for posting on this blog. Please note: If I do not add your comments, it might be because I am busy or didn't get it, so feel free to send a follow-up email.

I am beginning this blog because:

1. FanForum's pruning policy means that threads must have frequent postings or else disappear.
2. The current FF thread is about to reach 250 posts which will also mean it will disappear.
3. SciFi's bb threads are difficult to track.
4. Blu5 and UPN-ll and Foreverdreaming are good, but I am a bit of a control freak, er, ah, I mean I am an archivist. (I really am a degree-holding Librarian.)
5. Roswell is on an indefinite hiatus at SciFi.com and so postings are likely to be infrequent, and I wanted to have a place that was bookmarkable to which Roswell mythologists and members of the Roswell Bureau of Investigation could return.

Thursday, October 9, 2003

RTFC's Episode 21, "Discovery," is up.

Momo & greenglow  on destiny  with both the upper- and lower-case "D."

Tues. night

Crashdown Roswell boards
RBI (Roswell Bureau of Investigation) on Mediablvd.
RBI at FF

Monday night too late.

Crashdown is now Crashdown.mediablvd.com.

More later.

Saturday

Time for a little amusement.

Over on the SciFibb, Volondra asked:

If Roswell is still on Daytime Rotation, where is it rotating at?????? It sure isn't on the Scifi network.....

to which Lady Penelope replied:

Maybe Scifi put it on in daytime rotation on Antar. That way they could get some background to truly make the story acurate. You know- get Kivar's side of the story. How he's just "watching" the throne for Max. He's not reall y bad guy, he's just misunderstood. . . .

Friday, October 3, 2003

Lisa et al say to access the new MediaBlvd Roswell board at this addy for now. Hrmph. As if we have nothing better to do than changing links. jk. I think.

Watched Josie and the Pussycats with my daughter tonight. It's actually very sociological in nature, and being someone with a degree in Sociology, I found it intriguing. But Parker Posie was much better in Party Girl.

No Roswell in November. Except the final book, Turnabout, is scheduled for release. Interesting that the spoiler for the book is similar to the last episode of the virtual season 4 on RTFC, "Making a Stand."
And, sadly, although Episode 21, Discovery, spoilers are up, and it is scheduled to be "aired" October 9th, LizPark also tells us that Season 4 is nearing an end, and has stated on the board that Season 5 is not a sure thing. Should we send her Tabasco Sauce?

Later that evening...

Re Smallville's season premier: Anyone not see our first glimpse of Clark in 3 months and say out loud, "OMG IT'S ZAN!"?

Angel's on now. Snappy script:

"I type like a superhero, if there was a superhero who had that power."

Ridiculously early, October 1, 2003

SciFi has the November calendar in place, but no data is yet entered into it, so let's not yet give up hope for Roswell's return.

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003

FF is back with this new/old link to the Roswell Board.

November is not yet posted at SciFi.

On the SciFi BB, Deornoth asks:

What does CHAD or CHADS stand for? I've seen it in reference to unanswered questions but can't find a def except for "Card Hole Aggregate Debris" from voting machines and I don't think that applies.

to which I replied:

Continuity Hole and Annoying Discrepancy
It is derived from the word "chad," which became a household term during the last US presidential elections when George W. Bush lost the popular vote, and almost lost the electoral vote. He was determined to be the winner based on hand counting of paper ballots in the state of Florida (policed, er, uh, Governed by his brother, Jeb Bush), which ballots were often of dubious value owing to the prevalence of "hanging," "pregnant," and "dimpled" chads--or little pieces of perforated paper designed to be punched out by a voter.
Thread 33 of the Roswell CHADDs archives is here: www.hayden-hill.com/chads/chads033a.htm and lists all the acronyms including:
CHAD -- Continuity Hole and Annoying Discrepancy, our word for any plot hole on Roswell
CHADD -- Continuity Holes and Annoying Discrepancy Discusser -- that would be anyone posting on this thread
ROSTWAH: Roswell Off Screen Thing We Assume Happened
Planet SAWN: Podsters Home Planet -- stands for Still Annoying even With a Name. Usually shortened to P-SAWN or PSAWN. Formerly Planet Still Annoyingly Without a Name.
BHAEBSOT -- Black Hole that Ate Everything Between Seasons One and Two
EMHB-- The Evil Mindwarping Hell Beast, a sarcastic shorthand for any "Tess is evil" scenario

The CHADDs are retired, and ask that no threads be started using "CHAD" in the title.

Monday, 11:30 pm CT

The 2-part IDOJ ep, The Case of My Vanishing Master, airs tomorrow afternoon.

SciFi should release the November schedule sometime tomorrow. Don't hold your breathe for Roswell, though.

Mediablvd & Crashdown are down again. The latest from FF is:

September 29th, 2003 - 3:45 AM (PST)
Progress has been made with the server issues, Fan Forum should be back in the next 24 hours.

Saturday or Sunday, depending upon your zone.

Mediablvd.com is back up, so the RBI thread there is a viable posting place for anyone desiring to have a break from reality and do a little obsessing.

As for me, instead of working on a work-related project, I just linked and tweaked a page illustrating a blooper from Missing, which Nemo discovered.

Saturday, Sept. 27

Here's the last posting of the Roswell Bureau of Investigation (RBI) on FF.

I guess they're down for the count (see below), and now MediaBlvd is down too. So I guess any discussions of symbolism, interpretations, CHADs, etc. should probably continue on the impervious-to-hackers SciFibb, for now.

Here's the current status of FF:

Fan Forum is still having server issues...

September 27th, 2003 - 3:25 AM (PST)

I regret to inform everyone that the attempts to get Fan Forum back up have so far been unsuccessful. After the crash last week, I had the server restored because the file system was trashed. Shortly there after the server crashed again and I received a new server because it was thought to be a hardware issue. Shortly after I got the second server setup and ready to go, it crashed as well. After tech support investigated the problem closer they concluded that the server had been hacked into and the file system was corrupt. It is now believed that the last server was also hacked

I am now being advised to have this current server restored, but there is no guarantee that it won't be hacked into again. I am doing my best to come up with a solution to get the site back online asap. I am very sorry for the extended downtime, much of this is out of my hands.

Thanks for your continued patience.

Leif Alexander (Goldenboy)

Friday, Sept. 26

I finished RTFC - Ep 20: Making a Stand. The opening paragraphs are a little rough for some reason. But it quickly smooths out. The plot is quite similar to what the final tv tie-in book promises to deliver. I guess this is the real essence of Roswell?

Yesterday morning I was reading about the baptism of Jesus--when the Holy Spirit descends and says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." We have often talked about how Max was a type of Christ (see also: BehrAll's sole surviving Representations Thread), but I don't recall a discussion of the mommogram seen being reminiscent of the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, for which it could be said the passing of the mantle from Elija to Elisha is a precursor.

Wednesday, Sept. 24

RTFC's episode 20, "Making a Stand," is up. I haven't read it yet. Got to go work for "the man."

But FF's Ros1 & Ros2 are now sharing the post-server wipeout Ros1 url. And the Roswell Bureau of Investigation (RBI) discussion is continuing there.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

FanForum's Roswell 1 & 2 boards will be reunited tommorrow. Um, I'm not sure about the url, and I have to go back to my day job now.

Friday, September 19, 2003

Joan Pickering, of Season 1 & Season 2 Crashdown Synopses fame and primary author of the fabulous RWMHB virtual version of Season 1, has generously offered her transcription of the cut scenes from the Departure script for posting here. Thank you, Joan, and everyone else who has contributed to and continues to contribute to the Archives.

Thursday, Sept 18

Fanforum's back with new links:
Ros1 & Ros2

Tuesday, Sept. 16

Looks like news of FF's status is being posted here. The part that sounds most grim to me is here italicized:

Quote:
Goldenboy got an extension on his bill and was supposed to pay them by the 15th, but the billing department neglected to let the tech department know this, and the hosting company took the site down and sold the server space Fanforum used to be on. SD-4 is on that server now, which is why Fanforum's address takes you there.

Monday, September 15, 2003

Is Roswell a vehicle in which mental illness manifests? Probably. Today and yesterday I walked past a temporary parking lot for the construction workers who are renovating the place where I work. It was just a cordoned off place on the grass until sometime between Friday after 5pm and Sunday afternoon (probably under cover of darkness, in true Chicago style, while the Lake Forest city fathers were snug in their beds) when it was covered with white paving stones, which may also be referred to as "granolith." I cannot walk past there now without thinking, "There's the granolith" and smiling to myself.

If anyone has an update on the state of FanForum, please RSVP. If it's wiped, I will upload the last RBI Thread to this site.

Sunday, Sept 7 '03 EXTRA

Momo has just pointed out to me that Crashdown has new boards. Check out the Roswell Board and, specifically, the Roswell Bureau of Investigation (RBI) Redux thread.

Sunday, September 7, 2003

The Middle-East may be imploding, but I am still under the weather, and so will continue posting here instead of saving the world from itself.

I just finished reading Pursuit. My 5-silver handprint review should be posted on the B&N site "in a few days." Here's what I wrote:

I was pleasantly surprised with "Pursuit," the latest of the novels derived from the TV series "Roswell." Beginning with a brief explanation of the background and characters for the uninitiated, the authors serve us a well-developed plot that builds on the past exploits of the characters. It is very much an "action" novel, but not without exploring the thoughts, feelings, relationships, and ethical dilemmas of the characters. Having researched their subject extensively, the authors succeed in revealing believable answers to many of the science fictional mysteries left hanging by the TV series. Authors Mangels and Martin deserve a 5 silver-handprint rating for writing a book that will make readers want to buy the soon-to-be released sequel, "Turnabout," and maybe even spark interest in the publication of more stories in film and print about the other-worldly young adults.

Here are the CHADs:

Still, a minor point, but in the spirit of Alex, I would have liked to have been able to have offered my services as a proof-reader to prevent even minor irritations for the readers of the final version. There's also one typo.

But I really loved the way the science fiction was resolved. Especially the explanation that the Dupes were in their pods longer and thus their alien powers were more fully developed. Also the way they picked up the language and culture from the first humans they encountered. Um, there is a tiny bit of another CHAD here in that the Lonnie tells Max & Tess in MITC that they 'stepped out of the pods into the sewers.' I guess we are no longer to take that literally?
Anyway, very nicely done.

Saturday, Sept 6, 2003

Okay. I have just now "discovered" Roswell: What Might Have Been. Very Cool. I have added it my very small list of Select FanFics. It is Virtual Episodes for Seasons 1 & 2 starting after the "Sexual Healing" episode.

But before I read it I have to finish Pursuit (shouldn't take very long) and Qfanny's Harry Potter fanfic.

I have also added, by invitation/request, a link to the RoswellFanatics.net BBoard under Roswell Bulletin Boards.

Thursday, Sept 3, 2003

I'm home with the flu, so I just watched half of "Interruptus" and all of "Secrets & Lies"--it's the first one with Joe Pantalino as Kal Langely, the shapeshifter. I noticed 2 new tidbits:

1) In "Interruptus," when Maria is eavesdropping on the conversation between Mr. Evans & Mr. Parker, she is pouring salt into a container as part of her duties as a Crashdown waitress. Her hair is in braids--she looks a LOT like the 1950's Morton Salt girl.
This picture courtesy of Momo:

This picture public domain (one would think):

Their slogan was/is: "When it rains, it pours" refering to the quality of the salt not clumping in humid conditions, but in the show also refers to the mounting situations for the aliens. It also begs the question: what were Maria's parents up to in Roswell in the 1950's? Oh, and recall that Maria's alias in "Viva Las Vegas" was "Margarita Salt." Did the director(s) and/or prop guys and/or Majandra think of this when the scene was set up in "Interruptus?" Or was it a coincidence?

2) Well, in "Secrets & Lies," Liz points out (as many fans had already) that in Roswell there are no coincidences. This is possibly the first episode in which Liz begins to develop her "crystal ball" power. At the end of the episode, she is frantically warning Max of impending danger:

[Max opens the film vault. He is talking to Liz on the cell phone]
Liz: Max, he's threatened you twice already. The shapeshifter obviously knows you're there and wants you out of L.A.
Max: Liz, i'm close. I'm in the vault now.
Liz: Max this is making me nervous. He's been tracking you. Max?
Max: I found it.
Liz: Ok, well--hurry. Try to get a look at him and get out of there.

Almost Monday, September 1, 2003

In the words of RoswellMouse, "So, go order [the 2004 Roswell calendar] already!!"

Sunday, August 31, 2003

B&N now says my pre-ordered Pursuit "has shipped" and will arrive on September 5th.

On the SciFi BB, we are having a little discussion about TEOTW.

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

Added: Yellow Finch's explanation of why Nasedo is "Tic Tac," as posted on the SciFiBB and noticed by Skovde.

RoswellMouse called SciFi & was told Roswell will come back in the so-called "Daily Rotation" format, but not as a "regularly scheduled" show. Hrmph. It's all about the ratings. And, I suppose, a cult following by folks who are largely not very large financially doesn't count for much either.

Ah well. The latest from my Barnes & Noble is that Pursuit will be there in 2 days.

Tuesday, August 19

Episode 19 of RTFC is up. It's very well done.

RostaFehrian and another Roswellian have already read Pursuit; they got it at the Strand in NYC. If I don't get a call by tomorrow from the B&N in Vernon Hills saying mine's arrived, I will have to assume that the book store folks are reading it first. I just re-read the author's previous Roswell book. It was well-written. I am wondering if he will pursue the Max-&-Iz-DNA-donors-as-honeymooners plot line.

The Dead Zone has been continued for a "Season 3." I didn't even know there was a doubt until a few minutes before I read that it had been picked up. But it was long enough to think that it would have been actually much cooler if that had been the last ep--very awesome cliff hanger twist if there was no part 2. When I saw "Visions," it felt like the end of Smallville's season 2, and I had no doubt that there would be a DZ3. But when I read that the ratings were considered to be in the "dead zone," it seemed that a series finale cliff hanger about Armageddon was much more stylistically original than a mere season finale cliffhanger.

Friday, August 15, 2003

So, the lights went out across the eastern US after the last scheduled airing of Roswell and while my pastor was praying for my daughter in NYC.

The first season of I Dream of Jeannie is every bit as magical as the first season of Roswell. And at least it's still on the air.

This Sunday is the Dead Zone's answer to TEOTW. And if you don't know what that acronym means, you're not a Roswellian, and you shouldn't be here with me.

Tuesday, August 13, 2003

Don't forget! Tomorrow 5 Roswell episodes will air on the SciFi Channel while most of the fans are at work (10am - 3pm CDT).

I've been watching I Dream of Jeannie lately. Some of the episodes are quite good. I'm going to tape tomorrow morning's episode (9:30am CDT) in which Barbara Eden delivers a moving performance when Jeannie discovers she's invisible to camera film. She reminds me of Renee Zelwegger in Nurse Betty, which, btw, is not a film I would have watched if I had known the description on the video box of it being a comedy was way off.

The Crash Into Me book discussion thread is archived.

Friday, August 8, 2003

Well, the Roswell Bureau of Investigation (RBI) thread is languishing on page 3 of 3 pages, nearing prunedom as I type. But that's okay. That's the reason I started this blog. When it falls off the board, it will go to where most good Roswell threads go, to the Archives.
And boy am I going to have job rerouting links if I decide to hand recode them into XML!

Meanwhile, PepperJackCandy has uploaded the 35th CHADs' Thread, which, coincidentally (although there are no coincidences when it comes to things Roswellian) no, not coincidentally, which simply coincides with (or nearly) the reairing of the 285 South episode on August 14, next Thursday, at 10am CDT, and which thread has a nice lengthy post near the top by TR (The Roswellian) which references the 285 South episode. Keep in mind that TR was generally hyper-critical of the show, though in an intellectual way, making masterful use of prose.

Posted by TR 07-20-2001:
...I think 285 South is probably the best written episode of the show. It had momentum, it had a real ensemble feel, it had great repartee between M&M with lots of emotion, advancement of the mythology, good pacing, and it mixed things up between the characters a bit (ie Liz-Isabel, M&M, Kyle and the group). It developed the characters, it was suspenseful, it was funny, it was romantic. It is the episode for me that best shows what kind of potential this show had.

Sunday, August 3, 2003

The home page of the Roswell Archives is moving to thesmudge.com/shapeshifter/Roswell, so be sure to change your bookmarks!

Monday, July 29, 2003

Roswell returns to the SciFi Channel Friday, August 1st, at 10am CDT, with the Pilot episode, followed that same day in order by Morning After, Monsters, Leaving Normal, and, winding up from 2-3pm with Missing. All of these except Pilot had not been rerun on other channels more than once, and some not at all. SciFi, if nothing else, seems to recognize the popularity of Season One.

The August calendar image shown at left is from the un-cut, un-aired Pilot episode; it features Liz metamophosizing like the butterfly over her mirror.

In an earlier scene, she passes before an old lady who is writing in what appears to be a journal.

Last night I watched Dead Zone. It's a good escape, and it has nice, touched-by-an-angel-esque moral messages, but no apparent symbolism like we see here in the Roswell Pilot. At least Smallville has all that nice color and the guy who plays Lex, who, admittedly, acts rings around any Roswellians.

But even the moral of this week's Dead Zone episode was muddied. Johnny asserts that he wants to save lives on both sides, but we only see Americans surviving while the Iraqi's are wiped out with the help of Johnny's "real-time" intelligence tips. Perhaps that's why he leaves the Agency? I guess they left it vague so as not to offend those viewers who equate body counts with victory.

BTW, Metz & Burns did write this season's premier episode of Dead Zone.

Friday, July 18, 2003

Added to the Discussions:

Friday, the **4th** of July, 2003

The Dead Zone begins a new season this Sunday, July 6th, at 10/9 Central on USA Network with, allegedly, a script by Metz & Burns of the Roswell High books fame and the Roswell episode A Tale of Two Parties fame.

According to www.darkhorizons.com/news.htm, Jonathan Frakes was interviewed on a British radio show and talked about a Roswell movie with all the original crew that would happen as a result of sales of the Roswell DVD that is to be released. --Should I be wishing I had some of that stuff he's been smoking lately? No, wait, that's Alex's line from early Season 1.

Roswell mention in the AOL news:
..."We think space, although real and important and scientific, also needs to be fun if it's going to flourish and survive," Chafer said in a telephone interview. "It's also a very real mission that will be participated in by school kids all over the world, including in Roswell."...

And earlier this week Larry King interviewed a panel of Roswell experts and descendents of some of the people mentioned in the Summer of '47 ep.

Okay, back to reading Nightscape.

Tuesday, July 1, 2003

So, the SciFi channel is going to start at the beginning again on Aug. 1 and 14 and run from Pilot to Balance. It figures. Those eps have always had the highest ratings.

But if the idea is to make new converts, they really ought to show it in the wee hours of the morning when true escapists are escaping.

Larry King did a special interview tonight with Roswell "survivors." I guess it's not surprising that there was no mention of Max, Michael, Isabel, Liz, et al.

Is it just me, or is The Final Chapter better written than Ryan's New Beginning?

Tuesday, June 3, 2003, Chloe's 8th grade graduation day. :)

Roswell is an escape. A total escape. Rather like a total eclipse of the sun as opposed to a partial. It's not so dark that one can't see one's hand in front of one's face, it just makes doing the mundane seem ludicrous.

A couple of Sundays ago I heard a sermon that gave me a concept of life after death that I could comprehend. While the verse about 'storing up things in heaven that won't decay' wasn't in the sermon, the concept was. I think anything that causes us to depart from the physical world and contemplate the meaning of a fictional world that represents the real world points us in the direction of storing up a 'separate reality' that can potentially live beyond the grave.

Momo has been posting cut scenes at blu5, which I have been adding to the cut scenes page. Good thing they cut this red line:

Max holds a gun out to Liz, they lean against the Chevelle.
LIZ:Where did you get it?
MAX: It's one of Sheriff Valenti's. He'll never know it's missing.

Friday, May 30, 2003

May 22nd was the last airing of Roswell on SciFi. They yanked it without warning and replaced it with reruns of Star Trek. Roswell fans have been calling and emailing SciFi ever since--to no avail.

Today I watched Star Trek. On Fridays after Roswell's time slot the Dead Zone airs. I saw it once or twice, but usually I have to give up the tv then to my daughter to watch reruns of Friends on WGN. But she's at a dance tonight, so I decided to watch Star Trek until Dead Zone came on. The episode was Where No Man Has Gone Before:

On a probe beyond the galaxy, the Enterprise encounters an unknown force that transforms two crew members into superior beings determined to take over the ship.

I can't help but think that some honchos at SciFi.com have delusions of grandeur similar to the zapped Enterprise crew members in that ep, and that these honchos are determined to subvert the allegiance of Roswellians to SciFic.com, starting with Star Trek, a similarly campy story about aliens.

Monday, May 26, 2003

I just finished re-reading book 4, The Watcher, in which the Collective Consciousness begins to manifest in a big way, and recently rewatched Panacea and Chant Down Babylon, which deals with similar issues of the boundaries of self for Max.

On the SciFi.com bb, we are discussing the science fiction of Wipe Out, and on FanForum we have been analyzing Nasedo's motives in Max to the Max.