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I also like this calendar by Momo's sister:

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 began this blog because:

1. FanForum's pruning policy meant that threads must have frequent postings or else disappear.
2. The current FF thread was about to reach 250 posts which will also mean it would 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.

Sunday, Sept. 26, 2004

Andromeda's season premier proved to be an improvement, script-wise (i.e. the Nietzscheian bit), over last season. But the guy who plays Dylan is still a bit full of himself, though it's interesting how a receding hairline affects white men's opinions of themselves.

Becoming Thursday, Sept. 23, 2004

Way too late.

Just wanted to express relief and approval that Smallville's season 3 opener was still a wow, though the backstory was necessarily sketchy. Several Roswellian deja vus. Not sure about Bizaaro Lois Lane. She prefers geeky types over muscle men. But her parting exchange with Lionel was good--especially with his acting.

Almost Sunday, September 19, 2004

Today was my first day off in 14.
I've managed to catch a couple of Roswell eps during lunch hours recently. But no time to jot down the new things I see--too bad.

I saw Shiri Appleby and the guy from SG/Atlantis tonight in Darklight. Before watching it, I checked out imdb.com and noticed that the creator was responsible for a lot of poor scifi, so I wasn't expecting too much. The plot had potential in a Buffyesque way (as also noted by TV Guide), in that there were blurred lines between good and evil, and also a variety of Biblical, end-times types of themes. But it was handled roughly and wanted editing. I never could quite grasp why Anders was fired. And where did his dad wind up in the end?

Anyhoo, to read a bit of our old Lilith discussions on the Roswell FF threads, go to Thread17WO-MTD.htm

Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Just taking a moment to give the link to the newest RBI thread on FanForum. Can't archive the last one at the moment because the current software on that board is no longer set to display the entire thread in the print view. But I have the pages saved.

Friday, August 20, 2004

Watching the new SG ep, "Affinity," right now. Awesome opening with Teal'C. Definitely, Cristopher Judge should be cast as the new Superman.

Okay, just finished--and saw the opening of Atlantis-sheesh, they don't trust us to 'stay tuned,' do they?--and the final scene (of "Affinity," that is) depicting the young 'disciple' and Teal'C's female neighbor watching him ride off into the sunset was so evocative of these verses from the Christian Scriptures:

When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.   John 19:26-27

Atlantis had a strong script as well. To paraphrase Roswell's Max's assessment of Crouching Tiger: love, honor, duty, bioethics, etc.

Okay, back to work.

Very nearly Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Attention Gaters everywhere!
From The Guardian "yesterday" by Associated Press writer Jesse J. Holland (and also heard of on NPR and elsewhere), with emphasis added:

...Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said his committee will forward a draft bill by Wednesday to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, which will write the final legislation crafting the national intelligence director, which lawmakers are calling NID. ...

So, are the Senators Stargate fans? And if so, does this mean they think the NID will be the anti-Christ or something similar?

Elsewhere, Google promises to practice no evil, meaning to give free advertising to the socially responsible and no advertising to purveyors of hard liquor.
That's nice.
And I really appreciate the pastor of the church I attend saying he would vote for the most capable president over the most "Christian."

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

The ol' UPN11 Roswell board, maintained by Jason Nason, is being phased into archival status; the "new" board will be here.

Saturday, August 7, 2004

RTFC (Roswell: The Final Chapter fanfic) is back!

Friday, August 6, 2004

Rats. I missed all the Roswell eps on the Aug. 5 marathon--even when I was home at lunch. Oh well. Hmmm...let's see, is there a new Dead Zone on this Sunday night? Yep.

Re Stargate ep "Icon" (as posted at sg1_archive.com):

I thought there was a lot of subtle commentary on the Iraq sitch--much of which was no doubt lost on the non-news junkies who watched. But that's okay.
*pausing to take my soma*
Something for everyone.

The whole 2-factions-versus-religious-fundementalists- who-were-really-just-out-to-grab-the-most -resources-and-have-power-over-everyone -- that's the war "we" ugly Americans brought about.

And the ep definitely reflects the roots of the Iraq sitch, i.e. the Cold War when Sadaam was given power by the US to fight the fundementalists of Iran--not to mention the Afghanistan vs Soviets alliances.

Meanwhile, Atlantis' new ep...

...had some complex prejudice/McCarthyite issues that I couldn't quite get. The show is still finding its way. But Dr. Weir's character finally started to develop, and the Wraith are becoming a bit more real. The whole thing was bit Waterworld-ish.

But what I'm still remembering from last Sunday...

is the message of a very thoughtful young man: Syler pointed out that Jesus didn't die primarily because he "loved his neighbor as himself," but firstly because he loved God.

Friday, July 30th

Atlantis was pretty good. Stargate was somewhat better.

Whoops. In this AIM news article on "wholesome, Goody Two Shoes" actors, author Stacy Jenel Smith mixes up Brendan Fehr and Jason Behr when she incorrectly states, "'Roswell's' Jason Behr, a practicing Mennonite, also publicly endorsed pre-marital chastity."

Thursday, July 29th

Somehow it escaped me that there was a Roswell marathon today. In addition to the middle-of-work-day daily airings, another marathon is scheduled for August 5th.

Oh, and the August Calendar is a composite of a black hole image and the stargate.

Saturday, July 24, 2001

Re the 2 new eps, Atlantis' "Hide and Seek" and Stargate's "Lockdown"

Looks like they trimmed the sfx budgets by sharing ghosts.

I was also wondering if the black cloud from Atlantis was really "ascended" Anubis, and after it went through the gate, it landed in the Russian on the space station circling Earth.

But the black shadow was way cooler than the Wraiths, and meshed nicely with Stephen Hawking's latest black hole pronouncements (see below).

Wednesday, July 21

Stephen Hawing has just recanted his previous belief that black holes could send people and other matter into an alternate universe. From "Physicist Rethinks Theory on Black Holes" by Shawn Pogatchnik; Associated Press Writer:

"There is no baby universe branching off (inside a black hole), as I once thought. The information remains firmly in our universe," Hawking said in a speech to about 800 physicists and other scientists from 50 countries. "I'm sorry to disappoint science fiction fans, but if information is preserved, there is no possibility of using black holes to travel to other universes. "If you jump into a black hole, your mass energy will be returned to our universe, but in a mangled form, which contains the information about what you were like, but in an unrecognizable state."

No, Mr. Hawking, I'm not disappointed, but I do bristle at your use of the word, "mangled;" I prefer the term, "not yet decoded."

So, then, where in the universe do we emerge? Is there a formula to predict the exit location? I hope Victoria, a beautiful, brilliant, young physics major, who once worked for me in a library, is perhaps working on the equations right now.

Tuesday, July 20

I just checked the RTFC board, and Liz Park posted a few days ago:

I didn't get a domain renewal e-mail and the site went down.... ...I'm sending out payment tomorrow (for two years, natch) and the site should up sometime next week when they get it.

I totally understand. I moved 2 blocks and the mailman lost my Penney's bill. And mucho gracias to my daughter, Layla, who pays the bill on this domain.

Oh, and, Liz Park also posted this image:

"Coming Soon!"

Monday, July 19

The SciFi bb isn't showing my posts, so, re the missing fanfic site, Roswell: The Final Chapter:

I saved Google's cached htmls of the PDF versions of the episodes to my hard drive. If the episodes don't reappear, I will upload them and change the link to The Final Chapter under Select FanFics on the Archives page to link to my copies from the Google caches.

I can't help wondering if there were some ridiculous-but-understandable copyright issues since the last episodes sort of pre-empted the final tv tie-in books.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

Whoops! I almost forgot to post a follow-up re my comments about Roswell, What Might Have Been.

Joan Pickering, famous among Roswellians for her synopses of Roswell posted on the Crashdown, was kind enough to send me the scoop on the connection between the Metz Roswell High books' plots and the plots in RWMHB. It's all in the About the Episodes page. About half way down, we are told:

...There may be similarities between our episodes and other Roswell stories/scenes such as those in aired episodes, cut scenes and the books. We're working in the same framework and this is likely to happen from time to time. Most of the content of these new episodes is original, but we did glean material from these other sources. It is not our intention to plagiarize, but we would like to show how some of the good ideas and dialogue from seasons 2 and 3 could have been used without taking away from the magic that was Roswell. We will give credit when it's necessary, therefore, we would like to acknowledge all the authors of this material for their current and future involuntary contributions. ;-) (See: Acknowledgements)...

And then, if you click on Acknowledgements, there are more kudos for the writers, such as:

...We offer special thanks to Kevin Kelly Brown for bringing us Roswell, and to Jason Katims and Melinda Metz for creating this wonderful playground that we're borrowing...

So, there you have it.

And, while we're talking classic Roswell fanfic, it has been noticed on the SciFi bb that the RWMHB site is down. I have downloaded and saved Google's cached html versions of the PDFs. So, if nothing else, we have those.

About Atlantis. It took an entire crew to match RDA's humor on Stargate, but they did pull it off. Overall, I'd say the jury's still out. A Series Premier doth not a series make.

Dead Zone airs tonight. I will be picking up my daughter 10 minutes early from youth group in order not to have to watch it really late on a work night. My vcr isn't hooked back up yet. Okay, 2 more boxes left to unpack. We can do this.

Friday, July 16, 2004

I've been watching reruns of Early Edition on PAX tv at 8pm CDT on most weekdays. The hero is sort of Christlike--well, maybe more like Elisha in the OT. Anyway, it's got a deeper layer of complex moral issues beneath the generally simple plotlines.

Oh, and Atlantis starts tonight. Hrmph.

Okay. Alert: Please note that the SciFi Bulletin Boards have a new url. They have Dead Zone, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Roswell, Star Man, etc. Only the Stargate Board is showing a significant number of viewings at this time--261 as compared to about 40-something for the second highest.

This is truly an end of a sociological phenom in online posting.The previous SciFi Stargate board had well over 5,000 threads. Oh how I wish I saved a few postings from some early ones. But, never mind that.

The real end-of-an-era is that I don't know anywhere that still has a long-term, active, unmoderated, board in which threads disappear from the top page based only on time rather than popularity. There are many metaphors of democracy, anarchy, and monarchy in the structure of online message boards. I can't get into it now since I lost so much sleep last night editing a book chapter that I have been co-authoring, and which had to be sent off today. My first. Still crazy, after all these years.

And to all a goodnight, and thanks to roswellmovie.net for sending out the link to the new SciFi boards.

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Stargate's season 8 premier aired last night. If you missed both back-to-back airings, they're showing it next week too, just before the premier of Atlantis...I think.

But more interesting is the fact that one of the all-time great Stargate episodes aired earlier in the evening: "2010," in which Earth has made an unholy alliance with the super-tech Aschen, who save the humans from certain death or enslavement by the Goa'uld, but who also wind up sterilizing all the humans so they (the Aschen) can take over the Earth in a hundred years or so.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a scifi description of the incident of the CIA's false reasons for the US to attack Iraq, as was deliniated in the news Friday? Surely RDA, who in the "2010" episode had a very heartfelt I-told-you-so speech, would agree.

On NPR they did a piece about the breaking story in which the etymology of the word groupspeak was discussed, since this word appeared repeatedly in the Senate's report.

I went to a ladies' Bible study this evening, and we too were speaking groupspeak--but it was uplifting rather than destructive.

In the Stargate episode, the team was able to use the Gate and sunspots to send a note back in time to prevent the genocidal alliance. Unfortunately, that is not yet an option for us.

I don't quite get it. Those who lived through Vietnam are not dead. Why did Iraq happen at all? Even high schools only have outbreaks of LSD use every 5 years; as long as there are peers alive who can tell tales of melting faces and broken bodies of those who "flew" out of windows, even risk-taking teens don't do acid.

Saturday, July 3, 2004

Since this is the Rosblog, I will take a few moments from unpacking and work and professional development and mothering to quote the latest post on the FanForum's RBI #3: Trying to figure out what happened! thread:

Posted by Citrus and Vine on 07-03-2004 03:08 AM:

Hi everyone! Thanks so much, shapeshifter for your link to Jason Katims interview with theWB! I really enjoyed reading it!

I think any good story, like any good painting, leaves interpretation to the viewer. While the writers could explain what was in their minds at the time they wrote the story, the meaning of the story depends on what is meaningful to each individual.

I’ve enjoyed reading fans’ ideas on theories and myths. Some ideas have Liz being Max’s wife on Antar, instead of Tess. I can never figure out how that could be, but I’ve enjoyed considering the possibility. And what would it say to viewers, if it turned out that Liz and not Tess had been married to Max on Antar? Wouldn’t that kind of say that Liz was wrong to leave Max? And wouldn’t the love that Max and Liz have for each other be somewhat less unique, if they were from the same planet and had been married before?

I think Roswell tells the audience in the first episode that Max and Liz are different. And in Leaving Normal, Liz says near the end, “The tough thing about following your heart is what people forget to mention, that sometimes your heart takes you to places you shouldn't be, places that are as scary as they are exciting and as dangerous as they are alluring, and sometimes your heart takes you to places that can never lead to a happy ending.”


I think the ongoing question in Roswell is whether things can lead to a happy ending. I think the end of Graduation found the surviving characters happy. I think future episodes or a movie would explore that question again.

Roswell leaves things open to speculation. As Nemo pointed out earlier, the audience hasn’t yet learned about the people who had the pentagon devices at the end of Destiny.
Perhaps, the people with the pentagon devices might figure into stories in the future.

Wednesday evening, June 30, 2004

Well, I missed seeing the Roswell "Pilot" on Monday at 3pm CDT. And the next 2 days (due to moving).Tomorrow "Leaving Normal" airs. I might be able to see it.

Monday, at 9pm CDT, From Stargate to Atlantis: A Sci-Fi Lowdown (with interviews) will air.

I actually cried one tear at the end of Dead Zone last Sunday night when Johnny hugged his son.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Dead Zone has been pretty good, but is it just my imagination or are they cutting corners by showing Johnny's visions over and over again? And the new female in his life looks sooo much like a slightly older Emilie DeRavin (Tess in Roswell) and has a very similar delivery style that it's really disconcerting.

For those of you who are home during the day, just a reminder that starting next Monday, June 28th, Roswell will be airing on SciFi every week day at 3 CDT.

Back to packing now...

Saturday, June 12, 2004

I am getting ready to move again, so...

Dead Zone airs tomorrow night.

"5 Days to Midnight" ended with a wimper rather than a wow. Maybe there'll be a better remake of the concept sometime.

I finished reading the RWMHB episode 121, "Who Am I?" The scifi is well done, and the writing is clean and professional. But the relationship development is a little cheesy, perhaps in an effort to avoid the overly tortured romances of the show.

I'm concerned about the babysitting scenes borrowed from the book series--I didn't see any credit given. Maybe I just missed it.

There is a message board, Pure Roswell, for discussion of the RWMHB episodes.

Wednesday, June 9, 2004

Wow. After more than a year, a new episode of Roswell, What Might Have Been titled, "Who Am I?" has been posted. As usual, it's well done..

I've been sucked into the SciFi Channel's mini-series, "Five Days To Midnight." It's interesting that they've borrowed a lot of the effective advertising techniques from the reality shows--none of which I've ever watched save part of a rerun of the last episode of the first Survivor show, and then most of The Apprentice.

But "5ive Days" has an element of time travel, and I've always been a sucker for that theme.

The main character, a physics professor, is played by Timothy Hutton, who really looks like a physics professor with whom I work, but I suspect that's just the actor's exuding physics professorialness rather than any actual physical (no pun intended) resemblance.

Friday, June 4, 2004

Don't forget that a new season of The Dead Zone starts Sunday night at 9pm CDT on USA Network, and re-airs at 11pm and midnight.

The SciFi Stargate Board has become hopelessly infested by Trolls. I suspect they are from that gross reality show that seems to have mercifully faded into oblivion.

Nevertheless, there are a few thinking geeks left there, such as danzig70, who posted that he heard that dark matter may be the same as consciousness. However, upon reading a bit on the web, I think they may be confusing consciousness with God.

Which flock do you follow?

Friday, May 28.

Thanks to Roswell Mouse for noticing that starting Monday, June 28th, Roswell will be on every weekday at 3pm CDT, starting with the Pilot episode.

And, btw, starting June 6th, Dead Zone will return with new episodes. Until then, reruns are on Sundays at 9pm and 11pm or Tuesdays at 12am (think really late Monday night), CDT, all the same ep.

And, while we're at it (we means me, the person typing, and you, the person reading), thanks to the gateworld.net schedule, we know that new Stargate episodes start on July 9th at 8pm CDT, and Atlantis premiers July 16th at the same time. Thanks to sg1archive.com, we know that they are both 2 hour premiers. And it seems on July 10 there will be a behind-the-scenes for both shows.
And, if you don't have cable, UPN has Stargate reruns on Saturdays at 4pm and 10pm CDT.

Thursday, May 27, 2004.

Roswell is on tomorrow on the SciFi channel at CDT:

10:00 - Baby, It's You

11:00 - Off The Menu

12:00 - The Departure

 1:00 - Busted

 2:00 - Michael, The Guys And The Great Snapple Caper

Wednesday night, May 19

Smallville had yet another great season finale. They better not have killed off Chloe. Rather, it should be a fake killing and she should resurface as Lois Lane, reporter, which was revealed to be her cousin's name in an earlier episode featuring the character of Perry White, Clark Kent's boss to anyone who knows anything about Superman lore. I'm not too sure about the Jor'el mythology. If Jor'el wasn't portrayed so darkly, we would have Clark as a type of human Jesus, Superman as a type of God Jesus, Jor'el as God the Father, and Jonathan & Mrs. Kent as types of Joseph & Mary. But instead we see Jonathan as more of a type of heavenly Father.

Anyway, if I was inclined toward crying, I would have when Clark told Lex their friendship was over. Very sad. I really don't want that to happen just because that's the way it's been in every other Superman version. Can't we all get along here? Give peace a chance? I guess not in my lifetime.

Wednesday, May 19th, 12:33 AM CDT.

Smallville will air tonight.

I have peace about the end of the Roswell series as we knew it. I think it's because I spent most of the time it was airing compiling Archives and posting comments that I wanted preserved in the Archives. It was very difficult to keep up with all the thoughts and analogies and references and Roswell moments that needed to be recorded. It's been a relief to get somewhat caught up and not have to add more--though I would add the Roswell Fan Psychology thread and a few others if printable views (easy to save) of these threads were available. However, I have yet to reorganize the Archives into a user-friendly database; no doubt this procrastination is in part linked to my own residual lack of acceptance that it is "over," though for me this denial is tied more to not wanting to see my time spent as wasted, rather than any sadness about the end of the series. But, given Star Trek's history, I don't know that Roswell is over. But please, please, PLEASE let it never make a comeback with aged actors like the recent Dick Van Dyke Show reprisal.

About the Stargate episode, "Window of Opportunity," putting The Kiss and the golf balls aside for the moment, the concept in the episode--that of the few outside the timeloop constantly striving to bring those caught in the loop up to speed--can be an analogy for relationships in today's mobile society, where meeting people online or in a new town becomes tiresome as we must once again give name, rank, and serial monogamy numbers.