The Evolution of Torchwood

I liked Torchwood, it was edgy, original, well written, and funny. What more could you ask for in a sci fi T.V. show? You may have noticed my use of the word liked (as in past tense) it wasn’t a typo.



To answer my own question of what more could you ask, my answer is FIX IT. Put it back the way it was back in season one, before Captain Jack went into heat and saving the planet from the extraterrestrial du jour became the secondary story. Good grief even Captain James T. Kirk had more self control than Captain Hardness, I mean Captain Harkness. In it’s first season Torchwood was BBC America’s highest rated series EVER, but last year BBC America announced that only a single-five episode story arc will be presented instead of the usual 13.

Why, maybe because parents were freaking out when they discovered that their kids were not watching a G rated sci fi show. When Mom tuned in to see Captain Jack getting it on with Captain John Hart (aka Spike) the secret was out, Torchwood was no Doctor Who, in fact even the Doctor seems to keep old Jack at arms length. Have you seen the way he looks at Jack sometimes?




I like Jack, the old Jack and I still like Torchwood, the old Torchwood, but who’s idea was it to start killing off the main characters? You know the ones that we spent two seasons getting to know then wham. From my vantage point this is an easy fix. Go back to the basics from season one also bring back Martha for a few more episodes.





I feel like this was the old bait and switch, first give us the show that everyone wants then give us the show that you the writers and producers want. Well the fans aren’t buying it so it seems to me that if the producers want the show to stay on the air they will have no choice but to hide Captain Jacks Viagra and keep him focused on saving the planet…. again.

(written pre-Children of Earth special but after season 2)

Star Trek – The Next Series

Star Trek – The Next Series
Part #1




As sure as the swallows return to Capistrano each year you can count on the fact that somewhere down the road there will be another incarnation of the popular Star Trek TV series.

If the new Star Trek motion picture that hit the screens May 8th hits box office gold you can expect a new series sooner rather than later. In a break with past installments of Star Trek movies the actors who played in the last series Enterprise will not be staring in the new movie. I have my own theory as to why the suits at Paramount decided to take a more radical path by going with a younger less familiar group of space explorers rather than stick with the familiar faces from the last series. I can sum it up in one word, Zindi.

The cast of Enterprise was a comprised of seasoned actors and a few new comers who did the best with what they had, as a matter of fact I believe that in many cases the actors who played Captain Archer and Dr. Phlox should be commended for taking next to nothing scripts and turning them it into great episodes. But all Zindi all the time was not going to hold the interest of any true fan of sci fi. Imagine what would have happened to the ratings of Star Trek Voyager or Star Trek TNG if the Borg had shown up as many times as the Zindi in one season. Not convinced, okay how about Stargate. Stargate SG1 ran for 10 seasons, while Stargate Atlantis (with a similar format as Enterprise with) all Wraith all the time only lasted for five seasons.

Star Trek works when it is set in the distant future so the answer for a successful new series is to go further into the future not backward. Combining a space station like Deep Space nine with a ship like Voyager would be the way to go in my option. In this case the space station would be an extension of Star Fleet, an outpost. By combining a space station with a star ship the writers would be free to create fresh new storylines. I believe that the Defiant (the warship in Deep Space 9) was an after thought.

Adding a similar type ship to be hidden inside the star ship like a shuttle would also add to the possibilities of new stories. Last but certainly not least would be time travel. I know that it has been done in the last series and in at least one of the motion pictures but having a ship with the ability to travel through time under certain circumstances would not only be awesome it would allow them to interact with crewmembers past like Dax and Worf in Deep Space Nines episode Trials and Tribble-ations.

Years ago (before the slue of lawsuits) studios like Paramount would accept scripts from freelance writers. It’s a shame that those days have passed because sci fi TV could use some new ideas or in this case improve on the old ones.

Dimensions In Time

Dimensions in Time

Have you ever wished that you could travel back in time to change the outcome of a certain event in the present? I am not talking about winning a big lottery jackpot or about changing an event for personal gain. Would you risk your life in order to save the lives of many others?

In my new short story Dimensions in Time, brothers Michael and Eddie are faced with a similar dilemma. A mysterious map leads the brothers on an adventure deep into the jungles of the South American Amazon. Upon reaching their mystical destination they soon realize that they have crossed over into another realm and have entered into a situation that was far worse than what they have bargained for. Finding their way home from this world of unicorns, fairies, and elves would be difficult enough but has Uncle Joe’s map put them on a path that will lead to a date with destiny or will their adventure end in failure and disaster?

I decided to take a break from sci-fi to write this short fantasy story. The two main charters in the story are brothers who love each other but have very different views on life and how to live it. During the course of their quest they develop a new respect for each other and their faith in God. I did not want this to be one long dark journey filled with death and destruction however there is the probability that millions will die, not on the same scale as in the novel Escape 2 Earth but the element of danger and death looms through this story of fantasy. As for the subtitle: Keeping the Faith is sort of a recurring theme through the story beginning with Eddie’s belief that his recently departed Uncle Joe was not the nut case that everyone had come to believe he was in his final days.

Brothers Mike and Eddie face the dual dilemma of saving lives while also trying to find their way back through the portal that leads back to their world and a new outlook on life. I hope that you will enjoy reading Dimensions in Time.

Dimensions In Time
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I Guest-Blogged

I recently Guest Blogged on another site: Darkened Jade

about self-promotion because writing the book was the easy part.

If anyone wants me to guest blog - ask.

The Return of the Chopping Block: The show that just won't die

The Return of Chopping Block
Or (The show that just won’t die)

This week I decided to take a break from crop circles and sci fi movies because I just found out that NBC has decided to keep cooking reality show Chopping Block on life support rather than accept the fact that great chefs don’t always make great reality shows.

I knew that this show was in trouble before the first episode aired. The voice over in the promo says that the host of the new cooking show Marco Pierre White was “the man who made Gordon Ramsay cry.” So what! They forgot to mention that the incident happened over 22 years ago when Mr. Ramsay was only 20 years old.

What does making someone cry have to do with cooking anyway?

The problem with The Chopping Block is that it lacks creativity, and imagination. That’s what usually happens when you try and produce a quality show on the cheap. What you end up with is a bunch of angry chefs yelling at each other. If that’s your kind of reality TV just surf on over to VH1will you will find plenty of that kind of entertainment, if you can call it that. Chopping block was pulled after only three episodes; that should tell you something about the quality to the show.

As you may have guessed I like Gordon Ramsay’s shows especially Hell’s Kitchen. I am sure that he doesn’t need me to take up for him but the fact of the matter is that there is a method to his madness. At the end of the day he actually helps people. My interest in reality cooking shows is more than that of the casual viewer, a few years ago; I researched them before creating my own reality cooking show called America’s Greatest Chefs. What’s that? You say you never heard of it. Well there’s a simple explanation, MONEY. Everything about the America’s Greatest Chef competition different from what you see on TV today, it is creative, entertaining, and witty, but it is an unproven formula and expensive to produce but that’s another story for another day.

When I heard that The Chopping Block was added to the NBC line up to compete with FOX's Hell’s Kitchen I almost fell off of my chair. With only 3.9 million viewers the first week and dropping to 2.6 million viewers by the third week I wondered what the suits at NBC were thinking when they decided to bring it back to air the final episodes in June. It’s the same bloody show, do they think that people forgot how bad it was or were they just waiting for this season of Hell’s Kitchen to end? Ironic don’t you think? I wonder who’s crying now.

The Orion Pyramid Theory: Alien Landmarks?

In life we find that most mysteries that we encounter are easily explained but every now and then you come across something that just does not add up. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know by now that I have an abundance of theories on a variety of topics. One of my oldest theories is about the ancient pyramids. Everybody knows that pyramids can be found in Egypt and in Mexico but you usually get a strange look from people when you tell them that pyramids have also been found in Greece, the Sudan, and some as far away as China. There must be a common thread that connects these various cultures to this specific type of structures, a thread that transcends time and language barriers.




Early Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for the kings of that era but the Pyramids builders in Mexico had an entirely different purpose in mind. According to Mexican lore the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon were built to honor the birth of the Sun and Moon gods. (Ask.com) In both cases it was the leaders or rulers who ordered them to be constructed but it still does not answer the question as to how a dozen totally different cultures that spoke different languages figured out how to build something so similar in shape.



This is where my theory comes in. If alien traveler wanted to construct landmarks large enough that they could be seen from the air the best way would be to have the locals do the work for you. The knowledge would be passed on their leaders in secret and no one would dare question it especially if it were religious in nature.
Just image that each year you and a few friends go camping but there was no map to guide you to your favorite spot, what would you do? You would find points of reference or landmarks such as the red farmhouse on the right or the covered bridge but what happens when those structures no longer exist? To prevent this from happening you would need landmarks that were permanent like large boulders or an oak tree, in the case of alien travelers Pyramids built by their leaders. Pyramids that would never be torn down and would last for hundreds of years no matter how much the landscape changed.




Another thread that connects my theory is the presence of astrology influence. When I visited the Mayan ruins in Chichen Itza, Mexico I was not surprised to see an ancient observatory in the same location of the Pyramid. There’s more, according to the Orion Correlation Theory there is a correlation between the location of the three largest pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex in Egypt and the 3 middle stars of the constellation Orion.

Still others believe the theory that the buildings near the pyramids or the Sun and Moon in Mexico are aligned with the planets in our solar system.


Is there a connection? Did we have help from our galactic visitors? We may never know.

Save the Vampire - Have all the Vampires gone Batty?

Save the Vampire!
Or (Have Vampire movies gone batty)

Somebody help me out here. When is a Vampire NOT a vampire? I really need to know because after watching the movie Twilight I am really confused and I am probably not alone. Béla Lugosi must be turning over in his grave. I looked up the definition of Vampire and here is what Webster had to say.

That's Bela Lugosi kids aka Dracula.


1: the reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep
2 a: one who lives by preying on others b: a woman who exploits and ruins her lover.


The vampires that I watched growing up had strict rules to follow, deviating or breaking the rules would lead to severe consequences or to their demise. They slept in caskets during the day, avoided sunlight, and must be invited in to the potential victims’ home. Their preferred means of travel was to turn themselves into bats and fly. If any of this sounds foreign to you I’m guessing that you are probably still in your teens. But today that’s all changed, apparently its okay to live in a swanky home, roam around freely during the daylight and even hang out with other humans without having one for lunch. Come on people, we have rules to follow. Don’t we?


I have no personal ax to grind against author Stephenie Meyer after all this trend of remaking the Vampire started long before her novel was written. But where does it end? What’s next? And what happens when a Vampire goes into the house of mirrors in the amusement park? I bet that’s really gonna freak out his non suspecting human friends out. Maybe I should start a campaign, a SAVE THE VAMPIRE campaign. Something gotta be done before it’s too late. Come on people I’ve got questions.
Why do Vampires have fully stocked kitchens with pots and pans if they don’t eat and how is drinking the blood of animals the same as human blood? Is that like switching from regular milk to soy milk? SAVE THE VAMPIRE! How can we tell the good ones from the bad? And how do they get the money to buy all of those nice clothes?





It’s time that we put the old Vampire handbook back in print so we can put these guys back inside the old dark, dank, and dreary crypts where they belong. Look at it this way guys we are in a recession and if things keep going the way they are these new wave Vampires may be forced to put up a roadside stand and sell garlic just to make ends meet.





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