Sci Fi Flashbacks: Killroy Was Here (Rock Album by Styx)

The art/hard rock band Styx first hit the scene in 1971 and had previously explored some genre themes in songs like “Come Sail Away” (from 1977’s The Grand Illusion) and “Lords of the Ring” (from 1978’s Pieces of Eight), but in the early 80’s the band focused their efforts on an all-out sci fi rock opera with 1983’s Killroy Was Here.  This album presents a dystopian future when a fascist government--heavily influenced by the fundamental religious organization the "MMM (the Majority for Musical Morality)"--has taken control and outlawed rock music.  The protagonist of the story is former rock star Killroy who has been imprisoned but who manages to escape (by disguising himself as Mr. Roboto) and plans on re-taking the world with rock and roll.  Mostly written by the band’s lead vocalist/keyboardist Dennis De Young, it was inspired by the run-ins that Styx and other rock bands of the time had with several fundamentalist groups like the Moral Majority.

The album definitely has good intentions, in a cheesy, art rock sort of way, but as far as grand statements it perhaps comes up a bit short.  And musically, it doesn’t quite measure up to peek of that band’s output like The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight.  But it’s still a fun listen for the most part and delivers more than a couple of stand-out songs along with a decent little sci fi story that genre fans should enjoy.  And who among you can resist standing up to sing along and do the robot when “Mr. Roboto”—the height of 80’s cheese-rock—comes on?  To test that out, just start up the video below and see if you are capable of sitting still and not lip-syncing through the entire thing! 

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Classic Sci Fi Trailers: Early Trailer for Return of the Jedi Before Its Name was Changed

This clip is another throwback to the days when trailer-making wasn't quite the art-form it is today (when they can make any move look good), or perhaps it was just laziness because they new everybody was going to go see the movie anyway.  But the most interesting thing about this is that the movie is still titled REVENGE of the Jedi.  That's before George Lucas decided that revenge was too harsh of an action for his noble Jedi Knights who follow the light side of the force, and the movie that hit the theaters would eventually go out as RETURN of the Jedi.  But this is a fun throwback clip, even though its pretty short (probably planned as a TV spot).  Of course, this movie would represent the point when the rot would start to set in for the franchise and the product would become more important than the story, but it still had its moments and it was much better than the prequels that would push the franchise over the edge beginning in 1999.  And for another retro-Star Wars clip, take a look at the trailer for the first movie at this link.

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Sci Fi Genre Gems: Replicas (1979 New Wave Album by Gary Numan)

What Is It?  This new wave album came out in 1979 before “Cars”--from The Pleasure Principle--would skyrocket Gary Numan into one-hit-wonder fame.  Replicas offered a collection of songs inspired by a set of inter-connected short stories he had been writing about a future dystopia.  The very Terminator-like setting he established (five years before the James Cameron movie came out) depicts a nightmarish world where humanity is in decay and people have allowed the machines to take control to sort out the mess. But the machines decide that the root of the problem is humanity itself, and set out to slowly rid the planet of their presence.

Why It Stands Out: The album presents a dark and moody set of synth-pop songs in a science fiction setting that deal with themes of alienation, isolation, paranoia, and disillusionment.  And it’s a pretty enjoyable bit of New Wave sci fi music to boot.

The Skinny:  Gary Numan may be known the world over for his song “Cars”, but he is definitely more than a one-trick-pony.  He was an early pioneer of synthesizer music and the New Wave movement and then continued to reinvent himself in the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s and has a new album out this week (which I highly recommend that you check out, and you can read by full review of it at this link).  Replicas is where he developed the sound he would become famous for (his previous work was more guitar-heavy with hints of punk) and he had considerable chart success in his home country of the UK with the album.  Often dismissed by many as “android rock”, the fact is that his early music had a deep humanness beneath its cool, mechanical trappings.  Alienation, isolation, and loneliness play an important part of his early songs (and became a running motif throughout his career) and his explorations into those dark territories definitely made this more than a collection of throwaway synth-pop songs.  Plus, the sci fi setting will definitely be of interest to genre fans, especially with its similarities to the future world we would later see in the Terminator movies.  The sci fi elements aren’t always as pronounced in the songs, but they are there for those who want to dig for them.  This album contains two songs that some may recognize: “Are Friends Electric?” and “Down in the Park” (the latter has been covered by many groups, most notable The Foo Fighters and Marilyn Manson).  For those not familiar with Numan’s larger catalog, Replicas is very much in the vein of the “Cars” sound and he would continue with this style for one more album after The Pleasure Principle (Telekon) before starting to branch out with his sound.  All three of these albums are worth checking out (as is much of his discography), and sci fi fans may want to start with Replicas because of its strong genre themes or go straight to his later dark, industrial albums (which began with 1994's Sacrifice) because these could act as soundtracks to genre films.

Did You Know:  Gary Numan discovered his trademark synthesizer sound by accident.  His early work with the Tubeway Army was more guitar-driven quasi-punk.  But he was looking for a different direction because he didn’t feel this sound fully expressed the musical vision he was trying to achieve.  Then--according to his autobiography Praying to the Aliens--one day he walked into the studio and found the previous group had left a mini-moog synthesizer behind.  He played one note on it and the way it had been tuned immediately struck a cord with him.  He commented that “if it had been pre-set on a horrible, tinny, bleep sound I probably wouldn’t have given it a second thought”.  So that was a pivotal moment in music history and a different setting on that synthesizer could have altered his career direction and the New Wave movement as well!

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Sci Fi Trifles: J. Michael Straczynski’s Star Trek That Could Have Been

In 2009, the Star Trek franchise received a reboot with the J.J. Abrams helmed feature film the set Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise (portrayed by new actors) off on an all new set of adventures. But did you know that in 2004, Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski proposed a not too dissimilar reboot to the franchise that unfortunately never took off?

Seeing the fourth Star Trek spin-off, Enterprise, struggling in the ratings and feeling like the franchise had run out of steam, Straczynski collaborated with Bryce Zabel (Dark Skies, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven) to put together a proposal for a new Trek series. In the proposal, they noted that the franchise had grown stagnate and lost its spirit of adventure:

Over the decades, Star Trek has become so insular, so strictly defined, and placed so many layers upon itself that some of the essence of what made us love it in the first place has been lost. The all-too-reasonable desire to protect the franchise may now be the cause of its stagnation.

Thus their idea, like Abrams, was to go back to the beginning and start all over again. But not by creating an alternate timeline, just reimagining the show from the start (sort of like what Battlestar: Galactica did at about that same time, though not as drastic of a change). They would return to the early days of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy (“warrior, the priest, the doctor” as the proposal dubs them) and find out how they got started in their careers in Starfleet, how Kirk became the youngest captain, and how he was awarded the fleet’s flagship.

Now this is where the proposal begins to diverge from the 2009 J.J. Abrams movie. Straczynski would take a page from his Babylon 5 book and build in a five year story arc for the series. This of course fits seamlessly with the series seeing as the Enterprise was originally on a five year mission. But he would add a specific purpose to this mission and a reason that the Federation’s flagship was off exploring deep space far from its home base. This involved the discovery of the existence of a lost race that may have had a hand in the origins of many of the intelligent species across the galaxy, including humans, Vulcans, and Klingons. The Enterprise would be secretly tasked with uncovering more information about this lost race which would eventually lead to the entanglement with “forces of darkness who may view our activities with more than a little hostility.”

But like Bablyon 5, this new Trek would have its share of stand-alone episodes as well. And the proposal suggests that just like the original show, well-known science fiction authors would be brought in to pen these episodes (or adapt their own stories to the new series). In addition, the other familiar characters from the series such as Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov would return, and all of the principal roles would be portrayed by new actors. This plan would allow the new series to blaze bold new paths and present challenging stories, just like the original did back in the sixties. But it would have broken from the canon established by the series that preceded it and would no longer have that baggage weighing it down. And the proposal does take a bit of a dig at TNG through Voyager with this comment:

The original Enterprise never needed a holo-deck so that the characters could have exciting adventures because there were more than enough adventures, more than enough excitement, to be found in the real world they occupied every day. If you need a holo-deck to make an interstellar starship on the bleeding edge of the unknown interesting, something is seriously amiss.

So as you can see, this proposal took a similar approach to what Abrams would do several years later, but it would have returned the series to the small screen in an updated and revised format “re-born and re-tooled for a new millennium, applying hard lessons and building in new thoughts that shake things up creatively.” Unfortunately, nothing ever came of it and we can now only imagine what this series would have been like. Star Trek meets Babylon 5 in a new-meets-old series that brings us “The Best of Both Worlds!” You can read more about the origins of this idea and see the original proposal at this link.