Catalyst Castle

Just as a creative diversion, I decided to try casting the main characters of my fan novel Star Wars: Aspirations. I'm still uncertain if these are the actors and actresses I would actually choose in the hypothetical situation that my story should be made into a movie, but these are the ones I'm leaning towards right now.

Emma Watson as Rani Dashel
Honestly, I've never seen her in anything, so I can't really judge her acting abilities. She has kind of the look I'd imagine for the character, though, and she's a good age for the part. With a few adjustments in makeup I think she could easily portray the very young Rani in the beginning of the story and the more adult Rani later on.

Chris Pine as Wess Nayne
In Star Trek he played James Kirk as an intelligent man with surprising depth of character. It's kind of funny, but one of the things I was looking for here was an actor who could look good with a scowl. I don't really picture Wess smiling much. Chris looks a tad young for Wess, but he's actually about the right age for the character. With a little bit of stubble I think it could work.

Kate Beckinsale as Kalina Sah
She's played tough, butt-kicking characters before. I think she would be totally cool as the strong-willed Jedi Master.

Milo Ventimiglia as Marcus Jrent
His character on Heroes is incredibly kind and sincere - not what you'd expect for Marcus. But Milo is a good actor and I think he could definitely turn on the charm to play this dashing scoundrel. Besides, there is a bit more sincerity to Marcus than it might at first seem.

Cate Blanchett as Deela Tarule
This role requires a more mature actress with beauty and class. Having played royalty on more than one occasion is indicative of the amount of class she has.

Robert Duvall as Riv'var Tal
I picture Riv being completely computer generated in a live-action movie, in order to do the alien justice. So, I was mainly looking for someone to provide his voice. It needs to be an older man with a sort of gruff voice, but he needs to have a tough, grandfatherly feel as well. The voice would then probably be slightly digitally enhanced to add even a little bit more of a growl to it. Duvall can certainly play an eccentric character, too, which further qualifies him for the role.

Corry Edwards as Tefo
Like Riv'var Tal, Tefo would probably be either completely computer generated, or perhaps a midget in a suit. Either way, I was simply looking for someone to provide a voice. Corry Edwards did the voice of Twitchy in Hoodwinked. I think if you toned down the speed and pitch of that character's voice by about half, that's roughly what I imagine Tefo would sound like.

Hugo Weaving as The Imperial Inquisitor
He doesn't show up until about two thirds of the way through the story, and even as far as Chapter 18 he hasn't been named, but aside from the characters' inner demons, the Imperial Inquisitor is the major villian of Aspirations. He embodies everything that Rani and Wess seek to oppose. Hugo Weaving can do creepy and intimidating, which is exactly what this character needs.

So, those are my choices as of now for the main cast of Aspirations. What do you think? Are there other actors or actresses that you think would fit the roles better? Let me know by posting a comment.

I felt like doing some art today, so I made this anime-style drawing of the character Peter Petrelli from the show Heroes. It's based on a still of the character from an episode in season 1, where Hiro travels to the future and meets a future version of Peter (hence the scar on his forehead which the present Peter lacks).

This post is prompted by a news article I read here. It announced that Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander, two of the original writers and executive producers of Heroes, are no longer working on the show. Apparently they were bumped because the show's ratings are continually dropping off. The article went on to relate the writer's opinion of why the show is failing.

I'm not sure I agree with all of the observations made in the article, but I will say that I have been somewhat dissatisfied with the show since the end of season 1. I'll cut them some slack because season 2 was cut short, and season 3 seems to have some good things going for it. I just thought I would share a few thoughts on what I think Heroes is doing well, and where I think they've made some mistakes.

I think that, for the most part, season 3 is on the right track. Arthur Petrelli makes a compelling new villian, and the whole family in-fighting aspect of the story is interresting. It looks like that will take off even further in next week's episode. I like what they've done with Sylar so far this season. Making Sylar a Petrelli was unexpected, but probably a good move. It makes him a lot more involved in the intricacies of the plot, and they've developed his character in unexpected ways.

The article mentioned above complains about how they've added so many new characters throughout seasons 2 and 3. I don't mind the new characters, but honestly I'd rather see more of the old characters who have sort of dissipeared from the show. I'd like to see more of the Haitian, Micah, and even Molly. What ever happened to Claude Rains?

Another thing that the article complained about was the way the show has moved away from it's "ordinary people with extraordinary abilities" origins, and has become more like the X-Men without leather jumpsuits. I think that's just a natural evolution of the show. As the characters become more accustomed to their powers, they're going to continue to be less and less "normal". I'm not sure that's a bad thing, but it certainly does change the tone of the story.

I think my biggest complaint against Heroes would be the somewhat hit-and-miss writing as of late. It seems that sometimes the writers just simply forget about what's come before. An outstanding example of this is Caitlin. After the plague of season 2 has been adverted, Peter never even attempts to travel to the future to bring her back. Did he really just forget about her that easily? Obviously the writers did. Less obvious examples are future-Peter being killed by a bullet in one episode when he should be invulnerable to that kind of thing, and Sylar missing a very opportune time to use his super-hearing.

I hope the show picks up the slack and continues to run strong for at least a couple more years, but I'm a little uncertain about it right now.

What do you think? How is Heroes doing? What's the good and the bad in your opinion?

It started out very innocently. I've been reading the rulebook for an RPG called Primetime Adventures. It is a game where a group of friends get together and roleplay the events of a make-believe television show. It looks like a fun game, and I'd love to play it some time.

However, reading the book also got me thinking about ideas for a television show, and also got me thinking about what makes entertaining television. Meanwhile, my day job doesn't require a whole lot of thought process to carry out, so I found myself thinking about ideas for shows while I worked. A few days ago, I hit on an idea that instantly caused an imaginative explosion inside my head. The more I think on the idea, the more possibilities for entertaining stories pop into my head. I believe I've hit on an idea that has huge potential. It makes me want to quit my day job so I can write this series. I doubt that will ever happen, but I'd still like to write some of the stories this idea brings to mind in my spare time.

I don't want to say too much about my idea yet, as I'm still working out the details. For now I'll just say this: It's a character-driven drama disguised as a sci-fi action series. It involves aliens, superheroes, and an apocalypse - combining those elements in a way that I think will be unique and compelling, while not treading too closely to already existing shows like Heroes or Smallville.

I'll post more about this idea as I continue to develop it.

I haven't posted in a while, but I decided to make some comments on this television season so far.

Heroes is definitely going strong. The last episode was another good entry in the series. Arthur Petrelli is shaping up to be a fine villain, and I can't wait to see how this story continues to progress.

The Big Bang Theory continues to amuse. It seems like they've been focusing on Sheldon quite a bit lately. He's my favorite character on the show, so that's a win for me.

I haven't watched The Office in about 3 weeks now, and I don't think I'll bother to. Unfortunately, that show seems to have lost most of its humor now, and the little story-arcs with some of the characters are no longer interesting enough to keep me involved.

Recently I've gotten little bits of the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon. You can find brief video summaries of all of the episodes so far, and a couple of complete episodes, on Cartoon Network's website. It seems like a really engaging show, and a worthy follow-up to the animated movie. I hope I get a chance to see more full episodes of this series. I think it's a fresh take on Star Wars that really breaths some new life into the franchise.

After watching Heroes last night I feel that once again Peter and Sylar are the stars of the show. Making them brothers introduces an interesting dynamic to their rivalry. Now that Peter has acquired Sylar's power he is also manifesting "the hunger" that Sylar exhibits. While this makes for an interesting development, I'm actually far more interested in where Sylar might be headed. I love the irony in his character right now. Is he really trying to turn over a new leaf, or is he just putting on a good show? His actions would seem to indicate that he's really trying to impove, but then he turns around and does/says something that makes you wonder.

Speaking of the Petrellis, I wonder if Nathan's discovery of his powers being synthetic will cause him to become distanced from Peter. Of course, I'm assuming that Peter and Sylar came by their powers naturally. Maybe we'll learn otherwise later.

I liked what I've seen of Arthur Petrelli so far. The way they're portraying him reminds me of a true villian mastermind. He seems so vulnerable confined to a bed, and yet someone as powerful as Maury Parkman acts as his toady to carry out his plans. I suspect that he'll soon be healed, probably by Adam's blood, so that he can be up and moving around. It was said in the first season that Arthur commited suicide, but that obviously isn't true. I wonder what the story behind that is.

Overall, I liked last night's episode pretty well. Other than a small slip by the writers, forgetting that Sylar has super-hearing, it was a pretty well writen story. I'm looking forward to next week.

New episodes of the Big Bang Theory and Heroes were on last night.

In the Big Bang Theory, Penny gets hooked on a massively multi-player online roleplaying game called Age of Conan. The show poked some fun at people who experience such an addiction. Overall the episode was pretty funny.

In Heroes, a good portion of the show focused on Peter traveling to a possible future where characters' allegiances have shifted. The big surprise was that Sylar was a good guy living a normal suburban life with a young son.

We got a glimpse of Mohinder's fate due to his experiment with giving himself powers. I thought his "mutant" appearance was kind of cheesily done. Mostly they just covered him up and kept him in the shadows. The plot with mohinder made it seem like they were developing him as a Beast or Nightcrawler type mutant - someone who wears their powers out in the open for everyone to see, whether he likes it or not.

Hiro and Ando's antics were a nice comical diversion, including when they went to get the "key" at the end. I'm not sure where they're going with Matt's sudden new abilities, but it might be interresting. I thought it was odd that Molly looks exactly the same four years in the future. I would think a kid her age would have changed quite a bit in four years, but I guess they couldn't really help it unless they got a different actress.

When Nathan asked Linderman if he was appearing to him through telepathy, Linderman responded that it wasn't anything so obvious. It makes me wonder what the real explaination will be.

Last night I watched The Big Bang Theory and Heroes (Spoilers Ahead!).

The Big Bang Theory was pretty funny. Leonard tries dating Leslie again, but they finally break up over a difference of scientific theory. Leslie is a hilarious guest star with almost Sheldon-level nerdiness. Her "Call me." line was perfect.

Heroes delivered even more surprises, just as I expected. I was waiting to see how they would explain Niki's escape from the exploding building at the end of season 2. Surprise! She didn't. Makes me wonder if we'll see more "Nikis" as the season progresses, and how many. It also raises a question of why one family got two (Niki and Jessica)?

So, Peter got out of the body of Jesse. I wondered how long that might last. Sylar is working for the company now. 3 of the 12 bad guys have been brought back in, and 1 of them has been killed. I didn't expect that to happen so quickly. Who is Daphne working for? Will she become a love interest for Hiro? The questions continue to mount.

Seeing the season premier of Heroes got me think about the various degrees of abilities that different characters exhibit. For example, Peter Petrelli is unquestionably more powerful than his brother Nathan. So I thought it might be fun to rank every Heroes character (the ones with powers anyway) by "Power Level".

I came up with three power levels. Level 1 characters have powers that amount to "tricks". They're cool, and somewhat useful, but these characters aren't likely to have any considerable impact on history by virtue of their powers. Level 2 characters have "considerable" powers. They are nearly immortal, can wipe out entire towns or cities, manipulate other people, or manifest multiple powers. Level 3 characters are nigh "unstoppable". While they may at some point be permanently defeated, it is presently uncertain how this could be accomplished.

So here below is the list of all the evolved humans by rank. I used the Heroes Wiki as a reference (http://heroeswiki.com/Main_Page).

Level 1 “Tricks”

• Abu Aswan
• Alejandro Herrera
• Angela Petrelli
• Au Co
• Benjamin Franklin
• Bianca Karina
• Bob Bishop
• Brendan Lewis
• Brian Davis
• Bridget Bailey
  
• Candice Willmer
• Charlie Andrews
• Claude Rains
• Connie Logan
• D.L. Hawkins
• Dale Smither
• Daniel Linderman
• Donna Dunlap
• Echo DeMille
• Elle Bishop
• Felicia Brooks
• Hana Gitelman
• Howard Grigsby
• Ida May Walker
• Isaac Mendez
• Khufu
• Leonard Cushing
• Liquid Man
• Lukas Bahn
• Manual Garcia
• Maarten
• Marcus
• Matt Neuenberg
• Meredith Gordon
• Micah Sanders
• Mohinder Suresh
• Molly Walker
• Monica Dawson
• Nathan Petrelli
• Paul Harding
• Piper
• Richard Drucker
• Robert Ferguson
• Sanjog Iyer
• Sebastian Shell
• The Constrictor
• The German
• Tracy Chobham
• Traveler
• Usutu
• West Rosen
• Zayne Taylor

Level 2 “Considerable”

• Adam Monroe
• Albert Rossling
• Claire Bennet
• Eden McCain
• Evan
• Guillame
• Hiro Nakamura
• Julien Dumont
• Linda Tavara
• Manhattan Target
• Matt Parkman
• Maury Parkman
• Maya Herrera
• Niki Sanders/Jessica Sanders/Tracy Strauss
• Theodore “Ted” Sprague
• The Croatian
• The Haitian

Level 3 “Unstoppable”

• Peter Petrelli
• Sylar

So tell me what you think. Does ranking characters this way make sense? Did I rank any incorrectly?

I just saw the premier this morning on NBC.com. There certainly were a lot of surprises.

Overall, the feel of the show was really great. It was very exciting and moved at a nice pace. The scene where Sylar attacked Claire in her house was definitely one of the most intense moments ever in the series. There was a lot of intrigue going on, as we've all come to expect from the show.

Now, I'll just comment on a few of the surprises (Spoiler Warning!!):


Future Peter shot Nathan. This surprise was somewhat spoiled by the fact that I read a rumor to this effect somewhere online about a month ago. It was still an interesting plot twist, and I wouldn't have seen it coming if not for that spoiler. It's interesting how much Future Peter remained involved in the story for the rest of the premier, essentially replacing the regular Peter in the present day while the regular Peter is trapped elsewhere. I wonder how long that will continue. Having two Peters around is just more of good thing in my opinion.

I liked the whole "butterfly effect" idea, and I think they did a good job of showing how that played out with Claire. They also seemed to confirm that time travel in Heroes works much like it does in the X-Men comics, that is, traveling to the past to change the future creates an alternate universe with a different future. I say this because Future Peter demonstrates no knowledge of how his actions in the present/past have impacted the future until someone else points out the repercussions of his actions to him, implying that according to his knowledge nothing in the future has changed. This seems consistent with the events of season 1.

Nathan got religious. Who saw that coming? It seems kind of weird, but I guess dying might do that to you. And now he has Linderman in his head. I wonder how that will play out.

Mohinder was kind of weird in this episode. I had to laugh when he became Spider-man. Apparently he's a venom-enhanced Spider-man, though, as his behavior has become more, er, aggresive. I'm enterested to see where they're going with this, but right now it almost feels like a bad joke. Are they ententionally making fun of Spider-man 3? I think Ando having powers in the future is supposed to be a result of Mohinder's serum and/or the formula Hiro's trying to protect.

Speaking of Hiro, that first scene of him in his office was hilarious. What would it be like to have so much time on your hands, literally? Imagine if you get tired in the middle of the day, you could sleep for an hour and then just rewind time so that you didn't lose any. That would really reduce stress. Hiro letting his victories go to his head and wanting another quest to pursue seemed in character. Although, he did seem a little too reckless in light of his past experiences. He seemed very serious at the end of season 2.

Niki/Tracy was interresting. Are they emplying now that she manifests different powers with each of her split personalities? It seems like that could be the case, although she was able to use her super-strength as both Niki and Jessica. Perhaps her Niki personality will eventually be able to access all of her super powers, whatever they may end up being, turning her into another character on the same power level as Peter and Sylar.

So, Angela Petrelli is Sylar's mother? I guess that makes Sylar a half-brother to Nathan and Peter. Could be interesting.