2011 - 01/2011 Meeting

Page Created: 12/18/10. Last Updated: 12/29/10.

VIDEO PROGRAM

The Desert Punk (Episode)

Princess of Mars

MEETING SUMMARY

Meeting Date: January 8, 2011.

Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center. Upper Saddle River.

Official Attendance: 5.

Meeting Program: Videos.

Notes:

Newsletter Account:

The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2011 Philip J De Parto:

By any objective standard, the General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was a disaster. This was one of those times when saying that only a handful of people showed up is a literal truth. That being said, those of us who did show up wound up having a surprisingly good time.

The original intent had been to present a video program guest hosted by members of the North Jersey Anime and Manga Meetup. That fell apart the day before the meeting, when that organizer of the group was in a traffic accident (he’s okay). That pretty much put the kibosh on the original program, so Phil and Charles brought a selection of substitute videos.

We led off with the first episode of the anime series, THE DESERT PUNK. This is set on a desert planet with a Mad Max cast of outlaws. The hero is only slightly less oily than the men he hunts. The joke is that this clever, resourceful bounty hunter is expertly scammed by a beautiful rival, who lets the hero do all the dangerous work and then skips off with the reward.

We then showed PRINCESS OF MARS as the main feature. This was a straight-to-video flick that we all enjoyed despite its awful reviews. It felt like a good work by Roger Corman and starred Antonio Sabato Jr as John Carter and Traci Lords as Deja Thoris.

The producers made a number of changes to the storyline which will infuriate the die hard fan but which I feel make perfect sense. John Carter is a special forces soldier in Afghanistan instead of ex-Confederate officer prospecting for gold. He travels via an experimental government teleportation program instead of astral projection. Barsoom is not our Mars, but a red planet around a distant star which has been named Mars 216. The Tharks only have two arms instead of four (presumably to save money), but does it really matter? They’re still fierce alien barbarians. Traci Lords does fine as Deja Thoris. She’s brave and can handle a weapon, but they didn’t make her into Xena. I don’t want to overhype the movie, but all-in-all, it’s a respectable grade B flick.

Phil, Pam and Barry finished the evening at Matthews Diner.