(1) WARPING INTO PASADENA. “First look at ‘Star Trek’s’ 2026 Rose Parade float” in the LA Times (behind a paywall.)

The voyages of the starship Enterprise will include a 5½-mile stretch in Pasadena on New Year’s Day.

The iconic “Star Trek” flagship will be prominently featured on the franchise’s 2026 Rose Parade float, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the storied sci-fi franchise. The design for the Star Trek 60 “Space for Everybody” entry was revealed on Monday.

In addition to the USS Enterprise and its bridge — where yet-to-be-announced actors will be stationed — the float will feature an homage to Vasquez Rocks, the local landmark where “Star Trek” has filmed, as well as the franchise’s future version of San Francisco, where Starfleet is headquartered. The design also incorporates planets and transporters….

… The float will also promote the upcoming Paramount+ series “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy,” which stars Holly Hunter as a starship captain and chancellor leading the academy’s first new crop of cadets in more than 100 years. The show will premiere next year….

(2) BACK TO THE KENNEL. A subscription is required to read WIRED’s newly expanded version of its 2015 article about the Sad Puppies Hugo controversy. “Sci-Fi’s Hugo Awards and the Battle for Pop Culture’s Soul”.

On the other hand, you can read David Gerrold’s counterpoint on Facebook at no charge.

…Here’s my take on it.

The Pathetic Pooches never had any intention of winning any Hugos.

From the very beginning, their intention was to destroy the credibility of the awards.

There were three primary actors: Vox Bray who cannot reenter the United States, lest he be arrested for tax fraud, Larry Correa, who was still pissed at not winning an award in a previous year, and Brad Torgersen, who should have known better than to be the hood ornament on the battering ram.

They ran a slate in five Hugo categories and bought enough votes to push other (and probably more deserving) candidates off the ballot.

I’ll leave it to others — or the Wired article — to rehash the details, but one thing proves my point that the intention was disruption. Neither Correa nor Torgersen bothered to attend the convention. If either of them truly believed in their cause, they would have shown up to defend their position.

For those who weren’t there, or came in late, the membership of Sasquan was the largest membership of any Worldcon in history — mostly non-attending members who joined for the specific purpose of voting “no award” in all the pooch-slated categories. The smackdown of the pooches was evident by the applause of the audience….

PJ Mediais also running some kind of series, and made a (dog)whistle stop on September 28 to once again spin the Sad Puppies as culture war heroes. “DEI vs. Story: How Publishing Lost the Plot. Part 2 of 7: The Awards Racket”.

…But by the early 2010s, fans began noticing a shift. The Hugo shortlists looked less like celebrations of imagination and more like showcases of political themes. Message fiction was in. Adventures, space operas, and swashbuckling tales that had defined the genre were out. Even more suspicious, despite the dozens of science fiction and fantasy imprints on the market, the awards became dominated by one house: Tor Books. Time and again, Tor authors were shortlisted and Tor authors walked away with the rockets. To many, it looked less like a free contest of ideas and more like a closed shop.

A group of writers and fans, frustrated by this creeping politicization and consolidation, decided to push back. They called themselves the Sad Puppies — a tongue-in-cheek name coined by Larry Correia, later joined by Sarah Hoyt and Brad Torgersen. Their goal was simple: highlight good, entertaining stories that regular readers actually enjoyed, but that the self-appointed gatekeepers were ignoring. They organized campaigns to put overlooked works on the ballot, rallying fans to participate in the open nomination process…

(3) WHERE TO GET YOUR CLICKS. Christopher Lockett’s marathon reread of Pratchett has reached – “Discworld Reread # 9: Moving Pictures”.

…From books and libraries, to the silver screen: where Sir Terry goes in this iteration is not merely a comic speculative romp in which he plays out how a premodern society would react and adapt to cinema; or, well, he does do that, but more significantly he engages in a consideration of what is tritely called, usually during awards season, “the magic of cinema.” Moving Pictures is the Discworldification of movies and cinema and the Hollywood dream factory—it is about kinema in the alchemist’s phrasing, but also cthinema insofar as Holy Wood is a product of the Lovecraftian forces seeking a way from the Dungeon Dimensions into the Discworld reality. Because “[r]eality wasn’t the same everywhere … Reality wasn’t very thick anywhere on the Discworld,” and “[i]n some places it was very thin indeed” (281). As Victor realizes in the final battle against the invading chthonic entities, “Reality didn’t have to be real. Maybe if conditions were right, it just had to be what people believed …” (346).

This last conceit is one with which we’ve become familiar over the Discworld’s nine previous iterations, and which will become more thoroughly developed as the series progresses—namely, that reality is contingent and inflected with collective fictions. There is a sense in which cinema—especially classic cinema still enraptured with its own power to enthrall—is an ideal vehicle in this context. For all the Lovecraftian supernatural providing the basis for the rise of Holy Wood, its most elemental magic is in the alchemy of moving images, a fact that surprises C.M.O.T. Dibbler when he has the mechanics of film explained to him. Looking critically at a sequence of pictures on a spool of octo-cellulose, he asks “Why are all the little pictures alike?”

“They’re not really alike,” said Gaffer. “Each one’s a bit different, see? And so people’s eyes see a lot of slightly different pictures very fast and their eyes think they’re watching something move.”

Dibbler took the cigar out of his mouth. “You mean it’s all a trick?” he said, astonished.

“Yeah, that’s right.” The handleman chuckled and reached for the paste pot….

(4) ELINOR BUSBY’S 101ST BIRTHDAY IS TODAY! [Item by Linda Deneroff.] Elinor Busby completed 101 revolutions around Sol today. I believe she is the oldest living sf fan. What I don’t know is if any other fan has reached or exceeded that age.

(5) EVENT HORIZON. Theo Downes-Le Guin, in today’s Ursula K. Le Guin newsletter, told readers they will end the UKL social media presence at some point.

…All of this contains the genesis of what you are reading: a fresh newsletter! Molly [Templeton] and I have had a number of conversations going back a couple of years about how long we’ll keep up Ursula’s presence on the socials. I don’t know when we’ll leave, but I know that we will leave. I suspect this will be at the threshold when more content is manipulated or generated by machines than by humans. (By some accounts we are already long past that threshold, but it doesn’t yet feel that way in our tiny slice of the Metaverse). For our Plan B, we sought something more basic and unmediated. And in my case—dear Reader, please do not be offended—something one-way.

Follower interaction with our social posts can be a beautiful thing, but I’m enough of my mother’s child to distrust it, even in good times. Of course, Ursula did not entirely eschew textual responses to her writing, and I don’t either. She read her reviews, and if she thought they were well-reasoned, she heeded them. Her entire, multi-decade revisionism of The Left Hand of Darkness was prompted by other people’s writing about her writing. But the goal of her writing was not to prompt an immediate response, other than in the mind of the reader.

So here we are, trying out a new way to be a part of and support the community of Le Guin readers.

(6) MOOVE OVER. “Have a Cow, Man: They’re Making a Second ‘Simpsons’ Movie”. Gizmodo has the story.

Twenty years after the release of the original, a new Simpsons movie is coming to theaters on July 23, 2027. That’s kind of all we know at the moment, but 20th Century Fox announced the news with a poster on social media….

The Simpsons Movie was released on July 27, 2007, and told the story of the family’s hometown of Springfield being covered in a dome. It was a major hit, grossing over $500 million worldwide, which immediately had people talking about a sequel. But, as you can tell, producers and creators took their time, instead concentrating on continuing the long-running TV series.

(7) LAWYER LETTER. “Disney Legal Letter Warns Character.ai To Stop Unauthorized Use Of Its IP” reports Deadline.

Walt Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Character.AI, a “personalized superintelligence platform” that the media giant says is ripping off copyrighted characters without authorization.

The AI startup offers users the ability to create customizable, personalized AI companions that can be totally original but in some cases are inspired by existing characters, including, it seems, Disney icons from Spider-Man and Darth Vader to Moana and Elsa.

The letter is the latest legal salvo by Hollywood as studios begin to step up against AI. Disney has also sued AI company Midjourney for allegedly improper use and distribution of AI-generated characters from Disney films. Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures this month sued Chinese AI firm MiniMax for copyright infringement.

“It has come to Disney’s attention that Character Technologies, Inc. (“Character.ai”) has been using Disney’s copyrighted characters as interactive chatbots in its commercial Character.ai service without authorization. Apparently trained without authorization on Disney’s copyrighted works, the Character.ai service features countless chatbots that exploit Disney’s copyrighted works and trademarks, presenting immersive versions of Disney’s famous and beloved characters.

“These actions mislead and confuse consumers, including vulnerable young people, to believe that they are interacting with Disney’s characters, and to falsely believe that Disney has licensed these characters to, and endorsed their use by, Character.ai,” said the letter from Disney attorneys obtained by Deadline.

It said the infringing chatbots impersonate iconic characters from classic Disney animated films, Pixar movies, the Star Wars franchise, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other properties.

A spokesperson for Character.AI told Deadline the characters have been removed and noted that “we respond swiftly to requests to remove content that rightsholders report to us.”…

(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

September 30, 1953 — S.M. Stirling, 72.

By Paul Weimer: I first came across S.M. Stirling’s work with the Draka. I had missed his post Apocalyptic “Fifth Millennium” series when they came out, and so it was the Draka, which hit me at a high point in my alternate history reading.  I admit that I was one of those who was fooled by the title Marching Through Georgia, thinking it took place in North America. I was hooked, anyway, by a world that is measurably worse than our own, and where the bad guys really do win. I am not sure, in this current political climate, I ever want to revisit the Draka but I strongly appreciate the underpinnings and worldbulding that the novels provide. 

Of course, being strongly interested in all things Rome, I loved his Forge series, co-written with David Drake, which basically does really retell the story of Belisarius, except on a fallen colonized planet in the far future, just with a higher level of technology than what Belisarius had. They definitely show Stirling’s interest in late 19th century technology, which he has kept up to this day in various works. (The Peshawar Lancers, for example)

Conquistador might be his single best alternate history standalone novel, which I value mainly for its appendices, which goes into incredible lengths in how history went very differently in the parallel world that the characters of the novel visit. I pair it in my mind with Charles Stross’ Merchant Princes novels. 

The Island in the Sea of Time series is delightful in having the Nantucketeers transported to the 13th century B.C. and resulting in all sorts of delightful chaos. Harry Turtledove and his wife are [nan]tuckerized into the novel, there’s a wealth of historical detail, and even a “world war” of sorts. 

The Change novels, twenty of them in total, I only read a few books in and decided I was done, but the story of a world which loses the capacity for high technology thanks to alien space bats has its rabid fans. I think the novels got too science fantasy as opposed to science fiction post-apocalyptic for their own good, but one can’t really argue with their success. 

My favorite Stirling has to be the duology of The Sky People and In the Courts of the Martian Kings, The Lords of Creation duology. Set in a world where aliens terraformed and populated both Venus and Mars, the novels are a way to try and rationalize and make possible the Pulp worlds of Venus and Mars from novels and stories of that age. I particularly like his vision of Mars in the latter book. I recently reread it and I think it holds up, still.  

There is a new and recent book in the duology, making it a trilogy, called The Lords of Creation. Naturally I obtained it and read it eagerly hoping for more of the same magic of the first two novels.  However, sadly and tragically, I had major issues with this book. It had such potential…and it failed for me so spectacularly…and it was on the worldbuilding, no less.

To Turn the Tide is the start of a new series where the world goes to hell but time travelers go back to circa 190 AD and try and keep the Roman Empire from going into the crisis of the 3rd Century, and thus make a better world for everyone. A lot of the characters are paper-thin, but the worldbuilding is interesting and there is even a tuckerization of a character from a Harry Turtledove/Judith Tarr novel that is absolutely delightful. There is a recent sequel I have not picked up yet (The Winds of Fate), mainly because of my sourness with Lords of Creation.  Has the magic of Stirling’s writing been lost on me?  I don’t know.  I hope not.  I read Stirling not for his characters, but for his worldbuilding and alternate histories, and it is when those fail, a novel of his falls apart for me.

But in the end, Stirling remains one of the best alternate history writers writing today. He might be a distant second place to Dr. Turtledove, but in terms of sheer output alone, he is in an unassailable second place in that regard.  

(9) COMICS SECTION.

• Baby Blues plays favorites. 
• Bound and Gagged escalates. 
• Reality Check has standards. 
• War and Peas – is it funny? Your mileage may vary.

(10) DIAMOND COMICS CH. 11 NEWS. “Image Comics Plan To Settle With Diamond Comics, Approved By Courts” reports Bleeding Cool. More details of the settlement terms at the link.

Last month, Bleeding Cool broke the news that Image Comics had settled with Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc, the debtor in the Diamond chapter 11 bankruptcy case, over plans for Diamond to liquidate consigned inventory of comics. owned by many publishers, to benefit the banks that had funded the bankruptcy. With none of the money going to the publishers. The court had granted the Ad Hoc Committee of comic book publishers’ Motion to stay the liquidation, which means that Diamond will now have to initiate a lawsuit called an adversary proceeding against all 135 consignment vendors in order to proceed with obtaining the right to liquidate the consigned inventory.  It has already initiated such proceedings against several comic book publishers.

But Image has already settled this matter with the debtor, and now the court has approved of this settlement, stating, “The Motion is granted as set forth herein. The Settlement attached hereto as Exhibit 1 is approved. The Debtors, Image, and any agents of the Debtors are authorized to take such action as is necessary to effectuate the terms of the Settlement. This Court shall retain jurisdiction to hear and determine all matters arising from or related to the implementation, interpretation or enforcement of this Order.”…

(11) REVERSE QUANTUM PERISTALSIS. [Item by Steven French.] The clue to getting a grip on this counter-intuitive result is, as physicist Jonte Hance of the University of Newcastle (my old Alma Mater!) explains, ‘contextuality’ – the way the outcomes of quantum measurements are dependent on the context in which those measurements take place: “Negative time observed in photon-atom interaction” at Physics World.

“Negative time” might sound like science fiction, but an international team of theorists and experimentalists has determined that a photon can, in fact, spend a negative amount of time in an excited atomic state while passing through a cloud of atoms. The finding could have applications in studies of light-matter interactions and quantum sensing – though not, alas, in time travel or other sensational effects.

(12) NEW ZOO TUNE. “Hare-Raising New ‘Zootopia 2’ Trailer Intros New Song by Shakira”. Animation Magazine sets the frame.

A new trailer and poster for Walt Disney Animation Studios’ upcoming animated adventure Zootopia 2 has arrived, introducing new critter characters and featuring an all-new original song, “Zoo,” performed by Shakira, who returns as the voice of Zootopia’s biggest pop star, Gazelle.

In the trailer, audiences get a first look at brand-new characters and a hidden reptile population when rookie cops Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin) and Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) come face-to-face with a mysterious pit viper, Gary De’Snake (Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan)….

…“Zoo” music and lyrics are written by Ed Sheeran, Blake Slatkin and Shakira. The song is produced by Blake Slatkin, Alex (A.C.) Castillo, Shakira and Ed Sheeran. The single releases on Friday, October 10….

(13) VIDEO OF THE DAY. [Item by SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie.] The latest from Moid over at Media Death Cult. It’s a look at the Flatland dystopia. “A Dystopia in 2 Dimensions – Flatland”.

[Thanks to Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Linda Deneroff, Lise Andreasen, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, and Chris Barkley for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Andrew (not Werdna).]