I’ll Be in My Bunk…(*)

Check out these great advance promo pics for the new season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

I know I’m married and twice her age13 years older than she is, but I think I’m in love with Summer Glau:

(More below the fold).

Professional SF Babe Blogging

There is nothing quite like being humbled by a master.
I used to have this regular feature around here, an SF Babe poll every Tuesday. I was actually pretty proud of it, and thought I did a pretty good job making it entertaining and easy on the eyes.
Well, I’ve been kind of meaning to revive it, just to find something to engage me on this blog. But I doubt that will ever happen, since published writer E.E. Knight has created the most perfect SF Babe poll you will ever witness, in honor of the great Shat’s birthday.
Feast your eyes, for this is as good as it gets. That will be a very tough act to follow…

Trendsetting SF Babe Blogger

That’s me. Geeze. On the whole SF Babe thing, I’ve been WAY ahead of the curve.
First, everyone seems to be noticing fellow Planoite Anousheh Ansari now that she’s going into orbit and has her own blog. Me? I noticed her two years ago and even named her an honorary SF babe for helping fund the X-Prize.
Female Stormtrooper costumes? Again, on the absolute bleeding edge.
That makes me think I need to revive the whole SF Babe Poll thing again, to stay on the cutting edge. I know I need to re-run the Firefly poll, since I didn’t include “Our Mrs. Reynolds” (Saffron) the first time around. Any other suggestions?

Rising to Robert’s Bait

Like lunches at McDonald’s, the Ardala-Deering debate comes back at an inopportune time. Inopportune, as I would like to devote more time to this argument than I can afford right now.
Nevertheless, in a nutshell:

Ardala – sultry princess of the powerful Draconian empire. She donned a golden bikini years before Princess Leia. Her hat has horns, for TANJ sake. Her main goals are to conquer Earth and seduce Buck Rogers.
What more would you want, were you Buck Rogers??

Wilma – icy colonel in the Earth Defense Directorate – the incompetent military arm of the Computer Council. Before Buck came along, the pilots relied exclusively on their overrated computer overlords to aim their lasers. Nobody on this emasculated future earth seems ashamed that they are the pets of Speak-and-Spell toys hanging around the necks of diminutive robots.
I would rather deal with a hot-blooded princess than an oppressed bureaucrat any day. Sheesh.

SciFi Babes

Again, in the absence of original content hereabouts, go have a look at this worthy gallery of SFnal babes.
They’re even kind enough to link to my (stale) gallery (as well as this SF cheesecake site).
Never fear — one of my resolutions in this new year is to revive the SF Babe poll, so check back soon.

SF Babes Brainstorming

OK. It’s been more than four months since the last poll.
I’m not sure where to take this thing. I am planning to do the definitive Ardala better than Deering post (complete with dialogue excerpts and vidcaps from the movie/TV pilot) sometime during my Christmas vacation (I’m taking a couple of well-deserved weeks off at the end of the year). I’m also trying to figure out how to score an email interview with Pamela Hensley (i.e., “Ardala”), who put out a cookbook recently (Jewish-Sicilian cuisine? Cool).
Leave me a comment on what you would like to see, if anything. Some thoughts for discussion:

1. Should I have some sort of “Hall of Fame?”
2. Should I run less frequent contests (weekly was pretty challenging).
3. Are there any egregious omissions from prior polls (be sure to check the category listing and the gallery before answering).
4. Any other thoughts?

Thanks!

SF Babes Poll (Stargate Atlantis)

Well, after more than 400 votes, it was time to close down the incredibly close Incredibles poll. Results are posted here and in the Gallery.
With our new house, we finally got standard cable TV, including the Sci Fi channel. As a consequence, I’ve now gotten a chance to see a few episodes of Stargate Atlantis. Decent enough SF drama featuring a couple of nice-looking ladies, who feature in the new poll:
Teyla Emmagan (portrayed by Rachel Luttrell):

Dr. Elizabeth Weir (portrayed by Torri Higginson):

Results (Posted 1 December 2005):
Teyla 139 of 350 votes for 40%
Dr. Weir 211 of 350 votes for 60% — WINNER!

SF Babes [Not Quite] Weekly Poll (The Incredibles)

Well, I finally saw The Incredibles this past weekend. Pixar sure modeled a couple of nice-looking virtual female leads, who will feature in this week’s poll:
Mrs. Incredible a/k/a Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter):

And Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena):

Vote early and often and check back next week here for the results.
Results (Posted 2 August 2005):
Elastigirl: 204 of 411 votes for 49.6%
Mirage: 207 of 411 votes for 50.4% — WINNER!

SF Babes Weekly Poll (Odd Women Out)

This week’s poll is yet another variation on the Star Trek theme.
Though the odd-numbered Trek films are commonly considered inferior to the even-numbered ones (at least for the first 6 or so), they did feature some striking ladies.
From Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Lieutenant Ilia (portrayed by Persis Khambatta):

From Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the other Lieutenant Saavik (portrayed by Robin Curtis):

And finally from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Romulan Caithlin Dar (portrayed by Cynthia Gouw):

(P.S. I’m taking nominations for future poll candidates and themes. I’m also thinking about giving the poll a summer hiatus, since it takes about an hour or two to put each one together. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks!)
Results (Posted 17 May 2005):
Ilia: 16 of 57 votes for 28%
Saavik: 16 of 57 votes for 28%
Dar: 25 of 57 votes for 44% — WINNER!

SF Babes Poll Quote-of-the-Month

I get a few regular commenters, whose input I really value (please keep it up, folks!). But I really love getting comments from readers I didn’t even know I have (ahem), and “BadLiberal” left this great gem in the comments of last week’s SF Babe Poll pitting Lt. Marlena Moreau against Lt. Marla McGivers:

You’ve gotta be f’-in kidding.
One [sic] the one hand we have a woman who’s slept her way to the top while incinerating entire planets, and on the other we have a woman who gets all googly eyed over fine Corinthian leather.
Lt. Moreau walks away with this one. Probably after leaving McGivers at the bottom of a convenient river.

Very nice generational joke there about “fine Corinthian leather” — most people much younger than I wouldn’t catch the reference. I couldn’t have agreed more with the other sentiments and was quite pleased with the outcome of the poll. (And for what it’s worth, note well that I included McGivers at the request of another so-far-one-time commenter, “Ishy.”)
A neat thing that’s showing up in some of the polls is how the personality attributes of the characters influence certain voters more than just surface appearances. That’s how I usually vote and also why I try to make the poll pics purely of the characters “in character.” The Gallery is where I sometimes feature more flattering pictures of the actresses “out of character.”