Yesterday I posted a Guest Clack written by colleague and all-around good guy, Michael Hinman, who runs Airlock Alpha. What some of you may not know is that Airlock Alpha used to be called SyFy Portal and looked quite different than it does today. Mike hinted at Airlock Alpha to me a while back, though I never asked why the name was changing. Now that the site’s up, I know the real deal: Sci Fi, the channel, bought the rights to the name “Syfy” from Mike.

And you know what? Good for him! It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving guy, and I like the name Airlock Alpha better anyway. The sucky part of the story is Sci Fi’s reasoning for changing its name to Syfy: to get rid of the notion that they’re for geeks and are, instead, more “human-friendly.” Holy shit — we’re Cylons!

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Everybody does it. Don’t tell me you don’t do it. I just did it, and I’m ready to do it again! I’m talking about watching television, of course. And the other day, I was looking at People online, and got roped into looking at a slide show of photos of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. Jennifer Garner just gave birth to their second daughter, Seraphina.

That made me start thinking about Jennifer Garner at home with a new baby, and I started wondering whether she is sitting around, breastfeeding and watching TV all day. Of course she is! It’s funny, because when I was on bed rest for a week after having pneumonia, I watched two entire seasons of Alias. I don’t star in my own TV show that she could watch. However, I am sure there must be something she would like. So, I have compiled a list of five shows Jennifer Garner can watch while she is tending to her new baby. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been watching the annual Twilight Zone marathon on the Sci-Fi Channel all day, and it got me to thinking once again how brilliant the show is. How does it manage to scare the living daylights out of us with so few special effects?

Oh sure, there’s the creepy “normal” people in “Eye of the Beholder” and the chilling gremlin on the airplane wing in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” But for the most part, the show doesn’t use  a lot of the stuff you’d find at Industrial Light and Magic. Mainly because it just didn’t exist back then.

So why then is The Twilight Zone so darn scary? I’ve narrowed it down to one central theme: it plays on our deepest human fears, many of which revolve around loss of some sort. A few examples:

Loss of time. We expect time to move forward in an orderly fashion, but in  “The Odyssey of Flight 33,” an airliner full of people inadvertently passes through the sound barrier and travels back in time. Don’t tell me this idea has never entered your mind while flying in an airplane. You know it has, even if you didn’t really know it.

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Hey, Doctor Who fans! We’ve got some fun stuff just for you in this week’s CliqueClack giveaway contest. I haven’t watched the latest incarnation of  Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi Channel. However, I did watch some of the original BBC series that ran from 1963 to 1989. That was during my kid-high school-college years, so I didn’t get that involved, but remember liking what I saw.

If you’re into the doctor and his adventures, here’s what we’ve got for you:

1. Doctor Who: Rose Tyler & Chip, action figures
2. Doctor Who Sonic Screwdriver LED Torch
3. Doctor Who with Ghost Transmission Triangulation Gear, action figure

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment on this post by Friday, January 2, 2009 at 5 PM ET. Winner takes all three items. We’ll pick winners completely at random and alert the winners after the contest ends. Only one entry per person, and you must have a valid U.S.-based mailing address. Not following the guidelines above voids your entry. Good luck!