Lambda Sci-Fi DC Area Gaylaxians (202) 232-3141 – Issue # 358 – January 2020 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.lambdascifi.org The LSF Book Annual LSF Book (et al) to know a little about you – at least to Exchange at know what one of your “favorites” is. Discussion Group (3) Wrap up the exchange item, Jan. 12th Meeting but don’t put any identifying marks or If you’re interested in lively anything on the wrapped package to say discussions of F&SF books (with an em- who it’s from. That’s to make sure it’s a phasis on elements of interest to the LGBT “blind” exchange – i.e. no one is sup- community), we invite you to join the LSF posed to know who it’s from at first. (And, Book Discussion Group. Each month, we by the way, all of that leftover Holiday conduct fascinating round-table discus- wrapping paper should come in handy sions of works by significant F&SF au- That’s right, gang, it’s Holiday here!) thors. time again; and it’s time for Lambda Sci- (4) At the meeting, add your The LSF Book Discussion Group Fi’s thirtieth annual book (et al) ex- wrapped exchange item to the pile with all usually meets on the 4th Thursday of every change, which will occur at the upcoming the others; and you’ll be assigned a month, starting at 7:00 PM, at Peter & Jan. 12th meeting! All LSF members – number. (Only one exchange item – i.e. Rob’s home: 1425 “S” St., NW – for and visitors, guests, attendees, etc. – are one package – per person, please!) directions or more details, call 202-483- invited to participate in this “blind ex- (5) When your number is called, 6369. The next book discussion will be change.” you pick one of the packages from the held on January 23rd. In case you’ve never participated pile. And when you open it up, you’ll find Here are the details for the next in one of these before (or in case you’ve out who it’s from. See how easy? several discussions: for-gotten), here’s how it works: I can hardly wait to see what Jan. 23, 2020 – The Power by Naomi Al- (1) Go out and purchase a copy shows up this year! derman (moderator: Teresa). of your “favorite” science-fiction, fantasy, Feb. 27, 2020 – Wonder Woman: The or horror book. (NOTE: Over the years, Golden Age, Vol. 2 (moderator: Claire). LSF has expanded the concept of “book” March 26, 2020 – The Night Circus by to include comics, videotapes, “books on Erin Morgenstern (moderator: Zena). tape,” etc. If you want – or if you’re April 23, 2020 – Lovecraft Country by feeling particularly wealthy – you can Matt Ruff (moderator: Carl). even make it several favorite books or whatever.) (2) Insert a piece of paper (or bookmark) with your name on it. That’s so whoever eventually ends up with the item will know who it’s from and will get < < < < < < January 2020 LSF Meeting > > > > > > What’s Inside? The next LSF meeting will be held on Sunday, January 12th, at Peter and Rob’s Page 2: Minutes of the December LSF home, 1425 “S” Street NW, Washington, DC. The meeting will begin at 1:30 PM. Meeting; Servo-Bots? The “group watch” will begin about 3:00 PM. Hope to see you there! Page 3: DC Fontana (obituary). Page 4: Information About LSF: DC Area Gaylaxians and Con Calendar. Minutes of the December Servo-Bots? LSF Meeting info passed along by Carl taken by Scott We might be closer to having a It was a small crowd in atten- modern version of R2-D2 than you think. dance at this meeting. Yes, I know that robotic units are now a Teresa expressed interest in normal part of auto-manufacturing and having the LSF Book Discussion Group other assembly plants; and, yes, there are read Frank Herbert’s Dune. There was iRobot Roombas to vacuum your floors; general agreement, but no date has been and, yes, Amazon.com is using drones to set as yet. deliver stuff; and, yes, there’ve been experiments with automated food TV News: delivery units here in DC. I’m talking Shanghai Bot YO2D2 The cross-over episodes of DC’s about something else entirely: little servo- “Crisis on Infinite Earths” starts tonight, bots that fetch-and-carry for us and look A number of hotels are experi- with a new Supergirl episode. Rob noted very much like the little Star Wars droid. menting with servo-bots in China, Japan, that there are at least six characters who In November, Anna Fifield – the South Korea, and the U.S. Marriott has have not yet been announced who appear Washington Post’s Beijing bureau chief – rolling butler service at several locations; in the first three episodes. The Game of reported on her first encounter with just and Yotel Boston has a robot named Thrones prequel has been picked up for such a servo-bot at a hotel in Shanghai. YO2D2 on staff. If you’re interested in development. Rob also loves both new She ordered room service the morning seeing them “in action”, here are some series: Watchmen and His Dark Ma- after check-in; and soon received a call links to videos: terials. The new season of The Magicians telling her that her order had arrived. (It starts up again on Jan 15th; and Season 4 was actually the robot contacting her via Anna Fifield Twitter video: of The Expanse starts this week. Rob phone.) When she opened the door, she https://twitter.com/annafifield/status/119 described The Good Place as a wonderful found herself face-to-face with a small 6952444640661504 cerebral sitcom. A trailer of The Boys delivery robot. Her coffee pods were Season 2 has been released inside a compartment behind a sliding Yotel’s YO2D2 robot: David is enjoying the remake of door on the robot, which opened when she https://www.tastemade.com/videos/taste Charmed. One of the sisters is a les- pressed a graphic on an illuminated touch made-travel-yotel-robot-in-boston bian. He then provided an explanation of pad. (She posted the encounter on Twit- women getting “fridged”: fictional female ter.) The robot spoke Chinese (of course); LAX Marriott robot: characters who are killed, maimed, or de- and introduced itself by saying: “You are https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA powered, particularly in ways that treat the cutest person in the whole universe. TdyHhuyyc the female character as merely a device to Do you want to take a selfie with me?” move a male character's story arc forward, When it was leaving, it said: “I hope my rather than as a fully developed character service leaves you in a good mood for a in her own right. David continues to century.” Fifield reported that the en- watch Emergence, which he says has poor counter felt “surprisingly natural”. script editing Upcoming LSF Events: Rise of Movie News: Skywalker movie outing on Dec. 21st; Chris Evans and Daniel Craig LSF New Year’s Eve gaming party and are fabulous in Knives Out, an homage to midnight toast on Dec. 31st; and the next and a parody of Agatha Christie murder LSF meeting on Sunday, Jan 12th, mysteries. Richard Stanley’s horror film includes the annual blind book exchange. Color Out of Space comes out in January, (See announcement on page 1.) based upon the HP Lovecraft short story; the reviews have been good. Speaking of Then we watched the first two the latest film in the Terminator movie episodes of The Mandalorian – with franchise, Rob thinks that the franchise is “Baby Yoda”! – followed by the trailer so tired and that Edward Furlong is a for the new Wonder Woman 1984 movie, waste of a human being. featuring villain Maxwell Lord and the Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker return(?) of Steve Trevor (played by Chris opens soon! Don’t forget the LSF movie Pine). outing to see it on Saturday, Dec. 21st (11 AM), at the AMC Uptown Theater. Get your tickets today. pearing in this series included: Ricardo Montalban, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, and Majel Bar- rett.) When Roddenberry began work- ing on Star Trek, Fontana was appointed as story editor. This was Fontana’s in- troduction to science fiction, which had not been a previous interest of hers. For the original Star Trek series, Fontana either wrote, re-wrote, or contributed to the following episodes: “Charlie X”, “Tomorrow Is Yesterday”, “This Side of Paradise”, Journey to Babel”, “Friday’s Child”, “The Ultimate Computer”, and “The City on the Edge of Forever”. Fontana left Star Trek after the second season to pursue freelance work. She continued to write Star Trek scripts on a freelance basis, including: “The En- terprise Incident”, “That Which Sur- DC Fontana vives”, and “The Way to Eden”. Leonard 1939 – 2019 Nimoy credited Fontana for expanding Board between 1099 and 1990, and the information about Vulcan culture within Guild in 2002; and she was twice inducted Dorothy Catherine Fontana pass- the Star Trek universe. Later, in 2006, into the American Screenwriters Asso- ed away on December 2nd. She was prob- Pocket Books approached Fontana to ciation Hall of Fame (1997 and 2002). In ably most famous for her long association write a Star Trek novel; this resulted in recent years, she had been a senior lec- with the Star Trek franchise – as a script Vulcan’s Glory, in which Fontana tells the turer at the American Film Institute.