RebelPilot is an e-zine sent to a subscription list; its editor was kind enough to permit me to put a local copy of the issue with my interview on my web site.
Issue 47~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Monday 14 February 2000
RebelPilot: offbeat, whimsical and a bit confused.
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P R E S E N T S
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_ _ _ _______ ______ _______
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E P I S O D E er. . . . 47
I’ve had a discerning RebelPilot reader send me an email:
"hey, I'm surely a devoted fan, but you seem a bit confused. The correct
Roman Numeral for "46" is "IVL" (I said "XXXXVI’ in the last issue). You
never use more than three of the same letter in Roman numerals. I=1, V=5,
X=10, L=50, C=100, and M=1000. I could be just a foolish moron, and you're
perfectly aware of this fact and doing it for a specific reason, in which
case, I apologize, oh Glen, editor of by far my favorite e-zine. I must be
off to school now, but I can't wait till Sunday."
Confused? Not yet. I copy and paste parts of the last RebelPilot issue to
the next one. In my thoughtlessness I’ve just been tacking X’s V’s or I’s on
the end of each Episode/Issue number.
But then I thought about what the prudent RebelPilot reader (I’m unaware if
the sender is male or female) said a little further. . .
Roman Numeral for "46" is "IVL".
Hmmm.
I from V (= 4) from L (which is 50) equals 46.
Now what if it’s XV (10 off of 50) plus XI (which is 6)
THEREFORE
XVXI = 46
So whether it’s IVL or XVXI I think the Romans really stuffed things up. No
wonder we went to the Arabic numbering system.
It was the Arabic system that gave us the number 0. The Romans didn’t have a
zero.
No wonder the Roman Empire fell. It was probably from a computer crash
because all the zeroes were missing from their binary. It’s surprising their
civilisation even made it past the leap from 1BC to 1AD. It must have caused
havoc with their entire network system.
Am I now confused?
Yes.
Maybe someone can explain further. And while they’re at it they can inform
me whether pre-1BC Roman sun dials were Y-ZERO-K compliant.
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~website~spotlight~>
www.raypark.com
This site looks good. You get to see pics of Ray Park as Darth Maul and Ray
Park as Ray Park.
The site looks to expand further with the addition of a fan art gallery.
Obviously the theme will be the Dancing, Prancing Dark Lord of the Double
Lightsaber.
Check it out at http://www.raypark.com
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~animated~gifs~>
Stormtroopers doing the cancan.
http://www.geocities.com/starwarsezine/dancetroop.gif
Austen Powers meets Obi-Wan
http://www.geocities.com/starwarsezine/ohbe.gif
George Lucas gets the South Park treatment.
http://www.geocities.com/starwarsezine/lucaswalk,gif
COPYRIGHT INFO! I know the creator!
©1999 Star Park. Keith Lawler. I have previously featured the Dancing
Stormtroopers but it takes three to make a successful trilogy.
Used with permission.
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:>o<:~ascii~art~>
Seeing as we’re scrapping the bottom of the ascii barrel I sat down and
knocked out a couple of ASCII Starfighters.
// \\
// \\
// ____ \\
// .-~"===="~-. \\
|| __,../ ____ \..,__ ||
||‘-._.-‘ / /\ /\ \ ‘-._.-‘||
|| I_ | /__\/__\ | _I ||
||,-‘ ‘-.__ l \ /\ / ! __.- ‘-,||
\\ ‘..\ \/__\/ /..’ //
\\ "-.,____,.-" //
\\ //
\\ //
Front View of TIE Interceptor
©2000 RebelPilot.
|\ /|
| \ / |
| \ ____ / |
| \ .-~"===="~-. / |
| | __,../ ____ \..,__ | |
| |.-‘ / / \ \ ‘-.| |
| | | / \ | | |
| |‘-.__ l \ / ! __.-| |
| / ‘..\ \____/ /..’ \ |
| | "-.,____,.-" | |
| / \ |
| / \|
|Y Y|
|| ||
|/ \|
|| ||
|Y Y|
Top View of TIE Interceptor
©2000 RebelPilot.
________________________
\ /
’-.________________.-‘
_______| I|___
/ \
I |
\_______ _/
_______| [_
/ \
I |
\_______ __/
________| I|___
.-‘ ‘-.
/______________________\
Top View of a TIE Bomber
©2000 RebelPilot.
___________
I______ __D
| | __
_| |_____/__’-._
(_ ___O_I__ID _[
| | \__,-‘
______| |__
I___________D
Top View of Y-Wing
©2000 RebelPilot.
And I’ve gotta say, for an ezine editor I ain’t a bad ascii artist.
Send in your own ascii creations so I can lavish praise upon your
masterpieces.
And here’s a memo I’d like to send to Lucasfilm:
ATTN: Mr Lucas
Get your creature, prop and model makers to design their creations in ASCII.
It’ll make the job of an ascii-artist a hell of a lot easier.
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Interview~>
RebelPilot goes to the ends of the earth to track down the leading lights
and legends of the Lucasfilm licensed galaxy that we all know and love.
Aaron Allston was the next on the RebelPilot Hit List and we’ve secured him
for an Exclusive Interview.
Exclusive? Well we put forward the questions that nobody else was stupid
enough to ask.
Read on and find out that Mr Allston is as quick witted via email as he is
in a published novel.
<>-<>-Exclusive Interview with Aaron Allston-<>-<>
RebelPilot: What's your middle name?
Aaron Allston: Dale. It was my father's middle name. (My father's still with
us, but it's no longer his middle name.)
RebelPilot: Why don't you throw the initial in your name like Kevin J
Anderson or Michael A Stackpole?
Aaron Allston: I toyed with that back when Jimmy Carter was in the White
House, but I decided that I liked "Aaron Allston" better as a byline.
RebelPilot: What’s your favourite word in the dictionary?
Aaron Allston: I don't really have one. I usually have some odd word in
mind, though, in case some joker should decide to ask me, "What's the word
of the day?" Just recently, it's been "machicolation."
RebelPilot: You used the word ‘reprobate’ twice in Starfighters of Adumar.
Are you fond of the word? Do you think it’s under-utilised in general
conversation?
Aaron Allston: I just thought it was the correct word for the circumstances
in which it was used -- in both cases, by Wedge Antilles to describe one or
more of his pilots, many of whom tend to be more free in the trouble-making
department than he is. I suspect that if it were to be used constantly in
general conversation -- taking the place, say, of "like" or "uhh" -- that it
would become necessary to destroy most of the English-speaking world.
RebelPilot: What wordprocessor do you use?
Aaron Allston: Wordprocessor singular? Are you mad?
<RebelPilot: Um, okay, wordprocessors?>
Aaron Allston: Let's see. I use WordPerfect for most of my writing, on both
my desktop and my laptop. However, I do have Word installed as well; some of
my game-industry clients use it exclusively. I use Final Draft for scripts.
My palmtop, which is a Psion 5mx and doesn't speak Microsoft, has Epoc Word
on it; I do a lot of outlining and writing of short scenes on it. For
pure-text files, I use Programmer's File Editor, a freeware text editor. I
also have Notepad, Wordpad, the MS-DOS editor, and Microsoft Works installed
on my desktop, but I seldom use them.
RebelPilot: How many hours did you clock on the game X-Wing Versus TIE
Fighter whilst writing the novels in the x-wing series? Do you still play
much XVT?
Aaron Allston: I actually didn't keep track of hours, but it wasn't many.
I'm just not that fond of computer flight simulators. Most of the games I
play are paper role-playing games such as Champions. As far as computer
games go, I mostly like card and puzzle games -- several of the solitaires,
and exclusionary logic games like Sherlock and Descartes' Enigma.
RebelPilot: If you chose multi-player on XVT and went head to head with Mike
Stackpole, what starfighter would you choose and who would win?
Aaron Allston: If I were engaged in such a competition, I'd hire a ringer, a
player who really loves that sort of game, and give him enough information
to pretend to be me. Then I'd adjourn to let him wreak havoc. Knowing Mike,
though, he'd probably do the same to me. So Mike and I would be in our
respective offices working, and two hard-core flight sim nuts would be
blasting away at one another, each convinced that the other writer was
pretty hot stuff. That's good for everybody, because two gamers would be
paid to play while Mike and I would acquire these phenomenal reputations.
RebelPilot: How much information does the publisher give you before you
start writing a licensed SW novel?
Aaron Allston: I was given a timeline of events, a style guide, and what
amounted to license to ask for copies of any licensed Star Wars material
that would prove helpful to the novels I was writing. Over the course of
four novels, Bantam Books, West End Games and Dark Horse Comics sent me a
bookcase's worth of reading material, which proved enormously helpful.
RebelPilot: If you had the choice of your own fully functional capital star
ship would you want a Star Destroyer or a Mon Calamari Cruiser?
Aaron Allston: Oh, a Mon Cal cruiser, definitely. I suspect that the stern
regimentation that is characteristic of the Empire extends all the way to
the design of their capital ships -- that's too gloomy for me.
RebelPilot: If you were to write Episodes II and III what’s one big twist
you’d incorporate into the script?
Aaron Allston: Young Obi-Wan would actually turn out to be Luke and Leia's
dad. This could help explain why the cuckolded Anakin Skywalker turned to
evil. Later, Luke could have a mid-life crisis after realizing he'd redeemed
the guy who'd actually killed his true father.
No, I'm just kidding. I probably wouldn't leave the explanation of Anakin's
conception to a bunch of randy midi-chlorians; the characters would accept
that explanation only until the true father stepped up. Then, just as with
The Empire Strikes Back, I'd have the revelation of a Skywalker's paternity
be a painful experience.
RebelPilot: In your opinion who’s the coolest minor character in ANH, ESB
or ROTJ? [except for Wedge, if he was your first choice.]
Aaron Allston: Tough call. I'd have to award the prize to Grand Moff Tarkin
-- he doesn't have that much screen time, which arguably makes him a minor
character, and Peter Cushing is one of my favorite actors. When Star Wars
debuted in 1977, I didn't know any of the primary actors, but Cushing's
presence elevated the movie's coolness factor enormously for me.
RebelPilot: You go into a cantina, what would you order; bantha steaks or
dewback ribs?
Aaron Allston: I guess it would have to be steak. Though I frequently rib
people, I'm just not a rib man.
RebelPilot: What does bantha taste like?
Aaron Allston: I suspect, given banthas' physical resemblance to elephants,
that it would be something like elephant meat, which is, according to
accounts I've read, supposed to be somewhat greasy and chewy. Hopefully they
have cooking techniques and recipes to improve it.
RebelPilot: Who was it that said (in reference to non-writers): "Everyone
wants to be a writer but no one wants to actually write"?
Aaron Allston: Coincidentally, that was also Grand Moff Tarkin, in his salad
days, when he was still torn between careers writing holodramas and blowing
up planets.
RebelPilot: Let’s say you’re the executive producer of Wraith Squadron The
Movie. Who would you cast for the parts of Wedge, Wes, Kell, Face, Phanan
(et al) from the current batch of Hollywoo. . . Hmmm, I see you’ve already
been asked that a million times. Here’s one I hope was overlooked and will
make myself look intelligent in the process . . . Who would you cast for
Squeaky's voice over?
Aaron Allston: There are a lot of actors who would be appropriate. Peter
Cook being dead, I'd probably cast Alan Rickman -- his performance in Dogma
was as cutting and sarcastic as I imagine Squeaky to be.
RebelPilot: You get to choose a director and a producer for the Wraith
Squadron movie. Who gets the nod?
Aaron Allston: For director, Nicholas Meyer. As a novelist (The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution et al) he knows about taking other creators'
characters and writing them so they remain true to their sources. As a
screenwriter (the movie version of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution et al), he's
demonstrated that he's skilled at adapting written works to the screen --
adapting the gist of the original work without remaining slavishly attached
to its every detail. And as a director (The Wrath of Khan et al) he's
demonstrated that he can handle science fiction, can present interesting and
distinctive characters, and can manage action sequences.
For producer, Debra Hill. She's best-known for horror films (often working
with John Carpenter) and for a series of TV-movies trying to recreate the
style of 1950s teen melodramas, but she has produced several films I've
liked in various genres (Halloween, The Fog, Head Office, Gross Anatomy, The
Fisher King), manages to get production values and casts that are admirably
suited to her movies, and has experience as a screenwriter.
RebelPilot: What sort of chair do you sit on in front of the computer?
Aaron Allston: It's a Globe brand chair I bought at Sam's Club. It's
wheeled, padded, no armrests. Its back tilts but provides good support for
my lower back. I like it a lot.
RebelPilot: Have you ever considered when writing an X-Wing novel to throw a
bunch of a, b, x and y wings together and calling them Alphabet Soup
Squadron? (I reckon they would have been the real heroes of the rebellion)
Aaron Allston: Ummm... no. I haven't. But I do think there's a lot of
unexplored territory for fiction set in the very early, most desperate days
of the Rebellion, when squadrons would have been made up of whatever
people could cobble together that would fly.
RebelPilot: Who gets your vote for best (Lucasfilm approved) Star Wars
artist? (assuming of course you know any or take notice of them)
Aaron Allston: Well, I've seen a lot of the Star Wars art books, but I was
never looking at them to gain an appreciation of specific artists -- I was
looking for details pertinent to something I was writing. So I'm probably
not qualified to answer that question.
RebelPilot: Have you ever considered writing an (unauthorised) autobiography
of your life?
Aaron Allston: Nope. The problem with an autobiography is that it ought to
lead up to some sort of thematic conclusion, and I'm not sure that my life
so far supports any sort of thesis statement. I guess I'll wait until I've
really become a bad example for people to point at while shaking their
heads.
RebelPilot: If they made it into a movie, who would play the lead role?
Aaron Allston: I'd kind of like to see Richard Masur do it, but, hey, he's
twelve years older than I am, so it's not likely to happen.
RebelPilot: Will we see the Wraiths, as an intel team, do an encore in a new
novel?
Aaron Allston: I hope so, but I really don't have any say at this point in
whether that will happen.
RebelPilot: What planet in the Star Wars universe would you most like to
have a holiday/vacation on?
Aaron Allston: Oh, definitely Coruscant. I'm not exactly a nature-loving
boy, so a whole planet topped in concrete city suits me just fine. I expect
there would be some mighty fine hotels and sophisticated diversions
available there.
RebelPilot: and some fashion questions: What’s cooler. X-wing pilot outfits
or TIE fighter uniforms?
Aaron Allston: TIE fighter pilot uniforms, definitely. The New Republic's
eye-hurting orange flight suits don't do much for me.
RebelPilot: Which would you prefer? The Jedi brown robes or the Sith black
cloak?
Aaron Allston: The Sith cloak. Obviously, the bad guys have more fashion
sense in the Star Wars universe, and Lando didn't have enough screen time
to, well, bring Balance to the Fashion.
RebelPilot: What other projects are in the works?
Aaron Allston: I'm currently writing Sidhe-Devil, an urban fantasy, the
sequel to my 1995 novel Doc Sidhe; that's for Baen Books. After that, I do
Mongoose Among Cobras, which is military science fiction set in my own
universe; it follows the military actions and investigations of the crew of
a small mercenary spacecraft carrier. It will be similar in tone to the
X-Wing novels. It's for Bantam, the publisher of the X-Wing series.
¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤°º~:>o<:
For Aaron’s bio, catalogue of published work, picture gallery, and a full
list of his casting preferences for each character in the Wraith Squadron -
X-Wing novels check out his website at http://www.io.com/~allston/
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~MIA~[Missing In Action]~>
It’s been a while since I mentioned The Dark Redemption which was an
Australian Short Film based on events prior to Star Wars: A New Hope.
I knew I should have pilfered all the images at the site. You see, the site
was shut down, because of The Powers That Be at Lucasfilm.
But thanks to a RebelPilot reader, new information has come to hand. He
brought me up to speed about SW fan short films in general and I said ‘Hey!
Slap it together for public consumption and I’ll put it in RebelPilot!’
So we’re about to have the first instalment of the ‘Star Wars Fan Short Film
Review’ which was too long a title in my opinion. So I resorted to something
a little snappier. Read on, it’s the next chapter. . .
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~The~van~der~Leun~Report~>
Recently found out that you can finally download the Dark Redemption again.
I just did, and it's pretty good. And as for my planned little reviews about
home-made Star Wars movies, here's one for the Dark Redemption.
http://www.theforce.net/tdr/ - The Dark Redemption
This movie tells the tale of how Mara Jade(yes, the Mara Jade) sent the
Death Star plans to the Tantive IV, with the help of two rebels at Kessel.
In the same instance, Boba Fett also lands on Kessel, were he has to help
Han Solo escape from Kessel to deliver some spice to Jabba.
Well, what can I say? This is probably one of the best home-made Star Wars
movies made. It features almost everything you want in a Star Wars movie :
Shooting, rescuing damsels in distress in interrogation cells, a Cantina
scene, lightsabers (although it really wasn't used to perfection), Boba
Fett, and even Darth Vader, whose voice was excellent, even though they
didn't copy any line from the movie.
Unfortunately, it misses the music which we all loved, which was a true loss
in my opinion.
Download it now, whilst it's still available.
Ruben van der Leun
Thanks Ruben, that’s a sharp punchy review and I think I’m gonna have to
head on over and download it for myself.
I look forward to the next instalment of The van der Leun Report.
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~humour~>
Top 10 Stormtrooper Practical Jokes
10. Replace Darth's lightsaber with a flashlight
9. Switch Vader's oxygen supply with helium, first one to laugh, dies
8. Blame the new admiral for making the mistake that cost you the battle
7. Tell the tall guy "yeah, the blasted door's don’t open all the way"
6. Rewire hangar speaker system so it plays LaCucaracha when the Emperor
arrives
5. Tell the new guy that Darth appreciates constructive criticism
4. Convince rookie pilots that TIE Fighters have shields
3. Switching uniforms and seeing if the commander can tell the difference
2. Sneak up on daydreaming guards and breathe through a can
1. Stick "I got your Force right HERE" signs on Executor bridge crew's backs
©opyright unknown
RebelPilot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~that’s~all~folks!~>
Latest news is that Rick McCallum has moved to Sydney to start production on
Episode II.
I’ll have to keep a look out for him.
Other news is I have started my course in Digital Art & Media. And I didn’t
turn up for the first day.
Great start to a Level IV Certificate course that’s one step from an
Associate Diploma.
It wasn’t my fault. Some others when enrolling were told the wrong day too.
Anyway, I didn’t miss much and one of the course modules is called ‘Media
Research’ and I’d like to get some help from RebelPilot readers.
It involves a poll. And the subject I’ve chosen is ‘What’s your favourite
sci-fi?’
Send a list of your favourite sci-fi shows, movies, comics . . . whatever to
voting@starwarsmail.net
eg: I’d have a fairly short list;
Star Wars
Red Dwarf
Babylon 5
Put your list, however long, in the body message and ‘my sci-fi’ in the
subject line.
And until next week, au revoir, or as they say in Germany: Abschied!
:>o<:
gLeN a.k.a wraithfive
editor@rebelpilot.com
RebelPilot:>o<: = = = = = = = = = = = (-o-)
RebelPilot is FREE. So if you’re a Star Wars fan you’d be nuts not to
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This ezine is in no way sponsored or endorsed by: George Lucas, Lucasfilm
Ltd, LucasArts Entertainment Co, LucasBooks, Skywalker Sound, THX,
Industrial Light & Magic or anything else that George has his fingers in.
Star Wars and all its characters are © ,® and ™ Lucasfilm Ltd. And whatever
other little symbols George wishes to slap on his creative ideas.
All witty remarks, retorts and repartee is ©2000 RebelPilot unless otherwise
specified. Any use of the contents from this ezine without permission is
strictly prohibited... and frankly, not a very nice thing to do.
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Stormtrooper Helmet
©1997 Bob VanderClay
This is good, but I know Matt Lake can do better than this. Comon Matt! Show
us ya stuff!
URL: http://www.AaronAllston.com/intervus.html. Optimized for FireFox 1.5. Maintained by Aaron Allston. |