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Steve agrees to help his cosmonaut friend, Vasily Zhukov, inspect the damage from a recent earthquake on a Russian facility.  After shocks trap Zhukov's fiance, Irena, beneath the surface and trigger a doomsday device that will destroy the complex.  The two mount a rescue mission into the heart of the complex in the hopes of saving Irina and the entire island.  John and Paul are joined by Geek Radio Daily's Billy Flynn  to discuss this episode.

BionicWiki entry on the episode.

Entry from the6milliondollarblog.com

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Bill Vernon, AKA “the Wonderful Billy Flynn,” brings the funny each week on Geek Radio Daily! His daytime alter ego is mild-mannered (well, that part is a stretch) on-air talent at WRAR Radio Station in Virginia. He actually gets paid to sit on his butt and run his mouth! His “edumacation” is from UNC-Wilmington and the Columbia School of Broadcasting. When he is not gracing the podcasting airways with his comedic stylings, you can find Billy Flynn on Xbox Live (flynn71), rockin’ out on Guitar Hero or Rock Band, watching movies, reading comics, working out, or posting on the forums at geekradiodaily.com (ding!)

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The CBS Radio Network's clone of the wildly successful NBC Radio Network Program Dragnet was 21st Precinct, this week's featured episode.  Please comment on this episode here, or by writing john@chronicrift.com, or by calling toll free 888-866-9010.

Presenting the Transcription Feature
21st Precinct
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FEATURED EPISODES

The Adventures of Superman
"Donatelli's Protection Racket" part 5
April 24, 1940 (5:09)

21st Precinct
"The Story"
April 28, 1954 (17:45)

The Avengers
"Dial a Deadly Number" - episode 1 (44:41)

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Douglas Adams' classic work is examined by a panel that includes editor John Ordover, Hour of the Wolf's Jim Freund, and writer Joe Nazzaro.  Included in this episode is Gary Gygax introducing his new game system Dangerous Dimensions from I-Con Xi and an interview with comics writer William Mesner Loebs.

Please take a moment to comment on this episode by leaving a comment, writing  john@chronicrift.com , or calling  888-866-9010 .

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As we near the 30th anniversary of the release of Ghostbusters, John puts together a Roundtable discussion on the phenomenon.  They discuss the movies, the animated series, the comics, and the proposed third movie.  Joining John is unabashed Ghostbusters fan Jay Smith and The Real Ghostbusters writer, Marc Scott Zicree.

Please comment on this episode by visiting our website - http://www.chronicrift.com, writing john@chronicrift.com, or calling 888-866-9010.

Roundtable
Ghostbusters
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Marc Scott Zicree’s landmark book THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION has been credited with creating the modern genre of books on TV series and inspiring a generation of series creators and filmmakers. The COMPANION was an instant bestseller (over a half million copies to date) and named in 2006 by the New York Times one of “ten science fiction books for the ages,” the only non-fiction book on the list.

Zicree is an alumnus of the Clarion Writers Workshop, the most esteemed science fiction writing workshop in the country. Graduating UCLA, he went on to a successful career as a writer-producer in film and TV, serving on staff on such shows as SLIDERS, THE LAZARUS MAN, FRIDAY THE 13th – THE SERIES and BEYOND REALITY. He has sold over 100 teleplays, screenplays and pilots to every major studio and network, including landmark stories for such shows as STAR TREK– THE NEXT GENERATION, DEEP SPACE NINE, THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE, BABYLON 5, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, FOREVER KNIGHT, SLIDERS, LIBERTY’S KIDS, SUPERFRIENDS, HE-MAN, REAL GHOSTBUSTERS and SMURFS. He’s written about his odd family in features and pilots for CBS, NBC and Showtime.

Zicree is regarded as one of the country’s top media experts and has been interviewed by hundreds of newspapers, magazines, and TV and radio shows, including THE TODAY SHOW, AMERICAN MASTERS, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT, E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY, WASHINGTON POST, NEW YORK TIMES and L.A. TIMES. Beyond his three-year stint as a commentator on NPR’s MORNING EDITION he is a regular guest on COAST TO COAST, one of the country’s top rated night-time radio shows.

In addition, Zicree is a lauded novelist with the bestselling MAGIC TIME trilogy, published by HarperCollins and Blackstone Audio.

Zicree has lectured at many colleges, professional conferences and museums in America, Europe and Asia, including USC, UCLA, Stanford and Ithaca, where he was a keynote speaker.

Over the last decade with his wife Elaine, he has taught classes for thousands of writers, directors, actors and producers, guiding them to successful careers in film, TV and books. Their classes have been glowingly reported on by such magazines as WRITTEN BY, SCRIPT and CREATIVE SCREENWRITING, and the Writers Store named their DVD on How To Sell a TV Series one of “ten essentials for a screenwriting career.” Beyond this, Zicree is founder and for the last nineteen years has run The Table, which has provided resources and a supportive community to thousands of Industry professionals both in Hollywood and around the world. (The documentary on the Table just won the Best Documentary Award at the SoCal Film Festival.)

One of Zicree’s recent credits is STAR TREK “World Enough and Time” starring George Takei, which he co-wrote, directed and executive produced. The episode won the TV GUIDE Award – beating NBC Universal’s BATTLESTAR GALACTICA – and was nominated for science fiction’s top two prizes, the 2008 Hugo and Nebula Awards. Zicree has also been nominated for the American Book Award, Humanitas Prize and Diane Thomas Award, and has won the prestigious Hamptons Prize and 2011 Rondo and Saturn Awards.

Most recently Zicree has completed LOVE, GLORIA, a memoir about his mother, collaborated with director Guillermo del Toro on GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES for Palace Press, worked on LOST MARS, a TV miniseries project with science fiction legend Ray Bradbury, teamed with producer Gabe Sachs (FREAKS AND GEEKS, JUST SHOOT ME, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID) on the TV series version of MAGIC TIME, and written and will be directing the upcoming science fiction feature FUGITIVE SPACE, produced by Chris Wyatt (NAPOLEON DYNAMITE). He is currently working on THE SECRET SCIENCE FICTION TV PROJECT with Oscar and Emmy winner Doug Drexler and producer Neil Johnson.

Jay Smith is a six foot tall ape-descendant and a man Harlan Ellison once called "a great scam-man liar or a born writer." Because of this, you must decide for yourself what, if any, of the following information is true.

Jay is the author of the stoner/gamer novel RISE OF THE MONKEY LORD called "Masterful", "Amazing", "A Natural Twenty", "The Stuff of Every Geek's Dreams" and "Incredible Fun" by several readers who were in no way coerced or related to the author. He is also responsible for the series of "aggressive vignettes" called BLUE COLLAR GODS. Jay also possesses his own weight in rejection slips.

In his spare time, Jay collects action figures, reads to his children (sometimes against their will) and writes audio drama scripts, including the un-produced space-western "Blackjack Masterson: Space Marshal" and the zombie apocalypse radio soap opera "HG World". His experimental soundscape program “The Delano Rose” remains popular with the hard-to-please and highly-specified “joker and toker” demographic, according to some guy who smelled like he might be on The Pot.

Jay's dream is to write the novelization of the upcoming Ghostbusters 3 motion picture.  Or cure cancer. Yeah, curing cancer would be awesome.  Jay’s website of projects, daydreams and products for sale is: www.3015north.com.  Jay’s web-log is the memorable and convenient livejournal account “dr_p_venkman”.

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She has the code. He is the key.

Starring: Jason Statham, Catherine Chan and Chris Sarandon
Written by: Boaz Yakin
Directed by: Boaz Yakin
Runtime: 94 minutes
Rated R for strong violence throughout, and for language

I had the opportunity to attend an advanced screening of Safe, and I must say that I was entertained.  But, that's really about it.

The movie centers around a little girl named Mei (Chan) who has a photographic memory.  She's taken from her mother and "adopted" by a Chinese crime lord in New York where she keeps track of the books for the syndicate's various activities.  The crime boss uses her because computers are too easily traced and paper copies can be easily stolen. Meanwhile, a former cop with a shady past (Statham) runs afoul of the Russian mafia. The mob leaves him ruined and on the run.  All the while, corrupt cops are playing both sides against the middle for a cut of the action.  That setup, in a slow series of quick cuts and flashbacks, is the first twenty minutes of the movie.

When the Chinese mob gives Mei a code to memorize, after which she is kidnapped by the Russians and subsequently escapes into the unexpecting hands of our hero, the action starts and only lets up for brief periods of exposition on a shoestring plot.  It's the Russians, the Chinese, and the police all ganging up on Statham as he protects this girl and unravels the mystery behind the code.  There are a lot of gunshots and punches to the face, which really is what Statham excels at in his roles, but honestly, this played as a much slower paced, less interesting version of The Transporter.

I laughed at ironic twists and clever dialogue, winced at the various hits and kills, cheered once at the unexpected climax of the film, and felt satisfied by the resolution, but I didn't leave the theater with anything more than a smile at having spent 90 minutes being entertained.  And, in the end, that's all that was expected.

Safe opens on Friday, April 27th.

My rating: 6.5 of a possible 10

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We're back and with new episodes from the public access show.  Andrea and Keith host our second annual Roundtable Awards featuring Jo Duffy, Chris Claremont, Dan Persons, and Joe Nazzaro as the best in media from 1991 is recognized.  Previous episodes of The Chronic Rift not released in February will be released in the summer.  In fact, episodes will be released from now through the summer leading into our third season of episodes.

Please take a moment to comment on this episode by leaving a comment, writing john@chronicrift.com, or calling 888-866-9010.

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Keith is back with a new reading from a new anthology.  It's a reading so big, it's going to take two episodes to tell the whole story.  Sit back and enjoy Keith's reading from his contribution to Jonathan Mayberry's V Wars, a shared world anthology with a different take on vampires from authors such as Nancy Holder, Yvonne Navarro, and Gregory Frost.

Please take a moment to comment on this episode by visiting our site - http://www.chronicrift.com, writing keith@decandido.net, or calling 888-866-9010.

You can pick up a copy of V Wars through our Amazon Store.  In doing so, you not only support Keith, but The Chronic Rift Network as well. Thank you.

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Star Trek Vanguard co-creators and co-writers sit down to discuss the series as it comes to an end with the release of Storming Heaven.

Please take a moment to comment on this episode by commenting here, writing john@chronicrift.com, or calling 888-866-9010.

Order your copies from the series by following this link.

Spotlight
Star Trek Vanguard Roundtable Interview
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Learn More About the Authors
(coming soon)

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Anibal and Helen return to the Dome after Parker's funeral to find the complex in a shambles.  A number of the staff have reverted to a primal animal state while others have locked themselves away in fear.  They are all under the control of a young, troubled telepath who wants to shape the world in her image.  Can Anibal stop her before her influence extends beyond the island?

Please leave your thoughts on this episode by visiting the forums - http://www.chronicrift.com, writing john@chronicrift.com, or calling 888-866-9010.

In 1977, the United States government determined that one in every ten million Americans was gifted with a paranormal ability. It immediately set up a commission to look into the growing phenomenon. It was decided that a special, top-secret research facility was needed to study the matter further. Today, in a world where the paranormal is normal, the unexpected happens within the walls of The Dome.

The Dome
"Collective"
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Cast List

This is a Lucky Shot Production, copyright 2012