Attack of the Sith

Star Wars comes to Holyhead as Darth Vader strikes back in Jedi's back garden

By Tom Chivers

Last Updated: 1:12am GMT 29/03/2008

A Star Wars fan got closer to his idols than he would perhaps have liked when he was attacked in his garden by Darth Vader.

How About That? Because news doesn't have to be serious Aliens, Star Trek and King Kong: Hollywood memorabilia goes under the hammer Use the force: Star Wars spoofs take off Jedi Master Jonba Hehol - known to family and friends as Barney Jones, 36, of Holyhead - was giving a TV interview in his back garden for a documentary when a man, dressed in a black bin-bag and wearing Darth Vader's trademark shiny black helmet, leapt over his garden fence. How the assailant may have looked Wielding a metal crutch - his lightsaber presumably being in for repairs - the Sith Lord proceeded to lay about his opponent, whose Jedi powers proved inadequate for the task of defending himself. After besting Master Hehol in single combat, Vader, who The Sun reports was under the influence of alcohol, went on to assault the camera crew and a hairdresser. Master Hehol, a hairdresser, who founded the first-ever British Jedi Church in loving homage to the world-famous science fiction franchise with his brother Daniel, was unimpressed by the revenge of the Sith. "This wasn't a joke. This was serious," he said. Police are investigating a claim of assault. The Jedi "religion" was born as a joke in the 2001 census, when almost 400,000 people claimed to believe in the Jedi faith. Based on the teachings of Yoda, the crinkly green dwarf of the films, the "church" has a branch in Florida and plans to open another in the Philippines.

The Physics of Sci-Fi... Broken

Bad Movie Physics: A Report Card

Space epics almost always play fast and loose with science, treating the laws of physics like suggestions. Sound in space, unprotected bodies splatting in vacuum, and alien planets that all look just like Calabasas. But some movies dismember Newton and Einstein with way more gusto than others. We rated 18 movies based on how many laws of physics they mangled, and here's our report card.

To some extent, it's understandable that space adventures play fast and loose with physics. After all, who wants to watch Han Solo spend years on the journey to Alderaan, only to find that the planet has twice Earth gravity and he can barely stand up, much less swagger?

The categories of mistakes in our report card should be pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, I'll expand on them a little bit:

• There's no sound in space
• Not all planets have Earth gravity
• Planets should have diverse climates, instead of one unified climate across a "desert planet" or "forest planet."
• It shouldn't be too easy to communicate with alien creatures, without some kind of high-technology "translator" explanation.
• And it definitely shouldn't be too easy for humans to interbreed with aliens.
• Humans exposed to vacuum without a spacesuit shouldn't explode or shatter. And a "hull breach" where the ship's crew is exposed to vacuum should kill everyone instantly.
• You can't have fires in space, unless there's oxygen leaking out somehow.
• Asteroids or other objects shouldn't be able to float close together without falling into each other's gravity
• People shouldn't be able to dodge lasers and other speed-of-light weapons
• And there's no reason why someone would move in slow-motion in zero gravity.
• Faster-than-light travel is probably not ever going to be possible.

By the way, we left out Star Trek because there's so much of it, even if you just include the movies, and if you look hard enough you can find places where it violates almost all of these rules. Illustration by Stephanie Fox. Research by Nivair Gabriel.

Top 10 Sci-Fi Hotties

10. Milla Jovovich

This beautiful, Ukrainian-born actress has a habit of taking roles that put her exquisitely athletic body to the test. So is it any wonder then that she was chosen to play a perfectly engineered woman in Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element? As Leeloo, Milla runs around in a wet T-shirt, kicks alien ass and creates one of the most memorable sci-fi characters of the past decade.

9. Rachel Luttrell

There’s just something about a warrior woman that’s undeniably sexy, and this Stargate Atlantis beauty is no exception. In this scene, she’s possessed by an evil alien entity, which causes her to lay a savage beat-down on a friend who is three times her size—and she looks damn good doing it.

8. Billie Piper

Since 1963, Doctor Who has been a staple of British popular culture, and with babes like this it’s easy to see why. On the BBC series, Piper plays the gorgeous Rose Tyler, a young shop assistant in a London department store. By a strange twist of fate, she finds herself caught up in cosmic time travel with the oddball Doctor Who. In this clip, the good doctor rescues the British beauty from organ-harvesting robots.

7. Morena Baccarin

Joss Whedon’s space-western Firefly was a tragically short-lived TV series that debuted in 2002. Fortunately, the story idea was resurrected in the 2005 film Serenity—thus giving us another opportunity to watch this Brazilian beauty play an ultra high-class prostitute who is trained in the art of sexual pleasure

6. Michelle Rodriguez

After appearing in Lost and Resident Evil and lending her voice to the wildly popular Halo 2, this sexy Texan will return to the sci-fi genre yet again in James Cameron’s much-anticipated 3D flick Avatar. In this Lost clip, the brunette beauty shows her love/hate relationship with the island’s token bad boy.

5. Claudia Black

This Sci-Fi Channel veteran first turned heads in Farscape as the sexy space marine Aeryn Sun. Afterwards, she landed a role on Stargate SG-1 as Vala Mal Doran, a seductive space traveler who enjoys the good things in life like sex, jewelry, sex, stealing, sex, junk food and sex. Watch as she uses her extraterrestrial charm on one of her über-dork spacemates. Unfortunately for him, his nerd powers prevail.

4. Jolene Blalock

The latest Star Trek, incarnation, Enterprise, explores the beginnings of Starfleet and human relations with the always-logical Vulcans. In this clip, Sub-Commander T’Pol asks a human crewmate to help her relieve some pressure—proving that even the most rational beings in the galaxy need a little lovin’ from time to time.

3. Ali Larter

On the hit TV show Heroes, Larter plays Niki Sanders, a former Internet stripper from Vegas with superhuman strength and a dual personality. While we appreciate a chick who can hold her own in a barroom fight, we’ll take stripper Niki over the Hulk-like Niki any day. Take one look at this clip and we think you’ll agree.

2. Tricia Helfer

On the Sci-Fi Channel’s Battlestar Galactica, Helfer plays Number Six, a sexy robot babe with the ability to download pleasurable thoughts into people’s minds. In this scene, she helps the scientist Gaius Baltar overcome a brutal torture session with a little bow chica bow wow action.

1. Carrie Fisher

When intergalactic gangster Jabba the Hutt captures Princess Leia the first thing he does is put her in a gold bikini, and who can blame him? She even looks good while sitting on the lap of a giant space slug. These images from 1983’s Return of the Jedi remain the standard by which all sci-fi hotties are measured.

Jedi Religion Official

Jedi Church Planned In The UK

Posted By Mike on January 22, 2008

Click here to check out an article from the BBC about Barney and Daniel Jones who are planning their Jedi Chruch in the UK. Sermons will include meditation techniques, discussion of The Force and, of course, lightsaber training. See below for an excerpt:


'They plan to go to the official opening of a Surrey-based branch or "chapter" of the UK Church of the Jedi in April, and hope to hire an Anglesey venue for their own services.

Already six followers regularly meet in north Wales to discuss setting up the "church".

It is hoped Jedi church members will resist Darth Vader's dark side

"My brother and I would hold sermons, do talks and get guest speakers," explained Barney.

"We would read out essays members of the congregation have submitted on their feelings about the Jedi and the Force: do meditation, relaxation and visualisation techniques and a bit of light-sabre training."

Watching the films as children gave the brothers a good understanding of the "faith," said Barney.

"We had a knowledge of the Force from that and the teachings of Yoda. We've read the teachings on the internet.

"Our father is a karate black belt, we used to train with him, which is where we got the martial arts."

Barney, who has watched the Star Wars films "multiple dozens of times," does not wear film-themed clothing in public, but he and his brother would do so at Jedi church meetings.'


Thanks to James E. for the heads up!

Family Wars

"Family Guy" Creator Seth MacFarlane at Celebration IV!

April 25, 2007

Special Star Wars Episode Sneak Peek

Seth MacFarlane, the creator and executive producer of the Fox hit animated series, "Family Guy," is scheduled to appear at Star Wars Celebration IV at the Los Angeles Convention Center. MacFarlane, recognized as one of the youngest artists ever to create a television series, also voices many of the show's most beloved characters, including Peter, Stewie, Quagmire, and Brian.

This fall, MacFarlane and Fox will air a special one hour "Family Guy" episode that's a tribute to the Star Wars Saga as unique as only MacFarlane and his talented team of writers can make it. Fans at Celebration IV will be treated to a first look at parts of the episode, called Blue Harvest, and will have the opportunity to hear about it from MacFarlane and members of his team.

MacFarlane and the writers of the show have often riddled "Family Guy" with Star Wars references, but the coming episode will be all about the galaxy far, far away . . . from a "Family Guy" point of view. Joining MacFarlane on stage will be "Family Guy" Executive Producer David A. Goodman, Director Dominic Polcino, and writer Alec Sulkin. The group will talk about their experiences creating the show, as well as the upcoming Star Wars episode. After their onstage interview, it will be the audience's turn to speak up in a special question and answer session.

Seth MacFarlane began his career studying animation and design at the Rhode Island School of Design, where he created the animated short film The Life of Larry. Executives at Fox recognized MacFarlane's talent and gave him a shot to create a primetime animated series of his own. Over the next six months, MacFarlane created, animated, wrote, directed and provided all the main male characters' voices for what became "Family Guy." He delivered the first seven-minute short in May, 1998, and just weeks later it was picked up.

MacFarlane has received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his role as Stewie Griffin, and "Family Guy" has garnered two nominations for Outstanding Animated Series. In 2002, he also received an Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for "Family Guy."

Darth Vader's Full of Hot Air

Darth Vader hot-air balloon takes fandom to new heights

If there's a dorkier combo out there than Star Wars obsession and being a hot air balloon hobbyist, I'm not aware of it. But hey, don't be ashamed of your passions. No, blow them up to gigantic size so the whole world can see! That's what Benoit Lambert did, creating this absolutely incredible Darth Vader head hot air balloon.

This seriously accurate recreation of Darth Vader's helmet is also a fully-functioning hot-air balloon, allowing the passenger to soar in the clouds while really confusing people on the ground. Can you imagine a giant Darth Vader head floating by over your house? I'm not really sure what the appropriate reaction would be to seeing such a thing. Confusion? Awe? Fear?
— Adam Frucci

C-3P.O. Box

C-3P0 Where Are You?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thirty years ago, in theaters near and far, far away, a movie opened the imaginations of millions, combining the magic of mythology and special effects to launch the "Star Wars" phenomenon.

A star of those films — the brave little robot R2-D2 — is about to take a turn collecting mail as the Postal Service and Lucasfilm Ltd. commemorate that movie launch.

The post office is wrapping mail collection boxes in some 200 cities nationwide in a special covering to look like R2-D2.

It's part of a promotion for a new stamp to be announced March 28, Anita T. Bizzotto, the post office's chief marketing officer, said.

"It's a little teaser for the upcoming announcement and we decided to have a little fun with it," she said.

About 400 mailboxes will be covered to look like the stout droid. "When you look at a mailbox, the resemblance to R2-D2 is too good to pass up," Bizzotto said.

While postal officials would like people to look for these mailboxes and maybe even drop in a letter, Bizzotto urged people not to tamper with them, noting that's a crime.