Monday various

  • Did James Cameron plagiarize a series of Russian novels for Avatar? Well, just throw it on the pile with Pocahonatas and FernGully. I mean, Cameron does sort of have a track record with this sort of thing… [via]
  • Will Kiefer Sutherland still be doing 24 when he’s sixty? Well, he’d like to think so.
  • Meanwhile, from someone who maybe knows when it’s time to retire, David Tennant’s foreword to the Doctor Who specials. [via]
  • Happy families are all alike. Presumably because they’re built that way in the robot factory. Android Karenina.

    I still haven’t read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and I am sort of waiting for this trend to die out, but at least Quirk handles their own entries with some degree of humor and style. [via]

  • And finally, a long post from Mark Evanier on the whole Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien situation.

    I think he makes a lot of valid points, including about why Leno probably isn’t the big villain he’s being portrayed as in some circles. I still think Peter David is right, that Leno “can’t be the deposed king returning to power and court jester at the same time.” And I’m still a little saddened that NBC is pinning its hopes and future of late-night on the man who’s greatest contribution to comedy in decades has been the Dancing Itos.

    But at least Evanier does a decent job of explaining how and why this all happened.