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72-415: The Last Starfighter is a 1984 American space opera film directed by Nick Castle . The film tells the story of Alex Rogan ( Lance Guest ), a teenager who, after winning the high score in an arcade game that's secretly a simulation test, is recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war. It also features Dan O'Herlihy , Catherine Mary Stewart , and Robert Preston in his final role in

144-410: A backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens , often in fictional galaxies. The term does not refer to opera music , but instead originally referred to the melodrama, scope, and formulaic stories of operas, much as used in " horse opera ", a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film , and " soap opera ", a melodramatic domestic drama. Space operas emerged in

216-827: A balance between both or simultaneously hard and soft science fiction such as the Dune prequel series by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert or the Star Wars series created by George Lucas . Early works which preceded the subgenre contained many elements of what would become space opera. They are today referred to as proto-space opera. Early proto-space opera was written by several 19th century French authors, for example, Les Posthumes (1802) by Nicolas-Edme Rétif , Star ou Psi de Cassiopée: Histoire Merveilleuse de l'un des Mondes de l'Espace (1854) by C. I. Defontenay and Lumen (1872) by Camille Flammarion . Not widely popular, proto-space operas were nevertheless occasionally written during

288-427: A college tuition has been rejected. The inventor of Starfighter , Centauri, arrives in a futuristic car with a proposition for Alex. Centauri is in fact a disguised alien and his car a spacecraft. Alex is taken to the planet Rylos while Beta, a doppelgänger android , is used to cover Alex's absence. Alex learns there is actually a real conflict between a Star League of peaceful worlds and the oppressive Ko-Dan Empire;

360-686: A computer-graphic backdrop — but the sensitive love story between Guest and Catherine Mary Stewart cuts through the cuteness and gives the intergalactic adventures a much-needed boost." The Last Starfighter ' s popularity has resulted in several non-film adaptations of the storyline and uses of the name. A musical adaptation was first produced at the Storm Theatre Off-Off Broadway in New York City in October 2004 with music and lyrics by Skip Kennon and book by Fred Landau. In November 2005,

432-581: A disappointed Centauri gives Alex a means to contact him should he change his mind. A saboteur eliminates Starfighter Command's defenses and the Ko-Dan attack, killing the Starfighters and destroying their Gunstars. The saboteur warns Xur of Alex's escape. Alex discovers Beta and contacts Centauri to retrieve him. Centauri arrives just as Alex and Beta are attacked by a Zando-Zan, an alien assassin in Xur's service. Centauri

504-608: A few lines of dialogue that were ultimately cut from the film, but he still is visible in the background of several scenes. Composer Craig Safan wanted to go "bigger than Star Wars " and therefore utilized a " Mahler -sized" orchestra, resulting in an unusual breadth of instruments, including "quadruple woodwinds" and "eight trumpets, [trombones], and horns!" At the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , The Last Starfighter received an approval rating of 76%, based on 90 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "While The Last Starfighter

576-401: A fierce humanoid race headquartered on Sirius . However, the idea for the novel arises out of a nationalistic genre of fiction popular from 1880 to 1914 called future-war fiction. Despite this seemingly early beginning, it was not until the late 1920s that the space opera proper began to appear regularly in pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories . In film, the genre probably began with

648-414: A friendly reptilian Navigator named Grig, and explains his unwillingness to take part in the coming conflict. Grig sympathizes with Alex while Centauri tries to persuade him to stay, touting him as a gifted Starfighter. Xur contacts Starfighter Command as Alex watches. After publicly executing a Star League spy, Xur threatens Rylos with imminent invasion, and an unnerved Alex asks to be taken home. On Earth,

720-571: A frontier settlement in a classic Western. Six-shooters and horses may be replaced by ray guns and rockets. Harry Harrison 's novels Bill, the Galactic Hero and Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers , as well as the film adaptation of the former, the films Galaxy Quest and Mel Brooks ' Spaceballs , and Family Guy ' s Laugh It Up, Fuzzball trilogy parody the conventions of classic space opera. Canyon Country The area

792-693: A great deal of attention to the sub-genre. After the convention-breaking "new wave", followed by the enormous success of the franchises, space opera became once again a critically acceptable sub-genre. From 1982 to 2002, the Hugo Award for Best Novel was often given to a space opera nominee. Space opera has been defined as "a television or radio drama or motion picture that is a science-fiction adventure story". Some critics distinguish between space opera and planetary romance . Both feature adventures in exotic settings, but space opera emphasizes space travel, while planetary romances focus on alien worlds. In this view,

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864-491: A hundred alien ships and escaping without a scratch." Halliwell's Film Guide described the film as "a surprisingly pleasant variation on the Star Wars boom, with sharp and witty performances from two reliable character actors and some elegant gadgetry to offset the teenage mooning". In 2017, Variety described it as having "a simple yet ingenious plot" and continued "the action is suitably fast and furious, but what makes

936-437: A moral exploration of contemporary social issues. McAuley and Michael Levy identify Iain M. Banks , Stephen Baxter , M. John Harrison , Alastair Reynolds , McAuley himself, Ken MacLeod , Peter F. Hamilton , Ann Leckie , and Justina Robson as the most-notable practitioners of the new space opera. One of the most notable publishers Baen Books specialises in space opera and military science fiction, publishing many of

1008-534: A more subtle influence in space opera. Gene Roddenberry described Star Trek: The Original Series as a space Western (or more poetically, as “ Wagon Train to the stars”). Firefly and its cinematic follow-up Serenity literalized the Western aspects of the genre popularized by Star Trek : it used frontier towns, horses, and the styling of classic John Ford Westerns. Worlds that have been terraformed may be depicted as presenting similar challenges as that of

1080-506: A resolution of 3000 × 5000 36-bit pixels . Digital Productions estimated that using computer animation required only half the time and between a third to half of the cost of traditional special effects. The result was a cost of $ 14 million for a film that made close to $ 29 million at the box office. DP used Fortran , CFT77 for programming: Everything was in FORTRAN, because it was the only language with vectorization when we started and remained

1152-617: A sequel concept reel on YouTube called The Last Starfighters with concept art by Matt Allsopp and music by Chris Tilton and Craig Safan and featuring an audio clip from the original movie by Robert Preston . Space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare , with use of melodramatic , risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance . Set mainly or entirely in outer space , it features technological and social advancements (or lack thereof) in faster-than-light travel , futuristic weapons , and sophisticated technology, on

1224-470: A sequel or remake, but Jonathan R. Betuel has allegedly indicated that he does not want another film made. The rights to the film have not been clearly defined due to conflicting information. Multiple sources say Universal Pictures still owns the theatrical and home media distribution rights while Warner Bros. , which absorbed Lorimar-Telepictures (Lorimar's successor) in 1990, has the international distribution rights. Another source states that Universal has

1296-409: A space-drive with planetary romance in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs . Smith's later Lensman series and the works of Edmond Hamilton , John W. Campbell , and Jack Williamson in the 1930s and 1940s were popular with readers and much imitated by other writers. By the early 1940s, the repetitiousness and extravagance of some of these stories led to objections from some fans and the return of

1368-511: A theatrical film. The character of Centauri, a "lovable con-man", was written with him in mind and was a nod to his most famous role as Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man (1962). The Last Starfighter was released on July 13, 1984, by Universal Pictures . It received $ 28.7 million in the worldwide box office, against a budget of $ 15 million, and positive reviews from critics. The film, along with Walt Disney Pictures ' Tron (1982), has

1440-671: A trailer park with his mother and younger brother Louis, spending most of his spare time as the park's ad hoc handyman. Aside from his girlfriend Maggie, Alex's only diversion from his mundane existence is an arcade game called Starfighter , in which the player is "recruited by the Star League to defend the Frontier against Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada" in a space battle. On the evening he breaks the game's record as its highest-scoring player, Alex becomes angry and depressed on learning his bank loan for

1512-477: A working arcade cabinet of the game. In February 2008, production company GPA Entertainment added " Starfighter – The sequel to the classic motion picture Last Starfighter " to its list of projects and two months later the project was reported to be " stuck in the pre-production phase ". It was still there as of January 2012. Hollywood directors, including Seth Rogen and Steven Spielberg , as well as screenwriter Gary Whitta , have expressed interest in creating

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1584-602: Is an android imposter, Beta reveals everything to Maggie. They steal a pickup truck and chase the Zando-Zan back to its ship as it attempts to warn Xur. Beta has Maggie jump out before sacrificing himself by crashing the truck into the ship, destroying both and leaving the assassin's warning incomplete. The arrogant Xur assumes Alex has been eliminated and orders the armada to invade, but is quickly proven wrong as Alex and Grig ambush his command ship from behind. Ko-Dan Commander Kril orders Xur's arrest, but Alex's attack severely damages

1656-482: Is clearly derivative of other sci-fi franchises, its boundary-pushing visual effects and lovably plucky tone make for an appealing adventure". Metacritic gave the film a score of 67 based on 8 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Over time it has developed a cult following . Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars. While the actors were good, particularly Preston and O'Herlihy, Ebert wrote The Last Starfighter

1728-468: Is epic in scale and personal with characters. It is about people taking on something bigger than themselves and their struggles to prevail. Though a setting beyond Earth is central, being on a spaceship or visiting another planet isn't the only qualifier. There must also be drama and sufficiently large scope to elevate a tale from being simply space-based to being real space opera. Space opera can be contrasted in outline with " hard science fiction ", in which

1800-717: Is located on the east side of Santa Clarita, along the Santa Clara River. It occupies roughly the portion of Santa Clarita east of Golden Valley Road, and is bordered by Saugus to the west and Newhall to the southwest. The Sierra Pelona Mountains lie north of the community, and the San Gabriel Mountains lie to the south and east. Both ranges are part of the Angeles National Forest . Canyon Country lies primarily within ZIP codes 91351 and 91387. The boundary between

1872-479: Is persuaded to stay and help rebuild the Star League's Starfighter legion by Grig, Rylan Ambassador Enduran, and a recovered Centauri. Alex and Grig briefly return to Earth, landing their Gunstar in the trailer park, where Grig tells its residents of Alex's heroism. Alex bids his family farewell and asks Maggie to come with him, and she agrees. Inspired, Louis begins playing the Starfighter game. The Last Starfighter

1944-517: Is served by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Los Angeles County Fire Department . The fire stations serving Canyon Country are 104, 107, 123, 128, 132, and 150. City of Santa Clarita Transit operates bus services throughout Canyon Country along routes 5, 6, and 12. Route 12 provides direct connections to Metrolink's Antelope Valley Line at Via Princessa station . The Vista Canyon Regional Transit Center will become

2016-582: Is wounded protecting Alex, and he and Beta explain that more of them will be on their way to Earth; the only way for Alex to protect himself, his family, and his world is to embrace his ability as a Starfighter. Alex agrees, and Centauri flies Alex back to Starfighter Command before succumbing to his injury. Alex and Grig take off in a prototype Gunstar which survived the earlier attack. While Grig mentors Alex, Beta finds it difficult to maintain his impersonation, particularly with Maggie. When another Zando-Zan shoots Beta in front of Maggie, revealing to both that Beta

2088-846: The Battlestar Galactica franchise and Robert A. Heinlein 's 1959 novel Starship Troopers . The key distinction of military science fiction from space opera as part of the space warfare in science fiction is that the principal characters in a space opera are not military personnel, but civilians or paramilitary . That which brings them together under a common denominator is that military science fiction like space opera often concerns an interstellar war . Military science fiction however does not necessarily always include an outer space or multi-planetary setting like space opera and space Western. Space Western also may emphasize space exploration as “the final frontier”. These Western themes may be explicit, such as cowboys in outer space, or they can be

2160-524: The Last Starfighter name. The home computer version was eventually renamed and released (with some minor changes) as Star Raiders II . A prototype exists for the Atari 2600 Last Starfighter game, which was in actuality a game already in development by Atari under the name Universe . This game was eventually released as Solaris . In 1990, an NES game titled The Last Starfighter was released, but it

2232-792: The William S. Hart Union High School District , in particular Sierra Vista and La Mesa Junior High Schools, and Canyon and Golden Valley High Schools. Santa Clarita Christian School is located in Canyon Country. College of the Canyons has a satellite campus in Canyon Country in addition to its main campus in Valencia. Charter College has a campus in Canyon Country, one of three campuses in California (the others are in Lancaster and Oxnard ). Canyon Country

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2304-469: The "triumph of mankind" template of older space opera, involves newer technologies, and has stronger characterization than the space opera of old. While it does retain the interstellar scale and scope of traditional space opera, it can also be scientifically rigorous. The new space opera was a reaction against the old. 'New space opera' proponents claim that the genre centers on character development, fine writing, high literary standards, verisimilitude, and

2376-406: The 1918 Danish film, Himmelskibet . Unlike earlier stories of space adventure, which either related the invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials, or concentrated on the invention of a space vehicle by a genius inventor, pure space opera simply took space travel for granted (usually by setting the story in the far future), skipped the preliminaries, and launched straight into tales of derring-do among

2448-432: The 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games. An early film which was based on space-opera comic strips was Flash Gordon (1936) , created by Alex Raymond . Perry Rhodan (1961–) is the most successful space opera book series ever written. The Star Trek TV series (1966–) by Gene Roddenberry and the Star Wars films (1977–) by George Lucas brought

2520-459: The Barbarian . The computer graphics for the film were rendered by Digital Productions (DP) on a Cray X-MP supercomputer. The company created 27 minutes of effects for the film. This was considered an enormous amount of computer generated imagery at the time. For the 300 scenes containing computer graphics in the film, each frame of the animation contained an average of 250,000 polygons and had

2592-581: The CPU. Gameplay would have been taken from game scenes and space battle scenes in the film and would have included the same controller that was used on the first Star Wars arcade game . The game was abandoned once Atari representatives saw the film in post-production and decided it was not going to be a financial success. Home versions of the game for the Atari 2600 and Atari 5200 consoles and Atari 8-bit computers were also developed, but never commercially released under

2664-518: The Martian, Venusian, and lunar-setting stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs would be planetary romances (and among the earliest), as would be Leigh Brackett 's Burroughs-influenced Eric John Stark stories. The term "space opera" was coined in 1941 by fan writer and author Wilson Tucker as a pejorative term in an article in Le Zombie (a science fiction fanzine ). At the time, serial radio dramas in

2736-572: The Santa Clara River and Castaic Creek . In the 1880s, the rancho become the Newhall Ranch empire of Henry Newhall , from which his family started the Newhall Land and Farming Company after his death. In 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, suddenly flooding and washing away settlements and people along the Santa Clara River section of present-day Santa Clarita not including Canyon Country. Canyon Country

2808-745: The Sports Complex is the Santa Clarita Aquatic Center, which includes three large swimming pools and several water slides; the Trek Bike Park of Santa Clarita (opened September 2020) covering 7 acres including BMX and mountain biking trails; and the Santa Clarita Skate Park. Many city-sponsored recreational programs are held at the Sports Complex and adjacent facilities. It is located along Centre Pointe Parkway just east of Golden Valley Road. The house of The Crandall family used in

2880-558: The United States had become popularly known as soap operas because many were sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term " horse opera " had also come into use to describe formulaic Western films . Tucker defined space opera as the science fiction equivalent: A "hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn, spaceship yarn". Fans and critics have noted that the plots of space operas have sometimes been taken from horse operas and simply translated into an outer space environment, as famously parodied on

2952-459: The aforementioned authors, who have won Hugo Awards. Several subsets of space opera overlap with military science fiction, concentrating on large-scale space battles with futuristic weapons in an interstellar war . Many series can be considered to belong and fall in two genres or even overlap all like Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card or the Honorverse by David Weber . At one extreme,

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3024-567: The back cover of the first issue of Galaxy Science Fiction . During the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the stories were printed in science-fiction magazines, they were often referred to as "super-science epics". Beginning in the 1960s, and widely accepted by the 1970s, the space opera was redefined, following Brian Aldiss ' definition in Space Opera (1974) as – paraphrased by Hartwell and Cramer – "the good old stuff". Yet soon after his redefinition, it began to be challenged, for example, by

3096-479: The border with Saugus. The George A. Caravalho Santa Clarita Sports Complex in far western Canyon Country includes a gymnasium with two indoor, full-sized basketball courts, four pickleball courts, two volleyball courts, two futsal courts, and four racquetball courts. The Sports Complex includes the City of Santa Clarita Activities Center (a.k.a. The Centre) which contains rooms for banquets and meetings. Adjacent to

3168-424: The central transit hub of Canyon Country once completed by the end of 2023. Canyon Country is served by the park system of the city of Santa Clarita. Parks in Canyon Country include Canyon Country Park (the largest), North Oaks Park, Discovery Park, Todd Longshore Park, Fair Oaks Park, Oak Spring Canyon Park, and Begonias Lane Park. The city's newest park, Plum Canyon Park, is located in northern Canyon Country on

3240-420: The command ship's weapons and communications with its fighters, and Xur escapes in the confusion. Alex and Grig attack the Ko-Dan fighters but are outnumbered and overwhelmed. Alex desperately activates a secret weapon that quickly destroys the remaining fighters. Kril attempts to ram them, but Alex cripples the command ship further, causing it to crash into Rylos' moon. Alex is proclaimed the savior of Rylos, and

3312-400: The distinction of being one of cinema's earliest films to use extensive "real-life" computer-generated imagery (CGI) to depict its many starships, environments, and battle scenes. There was a subsequent novelization of the film by Alan Dean Foster , as well as a video game based on the production. In 2004, it was also adapted as an off-Broadway musical. Alex Rogan is a teenager living in

3384-625: The early 1990s did the term space opera begin to be recognized as a legitimate genre of science fiction. Hartwell and Cramer define space opera as: ... colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes. Author A.K. DuBoff defines space opera as: True space opera

3456-437: The editorial practice and marketing of Judy-Lynn del Rey and in the reviews of her husband and colleague Lester del Rey . In particular, they disputed the claims that space operas were obsolete, and Del Rey Books labeled reissues of earlier work of Leigh Brackett as space opera. By the early 1980s, space operas were again redefined, and the label was attached to major popular culture works such as Star Wars . Only in

3528-520: The emphasis is on the effects of technological progress and inventions, and where the settings are carefully worked out to obey the laws of physics, cosmology, mathematics, and biology. Examples are seen in the works of Alastair Reynolds or the movie The Last Starfighter . At other times, space opera can concur with hard science fiction and differ from soft science fiction by instead focusing on scientific accuracy such as The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld . Other space opera works may be defined as

3600-542: The genre is used to speculate about future wars involving space travel, or the effects of such a war on humans; at the other, it consists of the use of military fiction plots with some superficial science-fiction trappings in fictional planets with fictional civilizations and fictional extraterrestrials . The term "military space opera" is occasionally used to denote this subgenre, as used for example by critic Sylvia Kelso when describing Lois McMaster Bujold 's Vorkosigan Saga . Other examples of military space opera include

3672-561: The highest number of unique neighborhoods of any borough in Santa Clarita. Most derive their names from natural landforms such as a canyon or from a ranch that was once located there. A neighborhood may include a variety of housing tracts with unique names. Notable neighborhoods and communities include: The oldest neighborhood in Canyon Country is Whites Canyon, traditionally named "Canyon Country". The neighborhood includes both Sierra Vista Junior High and Canyon High School . Some of

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3744-512: The late Victorian and Edwardian science-fiction era. Examples may be found in the works of Percy Greg , Garrett P. Serviss , George Griffith , and Robert Cromie . Science fiction scholar E. F. Bleiler cites Robert William Cole 's The Struggle for Empire: A Story of the Year 2236 as the first space opera in his 1990 reference work Science-Fiction: The Early Years . The novel depicts an interstellar conflict between solar men of Earth and

3816-432: The latter's armada, poised to invade Rylos, is led by Xur, a tyrannical Rylan traitor who has sabotaged the Frontier forcefield shielding Rylos and other worlds from the Ko-Dan. The last line of defense against the armada is a small fleet of Gunstar spacecraft, operated by "Navigators" paired with gunners called "Starfighters". Centauri's Starfighter arcade game is a recruiting tool designed to train Starfighters. Alex meets

3888-448: The movie especially enjoyable are the quirky character touches given to Guest and his fellow players." Variety also noted that film critic Gene Siskel described The Last Starfighter as the best of all Star Wars imitators. Alan Jones awarded it three stars out of five for Radio Times , writing that it was a "glossy, space-age fairy tale" and "highly derivative — Star Trek -like aliens have Star Wars -inspired dog-fights against

3960-653: The newest neighborhoods in Canyon Country include Skyline Ranch and Vista Canyon, the latter of which is still under construction as of April 2023. As of the 2020 census, the population of Canyon Country was 92,897. 41.7% of residents were Hispanic , 36.7% were non-Hispanic white , 13.9% were Asian American , 7.4% were African American , and 3.1% were Native American . Canyon Country elementary school students attend schools in Saugus Union School District and Sulphur Springs School District . Middle and high school students in Canyon Country attend schools in

4032-471: The only language with good vectorization through the life of DP. Not all special effects in the film were done with computer animation. The depiction of the Beta unit before it had taken Alex's form was a practical effect , created by makeup artist Lance Anderson . The Starcar, created by Gene Winfield and driven by Centauri, was a working vehicle based on Winfield's Spinner designs from Blade Runner . Because

4104-446: The option to remake the film while Betuel has sequel rights. Further complicating the situation is a claim that both Universal and Warner Bros. each have remake and sequel rights. In July 2015, it was reported that Betuel will write a TV reboot of the film. On April 4, 2018, Whitta posted concept art for The Last Starfighter sequel on his Twitter account. In the same tweet he also indicated that Betuel will be collaborating with him on

4176-524: The original cast recording was released on the Kritzerland label. Alan Dean Foster wrote a novelization of the film shortly after it was released ( ISBN   0-425-07255-X ). In the same year as the release of the film, Marvel Comics published a comic book adaptation of the film by writer Bill Mantlo and artists Bret Blevins and Tony Salmons in Marvel Super Special #31. The adaptation

4248-401: The project. In a follow-up interview with Gizmodo , Whitta referred to the project as "a combination of reboot and sequel that we both think honors the legacy of the original film while passing the torch to a new generation." On October 20, 2020, Betuel stated that, with Whitta, a script for a sequel is being written and the rights to the film were recaptured. On March 25, 2021, Whitta posted

4320-520: The publication of M. John Harrison 's The Centauri Device in 1975 and a "call to arms" editorial by David Pringle and Colin Greenland in the Summer 1984 issue of Interzone ; and the financial success of Star Wars , which follows some traditional space opera conventions. This "new space opera", which evolved around the same time cyberpunk emerged and was influenced by it, is darker, moves away from

4392-420: The space opera was well established as a major subgenre of science fiction. However, the author cited most often as the true father of the genre is E. E. "Doc" Smith . His first published work, The Skylark of Space ( Amazing Stories , August–October 1928), written in collaboration with Lee Hawkins Garby , is often called the first great space opera. It merges the traditional tale of a scientist inventing

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4464-515: The stars. Early stories of this type include J. Schlossel 's "Invaders from Outside" ( Weird Tales , January 1925), The Second Swarm ( Amazing Stories Quarterly , spring 1928) and The Star Stealers ( Weird Tales , February 1929), Ray Cummings ' Tarrano the Conqueror (1925), and Edmond Hamilton's Across Space (1926) and Crashing Suns ( Weird Tales , August–September 1928). Similar stories by other writers followed through 1929 and 1930. By 1931,

4536-432: The term in its original and pejorative sense. Eventually, though, a fondness for the best examples of the genre led to a re-evaluation of the term and a resurrection of the subgenre's traditions. Writers such as Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson had kept the large-scale space adventure form alive through the 1950s, followed by writers like M. John Harrison and C. J. Cherryh in the 1970s. By this time, "space opera"

4608-456: The test audiences responded positively to the Beta Alex character, director Nick Castle added more scenes of Beta Alex interacting with the trailer park community. Because Lance Guest had cut his hair short after initial filming had been completed and he contracted an illness during the re-shoots, his portrayal of Beta Alex in the added scenes has him wearing a wig and heavy makeup. Wil Wheaton had

4680-764: The two ZIP codes mostly follows Sierra Highway - addresses west of or along the highway are in 91351, while addresses east of the highway are in 91387. ZIP codes 91321, 91350, and 91390 also include small portions of Canyon Country. Due to its location adjacent to the mountainous Angeles National Forest, and its aridity (especially in summer), Canyon Country is susceptible to wildfires. The Buckweed Fire in October 2007 burned nearly 38,000 acres (15,000 ha) throughout Canyon Country and Agua Dulce . The Sand Fire took place in Canyon Country in July and August 2016 and burned nearly 42,000 acres (17,000 ha) of land. Canyon Country has

4752-425: Was "not a terrifically original movie" but it was nonetheless "well-made". Colin Greenland reviewed The Last Starfighter for Imagine magazine, and stated that "apart from a mildly amusing little sub-plot with the android replica left on Earth to conceal his absence, Alex's adventure is strictly the movie of the video game: simple as can be, and pitched at a pre-teen audience who can believe Alex and Grig blasting

4824-403: Was actually a conversion of Uridium for Commodore 64 , with modified sprites, title screen and soundtrack. A freeware playable version of the game, based on what is seen in the film, was released for PC in 2007. This is a faithful reproduction of the arcade game from the film and features full sound effects and music from the game. The creators of this game, Rogue Synapse, have also built

4896-416: Was also available as a three issue limited series . In 1984, FASA , a sci-fi tabletop game maker, created a gaming system The Last Starfighter: Tunnel Chase for The Last Starfighter . A real The Last Starfighter arcade game by Atari, Inc. is promised in the end credits, but was never released. If released, the game would have been Atari's first 3D polygonal arcade game to use a Motorola 68000 as

4968-459: Was for many readers no longer a term of insult but a simple description of a particular kind of science fiction adventure story. According to author Paul J. McAuley , a number of mostly British writers began to reinvent space opera in the 1970s (although most non-British critics tend to dispute the British claim to dominance in the new space opera arena). Significant events in this process include

5040-495: Was originally to be called Solemint. It later absorbed the community to the west called Honby. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Newhall Land company's suburban developments transformed Canyon Country and the surrounding towns into a largely residential city. In 1987, Canyon Country was one of four communities, along with Valencia , Newhall , and Saugus , that merged to create the city of Santa Clarita, California . Canyon Country

5112-470: Was shot in 38 days, mostly night shoots in Canyon Country . It was one of the earliest films to make extensive use of computer graphics for its special effects . In place of physical models, 3D rendered models were used to depict space ships and many other objects. The Gunstar and other spaceships were the design of artist Ron Cobb , who also worked on Dark Star , Alien , Star Wars and Conan

5184-631: Was the ancestral homeland of the Tataviam people for over five hundred years, and other tribes before then, such as the Tongva , Kitanemuk , and Serrano people . After Spanish settlement, the valley became grazing lands of the Mission San Fernando Rey de España around 1790. In 1834, after Mexican independence, it became part of the Rancho San Francisco land grant centered on the confluence of

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