James | SpockSoc

Week 1: Arrow and Cloud Atlas Outing

First of all, a warm welcome to everyone, both new members and old! It’s great to have you all here for a new year at SpockSoc.

We’ll be kicking off the year with a screening of a new series, Arrow. The series follows Oliver Queen, billionaire playboy of Starling City, who spends five years stranded on an island following a shipwreck that claims the life of everyone else on board, including his father. Upon his return to Starling City, he is reunited with his mother, Moira, and her new husband, Walter, the former CFO of his father’s company who is now the CEO. During the day, Oliver plays the billionaire playboy; at night, he becomes a green-hooded vigilante, following through with his father’s dying wishes to right the wrongs of the Queen family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory.

As usual, we’ll be meeting this coming Friday at Chemical Sciences Lecture Theatre M18. The Chemical Sciences building is marked as grid reference F10 on any campus map- it’s the tallest building on Lower Campus, halfway up the Main Walkway. The M18 Lecture Theatre is on the outside of the southern end of the building (the side facing away from Main Walkway).

We’ll start the screening at 5 PM, and going until we have to leave at 11 PM. We’ll take orders for pizza about 7 pm or so. Pizza costs $5 per half, and a can of drink is free!

We’re also having our first movie outing of the semester this week! We’ll be seeing Cloud Atlas at the Cinema Paris. The cinema is located on Moore Park, next to the Sydney Cricket Ground just off Anzac Parade. It’s a long movie, so we’re aiming for the 5:10 PM screening on Monday evening.

Finally, this semester we’re inaugurating the SpockSoc Book Club! By popular agreement via Facebook, the first book will be what for many of us is an old favorite- Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. We’ll be holding our first online discussion in two weeks, on Sunday the 17th of March at 6:30 PM.

Week 0: Membership & Avengers

Welcome back to the new semester! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays.

Here on campus things are starting to get exciting- O-week is kicking off! SpockSoc will be on campus all week. Our stall is going up in the Quad, just under the Clock Tower, so be sure to come by and pick up your membership for this year. We’ll also have T-shirts!

Also, don’t forget to come by on Thursday, for our special O-Week screening. At 2:00 we’ll be showing The Avengers at the O-Week cinema.

I hope everyone has a great O-week, and I’m looking forward to seeing you around campus.

Have fun!

-Stuart

Week 10: Alphas

This week at SpockSoc, we’ll be kicking off Alphas season two!

The series follows five people with superhuman abilities, known as “Alphas”, led by noted neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Lee Rosen (David Strathairn), as they investigate criminal cases involving other suspected Alphas. Rosen and his team operate under the auspices of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the criminal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Defense. While investigating these crimes, it does not take the team too long to discover that a group known as “Red Flag”, which was thought defeated and eliminated long ago, is using other Alphas to commit crimes.

Starting at 5pm this Friday in ChemSci M18 as usual – pizza run at about 7pm.

Week 9: Lost Girl and AGM

This week at SpockSoc, we’re going to show six of the remaining eight episodes of Lost Girl season two.

With the world of Fae in chaos following Bo’s explosive reunion with her mother, Bo must learn to “play the game” and navigate the inner workings of the Fae World in order to protect those who have helped to protect her. Bo finds her resolve to stay free challenged, and is forced to question her own morals and beliefs. While Bo grows stronger and learns more about who she really is, relationships will be tested and passions will ignite, but answers will not come easily.

Rest assured, however: we won’t be twiddling our thumbs for the remaining time – we’re also having our AGM! Woo! It’s absolutely, critically, vitally important for the future of the club that we get enough people attending the AGM so that we can hold democratic elections for next year’s exec. It’s not really possible to over-stress this point. We need people to come. Trying not to sound too desperate, but that’s how it is. =P

The screening starts at 5pm this Friday in ChemSci M18, our usual screening room. We’re aiming to start the AGM at around 7:30, over our usual pizza dinner – $5 per half pizza, other menu items possible. Even if you’re only able to attend the AGM and can’t stay for the screening, that’ll be enough.

Week 8: AGM + Trivia

We’re not having a regular screening this week, so… if you go to the regular room, we won’t be there.

Instead, we’re having the annual SpockSoc trivia night! All are welcome – entry is $5 each, but the prize pool is worth over $200 in total. Heaps of fun for all! It starts at 5pm this Friday in the Marsh Room – upstairs in the Roundhouse – and we’ll be finishing around 9pm (so don’t worry about it running too late).

We’ll also be selling our new t-shirts for $15 each, so bring money for them if you want one. Pizza run will be as usual, with $5 per half pizza, or you can buy food from the Roundhouse food outlets.

As well as that, we’ll be holding the Annual General Meeting, due to start at around 7pm. Having the AGM is vital for the continued existence of SpockSoc, and we need to have a quorum of members attending for it to count, so if you’re a full member – that is, a member of the club who is also a UNSW student – please try to attend the AGM, even if you can’t stay for the trivia. We’ll be voting on the executive for next year, and all exec positions are up for election.

The SpockSoc annual trivia night is proudly brought to you by Arc.

Week 7: Sanctuary

This week at SpockSoc, we’ll be continuing with Sanctuary season four.

Sanctuary follows the exploits of Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and her quest to protect various cryptids, legends, and abnormal animals/people with certain extraordinary powers and abilities (what most people would consider “monsters”). She heads the Sanctuary Network, which consists of large facilities known as “Sanctuaries” scattered throughout the world serving as safe havens for these “Abnormals”. She is aided in her quest by her reluctant protégé Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne); the talkative geek and lycanthrope Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins), a computer and security expert; and her taciturn, Homo heidelbergensis-like assistant, played by Christopher Heyerdahl (unnamed, but listed as “Bigfoot” in the show’s credits).

5pm this Friday in ChemSci M18, pizza run at 7-ish.

Also coming up soon is our annual trivia night and AGM on Friday of week eight, in place of a regular screening – that’s just two weeks from this Friday. Boy, how time flies. Entry is $5 for everyone, both members and non-members – though any non-members who want to sign up on the night so that they can vote at the AGM would be most welcome. It’ll be upstairs in the Roundhouse. Come for the AGM, stay for the trivia – or vice-versa, if that’s more appealing to you. =)

Week 6: Grimm

This week at SpockSoc, we’ll be continuing season one of Grimm, which we started last session.

Homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt of the Portland Police Bureau learns he is descended from a line of “guardians” known as “Grimms,” charged with keeping balance between humanity and the mythological creatures (called “Wesen”) of the world. Throughout the episodes, he must battle against an assortment of dangerous creatures, with help from his friend Monroe (who is a reformed creature), and his partner Detective Hank Griffin.

5pm Friday in ChemSci M18, as usual. Pizza run at 7-ish.

Also coming up, our annual trivia night and AGM, currently set for Friday of week eight – the first week back after the mid-session break. Just $5 entry, and hundreds of dollars’ worth of prizes to be won. Fun for all. Put it in your diaries now. =)

Hope to see you there,
-Joel
el presidente

Week 5: Continuum

This week at SpockSoc, we’re showing a new Canadian series called Continuum. I haven’t actually seen any of it, and I don’t know how well it was received, so it’s gonna be a bit of an experiment – come along and see how you like it. It stars Rachel Nichols, who (among other things) was Scarlett O’Hara in G.I. Joe, and Gaila (the Orion girl) in the latest Star Trek. Other names people might recognise include Lexa Doig, Tony Amendola and Jennifer Spence, Mike Dopud and William B. Davis.

When a group of rebels convicted as terrorists escapes execution by fleeing from the year 2077 to 2012, Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), a future Vancouver law enforcement officer, is involuntarily transported with them. In order to track them down and keep them from changing the past (and presumably future), Kiera joins the Vancouver Police Department and uses the skills of a young tech expert, Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen).

Screening starts at 5pm this Friday. We’ve decided to stay in ChemSci M18, because the other options are either the same or worse – though on the plus side, we’ve worked out how to use the whole projection screen. Yay. Pizza run at 7-ish.

In other news, our annual trivia night is coming up soon, on a Friday night somewhere around the middle of the session – which week specifically will need to be confirmed. That doesn’t mean you can’t start to get ready for it, though. For a $5 entry fee, everyone’s invited – SpockSoc members and non-members alike – so assemble a team of friends and sweep through the competition. =) Our AGM will also be on the same night, and we need to get enough people along so that it counts, which in turn means we’ll be able to keep existing. =D

Week 4: Once Upon a Time

To celebrate free-to-air television finally managing to catch us up on a series, we’re going to regain our lead. =D So this week at SpockSoc, we’re showing Once Upon a Time, the last third of season one. There’s eight episodes to go, though, which means we’ll be a bit pressed for time, so we’ll be starting as close to 5pm as we can manage – try not to be late. =)

5pm this Friday, pizza run at 7-ish. With the latest upgrades to the A/V system in ChemSci M18, the room is less ideal for our purposes than it used to be, so we’re hoping maybe we can change, but unless I indicate otherwise, that’s where we’ll be this week too.

You don’t need the blurb from me, yes? You’ve heard it before. =)

Week 3: Movie Outing and Eureka

First, we’re finally going to see The Dark Knight Rises – the 6pm screening this Wednesday the 1st of August at the Randwick Ritz. We’ll be meeting up in the lobby starting from around 5:30 or so in order that we can all go in together. Remember, having Arc membership will get you a discount from the Ritz, and showing your SpockSoc card to me will get you a $2 reimbursement.

This Friday’s screening is Eureka, season five. Eureka takes place in a high tech fictional community of the same name, located in the U.S. state of Oregon, and inhabited entirely by brilliant scientists working on new scientific advances. The town is operated by a corporation called Global Dynamics (GD), which is overseen by the United States Department of Defense. U.S. Marshal Jack Carter stumbles upon Eureka while transporting a fugitive prisoner (his own rebellious teenage daughter Zoe) back to her mother’s home in Los Angeles. When a faulty experiment cripples the sheriff of Eureka, Carter finds himself quickly chosen to fill the vacancy. Despite not being a genius like most members of the town, Jack Carter demonstrates a remarkable ability to connect to others, keen and practical insights, and a dedication to preserving the safety of Eureka.

When last we saw our heroes, the Astraeus – the spaceship intended to take explorers to Saturn’s moon Titan – had been hijacked, with most of the main characters on board, by persons not explicitly mentioned in dialogue but rather strongly hinted at by the season arc. So yeah. Where did they go?

Starting at 5pm this Friday in ChemSci M18 – pizza run as usual. Don’t miss it.