Polaris (formerly Toronto Trek) is an annual science fiction and fantasy convention held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the past and now held in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada.
It began in 1986 as a relaxacon as Toronto Trek Celebration. Two years later, in 1988, Toronto Trek Celebration 2 took place. In 1989 it dropped the word "Celebration" and became simply "Toronto Trek". For its twenty-first convention in 2007, the name was changed to "Polaris". At Polaris 26, held July 5–7, 2012, it was announced Polaris had come to an end and that a new convention would replace Polaris in 2013.
The convention had a focus on media guests from science fiction, fantasy movies and television series and novel authors such as Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate, Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jericho, Lost and Battlestar Galactica. Photo opportunities, autographs and Question & Answer sessions feature the media guest, who sometimes come to other programming and after hours events.
"Polaris" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft, written in 1918 and first published in the December 1920 issue of the amateur journal The Philosopher. It is noteworthy as the story that introduces Lovecraft's fictional Pnakotic Manuscripts, the first of his arcane tomes.
Critic William Fulwiler writes that "'Polaris' is one of Lovecraft's most autobiographical stories, reflecting his feelings of guilt, frustration, and uselessness during World War I. Like the narrator, Lovecraft was 'denied a warrior's part', for he 'was feeble and given to strange faintings when subjected to stress and hardships'".
Like many Lovecraft stories, "Polaris" was in part inspired by a dream, which he described in a letter: "Several nights ago I had a strange dream of a strange city--a city of many palaces and gilded domes, lying in a hollow betwixt ranges of grey, horrible hills.... I was, as I said, aware of this city visually. I was in it and around it. But certainly I had no corporeal existence."
Polaris is a star, also known as the North Star.
Polaris may also refer to:
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK, to New York City, US. The sinking resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 passengers and crew, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. The RMS Titanic, the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service, was the second of three Olympic class ocean liners operated by the White Star Line, and was built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast with Thomas Andrews as her naval architect. Andrews was among those who died in the sinking. On her maiden voyage, she carried 2,224 passengers and crew.
Under the command of Edward Smith, the ship's passengers included some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe seeking a new life in North America. A high-power radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger "marconigrams" and for the ship's operational use. Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, there were not enough lifeboats to accommodate all of those aboard due to outdated maritime safety regulations. Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—slightly more than half of the number on board, and one-third her total capacity.
Titanic is a one-act play written by Christopher Durang. The play was initially presented at the Yale School of Drama in 1974.
The play takes place on the RMS Titanic, called an "outrageous tale of sex and seduction aboard the titular ship" by Jackson R. Bryer (professor of English at the University of Maryland) and Mary C. Hartig.
The play was presented in a workshop in 1973 at the American Place Theatre. It was then performed at the Yale School of Drama, Yale Experimental Theatre, in May 1974. Directed by Peter Mark Shifter, the cast featured Kate McGregor Stewart as Victoria Tammurai, Kenneth Ryan as Richard Tammurai, Joel Polis as Teddy Tammurai (their son), Christine Estabrook as Lidia, Robert Nersesian as The Captain, and Richard Bey as Higgins (the sailor).
The play premiered at the Direct Theatre in New York City in February 1976. Directed by Shifter, the cast featured Stewart, Stefan Hartman as Richard Tammurai, Richard Peterson as Teddy Tammurai, Sigourney Weaver as Lidia, Jeff Brooks as The Captain, and Ralph Redpath as the sailor.
Titanic is a made-for-TV dramatization that premiered as a 2-part miniseries on CBS in 1996.Titanic follows several characters on board the RMS Titanic when she sinks on her maiden voyage in 1912. The miniseries was directed by Robert Lieberman. The original music score was composed by Lennie Niehaus.
Titanic follows three main story threads.
Isabella Paradine is traveling on the Titanic to join her husband after attending her aunt's funeral in England. On the Titanic, she meets Wynn Park, her former lover. She falls in love with him again, and after a brief affair, she sends her husband a wireless saying they cannot be together anymore (despite their daughter). When the ship starts sinking, Isabella reluctantly leaves Wynn when he forces her to board a lifeboat. As the boat is lowered, Isabella confesses a long kept secret that her daughter Claire is actually Wynn's. Later on board the RMS Carpathia she is grief-stricken when she finds Wynn's lifeless body on deck amongst other victims who have died of hypothermia, but luckily, when the Carpathia reaches New York she is reunited with her family who are blissfully unaware of Isabella's tryst because the telegram was never sent out due to the sinking.