News: January 2008 Archives

I suppose I should post some more Torchwood reviews, but I really can't be bothered. What episode are we up to now? 3? There doesn't seem any point just criticising every episode. Maybe I'll post a review of any good episodes.

Primeval, the show that everyone loves a lot more than Torchwood, is getting a third series in 2009, according to SFX.
It seems that ITV loves it's "monster drama", their words.

They're also running a competition, in true Blue Peter / Doctor Who style, to design a monster. See your creation in real life CGI on the telly!

Starship Sofa, the entertaining UK based podcast/site, now has narrated short stories, as well as the usual discussion (== banter).

Tony from Starship Sofa says:

"All the short stories go out on a Wednesday and the normal show, where we look at a writer and his works go out on a Saturday."

The last story narrated was 1985 Hugo Short Story winner The Crystal Spheres by David Brin. And the promised list of upcoming authors is pretty cool: Ian Watson, Pat Cadigan, Peter Watts, Harry Harrison, Joe Haldeman, Joan D Vinge, Norman Spinrad, Michael Moorcock, Ian MacDonald, J D Nordley, Bruce Sterling, Gweneth Jones, David Brin, Alastair Reynolds, Jerry Pournelle, Landon Jones, John Varley, Pat Murphy, John Kessel, Laurel Winter, Jeff Vanermeer, Kevin J Anderson, Jonathan Carroll, Bradley Denton, Matthew Hughes. !

Also, they've "just flown out to Paris to do a video documentary with Michael Moorcock which is at this moment in the editing stage." Oooh, that's quite rock'n'roll. 

Lost Series 4 starts in the USA on Thursday. Everyone knows that right? What I didn't know is that it starts in the UK this Sunday! Sky One are taking the unprecedented(?) action of showing an episode of a US show in the same week that it airs in the US. Which is quite nice really. The first episode is this Sunday at 9pm.

Sky are letting everyone know about it too, with adverts and trailers in every commercial break, including the highly amusing Oceanic Air safety announcements. "Please attend to your onw mask before assisting others". Ho Ho.



I have no idea what the first episode of the new series will be like. I wouldn't be surprised if it was set on the Moon.

According to the official BBC site, this is now the list of confirmed guest stars for series 4:

• Alex Kingston
• Colin Salmon
• Sarah Lancashire
• Felicity Kendal
• Lesley Sharp
• Georgia Moffett
• Lindsey Coulson
• Fenella Woolgar
• Tim McInnerny
• Peter Capaldi
• Phil Davis
• Tracey Childs

Of which the only interesting one, that I've heard of, is Felicty Kendal.

However, more important is the mention of a new Steven Moffat penned two-parter, River Song "[Alex Kingston is] a mysterious character who meets The Doctor on an expedition to uncover the secrets of an abandoned library".

Can't we just get Steven Moffat to write the whole series please? Maybe Paul Cornell could chip in if Mr. Moffat gets tired.

The website for the British Science Fiction Association (BSFA) now has it's web forums live. There are forums that everyone can join in on, and also some write-only / read-only forums for BSFA members.

I like this, I think it gives the BSFA more of a sense of online community. There's always been a swathe of individual blogs, but now there's somewhere that everyone can go.

The only problem? Will I be able to keep up with it if the forums get busy?

The final shortlist for the 2007 BSFA awards are up here.
There's discussion about them over a Torque Control and VCTB has a comment about the lack of a Non-Fiction award.

I didn't nominate anything at all, for the following reasons:

1. I never got around to it
2. One vote never makes any difference anyway (although in the Non-Fic category this may not be true).
3. When I went to the website to try and remember how you nominated stuff I couldn't find anything so gave up.
4. I didn't read enough stuff that qualified to be eligible.
   
5. Brasyl should win the novel category and I assumed it would make the shortlist anyway.

Point 4 is the tricky one. And deciding whether things are eligible is even trickier. (To be honest, I find just remembering what I've read to be difficult.) The best books I read last year were Brasyl, Halting State, Glasshouse and Magic For Beginners. Halting State comes out tomorrow, so that doesn't count, and Magic For Begginers was published the year before, I think.

If the lack of Non-Fiction Award disturbs you, I recommend Brave New Words which is good fun and the sort of thing you can keep lying about and dipping into.

The Register has the Top 10 Movie Weapons (as voted in a random 20th Century Fox poll).

1. Lightsaber (Star Wars)
2. 44. Magnum (Dirty Harry)
3. Bullwhip (Indiana Jones)
4. Samurai sword (Kill Bill)
5. Chainsaw (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
6. Golden Gun (The Man With The Golden Gun)
7. Bow and arrow (Robin Hood)
8. Machine gun (Scarface)
9. The Death Star (Star Wars)
10. Bowler hat (Goldfinger)

I would personally prefer a Death Star to a Bullwhip, but agree that a Lightsaber is even better.

Via Dave again (he's been busy)

Scroll down here a bit to see a collection of quotes from the US press praising Torchwood. Although a lot of them seem fixated on John Barrowman.

Via Dave

28 Weeks Later + Mad Max 2/3 + Escape From New York == Doomsday

The trailer looks a bit rubbish, but the cast contains Bob Hoskins and Malcom McDowell and the writer director is Neil Marshall, who made the critically acclaimed Descent.

I'm not reading any of the following, because I haven't seen Cloverfield yet, but the reviews are flowing in:

• SFX reviews Cloverfield
• John and JP from SFSignal review Cloverfield
• io9 Talks To Cloverfield Director Matt Reeves
• Entertainment Weekly says that Cloverfield has set US box office records.
• Cloverfield is averaging 3.9/5 on Google Movie Reviews and 8.1/10 on IMDB
  

Firstly here' s one that's got nothing to do with the plot of the show.

Kylie may be dating David Tennant! says the Aussie Herald Sun. Shock, horror. But wait for it, where did they get this rumour from?

"The pair were spotted making a secret visit to the Old Vic to watch Cinderella just before Christmas"

Out? In public? Together? Outrageous! They must be a couple.

Next, plot rumours for series 4 from the always correct Daily Star....

(Could be spoilers if it's true)

I'm not really a Star Trek fan. I've watched it, of course, but it just doesn't capture my imagination, Unlike Star Wars (first love). Having said that, the original series is quite amusing to watch these days, Star Trek as comedy.

So what do I think about the new trailer? Well, it's a great teaser. There's one definite thing you can say about ol' JJ Abrams, he knows how to create hype / anticipation.

Due to the success of No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic book The Road is to be made into a film. Rumours for the casting are Charlize Theron for the mother and Guy Pearce or Viggo Mortensen for the father. Viggo would be brilliant. Although I can't see how they can pull this off. Please prove me wrong.

[Via io9]

I finally got around to reading the article Why do critics still sneer at sci-fi? in the Guardian. It's interesting. For a start it's not a slamming of SF without any thought, the author of the post Sam Jordison actually read Alfred Bester's, The Demolished Man (I think The Stars My Destination is better, but it's still a good read).

This quote stuck with me:

" It's fun seeing how the future was imagined by someone writing before the age of the microchip..."

Yes, the F word! Fun!

Anyway, he liked it and is now picking other Hugo winners to read. His latest article is about Ray Bradbury's, Farenheit 451. Which I haven't read. After my Apocalypse Watch reading maybe I should work my way through some of the Hugo winners I haven't read (I've read 17  of the 50+).

In case you haven't seen them, the BSFA have their list of monthly meetings up online.
I'm excited about:

    Wednesday 23rd July: Christopher Priest

Cool.

John Joseph Adams talks to The Fix about the inspiration for his Wastelands anthology and post-apocalyptic fiction in general:

"I think that one of the things that appeals to SF writers about writing in that sub-genre is that they can tear everything down and speculate about how human nature will react—exploring those scientific, psychological, sociological, and physiological ramifications...."

The Torchwood PR machine has gone into overdrive on the BBC.

On BBC Breakfast this morning Eve Myles and Naoko Mori were interviewed. It was a bit rubbish to be honest. They said that all the raunchiness "served the narrative" (for which Bill Turnbull took the piss), said that they were pleased by the amazing reaction (where was that then?) and then said something along the lines of "it's not just SciFi it's drama too".

As Others See Us indeed.

However in the clips from tonights episode James Marsters was great.

Fancy asking Jonathan Walker, one of the stars of the new Flash Gordon, a question? If so leave it here, and I can pass it on to the UK SciFi Channel bods, who will pick the good ones and ask him when he arrives in the UK. I have to get the questions to the aforementioned bods by Friday morning.

I have one:

Can you sing the Queen song? Flash Ah Ahhhhhh!

Russell T Davies is obviously on a tour of the BBC promoting Torchwood, because as well as the aforementioned interview tomorrow he's on 6 Music with Nemone this afternoon. I shall listen again tomorrow. [Via Joe@FPI]

Following the start of series 2 of Torchwood tomorrow night (or Season 2 Premiere! if you want to go all Hollywood) there is an interview with Russell T Davies on BBC4. The interviewer is the very serious Arts bloke, Mark Lawson. Should be interesting.

Mark Lawson talks to... Russell T Davies is on BBC Four at 11pm on Wednesday 16th January

According to 1UP, Darth Vader will be in the PS3 version of Soul Calibur IV and Yoda will be in the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur IV. No news of a Wii version :-(
[Via Dave]

Primeval series 2 starts this Saturday on ITV1 at 7pm. The ITV site now has loads of new content including a video preview of episode 1 (velociraptor!) and the mysterious A.R.C. site which is a Flash search for clues type thing.

Cool, I'm looking forward to it, something to watch in the Doctor Who slot.

SFX also has an interview with Andrew-Lee Potts who plays Connor.

"He’s a geek with a gun."

Ansible 246, January 2008

Ooh. I wish I had $500 to spend on a book.



From the Subterranean Press site...

Subterranean Press is proud to announce the Limited Edition, printed in two colors throughout on 80# Finch paper, with a premium cloth binding, and a number of illustrations and design elements by Patrick Arrasmith.

Given Mr. Stephenson's popularity, and the importance of this book, we fully expect it to sell out prior to publication.

Limited: 500 numbered hardcover copies signed by the author

Lettered: 26 signed copies, handbound, in a custom traycase, with an original piece of art not in the Limited Edition

Captain Jack (John Barrowman) and Captain John (James Martsers) snogging!

"Torchwood's Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) faces a dilemma when rogue Time Agent Captain John Hart (James Marsters) wreaks havoc on Cardiff in the first episode of the new series - should he kiss him or kill him?"

Guess we know the answer then.

Also, details about the pre-watershed edition...

"The new series of Torchwood starts on BBC Two , on January 16 at 9pm. Due to popular demand there is now a specially edited pre-watershed repeat the following day, on BBC Two at 7pm."

PocketGamer has news that a Doctor Who game is coming to the Nintendo DS. Bizzarely it's a card game...

"the tactical card game will offer head-to-head card battles between two players or against the game's artificial intelligence with players using memory, luck and their knowledge of the deck to outwit each another."

Couldn't you just use real cards for that?

Also...

"the game will be visually based on the animated CBBC Doctor Who spin-off series The Infinite Quest, although the theme tune, sound effects and characters all come from the proper TV series"

Hmm. Doesn't sound inspiring.

Eastercon 2008 hasn't even happened yet, but the Bradford Telegraph and Argus is already getting excited about Eastercon 2009, in, yes, Bradford. Well, I say excited, they have an article entitled Scifi Fans Ready To Land In City because, you know, we all have spaceships, being SciFi fans. At least they didn't say "teleport" or "beam down". Despite that the article actually has some decent information, including rumours of discussions with the National Media Museum. (They have IMAX, mmm big explosions.) The article also has a picture of Jon Courtenay Grimwood, in shades and a suit, because apparently it is illegal for JCG to smile in photos.

In preparation for the return of Lost at the end of the month, ABC are streaming all the episodes in HD. Well, apparently they are, because it doesn't work for me. Presumably there's some IP filtering going on. So, you could either find yourself a US proxy to route through, or just get the torrents. Probably. There are no Bluray box sets of Lost on Amazon UK yet, but they are on Amazon US.

It's like an expert guide on how to encourage people to download your TV show from alternative sources.


Via SFSignal

George Lucas sums up exactly how I feel about the hate for the Star Wars prequels.

"One of the key characters that helped us realize what was going on was Jar Jar Binks, because the kids that are under 10 years old, he’s one of their favorite characters. For people over 40, they cannot stand him—it’s a hate thing. You know, they’ve always been for 12-year-olds, and that’s never changed. People don’t want to think of it that way. They want to think those films are for grown-ups. Even though they were 10 years old when they saw it, it’s still very important to them, so, for them, it’s a grown-up movie, as opposed to a kids’ movie."

Personally I love all of the films. My only disappointment was that Revenge Of The Sith was a 12A, which meant that a lot of kids couldn't see it.

Well io9 has started well. Not only has it got a load of very cool posts (yeah, actual content), and William Gibson likes it, but it had 525k visits in one day. Gulp. I'm trying to look on it as an opportunity, however I'm too busy reading their posts to post here.

I saw an extended trailer for Torchwood on the BBC last night, and it said that it was due to be shown on 16th January on BBC2, which is a Wednesday so it's probably the Heroes 9pm slot. The official website hasn't caught up yet, no longtrailer or dates, although it has new wallpaper. Hmmm.

The extended trailer did not, unfortunately, offer me any hope that the new series would be better than the last. Looked like more of the same.

io9 is a new Science Fiction blog from Gawker Media, Nick Denton's nano-publishing empire which also contains such hit blogs as Gizmodo , Kotaku, LifeHacker etc.

With a team of about seven and getting paid for blogging (however little), they're probably going to make me feel unproductive, unoriginal and obsolete pretty rapidly....


Via Scalzi