News: March 2008 Archives

BBC 3 has commissioned a new comedy called Clone:

Clone opens with a brilliant scientist unveiling the result of his life's work: the first human clone. Intended to be a prototype super soldier who will eventually replace Britain's volunteer army, the Doctor quickly realizes his super weapon is more likely to hug someone than shoot them.

Clone is a classic 'fish out of water' comedy revolving around the education of an innocent being who is seeing and experiencing our world for the first time. It could also be described as a 'buddy comedy' about a modern Dr Frankenstein and his monster.

Clone's creator is Adam Chase who had writing and executive producing roles on Friends. There's hope there as long as it isn't one continual anti-SF gag.

The series of six episodes will transmit later this year on BBC Three.

The best part of the press-release is this:

Danny Cohen [BBC Three Controller] says: "I'm thrilled that Adam Chase has come over from Hollywood to work with BBC Three..."

Farewell Hollywood! Viva BBC Three!

Jon Hicks has a Dr Who Season 4 Calendar:

"...as I find out more, I’ll update it."

Searching Google Calendar throws up a competing calendar, so take your pick.

(It's based on the BBC schedule in the UK.)

CBS has cancelled Jericho. The seven part second series obviously didn't bring in the crowds. Personally I liked Jericho best when it was a drama about a small town coping with post-nuclear isolation. Although the second series has been entertaining, I think it just felt like a below standard 24. The last episode is aired tonight in the US.

There are of course rumours of shopping the show around to other channels.

Most impressive thing about the cancellation? The BBC mention it.

As expected, one day at Eastercon was not enough, but one day is better than zero days. A quick summary:

• Charles Stross talked almost non-stop for an hour on tech stuff and near future extrapolations and general Stross type stuff. I have the feeling he has read a lot of obscure things about aeroplanes. Entertaining, but more or less the same as the last time I saw him speak (bar the emergence of robots as the future).
• The Not The Clarke Awards panel weakened my resolution on trying to read all the shortlist, especially as I've now read the two they liked best. There was, of course, dismay at Brasyl not being short-listed.
• Neil Gaiman read (out loud). I liked his short story Orange. Funny. He's good at reading (and writing). The bit where he talked about Eastercon was a bit rambling and blokey though (I got pissed with John Jarrold! etc).
• Writing The Near Future was not a great panel, because it turned into a discussion of what was actually going to happen (futurology?), and since when have SF writers actually predicted the future?! The best moment was when I realised that the moderator was Paul McAuley, it all seemed better from then on. Much talk of robots.
• Everyone's A Critic was an interesting conversation about reviewing and blogging and editors. I think I'll do a whole post on that.
• Bought the BSFA 50th Birthday Celebration Anthology and the Friday Flash Fiction Anthology. Resisted other purchases.
• Met some people and talked to them, met some people and only said hello, saw some other people, didn't meet some other people.
• Had the mandatory conversation about how rubbish Torchwood is, with someone whose name I never found out.
• Came home suitably inspired to write more and write better.

And the winners are...

The Hugo shortlist is out.

Eastercon 2008 starts today (has started in fact), in sunny Heathrow (imagine images of planes coming in to land here). If you aren't there then there are some ways you can try and keep track of what's going on, although none of it is guaranteed to work because people might actually be doing stuff, instead of blogging or whatever.

Matrix has now evolved into Matrix Online: the news and media magazine of the British Science Fiction Association. You need to be a member of the BSFA to read the full content.

Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90.

Arthur C. Clarke at his home office in Colombo,

Wikipedia has, of course, extensive details about his life, including the rather large list of SF books that he wrote. Meanwhile the BBC has an obituary with links to some video of him.

I've read very few of his SF novels, so I can't really comment on his output, but you can't deny his role as an ambassador for SF.

My Flash story The Paths You Would Walk has been published today by Every Day Fiction.

I think it's probably my favourite Flash story that I've written to date.

They're trailing the trailer...

After an exclusive cinema-only run, we're delighted to announce that the new Doctor Who Series Four trailer will make its official TV and web debut on Saturday 29 March 2008.

BBC - Doctor Who - News - Series Four Trailer

There can't be too many options left open for the start date of the fourth "new" Doctor Who series. It's probably around Easter is what I'd been assuming.

Den of Geek has information that April 12th is the most likely date.

Anyone from the BBC like to confirm that? (I take tips anonymously!)

David V. Barrett has reviewed Halting State for Strange Horizons. (I don't know David, but he is a former editor of the BSFA journal Vector and a former chair of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, which means he's read a lot of SF.)

Unlike me, he wasn't impressed:

"About half way through the novel I realised that I wasn't all that bothered about the resolution of the ever-increasing complexities of the plot. Why? Because I didn't actually care much what happened to any of the characters."

Which is fine, but I really disagree with the problem of British references:

The problem is one of reference. Halting State is littered with cultural references to the Britain of the last two or three years that few non-Brits will recognise.

[...]

The proof copy I read was the US edition—at least, in spelling and punctuation. Yet on just one page we have, with no clue whatsoever to their meaning, HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs), TfL (Transport for London), PPPs (Public-Private Partnerships, a politically popular but controversial financing system in Britain in the 1990s and early 2000s), ECB (European Central Bank), Chelsea tractor (slang for what Britain calls a 4x4 and America calls an SUV), the Tube (the London Underground), and DLR (Docklands Light Railway, a particular line linked to the Underground system).

All of this is careless, even lazy writing.

The Attrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue have glossaries in the back for this purpose. But I hate glossaries. If you want to know what it means, then just Google it! There must be plenty of books full of US references? You can't explain every little detail. What Charles Stross does well is throw the reader into a sometimes overwhelmingly strange world. For example Accelerando is so dense with ideas it can make your head hurt thinking about it, but I love that.

I also love the fact that it's a SF novel set in Scotland, and presumably there will be a fair few Americans who love that too. Scotland is so exotic ;-)

Paul has news of a new Flash Fiction anthology. I'll copy his press release spiel:

ISBN 978-0-9558662-0-3

---

ILLUMINATIONS is a new anthology from small press Odd Two Out Publishing showcasing original, cutting edge short fiction from eight up-and-coming young British writers.

When British author Gareth L Powell started adding short weekly pieces of flash fiction to his website back in July 2007, he didn’t expect anyone else to take much notice.

But soon there were seven other writers doing likewise - Paul Graham Raven, Gareth D Jones, Martin McGrath, Dan Pawley, Justin Pickard, Neil Beynon, and Shaun C Green. Together, they have become known as the Friday Flash Fictioneers.

Congratulations to everyone involved! Something else to add to the reading list.

The Bionic Woman went down well on ITV2:

The first episode of US TV drama The Bionic Woman has given ITV2 its largest ever audience, initial figures suggest.

The show, starring former EastEnders actress Michelle Ryan, was watched by an average of 2.2 million viewers, according to overnight figures.

The digital channel's previous best was 1.9 million viewers for Footballers' Wives: Extra Time in 2005.

See the quality of their previous best rated show? Maybe it was everyone tuning in to see if Michelle Ryan could really go from Cockney to American Superhero?

However to put things in perspective:

The show's UK debut at 2100 GMT on ITV2 beat Channel 4's The Woman Who Stops Traffic, which attracted 736,000 viewers.

BBC One's Hotel Babylon was the most watched programme at that time, with five million viewers.

The Woman Who Stops Traffic, what an inspiring title for a TV show.

The 2008 Locus Poll is online if you fancy voting.

If you don't know about Locus, it's pretty much the trade magazine for SF&F

Locus Online focuses on news of the Science Fiction publishing field and coverage of new science fiction books and magazines.

Via Boing Boing

The Guardian comments on the Arthur C Clarke Award shortlist in Clarke prize moves beyond sci-fi:

The Arthur C Clarke award for science fiction casts a strikingly wide net this year, with literary fiction and a novel for young adults joining the usual run of stories of androids and genetic engineering all on the shortlist

It's "the usual run of " which sounds condescending. Couldn't they have written the article without that tone? Slightly annoying. Meanwhile Sarah Hall has commented on her inclusion:

"Any collapsing of imposed literary boundaries heartens me, and the possibility that writers might be freer to exercise imaginative versatility is tremendously exciting."

Ansible 248, March 2008

Russell T Davies thinks that Doctor Who is around to stay, beyond even 2010:

"It's no good looking at that American pattern of making seven years if you're lucky - that's just not going to work. Who wants it to die after seven years? It's much bigger than that.

"It needs looking after, in the sense that it needs pauses, it needs its legend revamping every so often. If you build these pauses in now and say this will always happen, that's part of the plan now - it's literally a twenty year plan, which can't be guaranteed, because different people will be in charge in years to come - but if you present them with something rock solid, that is working, and has a unique transmission pattern that shouldn't be interfered with, then it will stay."

Via SFX

Yeah, all these seven year American shows, pah, come back when you're 45 years old, then we'll talk.

The shortlist for the Arthur C Clarke Award has been announced

The Red Men: Matthew de Abaitua - Snow Books
The H-Bomb Girl: Stephen Baxter - Faber & Faber
The Carhullan Army: Sarah Hall - Faber & Faber
The Raw Shark Texts: Steven Hall - Canongate
The Execution Channel: Ken MacLeod - Orbit
Black Man: Richard Morgan - Gollancz

As a reminder, the Clarke award is a juried award (whereas the BSFA award is voted for), consequently it often turns up some interesting books. This year they are all UK authors.

As is depressingly usual, I've read none of them. However The Execution Channel is on my shelf waiting for me (thanks to Orbit). Three of them I know very little about, which is why I like the Clarke.

I should have mentioned this before (an email prod from Tony has reminded me):

StarShipSofa will bring you, in conjunction with the British Science Fiction Association all five of the short stories that have been shortlisted for the BSFA Award for Best Short Story 2007 in audio narrated format for FREE. Starting Monday 10th March (tomorrow) StarShipSofa will upload one of the narrated stories each day. First off, to give you a heads up will be Chaz Brenchley narrating his own story Terminal.

So that's today, all week, BSFA short story nominees, read out for your pleasure.

Here's an amazing video by Teller (of Penn & Teller), telling the story of how he is stuck in Vegas during a zombie apocalypse. Flash fiction in video form.

Via Sanders The Great

 

Yesterday's news so probably everyone has seen this now, but its worth mentioning. Firstly, Wired has an interview with Jeff VanderMeer, secondly you can download for free a PDF copy of VanderMeer’s upcoming book The Situation, courtesy of PS Publishing.

This will no doubt further ignite the "giving free books away" debate. Personally I think it's a great move by PS. They're a small press and the book is limited edition, so they have everything to gain. Plus, giving a sample to the large Wired audience has got to be good publicity.

PS have also just offered PDF editions of books for reviewers, which I'm planning to take advantage of. So watch this space for some PS Publishing reviews.

There's a great article in The Guardian today about the work that the BBC are doing in restoring colour copies of some of their old TV shows:

Many television programmes made by the BBC and ITV in the late 1960s and early 70s, although some of the first to be made in colour, only exist in black and white today. Among them are 13 episodes of Doctor Who starring Jon Pertwee, another 13 episodes of Steptoe and Son and the whole of Nigel Kneale's seminal 60s drama, The Year of the Sex Olympics.

The original master tapes of many shows were erased during archive purges. However, before wiping, many were copied on to black and white 16mm film for broadcast in countries where colour television was not yet available. Today, it is these black and white films that survive as the only visual records of some of these programmes.

"Archive purges"! What were they thinking?! Couldn't they have just extended the warehouse or something? The mind boggles.

Via Iain@Yatterings

The Jim Henson Company has announced that The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth will be available for purchase (download) on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com), starting from today. (Well actually, yesterday USA time).

Of course, this means the US iTunes store, not the UK one, and presumably not the German one. Never mind, you say, The Dark Crystal was interesting and I saw it years ago and Labyrinth is weird and has David Bowie, but never mind.

Wait. Disappointment coming.

Because more titles from the Jim Henson library will be available on iTunes including the entire Fraggle Rock and Farscape television series.

Ooooh!

Doozers and psychopathic half-Sebacean, half-Scarran Peacekeepers. Get them on iTunes UK now please.