Category Archives: scifi

A Somewhat SciFi-ish holiday

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I am now well back from my holidays, having celebrated Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

Apart from getting to see the people “back home” I and a needed restful day or two, I also got to see my oldest friend one I have known since 1969 – so this year will see our 40th anniversary of friendship. I spent some days there watching a fair amount of Scifi:

Jekyll :
A modern continuation, set in the present day, of the classic story by Robert Louis Stephenson. I liked it already, and the renewed viewing even improved on my impression. Link to a review from the earlier viewing.

Dr Who Season 4 :
A lovely season with rather good episodes, only “The Doctor’s Daughter” is a little weak, but not really bad. Reviews of single episodes will follow later.

Dr Who S1 The Beginning :
I recently got the box “The beginning” with the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell. We watched the first two stories of the series, “An unearthly Child” and the very first “Dalek” story. I am surprised how well written the stories are, nicely acted, the early Doctor Who has more of the “mystery sense” than the modern ones, even if the special effects are not up to modern standards. The story becomes more important than “big explosions” etc. More detailed reviews later.

Babylon 5 :
We remembered Majel Barrett Roddenberry by watching the episode “Point of No Return” where she plays Lady Morella, third wife of the late Emperor Turhan, and a seer. Wonderful performance from the “First Lady of Star Trek”.

Having seen that a few more of Season 3 episodes was what we wanted, so we ‘watches some selected ones finishing with “Z’Ha’Dum”. It is always good to rewatch Babylon 5, so a worthy way of finishing the visit (sort of a “2 person mini convention”)

Finally I found some time to be alone and read Kevin J. Anderson’s “Last Days of Krypton”. It is a good read, the disparate elements of the legend have been weaved well into a single story, linking The Phantom Zone, Jor-El’s science -experiments, the Jor-El and Lara story, General Zod and his companions, the folly of the Council, the fate of Kandor, and finally the fate of the planet Krypton itself. There is a nice surprise in what finally causes the destruction of Krypton.

Now for some more reading : I am a member of the Live Journal group hp_in_depth (Harry Potter), and we just started reading, two chapters per week, “The Goblet of Fire”, so I will be busy reading some evenings of the week.

The 11th Doctor will be announced tomorrow.

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Tomorrow, in a special “Doctor Who Confidential” at 5.35 p.m. BST it will be announced who will take over from David Tennant as The Doctor after the specials in 2009, according to the BBC.

The Internet is abuzz with excitement – at least among Doctor Who fans.

I will be visiting a friend without Internet at the time of the announcement, I hope my mobile internet will work there – I am not going to guess – I leave that to others.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry has passed beyond “The Rim”

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I have been off the net for a few days, so here is my entry on this : Majel Barrett was the widow of Gene Roddenberry of Star Trek fame, and passed away on December 18 at the age of 76. Her family was there with her. More details at the official homepage.

For me Star Trek was a breakthrough in Science Fiction on TV and gave rise to a new trend – stating social issues in SF on TV. Actually, it was, at the time, the only way of tackling issues as racism, discrimination etc in TV series, by disguising it as “alien versus human” encounters. Majel is best known by SF fans from a multitude of roles in the Star Trek universe, and a single beautiful role in Babylon 5.

While it is sad to see someone pass beyond the Rim we should also remember the things she gave to us , in Star Trek : “Number One” from the original pilot, Nurse Chapel from the original series, Lwaxana Troi in The Next Generation, and the computer voice in all the “new” series, and from Babylon 5 the Lady Morella, seer and a wife of the deceased Emperor of the Centauri Republic.

With Starstuff I will quote the wonderful line she was given by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski : “There is always choice. We say there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with the decision we have already made. If you understand that, there’s hope. If not ..” – Lady Morella, Babylon 5, »Point of no return«

Rest in peace Majel Barrett, and may you meet your Gene in a place where no shadows fall.

Babylon 5 : 10 years since the final episode aired.

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Exactly 10 years ago, November 25th 1998 the final episode of “Babylon 5”, “Sleeping in Light” was aired for the first time, completing the epic story.

Interesting is that just a few days ago the ISS had its 10th anniversary, too (the first module Zarya was launched). An imaginary space station was decommissioned and a the building of a real life space station was initiated.

B5 is a show I have watched several times by now, and one of the few shows (scifi or otherwise) that I recommend to lots of people. One of the things is that every single time I have seen it, there is something new – a new connection inside the story, a detail that has gone unnoticed before etc.

I have introduced it to a few people, watching it together with them and seen them come to love the show as I do. Not many shows can do that, and none other has done this for me.

Podcast : SciFi Talk

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“SciFi Talk”, as far as I understand it, is Tony Tellado’s continuation of a radio show. It comes in a slightly irregular scheme (if any), but often I see two or three episodes in the same week.

Interviews, round table discussions etc about all things SciFi, Fantasy, Horror etc is the stuff of “SciFi Talk”. He generally appears enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the people he talks to, to a degree that I occasionally find too much.

Also, I am not much int the Horror genre, so I will skip many of the interviews.

This podcast is still in my iTunes feed, but if there are 2 or 3 downloads I do not always feel the need to get them all.

I think it will stay on my list for a while yet, but it is one of the podcasts under consideration for cancelling.

Link :

SciFi Talk

Doctor Who (new) Season 4 box set, Disc one

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In the week end I have been rewatching the Children in Need special “Time Crash” and “Voyage of the Damned”.

“Time Crash” is a short special, in short the TARDIS runs Amok and the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) appears. Quite fun and the “You were *my* Doctor” is a nice tribute.

One of the highlights in “Voyage of the Damned” for me was seeing, for the first time, Bernard Cribbins’ character Wilf – the alien hunter and amateur astronomer in the middle of a deserted London. A nice bit of continuity, even if that is not known at the first viewing, later we learn that he is Donna’s Grandpa. I generally enjoyed the story, even if it was not the greatest of Doctor Who.

Podcast : Dragonpage Cover to Cover

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A weekly podcast all about the written word in SciFi, Fantasy etc.

Most of the weeks this show is hosted by Mike Mennenga and Mike Stackpole. Both have written books, Stackpole just “a few” more, including some New York Times bestsellers.

For now I have read just one of his books (Star Wars: “I, Jedi”) and two short stories. I like them, but more about that later.

General discussions about books and publishing can often, to me at least, be quite interesting. It looks like we are going to see a shift in publishing the written word similar to what we have seen in the music industry. Actually it has already started. Ebooks are becoming common, and ebook readers are seriously coming now. Amazon has the Kindle, Sony has a reader, and the iPod Touch has a set of ebook reader packages available, some are free, some not. On the other hand, paper books are not going to disappear overnight, there is something about having a *real paper* book in your hands.

I do have an iPod Touch, more about that at a later stage

Every week has an interview with an author, publisher etc.

Finally, the library segment, where they talk briefly about books that have been sent to the studio, and an occasional book review.

In the last episode I listened to there was an invitation to submit content about book publishing, more reviews etc, so I expect to listen to a more varied podcast in the future.

This is one podcast I expect to stay in my iTunes subscription, I particular like that Mike and Mike sound like they are really enjoying doing the show, apart from it being informative and entertaining.

Escape Pod : “The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham”

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One of the fiction podcasts I listen to is Steve Eley’s “Escape Pod”. Every week a new short story reading in the Science Fiction genre. previously they had a mixture of Scifi, Fantasy and Horror, but Horror is now done by the sister podcast “Pseudo Pod” and Fantasy by “Podcastle”. If you go back into the archives you will find all three genres represented.

With so many stories it is impossible to find a story I like every week, occasionally I drop the listening after beginning listening to an episode, but mostly I listen through the story.

Some highlights for me would be Mur Lafferty’s “I Look Forward to Remember You” and the Escape Pod 100th episode was a good reading of Isaac Asimov’s classic short story “Nightfall”, first published in 1941

Episode 182 brought H.G. Wells’ “The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham”, the first time the podcast has brought a story from the public domain.

Mr Elvesham, an old and frail philosopher, takes up contact with a young student and offers him to become his heir. The youn man is, of course, cautious but is slowly drawn to the belief that this could be something.

Let’s just say, the intention of the older man is not quite what it appears, there is no happy end, but simply a cautionary tale – “no one is exactly what he or she appears to be”.

In some ways a similar story could be told today (and has been), it is interesting to note that this story is more than 100 years old. For a story publishes in 1896 it feels surprisingly modern. It makes me want to read more og H.G. Wells’ stories.

On another note : The podcast has been coming out every week since May 2005, but due to family (and other) circumstances there will be a hiatus for the rest of the month of November. Steve has a rather long entry in his blog telling the story. The main point, I think is that he may have been pushing too hard to get this going, and needs a breather to regain the fun of doing the podcast. “Pesudo Pod” and “Podcastle” are not affected.

Link :

Escape Pod

H.G. Wells, Orson Welles : “War of the Worlds” radio play

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On 30th October 1938 a radio play caused mass panic in the U.S. I am, of course “talking” about the famous play “War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles based on H.G. Wells’ equally famous story.

Well, well, 70 years since that happened.

I have listened to the play a few times, and I find it fascinating story telling. OK – this is not a character piece, but the radio play is so well organised, as if a normal musical entertainment program is interrupted by news flashes, telling the story.

Some may ask, why the panic ? In order to understand that we must remember that at that time there was no mobile phones, no internet, no hundreds of tv (or radio channels) – even fixed telephones were not that common. What *was* available ? I should think one – maybe two radio programs. It was just not possible – like it is today – to go and check on the net, or CNN/BBC/whatever news channel you wanted. Information was just not there to find.

True, a radio play made in a similar way today simply could not have this effect. It is too easy to check news items for that.