SciFi

I Googled Professor River Song and was shocked to find an article from the Daily Star that states that she is.......

If you don't want to know then bye....
If you do want to know see comments.

Due out in September is a new TV series 'True Blood' based on the novels by Charlaine Harris. Produced by Alan (Six Feet Under) Ball, True Blood is a story about Sookie Stackhouse, living in a small town in Louisiana. Sookie is 25, lives with her grandmother, works as a waitress in a bar, and can read minds. Despite being blonde and buxom and beautiful she is also still a virgin because everyone in town thinks she's just plain crazy. She has also been waiting for two years to meet a vampire.

Sookie Stackhouse - Anna Paquin

Two years prior to the series opening the vampire population of the planet revealed themselves after the release of a synthetic blood product ("True Blood") which can sustain them without the need to feed off humans. One night a vampire walks in to her bar and as the evening unfolds Sookie winds up saving his life and establishing a friendship.

Bill Compton - Stephen Moyer

Soon, there are suspicious deaths in the community soon Sookie's new friend, and eventual lover, Vampire Bill is the prime suspect. But, is he really the killer? If not, who is?

Visit EVIL DEAD: The musical

Sad news that Alexander "Sandy" Courage, Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated arranger, orchestrator and composer, famous for the classic Star Trek TV show, has died. He was 88.

....thank God

The Aztec Mummmy V The Human Robot

A paranoid thriller about a family on the run from a natural crisis that presents a large-scale threat to humanity.
Staring Mark (Planet of the Apes)Wahlberg and Zooey (Tin Man) Deschanel. Due to be released 13th June.

Lexa Doig wife of Michael Shanks (both Stargate SG1) is to star in a similar story line in a up-coming TV movie for the SciFi Channel called Ba'al. The story revolves around a rogue Smithsonian Archaeologist (played by Jeremy London) who is dying of cancer. He seeks the ancient amulets of the storm god Ba’al, which could cure him or make him a god, so you know things are going to go wrong.

My favourite Sci-Fi film has been voted "Most Realistic Future Vision"

I don't think I'd disagree.

Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse follows an organization that employs mind-wiped DNA-altered humans known as Dolls.

The Dolls are then implanted with false memories and skills for various missions and tasks. A young 'Doll' (Eliza Dushku Buffy the Vampire Slayer) called Echo,causes a problem when she retains her memories and starts to question who she really is.

Sounds a bit like Joe90 meets the Champions.

Watching Apollo 13 on TV today I looked it up on IMDB and found out some interesting facts.

The movie directed by Ron (Happy Days) Howard also stared his brother Clint Howard as Sy Liebergot - EECOM White, his mother Jean Speegle Howard who played grandma Lovell, his father Rance Howard who played the reverend and his wife Cheryl who played an onlooker at the launch site. Talk about keep it in the family...

Also the real life Astronaut Jim Lovell and wife Marilyn appeared in the movie, Jim playing the Captain of USS Iwo Jima and Marilyn as an onlooker at Launch Site. Jim Lovell wore his old navy captain's uniform in the scene where he greets the astronauts aboard the Iwo Jima. When Ron Howard asked Lovell if he'd like to be in the film as the ship's admiral, Lovell agreed but pointed out, "I retired as a captain; a captain I will be."

To get the 'real' weightless shots the cast and crew flew between 500 and 600 parabolic arcs in NASA's KC-135 airplane (nicknamed the "Vomit Comet"). Each of the arcs got them 23 seconds of zero gravity. All of these flights were completed in 13 days.

Jericho returned to Hallmark TV this week continuing on from a brilliant 1st series. The character sets that we were introduced to in the first series continue to grow and the story line continues at the fast pace that we left it at. One complaint must be the production this time. For some reason the camera and lighting work leaves you feeling that the series is now being filmed in a studio almost like a soap opera.

For those not aware of the series it deals with life in the small Kansas town of Jericho after America is hit by a series of nuclear bombs which destroy most of the large cities and brings American life to its knees.

The first series reveals that the 'attacks' are homegrown and not terrorist lead as the populous are lead to believe.

If you haven't caught up with the series then try and rent the video of the first series you wont be disappointed.

"Fringe", a television drama centered around a female FBI agent who is forced to work with an institutionalized scientists in order to rationalize a brewing storm of unexplained phenomena.

Starts in the Autumn, can't wait......

The Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity…but who is watching the watchmen?

When an elderly Spock (Leonard Nimoy) learns of a time-traveling assassination plot by the crazed Romulan Nero (Eric Bana), the Vulcan also goes back in time to stop him. Meanwhile, back in his early Starfleet Academy days, the young Spock (Zachary Quinto) is forced to turn in one of his fellow students, the rule-breaking James T. Kirk (Chris Pine), when he finds him tampering with the school's highest test, the dreaded Kobayashi Maru simulation.

"Power of the Dark Crystal" (sequel to the 1982 fantasy film The Dark Crystal) is set many years after the events of the first movie, and Jen and Kira are now king and queen. When the Gelflings welcome a fiery and an unexpected visitor to their castle, they learn that the very existence of the U-mun people, who live in the searing heat in the center of the earth, is threatened by the death of their sun. There is apparently only one thing powerful enough to heal the dying sun - a shard of the Crystal.

The Gelflings refuse the U-mun request for a crystal shard, as breaking the crystal would disturb the peaceful surface world's balance. However the desperate visitor takes matters into her own hands and steals a shard, making a hasty escape through tunnels deep in the bowels of the castle. The surface world once again falls into darkness - as the UrSkek split into Mystics and Skeksis. So begins the adventure of Thurma, a girl "made of fire", who bands together with Kensho, an outcast Gelfling, in an adventure in the "inner-world" over the fate of the planet.

The film is set for release in 2009.

Supanova Pop Culture Expo – Brisbane, Australia – April 2008.

James Kyson Lee (Ando from Heroes) burst into song. We clapped and cheered him on.

Guest speakers were Lou Ferrigno (original Incredible Hulk), Jewel Staite (Firefly, soon to be in Stargate Atlantis regular), Michael Winslow (Police Academy) and Teryl Rothery (Stargate).

Something for everyone at this year’s Supanova, but that’s another story - or two.

Found architectural drawings for building your own TARDIS, ok it's only an 1930's Police Box, but we can dream.

Find the plans here for all you model makers (who work in big scale)

Glorious words from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' (Miranda's speech, Act 4, Scene 1), spoken by The Savage in Aldous Huxley's quintessential dystopian novel, Brave New World, my absolute favourite. Set in AD2540 London, it anticipates the development of reproductive technology, biological engineering and sleep-learning that combine to change society.

Hollywood has brought us Spiderman, X-Men, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Daredevil and Hulk. And in production, Captain America, Wonder Woman and Ant-Man.

Ant-Man? Getting a big desperate, aren't we?

While good escapist fun, isn't it high time they tackled something more cerebral like a big screen remake of Brave New World?

I remember being captivated by the 1980 TV version starring Kristoffer Tabori as John Savage, Keir Dullea as Thomas Grambell and Julie Cobb as Linda Lysenko. Loved the twisted perceptions of behavioural norms and quirky language:

'Bottle of mine, it's you I've always wanted! Bottle of mine, why was I ever decanted? Skies are blue inside of you, The weather's always fine; For There ain't no Bottle in all the world Like that dear little Bottle of mine.'

'Imagine the folly of allowing people to play elaborate games which do nothing whatever to increase consumption. It’s madness. Nowadays the Controllers won’t approve of any new game unless it can be shown that it requires at least as much apparatus as the most complicated of existing games.'

'Christianity without tears— that’s what soma is. A gramme is better than a damn.'

'That is the secret of happiness and virtue - liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny.'

'I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.'

Winced when I read in Wikipedia that they'd done a 'modernised' made-for-TV version in 1990. Loved the Queen soundtrack in the late Heath Ledger's 'A Knight's Tale', but if I hear The Savage burst into song with a jolly rendition of 'I Want to Break Free', I think I'll cry.

And the 2007 anime version? Mind-boggling.

Please, please, PLEASE, don't change it!! It's perfect the way it is. The language and concepts are as fresh and quirky today as when written 75 years ago. Genius is timeless.

Hollywood, are you listening?

Reference and credit for first edition image of book to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

Scribbled this into my notebook at my son's footy game today. In the breaks, of course. I was paying attention, honestly. Sadly, they got flogged.

Mother's Day. Apart from a lovely wall sconce from my favourite candle shop, I was granted two hours of quiet writing time. Ah, bliss ...

Damn, that didn't last long! School assembly tomorrow and boy can't find his hat. Probably in the Time Lord technology that resides under his bed, together with the sum total of everything else he's lost in his life-time. Like the TARDIS, it's bigger on the inside than the outside.

Credit for images to doctorwho.time-and-space.co.uk screencaps - The Christmas Invasion, Series 2

FYI, A*** is the appointment scheduling programme we love to hate.

Featured Employee of the Month Question:
If you could invite 6 people to dinner, who would you invite? (living or deceased)

The Tenth Doctor (of course), cute.

Sting for toe-tapping dinner music.

TARDIS gate-crashes Police concert, Festival Hall 1981, mid-Roxanne … Cute back then, both of us.

But wait, I was there! Old me encountering young me would cause a ripple in the time-space continuum, plunging all into a post-apocalyptic world of A*** data entry 24/7!!

Aagh, don’t step on that butterfly!

But back to the list ... Genghis Khan. Joan of Arc …

Oops, plagiarising Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – mmm, Keanu? Yeah, cute, hop on board.

Nostradamus …

Oh, cheer up, it’s not the end of the world!!!

Marilyn Monroe …

Geez, I can only have six? OK, TARDIS getting squeezy.

Genghis!! Give The Doctor back his sonic screwdriver!

NOOOOO!!! You’ve smashed the flux capacitor!!

And so we swirl chaotically through the vortex to our mystery destination, picking up Jamie Oliver on the way to do the catering.

No phones. No dishes. No A***.

Beats karaoke at Dooleys.

This popped into my head at my son’s footy game yesterday and I madly scribbled it into my notebook. In the breaks, of course. I was paying attention, honestly. Huh, the ball was going where?? Oh, good, good … proceed. Oh, is it over?

Bad, bad mummy.

Loving Russell T Davies’ revamped Doctor Who with a passion.

Brilliant writer. Fast-paced, quirky, funny with twists and complex story threads that knock your socks off. The Jack/Boe revelation at the end of Series 3 blew me away. God, how clever. Something to aspire to with my own stuff.

Not ashamed to admit I’m a New Whovian - the Doctor Who equivalent of a Trekkie without the pointy ears and dress-ups.

(No offense, my dear schoolmate Mary, President of the local Star Trek Club).

TARDIS image on desktop wallpaper. Current theme whooping on computer boot-up. TARDIS dematerialisation sound on shutdown. And bless, a TARDIS keyring. Helps me get in the zone when I’m on ‘Gallifrey’ www.warping2gallifrey.blog.co.uk - my magic creative-writing space.

My son goes, “Oh Mum, there’s more to life than Doctor Who!!”

Geez, am I really that bad?

Just rejoined VISION, the Brisbane-based Group for Writers of Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy. A closed group, I needed to meet guidelines and apply through a Moderator. Used my website as my CV.

Oh my God, found out tonight I’m in! Just read on their group email that someone had signed a 7-figure movie deal! This amateur is so out of her depth!! But they said they liked my portfolio!!

Quick, a paper bag! I’m hyperventilating ...

As Hamlet said, ‘To thineself be true’. With this VISION news, I’m bound to get even worse with my daydreaming.

Like it or lump it, this is me - ain’t changing for anyone.

Welcome to my world.

Life’s too short to be serious.

Any other aspiring sci-fi/fantasy writers out there?

Credit for warping TARDIS image to Desktop of Rassilon.
Credit for Tenth Doctor image - doctorwho.time-and-space.co.uk - Attack of the Graske

Just thought you might be interested in an article I wrote on multiple award-winning sci-fi author, Lois McMaster Bujold.

I had the honour of interviewing her when she visited our creative writing group a while ago.

Too long to post here, but you're welcome to check it out at

www.warping2gallifrey.blog.co.uk

Cheers - R

After being a comic book and a tv series Witchblade is finally to come to the big screen. Directed by Michael Rymer (Battlestar Galactica) Witchblade tells the story of Sara Pezzini, a tough-as-nails NYPD homicide detective who comes into possession of the Witchblade, a supernatural, sentient artifact with immense destructive and protective powers. The weapon has bonded with various women throughout history, the most recent being Danielle Baptiste. Others who have come into contact with the Witchblade include Cleopatra and Joan of Arc. Sara struggles to hone the awesome powers of the Witchblade and fend off those with a nefarious interest in it, especially entrepreneur Kenneth Irons.

Nadia Bjorlin (Days of our Lives) is being mooted as securing the lead role of Sara Pezzini.

Due out 15th of August 2008. The official Star Wars website announced that the film will lead the way for a television series which will debut in the autumn of '08. The TV series will air on Cartoon Network and TNT.

So we have a new Jenny on the block.
Tonights Dr Who sees his chip off the block setting off into the wide blue yonder for a series of adventures, so do we see the making of a new spin off series?

Interesting fact:

Georgia Moffett, who portrays the Doctor's daughter Jenny in this episode, is in real life the daughter of Peter Davison, who portrayed the Doctor in the early 1980s and Sandra Dickinson (who played Trillian in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).

If rumours are to believed Dan Dare is to be a movie.
Richard Branson's Virgin Media having already revamped the comic book are now working on a live action version of the British hero.

But the question would be who should get the part?

After saving the president's life, a pair of FBI agents are whisked away to a top-secret location that houses supernatural objects that the government has collected for centuries. Their new assignment: retrieve some of the missing objects and investigate reports of new ones.

From UPI

SCI FI Channel has ordered a two-hour U.S. pilot of "Warehouse 13," a dramedy described as a blend of "X-Files," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Moonlighting."

The pilot for the new one-hour show begin production in December for a tentative 2008 premiere.

"Warehouse 13" is based on a script by Rockne O'Bannon, Jane Espenson and D. Brent Mote and will be produced by Universal Media Studios.

"Like our successful series 'Eureka,' 'Warehouse 13' is a fun, intriguing concept that should continue to broaden our audience through present-day, relatable stories with an imaginative twist," Mark Stern, SCI FI's executive vice president of original programming, said in a statement. "Rockne has delivered a wonderful script and we can't wait to get this into production."

One of my favourite computer shoot-ups is to come to the big screen this year.

The story follows an ex-Special Forces operator, Jack Carver, who is stranded on a mysterious archipelago in Micronesia. He is searching for a female journalist he was escorting after she went missing when their boat was destroyed by mercenaries. The game includes thematic elements relating to the dangers of genetic engineering and the genocide of local islanders as can be seen by the deformed creatures created by a mad scientist named Krieger.

PRESS RELEASE

'KNIGHT RIDER' REVS UP TO RETURN TO NBC FOR SPECIAL TWO-HOUR MOVIE EVENT ON FEBRUARY 17 AS NEW KITT CAR IS REVEALED

"Knight Rider" Cast Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, Sydney Tamiia

Poitier and Bruce Davison Participate at the Unveiling Event Showcasing the Customized KITT Ford Mustang to Be Featured in Movie Dave Bartis ("Heist," "The O.C.") and Doug Liman ("Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "The Bourne Identity") to Serve as Executive Producers; David Hasselhoff, the Star of the Original "Knight Rider" Series, Appears as a Special Guest Star in His Original Role as Michael Knight

NBC Also Forms Partnership with Ford Motor Company That Provides for Unique Content Opportunity

BURBANK - December 12, 2007 - As "Knight Rider" -- NBC's iconic 1980s television classic that became a runaway success, comes roaring back to life on the network with an updated sequel that will air as a two-hour movie event on Sunday, February 17 (9-11 p.m. ET) -- NBC unveiled the new customized KITT Ford Mustang to be featured in the series in a press event held at NBC's Burbank Studios today.

The movie stars Justin Bruening ("Cold Case," "All My Children"), Deanna Russo ("NCIS," "The Young and the Restless"), Sydney Tamiia Poitier ("Veronica Mars," "Grindhouse") and Bruce Davison ("Breach," "Close to Home"). In addition, David Hasselhoff (NBC's "America's Got Talent") -- who starred in the popular lead role as Michael Knight for four seasons during the original series -- returns as the same character in a special guest-star appearance. Will Arnett (NBC's "30 Rock," "Blades of Glory") will provide the voice of KITT.

Dave Bartis ("Heist," "The O.C.") and Doug Liman ("Mr. and Mrs. Smith," "The Bourne Identity") serve as executive producers. NBC also has an arrangement with Ford Motor Company that provides for a unique content opportunity that makes the Ford Mustang one of the stars of the movie.

The three cars to be employed in the series include the KITT Hero -- a Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR that is playing the part of the everyday Hero car with 540 horsepower; the KITT Attack -- a super high-speed version of the Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR Hero car that transforms into Attack mode with the help of air-ride technology and specialized body parts -- and a KITT Remote, which is a driverless Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR version of the Hero vehicle.

As the original story resumes, the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) is absolutely the coolest car ever created: its supercomputer capable of hacking almost any system; its weapons systems efficient; and its body -- thanks to its creator's work and nanotechnology -- is capable of actually shifting shape and color. Plus, its artificial intelligence makes it the ideal crime-fighting partner: logical, precise and possessing infinite knowledge. It is the ultimate car -- and someone will be willing to do anything to obtain it.

Sarah Graiman is a 24-year old Ph.D candidate at Stanford University, following in her genius father Charles' (Davison) footsteps. But when men attempt to abduct her, Sarah receives a mysterious call from KITT warning her that he's a creation of Charles, who also invented the first KITT 25 years ago -- and that her father is in serious danger.

Sarah and KITT track down her best friend from childhood, Mike Tracer (Bruening), a 23-year-old ex-Army Ranger, whom Sarah hasn't seen since he left home at 18. Having served in Iraq, Mike is now jaded and lost and initially resistant. Eventually he agrees to help Sarah and the two set out to discover who's behind the attempt to procure KITT and find Charles. Along the way, Carrie Rivai (Poitier) plays the agile yet tough FBI agent who has a long-standing friendship with Charles and Sarah. Due to those ties, she is brought into the mix to help in the search.

David Andron is supervising producer and writer. Steve Shill ("Dexter," "The Tudors"), also a co-executive producer, directs the two-hour movie from Universal Media Studios and Dutch Oven Productions.

The Knight Industries 3000 will be an upgrade to The Knight Industries 2000 due to appear on the Knight Rider 2008 backdoor telepic-pilot by NBC. KITT will be voiced by Val Kilmer in the pilot. KITT is going to be a 2008 Ford Mustang GT500KR and will have similar features as compared to the original KITT including the ability to morph into a "battle mode", a new effect achieved primarily with CGI animation.

Will Arnett is out as the voice of KITT in NBC's upcoming Knight Rider revival, having been replaced with the Iceman himself, Val Kilmer. Arrested Development star Arnett was forced to pull out due to contractual conflicts; previously he'd done voice over work for GMC.

According to USA Today, Glen A. Larson is in talks with a major production company to write the script for the new Knight Rider movie. Larson intends that the film be a bit darker than the original series, utilizing "foxhole" humor.

KNIGHT RIDER movie discussion ensued, resulting in chatter about a possible role for Orlando Bloom in the movie. Hoff’s people called Bloom’s people a bit later, in an effort to get Bloom on-board. Bloom confirmed he was a fan, but passed on the role. These events predate The Weinstein Company’s involvement.

Photos of the new KITT:

Don't know how well the "special" went or when we'll see it across here, but personally I don't like the sound of it already. As much as I love Mustangs, I think this looks ugly!!!

KITT as a Mustang with Val Kilmers voice?

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But what do you think?

"Science fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts."
Brian W. Aldiss

"I was twelve when I read my first sf magazine…it was called Stirring Science Stories and ran, I think, four issues….I came across the magazine quite by accident; I was actually looking for Popular Science. I was most amazed. Stories about science? At once I recognized the magic which I had found, in earlier times, in the Oz books - this magic now coupled not with magic wands but with science…In any case my view became magic equals science…and science (of the future) equals magic."
Philip K. Dick

"The function of science fiction is not always to predict the future but sometimes to prevent it."
Frank Herbert

"Isn't it interesting that the same people who laugh at science fiction listen to weather forecasts and economists?"
Kelvin Throop III

Due out 6 May 2008

'Set in a universe where the suns never set on a stiff upper lip, this warm-hearted and funny interstellar romp gives the sacred cows of sci-fi a good kicking before racing home in time for tea.'