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BBC Goodies

The new BBC iPlayer was rolled out yesterday, and it looks good. Unfortunately most of the video is not available outside the UK at the moment, but there is a subscription service in the works for the rest of us. But the radio segment works very well indeed wherever you are, with all the great programing one has come to expect from them, including my favorite, BBC Radio 7.

On the 2010 TV Choice Awards last night, Doctor Who was voted Best Family Drama, and Ashes to Ashes got Best Drama Series; congrats to both shows!

Also from BBC Worldwide comes two new games; Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth for the DS, and Doctor Who: Return to Earth for the Wii. The must-have for the DS games is the Sonic Screwdriver Stylus, while the mandatory item for the Wii is the Sonic Screwdriver Controller (Wii Remote). Unfortunately, so far the games are licensed for the UK, Australia, and parts of Europe, but not for the US. The stylus and Wiimote are not subject to the same kinds of licensing restrictions as the games, so those will hopefully be available to all of us.

Something to Do: Movies

This time around is the franchise that wouldn’t die with another entry: Resident Evil: Afterlife. The fourth entry in this series finds Alice and here friend battling for their lives yet again, and this time it is in 3D. Also out this weekend, Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?) is a star studded documentary about one of the most original songwriters of all time. Everybody knows his songs, but the music he was occasionally on the charts for singing was often written by other people; while his songs were sung by the most famous and well respected vocalists of the last five decades. If you don’t know quite who he is, this film is your chance to learn and be amazed.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Lots of good TV out this week, as we get ready to roll into the fall viewing season. Season 3 of Chuck is their strongest season yet, with more guest stars than ever before; No more Mr. Nice Spy! Season 4 hits the tube on Monday, September 20th. Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season finally is out as well this week, with the season 10 premier for that one on Friday, the 24th of September. Also from CWTV, and also with the new season kicking off on Friday the 24th is Supernatural: The Complete Fifth Season.

The miniseries that may turn into a full TV series, The Phantom is another rendition of this classic comic strip into a live action format. Like many of Sci-Fi’s miniseries (and almost none of their made for TV movies) this one is surprisingly better than you are expecting.

From UK TV a couple of classic Whos: Dr. Who: The King’s Demons with Peter Davison as the Doctor, Anthony Ainley as the Master, and Janet Fielding as Tegan. The other Davison story is Doctor Who: Planet of Fire. From an earlier incarnation, Doctor Who: The Creature from the Pit with Tom Baker and Lalla Ward.

On the animation front, and also from the UK, it’s Shaun the Sheep: Party Animals. This series is from the same team that does Wallace and Gromit, and these little gems use virtually no dialog, telling the story visually. The only real new anime title is My Bride Is a Mermaid: Season 1 Part 2, bringing us the balance of the opening season episodes. Both sets of in-laws are dysfunctional to an extreme degree, besides the fact the non-human family are also Yakuza.

Enthiran: The Robot

It looks like the movie to hold the record so far for the most expensive Bollywood film is Enthiran: The Robot, due out at the end of September. It is even more interesting that this is a total Science Fiction story line, since India does so little Sci-Fi; their strong suit is definitely closer to the Fantasy field. The soundtrack CD for this movie has also done something unusual: two days after release, the album hit 1st place on the Top 10 World Albums chart on iTunes in the US, UK, and Australia, which no other Bollywood album has done. This one may just pull in enough money to make Bollywood reevaluate its stance on science fiction! And even if it doesn’t, I will be in the theater opening weekend.

Something to Do: Movies

Remember the movie Grindhouse in 2007? There was a trailer for a fake movie in that movie, but it isn’t anymore: Robert Rodriguez expanded that trailer into an entire movie, called Machete. It hits the theaters this Friday, and stars Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro, Steven Seagal, Jeff Fahey, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Cheech Marin, and Don Johnson. Quite a cast for a made-up movie.