One of my favorite film fests is coming around again: Sci-Fi London takes place from April 28th until May 3rd. Being held in the UK, there will of course be the obligatory Doctor Who screening, in this case the 1966 feature film staring Peter Cushing as the Doctor, as well as a Lab event called The Birth of the Modern Doctor Who. One of the most notable films at the event is Radio Free Albemuth, yet another Philip K. Dick tale turned into a disturbing movie (don’t you hate it when a film forces you to think?) about current events. Another film about a future that is already here is the intriguing 8th Wonderland, about a virtual country populated in the real world through social networking. Then there is TiMER, a nice Sci-Fi romantic comedy, and Dones (think The Office with drones from other planets), both of which have a solid link to the Buffyverse and a good grasp of humor. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg; there are a lot of movies worth seeing at this event.
Some interesting things from the realm of Doctor Who are available this week, with others coming soon. In the Classic Who category there are two audio treats that you still have a few days to get in on, as part of the ongoing 7th Dimension audio series on BBC7. Both of these are fun, starting with Tom Baker reading from the first 4th Doctor adventure, Doctor Who and the Giant Robot. And yes, they even include the bit where Baker chose his costume for his version of The Doctor in this Big Finish production. You should hit it now, as of the point I am writing this you only have 5 days before the first episode is no longer available. You only have 4 days left to catch episode two of Barry Letts Who & Me, in which The Doctor Who TV producer from 1969 to 1974 recounts his career. There are some wonderful behind the scenes bits about Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee in this one. So while I am really looking forward to the new series, it is good to know Classic Who still has some new things to offer.
One of the talents it takes to produce animation is Voice Actors; I know a number of them (and used to be one), and they have a unique skill set. Crunchyroll has a nice presentation on the topic called Adventures in Voice Acting, staring a huge assortment of the best in the business. Now that I have watched the first section, I have to flip a mental coin and decide if I want to buy and download the other segments, or just get the DVD for the permanent collection.
For some eye candy gone wrong, stop by SFX’s It’s Gone a bit 2001, a humorous review of ten movies that tried to imitate the psychedelic ending of that classic film and failed miserably.
In 1990, Douglas Adams got together with Tom Baker, and they made a program for the BBC called Hyperland, a documentary about the Web. The Internet had been around for decades at that point, and even became common among early adapters around 1984 through dedicated client services like AOL and Compuserve. But the modern version of the Web was being invented as this program was being made, and only came into being two years later, around 1992. So here is a bit of history; you can find more here. By the way, did you see the Doctor and Romana hawking computers in the early ’80s? How about Captain Kirk?
The word from Red Dwarf is that Hattie Hayridge, the female Holly of Red Dwarf, has been interviewed by Robert Llewellyn for his Carpool program on Llewtube. In other UK SF news, Tom Baker will be doing one or more additional turns as The Doctor, recording for Big Finish Productions. That is according to Comic Mix News, who pulled the tidbit from Tom Baker’s own web site. Besides pointing you to the forum entry, I should also mention that his Home page is very nicely done, but now I am going to have to re-watch Blackadder to see if I can spot him.
The word is out that Robot Chicken will be giving the full treatment to Avatar and Twilight, as it did for Star Wars. They have done the first handful of episodes for season 5 and are continuing with production. Seth Green estimates 10 months until we get to see it on TV, but in the meantime season 4 is on the store shelves.
And then there is Fallout, a BBC funded project based on the Dark Horse Comics series Apocalypse Nerd. You can never have too much British End of the World comedy, after all. Right now it is only a pilot but with luck the BBC will pick it up for a full series. Thanks to SF Signal for the heads up on this one.
Fallout: Teaser Trailer from tupaq felber on Vimeo.