Tor has a nice list of genre related giveaways you can enter, some ending tonight. Copies of the DVDs for Blood Ties and Coraline, audio books, regular books, and even a ride into space are all linked from that excellent article by Megan Messinger. Meanwhile, in honor of the new Torchwood special, BBC America has posted a virtual Hub tour of the Cardiff facilities that’s a lot of fun.
SFX has a nice interview with the producer of Torchwood about the new special Children of Earth. Originally the BBC America presentation was announced as happening 5 hours or so after it aired in the UK, but that has changed. It starts tomorrow night, July 6th, in the British Isles, and three Torchwood Radio Plays aired last week on BBC Radio 4 (you still have a few days to listen to them in streaming format, but they are only downloadable in the UK). The Torchwood special is being held until the launch of BBC America HD on July 20th. Also airing in Hi Def that week is the new Doctor Who special Planet of the Dead, the series finale of Primeval, and the series premiere of Being Human.
If you haven’t seen the web sites the viral marketing department has put up for the new movie District 9, the bad guys are located at Multi-National United, while the resistance lives at MNU Spreads Lies. The movie has a scheduled release date of August 14th in the US, and is based on the short film Alive in Joburg.
The Chicago Tribune did an excellent interview with David Tennant about his winding up his tenure as the Doctor. Many insights, no spoilers, and a permissible number of hints and teases, including his response to the 11 Doctors Special rumor. BBC America just sent everyone who signed up for their notifications a reminder that they will be rolling out HD on July 20th, with a full week of quality programming. I love the way they have realized who their core audience is! They feature 8 shows to go HD on the page, and the first 4 are SF/F; Being Human, Doctor Who, Primeval, and Torchwood! It should be a killer week!
Speaking of killers, what if the Vampires were at risk of extinction because their food supply (that’s you and me for the Humans in the audience) had been hunted out? That is the premise for Daybreakers, and it may just have the first recognition that even Vamps have a geek side to their culture; the undead scientists who try to figure out a way to save the species, theirs and ours both. The Kate Bush soundtrack cover by Placaebo is just a bonus; enjoy the trailer…
From the Gallifreyan Embassy comes word of a rumor posted by a tabloid that claims that all 11 Doctors will appear together in this years Children in Need special. Minor details like the first three Doctors (Hartnell, Troughton, and Pertwee) no longer being among the living make the production problematic but not insurmountable. After all, the Doctor has a long history of supporting this charity project, and sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind…
And then there is: Comic Relief – Red Nose Day, also in its main link mode.
This one is impressive. Just as an example, a short list of the guests of the London Film and Comic Con includes Scott Bakula, Eve Myles, Tom Baker, Jewel Staite, Michael Ironside, Michael Shanks, Hattie Hayridge, Nick Courtney, and so many more I don’t know how to tell you about them and make it fit on this page. And that’s just the top of the list for the actors; do not miss this one if you have any choice at all!
Red Dwarf ran its new special 3-episode series, Back to Earth, and it became available on DVD at the start of this week… in the UK. It was supposed to be a world-wide release according to a posting before the original air date (since modified), but Amazon doesn’t know that quite yet. But that’s OK, because there is more good news! At the Better Than Life Con last weekend in Bedford, Cat, Kochanski, and Kryten all confirmed that the ratings for Dave TV (renamed Lister TV for the event) blew the doors off of the BBC ratings for the same time slot. As a result, an entirely new 6 episode season of Red Dwarf is in negotiations. Anything that gets us new Red Dwarf is a good thing!