BBC Radio 4 is replaying the three Torchwood episodes that preceded Children of Earth this week in their Afternoon Play segment. That means that on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 14:15 GMT (that’s 2:15PM London time) you can listen to them in real time, and probably play them back for the 6 days after that. Note that this is on BBC Radio 4 proper, rather than BBC Radio 4 Extra (formerly BBC Radio 7). Over on that channel we have Arthur C Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama on Sunday, and another brand new Doctor Who story, The Whispering Forest, with Tegan, Nyssa, and Turlough joining Davison’s Doctor. That one started yesterday, but you have 5 more days to listen to the first episode, with the story continuing Monday.
My favorite BBC Radio station was always BBC7’s 7th Dimension, their science fiction and fantasy showcase which sadly got shut down a while ago, at least as a separate entity. It didn’t just go away, though; they folded it into BBC Radio 4Extra, where it joined up with some other quality radio plays and book readings. Last weekend, they aired Terry Pratchett’s Only You Can Save Mankind, and they are running J.G. Ballard’s The Drowned World this week, James Follett’s The Destruction Factor, and the outer space comedy The Laxian Key. While the Pratchett episodes have mostly evaporated (just one left at the moment), you can still listen again to the others. But the exciting bit is what is coming, starting with a brand new Doctor Who radio play, Cobwebs, which begins Monday at 6PM (GMT/UT, adjust for your local time zone) and runs each day for 4 episodes through Thursday. This one stars Peter Davison as The Doctor, Janet Fielding as Tegan, Mark Strickson as Turlough, and Sarah Sutton as Nyssa; I can’t wait. While I am still heartbroken that the Tom Baker/Elisabeth Sladen new radio plays will now never be made since we lost Lis (Tom will still be doing new ones), it is good to know there continue to be new Who stories being created by our old friends.
Nor is this phenomenon unique to Doctor Who. According to this SFX story, they are wrapping up production on Torchwood this week, and are about to go into the studio to record three new Torchwood radio plays. The first one they did, Lost Souls, was aired on the day CERN fired up its super collider in September of 2008, referred to as Big Bang Day by a lot of people who wondered if they would blow up the planet (and don’t you feel silly now?). Then in 2009 they did three more, called Asylum, Golden Age, and The Dead Line. These stories took place between seasons two and three, airing consecutively on July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of 2009, followed immediately by season three, Children of Earth, which ran for 5 consecutive nights, July 6th through the 10th. These are all excellently done radio dramas, and if you haven’t heard them yet you can buy the disks from Amazon or download them from iTunes, and they are worth every penny. The three new episodes will be broadcast on BBC4 sometime this summer, which you can listen to online.
This is a fun little destination; the Library of Congress yesterday fired up its National Jukebox, primarily filled with audio recorded between 1901 and 1925. The event yesterday had Harry Connick Jr. putting in an appearance to sing a song from the Jukeox, and it blew him away. They have a huge collection of Jazz, Blues, Ragtime, Bluegrass, and many others, mostly recorded by their own teams of engineers who went all over the country to get it; a lot of this music exists no where else and hasn’t been heard for 50 or a hundred years. But up until now you had to actually go in person to the LOC to hear any of it. Thanks to this project by Sony and the LOC, anybody in the world now has access to it, or at least the parts they have gotten into the jukebox so far.
A few groups have posted their award nominees this week. Obviously the one everyone is paying attention to is the Hugo Awards, and you can find the complete list of the nominees at the Renovation SF site. As always, the choices are between some amazing works, but my favorite bits are the ones I don’t recognize, since that means brand new wonders to read, watch, and discover. I have a few favorites I am cheering for (like Cryoburn, Chicks Dig Time Lords, and Girl Genius), but in most categories which work I prefer changes depending on my mood; they are just that close!
The Parsec Awards Nominees for 2011 are broken into a number of categories, but they all have one thing in common; they are audio based speculative fiction that was released in the course of the year as a free, feed driven Podcast. Categories this time around include Best Speculative Fiction Story in Short Form, Novella Form, and Long Form formats, Best Speculative Fiction Audio Drama in Short Form and Long Form subcategories, and several categories that are news about speculative fiction Podcasting. While a number of my favorites are missing from the nominations lists, everything that is there includes links to the Podcasts so you can listen to them yourself, always a good thing.
From Japan comes word that the 2011 Seiun Award nominees have been announced. For those not already aware, the Seiun Awards are Japan’s equivalent of the Hugo’s, and most of each year’s media nominees (TV, Movies, and Manga) become available in the US within a year or so, although novels and short stories often take longer because of the more complex translation job involved. The English Nominees list has been posted by the good folks at Anime News Network. The ones I am looking forward to seeing are the 2010 version of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time live action (this is the third time this story has been turned into a live action movie, and that is not counting the Anime movie or either the live action or animated TV shows), and The Tatami Galaxy animated TV series.
It is time for the SFX 2011 Blog Awards, where the world class Sci-Fi magazine staff have narrowed each category down to four or so nominations. They have six categories, but they have still left us some impossible decisions. Under Best Podcast, as an example, they have both Escape Pod and Doctor Who Podshock, both of which are insanely good, so how do you decide? The Fan Community choice is even harder; Gateworld or Whedonesque gets compounded with Gallifrey Base or The Trek BBS, and I want to vote for all of them! But you only get one vote per category, and trust me when I say the others are just as difficult to choose between.
Science Fiction music is always fun, and one of the best sources is opening and closing theme songs of various Sci-Fi shows. Personally, I love all the soundtrack, incidental, and interstitial music as well, but most folks only remember the theme songs, so that is the primary target to go for on any given show. One of the groups that perform such themes to the point they are recognized internationally is AKB48, or The Akihabara 48. Last month NHKWorld Premium played a documentary, called the AKB 48 Documentary (what a surprise, huh?) all about them and their music on Sunday the 9th, and it was quite tasty. Even if you don’t speak the language you will enjoy the music, I promise.
Running a Windows 7 OS and looking for some Anime themes? They have a few good free ones over at VikiTech, like this Full Metal Alchemist theme. Just as in earlier windows versions, a theme is more than a wallpaper instance for your desktop. Each of these themes include a number of switchable wallpapers, custom icons, and sounds from the show. They also made the Anime Angels theme, and others for Naruto Shippuden, Nartuo, Bleach, and a number of others. In their Theme Gallery they ave other categories as well, including Games, Movies, and Space. Not all of them are for straight download; some of them you can only access if you either subscribe to their newsletter or friend them on Facebook.