The man responsible for reviving Doctor Who and bringing its companion series Torchwood to the airwaves may soon leave the sci-fi genre behind. He tells BBC News that he’s “saved the world and blown up the world too many times” now and that he feels like he’s coming to the end of his stay in the realm of sci-fi. Given Torchwood’s recent acquisition of US funding and broadcasting through Starz, it would certainly be a good time to leave, knowing that the show has a bright future ahead of it. But sci-fi TV would certainly be a little less, err, Davies-y without him. Read more…
Ever wonder how twelve habitable planets could exist in the same solar system? So did Jane Espenson, showrunner for Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel series. So she and science advisor Kevin Grazier went to work on a star map where it would all fit. In the end, they settled on a double-double-binary star system, giving each planet a home with a few other local planets to keep them company while still falling under the “solar system” category. Also on the map (above, click to embiggen): lore tidbits for each planet, some information on the spacefaring history of the Kobol colonists, even what colonies support universal health care. No, really. Check it out. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 28, 2011 in Television
NBC’s Thursday night comedy Community isn’t just one of the best shows on TV, it’s also one of my favorite shows of all time. So when I hear that the show is ready to tackle one of the most pressing issues of our time — Dungeons & Dragons, of course — I have to tell everyone on the internet. According to the press release, Jeff and crew encounter a fat loner on campus, and Abed suggests that they invite him to a friendly game of D&D to help raise his spirits. Of course, their plan is thwarted by Pierce, who takes over as DM when he discovers he wasn’t invited. The episode, appropriately titled “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,” will air next Thursday, February 3rd. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 23, 2011 in Television
Good news for fans of the classic sci-fi comedy series Red Dwarf — it’s coming back! Craig Charles, its original star, confirmed that the show will return to UK channel Dave (yes, that’s the channel’s name) this fall with six new episodes. Apparently the ratings success of the TV special Back to Earth helped along the process, though fans weren’t quite as impressed with the special as they were with the classic series. Charles made note of this, saying that they hope to recapture the feel of the series in its prime. Cat and Kryten are appearing in the series along with the obviously-returning Lister, but Charles notes that other casting decisions haven’t yet been made. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 21, 2011 in Dr. Who
And so is the Doctor inside! Mateo’s graphic designer dad made him this miniature TARDIS out of corrugated cardboard. I’m not sure if he can travel through time and space with it, but it probably makes a great hide-and-go-seek spot. At the very least he’s probably going to have some jealous friends — once they’re old enough to appreciate campy British sci-fi adventures, anyway. And I thought my Power Wheels fire truck was cool. Read more…
Nintendo, like Apple, knows exactly how to market their products to their core audience , no matter how much a gimick the product may be. Case and point, check out these commercials that are currently airing overseas. The system will be out in a little over a month, but rather than show how the product actually looks — I imagine it doesn’t look too impressive on a 2D screen — they’ve decided to simply hire the most popular boy band in the nation and have them react on film to what they’re seeing. So, how will that sell the system? Simple. If it’s good enough for them, it has to be good enough for you. Of course, it could very well be, but we won’t know until the system ships to North America later this year.
On Tuesday night the new season of the PBS show Pioneers of Television will showcase science fiction! The episode which airs on Tuesday will feature interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols. The show will cover the shows that were made by Gene Roddenberry, Rod Serling, Irwin Allen. Read more…
As an old time anime fanboy I’ve been pleasantly surprised how NextTV from Taiwan has really knocked it out of the ballpark with their series of computer animated shorts on topical events: But when I took a look at their Weather Girls video segment I was blown away! This ongoing daily series of videos features seven bunny cosplay attired ladies presenting the temperatures in major American cities: Read more…
A few months ago, director Kevin Tancharoen released a short film that was intended as a pitch to Warner Bros. for a grittier, more realistic Mortal Kombat film. It was definitely a hit with the fans, but it didn’t succeed in getting picked up as a full-length feature. Bloody Disgusting reports that Tancharoen and the short’s star, Michael Jai White, got a deal almost as good, though: a ten-episode Mortal Kombat web series! Several of the usual suspects are slated to make an appearance in the series as well, including Shang Tsung, Liu Kang, Sub Zero, Durak, Kabal, Kitana, Mileena and Scorpion. There’s no release date for the series yet, but production will begin in Vancouver in February. Read more…
These have to be the most confusing Japanese ads I’ve ever seen. In fact, had I not researched it further, I doubt I would have realized they’re for a pachinko machine — Sanyo’s Star Wars Fever. The machine hit the market a few years back and while I’m not sure you’d still find them littered through out Japanese pachinko parlors, you’ll probably find one if you look hard enough. I’d rather just sit back and enjoy these terrifying, yet hilarious commercials. I just love the Empire’s fleet of Darth Vader themed 747s — or are those suppose to be B-52s. It’s hard to tell. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 9, 2011 in Television
A Game of Thrones, the first book in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels, is getting its crack at breaking into another media type: television, courtesy of HBO. Sean Bean is even in it, proving that there’s no fantasy series that he can’t improve. And if you want to catch it, you’d better tune your DVR for Sunday, April 17th, because that’s when the series will premiere, according to Entertainment Weekly. Martin himself seems pretty excited about the series, though he notes that fans shouldn’t have unrealistic expectations of the series’ quality: “We don’t have Peter Jackson’s budget!,” he says. Even with that in mind, though, the show looks like it’ll be pretty fancy for a TV fantasy show. Maybe the fanciest ever.Read more…
Get ready to toss those 3D glasses sooner than you expected. That’s right, Toshiba has announced plans to debut their glasses-free 3D televisions worldwide come April. They’ve already been selling the technology to Japanese vendors since December, however those sets were limited to the 12 to 20 inch range. Instead, the TVs hitting North America in April will reportedly be 40 inches on up — so expect a hefty price tag.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 26, 2010 in Television
Is there anything more Christmasy than gingerbread spaceships? Probably. But for geeks? No way! This confectionary replica of Firefly’s signature starship, Serenity, is sure to put a smile on the face of any self-respecting sci-fi geek, and you have Kristoffer Gressil to thank for it. Check out more of his photos of the festive freighter on Kristoffer’s Facebook. Read more…
Venture Bros. is probably one of the best shows on television, animated or not, and I felt a little sad when its fourth-season finale aired. It felt like a series finale! And showrunners Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer have stated several times that creating seasons of the hit show is incredibly taxing, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume as much. But there’s good news! Publick announced on Christmas Eve via LiveJournal that the show would indeed be coming back, with more details forthcoming. Go Team Venture! Read more…
Posted by Tim Sheehy on Dec 22, 2010 in Japanese TV
I adore Hikaru Utada. She’s perhaps the most recognizable Japanese pop icon in recent years. In fact, I’m pretty sure she still holds a record or two for selling over 8 million copies of her debut album in Japan alone. That’s a lot by our industry’s standards, and even moreso by their own. That aside, she’s got a lovely voice and a natrual beauty to compliment it, which is why I fall head over heels in love every time she does a commercial. This latest ad has her singing “Can’t Wait ‘Til Christmas,” which was included on the recently released Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 2 while leaning on a giant bottle of Pepsi Nex Zero — a drink I personally find delicious. It’s a shame you have to fly to the Japan to try it, though. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 17, 2010 in Television
For a while, it seemed like the cult favorite Stargate series refused to die; between SG-1’s long run, Atlantis, and the more recent Stargate Universe, it just kept chugging along. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to take a portal to another world if you want to see more Stargate Universe after the final set of this season’s episodes — SyFy has officially cancelled the series. This leaves the fate of the entire Stargate franchise in question. Read more…
It seems like every geeky show or movie has some kind of ID card on it, whether the nametags that Chuck and the Nerd Herd wear on, uh, Chuck, to the CSI lab tech badges, to Jack Bauer’s Counter-Terrorism Unit ID cards (above). Of course, since those places and people don’t exist, we can’t just apply for jobs at those locations and grab a badge for ourselves. Thankfully, Identity Props exists, and they sell replicas of famous (or even obscure) ID cards from various media. Just what you need for your Commissioner Gordon cosplay. Don’t pretend like you haven’t been thinking about it. Read more…
If you’re like many people, you’ve probably enjoyed The Walking Dead’s first season on AMC, likely due in no small part to its strong writing. If that’s the case, you might be just as confused with the news that showrunner Frank Darabont has fired his entire writing staff as we were. Word is that Darabont wants to replace them all with freelancers, which isn’t uncommon in television, but it is a bit strange for a show as high-profile as The Walking Dead, and one based on an established IP, too. Read more…
When a character is ingrained in our heads well enough, we can recognize their color and shape even after they’ve been simplified many times over. 4×4 Pixels is out to prove this, with a growing gallery of 16-pixel renditions of pop culture heroes, like Legend of Zelda’s Link, shown above. I personally loved their interpretation of Jaws (yes, the shark) and Chewbacca — both instantly recognizable despite being little more than blocks of color. It really is amazing the gaps that our brain can fill. Read more…
Given the amount of time that passed between the previous installments of the Famliy Guy/Star Wars trilogy, I expected to be waiting until next season for the third and final episode. Family Guy: It’s a Trap, a reference to Admiral Ackbar’s most memorable quote. I’m impressed with the short turn-around, but I hope the episode doesn’t suffer as a result. I really enjoyed the previous two, Blue Harvest moreso, but I get the impression that someone was either holding an Imperial blaster rifle to the writing staff’s heads — either that or using thermal detonators. No word on when the episode will see a DVD or Blu-Ray release, but you can download the episode from iTunes on December 21st.
There are those of us out there, myself included, who haven’t watched a single episode of Doctor Who. I know, blasphemy, right? It’s not that we don’t want to watch it — okay, some of us just don’t want to — but the series has been running for over a quarter of a century. I honestly wouldn’t even know where to begin, and please don’t tell me we would have to watch them all because I’m sure most of you would agree that’s simply unrealistic. Maybe this little gem might be able to help us figure it all out. Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary, avisual reference guide to everything a Whovian would want to know. I’m sure it’s not the most comprehensive guide, it seems pretty straight forward and might serve as a decent introduction to the series itself. ThinkGeek currently has it in stock for $25, though ordering it through Amazon can save you nearly $8 on top of that.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Nov 21, 2010 in Television
Fox’s dimension-hopping sci-fi drama, Fringe, took its time to get good, but by golly did it get good. Unfortunately, its ratings haven’t been up to par — it’s in a difficult timeslot, competing with shows like CSI Thursdays at 9 PM. Well, the good news is that it won’t have much competition anymore. The bad news is that it’s because it’s being moved to Friday at 9 PM instead. This timeslot is colloquially referred to as the “Friday Night Death Slot,” where dozens of other shows — usually genre shows, at that — have gone to die. So is there any good news? Actually, yes — Fringe’s grand-daddy The X-Files lived a good long life Fridays at 9, so if you care about it, make sure you watch it at its new time, or it’s bye-bye Fringe Division. Read more…
When he’s not busy lording over the Imperial fleet, or choking incompetent admirals who fail him for the last time, Darth Vader apparently spends his time hanging out in the Land of the Rising Sun. What’s he do exactly? Market cell-phones, what else. It would seem that he’s at the center of NTT Docomo’s latest ad campaign for Samsung’s Galaxy S smartphone. In case you’re wondering, it’s comparable to the Samsung Fascinate and Captivate in the US, featuring the Android operating system. Even though it’s obvious that he’s just hanging out, I’m still wondering what Darth Vader is up to — maybe someone told him that these were the droids he was looking for. Read more…
While many of you have probably given up hope that Serenity will ever return the big screen, there are still a handful of you faithful who’ve continued to hold your breath. Though that may never happen, people will continue to produce plenty of Serenity merchandise for you to sink your teeth into. We’ve seen everything from replica knit caps, to comic books, and now there’s even a figure — a maquette to be exact. Featuring a pose from River’s unforgettable fight sequence, this limited edition maquette is made of a durable polystone resin and serves to remind us why Summer Glau ended up being the next Terminator. If you have $70 laying around, head over to ThinkGeek and pick one up. They’ve only made 1,500, so get them while they last. Read more…
As an old time anime fanboy I’ve been pleasantly surprised how NextTV from Taiwan has really knocked it out of the ballpark with their series of computer animated shorts on topical events: But when I took a look at their 
