Sci-Fi Storm

Happy Holidays everyone! I planned an article about “our favorite things” this year, but by the time I got to it it was too late to buy anything for the holidays 🙁 But in case you are looking for some belated gifts, here are some of our favorites, and also a few that will be out in the New Year!

[Disclaimer: we are an Amazon Associate site – it’s one of the few income sources we have to keep this site going…so if you could be so kind to follow some of these links and make purchases – ANY purchases, that would help TREMENDOUSLY…hosting costs, etc. have gone up while revenues are, well, nearly non-existent these days…]

First up is the upcoming release for [sfs=1672]Killjoys season 3[/sfs] on January 22nd – one of our favorite shows of the recent crop on Syfy (along with [sfs=1656]The Magicians[/sfs] and [sfs=1670]The Expanse[/sfs] , both of which had their 3rd seasons released this past summer)!

And for both old and young Doctor Who fans, there are both classic and new releases! For 5th Doctor fans like me, Peter Davison’s first series was [sfs=1682]released on Blu-ray this month[/sfs], and will be followed by Tom Baker’s [sfs=1683]final season on March 29th[/sfs] – say goodbye to Romana and K9, while companions Adric, Nyssa and Tegan join for the regeneration and lead in to an all new set of adventures…confession…while Jon Pertwee was the first Doctor I saw, and Tom Baker was the one I saw the most, watching the show was sporadic for me because of random scheduling and it wasn’t until the regeneration to Davison that I was able to watch regularly and was forever hooked – so Davison became MY Doctor…

Current Eleventh Doctor Jodie Whittaker sees her first series released on [sfs=1676]January 29th[/sfs], followed by the upcoming New Year’s Day special released on [sfs=1676]February 19th[/sfs].

As for some of our favorite things this year, if you are still looking for ideas for that SF fan, gamer, etc…

On the video game front, especially for Marvel fans, the Playstation 4 Spider-Man game is currently our favorite in-house – we love the open-world games like Skyrim and the Fallout series, and this gives us a new world to explore with great graphics and gameplay. And if you like the game check out the Art of the Game book!

Speaking of Fallout, Fallout 76 is out for PS4, XBox One and PC, and finally adds a multi-player element to the game. We’re still evaluating this one, as we really loved the single-player experience in the previous installments without the necessity of coordinating a play night or playing with random people…

Another game we’re liking is Detroit: Become Human, which is sort of a choose-your-own adventure with spectacular visuals – see the world – and humans – through and android’s eyes as you play through three different characters seeing the world change around them. Unfortunately, like Spider-Man it is a Sony exclusive.

Do you have a young Marvel Cinematic Universe fan looking forward to Captain Marvel and the many other female superheroes finally getting their due? Check out the book Marvel Fearless and Fantastic! Female Super Heroes Save the World co-authored by our friend Sam Maggs!

Lastly, if you are a electronics tinkerer and know about Raspberry Pis, stay tuned as I’ll be putting something together about a little project I’ve been working on…a touchscreen weather station…

Executive Producer David Michael Latt, co-founder of The Asylum, took to Twitter to announce the bad news – Z Nation was not renewed for another season by Syfy and thus would be ending.

#ZNation https://t.co/UfKAQlkkn5

— David Michael Latt (@DavidMLatt) December 22, 2018

In the video, Latt thanks the fans and everyone involved in the show. Plus there was a new announcement – Black Summer would premiere next year as an origin story of sorts, and would appear exclusively on Netflix.

Let us say thank YOU to the cast and crew of Z Nation for five great seasons! It’s been a wonderfully enjoyable ride…mercy.

The upcoming sequel series to Jim Henson’s 1982 fantasy epic [asin=B0016BWACI]The Dark Crystal[/asin] is looking great and keeping to the style of the original…but have you seen the list of everyone who will be voicing the characters? Check this out:

Taron Egerton (the Kingsman movies, Eddie The Eagle), Nathalie Emmanuel (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) will voice the three lead characters of Rian, Deet and Brea, three Gelflings who uncover the horrific truth behind the power of the Skeksis, when an adventure unfolds as the fires of rebellion are lit and an epic battle for the planet begins.

Also voicing Gelflings:

Caitriona Balfe (Outlander)

Helena Bonham-Carter (The King’s Speech)

Harris Dickinson (forthcoming Maleficent 2)

Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones)

Eddie Izzard (Ocean’s Thirteen)

Theo James (The Divergent Series)

Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

Shazad Latif (Star Trek: Discovery)

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Cloverfield Paradox)

Mark Strong (Kingsman)

Alicia Vikander (Tomb Raider)

The Skeksis & Mystics are voiced by:

Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song)

Mark Hamill (Knightfall, Star Wars)

Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones)

Jason Isaacs (The OA)

Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele)

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson (True Detective)

Simon Pegg (Mission Impossible)

Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine Nine)

Aughra will be voiced by Donna Kimball (The Happytime Murders)

I can’t wait…

Lucasfilm announced today that Pedro Pascal (Narcos, Game Of Thrones, Kingsman: The Golden Circle) will join an all star cast and crew and take the title role of The Mandalorian, the live-action Star Wars series set to debut on the upcoming Disney+ streaming service. The show will follow a lone Mandalorian (Pascal) gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy.

Pascal joins a cast that includes Gina Carano (Deadpool), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad), Emily Swallow (Supernatural), Carl Weathers (Predator), Omid Abtahi (American Gods), Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man), and Nick Nolte (Affliction).

Dave Filoni (Star Wars: Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels) will direct the first episode. Other directors to follow include Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Bryce Dallas Howard (Solemates), and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok).

The teaser trailer for the upcoming Netflix series The Umbrella Academy…based on the comic series from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, it follows a dysfunctional family of superheroes comes together to solve the mystery of their father’s death, the threat of the apocalypse and more. The series will be released February 15th.

Everyone can put down their sonics…despite rumors that 13th Doctor Jodie Whittaker might take a quick exit ala Christopher Eccleston after only one series as the Time Lord, she put those rumors to rest in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter:

“I really can’t wait to step back in and get to work again,” Whittaker told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s such an incredible role. It’s been an extraordinary journey so far and I’m not quite ready to hand it over yet.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jodie-whittaker-confirms-return-doctor-who-season-12-116738

So now we can all continue enjoying this fresh take, and don’t forget – she’ll be returning on New Years Day!

The 2019 Golden Globe Award nominations are out, and so it’s time to round up all the genre nominations…

On the movie side of the house, Black Panther scored a Best Motion Picture – Drama nom, along with a Best Original Score for Ludwig Goransson and Best Original Song for “All the Stars”. Mary Poppins Returns scored in
Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, along with Best Actress for Emily Blunt, Best Actor for Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Best Original Score for Marc Shaiman.

The animated features Incredibles 2, Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph Breaks The Internet, and Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse all received Best Motion Picture – Animated noms.

On the TV end, The Good Place was nominated for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy along with Kristen Bell for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, while Elisabeth Moss got one for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama for The Handmaid’s Tale and Thandie Newton scored a nom for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for Westworld.

Syfy is getting into late-night original animation programming with Alien News Desk, a series that will cover up-to-the-minute news and commentary about the universe’s most baffling species – the inscrutable Humans of Planet Earth.

The 12-episode series will feature the voices of Will Forte and Saturday Night Live‘s Heidi Gardner, and is executive produced by the Saturday Night Live team of Lorne Michaels, Erik Kenward and Dennis McNicholas, Joel Kuwahara and Scott Greenberg from Bento Box Entertainment, and Andrew Singer from Broadway Video. Scott Gairdner (Moonbeam City) and Broadway Video’s Katy Jenson will co-executive produce. McNicholas will act as showrunner.

“The expansion into original animation and late night marks the next step in the evolution of SYFY, and builds on the successes we’ve had bringing new, younger viewers to the network,” said Chris McCumber, President, Entertainment Networks for NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. “Tackling news, politics and entertainment from the perspective of alien newscasters completely puzzled by our human ways, Alien News Desk is a fun, irreverent way to put a uniquely ‘SYFY’ spin on the late night current affairs genre.”

This reminds me of then-Sci-Fi Channel’s first ever original scripted program, FTL Newsfeed, a 30-60 second “micro short” series of news segments broadcast from 150 years in the future, and ran for four years and over a thousand episodes from 1992-1996, with the launch of the channel. To my knowledge, however, it has never been rebroadcast or released in any medium since then.

The Magicians return on January 23rd, and we…can’t…wait…

Another live-action series for Star Wars? Yes! Bob Iger, Disney Chairman and CEO, announced today that Lucasfilm is developing a second live-action series (the first being The Mandalorian), which will air through Disney+, the upcoming streaming service.

The subject? Rogue One‘s resident rebel spy, Cassian Andor, who will be played once again by Diego Luna. The series will deal with the early era of the Rebellion and the events prior to Rogue One. “Going back to the Star Wars universe is very special for me,” said Luna. “I have so many memories of the great work we did together and the relationships I made throughout the journey. We have a fantastic adventure ahead of us, and this new exciting format will give us the chance to explore this character more deeply.”

According to StarWars.com, the rousing spy thriller will explore tales filled with espionage and daring missions to restore hope to a galaxy in the grip of a ruthless Empire. A release date for the series has not yet been announced. Stay tuned to StarWars.com for the latest updates.