23 years of this site still chugging along...
New SF On-Demand channel to start in October
by Doc on Aug.15, 2007, under General News
Illusion, a dedicated Science Fiction On-Demand channel, is gearing up for an October launch. Read More for the press release with a few details. Currently the only carrier mentioned is Verizon FiOS, but that will likely change closer to launch.
SCI FI Channel announces fall air dates
by Doc on Aug.15, 2007, under Television
The SCI FI Channel has some of the air dates for its fall schedule. Notable: Stargate Atlantis will start September 28th and the midseason “finale” will be December 7th; and mini episodes (“mini-sodes”) of Battlestar Galactica will begin airing during Flash Gordon starting in October, leading up to the movie (“movie-sode”?) “Razor” on November 24th.
Doctor Who Series 3 on DVD November 6th
by Doc on Aug.15, 2007, under General News
I didn’t see an announcement on this yet, but Amazon shows the street date for the third series of Doctor Who as November 6th. Data subject to change if/when I see the press release.
Could Jackson and New Line get along for The Hobbit?
by Doc on Aug.13, 2007, under Movies
Could Peter Jackson and New Line be talking again? Apparently so, despite previous comments from the head of New Line, Robert Shaye. So perhaps we could get some movement on The Hobbit…
Rocket To The Morgue Revisited
by Doc on Aug.13, 2007, under General News
TheThunderChild writes “Anthony Boucher, detective novelist, co-founder of the Mystery Writers Association and co-founder and editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, published Rocket to the Morgue in 1942, which featured a few real-life writers from The Manana Literary Society (founded by Robert Heinlein.) We solve all its mysteries (except whodunit) here.
http://thethunderchild.com/Books/AnthonyBoucher/Ro ckettotheMorgue.html
We’ve also used this book to inaugerate our new Time Travelers Guide. It’s imperative that time travelers know the places their visiting like the back of their hand. If they know too much, or too little, dire consequences could result. (For example, saving someone from being run over by a car could lead to WWII going down entirely the wrong path, as far as present history is concerned.) To guard against that happening, we present the Time Travelers guide for San Francisco, USA. 1942. http://thethunderchild.com/Books/TimeTravelersGuid e.html“
Retro Review: Logan’s Run TV Series
by Doc on Aug.09, 2007, under Television
First, there was the 1976 movie starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, and Richard Jordan (and a heavily advertised Farrah Fawcett in a small role). As with all successful movies at the time someone decided to make a TV series, which starred Gregory Harrison, Heather Menzies, Randy Powell and Donald Moffat. Was it as successful? Hardly – it lasted 14 episodes. Read More to see why, although there is a spoiler for the end of the movie – but its been 31 years…if you haven’t seen it yet, you probably don’t care about this review.
ARCTIC INVASION NOW AVAILABLE ON DISK
by Doc on Aug.09, 2007, under Audio
AudioFlix writes “Portland, OR – AudioFlix LLC is excited to announce that the first 5 chapters of the ARCTIC INVASION audio program are now available in disk format. Aptly named “Arctic Invasion – Disk 1” and now available at Amazon.com , the disk represents the first 5 weeks of the original online story released early this year. The second disk will combine the remaining 6 chapters and is expected out just in time for the upcoming holiday season. Eleven chapters long and feature-length, the entire story tells of arctic soldier Shawna Birdette and her fight to save humanity from an invading alien army located deep beneath the Antarctic ice shelf. Check out AudioFlix.com (http://www.audioflix.com/home.html) for samples and previews!”
Trek XI: Cruise as Pike?
by Doc on Aug.08, 2007, under Movies
It’s kind of out there, and kind of unlikely, but IGN is reporting that J.J. Abrams has been wooing Tom Cruise to play a bit part in Star Trek XI as a younger Captain Christopher Pike, Jim Kirk’s predecessor in the center seat on the Enterprise. Strangely, I think he looks enough like Jeffrey Hunter, who played Pike in the original pilot episode, “The Cage”, that it could be pulled off. Of course, they’d need to make him look at least a foot taller…
Interview with David G. Hartwell on Space Westerns
by Doc on Aug.08, 2007, under Interviews
Anonymous Coward writes “David G. Hartwell, editor of The New York Review of Science Fiction and The Space Opera Renaissance, senior editor of Tor/Forge Books gives an interview on the topic of Space Westerns.
Horses on Mars and Dinosaurs in Utah
by Doc on Aug.06, 2007, under Books
TheThunderChild writes “There are two new book reviews at The Thunder Child: a new release The Heart of Mars by Chuck Rosenthal, and a retro review of Raptor Red, by Robert T. Bakker. The publisher’s blurb for The Heart of Mars exclaims “Horses on Mars,” and horses are featured on the cover as well, but this really gives a misleading idea of what this wonderful, poetic and poignant novel is about. An amphibian race called the Nutian have Returned to Earth and taken over, saving the remnants of the humans who survived global warming and global war, but history (not to mention literature) is repeating itself on Mars… Paleontologist Robert Bakker, who was the model for Michael Crichton’s character Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, and a proponent that birds are descended from dinosaurs, wrote his first fiction novel over a decade ago, about a Utahraptor he calls Raptor Red. Check out both reviews at http://thethunderchild.com“