Sci-Fi Storm

Bloody brilliant – at Monster Day Out in Cardiff, children got a visit from a special visitor from the Glorious Sontaran Empire – Commander Strax himself, who seems to have temporarily transposed in time from Victorian London to the present day, and fielded some questions from the kids…

I’ve got to hand it to Dan Starkey, the man behind the monster…an amazing job doing that in full costume and character…he knows his background info too!

We’ll be seeing Commander Strax in this Saturday’s episode of Doctor Who, “The Crimson Horror”, and again in the season finale, “The Name of the Doctor”.

This will be a trivia question that will trip even some experts up: What science fiction series did David Tennant receive an Emmy nomination for?

Doctor Who‘s 10th Doctor, David Tennant, who will return to that role in the upcoming 50th Anniversary special episode, is now an Emmy nominee – but not for his well known role, or probably one that you’d expect at all…but for a guest stint he did on the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars!

Tennant twice voiced the role of Huyang, a droid who is also a master lightsaber builder – in fact, he seems something of a cross between a droid and Ollivander from the Harry Potter franchise, where he guides some young padawans on the art of constructing a lightsaber.

Sam Witwer, currently starring in Syfy’s Being Human, also received a nomination for his voicing of the revived Darth Maul. When we talked to Sam last December, he said of playing in the Star Wars universe:

“It’s every bit as cool as you’d think – it turns you into a bigger fan that you were before. I was already a huge Star Wars fan, and really knew my stuff, but just sort of working for these guys…it can be all consuming. It’s really, really fun. I dreamed of working on a Star Wars project since I was a kid. So to actually contribute to that mythology in my own small way is a tremendous privilege and an honor, and a great responsibility as well, because you don’t want to get it wrong. It’s a wonderful mythology. The Clone Wars have gotten so good at telling stories in that world, it’s fascinating. It’s really fascinating. Especially to be Darth Maul, to bring this really, really dark element to the show is challenging, to keep it within the confines of Star Wars, but at the same time make it psychologically messed up, interesting like that. And I’ll tell you, if people think they’ve seen dark, they haven’t yet. It gets horrifically dark in upcoming episodes this season. People will see why the first several episodes of this season, that there are lighter episodes, because they are trying to balance out some very, very dramatic stuff that happens when the dark comes.”

In addition to Tennant and Witwer being up for the Emmy for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program, Jim Cummings also received a nomination for his role of Hondo Ohnaka.

Clone Wars also received nominations for Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program (Supervising Director Dave Filoni and Kyle Dunlevy, Brian Kalin O’Connell, Steward Lee,and Bosco Ng), Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Animation (David Acord and Cameron Davis), Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition (Kevin Kiner) and Outstanding Special Class Animated Program.

As an animated program, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is part of the Daytime Emmy Awards, which will be presented June 16th.

BBC Cymru Wales announced that Brian Minchin will join Steven Moffat as Executive Producer on Doctor Who, replacing the departing Caroline Skinner.

Minchin is certainly no stranger to Moffat’s predecessor, Russell R. Davies (or the Who universe) – he’s worked with Davies on the recent Wizards vs. Alien as well as The Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood: Children of Earth and Torchwood: Miracle Day, and also previously worked as as script editor on Doctor Who. He’s also worked with Toby Whithouse (who has also written for Doctor Who and Torchwood) on the UK Being Human and the upcoming The Game.

Now that production has started on the 50th Anniversary special special episode of Doctor Who, we are getting more and more details…and the latest is that the Big Bad for the episode marks the return of the classic monsters the Zygons. And unlike some of the previous returnees, the Zygons look to have remained relatively untouched from their original appearance.

Another thing…Gavin & Stacey‘s Joanna Page was at the table reading…no idea who she is playing. But I wonder if her co-star James Corden, who played Craig in “The Lodger” and “Closing Time” and is one of my favorite guest stars, might also make an appearance…

Did you notice the book featured in the recent Doctor Who episode, “The Bells of St. John”, called “Summer Falls”? The one that Clara asked Artie about?

Clara: What chapter you on?

Artie: Ten.

Clara: Eleven’s the best. You’ll cry your eyes out… The good kind of crying…

“When summer falls, the Lord of Winter will arise…”

Sharp-eyed viewers will have noted the author’s name: Amelia Williams. We didn’t hear that name much, but it was in fact Amy Pond’s proper married name. And I’m sure the references to Ten and Eleven were wry references to current (and eleventh) Doctor Matt Smith and his predecessor. But what’s more interesting is that this book exists – or rather, will exist, starting tomorrow when BBC Books releases “Summer Falls” worldwide as an e-book.

Here is a description of the story: “In the seaside village of Watchcombe, young Kate is determined to make the most of her last week of summer holiday. But when she discovers a mysterious painting entitled ‘The Lord of Winter’ in a charity shop, it leads her on an adventure she never could have planned. Kate soon realises the old seacape, painted long ago by an eccentric local artist, is actually a puzzle. And with the help of some bizarre new acquaintances – including a museum curator’s magical cat, a miserable neighbour, and a lonely boy – she plans on solving it.

“And then, one morning Kate wakes up to a world changed forever. For the Lord of Winter is coming – and Kate has a very important decision to make.”

This isn’t the first time a fictional fiction book jumped from Doctor Who episode to reality. “[asin=B009KJ6DTO]The Angel’s Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery[/asin]” was released after “The Angels Take Manhattan”, in which it was an important plot device.

Update 4/2: The e-book is [asin=B00BGC6GG8]available for pre-order on Amazon[/asin] now, but due to some confusion it won’t release until Thursday.

The nominees for the 2013 Hugo Awards were announced yesterday…here they are (with links when available if you want to check them out). The 2013 Hugos will be presented at LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio, Texas, August 29-September 2, 2013 – the 71st Annual World Science Fiction Convention.

Best Novel:

[asin=0316098124]2312[/asin], Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
[asin=0316081078]Blackout[/asin], Mira Grant (Orbit)
[asin=1451638450]Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance[/asin], Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
[asin=0765334798]Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas[/asin], John Scalzi (Tor)
[asin=B00B9ZEMN6]Throne of the Crescent Moon[/asin], Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

Best Novella:

[asin=1616960655]After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall[/asin], Nancy Kress (Tachyon Publications)
[asin=1616960922]The Emperor’s Soul[/asin], Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)
[asin=0956392458]On a Red Station, Drifting[/asin], Aliette de Bodard (Immersion Press)
[asin=B0089EHIA4]San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats[/asin], Mira Grant (Orbit)
“The Stars Do Not Lie”, Jay Lake (Asimov’s, Oct-Nov 2012)
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Finally! Next week’s issue of Doctor Who Magazine confirms that David Tennant and Billie Piper will return for the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, along with veteran British actor John Hurt, who fans would most recently recognize as the announcer and voice of the Dragon on Merlin among lots and lots of other roles, such as Ollivander from Harry Potter, Professor Oxley in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, and he literally exploded in is role in Alien 😉

Surprisingly the episode is only expected to run around 60 minutes, but it appears that it will see a limited release in 3D cinemas!

Now, can we end the rest of the secrecy?

Wow, lots of videos lately – but with just 5 days left to the return of Doctor Who with the episode “The Bells of Saint John”, Steven Moffat produced a prequel short for the episode where the Doctor has a talk with a little girl on a swingset, about how he’s lost a friend twice and doesn’t know how to find her again…you’ll never guess who the girl is…well, maybe you will…

In addition, today both on iTunes and [asin=B00C0YQTQI]Amazon[/asin] there is a free video short, which shows just what happened to the Sontaran Strax after the events that took place on Demons Run – where it appeared he had perished. Yet, in “The Snowmen”, he’s alive and well – except he is in Victorian London with Madame Vastra and Jenny…
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The new Entertainment Weekly features two different covers for Doctor Who (see them here, courtesy of Blogtor Who), but the more interesting bit came from the article inside, in which producer Steven Moffat was quoted as saying about the upcoming 50th Anniversary, “We can’t make this all about looking backwards. It’s actually got to be the start of a new story.”

This appears to be in relation to the desire among fans to have something like “The Eleven Doctors” special, featuring all living Doctors and somehow accommodating the deceased ones as well. But that’s a tall order to try and squeeze into an episode – even a super-sized one. But reading in to it more, I’m wondering about “…a new story.” Would a 50th Anniversary episode be used to kick off something new? Like, perhaps, a rumored new Doctor?!?

Here is the latest Doctor Who TV spot from BBC America, which debuted this past weekend.
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