Radio Rant

YOU may remember ages ago that I took on a loudmouth radio host called Duncan Barkes about the merits of Sci-Fi.

Duncan, a DJ on City Talk in Liverpool, hated it, I didn't and so we had a ... erm ... discussion on air about it. Anyway, it got a bit heated. Because he was an behaving like an idiot who didn't know what he was talking about.

I have been trying to get the audio online for ages but I have finally succeeded (I think) - here it is!!

Let me know what you think.

Cool links

I NOTICE with some disdain that other bloggers have been posting purely with links to other sites.

Pah, I thought - how dare they? I mean, how bloody dare they?!!

It's as if they're taking the easy option, but then I thought I could do that too, so I have.

The first link is an absolute beauty, shown to me by Graham Bandage.

It is a Cheerios advert from the 1950s-60s, and is typical of the type of stuff to be found on the Prelinger Archives.

This is a massive collection of cheesy public information films dating from before the war onwards, on virtually every topic you can think of. The great thing is they are all in the public domain, and therefore you can use them for whatever you want!

For link number two, I am indebted to Geekdad on Wired, who highlighted a fantastic auction of stuff at Profiles in History

Basically it is an auction of close to 1000 items of movie memorabilia, which include Marty McFly's hoverboard ($30-50,000), Arnie's jacket and gun from Total Recall ($4-6,000), Robert Patrick's costume as the T1000 when he was frozen and James Marsdens' Cyclops visor from X-Men 3 ($6-8,000). Oh, and Wolverine's jacket ($20-30,000) or Magneto's outfit, with Rogue's thrown in ($30-50,000).

I could go on, but even if you can't afford it (and I can't!) it is still great just to look at.

So there you go - two links to keep you busy while I come up with new stuff to write! Get linking!

Don't Turn Back Time

THE Tardis's tow rope has hardly been packed away on series four and already the rumour mill is cranked up to the max about the Moff's series five.

Specifically, big noises - kind of like deep, sustained booming sounds crossed with a hammer hitting a bag of chips - are being made that we may not have seen the last of Catherine Tate and Bernard Cribbins.

Tate has revealed that the Moff has been in touch with her about Donna, although in what capacity is not clear.

On the face of it, this is a good thing. After all, they both bowed out with honours last time around - Tate as probably the best companion since the show's return and Cribbins as her tender, caring grandad (who we all wish was our grandad!) .

They were both great and their layered and touching performances added so much to the series and served as fantastic counterpoints to David Tennant.

But - and this is a big but (about THIS big) - their story ark ended with all the finality of a big box that has this is the end written all over it in red paint, and that is packed with finality.

It has been stated clearly that Donna will burn up if she remembers anything about her time with the Doctor, and that rules Wilf out as well, because the Doctor would not be so cavalier as to meet up with Wilf and so risk Donna.

Yes, I know there was a glimmer on Donna's ring, but so what? Will that lead to a convoluted solution that allows the Moff to pulls the same switcharoo as RTD did with Rose?

While a writer of his skill would be able to carry it off, I hope not and think it would be a massive mistake.

When Rose was trapped in the alternate universe, the shock of that, of her hammering at the wall in Torchwood in tears, carried real weight and strength.

Her strange-toothed return did not, and almost got in the way of the real story, which was Donna's fate.

Every time you go back on yourself on that scale - you say you can't do something and then suddenly announce you can - you are messing with the viewers and their faith in the show.

Sometimes the end has to mean the end. Sometimes the Doctor cannot save the day.

Resist the temptation Steven - leave the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff in its box in the corner (next to that tow rope and those new Adipose stories) and move on.

Moon on a stick

I WAS browsing the Internet when I came across this link which was about how Nasa scientists are getting together to plan how to get back to the Moon.

Their ambition is to go back there to stay, creating a permanent base as a site for people to live in and conduct research, as well as preparing for further journeys to Mars.

Exciting stuff, but while I applaud their ambition and belief, and hope to hell this happens, I honestly don't think it will.

And that's the problem - will. For everyone like me who thinks it would be great to go to the moon again, you get 10 who point to everything else the money could be spent on, or 100 wacko conspiracy theorists who say we never went at all, like in Capricorn One.

People have to want it, and unless China starts getting close to landing on the Moon to create a new space race, I don't think the American people - and, more importantly, the politicians - will want it enough.

On top of that, when President Bush stated the ambition of returning to the moon a while back, I seem to remember he was a little ... ermm ... fuzzy on the specifics, like cost and how they are actually going to do it.

Of course, that hasn't stopped him spunking huge amounts of money in Iraq, so that fuzzyness is no real guide for anything.

Kennedy was similarly vague back in the day and yet, within a decade, they were there.

I was born two years after the first moon landing (and named after Neil Armstrong - who piloted the Eagle lander down to Tranquility base with virtually no fuel, to my continued amazement) but I wish I could have lived through those times.

It must have seemed like science fiction was becoming fact, that anything was possible. Moonbases, rockets to Mars, space travel for everyone? No problem.

Then reality set in, other things suddenly seemed more important and the space programme was cut back, meaning there are still only 12 men who have walked on the moon.

Will there be more? There has to be, but Nasa have to make a truly compelling case for it, whih they have yet to do.

As to when? That I can't answer, but unless something changes I don't think we will be blasting off inside Nasa's current timetable.

The next Sci-Fi Blockbuster!!

Next stop Hollywood - I'll save you a seat at the Oscars!!

Things of Beauty - Part Two

AS promised, here is the second group of Howard's magnificent models.

The first one in a Gerry Anderson trilogy is Thunderbird Four, in its natural element - OK, Howard's fish tank - with the added touch of an led light to complete the scene.

Next up is the Shado Mobile from UFO, which was in a pretty bad way when Howard found it. He stripped the model to re-paint it, replaced the glass and the interior figures and even switched the wheels around on each side, so their unscuffed interiors were facing out. The tracks were bought from Games Workshop.
Finally, there is his masterwork - this beautiful model of Thunderbird Two, complete with Firefly.

This was made using a Japanese imported model kit that was transparent to begin with. Not only did he make the model to perfection, Howard also painstakingly masked off half of the kit while painting it - inside and out - to preserve the see-through look.

The final touch was to add the bits and pieces which make up the inner workings of Thunderbird Two, again all his own work using items he had to hand.

Great stuff - and an eye opener for the likes of me who couldn't make anything half as good as this with the full resources of Industrial Light and Magic behind us!

And as if that wasn't sickening enough, he took great delight in telling me his 'I spent several days with Gerry Anderson at Pinewood Studios back in the 1970s' story, including sitting in an Eagle cockpit and in the Moonbase Alpha medical centre. Followed by attending the press call for the Spy Who Loved Me.

Damn you Howard!!

Things of beauty

I HAVE a confession to make - I am, and always have been, rubbish at making models.

No matter what my good intentions, no matter how determined I was, no matter how carefully I arranged the different pieces of the kit before I began, I would always end up with the same result.

That would be with my hands and clothes covered in Humbrol polystyrene cement and a finished product that would bear only a passing resemblance to the picture on the box.

Then, before I even started to paint it my frustration would get the better of me and I would throw it across the room, screaming 'FUCK IT!!' and scaring the cat.

Thankfully, not everyone was like that and one person who is much more gifted in the model making department than me (by a factor of ... oooh ... about infinity) is Howard Davies.

Howard works with me at the Liverpool Echo, but in his spare time he makes some fantastic models, some of which I will be sharing with you over the next few days, you lucky people!

Here's the first one

How about that?!! The colossal Space Shuttle in its launch bay, and all just 10 inches tall. The Shuttle itself was made from a kit, but the rest of it is all Howard's own work. It includes a square gutter which forms the frame of the bay, girder bridges from a model railway kit and the feet of an AT-AT walker (can you spot where?), as well as lights and fibre-optic cables.

On to number two.

Again the space shuttle is from a kit, albeit one that Howard gutted to fit all the interior detail such as the robot arm and the mirrored bay doors.

Once again though, he has crafted the space station from a variety of sources, my favourite being the solar panels, which are model railway fences wrapped in the silver foil from cigarette packets. Brilliant. The whole thing was then photoshopped onto a picture of the Earth. To complete the effect.

Here's number three.

Just looking at this gives me the chills, because I loved everything about Space 1999 when I was a kid and owned a small fleet of Eagles, most of which ended up like the before picture above - battered and beaten, with bits hanging off.

The sheer amount of work that went into this is staggering. First Howard stripped the paint off the Dinky model, using paint stripper for the metal bits and a sander for the plastic. Then he re-painted the model and filled in any areas that required it.

But - and this is the really cool part - can you see the Moonbase Alpha decals? Howard actually made them in Photoshop, after downloading versions of them from the internet.

It's that sort of painstaking attention to detail that would have seen me launch the Eagle into orbit with frustration, but the results are well worth it.

So, that's the first three - I'll be sharing the final three models - all Gerry Anderson standards - with you after the weekend.

I know, I spoil you, I really do!

Steve speaks!

WRITING a science fiction blog can be a lonely old job - up til all hours, staring at a screen, waiting for inspiration to strike.

That's why I am more than happy to throw open SciFi Love to anyone who loves science fiction and has a tale to tell. Just drop me a line.

Watch out though. My first guest blogger - Steve Harrison, a friend and colleague on the Liverpool Echo - has set a very high standard with his thoughts on sci-fi novels, good and bad.

The gauntlet has been thrown down! Care to pick it up?

WANDERING round the sci-fi section of my local Waterstones, as I was this weekend, can be a dispiriting experience for a died-in-the-wool adherent of old school s/f.

I blame, in equal measure, Tolkien and Peter Jackson.

Now don't get me wrong - I yield to no one in my admiration for Lord of the Rings, both between covers and on the silver screen.

It is the army of pale imitators I object to: the battalion of lazy-brained, dragon-infested fantasy pulp writers with ambitions well beyond their meagre talents.

You shall know them by their dust-jackets - serried rows of black and gold embossed titles, decorated with runish script augmented by the occasional battle axe.

Of course, there are honourable exceptions to my blanket condemnation of all things fantasy - I'm a sucker for L E Modesitt's "Recluce" saga, for instance.

But generally, these titles sell so well that they have all but taken over the shelf space marked "Science Fiction" - even where they have been corralled into a separate "Fantasy" section.

So it is something of a relief to see that staple of s/f - the space opera - making a comeback, thanks largely to the work of Peter F Hamilton (pictured).

I've always enjoyed a good old space opera, from the Lensman series of E E Doc Smith to classic Asimov and Frank Herbert (although the Dune cycle isn't strictly space opera - incidentally, does anyone else think that Whipping Star and its sequel The Dosadi Experiment are two of the most dissimilar novels ever written?).

Peter Hamilton's work, from the Nanoflower Conspiracy through the Night Dawn's trilogy and up to the most recent work I'm familiar with (the Commonwealth saga) is characterised by gritty, warts-and-all futurescapes combined with detailed and convincing science.

But it is his characters which has driven his popularity - deftly drawn, distinctive and beautifully realised, characterisation is a skill which not every s/f writer has mastered (Asimov was notoriously bad at creating credible female characters, for instance).

It reminds me of a tale Samuel Delaney tells in The Jewel-Hinged Jaw about teaching a class on (I think) Bob Silverberg - when asked what they most enjoyed in Silverberg's writing, one half of the class called out, "His humans!" while the other half simultaneously shouted, "His aliens"!

The point is that the emphasis in any good s/f writing should be on the "F" - the fiction - rather than the science.

This is borne out in spades by Peter Hamilton (although I'm pleased to see that he no longer makes all his evil characters turn out to be gay, as in Night's Dawn).

Another essential factor in space opera is length, and here Hamilton doesn't disappoint - his are thick, meaty volumes running to nearly 1,000 pages each, allowing you the luxury of total immersion in the wealth of detail surrounding his imaginary universes.

That's a large measure of the appeal of Hamilton's prose - the lingering, almost pornographic delight in the textures, scents and sounds of his worlds; the richness of the political and social networks which bind his characters together, and the backstory of his subjects' lives.

One final point before I leave the subject of Waterstones and book stores generally ... what ever happened to Harlan Ellison? One of the most respected and remarkable s/f writers of the '70s and '80s, I haven't seen any of his stories (even in second hand shops) for years.

Before Waterstones ever appeared on the High Street, I was a subscriber to the SF Book Club (or some similar name).

The excitement each month when the next hardback landed through the letterbox was almost unbearable - Alfred Bester, Lester del Ray, Michael Coney ... all delivered straight to my doormat (well, it was my parent's doormat, technically speaking).

It took a year or so before I realised you could buy the same novel in paperback for half the price - but if not for the Book Club, I might never have discovered Christopher Priest or Ben Bova, for example.

Ben Bova's anthology of Nebula awards winners was the free gift, if I remember correctly, containing classics such as "Call Me Joe".

And that's something else which seems to have disappeared - the SF anthology.
But that's for another time.

Words I have wrote

BECAUSE I am sooo down with this whole web 2.0 thing, I decided to create my own wordcloud (and I was bored, it's Sunday, give me a break!)

Basically this programme called Wordle looked at everything I have written and pulled out the most used words.

You can look at it on the left of my blogpage - I think it looks ace, but I would.

Obviously one word jumps out but I wouldn't have been much of a sci-fi blogger if it didn't, given what happened on Saturday night (So fuck you - how dare you judge me!!)

On the other hand, it could also show I have been relying on one programme for most of my posts, and now it's stopped, I'm up shit creek.

Either way, it will be interesting (to me anyway - again, fuck you!) to see how it changes when I have another go in a few Who-less months.

Presumably, using the word fuck three times in this post will already have pushed it into the cloud, but that's for next time - it'll give you something to look forward to.

Fuck - there's another, just to make sure.

I'm so sorry

"I'M so sorry ... "

So said the Doctor when he wiped Donna's memory and so - I hope - RTD was thinking when he decided on her fate.

As I have said before, Catherine Tate has been a wonderful companion for the Doctor, surpassing my expectations by a mile, so to reduce her back to Donna mk1 was beyond cruel - it was unforgivable, but it made the end of series four unforgettable.

She has been a true touchstone for us throughout this series, without ever falling into the doe-eyed 'I love you Doctor' camp. When she became DoctorDonna - putting aside the jarring change of tone and seeming ease of defeating the Daleks - I marvelled at what she was doing and wondered what could happen next.

What I didn't expect was such a downbeat and sad ending for her character - back to Big Brother and the X Factor, alcopops and temping, and saying goodbye to the Doctor like he was nobody, because to her, he was.

It was like the ending of Butch and Sundance or Planet of the Apes - triumph and tragedy blended together, so you struggled to know what to feel.

As he has done throughout this series, Bernard Cribbins as Wilf perfectly captured the mix of pride and sorrow about 'his girl', who saved the universe but can never know.

I think it was the stillness of those final scenes that helped them stand out so much, coming after an episode that was crammed with action.

Probably too much action really, as even at 65 minutes it seemed rushed in places. But when your complaint is that there was too much great stuff, that's not too bad a thing.

While the hand regeneration thing felt like a bit of a cop out, the regenerated half-human doctor showed the depths to which the character can sink and at least allowed the Rose storyline to be completed.

Davros was truly chilling - considering Ben Kingsley and Anthony Hopkins were linked with the role earlier this year, I don't think anyone could have done a better job than Julian Bleach.

The shot of the companions helping to fly the Tardis was great too, and I was so carried away by that stage that I was willing to accept the Tardis dragging the Earth.

But then there was poor Donna, who ensured that Russell T went out with a much deeper and darker conclusion than anyone expected.

Steven Moffat will have to go some when we start again, but I bet no-one knows that more than him.

So here's to Donna. To RTD. To 2010. And to days to come.

Do you look at the reflection, or does the reflection look at you?

CAN you remember the first time you watched Star Wars, saw a lightsabre for the first time and thought I WANT ONE?!!

I have just had a similar experience after finishing the first novel by David J Williams, called The Mirrored Heavens.

What do I want? One of the kick ass suits of hi-tech battle armour that Williams' characters use to shred any enemies that have the misfortune to cross their path. Think Iron Man on steroids with a bad attitude.

Forget Robocop - he'd be a pile of cogs and gears in no time - never mind 20 seconds to comply. The Terminator? A rusting bucket of bolts. These deadly suits had me wincing as they laid waste to entire bases of enemies.

They play for keeps, as do all the elements of Williams' novel. A Brit living in America, he has created a rich and detailed 22nd century playground for us to explore, where the two superpowers - America and the Eurasian Coalition - are threatened by a sinister terrorist organisation, Autumn Rain.

So far, so Tom Clancy on acid. But where Williams stands out is the sheer thought, effort and depth he has put into his cyberworld and its denizens, most of which probably didn't even make it into the novel.

First we have the mechs - the gung-ho wielders of the armoured suits. Then there are the Razors - supercharged hackers who jack into the Zone - a regionalised future Internet - from their own bodies.

The heroes and heroines are never sure who to trust as loyalties change at a bewildering speed, amid stand-out set piece battles on the moon and at the bottom of the ocean.

Williams maintains that pace through lightning sharp dialogue and a multi-layered narrative structure that does away with chapters in favour of leaping from character to character.

At times, this left me feeling as confused as the people struggling to survive in the story, but a shocking and shattering ending mean it is well worth the effort to keep up - even if I was shouting at the book to find out what would happen next!

This is Williams' first novel, but I am certain it will not be the last and feel privileged to be in at the start of something big. For that I can thank Twitter, where David decided to follow me - and this site - and I first decided to read his book.

I'll definitely be reading his second novel, but do you think Amazon will be able to get me some battle armour as well?

My Top Five

AS we are nearing the end of another series of Doctor Who - the last one for a while - I thought it only right to look back.

Since it returned in 2005, RTD's reinvention of the Doctor has been - by and large - absolutely fantastic.

Wonderful acting, clever and inventive writing and a minute attention to detail have combined to produce some truly memorable moments - but which were the best?

Using a highly scientific method (looking at a list and choosing my favourites) I have come up with my top five Doctor Who episodes since its return.

And it was tough - I had to put many of them in the 'merely brilliant' category, instead of the outstandingly fantastically wonderful gold box.

And let me say now - to stop any disappointment later - that Love & Monsters, the Christmas specials and Daleks in Manhattan are not on the list.

Yes, my standards were that high.

5. Midnight

I know that opinion was split on this one, with many people saying it wasn't a Doctor Who episode, more like the X Files.

That is why I loved it though, because RTD stripped everything away from the Doctor, which was an incredibly brave thing to do.

Faced with claustrophobia, paranoia and the dark side of human nature, all the Doctor's bravado, cockiness, and verve - his genius - got him nowhere except on a one way ticket out of the airlock, as the unnamed entity took him over. David Tennant was fantastic in this, but all the guest cast shone.

Despite all the terrifying moments that had come before, this is also the only episode to give my son nightmares.

4. Tooth & Claw

This episode was like a grown up version of Scooby Doo - being chased by a werewolf around a giant mansion!

All we needed was for the werewolf to chase the Doctor and Rose into a room and find they had transformed it into a barber's shop, and that they tried to give him a shave, or the doctor being surprised by the werewolf as he made a giant sandwich.

The moment in the library where the doctor says 'Arm yourself!' referring to the book reveals so much about his character.

It also - for better or worse (better I think, now that Owen's dead) - gave birth to Torchwood.

3. Silence In The Library / Forest of the Dead.

Where to begin - this two parter was the gift that kept on giving - a multi-layered masterpiece from the Grand Moff.

River Song, clicking fingers, stuttering on the teleport, spoilers, look me up, Hey! who turned out the lights. And then there was the Vashta Nerada - the production team's dream - a monster that costs nothing to produce.

Everything about it was pitch perfect.

2. Human Nature / The Family Of Blood

For a long time, this two-parter was going to be number one. I loved it when I first watched it, and every time I have watched it since. It has some of the most wonderful 'quiet' moments since the series began, as Mr Smith struggles to come to terms with his destiny.

Paul Cornell's script is beautifully balanced, including the doctor who's not the doctor, Martha battling to cope and some ruthless villains.

The idea of the chameleon arch is beautifully realised, and David Tennant is great as the bumbling Mr Smith. I loved the diary and the battle scene where he can't bring himself to fire a gun.

Just as good though is Jessica Hynes as Nurse Redfern.

I'm a big fan of Spaced, but her comedic work there never hinted at the level of poise and sadness she portrays here.

The moment where she asks the Doctor if anyone would have died if he had not chosen to come to the school 'on a whim' - and he can't answer - is poetry. Mr Cornell, Mr Tennant and Mrs Hynes - take a bow.

1. Fear Her

Just kidding - that was rubbish.

1. Blink

No surprise really - this is one of the greatest pieces of television I have ever seen, in any genre. And I didn't see it for so long - I was away for the original broadcast and didn't have Sky+ then, so had to put up with my friends constantly saying 'you must see this!'

The idea of statues that only move when you're not looking is genius - my son still won't blink when we go into at galleries!

'You're not looking at the angel!' Neither are you!' made me jump out of my seat.

For a Doctor-lite episode, the main characters were top notch. Finlay Robertson was very funny as Larry, and then there was Sally Sparrow.

Ah, Sally - how we loved thee! Carey Mulligan was everything a companion should be - without being a companion - and I know five blokes in my office alone who would marry her tomorrow.

Will the Moff bring her back in the future? We can only hope.

So there you have it - the top five according to me. I am sure most of you are already saying 'but what about ...' and I don't claim to be the leading authority on this (just one of them!)

And all of these may be blown out of the water when Journey's End is broadcast.

If you disagree, let me know - all comments gratefully received!