Musings of a Babylon Lurker

Doctor Who (new) Season 4 box set, Disc one

Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | 2 Comments

In the week end I have been rewatching the Children in Need special “Time Crash” and “Voyage of the Damned”.

“Time Crash” is a short special, in short the TARDIS runs Amok and the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) appears. Quite fun and the “You were *my* Doctor” is a nice tribute.

One of the highlights in “Voyage of the Damned” for me was seeing, for the first time, Bernard Cribbins’ character Wilf – the alien hunter and amateur astronomer in the middle of a deserted London. A nice bit of continuity, even if that is not known at the first viewing, later we learn that he is Donna’s Grandpa. I generally enjoyed the story, even if it was not the greatest of Doctor Who.

Tags: Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

Just received the DVD set of series 4 of the new Doctor Who

Now I need some time to watch it. In any case I am bringing it to a friend to watch it.

Yay!

Tags: drwho

The Babylon Podcast

Saturday, November 8th, 2008 | Babylon 5, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

As a fan of Babylon 5 I have also become a fan of the Babylon Podcast.

I started listening to podcasts in 2006, and due to an accident late June that year I had some more time than usual at hand, so I started to look for more particular podcasts. Imagine my delight when I found that there was indeed a podcast about my favourite show. They had, at the time, “aired” about 40 shows. I downloaded the first few and listened, found it delightful and downloaded the rest, and listened to the first 42 (!) Babylon Podcasts in about two weeks.

Episode 1, a longer introductory episode “aired” in February 2006, with the hosts Summer and Tim telling why they were drawn to B5 and what kept them hooked, and Jeffrey telling about guests that could be expected to be featured on the podcast.

Show #2 had the first guest interview with Stephen Furst (“Vir Cotto”). He was a blast to both the hosts and to me to listen to, so the first hook was there …

Not just the Stars (actors) were interviewed, many of the crew as well. #3 brought us Bear Burge, the Master Prop Fabricator, and the first episode discussion on “Midnight on the Firing Line” (episode 1). Later this episode discussion segment got the title “Deep Geeking”, with it own “jingle”.

Many people have been interviewed on the podcast, a few names worth mentioning : Patricia Tallman, Bruce Boxleitner, Wayne Alexander (“The Inquisitor”, “Lorien” and a few other roles), John Iacovelli, Walter Koenig (one of my absolute favourite bad guys, the Psi Cop “Alfred Bester”), Producer John Copeland in a two part interview, the list is not endless, but quite long. Almost all of those interviews have been a joy to listen to, enriching the experience of the series.

A segment of feedback, at times *very* amusing, also brought out a “spin off” of the Babylon Podcast, called the “Three Edged Sword”. It all started as an in-joke between three of the most active feedback’ers, who finally agreed to make a story line out of their contributions. More about “Three Edged Sword” in a later post.

In the latest “Deep Geeking” (ep. #135), “No Surrender, No, Retreat” was discussed how Sheridan’s approach to the conflict was entirely different from the end of the Shadow War.

This week’s episode (#136) had an interview with the Babylon 5 script team members “Captain” Jaclyn and Jan, telling a part of the story of publishing the scrips for every single Babylon 5 episode, and the approach to doing it. Jaclyn stressed that J. Michael Stracynski had stated “It’s all about the fans!”

Of course, it is well known to many fans that the customer service of the scripts team has been legendary, more about the script books and the scripts team later

In addition to the compliments from the fans, Jaclyn had compliments to the fans and their behaviour when dealing with the scripts team.

For me one of the highlights was when Jaclyn who came into this as a business – a specialist in “print-on demand” books with no interest in SciFi – telling about her experience of watching B5. In short, she was blown away by the story. She told that she was surprised how much she could be moved by 1) a piece of art, 2) a television series, and finally 3) a SciFi series. High praise indeed.

link :
The Babylon Podcast

Tags: Babylon 5, Scifi podcasts

How I entered into the world of “Babylon 5″

Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | Babylon 5, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

By Internet standards I will probably be regarded as old. I remember seeing Arthur C. Clarke/Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001, a Space Odyssey” when it came in the cinemas in the late 1960′s, and, of course the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. I was allowed to stay up the night to see the first footsteps on the moon (some time around 2 AM local time). No internet, no NASA TV, just some blurred live black-and-white pictures on the telly.

My interest in scifi and space exploration had obviously started some time before, along with an interest in UFO’s and “X-Files” like stuff.

Fast forward to 1989 (yes – the year the Berlin Wall came tumbling down) I moved from Denmark to The Netherlands to work there.

At work, in the early 90′s we formed a group of “Star Trek” fans coming together watching a few episodes in an evening. We had come one evening to watch some “Deep Space 9″, and after that it turned out that one from the group had brought the “Babylon 5″ pilot episode “The Gathering”.

I have to say that I did not like the pilot, thinking that it would not lead anywhere. How wrong I was … but I still consider the pilot under par, compared to what followed.

When the local TV started showing B5 I took another look, and lo and behold – that I found *much* better than the pilot.some season one episodes had the quality I was expecting from Trek, but soon the thing changed … this was not single episode stories – well. some of them were – but a longer story.

I was hooked.

I followed the 5 year arc to its end – sometimes at odd times of the day (or night), and soon found myself seeking out the VHS tapes.

After having watched the story several times I still get a thrill seeing it again. It has grown to be my all time favourite scifi story on TV – and there are many good ones out there.

I soon looked into more information about B5, on the net, books etc. – and got myself a few B5 goodies. But more about this later. Yes – I have all 15 volumes of J. Michael Straczynski’s (JMS) script books for all the B5 episodes he wrote. I still need to work myself though the about 7000 pages, but in time I will come though them, and as the completist in me told me, I got the “Other Voices” 3 volumes with episodes written by other writers, as well as the “Chronology” book and the quote’s book. There is enough reading for a while.

Tags: Babylon 5

David Tennant leaves Doctor Who

Saturday, November 1st, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

I just got the news that David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who at the end of 2009, see the news from the BBC. Unfortunately, if you are outside the UK the interview cannot be seen from the BBC website. Possibly it is out there on U-Tube, but I have not investigated.

We will still see Tennant in the Christmas Special this year and in 4 specials in 2009. Interesting enough the title of the Christmas special will be “The Next Doctor”. Could this be an indication of things to come ?

2010 will see a new showrunner, Steven Moffatt, along with the 11th (or is it 12th after the “funny” regeneration last season?) Doctor.

It will be interesting to see who will be cast as the 11th Doctor. Your guess is as good as mine. The rumour mill has probably already started.

I will have to say that I really liked Tennant as The Doctor. This autumn/fall he has been playing Hamlet with Patrick Stewart in the UK. Stewart has said that he is interested in being in Doctor Who, it could be interesting to see him as a villain for a change. Could he become the 11th Doctor ? Possibly, but I doubt it. It could be interesting, though.

Tags: Doctor Who

Heroes on BBC2

Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | film and tv, scifi | No Comments

I found out a little late, not checking the TV listings for a while.

BBC2 shows Heroes on Wednesday nights, I did catch episode 3.3 Yesterday.

Maybe the BBC will make a marathon at a time I can watch , so I can catch the first two episodes of season 3.

Tags: heroes

Doctor Who and Steven Moffat score a hattrick.

Sunday, August 10th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

The winner of this years Hugo Award for best dramatic presentation, short form is the Doctor Who episode “Blink”, written by Steven Moffat.

I am not aware of any show winning the Hugo award in three consecutive years, it is in any case very unusual. What is even more unusual is the fact that the writer of the winners was the same.

I know very well that the final show is a joint effort of a lot of people, and the Doctor Who team has certainly done a very good job of reviving the series. Kudos to the BBC and the team.

So we have the last three year’s winners :

2006 : “The Empty Child”/”The Doctor Dances”

2007 : “The Girl in the Fireplace”

2008 : “Blink”

All three among my favourites of the three seasons.

It will be interesting to see if Moffat’s new episodes “Silence in the Library”/”Forest of the Dead” will repeat the feat. The episodes were without any doubt among the best of the latest season. but I hope next year’s winner will be something else.

It is interesting to note that Steven Moffat is taking over from Russell T. Davies as the showrunner for Doctor Who in the 2010 season, and has hinted that there will be fewer “old enemies” coming back, and some change in the tone of the show. I am looking forward to it in any case.

Update :

After a check it turns out that “The Twilight Zone” has done this in 1960/61/62 for best dramatic presentation – at the time there was no distinction between short and long form. I have no information whether the same writer was responsible for the episodes.

Thoughts on "The 4400" TV series.

Thursday, July 24th, 2008 | film and tv, scifi, technology | 1 Comment

I have been watching 4th and final season og “The 4400″ – here are a few thoughts on the series.

The concept of the series :

Over a period of about 60 years 4400 people have mysteriously disappeared. Suddenly, all reappear brought back in a giant ball of light.

The scene does, to a certain extent, remind me of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, but “The 4400″ continues where, “Close encounters” end with a lot of people coming back.

As some of the returnees show unusual abilities, fear and suspicion arises.

What I particularly like in this series is a continued story through the series, each season always ending with a completely new – and often surprising – situation.

Characters are believable, most episodes feel well written, produced and acted.

Some people seem to complain about short (in this case 13 episode) seasons, but I think a lot of series may benefit from the shorter seasons, giving writers – and the whole team – the possibility of giving their best without running out of steam.

Doctor Who

Saturday, June 28th, 2008 | Doctor Who, film and tv, scifi | No Comments

I was just watching the last but one episode of Doctor Who for this season, and …. OMG … I have to wait another week for the conclusion …. *what* a *cliffhanger* !!

Jekyll – a BBC TV miniseries

Sunday, May 25th, 2008 | film and tv, novel, scifi | 1 Comment

The miniseries – written by Steven Moffat is a modern day story based on the famous classic story “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” by Robert Louis Stevenson. Jekyll is not really an adaptation, but a rather a present day continuation of the classic story.

The brilliant research scientist Dr. Jackman, wonderfully played by James Nesbitt, has the experience of blackouts in his life, where an alternative personality totally take control, as well as some visible physiological changes take place. The resulting Mr Hyde is (not unexpectedly) a darker, more violent personality.

The story is very well told, with some rather unexpected twists and turns, the least surprising element being that the original “Jekyll/Hyde” story is not fictional at all, and the assumed to be fictional Dr. Jekyll was a historical person, and Dr. Jackman, abandoned by his mother as an infant, is a descendant of the original Dr Jekyll – well – really of Mr Hyde, since Dr Jekyll had no (official) descendants. Even the old photos of Dr Jekyll show a stunning resemblance with Dr Jackman.

The story features an unknown organisation, claiming to have waited for more than 100 years to find and “cultivate” a “Mr. Hyde”. Also we get a revelation of what really caused Mr. Hyde to appear.

At the end of the story, when we should think the story is over, there is a wonderful revelation showing that the story never really ends.

Moffat writes a wonderfully dark story – without being totally overtaken by the darkness, this is first class drama.

This is classic style science fiction – a good continuation of the classic story. A story that has entered into our cultural heritage, these days essentially everyone knows the reference to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – it has entered as a phrase in English and many other languages.