Musings of a Babylon Lurker

A Somewhat SciFi-ish holiday

Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | Babylon 5, Doctor Who, film and tv, general, scifi | No Comments

I am now well back from my holidays, having celebrated Christmas and New Year with family and friends.

Apart from getting to see the people “back home” I and a needed restful day or two, I also got to see my oldest friend one I have known since 1969 – so this year will see our 40th anniversary of friendship. I spent some days there watching a fair amount of Scifi:

Jekyll :
A modern continuation, set in the present day, of the classic story by Robert Louis Stephenson. I liked it already, and the renewed viewing even improved on my impression. Link to a review from the earlier viewing.

Dr Who Season 4 :
A lovely season with rather good episodes, only “The Doctor’s Daughter” is a little weak, but not really bad. Reviews of single episodes will follow later.

Dr Who S1 The Beginning :
I recently got the box “The beginning” with the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell. We watched the first two stories of the series, “An unearthly Child” and the very first “Dalek” story. I am surprised how well written the stories are, nicely acted, the early Doctor Who has more of the “mystery sense” than the modern ones, even if the special effects are not up to modern standards. The story becomes more important than “big explosions” etc. More detailed reviews later.

Babylon 5 :
We remembered Majel Barrett Roddenberry by watching the episode “Point of No Return” where she plays Lady Morella, third wife of the late Emperor Turhan, and a seer. Wonderful performance from the “First Lady of Star Trek”.

Having seen that a few more of Season 3 episodes was what we wanted, so we ‘watches some selected ones finishing with “Z’Ha’Dum”. It is always good to rewatch Babylon 5, so a worthy way of finishing the visit (sort of a “2 person mini convention”)

Finally I found some time to be alone and read Kevin J. Anderson’s “Last Days of Krypton”. It is a good read, the disparate elements of the legend have been weaved well into a single story, linking The Phantom Zone, Jor-El’s science -experiments, the Jor-El and Lara story, General Zod and his companions, the folly of the Council, the fate of Kandor, and finally the fate of the planet Krypton itself. There is a nice surprise in what finally causes the destruction of Krypton.

Now for some more reading : I am a member of the Live Journal group hp_in_depth (Harry Potter), and we just started reading, two chapters per week, “The Goblet of Fire”, so I will be busy reading some evenings of the week.

Tags: Babylon 5, Doctor Who, film and tv, holiday, Krypton, scifi

Podcast : SciFi Talk

Monday, November 24th, 2008 | podcast, scifi | No Comments

“SciFi Talk”, as far as I understand it, is Tony Tellado’s continuation of a radio show. It comes in a slightly irregular scheme (if any), but often I see two or three episodes in the same week.

Interviews, round table discussions etc about all things SciFi, Fantasy, Horror etc is the stuff of “SciFi Talk”. He generally appears enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the people he talks to, to a degree that I occasionally find too much.

Also, I am not much int the Horror genre, so I will skip many of the interviews.

This podcast is still in my iTunes feed, but if there are 2 or 3 downloads I do not always feel the need to get them all.

I think it will stay on my list for a while yet, but it is one of the podcasts under consideration for cancelling.

Link :

SciFi Talk

Tags: podcast, scifi

H.G. Wells, Orson Welles : “War of the Worlds” radio play

Sunday, November 16th, 2008 | scifi | No Comments

On 30th October 1938 a radio play caused mass panic in the U.S. I am, of course “talking” about the famous play “War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles based on H.G. Wells’ equally famous story.

Well, well, 70 years since that happened.

I have listened to the play a few times, and I find it fascinating story telling. OK – this is not a character piece, but the radio play is so well organised, as if a normal musical entertainment program is interrupted by news flashes, telling the story.

Some may ask, why the panic ? In order to understand that we must remember that at that time there was no mobile phones, no internet, no hundreds of tv (or radio channels) – even fixed telephones were not that common. What *was* available ? I should think one – maybe two radio programs. It was just not possible – like it is today – to go and check on the net, or CNN/BBC/whatever news channel you wanted. Information was just not there to find.

True, a radio play made in a similar way today simply could not have this effect. It is too easy to check news items for that.

Tags: padio play, scifi