Never mind the swine flu, the stabbings, the bombs in Jakarta or London’s mayor calling a quarter of a million quid ‘chicken feed’, SciFiNow issue 30 is on sale now. Buy, consume, obey!
It’s Friday, and you know what that means. Michael O’Connor is here to bring you a slightly acerbic round-up of the week’s main headlines on SciFiNow.co.uk, from Torchwood’s tumor-like growth, to the five days of Christmas Con. It may not be PC, it may not be particularly well-written, but at least it seems to happen without fail every Friday. Small mercies, eh?
Torchwood bucks ratings trend – Unbelievably, Torchwood continues to be as popular as ever, with its five-part event series scoring big (in UK terms) for the Beeb. A fourth season seems more or less inevitable, except for the small, pesky problem that they keep killing off their main cast. Was anybody else reminded of that scene from Friends where Joey gets on a rocket ship on stage by the way, when they were showing us Jack’s ’emotional’ departure.
It’s official: Captain America is back – I think I’ve come to the sad and inevitable conclusion that I’ve outgrown comics. No longer can I forgive the insipid writing that brings back superheroes, particularly after such an emotive scene as Cap’s death at the end of Civil War. Their explanation? Time bullets. Freaking time bullets. Great, why don’t you just destroy my faith in humanity next?
SFN’s Guide To Comic-Con – Comic-Con is easily the biggest event of its kind in the world, and to help you prepare, we’ve sifted through the programme and given you a handy guide to the biggest panels (and the nicest boozers) in San Diego. Aren’t we brilliant? To check out all of the sections of the guide, click these handy links for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Viva la Con!
Updated: Bill Nighy cast in Deathly Hallows – Fresh from the…er, less salubrious climes of the Underworld franchise, Bill Nighy will be rocketing into the wizarding world in the role of Rufus Scrimgeour. He seems pretty excited about it, or at the very least, pleased that he’ll be saving face at cocktail parties for not being the only English actor to not appear in Potter. Oh, the social shame that would have come his way, had he not landed the part.
Sci-fi scores big at the Emmys – ‘Big’ being relative here, or at the very least, taken with a pinch of artistic licence. Essentially, science fiction has been more or less stiffed by the Academy once more, with only Lost being up for a best drama award. The rest are in more technical areas such as stunt coordination, sound editing and visual effects. There goes Battlestar’s bash at the lauded gong, I guess, although the last season just didn’t deserve a drama nod.
