BBC2 airs the 16th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. 
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Best known to mainstream audiences as the Lt. Gerard, the relentless cop pursuing The Fugitive in the 1960s, actor Barry Morse dies at the age of 89. London-born, he relocated to Canada in the 1950s, but landed many a part in U.S.-based productions. In SF circles, he remains best remembered for his one-season stint as the unflappable Professor Bergman on Space: 1999, and as a member of the international all-star cast of the 1980 BBC/NBC miniseries rendition of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles. He was instrumental in turning around the fortunes of Ontario’s Shaw Theatre Festival in the 1960s and ’70s, a task he took on out of his personal love of the works of playwright George Bernard Shaw.
BBC2 airs the 17th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. (more…)
Space Shuttle Atlantis lifts off on the 121st shuttle flight, a 13-day mission to deliver another laboratory module to the International Space Station. The European Space Agency’s Columbus lab module is ESA’s contribution to the station, and is attached to the recently-installed Harmony node over the course of three spacewalks. Aboard Atlantis for her 29th flight are Commander Steve Frick, Pilot Alan Poindexter, and mission specialists Stanley Love, Leland Melvin, Rex Walheim and Hans Schlegel. ISS Expedition 17 crewmember Leopold Eyharts travels to the station aboard Atlantis, while ISS Expedition 16 crewmember Daniel Tani returns to Earth on the shuttle in his place.
Actor Roy Scheider, best known for his portrayal of Chief Brody in the 1975 megahit Jaws and its 1978 sequel, dies at the age of 75. Well-known for his mainstream roles, he also starred in some fondly-remembered genre projects, including the movies Blue Thunder and 2010: The Year We Make Contact, and a two-year stint as Captain Nathan Bridger on seaQuest DSV. He was twice nominated for an Oscar, for The French Connection and All That Jazz.
Big Finish Productions releases the tenth episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. (more…)
BBC2 airs the 18th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. (more…)
BBC2 airs the 19th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. Freema Agyeman reprises her Doctor Who role as Martha Jones, and Alan Dale (24, Star Trek: Nemesis, Lost, Once Upon A Time) guest stars. (more…)
Cable channel Syfy airs the 11th (It’s Magic), 12th (The Programmer), and 13th (Mob.com) episodes of the near-future sci-fi series Level 9, starring Fabrizio Filippo (Queer As Folk, Delilah & Julis), Kate Hodge (She-Wolf Of London), and Michael Kelly (House Of Cards). Originally produced in 2000 and aired by UPN in the 2000-2001 season, the series was cancelled in 2001 with its final three episodes left unaired until Syfy runs a marathon of Level 9 repeats.
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BBC2 airs the 20th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. Freema Agyeman reprises her Doctor Who role as Martha Jones. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 105th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Colin Baker and India Fisher. (more…)
BBC2 premieres the 21st episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. Freema Agyeman reprises her Doctor Who role as Martha Jones. Richard Briers guest stars. The episode marks the TV writing debut of Joseph Lidster, whose first professionally published Doctor Who-related work had been a script for a Big Finish audio play submitted during a Big Finish “new talent” contest in 2002. (more…)
British toymaker Character Options releases a boxed set of action figures based on characters from the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas episode, Voyage Of The Damned. (more…)
British toymaker Character Options releases a wave of three action figure double-packs from the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures. Made in scale with the company’s popular range of Doctor Who toys, the spinoff characters do not sell well enough to justify the manufacture of a second series of figures. (more…)
Oscar-winning Film and TV composer Leonard Rosenman dies at the age of 83. Known for such movie scores as East Of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause (both starring James Dean), he also created the music for pivotal SF movies such as Fantastic Voyage, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Ralph Bakshi’s animated rendition of Lord Of The Rings, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes and Battle For The Planet Of The Apes. He also scored episodes of TV’s original Twilight Zone, Amazing Stories and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, among a great many others, including National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau specials.
The co-creator of the seminal “paper-and-dice” role playing game Dungeons & Dragons dies at the age of 69. Gary Gygax helped to devise the D&D system with Dave Arneson in 1974, and the game instantly took off, with players adoring its simultaneous escapism and complexity, and parents – usually having heard horror stories of a few bad apples – protesting the game vigorously. D&D created its own little empire for publisher TSR Inc., and numerous add-ons and imitations followed (including virtually the entire metal miniature gaming industry), influenced video and computer games, and inspired an animated series (whose production he was involved in) and movies. He still received – and enjoyed – fan mail from avid D&D players past and present.
BBC2 airs the 22nd episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. Nerys Hughes guest stars. (more…)
Big Finish releases a free CD with a stand-alone Doctor Who audio story starring Peter Davison, attached to the cover of Doctor Who Magazine issue #393. (more…)
Epic Records releases an expanded, remastered edition of the Alan Parsons Project‘s 1978 album Pyramid, with additional tracks from the original recording sessions. (more…)
Space Shuttle Endeavour lifts off on the 122nd shuttle flight, a 16 day mission to deliver two new key components of the International Space Station. The unpressurized portion of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kibo laboratory is delivered and attached, while the two-armed Dextre robotic arm system built in Canada is also installed. Aboard Endeavour for her 21st flight are Commander Dominic Gorie, Pilot Greg Johnson, and mission specialists Garrett Reisman, Robert Behnken, Mike Foreman, Takao Doi and Rick Linnehan. Reisman remains on the ISS, while station astronaut Leopold Eyharts hitches a ride back to Earth aboard the shuttle.
BBC2 airs the 23rd episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. Julian Bleach guest stars. (more…)
The Star Trek fan production Of Gods And Men releases its second webisode to the internet. Directed by Tim Russ (Star Trek: Voyager’s Tuvok) and with a script by several writers associated with 1990s TV Star Trek, it also boasts appearances by Star Trek cast members Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Cirroc Lofton, Garrett Wang, and Russ himself, among others. (more…)
Epic Records releases an expanded, remastered edition of the Alan Parsons Project‘s 1985 album Stereotomy, with additional tracks from the original recording sessions. (more…)
Phantom Records releases Roger Joseph Manning Jr.’s solo album Catnip Dynamite. (more…)
Science fiction writer, science essayist and all-around futuristic thinker Sir Arthur C. Clarke dies at the age of 90. In addition to writing such seminal SF novels as “2001: a space odyssey” (and simultaneously writing its screenplay) and “Rendezvous With Rama” (and their various sequels and spinoffs), he also posited – in a 1945 paper – a network of communications in fixed orbits above the Earth, exchanging signals between the ground and one another, some 20 years before the first steps were taken in that direction. (As a result, geosynchronous orbit is also referred to as “Clarke orbit.”) Even before that, he played a part in early work on radar as a member of the RAF during World War II. In the 1950s, he moved to Sri Lanka, but kept up a prodigious schedule of writing both fiction and non-fiction, as well as appearances ranging from brief movie roles (both as himself and otherwise) to being a television commentator on the Apollo moon missions.
BBC2 airs the 24th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. Tom Price guest stars. (more…)
Pan Macmillan Australia publishes music journalist Chris Bourke’s biography of the recent-disbanded NZ/Australian rock band Crowded House, written with extensive interview access to all of the members (as well as colleagues and family members) of the band’s original lineup. (more…)
BBC Video releases, as part of the DVD box set The Tripods: The Complete Series, Ken Freeman’s notional soundtrack for Tripods: The Pool Of Fire, the unmade third season of the BBC’s 1980s sci-fi series The Tripods. (more…)
BBC2 airs the 25th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. James Marsters guest stars. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 11th episode of the new Eighth Doctor Who audio dramas, starring Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. (more…)
Big Finish Productions releases the 106th Doctor Who audio drama in its main monthly range, starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. (more…)
Space: 1999 and Doctor Who scriptwriter Johnny Byrne dies at the age of 73. One of the most prolific Space: 1999 scribes, he helped to guide that show’s creative direction as the show’s script editor and later collaborated with fan filmmakers on a short, Message From Moonbase Alpha, wrapping the show up and leaving things open to further explore the story with new characters. He also had a literary SF career stretching back into the 1960s, as well as writing the screenplays for several British-produced films.
BBC2 airs the 26th episode of Russell T. Davies’ science fiction series Torchwood, a more adult-themed spinoff of Doctor Who. James Marsters guest stars. This episode wraps up the show’s second season, and is the final appearance of two of Torchwood’s long-standing members, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper. (more…)
Sci-Fi Channel airs the 54th episode of Ronald D. Moore’s re-imagining of Battlestar Galactica. This is the premiere of the show’s fourth and final season, though numerous factors – including a lengthy recent strike among members of the Writers’ Guild of America and Sci-Fi Channel’s scheduling decisions – will controversially spread the last season out over two years. (more…)
The 741st episode of Doctor Who (the 43rd since the series’ revival) airs on BBC1. Kicking off the fourth season of the revived series, this episode brings back Catherine Tate’s character from The Runaway Bride (2006’s Christmas special episode) as the Doctor’s new companion. The season’s running theme – the return of Rose – is also introduced in this episode with a cameo appearance by Billie Piper, though fan sites have already reported her presence at location filming. (more…)