Woking, Early 2007. Byebye

War Of The Worlds In Woking 2007 Trailer, set in Woking, as it should be. Back the roots of the original H.G. Wells story.

Richard K. has done a splendid job of rendering Woking to dust in a digital attack from ’scrutinising lifeforms’. From smart sound effects, to ‘heart rendering’ (read: hilarious) explosions of landmarks in and around Woking.

The voiceover and music, which I believe are from Jeff Wayne’s Musical War Of The Worlds, is absolutely perfect.

Even though it’s only two and a half minutes long, it packs a real punch. The tension actually builts as the invaders come closer to Earth. The digital effects fit in well, and I love the bit where … ah, but that’d be telling. Just watch it!

I bet some people wish they’d digitally blown up some of the dives though, those places are frequented by aliens already.

BTW, Thanks to all the people who emailed me on this, it must be just about everyone I know, especially Paul cos he got the first email across.

Now, I’m off the play it just one more time…

See images of the actual War Of The Worlds Martian Sculpture which is in Woking.

Q) Can you tell me what the serial numbers on the Starship Enterprise stand for? Many thanks.

A) It doesn’t stand for anything.

The Star Trek Encyclopedia states:

“NCC doesn’t stand for anything. It was devised by Matt Jefferies, art director of the first Star Trek series. Jefferies, who is a pilot, based NCC on 20th century aircraft registration codes. In such 20th century usage, an “N” first letter refers to an aircraft registered in the USA. A “C” second letter refers to a civil aircraft.

Jefferies added a second “C”, just because he thought it looked better. Think of it as being like the arbitrary three-letter code that’s part of automobile license plate numbers in many states.”

Great Scifi For Trekkers!

Bob Lock has informed us of his debut dark/SF/F novel Flames Of Herakleitos which is being published in March.

There will be a book launch in The Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea at 7pm on 23rd March.

Steve Upham who runs Screaming Dreams and the ezine Estronomicon has decided to go into publishing and this book and Neil Davies’ The Midnight Hour are his first two.

He also has signed up quite a number of well-known names for a couple of anthologies that are due out later in the year. Some of them are:
Rhys Hughes
Gary McMahon
Steve Redwood
Paul Kane
Steve Lockley
Paul Evans
John L Probert and many more.

Bob also mentions he’s been fortunate enough to have had Flames top the best seller’s chart in the SF genre on the Youwriteon site (which is sponsored by The Arts Council of England) for nearly all of 2006/7.

It has been read by the SF author Neal Asher who enjoyed it and allowed Bob to use a quote of his for back-of-book-blurb.

The Day Easter Suddenly Went Scifi

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for the most obvious and unfunny jokes which I’m going to use on this. There’s no eggcuse really.

This is a really cool and eggsellent idea: Why settle for boring old Cadbury’s East Eggs, when you can get
Doctor Who Easter Eggs!!! As well as the Easter Eggs, there’s also Easter Egg cupholders!!!!

“Eggsterminate!”

GUD Magazine (Greatest Uncommon Denominator) Issue 0 Promo : Spring 2007

Printed: $10 (2 for $18)
PDF: $3.50

According to the blurb at the beginning of the book, the team behind GUD Magazine consist of Mike Coombes, Sal Coraccio, Kaolin Fire (Instigator), Sue Miller (All editors), Julia Bernd (Copy Editor), Sue Miller (Layout) and their accompanying website by Kaolin Fire.

GUD Magazine describes itself as publication which contains literary and genre fiction, poetry, essays, and art and features authors and artists from around the world. GUD Magazine pays semi-pro rates for content and pays royalties on the profits of the sales of the magazine, effectively making the contributors shareholders for that issue. That is a neat idea, as the shareholders would, of course, do their utmost to promote the issue to increase the fruits of their labour.

It is available for purchase in print and electronic (PDF) format. It is published twice yearly, although they expect to go to four issues a year in our second year of publication. The initial print run for Issue 0 was 200 copies, and they are investigating distributorship for the magazine within the US and abroad. They expect the circulation to grow as word gets out.

So, what does this new publication look like? Well, it certainly isn’t like any pulp publication I’ve seen before. It’s roughly the same size as Asimov’s and Fantasy And Science Fiction - more of a paperback size than magazine size. It consists of 196 pages and is bound solidly, with a tight spine like a book. The paper is good quality, it looks like its been selected for its readability, especially in sunlight; it’s a lower contrast pulp (i.e. not completely white) making it much easier on the eyes. And it works.

The cover is somewhat mysterious and a little weird. You can see it above - basically it’s digital art - something to look at for a bit, then to turn the page. I’m not really a fan of this kind of art (unless it jumps out and throttles my senses), but there again it sure does look weird, and this is, I believe, how GUD Magazine is being marketted - just that little different from usual.

It seemed a shame, but I had to actually turn the nicely bound book’s cover, bend it slightly out of shape, and…
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Sunshine
“Somewhere out there a star is dying; if it dies, we die.”

The Sun is dying, and mankind is dying with it. Our last hope: a spaceship and a crew of eight men and women. They carry a device which will breathe new life into the star. But deep into their voyage, out of radio contact with Earth, their mission is starting to unravel. Soon the crew are fighting not only for their lives, but their sanity.

The film once again pairs director Danny Boyle with writer Alex Garland and producer Andrew Macdonald, who previously teamed up for the thinking person’s zombie film, 28 Days Later.

The cast is led by Rose Byrne (Troy), Cliff Curtis (Whale Rider), Chris Evans (Fantastic Four), Troy Garity (After The Sunset), Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later), Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai), Benedict Wong (Dirty Pretty Things) and Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon).

In Cinemas April 6th 2007.
Certificate 15. Run time 108 mins.

Media Links And Screen Shots Follow:
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Aphelion : Tenth Anniversary Issue

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

Not many SF magazines make it to their tenth anniversary, and it’s certainly a rarity to find a magazine that has been on the web for a whole decade.

Aphelion : The Webzine of Science Fiction and Fantasy has done just that, and in this month’s anniversary issue they are presenting the best stories from their first three years 1997-9, a process that will continue for the next three months as they showcase the best stories from the past ten years. There is also a selection of stories from editor Dan Hollifield’s own Mare Inebrium series, a shared universe set in a spaceport bar that many writers have contributed to over the years. Plus more new stories too.

Apart from having reached such a significant milestone there are other things that make Aphelion stand out. It’s one of the few magazines where you actually get feedback from the readers. The forum regularly contains comments on most of the stories from each issue, whether praise or constructive criticism, from readers who are often writers themselves. The editors really work with you to suggest improvements to your submissions, rather than just sending a rejection. It’s a very welcoming place for new writers.

Whether you just want a variety of short stories to read, or you’re looking for a good place to start as a writer, Aphelion is certainly to be recommended.

Psychedelia For The 2000s

A Scanner Darkly is the long awaited adaptation of the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, directed by Richard Linklater. I say long awaited because it was in post production for something like two years, having the animation/rotoscoping added. Was it worth it?

I never managed to see this at the pictures (that’s a Brit word for Movie Theatre) because it was only on for a fleeting moment. So I can only imagine what impact it had on the viewing audience. Even on quite a big viewing screen, it is absolutely-focusyoureyes-wonderful to watch. The technique used is called rotascoping and involves painting over each frame with bright colours and taking some of the detail out. Each frame. Every single one of the eight umptillions (lots of) frames had to be converted by hand.

As there was such a huge team working on this task, they had have ‘rules’ which governed how certain angles looked of whichever person they were working. For example, Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) had a whole set of rules like the size of his beard, how scratchy it looked, how he should he look from the side etc etc. On your first viewing you’ll be too busy watching the effects to take any notice of the story.

A Scanner Darkly in itself is a wonder to watch; from the opening credits you get a sense of a cartoon feel, but a few seconds in and this dissipates. The stills you might have seen don’t really do the motion any justice. The images kind of ooze and wobble ever so slightly. No, personally, I’ve never done anything remotely like Substance D, which is the drug at the centre of the story, but I can imagine that if I ever did, it would have that effect on the visual cortex. (You get a good idea of how much is ‘added’ to the visual impact when you see the un-rotascoped footage; it’s just bland.)

The Scramble Suit effect is very pretty, with its constantly changing images of faces, bodies and clothes. If you watch closely (very closely - hovering on the pause button) you’ll see an image of Philip K. Dick himself. Think Yellow Submarine, but in a 21st Century way.

Unusually, I thought, was the line up for this film, simply because the main players are well known. There’s Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) as mentioned before, Ernie Luckman (Woody Harrelson), Donna Hawthorne (Winona Ryder), and James Barris (Robert Downey Jr.) at the centre of the story, in which Arctor is an undercover narcotics agent, in just a little bit too deep, who is ordered to spy on himself. The interplay between Reeves and Harrelson is priceless - just check out the ‘gears on the bike scene’.

This is most definitely a film which you will either understand straight off, or just sit there scratching your head. And if you’re like me, and tend to watch for visual details in a film, you’ll be watching this film over and over and over again… . . . . .

Substance-D. Don’t Do It!

Q) Hi just watching Dark Angel and during a break they said I could download the first episode of Heroes (the new upcoming sci fi series) from scifiuk. I cannot see it anywhere or anything about Heros.

What is going on?

A) This is the official Heroes Page.

And it sure does look like it’s gearing up to be quite a cool series.

Let’s hope the powers that be don’t can it after one series. Just getting the ‘Bring Back Heroes Petition’ drawn up as we speak…

Only joking, this series looks set to be one of many, so keep a close eye on story development.

More articles, images and interviews for Heroes on Scifi UK Review.

Succulent Scifi For All You Heroes Out There!

Related Link: Unlimited Movies Download Instantly Download Pay, Red hot, Newly Released & Popular Movies Free Here

DNA – The Source of Life, the Universe and Everything

By Simon Hope

Forty-two.

It’s like a Freemason’s handshake to fans of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Forty-two. The answer to life, the universe and everything. Just one of a series of clever in-jokes that bind millions of Hitchhiker fans around the globe.

In 1979, soon after publication of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, author Douglas Adams was invited to a book signing at a small science fiction shop in Soho. As he drove he was held up by what he assumed to be a demonstration. It was only on arrival that he realised the massive crowds were there to meet him. Rarely has a book, particularly a sci-fi comedy novel, created a following of such scale. The Hitchhiker’s Guide had morphed from a cult radio series into a publishing success overnight. A phenomenon was born.

Life
Douglas Noel Adams was born in Cambridge on 11 March 1952 (one of his favourite gags being that he preceded Crick and Watson’s own discovery of DNA in Cambridge by some nine months). After a strange start to life – Adams claimed to have made a habit of walking into lamp-posts as a child – he quickly found his vocation. By the age of eleven his first piece of writing had been accepted into print – a short story for Eagle annual. Despite the many detours he would take along the way, it appears the writing bug was unshakeable from that early age.
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Will Heroes Re-ignite British TV?

So you’re interested in one of the highest rating Scifi tv programmes since Lost?

Here at Scifi UK Review, we’re keeping a close eye on the series; to see how it progresses. Will it be canned halfway through, as such other delights as Farscape and I-Man were destined to be?

Heroes will be broadcast on the UK Scifi TV Channel from 19th February (a double bill of episode one and two), initially for 9 episodes, but judging by NBC’s decision to extend, it will be increased to 23 episodes!

From the creators of Lost, this explosive new drama entitled Heroes - a show about ordinary people discovering their extraordinary powers - is currently the number-one new show in America. Weekly figures are in excess of 14 million and increasing every week.

Heroes is predicted (not sure by who) to be a global phenomenon and looks set to grab the imagination of UK viewers when it premiers on the Scifi TV Channel in a few days time.

As a total eclipse casts its shadow across the globe, a genetics professor in India uncovers a secret theory – there are people with super powers living among us. Amongst these are a high school cheerleader who learns that she is totally indestructible; a gifted artist whose drug addiction enables him to paint the future; a young man who develops a way to stop time through sheer will power; and a single-mother stripper who learns that she has an alternate personality with homicidal tendencies. In Los Angeles, a jaded cop discovers that he can hear people’s thoughts, a revelation which puts him on the trail of an elusive and sadistic serial killer.

As we follow their lives week-by-week, we discover that their ultimate destiny is nothing less than saving the Earth from Armageddon.

Each blockbuster episode costs $2 million to make and is littered with CGI and special effects usually reserved for Hollywood films. The breath taking action sequences and cutting-edge drama are guaranteed to keep British viewers gripped from start to finish.

Creator Tim Kring says of the upcoming show, “We sort of made a pact internally that we weren’t going to be the show that made you wait for stuff.”

Working alongside Kring (also creator of long-running crime drama Crossing Jordan), is Damon Lindelof (Lost co-creator) and Jeph Loeb (television writing credits include Smallville and Lost, as well as writing credits for Batman and X-Men comics). With these credentials behind Heroes, there is little surprise that it has been hailed as X-Men meets Lost.

Find all articles on Scifi UK Review for Heroes.

If You Like Heroes, You’ll LOVE This!

Mutant Freak Rapes His Mother?

Q) I having been trying to find a scifi movie I saw years ago. I only remember a few scenes. The hero is a large man who is the product of a mutant raping his mother. He battles mutants, but is often rejected by other people. He meets a man who is a ‘freak’ in his own way. He has no hand/eye coordination and so cannot defend himself in a fight. His numerous brothers all have similar problems and they tease him. Does any of this sound familiar? It’s driving me crazy!

Thanks for any help.

A) Hmm not sure about this, but it could be an episode of The X-Files entitled ‘Home’ - Series 4 Episode 3, where Mulder and Scully find the remains of a malformed baby in a field and go investigating a derelict house. It’s one of the more unpleasant episodes. Or maybe it’s one of those weird 80s films done by the Troma - they all seemed to have malformed, radiation poisoned, brain damaged, characters in their films who did some pretty grotesque stuff.

If you’d like to ask a question, or answer this or any question in the Scifi QA area, then talk to us!

Fiction Magazine : Issue One

Reviewed By Gareth D. Jones

With the recent demise of both Scifantastic and Here and Now it was time once again for the doomsayers to emerge from the woodwork and proclaim the imminent end of the short fiction market. Fortunately we’re able to counter that with the launch last month of Hub, the forthcoming Murky Depths and this week issue #1 of Fiction magazine.

The team behind Fiction also come with that essential element for the launch of a new magazine – boundless optimism. In the editorial on the first page they acknowledge that the full-colour glossy paper hasn’t actually materialised, but throughout the magazine there’s a vibrancy and positivity that it can only go from strength to strength. The editorial and reviews are written in a friendly, informal style, and there are plenty of comments thrown in between to make you feel really involved in this new endeavour. The whole mag has the feel of a website brought to paper and, like the other two new magazines, this gives it a style and feel that stands out as something different.

So what of the fiction, which is, after all, the title of the magazine? There are three stories in this issue, a little mean I thought, but they are all of decent length and make the magazine a respectable 60 A5 pages.

The first story, Sam, is by Terence W Martin, who is coincidentally the editor of Murky Depths and who even more coincidentally lives about ½ a mile from me. The eponymous Sam is a mysterious old man who befriends and adopts an orphan boy. The two obviously have some kind of connection, and Sam is more than he seems, but while several years are briefly condensed there is still a good feel for the relationship that develops between them. What Sam wants out of the relationship and who he actually is are not startling when revealed, but the story comes across with a warmth and a sense of history that make it a pleasant read.

Paul May’s Motorway Madness is set on the automated motorways of the future. It mixes gadgetry and gimmicks with the old adage of a woman scorned; for the unfortunate chap driving along in his automated car his ex-lover happens to be one of the designers of the system. The tension builds nicely and the pages flashed by as quick as the billboards, keeping me hooked to the end.

An entirely too plausible crusade in the not too distant future is the setting for Martin McGrath’s Soldier of God. It’s full of action and adventure and portrays an air of cynicism and irony that lend it a convincing voice. It adds a nice variety to the collection and I’m looking forward to seeing what they bring us next time.

This one is just too funny not to put up (what the heck are bottle bottoms!!)

Q) Just been watching the scifi channel on telewest cable and in the break there was a competion advertised, supposedly, stating that there is a xbox 360 + star trek game to be won by answering an “a,b,c” type of question.

It gave a web address to enter the competition as follows……. scifi.uk.com.

Maybe I’m not looking in the correct place on your website, but all I can find in XBOX is the Prey competition, and it’s over and all winners have been notified.

Any help please…a link please…bottle bottoms!!!

Thankyou in anticipation

A) The Scifi UK TV Channel has big money competitions like that.

And of course, you can check out the competitions here on Scifi UK Review!

EUROPEAN ASTROFEST 2007, 9-10 FEBRUARY, KENSINGTON TOWN HALL, LONDON

Thanks to Roy Gray and Peter Bond, Royal Astronomical Society Press Officer at Astronomy Now.

Astronomers will be congregating in their thousands in Central London over the 9-10 February as Kensington Town Hall plays host to European AstroFest 2007, the largest astronomy exhibition and conference of its kind in Europe.

This two-day event, held in Kensington Town Hall, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX, is organised by ‘Astronomy Now’ magazine. Doors open at 9am and close at 6pm each day.

This year’s Astrofest will include a wide variety of speakers from all areas of astronomy, headlined this year by Sir Patrick Moore, Chris Lintott and Brian May, who will be discussing 50 years of ‘The Sky at Night’ and signing copies of their new book, ‘Bang! The Complete History of the Universe’.

Also present will be Michael Meyer, the lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Programme, who will be speaking on both days about NASA’s plans for the exploration of the red planet. Prof. Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (discoverer of pulsars), astrophotographer Damian Peach, astronomy historian Prof. Allan Chapman, Dr Tim O’Brien from Jodrell Bank, Iain Gilmour from the Open University and Reinder Bouma of the Royal Dutch Association for Meteorology and Astronomy have also been added to the list of speakers.

As well as the conference programme, AstroFest 2007 also features the largest exhibition of telescope and astronomical equipment dealers in Europe, with over thirty companies and organisations exhibiting across three floors. Dealers and exhibitors will include Telescope House, David Hinds Ltd, Orion Optics, Springer-Verlag, ‘Astronomy Now’ magazine and the British Astronomical Association.

Also present will be a portable Starlab planetarium presented by AstroAdventures, who will give attendees guided tours of the night sky that are fun for adults and children alike.

Tickets are still available for the conference sessions all-day Friday and Saturday afternoon. A single conference session (incorporating four lectures) costs £12.50; two sessions cost £23.00, and three sessions costs £31.50. Entrance into the exhibition only is £5 for adults and £2 for children. Tickets bought for the conference include entrance into the exhibition. However, tickets for the Saturday morning slot when Sir Patrick Moore will be speaking have now sold out.

FULL PROGRAMME
The full two-day programme can be found at:
www.astronomynow.com/astrofest