Death By Sci Fi TV - and we love it

Way back in July 2008 we bemoaned the lack of anything remotely genre to watch on TV. Well, here we are two years later and it appears that we are going to have to become hermits to watch all of the new stuff that is piping down our teletubes some time soon.

New show HAVEN has just started on Syfy in the UK and joins its stablemates EUREKA and WAREHOUSE 13 as things we're goggling at. Eureka's in its fourth season and WAREHOUSE 13 in its second, but we're still enjoying them both.

BBC1's got MERLIN to fill up our Saturday nights and CBBC is just about to plunge into THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES once again, giving us our weekly dose of the DR WHO universe whilst Matt Smith is off twiddling his thumbs

THE VAMPIRE DIARIES is back on ITV4 with another season of toothsome adventures, whilst Sky brings back the third season of FRINGE and the second season of STARGATE UNIVERSE.

And there are more shows slated for the near future as well. How will we cope? We're gonna need a time machine just to keep up.

Happy viewing.

The Sci Fi Freak's Guide To The Televisual Galaxy goes on Kindle

The Sci Fi Freak Site's own encyclopedia of science fiction, fantasy and supernatural shows is now available for Amazon's Kindle device. This means that as well as the print and download versions available at http://www.lulu.com/browse/search.php?fListingClass=0&fSearch=sci+fi+freak%27s+guide+to+the+televisual+galaxy this comprehensive guide to all the fantastic television shows around can be accessed through any gadget that has a kindle app on it including the ipad and android phones.

Five Reasons Why We Love Chuck

Tonight marks the end of CHUCK's third season on Channel 1 (Virgin 1 as was) and we're going to miss it despite being safe in the knowledge that there's another season yet to come. Here are the top five reasons why we love CHUCK.

1. IT'S CHEERFUL - In today's depressing world of austerity measures forced on us by governments paying to bail out the incompetent and greedy bankers, we all need a little bit of happiness and sunshine in our lives. Despite moments of angst here and there, CHUCK is relentlessly upbeat and happy and we love it for that. The default expression on most of the characters' faces are smiles (well, OK usually confused frowns, but smiles are a close second), there is lots of fun banter and only the bad guys are mean. Chuck may have lost some of his innocence, but the show retains most of its.
2. GUEST SPOTS - this third season has had ex-superman Brandon Routh in it throughout, but there have been plenty of other familiar faces that have popped up, but in fun cameos rather than just tawdry stunt casting. Ex-starship captain and quantum leaper Scott Bakula is great as Chuck's oddball father in the largest supporting role, but Jordana Brewster's short time as Chuck's squeeze in season 2 was also pretty good. Others who have made single episode appearances are Christopher Lloyd, Swoosie Kurtz, Armand Assante, Kristin Kreuk and Gary Cole.
3. THE TRIO - When casting the lead trio, the producers got things absolutely right. Zachari Levy has an easy everyman charm that anchors the show as the central characer, Yvonne Strahovski is gorgeous and can handle the action stuff with aplomb, but also has the hint of vulnerability that the part requires and Adam Baldwin can bring gales of laughter with a simple frustrated growl. Make no mistake, these three are the show.
4. THE MINOR CHARACTERS - Everyone gets good lines in Chuck whether it's the General who is only ever seen (to date anyway) on screen, the best friend, sister, Captain Awesome or Buy More manager. Though some of these are increasingly sidelined as the show develops they continue to get the laughs. The various bad guys who appear from week to week, usually bemused by the trouble they are caused by the apparently incomptent Chuck, are usually good value as well.
5. JEFFSTER - The musical duo that is Jeffster (Scott Krinsky and Vik Sahay) are stuck somewhere between the so bad they're brilliant and the just plain bad. Their performances on the show are utterly superb entertainment and they even performed live at Comic Con. Jeffster Rock - though whether that's a good thing is open to question.

The BBC 2 Science Fiction Movie Season

There was a time when the best way to see a film at home wasn't on a shiny disc. There was a time when the debate over 2001-A SPACE ODYSSEY on VHS or Betamax hadn't even been thought of. There was a time when the only way to watch a science fiction film at home was to catch it on BBC2 as part of the regular science fiction film seasons that used to pop up there.

Part of the reason, a quite sizeable part in truth, that I am an incurable sci fi freak is because BBC 2 would schedule a season of science fiction 'classics' at a reasonable hour of the evening (6.30 or something like that) so that I could watch them between dinnertime and bedtime.

The films were always the same ones, but that didn't matter. Some of them were good, some of them were great and some of them were bloody awful, but they were science fiction and they were there. What more does a growing geek need?

It was there that I first discovered the real joys of SILENT RUNNING, FORBIDDEN PLANET, COLOSSUS - THE FORBIN PROJECT, WAR OF THE WORLDS and THEM! These are films that I have loved all my life it seems and copies of them on tape and disc have always lived in my house. Giant ants, cute robots, killer computers, invading martians and a machine as big as a planet. That was the stuff of imagination.

In the second rank of movies there would be THIS ISLAND EARTH and  WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE - pulp to be sure, but quality pulp.

And then there was INVADERS FROM MARS and TARANTULA, movies that were never any good, but always got trotted out to fill out the season.

Without these movies I wouldn't be the sci-fi obsessive that I am. Some would say that's a good thing, but if the alternative were an interest in Morris Dancing? I shudder to consider it.

So, a heartfelt thank you to the schedulers of BBC2 for helping me to find the larger universe that is available out there. And if you fancy doing a quick season of sci fi movies on BBC 2 I could get my kids to watch.

X Men First Class in Oxford

Hollywood came to Oxford (again) as the film crew for X-MEN: FIRST CLASS filmed in sites around the city. They came prepared to create their own rain, but the city provided the real thing for free.

The film, which tells the story of the early lives of Professor X and Magneto, both of whom attended Oxford University in the '60s, hence the period costume being worn by the bored looking extras.

Stars James McAvoy and Jennfer Lawrence were watched by a small group of onlookers (hey it was raining quite hard) as they tried to meet up on at the entrance to the Sheldonian theatre on Broad Street. At least it was easy for them to act out being wet.

The streets around were filled with period vehicles parked up for the wider shots and in these days of austerity measures it seems like the X-Men are being forced to give up the X-Jet for the less glamorous X-Bus.

The film is being directed by Matthew Vaughn and was written by Jane Goldman. Since this is the team behind KICK ASS and STARDUST we have high hopes for it to restart the franchise.

Give Us Our Endings!

In the UK we're quite lucky because when the latest US sensation comes to our screens we already know whether it's been cancelled or whether it is steaming ahead into its second, third or fourth season. This means that we can already choose whether or not we want to invest ourselves in getting to know and like a bunch of characters in time for them to disappear without a trace, usually left hanging over a cliff in any number of life-threatening situations.

Nobody likes having their favourite shows axed by any television network (look at the campaign to get JERICHO reinstated), but the truth is that any show is going to go out the window if it doesn't have the following necessary to bring in the big bucks from the advertisers (we're lucky to have the BBC in that respect as well).

Sometimes our science fiction loving counterparts over there in the US don't even get a chance to see a whole series before it is taken off the air. The likes of HAUNTED, POINT PLEASANT, EASTWICK and one of the all time favourites (according to the number of visits the page on The Sci Fi Freak Site gets compared to all the others) AMERICAN GOTHIC didn't get a full run out on the US station first time around. All of these were shown in full (though not necessarily in the right order) in the UK when they were shown.

Now it doesn't matter how quickly a show fails to make the grade in terms of money and success, it will pick a number of fans no matter how short a time it gets. Those fans will be hurt by the sudden loss of the show. We're starting to think here that every time we get to like something it gets summarily axed. Those fans deserve to be shown a little bit of respect by the networks that commissioned the show in the first place.

We believe, therefore, that a new contracting system should be entered into that compel anyone commissioning a new series to offer a TV movie sorting out all of the hanging plot threads to any of the shows that are cancelled.

That might sound a bit much, but we refer you to three examples where this has been done. The first is FARSCAPE, which was cancelled after the end of the fourth season with two major characters left in bits (literally). In order to resolve that particular storyline, a two part mini-series known as THE PEACEKEEPER WARS was undertaken and gave some sort of closure to those who had invested four years in following the Crichton/Aeryn love story, not to mention the fate of the muppets in the show. Second up is ALIEN NATION, which only got one season, but left half of alien cop George's family dying of a virus engineered to kill the newcomers. A TV movie followed entitled DARK HORIZON that effectively tied up two of the major plot threads as well as the more personal character stories. So successful was that movie that it was followed by three more of variable quality. Finally we give you FIREFLY, the cancellation of which is still a cancer that eats away at the very souls of those who fell in love withe show and every one of its characters in its very short TV run (you can tell we liked it can't you?). OK, so the movie here was released into cinemas, but the principles applies that it gave some sort of closure for the characters and was voted as the film of the year by the viewers to the ever popular BBC film review show Film (insert year here).

If TV networks want our time to fuel their profitability (and make no mistake that viewer numbers are all they care about because that's what makes the money) then we should expect a little faith in return.

So come on network moguls, when you have to kill off our favourite shows then throw us the bone of a resolution.

Back To The Future back in the cinema

In case you didn't know it, the BACK TO THE FUTURE trilogy is out on Blu Ray in October and to celebrate the fact, the first movie going back to the cinema for a short time only.

Should you go?

Well first off why haven't you already got the trilogy on DVD? It's been around for long enough and it's one of the most entertaining trilogies that the genre has produced. If you have, then you've seen the film more than enough times to know it off by heart, so what's the point? It's true that the film doesn't have a lot in the way of blow your mind special effects to seem so different on the big screen or to necessitate the upgrade from DVD to Blu Ray.

That said, seeing any film on the big screen is an improvement. When we saw movies that we'd only seen and loved on TV (THE WIZARD OF OZ, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, BLADE RUNNER - yes we know) we were utterly blown away by them on a big screen. These were whole new experiences and subsequent TV viewings have also improved as a result.

But there's the cost implication to consider. Take a family of four to the cinema near us (not including petrol and sweeties etc) and you're looking at £28. Amazon.co.uk has the Blu Ray trilogy priced up at...wait for it...£28.

So treat the family to a great night's cinema or treat them to three nights great TV?