HUGO only genre success at Oscars 2012

So the long-winded orgy of self-congratulation that is Oscar Night is over the box office boosts (sorry I mean golden statuettes) have been handed out to those American projects that needed them. Actually, this year around it was a European silent movie THE ARTIST that took the major accolades, but in the more technical categories one film flew the flag for fantastic films and that film was Martin Scorsese's HUGO.

Winning for best visual effects, sound mixing, sound editing, cinematography and production design, HUGO did pretty well for itself, but won't be making the headlines.

To be fair, there weren't that many truly great science fiction or fantasy movies out there in the last year, so there wasn't much to choose from and the American academy is known to be averse to fantasy/sci fi so it shouldn't come as any great surprise.

Anyway, well done to HUGO. You done good.

FRINGE is back in the UK

The midseason break is over and FRINGE's fourth season returns to Sky TV on Wednesday 8th February.

Will Peter find a way to convince everyone that he really was a part of their lives? Will Olivia remember that she was in love with him and not her new partner? Will the Observers ever grow hair?

The chilliest sci-fi show on TV, FRINGE has season arcs to die for and characters that it's often hard to care about, but it's compulsive viewing and we're certainly glad to see it back.

Vampires Bite Back This Sunday

Sunday is to become the UK's Vampire Night as two popular shows return for their fourth seasons.

There's TRUE BLOOD, the story of Bon Temps, a deep south US town where everyone is apparently some sort of supernatural being. Sookie is a telepath and her true love Bill is a vampire. This is a decidedly grown up show with lashings of blood and more than the occasional amount of nudity thrown in.

Then there's the BBC's own vampire show BEING HUMAN in which vampires, ghosts and werewolves share a house. It sounds like the start of a joke, but this has been consistently one of the best supernatural shows for grown up people of the last few years. It is also probably a good time for new viewers to join the fun as the climactic events of last year's finale will necessitate some sort of reboot.

So, if vampires are your thing then Sunday is going to be your day.

George Lucas out of love

George Lucas is fed up with big budget movies following the reaction of studios to his new all-black cast war movie Red Tails and, according to him, fans telling him that he's a bad, bad person for making changes to the STAR WARS films that made his name and his fortune.

Well George, if you don't like people moaning about you changing the movies then dont' change them. I am sure my rocket science degree is in the post after working that one out.

It does raise an issue that we think deserves to be revisited and that is the relationship between author and audience.

When a work of art of any kind is released into the public arena it can be embraced in a way that becomes part of our popular culture. This creates a sort of contract between author and audience. The work of art becomes, in a way, the property of the audience as well as the person or people who created it. The audience rewards the author with money and enjoys the art. If the author then goes and alters the piece of art that was so enjoyed by the audience, that the audience invested in, then they break that trust. That's when the backlash starts.

STAR WARS is George Lucas's creation and he can do with it as he will, but it also belongs to the audience, especially the kids, so don't be surprised when messing about with it ticks people off.

Anyway, rant over.

UNDERWORLD AWAKENING leads US Box Office

The fourth in the not very good, but so very, very cool UNDERWORLD series stormed to the top of the US Box office chart this weekend, marking the comeback of Kate Beckinsale as the vampire lead Selene.

This time around, the threat from the Lycan (werewolves don't you know) is compounded by the fact that the humans learn of the existence of the ongoing war between the two species and set out to eradicate them both.

Then again, who cares? If Ms Beckinsale is squeezing into the tight rubber and pulling off the legs-spread action poses we'll be happy. That's what sold us the first two and what was sadly missing from the third.

Russell T Davies returns to kids' TV with Aliens vs Wizards

Colour us officially excited. The team that originally brought us The Sarah Jane Adventures is back together as Russell T Davies and Phil Ford work on Aliens vs Wizards, a production for CBBC, where The Sarah Jane Adventures found so much success. Russell T earned our love for bringing back DOCTOR WHO and then our undying worship for bringing back Sarah Jane Smith (the much missed Elisabeth Sladen) and giving her a show all of her own. Phil Ford worked on that show and made it almost as great as its parent show.

The idea of them getting back to work on this new outing, in which two young boys use magic and science to defeat alien machinations, is the kind of thing that will be getting us sitting down with our broods to see the results with extreme excitement. Unfortunately, those results won't be out until the Autumn.

Please lads, work fast.

New Dr Who Episodes Found

Fans of DOCTOR WHO have been given an early Christmas present this year with the announcement that two episodes of the classic series thought to have been lost forever have been found in Australia.

Coming from the stories Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace, starring William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton as the first and second incarnations of the peripatetic Time Lord.

The loss results from the early practice of wiping videotapes to be used again at a time when the idea that fans would want to rewatch this material in their living rooms forever wasn't even considered and videotape was expensive.

The full story can be found here.