Today's SciFi Programmes

JTA

I thought I'd start a new thread where we can inform each other of forthcoming scifi programmes on the telly, that way we won't miss anything.
I'll kick off with the following :

tonight (wed march 8) 21.00-00.00 on Five : a Farscape movie - the Peacekeepers war.

for all farscape fans. and others.

JTA

I've noticed (too late) that ITV4 has started to show "the Planet of the Apes" series, every sunday in front of Space 1999.
Thanks everybody for informing me (why do you think I started this thread !).

Channel Hopper

Dark Water is on Canal 18 (30W) this everning

http://www.canal18.tv/programa.jsp?p...0132393&dias=0

And Resident Evil - Apocalypse , Canal + France, , 7.55 pm

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JTA

thank you, channel hopper. Don't think I can receive C+ France, and I'll have a look for Canal 18 this evening, but other people might be interestested.

JTA

Babylon 5 : Thirdspace movie, tonight on SciFi 8pm.
the Vorlons in search of God, only to find an enemy more powerful than they could imagine.....

rolfw

Very good viewing for B5 fans.

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JTA

farscape is back, starting friday April 8 on SciFi at 8 pm. From radiotimes :
"Season of Death
Science fiction drama series about a lost astronaut who finds himself in the midst of an intergalactic war. Crichton has been left helpless and virtually speechless after an operation to remove the Scorpius chip from his brain."

looks like episode 1 of series 3 ? They should add the episode numbers, would make things easier.

In good SciFi tradition, repeated on sunday at 7 pm, and probably also on other days later in the week

mind you, I prefer the BBC THREE broadcasts for better quality (16:9 ànd subtitles).

JTA

and this is for Dr Who fans : BBC FOUR is having a 1973 week, starting this saturday. They're showing "Dr Who - the green death" on monday, tuesday and wednesday between 7 and 8 (2 episodes back-to-back).
from radiotimes :
Jon Pertwee,Katy Manning,Nicholas Courtney,Stewart Bevan,Jerome Willis

"The Green Death

Sci-fi series. The Doctor discovers that Global Chemicals hides a sinister secret, while Jo discovers what lurks in the old mine."
Jon Pertwee,Katy Manning,Nicholas Courtney,Stewart Bevan,Jerome Willis

JTA

tonight at 8 at SciFi - another Babylon 5 movie : a call to arms.
Earth is really getting it this time !

edit : tonight would be tuesday april 4th :-)

JTA

dr who again : BBC THREE are giving a 3-hour special this sunday between 7 and 10 pm - description taken from Radio Times :
Time's a funny fella, isn't it? To a Time Lord, it's nothing of course, but it can really drag if you're a fan waiting for the new series of Doctor Who. This three-hour celebration will jolly us along until next Saturday. The heart of the beast is a Confidential documentary, harking back to the success of last year's revival, and opening the Tardis doors on a few secrets from forthcoming adventures. Six days and counting...


which is a real pain in the ass as the last hour coincides with the movie Atilla the Hun which looks promising too (2 part movie, Saturday & Sunday on ITV4 between 9-11 pm)

wait a sec - it says 6 days and counting - so there's a new Dr Who series coming up next week !

JTA

I'll be damned.
Crusade, Babylon 5's spin-off is just starting now on SciFi !
following Farscape, every friday from 9 to 10. Should have known, they showed the pilot movie last tuesday.

Channel Hopper

If you can understand (or ignore) the Russian , then there are a couple of interesting programmes on Channel 1 (ORT) tonight.
12597 V 27500 3/4 Hotbird 13 East

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JTA

oops - seen too late
what did I miss ? I don't mind any foreign subtitles, as long as it isnt' a voice-over. A few months ago I watched (part of) a movie on some east-european channel (think it was Enter Movie). You had this ONE (male) person voicing ALL the characters in the movie, male and female. I'm still rolling over the floor when I think about that one

Channel Hopper

Rarely voiceovers on ORT

It was a Russian/BBC film on a US/Russian conflict in space
I've recorded it, as I had to go out early last night. Will flick through the tape tonight

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JTA

We've got another fine scifi evening today:
the original Stargate movie is on FX at 7:45pm
another B5 movie (legend of the rangers) is on SciFi at 8pm (or 9pm if you watch it on SciFi+1)
and that's not counting the dr Who's, Champions, Andromeda's and Gallactica's we're having today.

Star Trek fans should check out the SciFi schedule starting this friday, as they're gonna show all the Star Trek movies, day after day, starting this friday April 14th at 10pm with "generations".

and for the lucky ones with an Irish card : TV3 is showing the Matrix Reloaded this sunday at 9pm.

JTA

2 movies pop out tonight :
deep impact on BBC3 at 10pm. From Radio Times :
A huge comet is on a collision course with Earth in director Mimi Leder's science-fiction disaster movie, which gains a certain amount of credibility by highlighting the human side of the impending catastrophe. The frightening scenario focuses on TV reporter Téa Leoni, who stumbles upon the story while tracking down what she thinks is a Presidential indiscretion, and astronaut Robert Duvall, who leads a mission to intercept the threat in space. The chilling gravity of the situation is hauntingly evoked by the national lottery that's put in place to choose who will "survive" in an underground retreat. Leder adds gripping immediacy to executive producer Steven Spielberg's loose remake of Rudolph Maté's 1951 movie When Worlds Collide and caps it all with a spectacular display of epic destruction.

and a classic, the omega man on TG4 at 11:05 pm - Charlton heston in better days :
Post-apocalypse sci-fi in which the sole survivor of a biological war battles against a race of mutants to save humankind. In a devastated LA pervaded by vampire-like nocturnal albinos, the former medical researcher attempts to develop a cure for their condition, using his own blood as a base. But his efforts to rebuild civilisation and science face violent opposition. Based on Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend.

Channel Hopper

The Cybermen on Doctor Who tonight

My sister has already moved her settee a couple of feet forward.

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JTA

there's a new SciFi channel opening tonight at 22h00 CET, as part of the Spanish Digital+ package on Astra1 and Hispasat. Will be great to see some series starting from season one again. An English audio-track is available (actually it's an 'original soundtrack' channel which can be a bit of a surprise if you're watching a Chinese movie )

JTA

I see ITV4 has already started showing repeats of UFO on tuesday ?
don't they have anything else to show in prime-time ?
there's still lots of other "old" stuff around. Why show a repeat of a series that has just ended ? And what will they do after this repeat : show it again but now on thursday ?
looks like ITV4 is going to be the sky of ITC
endless repeats of the same series.

Channel Hopper

http://www.full-dreams.com/ufo/lady.html

There are reasons

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spiney

Tonight, John Carpener's The Thing at 10pm, ITV4.

Worth watching, but not as good as the Howard Hawks' 1950s version (in my opinion!).

Both films are versions of John Campbell's famous story Who Goes There?

see: http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~vampire/thing/thing.htm .
(this very good website - on Carpenter's film - also has Campbell's original sci fi story, worth reading! Click on "who goes there").

Stuff on the original film at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thi..._Another_World .

A famous scene in the original, where the arctic research base men spread out across the ice to estimate the spacecraft's size, is not just one of the most memorable sci fi movie scenes, but - I'd say - also one of the best ever scenes in movie history!
See: http://www.goodstuffcards.com/images...s/thething.jpg

(the original also gets shown on free tv, every so often, just wait....).

(((John Campbell was MR science fiction, the person who was most responsible - as editor of Astounding - for publishing the very best sci fi during the so-called "golden age". Many of the most famous stories - eg, Asimov's foundation trilogy - were only written after first being suggested, then commisioned, by Campbell!))).
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell .
also, Campbell quotes: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_W._Campbell .

BGonaSTICK

FANTASTIC! Been looking for this for ages to scare the poop out of my kids!

THANKS!!!!!

Watched Pitch Black of F4 last night. Excellent Riddickness

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spiney

Well, it's quite gory, so they should enjoy it (kids ... !!!).

Hopefully, shown at 10pm, shouldn't be edited too much for content, though might be for time.

Channel Hopper

Many of the special effects in the remake still better most stuff pumped out today.

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spiney

This Island Earth. Tomorrow (Saturday!), Film4, 3pm.

(afternoon showing, so remember to set the video recorder!).

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/Reviews/tie.htm (some great pics here, this'll really make you want to see the film!).

This is 1 of 3 “great” sci fi movies from the 1950s (other 2 are Forbidden Planet, and The Thing).

A story often told about this film concerns “the monster”. Apparently, when Universal Studios bosses saw the script, they said “but, where’s the monster?” (all sci fi films were expected to have a monster, as a box office puller and crowd-pleaser). So the writers just shrugged, and included one, thus completely altering the plot.
This story is rather strange, because Ray Jones’ original novel DOES have monsters in it! However, it was impossible to film the book as written, so the monster has been “moved”, from earth onto the spaceship.

The movie’s “key scene” – in fact, the one with the monster in! – is where the spaceship occupants get into the “transformation tubes” (to cope with faster than light travel, their bodies must be “transformed”), and we see them changing into nerves and blood vessels, then into skeletons. Although we’re now used to far more sophisticated special effects, this scene is still very effective and scary (relying on imagination, rather than very graphic special effects, which is why “the best pictures are always on radio”!).

Also, for the film, main character Cal has been changed, from a radio engineer into an “atomic scientist”, reflecting the 1950s public fascination with atomic energy (which then seemed to promise great things, but at the same time threatened complete annihilation).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is...rth_%28film%29 .

This Island Earth is “really about” the Cold War, and is a plea to behave humanely, instead of treating entire countries merely as “political pawns” (otherwise, what is the fight actually about?). “Metaluna” (beyond-the-moon) represents the USA, and Planet Earth stands for “no particular small nation”. In the novel, Cal pleads with Metaluna not to abandon Earth, but to fight for it (this is missing from the film!).

Like Forbidden Planet, This Island was filmed in Technicolor, unfortunately all prints are now in Eastmancolor, but something of the “glowing colours” original quality still survives in current prints.

Raymond F Jones was one of the main “Golden Age” sci fi writers, unfortunately now largely forgotten and out of print, remembered only for This Island Earth (film!), but his other fine novels include The Alien and The Cybernetic Brains, and he is famous for being “The Mormon SF Writer”!

http://www.geocities.com/calmeacham/ .
http://www.mindspring.com/~kimball3/raymond.html .