Big Dumb Object

Doctor Who Is Going On Tour

10 Mar 2010

The Doctor and his new companion are going on tour in the UK, not in the TARDIS but in a big bus.

The tour will visit Belfast, Inverness, Sunderland, Salford and Northampton (yes, rather random). Each location will also host a regional premiere of episode one, The Eleventh Hour, for local children, working alongside BBC Outreach to enable kids to get a first look at the new Doctor in action.

The tour starts on the 29th March.

Also there's some preview screenings:

Following the tour, from 1 to 3 April, the BBC will also hold events for three days at selected BBC Big Screens across the UK giving Doctor Who fans in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Plymouth and Swansea the chance to interact directly with the show in their home towns.

The events will feature exclusive footage - including the chance to see the Doctor Who trailer in 3D - and giveaways, and fans can also get their photo taken tumbling through the giant vortex.

Visitors will be able to meet some of the scariest monsters that have had viewers watching from behind their sofa for generations as well.

Looks like the Doctor PR machine is beginning to roll...

A T-Shirt For Fans Of Dogs And Astronauts

9 Mar 2010

A Flying Dog in Outer Space - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever

Astronaut Dog!

My Story 'Build, Build, Build' Has Been Published

8 Mar 2010

My Flash Science Fiction story "Build, Build, Build" has been published online at Every Day Fiction.

It's a story of runaway nanobots and seems to divide people who've read it.

It starts like this:

Gerald stood on a hill, overlooking the valley that he had lived in for thirty years, and watched the nano-assemblers demolish his village. In its place they built a four hundred story tower block.

Dalí's Clocks by Dave Hutchinson

3 Mar 2010

Dalí's Clocks by Dave Hutchinson was published in DayBreak Magazine at the end of January and I've just caught up and read it.

It's a story of an architect, who's friend introduces him to a new drug. Told in first person it's extremely readable, a lovely voice to the narrator, and a plot which kept me hooked and even when I thought I knew where it was going still added a little twist.

The story is very European in it's tone and locations, which is refreshing, and gave me the urge to get in the car and go on a mad European road-trip.

As has been the case with pretty much all of the stories published in DayBreak Magazine there's plenty to think about, the plot ends and there's a view of the aftermath, and being optimistic Science Fiction it's an enjoyable aftermath, one that encourages some thought.

There was even a joke about British Science Fiction that made me laugh out loud.

I liked it a lot. Recommended.

Now, there's more to talk about, and there will be spoilers, so read the story first then come back....

Spoilers...

Continue reading Dalí's Clocks by Dave Hutchinson.

March's Ansible Is Online

2 Mar 2010

Ansible 272, March 2010

Being Human, Series 2

1 Mar 2010

Last night BBC3 aired the final episode of Being Human series two (and yes, we got eight episodes, not the average six). It was, all in all, very, very good.

A werewolf, a vampire and a ghost, living together could have been so wrong, but instead the "monsters" cling to their humanity, make tough decisions and live with the consequences. Meanwhile the normal humans become monsters, losing sight of their reason and giving in to fear.

It combined just the right amount of sadness, and wit and violence and scariness. By the end of every hour long episode I couldn't believe the hour was up, which has got to be the sign of good storytelling, completely submerged.

Even the finale succeeded, where often series cop out with a cliffhanger this delivered resolution and a cliffhanger, I couldn't see how it was going to finish to be honest but thought it was very well done: brave to spend the last half examining the aftermath.

I've deliberately kept this review a bit vague, because if you haven't seen it I don't want to spoil you (when is it being shown in the US?). If you haven't seen it, you really should. If you have I assume you've enjoyed it as much as me.

And the good news? They're making a third series.

David Mitchell On Science Fiction And Breaking The Laws Of Physics

28 Feb 2010

There's a piece in The Guardian by David Mitchell (comedian) entitled So movies shouldn't break the laws of physics? Don't tell Captain Kirk which surprised me today. It's a great read and I also completely agree with it. Firstly:

Being realistic is a storytelling tool, like lighting, music and sexy actresses. If it's not helping, and you won't otherwise be denying the Holocaust or pushing drugs to kids, then you can lose it.

Then having a bit of a go at scientists:

How typical of a scientist to try to reduce film-making to a formula. He's noticed that enjoyable science fiction sometimes needs to include the impossible, but streams of implausible events don't make a compelling narrative. He's right but he should have left it at that. The happy medium is found by using judgment not maths.

And summing it up with comedy:

Apparently, if a ship blows up in space, it doesn't really make a noise. How silly much of Hollywood's sci-fi output must look to audience members with experience of inter-stellar warfare.

Big And Dumb, Week 305

26 Feb 2010

Things that Big Dumb Object loved and hated this week:

Big

Lost, still mad and brilliant.
Survivors, the second series finishing. Not as good as the first series, but at least one decent episode looking at the aftermath and rebuilding.
Recording another episode of the Wordpunk podcast and the first episode hitting the web.
The Winter Olympics: snow, ice, speed, crashes.

Dumb

TalkTalk technical support. Don't go there. Ever.
The ever present problem of having too much Science Fiction to consume and not enough time to do it.

Survivors, Series 2

25 Feb 2010

The second series of Survivors has finished and whilst it was entertaining only one episode really lived up to what I wanted from the programme: that being more than just survival, but looking at rebuilding society after the virus wiped everyone out.

The first few episodes were still tying up the plot from the end of the first series: Abby captured, the big conspiracy, the rest of the family searching for Abby. All action and cityscape apocalypse, bleak and depressing. The big conspiracy from the first series turns out to be a secret lab and Abby is the key to the vaccine, which was a bit cliched.

Episode four tried to be interesting: our heroes captured and used as slave labour in a coal mine, with some discussion of what they wanted the future to be, whether slave labour was necessary, the pit boss occupying a stately home and another bleak ending as the slaves escape and turn into a rampaging mob.

Episode five was my favourite episode of the series, as out heroes find a secret valley which looks beautiful and too good to be true. Sure enough the virus mutates and takes out Sarah, before her and Al can really enjoy their new found love. It was a touching episode, with a message that even after everything has gone wrong people will think about the greater good and take selfless acts.

And finally the series wrapped up with Abby finding her son and the conspiracy being revealed fully. There was a lot of action in the last episode, and even some fleeting discussions of what people want to become and how they want to behave. It wasn't a stunning conclusion, but it wrapped everything up perfectly satisfactorily.

All in all an perfectly enjoyable post-apocalyptic TV series with some moments of it being quite good.

Oooh, New Who!