BBC4 "Science Fiction Britannia" Season

[Milky Tears]

Continued from the old place...

Simon Oates hasn't aged well and BBC Four don't seem to be showing an episode of Star Cops before next Tuesday's Cult of... . Is this a good or bad thing?

Probably something to do with "securing rights" to archive TV. This is from BBC Four's "Have Your Say" pages:

BBC Four: We are still attempting to secure rights to show episodes from a number of vintage science fiction dramas. We will release details of any that are added to the season as they are confirmed.

There's also some Parallel Worlds stuff on next Tuesday. A documentary (mentions Who in the blurb) and two Star Trek episodes:

9:00 pm Parallel Worlds - A User's Guide
Richard Ayoade presents a playful guide to entering another dimension, featuring clips from some of TV and cinema's best-known alternative universes including Star Trek, Sliders and Doctor Who. [S]

10:00 pm Star Trek
Mirror Mirror: An episode from the classic series in which Captain Kirk and an away team return to a strangely alien Enterprise where assasination is acceptable and mercy is seen as a weakness. [S]

10:50 pm Star Trek: The Next Generation
Yesterday's Enterprise: In a temporal rift, the Enterprise 1701D meets its predecessor, 1701C. Should Picard change history and save 40 billion lives? [S]

It's all good stuff.

[SiHart]

The Parallel worlds doc sounds interetsing. I'm sure we'll be watching that.

Shame about Star Cops, I was hoping to see an episode of that to see if I was wrong about it in 1987!

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

I remember watching the first episode when it first aired, but frankly that was enough for me!

[Hex]

I have been enjoying the quite thought provoking documentaries in this series. The comparisons between Brave New World and 1984 were quite interesting, as was the profile of Nigel Kneale's work. I hadn't seen Doomwatch before either and really enjoyed that.

Some people have said quite unpleasent things about Day of the Triffids, but I have found it quite gripping. (Hopefully not them gripping me! )

[Perry Vale]

Just watched the 'Cult of Doomwatch', which I thought was really interesting. Well done to the BBC for wiping so many of them!

[Pamela]

I watched The Cult of Doomwatch yesterday (on that fabulous Telewest replay thingy).

Simon Oates has turned into a cross between Johnny Beattie and Bela Lugosi-the Ed Wood years.

Really enjoyed the prog though-only trouble being I'm dying to see more episodes of Doomwatch.

[SiHart]

The Martians and Us was brilliant tonight. Ever since I first read Day of the Triffids and heard about the first episode of Survivors I've been I bit scared by catastrophe fiction, and it was really interesting to find out that there's been a long tradtion of UK fiction that has dealt with that.

I loved Brian Aldiss dismissing Wyndham as "Cosy Catastrophe" and I was intrigued to find out just how prescient Christopher Priest's 1972 novel was. It's a shame all his Who stories fell through. It would be incredible to think he actually wrote for the show.

The clips from Threads were still horribly terrifying!

This has been a great documentary.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

The Martians & Us has been a superb documentary series. Getting sci-fi authors to talk about British sci-fi was a great idea, they've been superb. I especially like Brian Aldiss's coment "Science fiction isn't really popular, it isn't popular with readers because it has big words such as 'Oxygen'. It's just not mainstream!"

The dramatisations were spot on as well, just enough to get a flavour of the books while they were read out. BBC Four have come up trumps!

[Milky Tears]

The final part of The Martians and Us was the best one yet, but still not aS great as Chris Boucher on The Cult of... Star Cops.


Give him a job on Series Four, RTD!!

[Wayne]

I forgot about this week's Martians Are Us, so will have to catch one ofthe repeats, but i saw the John Wyndham docu last night, which was really interesting.

[Gisela]

I caught about half of the Star Cops one last night - I was, to be honest, quite surprised to see that the cast they interviewed were still quite fond of the whole thing. It was interesting to see Boucher & Gridneff (?) interviewed, although we didn't really seem to get to where there differences lay, did we - just that they didn't agree.

Edited to Add:Huh? I was logged in as myself (ie, Andrew) a minute ago, but our PC seems to have switched IDs all by itself. Is this the beginning of some new, terrifying, day of the computers?

[Perry Vale]

Watched the Cult Of Star Cops last night, quite interesting (I've never seen an episode), but couldn't help thinking a 'Cult Of Jupiter Moon' would make a better programme!

[Rob McCow]

Pshaw! 'Cult of Jupiter Moon'? The only people they could interview would be you and Nathan! If these 'Cult ofs...' prove popular, maybe you'll get it in the third or eighth season?

More goodness on last night. The Parallel Worlds documentary looked superb - although I could only half watch it at the time as I was cooking. DVD recorder to the rescue

[Pip Madeley]

Trudi watched it and she loved it - Richard Ayoade narrating and clips of everything from A Matter Of Life And Death to Futurama.

Cool.

[Milky Tears]

Some of the first week stuff made BBC Four's top ten:

BBC4 - W/E 19/11/2006 (Programme 000's)
1 QI (Fri 2232) 669
2 PETULA CLARK - BLUE LADY (Fri 2101) 304
3 PLANET EARTH (Sun 1901) 303
4 THE AVENGERS (Thu 1910) 230
5 A FOR ANDROMEDA (Mon 2201) 226
6 DOCTOR WHO (Mon 1912) 209
7 ADAM ADAMANT LIVES! (Tue 1911) 193
8 SOUNDS OF THE SEVENTIES (Mon 1901) 182
9 THE CROW ROAD (Tue 2101) 171
10 FILM: THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS (Mon 2032) 171

[Dave Tudor]

'The Martians And Us' has been an excellent series. I've never really been one for science fiction literature, although I would be very keen to read some of the books they featured. I certainly intend to read as much Wells and Wyndham as I can.

Strange, though, that they interviewed Brian Aldiss, one of the grand old men of British SF, but did not mention any of his work.

Of the other programmes this week, the play 'Random Quest' was very good, and I enjoyed 'The Cult Of Star Cops', especially Boucher and Gridneff's b*tching! I watched the whole series earlier this year, and it really is very good, and, indeed, something of a forgotten gem. If only the BBC had have shown a little faith and given it a few more series.

[Wayne]

Reason: I didn't realise you couldn't even say 'b*tch' here. No chance of a 'dog breeding' thread in the near future, then.

The filter is growing into a monster. Soon there will be no words left that it has not devoured.

Anyway, I just got back in time to watch the Parallel Worlds docu, which very interesting, & now the final part of 'The Martians are Us', which i missed on Monday, has just started.

[Paul Clement]

'The Martians And Us' has been an excellent series. I've never really been one for science fiction literature, although I would be very keen to read some of the books they featured. I certainly intend to read as much Wells and Wyndham as I can.

John Wyndham is one of my favourite writers, I strongly suggest reading some of his books. Apart from Day of the Triffids, The Kraken Wakes, Web and Chrysalids are all very good. He also wrote some great short story collections.

[Wayne]

I agree with the general concensus that the final part of 'The Martians Are Us' was the best one. Looks like some good books for me to checkout in the final part, as well.
If i ever get around to it!

[Joe Meredith]

I've seen bits of the documentaries - they seem disconcertingly Kim Newman heavy but very good nonetheless!

[Rob McCow]

Kim Newman may be ubiquitous, but he does know a heck of a lot. He also interviews well and comes across as enthusiastic, which isn't the case for everyone. Combine that with whacky hair and you're on to a winner! He's not as funny as Brian Aldiss though.

[Milky Tears]

I enjoyed Random Quest last night (finally caught the fourth repeat) and there were some good clips from loads of ropey old British sci-fi films in The Cinema Show special.

The Cinema Show
The Strange World Of Planet UK
From cult B-movies to tongue-in-cheek satires to philosophical masterpieces British science fiction films have always had a very idiosyncratic tone. Is it a lack of big budgets that has taken British film-makers down such a distinctive route? Or are we as a nation too sceptical - or even too nostalgic - to do big-screen science fiction with total conviction? The Cinema Show journeys to the edge of the universe to find out.

It's repeated round about midnight on Monday/Tuesday and Wednesday/Thursday.

Wayne probably has most of them on DVD.




Should be some decent clips in tonight's How To Be Sci Fi as well.

How To Be Sci Fi
Sun 3 Dec, 21:00-22:00 60mins

Nigel Planer as classical actor Nicholas Craig returns to present his master class on the art, and science, of sci-fi and outer-space acting. He examines the lost art of 'talking into your watch', tackles the tricky question of which alien dialect to use, and offers invaluable tips on how best to master space jargon. Budding thesps take note. [S]

[Dave Tudor]

I watched the 'Parallel Worlds' documentary last night - very enjoyable, although I must admit I was surprised by the absence of any 'Inferno' clips.

'The Cult Of Survivors' was good tonight, too. It was good to see the three main leads interviewed (they haven't aged at all. ), and it's certainly made me want to see th entire series. I've only ever managed to see a few episodes from the first season, but I am determined, one day, to see it all...

[Wayne]

'The Cult Of Survivors' was good tonight, too. It was good to see the three main leads interviewed (they haven't aged at all. ), and it's certainly made me want to see th entire series. I've only ever managed to see a few episodes from the first season, but I am determined, one day, to see it all...

Damn, i've just realized i've missed that, & it's been on twice tonight! Good job it's on again on Thursday.

[Milky Tears]

Wayne should also try and catch The Cinema Show repeat I mentioned in my last post. It's full of clips from ropey old sc-fi films.

I'm gutted that Denis Lill didn't appear in The Cult of...Survivors. He's probably too busy doing The Bloody Royal again.