Who at the Fab Cafe

Fans Like Us, the team that previously brought you three sell-out events at THE CAVERN CLUB in Liverpool and two at THE FAB CAFE in Manchester, have once again teamed up with Manchester’s premier sci-fi bar to present WHO AT THE FAB CAFE 3 on Sunday 2nd May 2010!

The event will run from 10AM to 6PM (doors open 9:30am).

FAB CAFE,
Portland Street,
Manchester,
M1 6DN

Confirmed guests include Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa), Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane / Lilt), Alan Ruscoe (Andy Stone / Slitheen / Auton), Rob Shearman (Writer) and Graeme Harper (Director).

For further details please visit Fans Like Us.

Meet Gerry Anderson at Forbidden Planet

Television legend GERRY ANDERSON will be signing two new volumes of Century 21: Classic Comic Strips From The Worlds Of Gerry Anderson, at the Forbidden Planet Megastore, 179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H 8JR on Saturday 1st May 2 – 3pm. He will be joined by the series editor CHRIS BENTLEY.



From its launch in 1965, TV Century 21 (later known simply as TV 21) was the smash-hit British comic of the 1960s. Thunderbirds, Lady Penelope, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90 all burst forth in full colour from the magazine's packed pages, in stories illustrated by such giants of the comic industry as Frank Bellamy, Don Harley, Mike Noble, Ron and Gerry Embleton.

Gerry Anderson needs no introduction as the creator of a massive number of still hugely popular TV series that include Thunderbirds, Joe 90, Stingray and Space 1999.

Chris Bentley was Chairman of Fanderson, the Official Gerry Anderson Fan Club, for over ten years. He is the author of The Complete Gerry Anderson and The Complete Book of Gerry Anderson’s UFO.

For more news about our signings please go to: http://www.forbiddenplanet.com/Signings.html.

Dorothy upsets the Weeping Angels

Doctor Who fans were livid last night when a promo pop-up for 'Over the Rainbow' appeared during S5's 'The Time of Angels'. Alas, pop-up blockers have yet to be made available to television viewers!

Matthew Graham, executive producer of Ashes To Ashes, tweeted: "I take it everyone else was livid that the Beeb put a gurning cartoon Graham Norton across the exciting cliffhanger climax of Dr Who. Please BBC - you're not a US network, you're so much better than they are. Don't cheapen yourself. The public know what's up next."

Thanks to Twitter, I was able to dodge this bullet and enjoy the brilliant return of the Weeping Angels sans Dorothy on BBC iPlayer. That gripe aside. Matt Smith continues to portray the Doctor brilliantly and the early appearance of familiar foes is a McGuffin! Can't wait to see how Moffat's masterplan unfolds...

Anyone with strong feelings on the appearance can make a complaint via the BBC website, or by phone to 0370 010 0222.

Elect the Daleks!

This week the RadioTimes reprised its award-winning 'Vote Dalek' issue from 2005 and, in doing so, published a major spoiler (not that I'm precious about such matters in this era of instant gratification).



The official Doctor Who magazine published a teaser of the upcoming Dalek redesign, but I never expected to see the TV Century 21 comic book inspired Daleks until 'Victory of the Daleks', a post postmodern remake of 'The Power of the Daleks', is broadcast this Saturday!

I prefer the update over the current design and it's in keeping with the fairytale theme of the new series: it's not difficult to envisage these Daleks battling the Raggedy Doctor and Amy in a pop-up book.

No matter who wins or loses the General Election in the UK. Toy shelves will be full of new Dalek merchandise this holiday season and facilitate further quantitative easing at BBC Worldwide.

The Prisoner: Return to The Village

Later this month ITV's remake of Patrick McGoohan's sociological opus The Prisoner (1967) debuts on network television in the UK.

“Where am I?”

“In the Village.”

“What do you want?”

“Information. We want information.”

“You won’t get it.”

“By hook or by crook, we will.”

“Who are you?”

“The new Number Two.

“Who is Number One?”

“You are Number Six.”

“I am not a number. I am a free man!”

Reaction to the six-part mini series has been mixed. Why attempt a remake of a seminal series that has had gushing semiologists deconstructing every frame for decades? It does boast a superlative supporting cast...

Starring Jim Caviezel and Sir Ian McKellen as Number Six and Number Two, the six one-hour episodes tell the story of a man who finds himself trapped in a mysterious and surreal place known as The Village, with no memory of how he arrived. As he frantically explores his environment, he discovers that its inhabitants are identified by number instead of by name and have no memory of a prior existence or outside civilization.

ITV Director of Television Peter Fincham said of the new series, “It’s changed a lot, though it’s the same in some ways. It has echoes of The Prisoner of the sixties but it’s a thoroughly modern series. Its themes of freedom of the individual against the state, of the pressure to conform, they’re timeless. And you’ll find them all in this new version of The Prisoner.”

The Prisoner begins on ITV1 on April 17th. You have been warned.

Twin Peaks: 20 Years Later

Twins Peaks turns Twenty and I haven't seen the enigmatic television series since its original broadcast on BBC2 in the early 1990s! Suffice to say that coffee, cherry pie and the willowy women of Twin Peaks were as much a part of my teens as Beverly Hills 90210.



Thank you David Lynch and Mark Frost for creating the soap noir genre. That is all.

The Grimm new adventures of Doctor Who

Last night's season première of Doctor Who S5 didn't disappoint!

Much has been written regarding the casting of Matt Smith in the titular role, and whether or not Doctor Who would skew towards a younger audience. This is a view I never shared with fellow fans or the series' detractors! Peter Davison (the fifth Doctor) wasn't much older than Matt and his incarnation was far from infantile.

Doctor Who has always been a show with the broadest appeal and why would Steven Moffat break what isn't broken (unless you count the final few seasons of Russell T Davies' tenure, which fell into self-parody)? Incidentally, Steven Moffat's 'The Girl in the Fireplace' (S2) is one of my all-time favourite Doctor Who stories. So, I was hoping for a move towards darker fairytale motifs in the new season.

Geronimo! Here, we see the adventures of our beloved Time Lord framed as a fairytale. Not a fairytale in the mainstream sense, as popularised by the Hollywood studio system, but as a darkly lyrical coming of age story penned by the Brothers Grimm or Lewis Carol.

Moffat's narrative adroitly references famous literary works with gusto: from a red apple to being late for a very important date. It's haunting, poignant, brilliant...

Aside from Murray Gold's continued attempts to destroy the iconic main theme (the original will never be surpassed) and not at all reflective of his compositions therein. Doctor Who S5 is off to a superlative start - Matt Smith and Karen Gillan (Amy Pond) are effortless - and the return of iconic adversaries, throughout the season, will bring more twists and turns than any rabbit hole that Alice (or Amy) might tumble down.