Radio Free Skaro/Flick Filosopher Inadvertently Team Up

By a staggering coincidence that makes the mind boggle, the film review site Flick Filosopher (specifically, MaryAnn Johanson) is posting reviews of each episode of Series 1 of Doctor Who on the same day that Radio Free Skaro is releasing audio commentaires for those very same episodes. Spooky! Anyway, FF seems to share the same love-in for the Christopher Eccleston era that we here at RFS do, as you can read here today (and every Sunday, it seems, too) :

Flick Filosopher’s review of :

Rose
The End of the World

Doctor Who – Planet of the Dead…Trailer!

For those who haven’t seen it, have a look at what popped up on YouTube on April 1 (no joke!). Bus! Sand! Doctor! People! Bugs! Flying Aliens! Bus!

UPDATE! The BBC have finally revealed the airdate and time for Planet of the Dead : Saturday, April 12, 6:45PM – 7:45 PM.

Radio Free Skaro interviews VFX genius Dennis Muren

Not strictly Doctor Who this week, but a cool interview all the same. The local chapter of SIGGRAPH (a group of computer graphics geniuses) brought Industrial Light and Magic special effects legend Dennis Muren to Vancouver for Spark 2009, and Warren was able to interview him. Apologies for the dodgy audio during Warren’s questions….the details are too boring to go into, but at any rate Muren’s thoughts on visual effects, art and the motion picture industry are the good stuff.

Direct download: rfsdennismuren.mp3

Pamela Anderson’s Big Finish Audition

…and doesn’t that headline just sound rude? Apparently, while we at Radio Free Skaro were busy trying to score an interview with Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker when we were all there for Gallifrey ’09, Baker was busy, unknowingly, chatting up Pamela Anderson on a street corner near a chocolate shop. Could Anderson now be in line for a part in an upcoming Big Finish audio? We here at RFS are texting a message to the Big Finish big wigs as you read this…

Click here to read the full story.

Radio Free Skaro #117 – Fool’s Reunion

After a dusty couple of weeks battling Sutekh, the Hand of Sutekh, and mysterious fez-clad villains, Warren returned to North American soil from Egypt a little dusty but still full of verve for all things Who. Of course, now that the new Doctor has been announced, along with the airing of the Next Doctor, there was little in the way of real news to discuss, so the Three Who Rule made do with fawning over the impossibly cute Character Options figures due later this year, along with digressions into the works of Clint Eastwood and Tombstone, Kurt Russell’s mustachioed magnum opus.

Direct download: rfs117.mp3

Radio Free Skaro #112 – Anticipointment

And so it’s come to this. At long last the RFS crew reaches “Journey’s End,” the final episode of Series Four, and a story that nicely sums up Who scribe Gareth Roberts term of “anticipointment.” So much potential, frittered away in a fruitless wasting of the Rose story arc and Benny Hill-esque dispatchment of the Daleks. Still, Julian Bleach’s Davros and the sad fate of Donna Noble rescued the episode from the Trash-Bin of Utter Contempt (next door neighbour to the Gun of Spite) and gave our three heroes much gristle to chew over, spit out, and look at askance.

Direct download: rfs112.mp3

Radio Free Skaro #67 – Kiss Kiss We’re Back

After scheduling snafus and real life intruded to keep us from recording last week, the RFS crew returned to discuss the first two episodes of Torchwood (verdict: pretty decent), speculate on the latest round of rumours, and digress as always into realms nonsensical. And for once we actually came in at under an hour. Enjoy!

Why Star Trek should stay dead

Io9, a new and snarky sci-fi site that recently emerged from the bowels of the Gawker empire, has a list of reasons why Star Trek should stay dead for a while, and I have to say I agree with every point they make. Top of their list is the series slavish devotion to continuity, but they also point out that Star Trek’s entire structure is a Cold War relic, and that new shows like Battlestar Galactica do a much better job of reflecting the present day in a sci-fi setting. I’d add Doctor Who (not surprsingly) to the list of worthy retuned series….Russel T. Davies and friends were very smart in that they lifted what worked in the old series, such as witty writing and great acting, but still managed to make Doctor Who very much a 21st century show with quick pacing, great effects and more adult approach to the material.

Lucas riffs on Indy 4 in Vanity Fair

At first I was a little nervous at the idea of a fourth Indiana Jones film, given that there’s really no need for one and Harrison Ford is now as old as some of the mummified creatures he’s battled in the previous films. But with the return of Karen Allen as Marion, and Speilberg declaring he’ll keep the CG nonsense to a minimum, I’m actually kind of looking forward to the film, due this summer. Here’s some Vanity Fair goodness on Indy IV to stoke the fanboy flames.

Neil Cumpston’s Cloverfield review

Neil Cumpston is most likely the invention of one of Ain’t It Cool News writers, but his unique brand of obscene film geek madness has to be read to be believed. Drink in the wondrous lunacy that is his review of Cloverfield, the lo-fi, big budget New York monster destruction pic coming in January.