In case you missed it the Doctor Who Easter episode Legend Of The Sea Devils will be on the ABC’s main station at 9.30pm on Friday 22 April.
Although this story is being released as a ‘special’ it is a general standalone story. It is also the second last story before the production of Doctor Who is outsourced to Bad Wolf and Sony.
The final episode of the current Doctor and BBC made Doctor Who will be released to coincide with the BBC’s anniversary events around August.
The Canberra Geek Markets are on again this Saturday, 2 April. The markets have been so successful that they have now expanded to including guests for the day.
For the April market the guests include: Lego Masters competitors Michael Ryan, Harrison Barnett and Fleur Watkins; and Cosplayers Canberra Spider-man, Thor of Oz and Banshee.
Free tickets are required for entry and are available via http://www.canberrageekmarkets.com.au/
Canberra Geek Markets
Saturday 2 April
9am to 5pm
Fitzroy Pavilion
Exhibition Park.
Please note – the CSFS has no involvement in the running of this market. This post is for information only.
The Canberra Science Fiction Society commemorated it’s 50th anniversary at it’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on December 2nd. Fourteen active members of the society attended the AGM and, after the meeting, they shared in a cake and some anecdotes of the society’s past adventures.
At the AGM it was agreed unanimously to celebrate the 50th anniversary by making the CSFS memberships free for 2022. The free membership applies to all members – both all members as at November 2021 as well as all future 2022 members of the society.
Thank you for 50 years of science fiction and fantasy fandom, and here’s to 50 more years.
If you have a Netflix account and you haven’t seen the new season of Star Trek Discovery appear there’s, as Spock would say, a logical reason why.
After streaming for three seasons on Netflix outside of the USA, Star Trek Discovery has been withdrawn from Netflix and moved to Paramount+ for all the locations outside the USA where Paramount+ is available – this includes Australia.
Originally Viacom CBS was going to delay Star Trek Discovery season 4 being available outside the USA until 2022 even though it began streaming in the USA in November 2021. However, a backlash from some of the actors and a wave of fan protests changed that. Season 4 of Star Trek Discovery is now streaming outside of the USA. It began streaming on Paramount+ on Friday 26 November with two episodes release and then one episode released weekly.
As an apology to fans for the proposed delay, Paramount+ is offering a 50% discount for 3 months to new members with the code word STARTREK. The discount offer is available until 15 December 2021.
Seasons 1 to 3 of Star Trek Discovery are now available on Paramount+, however they are also on DVD in Australia if you prefer to not use a streaming service. A DVD set of the first three seasons will be released in Australia on 8 December 2021.
The Geek Market Canberra has returned with a pre-Christmas market on 11 December at the Coorong Pavilion in Exhibition Park in Mitchell.
The market will include some of the country’s best geeky makers, artists, creators & traders.
While this is a free event it is also ticketed, for the control of the number of people in the venue. Tickets are extremely limited and are available at Eventbrite.
The Canberra Science Fiction Society’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Tuesday 2 December at 7.00 pm at the Canberra Southern Cross Club, Corinna Street Woden.
The CSFS will be commemorating our 50th anniversary after the AGM with cake and sharing memories of our last 50 years.
All members are invited to both the AGM and the celebration afterwards.
Please do not bring food or drink from outside the club. The club has strict rules that only food, including snacks, and drinks purchased in the club can be consumed within the club. Thanks everyone.
The ABC has confirmed that the new series of Doctor Who premieres Monday 1 November on the ABC. Streaming from 6.20am (AEDT) on ABC iview and 7.30pm on ABC TV Plus.
The BBC has announced that the first episode of the new season of Doctor Who will air in the UK on Sunday 31 October 2021, Monday 1 November in Australia. The six episode Season 13 has the title “Doctor Who: Flux”.
If the ABC does the same as they have with previous releases, it should appear on ABC iView on Monday 1 November and on television around that date.
In July it was announced that this will be Jodie Whittaker’s last full season as the Doctor and it will be followed by three special stand-alone episodes in 2022. The first two specials were originally intended to be a part of season 13; one of these will be the New Years 2022 Special and the second will appear in the first half of 2022. The third special episode is a longer length, will include Whittaker’s regeneration and will broadcast later in 2022 as a part of the BBC’s Centenary Celebrations.
Doctor Who executive producer and show runner Chris Chibnall announced that he will also be leaving the show when Jodie Whittaker leaves.
In September 2021 it was announced that Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf Ltd will be co-producing Doctor Who from 2023, with Russell T Davies as show runner, including a 60th anniversary special to air in 2023. Russell T Davies was the Executive Producer who brought back Doctor Who in 2005 and was the show runner from 2005 to 2009. Bad Wolf was formed by some of the former Doctor Who production team members and has gone on to produce shows such as His Dark Materials and A Discovery of Witches and won many awards.
That Russell T Davies isn’t trying to produce Doctor Who all on his own is a great sign as, in my opinion, the program has suffered since 2005 from one person trying to do everything – producing and script editor and lead writer. It’s just too much for one person to do comfortably and have time to consider where the show is going overall.
In recent times Russell T Davies has mentioned online that he would like to see Doctor Who becoming an expanded universe, rather like Disney’s expanded universes with Star Wars and Marvel or the recent Star Trek expansion into six television series. This is something he did to an extent with Doctor Who in the late 2000’s with the Sarah Jane Adventures, Torchwood and the Doctor Who Confidential behind the scenes documentaries.
It will be interesting to see what will become of this and is there is more than fandom’s wishful thinking to the idea of a Doctor Who expanded universe, or at least spin-off stories.
As befits the times we live in, there have been changes to many science fiction and fantasy related events in the ACT and NSW. Here are some of the updates:
For anyone who hasn’t found it on ABC TV Plus, the BBC television series Ghosts is a light fantasy comedy about the occupants of a haunted house.
The premise of the show is – Alison, a young woman with little money, inherits the vast and run down Button House from a distant female relative. Ignoring advice to sell the property, Alison and her husband, Mike, move into the house with the intent of renovating it and making it into a luxury hotel. Unfortunately for Alison the house is haunted by a multitude of argumentative ghosts, one of whom attacks Alison leaving her clinically dead for a few minutes.
After recovering in hospital, Alison returns to Button House to discover her financially irresponsible husband has arranged a huge mortgage on the property and she can suddenly interact with the many ghosts in the house.
Alison gets the ghosts to agree they need to coexist with Alison and Mike, and Alison finds herself being drawn into the comedy melodramas of the ghosts in their boring, everyday ‘lives’.
Ghosts is a witty, fun show with a cast of comedic character actors enjoying every moment and line. The main collection of ghosts include – a Byronic poet, a stern military officer, an uptight Victorian matron, a Tudor servant, a beheaded Elizabethan nobleman, a 1980s scout master, a very innocent Georgian lady, a stone age man, and a scandalous and trouser-less 1990s Tory politician.
Season 3 of Ghosts premieres on ABC TV Plus at 9.10pm on Tuesday 28 September, and ABC iView on 28 September.
Canberra Science Fiction Society 