Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
The SciFi Diner Podcast
Please call the listener line at 1.888.508.4343, email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com
or visit us on Twitter @scifidiner.
Tonight’s Diners: Scott & Miles
Welcome to the Diner.
Download this episode (right click and save)
If you have listened to the show for sometime, we would love to have you leave feedback on iTunes. We know not all of you use iTunes, but for those that do, it helps us become more visible. If you don’t use iTunes, your feedback is still valuable. Visit our webpage at https://scifidinerpodcast.com and leave a comment on the show notes or email us at scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com We want to know what you are thinking about what we are saying and what shows you are watching!
Listener Question: How has 3d changed in the past 60 years?
On the menu tonight:
- Interview with Graham Hancock
- Stargate/Smallville Trivia
- Shatner and Others Read “The Raven”
- More Transformers 3 News
- Just who will play Superman?
- Rendezvous with Rama Must Get Made
- StarWars as never seen before.
- TWIST:Miles bring us new on Virgins
- SciFi Five in Five: Jay from Atlanta covers the top five classic horror films.
This Week’s Trivia:
Question: What commonality does Michael Shenks’ characters on SG1 & Smallville have?
The Prize: Graham Hancock’s book Entangled: The Eater of Souls
You will have until November 2nd to answer this question. Send your answer with your mailing address to scifidinerpodcast@gmail.com, call us at 18885084343, or DM us on Twitter at @scifidiner.
Podcast Promos:
The Interview:
GRAHAM HANCOCK is the author of the major international bestsellers The Sign and The Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, and Heaven’s Mirror.His books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into 27 languages. His public lectures, radio and TV appearances, including two major TV series for Channel 4 in the UK and The Learning Channel in the US – Quest For The Lost Civilisation and Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age – have put his ideas before audiences of tens of millions. He has become recognised as an unconventional thinker who raises controversial questions about humanity’s past.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock’s early years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Later he went to school and university in the northern English city of Durham and graduated from Durham University in 1973 with First Class Honours in Sociology. He went on to pursue a career in quality journalism, writing for many of Britain’s leading newspapers including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976-1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983.
In the early 1980’s Hancock’s writing began to move consistently in the direction of books. His first book (Journey Through Pakistan, with photographers Mohamed Amin and Duncan Willetts) was published in 1981. It was followed by Under Ethiopian Skies (1983), Ethiopia: The Challenge of Hunger (1984), and AIDS: The Deadly Epidemic (1986). In 1987 Hancock began work on his widely-acclaimed critique of foreign aid, Lords of Poverty, which was published in 1989. African Ark (with photographers Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith) was published in 1990.
Hancock’s breakthrough to bestseller status came in 1992 with the publication of The Sign and The Seal, his epic investigation into the mystique and whereabouts today of the lost Ark of the Covenant. ‘Hancock has invented a new genre,’ commented The Guardian, ‘an intellectual whodunit by a do-it-yourself sleuth.’ Fingerprints of the Gods, published in 1995 confirmed Hancock’s growing reputation. Described as ‘one of the intellectual landmarks of the decade’ by the Literary Review, this book has now sold more than three million copies and continues to be in demand all around the world. Subsequent works such as Keeper Of Genesis (The Message of the Sphinx in the US) with co-author Robert Bauval, and Heaven’s Mirror, with photographer Santha Faiia, have also been Number 1 bestsellers, the latter accompanied by Hancock’s three-part television series Quest For the Lost Civilisation.
In 2002 Hancock published Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age to great critical acclaim, and hosted the accompanying major TV series. This was the culmination of years of research and on-hand dives at ancient underwater ruins. Arguing that many of the clues to the origin of civilization lay underwater, on coastal regions once above water but flooded at the end of the last Ice age, Underworld offered tangible archaeological evidence that myths and legends of ancient floods were not to be dismissed out of hand.
Graham’s next venture Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith, co-authored by Robert Bauval, was published in 2004. This work, a decade in preparation, returns to the themes last dealt with in Keeper Of Genesis, seeking further evidence for the continuation of a secret astronomical cult into modern times. It is a roller-coaster intellectual journey through the back streets and rat runs of history to uncover the traces in architecture and monuments of a secret religion that has shaped the world.
In 2005 Graham published Supernatural: Meetings with The Ancient Teachers of Mankind, an investigation of shamanism and the origins of religion. This controversial book suggests that experiences in altered states of consciousness have played a fundamental role in the evolution of human culture, and that other realities – indeed parallel worlds – surround us all the time but are not normally accessible to our senses.
While researching Supernatural Hancock travelled to the Amazon to drink visionary brew Ayahuasca – the Vine of Souls – used by shamans for more than 4000 years. It was his experiences with the vine lead to his latest work, Entangled. Written with the same page-turning appeal that has made his non-fiction so popular Entangled is his first novel. It tells the story of a supernatural battle of good against evil fought out across the dimension of time on the human plane.
The Main Course:
William Shatner and 7 other famous voices recite Poe’s “The Raven”
On this, the 161st anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death, we decided to remember the hallowed author by listening to performers such as James Earl Jones, Christopher Walken and William Shatner read us his most haunting poem.
Transformers News
Now that Michael Bay’s third Transformers film finally got itself a title two weeks back—Transformers: The Dark of the Moon—all it needed was a plot. And one just leaked online, thanks to a board book meant for kids.
Transformers 3 Push-Pops, listed at Amazon today, reveals the following official description:
“The Autobots Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide and Sideswipe led by Optimus Prime, are back in action, taking on the evil Decepticons, who are determined to avenge their defeat in 2009’s Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends. There’s new characters too, including a new villain in the form of Shockwave, a longtime Transformers character who rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.”
We may not have learned much new, but hey—at least now it’s official!
Transformers: The Dark of the Moon will hit theaters July 1, 2011.
Ever since the announcement that Zack Snyder would be the director of the Superman franchise reboot, it’s been the general consensus that Brandon Routh would not be reprising his role as the Man of Steel.
However, in light of a growing internet campaign to push for Routh in the new movie; it now appears that the actor may indeed have another shot.
In a recent article by the News Of The World newspaper, Snyder revealed that Routh would be considered for the role. “I didn’t realise there was such a groundswell,” Snyder was quoted as saying after learning of the internet campaign for Routh.
Morgan Freeman insists Rendezvous with Rama WILL get made
Morgan Freeman has been trying to get an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s first-contact classic Rendezvous With Rama made for almost 20 years—with David Fincher on board to direct—and the Oscar-winner says he’s closer than ever.
While doing press for his upcoming action-comedy Red, Freeman let slip that he’s still very much committed to getting his longtime passion project—in which a massive spacecraft, dubbed the Rama, enters the solar system—off the ground.
Awesome animated music video retells entire Star Wars trilogy
So George Lucas wants to make 3-D versions of all six Star Wars films. Good idea? Bad idea? We won’t know until 2012. But meanwhile, a talented musician and animator has made his own version of Star Wars that gets as far away from 3-D as possible.
Jeremy Messsersmith wrote a song about Star Wars and created an accompanying music video animated with paper versions of all the familiar characters.
Dollhouse: Epitaphs – Comic review by Freaking Bookworm
Dollhouse Season 2 came out yesterday. I may or may not have charmed Mike into loaning me some money so I could buy it. See, a limited number of DVDs came with a comic. And I? Was going to get that comic, no matter how many babies I had to slay or how many Mikes I had to use my womanly wiles on.
Dollhouse: Epitaphs
The day before release, I even visited our FYE and got one of the guys there to hide a copy for me.
I do not have a problem.
There was a lot of uncertainty revolving the comic: Did you only get it with preorder? Was it digital or hardcopy? Where exactly in the story does it pick up?
Because of my problem dedication, I can answer these questions for you.
The comic is only guaranteed with preorders, and only a certain number of DVDs have it. It is hardcopy, and fits right inside of the DVD case. It’s a little guy.
It seems to me that it picks up between Echo and friends’ stories and Maggie, Zone, and company’s stories — right at the beginning of all of the chaos.
This panel gave me chills.
Basically*, this mini comic bridges the gap between the regular Dollhouse series, the episodes Epitaph One and Epitaph Two: Return, and the forthcoming one-shot comic (set to be released in April 2011**). During the Dark Horse panel at New York Comic Con 2010, it was announced that
the comic book treatment of Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” would continue. “This is something that Joss had gone back and forth on at different times,” [Atkins] said. “It started with us doing a small story to be inserted in the ‘Dollhouse’ season 2 DVD that got the ball rolling, and we will do a one-shot in April and a miniseries after that.” The comic will be written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, the writers of the TV show, and will be set in a future Los Angeles after the Dollhouse technology has reduced the city to ruins.
I can’t wait for more. “Epitaphs” left my heart pounding and reignited my passion for the series. (Luckily, I now have it all on DVD.) I can’t wait to see what’s coming up. The art was gorgeous and colorful, which did not take away from the drama and darkness of the story at all. The dialogue, of course, was awesome. The story was both familiar and new, since we learn exactly how Maggie and Zone end up in this whole mess, as well as a few other stragglers. We still don’t know how they end up in the same group, but maybe that will be explained in the one-shot.
Really, this little comic was a tease, but also a promise of more to come, and as a fan who loved the TV show, I can’t thank Joss, Jed, Mo, and the team at Dark Horse enough.
Have you read this little teaser? What did you think of it? Will you be counting down the days until April?
TWIST: This Week in Star Trek
Virgin Galactic’s Real Life Enterprise Gets Its Own Show
You want to hear more about the Enterprise taking you into space in your own lifetime, you say? Well, we’ll point you in the right direction. It seems our favorite real-life VSS Enterprise from Virgin Galactic, will be starring in its own four part documentary called “Virgin Galactic” beginning Monday October 18th on the National Geographic channel at 10pm ET/PT. The new documentary series will star Richard Branson and Burt Rutan, and will take us along for the ride as they bring us Huu-mons closer to everyday space travel…and thereby, one step closer to the Federation. Be sure to check it out and see all the amazing science, imagination, and courage that have made this project come so far.
For more information about the show, check out the National Geographic channel’s site here.
National Geographic channel
Monday, October 18th
10pm ET/PT
Star Bleecch
SciFi Five in Five: The Top Five Classic Horror Films of All Time
Hey guys I thought I would give you my top 5 classic Universal Monster/Horror Movies, since it is close to Halloween. I have fond memories of watching these as a kid after going trick or treating. These movies are true classics in movie history. Some of these movies used ground breaking special effects, costumes, and makeup for their time. Everyone should see them at least once.
Dracula (Every vampire is rip off in some way of Bela Lugosi’s performance)
Frankenstein (Even Robert De Nero could not channel the greatness of Boris Karloff)
Bride of Frankenstein (one of the best sequels ever made)
The Wolfman (Again the remake does not compare to the original)
The Creature from the Black Lagoon (My personal favorite. This movie was also released as a 3D movie in 1954, and was almost made specifically to show off 3D technology. History tends to repeat itself)
Love the show, keep it up.
Jay from Atlanta