January 2009 | NEWS
Stories are listed below in chronological order, oldest first. Unreality SF is not responsible for any inaccurate information posted.
02 JANUARY | Star Trek
2009-10 BOOKS PREVIEWED
TrekMovie.com has previewed the Star Trek book schedule for the next two years in depth, with lots of new information from editor Margaret C. Clark.
Included in the report are the covers for Losing the Peace, The Soul Key and The Never-Ending Sacrifice, and an early design for the U.S.S. Aventine from the recent Destiny trilogy. The Aventine will get at least one novel of its own, as part of the new "meta-story" which will involve all the 24th-century books in 2010.
Other information includes details of Voyager's new direction - not captained by Chakotay, with a mini-fleet of support vessels aiding its mission - and plot titbits for the post-Destiny era.
As well as information about forthcoming products, there are also updates about the schedule itself: the planned Crucible omnibus has been cancelled entirely, perhaps because of the ongoing legal disputes, and several books are now subject to delays. Some of these schedule alterations may be related to the recent departure of editor Marco Palmieri.
The original report can be found here.
02 JANUARY | Torchwood
THREE NEW AUDIO DRAMAS?
Amazon.co.uk has listings for three new Torchwood audio plays on CD, which may be planned to capitalise on the success of Lost Souls, which aired on BBC Radio 4 last year.
No air dates have been announced, and no titles, authors or plot details are yet available; as this information does not come from a BBC source, the listing may be inaccurate.
The page for the first of the three releases is here.
08 JANUARY | Doctor Who
EIGHTH DOCTOR UPDATES
The Big Finish website reports that Carole Ann Ford will reprise her role as Susan Foreman in a special Eighth Doctor audio play, due for release next December. Exclusive to subscribers, the story - An Earthly Child, written by Marc Platt - also introduces Susan's son, played by Jake McGann.
There are also story synopses for the third season of Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller adventures, and cover images for Orbis and Hothouse.
08 JANUARY | Doctor Who
ASK THE ONE COMPANION
As well as announcing that recording for The Three Companions - a twelve-part serialised audio story, spread across the Main Range Doctor Who releases - has finished, Big Finish Productions are offering listeners the chance to submit questions to star Anneke Wills.
Wills reprises the role of Polly in the story, alongside John Pickard as Thomas Brewster and Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier (not Katy Manning as Jo Grant, as had been previously announced).
Polly also stars in a Companion Chronicles story called Resistance, the cover for which is newly-available online.
08 JANUARY | Doctor Who
COMPANIONS COVER
The cover and blurb for the next Doctor Who guidebook - Companions and Allies - has been posted on the TARDIS Scanner blog.
08 JANUARY | Stargate
OSBORNE ENTERS ATLANTIS
Star Trek author Terri Osborne, who was interviewed by Unreality SF last year, has announced on her blog that her Stargate Atlantis novel - Portals of Discovery, the memoirs of Elizabeth Weir - has been approved.
Although one of Osborne's previous projects was technically novel-length, this will be classed by many of her fans as her first novel.
10 JANUARY | Doctor Who
OLD FOES RETURN
The covers and blurbs for September's set of Tenth Doctor novels - The Taking of Chelsea 426 by David Llewellyn (featuring the Sontarans), Autonomy by Daniel Blythe (featuring the Autons) and The Krillitane Storm by Christopher Cooper (featuring the Garm... no, only joking - it's the Krillitanes) - have been posted on Doctor Who News, having been revealed in the latest Doctor Who Magazine.
10 JANUARY | Doctor Who
FREE AUDIO STORY
Big Finish Productions are currently offering a free audio story - One Small Step, by Nicholas Briggs, featuring the Second Doctor with companions Jamie and Zoe - for download.
Originally published in the Short Trips anthology Past Tense, the story is available as part of the Big Finish podcast.
10 JANUARY | Star Trek
MORE SCHEDULE UPDATES
TrekMovie.com have posted some updates and clarifications about the Star Trek book news originally revealed earlier this month, including details of the new twenty-fourth century "meta-story" and the Mirror Universe: Shattered Light collection.
12 JANUARY | Star Trek
MORE OF THE MAGAZINE
Titan's Star Trek Magazine will be published eight times a year from now on, increasing from bi-monthly releases to one issue every six weeks, editor Paul Simpson has announced.
In a thread on the TrekBBS message board, Simpson also revealed that some of the magazine's earliest issues (which were originally only available in the UK and Australia) will be made available worldwide in digital form.
"Over the past couple of years," he wrote, "a number of people have asked whether it's possible to get hold of the UK-produced Titan Star Trek Monthly from the period before it launched in the States - i.e. from February 1995 up to August 2006. The interest has been such that at long last, I can report that these are shortly going to be made available in digital format.
"A CD-ROM containing the first 24 issues will go on sale from early February - full details, including price in different territories, will be in issue 16 of Star Trek Magazine. The only editorial pages not to be reprinted are the comic strips that were cherry picked from DC's run (and maybe even Marvel's run at some point as well?) The discs run on all standard formats, and they're fully printable."
A release date and price is yet to be announced.
12 JANUARY | Doctor Who
CHARITY FANTHOLOGY AVAILABLE
Shelf Life, an anthology of Doctor Who short stories published as a tribute to the late Craig Hinton, is now available.
Hinton died from a heart attack in 2006, and was the author of numerous Doctor Who stories, including the novel The Quantum Archangel and the audio play Excelis Decays.
Shelf Life takes its name from Craig's Doctor Who Magazine review column, and is edited by Jay Eales, David A. McIntee and Adrian Middleton, with profits going to the British Heart Foundation.
The book includes stories by Craig's fellow Who novelists (including Kate Orman and Mark Michalowski) alongside fan contributors, and is available as a 624-page hardcover (£18) or a .pdf document (£5) from the book's website.
14 JANUARY | Doctor Who
BIG FINISH 2009 PREVIEW
Big Finish Productions have released a special episode of their podcast, hosted by Nicholas Briggs and David Richardson, which previews the 2009 Doctor Who releases.
There are clips of the highly-anticipated The Company of Friends, giving us a taster of Izzy and Fitz's first appearances on audio, alongside teasers from the Key 2 Time series which begins this month and discussion of the upcoming Seventh Doctor season.
23 JANUARY | Doctor Who
UPDATES ON AUDIO STARS
Big Finish productions are reporting that India Fisher, known to Doctor Who fans as Charley Pollard, can be seen live on stage in Stoke on Trent for the next few weeks.
They are also seeking questions for an interview with Richard Franklin, who played Mike Yates in Doctor Who, to tie in with his Companion Chronicles appearance.
23 JANUARY | Doctor Who
COMPANION CHRONICLES NEWS
Big Finish have announced changes to the release schedule for the third series of The Companion Chronicles.
The Mahogany Murders, starring Christopher Benjamin as Jago and Trevor Baxter as Litefoot, will now be released in May 2009, replacing Ferril's Folly starring Mary Tamm as Romana I.
With Ferril's Folly rescheduled for release in 2010, Tamm will reprise Romana in June's Stealers from Saiph, which will conclude Season Three.
25 JANUARY | Star Trek
MACK INTERVIEW & CONTEST
The latest episode of the Chronic Rift podcast features an interview with Star Trek author David Mack, with extensive discussion of his recent Star Trek Destiny trilogy.
There's also an opportunity for listeners to win signed copies of all three Destiny books.
25 JANUARY | Doctor Who
BBC GRAPHIC NOVELS PLANNED
A listing on Amazon.co.uk reveals that BBC Books are due to launch their own range of brand new hardcover Doctor Who graphic novels, based on the show's current run, featuring David Tennant's Tenth Doctor.
The first - due for release in October priced £14.99 - is Justin Richards' The Dalek Project, the blurb for which is as follows:
"1917: The Great War is at its fiercest and most terrible. But things are about to get even worse... When the Doctor arrives at Helicombe Hall in England he discovers a house full of mystery. There are locked doors and forbidden rooms, dustsheets cover guilty secrets, the maid Mary Carter is scared of the ghosts... And that's before Corporal Anderson finds the end of his muddy corpse-filled trench ends in the drawing room. Armaments manufacturer Lord Hellcombe has a new secret weapon he believes will win the war. But when the Doctor witnesses the final demonstration he begins to realise how much danger everyone is in. Because Lord Hellcombe claims to have invented the Dalek. Except, of course, that nothing is quite what it seems. The Doctor and his new friends must draw on every type of early 20th century technology and every element of human ingenuity and bravery if they are to discover the truth and to survive. If they are to prevent the entire Western Front of World War One from becoming part of The Dalek Project. The first in a stunning new series of epic Graphic Novels from BBC Books, featuring the Doctor as played by David Tennant in the hit series from BBC Television."
28 JANUARY | Doctor Who
DODDINGTON ON ZARA
Big Finish have posted an interview with actress Laura Doddington, who plays the role of Zara in the Key 2 Time audios, on their official website.
She discusses the recording process, her awe at working with Sophie Aldred, and her thoughts on co-stars Peter Davison and Ciara Janson.
28 JANUARY | Torchwood
TORCHWOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA
A listing on Amazon reveals that 2009 will see The Torchwood Encyclopedia released. Written by script editor and novelist Gary Russell, the book will be released in October, and is priced £14.99.
The blurb is as follows:
"Founded by Queen Victoria in 1879, the Torchwood Institute has been defending Great Britain from the alien hordes for 130 years. Though London's Torchwood One was destroyed during the Battle of Canary Wharf, the small team at Torchwood Three have continued to monitor the space-time Rift that runs through Cardiff, saving the world and battling for the future of the human race. Now you can discover every fact and figure, explore every crack in time and encounter every creature that Torchwood have dealt with. Included here are details of:
- The secret of the Children of Earth
- Operatives from Alice Guppy to Gwen Cooper
- Extraterrestrial visitors from Arcateenians to Weevils
- The life and deaths of Captain Jack Harkness
...and much more.
Illustrated throughout with photos and artwork from all three series, this A-Z provides everything you need to know about Torchwood."
28 JANUARY | Star Trek
MAG TO PREVIEW VOYAGER
The editor of Star Trek Magazine has announced that the next issue will feature an extract from Full Circle, the Star Trek: Voyager book which picks up where Christie Golden's four post-Endgame novels left off.
Writing on the TrekBBS message board, Paul Simpson revealed that #16 "has an introduction to the new Voyager novels by [author] Kirsten Beyer, with an extract from Full Circle. Kirsten's article addresses some of the frequently-asked questions about what's been happening with, and what's going to happen to Voyager books".
28 JANUARY | Torchwood
THREE NEW NOVELS
Listings for three more Torchwood fiction books have appeared on Amazon, due for release in October 2009.
Risk Assessment is written by James Goss:
"'Are you trying to tell me, Captain Harkness, that the entire staff of Torchwood Cardiff now consists of yourself, a woman in trousers and a tea boy?' Agnes Haversham is awake, and Jack is worried (and not a little afraid). The Torchwood Assessor is roused from her sleep in only the worst of times - it's happened just four times in the last 100 years. Can the situation really be so bad? Someone, somewhere, is fighting a war, and they're losing badly. the coffins of the dead are coming through the Rift. With thousands of alien bodies floating in the Bristol Channel, it's down to Torchwood to round them all up before a lethal plague breaks out. And now they'll have to do it by the book. The 1901 edition."
The Undertaker's Gift is written by Trevor Baxendale:
"The Hokrala Corp lawyers are back. They're suing planet Earth for mishandling the twenty-first century, and they won't tolerate any efforts to repel them. An assassin has been sent to remove Captain Jack Harkness. It's been a busy week in Cardiff. The Hub's latest guest is a translucent, amber jelly carrying a lethal electrical charge. Record numbers of aliens have been coming through the Rift, and Torchwood could do without any more problems. But there are reports of an extraordinary funeral cortege in the night time city, with mysterious pallbearers guarding a rotting cadaver that simply doesn't want to be buried. Torchwood should be ready for anything - but with Jack the target of an invisible killer, Gwen trapped in a forgotten crypt and Ianto Jones falling desperately ill, could a world of suffering by the Undertaker's gift to planet Earth?"
Consequences is apparently an anthology of short stories by various authors, including Joseph Lidster, James Moran, Andrew Cartmel and David Llewellyn:
"Saving the planet, watching over the Rift, preparing the human race for the twenty-first century... Torchwood has been keeping Cardiff safe since the late 1800s. Small teams of heroes, working 24/7, encountering and containing the alien, the bizarre and the inexplicable. But Torchwood do not always see the effects of their actions. What links the Rules and Regulations for replacing a Torchwood leader to the destruction of a shopping centre? How does a witness to an alien's reprisals against Torchwood become caught up in a night of terror in a university library? And why should Gwen and Ianto's actions at a local publisher's have a cost for Torchwood more than half a century earlier? For Torchwood, the past will always catch up with them. And sometimes the future will catch up with the past..."
All three books feature Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto, and are priced at £6.99 each.
29 JANUARY | Doctor Who
GUERRIER'S ISSKAR DIARY
Writer Simon Guerrier has written a diary on the production of The Judgement of Isskar - the first Doctor Who: Key 2 Time audio play - which has been posted on the Big Finish website. It follows Isskar's development from initial story ideas right through to recording.
29 JANUARY | Doctor Who
NEW AUDIO COVERS
The cover images for several upcoming Doctor Who audio stories have been uploaded to Big Finish's website. They are for The Beast of Orlok (an Eighth Doctor full-cast play), The Magician's Oath (a Third Doctor Companion Chronicle) and The Angel of Scutari (a Seventh Doctor full-cast play), the cover of which reveals guest stars Hugh Bonneville and Jeany Spark for the first time.
29 JANUARY | Doctor Who
2009 AUDIO SCHEDULE
New listings on the Big Finish website reveal further information about 2009's audio release schedule.
The three plays featuring the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) and Charley Pollard (India Fisher) together for the last time are August's Patient Zero by Nicholas Briggs, and September's Paper Cuts by Marc Platt and Blue Forgotten Planet by Briggs.
The final three adventures of the year, in October, November, and December, are now confirmed to feature the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) and companion Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), written by Alan Barnes, Mark Morris and Jonathan Morris.
