R.I.P. Talkshoe




In a few short hours the next episode of Sci-Fi Saturday Night will be recorded live – on uStream. After much deliberation, hemming and hawing, and dare I say, curmudeoning, we have decided to cease broadcasting over TalkShoe.

There are a couple of reasons for this, the most major being the quality of the show. Talkshoe users experienced longer than normal lag, and consistent boots from the servers. This does not make for a good SFSN experience.

The main reason we began using Talkshoe in the first place was so that we could have guests call in. At our talkcast inception, this was important to us. Times have changed however, numerous guests have complained about the charges arising from making a long distance call to the Pittsburgh area, and rather than giving the sometimes less technically savvy guests complicated instructions for how to log in over the phone, it’s much easier to just call them ourselves.

Another main feature we used from Talkshoe was the chatroom. After some careful consideration I’ve decided since we’re removing Talkshoe, to also remove our mibbit IRC channel. However as a replacement for those two rooms, I’ve turned on the chatroom within uStream. Think of this not as a removal, but a consolidation.

Our New Look and …. why am I not in San Diego?




Without much fanfare, we’d like to welcome the completely spiffified look of Sci-Fi Saturday Night! As we have grown in the past year, it became clear to the entire staff that the time had come for a change. Over the next few months we are gonna be rolling out a bunch of new changes (because old changes would be redundant, no?)

And now for something completely different. I’m sitting here in my cube, diligently working on this post instead of my day job and wondering, how come I’m not in San Diego. This week is ComiCon.  For those of you lucky enough to be going as I slave away, I am totally jonesing for a Heather Morris Autograph Card, and am so jealous of our friends at Browncoats Redemption and Airlock Alpha, but enough about me. This year proves to be the most diverse yet with a slew of companies, from Hallmark to Toynami, exhibiting. The panels are more diverse than ever. On Thurday alone, DC Comics Writers Unite features J. Michael Straczynski. Then go see  Tron: Legacy and and then Bruce Campbell is in a panel for USA Networks Burn Notice. I am amazed at the depth of experience going on and dismayed that I am stuck in Area 51 once again.

This is Dome sayin’: Next year in San Diego…….’cept I said that last year, already.

Talkcast 43 – Zombies and Cheerleaders and Browncoats, Oh My!




Tonight’s Talkcast brings us Frankie B. Washington and Elizabeth Terrell from Browncoats Redemption.

EW has first real pix of Green Lantern, also on Bleeding Cool. Is Johnny Depp the new Barnabas Collins? R.I.P. hard science fiction writer James P. Hogan. Check out AMC’s upcoming zombie miniseries Walking Dead. Our first guest, Elizabeth Terrell from Browncoats Movie. They rocked Shore Leave last weekend and you can go watch it on UStream if you’d like. They are almost at 3k fans on the Facebook fan page. Michael Dougherty and Heather Fagan will be at San Diego ComicCon this weekend and Browncoats Backwoods Bash: http://wildandbad.com/browncoatsbash.  Our second guest: Frankie B Washington – Zombies Vs Cheerleaders .

Comment on this post to be entered to win a copy of Zombies vs Cheerleaders by Frankie B Washington.

 

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Talkcast 42 – It’s Tesla’s Birthday




Its happy birthday to Dru, Peter Vinton and Nikola Tesla! You can now listen to Browncoats Redemption: Live Q&A sessions every Thursday on uStream. On Warehouse 13, H. G. Wells is a WOMAN, the Escher Vault is kinda cheesy but cool. On Eureka – 1940’s time travel, and now they’ve changed the world. Take Cover! Our friend Harlan Ellison is selling his books! Joining us for the whole show is Tracy Hickman to talk about his latest project. Check his personal site here and the Dragonsbard site here .

Comment on this post with your opinion on this season of Doctor Who in order to win Peter Vinton’s print, Bad Wolf.

 

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New Features and What am I reading?




It was gently but firmly suggested to me that we here at Sci-Fi Saturday Night add Amazon.com referral links to our posts and show notes, in order to gain a bit of revenue from you, the listener. Here’s how it works: When we mention a book or other type of media we will link to it on Amazon. This link is special in that it contains a tracking code to tell them that you arrived at their product from our site. Then if you purchase said product, we get a little slice of the pie courtesy of Amazon. To summarize, if you buy from our links, your price stays the same, but you’re supporting us financially. So do it!

To give you a jump start, I thought I’d share with you what I’m reading now: Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest. So far it is filled with rampant steampunkery and zombies, the latter of which I was not expecting based upon the review I read. I’m about a quarter of the way through and enjoying my oil lamps, goggles and airships thoroughly.

Talkcast 41 – Our Third of July Spectacular




Our special guests for the 3rd. of July Mike Dougherty and Miriam Pultro from Browncoats Redemption. The Four Colour Vault of Comics was over run by some of our devoted fans and Empress Sith and Mr. Washey came by to talk about some of the burning Sci-Fi issues of the week. Discussion began with Wonder Woman’s makeover and her lack of Iconic status, Greg Peltz’s new graphics of StarWars characters and SyFy’s latest Sautrday Night Movie,  Mega-Python Vs. Gatoroid. Kriana mentioned True Blood’s new blog on HBO featuring baby Jessica.  In other headlines this week, A former Trek writer has been optioned to write the script for Heinlein’s iconic, Have Spacesuit, Will Travel, Garfield is the new Spider-Man(no it’s not the cartoon cat), and someone it stealing sci-fi artifacts once again.

Our second half was a review of the rough cut of Browncoats Redemption and a nifty interview with Mike and Miriam (huge heart!). Then drinking ensues as we celebrate being able to celebrate tomorrow. Some days I’m glad we don’t have flying cars yet.

Leave a comment on this post between now and next week’s show for a chance to win: Bad Wolf, by Peter Vinton Jr.

 

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Browncoats Redemption- A Big Damn Review




Let’s start out with a few disclaimers. I am getting nothing for writing this, no money has changed hands. Second, yes I am a Whedon fanboy, no question. Third I am basing this review on a rough cut, with the final cut due at DragonCon, so let’s let the chips fall where they may.

As background, I have recently become acquainted with many of the cast and crew of this movie and the Browncoats themselves (waves to ‘em). They are, all in all, a fun group to hang around with. So, shall we begin?

As with all good films, its strength rests on three things: characters, story and synergy. Read More »

Talkcast40 – Area 51’s Invasion




In a departure from our usual format, almost the entire cast converged upon the Area 51 compound for the first time, but Java who was measuring Crop Circles. The super secret underground laboratory and Table Tennis Pavilion was also opened to our guests, writes Greg Norris and Laura Van Vleet and Browncoats Redemption Editor and Puffs Plus Poster Boy Andrew Marnik. In our round table discussion recap of the week, we talked about Double Midnight’s 8th Birthday Party, the rumors of Peter Jackson directing The Hobbit, the hue and cry for a producer for the oft discarded Wonder Woman Movie project. Fox is attempting to ruin another classic, The Martian Chronicles, The Henson Studios announce Dark Crystal II and the Green Hornet Trailer is released.

In our second half, Greg and Laura regale us with stories of Trek and Hollywood from their perspective and what it was like to work in that system. Andrew brings us an update on the finishing  being done on Browncoats Redemption and  preorders for the film.

 

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TalkCast 39 – The Dark Squid




Film Maker, if that term can be applied here, Wickersham De Le Croix, joins us to discuss His 9th film in the centology, Dark Warriors of the Dark Kingdom. As a side note, he also drops a plug for Double Midnight Comics 8th. anniversary Party .

Talkin’ about what’s new this week, a porn Avatar movie, Buffy is too old school for sparkly vampires, Plan 9 From Outer Space to be colorized and remastered in 3-D, and some uber-cool merch on a site called Quantum Mechanix. On a sad note, UberCon’s Director, Alyssa Smith lost all her possessions in an apartment fire. To get more information and see a cool way to help, check Jess Hartley’s post here.

As a reminder, to win this week’s ” NOT A TRIVIA QUESTION” prize, simply make a comment about this weeks talkcast. The winner will be chosen at random.

 

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R.I.P. Trivia




That’s right folks, we’ve decided to discontinue the traditional trivia section in our podcasts. Not to worry though, we will still be giving away fabulous prizes, albeit in a slightly different format. During each show, we will announce a topic. When the show is posted as a podcast, you will have one week to add a comment to that post along the topic provided. A winner will be chosen at random, and announced on the blog. The winner will then have one week to contact us with their address before their prize goes back into rotation.

This should hopefully give everyone who downloads the podcast rather than listening live a chance to win some prizes.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Picture Courtesy of [RaeA]
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