Robert J. Sawyer dropped a few more hints about th…

SFFaudio News

Science Fiction Audio Drama - CBC EmanationsRobert J. Sawyer dropped a few more hints about the new CBC Radio One Science Fiction anothology radio drama series Emanations:

“Michael Lennick and I had a meeting at the CBC Broadcasting Centre to go over the second draft of our SF radio-drama pilot with the people Michael likes to refer to as “the boys downtown.” The script will be produced on March 17; our series is an anthology of standalone SF radio dramas with the overall title Emanations. The pilot script, “Birth,” deals with the accidental emergence of sentience among exploratory robots on Mars.”

Posted by Jesse Willis

An update to our December 2004 announcement. CITY…

SFFaudio News

Science Fiction Audio - JMSAn update to our December 2004 announcement. CITY OF DREAMS creator and writing-machine J. Michael Straczynski has confirmed he’ll be in Toronto this month (Feb. 2005) co-directing “The Adventures Of Apocalypse Al” for eventual broadcast on CBC Radio One. Our Torontonian readers are asked to be on the lookout for this man:

He will likely be armed with either a typwriter, computer keyboard or possibly a pen and paper and should be considered a very prolific Science Fiction author. If you spot him, be courteous, polite and send us a photo!

Posted by Jesse Willis

Exciting post-apocalyptic news everyone. This one …

SFFaudio Online Audio

Exciting post-apocalyptic news everyone. This one sounds like it’ll be a real winner!

CBC Radio One is launching a brand new four-part limited comedy series to begin airing this Saturday, February 5th, 2005. Entitled STEVE, THE FIRST, written by and starring Matt Watts, the program boasts an exceptional cast including actor, writer and director Don McKellar of films as eXistenZ and Last Night. And Kids In The Hall alumnus Mark McKinney. Writer Matt Watts (The Newsroom) attributes his inspiration for writing the show to a recent viewing of The Omega Man. Matt says he thought that it’d be “…funny if someone had to save the world after an apocalypse, despite being rather lazy and useless”. Matt says he “Came up with the character Steve, who’s pretty useless, like me. Sad, but true.”

Starring:

Matt Watts as “Steve the First”

Mark McKinney as “Phil Green”

Don McKellar as “Tim the Melty”

PART I – (Airing February 5th 2005)

Steve wakes up to realize he’s slept through the apocalypse! Listeners follow him through a bizarre series of events as he discovers that human survivors are melting to death (melties) and dogs are randomly exploding. He meets Colleen, who takes him into her home after she realizes he may hold the cure to the strange melting disease. Phil Green, the evil mayoral candidate, continues to work on his post-nuclear campaign.

PART II – (Airing February 12th 2005)

Steve treks across the forbidden zone in search of water, while Colleen discovers Steve’s cure actually works and she has recovered! Hundreds of melties begin to arrive at Colleen’s house in search of Steve’s cure, while the evil Phil Green works toward capturing Colleen’s heart.

PART III – (Airing February 19th 2005)

After successfully curing several melties, Steve is kidnapped by Phil Green, who wants the cure for himself. Colleen, with the help of a telepathic dog, treks across the nuclear wasteland to rescue Steve.

PART IV – (Airing February 26th 2005)

Phil Green and Steve have a public debate to see who’s more qualified to lead the citizens of post-nuclear Toronto to safety. When things don’t go to Phil’s liking, he reveals his deadly plan. (Yes, it involves a bomb!)

If any of these above situations sound familiar to you, chances are you can relate to the life of STEVE, THE FIRST. He may sound like a typical hero, but in reality he’s a lazy, incompetent whiner, who through strange circumstances happens to be the saviour of humankind. Tune in as the fate of the world unfolds beginning Saturday, February 5th 2005 at 11:30 am.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Its a good news bad news kind of week, but there’s…

SFFaudio News

Its a good news bad news kind of week, but there’s more good news today. CBC Radio One will be featuring two weeks of short speculative fiction in Spring 2005 on the program called BETWEEN THE COVERS, the series will include fiction by Ashok Mathur, Dan Rubin, Larissa Lai, Wilma Kenny and others! Nalo Hopkinson will be the presenter and one of her stories will be on the roster! The only title that we’re sure is going to be read is “Strange Harvest” by Edward Willett.

Posted by Jesse Willis

And now a bit of bad news for Science Fiction audi…

SFFaudio News

And now a bit of bad news for Science Fiction audio drama fans. CBC Radio One’s potential summer replacement series “FASTER THAN LIGHT” has been nixed. Creator and developer Joe Mahoney reports that after three pilots (only one was ever broadcast) the potential series has been officially canceled.

But the news isn’t all bad. Mahoney reports that he’s involved with another CBC Radio project with the title “EMANATIONS” and that it has been greenlit! Mahoney calls it “a more of a straight up dramatic science fiction show” an anthology series. It is being written by Robert J. Sawyer and Michael Lennick and produced by Joe Mahoney. Production is scheduled for March 2005. The first half hour episode is entitled “Birth”. We’ll be sure to let you know when we have a broadcast date.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. Lansdale

Science Fiction Audiobook - Bubba Ho-Tep by Joe R. LansdaleBubba Ho-tep
By Joe R. Lansdale; Read by Joe R. Lansdale
DVDVideo Special Feature – 7 Minutes 56 Seconds
[UNABRIDGED EXCERPT]
Publisher: MGM
Published: 2003
UPC: 027616906533
Themes: / Fantasy / Horror / Humor / Magic /

Elvis Aaron Presley is living in a Texas rest home. See, he really isn’t dead because he’d switched identities with an Elvis impersonator years before his so called “death”. Also occupying this old folks home is an elderly black man, call him Jack, who claims to be former President John F. Kennedy. When a lurking evil in the form of a soul sucking Egyptian mummy starts killing the residents its up to JFK and Elvis to take it out. Good thing it’s 3000 years old because Elvis’ hip is out and he still hasn’t gotten the hang of his walker.

Wait a second, we don’t review DVDs here! That’s right we don’t – normally. But this DVD has a special feature, an audio excerpt of Bubba Ho-tep, the original novella as read by the author Joe R. Lansdale. This phenomenon of special features on DVDs has yielded a few radio dramas in collector’s editions of old movies before – but this is a recent film so I was juiced to see that it included the original story
as an extra. Too bad Lansdale reads only the first chapter of his Bram Stoker Award nominated novella.

What little is there is ribald and crude and pretty funny. The reading is accompanied by still images from the film. Too bad it’s just the first chapter. With all the useless making of special features out there you’d think they could at least give us the full story.

Posted by Jesse Willis