SF Universe

Author: Phil Friel

  • Doctor Who: Under the Lake Starting Soon!

    Under the Lake, the third episode of of Series 9 of Doctor Who will be airing on BBC1 in about ten minutes, at 8.25pm. I know nothing about the story (I\’ve been avoiding spoilers like the plague) other than what I\’ve seen in the trailer, which looks suitably spooky. Under the Lake has a lot…

  • Thunderbirds Turns 50!

    Yet another classic telefantasy series has it\’s birthday today (September sees a lot of that kinda thing). Thunderbirds has hit the big Five-Oh. It\’s 50 years since old favourite kid\’s (and big kid\’s) series Thunderbirds premiered on British television, way back on 30 September 1965. The pilot episode, \”Trapped in the Sky\”, was first broadcast…

  • 6 GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF SCIENCE FICTION (1954) edited by Groff Conklin

    For this post, we have an anthology, this one from 1954. It\’s another from one of the old dependables and one of my own personal favourite anthologists, Groff Conklin. This anthology is a paperback, published by Dell, one of their Dell First Edition range, number D9, to be precise. It\’s billed as \”six short novels…

  • Doctor Who: The Witch\’s Familiar is On TV Tonight!

    The Witch\’s Familiar, Part Two of the Doctor Who season opening double-parter, airs on BBC One at 7.45pm tonight. It\’ll be interesting to see how things turn out for Clara (Jenna Coleman) and Missy (Michelle Gomez), and how the complex relationship between the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Davros (Julian Bleach) may or may not have…

  • Doctor Who Series 9 Episodes Listing

    Saturday past gave us the first episode of the new Series 9 of Doctor Who, The Magician\’s Apprentice, and a cracking start it was too. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman reprise their roles as the Doctor and companion Clara Oswald, and this first episode alone gave us a cracking story and a whole bunch of…

  • Doctor Who Series 9 Starts Today!

    I\’m looking forward to the rest of this evening, just sitting here, eagerly awaiting the start of The Magician\’s Apprentice, the very first episode of the new Series 9 of Doctor Who, which begins very shortly, at 7:40pm, on BBC1. Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman return as the Doctor and Clara, and I won\’t give…

  • Happy 50th Anniversary, Lost in Space!

      Here\’s yet another anniversary, hot on the heels of Star Trek\’s 49th. This time, it\’s the 50th Anniversary of Lost in Space. I remember spending quite a few Friday evenings and (later) Sunday mornings watching re-runs of this on UK television during the early 1970s. Irwin Allen series were VERY popular on UK television…

  • Happy 49th Birthday, Star Trek!

      Tonight marks the 49th Anniversary of the first screening of the classic Star Trek: TOS on US television, with the airing of \”The Man Trap\” on Thursday, September 8, 1966. Due to some strange network mental gymnastics, they managed to air this one, which should have actually been the FIFTH episode, first, and they…

  • The Blogging Life – My Experiences With WordPress, Part Two

    In Part One, I recounted the rise and demise of my first blog, SFreaders.com, between 2007 and 2009. I made the first post to that blog on May 3rd, 2007, and the final post on October 29th, 2007, so I was actually only posting for a few days short of six months. The blog itself…

  • The Blogging Life – My Experiences With WordPress, Part One

    I was rooting through the archives the other night, looking at stuff I have squirrelled away in old folders on my hard drive, and I came upon some long-forgotten, but very interesting bits \’n\’ bobs. One folder in particular stood out, a big one, with multiple sub-folders, containing all the back-up material that I\’d saved…