A science fiction blog featuring science fiction book reviews and with frequent ramblings on fantasy, computers and the web.
(See Part 1 for 4 – 
But to recap, so far we have:
And now, on with the countdown…
New Year’s Eve is typically the day when we reflect on the year just passed and look forward to the year that is to come; time is on our minds. It’s also a day (well, night) of countdowns, just ask Dick Clark. So what better day to countdown the best TV Time Travel episodes than today?
Time travel is a staple of science fiction, but recently it’s been showing up on TV as an integral part of shows: The under-appreciated Journeyman, Life on Mars both the BBC and American version and the here then gone again Daybreak. Each uses time travel in a slightly different way, but they did/do bring time travel to the forefront for audiences. But time travel has been around for a long time on TV (think Time Tunnel so, in honor of New Year’s , I’m going to countdown my top 8 time travel television episodes.
One caveat before starting: These are only the best of the episodes I’ve seen. I can’t rightly rate those I haven’t.
(Update: It seems that the original post was too long for Movable Type’s liking, so it ate the last two entries. I have decided to split the original post into two parts.)
Sean Rossall from BWR Public Relation asked us to relay the following to our readers:
JANUARY 4, 2009Public Memorial Service for the Late “First Lady of Star Trek” Majel Barrett Roddenberry
Cast Members and Fans Come Out to Celebrate and Remember Roddenberry’s Life
WHO:
Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, son of Gene & Majel Roddenberry and CEO of Roddenberry Productions, will host cast members, family, friends and fans to celebrate the life of his late mother. Fans are invited to come and pay their respects with the family and share their fondest memories of the late Trek icon.
WHAT:
Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry will hold a public memorial service for his late mother. Family, cast members, friends and fans will have an opportunity to remember the legendary “First Lady of Star Trek.” Fans are encouraged to share their favorite memory of Majel from her numerous roles in Star Trek. Expected to attend include members of Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation and many others.
WHERE:
Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills
6300 Forest Lawn Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90068
WHEN:
Sunday, January 4, 2009
9:00 a.m. Press Check-in
10:00 a.m. Memorial to start
CONTACT:
Sean Rossall
BWR Public Relations
310.210.7586
srossall@bwr-la.com
Have a Happy New Year everyone! 
REVIEW SUMMARY: A great deconstruction of the superhero mythos.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A group of aging superheroes are called out of retirement when their former colleagues start turning up dead.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Excellent world-building; superior storytelling; realistic characterizations.
CONS: I could have done without the parallel fiction-within-the-fiction story of Tales of the Black Freighter. Nitpicky, I admit.
BOTTOM LINE: Totally engrossing and realistic.
The good folks over at Snowbooks have posted a free short story from George Mann called “The Shattered Teacup”. It’s subtitled “A Maurice Newbury Investigation” which means it’s set in the Steampunk/Doctor/Who world of his awesome novel The Affinity Bridge.
Snowbooks has made the story available in both PDF and audio formats for your choice of reading and/or listening enjoyment. So, go forth and download and get a taste of why I’m going to name The Affinity Bridge as one of my best reads of 2008.
say it looks really sweet. In fact, their starship wallpaper I liked so much it’s now in my background rotation. If the game approaches the coolness of this ship, it could be really good.
REVIEW SUMMARY: A tightly-plotted, intelligent time travel thriller.
BRIEF SYNOPSIS: A man travels back in time one hour and, for his own survival, must ensure that events are not changed.
MY REVIEW:
PROS: Mind-bending treatment of time travel; some tense moments.
CONS: Because it deals with time loops, it’s somewhat predictable at times.
BOTTOM LINE: A well-handled exploration of time loops, causality and paradox.
Here is the table of contents for the January 2009 issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine:
NOVELETTES
SHORT STORIES
CLASSIC REPRINT: “Rising Waters” by Patricia FerraraDEPARTMENTS
Here’s a list of the stuff we received this past week.
What was that I said about publishers slowing down over the holidays?
Tor’s Art Director, Irene Gallo, is reporting that American pulp magazine illustrator Edd Cartier has passed away.
Cartier’s work has been gracing books and magazines since 1939, including The Shadow and John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories, Doc Savage Magazine, Unknown, and Planet Stories.
See also:
to SciFi Scanner, I mis-categorized A Boy And His Dog as bad. On the off chance I can’t detect a bomb when I see one, I offer Howard the Duck, whose plot is described by Hulu as: “A sarcastic humanoid duck is pulled from his home world to Earth where he must stop an alien invader.”
This has 1980′s written all over it.
The winners of the Death Race on DVD giveaway are:
Congratulations!
Patrick Stewart narrates the 1999 documentary If We Had No Moon.
See also: “If We Had No Moon“, an essay by Bernard Foing in Astrobiology Magazine.
The official website of Leo Frankowski is reporting that Frankowski has passed away.
Frankowski was the author of the Adventures of Conrad Stargard series of science fiction novels.
[via James Nicoll whose readers seem to be of dual opinion on the matter]
Horror film legend Christopher Lee reads director Tim Burton’s original poem “The Nightmare Before Christmas”.
[via Irene Gallo @ Tor.com]
Sad news…Eartha Kitt has passed away.
Ms. Kitt was well-known to genre fans as Catwoman from the 1960′s Batman television series.
Christmas Day is finally here! We hope you have a wonderful day of presents and family, and Chuck. Watch on as strange things are afoot at the Buy More.
Have a Merry Christmas from all of us here at SF Signal and thanks for reading!
The story in this Doctor Who/Star Trek Mashup needs a little something more, but seeing the TARDIS in the Enterprise transporter room is trippy.
[via Poe TV]
We’re late in wrapping up out ‘Best Of’ list for this year, but better late than never. Today, just in time for Christmas, we bring you bloggers’ perspectives on the ‘Best of 2008′.
2008 was a fruitful year for genre media. Even as the economy fell into recession, the amount and variety of genre media spiked upward.
Movies:
Iron Man: I rate this movie slightly higher than the obvious choice, below, for the reason of what I call the “sprained ankle test”. Given a sprained ankle and being pent up in my apartment, what genre movie would I prefer to re-watch to take my mind off my predicament?
Iron Man won hands down. Even as it has an important message about the cost and consequences of the Military-Industrial Complex running hog wild and the instable third world that provides a endless canvas for the unfolding of human tragedy, the movie itself has more than sufficient dollops of humor, humanity and sheer entertainment to make it a movie well worth your time even without a sprained ankle. Good performances from Downey, Paltrow, Howard and Bridges only reinforce Iron Man as my favorite, and easily the most entertaining genre movie I watched in 2008.
The Dark Knight: Much ink has already been spilled about the fabulous performances of Christian Bale, and even more, that of the late Heath Ledger. The direction is fabulous, the cinematography is fantastic, and the movie stunningly well crafted. The only thing that keeps this from being for me the genre movie of the year is the relentless downward tone and denouement of the film. It’s not a happy movie, and upon leaving the theater, it left me on a downward note in mood. It’s definitely not a movie to watch when in depressed spirits. Regardless, it still is a movie that no fan of genre movies should miss.
Hellboy II The Golden Army: Del Toro brings us another live action installment in the story of the B.P.R.D. and its titular leader, the irrepressible Hellboy. The original movie was a bit of a diamond in the rough; this second installment is more confident, and with the origins and nature of Hellboy safely explained in the first movie, this second movie proves the idea that second-in-a-series movies (in genre, anyway) are often superior to the first.
Like my choice for favorite genre movie, Hellboy knows how to deft play moods and themes, easily switching from humor, to pathos, to rollicking action, and to tragedy. Del Toro’s creations and the inventiveness that went into them, from the Golden Army itself to the variety of creations wandering in the Troll Market (evocative of the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars), have to be seen to be believed.
Books:
I think the jury is still out on the effectiveness of book trailers. In the meantime, I keep seeing more and more being produced.
Here are the latest two…
It’s almost here! Even being forced to take off two weeks from work won’t seem so bad when you see the excitement in your kids’ eyes as they unwrap their gifts. That and Muppets. In this episode “Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo and the gang inadvertently misdirect three letters to Santa, so they decide to deliver them personally.” Sigh, I miss Jim Henson.
