It seems that sci-fi shorts are all the rage these days.  Here’s another especially impressive one, The Gift, set in Russia with some very strong Half Life 2-vibes. Set in Russia, the Gift features a great chase sequence and is beautifully filmed with some cracking CGI. Watch it below (warning: it contains some gore): The Gift from BLR_VFX on Vimeo.

A Town Called Mercy In Brief: The Doctor. A Doctor. Two sides. One coin. In Depth: The latest Who offering promised a Wild West adventure… and we most certainly got it! It’s probably best to say that, whilst A Town Called Mercy isn’t quite the beautifully dark Asylum of the Daleks romp, or the madcap hi-jinks of Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, it does manage to place itself rather squarely between them – and even finds a few moments for quiet contemplation that the first two speedy entries to Series 7 could not! Mercy begins quite simply compared to the others as well; rather than a reasonably long teaser before the opening credits, we...

It’s September 2012.  Over the last twelve years, I’ve lost count of how many sci-fi shows have flopped and been cancelled; how many sci-fi movies have proved to be massive disappointments. Is the future bleak? I don’t think so. Yes, we’ve got endless remakes on the cards.  Reboots of Spider-Man and Total Recall are on their way, and most of the highly-anticipated films are sequels.  But, while a lot of Hollywood focuses on massive profit margins and established brand names, there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic. Cloud Atlas, for one, is on its way.  The Wachowskis are back, with an adaptation of David...

In Brief: I actually can’t do better than the episode title… In Depth: A very good episode that jumps straight back into the current set up for the first half of Doctor Who series 7, whereby the Doctor has no regular travelling companion, instead he picks up people along the way for brief trips and then drops them off again! “This is the gang! Never had a gang before!” This episode figuratively blasts off from Egypt 1334 BC, to India 2367, to African plains circa 1902, to modern day Earth (specifically the Ponds [they are not Williams’] living room) and then FORWARD again to 2367. All in the first 10 minutes – got that? That is...

Which dirty sci-fi characters would mud-wrestle you for a wad of cash, if needs demanded it?  Sci-fi is full of duplicitous, scheming criminal masterminds, but just who would make the top 5?  Let’s find out. 1. Jayne Cobb (Firefly) If you ain’t paying him to talk pretty, then he’s probably figuring out some clumsy way of betraying you, and running off with all your cash. This guy’s more financially-driven than a Ferengi, and would shoot his own mother for some cash. A classic ruffian, Firefly shows Jayne being turned to Mal’s side with the promise of some extra cash (and a private room!), before going on...