Well, that was quick: The BBC will reveal the 12th Doctor in a live special this Sunday. The special will air in the U.K. on BBC One at 7p.m., and on BBC America at 2p.m. Eastern. There will be guests including “Doctors old and new” as well as reigning Doctor Matt Smith and executive producer Steven Moffat.
Smith, who’s starred in the show since 2010, has two specials before he hangs up his bow tie for good: The 50th Anniversary special (with the 10th Doctor, David Tennant) in November and the Christmas Special, where he will regenerate into the new actor or actress. The new Doctor will go on to star in the eighth series with current companion Jenna-Louise Coleman.
These almost certainly won’t be the last trailers out of the con, but these two revealed yesterday are certainly among my most-anticipated. Book 2 of Legend of Korra will be coming in September, but you can watch the first three minutes now.
In a one-hour special, Disney’s Phineas and Ferb will be heading to the galaxy far, far away next year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
I’ve never seen the show, but I’ve heard of it as one of Disney’s more popular cartoons… And it’s not like there’s a particularly high bar set for these things (thanks, Family Guy.)
The show is already airing a Marvel crossover on August 16.
We’re all familiar with major awards shows not being big on geek content, and the Emmys have been no different… Unless HBO is involved, apparently. This year, Game of Thrones has nabbed not just one, nit just two, but three acting nods. One-time winner Peter Dinklage is up again with his third supporting actor nomination for playing Tyrion Lannister, and this time he’s joined by actresses Emilia Clarke (supporting) and Dame Diana Rigg (guest.)
Alas, not nominated was Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany, who’s been getting tons of buzz for her impressive work as a mind-boggling seven clones. Better luck next year?
American Horror Story: Asylum is up for miniseries, as well as a nice spread in the acting categories, with nods for Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, James Cromwell and Zachary Quinto. Of course, the big story this year? Netflix.
Just in time for SDCC, Her Universe adds another franchise – They’re now making products based on AMC’s zombie drama The Walking Dead. It’s not a show I’m all that familiar with, but one thing’s for sure – that hoodie is killer. (There’s more, including a dress, at the link!)
The line isn’t online yet, but it will be available at at San Diego Comic-Con so we’ll no doubt be seeing it soon.
(Star Wars fans, there’s something new for us, too – An Artoo dress at Hot Topic!)
The 2013 Christmas Special will be Matt Smith’s last on Doctor Who, the BBC announced today. Smith, the eleventh and youngest actor to play the role, took over from David Tennant in 2010 and has done 3 seasons of the show – plus the upcoming 50th Anniversary and Christmas specials.
There’s been nothing about who will be cast as the next Doctor, but reports do have both showrunner Steven Moffat and the current companion, Jenna Coleman, staying on.
There’s a long history of fans monetizing their fanfic – but generally they do it by filing off the serial numbers, changing the names, and repurposing it as ‘original’ work. Fifty Shades of Grey may be the most infamous example, but it’s hardly the first.
Now Amazon wants to cut out all that work to get your fanfic published: They’ve launched Kindle Worlds, “the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so.”
How are they not getting their asses sued? Well, they’re actually licensing the stuff. First up is Alloy Entertainment, the Warner-Bros. owned book packager responsible for such book-series-turned-TV as Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. Not your bag of blood? They plan “to announce more licenses soon.” (For what it’s worth, I really doubt that Lucasfilm or Disney would sign on to something like this – at least not this early on.)
Naturally, they’re not allowing porn or crossovers, which disincludes plenty of fandom right from the start, but it’s still pretty troubling – and something that could end up very disturbing precedent.
The first and only rule of fanfic fandom is you don’t sell your stuff. I firmly believe that the line between fanfic and profic is something that should only be crossed very carefully and with great caution. And, let’s face it – most fanfic is awful, porn or no porn.
The idea of actually monetizing fanfic is no real surprise – it’s been tried, and failed, a dozen times over, and the runaway success of 50 Shades made this nigh-inevitable. To have the Powers-That-Be actively involved in fanfic has a real potential to change this very specific fandom activity – and not for the better. Part of the point of fanfic, to my mind, is the complete lack of tether. It rarely pays off, but when it does, those are the moments that make the whole enterprise worth it.
This alone is no great shakes – Alloy and a couple of writers making a couple bucks off some PG smolderfests is not going to change the whole landscape of fandom. But it’s a very dangerous first step that could lead to more corporate policing in the fanfic realm, the making such a thing mundane – and that’s something I am not in the least comfortable with.
UPDATE: Scalzi looks at the fine print… He raises a few good questions, but for our purposes: What does it mean for the ‘official’ tie-ins?
The TV stations held their upfronts last week, giving advertisers (and viewers) their first look at fall’s new shows. So your first trailer park of the week is devoted to genre and genre-ajacent TV show trailers.
Up top, the biggest gun: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. from Joss Whedon and the Disney/Marvel conglomerate, coming at you on ABC, Tuesdays at 8:00. And yes, there is already a push to abbreviate this as MAoS, so pass it on.
Note that yes, some of these are spoiling their show’s first episode, but love it or leave it, their main purpose is to sell ads.
It looks like Warehouse 13 is getting renewed and canceled at the same time: the Syfy show will be getting a fifth and final season for 2014, but that season will be severely abbreviated: six episodes to wrap everything up.
Entertainment Weekly calls it a cancel but The Wrap calls it a renewal. Sci Fi Stream goes a bit further in depth and examines the viewership, and the previous hopes that the series would be the one to break the five-season curse of the Syfy channel (No original scripted show has lasted more than five seasons on the network). Currently, the show just recently started the second half of season four.
I’ve been a fan of Warehouse 13 from the start – it’s a fantastic show with great characters and a cool world, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s also one of the few shows I’ve found recently that not only casts women in a majority of the main character roles (Myka, Claudia, Leena, Mrs. Frederick to Pete, Artie, and Jinx) but also shows all the characters as positive and competent but still human. While it started off as fairly light and it still maintains that bit of comedy, it also has gotten a bit more serious in the past season or two, with some major character drama. In the more recent seasons, they’ve brought on a cavalcade of well known sci-fi actors as guest stars (like Kate Mulgrew, James Marsters, and Lindsay Wagner), but the core of the show is “snag it, bag it and tag it” with wacky artifacts that wreak havoc (and sometimes global destruction) when in the wrong hands.
It’s sad that Warehouse 13 will be coming to an end, but at least it won’t be coming to an abrupt end – that the show’s creators will have a chance to give a somewhat proper ending for the enjoyable characters and the mythology of the show. Having Syfy produce six episodes to wrap it up is certainly better than say, unspecified (and not likely to be aired) ‘bonus content’ for Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
In a one-hour special, Disney’s Phineas and Ferb will be heading to the galaxy far, far away next year, according to 
We’re all familiar with major awards shows not being big on geek content, and 
It looks like Warehouse 13 is getting renewed and canceled at the same time: the Syfy show will be getting a fifth and final season for 2014, but that season will be severely abbreviated: six episodes to wrap everything up.