Tonight Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead, the first of four Doctor Who specials, David Tennant’s last appearances as the most iconic Doctor of all time, debuted on BBC America. It’s more than an episode but not quite a movie. Call it a mini-movie. In it, Tennant was as usual, brilliant. The writing? Maybe not so much.

The problem is they’ve done this story before, and done it better. The companionless Doctor trapped on a bus with nervous passengers as they face mortal peril was done fantastically in the not so long ago episode “Midnight”. This time the twist is that the peril is less mysterious and the humans less suspicious and as result the amazing tension which made “Midnight” so incredibly effective is utterly absent, replaced instead by those red-bereted dickheads with guns who call themselves “Unit”. more...

Torchwood: Children of the Earth has been airing for more than week now on BBC America and it debuted long ago in Great Britain. Word is, it's been such a big success that it's guaranteed a Torchwood season 4.

Dark Horizons attended the Doctor Who panel this weekend at the San Diego Comic Con where they got the details from showrunner Russell T. Davies:

Asked about a fourth season of "Torchwood", Davies wouldn't confirm any specifics but indicated the success of 'Children of Earth' means its a certainty and he sounded excited to be involved. Fans though hoping for the return of some previously deceased cast members should not hold out hope.

Last night in San Diego at Comic Con, Star Wars fans were given a sneak peek at the first ever trailer for the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now we have it for you to watch at home, in your pajamas, the way trailers were meant to be watched by anyone without the wealth necessary for a lavish trip to California.

The second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars starts this fall on Cartoon Network. Watch the trailer after the jump: more...

Only less than 24 hours after debuting the movie and it's title at the San Diego Comic Con, Disney has released the first ever teaser trailer for Tron: Legacy online in beautiful, glorious high-def. This is actually the teaser trailer which debuted at Comic Con in 08, but which never actually made it online. It's been adapted to be the film's first teaser trailer, and it's every bit as eye-popping and unbelievable as you may have heard.

Watch it after the jump. more...

20th Century Fox has just released the full, official plot synopsis for James Cameron's potentially groundbreaking sci-fi movie Avatar. Word coming out of Comic Con is that this thing's going to blow our collective minds. For now, read what it's about and gaze into the eye of an alien.

In the epic action adventure fantasy AVATAR, James Cameron, the director of Titanic, takes us to a spectacular new world beyond our imagination. On the distant moon Pandora, a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption, discovery and unexpected love -- as he leads a heroic battle to save a civilization.

The story’s protagonist, Jake Sully, is an ex-Marine who was wounded and paralyzed from the waist down in combat on Earth. In order to participate in the Avatar program, which will give him a healthy body, Jake agrees to travel to Pandora, a lush rainforest environment filled with incredible life forms – some beautiful, many terrifying. Pandora is also the home to the Na’vi, a humanoid race that lives at what we consider to be a primate level, but they are actually much more evolved than humans. Ten feet tall and blue skinned, the Na’vi live harmoniously within their unspoiled world. But as humans encroach on Pandora in search of valuable minerals, the Na’vi’s very existence is threatened – and their warrior abilities unleashed.

Jake has unwittingly been recruited to become part of this encroachment. Since humans are unable to breathe the air on Pandora, they have created genetically-bred human-Na’vi hybrids known as Avatars. The Avatars are living, breathing bodies in the real world, controlled by a human driver through a technology that links the driver’s mind to the Avatar body. On Pandora, through his Avatar body, Jake can be whole once again. Moreover, he falls in love with a young Na’vi woman, Neytiri, whose beauty is matched by her ferocity in battle.

As Jake slides deeper into becoming one of her clan, he finds himself caught between the military-industrial forces of Earth, and the Na’vi – forcing him to choose sides in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.

Conceived 14 years ago and over four years in the making, AVATAR breaks new ground in delivering a fully immersive, emotional story and reinvents the moviegoing experience.

Disney unveiled Tron 2 today at the San Diego Comic Con. Scratch that, they unveiled Tron: Legacy, since that's what they've decided to call it. Below is a ton of amazing concept art from the movie which was shown at the panel. Feast your eyes on this:

All of it looks utterly amazing. One very minor point of concern though. Most of the vehicles look like they have lights inside them shining out. One of the cool, and very different things about Tron was that it didn't look like the lightcycles or the people had lights inside them or on them... they looked like they were lights. It's a subtle difference, one which, as awesome, amazing and eye-popping as these images are, I don't think they've quite captured. Still it's early, this is only concept art and I can't wait to see where they go with it.

This is going to take some getting used to. The new season of Doctor Who started production today and that means goodbye to David Tennant, who’s been replaced in the new season by a new actor. Matt Smith is the eleventh actor to play The Doctor and he’s accompanied by a new companion too. She’s Amy Pond, a redhead played by Scottish actress Karen Gillan.

Below we’ve got your first look at both actors in costume and on set together, as they prep for filming of their first scenes together as Doctor and companion. I’m going to miss David Tennant’s Chuck Taylors. I just hope this new Doctor keeps the trenchcoat. Check it out:

One of the strengths of the BBC’s Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood has always been its ability to get right to the point, without sacrificing character development. By delivering the next installment of the show as a 5-part miniseries, they’ve attempted to go in the other direction. Rather than squeezing a two hour story into a forty-five minute episode, Torchwood: Children of the Earth feels like they squeezed a two hour story into forty-five minutes, and then stretched it out into a five hours.

As a result, Torchwood: Children of the Earth ends up being about a lot more than your usual Torchwood episode. The focus here isn’t really on the Torchwood team as much as it is on a series of new characters brought in to flesh out their extra running time. At times you’ll be left wondering when they’ll get to the point, but for the most part it works, if only because those new supporting characters are so good.

In particular there’s John Frobisher, a civil servant, the equivalent of government middle management. Late in the story we’re told by one of his loyal underlings: “John Frobisher was a good man. Always remember that.” And that’s the real tragedy of his story. He is a good man, a hard working man, a uniquely British man who puts his head down and simply tries to get done what needs to get done. But when the unthinkable happens he’s forced into a series of horrible, hopeless choices. more...

The future is now! Paramount is planning something straight out of the 22nd century for the DVD release of the Star Trek movie. I’m not even sure how this is possible but, apparently you’ll be able to shoot Romulans using your DVD box. No, that is not a joke. Here’s the details from Variety:

With the packaging feature dubbed "augmented reality," consumers will be able to hold their disc packaging in front of any standard webcam to unlock an interactive hologram on the computer screen, through which they can tour five cabins on the Enterprise, even shooting enemies from the ship's deck.
Users will have to log in to a website to access the feature, but they control the hologram by holding the disc packaging.

"If you took the visual cue in the package and turned your hand, then you're turning the ship," Paramount homevideo senior VP of brand marketing Bob Buchi said. The technology has been used before for magazine covers and other types of product packaging, though this is a first for a major home entertainment release.

An early, primitive version of this feature can be accessed at Experience-the-Enterprise.com, and that should give you a pretty good idea of how it'll work.

Willem DaFoe was born to play an alien. So it's good news that he's been cast as one of the leading alien roles in Disney/Pixar's upcoming adaptation of John Carter of Mars. According to Variety he'll play Tars Tarkas, a fierce, green skinned Martian warrior.

In Edger Rice Burroughs original "John Carter" universe, Mars is populated by two distinct races. One, human in appearance, represents civilization. The other, more alien looking and green skinned is a race of barbarians. John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) befriends leaders both groups and leads them into battle. In fact, Tars Tarkas is the first Martian John encounters and he quickly becomes John's chief companion. He's present in all the books, at Carter's side. That should mean plenty of DaFoe, and really you can't go wrong with that.