Giant Freakin Robot

When it comes to science fiction fans, we tend to be a little obsessive about our favorite things. We know every episode of Star Trek by name, we can quote Star Wars from front to back. Hell, we may even have memorized all the nicknames John Crichton called other characters in Farscape. So sometimes to make our beloved movies and shows and books and whatnot seem fresh again, all we need is a new set of eyes. Sometimes, however, that doesn’t always work out the way you’d expect. Cast in point, the video above, wherein some dude’s mother attempts to retell the events of the first Matrix movie, wherein Neo becomes Leo, who may or may not be bisexual, and there’s somebody named Moshimo. Or possibly Mustache.

If you enjoy the first video, you should also check out their Star Wars version. YouTuber Pixelpersecond’s friend Amanda had never seen a Star Wars movie all the way through, but she claimed she still knew what happened in them. Here’s her version:

The Doctors Revisited: The Fifth Doctor
(BBC America, 8/7c)

After a hit-or-miss season, Doctor Who wrapped up its latest season in epic fashion this past Saturday, providing answers about the nature of the Doctor’s “Impossible Girl,” Clara Oswin, and throwing in a last-minute twist that has us chomping at the bit for the 50th anniversary episode this fall. So while we’ve got many months before we’ll see the next installment of the Doctor’s adventures, we can still look back and appreciate the show’s long history. BBC America has been airing specials focusing on each of the Doctor’s incarnations, and the actors who played them. This Sunday the spotlight turns on Fifth Doctor Peter Davison, who played the time lord from 1982 – 1984. Even better, they’re airing the previous four specials prior to this premiere, so you can catch up if (like me) you’ve missed them. Pins some celery to your lapel and tune in.

Elsewhere, the sci-fi landscape is more barren than usual this week, with not much happening amongst books, comics, or games. Still, even with Doctor Who wrapped for the season, there are still several sci-fi shows chugging right along. Syfy has Defiance and Warehouse 13, NBC’s got Revolution, and BBC America’s Orphan Black is in the home stretch leading up to its season finale.

Here’s what’s new This Week in Science Fiction!

We can all admit that Alien is a great movie. That probably doesn’t need to be said, but what the hell, one more time isn’t going to hurt anyone. And the most iconic moment in that fabulous film is, of course, the scene when the alien explodes out of Kane’s (John Hurt) chest. Now, through a peculiar piece of jewelry, you can recreate this cinematic event every moment of your day.

Created by Etsy user CthulhuWakeUp, this chestburster pendant, while pretty damn cool, could turn out to be problematic for a couple of reasons. First, if it doesn’t sit just right on your chest, with the flat part against your sternum, it won’t look right. This won’t be as much of a problem if you’re sitting down, but I imagine that it will bounce around a great deal while you’re walking, or just generally moving around at all.

Secondly, it looks like a disaster waiting to happen. Perhaps I’m just a pessimist, but I can’t look at this solid chunk of metal and not picture a scenario where you fall on it and cause some grievous, gory bit of injury straight out of a horror film. At the very least, you shouldn’t run while wearing this, lest you knock out a tooth or two.

Red Dwarf X may have come and gone last fall on Dave TV, and it may have already hit the US home video market, but that doesn’t mean we’re totally done with the long-awaited new season of the popular British sci-fi sitcom. This past weekend producer Richard Naylor took to Twitter to unveil some cool photos he took on the set of the tenth chapter of the beloved show.

The most interesting are the images of the models used to film the space scenes and exterior shots of Red Dwarf, the titular mining ship, and Blue Midget, one of the crew’s mostly trusty transport vehicles. They show the actual size and scale of the miniatures, jokingly referred to as “bigatures” by the cast and crew. Naylor points out that the term was first coined on the set of The Lord of the Rings.

Until 2012, Red Dwarf hadn’t had a proper season since 1999. There was a three-episode miniseries, entitled Back to Earth in 2009, but it was crappy, little more than a tease, and left a sour taste in many fans’ mouths. It also bred some skepticism when we heard about Red Dwarf X. Though it was exciting news, many of us assumed that the team had lost the original magic and feared that we were in for another bad time.