Doctor Who Ventures To The Center Centre Of The TARDIS: This Week In Science Fiction
Geronimo!
Doctor Who has been much improved since returning from its post-Christmas special hiatus, and now this week’s episode looks to be a must-see in concept alone. “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” will find the Doctor and Clara bedeviled by scavengers who somehow capture the time lord’s vessel. That’s all well and good, but the real excitement here is that the episode will also have Clara getting lost in the depths of the TARDIS, meaning we’re presumably going to get to see areas of the vessel we never have before. Dare we hope for the swimming pool?
This could go either way, of course. Part of the fun over the years has been the hints about what lays deeper inside the TARDIS, beyond the control room. We’ve all conjured up our own ideas about what’s in there, so by actually revealing some of it, the show runs the risk of having the reality fall short of our own imaginations. Either way, it should be fun. You can check out the TV spot for “Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS” below!
Defiance (Syfy, 9/8c) — “Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go”
Last week’s pilot showed potential, but its pacing was also a bit languid. However, it also took a few episodes for me to warm up to Defiance creator Rockne O’Bannon’s Farscape, so I’m hoping this one finds its footing soon. “A killer is pursued; at the same time, Nolan and Datak come to blows over an ancient ritual.”
Revolution (Syfy, 10:01/9:01c) — “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia”
Revolution was pre-empted last week by the coverage of the Boston bombings, so the show will be a week behind its original plan all the way through its season finale in June. This week, “Monroe’s overcome with paranoia when Neville disappears. In other events, Jason makes a major decision; the bond between Miles and Charlie strengthens; Miles is attracted to both Rachel and Nora; and Rachel sets off on a quest to infiltrate the Tower.”
Dead Island: Riptide (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC)
Dead Island was a game with almost no buzz whatsoever until they released a brilliant, brutal gun-punch of a trailer. Of course, the tone of that trailer had nothing whatsoever to do with the game itself. Still, it was surprisingly fun, so now a new sequel is back with plenty more zombies to bash/stab/burn/slice/crush. Have at it!
Jurassic Park 3D (3D Blu-Ray)
If you missed Jurassic Park’s one-week IMAX 3D release, now you can check it out from the comfort of your own living room. Assuming you have a 3D TV, obviously.
“The River of No Return” by Bee Ridgway
Summary via Amazon:
In Bee Ridgway’s wonderfully imaginative debut novel, a man and a woman travel through time in a quest to bring down a secret society that controls the past and, thus, the future.
“You are now a member of the Guild. There is no return.” Two hundred years after he was about to die on a Napoleonic battlefield, Nick Falcott, soldier and aristocrat, wakes up in a hospital bed in modern London. The Guild, an entity that controls time travel, showers him with life’s advantages. But Nick yearns for home and for one brown-eyed girl, lost now down the centuries. Then the Guild asks him to break its own rule. It needs Nick to go back to 1815 to fight the Guild’s enemies and to find something called the Talisman.
In 1815, Julia Percy mourns the death of her beloved grandfather, an earl who could play with time. On his deathbed he whispers in her ear: “Pretend!” Pretend what? When Nick returns home as if from the dead, older than he should be and battle scarred, Julia begins to suspect that her very life depends upon the secrets Grandfather never told her. Soon enough Julia and Nick are caught up in an adventure that stretches up and down the river of time. As their knowledge of the Guild and their feelings for each other grow, the fate of the future itself is hanging in the balance.
Robot Combat League (Syfy, 10/9c) — “Built Like a Champion”
The ‘bot battles come to a head in this week’s season finale. Presumably all the contestants will get to go soak in a hot oil bath.
“The Silver Dream: An InterWorld Novel” by Neil Gaiman, Michael Reeves & Mallory Reeves
Back in 2007, Neil Gaiman and writer Michael Reeves teamed up for a story about a kid who teams up with other versions of himself from parallel realities to try and stop nefarious bad guys from doing nefarious bad things. Now they’re back with a sequel. (If you’re not familiar with Reeves, there’s a good chance many of you saw his work growing up, because he’s an experienced TV animation writer with credits on shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Disney’s Gargoyles, and The Real Ghostbusters.)
New York Times bestselling authors Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves deliver a thrilling sequel to the science fiction novel InterWorld, full of riveting interdimensional battles and alternate realities.
After mastering the ability to walk between dimensions, Joey Harker and his fellow InterWorld freedom fighters are now on a mission to maintain peace between the rival powers of magic and science who seek to control all worlds.
When a stranger named Acacia somehow follows Joey back to InterWorld’s base, things get complicated. No one knows who she is or where she’s from—or how she knows so much about InterWorld.
Dangerous times lie ahead for Joey and the mission. There’s a traitor hidden among them, and if Joey has any hope of saving InterWorld, the multiverse, and the mission, he’s going to have to rely on his wits—and, just possibly, on the mysterious Acacia Jones.
With a story conceived by Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves and written by Michael and Mallory Reaves, this mind-bending follow-up to the exciting science fiction novel InterWorld is a compelling fantasy adventure through time and space, in which the future depends on a young man who is more powerful than he realizes.
Nova: Australia’s First 4 Billion Years (PBS, 9/8c) — “Monsters”
Nova’s look at the really early days of Australia continues with an episode focused on some of the ferocious critters that once stomped across its landscape.
“Monsters” begins Down Under at the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs. Host Richard Smith comes face-to-face with the previously unknown reptilian rulers of prehistoric Australia. NOVA resurrects the giants that stalked the Great Southern Land and discovers that some of these animals were among the largest ever to have walked the Earth. Others were some of the most dangerous. In the dry desert heart, scientists unearth an ancient inland ocean full of sea monsters. Opal fossils of some of these beasts paint a colorful picture of the exotic seascape, where long-necked plesiosaurs snacked on shelled creatures that grew as large as truck tires. The most fearsome was Kronosaurus, with a skull twice as long as T. rex. But reptiles didn’t have the world all to themselves. Mammals like the enigmatic platypus lived alongside them, ready for their moment in the sun.
Supernatural (The CW, 9/8c) — “Pac-Man Fever”
The hardest working gal in Geek Showbusiness, Felicia Day returns to Supernatural as hacker Charlie, this time with Dean teaching her how to be a hunter. But “she is hiding a dangerous secret that could get her killed.” Aren’t they always?
Person of Interest (CBS, 9:01/8:01c) — “In Extremis”
This show seems to be operating from the Revolution guide to illogical hiatuses; this is only the fourth episode Person of Interest has aired in the past two months.
A medical luminary is poisoned, and Finch and Reese must work quickly to determine the toxin’s origin and find the attacker. Elsewhere, an informant gives the Internal Affairs Bureau pertinent information on Det. Fusco.
Da Vinci’s Demons (Starz, 9/8c) — “The Prisoner”
“Riario engages the Pope and a mysterious prisoner in a discussion concerning the count’s defeat, while Leonardo searches for a rational explanation when an outbreak of demonic possession occurs at a convent, and the blame is placed on the Medicis.”
The Nerdist (BBC America, 10/9c)
Chris Hardwick’s guests include Looper’s Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Community’s Gillian Jacobs, The League’s Paul Scheer, and Childrens Hospital’s Rob Huebel
Orphan Black (BBC America, 9/8c) — “Conditions of Existence”
“Sarah gets closer to finding the killer, but her efforts threaten to end her chances of a reunion with her daughter.”
Stonados (Syfy, 9/8c)
“Paul Johanssen. William B. Davis and Thea Gill star in this disaster movie about a freak weather system which hurls deadly boulders onto Boston.” Yes, it’s about a storm that throws bolders at you. There’s a “rock bottom” joke in there somewhere.
Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited – The Fourth Doctor (BBC America, 8/7c)
BBC America’s continuing retrospective about Doctor Who’s five decades finally reaches the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker, who was the first one I encountered on PBS when I was growing up. Love that scarf!
