scifi Archives - Neil Turner's Blog

Catching up with Red Dwarf

June 19, 2026 by Neil Turner

After I’d caught up with Doctor Who, the next series I focussed on was Red Dwarf – another long-running BBC sci-fi series. I have a very minor connection to Red Dwarf – my godmother’s husband, Mel Cross, was a camera operator on the first two series. Sadly, Mel passed away last year.

I own the DVDs for the first eight BBC series, and the Blu-Ray for Series X which was commissioned by UKTV (which in turn is owned by BBC Studios, the commercial wing of the BBC). After series X, there were two further series, and a film, The Promised Land. Every episode of Red Dwarf, including the film, is available on BBC iPlayer in the UK. Which is odd as UKTV has its own streaming service, U, where these episodes aren’t currently available. Still, iPlayer doesn’t have adverts so it’s a plus.

Series XI

I started with Series XI, as I thought I hadn’t seen it before. It was first broadcast 10 years ago in 2016, back when our 10-year-old was a baby. However, as I watched the series it became clear that I had watched it before. Still, I enjoyed watching it again, and whilst none of the episodes are all-time classics, there are some inventive ideas there.

Series XII

These two series were filmed essentially back-to-back, either side of Christmas 2015. There are some stronger episodes here, like Siliconia where the rest of the core cast get turned into Mechanoids along with Kryten.

The last episode, Skipper, certainly feels like it was written with closure in mind, with various old faces re-appearing in cameo roles.

The Promised Land

And finally the film, or rather the ‘feature length TV special’. It was produced in 2019, and broadcast early in lockdown in 2020. The film focuses on the Felis Sapiens species – i.e. Cat’s distant relatives. There had been plans for a Red Dwarf film following series 8 that never went anywhere, and although series 9 (Back to Earth) could be considered a film, it was broadcast as three episodes.

The Promised Land, like all series apart from 8 and 9, was filmed in front of a live audience, and so it feels more like an extended episode rather than something different and special. Certainly, unlike when many other TV shows get adapted for the big screen, there doesn’t appear to have been a big increase in budget. For the most part, the story is free-standing and you can watch it without having caught up with the rest of the episodes.

The Man In The Rubber Mask

As well as watching lots of TV and film, I did also do some reading during my recovery period, and this included The Man In The Rubber Mask by Robert Llewellyn. Llewellyn plays Kryten in Red Dwarf, and this book is his autobiography. It was originally published in the 1990s, but Llewellyn has updated it more than once (as per the cover, it contains “57.4% more smeg”). The latest edition is self-published, and available from Llewellyn’s web site, and comes signed as well.

The future of Red Dwarf?

I suspect we won’t see any more new episodes of Red Dwarf now. The first series was broadcast all the way back in 1988, and apart from the addition of Kryten in series three, has had the same cast throughout. And they’re getting old; Llewellyn turned 70 this year, and the other three are in their 60s. However, I do hope that there is something special commissioned for Red Dwarf’s 40th anniversary in 2028 – perhaps an update to Can’t Smeg, Won’t Smeg?

Catching up with Doctor Who

June 13, 2026 by Neil Turner

Screenshot of the Doctor Who series on BBC iPlayer

Since I’ve had a lot of time at home recovering, I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up on missed episodes of Doctor Who. From when the series restarted in 2005, until 2020, I watched every episode either at or shortly after broadcast, and own several of the series on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Alas, after series 12 (the second one with Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor), I fell behind, and hadn’t found the time to catch up with the series. So, a period of enforced rest was a great excuse to catch up, and bring myself up-to-date with the three more recent series and specials.

Series 13 – Flux

This appears on BBC iPlayer as nine episodes, as it encompasses the six episodes in the Flux story, broadcast on 2021, and the three specials broadcast in 2022 that tie up the thirteenth Doctor’s story arc. I liked Flux – since Doctor Who resumed in 2005, I don’t think we’ve had such a prominent story arc across six episodes. I also enjoyed the specials, especially the feature length Power of the Doctor which managed to incorporate three of the Doctor’s most well-known foes well.

2023 Specials

These are the first episodes to appear on iPlayer in the current ‘third’ era (the first being ‘classic’ Doctor Who from 1963 to 1996 and the second from 2005 to 2022). The Doctor regenerates into the Tenth Doctor (also considered to be the Fourteenth Doctor), played by David Tennant, and is reunited with his old assistant Donna Noble, played by Catherine Tate. There’s also a brief cameo from Bernard Cribbins, in what would be his final acting role before his death, as Wilfrid Mott, Noble’s grandfather.

The reason for the change in era was because Doctor Who became a joint production between the BBC and Disney, with episodes being released internationally on Disney+. It also saw the original 2005-2009 showrunner, Russell T Davies, return to the role. The title music changes with most series and it was nice for it to be closer to the 2006-7 music, which I consider to be the best. It felt like the series was going back to what made it great in the 2000s.

These are also the first episodes of Doctor Who to be broadcast in 4K Ultra HD – specifically HLG HDR which is backwards-compatible with older TVs. We bought a 4K TV during lockdown in 2022 and the improved picture quality was noticeable.

Series 14

Wikipedia calls this series 14, so I’m sticking with it even though the BBC considers it to be series 1 of the third era. This is the first series with the Fifteenth Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa, and I liked how the series included some musical numbers which was a first. As you would expect from a Russell T Davies series, some episodes were very camp, but I enjoyed Millie Gibson as the Doctor’s companion, Ruby Sunday.

Series 15

Which brings me to the most recent series, broadcast last year. It’s a bit of an odd series, as although there’s a new companion (Belinda Chandra, played by Varada Sethu), Ruby Sunday also appears in several episodes.

I also felt that in the last episode, Ruby’s story isn’t tied up very well. I gather she’s not likely to be in the next series, so it would be nice to know what she ends up doing instead.

The next series

So now I’m up-to-date, and ready for the next episode which was expected to be a Christmas special this December. Except it’s been cancelled, and the next series is now up in the air.

We know that there will be a new Doctor, as he regenerates at the end of the episode, but we’re not sure who they will be. On the whole, I’ve enjoyed the new episodes, and it’s been good to get caught up.

I’ll be blogging about some of the other TV series and films that I’ve been catching up with in the coming weeks.

Sci-Fi Weekender XVI – a retrospective

March 27, 2025 by Neil Turner

Paul McGann and Daphne Ashebrook being interviewed by David J Howe at Sci-Fi Weekender

So we got back from this year’s Sci-Fi Weekender on Sunday, and now that I’ve had a few days to recover, here’s what we got up to.

Thursday

We arrived on the Thursday evening. For lunch, we stopped off at Thaymar Ice Cream, which is just off the A1 near Retford and has a lovely tea room and farm shop. Oh, and the ice cream is great – I can particularly recommend the damson and liquorice flavour. After some food, we attended Pirate Pete’s Quiz and Karaoke. Sci-Fi Weekender normally opens with a quiz, and though the format was different this year, it was good fun.

With it being the first day, we called had a (comparatively) early night.

Friday

Our first on the Friday morning was a panel featuring Lauren K Nixon. Lauren is an author and a friend from university, and one of the people we gave a lift to down from Yorkshire on Thursday. Panel discussions are a big part of Sci-Fi Weekender, and Lauren was there for four of them, including discussions about traditional vs indie book publishing, and fantasy vs romantasy.

The headline guest for this year’s SFW was the eight doctor, Paul McGann, who appeared on stage with Daphne Ashbrook who played his assistant Grace Holloway in the 1996 TV film. They were both excellent guests, with really insightful answers to questions. Their interviewer was David J. Howe, one of the organisers of Sci-Fi Weekender and a writer of many Doctor Who handbooks.

In the evening, it was a welcome return for Jollyboat, who have performed at three previous SFW events.

Saturday

Whilst cosplay is encouraged throughout SFW, the cosplay competition normally takes place on Saturdays, starting with the preliminary round in the morning. The standard of cosplay is always really high, and there’s a really strong cosplay community around SFW. Throughout the weekend, there were several unofficial cosplay meets themed around fandoms like Star Trek.

There were also two events featuring John Robertson – a Q&A event at lunchtime, and then the The Dark Room in the evening. John has been at the majority of SFW events in recent years, but missed last year’s due to a clash. It was a welcome return – whilst the format of The Dark Room is consistent, there’s a lot of improvised material and it’s always hilarious.

Another session that we enjoyed on Saturday was a motion capture demonstration by Creature Bionics. They specialise in motion capture for films and videogames – especially for non-human creatures. It was really interesting and great to see the footage in realtime too.

There was also a great workshop by Artyfakes, a costume and props company, where they made an axe out of a plastic pipe and foam in about 90 minutes.

Right before The Dark Room were the Cosplay Finals on the main stage, where the 10 best entrants from the morning were asked to do a short piece of singing or acting. The winners were Hoggle and Ludo from Labyrinth, and much of the outfits were crocheted.

The Holodeck

SFW has normally been split between three rooms – the Main Void, the Spaceport, and the Timeport. The Main Void has the main stage, and the Spaceport is a smaller venue used more for panels. Over the past couple of years, the Timeport has just been used for vendors; this year it was home to various workshops. Meanwhile, the Games Room at the holiday park was rebranded The Holodeck, and was home to more vendors, a retro gaming set-up and ‘Full Size D&D’, which unfortunately we didn’t have time for. It was great to see this space better used; in previous years, it’s only been used for table-top gaming.

Things we didn’t get to see

Seeing as it’s split across four rooms, and we also needed to eat and drink occasionally, we didn’t get to see everything. The other big guest was Noah Hathaway, who we missed on the Friday, and there were some panels that we wanted to see but couldn’t. There’s more about this year’s event on Blazing Minds.

SFW XVII

Tickets for next year’s event are already on sale, and indeed may be close to selling out if the various emails and texts that I have received are anything to go by. There’s also a competition to win tickets – we were competition winners all the way back at SFW 9 in 2018, and it seems like lots of people have been lucky with the competitions in the past.

We’ve already booked for next year, and this time we will be sharing our accommodation with four of our friends to keep the costs down.

Sci-Fi Weekender XVI

March 21, 2025 by Neil Turner

A photo of Peter Davison being interviewed on stage at Sci-Fi Weekender 15

By the time you’re able to read this, Christine and I will be beginning our second day at Sci-Fi Weekender in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. This is the seventh consecutive SFW event that we’ve been to, and we’ve always enjoyed it.

I wrote more about why we go and the history of SFW last year, so have a read of that if you’re interested. This year, the biggest guest is Paul McGann, continuing the theme of actors who have played The Doctor in Doctor Who (Peter Davison was there last year). Noah Hathaway, from The Never-Ending Story, will also be there along with two actors from Star Trek with whom I’m not familiar with. There’s also a welcome return for John Robertson and his show The Dark Room, who was absent last year.

This year will be different; it’ll be the first full SFW that we’ve been to where there’s no Professor Elemental, and it won’t be compered by Adam Washington, again for the first time in many years. But then there have been changes every year as the event changes and evolves.

We’ll be driving down again, and as with last year we’re offering friends a lift down so we’ll have a full car. It’s a rather long drive from West Yorkshire, mainly due to the A17 which we use to cut across Lincolnshire. It’s not a particularly fast nor scenic road, passing across mainly flat agricultural land. We call it the Sto Plains.

As for whether we decide to do cosplay this year – probably not. I’ll probably take my Steampunk gear but we don’t have any specific plans. In previous years, Christine has been Sadness from Inside Out, and a Feegle Kelda from Discworld. I think she just likes making herself blue.

Bookings are already open for next year’s event. At present, we’re still deciding whether to go. If we do, we’ll need to book our annual leave early, as it coincides with Eid al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan.

Sci-Fi Weekender XV

March 15, 2024 by Neil Turner

A photo of a panel interview at a previous Sci-Fi Weekender in Great Yarmouth.

If you’re reading this blog post today or tomorrow, then I’ll be at Sci-Fi Weekender XV in Great Yarmouth, along with Christine and a large group of friends. As usual, I’m writing this in advance on a very old and wet Sunday – perfect blogging weather.

This is our seventh Sci-Fi Weekender event; the first one we went to was SFW 9 in 2018, near Pwlheli in North Wales. Our child was only two at the time so we went as a family, although that meant missing out on the evening activities, including John Robertson’s The Dark Room. It took us a while to work out why everyone was calling each other Darren and why there were so many pineapples everywhere.

Sci-Fi Weekender has moved around a bit over the years. The first event was in Pontins in Camber Sands on the south coast of England, but it had spent a few years in Wales before our first visit. SFW X (part I) was in Sheffield city centre, after changes to the site in Wales meant it could no longer be held there, and it’s been at the Vauxhall Holiday Park in Great Yarmouth since 2019 (SFW X part II). We’ve been to all of them since 2018, although after our first time we’ve had childcare in place. Not least because it’s a Thursday-Friday-Saturday event and it’s not a valid excuse for taking a child of school on the Friday.

Neil and Christine with Brian Blessed at Sci-Fi Weekender XIII

What is Sci-Fi Weekender?

Sci-Fi Weekender is perhaps best described as a residential science fiction and fantasy festival (or ‘Space Butlins’, if you will). It’s not a comic-con (like Thought Bubble, which we went to in 2014 and 2015), and there are usually only a handful of stalls. The main focus is entertainment, cosplay and interviews with actors and celebrities. It doesn’t tend to get many big names, although Peter Davidson (the fifth Doctor, and father-in-law to David Tennant) is the top-billed name this time. Previous SFW events have included Brian Blessed and Nina Wadia.

It tends to take place in holiday parks (the Sheffield years excepted) so that the majority of attendees can stay on site, and it also gives it a more intimate feel. Many guests stay the whole weekend, and some even mingle with attendees. Professor Elemental, who we’ve now seen seven times (eight if you include this weekend) always performs and usually gets involved in hosting a panel. We’re also looking to Madam Misfit‘s third visit.

Whilst the Vauxhall Holiday Park at Great Yarmouth is good, it’s a bit of a trek from Yorkshire. It’s roughly a four hour drive, and about the same by train but with three changes from Sowerby Bridge. We’re driving down as we’re offering a lift to some friends who are also going.

Also, don’t ask about the numbering. SFW X was delivered as two events, and then XI and XII didn’t happen because of you know what.