Charlie Jane Anders, Author at Gizmodo

This Week’s TV: How do you feel about 20 years of Syfy?

Science fiction fans love to complain about Syfy’s mix of wrestling and paranormal reality TV — while obsessively watching shows like Warehouse 13 and Haven. But now at last, there’s a chance to get some perspective, by watching a two-hour celebration of Syfy’s 20th anniversary. But that’s not all this week’s TV offers — there…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Best of the Week: December 1-7, 2012

OVER THE RAINBOW | Sunset Cloud Village, one of the most picturesque places in China, photographed by Peng Jiang. Just one of the winners of National Geographic’s photo contest. http://io9.com/5965152/holy-crap-these-entries-from-nat-geos-2012-photo-contest-are-absolutely-gorgeous This condom delivers an anti-HIV drug, prevents pregnancy, then disappears https://gizmodo.com/this-condom-delivers-an-anti-hiv-drug-prevents-pregnan-5965728 Sex often fuels the adoption of cutting-edge technology, even in the burgeoning field of…

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On last night’s Fringe, Olivia was right the first time around

Last night’s Fringe episode featured one truly great scene, where Olivia looked at the junkyard prophet played by Jill Scott, and explained that she, too, had extraordinary abilities and had seen amazing things. But this was thanks to science, and didn’t mean anything else. Olivia concluded with a terrific line: it’s all just numbers, and…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

A Simple Chart That Explains Why Batman Would Have a Short Career

Over at Scientific American, E. Paul Zehr, author of Becoming Batman, explains why nobody could be Batman for very long. Even if you didn’t get your back broken by Bane, just the wear and tear of jumping across rooftops and punching criminals would wreak havoc with your body after just a few years. The most…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Wreck-It Ralph 2 probably coming — and it could feature a major video game character

Wreck-It Ralph was surprisingly terrific, doing a lot of clever stuff with the “video game characters have a life away from the screen” trope. So it’s great news that studio execs are reportedly talking about a sequel. And this time around, director Rich Moore wants to find a way to include Mario from Mario Bros.…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

This book is the closest you’ll ever get to hanging out with Madeleine L’Engle

For many of us, one of our first speculative fiction love affairs was with Madeleine L’Engle, author of A Wrinkle in Time. Her warm, emotional approach to time travel and other science fiction ideas helped set the scene for today’s YA science fiction boom, and she made tesseracts a household word. And now, a new…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Supercut shows how space helmets have changed over the past 80 years of movies

Check out a supercut that brings together space helmets from a ton of movies, from 1929’s Woman in the Moon to some recent stuff. Keith Melton created this awesome video in response to Mark Frauenfelder’s collection of photos of space helmets over at BoingBoing, and the results are pretty fascinating. Which do you prefer: bubble…

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The 10 Most Unlikely Things That Were Influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien

The author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings casts a massive, sweeping shadow over fantasy literature and entertainment. But J.R.R. Tolkien’s influence spreads much further than that. Everywhere you look, you can see Tolkien’s legacy: in science, in art, in language. Here are 10 fairly unlikely things that have been influenced or…

io9 Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders

Are we at the start of a new golden age of superhero TV shows?

Eight episodes in, Arrow is officially a mega-hit, at least by The CW’s standards. And not only that, but Arrow is actually… pretty decent. The Christopher Nolan-inspired “gritty” superhero soap opera manages to be addictive fun, blending some solid action with the kind of relationship drama that makes Vampire Diaries our crack. So we have…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

When dinosaurs team up with lasers, you’re basically screwed

This is my favorite scene from the Roger Corman film Raptor — which is basically an ultra-cheap Jurassic Park rip-off starring Eric Roberts and a bunch of people you’ve never heard of. In this scene, a researcher working on a project to breed dinosaurs has lost sight of the mission — so he has to…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Gorgeous Minimalist Art That Strips Science Fiction Down to its Essence

The Musée des Arts Contemporains (MAC) in Belgium is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a special science fiction-themed art exhibition called “SF: Art, Science et Fiction.” It brings together the work of a number of artists, to explore the links between science fiction and the arts. The artworks include modern art pieces speculating about scientific…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Incredibly Strange and Ridiculously Cheap: Albert Pyun’s 30-Year Career in B-Movies

Albert Pyun is a legend among low-budget movie-makers. He’s probably directed more movies about cyborgs than anyone else. He’s been making post-apocalyptic movies since the Mad Max era, and he’s still at it. He’s worked with Rutger Hauer, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Christopher Lambert and Ice-T, among many others. Chances are you’ve watched at least one…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Ask Red Dwarf‘s Robert Llewellyn all your smegging questions!

Robert Llewellyn is a legend to science fiction fans. For several years, he’s played the android Kryten in Red Dwarf — putting him up there with Brent Spiner and John Leeson as one of the longest running A.I. performances on television. And now, he’s starring in a new webseries called Fully Charged, which looks at…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

All the Clues and Easter Eggs from the Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Trailer

Just how dark does Star Trek Into Darkness get? And who is the dashing bastard unleashing total destruction on the Federation, and Kirk in particular? We’ve gone through the first teaser trailer frame by frame and studied every clue. Check out our roundup of every great Benedict Cumberbatch moment — including his battle with a…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

First Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Sends the Enterprise Straight to Hell

J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek movie destroyed Vulcan and wreaked havoc with the timeline — and judging from this first minute of footage from Star Trek Into Darkness, the destruction is only going to be more massive this time around. Check out the first “announcement trailer” for Star Trek II: The Wrath of… we still…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders

Who’s the sexiest monster of the past 30 years?

The past few decades have seen a rise in the number and sheer sexiness of sexy monsters. There are a lot more male vampires and werewolves and other supernatural creatures, who are more willing to take their shirts off in the pursuit of their supernatural goals. We’ve had more raw sexuality in our supernatural creatures,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Asterix: The Great Unsung Fantasy Hero

When people in the United States talk about great fantasy heroes, it’s all Conan, Bilbo, and Harry Potter. Nobody ever talks about the little French dude with the wings on his head. Asterix the Gaul has a huge following in Europe, thanks to decades of adventures in the Roman Empire and the rest of the…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

This Week’s Comics: Hellboy in Hell! Darth Vader Purges! The Avengers Reassemble!

Welcome back to the boundless realm of comics, where superheroes and monsters can be themselves, free from the constraints of CG effects or television studios. This week: The Avengers have a new series. Hellboy is in Hell! Darth Vader is purging. And a Las Vegas grifter discovers an unusual superpower after a plane crash. And…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

A Dystopian Movie that Gives You the Glorious Weirdness that All the Other Dystopias Leave Out

The publicity materials for the new Russian movie Generation P describe it as William Gibson meets William S. Burroughs. Which is a pretty bold claim. But with its strange drug trips, ancient conspiracies and computer-generated politicians, this weird satire of Yeltsin-era crony capitalism almost lives up to those two names. Almost. In any case, there’s…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Your First Look at the Animated Remake of the Soviet Union’s Most Monty Python-esque Movie

We’ve been waiting for the animated remake of Kin-Dza-Dza since we first discovered this ultra-wacky 1986 Russian movie back in 2008. And now, it’s finally here — and you can check out the first footage above, via Twitch Film. http://io9.com/5015290/final-proof-that-communism-breaks-your-brain In Kin-Dza-Dza, two guys fall into an alien teleportation device, and find themselves on, basically,…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders

Charlie Jane Anders

This Week’s TV: How do you feel about 20 years of Syfy?

Best of the Week: December 1-7, 2012

On last night’s Fringe, Olivia was right the first time around

A Simple Chart That Explains Why Batman Would Have a Short Career

Wreck-It Ralph 2 probably coming — and it could feature a major video game character

This book is the closest you’ll ever get to hanging out with Madeleine L’Engle

Supercut shows how space helmets have changed over the past 80 years of movies

The 10 Most Unlikely Things That Were Influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien

Are we at the start of a new golden age of superhero TV shows?

When dinosaurs team up with lasers, you’re basically screwed

Gorgeous Minimalist Art That Strips Science Fiction Down to its Essence

Incredibly Strange and Ridiculously Cheap: Albert Pyun’s 30-Year Career in B-Movies

Ask Red Dwarf‘s Robert Llewellyn all your smegging questions!

All the Clues and Easter Eggs from the Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Trailer

First Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Sends the Enterprise Straight to Hell

Who’s the sexiest monster of the past 30 years?

Asterix: The Great Unsung Fantasy Hero

This Week’s Comics: Hellboy in Hell! Darth Vader Purges! The Avengers Reassemble!

A Dystopian Movie that Gives You the Glorious Weirdness that All the Other Dystopias Leave Out

Your First Look at the Animated Remake of the Soviet Union’s Most Monty Python-esque Movie

INIU Portable Power Bank Is Small in Size and Smaller in Price for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale (45W, 10,000mAh)

Humans Were Already Dog People 16,000 Years Ago, DNA Suggests

California Regulator Says Tesla’s ‘Robotaxis’ Are More Like a Limo in the Eyes of the Law

Dyson Airwrap Falls to an All-Time Low in Amazon’s Spring Sale, Lowering the Barrier for This Premium Multi-Styler

The ‘Tales from ’85’ Trailer Wants You Back in ‘Stranger Things’ Already

Forget Ray-Ban Meta, XREAL 1S AR/XR Virtual Screen Smart Glasses Drop to Record Low on Amazon

Pixel Buds Pro 2 Hit Record Low as Google Continues Its Clearance-Like Price Cuts Following Smartphone Deals

DJI Now Has a Cheaper 360 Drone Than Insta360, but the U.S. Won’t Get It

Amazon Clears Out Apple Watch Series 9 With Silver Stainless Steel Case at 48% Off During Spring Sale

What Do You Mean Fox McCloud Is in the ‘Super Mario Galaxy’ Movie

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

Apple Studio Display XDR Review: It Looks So Good, I Wish It Were an iMac

RayNeo Air 4 Pro Review: My Eyes Love These Video Glasses, but My Nose Disagrees