The Doctor Who Finale Had Such a Great Ending, I Forgive Everything

I had some mixed feelings about tonight’s episode of Doctor Who. The plot of the episode (and the season) felt severely half-baked, to say the least, and great moments intermingled freely with a certain amount of WTF. But that ending? Was the greatest. That ending retroactively made the whole thing great. Spoilers ahead… I’m just…

Jeff Vandermeer On Why Leena Krohn’s Fiction Is So Important To Read

Next week, Cheeky Frawg Publishing will release a collection of stories and novels from Finnish author Leena Krohn. The collection is a major translation for the author, and we’ve interviewed editor Jeff Vandermeer about the project. Leena Krohn: Collected Fiction is a collection that introduces a wide range of English-language readers to the author for…

Star Wars Smashed Up With Biggie’s Life After Death Is Awesome

Notorious B.I.G. and Star Wars aren’t exactly two things that you’d think would work well together, but Solar Slim and Richie Branson have proven that wrong with Life After Death Star. Solar Slim and Richie Branson mashed up music from the Notorious B.I.G. and the music of Star Wars, using the soundtrack to underscore the…

In my regular ‘So You Want To Join The Empire’ column, I’ve gotten the question a bit: why dress up as the bad guys of Star Wars, given the iconography? The LA Times goes into how the 501st Legion went from a Geocities site for Stormtrooper enthusiasts to a world-wide charitable costuming group.

New Force Awakens Featurette Introduces A New Cast To The Star Wars Legacy

There’s a new featurette for The Force Awakens on the web, featuring Daisy Ridley, J.J. Abrams, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac ruminating on the legacy that they’ve inherited. It’s a neat behind the scenes look at the upcoming film, and it only reinforces how everyone working on the film were huge fans of the original…

Ray Bradbury has long said that his education came from libraries. It’s fitting then, that the Carnegie Library in Waukegan Illinois might become home to a museum devoted to the famous author.

Here’s The Best Moments Of 2015’s Movies In One Supercut

We love a good movie supercut video, and this year’s best one comes from Sleepy Skunk, who’s cut together the best moments from 2015’s films. These are tricky to do: you need to get the right balance of music, the right transitions and cuts of the films, and most importantly, you need to capture what…

The Long Lost 1929 Science Fiction Movie That Predicted the Second World War

The science fiction movie High Treason was considered one of the most important films of its time, up there with Metropolis. It was also the first full-length “talkie” made in Britain, although it was released in both silent and “talkie” versions. And now, it’s finally rediscovered and restored. For decades, only the silent version of…

Where are the stylish Joan Watson and dapper Sherlock Holmes this week? Taking a belated holiday! Elementary will resume with “The Games Underfoot” on December 10th with a recap on Friday. Will next week bring a new Clyde sighting, or has the turtle gorged himself on homemade meals? Here’s hoping he doesn’t sleep through the…

The Folks Behind the Sword & Laser Podcast Are Publishing Science Fiction Books Now!

Sword & Laser is a great podcast about science fiction and fantasy from Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt—and now, it’s also a line of science fiction and fantasy books! They’ve just announced their first book, The Life Engineered by J.F. Dubeau, which takes place in the far future, after the human race has been extinguished.…

Thanos Is Scarier Than Ever In This Exclusive Mondo Poster Reveal

The collectable poster, music, and toy company Mondo is teaming up with Marvel Comics for an officially licensed gallery show. It’s called Snikt Bamf Thwip: A Celebration Of Marvel Comics, and we’ve got an exclusive reveal along with more art. Our reveal is this frighting 13” x 19” giclee of Thanos by artist Mike Mitchell.…

Disney Was Somehow Shocked that Michael Jackson Grabbed His Crotch in Captain EO

Captain EO has been a Disney park staple since 1986, the height of Michael Jackson’s post-Thriller fame—but the Francis Ford Coppola-directed, George Lucas-produced short will shut down December 6 to make way for new attractions. A new oral history sheds light on all the making-of drama. It’s definitely worth taking the time to read the…

Carrie Fisher Has the Best Response to the Slave Leia Merchandise Controversy

Recently, the Star Wars fanbase took time off from freaking out about The Force Awakens to freak out over a rumored ban on merchandise depicting Princess Leia’s “Slave” outfit from Return of the Jedi. Many words about the matter have been said since—a lot of them pretty good!—but leave it to Leia herself to put…

Which Classic Character Did Not Need a Goddamn Childhood Trauma Added To Their Backstory?

It’s Screenwriting 101. When you’re taking a beloved character, who’s lasted decades or even centuries with a simple, streamlined origin, the first thing you do is add something terrible to his or her childhood. Because why would you ever want to preserve the character’s classic simplicity? Lately, we’ve been just drowning in well-known characters who…

A Turkish Court Has To Decide If Gollum Is Good or Evil

Is Gollum a good guy or a bad guy? It’s a complicated question. At times, the former Hobbit is nothing but pure venom. Other times, he’s kind, sweet and caring. Plus he can change between the two in an instant. Finally, a court of law will tell us if the former ring-bearer is good or…

Chris Pratt and Dave Bautista Screentesting for Guardians of the Galaxy Is Hilarious

Marvel’s Phase 2 box set truly is a trove laden with treasures. Earlier todaywe got to see Loki live out his fantasies in a deleted scene from Thor: The Dark World—but this time, we turn to the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the fantastic improv skills of Star-Lord himself, Chris Pratt. The clip comes from…

The Deadliest Kisses In All of Science Fiction and Fantasy

The holidays are almost upon us, which means one thing: lots of weird superstitions involving sprigs of vegetation and mandatory kissing. Which is weird. But it could be worse—those kisses could actually kill you. Just check out these kisses of death from science fiction and fantasy! Kitana’s Kiss of Death in Mortal Kombat The 10,000…

A Spoken Word Artist Argues With Himself Over Whether or Not Space Travel Is Worth It

Today’s installment in the Royal Institution’s beautifully designed online Advent calendar, which is themed “A Place Called Space,” features spoken word artist Mark Grist throwing down with a cranky version of himself over whether or not the benefits of space exploration outweigh its costs. (Funniest skeptical line: “If you spend that much money on anything…

See the Beautiful, Poetic Artwork by the Ladies of Disney Animation

Disney is well known for its on-screen Princesses but this weekend, it will celebrate the talented women behind the scenes with a new book and several pieces of art. Lovely: The Ladies of Animation is an event taking place at the WonderGround Gallery in Downtown Disney, Anaheim, CA from 11 am-1 pm Saturday December 5.…

7 Great Books That Show How Terrifying an Environmental Apocalypse Could Be

A world ravaged by climate change is hard to imagine—but that world could be in our future, unless we do a better job of imagining it now. So we’re lucky that some of our most talented authors have tackled the challenge of depicting an environmental apocalypse. There’s a whole genre of fiction taking on the…