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Colin P. Davies

Seasons greetings one and all. Plenty of fun stuff this weekend. Didn’t get all done that I wanted, but I think it was a fun episode.

First I start with a fine piece of music that is the closing music for the anime series called Btoom! which I review later in the program.

The song is Aozora and is performed by May’n.

After the music I do indeed explore and review the 12 episode anime series called Btoom!

The story of the day is the conclusion to Colin P. Davies Land of Fire & Ashes. A thoroughly entertaining and exciting tale.

Next are a few articles from Earth Sky, this week, spider webs, giant bugs and the Milky-way is  truly  HUGE!

Then some Trek Trivia with questions about James T. Kirk. Much better!

From the blog The Grail Sats crashed, but not before they did excellent science.

Kall, describes his plans for world domination after the apocalypse  Then I take a moment to pass on some observations about copyrights.

Another review takes the form of the abysmal “Class of 1999″ It shows that some good actors can not save a steamer….nope….

Oh you know the song Gundam Style…well I play the music here for a parody called NASA Huston Style, but you have to see the compete video for comic effect!

Brighton may want to check out their lights…someone was a bit upset. Check out the vid on the beam me up blog.

Will we ever return to the moon. Well if we plan on going to the moon or the asteroids, the moon is close and copies many of the features of where we plan to go.

That’s this week’s program.  Hope you enjoy it!

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Sorry I am behind here, but yesterday was just a day that once I did the radio program, all I wanted to do was crash.

But the editing is done, so lets see what this week has in store!

I open with Fit and the Consumption’s “Sweet Sister Starlight”  Love this song!

From there, I do a couple of Star Trek trivia questions.

Then I review Abe Lincoln – Vampire Killer!  Maybe not as bad as you thought or worse!

From the Blog, news from David Scholes,  John Anealio has a free EP for listeners, have scientists uncovered the oldest dino to date!?   3D printers….and AR firearms…can they be controlled, and if so how?   Zombies Among Us!!!!  and is there POOP on the moon!

Finally Part one of Colin P. Davies excellent short story “Land of Fire & Ashes”  It is so good to see Colin back on the program.   If you are not familiar with his work or possibly forgotten, you are in for a treat of  excellent story telling from one of the best!

Enjoy

C

This week was a slight strange happening if ever I had one.  It is slightly short because I took out all the junk sections which ran

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Colin P. Davies

On the last show for Beam Me Up in October, once again is out traditional Halloween story, Happy Halloween by Colin P. Davies. If you haven’t heard this story yet you are in for a treat! Colin went all out with this one and Crystal Wizard studios has done a masterful mix! In its’ third year, it continues to hold up and I am sure you will see why I feel it is one of the best stories for a season, that we have ever run.

But first up: Did you remember that Lost In Space had two theme music scores? I found the one that was played from year one to four, but there was another.

Ever been asked why is the sky blue or black at night?  Think you got the answer? You may only be part right!

I dial it back for a sec to do Star Trek Trivia once again.

Nissan in an effort to improve the comfort of their car’s ride are trying to emulate the texture of a very unusual substance…

With the advent of 3d-printing – scientist suggest that DNA and Drug manufacture can not be far behind and the implications are staggering!

That and much more this week on Beam Me UP!

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Peter Watts

Welcome to the program this week. This is episode 285. I had started out with the idea that I would run just the second half of this week’s story: The Things, by Peter Watts, then go on to the blog for news. But then I remembered the excellent Halloween story that I ran last year from the very talented author Colin P. Davies called appropriately enough Happy Halloween.

In Part 2 of The Things, the creature comes to realize the horror of just the type of beings he is dealing with. Horrifying creations that violently react when faced with anything that changes. Creatures that never change, born and die with the same shape and can not imagine anything different. Important information yes, discovered at great cost and quite possibly much much to late.

In our second story, Happy Halloween by Colin P. Davies, many strange happenings have started to happen in Dan’s world. Unnatural happenings, dangerous happenings. Since his mother had left, Dan’s world had become bleak but now it seemed that some mysterious force was trying to do more that make life miserable, no now something wanted him dead. Happy Halloween is read by CrystalWizard and produced by Cyberstudios and I will guarantee that you will be hard pressed to find a better Halloween story this month.

And that is it! All stories this week and nothing more. Just things that go bump in the night. Enjoy!

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Episode 242 of Beam Me Up is pretty fast moving this week.  I open wih a new Bradley Brackett from author Tim Sayell this week.  Scheduling snafus last month and just being so busy, meant that our intrepid commnder got a bit behind but we make it up with out first story of the new year.  Commander Brackett leads us deaper into the derrilick star ship and into certain danger in this week’s episode.

This week we finish with episode 5 and the conclusion of Colin P. Davies fantastic Red Robot.  Things come quite litterally to a head this week.  Surely things can’t get any stranger!  Well they certainly can…..and don’t call me Shirley!

From the Beam Me Up blog at wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com, I review Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, a healthy mix  of absolutely brilliant stories that are an excellent cross section of the calorie centric distopia.  You really have got to see the video that DreamWorks Animation have cut together for Jónsi’s award nominated track “Sticks and Stones.”  Its a great compilation of all the most memorible scenes from the movie and mixed them together for a great compilation video.  Hey, does anyone remember that at one point in the very early 60s, the US almost had a long range nuclear bomber?! Oh yeah we did! The XB-70 Valkyrie.  Not only was it to carry nuclear bombs, but it was to be powered by a nuclear reactor!  On story I really liked and didn’t get a chance to talk about was using caverns on Mars as possible living quaters. Yeah I’m talking about those mysterious dark spots that were photographed on the surface of Mars.  Well from a recent article in Dvice – Photographs taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows that these dark areas really are the opening to large caverns who’s ceilings have collapsed.  The aticle talks about what it would take to make these livable.  This article in particular drew a lot of conversation.  Check it out!

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Episode 241 of Beam Me Up on a fine Christmas after noon. Most sane people probably wouldn’t be here in the studios, but you know how dedicated I am! Well decenting voices to the contrary, I think we have a great episode this week!

Two serializations this week! Our first story is Dark InSpectre #7 from writer Jason Kahn. Second is the continuing antic of Parvo future pest – meister of Pest – world in episode 4 of Red Robot from the talented pen of Colin P. Davies and the off the hook production talents of Cyber Wizard production. This story keeps getting better and better each episode.

This week’s blog entries at the Beam Me Up blog at http://wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com do not disappoint either. I review the animated movie Batman: Under the Red Hood which may not match the animation and production values of movies like How to Train Your Dragon but still should be a treat for the Batman fans. The plot fits well into the existing mythology surrounding Batman. Oh I have got to thank Boing Boing for pointing out this next gem. There I found a link to the top 10 most popular posts of the year. Funny research, news articles what have you. The are weird oh so very weird, strange and wildly funny. From an article on the contraceptive qualities of polyester to possibly the strangest case hysteria in a medical clinic.

An article that I didn’t really have time to do anything but mention it, is a post from a new contributor. When Science Fiction Pushes the Boundaries of Science posted by contributing writer: Beatrice Owen.

This is a well thought out piece which deals with science pushing science fiction as well as the reverse. Interesting read.

That and a musical selection in the spirit of the season! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

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Beam Me Up 240 this week is loaded up!  I start with a song that may not strictly be science fiction but does have some clear science fiction ties.  I play Indestructible by  Robyn which could be thought of as a sci fi theme, but it was the suit the singer wore in the video that got me thinking.  Very futuristic with tubes of colored water being pumped around through clear tubes.  There is a making of video that shows the music video and suit being made.  Lots of fun for a diy type person.

Our first story is Doug Hilton reading his story Where Horses Run Free.  Doug’s story is in the alien invasion theme.  A disturbing mix of War of the Worlds with a feel of Animal Farm mixed in.   Doug of course is no stranger to Beam Me Up with stories like “War Story”,  “The Billboard” and the breath taking brilliant “Zeno’s Paradox”.  Where Horses….easily stands with these great selections.  The second story this week is episode three of Red Robot by Colin P. Davies (production by Cyber Studios).   Red Robot is set in the Pest World universe and follows the  exploits of a young pest meister Parvo.  The tension continues to build this week.  This week Parvo manages to get one up on his tormentors and finds that he enjoys it just a bit too much.

From the Blog at wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com  -  Residents of Santa Monica Bay were startled by two brightly lit UFOs.  Now if that is a bit difficult to swallow, then what really happened is going to  be difficult indeed, because its so damn funny.  David Steffen gets picked up by  Pseudopod.   Seventeen missing minutes to the classic science fiction film 2001 have been uncovered in the storage bin where the original print was being stored.  Director Kubricks cut these scenes from the film to shorten it and various other reasons.  But it comes down to the fact that the film has not been seen complete since Kubricks showed it at the first showing.   Orbital Sciences Corporation wants to get into resupply of the ISS but wants to do it completely different than Space X with its Dragon / falcon 9 stack.  OSC wants to use a reusable craft much like the shuttle only much much smaller.  I review Brave New Worlds edited by John J. Adams.  Thirty Three dystopic utopias fill the pages in a good mix of new and old science fiction.

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Beam Me Up episode 239 moves fast this week, so buckle in!  After a bit of foolishness, we bring in Oddcube for a serious….(oddcube?) review of Thongor Against the Gods by Lin Carter.  At the bottom of the hour, we revisit Colin P. Davis’ PestWorld universe for the second episode of Red Robot.  I hope you are enjoying this story arc as much as I am!

From the Beam Me Up blog at http://wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com/ I review the Blu-ray of Eureka 7 Good Night Sleep Tight Young Lovers.  This is a, for all intents and purposes, a reboot of the Eureka 7 Renton / Eureka story universe.  Even though many of the characters are recognizable, their back story is very different, including those of Renton and Eureka.

I also have enough time to mention the launch and re-entry of Dragon supply module launched aboard the Falcon 9 launch vehicle by Space X.  This puts Space X in very exclusive company indeed!  A company of one as Space X is the first commercial launch company that has sucessfully re-entered a spacecraft from orbit.

Stories that did not make this week’s program was a flyby of Saturn’s moon Hyperion by the Cassini explorer.  I have a short video, made from stills from the probe which shows the moon’s rotational characteristics, and they are some of the most chaotic I can remember ever seeing short of a special effects movie.  Something you just have to see to get the whole comedic impact is the short film that is a tongue in cheek post apocalyptic survival guide called “Ducked and Covered: A Survival Guide to the Post Apocalypse”

Short on description, long on entertainment…I crack myself up….

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Beam Me Up episode 238 is fast and entertainment filled this week.  With the first episode in December I start a new story arch with a new Pest World series from Colin P. Davies.  This new Pest World series is a previously unpublished  story of Pestmeister Parvo Titled Red Robot.  Parvo it would seem developed a phobia in early childhood, dealing in any way with people of the mechanical persuasion…. which even in adult life has left him in terror of dealing with mechanical men.

The second story this week is part two and the conclusion of Gustavo Bondoni’s Evasion.    In part one we visit a one luxurious but now decrepit space station / hotel.  It now inhabits a bleak and lonely place in the dark reaches of the asteroid belt.  To be used as a salvage yard.  But something weird is going on with the rusty and ruined station.  Something that has caught the interest of rather odd tax people.  Possibly more….  All the while there are hints that more is going on than meets the eye.  Bondoni builds the tension and suspense in the conclusion to Evasion.

With the length of the stories, I had no more time than a passing mention of what is new on the blog.  However it is worthy of checking out this week.  Antipodean 150 is online, there may be as many as three times as many  stars in the universe than previously thought, director Irvin Kershner actor Leslie Nielsen  both passed this week and could there truly be something like a Nemesis in the outer reaches of the solar system?  Take a trip over to the Beam Me Up Blog at http://beameup.blogspot.com for more.

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Happy Halloween!  Episode 233 of Beam Me Up does up All Hallow’s Eve right!  First off, John De Lancie reads Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, and boy does this man own the poem for the eight minutes it takes to read it.  De Lancie’s performance is powerful and hi-lights facets that others have skimmed over and I guarantee that you will have a new appreciation for Poe’s macabre poem.  The last half of the hour is taken up by CrystalWizard’s reading of Colin P. Davies very spooky science fiction tale “Happy Halloween”.  CyberWizard Productions mixes this tale into one of the best stories we have had all year.  Many thanks to Mr. Davies for the story, CrystalWizards for an excellent read and Cyberstudios for an excellent mix.

From the Blog (www.wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com) The Apollo 11 moon walk videos that were discovered recently have been restored and the results are exciting and stunning, the very odd beast known as a neutron star has a theoretical limit of about one and a half solar masses that was until a recent discovery that has shaken theoretical physics dealing with ultra dense material into possibly   rethinking or abandoned completely some theories completely!  Astronomers are trying to put an estimate as to the amount of Earth mass planets in our Milky Way galaxy and that number it would seem is in the billions!  Finally I review a waste of blu-ray medium.  Repomen Starring Jude Law, Forest Whitaker.  Someone should be ashamed of making or being in this film.  Those involved seemed to have taken a pay day and run.

Blog items that didn’t make this week’s program,  Buckeyball carbon atoms were thought to be rare or even completely theoretical.  Now, new findings have uncovered massive quantities around three dying stars.  How massive?  Trillions of tons is a gross understatement!!!   Has Film-maker George Clarke uncovered evidence of time travelers in a Charlie Chaplin film from the twenties called The Circus?  He seems to think so and his evidence is very compelling.  Check the video out and weigh in on the comment posts other readers have made concerning this strange clip.  and the SyFy channel may have killed Caprica but plans have been green lighted for a production of another Battle Star Galactica prequil.  Syfy will air Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome in late 2011 or early 2012.

So Enjoy Episode 233 and take a trip over to http://wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com for the rest of the Beam Me Up news