Anyone who’s taken more than a passing interest in Game of Thrones / A Song of Ice and Fire will be aware that George RR Martin bases much of his fantasy on elements of history. It’s rather the approach I’ve taken in a certain project of my own, but it struck me that there’s also something more particular that Mr Martin is doing in his epic series.

*
What I’m referring to is that George is not just basing fantasy on history and the harsher reality thereof. Because it seems to me that he’s also, in his characteristic uncompromising style, expressing how treasured unrealistic fantasy tropes might actually be realised in a historical setting. I’m particularly talking Tolkien-derivative characters, and tropes common to lower grade fiction and role-playing games which – whether we love them still or just remember them fondly – George RR Martin is subjecting to what Alan Moore might call an ‘affectionate character assassination’. Read the rest of this entry »

We loved Heroes when it first came out. We were sad to see it go though hadn’t realised until after the fact because, well, Season 3 just lost us. We probably weren’t the only ones. We’re probably not the only ones to be rather excited to see that it’s coming back for a fresh start with Heroes Reborn this September!

Ahead of then we’ll be updating this page with the latest as it comes – for now here’s the recently released ‘The Extraordinary Among Us’ preview trailer… Enjoy!

Heroes is set to return on the 24th September, 8pm EST.

Welcome to CARABAS if you haven’t been here before or welcome back if you have! Just compiling all the articles since we kicked off nearly a year ago but a few changes to the coding means it’s a work in progress… Still right now there’s some awesome stuff to check through – that’s if you haven’t already!

More to come…

SIGNATURE ARTICLES / PAGES

Interviews: A Pint / Coffee with…	Greatest Creations of Fantastical Fiction	6 Months of Book publishing links	Intro’s & info…
JIM BUTCHER!	Part 1 – In which we talk of Gentlemen, Mandalorian combat fashion, Otherworldly maternal figures, far-future deities, and the young lady you get to meet at the end…	The Fantastical & the Speculative: Links to New Books Publishing Jan-Jun 15!	“Not Geek: Just Awesome”
KARRIE FRANSMAN!	Part 2 – In which we look at warrior bears, the most secret of secret bases, a wizard that makes Gandalf look like a lightweight, an anthropomorphized aspect of nightmare, and quite possibly the most awesome adversaries of all time…	New Books – Genre Round-ups…	Key Pages:
		Steampunk Titles – Jan-Jun 15 (and associated fantastical anachronisms)	LONDON EVENTS – Our guide to upcoming awesomeness in the big city!
Coming soon – A Coffee with LEAH MOORE!	Part 3 – In which we examine demons of fire and shadow, out-of-place police boxes, a thing from outer space, a floating city and freaky modern day fairy tale inventions…	Urban Fantasy Titles – Jan-Jun 15 (and choice associated fictions)	DISCOVER… Soon to be released, our guide to the fantastical groups, websites, bands, authors and other creatives in the big city!
	Part 4 – In which we dabble with coherent blades of energy, Hollywood monsters of Chinese folklore, the worst witch (for her enemies), god-like automatons, and the space craft that makes the rest look like the cardboard boxes you pretended to fly to space in as kids…
	Part 5 – In which we indulge ourselves with warped halflings, perhaps the greatest lesser known post-apocalyptic setting, demonic currency, space opera super-ordinance, and they amongst whom ‘There can be only one’
	Part 6 – In which we explore a gloriously dystopian LA, the most sublime of the sublime of weapons in space opera, Gray Hulks, heroic child-proxies, and quantum-locked Assassins…

FANTASTICAL FICTION – BOOKS & GRAPHIC NOVELS!

GIG REVIEWS

Our pal Mark K from the Indie Music Meet-up – and some others besides – have done a blinding job at getting the reviews Carabas-wards to the point that they just needed a section here unto themselves!

LOLA COLT + BLEECH		BLACK MOTH + PUFFER	MEATBODIES + ARROWS OF LOVE
	PURSON		PENNY FOR THE WORKHOUSE + THE GYRO + THE FIX
DELOOZE	ROBERT PLANT & THE SENSATIONAL SPACE SHIFTERS	EVI VINE + THE NEVERISTS
	GARY NUMAN & GANG OF FOUR		PALMA VIOLETS + FAT WHITE FAMILY + SLAVES + WYTCHES
JANE’S ADDICTION	ANNA CALVI & THE HERITAGE ORCHESTRA	GEMMA HAYES (Olympic Studios)
RINGO DEATHSTARR + LOLA COLT		FIRES + ADAM BARNES + APOSTLE THOMAS	FAWN SPOTS + THE BODIES
THE ABJECTS + LOVE L.U.V. + LUPO	XFM WINTER WONDERLAND		COURTNEY BARNETT
	GEMMA HAYES (Hackney Oslo)	HONEYBLOOD + OUR GIRL + BLOODY KNEES	THE WHO

	www.paulcornell.com
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Paul Cornell on Carabas (search)

Paul Cornell has had work produced and published since 1990 in all mediums, TV, Books and Comics. Read the rest of this entry »

	www.thepharosproject.libsyn.com
	On Facebook (Group)
	On Twitter: @PharosProject
	THE sweary Doctor Who, Fantasy, Science Fiction & Horror podcast!

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A hundred of us were gathered in the Science Museum’s Directors Suite for this year’s Arab Science Fiction event put together and hosted by Sindbad Sci-Fi: From Imagination to Innovation (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s Nour Festival). It’s a fantastic venue, with double tiered bookcases rising the two storeys of the room, and just the right tone for the forthcoming discussion.

The panel is chaired by journalist and broadcaster and science fiction fan Samira Ahmed who introduces the panellists in turn, each having a spot to introduce themselves and their work.

First up is Saudi Arabia’s Yasser (“The Jedi from Jeddah”) Bhajatt, an engineer by profession who, on a global scale, investigated the relation between a country’s science fiction scene / output and its level of scientific development. Read the rest of this entry »

In these days of downloads and Netflix it’s easy to miss out on some of the good stuff on the regular box, especially when you have to weed through so many freeview / cable channels. So here’s a weekly recommend of the fantastical and thought provoking for your consideration…

We take as read that we all know we can check the movie channels if we’ve got them (so not included) and that after 12 on a school night the chances are no one’s quite so fussed. To avoid repetition we’ve put the more regular daily showings on Pick TV, the Horror Channel, Watch and SyFy at the bottom.

*** Special heads up this week: The Horror Channel is reshowing Two of the best Doctor Who episodes from the classic run – Tom Baker in the Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng Chiang! See Special Recommend article here for more ***

Enjoy and if we’re missing anything let us know!

Saturday	Channel	Programme	More…
1.00pm	Film 4	Star Trek V: The Final Frontier	SFF
6.30pm	ITV 4	The 100	S1, E12
8.30pm	BBC1	Doctor Who	The Caretaker (6 of 12)
9.00pm	E4	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Adaptation
9.00pm	5*	Under the Dome	S2, 5/13
10.00pm	5*	The Walking Dead (Double Bill)	S4, 15&16/16
10.00pm	Watch	The Strain	S1, E2
10.35pm	ITV	Shaun of the Dead	Comedy Horror
11.30pm	London Live	Spaced	S1, E4 (Comedy Awesomeness), repeated at 2.00am
11.35pm	ITV 4	Scarface	Crime Thriller
Sunday	Channel	Programme	More…
5.00pm	E4	The 100	S1, e12
6.50pm	ITV2	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	Fantasy
7.15pm	Film 4	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	Comic adaptation
7.50pm	BBC 3	Doctor Who	Repeat of yesterday’s…
8.00pm	E4	The Karate Kid	No Karate, but there is a kid, definitely kung fu, and also Jackie Chan
11.00pm	Watch	Babylon 5: The Gathering	SFF
11.55pm	BBC 2	The Children	Horror
12.30am	BBC4	Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars	Documentary, Music – for all the Bowie fans out there…
Monday	Channel	Programme	More…
6.40pm	Film 4	Star Trek: Generations	SFF
9.00pm	E4	The 100	S1, E13 (last in series)
9.00pm	5*	Rush Hour 2	(We’re just here for the Jackie Chan bits)
10.00pm	C5	Under the Dome	S2, E6
10.55pm	C5	The Terminator	He did say that he would be back
11.00pm	Watch	Being Human USA	S2, E12
11.40pm	Film 4	28 Weeks Later	Zombies, zombies, zombies…
1.35am	Film 4	The Warlords	Chinese historical war drama avec Jet Li and Andy Lau
Tuesday	Channel	Programme	More…
6.40pm	Film 4	Star Trek: First Contact	SFF
9.00pm	Film 4	The Woman in Black	Chiller
9.00pm	TCM	Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein	(Repeated at 1.20am) Horror
10.00pm	ITV4	The Blues Brothers	Nuff said
11.20pm	TCM	John Carpenter’s Vampires	Horror
Wednesday	Channel	Programme	More…
8.00pm	E4	X-Men: The Last Stand	Comic adaptation
9.00pm	Watch	Grimm	S3, E22
10.00pm	Watch	The Strain	S1, E3 (repeated at 12.00pm)
Thursday	Channel	Programme	More…
9.00pm	Sky 1	Forever	News series about an immortal medical examiner. Doctor – check. Older man – check. Supernatural – check. Ca-ching.
9.00pm	5*	War of the Worlds	SFF
10.00pm	Watch	The Strain	S1, E3
10.45pm	London Live	Black Books	S3, E7 (TBC)
10.55pm	TCM	Rollerball	Classic SF
11.15pm	London Live	Spaced	S1, E5 (TBC)
Friday	Channel	Programme	More…
7.05pm	Film 4	Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer	Comic adaptation
7.50pm	ITV 2	The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor	Fantasy
9.00pm	E4	G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra	Adaptation

If you like your Stargate you’ll find Pick has Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: SG1 on weekdays at 7 and 8pm, with a bigger SFF night on Tuesday with those shows followed by Sinbad and Revolution.

SyFy is currently showing on weeknights from 6/7pm: Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: The Next Generation, followed by Continuum and, from Thursday, Defiance (check your guide for more as the timings change).

Also on Syfy there’s a Saturday multi-episode omnibus of Buffy from 11am.

You can catch highlights from the original run of Doctor Who on the Horror Channel at 7.50pm, this week with the Pertwee-era Death to the Daleks, and then a magnificent double-whammy of Tom Baker in The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng Chiang. Both highly recommended viewing – see Special Recommends article here for more.

Watch are showing selections with a slightly changeable schedule of the new series Season 6 and then Season 1 at 11.00pm from Tuesday to Thursday and 11.55pm on Friday.

Whether you’re a fan of SF or the good Doctor specifically or a more casual viewer of the age to remember the classic Tom Baker era there’s an absolute treat this week from Tuesday to Friday on the Horror Channel.

Horror shows double episodes of the classic series daily but the two this week are amongst the best stories ever written, and genre mash-ups of (naturally) science fiction and the detective story. Both star the inimitable Tom Baker, to many of us – it hardly needs repeating – THE Doctor, regardless of whether or not we’re old enough to have seen it first time round; but also the dad’s favourite Louise Jameson as Leela: hot, scantily clad (initially at least), barbarian savage, Leela was anything but the bumbling, squealing companion.

And the scripts of both are lauded by Paul Cornell (Writer of comics and Doctor Who amongst others) and co in the Dr Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide as “one of the best ever” and “peerless” respectively – and they’re not wrong.

To begin with we have the Robots of Death – and don’t let the simplistic title persuade you it lacks anything. It’s a murder mystery set in a giant, isolated sand-mining vehicle on a remote planet. It plays against human characteristics of ambition, greed, fear, suspicion and concealed (outright) insanity amongst the characters – but we can’t specify how without giving stuff away. Aside from anything else the design of the titular robots is wonderfully memorable (to this Tom Baker era viewer at the very least!).

Mind with a title like that you wouldn’t have a particularly long game of Cluedo with the options of ‘Robots’ with ‘Robot hands’ in ‘The Sandminer’ – but there are more than enough twists and turns to keep you entertained from start to finish.

From the notion of fear and the uncanny valley we move closer to the Valley of Fear in the wonderful Victorian London-based The Talons of Weng Chiang in which Tom Baker (who would actually play the role post-Who) as the Doctor more or less becomes Sherlock Holmes, putting aside his favourite scarf for period costume including a deerstalker hat.

It’s an atmospheric mystery romp which mashes Holmes with the Phantom of the Opera, Jack the Ripper and Chinese myth, all disguising the steampunk / time-travel SF drama which emerges as the Doctor detects the truth of the macabre murders. There’s ‘supernatural’ Chinese underlings, a fantastically freakish ‘wooden dwarf’ and an accident-mutilated ‘god’-villain. It doesn’t get much better than this.

Mind this is Tuesday to Friday – On Sunday / Monday there’s the legendary Terry Nation’s Pertwee-era Death to the Daleks, which (while it seems to have been on rather a lot) is certainly worth a watch if you haven’t caught it already. But while nothing more than the appearance of a Dalek is enough to please the crowds, The Robots of Death and The Talons of Weng Chiang stand amongst the most solid and entertaining stand-alone stories in the show’s history.

Rush home from work in good time and / or set your box to ‘Record’ and look forward to a an hour or so a night of SF-mystery goodness on the sofa.

Or behind it.

[You can read our guide to more of this weeks TV highlights here]

In these days of downloads and Netflix it’s easy to miss out on some of the good stuff on the regular box, especially when you have to weed through so many freeview / cable channels. So here’s a weekly recommend of the fantastical and thought provoking for your consideration…

We take as read that we all know we can check the movie channels if we’ve got them (so not included) and that after 12 on a school night the chances are no one’s quite so fussed. To avoid needless repetition we’ve put the more regular daily showings on Pick TV, the Horror Channel, Watch and SyFy at the bottom.

Enjoy and if we’re missing anything let us know!

Saturday	Channel	Programme	More…
6.35pm	E4	The 100	S1, 11/13
7.30pm	BBC1	Doctor Who	5/12 Time Heist
9.00pm	Film 4	Transformers	(In case you like Michael Bay’s interpretation)
9.00pm	5*	Under the Dome	S2, 4/13
10.00pm	5*	The Walking Dead (Double Bill)	S4, 13&14/16
10.40pm	ITV	The Shawshank Redemption	Dark and exhilarating prison drama
Sunday	Channel	Programme	More…
12.05pm	Watch	Dr Who – classic series	Vengeance on Varos
1.00pm	Film 4	Avatar	Nuff said
2.00pm	5*	The Fifth Element	Luc Besson’s gorgeous quirky SF opera
3.30pm	C4	Star Trek: Insurrection	SF
7.20pm	C5	Rush Hour 2	(We’re just here for the Jackie Chan bits)
8.00pm	BBC3	Doctor Who	Repeat of yesterday’s…
9.00pm	ITV 4	Troy	Action
9.00pm	C5	In Time	SF justified heist movie with Justin Timberlake(?)
11.05pm	Watch	Dr Who – classic series	Vengeance on Varos
11.10pm	C5	Elektra	Comic adaptation
11.15pm	C4	The Sixth Sense	Does anyone not know what the big twist is?
Monday	Channel	Programme	More…
6.45pm	Film 4	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	KHAAAAAAAAAANNN!
7.50pm	Horror	Dr Who – classic series	The Deadly Assassin, Ep.s 1&2 – a top old school episode with Gallifreyan politics, murders and virtual reality
9.00pm	Horror	Cyborg 2	Recently included in the worst cyborg movies ever list (I09 we think it was…)
9.00pm	Film 4	Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance	Sequel comic adaptation
9.00pm	E4	The 100	S1, 12/13
10.00pm	C5	Under the Dome	S2, 5/13
11.00pm	C5	Hollow Man	Modern day invisible man thriller (mixed reviews)
11.00pm	Watch	Being Human USA	Supernatural Drama
Tuesday	Channel	Programme	More…
7.00pm	Film 4	Star Trek III: The Search for Spock	SF
7.50pm	Horror	Dr Who – classic series	The Deadly Assassin, Ep.s 3&4 – a top old school episode with Gallifreyan politics, murders and virtual reality
11.00pm	Watch	Doctor Who	S6 E7 – A Good Man Goes to War
Wednesday	Channel	Programme	More…
6.40pm	Film 4	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home	SF
7.50pm	Horror	Dr Who – classic series	The Curse of Fenric Ep.s 1&2 – highly original vampire mythos interpretation  if nothing else…
8.00pm	E4	The Karate Kid	No Karate, but there is a kid, definitely kung fu, and also Jackie Chan
9.00pm	Watch	Grimm	S2, E2
10.00pm	Watch	The Strain	S1, E2
11.00pm	Watch	Doctor Who	S6 E8/13 – Let’s Kill Hitler
11.00pm	ITV 4	Scarface	Crime Thriller
12.00am	Watch	The Strain	Rep. from earlier
Thursday	Channel	Programme	More…
7.50pm	Horror	Dr Who – classic series	The Curse of Fenric Ep.s 3&4 – highly original vampire mythos interpretation  if nothing else…
9.00pm	Film 4	Transporter 3	Action
10.00pm	Watch	The Strain	S1, E2
10.45pm	London Live	Black Books	S3, E6
11.00pm	Watch	Doctor Who	S6 E9/13 – Night Terrors
11.15pm	London Live	Spaced	S1, E4
Friday	Channel	Programme	More…
6.15pm	Film 4	Transformers	(In case you like Michael Bay’s interpretation)
7.50pm	Horror	Dr Who – classic series	Death to the Daleks, Ep.s 1&2
9.00pm	BBC 4	Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars	Documentary, Music – for all the Bowie fans out there…
9.00pm	5*	War of the Worlds	2005 version
10.50pm	Film 4	28 Days Later	Zombies, zombies, zombies…
11.00pm	Watch	Doctor Who	S6 E10/13 – The Girl Who Waited
12.40pm	Horror	Old Boy	Freaky Korean crime action drama – with the most brutal twist you’ll possibly ever experience. Watch once, perhaps not a second time…

If you like your Stargate you’ll find Pick has Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: SG1 on weekdays at 7 and 8pm, with a bigger SFF night on Tuesday with those shows followed by Sinbad and Revolution.

SyFy is currently showing on weeknights from 6/7pm: Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and Star Trek: The Next Generation, followed by Defiance (check your guide for more as the timings change).

Also on Syfy there’s a Saturday multi-episode omnibus of Buffy from 11am, and the same for Defiance on Sunday.

You can catch highlights from the original run of Doctor Who on the Horror Channel at 7.50pm, this week with the Deadly Assassin (with the inimitable Tom Baker), the Curse of Fenric (Sylvester McCoy) and Death to the Daleks (Jon Pertwee), double episodes daily.

Watch are showing selections from both runs of Doctor Who, with an omnibus edition of Vengeance on Varos, and a rather changeable schedule of the new series Season 6 at 11ish on most weekdays.