The Week In Geek...

A round-up of geeky news you might have otherwise missed...

(1) Passing Of A Legend: Doctor Who producer, director and writer Barry Letts died last week, aged 84. See also The Guardian Obituary.

(2) X-Scribe In The UK: Legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont is guest of honour at next year's Bristol International Comic And Small Press Expo.

(3) New Look For Retro Game: The new cover artwork for the forthcoming release of the redesigned rules system for use with Killer B's gorgeous Galactic Adventures in The Fourth Dimension of The Forbidden Zone miniatures has been revealed. It is by acclaimed comic artist Francesco Francavilla, who has also designed three covers for future supplements for GAFDOZ. The rules remain the same - just presented in a more attractive format, according to writer/publisher Craig Rowlings.

(4) Alice In Computerland: The first screenshot for the official video game tie-in to Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland film has been released. The game will run on PC, Wii and Nintendo DS.

(5) Alice In Syfyland: Syfy's four-hour modern reimagining of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland will premier in the US on December 6.

(6) Sounds Of The Mega-City: Big Finish is releasing a new series of four audio plays based on 2000AD's famous lawman, Judge Dredd.

(7) TARDIS Redesign Competition: UK childrens' TV staple Blue Peter is running a competition for fans of Doctor Who (ages six to 12) to redesign the TARDIS console for an actual episode of the show in Season Five. Remember how well this went last time when Blue Peter viewers designed a monster for the show... and we ended up with the Abzorbaloff, one of the worst creatures ever to appear on Doctor Who in one of the worst episodes!

(8) A Prize With Bite: Win a chance to be an extra on TV's finest vampire show, True Blood, in a charity auction.

(9) Professional Pirates: Bilgemunky reviews A Pirate Captain's Guide To Leadership, a business guide for using 'pirate' techniques to motivate your employees. The lash? Keelhauling, perhaps?

(10) When Will This Madness End? Twisted Pictures, the people behind the neverending Saw franchise, are gearing up to not only remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (again) but in 3D! Does anyone really enjoy 3D movies that much?

(11) It's A Good Time To Be A Zygon: In a recent poll, on Doctor Who Online, of Classic Doctor Who monsters fans would like to see return in the new series, the zygons came out top with more than 50 per cent of the votes (including mine).

(12) The Stars Are Savage: Realms of Cthulhu, the Savage Worlds take on Call Of Cthulhu, is available in PDF form from publishers Reality Blurs.

(13) Can Never Have Enough Apocalypse: Vampire Apocalypse - Fallout, the third in Derek Gunn's Vampire Apocalypse series, about the world under vampire control, is now available in paperback from Black Death Books.

(14) Sarah Jane's Online Entertainment: To celebrate the return of The Sarah Jane Adventures on Thursday (and Friday) this week, the BBC has launched a new Sarah Jane online serial and an interactive adventure game.

(15) Tragic Death Of Young Star: Boyzone singer and Big Finish actor Stephen Gately died in his sleep at the weekend, at the age of 33.

(16) A Glimpse Into History: Doctor Who research group Nothing At The End Of The Lane (named after a possible title for the show's very first episode) has published a script book of an early story that never made it to air, an historical epic about Alexander The Great.

(17) Once More Unto The Carnage: The Tuesday Knights are all poised to return to my Labyrinth Lord campaign this evening, after last month's mass slaughter debacle, which provoked a lot of debate in the 'comments' section of HeroPress. Postponed for two weeks due to "last minute work emergency" for one of the players.