Issue 200 has landed!
There’s a Christmassy feel in the air at SFX Towers and no it’s not the bafflingly premature warbling of Perry Como emanating from the stereo across the room. With Nick, Ian, Jon and Ade absent there’s a feeling this could be the calm before the (snow)storm, and you’d forgive us for mistaking the postie for Old Saint Nick yesterday when he delivered the gift we’ve been waiting for all year. That’s right issue 200 has docked on Starship SFX , we’ve bagged our white whale.
We’ll have a full issue preview up later today but here’s your first look at our jam-packed 200-page anniversary spectacular. Best issue ever? We think so but there is one thing we can guarantee – it’ll take 25% longer to read, or your money back (note: no actual money will be returned under any circumstances). Star Trek 2 is at the head of the fleet but we’re also incredibly proud of our mammoth 33-page feature revealing 200 science-fiction secrets from the likes of Joss Whedon, James Cameron, Stan Lee and Terry Pratchett. It’s taken us the best part of a year to compile, never say we don’t love you guys.
Elsewhere SFX has been in the news recently. You might have noticed the top 200 SF characters ever poll we’ve been running online over the past few months – well the results of the group stages are in with the “monsters” category getting a mention on the Telegraph website , blastr , Whedonesque and even during Steve Wright’s Wednesday afternoon show on Radio 2. Seems you can’t open a browser without running into SFX (and if sfx.co.uk is your homepage then that’s probably not surprising, and if not what are you waiting for?) Our bid for global multimedia domination continues this evening when SFX overlord-in-chief Dave Bradley takes to the mic for a guest spot on TalkSport at midnight. Fear not he is talking about sci-fi, he hopes. You can listen in to the online feed at www.talksport.co.uk even if you're not in the UK.
Thanks to absentees, swearing and shouting loudly in the office has been down to almost nil (no Ian) as have terrible retro movie T-shirts (no Nick) and check shirts (no Jon). Dave G has a new hearing aid but we’re not certain that it’s actually working.
With Ian on his way home from an all expenses paid, business class trip to Vancouver (as he has taken to reminding us on a regular basis) Rich has been left to fend on his own on the far side of the office and is full steam ahead on the Joss Whedon special, getting stuck into a bit of HG Wells for a feature in 201 and working his way through the 200 secrets of science fiction in the new issue. See even we’re savouring it, it’s that good.
Jordan can now proudly count himself among the legion of Battlestar Galactica devotees having watched the final episode for the first time last night. A couple of niggling loose ends aside he declared it “the greatest science fiction series ever!” though that might just be the chamalla talking. He’s also relieved to have finally finished the 1500 word feature and 700 word review he’s been writing for issue 201 – on the same film. Doesn’t half mess with your mind that.
After much deliberation Russell decided against buying an iPhone (“I can’t justify it”) and is instead contenting himself with building a Roswell alien out of used chewing gum. It’s looking good disgusting so far. Pictures when it’s fully formed next week unless common sense gets the better of us before then.
Looking to the future – all the winners of our 200 birthday bash have now been contacted. Sorry if you didn’t win (maybe issue 300 eh?) but for the next best thing why not come to the SFX Weekender 2 next February. Life threatening injuries aside (and no, man flu doesn’t count) we’ll all be there. In fact the two Daves were in a meeting earlier to discuss next year's SFX Awards. Voting will start in the autumn; look out for details in a future issue of the mag.
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Random quote of the week: “ Warehouse 13 was the worst thing to ever happen to Syfy. Great for Spurious Awards though.”
Whose T-shirt (last week’s answer – it was Adrian’s desk!)
