FROM THE SFX OFFICE

A super-exciting screening, Doctor Who discussed to death and more radio time for SFX in this week’s peek behind the viewscreen

There was only one thing on the lips of the denizens of SFX Towers this Monday: a certain good man who went to war – and in particular the identity of one River Song. Not the most unpredictable twist in Who history, but production editor Russell was unafraid to admit Mr Moffat had him fooled till the end where Russell’s young nephews had it all sussed out. The office consensus? Marvellous. The best bit? The title of the next episode of course, had the entire office in fits that did.

It’s deadline week, so naturally we’ve been putting in the hours to fine tune the latest issue into a lean, mean sci-fi, er, magazine. The late hours can do funny things to a person though with Jon, Russell and Catherine indulging in bizarre conversations on everything from how you’d do The Human Centipede if you got it in charades, to the days when ex news editor Steve O’Brien used to strip topless, draw a six-pack with a marker pen on his torso and stick it in the magazine. Besides finishing SFX 211, Russell’s also started work on the next SFX special, meaning eight hours sleep is now a distant memory.

While we’re all working hard on the latest issue, Jes over on Comic Heroes has sent his latest baby, issue seven, out of the door – with features on Batman: Arkham City , The Punisher and comic-book supremo Grant Morrison. Pick it up on 27 June. Good news for all Comic Heroes subscribers too: from issue eight all subscribers will get the shiny cardboard wallet used on newsstands.

Rich is all about Super 8 ! He and Nick attended a screening a mere 24-hours ago you see. From the Amblin and Bad Robot logos appearing one after the other (iconic!), it was everything he hoped a collaboration between Spielberg and Abrams could be. His favourite film of the year so far. He should also mention the 20 minutes of Transformers 3 they saw. The scenes were totally random, so you couldn’t get any sense of story – of course, you could say the same thing of the whole of Transformers 2 – but it does look spectacular. The 3D is amazing, and there’s a spaceship action sequence from the movie’s opening that’ll make you ache to see Star Wars in three dimensions. There’s so much going on in each shot, though, that he’s worried seeing the whole film might break his head.

Nick rocked up on Radio 2 on Monday night, drafted by the BBC for a documentary about Development Hell (sadly not an hour of airtime devoted to his regular SFX column - though god knows that would be a fine and noble use of the licence fee). He was introduced to the sound of the Superman theme, almost as if money had been exchanged somewhere along the line. You can still catch it on iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b011lmq6 . He pops up at around the 40 minute mark, and will, for a suitable fee, provide a voiceover for your next carpet sale. Meanwhile he was there for the screening of Super 8 last night and loved it to little Spielberg-shaped pieces. "Film of the year!" he's saying. Though that year may be 1979.

Former prod ed Simon Withers was married at the weekend. Congratulations Simon! Dave B, Dave G, Rich and his other half Charlotte were in attendance for the happy day. Never before has team SFX looked so dapper (see right). Ade is wondering what the hell to watch on Saturday now the good timelord is on vacation for a few months. It wont be that stupid Robot Rabbit that’s for sure! Oooh hang on, Canadian Grand Prix and a bottle of Romulan Ale. Sounds like a plan.

It’s been an emotional week for Jordan – from giddy anticipation to heartbreaking aftermath. The cause of this rollercoaster? The announcement of Nintendo’s new console. For several hours before Ninty’s E3 conference he could be heard muttering “Please give it a proper controller. Please give it a proper controller…” Unfortunately what Nintendo unveiled, a Fisher Price iPad, was a far cry from their N64 and Gamecube heyday (well, that’s what he thinks) and had poor old Jordan lamenting another home console generation without his beloved Ninty. A stunning HD Zelda video did just enough to pull him out of a potential spiral of depression, but it was the 3DS announcements that got him most excited: Luigi’s Mansion 2 and Super Smash Bros . The Smash Bros announcement has also caused a trash talking email-war between Jordan (who favours Kirby) and Comic Heroes ’s Jes (a Link man), unfortunately unprintable here. Come release day there’s going to be carnage, albeit colourful Nintendo carnage.

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Random Argument of the Week : Did the football overlap with Doctor Who and affect its ratings? Does it have to be the match or does the post-match discussion count? Does anyone care?

Whose Daleks? (Last week’s answer: it was Dave G’s bag!)