2018

Cosmocopia by Paul Di Filippo

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The novel “Cosmocopia” by Paul Di Filippo was published for the first time in 2008.

Frank Lazorg is an artist specializing in work for comics and illustrations who was very famous but after suffering a stroke he can no longer resume his activity. His situation is made even worse by the fact that his great rival Rokesby Marrs took advantage of his misfortune and is churning out a lot of works that mimic Lazorg’s style.

Everything seems lost when Frank Lazorg receives a package sent by a sorcerer containing a very special powder with the promise of positive effects. The man starts taking an increasing amount of the powder and his health seems to improve considerably. His old model, Velina Malaspina, answers his invitation but things don’t go as Lazorg hoped and his reaction leads him to commit the irreparable. In an emotional turmoil, he ends up in another universe where he meets Crutchsump and everything changes.

Peter Capaldi in 2017

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Peter Dougan Capaldi was born on April 14, 1958 in Glasgow, Scotland. Since his childhood he showed talent for acting and music and has been a fan of “Doctor Who” since those years. During his teen-years he was a singer and guitarist of the punk rock band The Dreamboys, in which the drummer was Craig Ferguson, another future professional actor.

Peter Capaldi’s fame grew after he started playing Malcolm Tucker in “The Thick of It”, a satirical comedy about the British government. Tucker plays a consultant role of the type called spin doctor. Started in 2005, the show went on with some breaks until 2012 and Capaldi won a BAFTA and two British Comedy Awards. He also played that role in its spinoff “In the Loop”, broadcast in 2009.

In 2013 came the announcement of his choice to play the Twelfth Doctor in “Doctor Who”. His version of the Time Lord was very intense, embracing a wide range of emotions. His speeches remained memorable with many references to issues such as war.

In the role of the Doctor, Peter Capaldi has also participated in the production of some videogames to which he lent his voice, to the spinoff “Class” and to the charity program “Children in Need”. He left the role with the 2017 Christmas episode.

The Al Wusta-1 (AW-1) fossil (Image courtesy Ian Cartwright. All rights reserved)

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An article published in the journal “Nature Ecology and Evolution” describes the discovery of a fossil finger that belonged to a modern human dating back to about 90,000 years ago in Saudi Arabia. A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, made that discovery during an archaeological excavation at the site called Al Wusta in the Nefud desert. The modern human bone discovered is the oldest found so far out of Africa and the Levant.

The Undertaker's Gift by Trevor Baxendale

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The novel “The Undertaker’s Gift” by Trevor Baxendale was published for the first time in 2009.

The situation in Cardiff is even more complicated than usual with a number of alien creatures arriving on Earth through the Rift. For Torchwood team avoiding serious consequences is more than ever a full-time job but in this case it also means having a jelly creature in custody that can release a deadly electric shock.

Things get even worse when the lawyers from Horkala Corp pop up, announcing they’re suing Earth for failing to manage the 21st century. Even Captain Jack Harkness is at risk with an opponent who knows his secrets and the solution to the problem could be connected to a funeral that’s quite out of the ordinary with mysterious pallbearers.

Cornelius Hickey (Adam Nagaitis) in Punished, as a Boy (Image courtesy AMC Studios / Amazon. All rights reserved)

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“Punished, as a Boy” is the fourth episode of the TV show “The Terror”, an adapatation of a novel by Dan Simmons with the same title, and follows “The Ladder”.

Note. This article contains spoilers about “Punished, as a Boy”.

In 1848, Lady Jane Franklin (Greta Scacchi) and Sophia Cracroft (Sian Brooke) appeal to the Admiralty to start a new rescue expedition to the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, of which there is no news. Their crews must survive frozen in the ice and now face a new, intelligent, threat.