To celebrate the DVD release of Speed Racer, SciFiNow has teamed up with Warner Bros. to offer one reader the chance to get their hands on some terrific prizes. Up for grabs is a copy of the movie on DVD as well as a goody bag that includes a T-Shirt, a Wii game, as well as loads of other fantastic prizes.

The film, directed by The Wachowski Brothers, tells the story of Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), a young man born to race. Boasting eye-popping visuals, amazing effects and an all-star cast that includes Christina Ricci, Matthew Fox, John Goodman and Susan Sarandon, Speed Racer roars on to DVD on 10 November.

In order to be in with a chance of winning, you must answer the following question correctly:

Racer X, a mysterious, masked figure who looks out for Speed, is played by which star of the hit TV show Lost?

Answers to scifinow@imagine-publishing.co.uk. All entries must be received before 24 November.

© 2008 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.

This competition is open to residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland. Warner Bros. has the right to substitute the prize for a similar item of equal or higher value. Employees of Imagine Publishing (including freelancers), their relatives or any agents are not eligible to enter. The editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. Prizes cannot be exchanged for cash. Full terms and conditions are available on request.
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Well it’s finally over, and after the build-up and hype surrounding the mega final episode of Doctor Who, did it live up to this expectation?It’s not really an easy answer, and I’d need to put on two hats to fully answer this question. As a ‘ahem’ forty-something sci-fi fan, I’d have to ultimately say that I did really enjoy it, but it has to be classed as a ‘guilty pleasure’. Doctor Who is great Saturday entertainment, which is massively popular, and for science fiction I label this as a ‘good thing’, but is it great sci-fi? I’d have to unfortunately say no.

The build-up and promise at the end of arguably one of the finer episodes from new-Who’s season four, ‘The Stolen Earth’, was excellent. The effects first off were top-notch (for the BBC) and the spectacle of Davros (in new Star Wars Emperor guise), a supreme cloned Dalek war fleet, and the huge cliffhanger of the Doctor’s regeneration left all viewers (enthusiastic and usually cynical) with sweaty palms and a hunger for the conclusion seven days later.

The internet speculation was wild and got more outrageous every day. From initial thoughts that the new Dalek race were genetically altered from the ‘missing bees’ by Davros due the hive mentality of our avian honey makers, through to Donna being the Master (her ring is the Master’s), The Doctor regenerating into Sylvester McCoy/Paul McGann/a woman/River Song and more! In fact, the speculation of the happenings in ‘Journey’s End’ ended up being far more exciting than the actual event!

Settling down to watch on a Saturday evening, the event itself far outweighing any piffiling Wimbledon final, the opening credits rolled and I drank in every moment of the regeneration expecting something amazing. What I didn’t ever imagine was the Doctor just sort of ‘belching’ and shoving the regeneration energy into his manky hand! What a cop-out. First up, why is it that now the Beeb has its hands on CGI does the regeneration process have to become a massive explosion of energy? Regeneration is usually a very quiet affair, and certainly not one of ‘Highlander’ proportions. But this aside, the whole cliffhanger aspect of the regeneration was treated in such an ‘off hand’ (sorry about the pun) manner as to cheat the viewer. But then, part of me likens this to the old Flash Gordon series cliffhangers where actually nothing really ever happens.

As the finale continued, every one of the companions in peril was scooped up into relative safety in the first five minutes, nullifying all build-up of tension from ‘The Stolen Earth’. I found this disappointing, but still hoped for more ‘cleverness’ as the episode unfolded. After all, this was the finale.

I found the banter with Davros fun, and occasionally there was even the philosophical debating Davros of old. Particularly interesting was the message that the Doctor, although he carries no guns, is the forger of human weapons, and the destroyer of worlds. Pretty powerful stuff and insightful for Who. As the episode unfolded, I grimaced at the Doctor/Donna appearance, that ‘chav speak’, the offhand way of destroying the Dalek armada (not to mention the fix for the Chameleon circuit) and I’d pretty much given up on it delivering anything truly ground-breaking, and so waited for the ‘Bad Wolf Bay’ payoff where the Doctor would finally profess his love for Rose. In effect what we got was the shell of the Doctor (notice how little the one heart Doctor actually said), whispering to Rose only what I can assume is ‘I love you’ (something nearly every person on the planet would say to Billie Piper, wouldn’t they?).

This episode left a lot of unanswered questions, but it did leave interesting implications for events to unfold later. For example, River Song recognises the Tenth Doctor from ‘Quiet In The Library’ but her Doctor is older, so one has to assume her relationship is with the ‘one heart Doctor’, as he can age. Yet he has no sonic screwdriver or TARDIS, leaving you to believe that ’something’ happens in the parallel world to give ‘one heart’ Doctor access to these things. Plus, what happens to Rose and his relationship there, then?

Overall, I did enjoy this episode as a Saturday night, takeaway chomping entertainment romp, but as a slice of great sci-fi it was found lacking. It ‘copped’ out many times, was far too drawn out at the end, and left me on a downer for the end of the season. There was no crescendo, no happy feeling. Nothing.

Then I saw that the Cybermen would be back on Christmas Day and my guiilty pleasure emotion chip clicked in again.

Here we go again.

Love/Hate/Love/Hate…  

Directors are a rare breed, possessing a unique combination of artistic talents, man management and people-person skills, as well as being a lover of all things cinema. At least, this is usually the case, certainly with the best directors out there, but not so with a certain Mr Uwe Boll. The famed director of such cinematic classics as Alone In The Dark and BloodRayne II: The Deliverance, the German helmer has found himself the unwanted focus of an online competition to stop him making movies. In an interview he conducted several weeks ago, he was asked whether he would stop making movies if enough people signed a petition. Replying that it would take a million people to get him to stop, said petition immediately went up and with only a couple of weeks under its belt, it is already halfway there.

So what did the self-aggrandising director do by way of reply? Well, rather than heeding the advice (not to mention the pleads, and violent threats in some cases) the petition threw his way and sticking to his words, he released a video urging people to start up a pro-Boll petition. Why? Because, and we quote the great man’s own words here, he is “not a f***ing retard like Michael Bay or other people running around in the business.” A scathing attack on Eli Roth followed this anti-Bay nugget, which we can at least understand, after which Boll went on to claim thus: “If you look at my movies, you will see my real genius!”

Anyone who has seen the director’s work is surely only all too aware of his ‘genius’, but in an industry that is fuelled by sycophantic wannabes, we need more Uwe Bolls. From his video post, and his journo-bludgering prior behaviour, the man is clearly quite eccentric, that much is granted, but Hollywood is all the better for it. He’s like a cross between Ed Wood and Arnold Schwarzenegger, ready and willing to fight for his ‘unique vision’ and to bring it to the screen. We pity, though, the poor individual whose job it’ll be to inform him when the 1 millionth signature has been added. And it will be added.

To sum up: someone’s trying to publish an encyclopedia for all things Potter but series author JK Rowling is determined to stop them. She doesn’t believe that anyone should make money off her property without her say so. Fair enough. Kind of.

If – and she may well be – Rowling is successful in her bid to stop the Harry Potter lexicon from being published, you have to wonder what is going to happen to all those unofficial guides and companions that have been so popular with fandom. Will it really be the case that nothing can be written for profit about Potter without JK’s say so? What happens to magazines wanting to feature a complete guide to Hogwarts? Will she even make the reviews copyright protected? And what happens if other authors and creators follow suit? It’s not an appealing situation but the courts could be on the verge of setting a dangerous precedent.

It must be made clear that Rowling is insisting this isn’t about money but about quality control. She has labelled the encyclopedia “sloppy” and “atrocious” and unworthy for publication. Funny, as that hasn’t stopped her recently.

Sick burn.