The Blood Ties Podcast hosted by Kevin Bachelder, Akira Ravens and Vivenne Rose and featuring Review of Blood Ties from ‘The Signal’ podcast, Listener Question of the Week, Blood Ties news and more is now up and running with their first official episode called “Bite Back.”

To visit the website and subscribe to the show visit “The Blood Ties Podcast”.

The StarShipSofa podcast has become a Science Fiction Audio Magazine.

An additional regular Wednesday show now features fiction, articles, poetry and flash fiction, with stories from top authors including Michael Moorcock, Spider Robinson, Joe Haldeman and Kage Baker.

Tony, who produces the podcast, is featured in an article in the most recent edition of iProng the iPod and iPhone magazine, discussing the StarShipSofa and podcasting.

The Anime World Order podcast is presenting an audio interview with Noboru Ishiguro – the President of Japanese animation studio Artland, Inc. As a veteran of the Japanese animation industry for over 45 years, in this exclusive interview Mr. Ishiguro discusses some of his most famous science fiction works such as “Superdimensional Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?”, “Megazone 23 Part One,” “Legend of the Galactic Heroes,” and “Space Battleship Yamato” which was adapted in the US as “Star Blazers.” Also, he talks about his creative influences, modern digital production techniques, the possibility of additional “Yamato” sequels, how Japanese animation has affected American animation and film, and the validity of animation as a medium for science fiction.

Visit Anime World Order to download a podcast of this episode.

Archives of all previous Anime World Order episodes and show notes are also available at the site. Listeners may also choose to subscribe to the Anime World Order podcast via the iTunes Music Store, Podcast Pickle, Digg, or any RSS feed aggregator.

[Note: Due to subject matter and language, the Anime World Order podcast is for mature audiences and is labeled as Explicit on iTunes.]

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XM Satellite Radio is having some FTP problems making it impossible to broadcast last week’s re-airing of our “Battlestar Galactica” James Callis interview.

The satellite radio company will, however, run our highly popular interview with theoretical physicist Michio Kaku which didn’t get aired on XM due to special holiday programming at the end of last year.

So, all you XM-listeners of Slice will finally get to hear that fantastic show.

One of the guests from past shows that we had the most fun talking to was young filmmaker Mark Lund. He stops by for a second time and we have another wonderful time talking with him for Slice of SciFi Show #157 on Saturday, April 19, 2008 and again on XM-Satellite Radio on Monday, April 28.

Also on tap for the show In the News comes word about a very special preview screening for 500 lucky Trek fans of the “Star Trek: Phase II” film “To Serve All My Days: A Night in 1969,” starring Walter Koenig and presented by James Cawley and Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry. Also, on April 28 comes a Star Wars themed presentation of a familiar NBC hit game show hosted by a bald guy, and we don’t mean Patrick Stewart. This is followed by some mini-news stories ranging from “Transformers,” Radcliffe in a Broadway version of his London performance in “Equus” and New Line’s big slip and slide.

Movie Talk will feature an update from Chris Carter about the new “X-Files” film and Shia LaBeouf’s signing on the dotted line for a new thriller.

A certain television station that shall remain nameless (at least in this piece) has given a go for a new Ronald D. Moore SF series in our TV Talk segment…and, is your TV 3-D capable and ready? We tell you all about it.

Director Zack Snyder will tackle his first attempt as full-blown animation for the Future Segment and Spielberg sets his sights on a popular Japanese manga story, turning it into a big budget, live-action feature film.

We will also have contests to talk about, special segments and more, so be sure to download episode #157 ready online this Saturday, April 19, 2008.

While the campaigns to save Journeyman and Dresden Files may not have yielded the results we hoped for, fans of Lifetime’s Blood Ties still have an opportunity to save their favorite series.

A new site, www.savebloodties.org was launched last week and is intended as a central resource for fans to work together and bring the show back for a second season.

“From my time in the fandom I’ve seen that there are several great campaigns going on to help out charities and to help promote the show for renewal,” said site creator Kevin Batchelder. “However, all those groups/campaigns are spread out over several forums/lists/websites. So I created a single place where we can announce and help promote each of the campaigns from a single website to help increase the overall visibility of the show and give the fans one place to keep up on things.”

The new site includes daily updates and even a new podcast devoted to celebrating the show and informing fans on how to save it from extinction. The site also gives fans the opportunity to show their support for the show on their personal web sites with banners that can be linked back to the site.

If you’re interested in doing so, click on the banner in this story and the site will give you all the details to include the banner and link on your web site, blog or podcast show page.

Working together, maybe we can get this show back on the airwaves….or in our cable boxes.

Michael Trucco, the man who stars as Samuel Anders — freedom/resistance fighter, reserve viper pilot, Starbuck’s husband and yes, a frakin’ Cylon, is our guest this week on Slice of SciFi Show #156, ready for download from your favorite podcatcher on Saturday, April 12 and one week later on Monday April 21 on XM-Satellite Radio’s Sonic Theater.

From the In the News desk will come stories like these:

Paramount Pictures has acquired the rights to film “Lost City of Z,” a manuscript from writer David Grann. Brad Pitt is set to produce the film which could end up starring him in the lead as well. Can Lucas Save the Cartoon Network from its current dreary 19th place in the cable standings? We’ll find out later this year when “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” debuts. In a SCI-FI to SCI-FACT related story, if you can believe researchers at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, then supercomputers may be on the verge of creating a Matrix-styled or Star Trek holodeck simulated reality….And you just went out and bought that expensive gigantic plasma TV.

In Movie Talk news we’ll take a look at what the fan-generated film and miniseries franchise “Hidden Frontier” is up to these days — and with over 10,000 theaters being upgraded to 3D screens over the next year expect to see fashionable 3D Eyewere to hit the market by the end of 2008.

TV Talk doesn’t want to get your hopes raised too high, however, “Jericho,” the apocalyptic show set in the small town of Jericho, Kansas may be getting a lifeline thrown to it from Comcast Cablevision, according to a recent article in The New York Times….We tell you why it’s doable. And, we’ll tell you all about the NBC presentation of a new anthology series titled ”Fear Itself” for a summer 2008 launch coming from those same folks who brought the “Masters of Horror” series to the Showtime premium cable network.

Is the Future of movie making about to change. If filmmaker Jessica Mae Stover has her way it definitely will and fans just like you, the fan, will be ultimately be in charge, not those so-called fat cats in their ivory studio towers.

We hope to see you beginning this Saturday on Slice of SciFi.com.

Our guest this week is a one-man powder-keg responsible for some of the best SF television programming in history, Kenneth Johnson. He has served as executive producer for such classic sci-fi fare as the “Alien Nation” series and all the “Alien Nation” feature TV films, 81 episodes of television’s “The Incredible Hulk” with Bill Bixby, Jack Colvin and Lou Ferrigno, “The Curse of Dracula” and the cult classic “V.”

Johnson, a winner of the prestigious Viewers for Quality Television Award, multiple Saturn Awards, The Sci-Fi Universe Life Achievement Award, plus nominations for Writers Guild and Mystery Writers of America Awards, among others, is also a writer and director for all the above shows, plus the original “The Bionic Woman,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Sherlock Holmes Returns,” the miniseries “Venus Rising” and so many more. You can also add music composer to his list of accomplishments having written music for a variety of film and television projects over the years.

Kenneth will be talking to us about his past work on all these shows, but more importantly also sharing what he has in store for the future as it relates to both “Alien Nation” and the new “V” miniseries titled “V: The Second Generation,” due out in 2009. His novel of the same title is available in bookstores now or you order your hardcover copy from our partner’s Amazon.com.

In our general News Segment we take a look at rapper 50 Cent and his gaming enterprise, Noah Wyle’s latest Librarian effort and from the International News Desk comes word that anime creator DLE will soon be launching the French company Anakama’s popular online game “Dofus” on Japanese television as a series.

Movie Talk has the gang venturing into “X-Files - The Titleless Movie” and how Olyphant and Jovovich square-off for the Perfect Getaway.

Taking a look at the small screen for TV Talk comes this story about how “Battlestar Galactica” has met-up with Joss Whedon’s new SF thriller “Dollhouse” on Fox. Then, we take a closer look at some of NBC’s new SF line-up for the 2008-2009 season.

The Future looks rosy for “Eureka” actress Erica Cerra, while at the same time dark as she will be starring in a feature film called “Dark Swarm” in 2009, and actor James Gandolfini is putting aside his Tony Soprano persona for that of New York City mayor in the remake of “The Taking of Pelham 123″ when it hits the rails in July 2009.

All these stories, the SF-TV legend himself, Kenneth Johnson and of course special segments, contests and much more on Slice of SciFi Show #155 beginning this Saturday online or from your favorite podcatcher, and a week later, Monday, April 14, 2008 on XM-Satellite Radio’s The Sonic Theater during morning rush hour. Be sure to tune into XM Radio this Monday morning (April 7) for our exclusive Nichelle Nichols and J. Neil Schulman interview.

Our guests this week are Vic (Victor) Cook and Greg Weisman. Vic is one of the directors for the new Kids! WB Networks “The Spectacular Spider Man” animated series and Greg serves as the creative writer for some of the weekly episodes. Together, with the great Stan Lee, they have developed the series for television, and among their duties of directing and writing, they also fill the job as supervising producers. In other words, they’re the big guns.
[Pictured: (l) Vic Cook (r) Greg Weisman]

For the rest of the show we will have a lot of exciting news and entertainment like this:

Joss Wedon is currently working on directing a new web-based musical called “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-Long Blog,” and Captain Tight Pants is on board. “Wizard’s First Rule,” show run by Sam Raimi, will debut on syndicated television in the U.S. this fall. And, from the International News Desk comes a story about Sony’s new specific channel online video service experiment called “branco.”

Both our Movie Talk stories deal with Batman — “The Dark Knight.” One comes from the perspective of its lead actor, Christian Bale — while the other gives the thoughts of director Christopher Nolan about his film and Heath Ledger’s performance in it.

The TV Talk segment asks the question, “Could there be another 20 years of Doctor Who in store for fans?” Then we switch gears and talk a little about the biz in showbiz by highlighting the FX cable network’s most recent sweet deal. This one is so sweet, it’s dripping honey.

The SoSF Crystal Ball has just recently returned for the polisher and is looking very clear with an unobstructed view of MGM’s plans to revive its banner with some old familiar and fan favorite franchises…And, director James Mangold (”3:10 to Yuma,” “Walk the Line”) will next tackle adapting the graphic novel “Cyclops” for a live-action big screen film.

Along with our two guests, Vic Cook and Greg Weisman, and all these great news stories, we’ll have some special segments and loads of info about three different contests at Slice of SciFi and two we are running over at our sister site, the Zombie Channel. All of this begins this Saturday, March 22, 2008 online or from your favorite podcatcher and again on Monday, March 24, 2008 at two different times for your morning drive-time on XM-Satellite Radio’s The Sonic Theater. See you then!

There’s a new podcast for everyone interested in Dragon*Con. It’s called Dragon*Pod.

Dragon*Pod is designed to be a show that will act as “Your Audio to Guide Everything Dragon*Con”. It will contain information about the Dragon*Con, guests, some interesting tips and tricks to help improve your con going experience and it will have interviews with all kinds of special guests who help to make the Dragon*Con work so that it provides participants a fun and wonderful time.

The first podcast has been released with an interview with Pat Henry, current Chairman of the Dragon*Con. Pat gives listeners a brief history of Dragon*Con, relates fun stories of what goes on and why this particular Con is so much fun.

You can check out the Dragon*Pod HERE. Like Dragon*Con this podcast is very much a community effort so the show is always looking for feedback and ideas on how to make the podcast more valuable to all of you. So please give it a listen and then share your thoughts with the hosts via their forums, email address or their voicemail. Further details and links are available on their website.

Our very special guest for this week’s Slice of SciFi Show #152 will be the world-renowned theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. He will join us to talk about his new book titled “Physics of the Impossible: A Scientific Exploration Into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel.”

The book became available in hardback on March 11, 2008 and all our readers and listeners to Slice of SciFi will get their chance to be a lucky winner of this fabulous book that gives its readers a look into the scientific probability of seeing these sci-fi ideas come to pass. Be watching for the official contest announcement on our Slice of SciFi Website this Saturday, March 15, 2008, the same day the show with Dr. Kaku airs for the first time.

Dr. Kaku will also be on a book tour and we have those dates and places for you:

If you live or happen to be in any of those areas during Dr. Kaku’s book tour you owe to yourself to make it a point to stop and visit with him, pick up his book and have him sign it for you.

On the rest of the hour-long show we have a full line-up of news and entertainment including our In the News segment which will concentrate entirely on three separate stories about new animation film pick-ups.

Movie Talk asks the question, “Could Heath Ledger get an Oscar nod for his performance as the Joker in the upcoming “The Dark Knight” Batman flick? And, we have an exciting “Iron Man” update.

In one of the Special Segments Tim will talk about the WildClaw Theatre presentation of the adaptation of Arthur Machen’s “The Great God Pan” playing on stage at Chicago’s Athenaeum Theater.

In TV News we consider the idea surrounding the possibility that the renewal of “Friday Night Lights,” a non-SF show, could end up being a template to get back other shows like “Journeyman,” “Dresden Files,” “Blood Ties” and a third season for “Jericho.”

We have some great news in our second TV story for the week about “The Saint.” You’re going to like our report about this one.

The Future is looking good for Terry Gilliam’s ““The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” After the delay caused by the unexpected death of actor Heath Ledger, production was able to resume this week with its three big box office names who stepped in to fill the void left by Ledger’s passing.

Finally, director Neil Marshall follows up his trip to “Doomsday” with a supernatural horror feature set in the wild, wild West called “Sacrilege.” We tell you all about it.

Of course we have contests for you as well, so be sure to tune in to hear all about those.

Slice of SciFi Show #152 with our guest Dr. Michio Katu will first air online on Saturday, March 15, 2008, followed by its XM-Satellite Radio — The Sonic Theater broadcast on Monday, March 17, 2008. We look forward to you all joining us and Dr. Katu then.

With this week’s passing of legendary game creator E. Gary Gygax, his longtime colleague, Dave Arneson joins us to talk about their association together on the groundbreaking RPG “Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D). Like Gygax, Arneson cut his teeth on gaming through various strategy board and card games and then, again like his D&D co-creator, was introduced to the wargame “Gettysburg” by his parents, and that changed his entire future.

Arneson is the co-founder, with Dustin Clingman, of Zeitgeist Games, home of Arneson’s Blackmoor, other RPG products, and a company dedicated to creating fun and innovative casual games for web, PC and Console platforms.

In the News segment we will have two very cool SCI FI to SCI-FACT stories, one of which is a robot feature that some may find kind of frightening, along with an update to Sam Raimi’s new horror film “Drag Me To Hell.”

We’ll give our fans a good rundown of all the SF/fantasy and horror big screen features that are expected in theaters for Movie Talk.

Now that the writer’s strike is over, why are many scribes idle at their desks? We tell you in the TV Talk segment of the show, as well as, giving out some details about Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino’s new television miniseries coming to NBC.

Future Talk says that Gerard Butler will be showing up in one of the most anticipated SF movies in quite a few years. We tell you which one and the unique role he will be playing in it, also, rumor has it that there may be a new Starfighter in our futures.

Dave Arneson is our special guest, we still have two important contests running, there will be special segments and much, much more. Be sure to join us online this Saturday, March 8, 2008 for Slice of SciFi Show #151 and again on March 10, 2008 on XM Satellite Radio’s Sonic Theater (4-5AM & 7-8AM EDT drive-time).

Joining our studio gang for the next Slice of SciFi Show (#150) are actors Glen Vaughn (” A Piece of Wood”) and Corey Landis (”That 70’s Show”) who will next be seen in the new Ray Bradbury feature film “Chrysalis.”

In The News we have some stories that will cover three widely dispersed areas dealing with everything from Microsoft, HD DVD, a new tool for the real C.S.I. and an international SF film project coming out of Russia.

Movie Talk looks to see what Chris Carter has to say about the shooting progress of his X-Files 2 movie and what kind of storyline fans might be expecting from the project, and then we jump the great Blue Ocean over to Korea and take a look at the Region 1 DVD release of the successful ghostly love story titled “In Love With the Dead.”

TV Talk this week tackles the future of “Jericho.” We also have an update about NBC’s new Robinson Crusoe pet project from network president Ben Silverman.

We drag Mike back to Nebraska with Sam to share the Future in the little town of “Peacock.” Then we look into the SoSF crystal ball at a movie based on the video game “Price of Persia: The Sands of Time,” set in medieval Persia, Earth’s mightiest and most mysterious kingdom.

There will be special segments, fan reviews, contest announcements and our two great guests, so be sure to listen to Slice of SciFi episode #150 on Saturday, March 1, 2008 online or from your favorite new media device. All our XM-Satellite fans can catch the show on March 3, 2008 on The Sonic Channel. Catch you on in the terrestrial, extra-terrestrial and virtual pod-sat zone.

Our guest for this week’s Slice of SciFi Show #149 is producer Roger Lay Jr. (”Everybody Loves Raymond,” “A Piece of Wood”) of Urban Archipelago Films. Lay is producing and has adapted the screenplay of the Ray Bradbury short story “Chrysalis,” which we spoke about on our show two weeks ago, for the big screen.
[Pictured are Roger Lay Jr. (left) & Ray Bradbury (right)]

From the news desk comes word that Michael Bay has the script pretty much outlined for the next Transformers film, Danish film star Mads Mikkelsen moves from the “Casino Royale” gambling tables to next be seen in a German supernatural thriller, and Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan is setting out to produce that nation’s most expensive movie ever made — and it’s an animated film.

Speaking of movies — we take a look at two more SF/fantasy films coming out in March 2008. One is sort of reminiscent of a 21st Century version “Road Warrior” but with a female lead in Mel Gibson’s drivers seat. Rhona Mitra stars in “Doomsday.” The other March film is 180 degrees in the opposite direction from “Doomsday;” it’s the Jim Carrey wonderfully produced family film from Dr. Seuss titled “Horton Hears a Who.”

For TV Talk there’s news about all the highly successful “Alien Nation” TV movies coming to DVD and all the extras attached with them, as well as an update on when you can expect to catch “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on the small screen. We have all the dope on which network gets to premiere it first. Once you find out who and what it cost them, it will answer some of those head-scratching questions about this particular parent network’s decision to cancel certain SF shows on its schedule.

We find Future Talk taking up residence on “Planet 51″ and there is a new film coming about a very special young lad named “Ricky.”

We have information on three different contests to share, special segments and our guest Roger Lay Jr., so you’re not going to want to miss this show. It goes online and ready for download from your favorite podcatcher on Saturday, February 23rd and on XM-Satellite Radio’s The Sonic Channel on Monday, February 25, 2008.

Our guest for the next Slice of SciFi Show (#148) will be actor, director, writer and producer Mike McCafferty. Internet geeks will know Mike from his portrayal of the Ghost in the very popular video short “Chad Vader” and his “Star Reign,” series (contains adult language), which can be seen on YouTube. He has done stints on television with such great shows like “The Invisible Man,” “ER,” “The West Wing,” “The Shield” and more.

However, Mike has also had roles in some pretty big feature films including “National Treasure: Book of Secrets,” “Idiocracy,” to the upcoming Clint Eastwood directed film titled “The Changeling,” due out in November of this year (script written by J. Michael Straczynski).

On the national and international “In the News,” we will report on telepathic DNA, how a major DVD movie rental company has put the final nail in the HD DVD coffin, and China’s leaving their door slightly ajar for online video gaming.

Movie Talk takes a look at next month’s sweeping odyssey from director Roland Emmerich called “10,000 B.C. and we also see what famed Japanese horror director Masayuki Ochiai has in store for Western audiences with his new March 21st release of “Shutter.”

TV Talk is all George Lucas and full details about his Fall release of the animated CGI enhanced series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” Before it hits the small screen, a theatrical version of the CGI feature will be released in 3D.

The Future Talk segment is splintered by director Toby Wilkins in his homage to the classic 1950’s-60’s creature feature starring “Blade: The Series” actress Jill Wagner. Some in the industry are stating that “Splinter” will leave the audience gasping in primal terror before movie’s end.

Mike McCafferty, some special segments, two contests and much more on Slice of SciFi Show #148 online or from your favorite podcatcher this Saturday, February 16, 2008 and again on XM-Satellite Radio’s The Sonic Channel on Monday, February 18, 2008. Meet you by the glow of the Pod.