Month: July 2015

Lucy Fleming: new Big Finish Survivors interview

Lucy Fleming (Jenny Richards) discusses her work on the new Big Finish Survivors audios in the latest new and exclusive interview to be added to the Survivors: A World Away Big Finish mini-site. In the interview, Fleming is very supportive of the close attention that Big Finish play to the established TV Survivors canon:

I think that’s quite a good thing, because there are still a lot of fans about who like the television series. And I think if we made it too different it wouldn’t be, maybe, so popular.

The second series of Survivors audios is available from the Big Finish shop, along with all the other current entries in the range.

Lucy Fleming - Survivors - Big Finish - series two - interview

John Banks: new Big Finish Survivors interview

A new interview with John Banks (Daniel Connor) discussing his work on the second series of Big Finish Survivors audio dramas has now been added to the Survivors: A World Away Big Finish mini-site. In the interview Banks expresses his delight at the reception of the first series:

I’ve looked on the Big Finish forum and at other places and seen some of the things that people have said about it – and that’s been fantastic. And, obviously, new series have been commissioned – so we must be doing something right. It certainly gives you confidence going in; knowing that there is an audience who are wanting things to continue and to find out what will become of these characters.

The second series of Survivors audios is available from the Big Finish shop, along with all the other current entries in the range.

John Banks - Big Finish - Survivors - series two - interview

Ian McCulloch: new Big Finish Survivors interview

In the latest of a new series of interviews on the Survivors A World Away Big Finish mini-site, in which cast and crew discuss work on the second series of Big Finish’s Survivors audio dramas, Ian McCulloch (Greg Preston) takes issue with the idea that Greg should be thought of as ‘heroic’:

The thing that has struck me when thinking about this in relation to the original series is actually how much of a bastard Greg could be. Looking back I can remember he killed people, suffocated a sick child, strangled someone with his bare hands, and passed on deadly diseases. For an action and adventure series, this was nasty stuff.

The second series of Survivors audios is available from the Big Finish shop, along with all the other current entries in the range.

Ian McCulloch - Big Finish - Survivors - series two - interview

Carolyn Seymour: new Big Finish Survivors interview

A new and exclusive interview with Carolyn Seymour, discussing her work on the series two of Big Finish’s Survivors audio dramas has been published on the Survivors: A World Away Big Finish mini-site. In the interview, Seymour says that Abby is:

still the same. She’s the one who has the tacit leadership quality, this innate leadership quality, that everybody responds to. She still “calling the shots”. She seems to be a little more willing to give it up this time. She seems to be listening to other people more, and isn’t given such complete control as she was before.

The second series of the acclaimed Survivors audios is available from the Big Finish shop, along with all the other current entries in the range.

Carolyn Seymour - Big Finish - Survivors - new interview

New DVD and BluRay release for Ian McCulloch’s Contamination

Released on 6 July 2015, Arrow Film‘s new combined DVD and BluRay release of 1980s Italian splatter favourite Contamination (one of three Italian horror movies Ian McCulloch starred in after appearing in Survivors) offers a new print and a range of exclusive special features.

Amongst those new features are a Q&A session with McCulloch and director Luigi Cozzi filmed at the 2014 Abertoir horror film festival.

Starring Italian horror veteran Ian McCulloch (Zombie Flesh Eaters), Contamination from director Luigi Cozzi (Starcrash, Hercules) is one of the brightest stars in the firmament of early 1980s Italian splatter.

A cargo ship drifts up the Hudson River. Its crew: all dead, their bodies horribly mutilated, turned inside out by an unknown force. Its freight: boxes upon boxes of glowing, pulsating green eggs. It soon becomes clear that these eggs are not of this planet, and someone intends to cultivate them here on Earth. But who? And to what end?

Contamination takes the premise of Ridley Scott’s classic Alien and peppers it with exploding guts galore and dangerously infectious soundtrack from celebrated Italian prog-rockers Goblin (Deep Red, Suspiria).

Wargames Illustrated: Gaming Survivors

The current issue of Wargames Illustrated magazine (Issue 333, July 2015), contains a four-page illustrated feature by Gary Mitchell which presents “some gaming ideas based upon a very British post-apocalypse world, complete with campaign and scenario ideas and character archetypes still to be found in similar works today.”

Mitchell suggests that Survivors “is gritty, realistic and bleak. It reflects technological meltdown, social collapse, nihilism and the prevailing pessimistic view of the future.” To explore the many gaming conflicts this scenario offers, Mitchell has designed “a campaign for a number of players. Although based upon the UK, Survivors could easily be adapted for any post-apocalyptic situation”.

The resulting game outline is not based on the characters or plotlines of Terry Nation’s original conception of Survivors, but draws inspiration from its setting. Those familiar with the culture and practices of wargaming will be able to distill the gaming opportunities outlined by Mitchell.

Wargames Illustrated: Gaming Survivors