Welcome to Genesis Sci-fi Club

Good afternoon, and welcome back to Genesis, for the first time in Olympic Year! I hope you all enjoyed Christmas, and the really good news is now that Christmas is over, it's now just a straight run to the cricket season....

Thank you to all who attended the Christmas Meal on 29th December, a nice meal and a pleasant afternoon of chat ensued at Longbridge Mill, no doubt we'll be back again at the end of 2012.

Last month's timetable was decided by Committee....sorry, by the Committee, although I was also right the first time, with inevitable technical troubles sponsored by The Silents (which is a really bad joke so it's just as well you will now inevitably forget that The...erm...what was I talking about?)  The only other thing I can say is that Janet and John Will Return.  I can't guarantee it will be to here, but they will return.

A couple of forthcoming theatre productions have caught the eye, which we will be going to.  Firstly, at the end of this month, at the Progress Theatre in Reading there is an amateur production of the Neil Gaiman urban fantasy tale Neverwhere.  We are planning to go and see this on Friday 27th January, the cost is £10 per ticket and with a bit of luck the details may now be on the website, or somewhere around the front desk today.

A bit further ahead, we will be off to the Corsham Sci-Fi Family Fun Day again at the end of April, where this year they have managed to scoop none other than the Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker (minus the Coat of Many Colours, we hope), as one of the guests, along with John Levine (Sergeant Benton in classic Doctor Who alongside the late Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney), and comic artist Mike Collins.  If you want to check out some more details please visit their website at www.corshamscifi.co.uk. And slightly further into the future, on 14th June, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show – Live! is coming to The Anvil in Basingstoke.  This features , the original cast, led by Simon Jones as Arthur Dent, and according to the blurb on The Anvil's website is “packed with laughter, robots, really wild sound effects and drinks with extremely silly names”.  Tickets are a bit pricey, £25 each, and we are thinking of doing this as a group booking, but to do that we are going to need money for tickets in advance.  Please can you therefore, if you want to go, put your name down on the list at the front desk today and pay your ticket money to a member of the Committee either today, or at the next meeting in February.  I should also mention that this falls on a pub meeting date, so we won't be having a pub meeting in June as a result.

Please don't forget that next month is the AGM, and your membership renewals will be due also. So be sure to be at next month's meeting if you want to have your say in what happens in the coming year.

Lastly, this month Louise is charge of the timetable, which contains various examples of other genres crossing over into science fiction, and a film which re-tells a an Eastern European fairytale.

That's all from me, enjoy the meeting.  

Friday sold out and if you're hoping to show up Thursday, it may be too late.

At the Progress Theatre, Reading, 7:45pm. A theatre adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, where sewers and tube stations of London are occupied by an unknown society of lost souls. Contact Jeremy quickly so he can book tickets or email info@genesis-sf.org.uk. If the theatre's website is down, see here.

Good afternoon and welcome back to Genesis. Once again it’s our favourite time of the year – AGM time! Which means at some point I’ll be trying to explain my abject failure in the task of reducing the club to total financial ruin, something that successive chair-based life forms have yet to achieve. But anyway, this is your chance to tell us how we’ve done and what you think. I’ve brought the body armour with me but please don’t throw anything at me that might damage the pub if I manage to duck in time. For anyone who didn’t pay their membership last month, please pay for it this month. Membership cards will be prepared based on whoever has paid by the end of today, and (hopefully) will be available to hand out next month.

I’d like to thank David and Matt for their efforts over the last twelve months on the committee, and everyone else who’s done a quiz, timetable, brought stuff in for the raffle, contributed a magazine item, looked after the magazine, anonymously e-mailed magazine items (even the ones which involved reviewing stage musicals based on little known TV series), assembled the screen at the start of the meetings, performed percussive maintenance on the non-functioning sound system, volunteered to take part in dodgy script readings, put the screen away at the end of the meetings, torn and folded raffle tickets, etc etc, and anything else I’ve forgotten.

Thanks to Louise last month’s timetable, (and Aaron Sorkin and John Wells for the genius which is The West Wing); although entirely my fault, the DVD ripping malfunction which resulted in two separate episodes of Ashes To Ashes being ripped into one file, and the wrong episode being shown as a result, will remain a mystery for a very long time. But if seeing the penultimate episode of Ashes To Ashes piques someone’s interest in two of the most popular British made TV series of the last decade then it can only be a good thing (and although I’ve thus far missed out on Ashes To Ashes I do highly recommend Life On Mars). The film we’d intended to show fell victim to a slight technical hitch but the substitute film, Contact was excellent - a different kind of science fiction film. This month the timetable and quiz is brought to you by Rob, with a modest contribution from the Reduced Rassilon Company (a story chosen by Rob).

Finally, one other event has been added to our list (no really, we have a list!) We’re off to London on Saturday 16th June (the day before the June meeting) for a visit to LOTNA in the evening and other stuff as yet to be decided.

That’s quite enough from me, I’m off to prepare the flack jacket.

Jeremy

Hello all, and welcome back to Genesis.  Thank you for letting me loose for a second term, I really hope that is the only thing I will ever have in common with the buffoon known to some as ‘George Doubleyah’.

This month you will have to tolerate my choices in the timetable, and another hour and few minutes of my Reduced Rassilon  handy-work, although this story proved very difficult ton reduce even the length I eventually got it to.   And having written or contributed to three of the last four, I promise this is the last time I go anywhere near a quiz for a considerable number of months.  <Pause for collective cheering >.

One correction from last month, as mentioned  we are planning a trip to LOTNA in June, but it will not be on 16th June as published.  There is a simple reason for this – LOTNA’s meeting is on 23rd June, the day before that month’s Genesis meeting, so going on 16th would be a bit pointless.  Please adjust your diaries appropriately.   Options for the rest of the day include the IMAX cinema at the science museum, or the Greenwich Observatory, but we’ll settle on a firm plan nearer the time.

Thanks to Rob for last month’s timetable and quiz; the Film Vote was usurped by a straight choice of either Galaxy Quest, Galaxy Quest or Galaxy Quest.  The winner (Galaxy Quest) is another of those films which it is impossible to watch too many times (as are, to be fair, the two choices which didn’t get shown).

All being well we should have membership cards to hand out today, they’ve undergone a bit of a redesign, so we hope you like them.

That’s all from me, enjoy the meeting.

Jeremy

“Would you mind moving that lion please?”

At the Corsham Community Centre 10am, a favourite convention amongst members and an even bigger star guest list, including Chris Barrie, Danny John Jules and Colin Baker.