SPECTRUM SCI-FI & FANTASY NEWSLETTER
September - November 2026, Issue 7
THEY’RE NOT BACK… CAUSE THEY NEVER LEFT! Ghosts: The Possession of Button House In cinemas from Friday 23rd October
A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR “Axos calling Earth!” Back in June, I went on a group trip to Dungeness which was organised by the lovely people at AFA. As well as wanting to socialise with members outside of my area, I also had another motive for wanting to go on this trip… Back in January 1971, the beach and the now defunct power station which still resides on it were used as a locations for the classic Doctor Who serial, ‘The Claws of Axos,’ which saw Jon Pertwee’s incarnation of the Time Lord fight to protect the Earth from the spaghetti-like Axons (now available on BBC iPlayer, go and watch it!) But the Doctor Who connections didn’t stop there. On the train ride back I got talking to an AFA member called Jonathon, and as well as being a fellow Whovian, he also revealed that his late father, Keith James was an actor who appeared in the show back in 1970 as Patterson the taxi driver in the serial ’Inferno’ (also available to watch on iPlayer!). You will be hearing more from Jonathon in the next issue, but until then, enjoy the rest of the summer and have a spook-tastic Halloween! Oliver Dallas
1971
2026 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The editor wishes to thank Catherine Dyer, Susie Moorefinch and Robin Richardson for their assistance and contributions towards this issue.
NEWS “You'll have to wait a bit longer for new Doctor Who... but you'll be waiting for more Doctor Who than a one-off. So it's worth it!” In a sperate statement, the BBC stressed that “Doctor Who remains an important part of the BBC and this tender underpins the BBC’s continued commitment to Doctor Who ensuring audiences will enjoy the show for years to come.
DOCTOR WHO CANCELLED?! On Wednesday 10th June, the BBC officially announced that the 2026 Doctor Who Christmas special has been cancelled and that series will be put out to “competitive tender” later this year. This news comes after months of speculation regarding the series’ future following the end of the Disney+ co production deal back in October 2025. Showrunner Russell T Davies and production company Bad Wolf have also announced that they will no longer be working on the programme. Writing on his Instagram, Russell claims that a script was never even written. “We only cooked that [idea] up to guarantee a future when no one knew what would happen, but now we do know, there's no need for it.
“After careful consideration, the BBC, Russell T Davies and Bad Wolf have collectively decided not to go ahead with the previously announced Christmas episode. This decision was not taken lightly, and we know it will be disappointing for fans, but in order to set the show up for future series, it was decided that rather than bridge the gap with a one off special, we are choosing to push forward to invest in the long-term future of the show which ensures that when the TARDIS lands once more, it does so in all its glory.” The BBC have also stressed that regardless of the outcome of the tender, they will still retain the full IP to the series. BBC Studios will also continue to lead the global distribution of the series as well as licensing, consumer products, digital and immersive experiences.
DISCLAIMER This newsletter is published independently and free of charge. Any outside images used in this publication are copyrighted by their respective owners, but no infringement is intended. Article texts and any original artwork and photography remain in the copyright of their respective contributors. Any views expressed in these contributions are those of the individual concerned and not necessarily of Advocacy For All.
For the first time in the franchise’s history, Scooby Doo will be played by a real Great Dane (pictured above) in Netflix’s upcoming live action adaption of the popular cartoon.
* Apple TV have confirmed that the hit horror comedy Widow’s Bay has been renewed for a second season. * Netflix have confirmed that The Boroughs has been cancelled after just one series due to low viewership, * Due to an accident that occurred on set, Ryan Hurst will be replaced by Dave Bautista as Kratos in Amazon Prime TV’s upcoming God of War adaptation.
Alien and Long Walk star David Jonsson (pictured above) was officially confirmed as the new Black Panther at this year’s San Diago Comic Con. It is understood that Jonsson will be playing the son of the late Chadwick Boseman’s character T'Challa in a sequel which is currently slated for release in December 2028. * The main cast for the 2028 reboot of the X-Men was unveiled at Disney’s D23 Fan event in August. The film will star Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xaiver, Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue and Maya Boyd as Storm. Star Wars’ Adam Driver will also be featuring in the film as Mr Sinister.
*
*
Amazon Prime TV have officially greenlit an eight part TV series based on the 1987 film RoboCop. The series will be executive produced by Conjuring creator James Wan.
Star Trek’s 60th anniversary (the 8th of September) will be celebrated in the UK with themed take-overs of various London underground stations and an advance screening of the latest Strange New Worlds episode in Samsung’s flagship King’s Cross store. There will also be a Guiness World Record attempt at London’s Space Museum for the 'most people performing the Vulcan salute simultaneously.'
* The Brighton Toy and Model Museum will be partnering with Anderson Entertainment to launch a Captain Scarlet themed exhibition in July 2027.
FEATURES
FEATURES ARRIVED TOO LATE? OR INSTRUMENT OF FATE? THE STORY OF…
They say that the best ideas for stories usually come from thinking “what if”, and that certainly happened back in 1966, when, after failing to obtain the rights to adapt the Sexton Blake novels for television, Sydney Newman - the then head of drama for the BBC, looked out of his window at a nearby construction site and thought “What if a Sexton Blake-like character was dug up on that site, brought back to life and then rehabilitated into the modern world?” That question would ultimately result in the answer that was Adam Adamant Lives!, a fantasy adventure series about a crime fighting Edwardian gentleman who is buried in a block of ice in 1902 and then dug up and revived over sixty years later during the height of the swinging sixties. Despite its unique premise and initial popularity, the series only ended up lasting for two seasons, and much like Adam, has been buried and largely forgotten about by the world at large. But the memory of Adam Adamant still lingers on in the minds of both people who were old enough to remember watching it on original broadcast and cult TV enthusiasts with a passion for anything that’s out of the ordinary.
To find out how the series ended, we must first go back to the beginning when Sydney Newman, who after christening his new Sexton Blake-like character with the name Adam Adamant (after the mineral adamantine), began assembling a team that could bring him to life. Following her success of launching Doctor Who back in 1963, Sydney chose Verity Lambert to be the series’ producer. Interviewed in 2006 for The Cult of... documentary series, Verity explained that what appealed to her about the series “was that essential idea of trying to step back and take a look at how we were behaving in the sixties and how it would look to somebody who simply came from a completely era with different moral standings.” Interviewed in 2006, Moria Armstrong, one of the many directors who worked on the series, reckoned that Sydney’s inspiration for the character came from a notorious sixties personality who he felt also belonged in the past. “He got fed up with Mary Whitehouse (the founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association) constantly attacking The Wednesday Play and anything that the drama department did as being sexually offensive, so he thought ‘I’m going to think of a hero figure that is going to be defending the right of women, is going to be the sort of saintlike figure.’” Whether the series was really made in spite of Mrs. Whitehouse is of course, up to debate, but in a strange act of coincidence, a majority of the villains that Adam would end up encountering over the course of the two series were sexually promiscuous women, including his supposed girlfriend Louise, who ends up betraying him and getting him frozen in the very first episode.
Being one of the few female producers to work in an industry which was heavily dominated by men at that point in time, Verity was heavily in favour of this development and decided to use it as a character flaw for Adam. “He had this attitude that women were on a pedestal and he could never quite believe that women could be evil or could do wrong.” So, who was going to play this brave but naive “saintlike figure” who could do just about anything? After watching him fence and charm his way through an ITV adaptation of The Corsican Brothers, Verity offered the role to Gerald Harper (pictured below). “I just loved his elegance.” She remembered. ‘He is somebody who has a sort of old-world charm about him and he was slightly old fashioned.’ Primarily a theatre actor, Gerald was initially reluctant to the accept the part. Interviewed in 2006, he recalled telling Verity that he couldn’t do it because he had signed on to do a play on Broadway. Convinced that he was the right man for the job, Verity persisted and eventually persuaded him to cancel the play and in her own words “take over from the Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
Sydney Newman, however did not believe that Gerald looked the part and tried his best to rectify that during the make-up tests. Gerald remembered the day vividly. “Sydney, who was slightly mad, said ‘He’s got to have a widow’s peak.’ [So] they spent millions of pounds on this amazing wig, and then he said ‘He’s got to have eyebrows’, and they stuck these damned eyebrows on me!” With his wig and eyebrows fitted, Gerald went out on location with the crew to film the pilot episode. The filming lasted until well past midnight, leaving Gerald feeling both exhausted and uncertain. “I went home at three o’clock in the morning and looked at myself in the mirror and I said ‘I have been acting in the theatre to five hundred people, I’m now going to go out to fifteen million people looking like this and I don’t know what I’m doing’, and I sort of burst into tears!” Things soon improved for Gerald when he was introduced to his co-star, Juliet Harmer (pictured below), who would be playing Georgina Jones, a young, independent woman who works at a discotheque and is a loving devotee of Adam, having grown up with the stories of him as a child.
“Because we wanted Gerald to epitomize the Victorian era, we really wanted someone to play Georgina who said sixties.” Explained Verity. “And Juliet Harmer, who we eventually cast, was a very sixties girl just in the terms of how she looked and everything.”
When Adam first meets Georgina, he mistakes her for a boy due to her “masculine attire” (a cap, jacket and trousers). Returning to her apartment in order to recover from the shock of travelling in time, he is absolutely horrified when he does eventually work out that she’s a girl and then begins to worry about the optics of being caught alone with her. This clash of culture and attitudes especially in regards to gender and sex, would provide a lot of the show’s humour, with Adam being constantly appalled with what he saw as acts of moral degradation and characters like Georgina being amused or even bemused by his outrage. “He (Adam) never understood Georgina at all.” Said Gerald. “She was like a gnat or a wasp that throughout the series he kept batting away. ‘Hey, Mr Adamant, wait for me!’ was the end of every scene as he tried to get away from her and she came rushing afterwards.” Another character who would come rushing after Adam and batting away Georgina twice as hard was ex-Punch & Judy man turned butler Simms, played by Jack May. Known for his dour sounding voice and limerick quoting, Jack as Simms would prove to be another memorable - if slightly bizarre, addition to the series. Interviewed in 2006, Juliet Harmer remembers Jack as “a very funny and clever man. He was very odd. I liked [him] a lot. He teased me and we got on very well.”
Whilst Simms tended to his house (which was situated on top of a multi storey carpark), Adam, with Georgina would go out and solve outlandish mysteries involving drug infused laundry detergents, phoney funeral parlours and hypnotic pop songs. Their adventures would inevitably be compared to that of The Avengers, but given that both series were sharing some of the same scriptwriters, it was almost to be expected. The series finally premiered on BBC One on Thursday 23rd June 1966 to over ten million viewers. The reaction was mixed, with some feeling that the concept was too “far fetched” and “ridiculous” to be taken seriously, whilst others proclaimed it to be “great fun” and a “refreshing change” to the norm. The Daily Mirror even went as far as calling Adam “the best comic character the BBC has produced in a long time.” Despite the mixed reception, the first series averaged at over eight million viewers. With those kind of figures, even in 1966, the show’s future should've been assured.
“The figures were amazing.” Remembered Juliet. “And then we were put up against The Avengers… Whether that was deliberate or not, I don’t know.” Broadcast on Wednesday nights against The Avengers when it was at it’s creative peak with Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg as the leads, the second series of Adam Adamant Lives! barely managed to gain more than five million viewers on average. That combined with Gerald’s yearning to return to the theatre gave BBC executives all the excuses that they needed to cancel the series. The cancellation was so low key, that not even Juliet was aware of it until after she recorded the final episode. “I don’t think there was a big thank you party.” She lamented. “It just sort of fizzled out.” Interviewed in 2006, Avengers and Adam Adamant writer Brian Clemens reckoned that the scheduling was deliberate. “Maybe somebody in the BBC thought. ‘Well, it’s a bit nonsensical.’ They’ve never been strong on escapist fare.”
Verity Lambert also did not take the news of cancellation well and right up until her death in 2007 considered her work on the series to be something of a failure. “I never really felt we quite got the right mix of humour and adventure.” She admitted. Gerald however disagreed. “It does stand up.” He insisted. “It sits halfway between a comedy and a drama and it has an enormous sort of charm.” “I think it’s a smashing concept and I’ve never understood why it hasn’t been remade.” Lamented Brian. “It would be even more startling now to come back from 1900 into 2000, because the difference is astonishing!” It is now sixty years exactly since Adam was rediscovered and even more has changed in culture and society since then. How would a Edwardian cope in a world full of smart technology and social media? Hopefully, we will one day find that out. Adam Adamant Lives! is available to purchase second hand on DVD or watch for free on YouTube.
WORDS: Oliver Dallas
ROBIN’S RECALL #5
In the series 2 episode ‘GROPOS,’ the capable and tender Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) is thankful for peace on the bridge's nightshift, when the EAS Schwartzkopf comes a-contradicting through the jump gate, with 25,000 boxes of Ultra Brights hair dye. Actually, no, they're Earthforce "GROund POunder" marines, hence GRO-POs. Hoorah! I love the Corps! Would you like to know more?
Listen up, Recall Roughnecks! Cause it’s the first time that military sci-fi loving me is checking out the sumptuous Babylon 5! (1993 - 98, J. Michael Straczynski.) B5 is an absolutely massive series about a campy but edgy space backwater, with retro PC game-like CGI and thought-provoking stories of ethical and political intrigue. If it's good enough for Badger from Breaking Bad (2008 -13) to whitter about at Kuby for three hours then it’s good enough for me! Larry DiTillio and Jim Johnson's vision has the same "Truckstop In Spaaace!" feel as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993 - 99) and while the latter borrows heavily from it in terms of iconography and design features, B5's heaving environments stuffed with alien extras imbues it with a life and solidity that other popular space shows testably lack. The fair B5 where we set our tale is a self-contained supermassive and neutral galactic territory, featuring commerce, interspecies diplomacy, and scum and villainy worthy of Mos Eisley (I can see why there needed to be *five* of them...!).
B5's captain (a melted snowclone of the old one), John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner), greets General Richard Franklin (Paul Winfield) and his Sergeant Major, Plug (Ryan Cultrona) who coincidently looks like Plug from the Bash Street Kids comics!
Sheds is nonplussed as he needs to house *all* the ground pounders for an upcoming planetary offensive, so the best plasma pistoleer on the station, smiling spacer, Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle,) joins Ivanova (do do, do do do!) to process the troop influx. Standing in line is last of the Hawkesian women, Private Elizabeth "Dodger" Durman, who is comparable to your Vasquezs, Clarisons and Dizzys, but no less 'ard! The ship's ruling triumvirate Sheridan, Garibaldi, and Ivanova talk with the general about a decapitatory strike on the Akdor rebel stronghold, on behalf of the Sh'lassen Triumvirate.
The doctor is not happy with the segregationist pleas of his father and superior officer, as he came to Babylon 5 to treat all life, not just human military assets! Franklin swiftly exits after his son accuses him of being an unthinking murderer, mumbling pleasantries as covering fire. Typical! Frankles needs B5's logistical position to send GROPOs there, but Sheridan knows from previous military experience that they're basically going to Hamburger Hill (1987!) Blinkered by the pig-headed Melchett, the general remains confident. He's got some big, shiny toys, and because of realpolitik in a warring galaxy, he arms Babylon 5 with some of these new guns as a fallback position. His army doesn't know about this - they think they're going to Io - and telling them any of this is a breach of operational security... Veteran Starfury pilot Lt. Warren Keffer (Robert Rustler) is having problems with two overspill-assigned GROPOs in his quarters (pictured above); the experienced man-mountain Large (Ken Foree) and the pensive youngblood Yang (Art Chudabala). Large puffs cigars in Keffer's face, but the air man is taking none of his front, which the ground man respects and becomes his (eventually reciprocated) fast friend. Shock alert: reasonable but conservative Gen. Franklin is the father of the Babylon's doctor, Dr. “Screw Ethics I'm Doing What's Right,” Stephen Franklin (Richard Biggs!) The two finally meet under the star of destiny...the Medilab, to enjoy superficial conversation with occasional barbs.
Doc's got little time to think on it, though, as Plug arrives to request that his troops get medical aid, ordering them about like a cheap R. Lee Ermey in a Super Soaker advert. Ivanova's always there to counsel, so at the Eclipse Bar, the Doc expands on his father's authoritarian past and gripping the with uncertainty of Dad's life/death as a kid. Little Franklin does admit he loves him but is avoiding him, so Ivanova strongly urges the Doc to restore full contact. Sadly she cannot tell him that his Dad is going into a Quartz Zone Massacre... A failed diplomatic experiment between the previously-warring Humans and Minbari, runs afoul of grunt-with-a-grievance Kliest (Morgan Hunter.)
Kliest attacks mob-handedly, but Dodgers enters the fray and dispatches them one at a time via Mook Chivalry. Pow! Big Damn Hero Garibaldi saves Dodgers from the brig by dismissing angry Plug (he sure isn't as nice as Apone was!), and Dodge shares a tender moment with ol' Gibbers, who is wowed to hear that she saved an Ambassador, and ends up complimenting G on his butt...hmm... Sheridan pleads with Franklin to abort the totally auspiciously named Operation: Sudden Death, but Franklin's role-based morality only sees the strategic value of Matok.
Shedders, being ex-infantry, better empathises with Big Franklin having to follow orders and hopes that they're right, a perspective that the general doesn't think his medic son shares... Sheridan defrosts the General by convincing him that his son is someone who will break rules in order to save lives, and is a "holy terror" when standing for his principles. (For what those principles *are worth, *non-consequentialist ethics fans!) Dodgers, like Ripley with Clemens, "has been out here too long," and is forward about wanting to have dinner and “personal time” with Garibaldi! Eventually they smooch under the huge Daffy Duck poster in his space mancave, but troubled Garibaldi has relationship hangups... Traumatised Dodgers has seen fire, rain, and blocked latrines, and is adamant about just wanting some physical fun. G offers sympathy, but Dodge storms out! Sheridan and Ivanova hate the trouble that the rowdy GROPOS are causing aboard the ship, but they commiserate with their newly installed (and not yet plot-relevant) guns. Meanwhile, the General and the Doctor reconcile their personal differences in private, facing up to each other's fears and hugging it all out. Aw! Large, Yang, and Keffler are also sharing fears, beers, and war stories in Quark's bar...no, the packed, disco-lighted sleazy Casino aboard B5. Garibaldi espies Dodger who's nursing her own drink (and her own fears) and they make up, but not before Dodgers intuits that there's more the army leaders aren't telling them, and Loverboy G *knows*...
Engorged dingus Kliest gets vexed that air boy Keffler spilled his beer, and sparks a huge ruckus! Garibaldi and Dodgers come into the fray throwing punches, smashing Jools, Jops, and Stoo this way and that, and one of the casino staff neatly clocks a GROPO with a blackjack. Pow! Suddenly, though, Sheridan, Plug, and the General come in and still the ground pounders with orders. It's "go" time...launch is at 2200! So the marines move out, and Large and Yang say buh-bye to Keffler. Doctor Son and General Dad share tender goodbyes, while G and Dodge share a kiss goodbye, with promises of a relationship if she returns. Later, after the Schwartzkopf hits the jumpgate bound for the stronghold, an ISN TV broadcast shows that the GROPOs campaign on Akon is a success! Luckily the General survived, and Product Placement Plug's walking wounded, but as Garibaldi reads the casualty list...the unthinkable has happened, and he sadly turns away. The camera shows the unmoving bodies of Large, Kliest, Yang, dead on his first mission, and poor Pvt. Dodger, Garibaldi's redshirt chance at love. Remember, readers: "War never changes." Dis-missed! Babylon 5 is available to stream on Amazon Prime or purchase on DVD and Blu-Ray.
WORDS: Robin Richardson
FICTION WE SAT ATOP THE TOWER ABOVE THE SLEEPING CITY Written by Catherine Dyer We sat atop the tower above the sleeping city. You were deep in thought; I couldn’t take my eyes off of you. At the time I would have said I admired your skill, your perseverance, how you always put your all into everything you did. But in truth it was more than that, wasn’t it? The sky was clear, the stars competing for attention with the lights of the city below. We had a clear view of the streets, which were empty save for the occasional solitary car or taxi. Our task was to watch and wait; for some, a tedious and thankless task; for me, a chance to relax and enjoy the night air. To see a beautiful side of the city that few people saw. An imperceptible movement down below stirred you from your reverie. You turned towards me, your hair perfectly framing your face, and said, “See the street to the right? I think I spotted something.”
I followed the line of your arm. In a side street, shrouded in shadows, there was a light glittering. I pulled the binoculars from my pack and took a closer look. As I suspected, there was nothing normal about the source of the light. A creature, about the size of a large dog, was skittering about amongst the bins, the light from its glowing tail reflecting from the silver plates of its exoskeleton. “We’ve got one,” I told you. You nodded in reply. I’ve always admired how matter of fact you were when things got down to business. I put the binoculars away, and we leapt from the tower to the roof below, then sprung from the roof to the street. The creature didn’t last long. Nothing could compete with your agility. In that moment, as you dusted yourself down and straightened yourself up, and I gazed at your silhouette in the light of the streetlamps, I felt I could not wait any longer. So I asked the question. “Do you fancy getting a coffee together after we finish work?”