TV Times

@Kiskaloo wrote:I found the episode to be average. Best part for me was the 80's soundtrack. Next week's episode sounds much better, hopefully.

@Alfisti wrote:Ah yes... children's TV from my primary school years.



Kinda miss Agro, because much of what made it to air wasn't a whole lot cleaner...

Two months have passed since a zombie epidemic began. Despite the chaos around, three high school students in sailor suits live ordinary school lives.

Maiko (Nana Owada) is a transfer student. She hopes to become an idol. Even though Maiko goes through various incidents, her friendship with Momoka (Rina Kawaei) and Mutsumi (Juri Takahashi) deepens. 

One day, zombies attack people. Music comes out from the radio and the zombies stop their attack to dance. With this type of music, humans are protected from the zombies, but they can't find the music source. Since then, Maiko, Momoka and Mutsumi are threatened by the zombies.

@Alfisti wrote:Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who... so far, so good.

I think I'm going to enjoy his take on The Doctor.

@Kiskaloo wrote:

@Alfisti wrote:Peter Capaldi as Doctor Who... so far, so good.

I think I'm going to enjoy his take on The Doctor.

I like Capaldi, but the first two episodes didn't really impress me, storywise,  and I was really scared about "A Robot of Sherwood", but it ended up being generally entertaining.

@Kiskaloo wrote:Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC for a "fracas" with a producer and the remainder of Series 22 has been pulled from the schedule.

The contracts for all three presenters expire next month, though a new three-year deal was being negotiated. An online petition to restore Clarkson is crossing the 750,000 signature mark and with Top Gear bringing in over GBP50 million a year for the BBC in licensing and merchandising fees, there is fear that the trio could go to another channel (Sky or ITV would love to pick them up, I am sure). The BBC also risks significant fines from worldwide broadcast licensors for not showing the final three episodes of Season 22.

@Kiskaloo wrote:

@Kiskaloo wrote:Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the BBC for a "fracas" with a producer and the remainder of Series 22 has been pulled from the schedule.

The contracts for all three presenters expire next month, though a new three-year deal was being negotiated. An online petition to restore Clarkson is crossing the 750,000 signature mark and with Top Gear bringing in over GBP50 million a year for the BBC in licensing and merchandising fees, there is fear that the trio could go to another channel (Sky or ITV would love to pick them up, I am sure). The BBC also risks significant fines from worldwide broadcast licensors for not showing the final three episodes of Season 22.

The Telegraph is reporting that the BBC will terminate Clarkson's contract tomorrow.

@Kiskaloo wrote:Least we have Top Gear USA.

Set in suburban London, the story takes place in a parallel present where the latest must-have gadget for any busy family is a synth – an android robot eerily similar to a human in nearly every respect.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are reuniting to create an all-new car show, exclusively for Amazon Prime. The show will be produced by the trio’s long time executive producer Andy Wilman. On working with Amazon, Jeremy Clarkson said “I feel like I've climbed out of a bi-plane and into a spaceship.” The first show will go into production shortly and arrive exclusively on Amazon Prime in 2016.

Andy Wilman has lifted the bonnet on the former Top Gear team’s landmark deal with Amazon Prime Video, explaining that they will be “left alone” to take the best of their old show and update it for a “new world” audience.

Speaking exclusively to Broadcast, the executive producer said Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are beginning development on the yet-to-be-titled new series after a frantic few months of negotiation since leaving the BBC.

Wilman revealed that he and the presenting team received several offers immediately after the BBC confirmed it would not be renewing Clarkson’s deal in March for punching Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon.

This included “very early chats” with ITV, which were ultimately scuppered by a non-compete clause in their BBC contract that meant they were unable to sign for a terrestrial rival within two years of leaving the corporation.

Despite this, Wilman said the “strongest and most intelligent offer” came from Amazon, which bought into their vision for the show and desire to be trusted to make it on their own terms.

“Everyone we have talked to has said to us: ‘They leave you alone to make your show’. That’s a big one for us - we don’t like interference, we don’t need to be policed,” he explained.

The value of the deal was undisclosed, but it represents Amazon’s biggest single investment in original content to date and Wilman revealed that they have been backed with a “really good budget” to make the programme.

“Money, freedom and a love of quality. Those three things are what was attractive,” he said.

The ex-Top Gear team personally brokered the deal with Amazon UK film and TV strategy director Chris Bird and Conrad Riggs, the US online giant’s head of TV production.

The former echoed Wilman’s sentiments on creative freedom, telling Broadcast: “It would be crazy for us to interfere with a creative process that has been so successful in the past.”

The “new look” Top Gear

Clarkson and co will produce 12 episodes of roughly 60 minutes in length for each of the three series, which they will begin delivering in autumn next year. Wilman said the show will build on the successful Top Gear formula, but there will be “lots of newness”.

There will be “indoor” studio elements, as well as the signature global adventures that Clarkson, Hammond and May have become famous for.

Importantly, Wilman stressed, the programme will be anchored in the UK and the presenting trio are likely to be given “more time to yak” about cars away from the road. The deal also gives the hosts the freedom to pursue non-motoring television projects away from Amazon, keeping the door open for them to remain fixtures on the BBC.

Wilman added: “You can’t reinvent the sideways, Last of the Summer Wine-type relationship they have because that is outside of television, that is theirs. But there will be a new look, new elements, new home. We’ve been so busy doing the bloody deal…that [the development] process now begins in earnest.”

He and Bird hinted that the show could be scheduled on a weekly basis, rather than making the whole series available in one go to binge-watch. Both said Top Gear’s audience is used to the habit of having a fresh episode to watch every seven days and Wilman joked: “We’re a one trick pony, I wouldn’t watch 12 episodes in a row.”

Clarkson and co’s new indie

The show will be produced by a new production company established by Wilman, Clarkson, Hammond and May. Named W Chump & Sons, it is a nod to their northern backgrounds, where Wilman said a lot of companies in the 1960s/70s had “& Sons” in their names. W Chump also includes the first letter of all four of their surnames.

Wilman is beginning to crew up for the show and is on the hunt for staff at all levels of the production process. He is particularly keen to bring in a “shit hot” production manager, joking that they used to “run fucking riot with money” while they were at the BBC.

Amazon will help oversee the distribution of the motoring brand to broadcasters and platforms outside of its existing territories of the US, UK and Germany. Bird also said the show will be used as a tool to help it grow its footprint and launch in new countries.

Merchandising and events are also on the radar, but more thought will be given to the programme’s life away from the screen nearer the time of launch.

Wilman said they would have remained at the BBC had the Clarkson “fracas” not occurred.

“We didn’t plan this and we would have carried on but that’s life, and crikey it’s looking pretty good right now,” he explained.

“We get to carry on working, we get new challenges and Top Gear is in good hands. The viewers get two car shows, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Sota Mizushino is a young high school student and anime fan who dreams of writing his own light novel. While looking to the anime adaptation of the mecha light novel Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier for inspiration, the iPad he is watching it on sputters and drags him into the anime's world. After it sputters again, Sota returns to his world, but ends up dragging the anime's character Selesia along with him. They soon discover that seven other characters from different stories and forms of media are being brought together for a battle royale, and must align with their Creators to survive. This leads Selesia and a RPG NPC named Meteora to side with Sota in the hopes of using his knowledge of them to their benefit, and find a way to return to their worlds.