Being Human: DIRECTOR PHIL

By Barry Pilling at BBC

Being Human is not an easy show to direct. You need a cool head to manage the complex storylines, tricky special effects and on-set tantrums (we’re looking at you Marcus Whitney). But fear not because Philip John is cool, calm and definitely in control.

Phil’s directing the second block of Being Human, consisting of episodes 3, 5 & 6.

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Phil Plait’s Bad Universe, the Interview

By Matt Blum at Geek Dad

I had the opportunity on Thursday to interview Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer and host of the new TV show Phil Plait’s Bad Universe. I had a great time talking with him, and, since the show premieres tonight at 10pm ET/PT on the Discovery Channel, I thought I’d share a partial transcript of our conversation.

GeekDad: What kind of ideas and in what kinds of science do you want to cover in the show, if it gets made into a series?

Phil Plait: It’s not like we’re ever going to run out of ideas. These three episodes were loosely – well not even that loosely – but were fairly well based on my book Death from the Skies!, from a few of the chapters in that book. But this sort of show can be broadened easily into all kinds of science. […] There are a million things we can test – and it’s not just testing: it’s exploring, it’s experimenting, it’s demonstrating. […] I am an astronomer, and I’m most comfortable in that area of science. On the other hand, I’m a voracious reader of science, and a huge consumer of popular-level science books, magazines, blogs, whatever – TV shows – so everything about science fascinates me.

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I didn’t realize Bad Universe started tonight…my DVR is now set. It always kills me when movies are ridiculously unscientific, so I know I’ll get addicted to this show, and I hope it gets turned into a regular series. I’m a couple episodes behind Being Human, I’ve been too busy to catch up.  But I will, because I love that show.

Do you watch Being Human? Will you watch Bad Universe?