Episode 13: Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, Soul, The Midnight Sky, Doctor Who, The Expanse, Star Wars, Elder Scrolls and more

Happy New Year, and welcome to our first episode of 2021. Thank you to all our listeners who have been with us on this journey. If you’re new to Robby The Robot’s Waiting: welcome! You’ll find some geeky chat, a wry look at the sci-fi news, some what-we’re-watching recommendations, and a look back at a classic of the genre in the company of a top guest.

This episode we’re joined by Jonathan Wright, journalist and editor, an expert on literary SF, the publisher of Adventure Rocketship! and a regular in the pages of SFX magazine. The topic under discussion? Usually, we check out a vintage movie or TV show, but today you’ll hear about Terry Pratchett’s novel Night Watch. Yep, it’s destination Ankh Morpork as we set coordinates for Discworld to talk about one of Sir Terry’s finest novels (which, with a theme of policing and civil unrest, seems more relevant than ever).

Meanwhile, we’ve been checking out Pixar’s Soul, the New Year’s Day edition of Doctor Who, The Midnight Sky, The Expanse and more... Lockdowns are a pain but they’re a good excuse to watch a lot of streaming TV and films.

We also discuss Star Wars: The High Republic, the latest on DC and Marvel’s bids for world domination (including Wonder Woman 3), TV ghost stories, The Elder Scrolls – Terry Pratchett’s favourite video game, fact fans – finally becoming a TV show, Steven Seagal tributes, the big Lost rewatch, Scotty in space, and loads more.

Episode highlights:

0.00.53 – What we've been watching: Soul, The Midnight Sky, Doctor Who New Year Special, The Expanse, Star Wars: The High Republic, Sci-Fi Blindness on Radio 4 and more

0.19.04 – Robby The Robot's Writing: our new listener feedback section (all correspondence welcome!)

0.23.01 – Meet our guest Jonathan Wright. He’s been watching Soul and reading The Library Of The Dead by TL Huchu

0.25.13 – Rewind: we’re celebrating a book in this week’s retro section, rather than a TV show or film. Sir Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch takes us back to a turbulent time in Discworld’s past

0.53.02 – News! Wonder Woman 3, more DC movies on HBO Max, MCU on TV, The Book of Boba Fett, no more The Haunting Of...s, His Dark Materials gets a third season, Elder Scrolls on TV, Scotty in space and loads more

Your podcast pals:

Richard Edwards: film and TV journalist and former editor of SFX magazine. https://twitter.com/RichDEdwards

Tanavi Patel: entertainment reporter for SFX and Digital Spy, panel moderator for MCM, FanExpo and more. https://twitter.com/tanavip

Dave Bradley: writer, gamer, book reviewer and another former editor of SFX. https://twitter.com/BoxDaveB

SPECIAL GUEST! Jonathan Wright is a highly-regarded journalist, critic, editor and book guru (BBC History Mag, SFX, Adventure Rocketship) https://twitter.com/Jonathanw101

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