shaunduke

Author name: shaunduke

Dr. Shaun Duke is an instructor at DMACC and the Director of the Portolan Project at the Speculative Literature Foundation. He received his M.A. and Ph.D in English from the University of Florida and a B.A. in Modern Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He studies science fiction, digital fan cultures, Caribbean literature, literary canons, postcolonialism, and digital rhetoric. In addition to his academic work, he wears many hats. He is a writer of genre fiction and a freelance editor at The Duke of Editing. His fiction has appeared in Curiouser Magazine, Stupefying Stories, and elsewhere. He also hosts and produces The Skiffy and Fanty Show, a four-time Hugo Award finalist podcast dedicated to examining the literary, cinematic, and cultural world of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. His podcast work has sent him around the world to participate in conventions, conduct interviews, and more. When he's not podcasting, he can be found on his Twitch channel, AlphabetStreams, or Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, and other social media places.

SFFTV: Outcasts (Ep. 2) and Falling Skies (Ep. 3)

The second episode of Outcasts is another strong showing. A handful of escape pods have made their way to the surface of Carpathia, leaving the citizens of Forthaven the task of finding them and bringing their inhabitants to safety. But there are other people out in the wilderness of Carpathia. People thought to be dead. People who have a dark history with Forthaven and its first settlers. And they’ve taken a survivor from the CT9, the first ship to arrive in Carpathia in five years, well after the pulse beacon from Earth went silent… I love this show. I really do. Everything about it screams “I am good.” The cast is solid, the characters diverse, three-dimensional, and interesting, and the production quality, as I’ve already said, is remarkable. The first episode set the

Blog Posts

SFFTV: Outcasts (Ep. 1) and Falling Skies (Ep. 1+2)

shaunduke / June 23, 2011

Two of the more interesting science fiction shows hitting U.S. airwaves this year are BBC’s Outcasts and TNT’s Falling Skies. The former has already had its run in the UK (cancelled, sadly) and is only now getting its fair shake on BBC America. The latter is the much anticipated, and heavily pushed, Noah Wyle vehicle. Both show remarkable promise. The first episode of Outcasts is an eye-opener. As a Doctor Who fan, I’ve been used to seeing science handled with a heavy dose of humor on the BBC. Outcasts is everything but a humorous show, though it tries hard to lighten the mood with a few jokes. It’s a fine display of what the BBC can do when it puts its mind to serious SF, with a strong cast and beautiful CG and cinematography. Outcasts focuses on the first settlers on the planet Carpathia, who have been specially selected to pave the way for future