The Martians & Us – The End Of The World As We Know It
This was a screening of a documentary on end-of-the-world literature, and it did a pretty good job of looking at what was happening in the UK at the time of publishing.
I’d read a fair number of these, though I’d completely missed the point of Christopher Priest’s Fugue For A Darkening Island, and had thought it was an anti-immigration racist screed, much like many reviewers.

The State of the Anime Industry
This started and ended with ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Miyazaki’, and sort of expanded out to cover some history & developments in the industry.
I’m very tempted to pick up the book written by this presenter.
Something I’d found interesting was the idea that Studio Ghibli may go with the option of not replacing Miyazaki & his generation, and instead transition into being a museum of Ghibliness, with a demonstration/hobby studio as part of the ‘exhibits’.
Another suggestion made is that there is more & more of Miyazaki complaining about being brought out if retirement coming into films, starting with Howl’s Moving Castle, where the protagonist complains at length about being dragged away from what he wants to do by the needs of other people. That and the deliberate obfuscation of exactly who did what on a film.

Girl Genius Radio Plays
Old-Style on-stage radio play, filled with breaking a of the fourth wall & in-jokes. A lot of fun, especially if you like audience participation & groan worthy jokes.
I’ve no idea whether they were recording.

Writing Post-Colonialism
I missed the very start of this, so I’m hazy on what post-colonialism is defined as, but despite that, this was interesting.
More academic than science fictional, and a chunk of the audience seemed to be similarly academically inclined, and known to the panellists.
Something which occurred to me; Does the concern about immigration into first world countries by people who set up their own communities count as being worried about being on the other end of Colonialism?

London and Other Futures
I’ll be honest; The London panels are starting to blur together at this point.
Lets say that there’s a lot of material out there.
There was a point made about the rise of containerised shipping pretty much destroying the ‘go away to sea’ story, because you can’t anymore. Also the Underground showing up a lot in movies, either as a means of escape, or as an effective teleporter; The protagonist goes in here, comes out there, and who cares about the bits in between?
Oh, and a plea for people to stop taking photos of the London Eye, because they’re all the same & tedious.

The Bottom Up: The Fantastical World of Human Waste
Doing Your Business
Sanitation in SF, and the fact that few shows mention it at all.
This was double-booked with a burlesque workshop, which caused no end of bad jokes, and has me wondering whether any one has ever done a toilet-based burlesque routine. And if so, why?
The presenter, whose blog is linked above, does Loo Tours of London.