Weekly Update #241! BBC's Time Commanders is Coming Back

Editor's Note

Another week, another chance to talk alternate history. In case you haven't read it already, go check out Josh Weiss's "Why Are Alternate History Adaptations So Poorly Made?". Do you agree with his opinions on alternate history adaptions or do you think the films he mentioned aren't that bad?

And now the news...

BBC's Time Commanders is Coming Back

Last week the news broke that Time Commanders is coming back to television...and if you were an American like me that news initiated a "Huh?". According to their call for contestants, BBC describes Time Commanders as a show where "two teams of three friends, family, or colleagues will take control of opposing ancient forces, facing our computer, pre-programmed by our historical experts, before they face off against each other in one of history’s biggest battles."

This actually sounds awesome, but leave it to James Whitbrook of io9 to explain just how awesome this show can be for alternate historians. Apparently Time Commanders was a show where contestants play a heavily modified version of Rome: Total War and reenact certain historical battles to see if they can do better than history's greatest generals. Historians are on hand to provide insight and fiddle with the AI and there is even an announcer providing commentary.

Being a Total War fan, this sounds pretty cool to me. Plus Total War has so many games now set during different historical eras and places that there are a lot of battles that can be played out or altered. Why stick to Rome when you can stop William the Bastard from conquering England or lead Napoleon to victory at Waterloo?

I'm not sure if this show is coming to the States, but if it does, I'm sure I will check it out.

Video of the Week

Self-promotion time again. Don't forget to check out my newest video on the Sidewise Awards:

And don't forget to stay tuned for my new Trope Talk video...which isn't necessarily about alternate history.

You should also check out...

• Why Current Affairs think you should be terrified by people who like the musical Hamilton.
• What happened after the North Carolina GOG confused a Marine pin for the flag of Honduras. (via The Charlotte Observer)
• How a Powerful Obesity Gene Helped Samoans Conquer the South Pacific (via Gizmodo).
• Tor's announcement that they acquired two Romanov-inspired fantasy novels by Leena Likitalo.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.