Chris Farnell
@thebrainofchris.bsky.social
I've written the Crew Handbook for Star Trek Lower Decks, the Prospectus for Life is Strange's Caledon University, the joke book for Doctor Who and the continuing misadventures of the deadly starship Fermi.
https://chrisfarnell.com
https://chrisfarnell.com
Pinned
Fermi's Progress: An experimental FTL ship destroys every planet it encounters.
www.amazon.co.uk/Fermis-Progr...
scarletferret.com/books/fermis...
Fermi's Wake: More planets are destroyed, but the crew are looking for a way not to.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
scarletferret.com/books/fermis...
www.amazon.co.uk/Fermis-Progr...
scarletferret.com/books/fermis...
Fermi's Wake: More planets are destroyed, but the crew are looking for a way not to.
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...
scarletferret.com/books/fermis...
Reposted by Chris Farnell
I get up when I want
except on Wednesdays
when I get rudely awakened
by the phytoplankton
except on Wednesdays
when I get rudely awakened
by the phytoplankton
January 8, 2026 at 11:24 PM
I get up when I want
except on Wednesdays
when I get rudely awakened
by the phytoplankton
except on Wednesdays
when I get rudely awakened
by the phytoplankton
If you're a writer your job is to do cartwheels wearing a silly hat with bells on for pennies while secretly believing you are harnessing the cosmic force that holds reality together. You can't actually do one or the other. It has to be both.
January 10, 2026 at 12:24 AM
If you're a writer your job is to do cartwheels wearing a silly hat with bells on for pennies while secretly believing you are harnessing the cosmic force that holds reality together. You can't actually do one or the other. It has to be both.
Reposted by Chris Farnell
No, you’re obsessed with excruciating levels of detail. @thebrainofchris.bsky.social has broken me.
January 9, 2026 at 9:35 PM
No, you’re obsessed with excruciating levels of detail. @thebrainofchris.bsky.social has broken me.
Reposted by Chris Farnell
That's how they'd work in a Tex Avery cartoon. Droopy could definitely put a dime down the phone and send it directly to the recipient.
January 9, 2026 at 7:23 PM
That's how they'd work in a Tex Avery cartoon. Droopy could definitely put a dime down the phone and send it directly to the recipient.
Both of these anecdotes are how the technology should work and I feel like the world would have turned out better if it did.
Spent some time at a party once amazed with a girl who was convinced a fax machine sent a piece of paper to another fax machine when you faxed something.
My mam was an operator. Once, a payphone making a call overseas was on a line that kept breaking. Mam kept monitoring and kept managing to reconnect them immediately. When the call ended, the person rang back to thank her, and put some money in the slot saying “There’s something for yourself”.
January 9, 2026 at 7:17 PM
Both of these anecdotes are how the technology should work and I feel like the world would have turned out better if it did.
Reposted by Chris Farnell
Reposted by Chris Farnell
Attention Bluesky elders: The artist behind the ANIMORPHS covers is here!
I did flipbooks for all of the Animorphs covers I did, but they appeared in black and white and very small, so I am posting them here so you can see them large and in color. No AI here--just Elastic Reality and painting. You can buy a signed print of this cover here:
www.etsy.com/listing/798775628
www.etsy.com/listing/798775628
January 9, 2026 at 5:13 PM
Attention Bluesky elders: The artist behind the ANIMORPHS covers is here!
Reposted by Chris Farnell
I want to know why Pat is always delivering letters to the residents of Greendale, and don't explain it away with him being a "postman".
January 9, 2026 at 3:41 PM
I want to know why Pat is always delivering letters to the residents of Greendale, and don't explain it away with him being a "postman".
The MCU is not at it's peak and is deserving of criticism but this is the equivalent of criticising musicals because people don't really break into spontaneous synchronised dance routines.
January 9, 2026 at 3:27 PM
The MCU is not at it's peak and is deserving of criticism but this is the equivalent of criticising musicals because people don't really break into spontaneous synchronised dance routines.
Well look what we have here... scarletferret.com/books/fermis...
January 9, 2026 at 12:28 PM
Well look what we have here... scarletferret.com/books/fermis...
Has social media destroyed your attention span for long form reading? Or are you simply 41 years old and have been putting off getting your eyes tested for a full decade?
January 9, 2026 at 10:59 AM
Has social media destroyed your attention span for long form reading? Or are you simply 41 years old and have been putting off getting your eyes tested for a full decade?
Time for bed now. Looking forward to finding our what I said tomorrow. Xx
January 9, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Time for bed now. Looking forward to finding our what I said tomorrow. Xx
One the bucket list I have never written down so that the Gods don't see it and catch me out is writing an ending as good as "Doc, I'm back FROM the future!"
January 9, 2026 at 12:14 AM
One the bucket list I have never written down so that the Gods don't see it and catch me out is writing an ending as good as "Doc, I'm back FROM the future!"
Reposted by Chris Farnell
I literally just saw two ICE agents walk into a clear glass widow thinking it was a door and they went completely cold their heads hit the glass with such force they're lying limp on the pavement
January 8, 2026 at 11:32 PM
I literally just saw two ICE agents walk into a clear glass widow thinking it was a door and they went completely cold their heads hit the glass with such force they're lying limp on the pavement
Reposted by Chris Farnell
History bears this out. New Haven, Connecticut. Carbondale, Illinois. The Panther 21 in New York. Gun charges in California, over and over again. And yes, it didn't always work. That's the fucked up part of our legal system. But they gave themselves the best possible chance to be acquitted.
January 8, 2026 at 11:29 PM
History bears this out. New Haven, Connecticut. Carbondale, Illinois. The Panther 21 in New York. Gun charges in California, over and over again. And yes, it didn't always work. That's the fucked up part of our legal system. But they gave themselves the best possible chance to be acquitted.
Reposted by Chris Farnell
but because they understood the risks inherent in their work and wanted to give their activists the best possible chances at acquittals. You cannot dismantle a system you don't understand.
It didn't always work. But it very often did.
It didn't always work. But it very often did.
January 8, 2026 at 11:26 PM
but because they understood the risks inherent in their work and wanted to give their activists the best possible chances at acquittals. You cannot dismantle a system you don't understand.
It didn't always work. But it very often did.
It didn't always work. But it very often did.
Reposted by Chris Farnell
One thing I really want people to understand is that the Black Panthers were meticulous in their knowledge of the law and opsec - not because they thought the law was awesome, not because they always followed it and never did civil disobedience (lol),
January 8, 2026 at 11:26 PM
One thing I really want people to understand is that the Black Panthers were meticulous in their knowledge of the law and opsec - not because they thought the law was awesome, not because they always followed it and never did civil disobedience (lol),
Reposted by Chris Farnell
Wait what?? God so much is happening I don't even know what this is or how long the extensions are for or that it was even happening
Tonight — thanks to all of YOU — House Democrats did something many thought impossible.
We forced the Republican-controlled House to vote on extending healthcare tax credits for working families.
And it PASSED.
The Senate must now do the same.
We forced the Republican-controlled House to vote on extending healthcare tax credits for working families.
And it PASSED.
The Senate must now do the same.
January 8, 2026 at 10:29 PM
Wait what?? God so much is happening I don't even know what this is or how long the extensions are for or that it was even happening
Possibly one of the most important things to learn from the Back To The Future Trilogy is that the more times the Biff or Biff stand-in falls for "What's that behind you?" the more plausible it becomes.
January 8, 2026 at 11:30 PM
Possibly one of the most important things to learn from the Back To The Future Trilogy is that the more times the Biff or Biff stand-in falls for "What's that behind you?" the more plausible it becomes.
So we're clear on the state of play - I'm kinda drunk but way too awake to go to bed yet. We are in the territory of posts I hope I'm quick enough to delete tomorrow morning.
January 8, 2026 at 11:02 PM
So we're clear on the state of play - I'm kinda drunk but way too awake to go to bed yet. We are in the territory of posts I hope I'm quick enough to delete tomorrow morning.
Got back from the pub and on a whim put Back to the Future II on, and Kathleen Kennedy is a producer. On the one hand all power to her and the women who've shaped pop culture deserve more recognition, but also I wish pop culture was being run by people different from those doing it when I was born.
January 8, 2026 at 10:34 PM
Got back from the pub and on a whim put Back to the Future II on, and Kathleen Kennedy is a producer. On the one hand all power to her and the women who've shaped pop culture deserve more recognition, but also I wish pop culture was being run by people different from those doing it when I was born.
Usually my Facebook is Big Bang Theory memes mixed in with AI generated "behind the scenes" essays on various TV shows, and a post from someone I know every 100 or so.
I get pure slop, but not political slop.
Just logged in.
I think we might be in trouble.
I get pure slop, but not political slop.
Just logged in.
I think we might be in trouble.
January 8, 2026 at 9:58 PM
Usually my Facebook is Big Bang Theory memes mixed in with AI generated "behind the scenes" essays on various TV shows, and a post from someone I know every 100 or so.
I get pure slop, but not political slop.
Just logged in.
I think we might be in trouble.
I get pure slop, but not political slop.
Just logged in.
I think we might be in trouble.
Reposted by Chris Farnell
As we're a week out from the publication of Fermi's Wake in paperback and combined e-book edition, seems like a good time to bring out this piece I wrote back when it's first instalment dropped just over a year ago:
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
January 8, 2026 at 1:43 PM
As we're a week out from the publication of Fermi's Wake in paperback and combined e-book edition, seems like a good time to bring out this piece I wrote back when it's first instalment dropped just over a year ago:
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
Feel like I'm properly back in the swing of things today (In that I've got some paid work to do but I'm putting it off with lots of essential but minor tasks as a distraction).
January 8, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Feel like I'm properly back in the swing of things today (In that I've got some paid work to do but I'm putting it off with lots of essential but minor tasks as a distraction).
As we're a week out from the publication of Fermi's Wake in paperback and combined e-book edition, seems like a good time to bring out this piece I wrote back when it's first instalment dropped just over a year ago:
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
January 8, 2026 at 1:43 PM
As we're a week out from the publication of Fermi's Wake in paperback and combined e-book edition, seems like a good time to bring out this piece I wrote back when it's first instalment dropped just over a year ago:
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...
chrisfarnell.com/why-i-wrote-...