Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 73

Fear Them [WHO-50—2006]

It is a rainy Hobart afternoon and four children (my eldest daughter, my godson & his two brothers) have just finished watching Fear Her. After a bit of squabbling about who was the villain of the story (Chloe Webber? The Isolus? No, no villain at all, the alien was just lonely!) they settle down to answer a few questions about what they have just watched.

So did you guys like Fear Her?

Mr8 - yeah!

Ms8.5 - yeah

Mr10 - slightly yeah

Mr5 - I liked Chloe! Half the reason is there is a Chloe in my class.

What did you like about the story? What was your favourite part?

Mr5 - the Chloe bit with Chloe

Mr8 - a funny bit was where the Doctor was rubbing out the squiggle monster

Do you think that could really happen?

Mr8 - if it was made out of graphite, yeah. But probably couldn’t.

Mr10 - I didn’t like the bit with the scribble monster.

So what did you like?

Mr10 - Nothing really

Ms8.5 - I liked when we got to listen to the story of what happened to the Isolus

Mr5 - I liked the jellyfish thing

Ms8.5 - it wasn’t a jellyfish it was an alien

Mr5 - yes the alien looked like a jellyfish

What do you think about the drawings coming to life?

Ms8.5 – I think it’s interesting because it’s the first time it’s happened. It’s a good story

What would you draw if your drawings could come to life?

Ms8.5 - What I would do is make an imaginary pet and then I could keep it

Mr8 - I would draw a Cyber army under my command

Mr10 – I would draw an army of Daleks and attack [Mr8]‘s army. Then I would draw a fleet of Dalek saucers to conquer the universe.

What do you guys think about the David Tennant Doctor?

Mr10 – I like him

Ms8.5 - I like him because he had really good companions. I like this story because the companion saved the day.

Mr8 - thumbs up brilliant

Mr5 - [thumbs] down down down

Why don’t you like him?

Mr5 - I just don’t… Because he had Cybermen episodes and I hate Cybermen

What do you all think of Rose and what she’s like as a companion?

Mr10 - Good

Mr8 - Very Brilliant

Mr5 - Kind of Good

Ms8.5 - I really like Rose because she’s normally in lots of double parters and stories that join together like Bad Wolf. Some of my favourite Rose ones are Army of Ghosts and Doomsday.

Mr5 - Canary Wharf because she was disguised as a Doctor

Mr8 - I like Rose because she has two very brilliant Cybermen stories which were both two parters!

So this was a good season for Cybermen?

Mr8 - In our box set of that season there are lots of pictures of that season and luckily they were mostly from Rise of the Cybermen and the Age of Steel – lots and lots of pictures of Cybermen! (Collapses in delighted heap of Cyber goodness)

Mr10 - Stop drooling!

Which story do you like best of Rose and Ten?

Mr10 - Doomsday because the Daleks release an army and the Cybermen get a good thumping!

(Interview descends into anarchy and general extermination – interviewer gives up & flees to another room)

(The children then respond creatively by drawing piles of pictures illustrating themselves in the Doctor Who universe. Because they are awesome.)

ELSEWHERE ON 2006

Things We Like: The Allons Y Edition [Verity! Blog]

Because I’m Clever [Tor.com]

A Perfect 10 [Verity! Podcast]

Perfect Ten? [Verity! Pinterest]



School Reunion: Tansy’s Two Cents [Verity! Blog]

Watching New Who: New Earth [TansyRR.com]

Who Wore It Best? Doctor Who Recycled Fashions from Black Orchid & The Girl in the Fireplace [TansyRR.com]

Impossible Planet/Satan Pit [The Angriest]

Army of Ghosts/Doomsday [The Angriest]

Watching New Who: The Runaway Bride [TansyRR.com]

Episode 1 of Radio Free Skaro (one of the longest running top Doctor Who podcasts, currently at Episode #320 and counting) [Radio Free Skaro]

PREVIOUSLY

Splendid Chaps Again! Nine/Women

I’m very excited to be appearing again at the Splendid Chaps live-recorded podcast show this weekend!

Nine/Women (live show)

Young London woman Rose Tyler is at work when she is surprised by animated shop dummies, but she is saved by a mysterious man in a leather jacket who calls himself the Doctor. Though he tells her to forget him, she discovers he is a legend, the subject of Internet conspiracy theories: he has appeared throughout human history, and wherever he goes, death and destruction follow. Tough, resourceful, at times silly but with uncompromising morals, this Doctor has seen much and survived terrible losses. But he’s also alone – until he inspires Rose to realise her potential and save him, and the planet, in return…

Splendid Chaps is a year-long celebration of Doctor Who‘s fiftieth anniversary: eleven (ha!) live performances recorded as podcasts in which your brains will be fed, your funny bones tickled, and your hearts opened (yes, both of them!). Our ninth major episode brings us finally to new Who, that time when the seemingly impossible happened and the show returned! Russell T Davies reinvented the Doctor by casting renowned TV and film actor Christopher Eccleston, famous for serious roles in dramas like Cracker, Our Friends in the North and Elizabeth. His simultaneously light-hearted and tortured portrayal of a man who has lost everything won over old and new fans alike, though the revelation after the smash success of the first episode that he would only be staying for one year took fans and media by surprise. Despite his short stay in the role, Eccleston defined the new era of Doctor Who and laid the groundwork for the format that persisted ever since.

Just as important to new Who was new companion Rose Tyler, played by pop star turned actor Billie Piper. For some she was a revelation compared to the “scream queens” of the past; but is this a fair assessment? We take as our theme Women in Doctor Who: was having a proactive and near equal status companion for the Doctor really such a radical idea? Has Doctor Who been as terribly sexist as has often been claimed? Are the women in the show as varied and multifaceted as the men? And is the modern series really better in its portrayal of women than the old?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by a panel including feminist organiser and writer Karen Pickering (Cherchez la Femme), author and podcaster Tansy Rayner Roberts (Galactic Suburbia, Verity!) and National Indigenous Organiser for the National Tertiary Education Union, Celeste Liddle (Rantings of an Aboriginal Feminist), plus a musical performance, giveaways and other excellence!

Space: The Gasometer Hotel, 484 Smith Street, Collingwood (corner of Alexandra Parade)

Time: Sunday, September 15; recording starts 5 PM

Accessibility: We regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible.

Tickets: $15 (plus booking fee where applicable)

Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (subject to availability)

Podcast: not yet available; released 23rd of September, 2013.

Friday Links is Not a Dirty Word

The last few days have been a mighty era of internet commentary about diversity, gender issues and other fun stuff in genre, much of it inspired positively or negatively by recent convention panels and in-person discussions.

A lot of the commentary happened over Twitter, quite annoyingly while I was asleep because, Australian. Still, worth checking out the #DiversityInSFF hashtag and from last night (where I did catch some of it thanks to being woken up at 2am for the Great Blankie Hunt) this splendid, thoughtful collection of ragey-tweets from Seanan Maguire.

Post of the week for me is undoubtedly this clear, sharply-honed essay at Apex by Deborah Stanish: Fangirl Isn’t a Dirty Word. Deb works through some of the issues we discussed at greater length in a recent episode of the Verity! Podcast, but has transformed the conversation into a very effective piece of writing about gender, ageism and the destructive nature of fandom gatekeeping.

Fangirls are not only being told they are doing it wrong, they are also being mocked and marginalized within the larger fandom community.

Madeline Ashby writes about the ageing population of Worldcons, and its “youth problem.”

Tobias Buckell responds with some further thoughts about conventions and how useful they are for authors.

At Strange Horizons, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz writes On Escapist Literature and Being Dangerous in response to a recent Nine Worlds conference panel about the various RaceFail discussions across the net.

On Tumblr, a thoughtful piece about why the ‘Women in…’ panel titles are so problematic, ESPECIALLY when they are there instead of panel parity and when they create a sense that men are the default.

A very silly article at Amazing Stories talks about what shouldn’t be in science fiction, and trots out the tired old idea that anyone like Lois McMaster Bujold who puts romantic threads or other feminine stuff in her SF is NOT writing SF but actually writing romance. Yeah. Tell that to someone who has read a romance novel. Seriously, that’s like complaining you’ve been tricked into reading a murder mystery novel every time a character gets shot. I do like the hilarious implication that Alexandre Dumas wrote girly books, though. MUST BE WHY THEY ARE AWESOME.

Hugo Stuff and Worldcon stuff! Here are some lovely photos on Facebook of the award winners.

Con wrap up from Glitter and Mayhem including pics of the rollercade party book launch.

Mark Oshiro from Mark Reads (& other Verbs) wrote a really lovely piece about his first Worldcon and Hugo ceremony, which is remarkably generous to me as the person who won the award he was up for. Glad he had such an awesome experience! I noticed earlier in the week that a lot of traffic was coming to my site via Mark’s, and followed it back to find his fans comiserating him on his loss – but nevertheless being REALLY nice about me and my win, and talking about how they gave me second preference. MARK YOUR FANS ARE ADORABLE.

Stina Leicht talks about Winning, Losing, The Tiara Club and World Con.

Mondy talks about nearly making the Hugo ballot with the Writer and the Critic, his responses to the Hugo winners, and also says some lovely things about me.

Jim Hines interviews a SMoF with some great, forward thinking ideas about where future conventions should be heading, and the desire to improve diversity issues.

Forbes talks about the profitability of novellas. I really have to write more novellas.

i09 reminded me how much I love Robotech. This may be my next big rewatch once I’m done with Xena! Oh, Robotech, you cracked out piece of nonsense, I adore you.



A Conversation with Avery Brooks. A lovely, thoughtful man.

Sarah Rees Brennan talks about poet Seamus Heaney and his legacy in Ireland as well as her own personal memories of him.

One of my favourite things on the internet this week – an artist lets her small child finish her drawings to wonderful effect.

Verity! Episode 23 – The “Other” Doctors

We’re back to talking Doctors this week, but perhaps not in the way you expected. Join Erika, Kat, Liz, and Tansy as we discuss those actors who played the Doctor non-canonically! *gasp* Yes, there are plenty of performances out there that don’t fall under the umbrella of what went out on BBC1. More than some of us realized! Certainly more than some of us cared about.

As you may have noticed, we’re sans Deb this week. With no one (but the hapless Erika) to reign in the troops, see just how far things go off the rails. (Actually, we remain pretty much on track until near the very end.)

(And despite the title of this episode, I’m afraid we don’t actually dip back into the Virgin New Adventures and talk about that shadowy figure from Gallifrey’s ancient past who may or may not have some direct connection to the Doctor. If you want to hear about that, check out this episode of The Doctor Who Book Club Podcast.)

^E

Supporting links:

Two-minute Time Lord 316: What is “Doctor Who Canon” Anyway??? (Time Dilation)

Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.

Doctor Who and the Curse of the Fatal Death

Scream of the Shalka

Big Finish’s Unbound series

The Infinity Doctors and The Doctor Who Book Club Podcast’s Episode 8: The Infinity Doctors

Also covered:

Tansy’s been working on the Verity! Pintrest!

Kat’s South Park fandom friend started watching Doctor Who!

Liz covets the Pyramids of Mars playset!

Erika listens to Verities on other podcasts! Deb on TARDIS Tavern! Erika on RFS! Kat on RFS! Deb on RFS!

Download or listen now (runtime 1:11:08)

Download: verityep23.mp3

Galactic Suburbia 88

New episode is up for streaming or download!

In which, Hugos.

Tansy, Alisa and Alex gather only minutes after the Hugo ceremony to discuss the results!

Hugo winners

The Stats, Statbadgers!

Tansy’s Hugo Post



Culture Consumed:

Alex: The Adventures of Alyx, Joanna Russ; BSG rewatch yet again; The Memcordist, Lavie Tidhar; Firebugs, Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Alisa: KickAss 2; Enchanted Glass, Diana Wynne Jones; Ugly, Robert Hoge

Tansy: Fringe Season 1, Dorian Gray Season 2, Ugly, Robert Hoge

Plugs: Splendid Chaps Nine/Women, featuring Tansy: September 15

Glitter & Mayhem released and partying, glitter skate style.

Please send feedback to us at galacticsuburbia@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter at @galacticsuburbs, check out Galactic Suburbia Podcast on Facebook and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes if you love us!

Dating the Doctor [WHO-50—2005]

Eight years is a really, really long time. I know this, because I have an eight year old daughter, who was only a couple of months old when Doctor Who finally came back to our screens after a terribly long gap.

She has never lived in a world in which there was no new Doctor Who just around the corner.

The first season/SERIES of “New Who” arrived with splashy colours, a blonde former pop star as the companion, occasional stings of famous songs, an angsty PSTD-ridden Doctor in a (gasp!) leather jacket, and a whole bunch of modern cultural references.

Over the course of this first year, Rose failed to notice that her boyfriend was an Auton replicant, the Earth was destroyed, the Doctor was slapped by someone’s Mum, we watched aliens invade London via the TV news (just like everyone else), 10 Downing Street was blown up, the Doctor came face to face with the last Dalek, Captain Jack flirted his way into the TARDIS, Rose witnessed her own parents’ wedding and met the Dad who had died when she was a baby, everybody lived just this once, and the show acknowledged the existence (and usefulness) of not only the internet, but also mobile phones.

It was quite a year.

I often hear people talk about how looking back at Series 1 is quite hard now, because the special effects aren’t up to much in comparison with what they can do now, and it’s obvious how much cheaper it all was. But, you know. I never notice that stuff. I was raised on Classic Who, and I was never the person who pointed and laughed at the Taran Woodbeast, or the Myrka. I never particularly noticed the difference between good or bad Sontaran masks. I’ve always been in it for the characters, and the story.

The aspect of Series 1 which I think has dated the most since 2005 is probably the pop culture that infuses Rose’s world, and her point of view. The whole show is rife with jokes about soap operas, current events, music, and so on. In The End of the World, half the comedy that comes from Cassandra’s snooty ‘last human alive’ act comes from the details she gets wrong about history – that she thinks a jukebox is an iPod, for example, and refers to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” as a traditional ballad.

I am all for stories that ‘date’ – trying to do otherwise in a story set in the real world risks the generic, and I kind of love the way that watching old TV shows can feel like time travel. I rewatched the Lois and Clark pilot recently and found the technology almost as hilarious as the shoulder pads – the plot revolves around a highly advanced space colony mission, but Clark doesn’t have an excuse for ducking into the supply closet because phones aren’t mobile yet.

Buffy may have prevented some aspects of ‘dating’ because Joss Whedon was clever enough to make up slang, and because most of the pop culture references they use are proved-the-test-of-time touchstones like Spidey-sense and Scooby Gang, with only a touch of current day references to keep it real. As it turned out, the clothes did all the dating for the show anyway…

“Bad Wolf” is perhaps the most dated example of Series 1 of New Who, despite being set on a Gamestation far in Earth’s future – because the story was made at the height of the reality TV boom, and the set pieces in which our heroes are trapped are based on three massively popular TV shows of the time: The Weakest Link, Big Brother and What Not To Wear.

The games themselves work in the story without any context – they could as easily be made up space games. It’s the jokes surrounding them that feel dated, and the character reactions to them – little details like Rose repeating the words ‘Anne… Droid’ on the set of The Weakest Link, which only makes sense if you know that the AnneDroid character is based on Anne Robinson and that the real host is providing a voice cameo.

Part of the reason I know this will date is that I’d never heard of Anne Robinson when I watched this episode myself – the Australian version of the show was hosted by Morag from Home and Away. Likewise, “Davina Droid” and the cameo voice meant nothing to me, because our Big Brother was hosted by Gretel Killeen.

I’d never seen What Not To Wear at all and only discovered retrospectively that this was a real show, hosted by the same Trinny and Susannah who voiced the Droids. I’ve still never seen an episode of WNTW but I get the idea from context with this one – though I presume in the real version they don’t try to slice the faces of their fashion victims very often.

(Likewise, I know that ‘Top Shop’ is a place to buy clothes in England, but don’t have any other cultural associations beyond that, so the fact that Jack gets his jeans from there doesn’t mean anything to me. Is it a cool place to buy jeans, or not? Does it matter for the joke?)

In any case, I got the general idea. You don’t have to have watched an episode of any reality TV show to see what’s going on here, and the use of sets based on real shows gave greater credibility to the premise than if the shows had been invented from whole cloth.

The Weakest Link scenes are actually fascinating to watch, as the rapid fire questions are made up from an assortment of real facts as well as fictional futuristic facts that feel real – Rose’s amusement at first comes from the surreal nature of the questions, and her lack of cultural grounding. Every now and then a question comes through that makes sense to her and the audience, which only adds to the surreal feeling of the fake ones, and of course the tension is ratcheted up once Rose discovers the horrible stakes of the game. It’s not funny anymore, it’s that dream where your exam paper is in a different language.

So, is Series 1 dated? Absolutely. If anything, it’s more firmly dated than any other season of Doctor Who ever, because everything about it is so strongly grounded in 2005, a year with almost as much significance to the show as 1963. (This despite the fact that, with The End of Time establishing that Rose met the Doctor for the first time in 2005, the rest of the contemporary episodes from Aliens of London onwards must have been set in 2006 at the earliest…)

But that’s okay. Dating is part of life with the Doctor. You stop somewhere for a cup of coffee and suddenly your clothes are all twelve months out of style…

ELSEWHERE ON 2005:

The Walking Wounded [Tor.com]

Number 9 Number 9 [Verity!Podcast]



Things We Like: Bad Wolf Edition [Verity!]

My Two Cents: Tansy [Verity!]

Dalek: Never Trust a Man with a Soul Patch [Radio Free Skaro]

Pepper Pot [The TARDIS Tavern]

The Time Travellers [Doctor Who Book Club Podcast]

Romance readers & writers react to Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways [Argh Ink]

War of the Daleks (the second Doctor book that sparked the idea of Season 6B) [Doctor Who Book Club Podcast]



Falling in love with the damage [Doctor Her]

PREVIOUSLY ON WHO-50:

Shiny Silver Rocket

pic by Kevin Standlee

So, I won a Hugo today, for Best Fan Writer. That was… a bit of a shock, really.

Thanks everyone for your congratulations via Twitter, Facebook and email. There were so many of them, I’m just not going to be able to respond individually. But it meant a lot to see so much enthusiasm and support for my win.

Then I got a squeeful phone call from renowned feminist critic Helen Merrick (who is also a new neighbour of mine!) pointing out that I was the first Australian woman to win a Hugo. Like, ever. I am also, as it happens, the fifth Australian ever to join the Hugo club.

Which is… gobsmacking, really. I look around me at the incredibly rich history of SF & fantasy writing and fandom in this country, and so few of us have made it across that fence to receive international recognition. Time for more! I was particularly excited when looking at the comprehensive Hugo Stats (one of the best things about this award) to see who almost made the ballots.

Thanks to everyone who worked to make the Hugo Ceremony happen – the ever-crashing video feed was very frustrating to those of us stuck in our living rooms with hot cups of tea but I imagine that’s nothing compared to the frustration of those on the ground, trying to fix the problem with the hotel’s wi-fi. (not U-stream this time) But thanks also to Kevin, Cheryl and Mur who were working the live-text commentary, to the members of the audience who stopped clapping long enough to tweet the results (it’s harder than you think), to the committee who put the event together, and to Paul Cornell who did a cheerful job of MC-ing the ceremony – must have been nervewracking!

Massive, huge thanks to Deborah Stanish, my good friend and fellow Verity who stood up for me to collect the rocket in person. Thanks also to my partner Andrew Finch who made the excellent e-book sampler of my fan writing for the Hugo packet.

This is what Deb said for me today/last night in the ceremony. I was very glad that the stream held on long enough for me to see her accept the (FRANKLY ENORMOUS) shiny silver rocket on my behalf:

This makes me happy, because writing about fannish things makes me happy, and it’s still a surprise to me that people all around the world actually read my flailings about gender and costume and superheroes and feminism and Doctor Who. Thanks to the volunteers who make the Hugos happen every year – and I wish I was there with you all!

2013 HUGO AWARDS WINNERS

Best Novel:

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (Tor)



Best Novella:

“The Emperor’s Soul” by Brandon Sanderson (Tachyon Publications)



Best Novelette:

“The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi” by Pat Cadigan (Edge of Infinity, Solaris)

Best Short Story:

“Mono no aware” by Ken Liu (The Future is Japanese, VIZ Media LLC)

Best Related Work:

Writing Excuses, Season 7 by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Taylor and Jordan Sanderson

Best Graphic Story:

Saga, Volume 1 written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)



Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form):

The Avengers

Screenplay & Directed by Joss Whedon (Marvel Studios, Disney, Paramount)

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form):

Game of Thrones: “Blackwater” Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)



Best Editor – Short Form:

Stanley Schmidt

Best Editor – Long Form:

Patrick Nielsen Hayden



Best Professional Artist:

John Picacio

Best Semiprozine:

Clarkesworld edited by Neil Clarke, Jason Heller, Sean Wallace and Kate Baker



Best Fanzine:

SF Signal edited by John DeNardo, JP Frantz, and Patrick Hester

Best Fancast:

SF Squeecast, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Catherynne M. Valente (Presenters) and David McHone-Chase (Technical Producer)

Best Fan Writer:

Tansy Rayner Roberts

Best Fan Artist:

Galen Dara



John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer:

Mur Lafferty

Friday Links is not at Worldcon

I didn’t do a Friday Links last week! I’ve fallen into a spiralling vortex of editing and not reading blogs, and watching Welsh TV shows. But, stuff has happened in the mean time. Mostly what is happening this weekend is LonestarCon (Worldcon) and the Hugos, at which I am not, though I will be following the livestream on Monday morning Australia-time.

For those hanging out for the next Galactic Suburbia, it will be a bit late for the same reason – holding off for Hugo results!

Apart from being sad about not being at Worldcon for the Hugos and indeed the SFWA business meeting, I think I’m most sad about missing the Glitter and Mayhem Rollercade Party. Check out Lynne Thomas talking about how they turned a party into an anthology, in order to have an excuse for the party. You can also read some most excellent blurbs about this book – which is being received with great critical delight all over the place.

Katrina from Verity! writes a wonderful introspective piece about how she discovered fandom via Queer as Folk, and how a single picture or a TV show can change your life, genuinely, forever: With Fandom A Picture is Worth a Thousand Memories.

Robert Hoge’s memoir Ugly was launched last night, and Angela Slatter has a few words to say about the book. We’ll be talking about it on the next Galactic Suburbia too – it’s a great read! Robert and his dad Vince also appeared in an article at the Sydney Morning Herald talking about some of the issues touched on in the book – definitely check that out.

This piece at the New Statesman: I Hate Strong Female Characters gets at the really limited definition of ‘strong’ behaviour generally approved of in female fictional characters.

Bitch Magazine looks at the focus on books and reading in Orange is the New Black – something we rarely see on TV.

Meanwhile at the Smithsonian, it turns out Romans knew about nanotechnology. This goblet says so! (It’s a really pretty goblet and it can change colour)

At the History Girls blog, we have ‘Writing Battles’ by Manda Scott.

At the SFWA blog, Tobias Buckell is incredibly inspiring, talking about Rejection and Reinvention.

Checking in with DWM 339 [WHO-50—2004]

It’s 2004! This is the year when everything is happening and not happening. There is a new Doctor Who coming, they PROMISE, but we don’t know much about it yet. And, you know, it’s not like we haven’t been burned before. Still, there’s plenty of Doctor Who to keep us amused.

Let’s check in on Doctor Who Magazine, which has been going strong all these years, and developed into a far more professional looking publication since the regular show last closed its doors in 1989. The current editor is Clayton Hickman – who will later be quoted as saying that they were seriously close to running out of material when the show was recommissioned. But this issue I have pulled out of my DWM stash looks jam-packed, despite being a lot thinner than its future incarnations.

It’s Issue 339, released on the 4 February 2004. The cover displays a rather nice image of Sylvester McCoy from his days as the Doctor, and the tagline promises Thrilling Adventures in Time and Space. We’re also going to meet Hex, the new audio companion, and Gary Downie is going to take us behind the scenes of the Sylvester McCoy era. That should be jolly!

We don’t have to wait for Hex. The image of Brookside actor Philip Oliver is emblazoned across the top of the Gallifrey Guardian news page. Apparently he played someone called Tinhead. It would be years before I started caring about this Big Finish development – honestly, if someone had squeezed a few details like ‘Liverpool accent + angst’ into this article, I would have been buying the CDs right there and then! Well, maybe not. I’m not sure if they had the download option sorted yet.

Gallifrey Guardian also reports on a The Weakest Link Doctor Who/Dead Ringers sketch, with Jon Culshaw alongside Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy. Well, it was all for charity.

In the always entertaining if a bit out-of-date (especially for those of us in Australia receiving our copy several months late – though ooh it’s 2004, only a year before I would finally subscribe thanks to pregnancy nesting) What the Papers Said we learn that in the previous October, the Sunday Express decided Alan Davies wasn’t going to be cast as the Doctor after all, Colin Baker though Dawn French should be given the role, and some TV executives on a plane somewhere were hoping for Rowan Atkinson.

In November, the papers still had something against Alan Davies, with The Guardian threatening an anti-Davies-as-the-Doctor campaign before the man himself wrote in to say it was all talk ‘cooked up by people who, like yourself, have to fill a certain amount of space each week…’ Some things never change, eh?

Other ‘next Doctor’ rumours include David Beckham, Bill Nighy and Ricky Tomlinson. Meanwhile, RTD notes that a female radio presenter asked him if the Doctor was going to wear a pink shirt and a chiffon scarf. Some charming homophobia there!

Never mind the papers, lets go back to DWM. We’ve only got as far as page 6 and that’s the letters page! DWMail features some mostly positive responses to Scream of the Shalka, a web animation featuring Richard E Grant as the Doctor, written by Paul Cornell. It is otherwise full of letters complaining (or indeed complaining about previous complaints) about the following: RTD’s writing background being challenged as a veiled attempt to attack him for being gay, repeats of old Doctor Who on TV (this is something to complain about???) because it’s likely to put people off the new show, Remembrance of the Daleks generally, and CDs being attached to the magazine with sticky tape, thereby ruining the cover.

Okay there’s also a really nice letter about getting to watch old Doctor Who on Australian TV (which was one of the most AWESOME things about 2004).

Upcoming audio adventure The Creed of the Kromon is previewed here, including a lovely comic and some entertaining behind the scenes photographs, none of which sum up what a gut-wrenching experience it will be to listen to. I have to laugh though to see writer Philip Martin described as ‘a distinguished scriptwriter and the man responsible for Vengeance on Varos and the confusing bits of The Trial of a Time Lord.’

Conrad Westmaas and India Fisher are adorable. Some things never change.

Also previewed in this month’s DWM: Paul Cornell’s novelisation of Scream of the Shalka, and Telos novella Companion Piece by Mike Tucker & Robert Perry.

After an 8 page The Fact of Fiction article analysing every detail of 1982’s The Visitation, we move on to The DWM Interview, the second part of a longer piece about former production manager Gary Downie, who was also the life partner of 80’s producer John Nathan-Turner.

I remember reading this article at the time, and thought back on it a lot recently when reading and reviewing “The Life and Scandalous Times of JN-T” so it’s a nice coincidence that this was the only 2004 issue of DWM I could find in my stash.

Gary is an angry man, in this piece. Angry at Michael Grade who cancelled the show, at Ian Levine, angry at people who think the show was too violent, at anyone who attacked or criticised JN-T or Bonnie Langford, and especially at the fans.

“What I hate about the fans is that they all think they can do it better. They’re working at Tesco service tills or as warehousemen, but they all know how to produce the show better than John…”

I remember being fascinated by this interview but also quite shocked at the anger and bile expressed – the clear resentment that came across. Looking at it now, in the understanding that it happened only two years after the death of JN-T, and that Gary Downie himself would have already been ill with cancer that would eventually cause his own death another two years down the line… well, it’s sad as well as deeply uncomfortable to see someone with nothing to lose venting his story with such heartfelt emotion and venom all mixed in together.

This was the first time that I had ever really heard any of the negativity around this era of the show, because I was so apart from Doctor Who fandom (and particularly British fandom where a lot of this stuff was common knowledge). It was eye-opening, but a bit depressing. It was also the first time I heard anything at all about the personal lives of anyone who had made Doctor Who – but of course, it wouldn’t be the last.

Gary Downie’s interview is a hard act to follow, but the magazine continues with an in-depth look at the history of Doctor Who on stage. The Time Team, who have been watching all 696 of the original series in chronological order have reached The Time Warrior and Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Deaths on screen so far: 538. In the comic strip, the Eighth Doctor is reunited with former companion/nemesis, the piscine alien Destrii.

DWM Reviews covers, among other things, The Visitation DVD, Big Finish audio play Master by Joseph Lidster, BBC Book Emotional Chemistry (featuring Fitz and Trix) by Simon Forward, and the Big Finish audio play Doctor Who Unbound: Deadline by Robert Shearman, starring Derek Jacobi.

It’s the end but… is the final column of the issue, dealing with the tongue-twistery that can come from Doctor Who mondegreens, that lovely phenomenon of not quite understanding what it is that person just said (or, more specifically, believing they said something quite different). The article extends this into other long-held Doctor Who related misapprehensions which various fans have admitted to over the years, and it’s a pleasant and amusing note to end on.

I will cherish forever the idea that the Master’s true name is Jehosophat Jackanapes.

And, it’s quite nice to know that I haven’t been saving all these Doctor Who magazines for the last 15 years for nothing…

ELSEWHERE ON 2004

Hex also comes as a blend of tea [Adagio.com]

The Harvest written by Dan Abnett [Doc Oho Reviews]

Arrangements for War written by Paul Sutton [unreality.sf.net]

Sometime Never, BBC Book by Justin Richards – which several of the long-running plot threads of the Eighth Doctor run are tied up, preparing for the end of the series itself [Doctor Who Reviews]

Oh, and in Cardiff, a certain BBC science fiction show started filming for the first time in many, many years. Awww. Bless.

PREVIOUSLY:

Worst Witch Week!

You know what? A lot of kids assemblies at school are pretty dire. When you’ve gone to a lot of them – especially with a wriggly, unhappy toddler dragged along – it gets to a point where there’s only so much school spirit you can really muster, for the promise of seeing your own child stand up for 10 seconds holding a painting.

But Children’s Book Week is the school event that I most look forward to, and I always enjoy. Raeli went as The Worst Witch this year, which is especially lovely because those are the books which have really kicked her into Love Love Loving to read chapter books, as opposed to merely tolerating the process as the second-best option after comics.

She not only dressed herself this morning, in the long witch dress my mother found for her a year or two ago in a second hand shop (it is one of the best purchases she has ever made Raeli – so useful!), but also showed a marvellous sense of attitude and initiative. Sure, the black hat was a bit ragged around the edges, but that only made it feel more like it belonged to Mildred Hubble! And yes, her hair is short, but she carefully chose the volume in which Mildred’s hair is hacked off and restored with a spell. At school, she delightedly showed her teacher how the soft toy tiger who was “playing” Tabby was completely unable to stay on the broom – just like the real thing!

Her attitude was really extra-appreciated when her beloved broom fell to bits and we had to use sticky tape to fix it. ALSO AUTHENTIC FOR MILDRED.

Raeli’s school is one of the biggest in the state, and it’s very rare that we get the entire lot under one roof. Previous Book Week Parades have been held outside, and not included the kinder kids who had their own mini-version. But this year we all packed wonderfully into the gym (anyone who bitches about the Rudd school buildings initiative back in the middle of the GFC has me to answer to – it was an amazing and incredibly necessary addition to our school) and the tiny ones got to march around with the others.

I was blown away by how many kids had dressed up – especially the elder ones, where self-consciousness can have a serious rate of attrition for this sort of thing – many wearing bought costumes leftover from parties, and many in homemade, from assembled garments all the way through to full on artistic masterpieces.

The teachers put on a particularly spectacular show this year, with our MC wearing a marvellous Maleficent costume complete with headdress, our normally elegant-and-business-suited principal in a teddy bear suit, and two teachers waving the flag for The Coat, this year’s CBCA winner in the picture book category (written and illustrated by Tasmanians!). The Hungry Caterpillar costume on one of the kinder teachers was also extraordinary.

So many pirates and fairies and and superheroes and animals and Alices and Dorothys and Willy Wonkas, a Wonky Donkey made entirely out of paper, and even a Giant Peach. It was simply splendid.

This wasn’t the only Children’s Book Week event I attended – I also got to swan around at the CBCA reception at Government House earlier in the week, which involved drinkies, oysters, quail legs and some ‘fancy schmancey’ chandeliers… but I’m afraid that even that spectacular catering and splendid grown up elegance doesn’t quite compete with the joy of seeing a kindergarten kid with a home-made Davros costume, clutching a copy of Doctor Who Magazine – or realising that the boy with the stuffed toy and the box is TOTALLY CALVIN AND HOBBES OMG.

Also we found Wally six times, and apparently kids still read Pippi Longstocking. The world is an awesome place today.

====

Meanwhile, over at Livia Day’s blog, I am reminiscing about my first literary schoolgirl detective – not Nancy Drew, but Trixie Belden!