Tansy Rayner Roberts's Blog, page 87

Splashdance Silver Rides Again

So here’s a thing.

Fifteen years ago (YES REALLY) when I was not yet out of my teens (just), I wrote a book and entered a competition and by a blinding stroke of right-place-right-time I won. My fluffy comic fantasy adventure romp about a pirate queen in the making was published in 1998 and it and set me on the course of a writing career.

Now, thanks to FableCroft Publishing and the wonders of the internet, Splashdance Silver – Book 1 of the Mocklore Chronicles, is about to be officially back in print. Well, e-ink, anyway!

Thanks to Cheryl being more organised by Amazon, it’s currently exclusively available at Wizard’s Tower, though it should be on Kindle sometime later this week, and thence to other places.

[EDIT: up on Kindle now!]

[EDIT EDIT: And Weightless Books!]

Liquid Gold, Book 2 of the Mocklore Chronicles, will be available soon too, as will the not-technically-published-before-except-on-Livejournal 3rd Chronicle, Ink Black Magic. We’re also hoping to get up some of the Mocklore stories/novelettes which sprang up around the series back in the day. Because, well, we’re all completists around here.

(and omg since I made Amazon take that suspicious e-copy of Hobgoblin Boots down, the rare second hand print copies of that novelette chapbook are currently priced at $500+ which is bizarre.)

Fan Art of Kassa Daggersharp, by anddarkness on LJ

Huge thanks to Tehani of Fablecroft, and my own beloved Finchy (AKA the silent producer) for their work on the formatting, proofing and general admin work involved in getting these books up.

Also, to the readers (mostly teen girls) who have discovered these books over the years, lent them to friends and not got them back, hunted up copies in op shops, and swooned on to feathered chaise longues when they saw the price of the damned things on Abe Books or eBay, and then emailed to tell me about it, this one’s for you. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my writing career, and those emails have meant a lot to me, even if I wasn’t always organised enough to reply to them. You guys rock.

Comedy pirates, saucy witches, magical explosions, gratuitous historical trivia and flying sheep. Plus the opportunity to see what kind of writer I was fifteen years ago… (the answer is: a very young one!) If you’ve ever wondered about this book, or never heard of it, now’s your chance to get your own copy.

LINKIES!

The story of How I Got My First Book Published, over at Jim C Hines’ First Book Friday.

The new edition of Splashdance Silver on GoodReads

Splashdance Silver available in mobi & epub at Wizard’s Tower.

Splashdance Silver – the Kindle edition.

Splashdance Silver – at Weightless Books.

Tehani announces the arrival of Splashdance Silver at FableCroft.

I’ll update this list with more links as they become available.

Time Lady in the TARDIS [WHO-50—1978]

1978 is not only the year in which I was born, but it also produced one of my all time favourite eras of Doctor Who. Having left Leela behind on Gallifrey to indulge in her gratuitously discreet romance with the guard Andred (in one of the most derided leaving scenes of all time), the Doctor was happy to put his feet up, but the universe had other ideas.

The White Guardian, one half of the two greatest powers in the galaxy, has given him a quest, to assemble the crystalline, transformative segments of the Key to Time. He also provides the Doctor with a new ‘assistant,’ the glamorous and snooty Romana (Mary Tamm).

We’ve had intelligent companions before, and companions who are close to being the Doctor’s intellectual peer (Zoe and Liz being the main examples), but this is the first time that a companion was set up as being the Doctor’s superior in most things.

The six Key to Time stories are rollicking adventures, for the most part, and even edge towards the swashbuckling, with more swords, princesses and villainous twirly moustaches than we usually get in Doctor Who. There’s more overt humour than had been used before, as the scripts made the most of the Fourth Doctor, Romana and K9’s tendency towards snark and banter. With The Pirate Planet, we even get the first example of Douglas Adams writing for Doctor Who – he took on the script editing gig by the end of this season with the Armageddon Factor, and would go on to write one of the best regarded and most romantic Doctor Who serials of all time (City of Death).

Even the less wonderful stories of this season still have Romana in them, which makes them substantially awesome – despite a twisted ankle, one bad choice of shoes and other occasional trip ups, her world-weary and ever so sarcastic persona is always enjoyable. She’s smart and allowed to be smart – sometimes smarter than the Doctor, though she always has something to learn from him, too. Independent, competent… and stretching her wings in a universe far more crazy and chaotic than she was ever led to believe.

Romana kicks arse.

When it comes to my favourite story of this era, I simply can’t choose between the wonderful sword-and-swash Ruritanian/planetary romance that is The Androids of Tara, and the unusually feminist and utterly pagan Earthbound mystery that is Stones of Blood. Both have vivid characters, great dialogue, and excellent material for Romana, almost to the detriment of the Doctor (though Tom Baker never lets a lack of juicy material get in the way of putting in a memorable performance).

They’re also both written by David Fisher, something I had never realised before – I certainly don’t love his other work on the show to the same fierce degree that I do these two stories.

Both The Androids of Tara and The Stones of Blood are Bechdel ahoy – full of women, doing interesting things, not all of which is to forward the plots of men. It’s certainly an improvement over The Power of Kroll which has no female roles at all except Romana herself.

Admittedly, most of the female roles in Androids of Tara are played by Mary Tamm, who is not only Romana and Princess Strella but also the android lookalikes of them both. This story also gives us Madame Lamia, one of the more nuanced villainous sidekicks of the classic era. A self-identitied ‘peasant’ who is very aware of the class differences between herself and her former lover Count Grendel (whom she still cares for), she is also a scientist and artisan who creates the beautiful, lifelike androids to be used for Grendel’s political machinations. Despite all of her romance and angsty layers, she is also very proud of her work, and spends a great deal of energy investigating the segment of the Key once it falls into her hands – not because it is useful to her master, but because she doesn’t know how it works and she WANTS TO.

The Stones of Blood, on the other hand, has almost no male roles in it at all. The Doctor and Romana befriend an elderly archaeologist, Amelia Rumford and her friend Vivien Fay (viewing this story today it’s hard not to say “friend” as these two read as thoroughly lesbian) on the moors, and get involved in a mystery of stone circles that don’t stay put, an ancient goddess, blood sacrifice and a hyperspace prison in another dimension. There’s so much in this story about history, female power and a whole lot of very Seventies horror tropes, but mostly once again, it’s held together with banter and great characters.

Both stories also benefit from marvellously evil villains, a great staple of Doctor Who: the beautifully moustached and dapper Count Grendel of Gracht who is happy to murder and deceive everyone in his path to the throne (and enjoys every plummy threat he gets to utter to the rest of the cast), and the wickedly ruthless alien Cessair of Diplos who has posed as all manner of poisonous enchantresses and ladies of the manor for generations, not to mention the Celtic goddess the Cailleach, all in the name of staying free of her prison.

It wouldn’t be a truly awesome Classic Who story if it hadn’t inspired cosplay in modern fans – and on that count, both stories also win. Romana’s bright purple and green outfit in Androids (designed by Mary Tamm on the fly when the first outfit didn’t work) is much copies by cosplayers, while the Cailleach appeared at the very recent Gallifrey One…

When it comes down to it, even if The Stones of Blood is a little bit more feminist… The Androids of Tara has fencing in it. With electrified swords. And while the Doctor might have spent a lot of that particular story messing about and not doing much compared to his companion, the final scene in which he fences Count Grendel with his usual comic élan (and far too much scarf) is the one that tips this story over the edge for me…

Also the bit where no one but Romana figured out that Princess Strella would be in danger while everything was going on, and not only does she rescue her (and enable the princess to rescue herself with a hefty pot to the head of her attacker), but by the time the men turn up, the two of them are deeply involved in a chat about embroidery.

Before all of that, there’s the rather wonderful TARDIS sequence at the beginning of the story, in which we learn not only that the TARDIS wardrobe is alphabetised now, and that Romana is all set if they land on Tahiti, but also that the blindingly white evening gown she wore when she first arrived is also her go-to outfit in which to lounge around the TARDIS between adventures. It is her yoga pants.

Oh, yes. Intellectually I may think that The Stones of Blood is a superior story, and it’s hard not to fall in love all over again at the mere mention of the word ‘Ogri!’ but Androids of Tara is my favourite of a fun, lively era of Doctor Who.

Mary Tamm passed away last year, shortly after recording a whole new season of adventures on audio with Tom Baker. When I was a kid, the idea of another whole season of Romana I stories was one of the most joyous treats I could imagine, as it was a great annoyance to me that she was only there for one year. So far I’ve only listened to one, The Auntie Matter, which I highly recommend, particularly if you’re a fan of Jeeves and Wooster style madcap comedy.

If only they had made this at the time! I can just imagine Tom and Mary styling along in their respective 1920′s roadsters towards the mystery in the big house… and oh, the outfits she would have worn. But it was amazing to see how effortlessly they both dropped into the old relationship from thirty five years earlier.

I enjoy Tom Baker’s madcap adventuring with Sarah and Harry, and Sarah on her own. I quite enjoy his tearing around the galaxy with Leela, though it’s hard to shake off the idea that they wouldn’t both do much better individually. I adore the romanticish, teasing friendship between the Doctor and Romana II, his more avuncular (or crazy big brother) relationship with Adric, and even the distant skepticism with which he regards Tegan and Nyssa.

But there’s something about the aloof beauty of Mary Tamm, and the confidence of her Romana, that brings out a more subdued and realistic side to the Fourth Doctor. When he’s not as much the centre of attention (he spends much of both Androids of Tara and Stones of Blood off to one side, being thoughtful and clever), he’s a much more likeable Doctor.

The final story in the Key to Time sequence, The Armageddon Factor, is another favourite of mine despite being rather blatantly less good than my other two favourites. This brings us the complex character of Princess Astra (Lalla Ward), the comedy stylings of Drax the errant Time Lord con artist, some of K9′s best material of all time, and a moral quandary that leads to the twist in the tale.

Also, time loops.

The best thing about this story, of course, is watching Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward interact with each other, knowing what is to come…

ELSEWHERE ON 1978:

Romana I [Marlow Inc]



Episode 1 of The Ribos Operation [Chronic Hysteresis]

Pirate Planet Episode 2 [Chronic Hysteresis]

The Stones of Blood [Wife in Space]

The Power of Kroll [Wife in Space]

The Armageddon Factor Episode 6 [Chronic Hysteresis]

Friday Links is a Sweetheart of the Galaxy

Congratulations to all Nebula nominees, and a big extra special CONGRATULATIONS to Margo Lanagan for being part of the inaugural Stella Prize longlist with Sea Hearts.

(Cough, and apparently the high number of women and people of colour on the Nebula list is a cause for alarm for some commenters over at SF Signal… yes, really)

The ongoing coverage, tweets and especially leaked images from the filming of An Adventure in Space and Time is bringing me nothing but joy. Normally I avoid set photos of Doctor Who because I’m all about the finished product, but this is different. Behind the scenes shots of a show about behind the scenes shots has allowed me to see fragments of Daleks recreating famous 1960′s ‘invasion of London shots,’ William Hartnell in a park with his family, Ian, Barbara and Susan on the TARDIS interior set for the first time (the console is green!) and a recreation of Totter’s Lane. It’s like actual time travel is involved.

Did you know it was the anniversary of Mists of Avalon? Neither did I until Bitch Magazine pointed it out, but man that book smacked me between the teeth when I was fourteen or so. Regardless of whether you liked it or not, it was a massively important cultural milestone of the 80′s which caused ripple effects through fantasy, historical fiction, the feminist and pagan communities, and general readers.

At the time I thought it was the longest book I would ever read. Ha!

This piece on Hilary Mantel’s speech (in which she criticises the media construct and portrayal of the Duchess of Cambridge, and has been misquoted all over the place in various newspapers as attacking the princess in a good old fashioned cat fight when in fact she was criticising THE NEWSPAPERS) is the clearest and most sensible I have read. The quote “As Mantel has learnt to her cost today, it’s not only royal women who are expected to stay quiet” is resonating quite strongly with my Twitter followers, as I think it’s become my most retweeted thing ever. Which only goes to show that I have the best Twitter followers.

Lisa L Hannett’s new This is Horror column talks about the much neglected night creatures who don’t get to play nearly as often as the vampires and zombies and she cites Love and Romanpunk for my use of classical monsters! Anything I can do to spread the manticore love…

Remember Superma’am and Batma’am, the awesome crossplayers? They are running a Kickstarter right now to fund a web series about cosplayers who become superheroes. It looks pretty adorable.

Tor looks at Women and Power in Star Trek Next Generation, a good start towards a re-examination of the female characters in this show which I think is long overdue. Unfortunately, many commenters turned out to be very passionate about arguing against this concept, because apparently having lots of bad treatment of the female characters means those characters are terrible and no one is allowed to like them? And also if it was done better in later series like DS9 and Voyager, that completely negates the importance of how the role of women became so much more prominent in Next Gen. At least we can all agree that they did better than the original series, right? Right?

I’m particularly troubled by the old chestnut of dismissing the show’s ‘women only in nurturing roles’ once Tasha Yar left. While it would be more balanced to have a lady shooting things as well as a lady mending people, this is the only time Star Trek had a female doctor. Things can be problematic and awesome at the same time, everyone! Don’t be dissing my Beverly Crusher. (and I found the criticisms of Dr Pulaski really interesting from a gendered point of view, as apparently she was TOO like McCoy… while Crusher was not enough like McCoy. Is the problem here that none of these women were McCoy?)

Marie Brennan writes an open letter to the creators of sexist comic book and SF art, asking them to stop doing that.

So there’s this person who set up a Sims account with lovingly-created characters based in looks and personality on the ensemble from Downton Abbey. It’s amazing how much they seem to reproduce the relationships of the show! Also she forgot to turn off the ‘supernatural’ setting, which means the occasional werewolf or zombie wanders into the action.

Why Leela is for the Women Too [WHO-50—1977]

“For the dads” is a phrase that Doctor Who fans of a certain age tend to hear repeated over and over by production crew, actors and fans alike when talking about the 1977 introduction of Leela (Louise Jamieson), the ‘primitive’ companion who wore strips of leather, hunted Sontarans with a throw knife, and was generally as a rare example (along with Peri and her leotards) of the show actually intending glimpses of sexuality to peep through the family-friendly curtain.

Actually, as we discussed recently on the Verity! Podcast, Leela’s leather outfit might look kinky but is far more practical than most of the mini-skirts that were such a regular feature of the show from 1966 through to… well, the mid 1980’s. (the 1980′s, in fact, seemed to have way more restrictive and uncomfortable looking miniskirts than the 1960′s – what’s with that, fashion?)

More important than her costume, Leela had a fully rounded character which gave her interesting and at times unpredictable motivations in her stories, allowed her some contrast and occasional conflict with the Doctor rather than being a yes-girl, and gave a rare sense of alienness in the TARDIS (though in fact she was a descendant of future humans despite her ‘primitive’ nature).

She had a fantastic story arc, though with a better script her final story could have made far more of her remaining on Gallifrey as an end point to her travels with the Doctor…

It certainly makes me wince now to hear the Doctor referring to Leela as a ‘savage’ in comparison to his own ‘civilised’ nature, and I also think that their famous Eliza Doolittle/Professor Higgins dynamic brings out his most patronising and at times least likeable side.

makeup concept they didn’t go with on screen… thank goodness!

On the other hand, considering that there were production stills of Jamieson in her leather gear with her face actually blacked up… um, yes. We dodged a bullet there. Leela herself could well have gone the way of The Talons of Weng-Chiang and Tomb of the Cybermen, as a ‘classic’ of the show’s history that becomes more embarrassing to defend as the years go by due to the thoughtless racism of the era.

Apart from the fact that the production team figured out putting chestnut boot polish on Leela’s face was a bad idea before the cameras rolled, Leela has two important elements that helped to cement her position as a companion memorable for more than her leather costume: the first is clever writing by Chris Boucher (who wrote her first two stories, The Face of Evil and The Robots of Death) and Robert Holmes (script editor, and co-writer of her third story, The Talons of Weng-Chiang). While several of her later stories were more uneven, Leela started out with some very good scripts which showcased the character well, and gave her complex layers such as intelligence and self-confidence. Best of all, the stories allowed her to sometimes be right, even when she disagreed with the Doctor.

The other saving grace of the character was Louise Jamieson herself, an excellent actress who has built a very successful and long acting career since her stint in the TARDIS – playing the companion meant a burst of fame, often before a young actor was ready, and rarely extended into a bigger career after the show than before. Jamieson plays the character with a steely superiority (and occasional deadpan humour) that makes the Fourth Doctor look like far less of an ass than he might have done considering that the scripts regularly require him to treat her like a child. Jamieson was also actively defensive of Leela behind the scenes, sometimes editing lines to make them sound more like the character she started with.

In Big Finish audio, Leela has had not one but three new leases of life in the 21st century: as an old, deeply battered and cynical bodyguard to President Romana in the Gallifrey mini-series; as a younger but still knows-a-bit-about-the-universe mentor figure to Jago and Litefoot in their spin off series, and most recently, thanks to Tom Baker’s revival of his own character in audio, as the original young companion Leela at the Fourth Doctor’s side. It’s to Louise Jamieson’s credit that all three versions of Leela are distinct but recognisable, and that when she plays young Leela there is barely a thread of age in her voice.

While Leela only travelled with the Doctor for a year and a half in the history of the show, her character provided far more than a chance for fourteen year old boys (and their dads) to get a flash of leg. Many viewers were concerned by her ready violence and use of knives in particular, with Tom Baker himself expressing grave doubts that the Doctor would travel with a killer, but Leela’s casual attitude to violence allowed the Doctor to articulate his own philosophy of pacifism, something that he hadn’t had much of a chance to do since the early days of his friendship with the Brigadier, and which is generally regarded as an essential facet of his character.

At this point in 1977, Doctor Who had been going for fourteen years, and had run through all manner of companion “types”. It is to the production team’s credit that they tried such a high concept take on the role this time around, and to Baker and Jamieson’s credit that they portrayed the relationship in such an effective way, considering how little they got along (at the time) off camera. There’s something genuinely touching about the Doctor’s friendship with Leela despite their different philosophies, and while he does spend a lot of time teaching her things, he has something to learn from her, too.

It’s all very well being all touchy-feely about no guns and not wanting to kill people, but sometimes you just have to stick a knife in a Sontaran and hope for the best. And when that day comes… well, it’s important to everyone that it’s not the Doctor holding the knife.

In short, Leela was awesome, and whatever silly sexist reasons were involved with her creation, she brought something original and clever and dynamic to the Doctor Who universe. It wasn’t just “the Dads” who benefited from having a hero like this on their screens – as a young girl watching, I took for granted that I would get to have characters like Leela (and Romana, and Ace…) on my TV forever, and only later came to realise how lucky I was.

[Note: after I had drafted this post, I saw a reference online to Phillip Hinchcliffe's appearance at Gallifrey One this weekend, and that he was quoted as saying that Leela's skimpy costume wasn't part of her original costume design, and that the impetus behind creating her had very much been about giving a hero to the girls who were watching avidly at the time - the pin up for the dads aspect came later. VINDICATED!]

ELSEWHERE IN 1977:

Leela [Marlow Inc]

The Face of Evil [NeoWhovian]

Please Do Not Throw Hands At Me [Radio Free Skaro]



The Timelessness of Robots [NeoWhovian]



The Talons of Weng-Chiang [Hoo on Who]

The Talons of Weng-Chiang [Wife in Space]



The Talons of Weng-Chiang [Mindless Ones]



Horror of Fang Rock Episode 1 [The Chronic Hysteresis]

The Invisible Enemy [Wife in Space]

K9 [Marlow Inc]

Image of the Fendahl Episode 4 [The Chronic Hysteresis]

The Sunmakers [Hoo on Who]

The Sunmakers [The Independent]

PREVIOUSLY:

Woohoo! Glitter Party over at Lynne and Michael’s place! BRING GLITTER!

SFWA Platform – Overseas Regional Director

I have been asked to post my SFWA platform publicly, for general interest. If you are a member and haven’t been over to the forums for some time, I do recommend you pop by as there has been a lot of crunchy debate and discussion about the direction of the organisation, and all kinds of issues of relevance to today’s (and tomorrow’s) professional SF writers.

For those who aren’t aware, the Science Fiction Writers of America is an organisation which supports and promotes professional SF/F writers (as defined by specific eligibility guidelines) and provides various resources including advocacy in the case of grievances against publishers, an emergency medical fund, the Writer Beware blog, and general community. The discussion forums (in which most of the election discussion takes place) are closed to members, though other resources such as Writer Beware are pen to all.

The role I’m applying for would be to stand as Board representative to the members of SFWA who live outside North America. Yes, all of them! The position is currently held by the awesome Sean Williams, who is stepping down at this election and has been very supportive of me volunteering to follow in his footsteps. I’m currently the only person running for this particular position.

If you are an active member, then as Jim C Hines said recently, you don’t have to vote for me but please vote!

OVERSEAS REGIONAL DIRECTOR PLATFORM FOR TANSY RAYNER ROBERTS

(a couple of sentences have been redacted or amended because they refer to specific SFWA information/forum discussion that I’m not sure is public knowledge yet – the full version can be read in the forums)

Dear SFWA members

I would like to run for the position of Overseas Regional Director.

I have only just joined the SFWA, but I believe strongly in volunteering to give my energy and serve the communities that I join. It’s a while since I’ve had the personal resources to do so, but my kids are getting older and it feels like time to throw myself back into the deep end!

As an Australian writer (living in Tasmania) who has been professionally published for over a decade, I have been actively been involved in the SF community at a national level through publishing, writing, event management, reviewing, podcasting and online projects such as the Snapshot.

I am learning very quickly that SFWA has a great deal more to offer professional writers outside America than those writers tend to believe (I suspect that many also feel that they would not be welcome, which is a shame), and I also think that SFWA as an organisation could benefit greatly from a wider global perspective.

This is a major transition period for our industry, with many aspects of publishing disappearing from under our feet, and others evolving so fast that it is hard to predict what we will be left with.

One change that has already happened, and quite dramatically over the last few years, is the way that international publishing borders have become less and less relevant. I have many colleagues who do not live in the US, but sell their work there, either digitally or in print. While their needs are often a little different to those of the resident US SF & Fantasy writers, I don’t believe they are as different as they were five or ten years ago.

Self publishing and e-publishing are also important issues, and I know that many authors outside the US find that their publishers are struggling with how to use or promote books in these formats, which makes the idea of doing it yourself not only appealing, but essential. (Though it has to be said there are also some savvy digital publishers springing up which are based outside the US, which might be valuable for US-based authors to know about)

It seems to me that if SFWA wishes to expand its membership, and increase its relevancy in the industry, then it’s not just about revising current membership restrictions, but reaching out to the many writers who are already professionally qualified under the current rules, and assume that SFWA has little to offer them or vice versa.

With email, the web, and various social media platforms (not to mention the ease of distribution that comes from e-publishing) there is no reason for professional writers outside the US to feel like they are missing out on opportunities for networking and professional development, and yet many still feel like outsiders. I think SFWA can help with this, and benefit from the resources that would come from a more diverse membership.

I would very much like to be a voice for overseas members on the Board, to promote the value of SFWA to new and potential members from the constituency of ‘everywhere else,’ and to help the SFWA move towards being able to offer greater value to all members by embracing a global perspective.

My administrative credentials include having served on a variety of committees including university societies, the board of a museum, a small press co-op and a school association, as well as experience chairing and convening a national SF convention. My background is in academia (I have a PhD in Classics) but I now run my own small business from home, which brings that perspective and organisational skills to the table.

I have had six novels professionally published (one for children) and a collection, and am actively involved in the global ‘how publishing is changing around us’ conversation through my blog, podcasts and other media, which I also use to promote the works of fellow writers. Being part of SFWA seems like an opportunity to continue doing this, to a wider audience.

I am probably best known (in some circles) for the Galactic Suburbia podcast, with Alisa Krasnostein (publisher) and Alex Pierce (critic) which provides an Australian female perspective on the SF community, media and publishing. This has gathered an international audience over the last couple of years, and has made me realise how important it is to use the new media to communicate with each other as we all try to survive the current changes in the publishing industry. I’m also affiliated with Twelfth Planet Press, who have published several of my works, and whom I sometimes work with as an editor.

I know that I’m unknown to many of you, but I appreciate the support of those members who have encouraged me to take this step. I’ll be keeping an eye on the Questions for Candidates post if you have any specific questions for me, and will certainly work on addressing the open questions already there over the next few days.

Tansy Rayner Roberts

February 2013

Friday Links is Throwing Confetti

Congratulations to Erika Ensign (@hollygodarkly) & Steven Schapansky (@legopolis) who are in LA for the Gallifrey One convention and just announced they got married! Complete with a Lego re-enactment for those who weren’t there… adorable, guys.

(I love how many cute couples there are in Doctor Who fandom)

In other news, I spent a week tweeting as @WeTasmania. You can check out my week via Storify, the application that makes Twitter a little bit more archivable.

I also announced that I was running for Overseas Regional Director in the SFWA, which isn’t linkable because the election stuff pretty much all happens in closed forums. If you are a member of SFWA I’d really appreciate you checking out my platform statement and voting in the elections this year.

But what has everyone else been talking about this week?

Speaking of Erika, there’s a new episode of Verity out this week, discussing the Ninth Doctor – and which story most represents his brief run in the role. I really enjoyed listening to this one, and the strong debate as to whether the Doctor can ever be sexual or a romantic hero, what the Ninth Doctor’s relationship with Rose really was, and why it took a space station and/or a Dalek to convince us that the Doctor really, really was back this time.

My favourite Doctor Who thing this week was however this post about the Other Eleven Doctors, which posits an alternate history in which the Doctor was always a woman. The choices for the old Doctors in particular made me squee, as my knowledge of obscure British film came to the fore, and I love the way this was presented as a continuum and fully fledged history, from Joyce Grenfell all the way through to Miranda Hart. Inspector Spacetime, eat your heart out! (I’ve actually said that twice this week, the other time being while explaining the Doctor Whooves fandom phenomemon on Twitter)

I fell in love with this Cracked post on Six Ridiculous Myths about The Middle Ages That Everyone Believes. Ah, everyone, you are responsible for so much misinformation.

I’ve linked to the topic before, but this new article about Janet Stephens, the hairdresser who took on the task of figuring out how to replicate Ancient Roman hairstyles and blew academia out of the water with her discoveries, is much more detailed and comprehensive. She would totally be a footnote in my PhD thesis if she had done this ten years earlier…

Hoyden about Town introduced me to another corner of history I knew nothing about: Margaret Macdonald and Marion Mahony, artists who have been reclaimed for their own work as opposed to their earlier historical classification as the wives and helpmeets of famous artists…

Aliette de Bodard reviews Seraphina, with particular reference to mixed race characters in fantasy fiction.

Liz Bourke looks at the problematic use of the term ‘bastards’ in fantasy fiction descriptions.

Charles Tan talks about The Best Intentions, about how you get ‘get it wrong’ even while trying really hard on the social justice front, and that it’s okay to get it wrong as long as you stay open minded about what you’re fighting for.

N.K. Jemisin talks about Orcs in fantasy and why she doesn’t plan to include them in her own work.

Culturally Disoriented on Boys Don’t Read Girl Books And Other Lies Society Told Me.

Marvel is doing so much better than DC right now when it comes to female led books – and its attitude towards female readers. So many new and exciting titles, some of them even involving female creators!

A really interesting look at crossplay and what it’s for, from the perspective of a male cosplayer who decided to take on the task of Slave Leo, the male equivalent (not parody) of Slave Leia.

The Galactic Suburbia Award 2012

One of my favourite things about the Galactic Suburbia Award is the morning after the podcast has been published, when I get to wake up and see people squeeing on Twitter, especially those who discovered that they were honoured on the short list (or indeed, won) by listening to the podcast ‘as live.’ Also the general bafflement of other nominees as people start congratulating them and they don’t know why. Ah, the simple pleasures in life.

For those who don’t want to listen to an hour long podcast to get the info, though, here is the winner and shortlist of the Galactic Suburbia Award 2012 (aka the pixel-stained suffragette). In the manner of the Tiptree award, we announced the winner first, and then followed up with the shortlist.

THE GALACTIC SUBURBIA AWARD

for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist

conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012.

Listen to the podcast discussing the winner and list.

WINNER:

Elizabeth Lhuede (@elizabethlhuede) for the creation of the Australian Women Writers Challenge and her tireless efforts in contributing to the conversation about gender disparity in literature and criticism.

SHORTLIST:

Kirstyn McDermott (@fearofemeralds) for creation of the ‘female stick figure’ concept and the surrounding discussion about gender defaults.

Julia Rios (@omgjulia) for the Outer Alliance podcast, and her ongoing activism and outreach efforts towards ‘changing the conversation.’

Genevieve Valentine (@GLValentine) for starting the conversation about creepers at conventions and raising awareness about the importance of events having sexual harassment policies they are prepared to stand behind.

Various, for the overall creative, serious and awesome responses to the problematic concept of the “Fake Geek Girl.” Internet, this sort of thing is why we love you even when you’re bad for us.

Jim C Hines (@jimchines) for Cover Posing For A Good Cause and other important awareness-raising blog discussions.

The Hawkeye Initiative, a Tumblr meme which used artistic expression to demonstrate exactly why so many artistic depictions of women in comics are problematic, with sassy sparkles. (FAQ & The Mary Sue article for added context)

Anita Sarkeesian (@anitasarkeesian) for her TED talk articulating the vengeful online abuse she received in response to her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter, and what this says about online culture and gaming culture in particular.

CD (@CDisoriented) for her wonderful blog Culturally Disoriented in which she talks at length about pop culture, social justice, disability and feminism.

Seanan McGuire (@seananmcguire) for “Things I Will Not Do To My Characters. Ever.”

Liz Bourke (@hawkwing-lb) for Sleeps With Monsters.

R-, the six-year-old who called out Hasbro for the gender imbalance in her favourite board game, Guess Who.

Geena Davis, for her speech on Gender Inequalities in Television & Why They Matter (plus ongoing activism in this area).

HONOURABLE MENTION (because not SF related):

Our own Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard) for the YouTube vid of the speech against sexism which made the whole world believe (however briefly) that Australia must an amazing feminist country. Whatever else you do during your time in office, Prime Minister Gillard, we will remember this one.

Watching New Who: Partners in Crime

David is coming to New Who for the first time, having loved Classic Who as a kid. Tehani is a recent convert, and ploughed through Seasons 1 to 6 (so far) in just a few weeks after becoming addicted thanks to Matt Smith – she’s rewatching to keep up with David! Tansy is the expert in the team, with a history in Doctor Who fandom that goes WAY back, and a passion for Doctor Who that inspires us all. We’re also joined today by guest viewer Lynne M. Thomas, co-editor of the Hugo-winning book Chicks Dig Time Lords and co-creator of the new Doctor Who podcast Verity! Lynne gives Tansy a run for her money when it comes to Doctor Who expertise and we welcome her to our review!

We are working our way through New Who, using season openers and closers, and Hugo shortlisted episodes, and sometimes a couple of extra episodes we love as our blogging points. Just for fun!

“Partners in Crime” – S04E01

The Doctor – David Tennant

Donna Noble – Catherine Tate

DAVID:

So, obviously the big news with this episode is the return of Donna, and I for one was thrilled. I really enjoyed her character in this episode, more so than in “The Runaway Bride”, to be honest. She seemed to have a bit more depth to her this time around, and I quite liked the idea of her as the enterprising journalist, sneaking around and gathering information.

TEHANI:

I love Donna so much! She’s brash and ditzy but really smart and deeply passionate and grounded, under the ditz and show! I’ve rewatched this episode a bunch of times though, and still keep seeing Donna’s desperate search for aliens as just that – a bit desperate, as if she’s realised what she let go when she chose not to go with the Doctor, and will do anything to get it back. Not from a romantic or lost (potential) love point of view or anything, but it’s just, well, desperate! It’s one of the sour notes of this episode for me, but there’s so much else I loved Particularly – DONNA’S BACK!

LYNNE:

I love this episode like pie. The dynamic between the Doctor and Donna, particularly in the scenes where they are miming across the room at each other, reminds me of the best screwball comedies from the 30s and 40s.

Both Tennant and Tate’s performances are pitch perfect, down to Tennant’s obvious discomfort with the young lady at Adipose Industries giving him her phone number, and Tate’s acting the first time she claps eyes on an adipose for herself, which is a splendid mix of disbelief, triumph, and moderated fear because the things are so darned cute. All of which she is likely doing as she reacts to a tennis ball on a stick off camera.

DAVID:

To me, Donna comes across as very single minded and determined when she has set a goal, and this is comes across really well in this episode. The only thing that I struggled with was that in between seeing her in “The Runaway Bride” and in this episode I have been watching her in The Office – a very different role!

But, yes, Tate has an incredible talent for physical comedy (all comedy, really), and the scene’s with her and Tennant are hilarious. Sometimes RTD’s scripts try for comedy and fall a little short, but in the two T’s he has the perfect tools for the job.

TANSY:

Ooh I have been meaning to watch that season of The Office, purely for her. Does it matter I haven’t watched the previous seasons?

DAVID:

It would certainly help, but I still think you’d enjoy them. Perhaps just read the Wikipedia entries for the earlier seasons to get a feel for the characters? I’d happily recommend watching it all though, it’s one of the few adaptations of a British show where I think the US version is superior. Scandalous, I know!

TANSY:

I think I like “The Runaway Bride” a lot more retrospectively, after this season, than I did originally, and Catherine Tate really nails Donna’s wonderfulness as a companion in “Partners in Crime.” I like that she has become a more interesting and driven person because of her experience back then, but so much of it has come from within. Over and over we get the idea that the Doctor inspires personal growth in the people he affects, but they do it on their own once they have parted from him.

DAVID:

Perhaps this is merely my interpretation, but it was nice to see that her motivation for trying to locate the Doctor did not come from infatuation with him, but of a desire for adventure and wanting to escape from her day to day life. I am not sure that I could have coped with another “everyone who travels with the Doctor falls for him and puts the rest of their life on hold” storyline. It was very refreshing that she hadn’t been simply moping around waiting for him to turn up, but instead took a very active role in going out and trying to find him. It’s already set up a much better dynamic, and while Martha was (of the companions so far) the most able to hold her own with the Doctor intellectually, you get the feeling that Donna is going to be much better at maintaining her independence and not letting the Doctor’s personality dominate her too much. I am looking forward to seeing how their relationship plays out.

TANSY:

I agree with all of this! Addressing romantic ideas around the Doctor was something I think the new series had to do, as it was something lacking in the old days, but it’s so refreshing to see them leave it behind for once. Donna’s quest to find the Doctor is about far more than just wanting to be with him – she wants the adventure, and to escape her mundane life.

TEHANI:

I like that you have interpreted her quest to find the Doctor more positively than me. I must be getting curmudgeonly in my old age!

TANSY:

Of course we don’t just get Donna in this story, we also get Wilf, last seen selling newspapers in the face of a London Christmas apocalypse! Bringing back that quirky Bernard Cribbins character as Donna’s granddad is one of the cleverest production decisions RTD ever made – certainly in the top 10 – and it adds so much to the story. It makes me happy that she doesn’t just have her negative, putting-down mother as a family influence, but also this magical, stars-in-eyes grandfather, the one who encourages her to dream.

TEHANI:

Wilf is fabulous, and I agree with you about how cool it was that RTD wrote him in as Donna’s granddad. Gee, I hope we see more of him *nudge nudge wink wink* No spoilers David!

I don’t think you can overstate how important Wilf really is to Donna’s own character – without him, and his starry eyes, she might not have been able to take that leap of faith to seek out the Doctor, to yearn for adventure. Wilf is a brilliant role model for her, and her character wouldn’t make as much sense without him, I reckon.

DAVID:

I would go so far as to say that Wilf and Donna’s relationship is the healthiest one we have seen so far amongst the companion’s families.

TEHANI:

I love the comedy elements of this episode. Not, actually, the silly weight loss aspect, with the Super Nanny villain and the cute but icky-in-a-way Adipose fat babies, but the character byplay between Donna and the Doctor – they absolutely shine together. It’s so NICE to see the Doctor with a companion just that little bit older, with a bit more life experience (no matter how narrow that experience is, she’s still more mature than Rose or Martha) to work from, and to see how he has a real, adult friendship with her. A lot of it, in this episode at least, played for laughs, which it delightful.

DAVID:

RTD loves his fat jokes, doesn’t he? I’ve mentioned before that I am not a huge fan of him as a writer (it’s all relative though, it’s in comparison to people like Moffat and Cornell that he suffers, taken on his own he is obviously hugely talented), and a big part of that is that there is a clumsy and immature element to his humour and when he tries to evoke emotion. But, the banter in this is excellent, and the chemistry between Tate and Tennant is superb!

LYNNE:

I’m going out on a limb to state that this may be an underrated classic episode. It doesn’t get nearly as much credit because it’s a “funny” episode rather than a “serious” one, and because the adipose are such cutesy monsters. But it should. It’s a tightly constructed and exceedingly well-directed entry episode into one of the most consistently strong seasons of Doctor Who. The whole first half of near misses with the Doctor and Donna, trying their best to get on with it while just missing each other on the same mission? That is brilliant farce. We see their respective worlds and approaches to problem-solving laid out before they collide. The dialogue sparkles, is sly and self-referential without being too arch. I will also allow that I really enjoy watching David Tennant run around in his swooshy coat. *ahem*

TANSY:

I agree that comedy often means a story gets taken less seriously – and this is a brilliant new entry or re-entry point for a new season. I like that Donna is effectively re-auditioning for the role by getting to show that she is actually awesome even without the Doctor around to lead the way – which is a bit of a contrast to how fandom often remembers her, as being somehow lesser, then becoming great as a companion, and then … oops, no spoilers for later in the season.

She was great ALL ALONG, thank you very much. She just didn’t realise it.

DAVID:

As already mentioned, Wilf is a great addition and his relationship with Donna is quite lovely. There is actually a very interesting dynamic with Donna’s family in general, as we’ve seen with her mother. I think Tansy said in a previous blog entry that the way New Who treats the family background of companions is much more involved than might have been in the past, and we have definitely seen a few different types of families so far. How Martha interacts with her family, or Rose with her mother, have been completely different and I think this has been handled rather well.

LYNNE:

Mrs. Foster, played by Sarah Lancashire, who is absolutely spot-on, plays a perfectly arch villain without being too over the top. She knows what she is there to do, and she does so with ruthless, gleeful efficiency.

There are other important character and plot-arch moments jammed in here, too, though. Tennant’s Doctor has figured out that he really shouldn’t go it alone, and he has also figured out that the dynamic he had with Martha wasn’t healthy for either of them.

TANSY:

So many good character bits. The scene at the end, with them negotiating Donna’s transition into the TARDIS, is awkward and adorable. He gets a wonderful expression on his face when he admits “I’d love it” about having her aboard. It’s good for him that Donna made him work for it – in fact, Donna is good for him all around, I think. Tennant’s Doctor has always teetered on the precipice of being indulgent (which is part of why he polarises fans, I think – some want to smother him with a pillow while others just want to feed him ice cream. Some want to do both! All of these are valid responses) and Donna won’t let him puff up too much with his own self-importance. Well, she will, but only so she can gently mock him afterwards.

TEHANI:

I think this is what I love so much about the Donna/Doctor dynamic – Ten NEEDED someone like her to balance him and ground him, and Donna does it beautifully.

TANSY:

How much do I love their relationship? It reminds me of the Tom Baker years, where the companion was specifically coded as the Doctor’s Best Friend. I hadn’t thought of it this way before, but that interpretation of the companion’s role has been a big part of New Who, regardless of whether there was also romantic intent going on. Donna is however MY FAVOURITE AND MY BEST.

It’s really hard to talk more about this right now without skipping ahead. So I will keep my mouth shut. Any final windy-uppy thoughts on this episode?

DAVID:

Only that it is amazing how the chemistry between Ten and Donna drives this episode and stops you from caring about some of its shortcomings. It makes me really excited at the thought of seeing more of their travels!

LYNNE:

This episode begins one of my favorite runs of the new series, and I just love everyone to bits in it. It’s a lovely change of tone, lightening things up after all of the doom and gloom and the Master destroying our lives stuff the previous season. It feels fresh, and lovely, and makes me happy to be a fan. Also, Wilf rocks.

TEHANI:

It’s a little bit of silliness with a lot of heart and a great deal of fun, and shows us a lot of what we can expect from the season. Seconding the Donna and Wilf love

TANSY:

This season is one of my favourites, too. Donna got better and better, the show was comfortable enough with itself to start playing against its own formula, and we got some nods to past (and recent) nostalgia too … but all that is yet to come!

Galactic Suburbia 75: the second Galactic Suburbia Award edition!

In which we reveal the winner & shortlist of the Galactic Suburbia Award for activism and/ or communication that advances the feminist conversation in the field of speculative fiction in 2012.

NEWS

Hugo Nominations close on Sunday, March 10, 2013

Chronos Awards also open: http://continuum.org.au/c9/chronos-awards/

Stranger with My Face Women in Horror Film Festival – 7-10 March in Hobart, Tasmania

Glitter and Madness Kickstarter – last days to support this anthology project!

CULTURE CONSUMED



ALISA: Editing – Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer; A Trifle Dead by Livia Day; reading the country you have never seen: essays and reviews by Joanna Russ

ALEX: Saga, Brian K Vaughan; Band of Gypsys, Gwyneth Jones; The James Tiptree Award Anthology vol 2.

TANSY: Cabin in the Woods, Small Blue Planet, “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (novelette)

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!