Blog Archive Page 2
The prestigious Hugo Awards are voted for each year at the World Science Fiction Convention, and this year’s winners were annouced on Saturday. I was very happy to see that ‘Dramatic Presentation: Short Form’ was won by Steven Moffat’s double-bill from the first series of Doctor Who: ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’. I thought those episodes were really, really great. ‘Dramatic Presentation: Long Form’ was won, I suspect overwhelmingly, by Serenity. I haven’t heard of the rest, other than Connie Willis, but shall be adding them to my wishlist 
Update: Joss Whedon’s acceptance speech for Serenity is short but sweet, and read by Morena Baccarin (Inara in the film).
I saw the finale of Doctor Who’s second season last night. Spoilers follow…
I walked to the dancing venue a couple of minutes after the football ended, and people were emerging from the pubs. I’ve never been one for pubs: they’re too loud, smoky and crowded for me. One, however, was still broadcasting BBC1 at full volume, and as I walked past the Doctor Who theme suddenly soared through the air. It was so very cool, and I think the only time in my life I’ve been very tempted to enter such a place
Somebody called Mark left this comment on the below post about Doctor Who:
You are of course free to post about Doctor Who on your own blog.
However, my concern as with lots of otherposts on blogs listed on “bloggers for Labour” is the impression this gives to passing possible Labour voters and how it makes us look to our opponents.
At present it makes us look like sad geeks, our opponents must be pissing themselves.
I was unaware that passing possible Labour voters, as well as opponents, still think in moronic playground cliché.
When I was seven or so, somebody bought me The Ali Bongo Book of Magic. It was full of easy magic tricks using everyday objects. I loved it. Magic became my main interest. I’d practice card tricks and card sleights until I had them perfect. I discovered Davenports magic shop in London, and spent most of my spare money picking up wonderful little illusions. In hindsight, I wasn’t bad. I performed annual shows at my secondary school. I won awards at the borough talent show. I was on stage at the Midlands Arts Centre. I won the British Magical Society’s Young Magician of the Year award (not as prestigious as it sounds, but not bad), and performed for the BMS senior section. I really enjoyed being on stage and delighted in entertaining. Then, I hit puberty.
There’d always been people who made fun. That’s what happens at school. For a good number of years it didn’t bother me, but once puberty kicked in I began to care what people thought. I realised that people weren’t poking good natured fun, they were genuinely being spiteful. For anybody who said they liked the magic, there’d be two popular jocks who’d hurl insults as all their friends laughed. I began to take it to heart. It didn’t matter what anybody else said - these were the people everybody liked, the cool crowd, and they hated me.
It happened very slowly, such that I didn’t really notice it, but I began to associate the magic with being ’sad’, or ‘pathetic’. I stopped caring about it so much. I think my parents realised what was going on, but peer pressure is almost impossible to fight. My school magic shows in years 7 and 8 (when I was 13 and 14) were, in hindsight, pretty good. But years 9 and 10 were dodgy. I hadn’t put in the practice. On the final day of school I cut my least favourite teacher’s head off with a guillotine, and I entirely relied upon the illusion - the surrounding act wasn’t up to much. I remember hearing the abuse as I carried the guillotine across the playground after the show, and thinking that it just wasn’t worth it. After secondary school I dropped out of my fortnightly magic club, and never really took it up again.
It was odd. All through school I wanted to keep doing the magic, as I enjoyed it, but I became ashamed of myself for doing so. Even now when I pick up a pack of cards there’s a behind-sense of shame, that people will justifiably laugh at me, that I’m a bad example of how to be.
Sad geeks? For liking Doctor Who? Screw you. It’s seven years since I left school and I can see this attitude for what it is. The implication is that normal, intelligent people do not like Doctor Who, nor anything else that may be ‘geeky’. I should rid myself of my likes and dislikes and conform to some dreary grey gob of nothingness. But it’s not normal, intelligent people who think this. It’s people too brainless to see beyond their own perspective, or who are so afraid they might be missing something that they resort to I’m-more-popular-than-you insults. I let people rip the joy from being a magician, but now I’m older, wiser and stronger. I’m not going to pander to this miserable short-sighted crap, whether it’s from passing Labour voters, opposition readers, or Guardian columnists - and I strongly suspect that most of these people do not, in fact, think in the way suggested. You think my liking Doctor Who gives the Labour party a bad name? I think it’s that kind of attitude that belittles politics in general.
I like Superman, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Firefly. I like sci-fi novels, comics and fantasy. I like toys. I like cartoons and superheroics. I like computers, technology and science. If you think these are unworthy and something that should be mocked, the problem lies with you. Anybody who uses ‘geek’ as a term of abuse demonstrates their lack of thought. I revel in my geekery, and good-natured ribbing is fun, but cross the line and you reveal your own ignorance. To call such an attitude childish is an insult to children. It’s just stupid.
Perhaps Mark was genuinely trying to offer advice, but the last sentence sounds spiteful, to me. You want to criticise me for my political opinions? Go ahead. Want to argue religion? Fine. But attacking me for taking pleasure in that which I enjoy is pathetic.
I’ve found this series of Doctor Who to be more variable in quality than the last. There’ve been truly excellent episodes, but also a couple that I’ll pretend never happened. However, I just watched the recent two-parter - The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit - and enjoyed it very much. The interesting dialogue and decent plot gave the always-excellent lead actors something to work with - I thought David Tennant’s performance in the climax was spot-on - and it was also bloody great when the Doctor came out as something of a humanist Most entertaining, although the portents…well, I’m nervous already.
I collected DC comics for a few years, and with every new batch of writers there would be some who, in my view, lacked a sense of proportion. I remember an issue of the Justice League of America in which a robot turned up that combined all of the group’s superpowers, so was stronger than any of them. They found some way to defeat it, in the end, but the whole thing just felt manipulative, and made the universe seem less real. If you could make a robot as strong as Superman, why weren’t people doing it every day? It’s like if a Star Trek episode had the Federation go to war with the Klingons, fight a low-budget battle, then Picard patch it all up and it’s forgotten by the next week. Or, outside of sci-fi, if Peggy from Eastenders got shot, had to have her heart restarted in the ambulance, then recovered and was back behind the bar by the end of the episode. Within the context of the universe, the story is too big and important to be just just another throwaway plot. This also doesn’t work as a narrative structure, because when you do want something big and dramatic to happen, there are no reserves you can reach into, and as such the viewer/reader just doesn’t care so much. The universe is cheapened by massive concepts.
Much as I’m enjoying Doctor Who, when you have the Tardis *die* at the beginning of an episode, and the Doctor claim that it’s gone for good, you expect it to matter. Then when the Doctor fixes it five minutes later via a deus ex machina, it feels hacky and disappointing. Why go so large? Weren’t there any other plot devices to get into a parallel universe? I had the same feeling when a group of schoolchildren were being programmed to break an equation, the result of which would allow complete control over all reality. If such a thing exists in that universe, why doesn’t it matter more? I know it’s not a serious programme, but this niggles when everything else is so good.
I’ve only just watched last week’s Doctor Who - The Girl in the Fireplace. Wow. Steven Moffat’s episodes last series impressed me greatly, and again I think he really captured something. Break for spoilers…
You’d expect the first episode of Doctor Who’s second series to be all about the new Doctor. David Tennant was passed out for much of the christmas special, and this was the first chance to see him in costume and at full power. So, this should have been his day. But did anybody else think Billie Piper completely stole the show? Body-swapping is often a painful sci-fi premise to watch, as few actors can pull it off convincingly, but she did a remarkable job. I’d no real idea whether she could act or not, having only ever seen her in the one type of role, but it’s easy to see why she won the part. He was pretty good too, imho - ’still got it’ was one of many lines which made me laugh out loud.
The BBC are putting mp3 episode commentaries online, as a matter of interest. I think the sci-fi channel started this trend with Battlestar Galactica, and it’s a neat idea.
Lisa’s post says that the new series of Doctor Who begins on Saturday April 15th at 1900. Excellent.
Hope everybody had a fun couple of days. Yesterday was crazy here. Three year olds are so very, very noisy. Granted they have redeeming features, but the relief when it quietens down is quite remarkable! Megan was her normal crazy self, and early on in the day decided it was her job to guard the turkey. And that she did. Although not managing to get any of it, she did manage to grab a turkey bone in a rare unguarded moment in the late afternoon, which was fun to wrestle away from her.
I managed to escape and watch Doctor Who in the evening. I thought it was great - I definitely approve of the new Doctor! How you can have a dramatic sword fight while wearing pyjamas and still come out of it looking cool, I have no idea. The great acting and dialogue mean I’ll overlook the massive anti-war political comment built into the plot…To be fair, it was a theme of the series too, so wasn’t unexpected. The preview of the upcoming series made it look very exciting - the brief glimpse of K-9 was fun!
I’ve spent much of today and yesterday playing my main present, a Yamaha electric guitar. It’s great I’ve been learning for nearly a year and although I’m not good enough to play in front of anybody else, I can make a passable attempt at more simple Oasis songs. I have discovered that electric guitar is far, far easier than acoustic. The strings are far easier to push down, and I can now play barre chords at roughly the same speed as standard ones - I need to reposition my hand far less than before. Bending the strings is much easier, too. My fingers hurt like hell this evening, though
I’ll head back to the flat tomorrow and decide on any plans for the rest of the week.
Children in Need just aired the first clip of David Tennant as the new Doctor Who, and he was cool I liked how he could go from beaming grin to unnerving glare in the blink of an eye. Nicely quirky, too. I’m very much looking forward to The Christmas Invasion.
Update: the clip is now available online.
Well, that was absolutely superb. Do not read any more if you haven’t seen it and would like to. I’d highly recommend you check out the DVD box-set if you’re a fan of great TV.
The final episode of Doctor Who will be on soon. It’s so very exciting I’ve been avoiding the media for the last few days after hearing how tonight’s resolution is smeared across the tabloids, which naturally then gets reported by everybody else for reasons I don’t quite understand. Hell, the BBC themselves were showing 3 minute clips at 1930 every day this past week! They sent me scurrying for the remote at least twice. I know that they have to get the interest going, but it’s a little annoying for people like me who just want to watch without the story being spoiled. How I managed to avoid prior knowledge of last week’s d
I know I’ve done this for the past three weeks now, but did you see the end of Doctor Who last night? Wasn’t it exciting! If you didn’t see it, don’t read any more. I have it on the tivo if anybody wants to watch it, too.
Just watched the conclusion to last week’s Doctor Who, and thought it was superb. The excellent Russell T. Davies is the main writer on the series, but if Steven Moffat’s name doesn’t appear again on the credits I’ll be very surprised. His double episode managed the rare feat of having a completely self-contained, coherent and surprising plot. There were no ghosts in the machine or unlikely coincidences. Every problem’s resolution was foreshadowed (there’s a technical term for this, but I’m damned if I can think of it just now) such that it made sense, but was subtle enough that you didn’t figure it out in advance. It was also dramatic without being silly or over-the-top, as well as rather touching. The dialogue was wonderful, too:
“Back to your room!” says the Doctor, which temporarily disperses the attacking aliens (which sounds silly, but made perfect sense in the context of the story)
“I’m so glad that worked, those would have been terrible last words.”
If I ever write something that succeeds in all areas as well as this episode, I’ll be very proud.