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May. 11th, 2012

TimeLord

Time Lord Meme

location: My Couch
mood: nostalgic
music: Vivaldi
Hi Everyone...  well, whoever is left who still comes on here that I was friends with and still sees my page.  Which is probably no one.  Goodness knows it's been forever since I've even posted or maintained anything.  It's amazing how busy life gets...  

You know, I once thought that I couldn't wait to be grown up because Adults were supposed to be free to do anything they wanted...  I now know what is meant by "Youth is wasted on the Young".

Anyway, some time ago while things in my life were so insane that I was on hiatus from even my email, someone came along and took the time to friend me.  And I only just got that friending, because I only just got back onto email.  That was about 6 months ago now I think.  Wow. 

In honor of that, and in honor of time flying, and also because I loved the first thing I saw when I checked my new friend's page, I had to post and do this.  =)

The Time Lord Meme:
*ducks and looks for an oncoming train*

Your job is now your Time Lord name
Ummmm....  The Administrator? O_o
Sounds kind of stuffy and beurocratic.  Red-tapey.  Boring.  How very Gallifreyan... 
So...  When can I go renegade and get a Good name?
Technically it should be Office Manager, but...  yeah, that's even worse.

The last digit of your phone number is your current regeneration
Wait, Land or Cell?
I'm gonna go with Land because that's Four.  =)  (points at avatars)

The nearest clothing to your right is now the most notable item in your wardrobe
Well, at exact same distance from my right hand is a Universal Remote and a Kleenex.
Seriously?
Oh!  Clothing!  Ummm...  I'm on a couch...  does a curtain count?
Too bad a Towel isn't clothing, when I turn my head to the right and look across the room, that's the closest thing I see.  I could be in a Doctor Who/Hitch Hiker's Guide crossover!  That would be awesome.  =)
I have to lean a bit but next to that is a black zip-up hoodie.  Could be worse, I guess.

The last person you texted is your current companion
I think I get lucky here.  My wife, the Communications Assistant.  LOL
She'll be so pleased.  =D

Your favourite word is now your catchphrase
Er...  Defenestrate?
Wow, why couldn't my current favorite word be 'Spoon' or something.
Then again, as a general concept, throwing things out of or through windows can be pretty fun and theraputic.
Still sounds suspiciously Dalek-y though.  I need to work on this area.

What is your TARDIS currently stuck as?
An Ikea shelf & storage unit.

What is your favourite tool to save the universe with?
Hey, maybe that remote will come in handy now.  Hee hee.
Or maybe my trusty Trowel of Rassilon.  It's in the Cloister garden in my TARDIS somewhere...  I think it was near the Krynoid bed...
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Nov. 14th, 2009

Jellybabies

Why Heavy-Handed Socio-Political Commentary Sucks

location: unspecified
mood: blah blah
music: Struck A Nerve - Bad Religion

Rights

by Paul Grice


Short Trips

4th Doctor and Sarah

Cover Art by Black Sheep

1998

Disclaimer: All rights to the Beeb. I don’t profit from this, I just enjoy it.


Witness the last days of the siege of Masada with the first Doctor and meet the Fourth Doctor’s extraordinary ‘old flame’. An evil enemy makes life difficult for the Seventh and Third Doctors, and while the Fifth Doctor is under attack on a sinister ship shrouded in fog, the Second may soon be guilty of a grave error of judgement… The Sixth Doctor’s hopes of a holiday are dashed when he discovers a pleasure planet is hiding a shocking secret, and the Eighth Doctor is caught up in a deadly drama played out during the construction of Stonehenge.

And, of course, that’s just the beginning…

Short Story Synopsis at The Doctor Who Reference Guide


‘Things are bad here, Sarah.’

‘What do you mean?’ She lay back in the twin sunshine, smiling at the black spaghetti shadows the buildings cast so sharply on the ground. ‘They all seem quite uptight here, but you can’t blame them really – I bet they lose patience just doing up their shoelaces.’

The Doctor spoke over the end of her sentence: ‘They’re dying.’

On the surface this is a well constructed, standard Doctor Who story set on an alien planet. Similarly, life on the planet Farrash seems pretty normal and ‘business as usual’, at first glance. Underneath both, however, run deep problems.

There’s a long tradition in science fiction of the socio-political cautionary tale. The thing is it only works well when it’s executed objectively and in subtext, not when it’s shoved down the reader’s throat with obvious, provocative lines and brutal imagery.

Starting to feel scared, Sarah reached out for the Doctor’s scarf.

‘“Babykillers”?’

…She looked at him. ‘Is it true, Doctor?’

‘Yes, the Farrashians are experimenting on their own foetises.’


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Nov. 8th, 2009

Pool's Closed

You Learn Something New Every Day

location: wandering
mood: lazy lazy
music: TV: Top Gear

The Republican’s Story
by Andy Russell

 

Short Trips #8, Repercussions

4th Doctor and Sarah

Cover Art by Stuart Manning

2004

Disclaimer: All rights to the Beeb. I’m simply a rabid fan.

 

 

All across the universe, the Doctor is hailed as a hero, a benevolent force, the man who fights the monsters, topples the dictators and frees the oppressed.

 

Repercussions demonstrates an alternative side to this. What if, while doing these good, even great, deeds, the Doctor is unwittingly changing the Web of Time. Giving people knowledge they’re not supposed to have. Empowering races that should have remained in the dark ages. Overthrowing the evil that, had it continued to flourish, might ultimately have brought together a greater force of good to eradicate itself.

 

Short Story Synopsis at The Doctor Who Reference Guide



I like the premise of this anthology, and its placement of this story in the 4th Doctor’s timeline is a nice piece of timely coincidence. I don’t particularly like the way the stories are presented in the context of a running sub-story involving Charley, because while the premise is interesting it’s not presented or justified well – though given this is a tough thing to accomplish well with so many different writers contributing. The different writing styles are too disparate, creating an inconsistent whole because of the staggered pacing. I love the idea of a blimp flying through the vortex though, and the stories themselves are mostly excellent standing on their own. Unfortunately, this one falls a bit flat.

 

It advanced through the wreathing fog, humanoid yet curiously bird-like, a long beak protruding from its face where the nose and mouth should have been, huge eyes staring blankly from beneath a wide-brimmed hat.

 

The Doctor has gotten them back to London, but it’s roughly 310 years too early. It’s the end of the Great Plague and they’ve landed right next to a mass grave, yet the Doctor decides it’s a perfect time for a wander.  The Doctor knows where they are and when and has a better understanding of Human history than most Earthlings, but he’s distracted from the events around him and has forgotten that it’s ‘volcano day’.

 

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Nov. 7th, 2009

Reclining Tom

Evil Is Relative

location: My Happy Place
music: Lose You by Pete Yorn

                             

The Planet of Evil
 by Terrance Dicks

 

Target Novel

book 9, 4th Doctor

Cover Art by Andrew Skilleter

1984 (4th ed)

Diclaimer: All I own is a copy of the book and my opinion below.

 

A survey team of eight men from the mighty Morestran Empire lands on Zeta Minor, a remote planet on the fringes of the universe. Before their expedition is over, seven of the men are mysteriously and horrifically murdered.

 

A distress signal brings the Doctor to the planet – but his good intentions are not appreciated. The commander of a Morestran rescue party, sent to investigate the disappearance of the survey team, is convinced the Doctor is the killer.

 

And while the Doctor is kept prisoner and powerless to act, the merciless hell-planet claims even more victims…

 

Episode Synopsis at The Doctor Who Reference Guide

 

The planet was alive.

Not just with the life that swarmed in the teeming jungles. There was another kind of life, something ancient, alien, hostile to man. It was as if the entire planet was one colossal living being that watched, waited, chose its moment and struck.

The planet was alive – and it was a killer.

 

Despite the regular use of ‘evil’ in serials and stories, it’s difficult to analyze what it means in the context of the Doctor Who universe.  It’s one of those things that’s changed with the Doctor and the era the story was written. 

 

While in its beginnings the show tended to present ‘good vs. evil’ in the classic sense of ‘black and white’, as the series progressed its focus shifted to speak to the fans that were growing older as well as to younger viewers.  It began to present a more complex view of ‘shades of grey’ and subjective morality. Never was this more true than with the 4th Doctor, and this story emphasizes and defines this change – it’s a kind of exclamation point at the end of the progression of each episode since the Doctor’s regeneration, as his new personality matures.

 

This shift allows the Doctor’s character to become darker and more ambiguous, not just defeating his enemies but destroying them when necessary, and possessing his own ideals of morality as an alien and a Time Lord. But in making this shift, for the Doctor to remain the ‘good’ and ‘just’ (anti)hero that we believe him to be ‘evil’ must be redefined. Because in a universe of objective, black and white morality, any of the acts he has committed against enemies in recent serials make him as much of a monster as those he stands against.

 

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Nov. 1st, 2009

Jellybabies

Nessie, the cyborg milk-cow

location: Lost
mood: tired tired
music: Cranes
                        

Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster

By Terrance Dicks

 

Target Novel

book 8, 4th Doctor

Cover Art by David Mann

1979, Pinnacle Books American Re-Print, 2nd Ed. 

Disclaimer: Trademarked and Copyright by the Beeb, I get nothing from doing this except further enjoyment of the best Sci-Fi concept ever made.

 

 

Investigating mysterious attacks of North Sea oil rigs, Doctor Who discovers that, yes, there really is a Loch Ness monster.

 

Half-animal and half-machine, it’s the Skarasen, a monster-child of the exiled Zygons. They and their crippled spaceship have been hiding for centuries. Now that they have regained their strength, the born-again but homeless Zygons plan to invade Earth, conquer its primitive peoples and stay on – as rulers.

 

Doctor Who is rather worried, even terrified, that the Zygons really might take over. Will Doctor Who be able to outwit the cunning strategies of the ruthless and dynamic Zygons in time to save us all?


  

Episode Synopsis at The Doctor Who Reference Guide

 

 
 

I’m not sure if this is a difficult Target to find, but at the time I was looking for it all I could find was the American re-print from Pinnacle Books. Despite my preference for actual Targets for my collection (I can always get one later), I have to say it’s worth picking up at least one of the Pinnacle Books prints just for the Foreword by Harlan Ellison. I never knew until I read this what a Doctor Who fan he was. And because they so perfectly express my own feelings for my favorite Sci-Fi concept ever, I need to share some of his words here, before we get into the story:

 

They could not have been more offended, confused, enraged and startled… There was a moment of stunned silence… and then an eruption of angry voices from all over the fifteen-hundred-person audience. The kids in their Luke Skywalker pajamas (cobbled up from older brother’s castoff karate gi) and the retarded adults spot-welded into their Darth Vader fright-masks howled with fury. But I stood my ground, there on the lecture platform at the World Science Fiction Convention, and I repeated the heretical words that sent them into animal hysterics:

“Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurantist drivel; Star Trek can turn your brains to puree of bat guano; and the greatest science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! And I’ll take you all on, one-by-one or all in a bunch to back it up!”…

…’Doctor Who’… the most famous science fiction character on British television. The renegade Time Lord, the far traveler through Time and Space, the sword of justice from the planet Gallifrey, the scourge of villains and monsters the galaxy over. The one and only, the incomparable, the bemusing and bewildering Doctor Who , the humanistic defender of Good and Truth whose exploits put to shame those of Kimball Kinnison, Captain Future and pantywaist nerds like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

My hero! Doctor Who!

 

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