A Girl from Traken (Nyssa1968)

Nineworlds Geekfest 2015

2015-08-16T16:39:00.001+01:00

This is the third Nineworlds Geekfest and the third one I’ve attended. I think it’s finding itself and this third incarnation seemed the most comfortable with itself. Like it didn’t have to try anymore - its attendees understood what it is and what it’s trying to do and just did it, generally speaking. I’m aware it wasn’t perfect, but I don’t know the details and I don’t want to speculate.

I arrived on Thursday and stayed until Monday, having learned that to delay the return to the ‘real’ world is a good thing.

Thursday was, of course, a London Underground strike, but my journey wasn’t really that much affected. I was really impressed with the way the convention ensured there were easy to understand alternatives to the tube.

I met up with two Northern Irish fans on their way and I helped them direct them to the bus. I saw them a few times over the weekend in some strikingly good costumes.

While the convention itself starts officially on Friday morning, registration opened on Thursday and there were a few odd little organised events on Thursday night. I met up with a friend and we had a very pleasant steak dinner that night. I then headed to the Fanfic track room (the one that is a trek away through hotel corridors akin to tunnels) where an experiment was underway to see if blanket fort construction would be a viable event. With only blankets, chairs, twine, pegs, and peoples imaginations, it was successful enough to go ahead on Sunday evening. The picture shows the construction of the second blanket fort, which was judged by all as hugely successful.

Most of the rest of my convention attendance was in the Doctor Who track. I took part in those on how Doctor Who changed my life, the books, and I moderated the immensely popular one on transhumanism. I had intended on attending the one on gender fluidity but ended up talking to a friend instead. I did attend the one about Peter Capaldi, which was great fun. Lizbeth Myles has pulled together a terrific track for a second year running.

I totally failed to attend any of the other tracks except for the Fanfic panel about why we choose some things over others to become fans about. At 9am Saturday it could have gone either way, but the small crowd and my other panellists had a lot to say about personal experiences with an amazing level of insight.We also had a terrific lot of laughs. I sat in on part of another panel on the track - not sure which one - which had that fantastic mix of fun and insight.

The cosplay was excellent again, though I did miss the Aliens crew who had been a fixture at the first two. The tokens idea were again a really positive success, I think. I like the way in which judgement isn't a thing and its entirely up to the moment, or the individuals concerned. Unsurprisingly there were a few from the Mad Max Fury Road film, all terrific. I adored the knitwear on display - especially the facehugger and egg (handbag), and the rifle.

One thing I missed was a dedicated room for dealers over the whole weekend. Instead there were a few dealers present in various locations, and a pop up market style on Sunday. I applaud the convention for trying something different, but I’m not altogether sure it worked. Personally, I quite like browsing when I have a bit of spare time and I don’t want to spend it at the bar or in my room.

The only thing that marred it was aspects about the venue - more precisely, the behaviour of some of the staff and the mahoosive queues and sloooooow service in the bar. A lot’s already been said (and the hotel haven’t covered themselves in glory with how they’ve publicly responded on TripAdvisor) and I won’t go into it here. Nineworlds had clearly addressed some of the issues that were raised last year about the same venue because those were not present this time. I see on the website that the convention is considering another venue, which I understand has more to do with the fact that the convention has outgrown the venue.

I’ve booked for next year because Nineworlds is easily one of my favourite conventions.

Reviews: Jupiter Ascending, Chappie, Kingsman, Grand Budapest Hotel, Fury

2015-08-08T11:09:00.000+01:00

I caught up with these five films in June 2015 on the long flight from London to Sydney. I flew Singapore Airlines, so the versions I saw were the versions they show.

Jupiter Ascending received a batch of very mixed reviews, and the poster advertising campaign did little to attract my attention. What made me choose to watch this film over some of the other SF blockbuster flicks on the plane trip were some Twitter conversations between some SF authors and fans who I follow. Their banter about it intrigued me, and I enjoyed it for what it is - escapist fun. Jupiter’s a fun character whose adventures are breath-taking. She’s sassy, but given the cartoonish/comic-book feel to the whole film she is strangely believable. It is worth noting that others have pointed out that if Jupiter was a boy the hostile reaction may not have been quite so strong. I think they have a point.

Chappie was another film that had been received negatively by critics but I decided to watch because William Gibson said he rather liked it, and numerous of his Twitter followers gave it a go and also saw much to like in it. And, I am another who liked it. I think it raised some interesting questions, dealt with some of them adequately, but left others for the audience to ponder. I was struck by how much it reminded me of Lauren Buekes’s novel Moxyland in terms of how South Africa is depicted. I visited Johannesburg in September 2012 and it was really interesting to see Chappie use quite a few of the places I went to see in its locations - one (see picture in this blog) did make me ponder some questions - perhaps unintended - raised by Chappie about cultural appropriation. The former power station towers are located in Soweto, the township where quite a few battles were fought that eventually saw the overthrow of apartheid. The power generated was for the white city of Jo’burg, but the towers dominate the black township: an unmistakeable display of the contempt in which apartheid South Africa viewed black people. The power station no longer works, and Soweto painted the towers and took them as cultural spaces. To see them as where the white, but poor, gangsters call home jarred. Leaving that aside, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. My regret was to not watch Ex Machina, which I think has similar themes but from the advertising seems to be the clinical version of Chappie’s gritty world.

Kingsman - another cartoonish/comic book style film that was enormous fun from start to finish. It’s a mash up of James Bond and the Avengers (no, not the Marvel series), dragged into the 21st century and the centenary of the Great War (aka First World War). Watched for the romp it is, it delivers.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was easily the best of all the films I watched, which is saying something because I really enjoyed all of them. Whimsical, it balanced precisely just how far to go before it could have tipped into cringe-worthy schmaltz. Thoroughly recommended.

Fury - for a total change of pace, a movie depicting the gruelling horror experienced by an American tank crew as the allies advanced in fits and starts across Europe during World War 2 to eventually defeat a Nazi army that hadn’t quite got the memo: it’s over. In fact, the German armed forces fought tenaciously to the bitter end in many places. This film does not pull its punches, shows the terrible brutality of war, but also the courage of a few to try to remain decent and civilised (e.g. to treat women with respect) and yet deal with the gory and terrible realities. Brad Pitt is superb in it.

Final mention should go to the Marigold Hotel franchise. I watched proportions of the two films, but couldn’t watch all of either due to systems malfunctions. Strange. I enjoyed what I did see of both, but was struck by the incredibly complicated things they say about colonialism and post-colonialism. Wonderfully acted, of course, from what I saw.

'What is the secret of Hanging Rock? And who will it claim next?’

2015-08-07T08:09:00.000+01:00

One of my favourite Aussie films is Picnic at Hanging Rock. Australia's National Film and Sound Archive has just launched a wonderful online exhibition about it - http://www.nfsa.gov.au/visit-us/exhibitions-presentations/picnic-at-hanging-rock-exhibition/

Review: Kameron Hurley’s God’s War trilogy: God’s War, Infidel, and Rapture

2015-08-07T08:02:00.001+01:00

In August 2014 - a year ago, eep! - one of the panels I was on at LonCon, the World SF convention, was all about queering military SF. My co-panellists were Ann Leckie and Tanya Huff (we were moderated by a chap whose name I’ve forgotten, but we didn’t actually need that much moderating), and I remember it as being one of my favourite ones of the convention. We had really good conversations about what was out there in military SF that ‘queered’ sex and gender, and it turned out that there was quite a bit.

Someone recommended Kameron Hurley’s God’s War. I hunted down a copy - I think in Foyle’s newly built flagship store on Charing Cross Road, and the first line raised my eyebrows in whoa - that’s a way to start a book. Clearly and boldly setting the tone for the whole series. I’m not going to quote it here: either you’ve read it and you know it, or you can hunt down a copy yourself and see what I mean.

It’s rough, doesn’t pull punches. Occupies a hard world, but with very human characters. Characters who are affected by their world, and shaped by it. It’s brutal, and every act of brutality serves a purpose for the story. None of it is gratuitous.

The characters are fascinating. All are very human and believable. Complex. All have their own agency, and we don’t get to see what that agency is for all of them. We do get to see how it affects the main group of characters, particularly the fascinating Nyx - who would be terrifying if you met her, but yet has a charisma, an allure. Weirdly, I remember great tracts of the three books as written in the first person from Nyx’s point of view, and then when checking seeing that it’s not.

The science and mythologies of the world where the stories are set are refreshingly Islamic based, where the Christian or Judaic traditions are ‘othered’ to the degree that I wasn’t quite sure if it was that easy to assign them to certain cultures. I loved that attention to detail. God’s War echoes the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, but takes a long conflict (decades, not years) to logical conclusions. The addition of the bug-tech, the cancerous nature of the world, and alien intervention warps that decades-long conflict into the thing that makes the characters and the situations they get into. Even when the war ends, its effects remain devastating - just as happens in real wars and their aftermath.

The writing is rough, and sometimes a little bit jarring., but that suits the story and the characters. I loved the ramming of various recognisable cultures together with the alien world-building.

Refreshingly, the three books tell a story each, but each is interwoven with grand threads and the last book brings those threads together in a satisfying way. You could, I think, read just Infidel, or just Rapture, and not feel a great gap - having said that, it would not be a good idea to read the three out of sequence, but you don’t have to read all three to get the characters, the world, and the story.

I love the ending - it fits.

Note: it seems much easier to find this trilogy in the UK now, which is good news.

I follow Kameron Hurley on Twitter, and she’s great if you want a warts-n-all look at writing, publishing, and the realities of all that.

(Re)Generation Who - day 2

2015-03-29T13:56:00.003+01:00

I had a slow start, enjoying a weekend away from working and solid touristing in Washington DC. The hotel is pretty comfortable. Not quite soundproof, but not noisy. Hotel staff are friendly enough. It is a bit out of the way, and one thing it kind of needs to build up is the bar life and access to alternative food sources. But, to be fair, I haven’t ventured outside because it’s cold. Snowy, in fact, for most of the day (but at least the snow hasn’t settled on the ground). Brr. Welcome to spring in this part of the USA.

The morning, and the first half of the afternoon, I dedicated to wandering the dealers’ area and people-watching. I wrote my postgrad thesis on Doctor Who and its fans, and while I completed that a very long time ago (15 years - eep!) I still find people’s relationship with what is still my favourite series endlessly amazing. Especially those whose lives are different, and how that affects how they discovered the series. And I adore how many people are more than happy to watch and love the Hartnell stories, and dip into Big Finish’s offerings. I know there are a few who just won’t, but I’ve been lucky and not actually met them.

I think a nice touch was having a table set up in the middle of the main dealers’ room where all the guests could come and sign autographs kind of at their leisure. It meant no queues, and a chance for people to have a chat with them. as well as giving the guests time to break when they wanted. All the guests are troupers and will show up, so no worries there. They were selling photos, and other merchandise, but generally discouraging selfies. It was good to catch up with Sophie Aldred, Nicola Bryant and Nev Fountain, and finally meet Andrew Cartmel (I was amused by Sophie and Nicola explaining to some young fans that Andrew was like Moffat now; the fans were stunned that he was there and happy to chat). I was pleased to be able to give Sophie and Nicola comp copies of Companion Piece (out in early April 2015) and Sophie kindly tweeted about the book. I got the feeling that the guests were being very well looked after. Sign of a good con, that.

I saw an amazing array of cosplay, and an excellent Special Weapons Dalek. Among my favourites were an impressive Missy (actually, two!), and an astonishingly good first Doctor. An absolutely stunning Madam Vastra. Loads of every other Doctor - every size, age, gender, etc. Very cool. I think there is a family of three generation all in different Doctor outfits, grandma as Jon and grandson as Matt. There were some pretty impressive War Doctors. A troop of old and new UNIT soldiers and officers turned up later. But I think the TARDIS as costume actually won in terms of numbers and variation. The creative imagination on display just amazing.

I watched many, many fans take their pics with one of the TARDIS models, loving their obvious joy at being amongst others who get their obsession. I saw some teenaged boys who at first seemed a bit shy, but rather than take out their social awkwardness in sniping the way some teens can, they had their photos taken with the TARDIS, joined in with others around some Daleks, and later I saw them all smiles and happily taking in what the con was offering.

One of the key attractions for many was Tom Baker’s involvement in the con. He agreed to Skype an interview live to the big room at noon, and this was the only queue I saw for the day. A good queue. Actually, an astonishing queue. I didn’t go, but I was delighted to hear that not only did the tech work, but the interview was brilliant. I saw everyone leaving the room, all with huge smiles and chatting about how fab Tom is.

A bit before 3pm I found a good seat in the big room, which filled up pretty quickly, but without a queue. A few minutes late, both Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy arrived and the fun began. Lots of stories about the Five(ish) Doctors, their casting in Doctor Who, leaving Doctor Who, to do regenerations scenes or not, Big Finish, filming the series, height and size gags, and other things they’ve done. Did you know that Sylvester was in The Hobbit?

At 5pm I headed back to watch Sophie and Sylv, always a top double-act, compered by Andrew Cartmel - stroke of genius. I think people here had got that memo because the room, which is large, has filled up pretty well. In front of me are young queer fans nattering about Ace, and behind me a few older fellas talking about discovering the 1996 telemovie for the first time. In fact, they didn’t even know it existed before today. Fantabulous. Anyway - the panel. Sylvester immediately launched into anecdote with actions, about a Vision On segment. The panel settled down to a history lesson about TV from several decades ago, and in the UK, and in a time of no mobile phones. Then their casting stories - Sophie first. Sylv, smuttily, talking about doctors and nurses… and then the actual story. Pretty cool to have Andrew Cartmel also explaining the casting stories from his perspective as part of the production crew. Break to questions from the audience, and again mostly pretty good questions (a few typical ‘what’s your favourite bit?’). Sylv segued from a question on magic, to learning to juggle accompanied by swearing ‘…bluer than the current Doctor from that other show he did.’ When asked about their favourite scenes - all three were from Remembrance of the Daleks. All three excellent in responding to what their favourite old and new stories are just generally. And, inevitably, Sylv is asked to play the spoons by a member of the audience cosplaying Sylv who had spoons - but Sylv already had a pair. They did the Doctor Who theme. Naturally. Anyway, their panel didn’t disappoint. It actually ran over, but no one seemed to mind.

I decided to not stay for the next panel. Instead I hunted food in the bar and ended up staying there until about 1am chatting to some fascinating folks about all sorts of things. That, to me, is what I love about conventions. The talking with people.

So, what are my thoughts on the second, longest day of the convention. A double thumbs up. They have got it right on so many of the key things. My experience has been relaxed and fun. As I briefly noted in my catch up post on my August 2014 con-going experience in relation to Doctor Who, I got a bit bummed out by the intense and irrational negativity of some fans. I’m fine with criticism and different opinions. In fact, I love them. But, it’s the intense, cynical, gloom and ignorant conspiracy nut-jobbery that I find draining. I haven’t attended any of the more fannish panels, apart from the introductory one from the organisers on Friday, but my conversations with people - new and old fan alike - has all been positive and sharing what we like about the series. So on that score alone, I’m ranking this as a pretty darn good convention.

Roll on Sunday! (Though I won’t be able to stay for the whole thing because of other commitments.)

Back to August 2014 ...

2015-03-28T19:11:00.000+00:00

Catch up time, now…

I took most of August off work on leave last year to attend two rather large SF conventions in London. The first was 9 Worlds Geekfest. The second one. They had managed to learn from the few mistakes they made first go, and keep most of what was good about the first. I enjoyed it. I had got a few folk to attend as their first convention, and was pleased that they enjoyed it, too. I hope it keeps growing in the way that it’s started, and continue to iron out the little quirky problems it has. But, to be honest, my experience of it was good.

I was on a few panels, all in the Doctor Who track. The first panel was on sexuality/sexual orientation and the show plus its fans (somewhat amusingly, this was the last panel I was on at Loncon 3, the World SF Convention, which I’ll get to in a bit). It ended up pushing past the usual stuff thanks to the willingness of my co-panellists. In fact, pretty much all of the Doctor Who track panels did. Kudos to L.M.Myles for running the track, and huge thanks to Simon Guerrier for sharing his considered views and fascinating insights. And, big thanks to the audience and all the panellists for sharing their opinions in a respectful, willing-to-think-and-learn way. (And please do hold that thought.)

I had a couple of days off before trekking to the other side of London for London 3. I used that time to finish off my photo exhibition pieces - the first time I’ve ever exhibited my photographs. The exhibition was based on my 50 photos for 50 years of Doctor Who, which I did here on this blog. I’m really grateful to Farah Mendlesohn for her encouragement. I also wrangled via Twitter a last minute hotel room when I realised commuting was not going to work.

As a volunteer, I rocked up a day earlier to help set up the huge space for the art and stalls. I met with a few folk who are World Con regulars, helped out with ensuring the merchants had the right number of tables and space they had paid for, hung my photos, helped set up two of the exhibitions to celebrate the works of some of the guests. Sorting out all of the whisky bottles (that had to be empty) and the map of distilleries in Scotland was fun.

To be honest, the entire convention was a blur. I did a lot of panels, caught up with many friends from Australia, the UK, and the USA. Made some new friends. Attended a lot of publishers’ events, and learned a lot about Clarion West. I was pleased to have taken that hotel room close by, even if it was expensive. It meant I could stay at the venue all hours and crash when I needed to.

Which leads me nicely to the bar situation. As a volunteer, I had been privy to the concerned chat about there being enough beer. Well, the organisers knew their stuff - a decent enough range, that as far as I know never ran out. Okay, had to deal with plastic cups, but the con pint fake glass was surprisingly good. Importantly not altering the flavour of the beer in any discernible way.

The bar was in a village green constructed in one of the other really huge spaces at the Excel Centre. It was where all the con bids were, space for kids of all ages to play, and just a tops meeting place.

I went on a few of the morning walks, which were a fab idea. I met some Twitter friends, and some of the panellists I’d either been with or were going to be with.

The panels. I did one additional one to the list in my previous post, which ended up being a pretty good one about privilege and bullying. I also really enjoyed the panel on queering military SF, but then I was in excellent (and slightly daunting, to be honest) company with Tanya Huff and Ann Leckie. The audience was engaged, interested, and contributed really helpfully to our rambling. I was astonished to see a packed room, and one of the sizeable ones at that. Fabulous to talk with some of the audience.

My last panel ended on a slightly off note. I think it was because every panel I’d either been on or had seen to do with Doctor Who had advanced the fan narrative and my understanding of the series that’s enthralled me. Just a shame this last one went back to the bs narrative that Moffat = evil and anti gay. In fact, one of my panellists tried to argue that Star Trek: The Next Generation was better with the queer agenda than Moffat’s Doctor Who. I tried to argue the case, but ended up not feeling the love. Now I am perfectly okay with anyone being critical of any era of Doctor Who. I love the fact that the series has enough in it to satisfy and irk everyone who follows it (though I’m personally a bit weirded out by people who love to hate stuff; so negative). And I worked out a long time ago that it also depends on how you watch or read the stories, who you’re with, and so on. So, grr to that. (It’s taken being at (Re)Generations Who to find the love again.)

But, that small niggle aside, I absolutely loved my first World SF Convention. Huge, but well-run. Friendly, somehow. I was so pleased I had taken the time off to recover afterwards.

(Re)Generations - day one

2015-03-28T14:12:00.002+00:00

TARDIS in pieces before the start
of the convention

Gosh. It’s been a while since I’ve blogged here. It is because my life got very busy and I just didn’t have the time. Well, I had the time, just not the inclination to use any ‘spare’ time to type words into a computer in a way that would make any sense.

So, it’s near the end of March 2015. I’m in northern Baltimore, Maryland, USA. I’m at a convention called (Re)Generations. The first of what the organisers are hoping to be a long-running series of Doctor Who conventions in this part of the States. It is Saturday morning, but from the vibe I’ve been picking up so far, I hope they get what they want.

The love of the series - all of it, not just the bit that’s celebrating its 10th anniversary this week - is palpable in the organisers and the attendees. The guests are all old series - Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Nicola Bryant, Deborah Watling, Terry Molloy, Andrew Cartmel, Nev Fountain, John Peel (the Dalek book one, not any of the other creatives with that name), and a bunch of other folk. Plus Tom Baker skyping in, having sent a bunch of stuff for people who paid extra a bit earlier.

I’m pretty impressed with their anti-harassment policy and the way they have publicised it at the convention.

I’m staying in Washington DC for a few weeks for work and on Simon Guerrier’s suggestion I signed up to join the convention. I caught the train from DC’s Union Station (which is a huge, old style place filled with shops, cops, and noise) and while waiting in the strange little ante-room to board the train saw a woman sat next to me had a TARDIS t-shirt on. Taking a punt, I asked where she might be heading. Yep. Same place. We decided to grab a cab from Baltimore Penn Station. It meant the hour-long trip sped past while we realised we knew a few of the same people. Turns out she’s an old time fan who had spent some time in the UK, and had become con-buddies with Nick Courtney and Jon Pertwee. So, if any of you readers remember a con in the late 1980s or early 1990s, probably in Shepparton, that had a very high guest-to-attendee ratio (Nick was there) and games were played. Any clues, then do please leave me a comment and I’ll get in touch with her to let her know.

The hotel is big and sprawls. Very brown in decor, and loads of horse pictures everywhere. I was told by some other long time US fans I met that the hotel’s only just recently refurbished and the decor is considerably calmer. They showed me a pic of what the carpet used to look like and let’s just say that Colin Baker’s Doctor coat would be camouflage.

I’ve only been to two panels so far - the intro with the two organisers. From that, and pre-con communications via social media, I think they genuinely want engagement from the community to grow this convention. Then there were a lot of folk sharing how they discovered Doctor Who - some in the 1980s, some more recently.

The other panel was Deboarah Watling, Nicola Bryant and Sophie Aldred. Wow. All of them were in excellent form, really candid about things. The first question was to introduce them to audience members who may not know the old series that well… Deborah went first, with a lovely introduction to Victoria. Then Sophie said, ‘I was Ace, who was this.’ And she leapt up, jumped over the table calling out, ‘Oi, Professor!’ Jumped off the stage and pelted down the space in the middle to grab the Ace jacket a fan was cosplaying in (willingly given up), bolted back up to the stage having grabbed someone’s umbrella a long the way, pretended to bash a Dalek with it, gave the umbrella back, then leapt back up on stage and on the table where she used a bottle of water as a prop can of Nitro 9 she threw into the audience.

Poor Nicola. How do you top that? Well, the three of them were fun, and brilliant, and I think if people in the audience hadn’t been fans of them beforehand they are now. The questions from the audience were astonishingly good, too, and each actor responded fabulously. Not one any of the run-of-the-mill dull or bizarrely self-obsessed questions I’m used to from Aussie and Brit cons.

There is cosplay here. So many Doctor 7s, 11s, a few 6s and a few 2s, 3s and 10s. A lot of fezes and TARDISes. Many Amy Ponds and Claras. No Captain Jacks seen yet. A young man in a very impressive Leela outfit, which he carries amazingly well. A few Masters (Delgado, Ainley and Simm) and a very striking Missy. A toddler Weeping Angel, and an adorable Dalek (a slightly older toddler).

So, the morning after the first afternoon and evening, I am feeling the love again for the fans of fabulous series that can, as someone pointed out on Twitter, celebrate its 10th anniversary two years after celebrating its 50th anniversary. It’s Saturday here, and I woke up to snow (that didn’t settle). Glad to be spending the day inside a hotel!!

So far, aside from the guests, I am the only non-American I’ve spotted here. They reckon they’ll have over a thousand folk here.

Draft schedule for Loncon (WorldCon) - 14-18 August 2014

2014-06-22T10:19:00.000+01:00

Earlier this month I received my draft schedule for Loncon, the next World SF Convention. It's exciting and I'm hugely looking forward to it. I've also seen some others post on their panels - and, wow. If you haven't already got yourself a ticket then please do.

Doctor Who: Fandom for the Whole Family

Thursday 16:30 - 18:00
Doctor Who is an international cult hit phenomenon that began when the First Doctor landed the TARDIS on British soil in the 1960s and captured the hearts and minds of a generation. The Doctor's companions, from Susan to Adric, from Zoe to Amy, have often been teenagers or children, a surrogate 'family' that brings the family together as our Doctors regenerate into our children’s Doctors—generation after generation. What is it about Doctor Who that attracts younger fans? Why do they identify with a thousand year old Time Lord? What was the Doctor like when he was a teenager? Panelists discuss the ageless and timeless appeal of Doctor Who, especially among younger fans and their families.
Jody Lynn Nye (M), me, V. E. Schwab, Kathryn Sullivan, Simon Guerrier

Producer and Celebrity Relationships with Fans

Friday 15:00 - 16:30
The relationship between fans and the people responsible for creating their objects of affection has always been a complex one. Whereas authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had a notoriously challenging relationship with both Sherlock Holmes and his fans, were largely restricted in immediate fan reactions, today responses are given in real time and in person. Twitter, Facebook, convention appearances and even "up close and personal" photo opportunities involving hugs and more, artificially create the appearance of a close relationship. Television shows, like Supernatural, increasingly react to the audience with some crashing through the fourth wall at devastating speed. This can leave audiences trying to piece together the meaning of this for their own communities. Authors, such as JK Rowling, respond to fan questions and desires challenging their own published work long after it is finished. Where does this sometimes fun, sometimes antagonistic relationship leave fans? How much interaction do fans really want? Who benefits from the relationship? Where does the power lay and how is it likely to develop in the coming years?
Lilian Edwards (M), Bertha Chin, me, Lisa Macklem, Sunil Patel

Generations of Genre

Sunday 10:00 - 11:00
For one reader, "traditional fantasy" is pre-Tolkienian, pre-genre, sui-generis works; for another, it's the pattern of story exemplified by Forgotten Realms and David Eddings. Equally, for one reader The Hunger Games is a young adult dystopia, while for another it's science fiction. Does every generation invent its own reading terminology? Can the evolution of such terms be mapped onto changing demographics -- is there such a thing as GenX fantasy, or Baby Boomer science fiction? And do any terms retain their currency, and describe common ground across generations?
Andy Sawyer (M), Maureen Kincaid Speller, me, Amy McCulloch, David Henley

A Queerer War

Sunday 13:30 - 15:00
Consideration of sexuality has been part of military sf since at least The Forever War, but while it's easier than it used to be to find militaristic sf novels that address queer experience -- Adam Roberts' New Model Army, say, or God's War by Kameron Hurley -- they remain uncommon. Let's talk about the implied or assumed links between combat, straightness, technology and morality, and how science fiction has succeeded and failed at complicating its understanding of the sexuality of war.
Duncan Lawie (M), Geoff Ryman, me, Tanya Huff, Ann Leckie

Redesigning the Closet

Monday 13:30 - 15:00
In their classic incarnations, shows such as Star Trek and Doctor Who attracted substantial queer fanbases and uncountable fanworks that worked to queer the text. Both franchises have been relaunched in the last decade. What do these new versions, products of a supposedly more tolerant time, tell us about changes (or lack of changes) in narrative and social expectations for queerness and queer characters?
Graham Sleight (M), Leo Adams, me, Erin Horakova, Amal El-Mohtar

Game of Thrones: a round up of the first 3 seasons of the HBO dramatisation

2014-03-07T17:08:00.001+00:00

There are spoilers in this.

I've not read any of the books in the series, and I'm unlikely to. The only reason I watched the first season was a few events coming together. One was that I was going to my first Eastercon, the rather wonderful Olympus out at Heathrow back in 2012, and George R. R. Martin was one of the guests. So was my friend Paul Cornell and I figured I'd better get a bit familiar with this Martin fellow and his oeuvre just in case I get introduced at some point over the weekend. About a week or so beforehand my mate Nimbos got hold of the blu-ray of the first HBO season of Game of Thrones and suggested I'd like it. I mentioned I would like to see it before Eastercon, if possible, and we organised a binge watch over a weekend.

Nimbos had said he thought I'd like it because of the political intrigue, and the way that no single character in it is fully good, and none are fully evil. You don't 'root' for one side or another... well, you could, but if you did in all honesty you would be supporting a side that's not perfect. If you're prepared to live with that, fine. Plus, the cast is amazing.

I loved season 1. We watched all ten episodes in one sitting, drinking wine and eating home-baked bread. I was astonished at how the episodes rocked and rolled along. There are characters I took to almost immediately - Arya, Tyrion, Catelyn - and others who I grew to like and admire as the episodes twisted and turned to the logical conclusions - Baelish, Varys, and Daenerys. I was surprised at first by Ned Stark's execution, but then thought no. This is a brutal land with brutal rules. The point is not subtle - Ned Stark lectured his children early on about how important it was to actually carry out executions yourself if you're any type of leader. King Joffrey ain't no leader...

But, really, for all the War of the Roses-like intrigue and violence, the great threat is what lurks beyond the hugely exaggerated ice-built Hadrian's wall that keeps the nasty world at bay.

I attended a reading at Eastercon. George Martin read from the first chapter of whatever volume he was up to writing. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, but some of those I like were mentioned. They, at least, survive that far.

A year later and Nimbos and I watch season 2, again all ten in one day. I had watched my own copies of season 1 to prepare. I enjoyed both. Observing more in my first re-watch. Picking up odd key points I'd missed, or hadn't quite realised their significance first time round. I remembered that Martin had said at a panel at Eastercon that the first scene he 'saw' was the one when the Stark children find the wolf cubs and it kind of went from there. So, yes, that scene takes on greater significance. Also, the strands of plot leading to the shocking death of Ned Stark are all there. Yes, it could have gone elsewhere, but to his death it all made sense. It wasn't just 'shock value'.

Highlights were Arya with Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance is a bit of a scene-stealer), the amazing Brienne is introduced and Osha becomes a bit more interesting. Overall, though, season 2 is a bit odd.

In the intervening year, I somehow managed to avoid spoilers for season 3.

A few weeks ago Nimbos told me Season 3 had arrived, and we negotiated a day to watch it. I watched season 1 in a day, and then season 2 in two-episode blocks during the week. Season 2 was better than I remembered it, but still not quite up there with the first season. I'm not that excited by the Melisandre plot, to be honest. And the whole Robb Stark and Talisa Maegyr thing didn't quite ring true (Nimbos, who is reading the books, said that the character is an HBO invention; though what happens in the TV version does happen in the book, just not with that invented character).

Duly reminded of all that had gone before, we still watched the 'last time on Game of Thrones' sequence... and then the season proper.

Gosh. I thought it had perked up considerably from the relatively lacklustre season 2. More intrigue. More complexity of character. This time Jaime Lannister, who I hadn't liked much (his roguish good looks utterly wasted on me; he's a boy, a bit stupid, but handy with a sword), started to earn my respect. His treatment of Brienne I think a lesson in character development. I suppose there are those who may complain, oh, there goes the bloke rescuing the woman again... but, actually, it's handled in a more nuanced way. And actually the brutality is their captors humiliating treatment of her. I'm not overly sure her gender had much to do with Jaime's decision to go back; I saw it as him respecting her and her knight's ways. The code he understands. I think that if she had been a man he probably would have been pretty much the same (apart from the sexism when he first encounters her, but that disappears bloody quickly).

I tweeted a bit while watching season 3, but carefully so as to not spoil it for others. I was genuinely astonished when people tweeted odd comments about giving up watching because of what happened in episode 9. I'm not going to suggest that they're wrong; that they should watch. I'm not into dictating my views on others. If they don't like it, then best not force themselves. But, I do wonder what show they thought they were watching if they were upset by such slaughter. It's not exactly been a blood-free ride so far.

Yes. I am talking about the red wedding.

I knew the phrase. I avoided anyone who looked like they were going to say what it was. I had assumed it was another wedding - but, no. So, when it became inevitable as to which wedding it was, and why, it was dreadful. But, yet, makes absolute plot sense on so many different levels.

I really am enjoying the series HBO has made, although sometimes I question the use of the word 'enjoy'. I do tend to turn away at the particularly bloody bits, and the psychological violence is just awful. I don't think I'll ever read the books (I may be proved wrong - it's lack of time, too many other books out there, and I'm not sure Martin's prose style and I would get along). I don't read a lot of the criticism of it, but I'm aware that some have pointed out the misogyny that's rampant throughout. Yes, women are often treated as objects to be bartered or fought over. They tend to be the focus of male violence. And there's an odd tendency to just use all the familiar fantasy stereotypes of women-written-by-men.

Hm. Maybe. I am pretty attuned to spotting misogyny in popular culture, but I tend to look at the blokes in a thing, too, as a bit of a gauge. Interestingly, the men in Game of Thrones don't get a good time of it either. The torture of Theon is astonishingly sexualised. His isn't the only one - the story of Varys is awful.

Then, take a look at the women. None of them are shrinking violets - no, not even Sansa. Not all of them are caricatures of tomboys or femme girls. Not really. As my friend Nimbos pointed out at the very start of this adventure: all the characters are surprisingly more complex than you'd expect for a sword-and-socercy epic of its kind. I don't think it's 'feminist', per se. I think it's a rollicking terrific adventure patchwork of adventures by a complex groups of characters who keep me guessing at each move. It's like chess in that sense, but bloody and dreadful, with a bit of humour thrown in, and sometimes the characters don't obey the rules - established in their world, or in the meta world.

The Jason Bourne films

2014-01-27T20:20:00.002+00:00

I've not read the books by Robert Ludlum and it took me ages to actually get to see these films. I do like a good old action-adventure romp, with a bit of a spy theme and a bit of sheers ludicrousness.

The story is of a US soldier who volunteers to undertake training and treatment to essentially become a super-soldier CIA assassin. The programme is amazingly secret, of course, and amazingly efficient.

Until one night their star gets amnesia.

It's not a bad wheeze, really, as far as preposterous plots are concerned.

Matt Damon is pretty good as Bourne, or whoever he really is. He plays that dumb old good lad struggling with his identity pretty convincingly. The rest of the various casts are also pretty convincing, but the good CIA vs corrupted CIA plot did get a bit dull. And I'm fairly sure at one point one of the latter two got a bit confused between the CIA and the NSA. That scene with the Guardian journalist who has landed the scoop of his career - wow. Talk about prescient.

Shame the real world is never quite so neat and tidy.

The books were published between 1980 and 1990 and I'm hazarding a guess that influences the feel of the stories rather well. Reagan was in the White House, those darn pesky Ruskies under Gorbachev started to thaw the Cold War. The feel of the first three Bourne stories is very much of that era, despite being grabbed (renditioned?) and shoved into the early twenty-first century when Russia is the West's nervous friend and AQ really just wants to wipe the West out. Oh, and anyone else they don't like.

I enjoyed all four of the films, but kept being struck by the problem of having a main character who didn't know who the hell he was. How do you develop such a character? Especially when he's (figuratively) a machine. Because I'd just finished watching all the X Files I was curious about the shared notion of super soldiers. Such a fantasy, and at least the X Files entertained the notion that women could be super soldiers, too.

I understand the fourth film is not to everyone's taste, but I actually enjoyed it more than the others. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the first three. I wouldn't have watched all of them if I didn't like the first one. I just preferred the fourth. I thought it had a bit more character to it. Like it had worked out what the franchise was all about and that it didn't need to have Damon in it. An interesting experiment.

I bought the four DVDs for £8. Absolute bargain. Cheers, Hollywood.

The X-Files, re-watched, re-assessed, & re-analysed

2014-01-05T13:31:00.000+00:00

When I was in Washington DC in September 2013 I was lucky enough to visit the FBI's J Edgar Hoover building (pictured). As a fan of a fair few fictional depictions of FBI agents (Clarice Starling, Dana Scully) it was a highlight of my visit.

On my return to London I decided to watch the TV series I like set in DC. I had the West Wing and the X-Files to choose from, and I plumped for the X-Files because someone had pointed out it was twenty years old.

Twenty years! Gosh. I remembered watching it when I still lived with my parents in their new house in North Sydney. Friends David and Kyla were about the only other folk I knew who watched those first few episodes on its first run on Aussie TV; they because of the links to Kolchack the Night Stalker me because it was like Project Bluebook and had the FBI in it. People picked up on it on its second run, if my memory serves me correctly, and then Australia went nuts about it. Seriously nuts. Gillian Anderson visited and got mobbed. It rated highly, and it was the first 'genre show' that got discussed by people not into sci-fi and all that at work. Well, so far as I was aware, at any rate. Though some work colleagues of mine had believed the line about the stories being based on truth and thought it was a series of dramatised documentaries. Oh, dear.

Anyway, I watched all the episodes and the two movies. I didn't watch the Lone Gunmen series interspersed with the season of the X-Files that they should be. Not too much of a problem, that, although I did have to look up the plot synopses to make sense of one X-Files episode. I love the Lone Gunmen, by the way, just was one of a few underwhelmed by their short-lived series.

Things that struck me were just how good the first few seasons are. Then it seemed to get a bit lost in its own hype, and while I don't think the quality dips there is a change and it becomes less enjoyable, somehow. That's roughly when the filming moves from Canada to California, so way before Doggett and Reyes get assigned. I think it's because it loses a quirky sense of humour and takes itself and its own mythology way too seriously.

Given that it was mostly filmed in Canada those first few seasons get DC amazingly well. Obviously the production crew had access to interior shots of the Hoover Building, and external shots would have been easy. The geography made sense, and many of the first set of tales took place in the states close by to DC. I was also rather impressed that places that looked like the DC, Maryland or Virginia locales were used, too. I don't think there are too many series that would bother if they didn't need to.

And I loved all the little jokes about how much the X-Files unit costs the FBI in travel expenses.

I know there are a few reasons put forward by various, including Chris Carter and the production crew, about why the X-Files suddenly dived in popularity. I think it was partially that they ran out of stories after nine years, without having to recycle the same old. Also the bizarre paranoia thing about the US government and crazy conspiracies got a bit weird with real-life. Without ducking off into a history lesson, the fact is the USA is no different from any other country or political system in that in order to keep the status quo 'safe' there are steps that need to be taken that run counter to that system and its beliefs in its own status as 'right' or 'most ideal'. Hoover pioneered many of those techniques with the early days of the FBI, and he and the Bureau weren't alone. And, yes, of course they run the risk of being hooked up to a political ideology, and running rampant. There are well-documented cases of this, which makes for fertile ground to sow and reap great stories. In the early Bill Clinton years this all made sense. It wasn't real, well not excessively so, so we could have some fun with the idea of a global conspiracy hiding aliens.

What fascinates me is just how George W. Bush's presidency made it impossible to have fun with all this. Why? Because it became too believable. And I don't think Barak Obama's presidency is one where having a bit of fun with preposterous government conspiracies is viable for a TV series. Too many people believe the nonsensical - 'birthers', UN spoiling to attack the USA, 'Obamacare' having 'death panels' as a medical treatment strategy...

Yeah. The X-Files was a product of its time.

But, the X-Files was a lot more than just the conspiracy arc. The last time I watched the series (just before the second movie came out) I was really struck by how good many of the standalone episodes are. The oddball in particular. The ones where we never know just what it really was that caused the murders, or disappearances, or whatever it was our FBI Special Agents had to investigate. This re-watch confirmed that for me, and I still adore War of the Coprophages, Humbug, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - just to name a few.

I hadn't noticed the recurring insect people arc until this time.

One of the things that makes the X-Files enjoyable to re-watch are the characters. Despite neither Duchnovy or Anderson being particularly lively, both bring their characters to life, and their characters are pretty cool. There is character development, particularly with Scully, and by the last few seasons she's rather weary in her shouldering responsibility for Mulder's mission in life. Her reaction to loving him is fascinating. Anderson grew, I think, as an actor during the nine years she worked on the series and performs the role an increasingly assured but subtle way. And, hurrah, the writers didn't screw up her characterisation.

Mulder is the main character, though, and even when he's off hiding in the last few seasons his mark is indelible.

During the last year or so I've been reading up on Jungian theory and Meyers-Briggs. Yeah, that stuff that certain management and HR gurus like to whitter on about. Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff gets it wrong, which leaves it open to a lot of (justified) attack. However, those attacks were so obvious that Myers-Briggs warned against mis-using it... If only people would read original texts. Even read the stuff from those trained in it - some of whom are trained psychologists! (By the way, any critique that starts off with or includes that Myers and Briggs were 'housewives' betrays itself as lazy at best and also sexist.)

Anyway, my take on it all is this: it's a theoretical model through which to try to explore / explain the different ways in which people understand the world, which manifests as personality. It's based on models and ideas that have existed for millennia (yes, really). It's being refined all the time as understanding grows, particularly in relation to physiology. But, it's a difficult area. I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist. I've never had formal training in it. I do know that it doesn't pretend to be a series of robust experiments, and it is susceptible to confirmation bias... but, it's a tool that I've found useful in terms of understanding why I react the way I do and why it's different to other people's reactions. I've also found a bunch of folk, amateurs like me, who like exploring this stuff. Key word being 'exploring', there, not 'believing in'. And part of that exploring is playing with it.

So... just doing a quick Google and it seems that there are some folk out there who argue Mulder is an INFP or INTJ, and argue against anyone who 'types' Mulder as an INTP. Well I think Mulder is an INTP... and it's not wishful thinking. It was a continuing series of 'OMG, that! Wow. He is so INTP' as I watched the whole series.

I've been 'typed' professionally by different people - first time in Australia, second and third times in the UK - over the last 20 odd years. I've consistently come out as INTP. To spell out the letters to those of you who are probably thinking 'WTF?' - I'm an introvert (meaning I need to re-charge in quiet), intuitive (meaning I use my imagination to take in the world rather than my five senses), a thinker (meaning I consider logic over consideration of people) and a perceiver (meaning I keep my options open). That's my four letter combination out of sixteen possible permutations.

For many, that's enough. For others there is a slightly more complicated but ultimately more rewarding approach to do with functions and how they appear in the use stack.

Okay, a little diversion. The idea is that these are all preferred ways of taking in and interpreting the world. They are not the be all and end all. The common analogy is handedness - most people are either right or left handed, but if their dominant side was incapacitated in some way can use their other side. Some people are genuinely ambidextrous. So, in the Myers-Briggs world this translates most easily for those who are extroverted / introverted - plenty of introverts can extrovert (and vice versa). If you're interested, Susan Cain's book is rather good, as is her TED talk. Easy to search for :-)

Function theory operates a fairly simple formula which looks at what the sixteen letters represent, asks whether the Sensing/Intuition and Thinking/Feeling pairs are extroverted or introverted and what order they come in - there are four preferred and the remaining four are what becomes dominant when I'm stressed.

For me as an INTP my function stack are, in order: introverted thinking (Ti, meaning I think and analyse obsessively - cannot switch it off, feel better when my brain is working on complex problems); extroverted intuition (Ne, meaning bouncing around from possibility to possibility); introverted sensing (Si, meaning I have a pretty good encyclopaedic memory of things that have happened before); and extroverted feeling (Fe, meaning I care obsessively about what other people think). The below graphic and brief explanation summarises it beautifully:

Ti: *masterminding* So, lets find a concise explanation for how this works…

Ne: *extremely excited* IDEAS! FROM MARS! On x and y and z and what about sigma??

Si: *serious and knowledgeable* Well, previous experience tells us that….

Fe: *worried* I do hope nobody minds…

(It's from some folks on Tumblr - © 2011-14 Red Striped Alibis)

The higher up the stack, so the theory goes, the more developed the process is. The lower down the less developed. They all work together, too, with their varying levels of development. And all that is affected by personal experience, growth, etc, which is why we are none of us clones. But, it is scary when you discover other people who think and feel in ways similar to you, and even scarier when they've had similar experiences growing up despite being in different countries - not all English speaking.

Okay, enough about me. What about Mulder?

If he's INTP then he is Ti, Ne, Si and Fe.
If he's INFP then he is Fi, Ne, Si and Te.
If he's INTJ then he is Ni, Te, Fi and Se.

So, what does that mean?

If he's INFP then he values and considers importance, beliefs and worth first; interprets situations and relationships and picks up meaning and interconnections to other contexts; then reviews and recalls past experiences and seeks detailed data; and then segments and organises for efficiency and systematises his thoughts.

If he's INTJ then he foresees implications, transformations and likely effects; then segments and organises for efficiency and systematises his thoughts; then values and considers importance, beliefs and worth; and then experiences and acts in the immediate context.

Yeah, I don't think he's an INTJ at all. Most of the time he's in trouble because he hasn't foreseen the implications of what's going on. His acting in the immediate context is usually because he's a trained FBI agent. He's clearly got Ne in his stack, and fairly high up, too ('extreme possibilities' is his thing, after all).

What about INFP? Hm. Maybe. But I'm not sure he puts other people first ahead of his quest for the truth.

Regardless of whether he's INTP or INFP - two of the stack are the same for both, it's the primary and last ones that are different - and their placings do have an effect - he's consistently driven to find out the answer to the mysteries presented, and contrary to an idea that pops up when people summarise the characters from the X-Files, he doesn't automatically plump for the paranormal. In fact, he spends some of the series actively rejecting the idea of the aliens running everything (against Scully and against the evidence, arguably).

I think it does boil down to whether he's driven by the need to analyse or the need to consider people's beliefs.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 50

2013-11-23T17:17:00.001+00:00

It was obvious, really. The 50th photo had to go back to the start. Had to show one of a handful of images that is integrally associated with Doctor Who.

An Unearthly Child begins with a Bobby on his beat. He passes the gates to a junkyard but doesn't go in. The camera does, though, and we see a police box.

If you haven't yet watched Mark Gatiss's An Adventure in Space and Time, do. It's a beautiful piece of television. David Bradley deserves all the awards he should get for his performance as William Hartnell. Actually, it should get a lot of awards generally. I imagine it captures the early 1960s rather well. A police box features in that... as does the TARDIS, of course.

It's impossible for many of us to truly understand how weird that would have been for audiences 50 years ago when all this was new. When police boxes in London were reasonably common place, but not usually located in junkyards.

Police boxes were phased out in the 1960s as the police forces in the UK gained radios to use for communication, although a few remained around the place. Police posts also exist. They're sweet. I like them.

There isn't any point to explain why the police box is such a, such a - oh, I can't help it, I have to use the word! - an iconic shape for millions of people around the world who have watched Doctor Who or seen the publicity for it. Where I grew up in Australia us fans knew it was a police box and learned quite a lot about them. But, the general public and the media tended to refer to it as a phone box. Cue weird comparisons to Superman when he used to get changed in phone booths (I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s with the George Reeve and Christopher Reeves versions and when phone booths were solid boxes).

I took the photo this morning as dawn broke. It's a police box a little bit like the one that has featured in Doctor Who during its 50 years (though that's changed over the years). It's located just outside Earl's Court tube station. Always odd to see it there. Familiar, and yet not the same.

Anyway, it's a quarter past five now, GMT, and it's time for an old science fiction series, Doct-

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 49

2013-11-19T21:40:00.001+00:00

I have no idea what's going to be in Saturday's episode of Doctor Who. I've not really watched many of the ads for it (too busy with life getting in the way). I did watch Night of the Doctor, which was rather jolly.

But, whatever the episode delivers what it celebrates is actually something pretty cool.

Fifty years of a quirky little show that hit the mark far more times than it didn't. There's something in it for everyone (well, almost. If you really can't stand science fiction or fantasy of any kind you'd find it hard, I guess). Plenty to debate or argue about. There's been derring-do adventure, and slap stick comedy. Political drama and nightmare scenarios. Whimsy and history. Horror and high camp. Giant insects and green cathedrals.

Tea, cricket and (ahem) empire.

How many actors have played the part? I'm not going to answer that, because even that doesn't have one simple answer. (Though, as a gay woman it's just a bit trying on my patience to have but one actor - Joanna Lumley, lovely as she is - to play the role who happens to share my gender...)

The photo is of the statue of Nelson that stands on his column in Trafalgar Square surrounded by lions and pigeons. I have no idea whether he appears in the Day of the Doctor, but I do know recording of the show occurred there this year. So, who knows.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 48

2013-11-16T21:20:00.000+00:00

Anniversaries are useful for thinking back over the years to reappraise what's been good, and perhaps less good, about the thing that is celebrating the anniversary.

I've had a chance this year to watch more Doctor Who than I have in a while. Old stories - much loved, and some not so well-loved - and some new stories. Also some old stories that are new again. I am still grinning at that.

I first became a fan, a real fan, back during Seasons 18 to 21. I took a sabbatical but came back to fandom really during the 1990s when new Doctor Who was the books. I got back to liking the show again during the McCoy years.

Anyway, I watched Kinda earlier this year. It brought back a lot of memories. Such a cool story that works on so many levels. It's a shame that the model of the snake is pretty weak, though. I remember the first time I watched it I had had day surgery under full anaesthetic. I was home but feeling really woozy and out of it. Suited the dreamy, nightmarish world of Deva Loka wonderfully.

Given Doctor Who's long history it's interesting how often old foes or monsters are really brought back. It's not actually that often. There are the old favourites, of course, like the Daleks and Cybermen. More recently there have been a few more, and the anniversary special promises a few more.

But, few are like the Mara.

Snakedance brought the Mara back just a year later. What's odd about the story is the fact that rather than link to the Doctor, the link is a companion, Tegan. While the two stories are quite different, both Kinda and Snakedance are terrific tales.

The photo is of a snake in the London Zoo. Far more convincing than the model snakes in the series.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 47

2013-11-13T11:36:00.000+00:00

Arundel Castle

I read something on Twitter the other day that made me laugh. Really made me laugh. It was a Doctor Who fan talking about doing a watch through of all Doctor Who - from the beginning. Way back with the episode called Rose.

Rose? Seriously? Their earnestness was lovely.

Obviously, for some fans all of Doctor Who really does mean that which started in 2005 with what has been (unhelpfully, I think) called Season 1. But for most they understand that fifty years means fifty years...

Twenty-five years ago the show had four stories. It was the second of what would end up being three years of Sylvester McCoy's tenure playing the Doctor (on the telly - he's had more on audio, and his Doctor had quite a few adventures in book and comic form). Season 25 kicked off with the wonderful Remembrance of the Daleks, followed by the bonkers Happiness Patrol, and then on 23 November 1988 Silver Nemesis blasted on to UK TV screens to a ... mixed reaction, it would be fair to say.

It is a delightfully off-beat tale with too much packed into three 25 minute (I'm being generous) episodes. The plot is tangled and messy. I love some of the set pieces, but really overall, it's not one I'll choose to watch over nearly everything else. It was one that I did buy the video for, complete with weird documentary on how to make a TV show.

Windsor Castle

Part of the wheeze is that it is set in Windsor and there's a lovely little daft scene where the Doctor and Ace narrowly miss the Queen and some corgis. The scenes around Windsor Castle were actually filmed in Arundel Castle, Sussex, which often stands in for the more famous one. I was in a quandary - go to Windsor where it was set, or go to Arundel where it was filmed?

I've been to both before. The photo of Windsor Castle I took in September 2011 when a few mates and I visited. The one of Arundel I took yesterday on a day trip from London while I'm on annual leave from work. The first time I went was with my then girlfriend back in 1997.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 46

2013-11-03T13:14:00.000+00:00

One thing this project has brought home to me just how many Doctor Who stories I consider my favourites. On the one hand, that's a bit weird. I mean, how many stories can be a favourite? But, when you consider how many Doctor Who stories there are it's not quite so weird.

Pyramids of Mars is one of my favourites. It was also one of those that the ABC kindly used to show to us Aussie kids repeatedly during the 1970s and 1980s.

The scenes that play over and over are when the servant of Sutekh arrives and kills; the robo-mummies; the use of canopic jars to disguise the forcefield; and the wheeze about the old house being the place that would later become a headquarters for UNIT.

It's been a bit of a week for Egyptian history and Gothic horror for me. During the week I attended the book launch for two collections of short stories on that theme. Mummies in particular. Both published by Jurassic-London, the first, Unearthed, is a collection of stories by folks like Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle and Louisa May Alcott. The other are all written specially for the collection called The Book of the Dead. Both are edited by Jared Shurin and published in partnership with the Egypt Exploration Society. Both collections are highly recommended.

The photo I took today at the British Museum. Real canopic jars used in the mummification process.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 45

2013-10-28T19:50:00.001+00:00

Gosh. Five more photos to go before I finish this project!

Looking back over the photos I have taken and shared on this blog, quite a few of them are from the first Doctor. Mostly that's because quite a few of those stories were historical adventures and I was able to find references to those real historical events or people.

This photo is no different. The statue is of Richard I, otherwise known as the Lionheart. He's the king of the Robin Hood stories, though he infamously spent more time abroad on the crusades than at home in England.

Back in early 1965 the BBC aired four episodes called The Lion, The Knight of Jaffa, The Wheel of Fortune and The Warlords. It's collectively usually referred to as The Crusade, and sadly it's a serial that does not exist in full any more (well, if it does, it has yet to be found!).

I read the book by David Whitaker as a kid. It was one of my favourite novelisations. At the time it was because it was about Medieval history (a period I find fascinating), and about a situation I had read about from another book - Henry Treece's The Children's Crusade (1959), and about an era of Doctor Who I had no chance at the time to ever hope to see.

The photo is of a statue of Richard I placed outside the Palace of Westminster on 26 October 1860.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 44

2013-10-20T09:21:00.002+01:00

During the 1990s back in Sydney when I had rediscovered Doctor Who fandom there was a bit of a divide between those who liked the "gritty sic-fi" of Eric Saward and those who liked the camp old tosh of Graham Williams. We had "debates" called Frocks v Guns - all a bit of fun. All a bit of a laugh to liven up the massive number of day events we used to either run or go to.

Halcyon days when new Doctor Who was off the telly but being made in books and on audio.

I was remembering that because I used to tend to plump for liking the "gun" stories over the "camp old tosh". Except that there are a lot of exceptions to that.

I love City of Death, for example. Love it to tiny little silly bits. And yet it is incredibly camp.

It is silly, generally speaking. All the running about Paris, Duggan, the Jagaroth mask, Duggan, that scene with John Cleese and Elaenor Bron, Duggan...

But, it also has some hauntingly good scenes and ideas. The scene in the cafe with the chappie drawing Romana and time splits and it turns out to be a portrait of a clock face. The chicken and egg scene.

The photo is one from my archives. I headed to Paris for a week in August 2007. It was a week when most Parisians have left the city for their summer holidays. I had a most enjoyable week there and finally, after two previous visits, understood why people like the place.

Anyway, shall we fly or take the lift?

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 43

2013-10-13T20:48:00.000+01:00

It's one of those odd things thinking back to what you used to think about as a kid.

The Enemy of the World was one of those stories I never thought I'd ever get to see. I was curious about it. From the snippet in the L'Officier guides and Haining's A Celebration (30 years old this year - the book we got then when 20 years of a TV show was a pretty cool thing...) it struck me as a very different tale in the otherwise monster extravaganza of the Troughton years.

I remember reading the novelisation when it finally came out and quite liking it.

One of the reasons it intrigued me was because it was set in Australia. The other was because it was a political story with a human as monster.

I would say that as a fan I was most curious about seeing it of all the missing stories. Though I am looking forward also to seeing the Web of Fear and I would dearly love to see the Troughton Dalek stories... Who knows if that'll come to pass.

Well. You'd have to have been asleep or something to not know what happened this week just gone. My desire to see the story is now possible to be realised. I have bought it and downloaded it, and will make a bit of time to watch it. I've watched the first ten minutes of the first episode - wow. I know I'm in for a treat. The excited chat I've seen from mates is bolstering that.

So different from the return of Tomb of the Cybermen... but, this isn't the space for that.

I took this photo of Manly beach in Sydney, Australia, in September 2012. The link is the wonderful opening scenes of the Doctor going swimming in the Aussie surf - much to Jamie and Victoria's surprise and horror. Yeah, it's a stretch, but I kind of figure that the celebration of the return of that story is worth a retro pic of one of my favourite parts of the world.

(Oh, another Doctor Who link to Manly is to do with Katy Manning. She and her kids lived there for a while. One of my aunts taught Katy's kids for a while in one of the local schools there.)

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 42

2013-10-07T20:52:00.000+01:00

Terror of the Zygons is one of my favourite Doctor Who stories. It's a real part of my childhood because it was one of those stories that was repeated and repeated and repeated.

I love it because the Zygons are amazingly well realised. The body double thing is creepy. The humour between the regulars is really cool and lovely.

Okay, the monster is a bit rubbish. Especially some of the model work when the action transfers to London.

The DVD has finally been released in the UK. I haven't yet had a chance to watch it but I am looking forward to it, and the documentaries on it.

The photo I took last year in July. It's of the real Loch Ness. No sign of Nessie, but me, my brother and brother-in-law went to the Nessie museum recommended by Doctor Who writer Andrew Smith. He also recommended a restaurant/bar in Drumnadrochit. Not only a huge range of wondrous whiskies but the food was pretty good, too. Both my brother and brother-in-law are vegetarians and they were impressed by what they got.

Terror of the Zygons was set partially near Loch Ness. The wheeze being that the Skarasen is the monster. It was filmed in southern England, however.

Addendum of 20/10/2013: I've been sorting out my photographs from years ago. Found this one in the archives of the actual pub used in Terror of the Zygons. They have photos on the wall from the recording and, if memory serves, do a range of pleasant ales. Many thanks to friend K for taking me there on our road trip back in October 2007.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 41

2013-10-02T20:16:00.001+01:00

Mars. Our closest planetary neighbour. The origin of a few species and characters on Doctor Who during its 50 year history.

Brett Vyon apparently came from there.

The Ice Warriors famously came from there.

So did the Ambassadors of... Death.

Sutekh's prison was connected with it.

It was the site of Bowie Base One which used the frozen water found there.

The photo is of a Viking lander. Not the ones that successfully landed on Mars, obviously. They are still on Mars. This one is in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, USA. I took it a few weeks ago now when I spent a highly enjoyable few hours there.

And thus ends the photos I took from the USA this year :-)

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 40

2013-10-01T23:30:00.000+01:00

Years ago I wrote a piece in a fanzine about how interesting it was to me that Doctor Who was shy of featuring stories in World War II. Good, in one way, because the temptation to treat some of the horrors of that for entertainment is a bit on the nose. Yes, I am aware that it's no less dodgy than any other period of history like human sacrifices of the Aztecs, Nero's bloody reign in Roman empire, etc, etc. And yet the sole foray of the original series was one of my favourite stories, the Curse of Fenric.

The Empty Child and the Doctor Dances were two episodes that show how well such a setting can be used. It's such a dark and scary and yet joyful and uplifting two-parter. And then there's Let's Kill Hitler, which I have problems with.

Victory of the Daleks I enjoyed, but I am aware of its flaws. Not least the weird redesign of the Daleks. What I love about it is the conceit of the Ironsides, Daleks serving tea, the victory posters, and the gloriously bonkers scene of the Spitfires in space.

The photo is of a Spitfire housed in the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space in Washington DC. A few weeks before I headed to the USA I had gone to London's Imperial War Museum in the hope I could take a photo of a Spitfire from their collection, but they are continuing extensive refurbishments.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 39

2013-10-01T21:27:00.001+01:00

On 19 November 1863 President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address. It's what the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki watch as part of the time/space visualiser sequence in The Executioners (perhaps better known as episode one of The Chase). I really enjoy the Chase as a story; it is a bit crazy, but the idea of the Doctor and the Daleks chasing each other through a series of locations and times appeals. I like it because essentially it's a bit of fun taking Doctor Who's time and space travelling schtick and playing with it.

The only downer of the story is saying farewell to Ian and Barbara. Not only the first companions, but two of the best.

Followers of my blog will know I've recently been in the USA. Washington DC to be exact. It was for work, and I've exploited it for this project. How could I not? I am back in London now, and after a little extended break in posting these you'll get a few in a row.

This photo I took over a week ago. It is of the Lincoln Memorial at the Arlington end of the National Mall. Until my trip to DC I hadn't really appreciated just how much of an impact the US Civil War has on the capital city. It's not too far from where the dividing lines were, and events took place in the city and its surrounds. My friend Greg kindly took me to Arlington Cemetery and noted that the house of the hill belonged to one of the Confederate leaders. I went to the Smithsonian Art Gallery, which used to be a patents office where Lincoln worked; nearby is the street where Lincoln was shot and later died. The Smithsonian also has a few life casts of Lincoln's head - the contrast between one taken a short while after he was elected president and then a few months before he died is astonishing.

I was surprised by how small the statue is. Also just how close up to it you can get. The memorial building that houses it is large, though.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 38

2013-09-15T20:17:00.002+01:00

The Earth's moon has featured in I don't know how many Doctor Who stories. Now I know not every Doctor's been there, but enough of them have for this photo to be a bit of a thing for all of them.

The moon has been used as a staging post for how many alien invasions now? I've lost track of how many aliens have parked up behind it, too.

It's been used as a prison.

Oh, and in a little diversion from Doctor Who, it's near enough to 13 September to do a little shout out to the fans of Space: 1999. 13 September 1999 was when half of the moon exploded out of orbit so our heroes could have their adventures in 1970s beige.

The photo I took today while visiting the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, USA. It's a bit of moon rock. That's rock from the actual moon. I love the way they have so much stuff from the moon there - bits of space junk, dust on astronaut suits, and a bit of rock you can touch. I also really liked all the Soviet material and the way the entire gamut of air and space flight is contextualised - including a nifty section on navigation. But I do feel sad about how in the real world the whole space adventure is just less of a thing now. Relegated to dusty old museums... *

* I know there is stuff still going on, but compared to what it was like when I was a kid it's just really disappointing.

50 Photos for Doctor Who: 37

2013-09-09T00:05:00.000+01:00

Back when I started this project in January of this year, I said I didn't have a budget for it. I don't. I've just been able to take advantage of travel opportunities as they emerge and happen to be where either the Doctor has had an adventure or where Doctor Who filmed it (sometimes both).

The White House has actually turned up in Doctor Who twice now. The first time on one of those clever little inserts with a neat little joke. In The End of Time President Barak Obama is seen turning into the Master.

Doctor 11 actually met the incumbent President for the adventure The Impossible Astronaut. That's the incumbent President during 1969, of course, rather than the current occupant.

I took this photo this evening, Washington DC time, having just arrived in the US capital city from London a few hours earlier. I'm here for work and am staying very near by to this incredibly famous and yet bizarrely small building that you can get up rather close to. I used no zoom lens for the photo.

I wandered off down to the Washington monument to stretch my legs and indulge in a hot dog and pretzel (not together) from street vendors. The light was amazing - golden haze so thick you could almost touch it. The sound of cicadas made me think of summers in Sydney. I am looking forward to exploring the place more in the next few weeks.