Echoing Knock Knock

I woke up while it was still dark this morning, so I put in my headphones and started watching Doctor Who "Knock Knock." Just the stereo version from iTunes and not the full 3D audio, I guess, but it was still pretty effective sitting in the dark.

Then Alexa turned on the lights. Christine had given the Echo the voice command from the other room, but I couldn't hear it with the headphones on, so it was a bit...abrupt.

Hoisted on my own lobbied-for automation.

Doctor Who Christmas Wallpaper 2011

Happily, the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe" will be airing in the U.S. on BBC America on Christmas Day, as it's supposed to.

Since a lot of people drop by in search of Doctor Who wallpaper, I thought I'd do an updated link for the new special. Wallpaper including a great wintry shot of Matt Smith holding a sonic screwdriver can be found here.

A prequel to this year's special has just gone online also. Happy Who Holidays!

New Who

I've been so busy of late, I haven't had time to be excited about the new season of Doctor Who. It's kind of interesting how the phenomena has transformed. 

Took a year for Season 1 to air in the U.S. I can remember visiting the official site one day to discover the TARDIS materializing on White House lawn. 

Now we get the Christmas specials on Christmas night, and a new season is here almost as quickly as it airs in the UK. That's the force of demand and technology, I suppose. 

The lack of anticipation almost makes U.S. viewers take it for granted. 

Seeing the first U.S.-lensed scenes evidenced in the trailer helps with my excitement. Let the countdown begin.

Addendum
And what should arrive in my RSS feed this afternoon but an interview with lead writer Steven Moffat on the evolution of the series. Read it

New Who Wallpaper

Doctor Who Christmas Wallpaper

I know I haven't written a Doctor Who post in a while, but I'm a Whovian of a few years now and looking forward to having the Christmas special actually air in the U.S. on Christmas Day this year on BBC America.

That it's a Doctor Who look at "A Christmas Carroll" is an added bonus, because that Dickens classic is another of my holiday-season passions. For Harry Potter fans, there's that guy who replaced Richard Harris as well. OK, I know he's Michael Gambon.

Happily, to help decorate computers for the holiday season and to help with the wait, the BBC has released some Doctor Who wallpaper from the installment here.

My desktop's now decked for the holidays.

Also fun: Ferguson's lost Doctor Who Cold Open

Doctor Who Halloween Wallpaper From the Tennant era

What Writers Can Learn from Doctor Who

Doctor Who has settled into a comfortable place in America again. Between The Sci Fi Channel, BBC America and DVDs not to mention audiobooks and other spinoffs, The Doctor is widely available on our shores.

His next appearance is a Christmas special in Britain, The Music of the Spheres, followed by a series of TV movies then a change of lead actor and perhaps format.  If you haven't come to know Doctor Who, and you're interested in writing, you should check out the Russell T. Davis-penned era that's drawing to a close.

Isn't this show about goofy aliens
It's replete with goofy aliens and strange story arcs to be sure, but it's also rich with character and relationships that are worthwhile for any storyteller to observe, especially any interested in penning tales with fantastic elements.

For those who don't know, The Doctor, the title is a bit of a joke, is a Time Lord, a race found on the planet Gallifrey. He's the last Time Lord as the new series opens, a "lonely god" as one character puts it. 

In the opening episode of the new series, The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston  and later David Tennant, he regenerates instead of dying)  meets Rose (Billie Piper), a twentysomething Londoner who's having a bit of trouble finding her way in the world.

After helping in defeating one of The Doctor's recurring foes, Rose joins The Doctor on his time- traveling TARDIS for adventures in time space. Turns out she loves traveling.

Time traveling

Soon they're jumping forward to the end of the universe--in what's probably an homage to early series writer Douglas Adams of restaurant at the end of the Universe Fame--visiting Charles Dickens in the past and dueling Daleks. They're The Doctor's arch enemies and source of his planet's demise.

That wanderlust trait for Rose is at the core of the first two seasons of the new series. For a stunning viewing experience, view those two seasons as one long, incredible story arc and study what tugs at the heart strings even as people with goofy faces and occasional flatulence put in appearances.

It's really fabulous and tear-jerking, and the supporting players in the mix enhance the adventures exponentially.

Watch for the relationships, the character nuances, the clever plotting, the foreshadowing. While there are many stand-alone episodes, most things are interconnected. There's also a chilling episode called "Blink" that's worth viewing for those interested in crafting subtle chills. Angel statues can be scary, I'm telling you.

It's really worth the effort of a few hours. Is there a writer on your Christmas list? Think about Seasons 1 & 2. 

That's not a hint. I have Seasons 1 & 2. I uh, could use Season 3. 

Christine, if you're reading this...

What's on the iPod? - Doctor Who Forever Autumn

Sorry I haven't checked in for a while guys. Didn't have a new flash idea and kind of wanted to keep the flash at the top of the blog for October. I will get a jump on next year, and I hope we can do the round-robin again. That's a great idea Charles had.

I have been busy mostly working on things for school or watching too much political coverage.

School has devoured a lot of my time. I also finished a graphic novel script in and around writing a portion of a prose novel for school.

It's good to be blogging. I've just popped a Doctor Who novelization to the top of my playlist for Halloween time. It's called Forever Autumn, written by Mark Morris and read by Will Thorp who sounds a lot liked David Tennant.

The scares will all wind up being scientific, but the Doctor can often edge into the horror realm.

It's about two hours, so it's perfect to get me through to the 31st. The synopsis reads:

It is almost Halloween in the sleepy New England town of Blackwood Falls. Autumn leaves litter lawns and sidewalks, paper skeletons hang in windows, and carved pumpkins leer from stoops and front porches.

The Doctor and Martha soon discover that something long-dormant has awoken in the town, and this will be no ordinary Halloween. What is the secret of the ancient chestnut tree and the mysterious book discovered tangled in its roots? What rises from the local churchyard in the dead of night, sealing up the lips of the only witness? And why are the harmless trappings of Halloween suddenly taking on a creepy new life of their own?

As nightmarish creatures prowl the streets, the Doctor and Martha must battle to prevent both the townspeople and themselves from a grisly fate...

Sounds like fun!

Doctor Who Tackles Serious Issues

(From Miladysa I learned that today is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights Day. This is my little effort to keep with the cause. I hope it's worthwhile.)

I was not initially enthusiastic to see that the Ood were returning to this year's Doctor Who. The ancillary figures in Season 2's The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit move to center stage in The Planet of the Ood.

Whoopie, I thought. Then I settled in to watch the episode on Sci Fi where the show is airing only a little behind the BBC debut. I discovered in watching what a brilliant and timely metaphor writer Keith Temple had penned.

Subtext has long been a part of the Who universe. Much digital and actual ink was used to discuss the Prime Minister's decision to destroy an already retreating space craft in The Christmas Invasion.

Now the Ood, as we learned in The Impossible Planet, are a servant race, born and sworn to act as sort of universal butlers. In Planet of the Ood they are also standing in metaphorically for slave labor and mistreament everywhere while also indicting consumer apathy--not just in Britian, within other borders as well.

I don't think the production of a major television series could have intentionally been coordinated with the news of slavery conditions in the Asian shrimp industry revealed in an AFL-CIO study, but it certainly resonated when the Doctor and his new companion Donna (Katherine Tate) looked on a group of trapped Ood and had this exchange:

Donna: A great big empire built on slavery.
The Doctor: It's not so different from your time.
Donna: I haven't got slaves!
The Doctor: Who do you think made your clothes?

I don't mean to trivialize in any way the plight of so many around the globe. The strength of a metaphorical message can often have echoes in many ways. If it makes us all more aware consumers I believe that's a good thing. Another exchange in the episode raised relevant points:

Donna: If people back on Earth knew what was going on here…
Solana: Don't be so stupid. Of course they know.
Donna: They know how you treat the Ood?
Solana: They don't ask. Same thing.

I special order fair trade coffee, but I couldn't tell you who made the current shoes or shirts I wear. Christine has begun making an effort to study the origins of products we purchase and use, but that's a bit of a challenge.

With the current tumult in the U.S. economy, consumer awareness is the kind of thing that can quickly slide. "I can't afford to worry about such things," we might say.

Christine passed on a quote to me a long while back that sticks with me. "A purchase is a vote."

We can't afford any longer not to ask who we're voting for.

Doctor Who's Landing in the U.S. Again

The Doctor, you know who, returns to the Sci Fi Channel tonight in his time-traveling blue phone booth, a testament to growing popularity in the United States, I presume.

The third season of Doctor Who just concluded its run in Great Britain last week, while it took a year for the first season to make it to the U.S. If you've visited here often, you know I'm a fan, and Who fans don't just watch, they proselytize, or try to at least.

No Goof No Glory
A mixture of goofiness and hard science fiction, horror and hope, the new Doctor Who is one of the grandest science fiction television shows ever. If you couldn't take the videotaped versions from past years, the production values are on a par with Star Trek: TNG or any of the new Trek series.

The Best Period
And it's one of the best written television shows period. Amid all of the frantic action sequences and time travel that goes further than anyone's gone before, character-driven stories are the series' heart and soul.

A Show For Writers
This is a show that's great for writers--even of the very different prose medium--to observe. In the first two seasons, The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston who morphs into David Tennant) is paired with young British shop girl, Rose (Billie Piper), and their relationship is the underpinning for all of the first two seasons, culminating with an incredible two-part finale that airs as part of a marathon this afternoon (July 6) on Sci Fi. (Check local listings, what am I the TV Guide Channel?)

The new season, Series 3, begins in the evening with the 2006 Christmas special, followed by the first episode of Season 3 which introduces a new companion (Freema Agyeman) for the Doctor and promises to continue the quality of the first two seasons.

Tie-ins
Previous seasons have drawn on the wealth of Doctor Who tie-in material including scores of novelizations, and that continues once again with a two-part story based on a novel actually featuring an earlier incarnation of The Doctor, the one played by Sylvester McCoy. When actors change, ah, just read the Wikipedia entry.

The Human Nature novelization cum tele-story is offered by the BBC in ebook form, so it's a way to get a taste of the Who universe while waiting for prime-time to roll around.

Trust me, if you're not a Whovian, you should be. If you don't like goofy. Wait a few minutes and it's poignant.

After you read or watch, check out the BBC provided online commentaries available by iTunes. Also check out the wonderful Who Podcast, Podshock.

(I know the TARDIS is not really a phone booth, by the way, that's just short hand.)

No image rights implied. Logo belongs to the BBC.

Christmas Reading

I guess this is another of my personal holiday traditions. I like to read, and listen to, Christmas-themed fiction at holiday time, but you can only enjoy A Christmas Carol so many times.

I enjoy various versions from Patrick Stewart's one-man show to Jack Palance's Western interpretation in Ebenezer, but variety is nice as well.

I have some new-to-me items handy for downtime this weekend, when we're not cooking or shopping. I hope we don't have to do much of the latter.

The Twelve Frights of Christmas is an old anthology edited by Isaac Asimov with titles from H.G. Wells and Robert Bloch among others. I'm looking forward to a few holiday chills from that. I've had it a while, guess you could say I've been saving it.

Doctor Who
I also have a holiday-themed Doctor Who audio title from Big Finish, at least I think it is set at Christmas time. Should be a nice listen anyway. It's called The Chimes of Midnight and drops the eighth doctor, the one from the U.S. TV movie, into a British mansion in 1906 where he's faced with a mystery or two to solve. (And of course Doctor Who The Christmas Invasion re-airs Christmas Day on Sci Fi. If you're in the UK of course you get an all new Who special.)

Hopefully I'll enjoy the book and CD I've chosen as much as some of my previous holiday reads such as A Carol in the Dark, a really nice mystery from longtime editor Cathleen Jordan and The Christmas Crimes at Puzzle Manor from Simon Brett.

The Brett novel is an excellent holiday read about murders and puzzles at a snow-bound mansion. There are real puzzles you can solve built in.

Here's hoping everyone has some great holiday fun.

Doctor Who for Halloween

There's a fabulous Dr. Who image on the BBC website, a publicity collage for the Tooth and Claw episode, which pits The Doctor against a werewolf.

There's a scientific explanation of course, but it's still a horror installment, and with its full moon and sprinting werewolf it makes a great Halloween season desktop.

To me the episode is an exceptional installment in the second season, and hopefully we'll see a rebroadcast before the 31st.

Season 2, now airing on The Sci Fi Channel has many scary moments. Just on was "School Reunion" with a guest shot by Buffy's Anthony Stewart head and some fabulous winged gargoyle type creatures.

I love winged gargoyle type creatures.

We still have Cybermen to come on Sci Fi and more monsters, possibly even the devil.

I can't wait!

Doctor Who Season 1

I haven't watched and rewatched anything in a long while the way I have Series 1 of the Doctor Who revival from producer/writer Russel T. Davies.

Doctor Who Storm Warning

Budget limitations on the early Doctor Who shows meant rubber suits and occasionally wobbly sets. For anyone who ever failed to get past those and appreciate the brilliance of the stories, there are Who audio adventures from Big Finish that filled a gap for fans of The Doctor between the end of the last television series and the beginning of the new one.

I discovered the Big Finish audios while listening to Podshock, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the first I've purchased - Storm Warning.

Utilizing the mind's eye,