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Gallifrey One: 28 Years Later – Day Two

Saturday is traditionally the biggest day of the con, as a day that local fans don’t have to take off work in order to attend, and kids are out of school. The halls are thus especially crowded with fans of all sizes in costumes that run the gamut complexity. For most of the day, I was among them reprising my TARDIS dress (at my daughters’ insistence—”It matches your hair!”).

Once again the first hours of the day were spent hanging out in the Lobby until the first panel at 10. Then it was time to listen to a thoughtful conversation on “Changing Critical Perspectives,” about how both received fan wisdom and the process of criticism itself has evolved over the lifetime of the show. Paul Cornell, who moderated, apparently had tried to participate in this panel last year, but said panel drifted so far off course he felt he needed a do-over. I’m glad he did, because I really enjoyed the conversation.

After slipping away to get one last autograph, I returned to the same room for a panel about shows that had ended precipitously on a cliffhanger. There were plenty of passionate fans with opinions in the room, so although it wasn’t my cup of tea, I’d still call it a successful panel.

A little more aimless wandering brought me eventually to the Catrin Stewart interview on the main stage. It’s always fun hearing from actors I’ve never seen at a con before, and Catrin continued the trend of being absolutely lovely. I particularly enjoyed her stories about having to have the innuendo in her first appearance explained to her, and the discussion of how Jenny and Vastra’s relationship has been received.

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Gallifrey One: 28 Years Later – Day One

It’s Gally time again, and the con has officially been in full swing since Thursday night. Unofficially, though, there have been folks around since at least Monday. I arrived Wednesday afternoon, but only made my way over to the Marriott Lobby (I’m staying elsewhere this year) on Thursday morning. Every year, it seems, things ramp up earlier and earlier as folks make the most of opportunities to play tourist while in town.

On Friday, the non-con story of the day was rain. The local news seemed to be making it out to be fairly apocalyptic—and to be fair, in some parts of the region there have been several inches since the storm broke—but near LAX, and for a Midwesterner, the rain seemed steady but light. I was fortunate enough to make it to the Marriott before the rain started, and I was extremely glad not to be out in it once the wind picked up.

I thus spent a couple of hours in the Lobby chatting with random folks until the con’s opening salvo: the Radio Free Skaro live episode. I sat through the first two sections (interviews with Paul McGann and with Philip Hinchcliffe and Roger Murray-Leach, respectively) before making a couple of passes around the Dealers’ Room to ogle swag and grab some autographs.

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Confession #109: I’m Bummed Capaldi’s Leaving

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About a week ago, the news officially broke that Series Ten will be Peter Capaldi’s last as the Doctor. Although I’m terribly disappointed, I cannot honestly say that the news surprises me. After all, three seasons is pretty much the standard tenure for a Doctor, and there will often be a casting change with the changing of the production team guard.

While I have enjoyed the vast majority of Capaldi’s adventures—almost entirely due to the man himself, in some cases—I must also admit that there were scripts that left him high and dry. I suspect much of what I didn’t care for boiled down to having Moffat’s hand on the tiller (except for that one episode that was just plain dreadful IMO—now let us never speak of it again). After all, the things that troubled me most about Matt Smith’s tenure as the Doctor were certain characterizations from Moffat’s pen; I’d really hoped that Capaldi would escape his influence for at least a single series. Alas.

In contrast, some will be happy to see him go. Many of the objections to Capaldi’s Doctor that I’ve seen over the last couple of years have centered on his prickly personality. I suppose I can see why some fans would find that archetype alienating. Perhaps that reaction to Capaldi is as natural for those who most adored Smith’s Eleventh Doctor as the immediate, opposing reaction was for me. As my fandom was formed upon the fairly dour Ninth Doctor, I have found a somewhat more staid (though never completely sane) incarnation comfortable and refreshing.

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A Mysterious Plan

Review of The Mysterious Planet (#143a)
DVD Release Date: 10 Oct 08
Original Air Date: 06 – 27 Sep 1986
Doctor/Companion: Six, Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown
Stars: Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant
Preceding Story: Revelation of the Daleks (Six, Peri)
Succeeding Story: Mindwarp (Six, Peri)

Today I start a new review series, with an arc I’ve long avoided here. The Trial of a Time Lord (ToaTL) is, depending on who you ask, either a season-long, fourteen-part story or four, two- or four-part stories connected into a season arc. It comprises approximately half of the Sixth Doctors televised tenure in the role, and thus looms larger in my mental landscape than perhaps it should.

So because my reviews over the years have been particularly shy of Sixth Doctor adventures (at least the televised ones), I decided I’d finally tackle ToaTL for the first part of 2017 (with a Dalek breakaway—see what I did there?—for Power in February) before Series Ten begins.

As we begin this season, then, we see the TARDIS being pulled into a large structure in space, and the Doctor steps out—alone—into a darkened hallway. The room he enters is also darkened until, with some vaguely ominous words, someone eventually identified as “the Valeyard”—the person who is to become his major adversary over the coming episodes—reveals that they are in a Time Lord courtroom.

The Doctor is the subject of a hearing to determine whether or not he is truly guilty of “conduct unbecoming of a Time Lord.” As part of his protest, the Doctor claims he can’t be put on trial because he’s Lord President of Gallifrey (Oh, Doctor… You sound unpleasantly like the new POTUS…), but is told that as a result of his neglect for his duties, he’s been deposed.

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Confession #108: I Don’t Feel Very “Neo” Anymore

Exactly six years ago today, my first post appeared on this blog. It’s a little hard to believe it’s been so long! When I started out, I had a lot to say. I was still less than three years into my fandom, and really didn’t have anyone to talk to about the show, at least not in any in-depth way. I had only just joined Twitter, in order to promote the blog, and hadn’t even heard of Gally until I’d been on Twitter for a while. (That was back in the day when one could still decide on a whim in August to go to Gally the following February, rather than needing lightning-fast fingers during a brief few-minute window in May.)

So it felt exciting and energizing to try to connect with other fans and share my take on things in a way I’d not seen discussed. I didn’t feel like most of the folks whose opinions I was reading at the time could relate to my perspective at all, and I hoped to add a new voice to the mix.

Since then, I’ve developed a great many fan friendships, some of them close. I’ve had conversations both online (here on the blog and elsewhere) and in person about any number of Doctor Who-related topics. I’ve experienced my second realtime regeneration and all the feels that accompany the change in lead actor. I’ve met many cast, crew, and production team members. I’ve been on a bunch of panels at both Gally and my local con CONsole Room.

And the conversations have changed.

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Just a Sprinkle of Humbug

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Review of The Return of Doctor Mysterio
Warning: This review contains episode-specific spoilers and wild speculation about future episodes.

Ah, the annual Christmas Special… That sixty-minute episode that tries to be all things to all people, but most especially to those who never watch Doctor Who except this once a year. No wonder Moffat chooses Christmas as the time to trot out his most gimmicky ideas.


Source – bbc.co.uk – © 2016 BBC

Having already exploited Santa Claus/Father Christmas two years ago (and included a nod to Sherlock Holmes (and thus his own work on Sherlock) in 2012), Moffat needed a new cultural icon to shoehorn into his annual holiday offering. Since there would undoubtedly be copyright issues with something like Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, it seems he decided it was instead time to cash in on the recent resurgent popularity of superheroes—thus we end up with “Doctor Who Does Superman” this year.

Not that a fluffy superhero “romp” is entirely unsuited to the situation. The trope is easily relatable to a casual viewer, who thereby doesn’t have to know anything about the show at all to understand the premise of the episode. I’m not a huge fan of this type of genre crossover, but I thought the conceit by which young Grant gained his superpowers was sufficiently Doctor-y and believable in-universe. (“Take this,” the Doctor tells 8-year-old Grant, handing him a gemstone to hold with what, in retrospect, turns out to have been a particularly unfortunate choice of words.)

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Out Like Apathy

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Review of The Leisure Hive (#109)
DVD Release Date: 07 Jun 05 (Out of Print)
Original Air Date: 30 Aug – 20 Sep 1980
Doctor/Companion: Four, Romana II, K-9
Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, John Leeson
Preceding Story: The Horns of Nimon (Four, Romana I, K-9)
Succeeding Story: Meglos (Four, Romana II)

It’s the beginning of the end for the Fourth Doctor, as he takes one final victory lap around the universe before handing over the keys of the TARDIS to a younger, blonder version of himself. By this point the Four/Romana II team functions like a well-serviced TARDIS, comfortable with each others’ foibles and confident in each others’ roles in the partnership as much as their own.

As usual, I find Romana’s quiet competence to be one of the highlights of the story. The Doctor is mostly watchable as well, since Baker has yet to decide he’s So Done With the role, though the spring is certainly gone from his step. The guest cast also performs well—only as campy as the script requires.

The script, though… Well, it could be worse. In fact, I remembered it as being worse before I re-watched it for this review. But it’s certainly not a shining star in the oeuvre, either. Remembering that this is the season opener makes the director’s choice of spending nearly a full minute on an establishing shot panning across an Earth beach scene (Brighton) feel even more questionable; why would you think that would entice your audience to stick around for more?

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Confession # 107: I’m Feeling Undervalued

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Since the show’s rebirth in 2005, and its subsequent booming popularity in the US, the Powers That Be (PTB) have done a pretty good job including fans on this side of the Pond in various events and celebrations that might interest us. They’ve not generally made us wait for a later broadcast date for new episodes, occasionally even giving us simultaneous access (like the around-the-world release of the 50th anniversary special), and have made an effort to include American stops on their publicity tours.

These last few months, though, I’ve felt undervalued as a North American fan. Specifically, there are two multi-part storylines that have been delayed significantly for the US audience: Class and The Power of the Daleks.

Power is widely regarded as one of the best stories out there; I often see it at or near the top of “What lost story would you most like to see returned” lists (along with Marco Polo). In the UK, the 6-part animated reconstruction was released online one downloadable episode per day beginning on 05 Nov 2016. Just over two weeks later, the entire serial was available for purchase on Region 2 DVD, with online/downloadable color and blu-ray versions yet to come (31 Dec 16 and 06 Feb 17, respectively).

By contrast, the US got a cinematic version (one night only!) on 14 Nov 16 (Canada, Australia, and New Zealand got similar options), with a weekly episode airing on BBC America starting on 19 Nov 16. For those of us who weren’t able to make it to a theater on the 14th nor have ready access to BBCA, the wait extends out to 24 Jan 17, when the R1 DVD will be released from a single outlet (Barnes & Noble, for those wondering).

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Beginning of the End

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Review of Destiny of the Daleks (#104)
DVD Release Date: 04 Mar 08
Original Air Date: 01 – 22 Sep 1979
Doctor/Companion: Four, Romana II
Stars: Tom Baker, Lalla Ward
Preceding Story: The Armageddon Factor (Four, Romana I, K-9)
Succeeding Story: City of Death (Four, Romana II)

By the time Season 17 rolled around in late 1979, Tom Baker had been in the role of the Doctor for nearly five years and was beginning his sixth and penultimate season. His Companion Romana, having been shunted back into the more traditional “either scream or listen attentively as the Doctor talks” role from the “intellectual equal and foil to the Doctor” originally advertised, lost her appeal for actress Mary Tamm. The production team apparently felt there was still plenty of story left in the character, though, as they decided to make use of the fact that Romana is a Time Lord (or Time Lady, depending on who is speaking and when) to allow her to stay on with a different actress in the role.

Thus we open the season with one of the most famous scenes in Lalla Ward’s on-screen stint as Romana (usually referred to as Romana II, to distinguish her from Tamm’s depiction, Romana I): her regeneration. Contrary to the way we have always seen the Doctor regenerate—only under duress/when his current body gives up, and with no choice in the outcome—Romana has apparently decided to regenerate for kicks and grins, trying on new bodies much as the Doctor tried out harlequin or Viking outfits. Thus the writers lampshade the fact that yes, we just saw Lalla Ward as a different character at the end of last season; she’s Romana now.

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Confession #106: I’m at a Loss

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I had something else planned for this Confession, but in the days leading up to the US Presidential election, all thoughts of blogging left my head, and now that potential post no longer feels like the right thing to post today.

So I guess what I have to say instead is only peripherally related to Doctor Who. I like to think that the Doctor stands for equality and justice for all people, no matter their color, religion, species, or other identity. I like to think that he calls us to do the same, inspired by his example—including when he messes up.

I really think the US has messed up.  There are many who disagree with me, who think that anything to change the status quo is an improvement. And while I agree that there is a lot that already needed changing in our country, I firmly believe that the results of this election will not lead us to improvement. I think a lot of people are going to be hurt—and by hurt I mean economically, emotionally, and physically, even to the point of death—rather than helped by this incoming administration.

As for the "progressive left" here, the supposedly forward-thinking white liberals, I really hope the scales have finally fallen from their—from our— eyes. I hope we finally answer the wakeup call that POC have been trying for decades to get us to acknowledge. Our country has never "gotten past" racism and anti-Semitism; there's no "post-racial America." We need to recognize, call out, and change the ideas and practices in our society that allow the marginalization of so many.

For right now though, I'm still kind of numb. I'm at a loss—not to understand how this could happen, but to know how to move forward and help make positive change for the betterment of both the marginalized and the frightened, one-time majority who see their own way of life disappearing. I want to believe it can be better, but I foresee a vast amount of pain and suffering between here and there.

And I am afraid.

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