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Thrown for a Loup

Review of Loups-Garoux (#20)
Big Finish Release Date: May 2001
Doctor/Companion: Five and Turlough
Stars: Peter Davison and Mark Strickson
Preceding Story: Minuet in Hell (Eight, Charley, the Brigadier)
Succeeding Story: Dust Breeding (Seven, Ace)

It’s not often that Doctor Who tackles widely familiar fantastical creatures (e.g., vampires), but when it does, it doesn’t shy from calling out the popular mythos. That’s part of why Loups-Garoux works as well as it does.

For me, it was my tabletop RPG background that clued me in, but those who know French will also have a good idea what they’re in for the first time they look at the title of this adventure. In that sense, there was nothing surprising in the story. For the most part, it rolled out about as I expected: the Doctor and Turlough find themselves embroiled in a crisis among a group of werewolves in and around Rio de Janeiro in 2080.

While the Doctor identifies the werewolves’ condition with a quasi-scientific name, and not everything they do matches with legend, there’s no doubt that these are the traditional werewolves we expect from literature. They are pack animals whose behavior is strongly influenced by the lupine side of their nature, silver harms them, and they are long-lived. For fans of werewolf stories, then, this audio adventure is a win.

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Confession #89: I Like Obscure Species

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It’s fairly safe to say that anyone who calls themselves a fan of Doctor Who knows about Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels. Most have probably at least heard of Sontarans, Autons, the Ood, and the Silents, too. But with a series history over fifty years long, there have been a vast number of species introduced, of which many only make brief appearances. For most of them, one would likely have to watch multiple times even to catch their names.

Creatures of various ilk are a hallmark of the show, and one can’t help but speculate that writers sit around trying to out-weird each other with their creations. Sometimes there’s probably a hope in the back (or even forefront, in a few documented cases) of their minds that their new monster will be the next big hit, the next Daleks.

Mostly, though, these aliens are simply the means to an end—a way to tell the best story the writer knows how to tell at that moment. They serve one particular purpose, and then they’re never seen again. It’s some of these obscure species that I find charmingly bizarre.

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Confession #88: I See History Happening

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I don’t know about you, but I usually enjoy those little moments when the Doctor talks about (what is to us) historical Earth and gives his own interpretation of the significance of the culture or event in question. Granted, the focus is usually weighted rather heavily toward Western history and cultures in centuries past and British history for more recent events, but it’s still fun to try to put oneself in the place of a member of an alien species, and imagine how he might interpret it all differently.

What do you suppose the Doctor thinks about the current era?

I know he never says much about American history, but it’s been a remarkably newsworthy couple of weeks here in the States. With both advances and setbacks, I’ve had a familiar feeling recently; the same feeling I had on the morning of 11 Sep 2011—the one that says, “we’re watching history in the making.”

For those who haven’t seen the same news reports I have, here’s what I’m talking about. The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) handed down some key rulings last week. Whether or not you agree with the Court’s position, I don’t t think anyone can successfully argue that these decisions are not important to the future direction of the country.

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Confession #87: I Hate Best/Worst Polls

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How many times have we seen it: “All the Doctors, Ranked Best to Worst” (or “Worst to Best”)? Every fan will have their own preferences, and that’s as it should be; different strokes for different folks, and all that. But to try to codify any one viewpoint by publishing it for the world to see makes no sense to me at all.

I mean, what can one possibly hope to accomplish? Unless your goal is to get people arguing with you on the Internet (and I’ll grant that for some, there appears to be no greater pleasure), you can’t win. No matter who the article writer’s personal #1 turns out to be, somebody’s gonna come away pissed. “They call that idiot ‘best’?” “How could you rank my fave at #5?” At best, you find the one or two other fans who are in complete agreement with your opinions of every Doctor; at worst, you get death (or other) threats.

Instead of trying to do something so controversial (and, frankly, impossible—not only do my opinions change from day to day, but it’s kind of like choosing your favorite child/pet/other loved one), I thus thought I’d spend a little space sharing my thoughts on why each Doctor is awesome in his own way. Though I’m sorry—if you want to see either Peter Cushing’s version or “the War Doctor” discussed, you’ll have to peruse a different blog (although that could be a different post; stay tuned).

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Favorable Mutation

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Review of The Mutant Phase (#15)
Big Finish Release Date: December 2000
Doctor/Companion: Five and Nyssa
Stars: Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton
Preceding Story: The Holy Terror (Six, Frobisher)
Succeeding Story: Storm Warning (Eight, Charley)

You know that feeling you get when one of your friends is really excited about a story—be it a book or a show or a film—and you’ve got no problem with it, but it just doesn’t excite you? That sense that you’re either about to disappoint your friend or that an unpleasant conversation about your differing opinions is about to ensue? That’s how I felt coming into The Mutant Phase.

You see, although I’ve always liked Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor, I’ve also found him slightly bland—nothing to get excited about (I know I have several friends who are about ready to dump me upon reading that…). So when I got a nudge from one such friend to try one of Five’s Big Finish (BF) audios next, I agreed with a certain trepidation. My unease increased when I realized the first one on tap from the list of recommendations I have co-starred Sarah Sutton’s Nyssa—another of those dichotomous “friend’s favorite/just okay for me” characters.

Imagine my relief when I realized I was quite enjoying the adventure. With no need to come up with something nice to say simply to appease the Five and Nyssa fans, I could relax and take the story as it came.

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Confession #86: I Love “Children of Earth”

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Over the past few months—between Gally in February and CONsole Room at the end of May—I’ve been re-watching Torchwood (TW). It had been a while, and I honestly can’t remember whether I’d even watched any of them more than once before this. But the plethora of TW guests at Gally inspired me to re-familiarize myself with the show; as an added bonus, I got to meet an additional cast member at CONsole Room.

Knowing something of what I was getting into going in, I found the first series more enjoyable than I had remembered. My particular preferences hadn’t really changed—there are still one or two specific episodes I think are stinkers, including one that everyone else seems to love—but it was fun getting to know the team again, watching how their relationships grew and evolved.

Clearly, there are plenty of examples in Series One of the writers trying a little too hard to separate TW from Doctor Who (DW), and demonstrate how “adult” it was compared to its parent show. There are distinct growing pains, as everyone struggled to find their footing and determine just what this show should (or could) be.

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Cosplay at CONsole Room

Thanks to staff photographer Larry Barthel, I can now share a few of the costumes from CONsole Room that didn’t get illustrated in my recap post because my own images were so poor.

Entries in the Masquerade are along the bottom edge (including the Monoid; 12th Doctor not pictured).

There are too many other awesome individuals pictured here—those who simply cosplayed the con—for me to single out; I’d either list them all, or miss someone I thought was worth an extra note. Instead, I’ll just ask for your input. Which ones are your favorites?

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CONsole Room 2015 Recap

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This past weekend (29-31 May 2015) was CONsole Room 2015. I’m thrilled that a local-to-me dedicated Doctor Who convention has cropped up and made it successfully through its second year. I have every intention of continuing to patronize it, and am considering upgrading to the Sponsor level. More on that later.

[Side note: I apologize for the lack of photos. After moving house a week prior to the con, I didn’t really have my head on straight, and wouldn’t have been sure where to look for my camera even if I’d remembered. The few photos I did take (with my iPod) were simply too poor to post.]

As last year, I began my con experience on Thursday night at the Pre-Con Mixer. It was a fun time to socialize with the friends I’d made there previously, but due to guest-of-honor Colin Baker’s bad knee, he wasn’t able to circulate among the crowd as Sophie Aldred and Deborah Watling had (and to be honest, we were really spoiled by how much time Sophie spent with us last year). Nor did our table get any time with the other guests of honor. Ellie and Joseph Darcy-Alden (Francesca and Digby from The Snowmen) were unable to be there at all, and though I saw Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones of Torchwood) come in, that was the last time I spotted him.

Having had my expectations raised so far by my first experience, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that the Mixer wasn’t quite as fabulous for me the second time around. I doubt, however, that the mild disappointment I felt will be enough to deter me from attending the Mixer next year.

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Confession #85: I Need a Dimensionally Transcendental House

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Having just spent the last week packing up a ridiculous amount of accumulated crap, signing bunches of paperwork, and then unpacking some but good-god-nowhere-near-all-of-it-why-oh-why-do-we-still-have-all-this stuff, I’m starting to see a real advantage to spending one’s centuries in a TARDIS.

As we’ve moved house, we’ve stumbled across a whole lot of keepsakes that we’ve held on to for a vast stretch of years. They’re the kinds of things that when originally packed had too much meaning to let go, but have remained in boxes for so long that meaning may or may not have since faded. Sorting will take a redonkulous amount of time and effort.

I suspect the TARDIS is littered with such shelves and boxes, a collection that the Doctor has never bothered to curate. Hints at that tendency abound. For example, at least a couple separate times we’ve seen a wardrobe area littered with clothing from bygone Regenerations (and I doubt the Doctor even knows what all is lurking in the rooms filled with clothing his Companions have—or could have—used). And when Clara was lost in the depths during Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, we saw an array of memorabilia (such as the pinwheel that was in young Amelia Pond’s yard in The Eleventh Hour) suggestive of packrat tendencies I know all too well.

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Might-Have-Beens and Never-Weres

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Review of Neverland (#33)
Big Finish Release Date: July 2002
Doctor/Companion: Eight, Charley, and Romana II
Stars: Paul McGann, India Fisher, and Lalla Ward
Preceding Story: The Time of the Daleks (Eight, Charley)
Succeeding Story: Spare Parts (Five, Nyssa)

It’s been diverting to broaden my Big Finish horizons and listen to some adventures with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, but I found I was missing the Eighth. Thus I’ve returned to the last of his adventures recommended to me from the first fifty releases in the Main Range.

Charley has visited a couple more interesting points in space and time with the Doctor since last I joined them. We do not, however, start with the two of them—instead, we are on Gallifrey with Lord President Romanadvoratrelundar—known to the Doctor (and us) simply as Romana. Someone is reading out historical facts revolving around Charley’s anomalous survival of the R101 crash and her subsequent travels, but the recitation soon becomes garbled. The paradox appears finally to be too much for the Web of Time to bear.

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