Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Correction: “The triumph of intellect and romance over brute force
and cynicism.” - Craig Ferguson
  

    
I love both 'innocence' and 'intellect' in that quote, Emily, they
both work really nicely. Although I guess that Craig is right,
Doctor Who is the ultimate celebration of a person who fixes
problems just by finding things out and figuring out how to apply
that knowledge to problems to sort stuff out. A world away from
modern times with its "we've had enough of experts" making decisions
based on their own beliefs and prejudices unconstrained by the
facts.

> in the look back to the older series no one mentioned K9

What a really good point. I love the questions we've been getting
because they're making me look at things I've never thought about
before and reconsider some lazy assumptions that I've made.

The obvious reason for omitting K9 from that discussion was that I
was trying to provide a concise, slipstreamed history of the
companion - and K9 is very much the unique outlier (unless you also
mention Kamelion). He doesn't fit into that story. He is very much
apart and of his own and something of a cul-de-sac.

But the question of whether he's actually a companion in the same
sense as the others ... I find that a really tough one to answer. By
the basic literal definition he's certainly a 'companion' because he
travels with the Doctor across multiple locations in different
stories. But by the crucial criteria we view a companion - a
Watson-esque audience point of identification - he kind of falls
down. He's a tin dog there to provide data and scans and to shoot
people with his nose laser. He's a fairly simple, literal computer -
nothing like an AI today - and makes the original Terminator look
jovial and open-minded.

I loved K9 as a kid, I really did. I had the little toy version that
you could rev up on the floor and send racing off. I'm still hugely
fond of him to this day. he was catnip (ironically) to young boys of
my age back then.  But in terms of the show he's not all that
different from the sonic screwdriver or the Tardis herself. If the
Doctor had a pet cat he took everywhere, would we be listing that as
a full companion as well? (Probably, actually!) 

Ironically, C3PO and R2D2 really were originally intended to be the
film's audience identification characters despite being robots,
because they were funny and ordinary in a world if pirates and
wizards and evil stormtroopers. George Lucas patterned them on the
servants in Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress specifically as a way to
introduce the world in which it was set, and that was true in Star
Wars too. It's why they can't be skipped like K9 can be, because K9
was a gimmick the show's producers introduced in response to the
arrival of Star Wars in the cinemas but they never really understood
or developed it.

Anyone else have a view on this? I'm donning armour and preparing to
be flayed alive!
  

    
So I've just been writing up some thoughts for <whovians.> (the
members-only part of this WELL Who project - do sign up or ask for
an gift invite if you're interested) and I'll boil down those
thoughts into something a bit shorter here.

I did get to watch "The Devil's Chord" again last night (Sunday) and
reiterate what I said in <49> about just how different this episode
was to the first. Space Babies was all nappy jokes and gunge and
spoor and snot, and the Doctor and Ruby running and bouncing and
laughing and having the best time. At the end, Ruby points out "We
almost died" and the Doctor says "But we also lived so much" which
is pretty much one of the show's core mission statements.

"The Devil's Chord" was so different by comparison. From the scenes
where they meet the Beatles through to the final music battle, it's
very dark and serious and high-brow, talking about the importance of
music to the human spirit and the harm that befalls us if we don't
have it in our lives. It's incredibly high-concept to have a villain
who exists on songs and music that have gone unmade, unheard in
people's hearts. And the Doctor's throwaway line "I thought it was
non-diegetic" about the show's music is probably one of the most
cerebral ever uttered in the show.

How you get that to appeal to the same audience as the Space Babies
is hard to fathom, but that's what the show is all about. It helps
that Jinkx Monsoon will have been wildly entertaining to keep the
younger viewers watching but frankly I found her wild unpredictably
more terrifying (intentionally) than any number of snarling bogeymen
in the basement. Utterly brilliant; I'm a fan!

Okay, so the fake Beatles didn't even come close to convincing. The
ending sort of unravelled and became a touch self-indulgent with the
music battle. There were too many series arc touches to keep track
of ("the Oldest One", "the One Who Waits", the Harbinger). And
serious fans will hate the twist at the end (there's always a twist
at the end). But on that last point, I absolutely adored it.
  

    
My Denys Fisher K9 had many adventures with C-3PO and R2-D2!
Foreshadowing Doctor Who and Star Wars on Disney+! 
  

    
Do you think that Trek/Who crossover would ever actually happen,
John?

I know it did in comic book form at one point (with Matt Smith
crossing over with the TNG crew IIRC). Hard to imagine it happening
today though because of the splintering of the Trek franchise into
too many different separate spin-offs, even though it's all House of
Mouse.

I can imagine a Dr Who episode set in Muppet Space, though.
  

    
Actually, I'm aware that when it comes to the geek universe, John
has dual citizenship in the worlds of both Who and Star Wars. Does
one have an edge over the other, John?

I'm kind of fascinated by the question of how one becomes a fan of
something in the first place, and why some fan obsessions abide for
a lifetime while others soon fade. For me, there's something unique
about the appeal of Who but I struggle to articulate or even fully
understand why. Anyone have any thoughts? John? Bueller?
  

    
I wouldn't say one has the edge over the other per se. However, this
is my Star Wars Story!

<https://www.generationstarwars.com/2017/05/a-star-wars-story.html>
  

    
You know, I don't think I've ever read that piece before which is
surprising. And I'm sure I would have remembered if I had because
it's quite an emotional odyssey. The John Hood Origin story! All it
needs is a radioactive spider and you'd have the full set. Very apt
indeed for today which is George Lucas' 80th birthday.

I don't have anything like as emotional or impactful tale to my own
love of geek tales. I remember that when I was growing up, Doctor
Who was always there. Every Saturday early evening, regular as
clockwork. At first I wasn't bothered, it was just better than sport
and the news around it, and it felt like something for "me" given
that my parents didn't watch and were off doing other things at that
time, like making supper, leaving me along with the TV set to
myself.

And almost more than the television, there were the books. Around
this time, in the early 70s, a book imprint by the name of Target
picked up the rights to some early novelisations of some of the
earliest William Hartnell serials. Then they started producing
original ones of their own based on Jon Pertwee stories I'd been too
young to see when they were broadcast. They were the earliest
non-sweets items I remember buying with my own pocket money, the
first grown up books (or at least not childish stories like Noddy)
that I'd read for myself. In other words, Dr Who took me on an
adventure across time and space. The covers captured whole worlds
inside, the embodiment of being "bigger on the inside than on the
outside".

Inevitably my first brush with Star Wars was finding the paperback
of the Star Wars novel in the school library. It even had an insert
of colour photos which I studied for hours - and didn't get. What
did it mean, "See Threepio"? Of course eventually I did see the
film, with my dad, my first visit to a proper London cinema (the
Odeon Leicester Square). You can imagine the impact of that opening
'flyover' scene.

But does that mean our love and fan devotion stems purely from
associations to things we grew up with as children? I don't feel
that my love for today's Doctor Who comes from the same place. In
many ways, I think I'm swept up in the love for it shown by Davies,
and Moffat, and Tennant, and Capaldi and all the other people who
work so hard to make it and who convey that love and enthusiasm in
their work. Or am I getting too metaphysical? I have a tendency to
overthink.
  

    
When the original Doctor Who was on, I was on the wrong side of the
pond, already being indoctrinated into the genre through Star Trek.
I have only the vaguest memories of the night when I was allowed to
stay up late, sitting on mom's lap, while she and dad watched an
episode of the first run Star Trek (I think it was Day of the
Doves), because I taken an overly long nap that day.  I think I may
have imprinted on the first grown-up program I ever got to watch
after bedtime.

Later on, Star Trek reruns were a regular thing on weekdays, and so
was Creature Features on weekend afternoons with Dad, helping to
prime my interest in weird stuff.  

I vaguely remember seeing bits of Tom Baker era Who on PBS, but
those didn't 'take' because by then I expected better special
effects (Star Wars had happened, not sure if ST-TNG was already on
air). Also, the slower pace didn't fit my expectation and then more
limited viewing time. 

I came to the Doctor properly through discussions here on the WELL
and elsewhere, and started with the first 2005 episodes on Netflix. 
I was working hard, living in a new place, and needed something fun
and distracting at times that could really hold my interest.  It was
between Star Trek series and Battlestar Galatica's reboot was
already over.

The pacing, dialogue, acting, plots and the overall positive
worldview of post-2005 Who have kept me a fan since.  The Doctor
wasn't bound by the Prime Directive, at least not in the
future....though he did need a fair bit of restraint in the past to
keep the present in place.  I agree with the value he places on
every single life, however ordinary, and uses his brain more than
his brawn to fix things. 

Once I had run through all of the episodes of the series from 2005
until I was caught up, I went back to the classic Doctor Who. This
time I was ready to watch past the lousy special effects, and some
really silly plots, and eventually, I got sufficiently obsessed to
make a spreadsheet of them, keeping track of the harder to find and
truly lost episodes.  I have been able to like all of the Doctors
well enough, although I am not enough of a fan of the classic Who to
have watched all the way through multiple times, the way I have the
post-2005 version.

I came to Star Wars by way of my older brother, who had heard
something cool was on the way and got tickets to the SF premiere.  I
remember him and Big John coming home that evening and saying, "this
is going to be BIG!".  I had to wait for it to hit the local cinema
quite a bit later, and we could get Mom to buy tickets and popcorn
for those of us without jobs or drivers licenses....  But much as I
loved the original trilogy, that hasn't extended to a generalized
fandom for all things Star Wars, and I've not followed the new
movies and series, as they've come out across various
outlets/services/media.  I think maybe it just hasn't had as much to
say to me, particularly as I've gotten older, as Doctor Who still
does.  I have less of a sense of Star Wars being intended for the
whole family to share.
  

    
How odd, I just turned on the TV and what came up was the last five
minutes of Day of the Dove!

I remember Star Trek coming up after I'd been watching Doctor Who
for some time. Perhaps because it was more grown up? Although it was
shown on BBC Two at 6pm on a weekday evening so I suspect it was
edited for violence. I loved the FX but it was never as personal to
me as Doctor Who - maybe because it was more grown up, or more
military? 

We didn't have much science fiction in the 70s until Star Wars came
along. It was mainly Gerry Anderson shows like Stingray,
Thunderbirds, UFO and Space 1999 which were endlessly syndicated for
years after their original broadcast. It kept us going though.

I think we all knew about Star Wars being huge in the US by the time
it was released in the UK, but we still didn't realise just HOW huge
it would be. It certainly made Doctor Who look cheap and tatty back
then (it was a time of severe industrial action in the UK and they
were lucky to get anything made at all in 1978). 

Oddly I think the main effect of Star Wars on me was to get me back
into science fiction after drifting away for a few years, and Doctor
Who in particular from "Destiny of the Daleks" with stylish disco
Movellans and their silver dreadlocks.

It was a very different time.
  

    
(I'm envious that you and your dad bonded over such creature
features et al, (debunix). My dad was and still is completely
resistant to all things science fiction, fantasy and horror; I
rather regret we never had a shared enthusiasm like that.)
  

    
I would venture that the some of the recent Star Wars spinoffs are going
for that family vibe again, especially trying to recreate the tone of
the original Star Wars movie (hmppf, fine, A New Hope, whatever). 

The Mandalorian (plus Boba Fett and Ahsoka) is silly space western stuff,
and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rogue One, and Andor are perhaps more adult. I think
it's all worthwhile (though I haven't watched any of the animated series),
and surely the quality is not much less variable than Dr Who.
  

    
I always felt that the Star Wars films got too stuck in a rut, too
pompous and self-important and full of themselves. They kept going
over the same stories and themes again and again until it felt that
the well was as dry as Tatooine. The franchise needed to unfurl and
bloom, and I think the recent spin-off shows have finally given it
the space to do exactly that, to breathe and organically develop a
fully realised new galaxy. Doctor Who, being disorganised and all
over the place, did this over decades almost despite itself.

Talking of spin-offs, it's hard not to believe that Disney didn't
invest in The Whoniverse without one eye on a plethora of spin-offs
alongside the main series. I'm surprised it hasn't started already
TBH.
  

    
Surely a Dalek spin-off series! Dalekmania at Disney Parks!
  

    
Please form a line at the Terry Nation estate office!
  

    
Talking Star Wars! A long time ago… <draml> and I talked The Force
Awakens!

<https://www.generationstarwars.com/2016/05/star-wars-spoilers-awaken.html> 
  

    
I think that one of the charms of Who and Trek (and sci-fi's like
Them) is that the effects are corny, but everyone goes along with
it.

I have a theater friend who was a set-builder for various series  in
Canada ... they'd get the stage in the morning, and by early
afternoon they'd have an alien landscape, or a western bar ...
finishing the painting and props during rehearsal. Then they'd tear
it down for the next-day's show.

And on that theme, the first Alien was the first (ISTR) to get
space-ships right .. smelly and grungy.
  

    
Well, Dark Star was 1974. I think Silent Running also had lived-in look,
and Bruce Dern's robot friends (Huey, Dewey, and Louie) were another
inspiration for Star Wars.
  

    
It’s a privilege to read the ‘origin stories’ of members.
  

    
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Star_(film)> .. didn't reach me
(in the UK at the time).
  

    
I think I first watched Dark Star on BBC2! You can see the embryonic
genesis of Alien in its DNA.
  

    
They stepped it up a bit from the alien beachball to Giger's glistening
nightmare creature.
  

    
>I'm envious that you and your dad bonded over such creature
features

I almost always got along quite well with my Dad, because we shared
so many interests over the years, starting with redwood forests,
pretzels, Star Trek, homemade pizza, making art and photography, and
a love of all things science and science fiction.  But he had a
volcanic temper that drove my siblings to avoid him much of the
time.  Being the youngest, I very deliberately took notes and vowed
not to do what they did that made him so upset, and I was mostly
successful.  I really did like these things--I wasn't just trying to
find ways to make him like me--and I still love them.  

But I can't get Mom to watch Doctor Who with me, no matter how
beautiful the Doctor or companion(s) are.  We had to bond over other
things, like stationary, chocolate, murder mysteries, and
photography.  She did watch and enjoy the Star Trek, but that was
about her limit with things imaginary.  It's sad because I think she
would love 'A Christmas Carol' if I could get her to give it a
chance.  But even though the companions all function a bit like the
nosy amateur detectives of so many murder mysteries, it's too
complicated with time travel and not always solved in one hour.

And now I would like to register a complaint with the universe and
the BBC about the literal title of this topic, finding Doctor Who.

It's all over the place: for me right now, in Los Angeles, the
classic Doctor Who is on BritBox. 2005 episodes in forward are on
HBO except the brand new season, which is on Disney.

I had subscribed to a month of Disney to get the holiday specials,
and then re-upped just now to get the new season started.  And as
soon as I had to run out of Gatwa's joyously bounding Doctor, I
wanted to go back to where I had been on my most recent rewatch, the
Martha Jones season.  But....where to find it?

Over time, as new seasons were not popping up right away on Netflix
etc, I bought most of the post-2005 seasons and specials but some of
them I bought from one service, some of them from another service,
and some of them happen to be on some thing I was already
subscribing to.  So I need to go back to my spreadsheet and once and
for all track where I have purchased which ones, so I don't double
up on digital purchases to keep viewing on the next rerun through
the series.  
  

    
Just now, realized I did have a spreadsheet.  But even with that, I
can't find or buy the Paul McGann movie.  
  

    
Was talking to someone about this the other day, but "Rogue One" is a
decent standalone movie if you're ignorant of Star Wars, even in
general.