A recent interview with DOCTOR WHO showrunner Steven Moffat produced some quotes that have delighted many and, I'm sure, chilled others.  The gist is that we've seen the last (for a while, anyway) of the Doctor kissing companions, random doomed humans, and Tudor monarchs.

I, for one, welcome the smoochless Doctor.  I'm still a Fourth Doctor kinda guy, and he didn't go around kissing everybody. The friendly offer of a jelly baby was more than sufficient. (Wellllll,* that and an insanely dangerous spin in his stolen time machine that usually he couldn't control.)

But the interview also contained the hint that Moffat thinks the casting of Peter Capaldi will help to establish a new "unkissable" Doctor because, well, who'd want to get close to a man in his fifties? "Eww," Moffat seems to be saying, despite being himself a man in his fifties. And maybe this only matters to me since I was born a few months before Moffat and not terribly long after Capaldi. But what are your thoughts on this?

*You have to say it like Tom Baker.  Wellllllll....

The Doctor's Scottish Medical Credentials

So I was watching one of the surviving episodes of the Second Doctor adventure THE MOONBASE (1967) the other day, and I was struck by the fact that Polly is surprised when the Doctor commits to curing the mysterious virus afflicting the staff of the moonbase.  She didn't know he had any actual training as, well, a doctor. He reassures her by oh-so-casually mentioning that he studied in Glasgow with Lister.

He means Joseph Lister, of course, the guy who had the radical idea that surgeons ought to wash their dad-blamed hands before they operated on people, and that in general being dirty was bad for you.  Since Lister's breakthrough was in  1865 and he left Glasgow in 1869, that's probably the period when the doctor was studying with him in Scotland.

But as we know, the Doctor lies.  Why would he have studied with Lister?  Would a centuries-old Time Lord need to learn about how germs are spread?  Perhaps it's more likely that the Doctor was there giving Lister hints...

And that's an intriguing possibility, especially since it might tie in with the story the Tenth Doctor gives Queen Victoria in TOOTH AND CLAW (2006). He tells Her Majesty that he's a Scottish doctor who studied with Joseph Bell. If he's lying, he chose a clever false credential, because Bell was one of Her Majesty's personal physicians. (He was also the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, but that's beside the point.)

But could he be telling the truth?  Bell and Lister were contemporaries, and the ever-curious Second Doctor could have been drawn to hanging around with both of them. And given the trouble he had controlling the TARDIS in his first and second lives, he might easily have been stuck in Scotland for a few years.

So if he really did study with (or mentor) Lister and Bell at some point during his second incarnation, that may be why as the Tenth Doctor he chose to tell Queen Victoria his name was James McCrimmon.  Perhaps when thinking back to that time, hundreds of years in his own past, when he studied medicine in Scotland -- and was reminded of the young man who was his friend and companion up to the very end of that regeneration.

Just a theory.

Third Doctor Smooching. It's About Electronics.

A very cute short film featuring Jon Pertwee doing his best impression of Danny Kaye. He explains electronics without ever once reversing the polarity of the neutron flow!  If nothing else, this film has a shot of Pertwee passionately kissing a cute girl -- something his Doctor never got to do.  The world would have to wait for David Tennant before we'd have that sort of thing going on. 

Regenerated!

Okay, Ian and I let this blog lie fallow for far too long... nearly two years ... but we're back! It was two years of seismic changes in our lives, so if you knew the details you'd understand, but they're not relevant here. What matters here is DOCTOR WHO and we say, "On with the show!" ... or, to put it another way: allons-y!

Was Working on the Show in the 70s a Death Sentence?

Mary Tamm, the fine actress who played DOCTOR WHO's first-ever Time Lady, has been taken from us.  And shortly after cancer also claimed Caroline John (Liz Shaw) too.  And if you look through this blog, you'll see I was so shaken by the sudden passing of Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) that I couldn't even write about it here.

Once again, it's the redoubtable Charlie Jane Anders who's summed up the importance of gorgeous Mary Tamm to the show -- so I encourage you to read her remembrance of "Romana I" over there on io9.com.

But as if the early, early passing of Mary Tamm wasn't bad enough in itself, it makes her the third of the 1970s DOCTOR WHO companions who died of cancer, two of them in their early 60s.  Louise Jameson (Leela), bless her, keeps the chain from being unbroken.  Long live our Leela!

Still, it's more than a little creepy, losing Lis Sladen, Caroline John, and Mary Tamm -- all within such a short time.  Were our ladies exposed to something carcinogenic while working on the series in those days?

Sweet little Katie Manning (Jo Grant) is still with us, thank goodness, and so is Lalla Ward (Romana II).  I recently had the pleasure of meeting Matthew Waterhouse and Louise Jameson and Sarah Sutton (Adric, Tegan, and Nyssa), and they all seemed in good health, hale and hearty. For that matter, I also recently met William Russell (Ian Chesterton) who played the clever and brave Ian Chesterton in the very first episode of the show (and for three years after) and at age 87 he looked like he might go on forever.  Maybe they're all saved by spending so much time in the studio?

I dunno.  I think there was something toxic in those rock quarries that the show used and reused as alien locations in those days.  I hope Tom Baker will see his doctor for a checkup right away.

How Caroline John Helped Save Doctor Who

Check out the outstanding piece by io9 editor Charlie Jane Anders about Caroline John, who passed away recently at the age of 71.  Caroline John was known to DOCTOR WHO fans as Third Doctor companion Dr. Liz Shaw.  Here's the link to the article:

http://io9.com/5920283/how-caroline-john-helped-save-doctor-who

Dr. Shaw was arguably the first companion who was deliberately written to be the Doctor's equal. She was an intelligent and independent woman at a time when such characters were rare on television. And Caroline John played her to perfection. It's a pity she wasn't in more episodes.

Nicholas Courtney, Jon Pertwee, and Caroline John

Tiny Little Bow Ties are Cool

Animation artist Alisa Stern now claims to be the Doctor's current companion, and she can prove it -- they really do go everywhere together. Her Doctor is only a few inches tall and I think he's brilliant. The details and textures are perfect, and best of all it's a very good caricature likeness of dear old Eleven.

(Sometimes the Doctor Puppet has Matt Smith's goofy lopsided smile and sometimes he looks very very sad indeed... I need to know: is Alisa adding his mouth digitally in her photos? Did she make a Happy Head and a Sad Head? Is the mouth a sticker or something? Reveal your secrets, Alisa!)

Follow Alisa's adventures with the Doctor Puppet at http://doctorpuppet.tumblr.com/!

The Eternity Clock

We are eagerly awaiting the release of the new game from IGN! I'm especially happy that players can choose to either play as the Doctor or as River Song.  And from the preview here, it sounds like Matt Smith and Alex Kingston both get some fun things to say.  And of course their voice performances are going to be wonderful, because, y'know, it's Matt and Alex.

It looks like there's some genuinely interesting puzzle-solving to do in the game, with the kind of wit and quirkiness that will make this feel like a real episode of the series. An episode we can climb inside!

DOCTOR WHO: THE ETERNITY CLOCK
In US and UK stores May 31, 2012

11 Functional Homemade TARDISes

Lovely article by "Miss Cellania" in MENTAL FLOSS about people who have somehow brought the TARDIS into their own homes.  I'd seen some of these before, but some were delightful surprises!  Read it all here:  http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/109302


Just one of the brilliant installations.

The Only Logical Explanation

I've been thinking about Santa Claus.  On Christmas Eve, we are told, he will visit every single house in the entire world, as he has done every year for centuries.  And he does this carrying a bag that contains enough toys for every good child on Earth.

It seems to me that the only way he can visit the homes of seven billion people in a single night would be in a craft of some kind that can manipulate time itself.

His astounding longevity suggests an ability to cheat death in some extraordinary fashion.

The toy bag is clearly bigger on the inside than on the outside.

I don't know why I never realized it before: Santa's a Time Lord.

DOCTOR WHO fans, discuss.

A Parting Salute

With great sadness we observe the passing of Nicholas Courtney, beloved to DOCTOR WHO fans as Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart.  He was 81 years old.


Apart from the Doctor himself, no other character has had a longer run on the show, and since the Doctor has been played by multiple actors, no other actor in the series has played the same role for so long.  The Brigadier first appeared on the series in 1968, was essentially a co-star from 1970 to 1975, then appeared on and off until his "last hurrah" in a 2008 episode of THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES.   In all, forty years of the Brig.   


I especially enjoyed the wry sense of humor that Courtney brought to the role -- even when he was barking orders there was, just behind his exterior, the suggestion that he was on the verge of giving one of his weary, puzzled half-smiles.  He was always able to let us in the audience know that while he found the Doctor exasperating, he also admired the man's abilities and trusted him completely.


So we stand straight and tall and snap out a crisp UNIT salute to you, Mr. Courtney.  You will be missed.

Unlikely Crossover

Ever-so-slightly unlikely, but still a lot of fun:

(Click here for the big version)

Yeah, Doctor, let's see you talk your way out of THIS one.

(And then he does.)

Brilliant poster by Filipino artist Rain Beredo.

Thank you, Rain!

Good drawing! Still don't like them.

Nitro-9 drew this from memory and without reference of any kind.  Not bad, huh?

But I don't like the new Daleks.

Now We Know.

I mean, yes, now we know if David Tennant and Georgia Moffat will get married.  And that's fine.  But what I'm talking about is the new micro-figures from Character Options:

Now We Know why the new Daleks look so much like inoffensive little toys.  It's because that's what they are.

(I don't like the new Daleks.)

Bananas!

Okay - since 2005, the Doctor has made 4 banana references. One of them was from the Ninth Doctor (Have a banana. It's a good source of potassium,) and the other three were from the Tenth Doctor ("Always bring a banana to a party." The Tenth Doctor also, apparently, likes banana milkshakes. In Midnight, when the Doctor tried to stop Sky Silvestry from copying him, one of the things he mentioned to confuse her was a banana.)

But where is the Eleventh Doctor's banana reference? With the first two, they were in the first season of that Doctor's run. But so far, Matt Smith has not made a single banana reference. So, we're still waiting.

Perhaps the Doctor's love of bananas did not start with the Ninth Doctor. In The Two Doctors, the Sixth Doctor gave Peri a banana found on a space station. She stops eating it when she finds a dead Androgum nearby. Whether this is an example of banana love or just giving Peri something to eat is a mystery. He could have even been getting it away from him in utter repulsion!

When will Matt Smith declare, "I eat bananas now. Bananas are cool."?

The Triumph of Intellect and Romance Over Brute Force and Cynicism, Part II

So!  Now that the brilliantly weird Craig Ferguson "cold open" has been aired officially, publicly, and legally, we have an excuse to talk about it some more.  If nothing else we should note that in the January 6 show, Ferguson updated his thesis thus:

Intellect and romance triumph over brute force and cynicism --
BUT...
Boobies over intellect.

Made more sense in context, of course, but as a straight male who has always been susceptible to the charms of décolletage, I am forced to agree.

But more seriously, I wanted to raise again this word "romance" as a topic for discussion.   I imagine that for many DOCTOR WHO fans, especially those of the current revival of the series, the word "romance" transports us instantly to Dårlig Ulv-Stranden for either of the two agonizing partings of the Doctor and Rose Tyler.  (I'm trying to think of another moment in the series to equal this in terms of "romantic love" but I confess I'm stumped.)

I'm pretty sure, though, that Ferguson uses the term in its medieval sense (the sense which is still, apparently, the dominant one where the dictionary is concerned; Merriam-Webster, for example, cites this definition first). The gist of that definition is that it describes heroic adventure, a clear delineation between good and evil, and a setting of "long ago and far away."   DOCTOR WHO has certainly always provided all of that.

In a romance, virtue is invariably triumphant over evil.  This enables a man who's recently been comatose to defeat a giant armored warrior.  While still in his jim-jams.

Another related definition of "romance" relates to the belief in something for which there is no empirical evidence.  Examples, depending on your level of skepticism, might include belief in God, true love, intuition, or perhaps even the concepts of truth or beauty.

It seems to me that DOCTOR WHO has often confronted the conundrum of this definition of romance.  The Doctor, being from a highly advanced race and having seen and done practically everything there is to see and do in the Universe, tells us again and again that he doesn't believe in ghosts, doesn't believe in luck, and is scornful of superstitions and primitive ideas of spiritualism.

But a woman's intuition he will trust, even in absolute defiance of available facts.  He does it again and again over the years and I can't think of a single instance of this trust being misplaced.

In fact ... my son and I recently watched one of the very first episodes of the series, The Edge of Destruction, for the first time, and we were astonished to see that even here, all the way back at the beginning,* the meme is established.  Barbara believes in something she can't prove.  Ian believes her on sheer faith, but the Doctor is not only skeptical but downright scornful.

Barbara and Ian challenge the Doctor's lack of intuition in The Edge of Destruction

Of course she turns out to be right, and even the haughty First Doctor has to admit his error.  The real surprise for longtime fans of the show is that the subject of Barbara's faith-based assertion is the TARDIS itself; she feels the ship has a mind of its own and is trying to communicate with the Doctor!  So at this point in the vast epic of our favorite TV series, the human passengers understand something about the TARDIS that the Doctor does not.

So here's a romantic notion for you: is this the incident which opened the Doctor's eyes to the extraordinary potential of the human race?  Is this when his centuries-long devotion to this one tiny blue planet and its humble inhabitants begins?  When he realizes they -- we -- are blessed with abilities he lacks, such as intuition, faith, and ... well, love?

=====
*If you've seen the episode, you know there are in fact two senses in which it is "all the way back at the beginning"!

Instant "no-costume costumes" for the next WHO con

Some people don't have the time, money, or skill to sew something beautiful and elaborate for a convention costume. But don't let that stop you! Here are three "no-costume costumes" you can try.


Instant Family of Blood impression---
Step 1: Cock your head to one side.
Step 2: Inhale deeply through your nose.

Step 3: Hold your breath.
Step 4: Say "I smell Time Lord," or something similar.

Instant Captain Jack Harkness impression---
Step 1: Fall on the ground due to some unspeakable act of violence.
Step 2: Lay very, very still for 5-10 seconds
Step 3: Gasp for air, lifting your head up off the floor
Step 4: Stand up and dust yourself off.

Instant Slitheen in human disguise impression---
Step 1: Be overweight.
Step 2: Fart.
Step 3: Pretend nothing happened.

What do you think?

The Triumph of Intellect and Romance Over Brute Force and Cynicism

Since you're reading this blog, you probably know that late-night talk-show host Craig Ferguson -- a lifelong fan of DOCTOR WHO -- had Matt Smith as his guest November 16th, 2010.

I thought the interview itself was rather unremarkable, oddly enough -- Ferguson is so smart and funny that it's rarely possible to match him with a guest who's more interesting than he is -- but that's not what I want to write about here, anyway. The big deal for me was that everyone who spoke on air during the show made some mention of an opening segment that CBS Legal wouldn't allow them to air. This despite hours of rehearsal and an enormously enthusiastic response from the studio audience! And they repeatedly added (winking at the camera) that they "sure hoped that segment didn't find its way onto the internet."

Which of course it immediately did, thank goodness. And as you watch and listen, you can guess the legal trouble: Ferguson set words to the DOCTOR WHO theme as recorded by the band Orbital, who I imagine were not consulted about this performance of their music. Too bad, too, because (a) I think the Orbital guys would, if consulted, have thought this was hilarious and (b) I think it's good advertising for their recording -- I'd buy it after this if I hadn't already!

So with apologies to CBS and Orbital, here's the segment. If you haven't seen it before, brace yourself...

And here are the "lyrics" as best I can make them out:

In 1963 the BBC premiered a show about an alien
who travels through space and time to combat powers of evil
(He's a force for good in an otherwise uncertain universe)
You are correct in your summation of his character,
my profane rabbit friend!

The show has been running in Britain almost fifty years
with many different actors in the role of the Doctor
(The Doctor doesn't die he just regenerates)
The crocodile/alligator speaks the truth!

One thing is consistent, though, and this is why
the show is so beloved by geeks and nerds:
It's all about the triumph of intellect and romance
over brute force and cynicism
(Intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism...)


So here's my question. Has Craig Ferguson, in the midst of being intensely silly, defined and explained the show more eloquently and succinctly than anyone else in the last forty-seven years?

The triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.

By George, to paraphrase Henry Higgins, I think he's got it.

I plan to write more in another post about the "romance" aspect of his thesis. But for the moment, what do you think of his basic assertion? Agree? Disagree?

Looking Forward to Gallifrey 22

My Dad and I plan to be at the next "Gallifrey" convention in Los Angeles, and I am excited for lots of reasons!

I am especially looking forward to meeting the people from one of my favorite eras of Doctor Who: the Fifth Doctor!  Peter Davidson is promised to be there (for real this time!) as are Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse, and Janet Fielding.  It’s basically the entire crew of the famous “crowded TARDIS” together in one place!

I am also looking forward to buying more Daleks - five inch RC ones if I can find them.  I am also hoping to be wearing a fez.  Yes, my Dad's getting us both fezzes.  And why?  Because fezzes are cool. 

For my costume, I plan to go as Adric -- only with a fez.  My dad's costume will be less interesting; he’s just going to add the fez to whatever he’s wearing at the time.   We're hoping to buy genuine fezzes made of wool and not one of those cheap five-dollar fezzes that you get at a craft store.   But we’ll see.

But why the fezzes, anyway?   Obviously, in honor of the Doctor’s fez in The Pandorica Opens.  But an even better reason is because my dad and I enjoyed the episode of The Two Minute Time Lord podcast in which Chip jokingly ranted about people going to the convention wearing fezzes.  He predicted that Gallifrey 22 would be one gigantic sea of fezzes. So naturally we want to try to let him know we are fans of his show by deliberately wearing the dreaded fez.  And we hope hundreds of other fans will do the same!

I wonder what his response will be…

Star Whale

I know a lot of people don't care much for The Beast Below and Vampires of Venice. I, personally, however, enjoyed the entire first year of the Eleventh Doctor very much. Why people disliked Vampires of Venice I don't know, but I have a guess on why people didn't care much for The Beast Below...

The Star Whale was an interesting idea, but my hunch on why people didn't like the episode was because of apparent flaws in the logic of the whale: how does it survive in space, and why does it throw up the Doctor and Amy inside the spaceship?

This goes back to a statement I think Jules Verne made about science fiction: It cannot be as such without scientific evidence to back it up. Truth be told: there is an explanation on how it survives. Perhaps it survives on atomic particles or asteroids. It may even make its own food by moving near stars and absorbing their energy, like a plant or algae does with our own star. It may even be partly heterotrophic (searching for food) and partly autotrophic (making its own food). Another explanation: the reason it was coming to Earth was not to help the people, but to find food.

Oh, and about the vomit?  If it really was a kind of whale, it would have a blowhole.  So the reason the Doctor and Amy weren't spewed into outer space was because they went through the blowhole and not out the mouth. Earth whales do not "throw up" out their mouths, but vomit from their blowholes. That blowhole was, possibly, connected to some part of the ship, and would expel the Doctor and Amy into a sort of storage area, allowing them to escape unnoticed.

That's what I think, anyway.  What do you think?