Doctor Who and Networking: Who's There!

Designer Tara Reich as Idris from "The Doctor's Wife"

I, of course, had had nothing to do with Brian's accomplishment. In one of my triumphs of networking, I had hit Westfield Comics' branch on the west side of Madison (check out Manager Bob Moreau's blog) on Free Comic Book Day in May - which turned out to be where Brian had set up his TARDIS. (Many were the fans who took photos that day, often posing next to or coming out of the Doctor's time machine.) Conversation ensued, I took my own photos, and we stayed in touch. Which is what networking is all about, come to think of it. Brian kindly invited me to join in the fun of the premiere event, and it was a delightful mix of longtime fans and, yes, people who were seeing the show for the first time. (I can't quite imagine what the latter group must have made of it; from time to time throughout the party that followed, I'd find myself encountering one or another fan trying to summarize briefly the history of a series that began in 1963. Best advice I could come up with: Start with the first season of the show's restart in 2005. Thank you, BBC America and DVDs!) And the networking went on, including meeting a designer whose eye-catching re-creation of a costume in one of the season's best episodes is only one of her accomplishments. (She showed me photos of some of her other Doctor Who-based outfits, many inspired by the show but not copied from it: wonderful!)

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Where's the TARDIS Brings WHO Premiere to Madison



Happy Doctor Who premiere atteendees

Who'd have thought it? Thanks to BBC America - and the incredible efforts of a Doctor Who enthusiast - Madison, Wisconsin, was the site of yesterday's world premiere of the restart of the BBC series with the eighth episode of the sixth season: "Let's Kill Hitler" by Steven Moffat. (Our showing was simultaneous with the showing in the United Kingdom itself; ordinarily, U.S. showings are delayed a few hours in order to put them in prime time.)

Months and months and months ago, Brian Bull decided he'd join the BBC's "Where's the TARDIS" competition, in which fans produced their own versions of the vehicle in which the time-and-space-traveling Doctor voyages. Brian's edition was an ice-fishing shanty, and his entry included images of the construction of the wintry project. Long story short: Brian's entry won - and part of the prize was the premiere, shown in the Madison Sundance Cinemas 608 theater at the Hilldale Mall.

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Steven Moffat sets an example for pop-culture heroes, no spoilers

At least, I hope I won't give away anything, in case readers haven't yet had a chance to see Doctor Who 6:7, "A Good Man Goes to War." And, note, I have yet to go back to rewatch the Moffat DW oeuvre: 1:9-10 ("The Empty Child," "The Doctor Dances"), 2:4 ("The Girl in the Fireplace"), 3:10 ("Blink"), 4:8-9 ("Silence in the Library," "Forest of the Dead"), all 5, and all 6. Topping it all off, of course, is that none of us has seen what Moffat will do in the second half of the sixth season.

But here is The Thing: A tedious trend in serialized pop culture is that somehow people who are married can't be heroic. Or interesting enough to care about. A character, once introduced as single, must stay single - or, if married, be returned to a single state, as is "normal" for that character. I'll accept that Reed and Sue Richards may be an exception - but even there, I think it's because Sue began as invisible and has pretty much remained that way. A married couple as equal partners, equally heroic, equally interesting, equally loving ... The "mainstream" serial pop-culture world not only does not have this as its norm, it rarely has it at all. Heck, the primary super-heroic family success story that springs to mind is The Incredibles, but that was conceived as a post-heroic-turns-heroic adventure - and, additionally, it was also pretty much a one-off.

But Moffat? He seems to specialize in giving viewers a world in which mothers and fathers - even some of the bad guys - act heroically and lovingly on behalf of their children. And a world in which the children are important, and abandonment is catastrophic. And in which marriage is not a boring end to adventure and heroics and edge-of-the-seat cliffhangers. Admittedly, Moffat must have had at least some of the story arc of Amy and Rory planned long in advance - but what a change it has been for the series, which has not had such Companions in any other arc since its inception in 1963!

And why haven't more creators realized that the story possibilities are increased, not lessened, when there is a family at its center? Why must they kill the baby, break up the couple, drive one of the couple insane, make one of the characters a cipher or villain, or otherwise confine their stories to a "normal" state of focus on One Single Hero, bravely facing adventures alone? Swiss Family Robinson showed readers in 1812 that a story could have a strong family as a major element and still be popular. (But, then, Johann Wyss was not setting up a series designed to spin off stories for decades.) There are a few comic-book writers who have avoided the routine of couple destruction; we should treasure them. But their stories aren't the norm.

Kudos to Steven Moffat - and to Doctor Who. I can hardly wait until "late summer," when BBC America promises Season Six will continue. (Keeping hope alive that, as at the start of Season Six, America will get to see episodes on the same day they air in England.)

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Even the TARDIS Came to Free Comic Book Day!

TARDIS, Brian Bull

As always seems to happen in the fun that fills Free Comic Book Day, I came away with notes and photos and comics and books too numerous to deal with quickly. In fact, my current goal is to limit myself to one or two comments per day over the next few days, if only to get myself back to some sort of schedule on this blog! But the most time-sensitive note would seem to be that concerning "Wisconsin's ice-fishing TARDIS entry" in the "Where's the TARDIS?" contest. Though a conversation with the TARDIS' host, Brian Bull, elicited the information that he works for Wisconsin Public Radio, I confess that the name hadn't clicked as one I should recognize until just now - "Oh, wait! That Brian Bull? The one whose reports I hear on WPR?" Well, yes. That's just how full my brain was by that point May 7. (You know how it is: You connect a person with their surroundings, and this guy was most clearly identified with a blue Police Box and ... Never mind.) This TARDIS had landed in front of the East Side branch of Westfield Comics just in time for Free Comic Book Day - and many people were taking the opportunity of being photographed emerging from it.

The point is that Brian was in the midst of a campaign that ends soon! So do not delay: Go here and click "Like." I gather that's all it takes. (I don't understand the ins and outs of all this, I confess. But time is of the essence; I do know that.) After that, you can follow his links to see photos of the work it took for him to put together his special entry. And, hey, can you go ice-fishing out of the bottom of The Doctor's TARDIS? That's something we haven't seen - but the season isn't over yet.

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NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour - Well, 49 Minutes

I've been waiting all day to get a chance to settle down to listen to National Public Radio's latest podcast. It's Pop Culture Happy Hour, despite the fact that no alcohol was actually imbibed by participants Linda Holmes, Trey Graham, Glen Weldon, and Stephen Thompson. (I note that the "Categories" into which the website feels it belongs are "Live Chats, "Culture and Criticism," and, yes, "Unclassifiable.") What the podcast amounts to is the sort of thing you get when a bunch of buddies sits around sharing views and reviews and maybe playing some sort of game (in this case, identifying TV shows from brief audio clips). (My favorite of those clips was a woman describing a guy by saying, "He's wearing a - yom kippur, I think it's called." Just saying.)

Comic-book commentator Weldon doesn't get a chance to discuss Aquaman, choosing instead to discuss a recent episode of the BBC's Doctor Who ["Vincent and The Doctor"] in which The Doctor fought "a giant killer chicken lizard" that also happened to be invisible. "They spent a lot of money on the sets," Weldon said. "They spent a lot of money on the costumes. ... The fact that it was invisible was what made it so cool." The discussion quickly morphed into whether it was a giant invisible chicken lizard or a giant invisible turkey. "It had a space wattle," someone pointed out.

And so it went, with comments on the summer's Iron Man movie, the summer's Twilight movie, the possible departure of 30 Rock and The Office stars, the entire group's adoration of NBC's Community series, and more, more, more. It didn't hurt my enjoyment that Stephen is my son or that this is, truly, the sort of conversation I enjoy listening to - whether at a convention, in a comics shop, or sitting around with family and friends.

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Be Careful What You Wish For ...

One of the obsessions that qualified me for my job (currently as Comics Buyer's Guide Senior Editor) was BBC science fiction and fantasy. I created the magazine Fantasy Empire, which had a focus on Doctor Who -- in large part to help me explore further the realm of the series that was relatively inaccessible in America. In the course of my life, then, I've actually spent some time with Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. (Not to jump that up to overstatement, "some time" was, at most, a dinner. But super-nice performers, each of whom did his best to provide a pleasant interlude for a goggling fan.)

Thanks to a tenuous connection to the world of comics (there have been Doctor Who comic-book adventures in England and America, after all), I can maintain a minor presence of DW material in CBG and at CBGXtra. I recently noticed that there'd been a bunch of BBC shows that I wanted to review here, there, and everywhere, so I asked for what was available. And wow.

I have a couple of months without plans to visit other states, so the project is doable, but the thing is that the BBC is among the best providers of DVD entertainment based on its shows. Not only does the customer get the show as aired, but the bonus material is incredible. Once you see the show itself, you can rewatch it with commentaries, featurettes, and similar bonuses. So a reviewer can begin by doubling the length of time to watch the feature itself and go from there. Here's what I get to explore:

Doctor Who #17: The Time Meddler 1965, 1:40 [total for the feature alone, then, is 3:20 -- and there's scads of bonuses, which I won't bother to note in the rest of this list, but includes here a look at The Doctor's appearance in comic strips]

Doctor Who #93: The Invisible Enemy 1977, 2:23 [4:46 -- and, since that introduced K-9, there's a bonus included in the time count of K-9 and Company, 1981]

Doctor Who #97: The Invasion of Time 1978, 2:30 [5:00 -- and one of my favorites]

Doctor Who #130: The Five Doctors 1983, 3:11 [6:22 -- but I'm not sure about this, because it says it's the 1983 and 1995 versions; we shall see]

Torchwood: The Complete Second Season 2008, 10:28 [20:56 -- and the packaging doesn't mention extras but]

Not to mention two other boxes:

Robin Hood Season Two 2008, 9:47 [I'm not sure whether this set has commentaries on every show, but there's at least one -- plus three featurettes]

And

Spaced: The Complete Series 1999, 5:50 [Man, I'm not sure, but there seem to be many bonuses, including some commentary work by such people as Matt Stone, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino. Comics connection? Yep: One of the two focal nerds is a wanna-be comic-book artist; he's played by Simon Pegg. I can hardly wait and I'm not being sarcastic!]

Time to quit blogging and turn on the TV!

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