I'm Back

Oct. 4th, 2019 08:41 pm
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I've only had intermittent access to the internet for roughly a week and a half. Before that I was deep in drabble-writing-land, but I'm back now. Prepare yourself for bullet point updates!

Reading


  • I listened to Big Finish's The Martian Invasion of Earth featuring Richard Armitage and Lucy Briggs-Owen and it was truly frightening. I can see why it won Best Audio Drama for 2018. Armitage plays a fictionalized version of H.G. Wells in an alternate 1890s where the only thing that's changed is that aliens invade Earth. Definitely one that's worth picking up if it ever goes on sale.

  • I bought the novelization of the Second Doctor serial "The Mind Robber" primarily because it was read by the fabulous Derek Jacobi. The TV version is one of the more surreal 1960s Doctor Who stories and isn't one of my favorites, but I was pleasantly surprised by the book version. Not only does Jacobi shine, but the story is so much better in book form where the special effects all take place in your head. Author Peter Ling also beefed up the rather weak plot and made it into an engaging story.

  • I listened to the War Doctor novel Engines of War by George Mann. In general, it was quite good and I enjoyed the character of Cinder. The War Doctor has always been a tricky prospect: how do you write a version of the Doctor who does things the Doctor wouldn't and yet is still the Doctor? The general solution (and something that Big Finish does a lot the War Doctor audios) is to make him a toothless, shouty Doctor who keeps telling people how bad he is without...actually...doing anything bad...ever. The book gives him some teeth, at least early on; you can believe this is someone who has done and seen horrible things. By the middle he's back to being very Doctorish, but there's an in-story explanation for that, so it didn't bother me as much. Your mileage may vary. I wrote oodles of drabbles for it, if you're interested.



Which segues me into...

Writing


  • I've finally broken through my brain block on the "Hill House Eight" chapter I've been working on for what feels like forever. I should a have a draft of that ready sometime this weekend.

  • I've written a lot of Time War stuff recently. In addition to the War Doctor drabbles, I've finished writing for the Eighth Doctor Time War vol. 1.

  • I'm about done writing for the Second Doctor Companion Chronicles vol. 1, I just need to finish up writing for "The Integral." The other stories include "The Mouthless Dead" and "The Story of Extinction," which both have new drabbles, and "The Edge," which I wrote for years ago.

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I've had a week of day-long meetings after which I couldn't word any more, so I haven't written anything lately. Last week I finished off the drabbles for the Third Doctor audios "Primord" and "The Scream of Ghosts." Of the two stories, "Primord" is my favorite - having Liz Shaw and the Brigadier back in the audios is such a treat. And, since I have a long weekend coming up, I'm hopeful to spend part of that working on "Hill House Five" a bit.

I've started a few audiobooks during the time I haven't been writing. I just finished Doctor Who: The Faceless Ones by Terrance Dicks, the novelization of the Second Doctor serial where Ben and Polly leave the TARDIS. It's one of those stories that is so bizarre that it probably works better as a book than on TV and I enjoyed it, although it's an interesting choice to have the two departing characters practically disappear for the greater part of the story. Then there's Jane Austen at Home: A Biography by Lucy Worsley, who is one of my favorite British historians. And finally, there's Circe by Madeline Miller. I'm only a few chapters in on that one, so it's a little too soon to say, but I'm enjoying Circe's voice and all the threads of Greek myths that Miller weaves through the story.
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I love Dracula. I own a couple of copies, from a second-hand paperback version to an annotated hardback to a combo app/interactive game/e-book type thing, and of course I've watched various films and TV shows based on it. I'm aware of its faults and issues, but it's one of those stories I love despite everything.

For the last few weeks I've been listening to Audible's full-cast version before I go to sleep. You know what's really annoyed me this time? The men repeatedly mentioning how glad they are that they're "saving" Mina by not telling her anything they're doing to combat Dracula. I suspect it's the actors' performances that make that repeated theme come across as so condescending and smug, but somehow it's never had as much impact on me before.

Anyway, I just made it through that part and into the section where they're destroying the coffins of dirt, meaning the end is in sight. on the whole I've really enjoyed this version, especially the voice actors who are all spectacular.


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This weekend was busy on the drabble-writing front, including:
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There are a lot of interesting sounding audios coming out this month, so I'm going to squee at you a bit about them.

Doctor Who: Ravenous 3 - This one comes out Monday (MONDAY!!!!) and its the audio I'm most excited abut. It's a continuation of the current Eighth Doctor/Liv/Helen storyline and features three villains: the deliciously evil the Eleven, an earlier version of the same Time Lord (called the Nine), and the Ravenous. The Eleven and all of his (or her) previous and future incarnations have regenerative dissonance, meaning all of their previous selves exist in their head simultaneously with their current self. It's an interesting take on regeneration and the ways it could go wrong. We're still learning about the Ravenous, but what we know so far is that they are monsters from Time Lord fairy tales who eat temporal energy and whose preferred diet includes Time Lords. As a result, most Time Lords (the Eleven and the Eighth Doctor included) have a nearly uncontrollable fear of the Ravenous. Fairy tales are very much the theme for this storyline; the previous volume included a two-part story featuring the Krampus and this one has an intergalactic version of the Brothers Grimm. On top of all that, there's an episode where Liv and Helen team up with future and past Eighth Doctor companions Charley Pollard, Bliss, and River Song.

UNIT: Incursions - The big draw for this one is River Song, but there's also evidently multiple versions of Kate Stewart, a dinosaur, and a return to one of UNIT's dirty little secrets, Abbey Marston.

Torchwood: The Green Life - I don't generally listen to Big Finish's Torchwood audios (I was never a fan of the series when it was on the air), but this one has Captain Jack teaming up with Jo Jones (previously Jo Grant, one of the Third Doctor's companions). Jo on the TV series isn't one of my favorite companions, but I love Big Finish's version of Jo. They've just fleshed out her character so much more and Katy Manning, who plays her, is fantastic.

Doctor Who - Short Trips: Year of the Drex Olympics - The Second Doctor learns Venusian aikido from a group of nuns! (Or so they've teased in other stories. We'll see if that's really what this one is about.)

Doctor Who: The Monsters of Gokroth - This is the first of a trio of stories featuring the Seventh Doctor and a relatively minor character from one of his TV serials, Mags from "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy." I watched that story for the first time recently and wasn't impressed. That said, Mags was an interesting character. I'm cautiously optimistic that these stories will do for her what the previous Fifth Doctor stories did for Kamelion.


Things that I have so far resisted the siren song of:

Dark Shadows: Bloodline - I grew up a HUGE Dark Shadows fan, which is probably the most on-brand thing ever for me. I mean, come on - vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, curses, time travel, creepy houses on windswept cliffs overlooking the ocean, and low production values all wrapped up in a vaguely nonsensical, campy soap opera. I've listened to a few of Big Finish's Dark Shadows audios and they're a mixed bag as far as quality. However, the series that preceded this one, Bloodlust, was very enjoyable. This series picks up not too long after that one, with the Collins family's resident dumpster fire of a descendant, David Collins, marrying his childhood sweetheart, Amy Jennings. All the Collinsport regulars will be there, including the supernatural ones, and I'm sure the whole thing will go off the rails in no time. :-)

Gallifrey: Time War 2 - This one was released last month but I'm including it here so I can talk about it. On the pro side of the ledger, I enjoyed the previous set in this series. I also have a Time War drabble collection I'd love to add to and in this set they're bringing back Rassilon, who I love to hate. There's also a story by Una McCormack, who is one of my favorite Doctor Who writers. On the con side, I'm not a big Gallifrey fan. Most of the characters I really cared about (Ace, Leela, Brax, and the War Master) exited in the previous set of audios in dramatic, if not permanent, fashion. The only regulars left are Romana and Narvin and I don't feel overly compelled to find out what happens to either of them.
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I've never been a big fan of the Daleks. I know that's practically sacrilege for a Whovian and I can name a few Dalek stories that were really good, but on the whole the Daleks have rarely frightened me. Cybermen, on the other hand, regularly scare the bejeezus out of me. There's something about their almost-humanity (minus emotions) that is really horrifying. They are my favorite of the classic villains, which is why I've been listening to the audiobooks for their first two TV stories.

I started with Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet by Gerry Davis. This was William Hartnell's last story as the Doctor as well as being the first ever appearance of the Cyberman. I had high hopes for this one and, long story short, I was pretty disappointed. It's a basic "base under seige" story and I usually like those, despite the fact that they tend to follow a certain pattern: the Doctor and friends show up somewhere by accident and are taken prisoner by suspicious military types who blame them for whatever issue is currently going on; the leader is obstinate and won't listen to reason despite multiple attempts to alert him to the true situation; the real threat shows up and wipes out a considerable amount of the population; the Doctor and his friends rally the survivors and save the day.

The book hit all those points like clockwork so it's pretty predictable, but that's not the only problem. It's also a very character-lite story. The Doctor doesn't feature in it much and, while I'm sure that's because Hartnell was ill at this point of the series, I don't see why they couldn't have fleshed his role out a bit for the novelization. Anyway, he's rather absent and that makes the story feel less like Doctor Who and more like your average 1960s science fiction. Polly doesn't get to do much of anything other than make coffee; she does have one scene where she fearlessly confronts the Cybermen but otherwise she's just there to ask questions. Ben is the only one who really takes an active role. To make things worse, unlike the Daleks who appear fully formed in their first story and don't change all that much throughout the rest of the series, the Cybermen aren't quite themselves yet. They aren't clever and, despite their numbers and relentlessness, they aren't that difficult to defeat.

As far as the audiobook version, Anneke Wills does a fantastic job with the narration and voicing all the characters, as always. But I'd say this one is only really for die hard First Doctor fans or completists who have to listen to or read every story in order.

In some ways the next appearance of the Cybermen, Doctor Who and the Cybermen by Gerry Davis, is the exact same story as Tenth Planet. It takes place in a base under siege, just on the moon rather than in the Antarctic. The base is staffed by scientists rather than the military, but the chief is still gruff, suspicious, and obstinate. Once again the Doctor and his friends are suspected of sabotage, but that's where the similarities end. Unlike its predecessor and despite the fact that Jamie is injured for the first half of the story, all four of the leads have plenty to do. Polly and the Second Doctor in particular have a lot of good scenes and interactions. One of my favorites for Polly is when she's redoing her nails (no really) while being held prisoner (as you do) and makes the connection between the Cybermen's plastic chest units and the chemical makeup of her nail varnish. She uses that information to cook up something to use against them and calls it "Cocktail Polly."

As for the Second Doctor, he's his usually sweet, befuddled, and yet sneakily frightening self. The Cybermen are more like they'll be for the rest of the series: cunning, cold, and implacable. The action is far less predictable, even if the science doesn't really hold up, and the dialog is better. All in all, it's a much more enjoyable read (or in my case, listen).

Edit to add: by the way, according to Doctor Who and the Cybermen, the events of Tenth Planet take place in 1986. So what were you doing during the first Cybermen invasion?

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