Classic Doctor Who Season 18

I'm been watching all the classic Doctor Who episodes, starting with the first episode that aired in November, 1963. I'm now on Season 18. And it started with something totally unexpected: a new theme. It's an electronic version of the Ron Grainer theme. I'm a little disappointed by it. I had changed my ringtone to the original theme back in February, and now that electronic abomination is on my TV.

The starry background with the flashing lights were a shock to the system, too. You can tell this season aired during the days of disco.

The Doctor's new outfit

The Doctor got a new outfit, too. Still an overcoat and oversized scarf, but this is the burgundy-colored outfit. And, a question mark was introduced to The Doctor's wardrobe, on his collar. And, of course, at the end of Season 18, we get a new Doctor, as Tom Baker leaves the show.

Three new companions are introduced during the season, and Romana and K-9 part company with The Doctor. Behind the scenes, Lalla Ward (Romana) left the show while living with Tom Baker. They married in December 1980, around the time her character was written out of the show. They divorced 16 months later. It wasn't pretty.

The season had seven 4-episode serials for a total of 28 episodes. And it was the lowest-rated season in the history of the franchise. One episode ranked 170th for the week in the UK. Part of the low ratings was due to the rise of ITV in the UK. An American import, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century aired opposite Doctor Who.

The second serial of the season, Meglos (4 episodes), featured the return of Jacqueline Hill, who played Barbara Wright, a companion of of The Doctor (William Hartnell) in the show's first two seasons. She played a different character, with no connection to the 1960s British schoolteacher character. She wasn't the villain in the serial; she saved Romana's life by sacrificing hers. The villain was ... a cactus. Seriously. Which kind of explains the show's low ratings during the season.

Jacqueline Hill returns, but not as Barbara Wright

They did make the catcus capable of taking on other forms, including that of The Doctor. That allowed Tom Baker to play both the hero and the villain, as William Hartnell (in Season Three's The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) and Patrick Troughton (in Season Five's The Enemy of the World) had done before.

Besides seeing Jaqueline Hill again, the other highlight of the serial was seeing one of the characters kick K-9. Bill Fraser, who played General Grugger, agreed to play the role only if he got to kick K-9. The show runners agreed. It was great.

Full Circle (4 episodes) introduced a new character, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), to
the show. He's from an alternate universe called E-Space. At the end of the serial, he stows away aboard the TARDIS. The Doctor and Romana don't find out until half-way through the next serial.

State of Decay (4 episodes) was a much-delayed serial. This story, or an early version of it, was set to open Season 15. BBC canceled the story when they decided they didn't want any vampire story taking away from their major production of Dracula they aired that year. Now, three seasons later, the story was reworked into the story of The Doctor's and Romana's travels into E-Space. As, when originally scripted, The Doctor only had a single companion (Leela, at the time), the second companion, Adric, had little to do in the story. It seems like he was an afterthought ... because he wasn't thought of to start with.

Romana and K-9 left at the end of the fifth serial of the season, Warriors' Gate (4 episodes). She had been summoned back to Gallifrey before the TARDIS wound up in E-Space. Since she didn't want to return there, and since The Doctor was going to consent to the the Time Lords' demand that Romana be returned, she elected to stay behind to help free some people or some other hippie thing. K-9 stayed with her because of some damage that prevented him from functioning in normal space. Or something.

The Master made a return in The Keeper of Traken (4 episodes). He had the same, decaying body he had from the Season 14 serial, The Deadly Assassin. Well, different actor under the makeup, but you get the idea. And, at the end of The Keeper of Traken, he assumed the body of one of the characters, Tremas (Anthony Ainley). After The Master assumed the body of Tremas, he bore a strong resemblance to his previous incarnation, which was played by Roger Delgado. The character of Tremas looked nothing like Delgado, due to the makeup making the character appear much older than the actor (Ainley) was. All that to say they did a good job finally recasting The Master after Delgado's death.

The Master returns, and gets a new body

The Keeper of Traken also introduced the character of Nyssa (Sarah Sutton), who was daughter of Tremas. She didn't join The Doctor in that serial, but in the subsequent serial, Logopolis (4 episodes), she joins The Doctor. Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) also joins as a companion to The Doctor, after entering the TARDIS, thinking it was a Police Call Box.

Of course, Logopolis marks the end of Tom Baker as The Doctor. In a death scene stolen straight out of Star Trek: Genesis, The Doctor crawls across a metal scaffolding high above the ground to foil the villain's plans before falling to his death. After his three companions run to where he fell, The Doctor regenerates, with the help of ... The Doctor. Turns out a mysterious figure (The Watcher) following them around during the serial was actually a manifestation of The Doctor. When The Doctor (4.0) died, The Watcher appeared and merged with The Doctor, assisting with regeneration of The Doctor (5.0) (Peter Davison).

The serial, and the season, ended with two credits for "Doctor Who:" Tom Baker and Peter Davison. That's not the first time there were two actors credited for the role -- remember The Three Doctors from Season Ten? -- but it is the first time an incoming Doctor was credited in an episode with a regeneration. Patrick Troughton wasn't credited at the end of Season Four's The Tenth Planet, and Tom Baker wasn't credited at the end of Season 11's Planet of the Spiders, despite each appearing on-screen as the newly regenerated Doctor. And, if you remember, Jon Pertwee wasn't credited because he didn't appear in Patrick Troughton's last episode, Season Six's The War Games.

So, Season 18 ends the Tom Baker years, and the Dish of the Day from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy begins his tenure. Funny thing. Even though I remember seeing some Doctor Who episodes starring Tom Baker on PBS many years ago, none of the stories that I've watched over these last few weeks ring a bell. It was like I had never seen them. I do think I'll remember them now.

Maybe.

Season 19 is next.

Nerd Heaven and Hell

Where are all the nerds?

Well, not near the Atlantic or Gulf waters. Utah and Alaska are the states where you'll find most of the nerds, if a study by house-shopping Website Estately has any validity.

According to Estately, "rural western states are prime habitat for nerds." And, of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, my home state of Georgia ranks 48. For comparison, Frank J. lives in Idaho, the number four state on the Nerd List, and Harvey lives in Wisconsin, the number 14 state.

How do they rank the states? Here's what they say they did:

To do this, we analyzed Facebook data for every U.S. state and the District of Columbia to determine the percentage of users who listed these 12 criteria as interests:

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation
2. Cosplay
3. Harry Potter
4. Star Wars
5. Anime Movies
6. Dungeons & Dragons
7. LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing)
8. Doctor Who
9. Fantasy Lit
10. Lord of the Rings
11. Magic: The Gathering
12. Comic Books

Now, looking at that criteria, I'm wondering if I know what a nerd really is. I've always thought of myself as a nerd, and, maybe for Georgia, I am. But if this is the criteria, I'm not so sure.

Star Trek Next Generation? Well, I like the original Star Trek better. Star Wars? Well, the first three movies (Episode IV, V, VI) were good. And, the sixth one (Episode III) was almost good. Almost. And, of course, I like Doctor Who, but I'm still a little new to the whole Who thing, and I've not seen any of the new shows (2005 and later). The rest of that stuff on the list? That's not me. That's not even close.

So, maybe I'm not as nerdy as I thought. Or, maybe the study if flawed.

But, let me take a couple of issues with some of the conclusions the study reached.

The South is a virtual nerd desert...

Look at the map.



It's not exactly "the South" that is Nerd Hell. It's all the states that touch the Gulf and Atlantic, excepting Maine (I blame Canada, which surrounds half of Maine), New Hampshire (only 13 miles of coastline, and bordering Maine), and Rhode Island (why is that even a state?). It's the Atlantic/Gulf waters that drive Nerds away. I didn't even get in to Doctor Who until I moved 200 miles across the state away from the Atlantic.

I was a little surprised that Georgia ranked so low (48) yet West Virginia (10) and Kentucky (7) ranked higher. Never figured Boyd Crowder was that much into Cosplay.

Looking at the map, what do you think? Is it accurate? Or is the study flawed?

Where are the nerdiest places? And what makes them that way?

Let's all order Happy Meals

You heard about McDonald's and the Happy Meal thing, right? That they're no longer differentiating between boy and girl toys?

Some girl, it seems, got her panties in a wad over the differentiation, according to Slate. Maybe she was getting her boxers in a wad over it, which might actually explain things.

I wonder how she deals with Mens and Ladies rooms.

Anyway, McDonald's is going to stop calling the toys "boys" and "girls" but by the actual name of the toy. Like "My Little Pony" or "Skylanders" or whatever.

The pantywaists who came up with this and gave in to this all seem to claim that you really can't have "boy toys" or "girl toys" just like you can't have "man jobs" or "woman jobs." Only, I've still not been hired as a wet nurse, despite my constant pleas for such a job. And I don't know of any women professional sperm donors. Or football players. Or presidents.

Here's what I'm gonna do, and I want you to do it too. Go into a McDonald's and order a Happy Meal. And when they ask you which toy, and name some toy you've never heard of -- just what the heck is "Skylanders?" -- do like I'm going to do and say, "I don't know, I want the one for boys." Or girls, if you have a girl that wants a girl toy. I'm going to ask for boy toys, because I have two young grandsons. I might ask for a girl toy, just to screw with them.

Do this every time you go to McDonald's. I know I'm going to. It should be fun! And McDonald's is all about the fun.

How to celebrate Earth Day

It was 24 years ago, on the 100th birthday of Vladimir Lenin, that the U.S. first celebrated "Earth Day."

We approached Gaia for comment, but she ignored our requests. So, we don't really know how The Great Mother Earth feels about it.

Quite honestly, Earth don't give a rat's ass about Earth Day. It's actually for us. Well, not me and you, but the hippies that do things like come up with Earth Day.

So, let's do something for the hippies in honor of Earth Day. But what? Here's what I've come up with, but if you have other ideas, I'm up for that:

• Give a hippie a bath. A fire hose would be good for this. That way you don't have to actually touch the hippie.
• Burn a forest. It's Earth Day. That's like its birthday or something, right? And what are the Earth's equivalent of candles? That's right. Trees. So light one up for Dear Old Mother Earth.
• If you want a less public spectacle, particularly one that doesn't involve making Bambi and Woodsy Owl homeless, you could offer a private sacrifice to Mother Earth. Return to her that which came from her. Like a pile of old tires. Plus, that'd make a pretty sweet fire.
• Punch a hippie. I haven't figured a way to tie that specifically to Earth Day, but isn't punching a hippie a great way to celebrate anything?

That's all I got. What about you? What are some better ways to celebrate Earth Day?

Classic Doctor Who Season 17

I'm watching all the classic Doctor Who episodes. I began with the first season, from 1963. I'm not up to Season 17, which aired in late 1979 into 1980. The season is a milestone of sorts. With this season, Tom Baker began his sixth season as The Doctor, exceeding the number of seasons Jon Pertwee played the character.

The season also saw a new Romana. She's a Time Lord (Time Lady?), remember. And, she began the season by regenerating. They never explained why. The previous incarnation (Mary Tamm) looked perfectly good to me. But, Miss Tamm wasn't happy with the direction of her character. She was initially reluctant to assume the role in Season 16, expressing concerns that she'd be the typical damsel in distress. She was told that her character was also a Time Lord (Time Lady?), and would be an equal to The Doctor. Of course, she ended up being a damsel in distress. And, she left the show.

Mary Tamm later said that she'd have gladly filmed a regeneration scene, if they liked. They didn't, and in a departure from The Doctor's regenerations, Romana actually tried on various appearances. Initially, she took the appearance of Princess Astra, from Season 16's The Armageddon Factor, but The Doctor insisted she couldn't just go around copying people. She then took the appearance of a short purple woman, then a mature belly dancer, then a very tall woman. The Doctor finally agreed on the Astra appearance, and Lella Ward joined the cast as Romana.

The season had production problems late in the year. The final serial planned, Shada (6 episodes) was never finished due to a strike. The strike actually delayed the completion of the serial, but, by the time it was resolved, BBC decided to not complete the serial so that resources could be directed toward completing Christmas programming for the network.

Douglas Adams's influence as Script Editor was evident in the first serial of the season, Destiny of the Daleks (4 episodes). Early on, The Doctor is trapped beneath some rubble, and Romana goes for help. To pass the time, he pulls out a paperback copy of Oolon Caluphid's Origins of the Universe. In case you forgot, or never knew, Oolon Caluphid is a character from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the Hitchhiker's Guide, though, that particular book isn't mentioned.

This does bring three fictional universes together. Doctor Who brought in references to the Nigel Kneale's Quatermass series of films, radio plays, and books as far back as Season Seven. That was never official, mostly because Kneale disliked Doctor Who, but still evident in conversation. The integration with the Hitchhiker's Guide universe is with that franchise creator's blessing, of course.

There is a continuity problem with the second serial, City of Death (4 episoded). At the end of Season 16, it was established that The Doctor had installed a randomizer in the TARDIS, so he didn't know where he'd end up, and so the Black Guardian couldn't know. Only, in City of Death, he sets the coordinates for Florence in 1505, to meet Leonardo da Vinci.

Another is Romana's age. She gave one age (140) to The Doctor at the start of Season 16, and another age (125) to a character in the show. Just goes to show you how women always lie about their age. I hope The Doctor doesn't get arrested by Gallifrey police on morals charges and have to tell them "But, she told me she was 140."

Then there's the origins of life on Earth. The Doctor visits Earth 400 million years ago, and mentions that life is about to form. He was off by a factor of nearly 10, since there is evidence of life on Earth as long as 3.8 billion years ago.

I did enjoy a couple of cameos in that serial. John Cleese played a man who thinks the TARDIS is a work of art in a museum. His companion is played by Eleanor Bron, who, despite her long resume, will, to me, always be Princess Ahme from Help!

Stars Wars fans would recognize Julian Glover, who played the serial's main villain, Scaroth, as General Veers from The Empire Strikes Back. Of course, he's had a long, successful career and you really should know him as Julian Glover, not as General Veers or the bad guy from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, or the dude from Game of Thrones, or the bad guy from that James Bond movie with the Sheena Easton song, or any other particular role. He's a good villain, but that's because he's a good actor.

Oh, yeah, Catherine Schell was in that serial, too. She's hot in anything. Well, not as that hairy woman from Space 1999, but anything else.

The strike-shortened season ended with a serial based on the Greek story of Theseus, who slew the Minotaur. The Horns of Nimon (4 episodes) features a critter that looked like a space minotaur. It also had youths to be sacrificed, and a maze.

The serial that was supposed to be the season finale was Shada (6 episodes), but, as mentioned, it never aired. In 1992, the BBC filmed a narrative around the story, with Tom Baker. This was 11 years after he left the role of The Doctor, and nearly three years after the BBC stopped broadcasting the show.

The episodes, with Baker's narration was released on VHS, and later on DVD (it is still available on DVD), but that's it. The DVD is still available for purchase.

The story, written by Douglas Adams, is so-so. A little convoluted -- but what by Douglas Adams wasn't -- with typical non-realistic "Doctor Who science," such as a carbon dating of a book determining an age of 20,000 years. Since carbon dating is based on the decay of carbon-14 and its relationship to carbon-12, you can't have an increase in carbon-14 by taking an item back in time. It would measure the length of the items's relative time in existence, not its age from any known point. Now, I'm not opposed to there being a way to determine that an item is from the future, but carbon dating isn't it. Douglas Adams knew better. And, as both script author and series story editor, this never should have happened.

Oh, well. Maybe I was just expecting more, based on how much I enjoyed Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Then, I didn't care a whole lot for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. Or disappointed.

Although I did see some Doctor Who episodes with Tom Baker on PBS many years ago, so far, I can't say with certainty that I remember any of them. And, I've now completed the sixth of Tom Baker's seven seasons as The Doctor. I do recall knowing about Daleks, and since the Daleks only made two appearances during the Tom Baker years, I had to have seen at least part of one of the serials. But, I just don't remember it.

Strange, that the years for which the classic show is known, the Tom Baker years, are years where I don't remember them well, and aren't particularly enjoying now. William Hartnell's years were great. Patrick Troughton's were enjoyable. Jon Pertwee's were, too, although I didn't like the idea that he was Earth-bound most of the time.

Well, there's one more Tom Baker season to perhaps bring him up from his current standing of my 4th favorite Doctor. On to Season 18.

Easter Sunday 2014

Luke 24: 1-9

1. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6. He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7. Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
8. And they remembered his words,
9. And returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest.

The Day After

You made it under the deadline, right? Got your tax return off? Included payment, if required?

I did. Included the check for $1,230. And included a little message with my stamp.




I wonder if that stamp will earn my an audit. Probably.

Oh, and I meant to post this yesterday, but didn't. Still fresh in my mind, so I'll post it today.


[The YouTube]