It took me a little while to figure out what “A must-see in 3D” movie was from their promo. Does this film even have giant robots in it?

wow. Geoide isn’t in my dictionary!… ah. that’s because the word was Geoid.

I now have a new piece of technobabble for my upcoming Star Trek FATE game. One of my players was talking about having his character be a terraforming engineer so:

Geoide: All in one tool for controlling terraforming systems.

I’m pretty sure I remember an interview about Time Crash in which it was said that Peter Davison was “My Doctor” to both David Tennant and Steven Moffat. Could there be a strong influence there? If you think I’ve reading too much into this, then you are probably right, but I’ll claim a free cookie if the person River killed turns out to be her father.

Meanwhile, if you want some more of the NTT crew and can’t wait until Saturday, Big Finish have just released the nicely amusing Heroes of Sontar on CD and digital download.

It is a very nice concert of classical music, accompanied by stunning visuals, with half a good science fiction film in the middle of it. I heartily recommend taking a look if you haven’t seen it already.

It has left me wondering what it was that I was watching, and I’ve had a few details filled in by friends, but I have ordered the book in an attempt to get the full story.

1. When did you start watching and why?

It was so long ago that I was too young to remember. I became a regular viewer during McCoy’s penultimate season.

2. What was your first serial/episode?

I have vague memories of being terrified by Peter Davison fighting his way through the TARDIS in Castrovalva.

3. Which serials/episodes have you seen?

All of them except for Marco Polo, Sensorites, Reign of Terror, Planet of Giants, Rescue, Romans, Web Planet, Crusade, Space Museum, Galaxy 4, Mission to the Unknown, Myth Makers, Daleks’ Master Plan, Massacre, Celestial Toymaker, Gunfighters, Savages, War Machines, Smugglers, Tenth Planet, Power of the Daleks, Highlanders, Underwater Menace, Moonbase, Macra Terror, Faceless Ones, Evil of the Daleks, Abominable Snowmen, Ice Warriors, Enemy of the World, Web of Fear, Fury from the Deep, Wheel In Space, Dominators, Krotons, Space Pirates, War Games, Colony In Space, Underworld, Creature from the Pit, Shada (the original), Twin Dilemma, Paradise Towers, and Delta And the Bannermen.

3a. Favourite?

The Curse of Fenric

4. Are your friends/family interested in the show?

Most of my friends are to some degree of another. Most of my family can take it or leave it.

5. Which Doctor is your favourite?

McCoy, despite some of the awful scripts he had to face.

6. Which Doctor is your least favourite?

Tough one. Purely from a characterisation point of view, I’d say David Tennant – but that comes mostly from scripts that portray him as a hypocrite.

7. Which TV companion is your favourite?

How could it be anyone but Adric?

OK, I’m kidding. Ace, or Romana II, or maybe Zoe.

8. Which TV companion is your least favourite?

Adric, with Tegan as a close run second.

9. Do you listen to the Big Finish audios?

Ooooh, yes.

9a. If so, which is your favourite?

Bang-Bang-A-Boom

9b. Also: which Big Finish companion is your favourite?

Charlotte Elspeth ‘Charley’ Pollard

10. Have you listened to any non-Big Finish audios?

Yup

10a. If so, which is your favourite?

The Faction Paradox series. Don’t make me pick a specific one, they are all really good.

11. Have you read any of the novels or short stories?

Most of them.

11a. Have you written any of the novels or short stories?

There might be a couple of unofficial drabbles out on Usenet somewhere, but they don’t count.

11b. Which is your favourite?

It used to be The Eight Doctors, I was young, its a jolly romp. Now? Blood Harvest, there’s just something special about the 7th Doctor running a speakeasy.

12. Have you read any of the comics?

A few

12a. You guessed it–which is your favourite?

None were memorable enough to leave an impression on me.

13. Do you watch any of the spinoffs (e.g. Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures)?

Of course.

13a. Which is your favourite?

The Sarah Jane Adventures … it tends to have the most mature plots.

14. Is there any particular episode/book/audio/comic you desperately want to watch/listen to/read?

The Daleks’ Master Plan. It sounds fun.

15. Do you write fanfic for Doctor Who?

I’ll wrote an occasional drabble, but that was many years ago.

15a. If so, post a snippet of a work-in-progress (or several)!

No works in progress, Usenet might turn up some of my old material.

16. Do you create Doctor Who icons?

The world doesn’t need Doctor Who icons.

16a. Let’s see a sample!

shudder

17. Recommend a fanfic/icon/fanvid/fancomic/fancreation!

I’ve been out of touch with fan created material for years.

18. Have you been to any Doctor Who conventions?

Nope.

19. Have you ever dressed up as a Doctor Who character?

Nope.

20. Do you own any Doctor Who merchandise?

There is a TARDIS shaped USB hub set up to let leads reach from my PC to my printer, and I have a copy of Battle For The Universe around somewhere.

21. Are you a fan of Russell T. Davies?

I like a lot of what he does (Midnight was very good), and it’s great that he got Who back on our screens … but he can’t write science fiction and Journey’s End was utterly dreadful.

21a. Steven Moffat?

He can do no wrong.

21b. Paul Cornell?

The man who gave us Benny Summerfield. He isn’t Steven Moffat, but he’s the next best thing.

22. What say you to Season 6b?

Works for me.

23. The UNIT dating controversy?

A side effect of the Time War.

24. The Blinovitch Limitation Effect?

A very silly idea.

25. Multi-Doctor episodes?

Let’s just ignore The Two Doctors and focus on the fun ones. Hopefully we’ll get to see an 8th Doctor appearance in the next few years.

26. What’s your favourite Doctor Who technobabble?

“So, if you could keep that box over there and bring it over here, that [bigger] box would fit inside this [smaller] one.”

27. Have you watched other TV shows exclusively because of the presence of Doctor Who actors?

No. I might have given shows a chance that I wouldn’t have otherwise though.

28. Have you met any of the actors?

Nope.

28a. Travelled to any filming locations?

Yes. The Blue Boar in Aldbourne is a nice pub about a mile away from one of my previous homes. It was also The Cloven Hoof in The Daemons

29. What do you think of “The Curse of Fatal Death”?

Utterly fantastic except for the fart jokes.

30. Do you have any fannish opinions that you think are fairly unpopular?

Nothing springs to mind

31. What’s your favourite pairing?

Vicki / Steven

32. What pairing(s) won’t you touch with a really long pole?

Adric / Tegan

Amazon have just released their new eBook reader, and it isn’t as good as one might hope.

It costs a (relative) fortune and is heavily laden down with DRM, an issue which Mark covers in some detail (including some nice references to a couple of works of SF – see, I said it would be on topic for this blog).

I’ve been reading eBooks, on and off, for several years. Previously on my trusty old Palm OS machines, and more recently on a Nokia 770. My main source of material has been the Baen Free Library, which has a hefty collection of sci-fi and fantasy.

Giving away books doesn’t sound like a way to make much money, but having read a couple of eBooks, I promptly went out and bought as much of the two series they were from in paperback as I could. Another one I ordered for a friend one Christmas.

They might not have made money directly, but they made plenty indirectly, and they didn’t need DRM to do it.

If you want an eBook reader, then I encourage you to get yourself a Nokie 770, which can be found for under £100 these days, (or one of its successors) and pull some content down from Bean. 1632 makes a good starting point.

If you aren’t interested in eBooks, then you might want to get hold of a paperback copy of 1632 – it is a very good book.