Michael Lee's Train of Thought

For the second time, I'm going to Arisia out in Boston at the end of next week (January 18 - 21, 2013). I had a fantastic time last year, and this year I made sure I knew I was going long enough ahead of time to get on panels. I'm on a couple of panels:

Sunday 8:30pm
Doctor Who: The Dissertation of the Daleks — Media, Panel — 1hr 15min — Revere (2)
We continue our celebration of all things Who with a look at the Daleks, one of the Doctor's oldest and most persistent adversaries. Why are they so popular? When will they return? And how can they be stopped now that they don't need to climb stairs?
Samantha Dings, Forest Handford, Victoria Janssen, Michael Lee, Adam Lipkin (m)

Monday 10:00am
How Fans Hurt and Help Public Faces of Fandom — Fan Interest, Panel — 1hr 15min — Burroughs (3E)
Last year, Stephen King said Stephenie Meyer "can't write," and the "Twi-hards" came to defend her. Twilight boards were filled with reasonable discussions of the criticism, while sites like the Entertainment Weekly blog were filled with ill-informed attacks on King. Many fans have said they would never read the Twilight books because of the public image of Meyer's fanbase. How does the public face of fans help or hurt an author? Can fans do anything to change the perception of their fandom?
Randee Dawn, Shana Fuqua, Michael Lee, Paula Lieberman, Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert

I'm not throwing a party for CONvergence (or anything else) this year (I'm taking the year off of doing that) -- but I'm sure to be around the convention, volunteering (because you do), and finding ways to keep myself busy.

Labels: arisia, doctorwho, fandom

We're just a few short days away from CONvergence 2012. As always, it looks like it's going to be really massive, and there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears that have gone into this year's convention.  The volunteers who help run it and keep it going do a lot, as well as everyone else who attends.

There are a lot of things that I'm looking forward to on the Schedule.  Three highlights of mine:

• Marian Call, Mainstage Thursday 8:30 PM
• Sophie Aldred (Ace from Doctor Who) - especially her mainstage interview, and I've wanted her to come to Minneapolis since she was first in the series in the late 1980s.
• Dungeons & Dragons Next Playtesting - I doubt I'll get a chance to do this myself, but there will be a lot of opportunities to playtest the upcoming version of the definitive fantasy role playing game, and I hope people have a lot of fun with it.

Labels: convergence, cvg2012, DnD, doctorwho, marian call

Within the last two months I had the chance to see -- in the flesh -- two of the people that had a huge influence in making me who I am today. They were, in both cases, people that are a little eccentric and odd. And it was interesting to rate my reaction to both.

At the recent Salesforce.com conference, one of the speakers was Star Wars creator George Lucas. You don't get to be a geeky person of my generation and not have been hugely influenced by the original Star Wars. But George was very odd -- it might have been that it was a strange environment for him; I don't think he talks to thousands of people on a regular basis. And for the conference the topics of discussion were limited to his work with Edutopia, a very worthy program relating to helping and inspiring educators. And as a technologist, it is nice to see a discussion about how technology makes the world better, and not just the work environment better.

Sadly, I've been less impressed with George over the last decade than when I was a kid -- perhaps because he was foolish enough to do something new that was close enough to what he did when I was growing up. And that colored my experience, I'm afraid to say. He's odd and eccentric -- but it wasn't something that meant as much to me as I thought it would. [As opposed to another -- more technical -- keynote speech by Cisco's CEO John Chambers, which was very inspirational and impressive.]



On the other hand, when I was in London recently on vacation, I stopped by a convention in Earl's Court where Tom Baker, my first Doctor Who, was making an appearance. Tom Baker was the only living classic series Doctor Who I hadn't met, and my life would be different without Doctor Who in the same way that it would be different without Star Wars.

As you would expect, Tom Baker is as eccentric as you would expect. But he was, in person, a delight at this point in time. He acted as if he had known you forever, in a way. I've met my share of actors before -- and it has pretty much always been pleasant. But meeting Tom Baker literally put a smile on my face for hours -- and even now, makes me smile when I think about it. Perhaps because Tom Baker hasn't gone back to addition Doctor Who, and his work on Little Britain is hysterical on its own -- that there's something different about the experience of meeting Tom Baker that was different than seeing George Lucas.

Amazingly, I think this means that I've met a good percentage of the major influences in my life -- as I had a chance to see Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Douglas Adams a decade or so ago. And at San Diego Comic Con I was able to see Stan Lee and Mark Hamill.

It's interesting to think about how all of these influences tie together to make me who I am today.

Labels: doctorwho, salesforce, starwars

I was watching the commentary for the awesome Heroes episode Company Man today, and besides being really impressed with how the NBC site has their on-site commentary tracks visualized, I realized who they need to cast at some point to absolutely prove that they're making this show for me. Mark Hamill. They've hired someone from Star Trek (George Takai). They've had both The Master (Eric Roberts) and The Doctor (Christopher Eccleston). Malcolm McDowell starts soon.

So all they need to do to win Geek Bingo is for them to cast someone from Star Wars, and Lost apparently has Billy Dee Williams coming up. [see Lost Spoilers if you want]. So Mark Hamill it is.

Labels: doctorwho, heroes, lost, startrek, starwars

One of the more interesting appearances at Gallifrey One this year was Eric Roberts. I was more interested in hearing about his upcoming appearance in Heroes than his brief appearance in Doctor Who a decade ago, and the one thing that I learned was that it sounds like it won't just be a one episode appearance, but that he'll be a recurring character. He commented that joining a series like Heroes has a lot more bodyguards on set just due to the popularity of the show.

It's sort of the Doctor Who handoff -- as Christopher Eccleston leaves to film The Dark Is Rising, we get someone from the previous part of the series joining the series.

Labels: doctorwho, heroes

Ok. Considering Christopher Eccleston's rumored casting on Heroes is listed as a rumor on the "official" unofficial Heroes site. maybe there is some truth to it. There's a lot of interesting speculation out there as far as what sort of character he could be playing. Is he a good guy? A bad guy? A character that we've already heard about? Sylar?, or Mr. Linderman?

In other amusing news on the 9th Wonders site, they're reporting that George Takai is going to appear as Hiro's father. I'm more than a bit amused if the we're getting casting from a primary actor from both Doctor Who and Star Trek announced during days of each other.

While digging around for more information and gossip about these casting I've also discovered a Heroes Wiki -- I think the Wiki format works really well for shows like Heroes or Lost.

Labels: doctorwho, heroes, startrek

Wil Wheaton's Star Wars Review focuses on one of the things that has been on my mind concerning how the first Star Wars Generation reacted to Episodes I to III. The original Star Wars films are, for the geekier among us -- more than just an enjoyable nostalgic movie from our childhood. They in a very real sense are our childhood -- they're every birthday and Christmas for a half a dozen years.

I'm not as anti-the prequels as many people I know are. They're not the original Star Wars -- and how could they be -- and I'm not sure I can separate my childhood nostalgia when I watch them. And that makes some things work, but also emphasizes every little flaw.

Of course, it is possible for that sort of nostalgic revisit to work in their own rights as well -- the new Doctor Who is still recognizably the series that I discovered as a kid, but is a complete modern upgrade as well. And while the nostalgic elements of Battlestar Galactica are less frequent, it's something that is very good for today, and stands on its one terms despite any distant nostalgic memories.

And tomorrow is another day where nostalgic franchises return, as we go to see the new James Bond movie Casino Royale. It is odd because it promises to be a back-to-basics Bond film, but there was a fair amount of controversy in the past about it.

Labels: bond, doctorwho, galactica, nostalgia, starwars

Ok, the official Season 3 Lost Press Release is out, confirming all sorts of good stuff. (yeah, Henry Gale as a regular!)

Of course, combined with the likelyhood of October having Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica running back to back on Sci Fi, it means that my three favorite shows are going to have new-to-the-US episodes all at the same time.

Labels: doctorwho, galactica

I had figured that it would be Bryan Singer, actually, but seeing JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof up for a Star Trek film doesn't really surprise me once I think about it. It's obviously very early days -- and I've got the same view as I did a couple of years ago before Doctor Who returned -- I'll believe it for real once cameras roll...

But still, as a fan of Alias and Lost, I could be ok with them behind a new film. Though I'm not sure if a Kirk/Spock prequel is going to be the right way to go... but we'll see..

Labels: doctorwho, lost, startrek, television

Tomorrow is when the new Doctor Who finally lands on American television. I do most of my writing about Doctor Who over at the Torchwood Institute, but this will be your chance to perhaps understand what all of the fuss is about....

Labels: doctorwho

This is sort of a cross-over post, but I've posted some pictures of my cats encountering a Dalek. After all, it's only a couple of days until Doctor Who starts on Sci Fi.

Labels: cats, doctorwho

Just a note that I'm now doing most of my Doctor Who specific blogging over at Torchwood. Now that it's going to be on the Sci Fi channel in the US in March, there will be much fun to be had...

Labels: doctorwho

I wrote over at the The Torchwood Institute something relating not just to Doctor Who, but also covered general media and future of television stuff. (One of the downsides of having multiple blogs is the rare occasion that you'd like to have it go into more than one stream...)

Labels: doctorwho

I was reading Leonard Maltin's comments about DVD production after following a link from Mark Evanier's Blog. I certainly agree that there are both wonderful and tragic DVD choices being made by DVD producers. Obviously, there are a lot of economic factors involved, and I certainly want the DVDs that I can get to be as well-presented as possible, and idealy with worthwhile extras.

(One of the reasons why I'm quite happy with the rather slow rate that the Doctor Who DVDs are coming out is that they are generally exceptionally well presented; and while there are certainly compromises that are made to get it out there on a budget, there's usually an effort to make sure that it's a good authoritative version of the story & additional features. )

Oh, and while Leonard Maltin is encouraging that fans let people know what they want -- I wish Leonard Maltin's site had an rss feed -- I find that I'm relying on rss feeds more and more for anything that I want to look at regularly using tools like Bloglines more and more.

Labels: doctorwho

I've set up a new blog specifically for Doctor Who over at The Torchwood Institute. One of the frustrating things with the huge delay for getting Doctor Who properly distributed over here in America is that things are practically on hold as far as the new series goes. At this point it's not to difficult to get region 2 DVDs from the series, and it'll be even easier in 2006 when region 1 DVDs are released in Canada, but hey, that just makes the new Doctor Who our little secret.

I've had some Doctor Who pages on one website or another for over ten years now, and I've still got most of them on Question Mark, which hasn't been terribly well maintained as internet and blogging technology makes these things a lot easier to do. But having a place for my review of Goth Opera by Paul Cornell from the early 1990s is fun, and if you want to be really nostalgic, there is a nearly two-decade old issue of Question Mark, which captures true 1980s geeky embarassement.

But really, from now on, I'll be blogging and writing about Doctor Who and Torchwood primarly at the Torchwood Institute. I've been writing about Doctor Who for all of my adult life, and it seems unlikely that'll stop anytime soon...

Labels: doctorwho

The offical Doctor Who site has pictures of the 2006 model of The Cybermen. Like last year's redesign of the Daleks, it's actually a lot more of a traditional design than some people might have expected -- it's a bit more of a redesign, but then the Cybermen have always been a lot more varied over the years.

It looks a lot like you can see Bryan Hitch's influence here -- it looks similar to his Iron Man. I'm actually quite pleased that it's neither a Borg-style design, as the Borg are very similar conceptually to the Cybermen, and that they are men-in-suits as opposed to the CGI Cylons from the new Battlestar Galactica. They're recognizably Cybermen, with handlebars and eyedrops.

Always cool...

Labels: doctorwho

I just got the shooting scripts for the 2005 series of Doctor Who. It's huge -- and quite well put together. If this is what we're getting "instead" of novelizations, I'm not going to be too saddened by their loss.

One of the glorious parts of the Doctor Who tradition is that it invites the fan and viewer to get involved with the production aspects. The curtain is raised, and we get to see some parts of what goes on behind-the-scenes. Doctor Who is one of the most documented television programs out there, for a wide variety of reasons. One of the worries that one might have had is that a ressurected, modern Doctor Who would overlook that part of the series legacy -- especially as they try to keep secrets and surprises before something airs in the UK.

The new series is, of course, the result of people that read books like The Making of Doctor Who in the 1970s, or old issues of Doctor Who magazine -- and this book carries on that tradition, quite probably encouraging the person who revives Doctor Who in 2040. It's happened before.

It is also one of those pieces where despite the American marketplace's resistance to the new series, we can still get a feel for it very quickly through items such as this, besides just importing DVDs.

Labels: doctorwho

This is an interesting article looking at the religious issues concerning the new series of Doctor Who. Fascinating stuff.

Labels: doctorwho

How the fortunes of the series have improved in the UK.

And amazingly, it beat out US television series Desperate Housewives as well.

Meanwhile, there's no sign of it getting any US airing....

Labels: doctorwho

Torchwood is going to be a new science fiction television series, starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack, to air on BBC-3 in the summer of 2006. It will be created by Russell T Davies, the Executive Producer of Doctor Who, and Torchwood will spin off of Doctor Who, having previously been mentioned in the previous series of Doctor Who.

From the independent.

The bbc site for Doctor Who confirms the announcement.

Labels: doctorwho