valoise

Every year I travel to LA for Gallifrey One, a fantastic fan-run Doctor Who convention, but now that I live in Connecticut I wanted to try the Long Island Who convention.  There are several ways to get to the convention site, but I decided to drive to Bridgeport, take the ferry across the sound to Port Jefferson, NY with a short drive to the hotel.  Most relaxing way to travel, I haven't taken a car ferry since I lived in Seattle over 20 years ago.  Definitely recommend it.

As for the convention itself, it was more fun than I'd anticipated.  At a new convention, where I don't know the venue or have any friends there, I usually have some social anxiety but it wasn't too bad this time.  In the 5 minutes it took to walk in the hotel, check in, get my room key and find the elevator I'd already passed Katy Manning and Paul McGann. As a small convention (I think around 500 people) the guest list was small and so were the meeting rooms. Katy Manning and Frazer Hines were charming, frequent guests at US DW cons but their panels didn't feel stale & they were seemed really happy to be there.  Paul McGann and Sacha Dhawan were the highlights, though.  At one point Paul took a deep dive into his love of silent film, a passion I share.

There were some great fan-run panels on British TV in 2023, collecting screen used props, and several other topics.  I think the main downside was the size of the convention space, which seemed cramped. If they could negotiate the use of at least one other meeting room it would help things flow a bit better.  I may add this to my list of annual conventions, but as it's an August con, there may be conflicts with my long-standing attendance at WorldCons.

I just saw Oppenheimer today and I already know that I've got to go back and see it again. I was reluctant at first, I mean it's a 3 hour movie with a lot of guys in suits sitting around talking. But I trusted Christopher Nolan to something unusual with the story and he defintely did, creating a film that's visually engaging, weaving timelines together deftly in a way that Nolan loves to do.

There are a few rare times where my former career as an archivist intersects with fannish things, but this afternoon was one of them. I spent fifteen years professionally engaged with WWII, the Cold War, and national security issues as an archivist at the Eisenhower Presidential Library. Watching Oppenheimer today made be wish I still lived near my old job. I know where to find thousands of pages of documents, the transcripts of the hearings, and so much more all related to J. Robert Oppenheimer. I love history, I love research, and I love digging into folders of historical documents.

But I'll for going to see the movie again and maybe, just maybe, vidding it in the future.

In my rewatch I've reached 11th Doctor's first season and I'm reminded how my low expectations for Matt Smith were crushed under his unexpectedly great performance. He looked like a gangly kid in his mid-20s and I was convinced that he wouldn't be able to bring depth to the role. In The Eleventh Hour, although I loved his somewhat goofy portrayal the moment he stepped through the images of all his past selves to declare to the Atraxi, "I am the Doctor", I was sold.

In Victory of the Daleks, the cold rage he brought to the Daleks realistically portrayed a being drawing upon the long, long battle with an enemy he wanted so deeply to defeat.




And that pre-credits scene from The Time of Angels solidified my love both for River Song and the Doctor/River Song relationship.

I know automated transcription/captioning has come a long way in the past 20 years, but there's still a long way to got still. A few months ago I was watching an old episode of GBBO where the captioning rendered 'lemon curd' as 'lemon turd', definitely a different flavor profile but kind of funny. Recently I was viewing an automated transcription of fan interview that offered 'vein collection' for 'zine collection'. So, automated is getting there, but hasn't quite arrived yet.

This brought me to wonder about captioning and fan events like convention panels. The innovation of virtual or hybrid cons has really been great to people who cannot or choose not to attend events where large groups of people are gathered. One of my first forays into this world was the 2020 New Zealand Worldcon. Even with the time zone differences, this was a novel way to connect to fans across the world in the depth of the pandemic and I had a great time.

The novelty has worn off a bit, but it's become a staple in my fannish schedule. But I was wondering recently how well the automated captioning really works. I have a family member who has a hard time in crowded spaces, like restaurants, in following conversations and can't watch tv without the captions. I wonder if a virtual convention with captions on panels would be a possibility to spend shared family time in a meaningful way.

I've been generally frustrated with online con attendance lately, but I found myself really enjoying the online VidUKon experience this month. The Premieres were excellent, the panels I attended went really well and I enjoyed the Frankenvid at the end. I've had vids in themed vidshows for three VidUKons and while it's unlikely that I'd ever be able to attend the con in person, but I think next year I'd like to participate a bit more, sending a premiering vid, offering to do a themed vidshow (I've got a couple of ideas & tentative playlists), etc.

VidUKon really scratches that itch left by the death of Vividcon.

I had an 11-year old vid in a vidshow: Live and Let Die (a Peter Wingfield multi) in the In the Spotlight show that focused on single actor focused vids.

I've seen both professional critics and fans laying into the recent season of Ted Lasso for being 1) not focusing on football and 2) providing storylines and depth to too many characters. That's certainly one way of looking at the show, but I've never been on the Ted Lasso journey for the football. For me it's always been about delving into characters, their flaws, their strengths, their insecurities, and the value of friends and community.

Being human means we make mistakes, and sometimes realize what a jerk we've been. Being human means sometimes being cruel or having people be cruel to us. But being human also means making contacts and relationships with other people, people who can help us weather the tough times, celebrate the good times, and become the best person we can.  These are the things that make me love Ted Lasso and all the wonderful, flawed characters in the show.

I'm turing a big corner on my 60th Anniversary Doctor Who rewatch. There are only 3 episodes left in classic Who and this is a good time to really look back on the journey. I'm glad I didn't do the math before I started. From The Unearthly Child in 1963 to Battlefield in 1989 there are 697 episodes divided into 159 stories. That's a LOT of television. On Sunday I'll be moving on to the 1996 movie then plunging on to Rose and the modern era on Monday. Initially, I thought I might look back on the my favorite stories for the first 26 seasons, but I thought I'd collapse that into favorite stories for the first seven Doctors.

First Doctor
There are several stories that I enjoy but if I had to name favorites this time through It's been a year since I watched these, but I think these are the ones I enjoyed the most this time around.
The Aztecs
The Chase (except for the weird haunted house episode)

Second Doctor
So many missing stories but, like the First Doctor, there are some good reconstructions and also some recent animation versions, including the one that I'd pick as my fave for this rewatch: the Abominable Snowman.  The animation fills in the story in a way recons can never do and they can draw the Tibetan characters as actual Tibetans and not British actors in yellow face.

Third Doctor
Picking favorites is really hard for this era, Jon Pertwee is one of my favorite Doctors. The four episodes I liked the best were:
Spearhead from Space
Inferno
The Sea Devils
The Green Death

Fourth Doctor
Tom Baker is so iconic and had so many seasons. I think The Face of Evil was the first Doctor Who I ever saw.  But this time around I found new vid inspiration in the entire Key to Time series of stories. One story from that season is in my short list of rewatch favorites.
Horror of Fang Rock
The Ribos Opeartion

Fifth Doctor
Although I do like Peter Davison as an actor and convention guest, I usually find this era a bit boring. I do enjoy the crowded TARDIS aspect, especially once Turlough joins the cast. And we do get a return of the Brigadier in my favorite story, as well.
Mawdryn Undead

Sixth Doctor
Here's where I make a confession, I really dislike the Sixth Doctor.  I feel a bit sorry for Colin Baker, he got dealt some crappy episodes and generally did the best he could with them.  The Trial of a Timelord season seemed a bit better this time around, so I guess I'll pick:
Trial of a Timelord: The Mysterious Planet

Seventh Doctor
Starting with his second season, I think Sylvester McCoy really brought something great back to Doctor Who, and I absolutely love Ace.
My two favorite stories were both written by Ben Aaronivitch.
Remembrance of the Daleks
Battlefield

When I watched "Sunflowers" last night I thought it was exactly what both the show and I needed.  After the downward spiral the characters and the team kept pulling them further into a funk, this reset was perfect.

I was surprised to find that some reviewers panned the episode, saying that it more about individuals and less about the team.  Um, that's the whole point.  If you don't stop and deal with your shit, that shit will continue to drag you and everyone around you down.  For me the best thing about Ted Lasso is how it embraces characters, giving them room to develop.

My first intro into fanworks was writing fanfic, followed in a few years by vidding.  But sewing, embroidery, and other fibre-based crafts have been with me my entire life. In the past 10 years I've embroidered several fannish things, including spacemen and daleks.


I once spent a summer knitting a 10-foot long Fourth Doctor scarf.

But lately I've been wanting to try something different, pyrography or woodburning. The ultimate project would be a map of Middle Earth on a wooden plaque, but I'll tackle a few smaller things just to be a feel for the craft first.

Since about 2015 Gallifrey One has been one of my favorite cons.  A bit bigger than most fan-run cons, Gally has been going for over 30 years, starting during the wilderness years when the only new Doctor Who content were books, Big Finish audio, and fanworks.
In addition to guests from the cast and crew of both Classic and Modern DW, I love the focus on fan-created content including (but not limited to) panels, cosplay, a vidshow, game shows, art show, live podcasts and more I usually spend more time at these activities than in the main hall with the highlight guests.  This year one of the guests, outgoing show runner Chris Chibnail, also signed on for a panel other than in that main hall. And on that panel I saw his inner fanboy joyously emerge.

Because the convention takes place in LA, there is a regular panel of television writers who are also DW fans. Regular Gally guests Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, David Gerrold, Craig Miller, and Gillian Horvath have worked on iconic shows from many ST series, Highlander, Lost, Family Guy, The Orville, and many, many more. Chibnail, grinning broadly, seemed a bit awestruck and had to be encouraged to join in. When Craig Miller mentioned being a creator of the UK kid's show Pocket Dragon Adventures, Chibnail's looked absolutely delighted. I'd heard that this is the first fan event that he'd been to since he was a teenager. Even as the DW showrunner he had only done the huge commercial spectacle of ComicCon to showcase Jodie Whittaker taking over the role of the Doctor. It looked like Gally was his safe place to let his fannish joy take flight.