science fiction

Chris Knight's avatar

It seems like an entirely other world ago now.  When the wait between new episodes could be not just weeks but months away.  There was no “binging” a series on a regular basis.  And streaming television was still yet to come.

I was in a different place also.  Still reeling from a divorce.  Wrestling with the worst symptoms of manic depression.  Alone.  Confused.  And, well… lost.  Looking for a purpose, as John Locke was.

There had never been a television series like Lost.  And there never will be again, ever.  At least, there never can be for me.

The medium has changed too drastically.  Viewer expectations have become too impatient.  The audience demands definitive answers, when once upon a time such a thing as “exercise for the reader” was a treasured virtue.  To be sure, some series – such as The Walking Dead and Game Of Thrones – followed ...

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There is a tradition I never fail to keep: whenever I get snowed in and can’t go anywhere, I turn down the lights and crank up the sound and watch the 1982 movie The Thing.  Maybe that says something about my baseline state of mind.

John Carpenter’s now-classic film of horror and paranoia at an Antarctica research base might not be appropriate viewing for when one is tempting real-life cabin fever.  But if Die Hard is a Christmas movie, then The Thing is the perfect wintertime follow-up.  And it’s a darn nearly perfect movie in every other possible way: the story.  The casting.  The pacing.  The practical effects (which still hold their own against any CGI today).  The cinematography.  That score by Ennio Morricone.  And that building-up of tension as the men of Outpost 31 grow increasingly mistrustful of each other…

So yeah, I’m a huge fan of The ...

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Okay, this is probably going to fanwank me into utter oblivion but since today is the quasi-holiday of May the Fourth and in light of the festivities here are some thoughts – that have been nagging at a lot of us these past few months – about Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi…
Taken at face value the internal chronology makes little to NO sense whatsoever. There is ENORMOUS incongruity between the events of the Rey and Luke, and the Resistance fleet, and Finn and Rose, and even Kylo Ren and Snoke. And it’s bugged the mynocks out of me… until I began studying this film alongside The Force Awakens and now… it kinda jibes pretty well after all.
(Mind ya though, these are the words of a maniac who once upon a time composed a mini-doctoral thesis explaining away midi-chlorians. So parse all of this as
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To: Steven Moffat
From: Christopher Knight
Subject: This week’s new Doctor Who episode “Dark Water”

Dear Mr. Moffat,

You have crossed a terrible, terrible line with this episode.

The same was said of what we came to know as the War Doctor.  This, somehow, is far more insane and certainly the boldest thing yet seen on Doctor Who.  So bold, that you may have finally gone too far.

I hope you know what it is that you’re doing.

Sincerely,
Chris

p.s.: do NOT consider doing this to the Doctor himself.  The consequences would be disastrous.  I could see someone of the opposite gender in the role, but not the character himself.

p.p.s.: I am compelled to state for the record that what you did is actually better and truer to that particular person than happened on Russell T. Davies’ watch and that “Missy” is a fine addition/extension of the Who ...

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Two things have been the focus (okay, focii) of my faculties in recent weeks.  The first, of course, has been working on my book.  Chapters 1 through 11, as well as the preface and the prologue, are now locked-down and pretty much finished apart from some, shall we say, “supplementary material” that is going to provide a very intimate look into the mind of a manic-depressive.  Those chapters constitute Part 1.  I’m going to start writing Part 2 tomorrow.  And the chapters for Part 1 aren’t the only ones already finished: the first several that I wrote haven’t been assimilated into the main manuscript yet.  Those will add substantially more material.

But yesterday afternoon I took some time to read the preface, the prologue, and Part 1.  I made note of how long it took to read all of that.  It took a little over two hours.  Factoring ...

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I loved it!!  But first…

If if was nothing else, it had to be said: 2013 was the Year of the Doctor.

The anticipation for Doctor Who‘s fiftieth anniversary ramped up fast after the year began.  The coming of Jenna Coleman’s Clara as a regular companion certainly started things off nice.  Some of the ensuing half-season was a little touch and go, but otherwise it proceeded in fine style…

…and then came “The Name of the Doctor”.

More than half a year later, in spite of everything that we’ve watched since, I’m still feeling numbstruck by the season finale (find my review here).  Throughout the ensuing summer and fall I think a lot of us were tormented with the thought: had Steven Moffat finally lost it?!  For the first time ever Doctor Who seemed poised to derail completely.  The image of that unknown incarnation of the Doctor, ...

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“The Day of the Doctor” became a truly epic event: the kind of cultural milestone ranking up there with the premiere of Star Wars in 1977, Woodstock and the final episode of M*A*S*H.  The day after the fiftieth anniversary special of Doctor Who aired, Guinness certified it as the most-watched simulcast of a dramatic presentation ever.

I purchased “The Day of the Doctor” from iTunes as soon as it was made available and have watched it all the way through twice and some scenes many times.  And they were plentiful: “NO MORE”, the Moment, the tribute to past companions (including Captain Jack Harkness, and why are River Song’s red high-heels hanging there anyway??) in the Black Archive, all of those TARDISes that swooped out of nowhere, that very fleeting glimpse – with an anger and determination that would cower Hell itself – of the Twelfth Doctor’s eyes, finally seeing ...

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For various reasons, it was a very hard thing for me to get through and watch this.  Part of me wanted to “sit it out”.  But I knew that later, however rough things are now, that I would come to regret it if I didn’t.

I’ve been watching Doctor Who for a very long time and I’ve been blogging about the show ever since it first re-started in 2005, back when a lot of us had to bootleg it across the Internets after transmission in Great Britain.

I can’t abandon something just like that, something I’ve come to care for and appreciate so much.  Something that I’ve been thankful has been there.  No matter how hard it becomes.  No matter how painful it is to face.  When you love something, you stay with it even if you grieve at times  You endure for it.

I can’t leave something wonderful and ...

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Awright, ‘fess up: How many others out there have their TV’s tuned to nothing but BBC America all this past week?

This has become the single greatest week of television broadcasting in the history of anything.  Apart from an hour of BBC News early in the morning, it has been wall-to-wall Doctor Who.  And I have not got nearly enough of it.  The network even ran “Pyramids of Mars” from the Tom Baker era on Monday afternoon, followed soon after by the 1996 Doctor Who television movie.

My workload has been packed with freelance projects.  If I’m not watching it directly I’ve still had BBC America on the tube as I write and research.  It makes for excellent (or should that be Cyberman style and pronounced “EKS-selent”?) background noise, even inspiring.  Although the past few nights I must confess that my dreams keep getting invaded by Daleks screaming “Exterminate!  ...

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In May of 1996, Paul McGann portrayed the Eighth Doctor in the Doctor Who television movie that aired on Fox.  It was meant to be a pilot for a possible revival of the series.  Unfortunately it didn’t pan out, which was almost tragic because in the brief time we saw him, McGann’s Doctor really endeared himself to fans.  It was the first and last time we got to see him play the part.

Until this morning.

BBC just unloaded “The Night of the Doctor” upon us: a nearly seven minutes-long mini-episode of Doctor Who meant to be a lead-up to next week’s fiftieth anniversary special “The Day of the Doctor”.

Here.  Just watch.  Be sure to mop up the drool afterward…




To all involved: bravo!! Now, Steven Moffat, how about you give us some more episodes with Paul McGann as The Doctor! Please?!?!?

(Thanks to good friend of this blog ...

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