wshaffer

Just listened to a rather lovely Radio 4 documentary, The Doctor And Douglas about Douglas Adams's time as script editor on Doctor Who. It's a really fun little program, and you get to hear Steven Moffat gush about "City of Death", and Lalla Ward talking about how Douglas introduced her to Richard Dawkins.

My one very small quibble is that I wish they'd left out the now semi-obligatory dumping on Adams's successor as script editor, Christopher H. Bidmead. (Whom they don't even mention by name. But they do say things like, "Tom and Lalla left the show the following year. Doctor Who slowly lost it's audience, and was cancelled in 1989." Way to dismiss ten years of show and the work of half-a-dozen script editors in two short sentences.)

Now, I'm not going to deny that Adams was a far more talented writer than Bidmead. And I'm not going to deny that Bidmead often comes across as an utter doink in interviews. And I have to confess that it's been years since I've watched most of the Bidmead-edited stories, so I have no idea how I'd react to them now.

But here's what else I must confess: When I was a kid, I loved Season 18 with a passion. And really, how can you not? You've got "State of Decay", in which our heroes kill a giant vampire by staking it through the heart with a rocket ship. You've got the sheer surreality of "Warrior's Gate". You've got the gorgeous-looking "Keeper of Traken", which brings back the Master to boot. Even in a relative clunker like "Meglos", you've still got Tom Baker turning into a giant cactus. You can't get that in "Creature from the Pit".

Thanks to Season 18, I still get a secret science-fictional thrill every time I say the word "entropy". That alone probably got me through freshman physical chemistry.

So, whaddya say, my fellow fans? Can we show Season 18 some love? Or at least not go out of our way to diss it while ostensibly discussing other areas of the show?

BBC Radio 7 has been pulling lots of interesting stuff out of the archives this week (enough that I've been recording some of it, because I don't think I'll get a chance to listen to all of it before it falls out of iPlayer availability.) Some highlights:

• There's still a couple of days left to listen to this 2 part radio adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It's a good faithful adaptation, though I'm afraid this radio Holmes will sound a little colorless if you've got Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal in the recent film in mind.


• Available until the 9th of January: The Radio Life of Geoffrey Perkins. One of Radio 7's mammoth 3-hour retrospectives with episodes from various shows Perkins produced. I only know Perkins from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I'm quite curious to hear some of his other work.


• Available until the 10th:The Legend of Robin Hood. I know nothing about this, but I always love a good Robin Hood retelling.


• And starting tomorrow, a dramatization of Terry's Pratchett's Mort in four parts, with Wyrd Sisters, Small Gods, and Guards! Guards! to follow at some point.

Just a note, that BBC production of Richard III that I mentioned yesterday turned out to be quite good. (Especially once you get over the initial reaction of "Oh my god, it's Bilbo Baggins playing Richard of Gloucester!") Though you might want to consult Wikipedia or another source to refresh your mind on the details of the Wars of the Roses before listening.

It's available to listen to online until this coming Saturday.

So, I was driving home last night listening to my local NPR station, KQED, when they cut to a pledge break. Alas, perhaps, for KQED, I've also been listening to the audiobook of Chris Anderson's Free, which produced an interesting mental dialogue between me and the pledge commercial.

( Normal people talk to their radios, right? )

So, here's the thing - I am one of that 10% who does donate to public radio. But the tone of pledge drives really annoys me - to the extent that I think it actually reduces my motivation to donate. I don't want to be told that I'm somehow a bad person for taking advantage of something that is provided for free, and that I must retrospectively make up for that badness by ponying up cash. That's not why I give to public radio. I give to public radio because I understand that the programming I enjoy costs money, and that the primary source of that money is donations. I'm making a rational economic choice, not paying for the absolution of sins.

I'm feeling much better today. Sleeping for 18 hours works wonders.

I just discovered that if you mistype and try to go to a non-existent URL on the BBC website, their "404 not found page" has a picture of the Test Card clown on it. (Viewers of the British Life on Mars series will know what I'm talking about. Others, if you're really curious, see that link.) I love you, BBC.

BBC Radio 2 are launching a new Adventures of Sexton Blake radio series. Sexton Blake is not a character I'm very familiar with, but on the basis of documentary "The Hunt for Sexton Blake", I might be tempted to describe him as the literary missing link between Sherlock Holmes and James Bond: a square-jawed action man who fights crime and the enemies of the British empire wherever they may be found. The new series is a comedy, which is probably the only way the BBC can manage to play a square-jawed defender of the British Empire in 2009, and has Sexton Blake played by Simon Jones, which causes me severe cognitive dissonance, as I cannot hear really hear Simon Jones as anyone other than Arthur Dent from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Despite this, the series sounds like it's worth checking out.

The Society for Technical Communication appears to be reading my mind, since they've just put out an issue on "Technical Communication's Value Proposition", all about how to demonstrate your economic value to your company. Cool. If I pick up any particularly interesting tips, I'll report.

...are broadcasting this week, starting today. Check your iPlayer, or you can download the plays for 7 days after broadcast. (It says "UK only", but it let me download the first one.)

Bit of a Whovian bonanza on BBC Radio 7 this weekend. First up, at midnight on Saturday night (and on BBC iPlayer for 7 days afterward), there's The Story of Doctor Who, featuring Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner, among others. As someone who's read The Writer's Tale, listened to the podcasts and commentaries, and all of that, I'm not sure that Davies or Gardner have much left to say that would surprise me, but I'll probably tune in anyway.

This weekend also marks the 50th anniversary of The Navy Lark, which BBC 7 is marking with a mini-season of programs. Of particular interest is An Hour With Jon Pertwee, which is being broadcast a few times this Sunday. I'll definitely tune in for that.

So, there's a BBC Radio Series called "Whatever Happened To...", where they do a mock documentary on the life of some well known fictional character and how they turned out. I've just heard the one about Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter (should be available to listen online for a few more days yet).

It's pretty funny, but slightly strange listening for a Doctor Who fan, because though I'm sure that there are many fannish theories (and possibly a few novels or audios) about what happened to Susan after she left the TARDIS, her returning to 1964 (by hitching a lift with her uncle Terry!) and getting locked up as a juvenile delinquent aren't usually among them. It's got a pretty amazing level of fannish obsessiveness, though, for something that's presumably aimed at a non-fan audience. I think the author manages to toss in a reference to nearly every story Susan appeared in. (He might have missed "The Sensorites". Or maybe I did.) His version of Barbara in later life is pretty rubbish, though.

From Paul Cornell's twitter feed, I discovered that BBC Radio 3, 4, and 7 are kicking off a season of science fiction radio programming airing over the next couple of weeks.

I'm particularly interested in checking out The Scarifyers (starring Terry Molloy and Nicholas Courtney, who've done great work on Doctor Who in TV and audio format), The Sofa of Time, and the adaptation of Iain M. Banks's State of the Art (which I think was adapted by Paul Cornell).

If you haven't already heard them, I recommend the new Blake's 7 series. It won't please all fans of the original series - they've very deliberately kept some elements of the original show and jettisoned others - but it's well worth a listen. I posted a review of the first episode, Rebel, a while back.

You can stream all of these programs over the internet on BBC iPlayer when they're broadcast or up to 7 days afterward.

This Saturday, BBC7 is running a 3-hour program on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, featuring selected works along with commentary from various people involved in the Workshop. If you're a fan of classic British TV or radio (such as Doctor Who or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), you've undoubtedly heard examples of the Radiophonic Workshop's work. If you're interested in the history of electronic music, I'd check out this program as well - I'm not particularly an electronic music geek, but I always find it fascinating to hear about the days when electronic music meant building your own circuits and splicing your own tape loops.

You can stream all BBC7 programs over the internet - I think it requires RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. You can find the details on BBC7's site.

Over on Outpost Gallifrey, Mark Ayres posted some details of what will be featured. I'm reposting below the cut for anyone who's curious and doesn't have an OG account.

( Programs Featured )