Whoniversaries 6 February

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broadcast anniversaries

6 February 1965: broadcast of "Inferno", fourth episode of the story we now call The Romans, and nothing to do with the 1970 story of the same name. The Doctor accidentally sets fire to Nero's plans for Rome, and Nero decides to burn the city down. The time travelers are reunited, the Doctor and Vicki unaware of Ian and Barbara's adventures.

6 February 1971: broadcast of second episode of The Mind of Evil. The Doctor speaks Chinese, but the Chinese assistant attacks the American delegate to the peace conference.

6 February 2008: broadcast of Meat (Torchwood), the one with the icky alien source of, well, meat.

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Friday reading

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Current
Koko Takes a Holiday, by Kieran Shea
The Kappa Child, by Hiromi Goto

Last books finished
Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger
Sugar and other stories, by A.S. Byatt
The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China

Next books
The Autumn Land, by Clifford D. Simak
A Buzz in the Meadow, by Dave Goulson

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Whoniversaries 5 February

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broadcast anniversaries

5 February 1966: broadcast of "War of God", first episode of the story we now call The Massacre. The Doctor and Steven land in France; the Doctor wanders off looking for an apothecary, and Steven falls in with Huguenots.

5 February 1972: broadcast of second episode of The Curse of Peladon. Jo and the Doctor suspect the Ice Warriors, but they in turn suspect Arcturus; and the Doctor is condemned to death.

5 February 1977: broadcast of second episode of The Robots of Death. Poul suspects Uvanov and relieves him of command; the sandminer's engines are stopped and it starts to sink…

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Gallimaufry, by Colin Baker

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Second paragraph of third story ("Poison Pen"):

The net result was that Jim Barksfield was doing what he had always vowed he would never do. He was now a pen-pusher, a form filler and successor to the man who had so regularly irritated him over the previous years with his seemingly dogged obsession with procedure, PR. and budgets. Now, and for the foreseeable future, he was himself to be that same irritant to others and he found the role uncomfortable.

A collection of stories by Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor. Most of them are non-sfnal stories about crime and the law, though the very first one has a strong horror element and the last three are short Doctor Who vignettes. Quite good at the punchline, not always as good at the set-up. You can get it here (I got my own copy autographed).

This was the non-genre fiction book (with exceptions noted above) that had been languishing unread on my shelves for longest. Next on that pile is Three Daves, by Nicki Elson.

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My tweets

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  • Thu, 10:45: RT @consol8ion: “Hello, is that Metaphors “R” Us? It’s about the metaphor you sent me. No, it’s great, honestly. It’s just, well… I was h…

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Whoniversaries 4 February

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i) births and deaths

4 February 1919: birth of Peter Butterworth, who played the Meddling Monk in The Time Meddler (First Doctor, 1965) and The Daleks' Master Plan (First Doctor, 1966).

4 January 1933: birth of James Mellor, who played Sean Flannigan in The Wheel in Space (Second Doctor, 1968) and Varan the Bad Native in The Mutants (Third Doctor, 1972).

4 February 1948: birth of Stephen Wyatt, as far as I know the only alumnus of Clare College, Cambridge, to have written for Who (Dan Zeff, a contemporary of mine, has directed); he wrote Paradise Towers (Seventh Doctor, 1987) and The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (Seventh Doctor, 1988).

4 February 1951: birth of Dez Skinn, founding editor of Doctor Who Magazine.

4 February 1980: death of David Whitaker, the first script editor of Doctor Who (from An Unearthly Child to The Dalek Invasion of Earth) and writer of The Rescue (1964), The Crusade (1965), The Power of the Daleks (1966), The Evil of the Daleks (1966-67), The Enemy of the World (1967-68), The Wheel in Space (1968) and The Ambassadors of Death (1970); also of the 1965 stage play, The Curse of the Daleks, and of two of the first three novelisations, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (1964) and Doctor Who and the Crusaders (1965).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

4 February 1967: broadcast of fourth episode of The Underwater Menace. The Doctor and friends prevent Zaroff's plan but Atlantis is flooded and destroyed.

4 February 1978: broadcast of first episode of The Invasion of Time. The Doctor returns to Gallifrey and has himself inaugurated as President, but collapses on contact with the Matrix.

iii) date specified in-universe

4 February 1814: the Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts arrive in Regency era England and discover that a creature under the Thames is eating people (Thin Ice, 2017).

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January 2010 books

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This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.

The biggest world event of the month was the earthquake in Haiti, in which two people who I vaguely knew died: Hédi Annabi, the head of the UN mission, who had once hosted me at a brown bag lunch with his team in New York when he was at DPKO, and elections expert Gerard Le Chevallier, a colleague from NDI days, were both among the 22 UN employees killed when their headquarters collapsed (they had been meeting a Chinese delegation in Annabi's office when the quake struck).

I had another of my marathon trips in the middle of the month, visiting Cyprus for what I think was the last time before that work ended, and going straight on from there to Juba via Istanbul and Nairobi. Here I am with Gérard Prunier and the famous Riek Machar (the husband of Emma of Emma's War). It's fair to say that he's had his ups and downs over the years since.

Later Gérard and I sampled injera and wat. I think we were watching the Egypt-Cameroon match. (Egypt won 3-1.)

In Belgium the weather was different.

With many long plane flights (including a two hour delay in Istanbul due to snow there, which must be unusual), I read 30 books in January 2010.

Non-fiction 8
The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
The Panda's Thumb, by Steven Jay Gould
The Wheel of Engaged Buddhism, by Kenneth Kraft
The Two Faces of Islam, by Stephen Schwarz
The Language of the Night, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung
Juba Arabic – English Dictionary, by Ian Smith and Morris T. Ama
Southern Sudan: Too Many Agreements Dishonoured, by Abel Alier

Non-genre 7
Framley Parsonage, by Anthony Trollope
Mortal Causes, by Ian Rankin
Thirteen Steps Down, by Ruth Rendell
Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
Let It Bleed, by Ian Rankin
Holy Disorders, by Edmund Crispin

SF 10
Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett
Year's Best SF 8, edited by David G. Hartwell
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
The Wandering Fire, by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Darkest Road, by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Uplift War, by David Brin
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Irish Tales of Terror, edited by Jim McGarry
Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman
The Turing Test, by Chris Beckett

Doctor Who 5
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible, by Marc Platt
Vampire Science, by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum
Doctor Who Annual 1968
Wooden Heart, by Martin Day
Short Trips: Dalek Empire, edited by Nicholas Briggs with Simon Guerrier

~8400 pages (allowing for the fact that I didn't read all the explanatory material of Ta Hsüeh and Chung Yung, and only the front and back matter of the Juba Arabic English Dictionary)
5/30 by women (Rendell, Austen, Orman, Blackman, Le Guin)
4/30 by PoC (Blackman, anonymous Confucian sages, Ama, Alier)

Really enjoyed The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett, which you can get hereThe Language of the Night, by Ursula K. Le Guin, which you can get hereThe Turing Test, by Chris Beckett, which you can get here. Really did not enjoy The Uplift War, by David Brin, which you can get here, or Irish Tales of Terror, ed. Jim McGarry, which you can get here.


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Whoniversaries 3 February

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i) births and deaths

3 February 1959: birth of Jimmy Vee, who has played various short creatures in New Who: most frequently the Graske, also the Moxx of Balhoon, the Space Pig, Bannakaffalatta, Skovox Blitzer, and several short Slitheen.

3 February 1975: birth of Mat King, who directed Journey to the Centre of the Tardis (Twelfth Doctor, 2013).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

3 February 1968: broadcast of first episode of The Web of Fear. The Tardis lands in a deserted London Underground; Jamie and Zoe are captured by the soldiers of an outpost and the Doctor encounters the Yeti.

3 February 1973: broadcast of second episode of Carnival of Monsters. The Doctor and Jo explore further inside the Miniscope, and encounter the Drashigs.

3 February 1978: broadcast of third episode of The Armageddon Factor. The Shadow tries to get the first five segments from the Doctor, who escapes; the Marshal launches his "final attack".

3 February 1984: broadcast of fourth epsiode of Frontios. The Doctor gets the Gravis to reassemble the Tardis and removes him from Frontios, neutralising the other Tractators.

3 February 1996: broadcast of third episode of The Ghosts of N-Space on BBC Radio. The Doctor discovers that Vilmio is an immortal alchemist, while the Brigadier and Jeremy attempt to retake the castle.

ii) date specified in canon
3 February 1872: death of Joseph Sundvik (in The Curse of Fenric, Seventh Doctor, 1989).
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Midnight Blue-Light Special, by Seanan McGuire

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

I walked briskly through the empty dressing room to my locker. If I was going to have a chat with Dominic, I wanted to do it while I was wearing pants, and more heavily armed than it was possible to be in lace and petticoats. In addition to being a waitress and Ryan’s girlfriend, Istas served as Kitty’s costume designer, and she believed firmly in snaps and zippers and quick releases. Being a waheela—a type of Inuit therianthrope—meant she understood that sometimes people need to get out of their clothes in a hurry. That made them practical for work-wear, but not so much for the sort of things I was likely to get up to with Dominic De Luca.

Second volume of McGuire's popular InCryptid saga, which actually got the most votes in last year's Hugo for Best Series but lost to The Expanse on transfers. I wrote of the first volume:

I felt this was really Buffy reheated for New York, and as soon as the tall handsome antagonist hove into view I could see how it was going to end.

I felt much the same about this one; the heroine's voice is wearyingly sassy, the infodumping is incessant, we barely notice when there is a change of narrators part way through, and she manages to safely make an escape from the baddies climbing naked across New York rooftops having just been shot in the abdomen. One positive point is that although there are lots of non-human supernatural characters, the real monsters are the other humans. I won't read any more of the series, but I am sure it will keep on being nominated as long as that Hugo category lasts. You can get this one here.

This was my top unread book by a woman. Next on that list was Sugar and other stories, by A.S. Byatt.

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My tweets

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  • Mon, 20:06: RT @jrmaidment: Extent to which the direction on Brexit was fluid in the second half of 2016 is best illustrated by Philip Hammond’s anger…
  • Mon, 20:06: RT @jrmaidment: Reading the full interview, it is quite amazing Theresa May and Philip Hammond managed to work together for 3 years. How a…
  • Mon, 20:48: RT @SkyNews: ‘Everyone is just really happy to see each other and are enjoying being in the community.’ Lockdown has been lifted on the Is…
  • Mon, 23:17: Look folks. Let’s really really *not* get excited by *any* news story about *anybody* getting *nominated* for the Nobel Peace Prize. It is easy to get nominated. People with the right to do so include *any* member of *any* national parliament… 1/3
  • Tue, 09:30: Whoniversaries 2 February https://t.co/z6jXvdCNrJ
  • Tue, 10:45: RT @BelfastAgmt: Absolutely no one from Belfast was surveyed https://t.co/1nfPZxmjUg
  • Tue, 11:48: Just been charged €27 customs on a book delivery. Thank you, Brexiteers. If you voted to leave the EU, you are personally responsible for deterring me from buying books fro the UK again.
  • Tue, 11:55: RT @CarolineGruyter: I live in Norway, which is also outside the customs union, and I have stopped ordering things online from abroad. Sove…

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Whoniversaries 2 February

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i) births and deaths

2 February 1930: birth of Don Houghton, who wrote Inferno (Third Doctor, 1970) and The Mind of Evil (Third Doctor, 1971)

2 February 2011: death of Margaret John, who played Megan Jones, the Director of Euro Sea Gas, in Fury from the Deep (Second Doctor, 1968) and The Idiot's Lantern (Tenth Doctor, 2006), a 38-year gap which is unmatched for the main TV show (spinoffs allow some flexibility)

ii) broadcast anniversaries

2 February 1974: broadcast of fourth episode of Invasion of the Dinosaurs. Sarah is indoctrinated by the People; the Doctor is framed as the man behind the appearance of the dinosaurs.

2 February 1982: broadcast of second episode of Kinda. The unhinged Hindle takes over the base; Todd returns, equally out of his mind; Tegan, possessed by the Mara, takes over Aris.

2 February 1983: broadcast of second episode of Mawdryn Undead. The Doctor meets the Brigadier and shocks him into remembering his previous incarnations; Tegan and Nyssa meet the younger Brigadier, and then a man with no top to his skull.

2 February 1984: broadcast of third episode of Frontios. Turlough remembers his own world's lore about the Tractators, who still have Tegan and the Doctor trapped in the tunnels.

2 February 1985: broadcast of first episode of Mark of the Rani, introducing Kate O'Mara as the Rani. In 1820s England, the Rani's experiments, aided by the Master, are turning locals into violent Luddites.

2 February 2020: broadcast of Praxeus. What connects strange bird behaviour in the skies above a Madagascan beach to mysterious deaths by a deadly virus that seems to be spreading? And what does a famous British astronaut have to do with all of this? Can the Doctor, Ryan, Graham and Yaz solve this puzzle before it's too late?

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Into the Ashes, by Lee Murray

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Second paragraph of third chapter:

Major James Arnold studied the tussocked wasteland of the central plateau. Beyond the bleak rolling plains of tundra, the snow-capped peak of Mount Ruapehu dominated the skyline, magnificent despite the flurries of ash on the window pane. It wasn’t the first time Arnold had borrowed the office or stood in this spot, yet never had the situation been so grave.

This was one of the finalists for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards at CoNZealand last year. It turns out to be the third in a series where New Zealand law enforcers find themselves entangled with the ancient forces of Aotearoa, and I felt it depended a bit on having read at least one of the previous two to fully get what was going on. However, it's well written and suitably tense – in the middle of an evacuation from a volcanic eruption, a group of dangerous prisoners escape and cause even greater mayhem. Will keep an eye out for this writer. You can get this one here.

This rose to the top of my pile of unread books by non-white authors (Murray's family background is Chinese). Next on that list is another CoNZealand trophy, Pūrākau: Māori Myths Retold by Māori Writers, edited by Witi Ihimaera and Whiti Hereaka.

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Whoniversaries 1 February

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i) births and deaths

1 February 1946: birth of the much missed Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane Smith (companion to Third and Fourth Doctors, 1973-76; various appearances from then on, culminating in her own series from 2007 to 2011).

1 February 1962: birth of Lisa Bowerman, who played Karra in Survival (Seventh Doctor, 1989), the last person killed by the Master in Old Who; and has also played Bernice Summerfield in Big Finish audios since 1998, as well as taking a hand with directing and writing.

1 February 2000: death of Reginald Jessup, who played Admiral de Coligny's servant in the (lost) story we now call The Massacre (First Doctor, 1966) and Time Lord Savar in The Invasion of Time (Fourth Doctor, 1978).

1 February 2019: death of Clive Swift, who played Mr Jobel in Revelation of the Daleks (Sixth Doctor, 1985) and Mr Copper in Voyage of the Damned (Tenth Doctor, 2007).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

1 February 1964: broadcast of "The Rescue", seventh episode of the story we now call The Daleks (and nothing to do with the story we now call The Rescue). Ian, Barbara and the Thals destroy the Daleks' power source, defeating them, and rescue the Doctor and Susan.

1 February 1969: broadcast of second episode of The Seeds of Death. The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie head for the Moon by rocket; Miss Kelly T-Mats to the Moon and repairs the equipment but is captured by the Ice Warriors.

1 February 1975: broadcast of second episode of The Ark in Space. The humans on the Ark start to wake up; but Noah, their leader, has been infected by the Wirrn.

1 February 1982: broadcast of first episode of Kinda. The Doctor and Adric are captured by the Earth expedition on Deva Loka; Tegan's mind is ensnared by the wind chimes.

1 February 1983: broadcast of first epsiode of Mawdryn Undead

1 February 2010: broadcast of The Bounty Hunter, fourth episode of the Australian K9 series. K9 becomes confused about his memory loss when Ahab, an alien bounty hunter, arrives and teams up with Drake from the Department. Ahab claims there is a price on K9's head for murdering a galactic peace delegate in the 50th century.

iii) date specified in canon

1 February 1967: birth of Jackie Tyler, née Prentice. (At least of the parallel version from Pete's World.)