9 December 1938: birth of Waris Hussein, director of An Unearthly Child (1963) and Marco Polo (1964).
9 December 1944: birth of Eric Saward, script editor 1982-86, author of three Fifth Doctor stories and one Sixth Doctor story; a somewhat controversial figure.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
9 December 1967: broadcast of fifth episode of The Ice Warriors. Clent prepares to use the ioniser; the Ice Warriors prepare to use their sonic cannon.
9 December 1978: broadcast of third episode of The Androids of Tara. The Doctor tries to rescue Romana, but it's her android double; the real Romana escapes and is recaptured.
9 December 2018: broadcast of The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, last episode of Series 11. Team TARDIS discovers nine different distress calls, all coming from the same location on an unknown planet in the far future.
Second paragraph of third chapter (Thursday Part I):
A little while later, with nausea stirring stomach, he stood ., half-dressed at the window. It was another day without any sign of rain, another morning without birdsong; in the clear early light the garden below looked diminished and ordinary, the folly at the end a prop for an abandoned play and the glasshouse stained and shabby. The windows were thickly glazed in uneven panes that threw back a mottled reflection nothing like the neat-edged image in his own mirror every morning. The face he saw now was too pale and lean, the hair too long, and under heavy lids glossed with sweat the pale eyes glittered. He raised his right hand, uncertain whether the other man would raise his left in the proper greeting. 'What came over you?' he said. 'What in God's name have you done?' The watching man had no reply, and John returned to the edge of the bed, cradling his aching head in his hands: what had he done, after all? Nothing brave or impassioned, not the brief lapse into madness to be expected of a man arriving suddenly in middle age, but an abuse of kindness and trust: he'd been welcomed and cared for — he touched the place where the woman had put a kind hand — and in return he'd deceived them all. Recalling the words of the preacher the night before (I think perhaps we should talk) he felt the unease of a child awaiting the headmaster's summons.
A guy goes to a house and stuff happens. I had no idea what was going on in this book, or why I should care. You can get it here.
This was my top unread book acquired in 2015, one of the Clarke Award submissions that was not actually science fiction. Next on that list is A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson.
Mon, 12:56: RT @SpaJw: An Irish passport holder in the UK has more freedom than a UK passport holder in the UK. That’s quite a thing for the UK governm…
Mon, 18:40: RT @john_chu: @nwbrux Two interesting facts about the recent B’way revival of MFL (which, perhaps, you already know) 1. She does *not* retu…
Mon, 20:48: RT @cstross: Disgusted by @guardian running a hit piece advocating censorship of trans views on the internet citing Paul Conrathe approving…
Mon, 20:55: RT @HannahB4LiviMP: Statement on the suspension of Lord Maginnis for bullying & harassing me, a member of parliamentary security staff and…
Tue, 09:30: Whoniversaries 8 December: Jennie Linden, Nightmare of Eden #3, Enemy of the Bane #2, Unicorn & Wasp https://t.co/lbBBEAPcTF
Tue, 10:45: TIL that in 1955 disgusted MPs tried to cancel the repeat showing of the BBC adaptation of Orwell’s 1984, until Prince Philip said that “The Queen and I watched the play and thoroughly enjoyed it.” The repeat got the highest ratings since the Coronation. https://t.co/7uLlUOWcRd
8 December 1939: birth of Jennie Linden, who played Barbara in Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965)
ii) broadcast anniversaries
8 December 1979: broadcast of third episode of Nightmare of Eden. The Doctor realises that vraxoin comes from roast Mandrel.
8 December 2009: broadcast of second episode of Enemy of the Bane, concluding the second series of Sarah Jane Adventures. Sarah, Luke and the Brigadier force Mrs Wormwood and the Sontaran into a portal concealed in a stone circle. Last ever appearance (sob!) of the Brigadier.
iii) date specified in-universe
8 December 1926: Setting of The Unicorn and the Wasp (2008), where the Tenth Doctor and Donna meet Agatha Christie.
Usually around this time of year I post the list of places where I have spent a night away from home, and since I think it’s unlikely I’ll be going anywhere this month, here we are. (I am thinking of going to the Netherlands for a haircut, but that will be a half day at most.) As usual, places where I spent more than one non-consecutive night are marked with an asterisk.
That’s 8; the previous low was 11 in 2011. Those 8 are in 6 countries; I set foot in another five countries without overnighting, changing planes in the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland, dropping in on relatives in Luxembourg en route to France, and sneaking a quick look at the Vatican while in Rome, for a total of 11, none of them new.
I think this is the first year of my life that I have not spent a night in either part of Ireland, and I’m 53; though at least I changed planes in Dublin on my way to and from LA. I think it’s also the first year since 1995 that I have not been to the Balkans. I have been to the USA every year but one (2014) since 2002 – including this year, thanks to Gallifrey One.
Sun, 18:25: RT @five_books: “As the Philip K Dick once put it: ‘The sci fi writer sees not just possibilities but wild possibilities’” —@nwbrux. From s…
Sun, 19:21: RT @Michael29024447: @nwbrux The three books written by Neill (which I’ve never read because when I was a kid and into the series they’d be…
Sun, 20:48: RT @ClaraVulliamy: Hello friends on this chilly Sunday morning. This thread is a little more personal than I usually am on here, so if…
7 December 1947: birth of Wendy Padbury, who played Second Doctor companion Zoe Heriot in 1968-69.
7 December 1998: death of Michael Craze, who played Ben Jackson, companion of the First and Second Doctors, in 1966-67.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
7 December 1963: broadcast of "The Forest of Fear", third episode of the story we now call An Unearthly Child. The time travellers escape from the Cave of Skulls, but are recaptured just as they reach the Tardis.
7 December 1968: broadcast of sixth episode of The Invasion. UNIT rescues Watkins: the Cybermen and Vaughn broadcast their radio signal to Take Ovar Thee Wurld.
7 December 1987: broadcast of third episode of Dragonfire, concluding Season 24. Mel Bush's last appearance. Kane tries to use the dragonfire crystal but is destroyed by sunlight.
7 December 1988: broadcast of third episode of Silver Nemesis. The Nemesis statue absorbs Lady Peinforte, and the Doctor uses it to destroy the Cyber fleet.
Sat, 14:48: ‘One of the nuttier things I’ve seen’: MAGA civil war erupts in Georgia https://t.co/IqIoGfrX6U Hardliners threaten to boycott Senate runoffs. Please!
Sat, 16:05: RT @cmioffice: We will start to operate as CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation. The creation of the foundation will ensure the continui…
Sat, 17:00: RT @Uitlander: @nwbrux I found Cyteen very heavy going. It helps if you have read others in the Alliance-Union universe and have some idea…
Sat, 17:00: RT @michaeldthomas: @nwbrux I have that book! It is very mediocre! Ah, the days when I still managed to purchase and read every Doctor Wh…
Sun, 10:18: As well as his acting career, he was an amateur astronomer who discovered a (temporary) Great White Spot on the planet Saturn. Asteroid 3125 Hay is named after him. https://t.co/hOXmyKqZSo
Sun, 10:45: RT @DaveKeating: The reality here is we’re looking at the difference between a significant economic earthquake in January, or a catastrophi…
Sun, 10:46: RT @anneapplebaum: “The United Kingdom has actually ended up with a free trade area smaller than the United Kingdom – with a trade barrier…
6 December 1932: birth of Declan Mulholland, one of the few Northern Irish actors to appear in Who, as Clark in The Sea Devils (1972) and Till in The Androids of Tara (1978).
6 December 1975: birth of Noel Clarke, who played Mickey Smith in New Who (2005-2010) and also wrote the 2006 Torchwood episode Combat., the only member of the regular cast to have written for the Whoniverse on TV (though others, including Tom Baker and Colin Baker, have written books, comics and audios).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
6 December 1975: broadcast of third episode of The Android Invasion. The Doctor learns the Kraal's plan; Sarah saves him from brainwiping; and they both stow away on the rocket to Earth.
6 December 1980: broadcast of third episode of State of Decay. Tarak rescues the Doctor and Romana, but is killed by the vampires.
6 December 1986: broadcast of second episode of The Ultimate Foe (ToaTL #14), ending Season 23. Last appearance of Colin Baker as the Doctor. The Doctor escapes the Matrix and thwarts the Master and the Valeyard. But I'd stay off the exercise bike if I were you, Doctor.
6 December 1989: broadcast of third episode of Survival, the final episode of Season 26 and indeed the very last episode of Old Who, so also the final appearances of Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace and Anthony Ainley as the Master. (See 20 August for an interesting coincidence linking those three.) The Master tries to take over the youth club in Perivale, but the Doctor lures him back to the cheetah planet and leaves him there, walking off into the sunset with Ace.
Strange but true: the last Sixth Doctor episode was broadcast exactly three years before the last Seventh Doctor episode.
6 December 2011: release of the prequel to The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.
Terms of Endearment won the Oscar for Best Picture of 1983, and also four others, Best Director (John L Brooke), Best Actress (Shirley MacLaine beating Debra Winger), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson beating John Lithgow), and Best Screenplay from another medium (John L. Brooks again). That year’s Hugo winner, Return of the Jedi, got a special award for visual effects (deservedly).
The other Best Picture nominees were The Big Chill, which I have seen, and The Dresser, The Right Stuff and Tender Mercies, which I haven’t. It’s not super popular among IMDB users, who currently rank it 17th for the year on bothsystems. Other films I’ve seen from that year (in rough IMDB order): Return of the Jedi, Trading Places, Octopussy, The Meaning of Life, Blue Thunder, The Big Chill, Local Hero, Educating Rita, To Be or Not to Be and Heat and Dust. I have a fond nostalgia for almost all of these (except Heat and Dust, which I remember as rather dull), but Terms of Endearment is better than most of them. Here’s a trailer.
Sometimes when I look for links with previous Oscar winners I’m scrabbling a long way down the cast list. Not this time; Shirley MacLaine, here the central character Aurora Greenway, was also the lead actress in both The Apartment in 1960 and Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), an impressive 27 years ago. We’ve had longer intervals (33 years for Howland Chamberlain) but not at this level.
And on the other side of Aurora’s garden fence, we have Jack Nicholson and Danny De Vito, both of whom were also in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest eight years ago.
I have rather bounced off the last few Oscar winners with a contemporary domestic setting (Ordinary People, Kramer vs. Kramer, to an extent The Deer Hunter and also Annie Hall). But I have to admit I really enjoyed Terms of Endearment. The first 94 minutes are funny, well-observed and nicely written dynamics of a combustible mother-daughter relationship, and their shifting love lives; and then we get the Plot Twist, and the remaining 38 minutes are much less funny but equally well observed and nicely written. Somewhat to my surprise, I’m putting it in my top ten, behind One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest but ahead of Midnight Cowboy.
To note the one negative, and I’m afraid it’s the usual plus a little extra: no non-white faces are visible anywhere in the film (largely set in Houston, which waas and is 25% African-American), and also the book’s exploration of the less well off parts of town through Rosie, Aurora’s maid, has been completely removed. So we are left with a story about white middle class people.
But the trade-off is that we get a much more female perspective than is usual. The last Oscar-winner where the lead actress was also the central character was The Sound of Music, nineteen years ago in 1964; the only other Oscar winner where the central dynamic is between two women, with men largely as decoration, rather than the other way round, is All About Eve, 33 years ago in 1950. And it’s superbly carried off by Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger as Aurora and Helen. I don’t think I had seen Winger in anything else (I see that she had a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance in E.T., but I blinked and missed it).
It’s a good story. At first I thought that Aurora’s self-obsession would get old rather fast, when she explodes with rage about becoming a grandmother:
But then the development of both mother and daughter is delicately done, with each having their love affairs, Aurora with Jack Nicholson’s randy astronaut next door and Helen with the bank manager in Iowa played by John Lithgow (with a real feeling of sense of place for both Houston and Iowa/Nebraska). These four performances all got Oscar nominations, but in only two categories, won as noted above by MacLaine and Nicholson.
And the most memorable scene of many is Winger’s as Helen, saying her goodbyes.
The music is well-judged and not intrusive (and, now that it’s a few days since I watched the film, it’s a bit earwormy).
But if you want a break from the original music, here is a lovely lovely fanvid of the film, with key scenes cut to Carole King’s “I Feel the Earth Move”.
Anyway, an unexpected pleasure.
One glorious bit of trivia: the cast and crew bought writer and director John L. Brooks a copy of Matt Groening’s Life Is Hell as a gift. Brooks loved it, and contacted Groening to explore how they might work together. And so The Simpsons came to be.
The film is based on a novel by Larry McMurtry, best known for Lonesome Dove, though I have not read any of his other work. The second paragraph of the third section of the book is:
Then she jumped. Her mother had begun immediately to honk at the Volkswagen, and the Cadillac had a very loud horn. Hearing it unexpectedly gave everyone, Emma included, apprehensions of emergency. Against such honking the little green car had no chance—the Cadillac swept it aside as easily as an ocean liner might sweep aside a canoe. The driver, assuming that catastrophe had overtaken someone, turned into a driveway and didn’t even honk back.
The book has some major differences with the film – in fact, I can’t think of another case where a novel has been adapted for an Oscar-winning movie with such big differences, apart perhaps from Mrs Miniver (which is not really a novel). The first 360 pages of 410 are all about Aurora, with the plot of the film which covers over a decade, originally scheduled just over the hot summer on 1963. There is no astronaut; instead an older retired general, and the Danny De Vito character gets a lot more page space than he did on screen. Only on page 361 do we switch to Helen and her life in Iowa, and the Plot Twist comes on page 391 with less than 5% of the book to go (there is no New York scene, which I think an improvement – the one bit of the film that did not really work for me). I hugely enjoyed it. Aurora’s character is monstrous, fascinating and funny on the page; I think it was wise to balance her character much more with Helen’s for the screen adaptation, but it works well on the page. You can get it here. (It is not yet available electronically.)
Fri, 12:56: RT @jsher88888: When I was a kid we got the polio vaccine. My dad, working on Mary Poppins, asked how my day was. I told him about the vacc…
5 December 2001: death of Michael Leeston-Smith, director of the story we now call The Myth Makers (First Doctor, 1965).
5 December 2013: death of Barry Jackson who played Ascaris in the story we now call The Romans (First Doctor, 1964), Jeff Garvey in Mission to the Unknown (First Doctor era, 1965) and Drax in The Armageddon Factor (Fourth Doctor, 1979).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
5 December 1964: broadcast of "Day of Reckoning", third episode of the story we now call The Dalek Invasion of Earth. This is the fantastic episode with Jenny, Barbara and Dortmun fleeing across London to Francis Chagrin's amazing music, followed by Dortmun's last stand against the Daleks. This is such a brilliant sequence.
5 December 2015: broadcast of Hell Bent, ending Series 8 of New Who. Returning to Gallifrey, the Doctor must face his own people, the Time Lords, but how far will he go in his quest for vengeance? Does he have another confession? And how fiercely does his rage towards them for causing Clara's death burn?
iii) date specified in canon
5 December 1920: Kathy Nightingale is transported to Hull from 2007 by the Weeping Angels. (As seen in Blink, Tenth Doctor, 2007.)
There had been, indeed, a critical, anxious moment, emphasized by the agitation of bright feminine plumes and the shifting of masculine backs into the corners of the pews. None got so far as to define to themselves why there should be an apparent incompatibility between ruggedness and orthodoxy—but there were some who hoped and more who feared. Luther had been orthodox once, Savonarola also: in appearance neither was more canonical than the new rector.
Winston Churchill was a well-known American writer who happened to have the same name as a well-known British politician, three years younger than him. Back in 1913 and 1914, this novel was the best-selling book of the year in the USA, and I acquired it for the centenary in 2014, but have only now got around to reading it. (I should add that the British politician did in fact himself write one novel, and won the Nobel Prize for Literature.)
The Inside of the Cup is the story of a clergyman who is hired to service the upper classes of a city that is probably St Louis, and comes to the realisation that to really implement Christianity he is going to have to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The title comes from Jesus' admonition to the Pharisees in Matthew's Gospel:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
You know what way it's going to go as soon as the richest parishioner's estranged and nobly minded daughter hoves into view. The scandalous bit of the book, which frankly is rather boring now, is that the protagonist decides that believing in the virgin birth etc is not as important as Doing Good. It's awfully over-written and seems to go on for a very long time. Still, I think I'd like to visit St Louis some time on the basis of this. You can get it here.
This was both the non-genre work that had been on my shelves unread for the longest, and also the top unread book that I acquired in 2014. Next on those piles respectively are The Prisoner of Brenda, by Colin Bateman, and Palimpsest, by Charles Stross.
Thu, 19:11: RT @remkorteweg: Next week, join me as we discuss the ins & outs of the #Brexit talks & its implications for Ireland, the Netherlands…
Thu, 20:48: RT @RMFifthCircuit: I mean, this should never happen, but if it did, the apologizing a normal lawyer would do would be amazing. I suspect n…
Thu, 23:42: RT @worldcon2021: We have an important survey about #DISCONIII. Please fill this out ASAP if you are a member, volunteer, or part of the…
4 December 1965: broadcast of "The Traitors", fourth episode of the story we now call The Daleks' Master Plan. OMG, Katarina gets killed by a mad space criminal!!!!! Last year we had Susan leaving, this year we have a companion dying – what will they do next year, try and change the lead actor or something? (Also debut of Jean Marsh as Sara Kingdom, killing off her brother Bret Vyon who was played by Nicholas Courtney.)
4 December 2003: webcast of fourth episode of Scream of the Shalka. The Doctor reclaims the Tardis, but there's a Shalka in Alison's head…
Current Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake Tono-Bungay, by H.G. Wells Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville Dreamsnake, by Vonda McIntyre
Last books finished Painless, by Rich Larson The Time Invariance of Snow, by E. Lily Yu Blood is Another Word for Hunger, by Rivers Solomon More Real Than Him, by Silvia Park The Inside of the Cup, by the other Winston S. Churchill Terms of Endearment, by Larry McMurtry After Me Comes the Flood, by Sarah Perry Ash: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle
"The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley
Next books The Company Articles of Edward Teach/Angaelien Apocalypse, by Thoraiya Dyer Above/Below, by Stephanie Campisi
Wed, 12:56: RT @damienrobi: PUMP UP THE JAM – Technotronic Après des heures d’enregistrement, j’ai finalement eu une prise sans erreur, mais c’est auss…
Wed, 16:05: Brexit emptied so many serious political minds of sense, on both sides of the issue. Now let it be https://t.co/BGZvnHaqLW I tend to agree. (Assuming that there is a deal.)
Wed, 17:04: RT @simoncoveney: A clear message to London for some time; a 2nd piece of legislation deliberately breaching WA & Int law, will be taken as…
Wed, 19:08: RT @KathrynDuval: @nwbrux The Secret Garden was one of my favorite books as a child. I was also quite fond of A Little Princess by the same…
Wed, 23:33: RT @MichelBarnier: Pour Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, l’Europe devait être une ambition française et la France une nation moderne . Respect htt…
Thu, 08:47: RT @vonderleyen: Je rends hommage ce matin à Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Dans son cœur, les destins de la France et de l’Europe étaient ét…
Thu, 10:45: RT @FinancialTimes: First female president of the European Commission @vonderleyen — one of the FT’s game-changer Women of 2020 — talks to…
3 December 1928: birth of Gerald Blake, director of The Abominable Snowmen (Second Doctor, 1967) and The Invasion of Time (Fourth Doctor, 1978).
3 December 2019: death of Donald Tosh, script editor in 1965-66, author of "Bell of Doom", fourth episode of the story we now call The Massacre (First Doctor, 1966).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
3 December 1966: broadcast of fifth episode of The Power of the Daleks. Lesterson realises what the Daleks are up to; the rebels kill the governor; and the Daleks "CON-QUER AND DE-STROY"!
3 December 1977: broadcast of second episode of The Sunmakers. Leela and K9 attempt to rescue the Doctor; he escapes but they are captured.
3 December 2006: broadcast of They Keep Killing Suzie (Torchwood), the one where the woman who died in the first episode comes back and tries to steal Gwen's life.
So, before I get to the serious stuff, the Brussels bubble today is full of the news that a Hungarian MEP was apprehended by police as one of 25 men fleeing a police raid on a sex party – not that gay sex parties are per se illegal in Belgium, but this was a flagrant breach of public safety regulations. In general I take a dim view of salacious coverage of what poltiicans choose to do in bed, but the MEP in question, József Szájer, is notorious as one of the authors of the Hungarian constitution, which defines marriage as purely between a man and a woman. In my view, MEPs have the same right to go to sex parties as any of us do, but those rights are suspended at the moment as for any gathering of people in pandemic times; and while everyone has the right to a private life, the hypocrisy of those who break the rules that they impose on others is always worth exposing. The organiser of the party said it was all OK as all guests had already had coronavirus. (Yes, really.) There will be more fallout – at least two of the other guests are being described as EU diplomats (which could mean anything within the bubble, really).
The target numbers for a relaxation of restrictions are 800 new infections and 75 hospital admissions per day. At current rates of decline, that's only three or four weeks away. One can expect a blip for Christmas, I suspect, but people are getting the message that this isn't going to be a big party season.
And the news of vaccines in the last couple of weeks does seem to be turning things around. POLITICO last night ran a very interesting piece mapping out how the USA will return to normalcy over the next year. Similar pieces could by now be written about every country. Prime Minister De Croo announced today that (assuming the EU approves) vaccination will start in Belgium on 5 January. As an over-50, but with no underlying health problems other than corona kilos (as my doctor tactfully put it), I don't expect to be first in the queue but I don't expect to be last either. So travel may become a thing again, perhaps even by Eastercon time.
Work continues remotely. After a slack couple of weeks, several things have come in over the last few days which kept me very busy and working late into the evening – which feels a bit weird when you've been at home all day anyway. I have another scheduled meeting in-person with a Brussels-based diplomat next week, which again I'm unreasonably excited about.
Tue, 12:56: RT @PickardJE: the indefatigable @GeorgeWParker was in the Devon fishing port of Brixham at 6am yesterday, this is a must-read on fishing &…
Tue, 13:26: RT @Jess_Sargeant: Next week the UK gov is expected to introduce the Finance Bill with yet more powers to break international law, on top o…
Tue, 17:02: RT @Huskyteer: @nwbrux I read this one recently and God, it pulls absolutely no punches. As you’d expect from the guy who wrote Piece Of Ca…
Tue, 17:11: RT @DW_Infostamp: River Song has been played by six different actors, the most to portray a single companion on-screen. #DoctorWho https://…
Wed, 09:19: RT @EURACTIV: Hungarian MEP József Szájer apologised after being caught trying to flee a 25-man gay orgy that breached COVID restrictions.…
Wed, 10:45: RT @sarahoconnor_: This week I’ve taken a look into the world of academia, a perfect microcosm of an insider-outsider labour market, with s…
2 December 1920: birth of Alec Wallis, who played Leading Telegraphist Bowman in The Sea Devils (Third Doctor, 1972) and Warner in Revenge of the Cybermen (Fourth Doctor, 1975).
2 December 2002: death of John Baker, who played a Time Lord in Colony in Space (Third Doctor, 1972) and Ralph the servant, one of several characters killed off early in the first episode of The Visitation (Fifth Doctor, 1982).
2 December 2014: death of Ian Fairbairn, who played Questor in The Macra Terror (Second Doctor, 1967), Mark Gregory in The Invasion (Second Doctor, 1968), both John Bromleys in Inferno (Third Doctor, 1970) and Chester in The Seeds of Doom (Fourth Doctor, 1976).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
2 December 1967: broadcast of fourth episode of The Ice Warriors. Victoria is recaptured by the Ice Warriors; the Doctor also falls into their clutches.
2 December 1978: broadcast of second episode of The Androids of Tara. The King's android double is crowned; the Doctor apparently kills Princess Strella.
2 December 2018: broadcast of It Takes You Away. In an isolated house in the Norwegian fjords, a scared girl hides alone, waiting for her father to return. In the distance, a monster comes to take people away. And for some reason, one mirror is not working as it should. The Thirteenth Doctor and her friends must battle their own desires to work out what is going on.
And yet even a born and bred Londoner, such as Douglas Archer, could walk down Curzon Street and, with eyes half-closed, see little or no change from the previous year. The Soldatenkino sign outside the Curzon cinema was small and discreet, and only if you tried to enter the Mirabelle restaurant did a top-hatted doorman whisper that it was now used exclusively by Staff Officers from Air Fleet 8 Headquarters, across the road in the old Ministry of Education offices. And if your eyes remained half-closed, you missed the signs that said ‘Jewish Undertaking’ and effectively kept all but the boldest customers out. And in September of that year 1941, Douglas Archer, in common with most of his compatriots, was keeping his eyes half-closed.
The basic scenario here is that after a successful German invasion in 1940, our protagonist, a Scotland Yard detective who is now being managed by an uneasy combination of Wehrmacht and SS, is asked to investigate a mysterious murder. It's all linked with the British contribution to this timeline's equivalent of the Manhattan Project. I must say I could not suspend my disbelief at several points. In such a situation I cannot imagine that investigation of a crime with such obvious security implications for the Germans would not be closely managed by them. The level of co-operation between elements of the Brtish resistance and elements of the Wehrmacht seemed to me completely improbable. And there is a massive resistance attack in the middle of the book which I found pretty implausible. Also our protagonist gets a girlfriend who is duly fridged. Apart from that, the sense of place and characterisation were pretty good; I just didn't quite buy the execution. You can get it here.
This was both my top unread sf book and my top unread book acquired last year. Next on both lists is The Food of the Gods, by H.G. Wells. After I've read that, I'm going to split Wells novels' into a separate stream.
Mon, 16:05: Out of office: Has coronavirus changed Brussels’ EU Quarter for good? https://t.co/2N8DAdAI4e Or perhaps, for the better? Personally I’m sceptical. I think the new normal will be a lot like the old normal.
Mon, 17:11: RT @lisaocarroll: That British citizens married to EU spouses will not be able to return to UK after March 22 as a family has been known fo…
Tue, 09:30: Whoniversaries 1 December: Dennis Spooner, James Bree, Nightmare of Eden #2, Enemy of the Bane #1 https://t.co/i7lv3mz5WN
Tue, 10:45: Note to those of you who are (or know people who are) in Belgium aged between 50 and 65: the (ordinary) flu vaccine is now available for our age group. (Until yesterday it was reserved for people over 65 and those at greater risk.) I usually forget; but not this winter.
1 December 1932: birth of Dennis Spooner, script editor / story editor of Doctor Who for first months of 1965 (from The Rescue to The Chase), also writer of The Reign of Terror (First Doctor, 1964), The Romans (First Doctor, 1965), The Time Meddler (First Doctor, 1965), much of The Daleks' Master Plan (First Doctor, 1965-66) and the first episode of The Power of the Daleks (Second Doctor, 1966).
1 December 1955: birth of Kelly A. Manners, sole full producer on Torchwood: Miracle Day.
1 December 2008: death of James Bree, who played the Security Chief in The War Games (Second Doctor, 1969), Nefred the Decider in Full Circle (Fourth Doctor, 1980) and the Keeper of the Matrix in The Ultimate Foe (Sixth Doctor, 1986).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
1 December 1979: broadcast of second episode of Nightmare of Eden. More drugs, monsters, and strangely fused spaceships.
1 December 2008: broadcast of first episode of Enemy of the Bane (SJA). Mrs Wormwood returns, allied with both the Bane and the Sontarans; Sarah teams up with the Brigadier to break into UNIT.
iii) date specified in-universe:
1 December 1955: in Montgomery, Alabama, civil rights activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, on a segregated bus, to a white passenger, when the bus became crowded enough that she was required to move.
Non-fiction: 2 (YTD 46) Selected Prose, by Charles Lamb (did not finish) Mahatma Gandhi: His Life and Times, by Louis Fischer
Fiction (non-sf): 1 (YTD 35) The Inside of the Cup, by the other Winston Churchill
sf (non-Who): 7 (YTD 99) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick Borderline, by Mishell Baker SS-GB, by Len Deighton Painless, by Rich Larson The Time Invariance of Snow, by E. Lily Yu Blood is Another Word for Hunger, by Rivers Solomon More Real Than Him, by Silvia Park
Doctor Who: 5 (YTD 16) The Nth Doctor, by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier The Official Doctor Who Annual 2021, by Paul Lang Doctor Who: Mission to the Unknown, by John Peel Doctor Who: The Mutation of Time, by John Peel The Astraea Conspiracy, by Lizbeth Myles
Comics: 5 (YTD 44) Neil Dreams, by Neil Gaiman An Honest Answer & Other Stories, by Neil Gaiman The Daleks’ Master Plan, adapted by Rick Lundeen The Empire Strikes Back, written by Archie Goodwin, art by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon Return of the Jedi, written by Archie Goodwin, art by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon
4,000 pages (YTD 62,800)
6/20 (YTD 75/239) not by men (Baker, Yu, Solomon, Park, Lofficier, Myles)
3/20 (YTD 22/239) by PoC (Yu, Solomon, Park)
3/20 reread (YTD 37/239) – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Mission to the Unknown, The Mutation of Time
Current Ash: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake After Me Comes the Flood, by Sarah Perry Terms of Endearment, by Larry McMurtry Tono-Bungay, by H.G. Wells
Coming soon (perhaps) Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville
"The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley The Company Articles of Edward Teach/Angaelien Apocalypse, by Thoraiya Dyer Above/Below, by Stephanie Campisi Planetfall, by Emma Newman The Anything Box, by Zenna Henderson Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Volume 1: A New Beginning, by Jody Houser, Rachael Stott, Giorgia Sposito, Enrica Eren Angiolini Our War: Ireland and the Great War, by John Horne Utopia For Realists, by Rutger Bregman Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma Greybeard, by Brian Aldiss Kaamelott: Het Raadsel Van de Kluis, written by Alexandre Astier, art by Steven Dupré Goodbye To All That, by Robert Graves Foucaults Pendulum by Umberto Eco Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, by Nick Mason The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore A Buzz in the Meadow, by Dave Goulson
Sun, 12:10: Interesting stamp on this second-hand book. Any thoughts about what “CVRA” could mean? I suspect an institution with a library for residents/guests, and the “C” may stand for “Castle”. “8 18” probably means the book was withdrawn from the collection in August 2018. https://t.co/c8F4kZaPM3
Sun, 14:48: RT @DavidGauke: My piece for the @FT on the OBR’s assessment of the economic impact of Brexit. Even with a deal, it will be a hard Brexit &…
Sun, 20:48: RT @PickardJE: The UK has spent more money fighting Covid-19 than almost all comparable countries but still languishes towards the bottom o…
Mon, 11:23: RT @nickgutteridge: Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney not pulling his punches on Brexit. ‘The British Government was offered a much long…
End of another month. I've started reposting these to the Facebook Doctor Who group, where people seem to like them
broadcast anniversaries
30 November 1963: repeat of "An Unearthly Child" and first broadcast of "The Cave of Skulls", the first and second episodes of the story we now call An Unearthly Child. The Tardis has landed on a primitive world where the travellers are taken captive by cavemen.
30 November 1968: broadcast of fifth episode of The Invasion. Isobel, Jamie and Zoe enter the sewers and are confronted by a deranged Cyberman.
30 November 1987: broadcast of second episode of Dragonfire. Mel and Ace are pursued by the dragon; the Doctor and Glitz work out where the treasure is.
30 November 1988: broadcast of second episode of Silver Nemesis. Rather confusing battles between the Cybermen and neo-Nazis.
This is the latest post in a series I started a year ago, 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.
I started February with a trip to Geneva, and then went to the USA for my usual east coast run, starting with Boskone and continuing to Washington and New York. I should have mentioned in my January write-up that Iain Banks spoke in Brussels at Scotland House. At work there was significant news in the big picture, as Kosovo declared independence and the Greek Cypriots voted out their hardline president and voted in a more pro-peace process candidate (who unfortunately turned out to be a complete idiot). On the smaller scale my Spanish intern S left for a public affairs job with a big petrochemical company; she has moved into corporate sustainability and social responsibility, and is either in Mexico or New York these days, I've lost track. Her replacement E was German, and actually reminded me after I'd hired her that her sister is a friend of mine (their surname not all that uncommon).
With the massive amount of US travel, I got through 31 books in a 29-day month.
Sat, 12:36: RT @jdevans141: @nwbrux Very sensible targets. Meanwhile in England we are about to reopen the pubs and restaurants in over half the countr…
Sat, 12:56: RT @davidallengreen: The failed appeal of Trump over Pennsylvania – and the relationship between politics and law My post today at the @la…
Sat, 23:15: RT @rtalalay: Let’s start with my drawing that represents the entire episode. [Actually the Veil attacking the Doctor in the grave, as desc…
Sun, 10:54: RT @lionelbarber: Let’s get serious: fish is a smoke(d) screen in the Brexit talks. It’s all about state aid and the EU’s insistence on a l…
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