Day 4: During Which Our Hero Does Not Turn Into a Chicken.

 And you, the bald fellow who's half a chicken, it's starting to look good on you.

The Doctor, The Doctor Who Experience

Day Four of the 2011 European Tour, a day which provided me with an odd combination of experiences - and Experiences, come to think of it.

I started the day with the Doctor Who Experience, for which I have mixed reviews, to be honest. First, I have to say that Google has a LOT to answer for - the address provided for the Olympia Two exhibition centre has perilously little to do with the actual location, an issue which very nearly led me to be late for my ten o'clock reservation as I walked in circles through the pouring English rain asking carpark attendants, shop clerks and postmen for directions.

However, I did finally make my triumphant (and dripping wet) entrance at the front door at exactly ten, and made my way to the exhibition.  As I had somewhat suspected, the Experience itself didn't start at EXACTLY ten, since that was also when the venue opened (sad to say, experience teaches us that most Experiences don't start on time.)

 

The Doctor Who Experience is made up of two parts - well, three if you're being generous.  There's a bit of a prop display in the waiting area at the start, a couple of costumes and a Union Jack decorated Dalek, but honestly, it's just to give you something to do while you wait.

 

The Experience itself?  The Experience is a sort of interactive episode of the series, set in a variety of sets from the show.  I have to admit I was a bit concerned when we all shuffled into a dark room and a series of clips from old episodes ran on an oversized wall screen.  However, I was impressed when, at the end, rather than exiting through one of the doors in the room the screen itself unexpectedly split in half and we were ushered in a museum setting from Starship UK, as featured in the episode The Beast Below.

As the various exhibits in the museum were being described to us by a very well done interactive guide who was essentially a human face on a stick, the Doctor makes an appearance by hijacking one of the numerous video screens in the hall and demanding our help in escaping from the second Pandorica, a perfect trap designed specifically for the Doctor.

As the walk-through continues, there's quite a bit of the Doctor on various screens, all custom footage shot solely for the Experience, which I was relieved to see after the initial show clips.  Matt Smith delivers his lines with flair and energy - in fact, with so much energy that they apparently had some difficulty keeping him from breaking out of his bonds prematurely during the shooting.

The Experience then took us into the TARDIS, which of course is constructed so as to appear bigger on the inside, and we're offered the unique opportunity of piloting it, an experience which the Doctor requested be given to any children in the group, since apparently adults are rubbish at this sort of thing.*

As you progress through the various sets, you're threatened by Daleks, Weeping Angels, and finally end up watching almost every villain from the new series being swept away by a time vortex in one of the most incredibly effective 3-D films I've ever seen.  In fact, I was surprised that the children in the audience weren't screaming in fright, obviously British kids are made of stern stuff.

 

Finally, you're ushered out into a large display of props and costumes from the show, followed by the inevitable gift shop.

 

 

Overall, I enjoyed the Doctor Who Experience, but I have to say that I was hoping that it would be "incredible" rather than "enjoyable".  What would have made the difference?  I would have added a few actors in costume and disposed of the very mundane fellow in a t-shirt who kept telling us which way to go - surely that role could have been filled by someone in a spacesuit.  I also think that the TARDIS control room was supposed to be a motion platform, but it didn't seem to be doing anything in spite of the Doctor's repeated warnings that we should hang on.

 

All criticisms aside, at least I can say that I've been there, done that - and got the t-shirt (okay, and a mug, if you must know).

My earlier wanderings had taken me past the Brompton Cemetery, an evocative necropolis to stumble across on a rainy day in London, and after the Doctor Who Experience I couldn't resist going back to take some pictures of this unkempt momento mori - after all, I couldn't get any wetter.

Solitary fellow visitors added odd gracenotes to my visit -  it was a bit disconcerting to see a black clad figure stalking through the cenotaphs, their face concealed by an umbrella.  A hooded figure sat in quiet contemplation near the central rotunda, and a passing fairy posed in a bizarre display of sweatsuit eroticism, all of which added up to a sort of near-surreal urban fantasy experience.

Tomorrow, St. Paul's, and the Tower of London!

- Sid

* There was also some talk of bald people being turned into giant chickens, a recurring thread in the narrative.  To my relief I dodged that particular bullet - my passport picture looks nothing like a chicken, and I might have had some trouble explaining the addition of feathers and a beak when trying to get back into Canada.

Paradise Skies.

Happiness is beginning to rise

From the streets into paradise skies.

Max Webster, Paradise Skies:  A Million Vacations

Counting down: I'm on deck to leave for the airport in an hour.  I'm packed and documented, I have pounds and euros, maps and guides, reservations and tickets.  Inevitably I forget something when I pack, but it's never anything serious - "Oh damn, I forgot shirts!" - but as far as I can tell I'm pretty well prepared.  However, I would like to publicly thank my co-worker Joe for including a 2010 Island Boys calendar in the suitcase that I borrowed, and once again, thanks for thinking of me, Joe, but I left it in the spare bedroom to be returned with the luggage.

I'll be doing blog updates as opportunity, inspiration and internet access allow.  For those of you tracking trip progress here, I'll warn you now that I won't be doing a lot of  "The scenery is here, wish you were beautiful" updates - anything here will have at least some sort of thematic connection to science fiction or fantasy.  (I'll admit that I've got a couple of placeholders based on existing plans, and not necessarily relating to Doctor Who, either.)  However, I will be contacting people personally as well, not to worry.

So, bon voyage, and thanks to everyone for their interest and support in planning this trip!

- Sid

Everywhere and forever?

I'm in full countdown mode for my vacation, with only four and a half days to go before I fly to England.  One of the things on my to-do list was my online check-in for the Mediterranean cruise, which I needed to finish this week so that I could print the results.

Part of the check-in process required my agreement to a lengthy contract detailing the various responsibilities, regulations and liabilities for both the shipping line and the passengers.  This contract contains the following clause - please note the section in bold:

13. USE OF PHOTOS, VIDEOS OR RECORDINGS:
Guest hereby grants to Carrier (and its assignees and licensees) the exclusive right throughout the universe and in perpetuity to include photographic, video, audio and other visual or audio portrayals of Passenger taken during or in connection with the Cruise or CruiseTour (including any images, likenesses or voices) in any medium of any nature whatsoever (including the right to edit, combine with other materials or create any type of derivative thereof) for the purpose of trade, advertising, sales, publicity, promotional, training or otherwise, without compensation to the Guest. 

"Throughout the universe and in perpetuity"?  Wow, obviously Royal Caribbean is in for the long haul with this cruise business thing.  I'm left with this odd mental image of eight-armed aliens on Tau Ceti Five a thousand years from now, thoughtfully flipping through a cruise brochure that's ornamented with a picture of my smiling face as I enjoy the various amenities available on the ship. "Hmmm...you know, this bald bearded biped appears to be enjoying himself - pack your bags, honey, we're going to Earth!"

- Sid

"You never know". Or do you?

I’ll get trip insurance in case Europe collapses before we embark on our cruise. You never know.

- Laurie Smith, February 2011

Now, admittedly, the rioting in England has died down (although there are still incidents of looting on a much smaller, almost personalized scale - boutique looting, if you will); regardless, some kind of recognition is due to Laurie for her prescient comments from February about travel insurance, now that I'm flying to England to start my vacation in less than a week. Hmmm…psychic ability? Time travel? Either way, Laurie, if there's anything else you'd like to mention - alien invasions, giant sea monsters in the Mediterranean, the return of the Mummy, anything - now is the time (no pun intended).

- Sid

P.S. Come to think of it, I might deserve a minor shout-out for my observations about planning riots through social media.  Apparently Facebook, Twitter and BlackBerry Messenger were key elements in the planning and execution of the violence in London.

THIS is a science fiction shark - see the difference?

Ah, I see that the Space Channel is showing Jaws tonight, look at that!

Sigh...okay...I'm only going to say this once...

HEY!!!!   SPACE CHANNEL!!!  JAWS IS NOT A SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE!!  A MOVIE ABOUT A BIG SHARK THAT EATS PEOPLE IS NOT SCIENCE FICTION!!!! 
  
QUESTIONS?  

NO?  

GOOD!!  DON'T MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!!

- Sid

August 14th update:  goddamnit, it's even in their pre-movie lead-in!  Am I missing something here?  Does Captain Quint suggest that the shark is a mutant, or something?

Illustration by Canadian illustrator Jesse McGibs 


 

Insert clever title here.

There are times when this whole blog thing is more trouble than it's worth.

I was skimming through Michael Moorcock's Stormbringer, the last in his Elric of Melniboné series, looking for quotes for a posting on Chaos, when I noticed a line in the text saying that Elric's sorcerous ancestors had ruled his world for ten thousand years.

Really?  Ten thousand years?  And no one invented gunpowder, light bulbs or computers?  We went from bronze armour to the moon in a little under two thousand, what in the hell were these people doing for all that time?

Okay…well, Arthur C. Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic - maybe there's some kind of flip side to that which would say that sufficiently advanced magic would…eliminate the need for technology? 

Well, there's probably a posting in there someplace, "Discuss!", as Mike Meyers would say.  But how do I illustrate it?  Ooo, I know, there was that Michael Golden drawing in one of the early Epic Illustrated issues*, the one showing the shaman and the cyber-soldier.  Let's see…Google...Epic Illustrated Golden - aha, issue 3.  Okay, Google, Epic Illustrated 3 .cbr…aha, there we are.

Download….download….

And open.  Hold on, where's the drawing?  In fact, where's the article with the drawing?  God damn it, there's about 20 pages missing from this scan!  Bloody people... Okay, Google…Epic Illustrated 3…new link...

Download...download…

And open.  Oh for heaven's sake, it's the same scan.

Google…Epic Illustrated 03…new link….

Download….download....

You're kidding - also missing 20 pages?  Okay, let's try some lateral thinking here.  Google....Michael Golden artwork…aha, Modern Masters Volume 12, Michael Golden.

Download…download…

Nope, not here.  Hmmm.  Okay, as far as I know I own the damn magazine, down to the storage room, let's find that box of Heavy Metal and Epic magazines....aha, there we go.

Shuffle....shuffle...oh look, an Isaac Asimov SF Adventure Magazine, I haven't read this in years, wasn't there a Brunner Man In Black story in here.  Ah, and the special H. P. Lovecraft issue of Heavy Metal, let's keep that out for some scanning, there were some good Cthulhu illustrations if memory serves. Gosh, is it worth my while to pull the issues of Heavy Metal with the serialized version of the Matt Howarth Changes story to do my own scans to replace the all-in-one edition that Tundra published, where he redrew all the frames that contained nudity?

Aha, here it is, in the OTHER box of Epic/Heavy Metal magazines!!!  

You know, now that I look at it, maybe not the ideal image...let's see, what else could I use...wait, wasn't I doing research for a posting on Chaos?

- Sid

*  Yes, I happened to bloody well remember that there was a particular black and white line drawing by Michael Golden in a fantasy magazine that I bought in 1980, do you have a problem with that?

"Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths"

Giggle giggle giggle....

As I've already mentioned, I'm off for a three week European vacation in August.  The middle part involving Italy and the Mediterranean cruise with Felix the Cat is all taken care of, reservations, tickets, bookings et al., and now I'm filling in the English and French parts before and after.

Finding things to do in London is hardly a problem, but I thought it might be interesting to break with my usual sightseeing lineup and do something different.  Initially, I had hoped to see Kevin Spacey's eponymous performance in Richard III for the innovative Bridge Project version of the play currently being done at the Old Vic, but apparently that's been sold out since day one.  Hmmm....what else, what else....

Regardless, last night I booked a London transit pass along with an attractions pass guaranteed to get me into 80 fascinating tourist spots, and then decided to take a break from vacation planning.

So it was a COMPLETE fluke that I found a link to the following on TDW Geek: *

Yes, the Doctor Who Experience, currently in London and now booking until September 4th, conveniently located within about a minute's walk from the Olympia Underground station.

The Doctor Who Experience invites you to step through a crack in time allowing you to join the Doctor on a journey through time and space, encountering some of the best-loved and scariest monsters from the hit international television series. Special scenes filmed with Matt Smith as the Doctor combine with amazing special effects and the chance to enter a recreation of the modern TARDIS.

The exhibition element of the Doctor Who Experience charts the success of the TV show from the first series in 1963 to the most recent episodes starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. Displays in the exhibition include items never seen before including original costumes, the Tom Baker TARDIS police box and two authentic TARDIS sets from the eras of David Tennant and Peter Davison. You will also be able to get up close and personal with iconic sets from recent series, including the Pandorica Box and Chair and confront numerous monsters including several generations of the Daleks and Cybermen as well as Silurians, an Ice Warrior and a Zygon.

Giggle giggle giggle...

Okay, fine, it's not bloody Shakespeare, but I have to admit that I may quite possibly end up having more fun at the Doctor Who Experience when I make my way there on August 23rd.  Hmmm....I hope I can get someone to take my picture beside a Dalek...

- Sid
 

P.S. And then I got ALL excited when I realized that HMV London sells Doctor Who DVD collections for a quarter of the price they charge at HMV Vancouver!  Yep, got all excited for about half an hour, then I thought, "No, wait, wrong bloody DVD Region."  Sigh...

*  Yes, I'm a regular visitor to The Daily What: Geek - "Games, Gadgets, Comics, Science and Sci-Fi".  Should this really be a surprise to anyone?

Mort.

Is it possible for someone like me - or like you - to arrange for themselves the death that they want?

Terry Pratchett, Choosing to Die

British fantasy author Terry Pratchett wants to die.

Actually, as Mr. Pratchett often has his characters say, that sentence is wrong in every particular (except the part about being a British fantasy author) but it's quite a useful lie.  Under normal circumstances, Terry Pratchett would have no more desire to die than anyone else, but unfortunately his circumstances are no longer exactly what one might call "normal".

As I've already discussed in a couple of previous posts, the 62-year old Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease three years ago, a particularly unpleasant fate for a man so noted for his wit and creativity.  Since then, Pratchett has begun a slow process of deterioration. He has lost the ability to type, but has continued to write and is just finishing the first draft of his next Discworld book, albeit by dictating the content to his assistant.  However, he is aware that this is just the beginning:

I know that the time will come when words will fail me. When I can no longer write my books, I'm not sure that I will want to go on living.

This is not hyperbole.  Pratchett has begun to look into the options for assisted suicide, and has recorded his research in a one-hour documentary entitled Choosing to Die.

I found the documentary a little disturbing. Pratchett focuses on a Swiss organization called Dignitas, that will, for a fee, help someone die, and meets with two people who have chosen to use their service - Peter Smedley, a 71 year old man with motor neuron disease, and Andrew Colgan, a 42 year old man with multiple sclerosis who had already attempted suicide (obviously without succeeding).

The documentary actually follows Peter Smedley through the entire process - yes, the viewer has a front-row seat to his death, as he first swallows a stomach-settler to ensure that the poison will stay down, followed by the poison itself and then a somewhat macabre chocolate treat. (It is Switzerland, after all.) There's a brief horrible moment when he begins to choke and requests water which he is not given, followed by a ghastly rattling noise as his lungs begin to stop working.

Eventually he passes from unconsciousness into death, all under the camera's watchful eye.

And that's where I took a bit of exception to the documentary approach.  Dignitas takes every precaution to ensure that their clients are in full possession of their faculties and completely aware of what they are doing, and there is no pressure applied to follow through on the process.  Peter Smedley is a model of composure and grace throughout, but I have to think that having a camera crew in the room might well stop someone from changing their mind at the last minute - personally, I'd prefer the option of deciding that a few more months of life still had some attraction for me without a zoom lens nearby to record my change of heart.

The documentary ends on a quiet note, with Pratchett looking back to the snow that fell after Peter Smedley's suicide, and pondering his own ending:

I would like to die out in the sunshine...I suppose that sometimes the sun shines in Switzerland.

Death, or more accurately the the anthropomorphic personification of the end of life, is one of the more popular and frequently utilized characters in Pratchett's Discworld books. Death is portrayed as a stern but sympathetic figure, who does not actually end life but who comes to collect the spirit of the departed, and whose calm demeanor is often a relief to the recently departed.  Perhaps this is expressive of Terry Pratchett's philosophy regarding his own death, self-managed or not.

- Sid

Keeping up with the Joneses.

And you, you little shit head... you're staying here.

Ellen Ripley, Aliens

I recently received a somewhat enigmatic text message from someone that I used to work with, suggesting that we should get together for a beer but also requesting that I should call them first to discuss something.  I have to admit that my first thought was Amway™ or some other similar pyramid scheme, but nonetheless I tried to keep an open mind as I dialed their number.

As it turned out, the party in question was planning to spend quite a bit of time travelling around Europe, and was looking for a home for their cat.  There were already a couple of people in line, but since my last cat lasted about 25 years, I seem to have a bit of a reputation as a reliable cat owner.

Sadly, I'm not quite ready to find a replacement for the incomparable Nigel, and since there were other people who were willing and able to step up to the plate in my stead, I didn't feel guilty about turning down the opportunity.

But, full points - if you want to entice a science fiction fan into taking care of a cat, name the cat after the best known feline action character of the last 25 years:  that's right, the cat was named Jones, in honour of the ship's cat on the ill-fated Nostromo in Alien.

However, as is so often the case with roles involving very small children and animals, Jones was actually played by four identical cats.  Yes, if you're a cat, you find three other cats that look the same and split things up so you actually only have to work 25% of the time.

- Sid

Canada Day is here again, and what better topic for today's patriotic posting than Captain Canuck, Canada's favourite (if not only) superhero.

The first homegrown Canadian entries into the superhero market were Johnny Canuck and Nelvana of the Northern Lights, who made their debut in World War II during an American ban on comic exports.  Johnny was an adventure hero/pilot along the lines of the American Blackhawk Squadron comics, and, like Wonder Woman, Nelvana found her origins in the world of mythology, although in her case, in Inuit legends rather than Greek. (Just for the record, Nelvana's 1940 debut beat Wonder Woman to the punch by a full year.)

Following the demise of Johnny Canuck and Nelvana after the war, there was a long gap in the Canadian comics market*, a gap which lasted until 1975 when 24 year old artist/author Richard Comely released Issue One of Captain Canuck under the banner of Comely Comics.

Set 18 years in the future, when Canada has become one of the major world powers, Captain Canuck's story is really that of Canadian International Security Organization agent Tom Evans.  While on a camping trip with the Boy Scout troop that he leads, Evans is the victim of alien abduction.  When he and his Scouts return to civilization, Evans discovers that:

Suddenly I was twice as strong! I could lift twice as much and move twice as fast as I could before! It wasn’t long before the heads of C.I.S.O. were also aware of my new power and they had a plan on how to capitalize on it.

C.I.S.O. directors and specialists created a costume and a code name. They wanted to create an image – a symbol of C.I.S.O. authority and power – a show piece for Canada!

To be honest, the early issues of Captain Canuck suffer from average art and mediocre storytelling, but over time the Captain began to develop his own unique style and attracted a solid (if almost exclusively Canadian) fan base.  Sadly, financial issues led to an early demise for Captain Canuck, although over the years there have been two other incarnations of the Captain, along with various special editions, mini-series, collections and so on.

In spite of this relatively unsuccessful career, Captain Canuck seems to hold a special place in the Canadian mythos.  He continues to receive media attention, he appeared on a stamp in 1995, and the National Archives now have ownership of some of the original Captain Canuck artwork.

And I guess I'm part of that ongoing interest, although I come by it honestly - I bought three or four issues of Captain Canuck back in the 70s. In fact, I sent Mr. Comely a fan letter when I was about 17, and to my youthful astonishment I received a hand-written response within a week.  To my intense regret, I cannot for the life of me lay hands on that letter, although I've looked in all the logical places.  In my defense, I have done eight or nine relocations since then, and things do get lost over time, but let's be optimistic, maybe in the next box of miscellaneous memorabilia that I open...

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

- Sid

* Strictly speaking, not a completely empty gap, there were one or two one-off parody comics published, but Captain Canuck is arguably the first fully-fledged attempt to create a Canadian comic book hero after World War II.

"My name is Erik Lensherr. You killed my mother, prepare to die."

Professor Charles Xavier: Erik, you said yourself - we're the better men. This is the time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships, good, honest, innocent men. They're just following orders! 

Erik Lensherr: I've been at the mercy of men just following orders... never again! 

X-Men:  First Class

I've explained my doubts regarding prequels in a previous post, and to be honest, left to my own devices I probably would have skipped X-Men: First Class.  However, the reclusive Ms. Smith decided that she wanted to see the latest adventure of Charles Xavier's students on the big screen, and given the rarity of movie outings with Laurie in the last few years, I felt that it would be unreasonable to refuse to accompany her.

That being said, I was unexpectedly pleased by First Class, which turned out to be a far more interesting and dramatic piece than I had anticipated.

Ostensibly, First Class deals with the origin of the X-Men, and how Professor X and Magneto met and became friends before their eventual moral division.  (Not to mention the whole wheelchair question.)  However, it's immediately evident that First Class is really about Erik Lensherr, and Charles Xavier ends up with something very close to a supporting role.

Lensherr, as portrayed by Michael Fassbender, is a surprising anti-hero whose magnetic abilities are still developing.  Fassbender has a commanding on-screen presence and his Magneto is a forceful, dynamic character who is willing to sacrifice anything and everything in the name of vengeance.

However, I was intensely disappointed by the change in motivation behind that desire for revenge.  One of the more intelligent developments over the lifetime of the X-Men has been the move toward mutation as a metaphor in the discussion of prejudice and bigotry.  The question of mutation as a "curable affliction" is resonant with connections to being gay, and Storm provides an obvious link between the treatment of mutants and the treatment of people of colour. This concept has been part of the X-Men plotline for decades now, with the 1982 Marvel Graphic Novel God Loves, Man Kills being one of the best stand-alone explorations of the idea.

Placing Magneto's origin in the Holocaust provided historical depth to the metaphor, which deepened and extended the motivation behind his struggle against humanity far beyond his original role as a common criminal. Having Lensherr's mother killed by the evil mutant Sebastian Shaw - Kevin Bacon taking a villainous turn -  cheapens that metaphor:  as I've already discussed, comic book characters with their origins in parental trauma are a dime a dozen.

As with previous X-Men movies, the script stirs the traditional comic book timeline with a large spoon.  Cyclops, Iceman and the Beast were all approximately the same age in the original X-Men, whereas First Class introduces us to the young Hank McCoy, before his metamorphosis into the blue-furred middle-aged figure we meet in Last Stand.  One of his teammates in First Class is Havok - Alex Summers, who in the original comics was Cyclop's younger brother.*  Another team member is Sean Cassidy, the Banshee, originally an Irish mutant who had been in a relationship with Moira MacTaggert.  In the movie, MacTaggert is both at least a decade older than the Banshee and, mysteriously, transformed from a scientist into a CIA agent.

Questions of continuity aside, the appearance of the X-Men at the Cuban Missile Crisis creates an interesting precedent for future X-Men prequels.  Marvel Comics takes place in what, for want of a better expression, we will call the real world. Whereas Batman prowls the alleys of Gotham, Spider-Man swings through the streets of Manhattan, and although Superman and Captain America both originated during the 1940s, it's only the Captain who made his way to Europe to fight Hitler. 

Having resolved one historical crisis, where will the X-Men next appear?  Will we discover that Lee Harvey Oswald was a renegade mutant?   See Magneto failing to prevent Martin Luther King's death? Or, worse, causing it...

- Sid

* Normally I object to this sort of thing - for example, considering that Star Trek was set on a galactic stage, the cast ran into a lot of friends and relatives - but given the genetic nature of mutant powers, it makes perfect sense for siblings and children to be part of the story.

The Permanent Floating Riot Club.

Well, it seems that there are people who like riots. 

Larry Niven, Flash Crowd

One of the most difficult things for a science fiction author to do is to extrapolate all the possible end results of an innovation in technology.  As an example, a good science fiction writer in 1930 might have successfully anticipated the eventual mass acceptance of the motorcar, and probably seen the inevitable need for freeways and gas stations that would result. An extra-ordinary 30s SF author would have also projected traffic jams, parking tickets, gas wars, road rage, and six-dollar-an-hour parking meters.

Science fiction and fantasy author Larry Niven has always been very good at exactly that sort of if-this-goes-on extrapolation.  Niven's semi-organized Known Space future includes, among other things, the invention of the teleportation booth, and Niven beautifully explores the various effects that such an invention would have on our culture. This exploration includes the disturbing phenomenon of the "flash crowd", which in his stories is portrayed as something far too close to what Vancouver experienced last Wednesday after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the playoffs.

Niven's stories have the advantage of instantaneous travel - people are able to be on the scene of a disturbance literally within seconds, ergo the title Flash Crowd for his first story dealing with this problem.  In Flash Crowd, a roving wireless cameraman reports a disturbance, which instantly makes its way to network distribution, leading to a instantaneous influx of viewers who happen to be curious, angry, or just plain bored enough to jump into the centre of a riot.

What Niven doesn't anticipate in his flash crowd scenario is the Internet - in other words, social media.*  When you think about it, between cell phones, texting, Facebook, blogs, and YouTube, how hard would it be to assemble a group of, say, five hundred people in relatively short order?  We don't have the advantages and disadvantages of teleportation booths, but the added ease with which news of an event can be disseminated makes up for the lack of being able to get there in fractions of a second.  (And apparently this is exactly what happened after the trouble started here:  people invited their friends to head downtown and join in the fun.)

More interestingly, Niven also anticipates a more disturbing aspect of riots:  the fact that some people like them.  In The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club, a followup to the original 1983 story, Niven described a group of criminals who specialize in taking advantage of flash crowds and the opportunities offered therein for theft and looting.  Disturbingly, Vancouver seems to have played host twice now to the Canadian equivalent:  black-masked anarchists, last seen causing trouble at an Olympics protest parade last February**.

However, if Niven fails to anticipate the Internet, he also fails to anticipate the other side of human nature.  The Facebook-organized volunteers who spent Thursday morning cleaning up Granville Street never make an appearance in any of his flash crowd scenarios, but let's be fair, "The Permanent Floating Kindness Club" doesn't have the same impact as a title for a story.

- Sid

* As with the Spanish Inquisition, no one expected the Internet, although I'm willing to perjure myself on that after a little research.  Maybe Arthur C. Clarke - there's a bit in 2001 which is pretty close.

** I have to be fair here.  Reports vary as to whether the instigators of the post-playoff rioting were part of the same group that caused the problems at the Olympic protest.  I suspect that the great majority of the rioters last week were just drunken idiots - but I also suspect that they may have been joiners rather than initiators.

The Who Brothers?

 "The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history, when disaster comes, he's there.  He brings a storm in his wake.  And he has one, constant companion..."
"Who's that?"
"Death."

"Rose", Doctor Who

"The Campbell Brothers are lushes weaving throughout history, when disaster comes, they're responsible.  They bring the steins to a wake. And they have one, constant companion..."
"What's that?"
"Booze. Okay, two companions - alcohol, and there's this funny smell..."

The Campbell Brothers Adventures

This is the 200th posting on The Infinite Revolution, and I thought it only appropriate to pay tribute to the gentlemen (and I use the term loosely) who inspired me:  Colin and Ralph, the Campbell Brothers.

But their appearance here is not only because of that initial blogging impetus.  In some awful fashion (in many awful fashions, actually, as you can see from the pictures) the Campbell Brothers are Canada's answer to Doctor Who.  (Yes, Doctor Who is a question - the character calls himself the Doctor, but never offers a name, so the question is: "Doctor who?"*)

Like the Doctor, the Campbell Brothers have explored the distant depths of time, and the far reaches of space.  (Admittedly, it's a bit odd that their time/space vehicle looks like a tree spade, but we have no tradition of police boxes here. It's probably far more odd that Ralph has a squirrel on his head.)  They have been seen in ancient Greece, in medieval England, in 1920s Chicago, London's psychedelic Sixties, and several times in Port Perry during the winter of 2006.  They have solved crimes in the Victorian era, committed them in the modern era, performed acts of piracy in the Caribbean, and acts of lunacy in Toronto.

They are masters of disguise - a necessity of survival forced on them by the various explosive catastrophes which seem to follow them everywhere like a bad smell.  (Just for the record, an actual bad smell also follows them everywhere.)

So, once again, thanks to the Campbell Brothers for their inspiration. Long may they continue their mad dash (or inebriated wobble, more accurately) through past, present, and future.  We leave you with one final image of the Brothers, seen here suddenly realizing why that nice fellow in the uniform offered them blindfolds along with the free cigarettes.

- Sid

Sidebar:  the first time I met Ralph Campbell, seen screaming like a little girl to the right in the above photo, Colin was working on the Death of Socrates image, and I was asked to photograph the two brothers.  As a result, Ralph was clad in an attractive floral bedsheet for the entirety of our initial encounter - my relief at discovering that this was not his standard weekend garb can only be imagined.

*Sorry, Doctor Smith is NOT the correct answer, Laurie, but you're very close - the Doctor does sometime use John Smith as a nom de guerre.

All right, let's.

One of the more entertaining parts of writing these postings is coming up with the titles.* Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's a struggle.  Sometimes I don't know what the title will be until the end, and sometimes I start with a title and then change my mind after writing the content.  Some of them are just obvious statements on the content, such as last month's "And a bottle of rum." for the posting about piracy, and on other occasions I've drawn upon the titles of famous science fiction novels, lines from favourite songs, bad puns, and quotations from a plethora of sources.

The science fiction and fantasy market is probably more famous for changed titles than the general rank and file of book headings.  Offhand I can think of several novels that were the victims of editorial alterations, either for better or worse, and ended up being published under titles other than the ones that the author had picked.  The Stars My Destination?  Original title Tiger! Tiger!.  Daybreak - 2250 A.D., later renamed to Star Man's Son.  Or The Space Merchants, whose original title of Gravy Planet suggests a far more intriguing novel, at least to my ear.

Some titles are a mystery until a moment of revelation.  When I originally read Terry Pratchett's The Monstrous Regiment, about a group of army recruits who are all eventually revealed to be women masquerading as men, I didn't give the title much thought.  After all, one of the soldiers is a vampire, another a troll, it didn't seem that noteworthy.

However, earlier this year I was reading a blog posting by an unhappy female teacher who was complaining about the conduct of some of her male students.  In her posting, she made reference to a 1558 treatise by reformer John Knox, in which he rails against the possibility of women ordering men around.  The title of this extended rant regarding the Bible and its position on the position of females?  The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women.  Full points to Mr. Pratchett for a title which is both appropriate and obscure.  (Well, obscure to me, for all I know it's a common reading in British public schools.) 

And then there are the titles that speak for themselves.  I just finished watching the mid-season finale of Doctor Who - yes, mid-season, they're taking a break for some unknown reason.  Normally at the end of the episodes they show a little preview of the next program, but in this case they just gave us the title:

Kudos to whoever came up with that clever little three-word teaser, which manages to be mysterious yet undeniably informative at the same time - and really, isn't that what a good title should do?

- Sid

* The most difficult part is coming up with the final paragraph.  More than one posting has languished as a draft file until I could come up with a punchline.

Actually, she looks okay for 900 years if you ask me.

As I've said before, I generally try to avoid just publishing links to other content online, but in this case, I had to make an exception.  My god, who would think up something like this???

And is it just me, or does it sound wrong to have Greedo's lines in English? 

- Sid

Drama 101.

I went to see Thor last weekend, and whenever this came up in conversation during the course of the week, people would ask the standard question: "How was it?" I'd answer in greater or lesser detail, depending on my evaluation of the questioner's knowledge of and interest in comic book characters, but all of my answers started with the same basic evaluation:  "Oh, it was pretty good."

And it is pretty good, as to as comic book movies go, even without the added appeal of 3D.  It has a good lineup of acting talent, with Anthony Hopkins taking the role of Odin Allfather, and relative unknown Chris Hemsworth does an impressive job with the part of Thor. Thor is very definitely a larger than life character, and Hemsworth plays it as such, but with absolutely no self-consciousness or winking at the camera.  Tom Hiddleston is a bit of a scene stealer as Loki, but it's not a bad thing to have a strong actor in the role of the villain. 

It also contains the usual callouts for long-term fans, such as references to Don Blake, who was the original secret identity of Thor in the early days of the comic, a brief appearance by Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, bow and all, and a variety of iconic Marvel Comics items such as the Infinity Gauntlet and the Eye of Agamotto* that have somehow found their way to the treasure room of Odin.

And, icing on the cake, it's directed by Kenneth Branagh, presumably added to the project in order to provide a sort of Shakespearian gravitas to the whole package.

 

Anyway, a pleasant experience, bit of fun for a Saturday afternoon, but not a great movie, not an astonishing movie.  But why not?  As I've already said, everyone does a good job**, it's in 3D, Good triumphs, Evil fails, why does Thor miss the mark for greatness?  After some thought, I decided that there's a very basic problem that all of these comic book movies share, along with their source material:  lack of dramatic tension.

But what exactly are we talking about here?  Dramatic tension?  What does that mean, anyway?  It's a very simple answer - dramatic tension is what you get if the audience doesn't know what's going to happen. 

Most comic book movies - in fact, far too many science fiction and fantasy movies as well - suffer from a disheartening degree of predictability.   Once the stage is set, there seems to be a limited number of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-powers, boy-kills-villain, boy-blows-up-Death-Star, boy-dies-then-comes-back-to-life gambits that writers are willing to use.

As a good example, I cried a little when I heard rumours of a sequel to Inception.  I don't know if, oh, The Dark Knight is a better or worse movie than Inception, but I guarantee that no one walked away from The Dark Knight trying to figure out what the ending really meant.  People argue about the ending of Inception - can you imagine anyone sitting down to argue about the ending of Iron Man 2?

It also doesn't help that Thor, along with the upcoming Captain America, the Iron Man movies, and the Hulk reboot, are all in some small way teasers for the upcoming Avengers movie being released in 2012.  How innovative can your plot be if the character in your film has to end up as part of a supergroup next year?

But there's hope:  the Avengers film is being written and directed by Joss Whedon, one of the least predictable and most creative talents in the realm of pop culture.  Let's hope that the man who kept audiences guessing for seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, five seasons of Angel (and one short mis-managed season of Firefly) can find a way to pull a rabbit out of his hat for The Avengers.

Actually, given that it's Joss Whedon, a rabbit is the last thing I'll expect to see.

- Sid

* I leave it to the individual reader to either a) trust me that these are iconic items or b) look them up. Same with Hawkeye.

**  Okay, almost everyone.  What, was Rene Russo the only person who showed up for the audition for the role of Odin's wife, Frigga Allmother?  Because that's pretty much the only reason I can come up with to explain how she got the part.

Hoopy froods - or not.

Hey you, sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is!

Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Whenever I feel self-conscious about something, that's what I look at in other people.  When I get a new haircut, I look at their hair, if I'm worried that I forgot to polish my shoes, I look at their feet, and so on.  Yesterday, I was looking for towels.

As per previous blog postings, I've had a hit and miss relationship with Towel Day, which commemorates Douglas Adams, author of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.  However, this year I marked it on the calendar well in advance, and on Wednesday morning, I chose a mid-sized white towel from the linen closet, looped it through the handles of my shoulder bag, and headed off for the bus.

As per my already established self-consciousness, I spent the day looking for towels, and to my disappointment, I didn't spot one other terry-cloth indicator of hoopy froodhood - or of terminal geekness, depending on where you stand on this.  Regardless, it left me feeling a bit sad and alone.  Perhaps next year I'll just throw in the towel, then...

- Sid

Raptured.

But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:36

(Although this is a marginal entry in terms of blog suitability, I consider the end of the world to be one of the standard science fiction topics, and as such I'm willing to extend my mandate a bit for the purposes of discussion.)

As probably everyone knows, the Rapture was scheduled for this weekend, May 21st, and the popular media has been full of commentary regarding the failure of Harold Camping's predication regarding the start of the End Days, with the end of the world coming five months later on October 21st.

In the wake of his apparent mistake, Camping has gone back to the drawing board and announced that the day of Judgement will coincide with the end of the world in October as per the original schedule.

But what if he was right in the first place?  There's another interpretation here, and it's possible that we've all been guilty of overlooking the obvious.  As I understand the concept, the Rapture is the moment when God takes the righteous to Heaven still in their own bodies - ergo the common* bumper sticker, "IN CASE OF RAPTURE, THIS CAR WILL BE UNMANNED."

The righteous...the righteous...okay, let's define our terms.  What if the strictures applied by the Lord are so stern that no one, not one person on the planet, can be considered to be righteous?  What if the reason that no one is missing is because no one qualified - because even the slightest deviation from the code of conduct laid down in the Bible gets you crossed off the list?

By extension, it's possible that no one has ever met the standard.  Imagine the forlorn streets of the Heavenly City, unmarked by the passage of even a single soul.  And, worse, imagine a Hell which contains the tortured souls of every human being ever born, a Hell in which, ironically, eternal torment has to take place in shifts as overworked hordes of demons attempt to keep up with the demand.

Actually, come to think of it, this isn't a bad idea for a fantasy story - maybe this was a suitable blog topic after all.

- Sid

* Common in the more fundamentalist regions of the United States, anyway, I doubt that you would see a lot of them in British Columbia.

And a bottle of rum.

Yo ho ho - or does nobody actually say that...?

Doctor Who, The Curse of the Black Spot

About a year ago I was in small claims court regarding a dispute over a transfer of intellectual property.  No payment was to be involved unless the other party decided to proceed with the web site proposal that I had helped create, but when they did proceed, there was some difficulty obtaining a cheque for the agreed upon amount (or any amount at all).

Part of the defendant's unsuccessful argument was that it wasn't the same site that had been created, and as such there was no obligation to follow through with the agreement.  In addition to detailing the various similarities and correspondences with the original proposal, I pointed out to the presiding judge that if it was so completely different, shouldn't they have at least have given it a different name?

Similarly, I'm a bit suspicious of the new Walt Disney film, On Stranger Tides.  If you look up this latest installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise on the Internet Movie Database site, you'll find the following writing credit:

Tim Powers (novel On Stranger Tides) (suggestion). 

For those of you unfamiliar with Tim Powers, this 59-year-old science fiction and fantasy author has based much of his award-winning fantasy around actual historical events and characters, such as his 1979 novel The Drawing of the Dark, which takes place during the 1529 siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Turks, or his 1987 pirate novel On Stranger Tides, which takes place in the 18th Century in the Caribbean.

The novel deals with a Caribbean equally rife with piracy and the supernatural, where the protagonist, Jack Chandagnac, unwillingly joins the ranks of pirates after the ship he is travelling on is captured by buccaneers.  One of the pivotal events in the book is the search for and discovery of the fabled Fountain of Youth in Florida, a trip that Jack makes in the company of the most famous pirate of all, Blackbeard.   

Now for me, a suggestion is about as simple and basic a contribution that you can make to something.  As an example, if someone was building a house, saying "Hey, maybe you should paint the kitchen green" would qualify as a suggestion.  In contrast, using Power's novel to develop a movie script dealing with a Caribbean pirate named Jack who discovers the Fountain of Youth with Blackbeard the Pirate - I'm sorry, that's not a suggestion, that's almost a full blueprint. As with my legal encounter, if it was just a suggestion, shouldn't they at least have given it a different name?

I realize that there's not a complete correspondence between the book and the movie.  Captain Jack Sparrow is a long way from Jack the reluctant swashbuckler in the novel, and from what I've read online there are other substantial differences in the plot structure.  However, I think that it would be appropriate for Disney to acknowledge Powers as having made a larger contribution than a "suggestion" - as it is, it looks like they've relied heavily on the book for inspiration but are reluctant to acknowledge just how much they've hijacked from the text.

Gosh, I guess that means that it really is a pirate movie.

- Sid

To Avoid Repeated Doctor Internet Sharing.

If you're in North America and you were pleased to be able to watch The Impossible Astronaut, the premier episode of the new season of Doctor Who, on the same date as its British debut this weekend, do you know who you should thank?

Me.

Yes, me. And thousands of other people like me, people who were unimpressed by the artificial gap between the BBC broadcasts of Doctor Who episodes and their arrival on this side of the Atlantic.  Admittedly, downloading bootleg copies of the episodes might not be the best response to the situation, but where letter writing campaigns had no effect, spikes in online piracy following the broadcast of each of last year's episodes caught the attention of the show's producers.

That's the specific reason cited by the BBC for the changed schedule this year - illegal file sharing - and apparently this simple solution actually works. The 2010 Doctor Who Christmas special was broadcast in North America on Christmas Day, the same as in Great Britain, and the result was a 10% increase in viewership.  Presumably this percentage was at least partially made up of impatient North American fans who for once didn't have to chose between waiting a few weeks or downloading an unlicensed copy. 

So - you're welcome.

- Sid

P.S. I would be remiss were I not to mention the untimely departure of Elisabeth Sladen, who passed away last week at the age of 63 due to cancer. Elisabeth Sladen played the role of Sarah Jane Smith, who was a companion to both the third and fourth Doctors from 1973 to 1976.  Following her departure from the show, she went into semi-retirement, but returned for Doctor Who specials in 1981 and 1983, as well as voicing Sarah Jane in several BBC Radio productions of Doctor Who stories.

Sladen's 2006 appearance in School Reunion with David Tennant signalled her full time return to the universe of the Doctor, with the popularity of that episode resulting in a spinoff series called The Sarah Jane Adventures. The show, aimed at a more youthful audience than Doctor Who, proved to be a remarkable success and had been approved for a fifth season at the time of Sladen's death.

I think that her appearance in School Reunion provided one of the best and most poignant insights into the realities of being a companion to the Doctor.  At one point in the episode, the Doctor says:

You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you. I have to live on, alone. That's the curse of the Timelords. 

In reality, it's more of a curse for the companions like Sarah Jane, who is both saddened and angered by her reunion with the Doctor, and her meeting with a younger companion who is a reminder of her own lost youth.  For her, an entire lifetime has gone by, abandoned and all but forgotten by the Doctor, but unable to forget her experiences at his side or to stop waiting for him to return.

At the end of the episode, offered the opportunity to travel in the TARDIS again, she refuses in favour of finally leading her own life, and demands that the Doctor say the goodbye that had gone unspoken at their last parting, a final goodbye which we all say now.

Goodbye, my Sarah Jane...

Up, up and away.

Works of art are received and valued on different planes. Two polar types stand out; with one, the accent is on the cult value; with the other, on the exhibition value of the work. Artistic production begins with ceremonial objects destined to serve in a cult. One may assume that what mattered was their existence, not their being on view.

Walter Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

In the process of producing this blog, I often end up struggling to find just the right image to illustrate a posting. This is not always an easy process - due to the nature of the Internet, you'll have better luck finding a picture of Britney Spears with her head shaved than a good scan of the cover of Weird Tales from October 1936.*

As part of this search, I recently stumbled across an unexpected treasure trove:  an auction site called Heritage Auctions which specializes in "collectibles" - art, antiques, books, coins, comics, and so on.  As part of their catalogue, they post beautiful high resolution images of all sorts of interesting things such as comics, pulp magazines, and vintage movie posters.

I'm on their mailing list now, and as a result I receive promotional e-mails for upcoming material up for auction.  Recently I received one of these e-mails that, among other things, had an ad for Issue One of The Uncanny X-Men from 1963:  current bid, $8,000.  Original cover price?  Twelve cents.

This isn't an astonishing price compared to the comic collecting market in general.  After all, a "Very Fine" condition copy of Action Comics #1 from 1938, featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold privately for 1.5 million dollars a few years back.**

But unlike the legendary first issue of Action, I remember reading that first issue of the X-Men, although not at the age of two when it first came out.  I suspect that someone gave me a box of old comics at some point in my childhood, which must have included a battered copy showcasing the first appearance of Professor Xavier's mutated students.  Imagine that, at one point I owned a comic that's now worth at least eight grand.

Or is it?

Comic book collecting is quite probably one of the most grossly and artificially manipulated marketplaces in the history of mankind, with the possible exception of the great Dutch Tulip Boom of the 1630s***.  The comics collecting market peaked in the late 1980's, when it seemed that the only reason that comics were being published was so that they could be put in acid-neutral polybags and hidden away for future resale. Every second issue had some point of added value for collectors:  alternate covers, embossing, glow-in-the-dark inks, foil, and the ultimate triumph of collector's fever over original purpose, the pre-bagged comic.  Yes, it was possible to buy a comic book that was sealed into an archival bag, thereby preserving it in its original state from the printing press - provided you never actually wanted to read the damn thing.

I suppose you could make some kind of a case for the value of these first issues, some combination of rarity, artist's reputation, perhaps even historical value, but honestly, I have to side with the opening quote from Walter Benjamin at this point: it's cult value. The comics in question have become the equivalent of objects of worship, like religious ikons or fetishes, imbued with an importance and power far in excess of their actual worth.  And as such, they are hidden away from the eyes of the world, albeit in custom cardboard boxes rather than temple altars, but the analogy is still appropriate.  It's an odd coincidence that Benjamin's article was also published in 1938, along with Superman's first meeting with the world.

I stopped buying comics in the early 90s, and apparently so did everyone else.  Marvel Comics declared bankruptcy, and most of the smaller publishers went under completely.  The scale of the industry today is probably one-tenth of what it used to be 25 years ago, and the comic book collecting bubble popped, although based on the auction prices at Heritage, it obviously hasn't completely deflated.

But, if anyone is looking to make back the cost of developing a time machine, here's the the perfect opportunity.  Forget all that nonsense about visiting Shakespeare and so on - just find an American dime from the 30's, zoom back to 1938, find a newstand, and buy a copy of Action Comics #1.  Pretty good return on investment if you come back to the present and sell it for 1.5 million dollars.  But please, don't buy two copies:  flooding the market would just bring the price down.

- Sid

* I actually have a scan of the entire issue if anyone's interested - you just have to know where to look for these things.

** To Nicholas Cage, I believe, I gather Nick is a big fan and has tried several times to get the part of Superman in the various movie versions.  Sad that he had to settle for Ghost Rider.

*** No, really, there was a tulip bubble in the 17th century.  Look it up if you don't believe me.