Moons of Madness
Panic Moon is back, and it’s about time. I’m in it again.
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| Och aye the noo Doctor. |
Just like old times.
Get it here. It is good.…
fanzine
Panic on the Streets of London…
The January 2012 issue of the extremely good, fetchingly illustrated, conveniently pocket-sized and infeasibly cheap print fanzine Panic Moon will be released soon and is now available for pre-order. Click here.
This month the Editor has taken the existence of the publication very much into his hands and granted me even more space than usual. I have no less than three pieces in this forthcoming issue, looking at ‘The Macra Terror’, ‘The War Games’ and ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’.
I see all these stories as milestones in Doctor Who‘s engagement with the radical movements and ideas of the 60s. ‘The Macra Terror’ is a much-misunderstood starting point which came just before the protest movements peaked, ‘The War Games’ a subversive high point which came just after the ferment of 1968 and ‘Invasion of the Dinosaurs’ marks the ambivalence and disillusion brought by the subsequent downturn in struggle.
There’s loads of other stuff in the fanzine besides me, so don’t be put off.…
Anxiety Satellite
The indefatigable Mr. Oliver Wake has put together and released the latest issue of the print fanzine Panic Moon. It can be ordered here.
It contains (amongst other things) a judicious appraisal of the ‘Day of the Daleks’ Special Edition, a look at the way Hartnell’s shade has taken to haunting the recent series, a clever thing about the way Daleks always seem to get some new physical ability in first episodes, an interesting look at the pre-Who 60s Pathfinders serials which are now out on DVD and an excellent analysis of ‘The Sun Makers’ which identifies some of its roots, going beyond the usual stuff about Bob Holmes being annoyed by a tax bill.
Once again, I’ve contributed two articles. In one, I identify a blind spot in the lefty-liberal creds of ‘Colony in Space’ and try to tease out some of implications of this, leading me to briefly consider something badly amiss with liberalism itself. In another article, I have a good old ramble about the various ways Doctor Who has creatively misrepresented evolution, often using it was a way of re-encoding mythic themes or addressing political concerns… though there is, I argue, one story that really is about evolution itself.
It’s good, so… umm… buy it. Please?
(No career in advertising awaits me, I know.)…
Plug
There’s an essay by me – on the subject of how “cool” Doctor Who may-or-may-not have been in 2005/6… or, indeed, ever – in the recently published Time Unincorporated vol.3 from Mad Norwegian Press.
This is the first time I’ve ever been paid for anything I’ve written, you’ll be astounded to learn.
The article ‘The Power of Cool’ (geddit?) was originally written for the now-sadly-defunct online fanzine Shockeye’s Kitchen. The editor, Simon Kinnear, is the person who first encouraged me to write stuff about Who for a wider audience than just other forum nerds. So, blame him. I do.
You can buy the book from the Mad Norwegian site, here. I get no royalties of any kind.…
Camp Onion
It’s coming up to Panic Moon time again.
The July issue of the estimable print fanzine is now available for pre-order, here.
This time, Yours Truly has provided a piece on ‘Frontios’, in which I explain why I like it despite reading it as a reactionary parable, and a short sketch of a Marxist interpretation of ‘Spearhead from Space’, in which I attempt to tenuously connect the concepts of alienation and commodity fetishism to a story about killer shop-window dummies lead by an alien octopus.
This is what is known as ‘a waste of a mediocre education’.
But we have some laughs, don’t we?
No?
Oh well.…
Panicking Again
The April issue of the excellent fanzine Panic Moon has just been released.
In have two articles in the new issue: a consideration of realism (or lack thereof) and a debt to modernism in ‘Snakedance’, and a rumination on why it might be that ‘gods’ in Doctor Who tend to be depicted sitting down.
Lots of other stuff too. Full details here.
Oh, and here is a link to the fanzine’s Facebook group.…
Do Panic
The new edition of the fanzine Panic Moon is just out…
…featuring two little articles by myself, in which I ponder ‘The Mutants’ (soon to be out on DVD) and ‘The Seeds of Doom’ (out recently).
But don’t let that put you off, there’s plenty of other stuff… including a very interesting article by Oliver Wake (also the Editor) about Don Taylor, Sydney Newman’s first choice to be Who‘s producer.
Details here.…