I'm Not The Man I Used To Be

Rush out now and buy the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, it has an article by me in it. My record so far is managing to get my name or something I’ve written onto about 16 pages of the same issue; clearly I’m not in the same league as Benjamin Cook or Jason Arnopp, but plugging away in the second division. This time the article is a mere 9 pages (9!). It’s about regeneration. It was Tom’s idea.

I researched it quite meticulously. I re-read the script for The Power Of The Daleks. I re-read the synopses of Spearhead From Space and Robot. I’d only watched – and sworn profusely throughout – Castrovalva quite recently so that was still fresh in my mind. I enjoyed The Christmas Invasion for what must now be the dozenth time. I re-read the script for Journey’s End. And – should my dedication be in doubt – I even re-watched The Twin Dilemma. I’d always said I wouldn’t watch it again unless somebody paid me – well, this time somebody was paying me. And may my bones rot for obeying them!

I was discussing this with a fellow contributor the other day, and how we both always guiltily read our own bits first before reading the rest of the magazine. I say ‘guiltilty’, because it seems a bit self-congratulatory, doesn’t it? Though, on a few occasions whilst reading the 200 Special, I found myself agreeing with the wit and wisdom of a particularly excellent review only to find, when I got to the end, that I’d written it.

The other reason I read it first is to find out what’s been edited out. For instance, in my last article I included several paragraphs bemoaning the fact that my novel The Tomorrow Windows is now out of print...

Don't Back Down

So it’s the end for Doctor Who Forum. Formerly known as Outpost Gallifrey. I can’t say I’m surprised or altogether disappointed and can only agree with Shaun’s decision to shut it down. It’s just not the fun place it once was.

Seems to me, it’s the recurring pattern of the internet. A small group of friends get together, on a bulletin board, newsgroup, yahoogroup, internet forum or wherever. They have larks. Gradually the group expands until it stops being a group of friends and becomes a group of strangers. The signal-to-noise ratio decreases and the in-fighting begins. People lose patience, they niggle at each others’ nerves, arguments get entrenched into ruts and by this point the small group of friends who started the whole thing have long-since departed for greener pastures. Or start writing blogs instead.

I don’t know what the solution is. Gated communities, probably. Invitation-only members’ clubs. There are just too many damn idiots out there and they shout too damn loud.

Regarding Doctor Who Forum, I’m surprised Shaun kept it going for this long. If I was in his position, I’d have shut it down permanently after the whole Christopher Eccleston leaving brouhouha (where one ‘super-fan’ memorably described the actor playing the Doctor as being ‘lower than a cockroach in [their] estimation’). I’d have shut it down again after the unholy and unbalanced reactions to Daleks In Manhattan and Catherine Tate’s casting – it’s one thing for fans to let off steam in private, it’s quite another for them to do so on a public forum which is being trawled for scandal by tabloid journalists. It’s because ‘fans’, for so long, have been used to slagging off actors, writers and producers on the assumption that their subjects would never get to hear about it. Well, no more.

Election Day

Today I will be mostly voting... Green. I would vote Labour, but I think I’ll save my last vestiges of party loyalty for the general election.

Might as well add right now that if you’re reading this in the UK, you have to vote. It’s vitally important. It’s proportional representation so not only will your vote count, but – more worryingly - so will everyone else’s and you know what other people are like. There has been too much coverage of the ‘threat’ from the BNP – which can only have served to bolster their support – but all it takes is for people to sit at home going ‘there’s no point in voting, they’re all as bad as each other’ for them to become more powerful.

Should also add, whilst I’m talking about politics European, the Guardian’s recent article about David Cameron’s recent alliance with Urszula Krupa, who leads the Law and Justice party in Poland. Basically, they’re the people your MEP will be forming a power block with if you vote Conservative. Their ‘policies’ include declaring homosexuality a ‘pathology’ and denying the existence of climate change. So if you agree with these views, you should vote Tory.

And just in case you think the Christian party is a fluffy bunch of Dibley-style vicars – they also (unsurprisingly) would ban abortion and are in favour of a health campaign against the danger of homosexuality, teaching creationism in schools, and, bizarrely, changing the law to give ‘witness’ statements precedence over scientific evidence and discouraging the use of the abbreviation ‘Ms’! And the party’s leader co-wrote Sinitta’s ‘So Macho’. The real danger with 'Christian' politics, though, has been demonstrated in the USA – where funding is refused to aid organisations that perform abortions (even for life-saving medical reasons) or promote the use of contraception.