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Planet of he Ood 2 February 2009

Back from Thailand and safely in the Skycave. Lots of jet lag but still lots of excitement from the trip. I loved seeing Kathy (Koller) Tosi on this trip and we had our Doctor Who memory moments which were sweet.

David Register came over again and we just continued with our season four viewing and cued up Planet of the Ood. It was interesting how this matched up with the motion from the final round of the tournament in Thailand that I judged, where students debated about the rights of migrant labor in Thailand. Certainly there was nothing as bad as what happened to the Ood, where they have a big chunk of their brain removed and a voice box stitched on where it was. The whole idea of a race of beings who hold their brains in their hands and therefore are inherently peaceful seemed fascinating to me. Of course, you would have to evolve on a fairly gentle planet to have that happen, but hey, it is science fiction. Such a race would naturally be abused and misused by such as the corporate human.

We drank some Sang Som rum that I brought back from Thailand. It is Southeast Asia's best drink, in my opinion. Long live Doctor Who Theater.

Fires of Pompeii 19 January 2009

David Register dropped by tonight and we drank some good rum and watched some cool Doctor Who. We reviewed some episodes and finally found one that he had not seen. Before showtime, however, we watched some extras from the Season Four DVD set, especially the one called "Four Years On" where they tell the story of how the series came back and how it prospered.

This is a special episode for me. It taught me a profound moral lesson. I had been to Bangladesh and I had seen some pretty severe poverty, and when people asked for help my Bangladeshi hosts would tell me, "You can't save them all." Donna confronts this in the episode and that is what the Doctor tells her. She responds, as I learned to, with the line, "Yes, but I can help one." I don't need to save everyone, I just need to help someone.

This episode is and will be special for me.

Shakespeare Code 12 January 2009

Just having spent a month abroad it was good to be back home and a good time to restart Doctor Who Theater. Jeffrey Nelson and Sherry Hovden came over and we had some great conversation (as we always do) about lots and lots of things, from Persian civilization to the world of high stakes Scrabble (where Jeffrey is very involved on a national level).

They wanted to see more Martha Jones as a companion, since they had just seen the "Smith & Jones" starter episode and liked her quite a bit. We picked the Shakespeare Code so that we could see the bard try and use his many pickup lines on Martha. She was, indeed, very fresh and full of energy as she embarked on her first real time travel escapade.

It was a good return, a great visit and a great Doctor Who episode.

More to come next week.

A New Doctor

And I am there.

Matt Smith has been named as the successor to David Tennant. He seems very promising.

WIRED reported on the naming of the new Doctor and what this might mean for the series.

They decided to quote their reputable top Doctor Who fan source -- me. They had previously named me as top Doctor Who fan. When this story was in the works they contact me for reaction. I am flattered.

http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/01/gallery-examine.html

You can download a pdf at http://debate.uvm.edu/dcpdf/wired-mattsmith-jan09.pdf

See the previous article (even with a photo of me) at
http://alfredsnider.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-appear-in-wired-article-on-doctor-who.html

Stay tuned.

Impossible Planet & Satan Pit 8 December 2008

It had been a few weeks off for Doctor Who Theater. Having been on the road and incredibly busy we even missed the 45th anniversary of Doctor Who while in Europe. But, we delayed the 45th celebration until tonight.

It was a good crowd, with David Register, Tom Dionesotes, Sam Natale, Alli Hamlin and her sister Ariel. Ariel turns out to be quite a Doctor Who fan so I got to show her a lot of my loot, including lots of autographed photos.

We picked this two-parter because people were unfamiliar with Rose (imagine that) and wanted to see something spooky with, as Sam Natale indicated, "lots of cool monsters." I guess this episode does all of that.

Great fun. Next week I will be in Malaysia and I will try to have the theater anyway. We shall see.