Danny Stewart

I had the privilege of being invited to TimeGate 2013. My involvement with TimeGate dates back to 2010, when my friend and mentor Dominic Glynn was invited to his first American convention there. I was fortunate enough to attend, and Dom introduced me to the people running the convention. He got me on two of the panels there—one about the music of Doctor Who, and one as part of a Q&A session with Dom. It was a really great event, and I’ve been wanting to get back. This year, I finally made it.

They gave me my own panel to discuss the history and creation of Delia Derbyshire’s original version of the Doctor Who theme, and to demonstrate the construction of the theme from its component parts. I was also given the chance to speak as part of the 1960s panel, covering my favorite era of the show—the Hartnell and Troughton era. I was ecstatic. I couldn’t have asked for a better spot.

If anything, I almost think I enjoyed the 1960s panel the most. It was an unexpected privilege to get to participate in that discussion of my favorite point of the show. My theme panel, while less structured, also went well. The people who attended were great, and really seemed to enjoy it. One person came up to me at the end and thanked me, saying that my demo was the coolest thing he had ever seen in his life. That was humbling.

I have recordings of both panels I was on, but I’m reluctant to post the theme panel as it contains significant chunks of isolated theme elements that I don’t want getting out. I would love to share the 1960s panel, however, and will do so as soon as I clear it with the people running the convention.

The rest of the convention was great too. The guest I was most interested in was probably Andrew Cartmel. The show was on rocky ground when Cartmel took over as script editor, but he started to try and turn it around. Unfortunately it was too little too late, but I really appreciated the direction Cartmel started taking it. He started to make things darker and more mysterious, starting with the Doctor. The mystery of the Doctor’s character is one of the key elements to the success of the show’s format, and he tried to reintroduce some of that. He also said during his Q&A that he thought the new series was making some “dangerous” decisions in terms of making the Doctor more human and thus more relatable to the audience, at the expense of his mystery and alienness. I very much agreed, as that’s one of my strongest objections to the new series. Getting to talk to him was a real pleasure.

It was a great event, and I’d like to start going every year if I can. TimeGate consistently offers the most enjoyable convention experience I’ve had. It’s small enough to be fun and communal but big enough to still have great guests. It strikes just the right balance, and it’s something I’d really like to continue to participate in. If you can make it to Atlanta, TimeGate is highly recommended. And who knows… maybe you’ll run into me there.

Well, I failed. I said I would be better about keeping up with my shows, and that I would be more transparent when I didn’t. I don’t want to waste your time with a long-winded apology like last time, but I do want to explain what’s up.

Lights Out

Lights Out is running as scheduled. Chris and I are still experimenting with the format, but we figured out some things in doing our Into Darkness episode and we keep getting better. Rather than doing longer biweekly episodes, I think we’re going to revert to the more traditional format of an hour or less each week.

We have shows coming up for Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis, as well as a look at the end of series 7 of Doctor Who and the future of the show. Lights Out took a little time to find its feet, but it’s getting better all the time. If you couldn’t get into it before, it might be worth another listen.

CVE

CVE is on a short hiatus, but it will be back very soon. Rob is currently incommunicado on a top secret operation across the pond, but upon his return next week, we’ll be getting back to business in wrapping up our reviews of the current series of Doctor Who, and we have big plans from there. We had a conversation about this before he left, and we both agree that our shows covering the last few episodes of the series will be a lot better thanks to the additional time and perspective we’ve had on our little break. Don’t worry—we both love doing this show, and it will continue.

Podfusion

I’m sorry to say that Podfusion is on hold indefinitely. I love the show and I would like to keep going with it, but for the time being, we just can’t seem to get our shit together. There might be a new episode every now and then, but nothing regularly scheduled. I’ll let you know if that changes, and I hope it will.

Thanks for listening, as always. We’ll be back.

Even though no one probably noticed, dannystewart.com was completely broken for almost a month. Since the site is statically generated, it was still online and it appeared to work, but I was unable to make changes or post new content.

As of yesterday, all is fixed. I also took the opportunity to refresh the site visually. I experimented with a black-on-white look, but people said it wasn’t really “me.” I think they were right, so I retained the improved typography and spacing I’d worked on with the new version, but reverted to my original color scheme.

Finally, I’m once again experimenting with allowing comments on the site. I hate comments, and Matt Gemmell’s post on the subject does a good job explaining why. Every time I turn them on, it usually only takes me a couple of days to realize it was a mistake and remove them again. This time I hope to stick with it a little longer, because I’m requiring moderation on all comments. This is my site, and I don’t like giving people an open mic on what should be my corner of the internet. By requiring moderation, I get to retain control over what is displayed on my site, while still allowing constructive and positive discussion (if there is any).

Welcome back!

The below review was written by my mother, Rebecca Stewart. She, like me, was very impressed with “Cold War.” While I’ve done a podcast on the subject, I thought I would share her written review as well, as I feel they go hand-in-hand.

Cold War stands out as an anomaly in an otherwise glib farce of a once-brilliant science fiction show: the new series of Doctor Who. From start to finish, it is thrilling, compelling, scary, and most importantly, the plot makes sense! In addition, the companion does not outshine the Doctor (for a change), and there were even strong and memorable incidental characters. These are all things you could expect from the classic Doctor Who, but in stark contrast, noticeably lacking in the new show.

The setting created the perfect atmosphere for the entire episode: a Russian submarine armed against American aggression during [of course] the Cold War in the 1980s. The submarine was descending and taking on water when the TARDIS happened to land in it in the midst of chaos and panic. The Doctor quickly assessed the situation and commandingly gave orders for how to stop their dangerous plummet that would have meant certain death if they’d crashed on the ocean floor. The Russian captain was naturally hesitant to take orders from a stranger who’d just appeared out of nowhere with another stranger in the form of a young woman at his side. Yet the Doctor’s air of knowledge and authority won the day, and he deferred to his orders, safely moving the ship laterally onto a rocky shelf. In the midst of all this action, the TARDIS suddenly and inexplicably dematerialized, leaving them very much stranded in the submarine. But true to the essential character of the Doctor, he would have stayed and helped them anyway.

The writing of this episode was done with great care and thought. The characters were very typical humans. The executive officer challenged the captain and wanted to use one of the bombs they had on board against the U.S. The captain was able to contain the would-be rebellion, but senseless hostility and insubordination is a realistic portrayal of the human element—something you don’t often see in the new series. There was also a character who demonstrated the overall stupidity of human nature by taking it upon himself to free something unknown they’d found on their journey in a block of ice, thereby making their already treacherous situation far, far worse. On the other end of the spectrum, also realistically presented as an exception, there was a professor on board who had an open mind and a willingness to adapt to the situation. He is one of the strong characters I referred to as being a refreshing change from most of the cardboard cookie-cutter types written for the current weaker plots.

As if they weren’t in enough trouble already, as soon as one of the idiots impulsively used a blowtorch to melt the ice block, it released an alien creature that had been trapped for 5,000 years. It turned out to be an Ice Warrior—and not just any Ice Warrior, but Grand Marshal Skaldak, an important leader of their race. After one of the “idiots” used a cattle prod on him, they chained him up—at the Doctor’s insistence. Afterward, there was a heated debate between the Doctor and the Russian Captain. The same idiot wielding the cattle prod earlier then claimed they were Western spies, but it was pointed out they spoke perfect Russian. The Doctor’s newest companion, Clara, asked the Doctor if they were speaking Russian, and then how they could be speaking Russian—to which he answered both times, “Now?” He quickly muttered that the TARDIS has an automatic language translator that gets inside your head: a refreshing and often-overlooked necessity to explain how they’re always able to communicate with whatever people they land amongst.

Clara won the argument by suggesting she go in and talk to Skaldak using a headset so the Doctor could coach her. Despite her later assessment of it going as badly as it could have, she got him to open up to her. Because of her obvious harmlessness, he shared with her his proud experience going into his last battle with his daughter at his side singing songs of “the red snows.”

Then things got even scarier when she discovered he had opened up his shell suit and left. Outside that impenetrable suit, an Ice Warrior is vulnerable yet at their most dangerous, partly because they are lightning fast unencumbered by their armored shell. Skaldak’s first victim was the mutinous soldier who suggested making “an alliance” with him (as if Skaldak could have benefited in any way from such an arrangement). The rest of the crew and the Doctor and Clara split up to try and find him. Clara ended up being paired with the Professor, an extremely likeable quirky character who was quite memorable in this episode in his own right. He had a penchant for playing Western ’80s music on his headphones, first displayed in his entrance when he sang “Oh, Vienna” by Ultravox. He “bloody love[s] them.” It was impossible not to like him immediately. By the time he was paired with Clara to search for the shell-less Skaldak, he could see Clara was very frightened and doubtful of their fate. He brought a badly needed air of calm to the situation and tried to distract her. He asked if she knew “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran, and she said “Yes,” she sang it on karaoke night. But she refused to sing it then.

Not surprisingly, Skaldak came across two redshirts and killed them next. When the Doctor, Clara, and the Professor came in and found them, there were very plausible reactions from each. The Professor was commenting on the nature of what Skaldak did, the Doctor was analyzing what was done to them and dispassionately deducing the reason, and Clara was seemingly in shock and speechless. This was one of several scenes very much like classic Doctor Who. Clara was so horrified that the Professor had to call her away and try and get her to calm down. In her words, seeing those dismembered corpses made it all “real.”

Skaldak’s next attempt to strike was at Clara, but only for a brief moment—the Professor was with her and had a gun. This successfully dissuaded Skaldak from attacking Clara, but then he went for the Professor. Clara pleaded with Skaldak to let him go, and that’s when the others entered the scene. Skaldak then reiterated his threat against the whole of humanity—if his people were gone, he had nothing left to lose. He summoned his shell suit, slipped back inside it, then walked toward the control room to prepare one of the nuclear warheads. The Doctor and the others followed, hoping to persuade him not to. Clara asked why Skaldak would show compassion for the Professor by allowing him to live but not show that same compassion then. The Doctor told him he didn’t have to do it, and that his people must still be alive somewhere in the universe.

At that moment, the ship started moving—it was being pulled up to the surface. Skaldak realized his people had come for him, so he didn’t detonate the warhead. Once he was teleported to his ship, they all thought they “did it.” But the Doctor pointed out the nuclear warhead could still be set off from the Ice Warriors’ ship, if Skaldak still chose to. So in that moment, remembering what Skaldak had shared with her about how he and his daughter sang songs of “the red snows” in their last battle, Clara finally got the courage to sing a line from “Hungry Like the Wolf.” Immediately after that, the nuclear warhead was turned off: Skaldak and Clara had made a connection, and that unlikely yet touching gesture caused Skaldak to let them all live.

Sincere apologies to regular podcast listeners for the delay in putting out new episodes lately, but I’ve got a special treat for you: not one, not two, but three new episodes ready for you tonight.

First up, Lights Out episode 7, “Fighting for What’s Good”:

This week, Chris and Danny are joined by special guest Ian Stewart to discuss the first two episodes of series 7B of Doctor Who. They discuss killer Wi-Fi, human agents, space mopeds, and the ultimate resolution on Akhaten. Finally, they cover all the things Murray Gold has done wrong (and the few he’s done right) in his latest version of the Doctor Who theme.

Then, two brand new episodes of CVE, beginning with “Killer Wi-Fi”:

This week, Danny and Rob begin their discussion of The Bells of Saint John. While they take many detours and tangents along the way and ultimately never get to some of what they really wanted to cover, much great discussion is had about the history of the show, its format, and repeating the mistakes of the classic series.

And finally, the Akhaten-themed “A Sad Leaf”:

Danny and Rob wrap up last week’s discussion about The Bells of Saint John before diving deep into The Rings of Akhaten, where they cover a political science angle to Doctor Who (and sci-fi in general), the many high points of the episode and things done well, and finally why the conclusion ultimately failed to deliver.

All three of these are great, and I hope you enjoy them. And don’t worry— an episode on “Cold War” is coming very soon.

As I hinted in a previous post, I’ve been working on expanding my efforts in the realm of podcasting. It’s something I’ve found I enjoy doing, and something that I’m finding I have more and more to contribute to as I get better and more comfortable with doing it.

With that in mind, I am very excited to make a couple of announcements that have been waiting in the wings for a while. First, I am launching a brand new podcast dedicated exclusively to Doctor Who. Last year I made a new friend at work by the name of Rob Gesualdo. He came up for help with an IT issue, and I suddenly heard the original Derbyshire theme. After checking my own stuff, I realized it was the text tone on his phone. An instant friendship was made.

From that point on, every time we ran into each other in the hallway, things would quickly descend into geeky Doctor Who discussions that made us late for meetings. Rob had discovered the new series only recently, and had started going back to the classic series as well. He provided new perspective on the new series that was a breath of fresh air for me, engaging me with excellent points I hadn’t previously considered. It was immediately clear that these conversations needed to be captured, and eventually this show was born.

The show is called CVE, geekily named after the charged vacuum emboitments from Doctor Who’s Season 18. The CVEs connected our space, N-Space, with the smaller pocket universe of E-Space. This new show strives to be the CVE that bridges the universe of a classic series diehard with the more modern perspective of the new series. I’ve done a sort of “soft launch” of the show with some friends, and the reaction and interest have been overwhelmingly positive. We’ll be doing great things with this show.

Please note that there is some occasional language in this show; I made the choice to leave it in and not edit it, so it is marked as “explicit.” This is not your traditional Doctor Who podcast, and I like that.

My second piece of news is farther-reaching and perhaps even more exciting. Now that I’m launching my third podcast, and with steadily increasing interest in the medium, I am today launching my own “podcast network,” if you can yet call it such a thing: Nerva Beacon. This name too is rooted in Doctor Who mythos (can you tell where my inspiration comes from?). As I branch out more and more into the realm of podcasting, I will have a home for my work. I foresee a time in the conceivable future where changes come to some of my shows, some shows end, and new ideas become new shows. Nerva Beacon gives me the opportunity to explore these ideas more freely.

Please head over to Nerva Beacon and check out the CVE podcast! We’ll be submitting to iTunes soon, but in the meantime you can subscribe in your podcast app using this link.