R.I.P. Tom Verlaine

Tom Verlaine died yesterday. Here's an early version of my favorite Television song, "See No Evil".

Judy Is Positive About This

I have to admit to being quite surprised to hear a few days ago that David Lynch and Mark Frost were posting mysterious tweets with references to Twin Peaks.



And so I wasn't quite as surprised when I found out that Twin Peaks is being resurrected as a nine episode mini-series for Showtime with shooting to begin next year.

The new Twin Peaks will be set in the present day, more than two decades after the events in the first two seasons. It will continue the lore and story of the original series, with Lynch and Frost committed to providing long-awaited answers and, hopefully, a satisfying conclusion to the series. It is unclear which actors from the original series will be featured in the followup. I hear that star Kyle MacLachlan will be back, reprising his role as FBI Agent Dale Cooper who was at the center of the show.

While this is indeed exciting news, I remain ambivalent. It should be a fun watch but Lynch and Frost had better not go all George Lucas and do something like explain the Lodges right down to the midi-chlorian level. Just be sure to get me some info on Judy and that monkey that said her name and I'll be happy.

The Terror To Be Adapted for Television

Dan Simmons fictional account of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, The Terror, is being adapted for television as a series by AMC. I don't know how I missed the news for the past year and a half. I absolutely love the book - my review is here - and am looking forward to seeing how it makes the leap to the small screen.

I am hoping that the TV adaptation retains the pacing of the book which is a slow burn. My paperback copy is 760+ pages with Simmons in no hurry at all. Instead he is happy to let the reader wallow as the crew's slow, gruesome fate unfolds one death at a time. There's the thing out on the ice that is picking off crewmembers one by one which provides a terror that is constantly lurking in the background. But the real terror is the struggle of crew to simply survive. In addition to the something out there in the dark, they have to contend with extreme cold, food stocks that are running out, and scurvy taking hold. Expedition members were out on the Arctic ice for two years or so and Simmons documents their struggles in excruciating detail.

Simmons' book is one of the best and most rewarding literary slogs there is so hopefully the TV adaptation won't push the story along too quickly. I can imagine the TV version throwing in more attempts to capture the thing to make the story more action-oriented. Plus Crozier's clairvoyance and Lady Silence can be used less sparingly to add variety for viewers. Should be interesting.

The Day Max Headroom Interrupted Doctor Who

Chicagoans of a certain age recall the day in 1987 when some goofball in a Max Headroom mask hacked into the signal of WTTW Channel 11's broadcast of Doctor Who. I recall hearing about it and the incident became a piece of local lore as authorities never figured out who dunnit. Recently Vice posted a lengthy piece called "The Mystery of the Creepiest Television Hack" about the affair which included a look at the FCC investigation, something I'd never read about previously. It was interesting not only to read about why the FCC never caught the perpetrator but also to realize that I'd forgotten that the same person also hacked WGN's signal earlier in the day.

In these days when having one's credit card number stolen is fairly routine and hackers & hacking have a mainstream presence, this look back at the days before the World Wide Web seems almost quaint.

Right up until 9:14 PM on November 22nd, 1987, what appeared on Chicago's television sets was somewhat normal: entertainment, news, game shows. That night, as usual, Dan Roan, a popular local sportscaster on Channel 9's Nine O'Clock News, was narrating highlights of the Bears’ victory over the Detroit Lions. And then, suddenly and without warning, the signal flickered up and out into darkness.

In the control room of WGN-TV, the technicians on duty stared blankly at their screens. It was from their studio, located at Bradley Place in the north of the city, that the network broadcasted its microwave transmission to an antenna at the top of the 100-story John Hancock tower, seven miles away, and then out to tens of thousands of viewers. Time seemed to slow to a trickle as they watched that signal get hijacked.

A squat, suited figure sputtered into being, and bounced around maniacally. Wearing a ghoulish rubbery mask with sunglasses and a frozen grin, the mysterious intruder looked like a cross between Richard Nixon and the Joker. Static hissed through the signal; behind him, a slab of corrugated metal spun hypnotically. This was not part of the regularly scheduled broadcast.

Finally someone switched the uplink frequencies, and the studio zapped back to the screen. There was Roan, at his desk in the studio, smiling at the camera, dumbfounded.

“Well, if you're wondering what’s happened,” he said, chuckling nervously, “so am I."

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

Here's a trailer for The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot which is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Colin Baker rules.

It Was 50 Years Ago Yesterday

Happy 50th to Doctor Who! It's strange to think that 50 years ago it all started with this:



With the help of the incredibly handy BroaDWcast site, I have determined that my decent into DW fandom began in the spring or summer of 1980 when Chicago's PBS affiliate was broadcasting the show in the evening and I'd cozy up to the 1970 Sony color TV that we had. It had maybe a 15" screen which seems so paltry these days. But it was still working just fine when it was finally gotten rid of in 2002. Back then the show came in 25 minute episodes with 4-6 of them per story with each episode ending in a cliffhanger. Ergo I'd catch part 1 on Monday and would usually have to wait until Thursday for the resolution. My earliest memory of watching the show is being thoroughly intrigued and terrified by "The Ark in Space".



How could you not like Tom Baker as The Doctor? He was fearless, funny, irreverent, and clever. Plus he had the world's longest scarf. DW was just like nothing else that I was watching at the time. Looking back, I think that my television diet at that time consisted mostly of comedy. There was M*A*S*H* and Good Times, for instance. I distinct remember being completely flummoxed by Soap yet kept watching it hoping that I'd figure it out. Oh, and I cannot forget The Carol Burnett Show. Of course there were also the children's programs like Gigglesnort Hotel and The Muppet Show. Considering this, it doesn't seem like a stretch that I should adore DW. The Doctor and Hawkeye, my favorite character from M*A*S*H*, were both iconoclasts and very funny. Gigglesnort Hotel and The Muppet Show were both 99% puppets so the low budget plastic Wirrn of "The Ark in Space" were, in a sense, a continuation of what I'd already been watching, simply having moved from the realm of comedy to sci-fi/horror. In addition, The Doctor was incredibly smart and he used his intelligence for the good. He was improvising technical solutions long before MacGyver. The Doctor was all about brains over braun which, as a proto-nerd, I found tremendously exciting.

The show's time slot eventually got moved to late Sunday nights and it took a while before I could A) stay awake that long and B) get permission from my parents to do so. Several of my classmates were also DW fans so, once these goals were achieved, Monday mornings at school were all about discussing last night's story. We were all saddened when the show was put on hiatus in 1985 but happy to hear of its return the following autumn and the eventual announcement of Sylvester McCoy as having been cast as the Seventh Doctor.

And then everything changed.

Earlier this year I watched all of the 5th through 7th Doctor episodes. It was quite an experience as I hadn't seen some of those stories in ages. A lot of memories also came flooding back; some good and some bad. You see, after my freshman year of high school, my family moved from the big city to rural Wisconsin. My parents' marriage proceeded to end and everyone in my family was just miserable. Loneliness engulfed me and I had never felt so lost in my life. The dislocation from friends, family, and the culture of Chicago was unbearable.

Then that autumn, I discovered that the PBS station out of the Twin Cities showed DW and I was absolutely thrilled to find myself watching "The Trial of a Time Lord" one night. This was an important story in that it brought the show out of its hiatus but, even more importantly for me, it was like a light in the darkness and little bit of home for a very homesick kid. Watching it again this year, I was taken back to those dark days of my youth but also recalled just how enthralled I was by it. The opening shot showed that the BBC had spent some significant money and it had a unified look as the program was shot entirely on videotape with 16mm film having been discarded for exterior shots. "The Trial of a Time Lord" is not perfect by any means, but I still love the Agatha Christie-in-space of "Terror of the Vervoids", the mystery of the identity of the planet in "The Mysterious Planet", the return of Sil, and the surreal adventure in The Matrix. Plus how can you go wrong with Brian Blessed? And let's not forget there's the Master and the big reveal of The Valeyard's true identity. However imperfect "The Trial of a Time Lord" may be, I still adore it and can remember getting sucked in when I watched it for the first time.

I have very similar feelings towards watching the Seventh Doctor stories for the first time. I'd gone to see Sylvester McCoy in Green Bay in the summer of 1987 when he was on a promotional tour to drum up interest in the show again but it took a while for his episodes to actually make it to air. Again, I just ate them up. I loved them. I remember watching a Dalek ascend stairs for the first time in "Remembrance of the Daleks" and being very perplexed by "Ghost Light" but loving every minute of it. There were many highlights in the show's final few seasons but perhaps the most interesting elements were that the stories hinted at The Doctor's past and Ace. Unlike most previous companions, Ace was very proactive and did much more than ask The Doctor questions. She even destroyed a Dalek with a baseball bat!

The show was taking on a new life and it felt like it was truly mine in a way that it hadn't previously. I was no longer watching episodes from the past; instead I was watching current ones (more or less). And then it was gone again.

And it stayed gone. I was incredibly disappointed when I heard that the show would not be coming back. It was the end of an era. But I couldn't dwell too much on it as a new era was beginning for me - college.

I found new friends in college who were also fans of DW but the show was off the air and all we could do was revel in the past. Then, not long after I graduated, news broke that the show was going to return on Fox with a new Doctor. The excitement returned. Although the resulting movie was very mediocre, I liked Paul McGann and looked forward to seeing how the show would develop from there. But it was not to be as the TV gods decided against continuing the series.

For the next several years my involvement with the show went on hiatus as I focused on other things including truly becoming an adult and finding a career. However I would "rediscover" my love for DW at the beginning of the new millennium. In the wake of a failed relationship I found myself single and feeling that I'd become someone I didn't like. It was as if I wasn't me anymore. And so I undertook a rigorous regimen of getting back to the nerdy basics and doing what truly made me happy instead of what I perceived as making someone else happy.

DW was a part of this. I bought my first Past Doctor Adventures, which featured Sixie. Soon after I discovered that someone was making

Trailer for An Adventure in Time and Space

We now have a trailer for An Adventure in Time and Space, a fictional account of the genesis of Doctor Who. If these 30 seconds are any indicator, David Bradley looks to be a great William Hartnell. It airs on the 21st.

Paul McGann Returns As The Doctor (For a Few Minutes, Anyway)

Wowzers! Paul McGann returns as The Doctor in this webisode. It's from the BBC so it's canon. Man, lots of arguing ahead at Chicago TARDIS this year.

Scooby Doo Meets David Lynch

Back in the early 1990s The Onion had a funny article about David Lynch directing a Scooby Doo movie. I recall that Kyle MacLachlan would be Shaggy and I think Velma was going to be played by Isabella Rossellini . Well, folks behind Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated seem to have taken the idea to heart.

Doctor Who Returns Soon

Doctor Who returns on the 30th and the Beeb has trailers. Here's one for English audiences.



The new Ice Warriors look pretty bad ass.

Those Norwegians Sure Love Their Wood

Reality TV in Norway is much different than ours is. Here people sing, eat bugs, or get into fights. Over there people stack cordwood.

The TV program, on the topic of firewood, consisted mostly of people in parkas chatting and chopping in the woods and then eight hours of a fire burning in a fireplace.

That just sounds thoroughly Norwegian. But wait! There's more!

Yet no sooner had it begun, on prime time on Friday night, than the angry responses came pouring in.

“We received about 60 text messages from people complaining about the stacking in the program,” said Lars Mytting, whose best-selling book “Solid Wood: All About Chopping, Drying and Stacking Wood — and the Soul of Wood-Burning” inspired the broadcast. “Fifty percent complained that the bark was facing up, and the rest complained that the bark was facing down.”

He explained, “One thing that really divides Norway is bark.”

One thing that does not divide Norway, apparently, is its love of discussing Norwegian wood. Nearly a million people, or 20 percent of the population, tuned in at some point to the program, which was shown on the state broadcaster, NRK.

Friday night prime time TV in Oslo is people chopping wood, stacking it, and then burning it. The program was 12 hours long - four of people chopping and eight of wood burning. Wisconsin Public TV should do something like this. A live broadcast from Stoughton.

The article doesn't say but I'm betting no dumb socialites in bikinis with their tits hanging out were featured.