Lis Sladen, 1948 - 2011

I was just about to settle down to write for the evening when I saw Nicola Bryant's tweet flash up in a Tweet Deck notification. I stopped in my tracks, rereading it over and over again. Trying to make it make sense. Trying to understand.

For ten minutes I watched as the rest of Twitter did the same. Is it true? It's not true. Is this some cruel joke? When it was confirmed by DWM there could be no doubt, if there ever really had been any given the number, and the integrity, of the sources.

I sat in much the same position for hours. Reading tributes as they came in from all quarters. Seeing the breaking news banner on the BBC website. Hearing of the Newsnight piece. I didn't know Lis personally, I was just a fan, but I wonder how she would have felt at the scale of the reaction to the news of her horribly untimely passing. She didn't like a fuss, they say. We must all try to do better.

It's difficult to find a positive angle to this terribly sad news, but I guess we should realise how lucky we fans are that Russell T Davies, and the success of his vision of Doctor Who, allowed Sarah Jane to have so many new adventures on television over the last five years, and that yet another generation of children were able to fall in love with her.

I don't have anything to say that hasn't been put better by tens of fans already. She was the archetypal companion, she was an inspiration. She was Sarah Jane Smith, and I loved her.

Goodbye Lis. x

BBC News
Guardian
The Doctor Who News Page
Tom Baker's tribute
Sam Watts
Cathode Ray Tube
Keith Topping
Tony Lee
Last of the Famous International Fanboys
IO9

Outcasts

Well. What a load of rubbish has been written about Outcasts, mostly by people who should know better.

The reality is that Outcasts is a thoughtful, entertaining and rewarding series which has been, perhaps, let down by a less than dynamic first episode.

Issues of pace have been covered in depth elsewhere but it is not an arresting first episode, and certainly not an episode that will hook a non-genre audience. If they wanted another Life on Mars then the opener needed to be much, much stronger.

As Den of Geek suggested we badly need to see more pilots being made. They test the programme concept and, I think, they make the production team focus a bit more on tightening up. They know what's at stake, I guess, as if the pilot doesn't get a good reception then it's game over (man!). I think Outcasts relied on people sticking with it beyond the first episode (whereas regrettably I doubt some people made it through the first episode). I don't think, as a writer, producer, leading television company, anyone-else-in-the-decision-making-chain, you can ever assume that the audience isn't going to turn over if you don't keep them interested, that's a basic rule (particularly well drummed/seared into writers).

I also think that the heavy ad campaign, primetime BBC1 slot and decision to show two episodes a week have worked against the programme, particularly as the Beeb then decided to move Outcasts to 10.45pm on Sunday nights after two weeks/four episodes. That's not really a vote of confidence in your product is it? If it was running on BBC3 they'd be crowing about how good the ratings are (the same bitterly ironic situation Survivors was in when it was cancelled)*.

The fact is that this is a well written, beautifully shot programme with excellent performances. Locations are stunning and are used to spectacular effect. Aside from some clunky exposition in episode one the dialogue has been good and the characters and relationships interesting. There are many threads being woven here, given time this could become a very rich, muti-layered show.

Of the cast Hermione Norris, Liam Cunningham (always a pleasure to watch), Ashley Walters and Daniel Mays are excellent, while the rest are very good. Only Eric Mabius and Jeanne Kietzmann have seemed a little passive to me, but hopefully will be given room to impress before the first series ends.

Anyway, the point of this waffling is to tell you that I'm really enjoying Outcasts, and I very much hope that the BBC accepts that there is an audience and allows it to continue.

And if you're not watching it because you've heard or read that it's crap, then give it a try yourself and make up your own mind.

**UPDATE** (1/3/11)

Dom likes Outcasts too, why not wander over and have a read?

*For illustration: in its second week Outcasts averaged 2.703 million viewers and a 10.8% audience share; Survivors, cancelled after its second series, had enjoyed an average of 3.81m viewers that year; while the third series of the stonkingly successful (and precious to this blog (and bloody hell how good is this series???)) Being Human opened (on BBC3) with 1.368 million viewers, a 5% audience share. The benefits of multichannel programming....

So this is Christmas!

Merry Christmas to anyone who still passes through these pages. I hope you all have a lovely break and a tremendous New Year.

Here's a bonus Winterval scene from our local park here in Sedgley.

Happy Christmas!!!

xxx

Make Mine Marvel

Greetings True Believers.

You may recall that I, along with some like-minded and awesome chums, am currently partway through watching every episode of Doctor Who in order. We've nearly reached our first regeneration (SQUEE!). Well because one ludicrous, humongous challenge is never enough I have decided to undertake another.

I've been reading a lot of comics recently. Mostly The Walking Dead and Transmetropolitan. I love comics but ever since I became obsessed with Batman at the age of about twelve my comic reading has been a bit aimless, well apart from the pursuit of Batman titles (which always leaves me grinding my teeth at yet another huge game-changing crossover event).

On a whim I started reading the Fantastic Four from the beginning, then found myself seeking out contemporaneous Marvel comics (e.g. Ant-Man and Thor) to get a sense of the moment, if you will. I like to look at things in context.

I idly wondered if there was some sort of guide to the publication order of Marvel comics. I googled it. It was a fateful googling. I discovered Travis Starnes' The Complete Marvel Reading Order. "Challenge accepted" I tweeted flippantly. I had decided to read the Marvel Universe continuity in publication order.

I'm going to reserve the right to skip titles if find I don't like them as I don't see the point in slavishly reading something I'm not enjoying. Actually I was going to skip Ant-man because I think he's a bit ridiculous, but it turns out I really like him because he's a bit ridiculous.

I'll generally skip anything not connected with the main timeline. Titles set before or after (e.g. the 2099 series) I'll skip. I've already made a couple of exceptions to this rule though; Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and Conan.

At the time of writing I'm up to mid 1963 and finding it all very enjoyable. They are an interesting reflection of their time, prominently featuring Cold War concerns, radiation, communism, an obsession with transistors, magnetism and science in general. It's interesting to see how some attitudes have changed since the sixties too...


It's also interesting to see Stan "The Man" Lee and his colleagues refining their style as they launch new titles and the characters and books gradually become more sophisticated. I reckon there are some good lessons for writers here, and I may be posting about this some in the future.

If anyone cares to join in, or is already under way, feel free to say "Howdy!".

Excelsior!