We pay him well

I had a pleasant surprise this evening while I was reading Cheryl Morgan's report of The Best Fanwriter Panel at Worldcon. The panelists were all of the excellent fan writers who were nominated for this year's Hugo Award. Each of the panelists was asked to recommend some other fan witers whom they admired. I almost fell off of the big, red couch when I read shsilver's list and saw rarelylynne and myself listed. Thanks, Steven!

*blush*

Crap! Now I have to come up with more clever stuff... umm...

SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!!!

That's right. When in doubt, quote Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. :-)

Love Is a Battlefield DVD

We were supposed to go to a family event tonight, but I had a bit of a headache. rarelylynne already covered our exciting life in her last post. Caitlin starts school on Monday, and I can't wait to tackle all of my writing projects.

We've been working through a stack of recent Doctor Who DVDs. We're almost done with "Battlefield." I have always thought that this is an underrated story. I understand why it has a bad reputation. Some of the sets are awful, Mordred is ludicrous, and the music sounds like Keff McCulloch is humping his Casio synthesizer. It also suffers from the usual wild ambitions of script editor Andrew Cartmel (there are enough ideas in these four parts for a season's worth of stories). Not to mention, this is the story that really marked the end of the classic run due to its disastrous ratings. I think many fans hold that against all of Season 26, but especially this story.

And yet, I love this story to pieces. The Doctor/Merlin conceit still makes my squee (as my wife would say), Jean Marsh is fabulous as Morgaine, the script sparkles with inventive ideas and great lines, and anybody who doesn't think that The Destoyer/Brigadier confrontation isn't one of the greatest moments in series history is a fool.

The DVD itself is a nice package. The highlight is the new extended feature-length edit with snazzy new effects and missing scenes. It doesn't turn this into a perfect story, but it does smooth over some of the rougher bits. The documentaries are all wonderful. You won't hear any new startling revelations if you're a sad-old-bastard fan, but they cover everything in an entertaining manner. Like all of the stories from the 1980's, it's a shame that Producer John Nathan-Turner passed away before he could contribute. There always feels like the story behind the story is missing that vital component.

The commentary track is fun. Andrew Cartmel and Ben Aaronovitch are their usual bitchy fanboy selves, Nick Courtney and Angela Bruce are lovely, and Sophie Aldred somehow keeps everything smart and upbeat. She's a born moderator.

My copy of "Attack of the Cybermen" should be here in a few days. That should kill all of my enthusiasm. :-)