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Doctor Who, Space Opera, Star Trek: Picard

Evocative Nostalgia

By NeilA

I just discovered that one of my 90s friends has passed. Lucy Zinkiewicz (1968-2018) was an incredible force in Australian science fiction fandom. I had the privilege of sharing a few events with her. (Trivia: We also share the acknowledgements page in the Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide.) There seemed to be nothing she couldn’t do, and she set an amazing example for up-and-coming fans on how to participate in conventions, panels and how to make any fan experience worthwhile. She will be greatly missed.

A post could never really do justice in honouring anyone. Nothing less than an in-person speech and a statue would be close to being acceptable. So, with that in mind, I’m dedicating this quite humble post to her, focusing on one of Lucy’s interests – psychology.

So, let’s talk about nostalgia. If you’re a writer, and you’re lucky enough to be able to write something for a long running series, absolutely include as much canon tweaking and nostalgia firing that you can.

In 2017, Doctor Who released the generally average story The Empress of Mars. But, BUT, right near the end, there was an unbelievable nostalgic reference that had me gasping in shock, all my hair on end, even in places I’d forgotten it existed, crying with disbelief. A character from the show in the 70s reappeared filling in a history gap that only classic fans like myself would be aware of. This had me rocketing Empress of Mars from a mundane, just another Ice Warrior story, to the gold annals of space opera in my book. Not only did it feature Alpha Centauri, the producers also got the original actress back, at the age of 91, to voice the character again. I recognised her instantly. To go to that much trouble for fans, for the voice actress to still be alive, for the writer to actually add that missing page to the future history books – I think I went to another dimension for a moment. Certainly, I finally knew what hyperventilating felt like.

Some backstory for those who’ve only ever watched widescreen Doctor Who. In the Seeds of Death, (1969) the Ice Warriors were ‘evil.’ In the Curse of Peladon, (1972), the Ice Warriors were ‘good’. What the hell happened in between?! The Empress of Mars, in 2017, answered that question. For new fans it was a non event. For classic fans it was the WTF moment of the century. Ysanne Churchman returned to Doctor Who to reprise her role as Alpha Centuari and invite the Ice Warriors into the Galactic Federation. In 2020 Churchman is 95. Wouldn’t it be awesome if she could return again? Still, that return was such a mind blowing, unexpected moment, it would be hard to top it.

If you’re a writer on a long running TV show, you just have to bring back old characters for the fans. It is such a unique psychological shock that can only be done in long running series. It’s like Bones McCoy appearing on Star Trek: The Next Generation, or Yoda appearing in the Mandalorian. It is such a legendary thing to do. Even better if you can do it without anyone knowing before the screening. Getting John Simm to reprise his role as the Master in Doctor Who when the series already had a new Master was a stroke of genius. Bringing Nicholas Courtney back as the Brigadier in the Sarah Jane Adventures served the fans of Doctor Who on a less intensive show while protecting Courtney’s health. If the producers had known his time was limited, I’m sure they would have written him into the main series asap. Having Captain Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman suddenly appear in an episode of Doctor Who in 2019 when he hadn’t been in Doctor Who since 2010 is trading on new fan nostalgia. Probably not hyperventilation level but close.

Why do we react to this familiarity? If enemies reappear like the Cybermen in Doctor Who or the Borg in Star Trek, there’s that frission of recognition, and a seratonin hit that adds pleasure to the viewing, keeping you watching. But if an old character reappears, like Scotty in ST:TNG Relics in 1992, there’s that emotional connection, too. A character you might have grown up with, or connected with in some way, played even better by the original actor, now older and wiser, directed by even more respectful directors. It’s why multi Doctor stories in Doctor Who are so good. (I think I’ve watched the 50th anniversary Doctor Who episode 20 times now, and cried every time.) Star Trek: Picard was awesome in bringing back Data, Seven of Nine, Riker and Troi, and I’m so looking forward to seeing Guinan next year, but the series was really about giving Jean Luc Picard a completely new, away from ST: TNG, series. In this sense it didn’t have the frission that additional episodes of ST: TNG might have. Even so, it was an amazing series and just having Patrick Stewart back as Picard was amazing for me.

Which brings me to my main point. Star Trek: Lower Decks is a naff, poorly executed, ribbing of Star Trek fans that should absolutely be denigrated and hated on and I’m calling for it to be cancelled forthw…. What, they referenced a ‘bird of the galaxy’? No, wait, John deLancey reprised his role as Q? What, Riker and Troi are played by Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis? Oh, my God, it’s actually good???

I almost hyperventilated when Riker said “I’m sorry I’m late. I was watching the first Enterprise on the Holodeck.” For those who watched the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, you know what I’m talking about. Lower Decks is so for the fans that pointing at the screen in recognition is probably de rigueur.

Star Trek: Lower Decks – I’m now a huge fan. Hit me with some more Gorn! Looking forward to the next season.

This post is dedicated to the late and great Lucy Zinkiewicz who loved science fiction in all its forms, and introduced me to Monty Python, amongst other things. R.I.P.

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Avenue 5, Doctor Who, Rant, Science Fiction News, Science Fiction Weekly, Star Trek: Picard

Updates

By NeilA

So, I’ve taken a break from Science Fiction Weekly for awhile. This weekend was spent working on both Fantasy Short Stories Book Four and Alien Dimensions #19, as well as a short story that has been running around in my head for awhile. I’ll make a separate post for it soon.

Yes, finally back to writing. It feels great! But a bit difficult to keep ploughing on with it when there’re bushfires, flooding, a coronavirus, and other personal issues happening.

For those freaking out about the coronavirus, just to put things in perspective, Malaria kills half a million people every year. If we’re talking diseases generally, 10 million people die from heart attacks every year. Almost 100,000 people die from the flu just in the USA every year. With 327 million people, that’s about 0.0003%. Extrapolating that, at least 2 million people die of the flu every year on the planet. Probably a lot more than that in less healthy areas. That’s on top of all the other diseases. So, unless we start getting figures of the coronavirus killing more than 2 million people a year, it isn’t worthy of the panic and stress and racism that it seems to be creating. (Update July 2020. At 600,000 deaths worldwide, 6 months later. So, it’s overtaken malaria, and the USA’s COVID-19 death toll has exceeded its usual flu death toll. Thanks to health care professionals world wide, it could have been a lot worse. Having said that, this has now been confirmed to be a bit stronger than your average flu, targeting anyone with poor health, smoking or vaping, or living in a highly polluted area. Still, you’re more likely to die in a car crash. The average is 1.35 million deaths a year.)

We just need to be alert, not alarmed.

For those of us who’ve heard this all before, this is just another SARS / Bird Flu / Swine Flu / media advertising revenue generator. Exercise, eat healthily (Mediterranean diet?), stay positive, and if you get it and you don’t have any other underlying health conditions, (and you’re in a first world country with access to a good health system if you do), it’ll just be another flu for you.

Of course, if you get any kind of symptoms that could be related to the coronavirus you should get medical advice from a trained professional! Don’t trust the ramblings of a depressed science fiction writer!

I’m getting out of my slump thanks to Doctor Who, Avenue 5 and Star Trek: Picard. How wonderful that 2020 is going to be the golden year for science fiction streaming. Loved the spy eps, Tesla ep, and the black Doctor ep of Doctor Who, the satire of Avenue 5, and the heartbreaking nostalgia of Star Trek: Picard. Definitely looking forward to all the shows coming out this year. (July update. Wow. So much for that idea. Many shows and movies have been delayed.)

Not sure if everyone is going to get Avenue 5’s humour though. One of my favourite scenes:

Mia: “What are you so happy about?”
Matt: “I’m a nihilist”
Mia: “No you’re not.”
Matt: “Whatever!”
Mia: “Oh my God.”

Improves with repeated viewing.

In any case, there’s been some great writing in these series and I can see some Hugo nominations happening in early 2021, if everyone remembers!

In other news, I’ve come to the painful conclusion that I’ll have to delay writing the Robots of Atlantis for a while. I might have time to do a bit more of it in May with the plan to finish it by October. We’ll see.

Update July 2020 – Due to the COVID-19 situation having got a lot worse than most were expecting in January, and my city being under lockdown for months, I haven’t had any chance to focus on the book, what with worrying about where my income is going to come from, and being in a one bedroom apartment with my family 24/7. Lucky we’re introverts, but not being able to go to a cafe and have a couple of hours every day in silence to write has meant there’s been no progress on the Robots of Atlantis since February.

I’m really sorry to let everyone down about this. I’ll just have to delay it until 2021.

I hope you’re all safe and well, and hope the rest of the year will be better for you.

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Creative Writing, General Missives, RMIT

RMIT Open Day

By NeilA

RMIT Open Day

Recently, I had the pleasure of exploring Melbourne’s RMIT university.

My intention is to upgrade my skills and get a degree in a new field. And while my body says I’m in my late 40s, my mind is still in my 20s, so a university degree shouldn’t be a problem for me to do.

The big problem is deciding which one!

International Business?

Entrepreneurship?

Creative Writing?

Of course, the one I’d had in mind to do one day was Astrobiology, but this course is not offered at RMIT, and I don’t have the brain for mathematics and chemistry anyway.

So, I went along to some introductory lectures to see what would appeal.

I’d studied marketing thirty years ago, so I thought I’d catch a marketing presentation, while trying to remember why I didn’t pursue it. Then the lecturer added, ‘And there’ll be lots of maths. Excel is your friend.’ And then I remembered why!

So, I waited for the international business presentation, which was informative and helpful. I’d originally thought that an international business degree would be the best thing for me to have for my next 50 years of work (no plans to retire) but after learning more about it, realized it wasn’t really for me. The design of the course is to help you to gain the skills to work for someone else. I’m more interested in working for myself. Or, at the very least, in a fairly autonomous position with a reasonable amount of creative control.

I sat in on the entrepreneurship lecture but decided it wasn’t really what I was looking for either.

I then went along to the session entitled Application tips for non-year 12 students. The room was packed with ages 20 to 70, and the corridors outside were full. For fire safety reasons they couldn’t let anyone else in, and had to clear the corridor. It looked like many people my age had come to the same conclusion – time to get a degree. I found it helpful and planned to get online to apply as soon as I went home.

But the crème de la crème was the Creative Writing and Screen Writing presentation. The hair rose on the back of my neck as I sat there in the back row listening attentively, realizing that this was what I had been looking for the whole time. And, then I sat up straight when I heard that Sarah Dollard, who wrote for Doctor Who (Face the Raven and Thin Ice), had done a writing degree at RMIT. Just in case the universe thought I needed any extra encouragement, LOL.

So, as of today, I put my initial application through VTAC, and am now working on the requested folio.

It looks like I won’t be online much over the next few days!

Many thanks RMIT.

Posted on Updated on
General Missives, Rant

Current SF First Episode Rant

By NeilA

Current SF First Episode Rant

Can we have some ‘REAL’ SF please?

Alright, who’s decided they’re going to destroy live action SF?

Of course, I understand that science fiction is really something for subscribers, or government sponsored free to air TV. It certainly doesn’t lend itself to advertising too easily. Though, if marketers really were on the ball, every SF episode would be advertising the latest technology, mobile phones, apps and more. If we’re into tech we’re into SF and visa versa. VR googles and bendable mobiles would be the ideal thing to advertise.

But, what’s with the ‘accessible scene followed by plot twist’ to get those who are not so interested in SF to be interested? I think this is an old trope from the 60s, and has no place in today’s SF. Consider the 60s mentality of almost a decade getting ready for the moon landing and seeing the rocket launch.

Guys, SF fans are over that. We don’t need the lead up.

Disappointed

Anyway. Why this rant? Friends repeatedly recommended me to watch Stranger Things. First ep starts with a Dungeons and Dragons game in the 80s. Following scenes are set in the 80s, with a school. Limited budget?

Friends said I should check out Philip K Dick’s Electric Dreams. Although the trailer looked a bit hodgepodge, I thought, you know, give it a go.

Started with a contemporary scene. What?

Episode 2 was better but if it is over 700 years in the future, why are they using LCD screens, and why does one of the main characters have a double row of mail pigeon holes above his desk?

Read reviews of Black Mirror. Thought, yeah, alright. Flicked through all episodes. Most were contemporary. The first episode starts with the Prime Minister sleeping in bed. <Raises eyes heavenward>

If it is on free to air TV, and the goal of the channel is to attract a new audience to sell advertising too, fair enough. I understand these have to exist and create revenue somehow. But, for something to be billed as science fiction, then made available via Netflix, Amazon video, or other pay per view portal, I would expect to pay for something, well, science fictiony!

So, I thought, well, I really should check out episode 3 of Lost in Space. Two bottles of wine got me through the first two, so surely the third will start out not so saccharin, now that the crazy Doctor Smith bitch is in residence. (Very excited. Parker Posey is going to bring some awesome scenes to that show.) But guess what?! It started with a scene in a house on Earth over food and wine. Looks like that bottle of Muscat I started drinking is going to need a sister.

Now, I’m not saying LiS was bad. It continued with a nice twist, and I love the fact that there wasn’t an explanation as to what she did next, leaving it to us simple viewers to work it out, but, still, why the ‘reality’ scene at the beginning? And why is this so common now? It’s not just the USA and the UK doing it. It’s every country that produces SF. Did someone write a manual? No, it was a dot to dot book, wasn’t it?!

Modern SF Episodes

Step 1. Write an accessible scene for those stuck on the lounge who didn’t bother to hit the remote. Let them think it’s a basic soapy story with a mystery. Make the scene as realistic and contemporary as possible, but slightly mysterious and interesting, so that they don’t think to change to something else.

Step 2. Add an interesting twist that isn’t too confronting that gets them to think that, woah, wait, WTF is going on.? Okay, I’ll watch a bit longer.

Step 3. Slowly introduce the SF element bit by bit, but always have flashbacks to reality on Earth, just so they doesn’t feel left out.

Step 4. Make the scene end on a poignant, cliffhanger note related to Earth life so that they sit in their lounge thinking about it long enough to play a tech or relationship ad.

Step 5. The next scene after the ad should also help ease them back into the series without being too confrontational or too otherworldly.

Step 6. Leave enough mystery so that they decide to watch the next one.

Tired

Was very happy when both The Discovery and The Orville started as I was sure that the writers knew how to write real science fiction. Then it turned out Discovery was about love and loyalty, and The Orville was about divorce.

Sigh.

Ok. Rant over. Overall, I love both Star Trek: Discovery and The Orville. I want more of that (just, no boxing episodes, thanks). Please powers that be, please consider some SF scripts that don’t bother with the contemporary stuff.

Why not look into what producers did in the 50s? Contacted soap producers and got their advice on how to make a show where they could sell washing soap. Or the 70s – got advice on how to create a show that would sell action figures.

Or the 90s. Created shows that would sell music.

Why not contact SF writers, producers, directors etc and ask them what they could do to create a compelling show that would increase the sale of high tech stuff.? There’s so much possible advertising revenue just begging to be matched with SF.

Mobile Phones

VR glasses

Computers

Fitwear

Relationships

Bitcoin

A.I. Investments

Robot merchandise

Alexa and Google Home assistants

Drones

The list is endless

And you wouldn’t need to start with a contemporary scene. You could start with a futuristic one using ‘ancient’ contemporary gear.

Looking forward to a new series on Netflix or Amazon video that starts immediately with a science fiction scene that only science fiction lovers will understand.

Exploding binary stars followed by non-humanoid aliens surviving and looking for help? Anyone?

Or, aliens and humans working together to solve a problem in another galaxy in the far future?

I live in hope.

At least Doctor Who didn’t bother with the whole contemporary start to…

What? Russell T. D? Why did you have Rose working in a clothing store? Steven M? Why did Bill turn up at a contemporary uni? Chris Chibnall? Is the Doctor really going to crash land in 2018 London and meet a family?

Wait. The first episode in 1963 started in a school?

OMG!

Back to reading books.

😛