WHO Doctor?

Did you see the announcement? I'm sure you saw the announcement. You know, the Big Announcement. Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor in Doctor Who!

Capaldi has already appeared in the show, in The Fires of Pompeii. Interestingly, his character didn't die. He met the Doctor and Donna, and lived a successful life in the months following the destruction of Pompeii. His family treated the heroic duo in the TARDIS as gods.

There has been some criticism of the decision, because he's older, and he's well known, and he's not black or a woman, and he's appeared in both Doctor Who and Torchwood already. But what I want to focus on, for just a moment, is his casting in World War Z, notably that he's listed as W.H.O. Doctor.

You can't write that.

Now, only the really important stuff. Is he a good choice for Doctor? Some might argue right away that he is; River's Doctor was "older". If the good Professor Song is still alive - it's hard to keep up, but I believe she must be - then I imagine she'll be quite happy to meet the twelfth Doctor. It's just... well... isn't her first time meeting him the last time he'll meet her? And vice-versa? We know she dies in the Library. We don't know how she met him. (Feel free to correct me on that, but that's how I remember those details, and it's been a while since I might have heard them.)

They also have to get married still, which is kind of a big deal, and this might be why Capaldi has been chosen as the Doctor. He's old enough to not look out-of-place to viewers - or to audiences who don't watch the show and might suddenly see their picture everywhere, because I have no doubt it'll be the TV wedding of the year. Whichever year that might be.

But appearances aside, they need a new Doctor who isn't necessarily going to be Clara's type, and who can at least get along with her as a friend with a new personality and a new way of thinking, and travel with despite her knowing his entire life-story up to the point of his regeneration.

There's a lot to happen during Capaldi's time as the Doctor, and I think they need a new face to bring it all about neatly. But the actor has to be in command of the role. He has to be strong, he has been out-there. He doesn't necessarily have to put on such a physical show as Matt Smith did, but he has to hold the audience's attention just as much.

He won't appear in the 50th anniversary. We know that much. I think it'd be a bit much to have Ten-Two, Eleven and whatever the heck we call John Hurt's Doctor (8.5? Nine-with-an-Extra-Twist-of-Insanity?) all in the episode as well as the regeneration.

So, Christmas. And we don't necessarily know that Clara is going to be in it. We don't know anything about it. All the attention is on November 23rd (50th anniversary episode), with very little of it on the actual episode that will see Matt Smith leave the show.

Capaldi has Christmas; he has a wedding, maybe. If he does, he'll probably meet River for her first time. That could be awkward. All of this might reveal the name of the Doctor, for the first time, or they might keep it a secret. But if what I think is true for River and the Doctor, and Capaldi is the man who meets her first, she'll be leaving the show during his time as the Doctor. And won't that suck?

As for whether or not I'm happy with the casting...well, you'll have to wait and see how I react to him actually playing the role. In season 8. About three episodes in. Because I don't want to judge him based on his first appearance before I can even get used to him!

Complete Pond Life

This week, the BBC has been showing a mini-series online, Pond Life, in anticipation of Season 7 (airing tomorrow, Sept 1st at 7.20pm on BBC 1. Asylum of the Daleks is set to bring the Ponds back in the Doctor's life, and in this enjoyable and often humorous series, we finally get to understand why.

All five parts can be found below. Make sure you check it out!

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

Yay Nerd Stuff!

Inspired by a video by the amazingly lovely Charlie McDonnell, AKA charlieissocoollike, who I once interviewed, I'm going to more or less list all the amazingly nerdy things in my life. Be prepared for nerd-overload.

1. Doctor Who; it comes first on the list of nerdy things because
   a - I write (or at least wrote) a form of literature I dubbed Doctor Haik-Who; they are haiku about Doctor Who.
   b - I have a Doctor Who t-shirt
   c - I have a sonic screwdriver
   d - I have ten figurines based on the show, including the Face of Bo
   e - I dressed up as a Time Lord for my college Halloween party (right)
   f - I have a Doctor Who poster
   g - I have The Writer's Tale
   h - I listen to Trock
2. Books; I know they aren't specifically nerdy... but when you read, mostly, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and children's books... I think you see my point. Very nerdy indeed.
3. Writing; you might not think it's nerdy... but you don't also study it in your spare time. I have over a dozen books on writing - children's books, scripts, fiction, poetry - and on the book industry in general - that includes getting a job in publishing, marketing books, and a few editions of The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook. Also, I tend to write across genres; I have lots of poetry, a children's book (and ideas for more), a sci-fi novel, mainstream fiction, and books that pose as mainstream fiction with some metaphysics thrown in.
4. I study Religion... and like it. And not for the spiritual side of things either. It's actually just really interesting!
5. Every now and then I pick up a new subject and read about it, ranging from Snark; Business books - marketing and financing; psychology, specifically the science of personality in Rita Carter's Multiplicity. Why? Because I find learning to be an enjoyable experience.
6. I'm on the Internet... a lot! I use it for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, my blog (i.e. this), research (both for college and for a number of different things). Basically, I could spend a day on the Internet and not get bored. (note: I can still get lonely)
7. I don't do well with social interactions; people in college might disagree, saying I'm usually so happy etc etc... except I never know what to say to people and generally I don't make physical or eye contact with other people. And I don't know why!
8. I listen to music from DFTBA Records; don't know what that is? Exactly! They're incredibly indie. Not in the sense of being in that particular genre of music, really just in the sense that they're not mainstream and all their artists are from YouTube.
9. My clothing; I've touched on this already with the Doctor Who t-shirt, but did I mention I also have four Family Guy t-shirts, two Mighty Boosh t-shirts, a Muse t-shirt, a James Morrison t-shirt, a Pink Floyd t-shirt and a Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt? Basically, my wardrobe is filled with essences of pop culture.
10. YouTube; I can spend several hours a day looking through old videos, particularly those of nerds such as the vlogbrothers, John and Hank Green; nerimon, Alex Day; charlieissocoollike, Charlie McDonnell and communitychannel, Natalie...something. I always forget her surname.

Does that seem nerdy enough to you? It seems nerdy enough to me... and I didn't even mention the fact that I watch all manners of shows on the SyFy channel, and learned a couple of short phrases in Japanese through the Heroes Magazine! Among other things! So nerdy...

The Time Lord Returns!

So, today was a big day for British television: Doctor Who returned, with a new Doctor! Now, I will admit I was a bit worried (and extremely excited) about the return of Doctor Who, namely because:

1. The conclusion of The End of Time (Part Two), Matt Smith was acting too much like David Tennant. Now, this might not seem like something too dreadful, but it seemed like they'd just gotten rid of David Tennant to bring in a new face. But the Doctor was the same otherwise. Or so it seemed.
2. Matt Smith looked weird. I don't mean to sound critical, but he didn't look right. He looked a little bit off (a little bit left?). It had to do with the size of his head. His forehead looked too big. I knew straight away that how he looked would make watching him act a bit difficult. I wouldn't be able to look at him and just let it be. At least the other's were easy on the eye - all their good points and all their bad points were obvious from the start (like the size of Christopher Eccleston's nose and ears... at least I was able to look at him!) 
3. Everything was on fire. I know a Time Lord bursts into golden timey-wimey fire when he regenerates, but the TARDIS was burning up too! Scary stuff! 
4. There was no companion to turn to for safety. When we first met Eccleston, we knew we had Billy Piper for some comfort. She was a fairly big league actor in her own right, so we knew she wouldn't be killed off by the Autons in the first episode (entitled Rose.) But Smith was alone out there, all new and with his clothes all torn and burnt, and unlike the regeneration of the Doctor to Tennant, we didn't have a companion to keep something the same.

So, all of that slightly plagued my mind ahead of the Season Five premier of Doctor Who, the first episode in a long while without David Tennant after the sorrowful goodbye, and the first episode with a new Doctor and, presumably, a new companion. And, it seems, an altered TARDIS. The internet was full of stories of how the TARDIS was going to be redecorated...

But there was something else that carried on from The End of Time (Part Two) - the big damage done to the universe. This, I believe accounts for both the change in the opening sequence (the time vortex is like a big storm!) and the first alien villain of the new season. It's also something I think Moffat is planning on keeping throughout the season; the Doctor and his new companion have to try fix the hole in the universe caused by the Master. Note: This is my own theory!

Overall, I think the episode went brilliantly! You see, for every point I made earlier, there is a rebutal upon having seen the episode:

1. Smith quickly found his feet as the new Doctor. This is, I think, largely down to the writing of Moffat, making sure that viewers can see these two Doctors as something quite different. Aside from the fact that Smith is younger than Tennant (and indeed any of the previous Doctors at the time of their debut), his personality is shown differently. He's still slightly rude, as the Doctor ought to be, so long as it's funny. He's still crazy, as the Doctor ought to be, so long as it's controlled by the writer. He's still the Doctor. But he has his own little quirks. I'm still waiting for them to fully show themselves, but I think once he's friendly (on screen) with his new companion, Smith will be an excellet Doctor! And 'Geronimo' doesn't seem so silly any more! 
2. I found out why Smith looked so weird, why his head looked to be the wrong shape; his eyebrows. They're too thin for his head. His forehead looks massive as a result, and it throws off his whole face. Throw in his rather pale complexion and the mad hairstyle, and the odd attire, and he's just... left. He's left. He's not right, he's left. But now that I know that, now that I'm not looking for what's wrong with his face (because there's something wrong with all of our faces... well, not wrong, but an imperfection). 
3. The TARDIS had to change, because of the end of the era of Tennant. Plus, it worked into the episode so that: (a) The Doctor didn't have his TARDIS to fight the bad guys and (b) Amy Pond could be shown the new interior. These worked to progress the story a bit and show the change in who controls the show - Moffat replaces Davies back stage and Smith replaces Tennant on stage (don't talk to me about control - you know I mean in the eyes of the public, not literally running the show). Plus, the new TARDIS looks so cool! It's shiny and bright and it has a typewriter. Win! 
4. The new companion, assuming she stays, is actually really fun! While Piper had a certain magic about her that made everyone love her, and Tate was just adored because of how human she was, the new companion (I need to learn the actor's name... - gender neutral term there: the actor is a woman) has her own little flair. She's not just the human of Tate and Piper, she's the crazy of them too, but in her own way! You'll see, if you haven't already, that she's pretty mad... just watch it! I know, though, that things with her are going to be great!

So, there's my points rebuted. I think this pretty much serves as a review for episode one of the season, The Eleventh Hour. I look forward to seeing what Moffat can show us later: his stories have been so brilliant and so terrifying in the past (such as Blink and Silence in the Library) that he has a huge standard to meet. And that's just on a personal note! He also has to live up to Russell T Davies! I wish him all the best of luck with it!

Now... when's episode two airing?

In Preparation

As we go through each of the days of our lives, we are often left to prepare ourselves, or others, for things to come. Mostly, this can be fairly bad things. But in the world of writing, there's whole lot of preparation towards greater things, like a book getting published, or an author just steeling himself for the days when the copyright of his work might be brought into question.

I decided, in the preparation of getting in touch with agents and other individuals, that I'd begin the copyrighting process for my Doctor Haik-Who, by writing them down, and posting them to myself. This is a very common technique of ensuring the authorship of your work isn't called into question, particularly if you like to share your work with a number of individuals you've never met.

I've already done with eleven of them, though the remaining forty nine written will need the same process soon, so I might be writing them up sooner rather than later. This doesn't count towards my "Wrote Today" Chart, of course, but it's a necessary step in ensuring the safety of my work. If I can get them all done within the next couple of hours, then I'll be sorted - I have dinner plans tonight, my birthday celebrations extending somewhat now that my parents are back from the West.

This is also a good time for me in preparation for the broadcasting of a few Doctor Haik-Who online, via YouTube. This will be happening sometime in the very close future, so I need to make sure I have the Haiku protected. While I'm broadcasting, I'll also be asking for topic suggestions for more Doctor Haik-Who; I may have already touched on the topic, but at least then I know I've covered some of the big areas of the show. There's also the episodes people forget about that need writing about, like the Gelth in the third episode. They were the villain, but Charles Dickens was the focus of the episode, and Rose's inability to keep her mouth shut. It's an important lesson for her as she continues her time travelling journey with the Doctor.

I've also discovered my strange fascination with the Face of Boe... I wrote at least three Haiku about him. I'm weird...

Anyway, about those agents... I scoured The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2010 for suitable agencies... I got a total of two suitable people. I'll be getting in touch with them soon to see if I might be able to submit. *fingers crossed*

That's it from me, I suppose. I don't want to steal from writing up the Haiku time, so I'd better let you go. (oh, and I'm not the only one preparing for something today... but I won't say who it is that I'm talking about.)

Poetry Night, Party Night, Writing Night

It's been a few days since I'm been to this blog... Bad Paul! Anyway, I have three days to tell you about, so I better try make this brief...

Thursday - Poetry Night at the Gutter Bookshop. In case you don't already know, the Gutter Bookshop is a lovely Indie bookshop on Cow's Lane in Temple Bar in Dublin. Not huge, but the right size. Bob, Anne and Sinead are all lovely there, and the Poetry Night was no exception for this loveliness (they didn't even mind that I took up more space than I should have, due to Doctor Who figurines and a Blue Ukulele...).

The night was designed to be a forum for expression of poetry in whatever verbal way the poet chose. There was some wonderful poetry written and read for the night, including some slam poetry from an American girl, and the recitation of Kevin and the Black Birds by another guy, Irish (I saw him recite that same poem in October 2008!) Sophie even got up to recite, and Bob was very kind to her when she was nervous. Go Bob!

Overall, a brilliant night, and I'm delighted to see that they've slotted another one in for next month too! Yahoo! I'll see you there, I hope!

Party Night - that was last night, as Niamh's. It was choir party. We got there at eight-ish, and I got to bed at two. It was a night of singing and talking and laughing, and the odd three-time discovery that I'm a twin (that's three times someone - one person - said, "Oh my God you have a twin!" I got the picture...)

It was fun to meet new people there too. Shane, Niamh's drummer/bongo player, brough two of his friends, and Sorcha brought her boyfriend, who incidenally looks like Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor, only with a less weird head... This revelation resulted in much quoting from Doctor Who. Only Sorcha and I got the references!

Writing Night - welcome aboard! This is my big writing night of the week. I have forty minutes to go until Heroes, and I plan on exploiting every last second of it for writing. I've already written a blog post for the Literary Den blog that's around eight hundred words, and a few Doctor Haik-Who! I'll have a video about those on YouTube soon. Yay!

Anyway, this blog post is contributing to my "Wrote Today" Chart that I'm keeping for Lent. So far I'm written a minimum of six hundred words a day. With college work mounting up, this can only get better. See, I'm counting all writing towards it, because any writing is good writing. As for the Drama... well, that's going to eat some valuable time, but it'll be over soon too. *insert sad face here*

While I have you here about the Doctor Haik-Who - I'm emailed the BBC twice about it now, without response. I'll be going for number three next week, unless someone can get me a mailing address to get in touch with the lovely people there... I really want to know if I can publish my Doctor Haik-Who as a book! I might even contact them directly about it, to see if they'll do it! *tempted*

Here's one I wrote earlier, under the subject of Last Words

His very last words
Were reserved for the Doctor:
"You are not alone."

And with that, dear reader, I bid you adieu. I've got some fiction to write on Write Or Die, and a "Wrote Today" Chart to update, with half an hour to go, now. Toodle pip!

Shopping!

Well, for the first time in a long while I went to town to do some shopping all by my lonesome. I left a little after eleven... but that's boring. You're really just interested in what I bought, aren't you?

Okay, at River Island I bought a t-shirt that says "Je ne comprende pas" on it. I love it! I also bought some fingerless gloves. I know what you're thinking. Waste of money, right? No, I got them so most of my hands will be warm as I type. My bedroom gets quite cold, so it's neccessary to keep as warm as possible. Fingers on gloves would be difficult to type with... and impossible to use an iPod with!

I then went on a fruitless hunt for The College Student's Introduction to Theology, which I need for my religion tutorials in college. I call this a Gabbo fail, for setting us a book that isn't available.

Ended up, after a long walk in a different direction, at The Gutter Bookshop. The staff member there was really friendly! It's an indie shop, run by a former book buyer in the shop I work. Didn't get to talk to him, but one of his two staff was delightful to talk to. I recommend a visit there (it's on Cow's Lane, in Temple Bar). I bought the BBC Shorty Story Awards 2009 book, and a notebook to write my Doctor Haik-Who into.

I just realised... I skipped my Muji stop. Muji's a fancy little Japanese retailer. Sells some stationary, and furniture... odd mix, I know. I bought a small pencil case and a fold up ruler. I am that cool.

And as I was leaving, I bought a double chocolate cupcake from Johnnie Cupcakes. It was delicious! The right level of moisture, perfectly sweet, and not too heavy either! I wish I had another one!

Oh, and in case you liked the Doctor Haik-Who so much that you want more already, there's some on my latest post on the Literary Den blog. You can view it here: http://literaryden.wordpress.com/2010/01/30/doctor-haik-who-and-a-giveaway/

Now, I think it's time to get some dinner. Cinema later. Take care!

Doctor Haik-who

Last week I did some experimenting with some Haiku, themed around Doctor Who. Hence the dreadful title. Anyway, I thought I'd ask for some feedback from y'all. They're posted with the episode or particular element of Doctor Who in mind. The question is, are they any good?

Silence in the Library
Where is the way out?
Why are the shadows moving?
Who turned out the lights?

The Empty Child
Are you my mummy?
Or maybe just a Doctor?
Please help me, Mummy!

The Doctor
Who is this strange man
Always running ‘round about
Through London, and Time?

If the feedback is positive enough, I'll continue writing them. I have a few handwritten and not shared with anyone, even my familia or my friends. If BBC allow it, I'll be making a book out of them. I really hope they allow it!

Descent into Madness...

...Rise into Power.

I've gone ever so slightly (more) insane today. At approximately 7.45am local time, the Universe opened up. The Titanic fell from the sky. Fat walked the streets. And the Darkness came... In the middle of it all, a little blue box with a fantastic engine roaring through the sky.

And I thought, "I'm in Heaven."

You see, ladies and gentlemen of Earth, it was The Doctor. "Doctor Who?" I hear you ask. And I say EXACTLY! Season 4, everyone. Season 4, in which Donna Noble travels the Universe, through time and relative dimensions (in space.)

So, you might be wondering how that relates to the title of this blog post. All I can say is, all in time. No pun intended. Well, maybe a little. But there is something that may or may not be coming. A history that maybe never was. A world that no one remembers.

Change was here, change will come again. This is my descent into madness, and the rise into power.

Doctor Who and the Word Nerd Army

So, I've finally had a free moment from my family, and I made a vlog! I sound insane otherwise, just talking to myself. Best not to let other people hear it too.

So, here it is, Doctor Who and the Word Nerd Army!




It's not much; it never is.

Anyway... if you're interested in sending your script to me to read and to share (I'll leave links to the scripts on my blog and YouTube channel (the latter when I get enough of them) so that everyone can have a read of them! Just send them literary_mania(at)yahoo(dot)ie with the subject of Doctor Who Script in .doc, .docx or .rtf format, with your name and the title of the script as the entire first page (as it would be presented to an actor, for example). Sending the script is giving me permission to share it (as fan-fiction, you can't sell it anyway).

If in the event that Literary Den t-shirts become available and I get enough scripts, I'll judge which one is most interesting.

If you can't write a script, write a story instead. Once it's Doctor Who in style, I don't mind. I'm judging the story, the dialogue, the suspense, the humour and how in touch with the show it is. And don't forget, not even the Doctor knows everything - he didn't recognise the things that attacked on Christmas, and he had to ask where the Clomian was from (Clom, obviously).

Good luck!

No One

Poor ill-fated blog. I'm sorry!

*ahem* I apologise for that. I had to comfort my blog after my absense.

A lot has happened these past few days that I haven't had the good grace to write about. There has been good things, and bad things. Since I hate ending on a bad note (happened before at mass "singing" and I came off the alter laughing and red-faced), I'll start with the bad point. My head is melted. Not literally of course, but my writing brain is dead for the time being.

To compensate (people like compensating) I've begun a YouTube vlogging session! That's the first of the good news-y bits! I get to chat a lot about nothing in particular... yet. People say vloggers are vain and that they just want to record themselves so they can watch/listen. I think that's a bit... stupid? I'm certainly not doing it for that reason. I hate how I sound and I don't like the camera pointing at me. I do, however, enjoy talking. Communicating, rather. It's easier to do on YouTube because no one will interrupt. Plus, I like seeing the viewing numbers go up.

And that, oddly enough, brings me onto more good news. I have a new TV show to watch! It's the forecasted topic of my next video - Doctor Who!! I have to blame Charlie McDonnell for that. See, at the Den we blame people for good things. It's Claire's fault, for example, that we released an anthology last year. And when I blame people like that, I'm really thanking them and giving them credit. So yes, I love Doctor Who. Just wait 'till you see what I can pronounce! (I can't spell it though...)

Now, to celebrate my return to my blog, I'm leaving you with a poem. It's called No One, hence the title of the blog. It's not much of a poem, but I liked the idea a bit. Here we go then..!

No One

No one heard me scream.
No one came to help.
No one watched me die.
No one was a witness.
No one came forward.
No one...

Rubbish, innit?

Anyway... le link for the channel if you want to watch my videos! http://www.youtube.com/user/writeranonymous

You can subscribe if you want, but it's not mandatory. feedback, however, would be nice.

Well, until next time - Cheerio!

Fantastic!

Well, I'm back from Barcelona. It's a great city, had a great time, yadda yadda yadda...

That's actually not what I'm talking about today. No, "Fantastic!" is the catchphrase of the first of the new Doctors in Doctor Who (played by Christopher Eccelston). The reason for the catchphrase invasion? Well, I've just watched the entire first Season of the new DW. It's amazing!

I first decided I wanted to watch Doctor Who when I started listening to Chameleon Circuit (interview with Charlie McDonnell who helped put it together here). I was like, "That sounds like fun." And it was! I fell in love with the quirkiness, the originality, the genre! I can't wait to buy the second Season!!

Doctor Who has always inspired my own little time travelling story. It's still in the mental workshop at the moment, all the details being smoothed out, but I should be able to start planning it soon!

Aside from all that, I've not been doing very much. Well, I've been helping two writers with their books (my friends Sam and Aimee), working as an editor of sorts for them. Rachel Phipps from the Den also wants someone to help her, and I've volunteered my services. I don't charge. I just like doing it.

Take care!