Blog on the Lillypad
Thursday, September 09, 2004
 | New Episodes of Secret Radio this week and next
Veteran readers of Secret Radio sent in comments and suggestions last time the story ran. Fans of the story like the off-the-wall style and the hard hitting realities that SR addresses. And they like the comedy. But many have suggested a stronger underpinning of genuine doctrine presented by sincere Christians in the story. How to keep the comedy, and yet include the testimony of genuine faith? Enter Emily Breethe, missionary to Japan. I think regular readers will be pleased with the new episodes that appear this week and next. My two test readers are happy with the addition of Emily Breethe, the unusual missionary to Japan. So, starting today (Thursday the 9th), the SR vets should see something new. For any Doctor Who readers who tune in to Secret Radio, can you spot the Andy Pandy outfit that appears in Secret Radio sometime between now and the end of next week? |
Wednesday, September 08, 2004
 | Credit Where Credit is Due
Just watched the DVD for Spearhead from Space, with commentary provided by Caroline John (who played Liz Shaw) and Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier). SFS is vintage 70's Doctor Who, a great story in its time about an intelligence that can animate plastic and present itself either as a single entity or as individuals. In its day, it brought sci-fi into a story that joined modern technology with common, everyday life. SFS is an eerie story in many ways, one of the "mannekins come to life" genre of sci-fi. |
The character of Professor Liz Shaw was short-lived as the Doctor's companion. She had four stories to her credit (one season) and then allegedly went back to Cambridge in a huff. When I have heard Caroline John speak of her, she usually speaks of her with regret. She talks about the character being too snooty, and occasional references from her lead me to think she was not encouraged or congratulated for her work in the role by anybody that mattered.
And I'm not a person who matters, in terms of her career. But here goes: Barry Letts has said that the series Doctor Who was on its last legs by the time Patrick Torughton exited as the Doctor. The show, quite literally, had gone off the charts (oof the wrong end, by the way) because viewr figures were so incredibly low.
And yet by the end of Jon Pertwee's first season, the show was back on top. Letts has given a generous amount of credit for this turnaround to Pertwee and the writers, but when I heard him make the remarks, he left out Caroline John.
I'm sure Letts' ommission wasn't intentional, but I think she played a huge role in turning the show around. She played a gorgeous scientist with a sharp tongue, clear mind, and high personal standards, who dressed in mini skirts and floppy hats, and who--all the while---carried on a war of sarcasm with the Brigadier. And she made it all believable.
Yes, I still believe in Liz Shaw when I see her stories. In fact, I find her more believable than Jo Grant or Sarah Jane Smith (though I love those characters, but they were "ready made," cut from storybooks).
| Caroline John has talked about Jon Pertwee insisting that the Third Doctor stories be played very straight. Everybody had to believe in every line they said, no matter how far fetched. Katy Manning has said the same thing: nobody was allowed to create parody or farce about the Doctor himself or the regular characters. And Caroline John had the most difficult job: to make this beautiful woman scientist who dressed like a teenager, real to the viewers: to make her brilliant and yet approachable, possessed of both hard driving rationalism that doesn't put up with any nonsense, and yet vulnerable enough for viewers to care about. She succeeded in doing this, and she was very young when she did it. I hope someday that the "powers that be" or at least the "powers that were" acknowledge that the turnaround that occurred in Doctor Who in just one season came about not just because of Jon Pertwee or the other male actors, but because Caroline John was able to make viewers believe in and respect the character of Liz Shaw. |  |
Monday, September 06, 2004
 | Completed first-run production of HUBRIS by Jeffrey Smith.
Some of my more paranoid detractors on the FFF insist that I am Jeffrey Smith. But no, I am not Jeffrey Smith. I've sent the production material to him to approve, and pending that, HUBRIS should be available for purchase by late September, Lord willing. Fast-paced and hard hitting, HUBRIS is the account of a young man who survives an education in an unaccredited IFB college out west. |
Told in a series of vignettes, HUBRIS is like a quick and engrossing slide show of faces and situations that Fundamentalists will recognize, as helpless Jeffrey is at first tossed to and fro on the waves of loyalty and legalism, and then finally breaks free. It's only about a tenth as long as SECRET RADIO, but I highly recommend it. 90 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches, softbound.
