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Back when I was an enlisted sailor in the U.S. Navy, Rob Kerns and I served together in the Public Affairs Office on board USS Theodore Roosevelt during Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom. We were both Journalists and Petty Officers - I was a Second-Class, Rob was a First-Class, for those who know what those ranks actually mean - and of all the men and women I knew on that ship, he was my best friend there. I got him back into superhero comic books, after he'd spent several years away from the genre and medium, and I got him into Doctor Who, which was totally new to him.
Rob deployed to Iraq April 17, the day before Doctor Who Season 4 premiered in America, and in our last phone conversation before he left, the fact that he would be missing out on the latest episodes of Who was actually his biggest gripe about the fact that he was heading off to war. It says something about my own mental perspective that I completely understood where he was coming from.
So, on Friday, I got another call. Hello from Rob in Iraq. Instead of being a JO, he's now an MC - a Mass Communication Specialist, a consolidation of the Journalist, Lithographer and Photographer's Mate ratings - who's up for his Chief's board. He eats breakfast every morning in Saddam's former Republican Palace, which is now the acting U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and he's the DJ for the morning drive radio show on American Forces Network.
The Whovian portion of this is that, thanks to the magic of the Internet, Rob has been using his nights to catch up on classic series Who, both by downloading episodes online and by purchasing them on DVD. By his estimation, he's seen nearly every episode of original Who from Four through Seven, barring maybe half a dozen serials per Doctor. I encouraged him to double-check online, since I know more than a few of those aren't available on DVD yet (he mentioned not seeing "The Brain of Morbius" yet, which I told him was set for a DVD release), but all told, if our conversation is any indication, he's come damned close to having accomplished this feat.
"So far, I have to say, I'm really digging on the Seventh Doctor," Rob told me, before laughing, "I'm guessing that opinion would probably piss off the old-school fans." He hasn't really dipped his toes into Who fandom yet, but as a longtime superhero comic book fan, he knows how contentious fandoms of any stripe can be.
"No," I advised him, also laughing, "if you really want to endear yourself to your fellow Whovians, tell them that you think Colin Baker is the best Doctor ever. And that John Nathan-Turner is the best producer in the series' history."
More laughter from Rob. "You're trying to trick me, aren't you?"
I'd reflect on how absurd it is that Rob is using his time at war to catch up on a fandom, except that I used Operation Enduring Freedom to score literally hundreds of free comics, from all the major publishers, for both myself and my shipmates.
If you want to hear him hold forth on Doctor Who, as well as dozens of other fandom-related subjects, you can listen to his podcasts on Robcasting, which includes one or two podcasts in which I served as a guest commentator. And if you'd like to keep track of how it's going for him in Iraq, feel free to check out his blog. He does tilt toward the right-wing end of the political spectrum, for those for whom that might matter, but he's a good guy, and I think it'd be neat if he maybe got a few words of encouragement, from fellow Whovians and other random strangers, while he's out in the field.
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Those of you following Dr Who news may know that "showrunner", producer and chief writer Russell T. Davis is to move on after 2009, to be replaced by Stephen Moffat, whose previous writing for the series has won him two Hugos and a couple of baftas and all kinds of other awards. Moffat has authored "The Empty Child", "The Girl in the Fireplace", and "Blink" (plus the next two episodes to be aired starting with "Silence in the Library"). Fandom seems pretty happy about the appointment.
Amongst those who welcomed the news were Neil Gaiman, who commented on it at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/Steven%20Moffat (and dodged a question about whether there's a possibility of Gaiman contributing an episode - he's apparently got a storyline worked out), Warren Ellis at http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=5960 (who would like to do a story if asked) and Paul Cornell at http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2008/05/moffat-arrives-russell-departs-brian.html (who's writing a Dr Who story).
Oh, and Ian Watson welcomes the news as well.
Moffat's other work includes the excellent if painful TV sitcom Coupling (see "Her Best Friend's Bottom", series 2 episode 3 for the main Doctor Who tie-in) and the excellent drama series Jeckyll, the best take on the Banner/Hulk relationship ever, although it's actually a modern day sequel to the famous Jeckyll and Hyde story. Oh, and apparently he's scripting Speilberg's Tintin.
The most remarkable thing about the changeover, however, is the media coverage it has garnered over here. The announcement made the national evening news on all the major channels and provoked columns in the serious national papers such as the Times and the Guardian. Never before has a TV series' change of writers and producers made such headlines (although the casting of new Doctors has made the news shows before).
And then the next days's stories were about how much attention the previous days story had received.
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