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Some U.S. fans accustomed to waiting for iTunes or using "other means" to get their Who Fix (TM) found it hard to deal with commercials, promos and additions to the day-and-date broadcast of "The Impossible Astronaut" on BBC America. Patience, folks: not only are those changes unavoidable in the TV biz, but they're ultimately a good thing even for Doctor Who in the U.K.!
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Best series opener yet? Debatable, but "The Impossible Astronaut" definitely benefited from, for the first time since 2005, not having to establish a new status quo (which even "New Earth" had to do given Tennant's comparatively brief screen time in "The Christmas Invasion," but I digress…).
Where was I? Oh, yes — a series opener that, freed from having to Explain New Things, leaped straight into a story of heft and dread that will surely catch the attention of new viewers. Tick boxes were checked, and checked well — although there is ONE thing I'm disappointed about…
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Less than two weeks away, a confession: I've been overwhelmed not only by the mammoth wall of hype over the debut of Series 6, but by some of the implications of the new season itself.
Plus, listener feedback! Plus, simultaneously, an illustration of how listener feedback can go horribly wrong! (Bad influence: Ask a Ninja.)
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We waited almost two months for PTEN to release the tenth episode of season 3, "Severed Dreams," and it was worth it! Tune in to hear my reactions to the landmark, gotta-win-an-award, science fiction classic of April 1, 1996. Babylon 5 has never been better!
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Also check out Teresa Jusino's take on "Space" and "Time" at tor.com (just beware the comments).
(Also a hat tip to the TDP.)
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Were you so saddened by the death of Ianto Jones in 2009's Torchwood: Children of Earth that it almost felt like you'd lost someone close to you?
Or did you see the online reaction and hear about his Memorial Wall in Cardiff and wonder, "Where the HECK is this coming from?"
Racheline Maltese, scholar and fan, wondered the same things about how people relate to stories in her paper, "Tangible Reality of Absence: Fan Communities and Mourning Fictional Characters," presented last July and now available online. I invited Racheline to talk about what it means to be an "enchanted believer" who reacts to a story as strongly as if it were a real-world event, and why Ianto was mourned by fandom but Owen and Tosh weren't.
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As a parting shot in 2MTL 196, I mentioned that I thought the message of the first four seasons of new Doctor Who, Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures was that "it's the actions of everyday humans like you and me that make the difference in overcoming adversity." Some of you noticed that I left out Series 5. Herewith, the explanation.
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A temporarily more serious, real-world turn for 2MTL.
Be inspired by the Doctor. Do what Torchwood would do.
Support the people of Japan through the Red Cross, shelterbox.org, and other relief agencies. Support the displaced of Britain through Paul Cornell's drive on behalf of Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, at justgiving.com/paul-cornell0. Help treat terminal cancer patients with dignity through the Nicholas Courtney memorial drive for the Marie Curie Cancer Care at justgiving.com/nicholascourtney.
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The term "Classic Doctor Who" came in for some criticism last week from Doctor Who personalities such as current and former editors of Doctor Who Magazine. Is it so wrong to draw a distinction between 1963-1989-plus-1996 and 2005-2011?
