Goodreads Giveaway

As a way to jump-start interest in Jack Manley and the Warlord of Infinity, I am doing a giveaway on Goodreads. It was a simple process to set up: as an author on the site, I submitted my request detailing the length of the proposed promotion and the number of books I'm prepared to part with. A few days later Goodreads had set the whole thing up, and there's nothing else that I have to do. At the end of the giveaway Goodreads will send me an email with the names and addresses of the winners, and it's up to me to mail out the books. Dead simple.

The promotion started on October 8th, and will end on November 7th. I'm giving away five books, which is about all my meagre budget will support at the moment. So far 217 people have entered, and in addition there are 84 people who have added it to their to-read list. All of this could be meaningless; I'm sure there are plenty of Goodreads users out there who enter every free giveaway there is, just as I'm dubious that being added to a to-read list will translate to books sold. Nevertheless, that's over 200 people who know about my book that didn't a few days ago, and I count that as a success.

WHAT ELSE I'M DOING

I'm still making my way through the Doctor Who marathon I started a while ago. I just watched the TV Movie, the obligatory entry (and only appearance) for Paul McGann's eighth Doctor. I remember enjoying this as a teenager when it first aired, and while I still think there is plenty to like about it time has not been kind.

Whereas 'Rose', the premiere episode of the current version of Doctor Who, is a textbook example of how to introduce the premise to a new audience, the 1996 TV Movie is just the opposite. It does everything wrong in this regard, beginning with the opening narration that feels the need to spell out everything from Time Lords to the Master to the Daleks to regeneration to you name it. There's something to be said for getting this stuff out of the way early, but it worked much better ten years later, where this stuff was teased out over the course of the first episode (and in some cases, the first three seasons).  A fan-wank speech laying out the minutiae of the premise was not the way to go.

Even the TARDIS reveal is blown in the opening scenes; we open with the Doctor in a gigantic parlour drinking tea, reading the Time Machine and engaging in similarly English activities, and then cut to a contextless shot of the TARDIS hurtling through the time vortex. There's no sense of scale to suggest the idea that the ship is bigger inside than out.

I could continue complaining about little things. The kissing, and the orchestral version of the theme music (both of which continue to irritate me well into the modern series). The whole half-human bit (thankfully ignored by the modern series entirely). The climax, which I still can't make any sense out of. It really is a mess.

I think the worst thing about it is the sheer banal, mid-90s cult TV vibe it has. Doctor Who has a tenuous relationship with sci-fi at best, especially the sort of stuff that was going around in 1996. As a show it works when it doesn't get caught up in continuity and details, and especially science. And when it really works is when it gets weird, and scary. When it tries its best to look like nothing else on the telly. This version of Doctor Who, had it gone to series, would have looked just like every other sci-fi show out there.

And yet, there are things to like as I said. It's very well-directed; the scenes of the Doctor's rebirth intercut with bits from the black-and-white Frankenstein movie are a particular stand-out. McGann is rather wonderful as the Doctor, and I get the feeling he would only have gotten better had the series continued. I have a certain perverse liking for Eric Roberts' ultra-camp turn as the Master.

It could have worked with a recut, perhaps by losing the infodump at the beginning. It would sadly cut the amount of screen-time for Sylvester McCoy's Doctor, but he's barely in the movie as it is. I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising fan has done the work already, and I'd be interested to see if it makes for a better movie. As it is, it's an interesting yet flawed blip in the long history of the show.

OTHER TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES

What I've Been Reading
The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
About Time Vol. 3 by Tat Wood

What I've Been Watching
Doctor Who: The Movie

What I've Been Playing
Need for Speed: The Run on the Nintendo Wii (just one challenge I can't complete; it's driving me bananas.)