Interesting Doctor Who vids

I'm not a huge follower of the fan music video tradition -- every now and then one pops up and I watch it. I think it's a great form -- and one of my concerns about all of the copyright battles that are going out is that it's pushed so far underground that fans can't do it. I know that some creators are certainly in favor of the form, especially the ones who are of fandom in the first place.

This video is particularly interesting, especially as a commentary on the series:

Blink

It is not terribly surprising to see Blink win the Hugo for Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. I was pulling for Paul Cornell, but that was as much because Moffat already has two of them and not anything against Blink in particular -- I think the Human Nature/Blink combination is probably the best single DVD of Doctor Who in existence -- and possibly even the best possible Doctor Who DVD in existence.

Of course, it'll be interesting to see if Moffat will be able to keep winning Hugos once he is the showrunner...

Doctor Who on iTunes [US]

Doctor Who has shown up on iTunes -- the first three series are all available. And at $1.99 an episode, it is perhaps your cheapest way to get new Doctor Who if you haven't gotten it on DVD yet.

Torchwood has been on iTunes for a while now, but it's good to see Doctor Who show up there..

Delia Revealed

I can't help be impressed by how ahead of her time Delia Derbyshire was -- and in these recently revealed archives we get an idea about how advanced she was -- making sounds without synths or keyboards -- frequently cutting up and splicing together tapes and other strange things.

Cool Britannia

In my general blog I posted about some of the various UK TV shows we talked about in our Cool Britannia panel at CONvegence. I think I mentioned that it'd be in one or the other of the two blogs, and so, well, I'll mention it in both.

Most of the shows, of course, have some connection to Doctor Who, since Doctor Who is the center of genre tv in the UK.

CONvergence

As always, there will be a bunch of Doctor Who and related panels at Minnesota's Science Fiction convention CONvergence this weekend. I'll be on a few.

Since this convention has an additional day, one of the ideas is to have one panel for each decade of the show -- usually, when you cover Doctor Who, you don't really cover the whole history as much as you would really like.

Time	Room	Panel
Thu 5:00pm - 6:00pm	Edina TV	Doctor Who by Decade: The Sixties Covering the 1960's era Dr. Who, this is the first in a series of four panels exploring the rich and varied history of the classic British science-fiction series, focusing on the Hartnell and Troughton eras. Ben Ellis, Steven Manfred, Charlie Paulsen, Michael Scott Shappe, Michael D. Thomas
Fri 5:00pm - 6:00pm	Edina TV	Doctor Who by Decade: The Seventies Covering the 1970's era Dr. Who, this is the second in a series of four panels exploring the rich and varied history of the classic British science-fiction series, focusing on the Pertwee and T. Baker eras. Ben Ellis, Brian Jonas, Michael Lee, Emily Stewart, Michael Zecca
Fri 6:30pm - 7:30pm	Edina TV	Doctor Who: Series Four This panel discusses Donna Noble's year aboard the TARDIS and will contain spoilers and speculation around Series Four of Doctor Who and beyond. Also, what can we look forward to during the "gap year?" Michael Lee, Steven Manfred, Kelly McCullough, Lynne Thomas, Michael Zecca
Fri 9:30pm - 10:30pm	Edina TV	Torchwood Beyond the government, yada yada yada. Basically, this is an hour long opportunity to squee over Ianto, Captain Jack, and Captain John. Oh and talk about how much an improvement the second series was over the first as well. Christa Dickson, James Gottfried, Mara Kapp, Charlie Paulsen, Lynne Thomas, Dayna Jean Wolter
Sat 3:30pm - 4:30pm	A4 HotDish	What Does Franchise Continuity Mean to You? Continuity, or what is canon, is a very personal thing. Which Buffy Season 8 do you count - the comic version, the novels, or both? Do you consider animated Trek the last two years of the 5-year mission? Where do Doctor Who audios fit in? What about the Babylon 5 comic books or Star Wars video games? Or does it even matter at all? Remember - no one is "right" or "wrong" - come and share some of your more inventive and interesting canon theories in this respectful round-table discussion. Dave Benhart, Paul Harmeyer, Christopher Jones, Michael Lee, Video Team, Michael D. Thomas, Greg Weisman
Sat 3:30pm - 4:30pm	Edina TV	Reimagining of TV Shows It seems like the movie-remake craze of the past several years has filtered down to our television sets. What makes a remake successful? When should a show be rebooted (BSG) vs. making it a continuation (Trek: Next Gen, Doctor Who)? Daren Dochterman, Derek Mahr, Joan Marie Verba
Sat 5:00pm - 6:00pm	Edina TV	Doctor Who by Decade: The Eighties Covering the 1980's era Dr. Who, this is the third in a series of four panels exploring the rich and varied history of the classic British science-fiction series, focusing on the Davison, C. Baker, and McCoy eras. It probably would have been easier to say the JNT era, huh? Michael Lee, Charlie Paulsen, Lars Pearson, Michael Scott Shappe, Michael D. Thomas
Sat 11:00pm - 11:59pm	Edina TV	Cool Britannia Doctor Who isn't the only British import worth checking out. There has been a resurgence of sci-fi in the UK recently. Come learn about other series worth your while, like Primeval, Life on Mars, Hyperdrive, Jekyll, and many others. Ben Ellis, Brian Jonas, Michael Lee, Michael Zecca
Sun 9:30am - 10:30am	Edina TV	Sarah Jane Adventures It may be the least talked about/acknowledged of the current run of Doctor Who spin-offs, but it's definitely worth discussion. Is The Sarah Jane Adventures far better than it has any right to be? Rob Callahan, Heidi Johnson, Steven Manfred, Lynne Thomas, Michael D. Thomas
Sun 2:00pm - 3:00pm	Edina TV	Doctor Who by Decade: The Nineties Covering the 1990's era Dr. Who, this is the fourth in a series of four panels exploring the rich and varied history of the classic British science-fiction series, focusing on the expanded universe (audios, books, comics) and the 1996 McGann TV Movie. Heidi Johnson, Lars Pearson, Michael D. Thomas

I read it in the Times

Today's new york times has a profile of Russell T Davies.