I’ve been in a complete Victoriana/Edwardiana mood lately, funnily enough considering my current project. So a lot of the culture I’ve been consuming has been along these lines.

I watched Season 2 of the 1970′s Upstairs Downstairs quite by accident – I had ordered Season 2 of the 2012 version on Fishpond and due to an error, received the old show instead. And it had PAULINE COLLINS AND JOHN ALDERTON on the cover, so who could reject such a beautiful thing? I realised when watching it that while I remembered elements of this season, it was pretty much the only one I hadn’t revisited over the years – I had watched most of Season 1 on VHS, and read novelisations covering both the early and later periods of the show, but had missed out on this one, which is COMPLETELY BRILLIANT.

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The awesome Terri started chronicling her crazy cupcake adventure from Continuum – she’s promised us a blog series about each Twelfth Planet Press book themed cupcake she made for the event, and starts here with Jason Nahrung’s creepy beach gothic novella Salvage, blue frosting and coconut.

Grant Watson aka the Angriest follows up on our Continuum panel “Where are all the wonder women?” by discussing Wonder Woman’s pants, and how it’s not actually the wardrobe that’s the problem.

A new Shortpacked comic addressing gender/feminist issues! This one is a mild but entertaining dig at the mansplainers of the world.

N.K. Jemisin takes on a topic dear to my heart, the over-regulation of magic in fantasy fiction. Considering how often things go wrong with technology and recipes in the real world, what makes people think that magic would always produce predictable results? (the answer of course is that like with creative writing, the methods that are easier to teach/communicate become prioritised over all the rest)

Hoyden About Town take on the idea of Shakespeare and the Bechdel test

The Mary Sue discusses a recent Kickstarter for Roominate, an inspiring toy/project designed to teach girls vital science/engineering skills.

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Tor.com on demanding female heroes in adult stories that are equal to the female heroes found in YA fiction.

The Mary Sue on Amy Mebberson’s Pocket Princesses – smart and adorable!

Cheryl Morgan reviews the gorgeous book Ishtar, by Australia’s own Kaaron Warren, Deb Biancotti and Cat Sparks.

Tor.com on Big Finish, how awesome it is, and how to get started on your own Doctor Who audio crack addiction.

The ever-fabulous Narrelle M Harris talks about all the spectacular things that have happened in her writing career so far this year.

DC Women Kicking Ass on Catwoman 0, that cover, and the general art surrounding Catwoman in the New 52 – as compared to the version of the character we’re going to see in the movie.

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"The whole plot? In that tiny box, Doctor?" "Mmm, yes, my boy..."

The Daleks’ Masterplan is one of the most sprawling, epic, flawed, fascinating and utterly space opera-y Doctor Who stories of all time. It was the fourth ever Dalek story, screening as part of the third season of the show in 1965-6, and it marks the end of Doctor Who being a safe kids show.

I had heard so much about it in my years as a Doctor Who fan – I knew that it was the first story that killed the companion (and it did it twice), that it was twelve (and an extra) episodes long, not only a record at the time but for many decades to follow, I knew about the weird Christmas episode, and Nicholas Courtney playing a character called Bret Vyon, and all manner of plot details.

If you feel knowing all the plot twists & who dies in The Daleks Masterplan would spoil enjoyment of the story (it doesn’t, honestly, it can only help) then please look away now.

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This is the first of my posts for Doctor Her, a new feminist Doctor Who blog. It’s an exciting project and I’m very glad to be part of it. I think we’re going to have some great conversations over there. I’ll be cross-posting most of the big pieces I write for them, because it’s not like talking about Doctor Who is a NEW thing for this blog. Depends on the pieces, though. I recommend you check Doctor Her out over the next week or two as everyone starts putting up their first posts. We’re still feeling our way into it but hopefully it will be a hub for all that crunchy feminist Doctor Who chatter.

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I’m a Big Finish fangirl, plain and simple. So, there’s that. I imagine a lot of my posts here are going to be about the audio plays they produce, not only because I enjoy them (and it’s one way to justify the amount of money I pour into subscriptions) but also because they provide me with a lot of interesting and crunchy feminist material to chew over. Like all the awesome stories they have provided for Classic Who companions, and entire spin off series which allow those companions to shine as protagonists in their own right.

But also, very much so, with the new companions they have created to travel alongside various “classic” Doctors. Lucie Miller (Sheridan Smith), one of the audio companions created for Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor, wasn’t by any means the first of these, but she was the first of the companions created after Doctor Who came back in 1995, and the “New Eighth Doctor Adventures” which featured her character were a standalone series of short, punchy stories that were designed to appeal to the fans of New Who. They were broadcast as radio plays as well as being available for purchase from the Big Finish site – and there’s a Lucie Miller sale on THIS WEEK including a free download of her first episode, which is why I wanted to get this post up today.

Lucie Miller: It’s my superpower. I am Sarcasmo, woman of sarcasm. My enemies are struck down by my barbs of steel.’

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The new episode is up! Go fetch it and consume it with digital gusto!

In which women aren’t funny, don’t write important books, but come in handy as assassins and thieves.

News

Connie Willis named SFWA Grand Master

Liz Bourke on Strange Horizons & the art of the mean review

Survey shows that men (as well as women) often play characters of the other gender while gaming – in many cases, men are bored with or alienated by the big musclebound male characters, which game designers think they want. Sound familiar?

Hoyden about Town are asking for guest bloggers to crosspost their Australian Women Writers Challenge reviews on Hoyden (ASIF also keen to do so)

More on feminine tosh: a good solid article in the Australian media (shock!) about the women in literature issues of recent months (and, you know, decades).

Have we been following the “Women aren’t funny” stoush that played out in NYT? This interesting development.

DC Comics – cancellations & new titles – Tansy is especially excited by World’s Finest (featuring the Earth 2 Huntress & Power Girl)

Stranger with My Face – Women in Horror film festival in Hobart, Tasmania – 17-19 February

Tansy’s book launch for Reign of Beasts (Creature Court Book Three) on 2 February at Hobart Bookshop, 5:30pm.
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Back in June, I reviewed all of the Big Finish plays I had listened to that were released in the first half of 2011. It was a pretty full on time for me as I wasn’t just a subscriber to the main monthly Doctor Who range, but also to the Sylvester McCoy Lost Stories and the 8th Doctor Adventures. Things were a little quieter for me in the second half of the year, but we’re about to ramp up into a year with new Blake’s 7, Fourth Doctor Adventures, and a whole bunch of other extras that I may or may not have ALREADY subscribed to. So I’d like to keep these posts going!

I’m trying to focus particularly in these recommendations on pointing out the jumping on points for new listeners, because lots of people have indicated they’ve either started listening to Big Finish because of my recs, or they want to and are still not sure where to jump aboard.

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I always think of Connie Willis at Christmas time. One of my favourite of her books is a collection of short fiction, Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, many of which were written for Asimov’s December issues over a decade or so. The title story feels like quintessential Willis short stories, because it is a romantic comedy with speculative elements, and includes references classic pop culture of some kind. In this case, it is a debate between which Christmas film is superior, Miracle on 42nd Street (the original) or It’s a Wonderful Life. At the time I first read this story, I hadn’t seen either film. They occasionally screen in Australia, more often now than when I was growing up, but they’re not as pervasive as they apparently are in the US at this time of year!

I went out and watched both movies, as I usually do when Connie Willis structures a story around a piece of Classic Hollywood. They’re both very good movies. But neither of them, for me, has a patch on the personal resonance of, say, Bernard and the Genie, which I adore beyond all reason, or even the resonance of “Miracle” itself.

It’s all personal, though. Christmas cultural texts come from our childhood, from happy moments in our lives, or they just happen like lightning – like anything else that becomes a new, instant favourite. But really, I didn’t start thinking about Christmas texts until I read “Miracle.” So it’s rather meta that, at Christmas time, I start getting the urge to re-read that story.

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Roseanne Barr talks about how fabulous life is on the other side of menopause. Inspiring and feisty!

There have been many inspiring posts about Anne McCaffrey over the last few days, but I especially liked this one, about why women belong in science fiction, and the impact of McCaffrey’s work.

Exciting announcement from Big Finish that they are recording a full cast adaptation of classic Virgin New Adventure novel Love and War by Paul Cornell, featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace and introducing Professor Bernice Summerfield.

Narrelle Harris talks about our changing attention spans, and how a tech-free holiday shows up the electronic addictions in her life.

Kate Elliott devises a hypothetical Star Trek reboot which would have been far more subversive and interesting than what we actually got – and oh I want to watch the hell out of that show!

Cheryl Morgan (yes, really Cheryl, honestly) talks about the wave of SF YA fiction that isn’t necessarily being recognised as SF by SF readers.

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Howie needs a Hat

Hurry over to Podbean or iTunes now to get the new episode! Or just sit back, relax and read the show notes.

News

World Fantasy Awards!

Realms of Fantasy sinks for the third time

Graham Joyce calls BFS Extraordinary General meeting December 9th –

Authors kickstarting their own projects:
Matt Forbeck – 12 novels in 12 months.
Laura Anne Gilman’s novella
CE Murphy’s novella
(mentions also of self publishing projects of Tracy & Laura Hickman, and Liz Williams)
Catherynne Valente’s Omikuji project looking for subscribers in order to keep the project going.
And Tobias Buckell talks about how just because you’re self publishing doesn’t mean you have to be a …

What Culture Have we Consumed?

Alisa: Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts, The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood

Alex: the Stone Key and The Sending, Isobelle Carmody; I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett; end of Life on Mars S2; This is Not a Game, Walter Jon Williams; Distress, Greg Egan

Tansy: Ally Condie, Matched; Lisa Goldstein, The Uncertain Places; Gail Simone, Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation; Geek Tragedy, Nev Fountain

Feedback: well overdue!

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