Elisabeth Sladen dead at age 63

Elisabeth Sladen died on April 19th, 2011. She was 63 years old and was taken from us far too soon. The British actress was best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who. She played Sarah Jane on a recurring basis during the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker years of the show during the 1970's. She reprised her role several times over the course of the 80's and then again with the new series of Doctor Who opposite David Tennant.

Sarah Jane Smith is one of my all time favorite companions from the series. This is not unusual and you will see many posts on-line from other fans who feel the same way. Elisabeth Sladen made iconic the role of Who companion and many who think of the Doctor Who will always think of Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen.



From what little I have been able to learn over the Internet it sounds like she suffered a long battle with cancer that she kept very secret. I do not know what "long" means. Up until her death she was filming new episodes of her Doctor Who spin-off show - The Sarah Jane Adventures. She was (without question) battling cancer during this time period. But was she battling it longer than that? The world may never know. It is obvious that her condition was something very private to her and perhaps even in death she would not want her private medical history to be spread across the news.

Having said that there are millions of people who now morn her parting and as one of those fans I hope to learn more. We all grieve in different ways and some of us like to have a better understanding of what happened. How did she live her life in those final days? I think there is no question she lived it courageously until the very end.



The irony of her death is that I was just having a discussion the other day about why some people take the death of a celebrity so hard - such as Princess Diana or Micheal Jackson. I said that those people never truly knew that celebrity and while it was news it was certainly nothing to get too emotionally involved over. I must now eat my own words because I am taking the death of Sarah Jane very hard.

Sarah Jane Smith, you will be missed!

Anatomy of a Geek - Part 2

So there I was, a nervous thirteen year old kid in a new town with the daunting task of making new friends. I'd like to say it was easy but it wasn't. To make a long story short, my junior high years were a bit lonely for me but I found comfort in the escapism of storytelling. Unfortunately Dungeons & Dragons is a communal experience and that was in short supply, but I looked elsewhere for enjoyment and found it in Choose Your Own Adventure Books as well as my first attempts to write. I believe these years were the years that I learned the love of writing. At that time it was essentially the equivalent of playing an RPG for me. What I didn't realize was that writing is really the original RPG. If these activities weren't enough to solidify my geek credentials than my television habits surely sealed the deal.


Prior to leaving my childhood home I was introduced to the television show Doctor Who. My first exposure was in the form of an RPG (go figure). After playing D&D every day for years, my friends and I branched off into all variety of knock-off role playing game and the one we loved most was Doctor Who. I then learned it was based on the British television show and started watching from time to time. After moving away, Doctor Who went from being a "time to time" occurrence to a weekly occurrence of watching recording and cataloging episodes. I can't stress the geek importance of cataloging episodes because it was those in-between days when I made good use of my collection and thus spawned my penchant for collecting. Since that time I have collected all manner of geek item from videos, to metal soldiers, to collectible toys, and more. But I digress. I have friends that make fun of my love of Who, and I'm no dummy. I can see the wobbly sets, the over-acting, and the occasional flimsy story line, but I essentially forgive those things out of respect for what Doctor Who was for me at that time in my life and to a larger extant what Doctor Who did for the science fiction and fantasy genre as a whole. Like other kids, I have tremendously fond memories of watching each new story unfold before me, amazed at the never ending cornucopia of aliens, enemies, allies, and plot lines that dated back more than twenty years! That history and longevity was like a warm blanket of consistency for a child who was growing up and learning, like most other young people, that most things in life are fleeting.


Then came the summer of 1989 when my local PBS station stopped carrying the increasingly expensive Who serials. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed but timing is everything and it just so happened that my friendship circle widened to include two guys that I still call friends today. We grew up together between 10th grade and high school graduation. We learned how to drive cars, relate to girls, and formed strong bonds that I still cherish. I put aside Doctor Who, and Dungeons & Dragons, and Star Wars, and metal soldiers in exchange for the fast times of high school life. But unlike many of my peers, I never felt that I compromised my own personal set of values despite the avalanche of temptation to do so. I have no doubt in my mind that this was due to great parenting but also to a long-standing commitment of being true to myself, established early on by my unashamed love of my geekier side.

The fall of 1992 brought with it another big move as I embarked on my college years and an opportunity to fold together my every-man lifestyle with my inner geek.


To Be Concluded...

Why Who?

Many of you know that I am a shameful lover of all things Doctor Who. Up until Farscape it was my unequivocal favorite television show of all time, and that's before the new Who series came out. Most in geekdom place the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, and other American programs in their top favorite shows but so do many "averge joes." However the mainstream viewing audience wouldn't know a sonic screwdriver even if it jumped up and bit them in the ass.

So what is Doctor Who, you ask? And why does CyberD, the bastion of good taste, speak so highly of it? To the uninitiated, Doctor Who is a British sci-fi series, originally produced and screened by the BBC from 1963 to 1989 with a new series launched in early 2005. It is about a wandering traveler of time and space who stumbles across injustice and wrong doing across the universe, and comes to the rescue of those subjugated by evil.

The longevity of this program and the lengths to which passionate fans have successfully returned the series to a modern format is unprecedented. The reason the show is able to reinvent itself so readily is the due to the main characters unique ability to regenerate his body, thereby recasting the lead actor. This bohemian vagabond is a unique intergalactic hero who defeats a vast cornucopia of villainous enemies with a superior intellect rather than a super firearm.

I am proud to say that Doctor Who has been a viewing staple for me since I was just a young cyber-lad. My avatar and blog are a homage to the series. I've burned up miles of VCR tape recording old episodes for my personal library. I even attended a Doctor Who convention when I was in junior high! Wow, I've never admitted that to anyone!

That actually felt kind of good! I feel so... alive! So full of... splendor! I feel like the first ray of sun as it kisses the cool morning dew with its soft warm radiance!

Please excuse me while I strip off all my clothes and run naked through a field of wheat!

The Doctor Is In!

Several months ago I did an early review of the new "Who" series. Typically I give shows 5 to 6 episodes before giving up on them completely. Sci-Fi/Fantasy programing gets an even longer leash from me. Sometimes as much as two whole seasons. For Doctor Who I might have given the series three whole seasons before giving up. I am happy to say that it is no longer necessary to take the "wait and see" attitude. The new Doctor Who series is freakin' fantastic!

I have to say that it was touch and go there at first. Eccelston really didn't do it for me. I enjoyed the stories... somewhat (although the pacing still felt rushed). I thought Billie Piper had been great as the sidekick and the guest cast had been excellent. Still something about it didn't feel right. It was as if the Doctor was too cool. Almost too hip with his studly leather jacket and rugged good looks. In the past The Doctor was almost always in control of the situation but he at least gave us a thrill ride because the actor playing the part always attacked the role with a genuine seriousness making the jeapordy feel more real. Eccelston played the confident Doctor well. Almost too well. Sure, he would occasionally act the fool or give the camera a wide-eyed gawking stare. But for the most part he strolled through the scenes like the jock quarterback in the school play who was only their because his cheerleader girlfriend insisted he play opposite her in Romeo and Juliet. I was seriously beginning to worry that the direction of popular culture had forever turned The Doctor into Han Solo. Luckily the first Dalek story came along about half-way through season one. It was strong and potentially the best of the first season. The finale was equally enjoyable and also happened to feature the Daleks again.

But stop the freaking presses! David Tennant as the Doctor in season 2 has been outstanding. The pacing of the stories (in my opinion) has improved (or perhaps I am just getting used to the one-hour format. In all honesty, the shinning part of the new season is Tennant. He fits the bill for the Doctor perfectly. He is the right balance of hero and galactic renegade. He has the perfect mix of English gentleman and bizarre alien attributes. And he gives each scene a frenetic twist that sends a message to the audience that the situation may be in hand but it is far from safe! I can't say enough good things about this actors portrayal. The original series will always hold a very dear place in my heart and few of the new episodes will ever outshine the best of the classic series but season 2 is proving to be packed with great stories and Tennant may very well rank as my third favorite Doctor placing just behind Tom Baker and Peter Davidson.

So welcome to a permanent spot on my TiVo, Doctor. I am so very proud of your return!

The New Who

The Sci-Fi channel finally picked up Doctor Who and I have now had the chance to watch the first five episodes of these new adventures. When I first heard about the new series, I was both excited and nervous. Growing up with the original (on my local PBS station), Doctor Who helped define creative and entertaining story-telling during my childhood. For a series that ran for 26 years, it was almost inconceivable that the adventures would come to an end. But television changed and the long-standing format lost its appeal to mainstream audiences.

However, the turn of the millennium has brought with it nostalgia for old serials and Doctor Who is no exception. The new version has an updated look and feel, a more edgy and trendy Doctor, and special effects that can finally measure up the the grandeur of its story-telling ideas. So how does the New Who compare with the old? Could the re-imagined Doctor stand up to the idealized memory of my childhood adventures? Nervously I watched and my verdict is a mixed one. I do like the new look of the series. The casting is great with Eccleston and Piper in the roles of Doctor and companion. And the supporting cast is equally talented playing their parts with as much conviction as any fan could hope to see.

However, there is something missing from the new series. Something that was lost in the new translation. Perhaps it is the shortened hour-long format. The old series could tell an intricate story that often spanned two hours, while the new one only has fifty minutes to weave its tale. But other one hour shows manage to spin an intricate web of storytelling in as little time. In fact, I think the shortened format is probably better for the shows future than the old format.

I do think there is a problem with the pacing. Often times the episodes feel very frenetic . As if the story is impatient to tell itself. It seams like the mythology isn't giving itself enough time to gather any momentum before the problems are resolved. Consequently, the show loses a great deal of the gravity that it should deliver. The jeopardy is often overcome before we have time to understand the very danger itself. This is many times the case because the solution to the problem is a "magic-talisman" quick fix. Take the anti-plastic solution from episode one or the vinegar poison from the shows first two-part adventure.

Additionally, I have yet to see an episode where Rose is taken to another world. I understand that the focus of the series is on strictly earth bound adventures but I do believe you lose a very interesting element when you limit the stories in such a way.

But I'll not condemn the show just yet. It isn't fair to judge an entire series based on its first five episodes. If I did that I would have never given Farscape a chance (one of the best sci-fi productions in the last twenty years). No, I'll continue watching. I am looking forward to the first Dalek story. More to come...