2010 Reading XXXV-XXXVI
XXXV: Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood, About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who 1975-1979 Seasons 12 to 17
Read as part of the research for the 1970s book, and read inexplicably before volume three (which I have). Exhaustive and exhausting serial by serial analysis of the Tom Baker years up to the start of John Nathan-Turner's regime as producer. I probably ought to read the next volume for 1980, but I'm not sure how useful it is. Some of the speculation which attempts to resolve continuity issues is interesting - but part of me screams it just doesn't fit. There are occasional jokes, which tend to misfire, and late on, one page turns out to be a reprint of an earlier page. The two oddest things are the sense that the authors don't like Doctor Who very much - but then they've watched it more recently than I have - and the lack of an index. I wasn't taking notes, so I'll need to flick through in search of the stuff I will need.
XXXVI: David Gerrold, When Harlie Was One
Protocyberpunk novel, and a descendent of Colossus. HARLIE is a supercomputer who is being looked after and nurtured as it developed by a psychologist, David Auberson, and who faces being closed down by its owners for fear it won't make them any money. Auberson asks HARLIE to justify its own existence, and the solution that it comes up with staggers everyone. HARLIE is not Colossus, but is a spoilt child, and could well be some threat to humanity. The problem with the novel is that it is mostly a dialogue (in capitals) and at times it is impossible to immediately tell the two voices apart. As seems all too familiar, half the time they seem to be talking about what love means (which I seem to recall from Colossus); ok, but not as good as The Man Who Folded himself (and interesting for allowing his protagonist to display minor homophobia).
Read as part of the research for the 1970s book, and read inexplicably before volume three (which I have). Exhaustive and exhausting serial by serial analysis of the Tom Baker years up to the start of John Nathan-Turner's regime as producer. I probably ought to read the next volume for 1980, but I'm not sure how useful it is. Some of the speculation which attempts to resolve continuity issues is interesting - but part of me screams it just doesn't fit. There are occasional jokes, which tend to misfire, and late on, one page turns out to be a reprint of an earlier page. The two oddest things are the sense that the authors don't like Doctor Who very much - but then they've watched it more recently than I have - and the lack of an index. I wasn't taking notes, so I'll need to flick through in search of the stuff I will need.
XXXVI: David Gerrold, When Harlie Was One
Protocyberpunk novel, and a descendent of Colossus. HARLIE is a supercomputer who is being looked after and nurtured as it developed by a psychologist, David Auberson, and who faces being closed down by its owners for fear it won't make them any money. Auberson asks HARLIE to justify its own existence, and the solution that it comes up with staggers everyone. HARLIE is not Colossus, but is a spoilt child, and could well be some threat to humanity. The problem with the novel is that it is mostly a dialogue (in capitals) and at times it is impossible to immediately tell the two voices apart. As seems all too familiar, half the time they seem to be talking about what love means (which I seem to recall from Colossus); ok, but not as good as The Man Who Folded himself (and interesting for allowing his protagonist to display minor homophobia).