Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) 2014 Hugos
This category was basically set up as the Buffy category and has become the Doctor Who category, though it should be noted that DW has only ("only") won it six times in the last eight years, losing to Dr Horrible in 2009 and to the Blackwater episode of Game of Thrones last year. This year there are two real Who episodes, two non-sf dramas about Doctor Who, and two other episodes of other shows for our consideration. I reckon it's the Red Wedding v the 50th anniversary, but my own vote is slightly different...
7) No Award. None of these was awful.
6) Orphan Black: Variations under Domestication. I haven't watched any of the rest of this series, but if this episode is representative I'll get around to it some time - the show is about a group of clones who have only just discovered that they all exist, and the major plot of this episode is a screwball comedy (I suspect untypical for the how) where one of them is convinced that her husband is spying on her and ties him up in the basement, forgetting that the entire neighbourhood of their Canadian town is coming round for a pot-luck party; identity confusion between her and one of the other clones, combined with some brief but nasty violence, rounds out that plot strand, while meantime another clone sister is being seduced by a sexy biologist in Minnesota. I didn't understand all of it but it was enjoyable enough. The scenes where Tatiana Maslany is simultaneously playing two different clones, one of whom is pretending to be the other, are particularly pleasing.
5) Doctor Who: The Name of the Doctor. Don't get me wrong - I actually really loved this, particularly the insertion of Clara into the archive footage, and the various crossings between different realities and timestreams, and the setup for what was to come. But it's rather blown into the shade by the other entries - I don't think I even nominated it.
4) Game of Thrones: The Rains of Castamere. I saw a comment on Twitter after this was broadcast to the effect that "somewhere out there is a couple who are hastily rethinking their plans for a Game of Thrones themed wedding", a sentiment which is of course reinforced in this year's season. Of course those of us who had read the books knew it was coming, but this is a rare case of the televised version being an improvement on the original.
3) An Adventure in Space and Time. A lovely portrait of how Doctor Who came to be, with David Bradley, the bad guy in The Rains of Castamere, ending up as a heroic William Hartnell, setting the scene for the next fifty years. In a previous year I might have marked this down for not being sfnal enough, but not this year for reasons which will become clear.
2) Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor. This was an incredible event; I drove to Germany to see it in the cinema with my family to watch it in 3D in the cinema, and it was tremendous - the return of Tennant, the interaction between Smith, Tennant and Hurt, Zygons, Billie Piper and all. Glorious.
1) But I must vote for The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot for the top spot, because I am actually briefly if shadily visible in it myself around 8:04, the camera then panning to get a good view of my son before dissolving to Paul McGann. This may be the only opportunity I ever get to vote myself into a Hugo winner, and no way am I missing it. I'm sure that The Day of the Doctor will actually win, but for the first and possibly only time in my life, I am casting my Hugo vote for myself.
(For reference: my note from 24 November about the Whoniversary weekend.)
You can vote in this year's Hugos, and the 1939 Retro Hugos, by joining Loncon 3 at http://www.loncon3.org/memberships .
2014: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Related Work | Best Graphic Story | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist | Best Fan Artist
1939: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist