Day of the Doctor

I went to the theater and saw the latest Dr Who episode in 3D . My verdict: more than well worth it.

Steve Moffit is one of my favorite science fiction writers. I say that without making any distinction between media SF and magazine SF, a distinction which I think it proper to discard as irrelevant since around 1990, when GHOST IN THE SHELL appeared on American telly, and we entered the Golden Age of SFF Television.

I am saying that Moffit has written scripts for DR WHO which are stories as good as THE TIME MACHINE by Wells, as good as BY HIS BOOTSTRAPS by Heinlein, as good as DINOSAUR BEACH by Laumer, as good as THE BIG TIME by Lieber, as good as any and every other time travel story or time paradox story you’d care to name. The days when literary SF types could look down their nose at media SF types are dead.

My friend Keith de Candido has praise of this episode (with spoilers) over at Tor.com. http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/11/a-moment-of-heroism-thinky-thoughts-on-doctor-whos-qthe-day-of-the-doctorq

I agree with his compliments and disagree respectfully with his criticisms. I thought the spaceman thing was perfect, and perfectly set up. I thought all the Christmas Specials were fine (except for the wee thing that none of them mention what Christmas is, which I believe has been illegal in England since Cromwell or since the modern version of Cromwell, Political Correctness.)

Happy Birthday, Doctor.