Lost

On May 5, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Doctor Who, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction, Television, Time Travel, TV3 Comments

“I know what I said. I was the one who said it.” ~ Clara Oswald, Companion of the 11th Doctor

This week on Fish and TARDIS Sauce The Parker Institute of Time Travel Studies (The PITTS) brings you yet another blog post peppered with slightly (read: highly) unorthodox quotes from another brilliant episode of Doctor Who.

Keep in mind that in order to watch this show — or read my blog — you don’t have to know jack-shit about either one. You don’t even have to know — like I didn’t — that the plural of deus ex machina is dei ex machina or that — like Bug Bunny knows — Carson City is the capital of Nevada. None of that is a required reading. But Doctor Who should be required viewing. And the episode in question, “Journey to the Center of the TARDIS” (s07e10), gives us enough one-liners, head-scratchers, and zingers to make us hungry for more.

Clara: “It’s an appliance. It does a job.”
The Doctor: “It’s a pretty cool appliance. We’re not talking cheese grater here.”
Clara: “You’re not getting me to talk to your ship. That’s properly bonkers.”

When Clara gets lost inside the TARDIS following an accident, she quickly discovers one of the best story lines in all of science fiction: Finding your way out of one big-ass maze that has decided that it (the intelligent big-ass maze) isn’t terribly fond of you.

The Doctor: “Ever see a ship get ugly?”

So, like the sprawling metropolis of London or the freeway system of Atlanta at rush hour, Clara finds herself in the seemingly impossible situation of getting out of a seemingly endless situation inside a seemingly endless setting, all within the span of one hour of telly (seemingly to include commercials).

Note to aspiring writers: Don’t use adverbs too much.
Or, as The Doctor put it: “Don’t get into a ship with a madman. Didn’t anyone teach you that?”

The episode drips with teases, like Clara looking in the OED-sized History of the Time War, flipping to a random page, and murmuring, “So that’s who,” when she learns The Doctor’s real name. Or the tease about the relationship (past, present, and future) between The Doctor and Clara, and why she is who she is.

“It’s spinning a labyrinth?” the Doctor says to the under-developed junk-dealing characters. That’s what this episode does. It spins a labyrinth, and dares us to follow the string back out again, especially given the creepy, distorted hallways and ghoul-like monstrosities wandering the “lower decks” of our favorite time machine.

Clara: “Why have you got zombie-creatures? Good guys do not have zombie-creatures. Rule one, basic storytelling!”
The Doctor: “Not in front of the guests.”

And yet, the Doctor knows he has to keep secrets. Without secrets, he can’t keep his loved-ones safe.

Clara: “What aren’t you telling me?”
The Doctor: “Trust me. There are some things you don’t want to know.”

The TARDIS can be both magnificent and malevolent, sublime and ridiculous, jovial and jealous. With its Star Trek-like corridors and horror movie memes and under-developed side story, there’s plenty of room to criticize the episode, but a couple of lines of dialog really make us sit up and think about why we’re watching and why the BBC is writing and producing this masterpiece.

The Doctor to Tricky, the man who was tricked into believing he was artificial: “They changed your identify to provide some inflight entertainment.”

The essence of this episode, the essence of Doctor Who — and if you’ll forgive the conceit — the essence of all speculative fiction is summed up in The Doctor’s fierce reprimand of the brother who tricked Tricky, as it were:

Doctor [to Tricky]: “Listen to me. Ask yourself why he couldn’t cut you up. He had just one tiny scrap of decency left in him, and you helped him find that.”
Doctor to Gregor: “Now, you. Don’t ever forget this.”

Yep. For me, that is why we have genre; it reminds us that we have tiny bits of decency within us. That’s why we have science fiction, fantasy, humor, horror, romance, mystery, and their red-headed stepchild known as time travel. Or maybe I’m just full of it. Could be. Like Clara said when looking at the vast cathedral the TARDIS whipped up out of midair: “Now that’s just showing off.”

Maybe I’m showing off. Or maybe I’m just lost in a maze, too. In a way I hope that’s true.

Years truly,

Keith

P.S. To all my new blog followers, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to read and comment. I hope you’re enjoying this little sliver of cyberspace as much as I’m enjoying weaving it. Your support is appreciated more than you know!

Soul

On April 30, 2013May 1, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Television, Time Travel, TV5 Comments

Okay, so I finally watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special from 2011 titled “The Doctor, Widow and the Wardrobe,” and reminded myself that I need to remind myself that I need to ask the question that famous SF author Connie Willis is constantly reminding herself to ask: “Do apes have souls?”

In this case, of course, the question would be better re-worded to ask whether trees have souls, and I’ll remind myself to do that at the end of this post. But the sentiment is the same, isn’t it?

Reminder: Be sure to ask this question in multiple venues, including the office, church, and the next cocktail party I go to.
Reminder: Note the reactions. The last time you did this people rolled their eyes and mumbled excuses to wander away.

But do they? Do trees have souls? Individually? Collectively? Are they … Borg? Speaking of Borg, did you know that in one of the 1960s’ Doctor Who episodes the Daleks told The Doctor “resistance was useless”? Coincidence? Doubtful. Germane to this blog? Not in the least.

It’s a touching episode — “The Doctor, Widow, and the Wardrobe” — and even though I’m not a fan of C.S. Lewis, I found the homage delightful. It’s certainly heart-warming, with a great time-travel paradox to wrap things up in a Christmastime bow. Those always give me that “ooh ah” sense of wonder I love so much.

But I really did start waxing idiotic about the soul again. It’s an ages-old question that won’t be solved here, but the question still lingers like the downed tree in the forest that nobody heard fall except Walt Whitman.

The answer is another question: Do we really know? The atheist says he knows, and the theist says that he knows, while the Buddhist simply says to the hot dog vender: make me one with everything.

But if we have souls, then are our souls unique? Or, are we part of a greater collective soul? A collective consciousness, one German called it. And is that the destiny of all living things? Is that part of evolution? Amy Pond is certainly part of evolution. She’s pictured to the right, even though she — like The Borg — has nothing to do with this post. Now that my obligatory lecherousness is out of the way, I can pose a few more questions, bullet-style:

Ever wonder about entities that might become alive?
- Like a virus, or the Internet.
Can there be a collective RNA?
Will a sentient Internet have a collective consciousness?
What if the plants and the trees and the birds and the bees are all part of our consciousness?
Whither the lions and tigers and bears?

And then, … and then, … and then you have to ask, does the universe itself have a consciousness? Here are some more bullets for your consideration:

Is the universe alive?
Is the universe’s life force the same as what we call God?
Did Luke use The Force?
Why did my team just run 3 draw-plays in a row?
What about parallel universes? Do they get souls, too?

It’s an interesting question isn’t it? There are roughly 10⁸² particles in the universe. What if they all compose a single mind? Are they (it?) the source of morality, of genius … of art? And what do we do about that one rebel (there’s always one) among us who asks, what about particle number 10⁸²+ 1?

Is that lonely electron on its own?

One is, as the song says, the loneliest number.

That’s all for now. Just some simple questions to ponder over a mug of beer (or six). Oh, and remind me to talk about Doctor Who next time I post. That really is what this blog is all about. Well, that, and hot dogs.

Years truly,

Keith

Clutter

On April 25, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Television, TV4 Comments

“All the world’s a stage” ~ As You Like It, Act II Scene VII, by William Shakespeare, used without his permission.

It’s been a stressful couple of months for a number of reasons (long hours, stomach flu, etc.), and during this time I’ve noticed that my mind keeps circling back to the famous Doctor Who story arc in “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances.”

Are you my mummy?

As I daydream these two episodes get mingled with a conversation I had with a friend over the holidays. It was one of those “tough love” kind of conversations (I was on the receiving end), which sought to knock some sense into me about the stresses in my life compared to those of others. There is no doubt that my friend was right: Others have it far, far worse than I. We throw away enough food here in America to feed entire continents. We have electricity, heat, air conditioning, and we even still have Twinkies. And I am grateful. I’m grateful to everyone, from farmers to HVAC mechanics, who help make us a first-world country. So, no, I’m not living in desolation. But even those who’re the same demographic as I am have their own burdens of stress, grief, disease, and turmoil on a daily basis. Knowing this, however, does not comfort me. Knowing that everyone else is going through hell just makes me wonder if I’m the victim of a gargantuan prank. I’m not — I’m not that jaded — but it does make me wonder.

Which brings us back to

Are you my mummy?

this two-part Doctor Who episode. It’s a compelling, kitchen-sink mix of science fiction, history, humor, and horror. We get to see a new character: The swashbuckling and handsome Jack Harkness. We get to see Rose out of character: Freewheeling and whimsical in a delightful way that brings balance to the plot. And we get to hear The Doctor’s name again: Not his real one, of course, but the time-worn (as it were) John Smith pseudonym once again. And the story, like life, is a mountainous journey, with high peaks and shadowed valleys meant to

Are you my mmmmmmm-ummmmmmy?

scare the bejesus out of us. But my goal is not to rehash the plot. My goal is to say that the episode is CLUTTER! In a good way :)

Like our lives, it is overwhelming — a city being bombed to rubble, a nano-virus on the loose, paranoia of not becoming “like them.” Steven Moffat and his crew at the BBC took this confusion and turned it into a classic piece of entertainment. For those of us who’ve never fought in a war or been helpless victims as bombs erupted in the sky we cannot possibly imagine the

Are you my mummy?

terrors of battle. From the explosions that will blow your eardrums out, to the sights of rubble and carnage and blood, to the smells of death — the latter being the one thing that TV will never, I hope, provide us — the episode imagines destruction on a planetary scale and fright on a human scale. But it’s all fiction. It’s all smoke and mirrors. It’s … all … a … play. So, yes, for most people understanding that you’re not alone in your struggle helps to deal with an unpredictable world. But that doesn’t help me. What does help is story-telling, in all its forms. Those media (books, film, TV) provide a sanctuary for my personal stress. And they allow me to take a step back and project my life onto a stage, while I take my seat in the audience. It helps me to know that Shakespeare was right: The world really is a stage. It keeps me from going crazier’n a shithouse rat. And that’s the “therapy” I need. I don’t need tough love. I need fantasy.

And you know what else helps, friends and neighbors? Sneaking up on people and whispering, “Are you my mummy?” in a creepy British accent.

Years truly,

Keith

Don’t Blink

On April 16, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Television, Time Travel4 Comments

I was chatting with a friend a few days ago, and he allowed that he’d never seen Doctor Who before, despite being a lifelong science fiction fan. His thoughts were eerily similar to my own as recently as 2011, when the show not only did not interest me, but actually intimidated me.

The advice I passed along to him was the advice I wish I’d gotten a long time ago: The first time you watch a Doctor Who episode odds are good that you’ll say, “Ewwww,” and seriously wonder about the mental state of all us fans. “How could something this campy be so popular?” “How could a series this cheesey have survived since 1963?”

Then, maybe assuming you caught a dud of an episode, you watch two or three more; and you think to yourself, “Well, there are worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon, but this isn’t exactly The Sopranos.”

And then, … and then, … and then you catch one of those episodes, one that causes a lump to catch in your throat, makes you want to jump into the TV and help the characters; one that brings a tear to your eye.

And that’s when it hooks you. That’s when it grabs you. That’s when the series’ power ignites like a Saturn V, taking you to heights of awe and mystery that you thought you’d left back in your childhood.

And pretty soon you’ll be saying to yourself, “The smell of dust after rain. The smell of dust after rain. The smell of dust after rain.”

Or maybe you’ll simply tell yourself, “Don’t blink.”

You don’t want to look away. We all need fantasy, especially now. That’s one the things that makes us human.

Years truly,
Keith

Fish and TARDIS Sauce

On April 13, 2013April 14, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Creative Writing, Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, Harry Potter, Science Fiction, Short Story, Television, Time Travel6 Comments

Fish and TARDIS sauce! Oh, man, I kill me. It’s a good thing I came ready-made with a martini-dry sense of humor; otherwise I’d never be able to entertain myself!

But the TARDIS part of (my really bad) joke is the main reason for this brief blog post. One of the things that originally attracted me to Doctor Who — besides Companions like Romana, Rose, Martha, and Amy — was the ages-old concept of the building that’s bigger on the inside than the outside. Or, as one astute observer put it: “It’s smaller on the outside.”

Over the years I’ve noticed that a lot of writers and would-be writers will home-in on a particular trope or meme, and hyper-focus on it without realizing its history. I think this is true of the hyper-dimensional room. Like Alice’s looking-glass, glass slippers, and time-slips, it’s one of those devices that have persisted throughout fantasy. So if you want to use something like The Doctor’s TARDIS in one of your own stories or screenplays, I think it’s really important to do some research on the subject. In fact, doing research is one of the reasons I love being a writer.

A quick trip around the Internet gives you a sense of what I’m talking about with when we ponder rooms that have extra dimensions. And a quick visualization might help you realize just how WEIRD this concept really is. Think about it: You go get in your car tomorrow pick up some pizza and beer. You open the door, drop your car keys, and when you pick them up off the floorboard you look around and realize you’re inside UPS Delivery Truck, with enough space to play a game of football and have a few fans cheering you on from the sideline. That’s how freaky that experience would be.

So, if you want to include extra-dimensions in your writing, be sure to understand that — like everything else in fiction — it’s been done before:

The Hut of Baba Yaga (yes, this was in Dungeons & Dragons, but that’s not where it originated)
Tents larger on the inside (yes, Rowling evoked this in Harry Potter, but so did The Beatles in one of their movies, and the concept dates back to at least to 1001 Arabian Nights)
The wardrobe from C.S. Lewis’ Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe
The “endless forest” of Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood
The short story “And He Built a Crooked House” by Robert A. Heinlein
The human brain
A Bag of Holding (which really is from Dungeons & Dragons)
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
“Waterfall” by M.C. Escher
And the almost unbearably disturbing painting Corpus Hypercubus by Salvador Dali

That’s just one small sampling. But what a cool sampling it is. Now, that takes care of the TARDIS part of the title, but what the hell does this have to do with fish? Nothing, unless I’m paying tribute to Douglas Adams, the incomparable science fiction humorist.

May he rest in peas. I think the dolphins would’ve said that, too :-)

Keith

Credit to these websites for invaluable information:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BiggerOnTheInside

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesseract

Praying TARDIS

On April 7, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Clocks, Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Television, Victorian England3 Comments

It’s hard to believe it’s been two months since my last post. In that time, I’ve gone through one of those slumps that affects most writers and artists, with the result being my not writing. A really good reason for this not writing has been this weird lack of focus on any one thing that I could, well, focus on. And since the only consistency here has been inconsistency, I’ve decided to do a minor reboot of my blog again, honing it to that one other cultural phenom that also has no focus, namely the incomparable Doctor Who.

Now, by saying Doctor Who has no focus I run the risk of pissing off approximately 619,253,517 Doctor Who fans, and alienating my 3 followers. But really and truly, the show does cover so much territory — from black-and-white episodes about Aztecs to post-post-modern allegories about the meaning of mercy — that I feel I’m on pretty safe ground by saying a show that is about everything is a good foundation to continue my blog, which is about nothing at all.

Sometimes we work hard to achieve nothing.

So, really, other than to tell you that I am back, and stuck in neutral on Season 4 of the new DW, waiting for the season premiere of Mad Men, and waiting for my wife to catch up with me on Downton Abbey, and fending off the scourge of pollen that besets the wicked and righteous alike here in the Deep South, I am hoping, nah, praying that ye olde TARDIS can be the salvation of my rather disjointed blogging.

If not, then my next step will be to base it off Baba Yaga’s Dancing Hut; and if I go down that road I might as well just move back into my mother’s basement, which would be quite the challenge since 1) she’s no longer with us and, 2) doesn’t have a basement.

I’ll continue to sprinkle my blog with writing advice (don’t use exclamation points, at all, ever), but I’m going to quit pimping my fiction because I don’t want to be a salesman, regardless of the publishing climate these days. I want to be a writer, and this is my platform, which is based on a copyrighted TV show older than I am, and a brain that is slowly withering on the vine.

As soon as I think of something sublime and ridiculous to say, though, I’ll sign off for now.

Seizures later,

Keith

P.S. The blog is now the blue of a British police box, in case you’re curious, which I doubt you are.

The Time Traveler’s Life (Part II)

On February 7, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Clocks, Creative Writing, Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, movies, Science Fiction, Television, Time TravelLeave a comment

The second part of this series on writing time travel fiction is precautionary. Hopefully it will help you avoid stuff that’s just weird. A good example of weirdness is not Lea Thompson playing Lorraine Baines. No, a good example of weirdness is that family photograph that Marty carried around in Back to the Future. People loved that movie, so much so that it’s become a trope (very Back-to-the-Future), and its quotes have entered daily dialogue (“You’re my density!” and “1.61 gigawatts of electricity,” and “Great Scott!”). But as much as people loved the movie they hated that damn photograph, and the way Marty’s family faded in and out depending how he was messing up the timeline.

With that in mind, here are a few other cliches you’ll want to avoid if you’re writing about time travel:

If the hero’s past and future selves encounter each other it’ll destroy the universe. This one is just plain stupid. And who’s to decide what’s stupid and what’s not? I am. It’s my blog.
The Butterfly Effect. This one is just too worn-out or, as Doctor Who put it, “Just don’t step on butterflies, then.”
Overuse of Daylight Savings Time, the International Date Line, and clocks that run backward, and any other type of artificial construct.
Avoid having the hero travel back in time to give the time machine to himself. This is actually my favorite paradox, but it doesn’t make for a good story. You know what does make for a good story? Characters.

Avoid the mysterious stranger who is revealed to be the hero’s past or future self. Readers will spot this one immediately. It’s much better to start with this as a premise and see how it goes from there, e.g., John the Younger has just discovered that spooky ol’ John the Older, who lives right next door, is actually his future self. Have the story, novel, screenplay, etc, start there.
Going back in time 65 million years to be chased by a dinosaur. If you want to get chased by a T-Rex just fly down to Isla Nublar. It’s much closer.
Repeating the same eras as destinations: I touched on this in Part I of this blog entry. There are certain time periods that have captured our imagination. Among them are prehistoric times, the Middle Ages, the American Civil War, the Wild West, World War II, the (not-so) good ol’ days of the 50s, and the Kennedy Assassination. But if you just quickly browse any good bookstore you’ll realize that history is much more than this. In fact, it’s been around for a long time.
Having the main character change sex as a result of time travel. Robert Heinlein did this in “All You Zombies.” It worked for him, but chances are you’re not going to ooh-aah anybody with that zinger these days.
Don’t make the future a dystopia. A nuclear ash-heap of post-apocalyptic, angst-ridden, one-armed assholes carrying assault rifles fighting off hords of zombies and a virtual reality “Big Brother” is … tiring as hell. I just made all that up, by the way. So, if I can make up a cliche in thirty seconds there’s a damn good chance it’s overused.

This is just a snapshot of the cliches. And also remember that if you’ve seen it once in a movie (e.g., Groundhog Day) it’s been done dozens of times in fiction.

A word of encouragement before I sign off … If you want your character to travel back to the Kennedy assassination it’s perfectly fine to do so. But what you need to do is find a fresh angle. I’ll give you an example as a sort of writing prompt: Instead of writing about the events in Dealey Plaza why not write about the interrogation of Lee Harvey Oswald by the Dallas Police and the FBI? Make your time traveler one of the FBI agents. He could’ve “just flown in” from Washington. And not only does he have to deal with the stress of the situation he also has to deal with a culture that is hostile to Federal agents. Food for thought. Or, as they say in the UK, food for thought.

Pax,

Keith

The Time Traveler’s Life (Part I)

On February 4, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Clocks, Creative Writing, Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Humor, mad scientist, movies, Science Fiction, scientist, Steampunk, Television, Time Travel, TV2 Comments

It seemed apropos that, on Groundhog Day, I’d post a picture of the first actress I had a crush on … oh, wait! What I mean to say is that I’d be asked to post an article on G+ about the challenges of writing time travel fiction. If you want to delve into this weird but amazingly fun genre (where you may indeed have a protagonist who looks like Lea Thompson) you need to know what you’re up against. What I’ve tried to do below is compile a list of issues the time travel writer needs to be aware of.

As with everything else in fiction, of course, the way to attract readers is through character. But this article doesn’t address character development; there are ample resources for that. Right now, we’ll stick to time-travel obstacles.

• Paradox Lost – You’ve got to come to grips with the notion of paradox. That means wrapping your mind around two conflicting ideas. My favorite time travel paradox, for example, is the one where the time traveler goes back in time and gives the blueprints for the time machine to his younger self. Thinking about cause and effect here requires some serious mental gymnastics, not to mention a tall glass of scotch. However, you really should avoid using this particular paradox in your story; it’s an overused cliche.

• Who’s Out to Get Your Hero? – You need to realize the villain of your story may well turn out to be the hero’s younger or older self.

• Timeline – Stephen King wrote a phenomenal time travel novel in 11/22/63. In order to do that yourself, you’re going to have to map out the timeline chronologically (ahem). So if you had a present-day time traveler going back to witness the events in Dealey Plaza, you’d need a timeline from 1963 till now. Otherwise things are going to be a tangled mess. Index cards work well for storyboarding such a plot, with each card representing a major aspect of the plot.

• Travel Agent Required – How does the hero travel? Via H.G. Wells steampunk machine? A spaceship? Gateway? Phone booth? Sports car? Magic? You need to decide. And once you decide you need to stick with it. Time travel is part of your setting. You wouldn’t have a creek flow uphill, so why would you have a time machine that worked inconsistently?

• The Left Behind – When your hero travels he’ll abandon friends and loved-ones. How does he feel about that? That’s nontrivial and potentially traumatic.

• Culture Shock – When Doctor Who’s Martha Jones (a woman of African descent) arrives in Shakespearean London she’s worried about getting sold into slavery. Think about that. Takes some of the romance out of the “good ol’ days,” doesn’t it?

• Cause and Effect – If the hero buys a ton of Apple Computer stock in 1999 will he really get rich? Or does his stock purchase affect Apple’s success?

• Think Out of the Box – Suppose the time machine is a simple door. What happens if the hero steps through using his cell phone? Does he still have coverage? That’s not as weird as it sounds. If he can see through the door (visible light) then cell phone signals (radio waves) can travel through it, too.

• Grandfather Paradox – Is the hero going to do something that keeps himself from being born? Suppose it involves murder. How does the hero cope with that? Murder is murder, in 2013 BC and 2013 CE.

• History Mystery – The hero wants to witness the Kennedy assassination. Great subject, but you better damn well know your subject. As the writer, can you tell us who the Babushka Lady was? Or what was on Dallas TV right before the news broke? Which motorcycle cop had his two-way radio on? What was the weather like? What’s the distance from the Book Depository to Kennedy’s car? What did the “Treason” leaflets say? What did the Manhattan businessman say about JFK’s killer?

• Action or Reaction – How does the hero react to witnessing a really brutal murder? The President, after all, had his brains blown out, literally. If you’ve ever seen the Zapruder film you know it was a grisly, ugly, and sickening sight. Now imagine being there, with the sights, the screams, the smells …

Time travel is not for the feint of heart.

In the next installment of “The Time Traveler’s Life” I’ll explore some of the pitfalls you need to avoid. And in a later chapter, I’ll recommend some books and movies. Stay tuned, same Chiroptera time, same Chiroptera channel!

Pax vobiscum,

Keith

Doctor Who What When?

On January 16, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Christmas, Christmas Eve, Clocks, Doctor Who, Emotion, Fiction, Science Fiction, Television, Time Travel, TV, Victorian England2 Comments

“Question is: What do you make of me?” ~ The Doctor

I love Christmas Eve, so when the DVD of the BBC’s Doctor Who Christmas Special “The Next Doctor” (s04e14) arrived in the mail I was eager to dive right in. I was not disappointed. Since there are scads of reviews of Doctor Who episodes all over the Internet, what I wanted to do instead was give you an impression of one small slice of this episode.

After our Doctor (David Tennant) arrives via TARDIS on Christmas Eve, 1851, the history geek in me was thoroughly content to sit back and enjoy.

As Act One unfolds we’re given one of those treats time travel fiction does so well: Evoking that sense of wonder that much of science fiction has lost since those heady days of Astounding and Amazing Stories. In the opening scenes of “The Next Doctor” our Doctor meets a future incarnation of himself, a version of himself suffering from amnesia.

And that notion is one of the most compelling aspects of time travel: Meeting a past or future version of yourself (without the amnesia part; that’d sorta suck). In that first act, “Amnesia Doctor” is investigating the house where the character Jackson Lake was murdered by the show’s infamous villains and “Amnesia Doctor” gets into a rather lengthy conversation about the crime with our Doctor. After revealing more about the situation than he probably should, “Amnesia Doctor” pauses with confusion, and then says he trusts our Doctor completely and implicitly, telling him things he wouldn’t tell any ordinary stranger.

I actually paused the DVD at this point, finding that whole concept fascinating. I began to wonder whether I would trust myself with vital, personal secrets. If I went back in time — to 1983 or 1993 or 2003 — could I trust the man I was then with the knowledge that I have now? Or if I were to travel into the future with the help of an old English police box could I face my older, wiser self and explain why I’m doing “this” but not “that,” why I bought instead of saved, why I chose “Thing 1” over “Thing 2”?

This is what makes science fiction and fantasy — those twins of speculation separated at birth — such a compelling genre of literature. Allegories abound, sometimes banal, sometimes sublime, but always thought-provoking.

And we need to think and reflect and ponder and wonder, or at least I do. Time can be a merciless monster as well as a beneficent angel. But my genre — when it’s at its best — focuses on the latter. It chooses optimism over bitterness, hope instead of despair, and a reminder that tomorrow can be a better day if we’ll just make the choice to let it.

So, in conclusion, I’ll offer another brief quote from the show, and then go off searching for my own time machine. Where is the damn thing? I swear that beast has legs.

Jackson Lake — “That offer of Christmas dinner is no longer a request. It’s a demand.”
The Doctor — “In honor if those we’ve lost.”

As always,
Peace, from Keith

Don’t Be a Dumpster Fire

On January 13, 2013January 13, 2013 By Keith ParkerIn Anxiety, Clocks, Creative Writing, Doctor Who, Fantasy, Fiction, Harry Potter, Horror, Humor, Romance, Science Fiction, Television12 Comments

You don’t write to get rich. You write because writing is a fundamental part of who you are. Your odds of becoming Stephen King or Sue Grafton are longer than your odds of winning a multi-state lottery.

The basic idea behind any form of art is to express emotions. You’ll notice I write a lot about time travel, science fiction, horror, and love. I write about love and romance because I have a sentimental streak. I write about horror because of panic attacks, and people are drawn to things that scare them (counterintuitive, but true). I write about science fiction because I grew up watching the original Star Trek, and it’s like comfort food for me. And I love time travel for some reason I can’t really explain. Maybe I have a lot of regrets and want to right some wrongs. Who the hell knows? Or maybe I’d just like swap one-liners with Groucho Marx. “After two days in the hospital I took a turn for the nurse.”

I also dish out writing advice. You know where I get that wisdom? Failure … sometimes epic. Or, as we say on Twitter, #dumpsterfire fiction. If you try to imitate bestsellers, your novel is going to be a disaster, a dumpster fire in kids’ lingo today. And you’ll feel like one, too, after spending all that time and effort to produce something no one wants to read. Believe me, I’ve been there.

Caveat: This does not mean you set your sights low. No. Aim to be the very best writer you can be. Every sentence you write should be exactly what you want to read. Anything less and you’re being dishonest.

But if you’re trying to become Dan Brown or Suzanne Collins, forget it. We already have a Brown and a Collins and a King and a Grafton. Mimicking them is not going make you rich and famous.

If you want to get rich you need to be flipping houses and bootlegging whiskey.

Writers are artists, and we get paid the same. Would you like fries with that?

Peace, from Keith

KeithParker.org

Category: Television

Lost

Soul

Clutter

Don’t Blink

Fish and TARDIS Sauce

Praying TARDIS

The Time Traveler’s Life (Part II)

The Time Traveler’s Life (Part I)

Doctor Who What When?

Don’t Be a Dumpster Fire

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