…and with Annalee Newitz as editor in chief. This could be good!

Posted only two days ago, only linking to Hillebrand’s tenforward.social account rather than his blusskey one.

Ouch, weren’t he and Tom Baker just promoting some new Sherlock Holmes audios?

Rest in power, Captain.

I opted for “The Tholian web”, and it opens on Chekov. Maybe he’s not super prominent in it otherwise, but it’s a peak TOS episode.

Edit: Watching it now, he has some good away team scenes, and that great freakout on the bridge when Kirk’s fate is uncertain. Definitely a Koenig showcase!

Yeah, 27 years is a lifetime. Tbh, that movie is all I associate with the title, so I appreciate the info on the series.

Speaking of the nineties and wild west steampunk… anyone else remember Brisco County, Jr.? 😄 That must have come from nostalgia for the the same show?

…you do remember the Will Smith movie they made of Wild wild west in '99, right?

When they do Time tunnel, they really should get Peter Capaldi in for a cameo.

Get McAvoy, Tom Hardy, and Ed Speleer together for The Picard Dynasty. It’ll write itself 😂

I genuinely think X-files and specifically Fox Mulder was a huge factor bringing a lot of that conspiracy mindset into the mainstream. It was already there as an undercurrent, but having a hit show on the air weekly for so many years — that was tinfoil hat normalisation spelled large.

So having people of colour in the leads and as a show runner? Yeah, I think/hope it will get some wingnut viewers’ panties in a knot 😄

I’m very nearly over these non-news about things RTD might have done “if only”…

I always thought it had to be Strange New Worlds

I’ve struggled with SNW, and still do. One realisation made the latest season almost tolerable for me: They’re not doing Star Trek, they’re trying to do Doctor Who.

Say what you will about either show, but there are a lot more silly non sequitur stories in Who than Trek. The whole concept just allows for it, and that’s how it should be. But the same approach doesn’t work for me in Star Trek.

So yeah, Russell. It would have to be SNW because that’s the Trek show that airs “Reality war” level storylines.

The episode never ended, Eccleston was secretly incumbent Doctor all these years. Good job, Jagrafess!

I’m actually low key excited for this, and I’m not the biggest fan of the Big Finish audios. But any Susan material after last season’s letdown is welcome!

Also, I find it amusing that Eccleston stars in a semiofficial holiday offering after the sacking of Russell T Davies, Jane Tranter, Phil Collinson, and Julie Gardner ✊😅

Oh! Oh! It gets better!

[After failing at running comic shops as well,] Wilhite started attending Lamb of God Lutheran Church in Humble in 1989 and wrote a Christian memoir looking back over his involvement in comics and gaming. In it, he warns readers about the dangers of occult activities like playing Dungeons & Dragons or watching horror movies.

Apparently all his failures were not due to his own shortcomings, but signs from god to stay away from all of that occult scifi stuff or whatever.

There’s also a bit of info in this Houston Press article from 2014:

In 1982 there was supposed to be a con to end all cons here in Houston. And there was, but not in a good way. It was billed as the Ultimate Fantasy, a product paired with the respected name of Houstoncon, which had been providing a quality and successful con experience in the city since 1967.

Thereafter it would be known as the Con of Wrath, or the Ultimate Fiasco, and its failure is the stuff of geek song and legend.

[…]

Ultimate Fantasy was ambitious even by today’s standards. It was to be a huge stage show hosted in the Summit and featuring a rotating stage and a laser light display. The guests would be most of the stars of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, who would re-enact parts of the film. Nothing like it had ever been done before, and Wilhite was convinced he could pull it off.

So convinced, actually, that he got several investors to mortgage their houses. Billboards went up all over the city. Ads appeared in TV Guide and Starlog. Wilhite believed that Ultimate Fantasy and the associated Houstoncon at the Shamrock Hotel would draw 10,000 people, including Trekkies, from as far away as Japan and Europe.

Organizers needed 5,000 people just to break even. Two months before the event, barely 400 presale tickets had been sold.

[…]

When the stars of the convention appeared, they found out that their hotel rooms hadn’t been paid for. They were forced to pay out of their own pockets.

As the con progressed, it became apparent that the thousands of attendees needed would not appear. Vendors and venue realized that they were not going to be paid. Shamrock management contacted all the dealers in the hotel and told them that unless the remaining balance was collected by that evening, they would all be thrown out. They passed the hat to keep the doors open and hoped to sell enough to recoup their losses.

And Jerry Wilhite had disappeared. No one could find him. Or any of the money that was supposed to materialize. With him he took Houston’s reputation as a place for comics and science fiction pop-culture acceptance and celebration. Word went out from guests and dealers alike to avoid the city. The people in Houston didn’t know what they were doing.

[Edited to add source link]

Does it, though? In “Heaven sent” Rassilon isn’t even sure how many regenerations they’d given the Doctor.

The timeless child might have indefinite regenerations, but if they were chameleon arched into a Timelord, that would be down to a genetic level, so regeneration cycles still count. In “Human nature”/“Family of Blood” John Smith is human through and through.

True. And can she transform all of that to an arresting comics story? We don’t know.

Yeah, and that infrastructure is required in the invitation to tender, right? On the plus side, that could mean he might focus on the writing and have an existing entity do all the business stuff. I dunno.

That was explained during Moffat’s run, though. Specifically Matt Smiths last episode.

I can’t help but wonder if J. Michael Straczynski has thrown his hat in the ring

AFAIK he did, to the extent that he as an individual can: he posted on social media that he was interested. [Edit: here’s a source]

If he is (or has since become) associated with a UK production company eligible for the tender, I haven’t heard about it. But then, we wouldn’t know unless somebody at that company or at the BBC let it slip.