Status Updates From About Time: The Unauthorize...

Almost done, but I need to take a break. This section brings up that the pivot into the 3rd Doctors era was timed perfectly with the frontier of space being way more out of fashion. This was partially motivated by the fact that the actual, documented shots to the moon were working, providing far more interesting "reality television." The unknown was known... to some degree, and far less interesting.

A section here talks about what defines "camp" in media, and it's not a strict 1:1 with "queerness/gayness" and I found that really interesting. Some terms from my film classes keep coming up in scary ways, however, it's keeping me on my toes. I'm probably gonna be done with this in another day or two and I'm excited! Might take a bit of a break from reading into Vol. 3 but we'll see.

There's a lot of text in this section, focusing on how significant plot can be to the narrative, as it's not like people at the time were watching because of it's historical significance, that's merely applied to the show when looking backwards. Also it's really interesting to note how much production issues the show was having at this time, there's no wonder this season was all over the place.

Getting to a point in the show that I am really fascinated by in terms of production materials, but the bland text is flaring up again. Maybe I'm trying to read it too quickly. Nothing really significant stood out to me in this chunk. I'm making good progress though, maybe I'll finish it before summer's over.

Interesting to note how this identifies that there's a story in this part of the show that was written as a criticism of something going on at the time, only for the criticism to be shown to be REALLY stupid by the time the episodes made it to air. Might explain why I never cared for the episode. The story kinda felt like a reactionary argument against something the writers didn't take the time to understand.

There's some bits here about how people of the 60s never predicted the computing power of the 2000s and it's always interesting to have it spelled out like that. There's also some really fascinating lines about cultural differences between the UK and the US, but yeah, the text is still dense but interesting. An essay here focuses on how weird one of the writers was on the show and I found it enlightening.

The most interesting take away I had from this section has to be about how popular pirate radio stations was in the UK, as well as how easy it was to be "secretly" broadcasting counter programming. Definitely might need to look into this more and see what exactly has changed/how the culture changed around it.

There's some really good wording in here of what is widely regarded as the "best story ideas" for the show and how that's not really the case, it's more the fact that the people wanting to return to those stories really want their childhood back. And I'm not gonna disagree with that. Aside from that, they also focus on what can make the show work when it's done well, but it isn't always done well.

This section tried to make sense of 7 or 8 different stories all set on "Future Earth" and they definitely tried. Not necessarily something that can be done, but it's interesting to see the attempt. Also liked how much it was like "if we could see this story it would probably be good" because the rest of the missing episodes were found 7 years after this book was published. Past the half way point!!!!!

Solid explainer in this section as to what was so significant about the Radio Times at the time, as well as some interesting points about what some writers find significant about stories, despite what is standard about the show at the time, which might explain why some monsters haven't come back to the show. The next section will be interesting given that it was written before the episodes were found.

Touches on Buddhism in the show, especially focusing on how non-Western cultures ended up representing a lot of 'alien' cultures because to the western writers, stories and beliefs from the East felt exotic and alien. Thought that was interesting. Getting to a point where I was watching the show but reading the last volume of the series and I'd watch the episodes saying "I can't wait to read about this in vol 2!"

This had a lot of dense information about children's fiction and psychology and British culture in the 60s and it's ALL fascinating but man. I can't get away from John Locke. Love how its talking about how the Beatles and Doctor Who occupy the same time and the commonalities there.

Good bye to the daleks for the rest of this book. Always enjoy the focus on the origins of the ideas behind the narrative. Can't wait to read the next section.

This section spends some time talking about the supernatural practices of the Victorian era, some I knew about, but all in fascinating detail. Also brings up elements that I noticed when first watching the stories, while drawing connections i never made. It's interesting to read about how the show made a conscious effort to show the modern day after not doing so for so long.

This section talked about post war fears, as well as some of the social/cultural fears of being in the middle of the Cold War. Also brought up terms I have never heard, but some of the descriptions were oddly familiar. Surely some of those older ideas have been recycled and repackaged to create new things that I've never seen linked together. Might need to do a deep dive into holiday camps.

Two solid essays in this collection of pages, focusing on how the opening titles were made, and this odd pattern of the USA never being mentioned in episodes set after a specific date. This made me think about how Euro-centric this is in it's writing, and it made some claims about America which were interesting to say the least. Still having fun with it.

Love the ways in which this points out some very easily observable stuff, but it never really got spelled out to me, and therefore didn't occur to me upon watching. It's getting dense and repetitive to some degree, I may have to pace how I'm reading it differently, but I don't wanna take 18 months to finish it.

The tone of writing often comes across a little too "know it all" to me, but with the clear research and time taken to make it, I'll allow it. Blowing through parts of this book, definitely enjoying it. Looking forward to what the next entry has to say about one of the most batshit stories.

Again, more of the same from the previous entries I've written here. In depth analysis about episodes of Doctor Who that didn't exist. Love how this takes time to explain what doesn't necessarily click in my head as I'm watching the episodes, pointing to reasons I may not like the some stories as much as I like other stories. Very curious to see what other tidbits I learn about the rest of the season.

A lot of writing on what is arguably one of the most important parts of the show, and I'm really enjoying the consistency and the cohesiveness of what's written here. Lots of talk about the state of plastic surgery and tech at the time of the 60s, and pointing out how some things that I've been picking up on as I've watched the show started earlier than I thought.

Off to a good start talking about how dodgy and bad some of the accents are at this point in the show. Can't wait to dig through the rest.