New Doctor Who will be announced Saturday
The BBC will announce the 11th actor to play the Doctor tomorrow night on a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential, once again proving that nobody keeps spoilers under wraps like the Beeb. Lucasfilm just wishes they could clamp down on stuff like that.
There are a lot of names being thrown about, including Catherine Tate (!), which would put me in the really strange position of having to admit that I have a little bit of a thing for Doctor Who, and then hastily explaining that I don’t mean Tom Baker or David Tennant. My own dream pick would be, sadly, someone who isn’t free from their last gig just yet (Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick), but really, I’d kinda like it to be someone I’ve never heard of before. One of the reasons Tennant cemented the public’s affection for him, aside from playing the part brilliantly, is that he was hungrier for the exposure than his predecessor was: he was up for the demands of publicity and promotion. Eccleston is a much more private guy and just seemed like he wanted to hide after the first round of appearances. Surely someone had warned him that the phrase “I am the Doctor” carried with it almost a certain level of responsibility.
So in that vein, it’d be neat if the eleventh Doctor was someone who was as hungry for the exposure – all of the exposure – as Tennant has been. Which probably means someone relatively unknown and youngish (I am resigned, at my age, to the probability that from here on out, Doctor Who – one of my fictional heroes since I was around 8 years old or so – will be younger than I am).
I did get a chuckle, however, at Russell T. Davies’ reaction when he learned that Robert Carlyle was out of the running because he’d taken the lead role in the upcoming Stargate spinoff, Stargate: Voyager…no, wait, sorry, Stargate: Universe – apparently it was along the lines of “What was he thinking? Has his agent even watched the show?” 😛… Read more
Harlan Ellison is one maddening little cranky-assed bastard. He’s capable of such brilliance, but what does he do to draw attention to himself? Nutball crap like this. I’m not saying this out of – as he frequently accuses anyone who disagrees with his stance – some kind of fealty to a particular studio, show, or what have you. My biggest beef with Harlan, as he whittles away what’s left of his career complaining about how many times and ways he’s been “wronged” by every other producer in Hollywood who hired and paid him to write stuff, is that for all of his complaints about artistic integrity…where’s Harlan’s integrity? Why the hell does he keep cashing the check if he feels this strongly about it? ‘Cause you know he’s getting some kind of residuals for 
Maybe it’s just because I’ve been sick as a dog and still wearing myself out running around chasing the boy, but somehow Christmas just hasn’t settled into my mental landscape as a reality this year. I know it’s only about a dozen days out, but for some reason this year it’s just not “real” for me. This isn’t a “bah humbug” thing, but more of an “oh well” thing. It’s there, I’m aware of it, but that’s about it.
Every once in a while I run across something that really makes me believe in synchronicity – that there are simply no coincidences whatsoever. 
So, that big-ass Doctor Who reference book that I keep threatening to write and publish? I’m still working on it. Oh yes, it’s not going away. It will happen. The purpose of this post, however, is to do a wee bit of market research ahead of time; I’d appreciate it if those interested would respond and help me out a bit. While I’ve got some fairly definite ideas on how I’d like it to turn out – basically, my criteria with just about anything I create is that I’m producing a DVD that I’d like to watch, writing a book that I’d like to read, writing a song that I’d like to hear, and it just so happens that no one else has saved me the trouble of doing this stuff first. … 
I have to say, as a long-time admirer of South Park, I’ve been bitterly disappointed with the new season so far. There’s been no bite to it, and worse yet, no point. I don’t require every episode to be issue-oriented, but so far this year we’ve gotten a spoof of Cloverfield with a dash of spoof of Guantanamo Bay, and a bizarre indictment of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull set to the tune of every notable Hollywood rape scene that Matt and Trey could think of. In both cases, what’s being spoofed was months past its sell-by date. But beyond that, what irks me is that were are in the midst of historical events that are positively bursting with moments rife for ridicule. Come on, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden are on the prowl, each seemingly trying to one-up the other for campaign trail howlers that leave their respective party handlers burying their faces in their hands. South Park is losing relevance – fast. But it’s also just possible that Matt and Trey have lost track of what people watch their show for when the abysmal “Imaginationland Trilogy” has won them an Emmy, after so many far worthier installments were passed over.
…because God knows, I never talk about that, right? … 
Argh. For some reason that I can’t figure out and don’t really have the time to screw with much, Scribblings (the original, you might say, at theLogBook.com) is broken. Videos don’t work anymore for no real reason that I’ve been able to fathom, actually getting it to accept new content is hit-or-miss, and it’s just emblematic of the site as a whole – WordPress was supposed to liberate me to some extent, and let me just concentrate on generating content, because I write almost constantly, and don’t want to have to code pages almost constantly. But it’s maintaining the infrastructure that’s killing me. When I upgraded the WordPress that drives the episode guide, it completely wiped out all categories, and I’m still going through those 2,500-odd entries and re-categorizing them (i.e. Star Trek? check. Deep Space Nine? check. Season 4? check.)…I’m up to 1995 now. Which is quite a feat when the thing starts in the ’50s. It really renews my appreciation for just how much ground the site covers, how much written material (and hopefully well-written material) it represents…and makes the back of my brain throb and beg for More Help With The Damn Thing. It’s not WordPress’s fault, but the early days of the toddler era is not a good time for me to be able to find the kind of time it takes to prop up that infrastructure all the time. The news page has also been hit by the same bug, and I just. don’t. have. the. time. I’ve stopped updating the news page. I’ve looked for someone to take it over, but there’s only so much I can offer when the site’s revenue basically covers its own bills (and to be honest, that’d be a misnomer this year – the PDF DVD is what’s paying the site’s bills right now; the site itself – aside from hosting the ordering page for the DVD – hasn’t made a cent this month). Next year is theLogBook’s 20th anniversary, but I’m starting to wonder if it might not be time to start dialing the whole thing down a bit and just doing sporadic updates. When I feel like it. Rather than trying to generate, on a weekly basis, what I would’ve needed to fill the 6-page print fanzine that theLogBook was in the 1990s.