GC/TC Election Results 2013

Silent Hunter narrowly won the elections for the office of General Coordinator at 12 votes to 11.
Euan Reid won the elections for TC with 58 ranked votes. Jason Andersen received a total of 43 ranked votes, spsblue: 22 ranked votes, and Firesky: 15 ranked votes.

Thank you to all the voters and to our candidates! This has certainly been a most exciting election!

Robert Longtin
Acting Elections and Voting Coordinator

Newsletter #9 released

The May/June 2013 issue of The Burning Question is now available for reading.

The next issue will be a summer special, scheduled for August.

James Bond: Licence to Kill

Another one that I watched in New York and which tends to get edited for TV airing (especially the decompression chamber scene), Licence to Kill is an unusual Bond outing that is a lot more like a generic  action movie than the films before and after it.

 

For a movie hit by a writer’s strike, Maibaum’s last script works pretty well – it’s another densely plotted tale with a clearly rich background behind it. There are certainly some good ‘guest’ characters in it  - particularly Truman-Lodge, while Q gets a lot of screen-time on his first field trip. After some initial rough patches and with a distracting hairstyle for much of the flick, Dalton turns in a strong gritty performance as Bond, who spends a considerable amount of time undercover and demonstrates that sometimes you don’t need to be subtle to infiltrate a place – dropping bets larger than most people on Earth in 2013 earn in a year at the casino. The action is mostly very good in a movie with planes, boats and trucks going on one side.

 

Weak points are many, however. The lead villain isn’t great, Carey Lowell doesn’t make her case (Law & Order pun intended) for being a great Bond girl and the less said about Talisa Soto the better – her career never really went anywhere after this. Moneypenny is really rather wet and doesn’t even the excuse that 007’s pulled her into a swimming pool. There’s also some fairly sharp jumps at the beginning of a movie that goes by quickly – and Michael Kamen’s score isn’t in the same league as those of John Barry.

 

Finally, I will note this is the first movie I ever saw that features a bullet-proof vest.

 

Conclusion

 

A distinctly middling Bond – it’s not A View To A Kill, but it’s hardly From Russia With Love. You can’t blame this one solely on the script.

 

6/10

All the multiverse's a stage ('Doctor Who': the stage productions)

The early seasons of Doctor Who were filmed as live, but the show has never been broadcast live, even for specials, unlike some anniversary episodes of other long-running shows like The Bill. For one thing, you’d have difficulty materialising the TARDIS.

However, this hasn’t stopped people from doing time travel on stage; there have been a number of officially approved (or not) fan productions over the years, including of the lost story "Fury from the Deep", but we will focussing solely on the official plays created by the BBC with fictional content – this excludes plain music concerts.

These are generally not considered at all canon by the TARDIS Data Core.

---

Curse of the Daleks (1965-66, Wyndham Theatre, London)

Credited to David Whittaker and Terry Nation (although Nation seems to have had next to no involvement), this attempt to cash in on Dalekmania, one of many of course, features five Dalek props[1] but no Doctor – yep, it’s the rights issues again. This matinee play lasted a month and got pretty poor reviews.

In 2008, Big Finish released an audio adaptation as part of a series covering the plays.

Doctor Who and the Daleks in Seven Keys to Doomsday (1974-5, Adelphi Theatre, London)

Actual title “Seven Keys to Doomsday”, but known fully as this, this stage play starred Trevor Martin as an alternative Fourth Doctor (he regenerates from Pertwee) at the beginning, with original companions Jenny and Jimmy[2], as they try to stop the Daleks taking over the universe. It ran for only four weeks, as planned.

It also got referenced by the Eleven Doctor in “Night Terrors” when he referred to “Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday” – it was used as a title of a story in the 2012 Annual. It also got a BF adaptation

Hot Ice ’86 (1986, Blackpool Ice Dome)

Every year, Blackpool Pleasure Beach puts on an ice show – the 1986 version featured an eight-minute adventure featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri (played by David McGrouther and Julie Sharrock respectively). It gets a tiny mention in Whoology and that’s about all I could find on it.

Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure (1989, national tour)

A musical that featured the Daleks and the Cybermen teaming up and Mrs Thatcher summoning the Doctor to prevent them kidnapping a US delegate to a peace conference, this play featured three different actors as the Doctor:

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Jon Pertwee for the first part of the run until early June.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>David Banks for two performances on 29 April during Pertwee’s run – he was the understudy for Pertwee, who fell ill that day. Banks, whose main involvement in the show involved wearing a Cyberman suit, did his own unique portrayal.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>Colin Baker for the rest of it.

While not the biggest success, those who saw it have fond memories of it – and it got an audio version. With the cancellation of the show at the beginning of 1990, this was pretty much it for stage stuff until 2005…

Doctor Who Meets Albert Einstein (2005, The Young Scientist Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland)

Starring Declan Brennan as the Doctor, this was an educational play aimed at explaining relativity. It was relatively obscure. It’s also not the only time the Doctor has met Einstein – he has appeared three times in TV Doctor Who.

Doctor Who Proms (2008, 2010, 2013, Royal Albert Hall, London)

The Proms (full title: The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC) are an annual series of concerts held in London that focus mostly on classic music, mostly in the Royal Albert Hall in Kensington, SW7[3] and traditionally concluding with the exuberant Last Night, including some rather patriotic ditties, most notably “Rule, Britannia!”.

With Murray Gold’s music a big part of post-2005 Who (and other music a big part of the show in general), it is no surprise that these have featured in the Proms – with three concerts dedicated to the show’s music, along with other relevant music to the show i.e. Holst’s The Planets Suite. All three to date have had various monsters turn up in the hall. As for other character:

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>2008 had a mini-episode called “The Music of the Spheres” (pre-recorded featuring Tennant)

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>2010 featured a skit with Matt Smith in character turning up live in the audience.

<![if !supportLists]>·         <![endif]>2013 featured Smith and Jenna Coleman in (and later out) of character – as well as Madame Vastra and Strax.

All of these were broadcast on radio and later got (or will get) cut down TV airings.

Doctor Who Live: The Monsters Are Coming! (2010, national arena tour)

A pseudo-sequel to “Carnival of Monsters” from 1973, this arena show starring Nigel Planer featured a band a few instruments short of a full orchestra (that’s not a euphemism), Matt Smith appearing as Eleven via pre-recorded video clips and a plot that basically was an excuse for a bunch of monsters parading through the aisles.

This is the only one I’ve actually seen – at Wembley Arena. There were a lot of kids dressed as the Doctor.

The Crash of the Elysium (2011, Manchester International Festival)

An immersive theatre experience produced by Punchdrunk[4] aimed at (and largely restricted to i.e. the adults had to go to the café after 5 minutes unless it was a family performance, although adults-only performances were added due to demand) 6-12 year olds, this play saw its audience interact with the characters to save the world and the Eleventh Doctor, who appeared on video screens – except for one time where Matt Smith turned up at the end, in character.

---

These theatrical experiences, while interactive, are only of a limited interaction of the “boo-hiss” variety. Any attempt to divert the story will result in a chat with security.

For our final post in our sidebar [Long sidebar – Ed.] looking at the expanded universe, we will be looking at the truly interactive experiences – the video and tabletop games set in the Whoniverse. Let’s fire up the Micro…

---

[1]More than turn up in some TV stories, in fact (The surviving “Power of the Daleks” footage has some very obvious cardboard cut outs)  – the props were later recycled for use in the second of the Cushing movies, that used a total of 19.

[2]Jenny was played by Wendy Padbury aka Zoe… in the 2008 audio, her daughter Charlie Hayes took the role. The play also featured Simon Jones, who would be better known as Arthur Dent in the radio and television versions of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[3]The Hall is located on a street called Kensington Gore, whose name also became a trademark for a type of theatrical blood, particularly associated with Hammer Horror.

[4]They have been doing this sort of thing since 2000 in a variety of unusual places – the audience can wander around the set and get involved in the story. Within reason – I think assault would not go down too well.

Khasab: A Fighter Ops Short Story

This is the third short story set in the Fighter Ops sim.

 

Monday afternoon, 1445 local time

 

The twenty-vehicle convoy was naturally causing a traffic jam and it was only the rear-facing machine gun on the last Fahd APC in the group that kept the Omanis stuck behind it from doing anything other than beep their horns. It wasn’t like they could overtake on a single-lane highway.

 

The mountainous Musandam peninsula, the northern tip of Oman that faced onto the Straits of Hormuz, has always been a difficult place to get to. There are only the two roads (one from Muscat in the main part of Oman and the other from the UAE), the ferry or the small airport, shared with the military.

 

The latter was the purpose of this convoy. The strategic location of the airport meant that it was going to be a prime target for Iranian attack. Although the GCC were not planning to base anything more than a few helicopters there, for search and rescue purposes, reinforcing the base’s defences was a high priority – as well as putting artillery in place to assist in the clearing of the Straits. Quite why they were doing this today, when they could have done it yesterday, was a mystery. The drive had certainly taken a while, but they could have been flown in. Someone was being very incompetent here.

 

In the fifth vehicle in the convoy, a British-made Challenger 2 tank, Rafiq sat in his loader’s seat and continued to read an Arabic romance novel that he’d picked up on a market stall in Muscat. It was about as racy as you could get away with Oman, which wasn’t all that much on a relative scale, but it passed the time and distracted him from the heat… The air conditioning in the tank had gone an hour ago and they didn’t have the time to fix it until they got to the airstrip.

 

Rafiq was still ultimately a large child, having turned 19 the previous month. He’d followed his father and grandfather into the Royal Omani Army, but while his grandfather had been involved in the Dhofar conflict, his father had never seen action. Now it appeared possible that Rafiq was going to be fighting fellow Muslims, rather than the Communist guerrillas his grandfather faced. This didn’t concern him all that much… he knew Iran wasn’t a very nice place.

 

Still… he didn’t want to die. His Challenger 2 was safe from most enemy fire, but they only had to be lucky once – or carry a big enough weapon to render the Chobham armour moot. He was trying not to think about that.

 

The convoy continued moving at around 30 miles an hour down the road. They would be at their destination in about two hours. Until then, Rafiq had little to do, but read and sweat. The book was keeping the worry away – for the time being.

 

---

As the convoy arrived through the service gates at Khasab, Rafiq could see a twin-engine airliner powering up in the parking area. Some of the European ex-pats in Khasab and the surrounding area were being evacuated back to their home countries on a passenger liner that had been chartered specially for the occasion – this airport did not get a huge number of commercial flights.

 

They got closer and he could see this was some low-rent charter airline that charged you to guarantee a specific seat. He was also aware, from some distant news story that he’d read, that this particular airline had maintenance and safety issues, so was consequently banned from European Union air space. Still any port in a storm…

 

Those were words that he would come to regret in twenty minutes.

 

The convoy halted outside the terminal building.

 

“Everyone dismount!” the Colonel yelled as he clambered out of his command vehicle, getting out even before the engine had been switched off. Others began to follow, their officers and NCOs directly them to their positions.

 

Except for Rafiq and his tank. A terse radio command that he didn’t hear gave instructions to the tank’s commander and he relayed those (which he did hear) to the driver. They were ordered to take up a spot at the southern end of the runway and then entrench themselves; which would make them hull down.

 

It was also going to mean a lot of hard work for the crew in sticky conditions – the temperature had reached 40 degrees today and the heat was lingering. He was used to the temperature, but hot sweaty work like that was never fun.

 

Rafiq looked at his watch – 1526. Little did he know that the first shots of the war had already been fired. Following that, he clambered out of the tank and took a proffered ‘entrenching tool’, which was really a glorified shovel.

 

He started to dig, dry desert dirt flying behind him into a pile. This was going to take a while, but he needed to do it. He turned to the tank’s gunner and they started to chat about nothing in particular. In fact, the subject was football.

 

Suddenly, the tank commander heard his personal radio crackling. He pressed the talk button and acknowledged the call. It was 1536, although he wasn’t actually looking at his watch at this point.

 

As he listened to the call sent to the entire local net, his face turned ashen.

 

“Acknowledged. Over and out”.

 

He turned to the others.

 

“The shooting’s started and we can expect inbound missiles within minutes. When the klaxon goes, I want everyone back in the tank. Is that clear?”

 

There was a chorus of nods and acknowledgements from the tank crew as they tried to take that in. They’d been expecting something, but the air of unreality when these things actually occur still hit them hard. Rafiq said nothing further and continued to dig.

 

As he dug, he saw the aircraft begin to taxi from its parking spot, heading for the runway. As it could not go north, which would take it too close to Iran, it was taking off to the south, which was surrounded by raised brown hilly terrain. In addition, the climb would be bit steeper and corkscrew-like – just in case someone was hiding with a surface to air missile that wasn’t Omani – known as the Baghdad Airport Drill by some.

 

They would get a great view as it took off. Once the jet reached the end of the runway, there was a brief pause – the cockpit voice recorder showed that there was some question over whether to go for the take-off. Thirty seconds later though, the aircraft began to move forward, racing down the runway as it built up speed. Three-quarters of the way down, now fully committed, the pilot pulled back on the stick and it began to rise off the runway.

 

It quickly became clear that things were going very wrong indeed. The aircraft began to lose height just after it cleared the end of the runway and was clearly not going to be able to recover. Rafiq watched horrified as the inevitable began to occur; he’d only seen plane crashes on TV or in the cinema before now… and many of those had been fake ones.

 

He saw the plane try to turn to avoid hitting the mountain in front of it and go into the flatter valley to the side… but the engines had now gone and what the pilot could do was limited. It finally hit the terrain on the east side of the mountain, erupting in a ball of fire.

 

Just more casualties of war, he thought, then raced for his vehicle to try and save some lives.

 

USS Phoenix commences operations

Our new Star Trek sim, USS Phoenix has now commenced operations. After some initial log posts and the adding of a good deal of background information, Krista has now started RP on the ship's bridge as the vessel prepares to depart on its exploration mission.

Check it out!

Let's Play Persian Incursion: Turn 13

A Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb (photo: US Department of Defense)

 

As the fifth day of this war opened for Iran, things were not going well – while their repair work was frantic, they still only had 104 aircraft available for operations, with only limited numbers of the powerful F-14s available, those units being particularly hard to repair. The Saudi air attacks were taking their toll… and international opinion was not on their side.

 

If Turkey or Saudi Arabia became Israeli allies, like Saudi currently is in-game, Israel gets a bonus on fighter suppression and SAM suppression rolls for its attacks.

 

A squadron of Hornets stood on the deck of their carrier ready for a strike against the Isfahan zirconium plant, but their mission was suddenly cancelled… in an attempt to lure the People’s Republic of China away from the Iranian orbit, Israel had offered them US weapons technology… and the CIA found out about it. The Israeli Ambassador was summoned for consultations to the State Department.

 

I finally got the Backfire rules sorted out… and Iran rolled for a successful backfire. However, Israel still got to roll on China’s track and that country is no longer an Iranian supporter.

 

Iran’s Supreme Leader made a speech aimed at Turkey that was fairly conciliatory; Israel would have to be careful that Ankara did not withdraw its support from the Israeli operations and close the airspace.

 

With no nuclear targets really available for the F-16s currently ready for operations, Israel tired a different tack – it might not have much long term effect, but it might do something, even if just bringing more Iranian fighters to battle. 119 Squadron was ordered to attack the Kharg Island oil terminal.

 

Speaking of oil, Iran offered China and some neutrals lower prices for their support, but neither bit. Israel was more successful in talking with Jordan; mostly to try to keep it from becoming an Iranian ally. Relations became somewhat cordial.

 

Finally, Iran approved a terror attack on an Israeli bank,.. due to take place in 24 hours’ time. The Israeli version of Jack Bauer would have some work to do – as would Iran’s mechanics as 41 of their aircraft went unserviceable.

 

I got a 6 on the breakdown roll; not the worst I could have got, but Iran does not need any more problems at the moment.