November 24 marks a very special occasion – exactly 40 years since the first-ever DWCA event in 1979. To mark to occasion the DWCA have an upcoming Day Event on the weekend just after the 40-year milestone on December 1. The event will be held at Club Burwood in Sydney. http://dwca.org.au/events/sydney-day-event-december-2019/ In preparation for the celebration, we’re sharing here Ashley Tuchin’s article Unconventional: A History of The ADWFC’s Doctor Who Parties which first appeared in Zerinza Volume 1. Zerinza Volumes 1 and 2 are both still available through the DWCA store. http://dwca.org.au/products-page/dwca-publications/ Unconventional: A History of The ADWFC’s Doctor Who… Continue reading
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Unique in so many ways, this episode of Doctor Who has been missing from the BBC archives for years, with fans trying very hard to plug the gap. The DWCA tried to reconstruct it as text in their Zerinza special back in 1980, when Rosemary Howe novelised it as part of her adaptation of The Daleks’ Masterplan. In 1989 John Peel crafted an official Target novelisation, incorporating it into his two novel adaptation of The Daleks’ Masterplan. In 2000 the amateur video production company Loose Cannon created their own reconstruction of the episode using the audio soundtrack along with available… Continue reading
It’s official – Doctor Who DVDs and Blu-rays have a new distributor and the dates for the upcoming full season Collection boxed sets have finally been announced for Australia! The tale of bringing Doctor Who episodes to Australian collectors is a long and tangled one. Back in December 1984 Data Extract was first on the scene to break the news of Doctor Who videos arriving on Australian shores. “The rights to distribute the BBC video catalogue have recently been obtained by Polygram Music Video after stiff competition from Roadshow,” the story read. “The BBC video Revenge of the Cybermen will… Continue reading
The Whistleblower Papers - a graphic summary
Testing my ability to make website posts from my phone… hope to update this thing more frequently
The brain-cinema has been showing bicycles for most of my life. In my former desk jockey days I would while away the ennui geeking out over bicycle ephemera such as Cycle Chic (Thank you Copenhagenize); Rohloff Hubs; the writings of Sheldon …
The latest issue of Data Extract has been sent to all subscribers, this issue featuring Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant discussing workplace relations on the set of The Twin Dilemma, an interview with writers Jon Blum and Robert Smith?, the second last episode of the Eleanor saga, a dive down the rabbit hole into Doctor Who Choose Your Own Adventures, political jargon in the Junkyard and fan discussion on the nature of creativity. All this and a new full-colour episode of The Dalek Chronicles – Time War! If you aren’t a subscriber, make sure to join up now! Continue reading
Benjamin Libet’s famous experiments have been among the most-discussed topics of neuroscience for many years. Libet’s experiments asked a subject to move their hand at a random moment of their choosing; he showed that the decision to move could be … Continue reading
In the late 80’s I wrote an awful essay for my Media teacher at Camborne Tecnhical College. There was no internet to speak of back then so I relied upon the books in the limited library for research. Most of the books seemed to …
I was recently honored by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Alongside Oakland Privacy and William Gibson, I received a 2019 Barlow/Pioneer Award. I was asked to give a speech. As I reflected on what got me to this place, I realized I needed to reckon with how I have benefited from men whose actions have helped uphold a […]
The picture above is from an episode of Futurama I watched with my boys. The robot, Bender, is adrift in space. His body is populated by ‘Shrimpkins’.
Auden wrote “A New Year Greeting” the year I was born. It was in …
Both this blog post and the paper it describes are collaborative work led by Charles Kiene with Jialun “Aaron” Jiang. Introducing new technology into a work place is often disruptive, but what if your work was also completely mediated by technology? This is exactly the case for the teams of volunteer moderators who work to …
I remember another time when I was young. In my homeland traveling by train. A group of passengers sprinkled throughout the open-plan carriage talked amongst themselves. They appeared to know each other from their intersecting lives in suburbia. This was obviously their regular commute. Rereading Saint-Exupéry I am reminded of …
Victorian London will never be the same again, with Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart and Dan Starkey returning as Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax the Sontaran for their own audio adventures in The Paternoster Gang: Heritage, from Big Finish Productions. Over the course of the four adventures, the much loved characters from the Steven Moffat era of Doctor Who face the first electronic automated cars in London (very ahead of their time), hordes of zombies, and ghost-like figures which are haunting Greenwich before their former selves have died… Plus they’ll have to cope with the capers of the Bloomsbury Bunch: an… Continue reading
Imagine combining a love of Doctor Who and writing – it’s a dream that comes true for many fans but one that often feels totally out of reach -until now. Big Finish is looking for a new voice to join their stable and write an adventure for the next Bernice Summerfield and Unbound Doctor box set. Writers/fans from all around the world have until 23.59 UK time on September 20 to enter the competition. Writers are being asked to send a single page synopsis and a 3,000-word sample of the script with the Benny team putting together an asset pack… Continue reading
We are pleased to announce that for the months of October and November 2019, Tom is offering to sign autographs with names – meaning names only, no quotes, phrases or other greetings. On 30th November
The DWCA is pleased to announce the election results from its recent Annual General Meeting, held on Sunday 25 August at Club Burwood, Sydney. Only one person had nominated for each position, so the following were all elected unopposed: President – Jon Andersen Vice President – Darran Jordan Secretary – Roger Reynolds Treasurer – Brad Harrison The DWCA would like to thank Lauren Davis for her dedication and leadership as Club President for the last five years and wish her the very best for her future adventures. We also welcome Jon Andersen to his new role as Club President and… Continue reading
It is with the deepest sadness that we report the passing of Doctor Who giant Terrance Dicks, who has died at the age of 84 after a short illness. His contribution writing over 60 novelisations in the Target range of books, as well as authoring other non-fiction works like the best-selling 1976 Doctor Who Dinosaur Book, encouraged the reading habits of children across the globe. Dicks wrote such classic series stories as Second Doctor swansong The War Games (co-written with Malcolm Hulke), Fourth Doctor introduction Robot, the first Rutan story Horror of Fang Rock, vampire classic State of Decay and… Continue reading
Tim Bollands recently tweeted his short solution to the Hard Problem (I mean, not literally in a tweet – it’s not that short). You might think that was enough to be going on with, but he also provides an argument … Continue reading
It’s a Saturday morning. I can hear a phalanx of lawn mowers, hedge trimmers and leaf blowers marching through the backyards of my neighbours. Australians rejoice in weekend suburb maintenance. Like many others I have just had very busy week of work. The builders have been …
I'm a big fan of the editing experience in GitHub. Through using GitHub over the last few years for my contributions to various open-source projects (mainly Backdrop CMS), I've learnt to write posts in Markdown and love the way GitHub makes it easy to add syntax-highlighted code snippets, insert images, etc. I wanted to replicate some of that functionality in Backdrop, so here's what I did...
Eric Holloway gives a brisk and entertaining dismissal of all materialist theories of consciousness here, boldly claiming that no materialist theory of consciousness is plausible. I’m not sure his coverage is altogether comprehensive, but let’s have a look at his … Continue reading
Sunday 7 July 2019 marked the 100th birthday of the Third Doctor himself, the late Jon Pertwee – the man who saw Doctor Who into the age of colour television and proved that the programme could succeed even when the Doctor was stuck on Earth! As part of the birthday celebrations, the DWCA will this month be holding a special day event devoted to Pertwee and his impact on Doctor Who history, running on 25 August at Club Burwood. We’re also sharing the love for the Third Doctor via the opinion piece below, written by actor and comedian Rob Lloyd.… Continue reading
Doctor Who is set to have one of its most successful Saturn Awards campaigns ever, with three nominations for this year’s titles. Doctor Who Series 11 has been nominated for best science fiction television show, while Jodie Whittaker received a nod for best actress and Tosin Cole for best younger actor. Run by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, the Saturn Awards are now in their 45th year. The awards honour the hard work and achievements of the people who create and participate in science fiction entertainment. In recent years, they have added television and home entertainment… Continue reading
I want to move the fence, make our yard bigger for our fat dog. Re does not want me to start without a landscaping consultation of some kind. Despite this I have mostly formed plans involving retaining walls and wire mesh fencing. The first step …