tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-355744252024-02-08T17:28:40.646+00:00John Toon - A Cry For HelpJohn Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.comBlogger185125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-1127217466068183722016-01-10T09:08:00.001+00:002016-01-10T09:08:30.857+00:00Massive comic book review for 2015So, following this year's ruckus over the Hugo Awards, I resolved to put in some nominations for next year's awards instead of just waiting for the shortlist like I normally would. Me and everybody else, I suspect. However, I was determined not to simply fall back on creators whose work I already know and who happened to have done something eligible in 2015, but to sample widely and John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-6876780481046456942016-01-07T03:18:00.001+00:002016-01-07T03:18:51.486+00:00"Nothing Is Sad Until It's Over - Then Everything Is" - Doctor Who, Series 9 (2015 season)Spoilers! Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Anyone who's read this blog before will already know that I'm about to discuss the latest season of DW without the slightest regard for whether or not I blurt out major plot points, but still, it's as well to make allowances for potential casual passers-by. Those allowances amount to this paragraph warning about spoilers. On we go, John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-44520817305281013862015-09-03T00:41:00.001+00:002015-09-03T00:41:31.725+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 7Welcome, gentle reader, to the last in a series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious about giving John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-9213146528390473772015-08-25T04:35:00.000+00:002015-08-25T04:35:19.686+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 6Welcome, gentle reader, to the sixth of a projected series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-40880505063857685292015-08-19T09:19:00.000+00:002015-08-19T09:19:13.465+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 5Welcome, gentle reader, to the fifth of a projected series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-85121775737895353572015-08-17T03:05:00.000+00:002015-08-17T03:05:26.332+00:00Hugo Awards 2015: A Consideration of the SourcesAnd so to a consideration of some of the Hugo nominees themselves. This more or less amounts to a "Books read in May/June" post, which I've deliberately held onto until now because it didn't seem quite right to comment on my own voting choices until after voting on the Hugo Awards closed last month. But I wanted to get this in before the results are announced next week at Worldcon. &John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-47427643695936254082015-08-17T02:51:00.000+00:002015-08-17T02:51:23.051+00:00Hugo Awards 2015: What Is To Be Done?So, the time has come for me to unload on the subject of the Hugo Awards. If any of my five (that many?) readers don't already know the details of the screaming match that's been unfolding within SF fandom since the Hugo Award shortlist was unveiled in April... well, that's not exactly startling. It's of minor interest in real terms, as I'll suggest below.
The short version is this: John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-55484487428302239722015-08-11T11:48:00.001+00:002015-08-11T11:48:20.322+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 4Welcome, gentle reader, to the fourth of a projected series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-38884643899960745062015-08-04T04:54:00.000+00:002015-08-04T04:54:08.078+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 3Welcome, gentle reader, to the third of a projected series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-75140169069353666912015-07-28T03:06:00.000+00:002015-07-28T12:32:07.368+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 2Welcome, gentle reader, to the second of a projected series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-54501650206695262182015-07-22T11:50:00.001+00:002015-07-22T11:50:29.640+00:00Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1Welcome, gentle reader, to the first of a projected series of 7 blog posts about Star Trek: The Next Generation.
For convenience, I'll be using the standard fan abbreviations to refer to Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and the original series (TOS). Also, probably best to assume that a Spoiler Alert remains in effect at all times, just on general principle. I'm not precious John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-3339813509988111202015-06-14T03:00:00.000+00:002015-06-14T03:00:20.445+00:00"I Need My Friend Back!" - Doctor Who, Series 8 (2014 season)And here's step two in my latest attempt to get this blog back up to date in the hope that I might start using it again more regularly. At least I've managed to write up my thoughts on last year's season of DW before this year's has started to air!
A new year, a new tweak to the theme and the titles. I'm quite keen on the new theme arrangement, with its bells and its twiddly John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-34544353251126751602015-06-10T02:35:00.001+00:002015-06-10T02:39:41.086+00:00The very, very long-delayed book postWhy, look at this - someone's left a blog lying around unattended. I'm sure it won't be missed. Ahem.
At this point, attempting to catch up with all my unblogged reading is not even worth considering. Here, however, are a few notable items to bring things up to date.
The last month or so has been pretty much taken up with Hugo Award nominees, but I think I'll hold off on John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-62437470768838728912014-04-22T05:23:00.001+00:002014-04-23T08:43:30.557+00:00Other viddies viddied in 2013In a prolonged lull between jobs, I've had plenty of opportunity to watch TV. There's been a mix of DVDs and electronic copies of stuff handed to us by friends, and far be it from me to say which is which on this blog. In between marathon viewings of the old Twilight Zone, the old Outer Limits and the Ray Bradbury Theater, I've taken in these items of note.
Doctor Who: The Enemy of John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-14314823126768401642014-04-21T12:37:00.001+00:002014-04-21T12:37:57.862+00:00Doctor Who 2013The worst of it is behind us now. 2011 still beats out 1985 as my least favourite year of Doctor Who, but 2012 saw a definite upturn, and I'm pretty happy with how 2013 turned out. The decision to tone down the multi-episode arcs in favour of single episode stories was entirely the right one as far as I'm concerned - Series 7 had the variety of style and subject and a lot more of the John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-19488118420688565122014-04-19T05:35:00.001+00:002014-04-19T05:35:31.010+00:00Normal service will be resumedIt was tempting to leave it until a full year had elapsed since the last blog post, but darn it, I cracked. Clearly the weekly requirements of the Doctor Who music blog did take their toll after all, and between that and a rotten slump in the job market post-Christmas, I haven't felt much inclined to come back on here and catch up. But I will!
The broad plan at this point is to put John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-8324020678415382372013-07-21T05:33:00.001+00:002014-04-19T04:35:40.668+00:00Books for May/JuneThe NZ national SF convention has been and gone, the Sir Julius Vogel Awards have been presented. Despite my best efforts, I didn't manage to get all the nominated works read ahead of time, although that's more down to not being able to lay my hands on them quickly enough than to lack of time on my part. Readers can clearly see below that I managed to read plenty of other books duringJohn Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-40466360443503683332013-04-28T10:16:00.003+00:002013-04-28T10:16:51.020+00:00Books for March/AprilTime for another bi-monthly book round-up. Since the last update, the shortlist for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards has been released; reading as much of the shortlisted work as possible before the convention in mid-July now becomes a priority, or at least, it did as of mid-April.
The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club, Kim Newman
Characters familiar from The Man from the Diogenes Club and John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-16891212446340945942013-03-07T09:24:00.000+00:002015-06-14T03:06:22.395+00:00Books for Jan/Feb 2013Who is the Doctor, Graeme Burk & Robert Smith?
Reference/critical book that covers the 21st century series of Doctor Who, from the 2005 relaunch all the way up to the end of the 2011 series. I'd say these guys have got the drop on Mad Norwegian Press' About Time series (tardy, Mad Norwegian, very tardy), but in truth the analysis here isn't nearly as deep as I'm hoping it will be in theJohn Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-22274955264604945282013-01-06T03:07:00.001+00:002013-01-07T07:32:56.348+00:00Announcement, and books for Nov/DecI've started a new blog - what the hell was I thinking?! It isn't a replacement for this blog, it's a 52-week side project that I thought might be fun, and also of practical use in improving my writing habits. But anyway, there it is - please go and have a look if you like Doctor Who, or if you like electronic music, or if you like me (flutters eyelashes), or... well, see if you like John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-46854968352673326522013-01-06T02:37:00.000+00:002013-01-06T02:37:57.994+00:00These things happen to other people - they don't happen at all, in factWhen you're following an angel, does it mean you have to throw your body off a building? And so on. They Might Be Giants, meet Doctor Who. Many people over the past seven years have described New Who as "emo", and Amy and Rory defeating the Weeping Angels by jumping hand-in-hand off a tower block must surely be the extreme point (zenith? nadir?) of "emo" in DW. And yet, John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-55943517720628471962012-12-26T00:31:00.001+00:002012-12-26T00:31:12.594+00:00Dice IraeThe blog title would have been "Pond Life", except that - startlingly - the DW production office already used that joke for a string of promotional scenes leading into the series. Paging Mr Moffat, message from Fred for a Mr Moffat...
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The winning streak couldn't last. We've opened the series with a straight run of three good episodes, which is surprising and pleasing, butJohn Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-70426259157146808992012-12-23T23:54:00.000+00:002012-12-23T23:54:09.493+00:00Happiness is a Warm PunAnd so, after a brief delay, to A Town Called Mercy. Folks, it's going to be another positive review. Here at last is a Moffat-era episode of DW that tackles a difficult ethical question head on and doesn't completely bugger it up. It doesn't completely redeem the sins of earlier episodes, mind you, but at least when it puts the Doctor in a room with a vivisectionist, it doesn'tJohn Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-73194804803290480162012-11-18T06:03:00.000+00:002012-12-23T03:25:42.907+00:00Books read in OctoberRailsea, China Mieville
Borrowed from a friend. I wasn't quite sure about the blurb, which suggested a land-based fantasy version of Moby Dick (we've already seen one of those, thank you very much), but I needn't have worried. This is in fact another cracking novel from Mieville. Influenced by, but not a retread of Melville's famous sedative. The protagonists live in a John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35574425.post-81290623316419787342012-10-22T10:03:00.000+00:002012-12-23T03:29:36.179+00:00KKLAK! to the FutureEdit (Dec 2012): All right, perhaps 7.5 rather than 8.5. It's not substantial enough for the higher score, but it's solid enough to deserve at least 7.5.
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Several other people seem to have beaten me to "Jurassic Ark". Bastards. Now I have to resort to a blog post title that requires footnotes.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: a cute title in search of a story. It's John Toonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16211705422326119054noreply@blogger.com2