SF Origins: Spy Gal, pg. 4 "The Best Day Ever, Ever"

SF Origins: Spy Gal, pg. 4 "The Best Day Ever, Ever": "

THE THING THAT AMAZES ME ABOUT THE WORK THAT LEE CHEROLIS IS DOING ON THIS ORIGIN...

...is how wonderful the color is. The pages look one way in their black and white form, but then Lee adds all kinds of dimension and details with his color. It really is the whole package. Too often in my own art I try to make the inks stand well on their own--even when I'm the only one who will ever see them. It's only afterwards that I consider how color will be used. It's obvious to me that Lee has a picture in his mind of the end result at every stage of the game. That's quite the gift.

DR. WHO--NO LONGER ANNOYING

I used to hate Dr. Who. Mind you, I had never seen even one episode of Dr. Who. I knew it as this weird show that, in the few stills I'd seen, looked super low budget and "glowy," like all BBC shows with their shoddy film stock (and sometimes not even that) and bankrupt cinematography sometimes do. I knew the show had something to do with time travel, which I love, but it all seemed too silly for words.

But that wasn't why the very existence of Dr. Who annoyed me.

No, what annoyed me is that I never had a chance to see it. I don't have cable or satellite so the opportunity never really presented itself. I was on the outside looking in and I much prefer having the chance to make up my own mind about something. Just recently, my Sister-in-Law, Karen, had been encouraging me to at least check it out and so I finally felt prompted to put some actual effort into giving it a whirl.

Thanks to iTunes, Netflix, and a cherry-picking of the best episodes to start, I'm now deep into Season One. (Not gonna call it "Series One," sorry. That doesn't make any dang sense to my feeble Western mind.) I dig the show. It uses time travel to mostly clever effect and the writing is solid. The Doctor himself? Love him. Such a great character. A little crazy, a little sad, a little dangerous and a lot adventurous. I could do without the theme song (though it is growing on me) and I think the execution of the episodes betrays how good the writing is (funky tonal shifts, an over reliance on overbearing music, still shoddy film stock--looks like video to me), but I can overlook that stuff. Seems minor compared to the all the good.

So, yeah, I'm no longer annoyed by Dr. Who. I finally feel like I'm "in." What about you lot? Do you watch the Doctor? Any favorite episodes?

See you on Thursday with SuperFogeys 277!

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