Let me start by saying THANK YOU (a million times) to Krishna Devine for being INFINITELY patient with this experiment. What experiment, you ask? Good question! Instead of the usual book review, as Why He’s My Ex is a (completely hilarious) picture book that doesn’t require much more than a: “GET IT! IT’S FUNNY!” from me, I decided to use poor Krishna Devine as a test subject for a little email interview. Like I said, her patience is infinite and she is lovely and this is what she has to say about Why He’s My Ex, which she co-wrote with her friend Jessica Hill, in Q and A format.

Q: So! Obvious question but: what was the motivator for this book?

A: A break up, of course! But to be more accurate, two break ups. My friend and co-author  (Jessica Hill) and I had found ourselves back in the dating game at the same time. We shared past stories with each other about several of our exes. It dawned on us that ultimately—there were solid reasons why those relationships didn’t work out and in some cases there were warning signs we just didn’t see. As we shared stories we realized some were funnier than others. We found the whole conversation to be very therapeutic and wondered what stories other women would have. We began to collect stories from others and quickly discovered it wasn’t just us.

The next thing we knew everyone was telling us their dirt. Every one from co-workers to strangers and friends of friends seemed to have a break up story they had to share. After a year of collecting stories we narrowed them down using one or more of the following guidelines: humor, strange, visual, memorable, stories that were true. We refrained from telling stories that dealt with physical characteristics such as weight, height or penis size.

We figured out all the basics like: who our audience was, how to make the book timely yet still valid in 5+ years, what types of books did other authors have out and how could we make ours different?

We created a rough draft of the book and held two focus groups filled with both men and women. During the groups we got feedback on story, visual images, cover design and overall impact. We even collected a couple new tales.

A year after the focus groups, we finalized the stories, built our last sets, and finished the design. In all it took just over two years to complete the book and send it to the printer.

Q: What was the hardest part about making the book happen?

A: The hardest part is getting the book out there. I had to quickly learn as much as I could about marketing, pr and getting free publicity. I’ve barely scratched the surface. Everyday I learn of new resources, find new reviewers and new shops to carry Why He’s My Ex. Writing really is only about 10% of what you need to do as a writer. If you don’t promote the title one way or another, you won’t sell copies. Of course your friends and family support you at the beginning, but after that, you have to let others know your book even exists.

Q: This one baffled and (oddly) SLAYED me! “He sat on my cat and killed it.” …How!?!?

DESIGN

The Tracks HD are on-ear, like the Beats Solos. They sport a clever minimalist design that allows you to take them apart. The concept is you could customize them with different color cables, headbands, or speakers. The cable contains an inline mic with iPod controls. The mic works fine. No one I talked to complained of any problems. Normally with headphones this price, you’d receive a simple clip that keeps the line close to your body, ultimately dampening noise that travels up the cable from movement. There were plenty of times the cable bounced off my walking or pathetically dancing body, causing a noticeable tapping sound. Also, don’t crouch. You’re putting yourself at risk of catching the wire under your knee and pulling the connections out of the speakers. Remember, they are made to be removed. It’s just annoying. This can be easily remedied by using a clip from a different set of headphones if you have one.

The headband is made of some fancy, shmancy polymer that doesn’t seem to want to break. They call it Flextech. I call it awesome. I bent these backwards and twisted them up. It didn’t even misshape them. If there is anything I HATE about the Beats, it is how you can easily break the damn headband. A durable headphone these days is hard to come by.

A warning to my glasses-wearing brethren: On-ear designs may be uncomfortable. These aren’t the most uncomfortable, but long listening sessions can lead to sore ears.

SOUND

Please notice the tower of 50+ pizza boxes I own.

The metal “V10 Sound Engines” used in the Tracks HD pack in some serious value for $130. Someone looking for a flat or “natural” sound may want to stick with the similarly priced, but fairly ugly, Sennheiser HD 280 Pros or the Bose AE2s or OE2s. Where those will give you more of a sense of being in the recording studio with the musicians, the Tracks HD create more of a feeling of being in the center of floor at a concert. Everything is big and bold. The mid tones aren’t washed away by the swelling bass like the Beats are. Their presence is well known. The highs are bright and detailed. Unfortunately, some songs that contain a lot of feedback and hum can aggravate the ears slightly. That’s not to say these aren’t good for some solid rock listening. I particularly love what they do for cymbals. They brought out a quality in the drums on my Sonic Youth albums that is lost on most sub-$200 headphones.

If bass isn’t really your thing, may I suggest trout. HA! See what I did there? These do have a ton of bass. This adds to that concert vibe I mentioned earlier. They are punchy while remaining deep. Fast moving bass gets handled quite nicely. All my speed and black metal sounded badass. Even more impressive was my electronic collection. I was more than happy to put down my commonly used Bose to listen to a shit ton of Modeselektor, Thom Yorke, Little Dragon, MNDR, and M83. You want to shake your tail a bit, toss on the self-titled The Bird & The Bee release. This albums really jumps out on these headphones. Not only are the beats smooth and the bass deep, the phones do a great job with vocals. I love what they do for female voices. All vocals sound great, but female voices really shine.

They kind of make you look like a Cyberman!

If you listen to mostly folky, organic music, these may not be for you. Same with jazz and classical. If rock is more your thing, these are a great choice. There are other great choices out there, but these definitely contend. Electronic and hip hop fans should take notice. I found myself getting lost in all my electro-infused albums from Animal Collective to Kid Cudi.

The $100 versions of the Tracks are on display at most Best Buys. If you like the sound but want a little more clarity, I suggest the Tracks HD. However, do yourself a favor and make sure your files are at least 320kbps if possible. At times, the effects of low compression rates are obvious. Besides, you spent a lot on headphones. You might as well make sure to play high quality sounds through them.

It’s been at least 10 years since I last saw Neverwhere, the six-part BBC series by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry that subsequently became a Gaiman novel and marked one of my earliest introductions to his work. Sometimes it’s really rough revisiting early works from writers you adore because – depending on the writer and the relative earliness of said work – the odds may be sizeable that it just won’t hold up. Which is why it delights me to say, after binging the Neverwhere 15th Anniversary Edition DVD the other night, that not only does the show hold up, but it cemented my opinion that, for works from exceptional storytellers like Gaiman, the best possible medium for any filmed adaptation is television.

Two things to clarify up front after that last statement: One, as noted above, the Neverwhere novel followed the TV series and served to expand and enrich the story of Richard, a perfectly ordinary Scottish bloke living in London who, unlike so many can’t-be-arsed city dwellers, stops to look after an injured girl in the street and ends up on an adventure in a subterranean world of fiefdoms, noblemen, angels and nightmares. Having only half-hours in which to work, and feeling the limitations of both budget and format, the book later allowed Gaiman to flesh out the terrific characters and realms that he and Henry concocted, limited only by the breadth of his imagination. (Which is pretty damn broad, don’tcha know).

Clive Russell as Mr. Vandemar (l) and Gary Bakewell as Richard

Of course, the limitations that were enforced upon the show are a tiny caveat to my previous point about Neverwhere holding up as well as it does. Any drawbacks it has were the drawbacks to begin with; it can’t be denied that BBC-enforced edicts such as shooting the series on video instead of film affects the end result in significant ways. (Mind you, having grown up on a variety of British television that was shot on video as well, there is a certain vintage appeal there. Aww, the salad days.) That said, it is quite remarkable what Neverwhere accomplishes given the meager budget and the like; in Gaiman’s solo interview on the DVD extras (shot several years back), he points out a scene in Episode 4 which features a stately candlelit dinner that was shot in a train platform with actual London tube trains whizzing by, and it is indeed a stunningly filmed sequence. Even on video.

The caliber of talent across the board in Neverwhere also contributes immensely to its timelessness; where some of the hairstyles and fashion choices (yes, even the ostensibly fantastical London Below ones) are minutely dated, the performances are uniformly excellent, particularly Paterson Joseph’s pervasively charming huckster Marquis de Carabas and Peter Capaldi’s unsettlingly genteel turn as the Angel Islington. Dewi Humphreys’ direction is spot-on, particularly when the show crashes through the mold of stodgy video with atmospheric, jagged jump cuts and disorienting freeze frames. Oh, and the fab score by Brian Eno. Yeah, back up and read that again… BRIAN FUCKING ENO. Kinda inventing a new style of score, sort of… prog-goth? Ace. I still have yet to listen to the commentaries for each episode, but I can confirm that the brief intro Q&A with Gaiman, Henry, and producer Clive Brill is excellent. (Obvious highlight: Henry’s multiple – seriously, he does it about half a dozen times – impressions of the shriek he let out upon meeting Gaiman and artist/collaborator Dave McKean for the first time. Oh, Lenny. Less than three you.)

Peter Capaldi as the Angel Islington, Laura Fraser as Door

At the end of the day it is the rich storytelling on hand in Neverwhere that makes it most worth revisiting. Yes, the nerd collective is apt to reply, that’s Neil… it’s what he does. Well, yes, but I don’t think it can be stressed enough how he manages to pull of a supremely multi-faceted universe in three hours’ time, using as many existing London locations as possible to double for a fairy-tale-cum-dystopian world. The phrase “world-building” gets used in discussions about TV shows a lot, and many writers are great at it, but Neil Gaiman is virtually unmatched. The strange denizens of London Below are such heartfelt and relevant creations because they’re rooted in a very real observation, namely Gaiman and Henry’s conceit that the transients of the streets of London are dwellers of this underground world, virtually invisible to ordinary folk who breeze by them like they don’t exist. Other times, the daftest of plot points works like gangbusters; when you’ve got a scene with Laura Fraser’s Door demanding that Gary Bakewell’s Richard apologize to a rat (who ends up being an extremely important rat later, but you certainly can’t know that at the time), it’s clearly meant to be amusing but it’s also played extremely straight, and you believe completely within about two seconds that she’s got a damn good reason and he’d better do it and not dawdle… that’s a writer who knows how to cement an audiences’ faith in the world they’ve created.

Watching Neverwhere again has absolutely renewed my interest in the fact that Gaiman’s magnum opus American Gods is in development at HBO; though I do still have reservations about how they’re going to make that work, he is involved and the nature of that particular story could actually lend itself pretty well to an ongoing saga. Whether working in the UK television model where shows are commissioned one series at a time, so you need to have a satisfying conclusion if not concrete closure; or in the U.S. model where a second season could conceivably get greenlit the morning after the pilot airs, it is indispensible to have a vision in place that is sturdy and manifold enough to support a sprawling narrative and a worthwhile march toward its endgame. (Though it won’t potentially go on and on like most series, I’m also I’m pretty thrilled that the long-gestating Good Omens, based on the novel Gaiman wrote with Terry Pratchett, which is probably in my top five favorite books of all time, will also end up on the telly. With Terry Jones writing!)

In the intro, Lenny Henry speaks fondly of reading Gaiman’s Sandman comic and never wanting it to end. Good serialized stories, even with a finite conclusion in sight, should always make you feel that way; 15 years later, Neverwhere totally does.

The BBC’s Neverwhere 15th Anniversary Edition DVD is out now.

Follow Nicole Campos on Twitter: @camposova

That said, I’m presenting another book to munch on after you’ve devoured Sir Hardwick’s, and it’s by one of my favorite humans, Joshua Gates. It’s called Destination Truth: Memoirs of a Monster Hunter.All right, so I don’t actually know Josh Gates. That doesn’t mean I can’t claim him to be one of my favorite humans, does it? Maybe it does. Whatever, I don’t know how it works, but I’ve watched Destination Truth since day one and that basically makes us best friends now, right? Right?! Ahem. Point being, I’m a fan of the show and, maybe more importantly, of Gates’s sense of humor as host. His commentary during situations he and the crew get themselves into are snarky, generally hilarious, and, often times e,xactly what I’m thinking from my comfortable armchair.

That light tone and snark lilt throughout this book, and you can almost hear Gates narrating these situations as you read. It’s like a behind the scenes episode that you’re watching in the private, cozy confines of your brain. Gates shares tales of his travels and the exploits of his crew in both enlightening and hilarious ways.  He peppers his hilariously-themed chapters with a segment called Case Files, which is basically a monster guide that includes things like Alien Big Cats and explains that, contrary to the name, they are not felines from outerspace. (Damn.)

“It’s all too common to overhear someone complaining about how ‘long’ the flight is from New York to Los Angeles. Had any of us been born just a few hundred years earlier, a trip to California would have consisted of a six-month ride in a bumpyass covered wagon. Business class could be defined as not being scalped by Indians or dying from dysentery.”

My good pal and former Attack of the Show gadget producer Bruce Greene does a show at Machinima called Wrecknology, on which they review stuff and then destroy it. In this ep he gives you the low down on the 4s, and then we introduce its predecessor to liquid nitrogen.

Do not try this at home. Or work. Or wherever you might have your liquid nitrogen supply and some free time.

Illustration by Carolyn Main

This past Saturday night the Nerdist! Podcast! Live! Show! came to Portland, Oregon. This is significant for two reasons. One, I live there and two, I LIVE THERE.

I guess I’m writing this post for those of you who have not yet been to to a Nerdist taping and might like a few pointers and/or insight into the whole beautiful thing. Although why anyone wouldn’t have done everything short of kill a kitten to get tickets to a Nerdist event is beyond me but whatever. It’s your life. Die without really having ever lived, what do I care? So, without further ado-ing, here’s a list of five things to expect from a Nerdist! Podcast! Live! Show! Especially if you are me.

1. Your friends will probably expect to meet you for pre-drinks to loosen up the old laugh muscles. Do not eat dinner or lunch or really anything before this, and under no circumstances should the fact that you ran nine miles earlier that day influence this decision. You want everything to be extra funny, don’t you? Duh.

2. Make sure everyone working at the venue where the show is knows what a BIG DEAL you are. Tell the ticket guy, the door guy, the beer ladies, and probably the air around you how IMPORTANT you are and not like… a regular fan. You’re special. In every way.

3. Matt Mira did stand up! He was hilarious! And he handled a lady heckler super professionally. You will be so proud of him, you’ll drink from your friend’s flask in celebration. This is not at all a mistake you will regret forever.

4. Once the actual podcast begins, you might want to use all your powers of concentration not to pee your pants. From the laughing. And… other things. Whiskey things.

5. After the show you should probably go out to the merch table and say hi to the guys. They are all so nice! Do not hesitate to talk to them for like an hour or an hour-and-a-half because no one will mind waiting behind you and besides you have a lot of important stuff to say. Everyone GETS that. They will totally understand and not make obscene gestures about you, your friends, and your mothers behind your back.

And that is what you should expect! Hope this was helpful!

For more tips on etiquette follow @kiala and @carolynmain on Twitter!

This post is not an outcome of laziness, I promise you that. This is merely me taking ownership of some musical ignorance. I know nothing about Halloween music. There. Luckily, I know the self-dubbed “Commissioner of Halloween,” Abel Charrow, a dear friend who diagnosed me with my Halloween-shame-itis.  After verbally assulting my cultural anomaly, I suggested he put together a Nerdist Halloween playlist.  And so he did.

I’m on temporary probation from blogging and friendship because of this infraction. But I couldn’t let October end without giving the gift of spoooookey music. Take it away, Commissioner!

–

There I was, grooving to “Monster Mash” (as is my duty as Official Commissioner of Halloween), when Becca Gleason – trusted Nerdist music blogger – stepped into my office and asked, “What song is this?”  I know. You probably need a moment to let that sink in (and to wipe off the milk you surely just spit all over your monitor).  It’s shocking.  It’s appalling.  Our schools have failed us.  Needless to say, Becca’s blogging-license is suspended until she learns a little Halloween Party Music 101:

1. Bobby “Boris” Pickett & The Crypt-Kickers– Monster Mash

Let’s get this one out of the way.  Boris Pickett is the godfather of all Halloween dance songs and “Monster Mash” - a spoof of the “Mashed Potato” – is his crowning achievement.  He followed up its successful release with an entire Monster Mash album, and inspired whole slew of Halloween-themed parody acts.  Identifiable by the obligatory sounds of dragging chains and Boris Karloff impersonations, most of these parodies don’t live up to the original.  A couple do stand-out: The Ghoul’s “Be True To Your Ghoul” (an oddly violent Beach Boys parody), and John Zacherle’s “Dinner With Drac, Part 1,” are sure to raise some eyebrows.

2.  Stevie Wonder – Superstition

Not into funk?  How about some heavy blues-rock from The Black Keys?  Their song “Howlin’ For You” gets a free pass on Halloween simply for incorporating the word “Howl.”  Other free passes go to “Howlin’ for my Baby,” and “Moanin’ at Midnight”, both, fittingly, by Howlin’ Wolf.

Crosby dominates the Christmas classics scene, so why shouldn’t he have a Halloween song or two… or an entire radio special?  His song, “Halloween,” with Victor Moore & Boris Karloff (at 7:00 on this video), is as much a crowd-pleaser as it is a reactionary critique on the modern age (You’ll hear what I mean).  For a jazzy version of “Headless Horseman,” check out this classy cover by Kay Starr.

5.  Frantics – Werewolf

I don’t know much about this one, outside of it’s from rainy Puget Sound, and it bleeds nicely into Bat For Lashes’ “What’s A Girl To Do?“  Listen to both, then listen to Cults’ “Bad Things,” and you got a story about a love-sick werewolf, a moody vampire, and the girl caught in the middle.  That’s right, you just listened to Twilight.

12. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put A Spell On You

Hawkins music drips with so much of the macabre, you could make a killer Halloween playlist featuring absolutely no one else.  My personal favorite: “Little Demon.”

13.  Michael Jackson – Thriller

Here it is: the one song that guests not only expect, but will mutiny against a DJ who doesn’t give it play.  Seriously, if your choice is between “Thriller” on repeat for three hours or playing every other song on this list, play “Thriller” on repeat for three hours!  As for comparable alternates, there aren’t.  But consider these two comparably pervasive, comparably expensive-to-license hits: The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy For The Devil” & The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” (you know, thanks to Charles Manson).

SPECIAL MENTIONS:

There are two musical acts that immediately popped in my head when I started this list, yet both went unmentioned.  That’s because they so exemplify the spirit of Halloween, that I’d be doing a disservice by singling out one song, or comparing their work against any of the above artists.  They are Tom Waits, who is so morbid, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins covered his songs (my Halloween favorites: “Little Drop of Poison” & “Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard“), and Ryan Gosling & Zach Shields’ band, Dead Man’s Bones (“Dead Man’s Bones” & “My Body’s A Zombie For You” being my personal favorites). The Dead Man’s Bones album has become to my October what Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas is to my December.

You can find my full Halloween playlist on Spotify (user: abelcharrow), and let me know what I’m missing by dropping a comment below.  For you runners out there, check out my running playlists at www.6n6challenge.com/music

Thanks, Becca, thanks, Chris, for inviting me to make this list.  Happy Halloween to all, and to all a ghoulish night!

Already a fan of Big Finish and their Doctor Who range (no surprise), I recently was turned onto an independent production, the science fiction serial The Minister of Chance. This is a full cast audio adventure starring some big names in the genre, including Paul Darrow (Blake’s 7), Jenny Agutter (Logan’s Run, An American Werewolf in London), and even Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann (the Seventh and Eighth Doctors, respectively).

The story concerns a world wherein the peaceful “backwater” country Tanto is suddenly invaded and taken over by the larger, more powerful country, Sezuan, the machinations of Ambassador Durian (McGann). Sezuan’s ruler, The Witch Prime (McCoy), is furious that Durian has taken matters into his own hands, but Lord Rathen (Darrow) convinces him that Durian is still of use. Elsewhere, a mysterious man, the titular Minister of Chance (Julian Wadham), travels to an Inn in search of a famous scientist (Jenny Agutter), now missing thanks to the Sezuan occupiers’ outlawing of all science. The Minister is far more than he appears, and his search for the scientist takes him and his new defacto companion, the mouthy barmaid Kitty (Lauren Crace), between dimensions, where they meet beasts of all sort.

The cast is all fantastic and lend a great deal of gravitas to the production. The story is compelling and interesting, if a bit hard to understand at first. It does drop you into things without much build-up, so at times it’s hard to know what exactly is going on, but that doesn’t last too long, and soon you’re caught up in the world of the play. The Minister is a great central character; Originally played by Stephen Fry in a Doctor Who spinoff webcast, “Death Comes to Time,” the Minister always knows more than he’s letting on, which keeps everyone around him guessing. Kitty never stops talking, which is made light of in the episodes, but it does come off as pretty annoying for the listener.

The world they’ve created is quite rich and, just as their doctrine suggests, the images are immediately conjured in the listener’s head through hearing only the audio. There are only two episodes so far, and because the production is independent, it takes some time to raise the funds and schedule recording, but they’re both very compelling and enjoyable to listen to. And at about a half hour each, they can easily be enjoyed on a walk or a car ride to or from work. Each episode is about $2 American, but there is a nine-minute prologue starring McGann which is included below. If you like this type of thing, you’ll have a really nice time listening to The Minister of Chance.

-Kanderson likes to talk Sci-Fi. Follow him on TWITTER

October means a few things to me: Less light and time to intentionally seek out the sun when it is out in an attempt to stave off those winter blahs; A celebration of all things pumpkin, including my favorite pumpkin ales; Horror films, my favorite genre; and Fall break from classes and a chance to review a new release.

The film I chose to see is the prequel to John Carpenter’s The Thing, titled… The Thing. This The Thing tells the events that lead to John Carpenter’s The Thing (I considered calling them Thing 1 and Thing 2, but thought better of it), going into the details of the events at the Norwegian station.

Near the beginning of the film, Dr. Halvorson, played by Ulrich Thomsen, along with assistant Adam Goodman, played by Eric Christian Olsen, recruit paleontologist Kate Lloyd, played by the lovely Mary Elizabeth (it’s hard not to sing “Ramona”) Winstead to accompany his crew to Antarctica for what promises to be one of the biggest finds in recent history. Upon arrival, Lloyd is immediately taken to the site and shown what appear to be a crashed alien spacecraft and a possible pilot for said craft, frozen beneath the ice.

When Dr. Halvorson orders the extraction of a tissue sample against the protests of Lloyd, things don’t go as expected, unless you know that the alien is The Thing and you know what The Thing does, in which case it may be somewhat expected. This Thing relies more on brute force than Carpenter’s version, which preferred to remain hidden. If you watch both films close in time to each other, you will notice the contrast in effects, since this version is heavy on CGI.

Winstead is great in her role as a paleontologist thrust into this horrific, cold and dark world where anyone you see might launch a tentacle through your chest. She holds it together even during the most disturbing events. I can’t help but make a comparison to Ripley in the Alien films. First time feature director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. does a good job at making an endless expanse of snow seem claustrophobic and hopeless, though I believe this was done better in the original. Unfortunately, no one else stood out in this one. Joel Edgerton (young Uncle Owen) was okay, but the part could have been filled by anyone.

One thing that I must mention is that great care was taken to make sure that all of the details regarding the Norwegian station from John Carpenter’s The Thing were taken into account. The end of the film dovetails perfectly into the beginning of the 1982 release.

Die-hard fans of practical effects will need to look elsewhere for their fix, but if CG monsters/aliens don’t bother you, you like a fair amount of gore, or you’re just curious about what happened immediately prior to meeting Kurt Russell’s MacReady, check this one out.

How much would I pay to see this one again?

Out of $10, I’d pay $6. It was a good horror release, but I don’t believe it will be as fondly remembered as the original.

Jay Fralick is the co-host of The Wanna Watch a Movie? Podcast

Follow me on Twitter

Last month, BBC and 2 Entertain released, in my opinion, one of the best Doctor Who DVDs yet: “Day of the Daleks.” The two disc set features two different versions of the 1972 serial as well as a slew of interesting and engaging special features.

STORY
Written by Louis Marks and directed by Paul Bernard, “Day of the Daleks” was the opening four-parter of the show’s 9th season, the third to feature Third Doctor Jon Pertwee. It involves the Doctor and his UNIT cohorts investigating a report of a ghost at a large manor house, which is the site of an important peace conference, one that could very well stave off World War III. The “ghost” was spotted by Sir Reginald Styles, the key figure in the peace talks. Not surprisingly, the ghost is not a ghost at all, but rather an assassin from the 22nd Century attempting to avert a future where the human race is enslaved by Daleks and huge, hulking mercenaries called Ogrons do their bidding. The Doctor maintains, however, that murder, even one to prevent a terrible future, cannot be condoned. Soon, the Doctor’s companion, Jo Grant, is transported to the future and Daleks begin coming back in time and it’s up to the Doctor and UNIT under Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to prevent Styles’ murder and save the future.

This is a very strong opening story for a season and one of the few instances in the classic series of time travel being used as a plot element and not merely a transportation. This is the serial that introduced the concept of “The Blinovitch Limitation Effect,” the fictional theory that states that one cannot, or at least should not, cross one’s own time stream. The story at its core is very similar to James Cameron’s film The Terminator, which came out twelve years later. Author Harlan Ellison sued Cameron over the similarities between Terminator and a couple of episodes of The Outer Limits he wrote, but I think “Day of the Daleks” writer Louis Marks could also have had a case if he so cared. Marks’ initial idea for the story did not include the Daleks, but they were put in after having not been onscreen for five years.

VERSIONS
As is common when 2 Entertain does their special edition-style DVDs, the “Day of the Daleks” release contains two versions of the story. On disc one you have the four part story as it was initially broadcast. Unlike some filmmakers who shall remain nameless, the BBC and 2 Entertain have always maintained their belief that one should have the right to see the story as it first came out, albeit with some clean-up and vidfiring done to it. On the second disc is the special edition version of the story. It contains specially shot sequences, updated special effects, and, my personal favorite addition, the Dalek voices have been completely re-recorded by new series Dalek voice, Nicholas Briggs. In 1972, since the Daleks had not been seen since 1967, people forgot how to do their voices and so aren’t in keeping with the way the baddies are portrayed normally. Briggs, a lifelong fan of the show, brings his style to the pepperpots, yet does it in a way authentic to the time. For the most part, the special edition versions that have been released up to this point are somewhat inferior or unnecessary, but in my opinion, the “Day of the Daleks” update is absolutely fantastic and blends together new and old together almost seamlessly. I defy anyone to watch it and tell me it doesn’t enhance the story.

EXTRAS
Disc 1 features a commentary on the broadcast version by actors Anna Barry and Jimmy Winston, who play two of the future assassins; vision mixer Mike Catherwood; script editor Terrance Dicks; and late producer Barry Letts. This is a very nice commentary, though it’s clear Letts, who died of cancer in 2009, was very sick at the time of recording, which makes for a bittersweet listening experience. Other features on the disc include “Blasting the Past,” a lovely 30 minute making-of feature; “A View from the Gallery,” in which Letts and Catherwood talk for 20 minutes about what a vision mixer does; a photo gallery; and short segments from the shows Nationwide and Blue Peter pertaining to the serial.

Disc 2 features a 13 minute featurette about the making of the special edition version of the story; a five minute “Now and Then” featurette comparing the locations used in the serial both now and then; and “The Cheating Memory,” an 8 minute dialogue with various people about how the memory of watching “Day of the Daleks” as a child is very different from what it’s like to watch it now. Also on this disc are two of my favorite features. The first is “The UNIT Family — Part Two,” a continuation of a feature on the “Inferno” DVD. This 31 minute program talks about Doctor Who during seasons 8, 9, and 10 as they pertain to the actors and characters within UNIT. This feature is lively and there are plenty of enjoyable anecdotes from actors Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), John Levene (Sgt. Benton), and Richard Franklin (Capt. Mike Yates). The final feature is the 9 minute “The UNIT Dating Controversy,” in which comedian and Whovian Toby Hadoke discusses the continuity (or lack thereof) as it pertains to the Earthbound UNIT years. There’s been a dismaying lack of consistency about when the UNIT stories take place, and Hadoke lovingly and humorously takes the piss out of the show for confusing and angering him and so many other fans over the years.

All in all, “Day of the Daleks” is a marvelous DVD outing. As a huge fan of ’70s Doctor Who and of the Pertwee years specifically, I’m pleased as punch that so much care and love has been put into it. If you’ve never watched the classic series and want a DVD to give you a good idea of what the show was like between 1970 and 1974, I would absolutely say pick this up.

-Kanderson can also do Venusian Aikido while sipping wine. Follow him on TWITTER.