The Personal Touch

Greetings, readers! Thanks for all the comments about the new blog; I suspected there might be a couple, but didn't quite expect the deluge of feedback I've received. (Trust me, it won't be updated nearly as much in the near future... way too much work to do! But I'm glad people are reading, certainly.)

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As you undoubtedly know by now (if you don't and you're reading this website, shame on you!), the Gallifrey 2005 convention is only a couple of days away. Recently I've had contact with several fans who have questioned the motives and reasons behind going to a convention, or at least, why someone would want to spend their weekend with a group of people who share the same object of passion as they do, but perhaps a little more than they might think "healthy".

When I was a child (and well into my teenage years), science fiction was little more than a curiosity, something that only the so-called "nerds" paid attention to. Star Wars took science fiction many steps away from that... but still, even with the devotion of millions of fans worldwide, there was a fine line drawn; now, it was cool to be a Star Wars fan, but science fiction, forget it. Doctor Who was still stigmatized, despite the best efforts of its fans (and sometimes, in spite of them), as were comic books, Star Trek and so forth. That's changed in the past two decades; science fiction is cool, comics are cool, and being a fan of something is almost expected of teenage boys. The San Diego Comic Convention here in America is rapidly approaching the 100,000 attendee mark (I believe it approached 80,000 this year). Wherever you turn around, there are genre fans, be they horror fans, science fiction fans, fantasy fans (hello, Lord of the Rings), comic book fans, and so forth.

Unfortunately, the old stereotypes still exist when it comes to conventions; even to this day, I know people who expect a bunch of mindless knuckleheads wearing pointy Vulcan ears. Not that I find anything wrong with that. But that's not what your average science fiction convention is today. It's more a social event, designed to bring like-minded people together for some fun. Take your average Doctor Who convention: you're more likely to find any number of your friends in the bar, or sitting around a table having a chat, than you are sitting inside a panel room. Not that the panels aren't well attended; Paul McGann has been known most recently to fill the main ballroom of a Doctor Who event with little ease. But there's no difference in, say, listening to a guest speaker on your favorite talk show, and listening to them in person. In person, you simply get the chance to take a more personal role in things.

So what can you expect from a science fiction convention? If you're like many people I know, you go to meet other people. There's an impersonality that's been amplified by the Internet, when you think you know someone just because you share discussions with them on a discussion forum or in an Internet community. Conventions give you the opportunity for a personal connection with these people... after all, if you like someone in cyberspace and you don't like them in person, just how positive is your relationship? There's nothing like sharing a cold beer (or a Coke) with people you've spoken to online for a very long time and have just met today; you've avoided the silly smalltalk and actually know something about each other. (Of course, I also don't think poorly of Internet dating and personal ads, either; whatever works for you!)

I've found this to be the case no matter where I go for an event. I went to the Panopticon convention in 2003 and had an absolutely wonderful time in the bar with people I only knew through email and forum communication, evenings that went until all hours just chatting and having a drink and a laugh. There were people there I'd known ten years, but had never met in person. Needless to say, it was a good week.

So here, on the eve of a convention you may consider going to, or perhaps have no intention of going to but you know of another one (Doctor Who or otherwise) in the immediate area, I'll just give you this advice: go with an open mind. People are people, stereotypes are just that, and you may find yourself meeting a lot of new friends. It's a big world out there, and there's room for everyone.

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I was delighted to see such reaction to my last blog, concerning national borders and the Internet. The vast majority of comments were very positive (interestingly enough, almost all of them were from the UK!) A couple of readers, however, mistook the comments for something completely different than what was said; one emailer even thought it was a denial of the UK's ownership of Doctor Who (which, of course, it wasn't.) In fact, my comments weren't about Doctor Who the program at all, but instead, how in this age of instantenous Internet communication, where a fan of Doctor Who lives and comes from doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. We're all Doctor Who fans, after all (if you're not, why are you reading this website?) and, as I said, it doesn't matter if I'm the one pecking at the keys to enter a news story; British fans are reading this website just as much as (or, in truth, more than) American fans or Australian or Canadian fans or whatever country you live in. Yes, Doctor Who is a very British program; contrary to some lines of thought (sparked, no doubt, by the 1996 Doctor Who movie filmed in Canada and co-produced by Americans), most of us outside the UK actually like Doctor Who because it's British. But where you live doesn't make your opinions less valid, nor does one's nationality necessarily taint you with a particular political or social perspective. As I said in that column, and will repeat here, we're all in this together. (And to the reader who asked "What about New Zealand?" let me say, you weren't left out as a slight at all; I've tried very hard to support and promote New Zealand Doctor Who fandom equally, including promoting Time-Space Visualiser, my favorite Doctor Who fanzine -- it's something very special!)

Ethnocentric Fandom and Random Musings

What a funny world we live in, this Internet age. A quick browse through the World Wide Web will find countless Doctor Who websites and forums and personal home pages... truly a unique and wonderful thing for a show that (before its recent resurgence) was 15 years beyond its life expectancy. But within that collection of sites are a number practicing that wretched beast called nationalism. One would think that, in the year 2005, nationalistic claims over Doctor Who would have ended... this is, after all, the Internet, where, sitting at my desk, I'm as close to someone on the next block as I am to someone six thousand miles away. (Indeed, there are people in Britain I stay in touch more than some I see here in Los Angeles.) Politics aside, that sort of thing makes no sense to me... regardless of whether we're American, British, Canadian, Australian or whatever, we're Doctor Who fans.

So what's this with "UK fan site" and "UK Doctor Who resource" suddenly popping its head up? It's fascinating; it's almost as if it's a calling card, no so much advertising one's nationalistic upbringing as it is decrying the skills or services provided by another. Yes, Outpost Gallifrey is edited by an American, as if that matters; being an American hasn't ever stopped me from providing Doctor Who news as best I can, or stopped people from taking it seriously. A quick check of the stats, which gathers all sorts of information including whatever IP addresses people use to browse it, show that more than 60% of our users are from the United Kingdom. Over 70% of our registered Forum users are from the UK as well. A majority of reviews posted are from Britain, and of my 'regular' news correspondents, the majority of them are British. So I ask: does that really make this an American fan site? Just because I'm the one who punches in the data? Hardly.

Communities are born, live and die based upon their membership, not whoever's in charge at the moment. Ask anyone who regularly uses the social sections of the Outpost Gallifrey Forum (Paradise Towers, the Leisure Hive, the fan video sections, the book section, etc.) and they'll tell you that they feel like they're part of a community. You don't get that sort of thing every day, and I guarantee you that most of these people don't care what country you may live in. One of the greatest things about the Internet -- at least, the parts of it that lend themselves to such a thing -- is that it brings people closer despite their differences, removing political borders and linking people together by their common interests. There are many such Doctor Who fan communities online, discussion communities that may be public or private but still manage to bring people together as friends, as equals, as fans. They have many names (the Outpost Gallifrey Forum, the Yahoo! Groups communities, Planet Skaro, PoliceBox, Totters Lane, even the Usenet newsgroups of yesteryear) but they all serve one purpose: to bring Doctor Who fans together. And (I think) it doesn't matter to them if it's an American at the helm or not; the people that inhabit them just want to have some fun, make some friends, and enjoy their own communities.

So with that in mind, I'd like to say to everyone: no matter which country you belong to, you're welcome here, a large community of Doctor Who fans (and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, you're looking at the "premier" UK fan site already.) But don't take my word for it, why not stop in to our Forum and find out? Meanwhile, whether you join us, or another discussion forum, is your own choice; just do us a favor, and don't play the nation card. We're all Doctor Who fans; we're all in this together.

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On another matter... it's one week to the Gallifrey 2005 convention here in my home town of Los Angeles, California. (If you're not coming, you should think about it in the future; it really is a lot of fun!) Outpost Gallifrey's existence is to promote that event... but you shouldn't think that it's the only convention around. There are so many others coming up in the near future; we have a handy Events Calendar that can tell you about some of them.

For example, Tenth Planet holds a one-day event every year called Invasion happening in May in Barking. There are two events in April, one in Weston-super-Mare (A Galaxy of Stars) and another in Milton Keynes (Collectormania). There are some lovely UK events happening all summer in Wookey Hole sponsored by the Cineffigy group, and then what promises to be the big UK event of the year, Regenerations in Swansea in September (which I'll be attending). Enigma Productions is hosting some one-night specials including an evening with Colin Baker; the Reynolds and Hearn publishers are co-sponsoring an event with Andrew Cartmel (former script editor) in late February; and the Sci-Fi Sea Cruise in early September.. And then there's the Australian national Doctor Who event, Whovention; two American conventions, Massachusetts' United Fan Con and the annual ChicagoTARDIS; and the new Ascension Cardiff event, all in November. It's going to be a very busy year!

Have you never been to a convention before? Put away your fears that it's a bunch of unshorn teenagers running around with dog-eared Target novelisations... Doctor Who conventions are actually really enjoyable gatherings of people who, for the most part, may attend a few panels and then run off either to the hotel bar or the nearest restaurant to have a meal or drinks. I've met some of the best people in my life at Doctor Who conventions on both sides of the Atlantic, in fact, people I socialize with outside the events. So put away your fears and try one; it's not just autograph queues, but in fact could quite literally change your life for the positive.

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A few people have asked me why I would put up a blog on the website. Actually, it'll serve a number of purposes -- I'm hoping to have a running tally of developments from the Gallifrey convention next week (ah, the joys of wireless Internet access) and other events in future, as well as reactions when the new series starts. Think of this as simply an editorial column; you're welcome to read it, or not, depending on what you like. Far too often, however, people forget that there's a person behind the keyboard here, and simply refer to it as some big, nameless, faceless behemoth Doctor Who fan site without thinking. And I'd love to hear from you, pro or con, on any topic that you might have a reaction to... but please, if you want to say something that I'm actually going to take at face value, take a chance and do so from your own email address, with your own name. If one doesn't have the conviction to do that, I don't think the person's comments are worth listening to. Better yet, if you'd like to have some debate, try the Forum... just join and post away. I look forward to your comments!

Outpost Gallifrey 101, or, Why Do It?

So I figured... why not? Everyone else seems to have a blog, and this is first and foremost my personal webspace, and up until now all I seem to do is post other people's reviews and fiction and add up news for the column; sure, I said, why not? A decent editorial section on Outpost Gallifrey seems to be a good idea, especially since everyone else and their robot dog seems to have something to say (and wants ever so much for other people to read it) - why not?

So after repeated experimentation with LiveJournal and Blogger, I turned back to my old ways: on my own server. Could it be, a man who taught himself how to HTML code and Javascript and do cool and funky and experimental things with cascading style sheets... a Luddite when it comes to blog software? It's soooo unbelievably complicated, though - different style sheets (different style SYSTEMS on LiveJournal; what in the world do they want you to do, read a manual?!) This is so much easier; I merely use the same system I use for the news feeds and, voila!, I have a blog.

Anyway, I'm sure you're not interested in all that nonsense. You're obviously here to read my blog, not listen to me pontificate about the technical details. It's currently 11:20pm at night on a Wednesday night, and I've just finished my latest update. Gallifrey 2005 is only a week away and I've got guests coming in this Sunday. Yikes... is it already February!? Where does the time go? Ahem; as I was saying, I've decided to keep a journal on OG (as everyone seems to call it - everyone except me, that is) because I have things to say that I don't otherwise normally say; I really don't editorialize on the news page but rarely (I leave that sort of thing to the other sites... but I shall get to that later.) But it's a strange and funny world we live in, this online community of Doctor Who fandom, isn't it? A strange and wonderful community of different people and personalities all doing three things, one at a time or simultaneously: a) assuming everyone else wants to listen to them as much as they like listening to themselves; b) assuming they have something important to say; and c) assuming that everyone else will take them at face value.

Sadly, that's not the case. Doctor Who fandom is a funny business when you're part of the interpersonal community - a fan club, a convention, a Fitzroy Tavern gathering every month. It's positively ridiculous, though, when you're not; people ascribe certain behavior to you, certain motivations, and they even go so far as to think they know you and know what you're thinking. Suppositions are almost always wrong; yet we, as human beings, think we can rationalize things away based on a word, or a turn of phrase.

Communication is a funny business, so that's why I've decided to keep an editorial journal on Outpost Gallifrey. (Which is, after all, my website. If you don't like it, go get your own.) Because there are things that I'd like to say, or need to be said. Or maybe it'll just be fun. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.

On a slightly brighter note, Alexa.com (a website ranking system owned by Amazon.com now, which I don't necessarily recommend people downloading their toolbar from because Alexa's toolbar apparently has some spyware in it) now ranks Outpost Gallifrey as the most traveled Doctor Who website - over the BBC Cult site. Now, that's a little daunting; don't get me wrong, I love the BBC Doctor Who Site and the people who run it are fabulous. But for some strange reason, our web traffic has jumped in the past couple of months to 15,000 unique visitors per day. (Don't believe me? There's a little NedStat counter bottom right of the front page... little blue box with a red check through it, click on that thing.) That's one of the reasons we moved to a dedicated web server late last fall - that and the Forums were becoming too massive for the shared one we were on. (Sorry, long, complicated, technical story. With a lot of dollar signs attached in the process.) Things seem to be running smoothly and we're handling the traffic. There were over 320 people on the Forum at the very same time the other day, when the trailer that we thought might be transmitted on Saturday actually wasn't. (And more on that, later, too...)

Anyway, thanks for reading. I'll be keeping this updated periodically with update notices on the front page of Outpost Gallifrey. If you're interested in reading further updates, I invite you to. May even enable comments at some point; I haven't decided yet. Enjoy!