No Whitewash in the White House

  
This time, I'll be blogging about my thoughts on The Impossible Astronaut in a few paragraphs further down the page...
In the lead-up to Dr. Who's return to tv this week, I'd been listening to The Gemini Contagion but unfortunately it's another ho-hum audio release. A predictable slice of outer space body horror, it could easily have featured Doctor Tennant and Rose or Martha or Donna. Like the majority of the BBC hardbacks over the last six years, it is suitable for all ages. It's also read perfectly adequately by Meera Syal (who should have become a companion last year). Set on a wintry, alien future world, Gemini borrows the starfish gimmick from the early 80s incarnation of Starro the Conqueror; and the possessed characters, with their catchphrase "Listen to me!" reminded me of both The Empty Child and 42.  The concept of  an anti-microbial handwash that transfers the contagion is not quite as trendy as it would have been last spring and I cannot figure out why it was designed to be a universal translator too. I've still to be totally engaged by any 11th Doctor audios and  felt this plot was done better by Big Finish when it was called Ish.
 Only the day before I heard the sad news about Ms. Sladen, I had taken the audiobook of The Time Warrior out of the library in Cooper Park because I had just finished listening to The Green Death.

The swan song for Sarah's predecessor, dippy Jo Grant, it is read by Katy Manning herself. While it's startling to hear her slip into the register she used as Jo, it's also surprising  that the unforgettable final scenes of the story are dealt with in a rather brusque and abrupt fashion. Nor does the Doctor seem particularly alien in the book. The political and environmental themes are overt throughout, however; I'd forgotten that the company had to be renamed Panorama Chemicals to avoid litigation! Katy Manning reads the book beautifully although her Brig is a touch pompous. However, as a kid, I always bridled at the scene with security guard Hinks and his comic; the graphic torture described in its pages by  Malcolm Hulke didn't resemble anything I knew from the House of Ideas- although it does now.
I read on Newsarama  the other day that the (US) marketplace doesn't seem to be responding to DC as well as it does Marvel. The editorial position was that this was because the company didn't have a successful midlist. Its hugely popular Batman and Green Lantern properties were doing well but nothing else was really drawing in new readers.
Apart from the fact that it's impossible to get US comics anywhere other than specialist shops and the prohibitive price tag,  the sadism, violence and sexism is aimed squarely at an ageing demographic. Iconic characters like Superman and Wonder woman are known by kids world-wide but they can't buy comics about them (and even if they could, I think many parents would be put off by the "edgy" imagery and storylines). At the same time, that ageing audience sneers at the snarky humour of kiddie comics like the Marvel Adventures range. So here's my suggestion for DC:
Rebrand the floppy monthlies wth a two-tier system; one is a Mature Readers line, the Vertigo label. This might include a Dark Knight series, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Zatanna, Jonah Hex, Constantine...These are repackaged as graphic novels and can be as gory as Geoff Johns likes. It's also the label for any 15+ war, spy or sci-fi comics that creators want to release.
Then there's a DC label: this is an all-ages line, with a Smallville title, Batman and Robin, Teen Titans, Wonder Woman, Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl, Kamandi, Metal Men and JLA. All-new number one issues, highly collectable, reprinted as big manga-style paperbacks and sold through Wal-Mart, cinemas, Toys R Us, online, apps.... if kids don't read comics, Hollywood is losing a huge market share, in my opinion. For years, I've thought it absurd that there are Batman and Spider-Man comics that a five-year-old shouldn't be exposed to but with GL, Thor and Cap movies almost upon us and Kirkman's Walking Dead on tv, I don't foresee that changing for some time. So the two-tier model is my solution. Rinse and repeat with Marvel's Ultimate line.
 I'm still surprised that  IDW  have the licence for Dr. Who rather than DC and Marvel and that it's such a slender read and yet bafflingly difficult to follow. This one aside, since I haven't actually read it as yet...

So, what about The Impossible Astronaut  then? This heavily-trailed episode was highly anticipated and it continues to explore the "bumpy-wumpy "( how annoying!) nature of time travel. I'd "spoilered" myself  earlier in the day by clicking on the BBC's photo of the regeneration effect but honestly I was expecting River to kill the Doctor, thanks to the DWM "Marked for Death" covers.

 From the outset, I marvelled yet again to the brilliance of Matt Smith -dancing with Laurel and Hardy; his unease at the lakeside; the trace of contempt when he challenged Amy; Mrs. Robinson; and the way he simply mouths certain words, like "fez".
 I'm hoping I'll learn to like Amy Pond this year but I felt "Ian" Gillan's grief was pretty unconvincing - just as unconvincing as a black security man in the White House in 1969. I also thought the true terror of the Silent was it was the creature that stalks you in the bathroom.
To be truthful, I felt the pace flagged when the X-Files investigation began in Florida. I was surprised by River's cheeky line about being a screamer; then touched by the irony of her anxiety about finally meeting the Doctor when he wouldn't recognise her- which we've already seen. The cliffhanger was actually quite shocking and touches upon my biggest concern about this episode: what's in it for kids?  I was reminded of some of the New Adventures and some of the Eighth Doctor BBC books. Astronaut is dense, very talky and raises far more questions than I suspect it intends to answer next week. Matt Smith can't possibly be the last Doctor so how does he get out of that? When and why did the Ponds leave the Tardis? Is Amy River's mum? Is that why she was at the Ponds' wedding ? Isn't that the Tardis from The Lodger? Who's in the spacesuit? Amelia? River? One of the Ambassadors...of DEATH?!
 Don't get me wrong; the dialogue was often witty and charming and the stakes were very high for the team, even if we don't really know what's going on yet. I haven't seen Memento but I'm guessing the tally marks are there to count the number of times they see the Silents next week. Spookily, they won't know why they're doing it. Anyway, six more episodes before the summer break and three new books next week!
The dedication to Elisabeth Sladen at the start of Astronaut was bookended with a short but beautiful CBBC programme, My Sarah Jane. The montage set to Costello's version of Aznavour's "She" was absolutely heart -breaking. A pity it wasn't broadcast on BBC1 but nonetheless a tribute to how much the character and the actress were adored across the generations.

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Next: something about Conan. Or Secret Origins of Super-Villains. Not sure yet.