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I have wanted to do an entry on scifi cross-universe pages for a while, but the phrase means two different things to me, and I couldn’t decide which to do first. So the heck with it, here are examples of the first, the next entry will start on the other!

In Fan circles, a cross-universe story is one where characters from 2 different fictional universes get together (also called Shared Universe stories) and interact. Some of them can be quite outrageous, like the classic “You Can’t Do That On Trek” site, where fans contributed some of the funniest Photoshopped images you ever saw (I’ll post the link if I can ever find a live version of it; the Paramount legal dept. blue meanies went after it pretty hard, my last good link to it died in 2001). Another great one, still online, is Stone Trek ; Star Trek meets the Flintstones! What makes this one special is the Flash Webisodes, nine at last count and still growing. And the list goes on, with FanFic , Logical Comparisons , RPG’s , Board/Model Games , and more. Each of these categories deserves it’s own entry here, with lot’s of details and info.

It isn’t just the Fan’s who have fun with this. The difference is, the Pro’s actually make money with it. Authors sometimes open up their worlds for others to play in; like Keith Laumer’s BOLO, Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker, and David Weber’s Honorverse, to name a few. (BTW, seen the ads for Sky Captain? Wouldn’t Angelina Jolie make the perfect Honor Harrington, when it’s time to make the movies?). Sometimes a group of authors rally around a concept and build the universe in parallel, like Wild Cards, The Fleet, and Chicks In Chainmail. And if you don’t know what any of those are, run, don’t walk, to your nearest library or bookstore; You are missing something wonderful!

Books aren’t the only media; comics have a long history of this kind of thing, starting with single meetings within the same House (Batman showing up in a Superman issue kind of thing). Then they took it between Houses, although mostly the independents. Then a few brave souls took it between media types, with things like The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And let’s not forget the movies, with offerings like the film version of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or Alien Vs. Predator. But then, movies were doing it back in the Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman days.

OK, see why I didn’t want to get started? This is just the tip of the iceberg on this topic, almost no intro at all compared to what lives in this realm. If you haven’t been there before, I hope at least one link here fires your imagination. I will be returning to this topic a lot in future entries’, count on it!

The estate of Terry Nation has reached an agreement with the BBC; We will have Daleks in the new Dr. Who TV series as a result! In honor of that, I want to pass on a few of my favorite Dalek links. The first one is from the website where I learned the news, Andrew Hearn’s Doctor Who World. Taking it a step farther, The Sun reports that Daleks may be given legs this incarnation!

For those of you wondering what a Dalek is, let me point you to the Googlism: What Is A Dalek. Or for an actual definition, you can go with:
dalek n. a member of a race of hostile alien machine-organisms which appeared in the BBC television science-fiction serial Dr Who from 1963. [invented word, named after an encyclopedia volume covering the alphabetical sequence dal-lek] The Oxford English Reference Dictionary, © Oxford University Press 1996

If you want to add a Dalek to your own collection, you can build, buy, or render one. One of the best places to see what has been buyable in the past is the Skaro Toy Museum. For current merchandise, try the BBC Shop . If you want to buy a life-size Dalek, you should visit: LifeSize

If you like to build your own physical Dalek’s, you should check out Steve Phillips Daleks for a reproduction of the original instructions. If you want to render Daleks into your 3D software, two great choices are Mimrie’s Online Dalek Resources and Who3D.

The last link is the one to beware of; someone is starting to build Daleks! Check out this story from The Register ! Enjoy!

Douglas Adams had a wonderful writing style and a world-class sense of humor. And while he is no longer with us, his projects live on. His best known work, the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, is about to be rendered again, not once but twice.

The new Radio version takes up where the original left off, with never-before heard presentations of Life, The Universe And Everything, So Long And Thanks For All The Fish, and Mostly Harmless. The original vocal crew returns (with one exception), and Douglas himself does a character. For information, including air times, check these links:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/

www.abovethetitle.com/content/programmes/hitchhikers/hitchhikers.html

For those like me who don’t live in England, you can catch the show online at:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4.shtml?fm

If you haven’t listened to the BBC online, test it before the night of the first show. You may need to download and install a player, and it would be a shame to miss the first part of the program while you were doing that! It adjust for your bandwidth, so even dialup users can listen with a good computer.

The other new treat is the movie version of Hitchhiker’s. They are filming it now, so the official web site is fairly sparse yet (not much to put there at this point). The Blog is live and worth checking, though. So is Martin Freeman’s site, the actor who get’s to be Arthur Dent this time around. And just because you can never get enough Douglas Adams, a few more links….

hitchhikers.movies.go.com/hitchblog/blog.htm

www.martinfreeman.com/hhgg.php

www.douglasadams.com

www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hhgttf/

And finally, the indirect link to the classic computer game from the ’80s. This was the first game (and one of a small handful) that caught my attention to the point where I played it to the end. Enjoy!

www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html

It is always sad when we loose one of the best, be they actor, anarchist, or scientist. This man’s character was all of these, even if the man himself was only one. Thank you, Anthony, for being my favorite Master…

First, a sad thing to report. Anthony Ainley, The Master from 1981 to 1998 (and the best Master, IMHO), died on 3May04. I was looking forward to him putting in an appearance in the new series, at least long enough to set up a regeneration sequence. It would have been a fitting end to a great actor’s career. Details can be found here:

Note: this link to www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/ainley.html is defunct; the author of this page went on to write his own science fiction, which can be found at Shannon Sullivan. He still maintains his Dr Who pages, now at A Brief History of Time Travel

In a more positive department, we seem to have a target date for the first new episode: Christmas! We also have a Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and the first Companion (Billie Piper as Rose Tyler). We will see the return of an old enemy, the Autons, to get us started. Guess they didn’t want to jump right into the Daleks or Cybermen; after all, if this works out as we hope it will, there will be a LOT of episodes to develop stories for. Can’t use up your best enemies right out of the gate if you expect it to go the distance!

Here are a few links to point you to still more information about the New Who; check them out, bookmark them, and stop by here often for new ones as I gather them all together!

BBC Doctor

Gallifrey One

Digital Spy

Note: planetwho.uk has been taken over by a domain name reseller, so the link is removed.

And please don’t feel shy about sending me any links you think should be added to this group! I can use all the input I can get here, and lots of other folks will find your links useful.

The Doctor returns!

Since the word went out in mid-2003, there has been a lot of speculation and rumor, but the one thing that remains firm is that the show WILL be back with all new episodes! If I had a vote, I would love to see David Warner as the Doctor, and Alan Rickman as the Master; both veddy British, both world-class actors, both voted for by folks involved with Doctor Who, and either could play either role and nail it definitively to the wall. The dynamic tension between them alone would be worth the price of admission. Too bad I’m just a fan, and only get to vote with my web site.

So rather than confuse the issue by generating online rumors with my personal wish list, let me give you a few links that should point you to the real info and updates. Starting with the official BBC NewWho pages at:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/newtv/

Some non-official sites that will keep you posted with the latest data should start with one of the oldest online Who resources, Outpost Gallifrey. It doesn’t hurt that they are doing one of the best jobs out there:

www.gallifreyone.net/newstv.php

A few other sites worth your time to check out include:

www.cuttingsarchive.org.uk
www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/damon.querry/
nitro9.earth.uni.edu/doctor/homepage.html

Thank you, BBC, for breathing new life into the longest-running SciFi TV show ever!