Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love it (Mad Norwegian Press)
It’s true! From grandmothers to business women to law enforcement officers to fellow teachers to ten-year-old girls, chicks do indeed dig Time Lords. In fact, dudes dig them too… and with good reason.
Doctor Who, one of the longest running and argumentatively the most beloved shows in television history has inspired this wide-ranging and captivating collection of essays. My personal history with the Doctor began when I was 8 and saw one of the first Tom Baker episodes called “The Ark in Space” on PBS. It caught my attention and I spent the entire Saturday afternoon watching the whole 4-part event and being amazed by the mythology that was unfolding before me, it also marked the day I got a mad crush on the distinguished and lovely Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane) who to this day still can be described by those adjectives.
Well, the short version of what comes after is that I have been a fanboy of Doctor Who long before I knew what that term meant and that this is the one area of my fandom that is readily and actively shared by all four of my daughters ages 10-15 (note – this is not true of Star Wars or of Star Trek). And while some of these essays were not written for the pre-teen in mind, this collection can be described as nothing less than an incredible addition to any fan’s bookcase.
Lynne Thomas and Tara O’ Shea have brought together a wide range of talent that reflects opinions from the fan base to inside the production of the show to those that got dragged into the phenomena by friends and family and everywhere in-between. The essays themselves cover an incredible range of topics. The advancement of gender and sexual-orientation issues on the show, the nit-picking of Galifrey mythology, production history, the evolution of the assistant (“sidekick” to those of us from the comic book world), the impact of the show on current culture… and the list goes on. I knew this book would be a no-brainer for any fan of the show, but what I was surprised by is that I found this to be an excellent read for any student of fandom or cultural history. You want to know how a single pitched idea, a single plot from an under-budget 1963 TV show can still have a tremendous cultural and economic impact on the world 47 years later? This is the book to consume!
Below is the official description from the publisher, Mad Norwegian Press and presently you can buy this directly from them for $11.50 available now! – this is a huge deal! The bottom line is that I enjoyed this read entirely and cannot recommend this book enough.
In Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, a host of award-winning female novelists, academics and actresses come together to celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who, discuss their rather inventive involvement with the show’s fandom, and examine why they adore this series so much.
All told, this essay collection is designed to inform and delight male and female readers alike, and to examine some of the more extraordinary aspects of being a female Doctor Who enthusiast. Essay topics include Carole Barrowman (Anything Goes) discussing what it was like to grow up with her brother John (including the fact that he’s still afraid of shop-window dummies), longtime columnist Jackie Jenkins providing a memoir of her work on “Doctor Who Magazine,” novelist Lloyd Rose (Camera Obscura) analyzing the changes in Rose between the ninth and tenth Doctors, and much more.
Other contributors to this essay collection include Elizabeth Bear (the Jenny Casey trilogy), Lisa Bowerman (star of the Bernice Summerfield audios), Mary Robinette Kowal (Shades of Milk and Honey), Seanan McGuire (Rosemary and Rue), Jody Lynn Nye (the Mythology series), Kate Orman (Seeing I), Catherynne M. Valente (The Orphan’s Tales), and more.
Also featured: a comic from Tammy Garrison and Katy Shuttleworth (Torchwood Babiez), plus interviews with India Fisher (Charley in the Doctor Who audios) and Sophie Aldred (Ace on Doctor Who, 1987-1989).
[ 9781935234043, trade paperback ]
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