Year 9

Nine years of continuous blogging, usually at a rate of 2 posts a day, not counting my participation in other blogs - the counter is at 6719 total posts as of this piece - which doesn't sound nearly as impressive as saying I'm embarking on a 10th year. Every year, I like to thank all of you have have come in, read an article or two or ten or a hundred, have perhaps left a comment (the blogger's food). So thank you. Thank you all. And I hope to keep finding ideas for content that'll draw you back.

The X-Files and other series coming to an end

Though I started 2015 filling my daily reviews slot with short-run series like Space 1999 and Alien Nation, the bulk of the year has been spent on The X-Files and its spin-offs. With The Lone Gunmen ending today, that leaves just The X-Files' last season and its final film, which will bring us just short of the New Year. I'll pick them up again late January when the event mini-series airs, but in the meantime, expect me to catch up on Doctor Who (reminds me I haven't watched all of Series 9 yet, no spoilers please), and then embark on, well, skip to the end of this post for the possibilities.

The other series that will be ending with 2015 is each Saturday's Snapshots of Jimmy Olsen. Not that the well has dried or anything, but I never imagined I would stick with the series more than 52 weeks simply because there are lots of other characters I'd like to tackle as well. 2016 will bring a new focus to Saturdays, and yes, it's still in the Superman Family, but I'm gonna keep the surprise to myself for now.

Other Year 9 Highlights
-The year was marked by movie-watching projects that, while not producing very many individual posts, did fuel my This Week in Geek feature. Last December, I was watching/discovering one indie sci-fi film a day. This led to me making a New Year's "resolution" to watch the 50 "most favorited" films on iCheckMovies.com that I hadn't already seen. And now I'm in ISpyDecember, discovering one spy film a day for the month.
-With A Force Awakens soon coming out, I've finally lifted the ban on "That Franchise I Never Talk About", not that you're supposed to be happy about it, necessarily. The other S.Wars I've covered this year is Secret Wars, which I would have covered completely except for the fact this summer event ISN'T OVER YET! Come on, Marvel. I feel like I have to finish it given I stuck through DC's inferior event, Convergence to its end.
-If you like dating advice, I've added Lucy Lane and Kara Zor-El to the Dating Advice series formerly represented only by Lois Lane and Diana Prince.
-Arrowed, in which I imagined comics series as TV series continued, moving away from DC Comics in time, and turning to Marvel properties.
-I guess my "hottest" post this year was about the Black Widow controversy, i.e. WAS Avengers Age of Ultron sexist?
-Obituaries: Always sad to write these tributes, but this year we lost - and I felt the need to honor - Leonard Nimoy, Terry Pratchett, Christopher Lee, and Murphy Anderson. :-(

And elsewhere
Siskoid's Blog of Geekery hasn't been my only outlet this year. My participation in others' podcasts (shout out to Fire & Water, Secret Origins, and Rolled Spine) led to creating my own, the Lonely Hearts Romance Comics Podcast, in addition to French-language, improv-related podcast Catégorie Libre. And there might be more in 2016. I've got ideas! And then there's the Legion of Super-Bloggers, where I was mostly in charge of various round tables, covering the original Adventure Comics era and the grand experiment that is Hot or Not? At some point, I inherited the whole of the Who's Who feature, covering all the post-Baxter series Legionnaires, am now handling 5YL comics fellow Super-Blogger Anj didn't cover (Annuals and Legionnaires #1-18), and am setting the table for covering the Reboot era by Spring of 2016 (with a neat twist, if it all works out).

So, what's next?
I've got two finalists when it comes to next year's daily reviews. Battlestar Galactica, including the original and 1980 series and at the tail end, Caprica too, is one. About four and a half months of content, and if I'm unsure, it's because the bulk of that is extremely depressing. Do I want to put myself through that in the bleak midwinter? The other is the DC Animated Universe continuity, which would exclude anything that's not strictly DCAU (Legion, Teen Titans, the later DVD movies, Brave & the Bold...), but WOULD include the comics set in that continuity. Others have covered the Batman and Superman shows, obviously, but by going all in like this, I think I can make it my own. If I do this one, it'll take more than two years, but I'd take breaks between series to do other things (even that long run of BSG) which would stretch things out. Even if I did only the televisual stuff, it would take more than a year, so it's a worthy project for the SBG. I don't know yet, what do you think?

As for the rest, I've dropped some hints, I'm just not ready to give definitive answers yet. Why ruin a good mystery? Perhaps you should tell ME what you want to see on the blog. I'll certainly see what I can do. But if all the series I've ever reviewed make comebacks - The X-Files are, as is Star Trek, and Doctor Who keeps on truckin' - I might not need that much to fill the daily slot, ha! Still, I hope you stick around for the secondary content if the shows covered aren't your jam. Comics, role-playing games, movies... that 10th year will hopefully have something for everyone.

Comments

tomg said…
Congratulations on completing your 9th year! I always check here first when I am relaxing after work and I am never disappointed! Thank you for all the effort you put into your content.

When you mentioned about possibly posting about the DC Animated Universe, it made me think about the old Super Friends episodes and I wondered if they would be worth posting about. But then I suddenly had a an idea (a rare thing)! How about a year of Ultraman reviews? I am only familiar with Ultraman Tiga but the franchise has been around for decades... and there have been several comic book versions as well from Dark Horse, Nemesis, etc. It might be something to consider but I wonder how difficult is would be to locate all the episodes.

Tom
Tim Knight said…
Thank you for another year of one of the most consistently interesting, informing, and entertaining geek blogs around.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions on the most recent Who.

Some time in the future I'd like to see you take a run at reviewing Supernatural (11 seasons and still going strong), but I can't remember if you've expressed any opinion, one way or another, on this show.

And more gaming articles, please - particularly for the game formerly known as DWAITAS 😉
Siskoid said…
Tom, the most I've seen of Ultraman is a poster for it. Which is more than I can say for Supernatural, Tim! But certainly, big franchises like that are up my alley. Yes, even Stargate, which I've also not seen a single frame of since the original film. I guess Hercules and Xena also live in a big universe like that, as does, obviously, Buffy and Angel. That may all lie in the far future.

More DWAITAS content to come with the end of the most recent season of Who of course. Watch for that in January. And before then, I should be releasing the 4th volume of the Extracanonical Sourcebooks. It's in the final stages even as we speak!

Thanks for the support, guys. I'll try not to let you down.
Siskoid said…
Oh and I forgot to address the Super-Friends thing. I once thought of doing the entirety of DC Comics' canon of films and television productions, in order, if I could. But I feel like I'd be stuck on Filmation hell for months on end during the 60s and 70s.
Tim Knight said…
A new Extracanonical Sourcebook! Fantastic news, a great Christmas present ;-)
googum said…
Use your powers for good and cover Blake's 7, I'd love to see that come back...

If you have a ton of DCAU comics to go with that coverage, that'd be a helluva thing: I don't have a full run, but like most of the ones I've seen. And congrats!
Eric TF Bat said…
I say no to BSG. It is horribly depressing for a Canadian winter, and when it's not depressing it's stupid (the entire original series and the finale). Don't do that to yourself!

I like the idea of Blake's Seven though. Sets that made Pertwee-era Doctor Who look big-budget! Acting that made The Tomorrow People look like it involved acting! Plotlines that proved that Terry Nation really should have stuck to DW novelisations! And to offset all of that: Servalan and Avon, to make it a classic!

Hmmm... I mentioned The Tomorrow People there. You could go for that. It's pretty dire, though. Might be easier and kinder to yourself to just stab yourself in the eye sockets. So maybe not.
Anonymous said…
You might actually enjoy "Farscape", so I'm putting my vote there strictly for your benefit. (I wouldn't mind reading the reviews too, but I don't feel like it's a need that is going unmet in my life.)

Thanks for putting out this blog for years and years! Undoubtedly there are days when it's a drag, but I like to hope it's still rewarding to you much more often than not.

Also -- something I've been meaning to mention but haven't really haven't found a moment -- I do appreciate that you allow Anonymous folks such as myself to post. I realize that doing so means you could conceivably contend with ill-mannered guests, so at some level you're inviting some hassle. But some of us really, really do not want to build an online persona, and simply like talking about the stuff you like. So, thanks for being a friendly place, and I shall endeavor not to wear out my welcome.

- Anonymous # [number redacted]
Responsible for probably 90% of the Anonymous posts on this site
snell said…
No, I didn't pay them to suggest Blake's 7.

Congratulations on 9 years, and here's to nine more. Keep writing, and I'll keep reading.
I'd love to see the DCAU coverage, personally!
Siskoid said…
Blake's 7 still not in Region 1...

But yeah, Tomorrow People etc. I think I learned my lesson with Space 1999 that even a cult favorite (and pure nostalgia) is not necessarily good for daily viewing. It really drains the batteries.

Eric, that's really why I'm having misgivings. I watched all of the new BSG back to back with all of Six Feet Under. I was depressed for weeks, no matter how highly I rate both shows.

Something shorter like Farscape could definitely make it in somewhere. I don't mind shorter projects amid the longer ones. The Buck Rogers TV show is on my shelf and could end up being watched and reviewed on that basis, for example.

As for Anonymity, it's not a problem as I don't attract many (or any) trolls, and don't really invite controversy, especially on political and religious topics. The spammers I do get all have google accounts and don't post anonymously anyway.
Congrats on making it to 9 years man. I don't about you, but the major issues I have with running my own blog sometimes is lack of comment response and interest at times. So kudos to you on maintaining this one, in addition to so many others for that amount of time. Here's to many more;)
Siskoid said…
Sometimes it's worth doing for its own sake (the Hamlet blog for example), but I'm deeply appreciative to everyone who's ever commented and kept the flame alive.
abc said…
I'd vote for BSG, but the Farscape suggestion works for me too ... my watching of it stalled in season two, and it would be nice to have an excuse to get back into it. In any event... congrats!
Siskoid said…
I watched Farscape on occasion, but there was such a glut of "crew on spaceship" television at the time, I just couldn't keep up with everything in case it turned out to be really good. I'll probably try to get my hands on it in the nearer future.
LiamKav said…
I've got a similar issus with BSG. A friend lent me his "Complete Series" blu ray set, and I can't bring myself to start watching it, knowing that it gets really, really heavy. Probably why I decided to watch Sailor Moon instead.

Ooh, as a small idea, and I have no idea if you like the show or not or if a comedy show would be the right thing, howsabout Red Dwarf? Only 50 odd episodes, and I would make an argument that it is the winner of the "show that changed the most between seasons" award, both in general and specifically Red Drawf II to Red Dwarf III.