Oh look, a dreaded blog post about blogging!
You may be feeling it too, there's just one Doctor Who episode left to review, and just like everyone else, I'm wondering "What's next?". Oh, I'm not quite done yet. I've promised to cover the Australian K9 series, which ran for 26 episodes, to June will act as a sort of winding down and prep period. But after that? I'm going to think out loud here, but I'm genuinely interested in readers' opinions, so don't hold back.
Doctor Who
After I finished two years of daily Star Trek reviews (gosh that seems an eternity away), I kept going with comics and the occasional novel for another year. I'm not going to do this here. Availability is an issue, certainly, and while I'm a big fan of the novels and audios, there's just no way to talk about those on a daily basis, not beyond the short capsule reviews I've already been doing every Sunday. Another factor is reader interest. While the Trek comics and books had their fans, there was far less interest in those articles, because the source material wasn't as well known or as readily available to people. If I could read a novel a day, that would be one thing, but... Of course, Doctor Who isn't over, and I'll be keeping up the numbering and reviewing new episodes as they are broadcast, starting in August. And there several episodes to revisit, the recently found Web of Fear and Enemy of the World chief among then, as well as recently animated ones like Reign of Terror and The Ice Warriors. Those episodes were originally reviewed with whatever reconstruction was available, and deserve comments in the VERSIONS section. Updates will be mentioned in This Week in Geek on Sundays, as they occur.
Long Live the Legion!
Ever since I mounted a defense of the LSH in Why the Legion of Super-Heroes?, I've been discussing the very strong possibility of covering the Legion's entire history in daily articles. After all, I cleansed my palate of Star Trek with a daily Superman feature before turning to back to televised SF, and the Legion is the comics equivalent of the huge sprawling worlds of franchises like Trek and Who. My plan wasn't to do one issue/story a day, but rather to cover more or less a year's worth of LSH stories a week, starting in 2958 and up on through the present day+1000 years. I could do stories in batches, or focus on a particularly important story, or do thematic posts even, and share my love of the future's greatest heroes in a variety of ways. But since most people are either hard core fans of the Legion, or readers in no way interested in them, it might not be the most popular feature.
Who's This? Deluxe
The other idea that's hit me recently is to expand the Who's This? feature - you know, the one where I pick some obscure character from DC's Who's Who and show what their stories were like with an example - starting back with Vol.1 and doing a post on each and every entry from Abel on. That would allow for more variety, though I would have to figure out what to do with such well-known stars as Aquaman and Batman. For sure, I'd try to only use examples from before they appeared in Who's Who. My fear here is that it might require too much research for a daily feature, or that non-obscure characters might prove a little dull for comic book fans. And what of similar features like Reign of the Supermen? I'm having a hard time imagining a Saturday with both a Who's This and a long look at some Silver Age Superman variation, a possible chore for both the writer and the reader.
Beyond Trek and Who
Plenty more genre TV out there to cover, right? Having a TV-centric daily feature, with comics, RPGs, etc. acting as a second feature has been a successful formula for me, supporting the variety I've always wanted for this blog. But while there aren't very many TV worlds as big as Trek and Who - I've never even watched an episode of Stargate, sorry - I did once imagine I could do shorter series back to back. Say, Buck Rogers for a month, then Space 1999 for a few more, etc. Battlestar Galactica and the Buffyverse could lay a claim to these pages, but I feel like I've watched them too recently to start all over. Nevertheless, this is a possibility.
Breaking the Mold
When I started Siskoid's Blog of Geekery, the point of the daily (Star Trek) reviews was that if I didn't come up with anything else, I knew there'd at least be a post that day. Turns out, that wasn't much of a problem. Over the last 7½ years, two posts a day has been the standard. One for fans of the daily thing, whatever it was, and another in case it wasn't your thing. I haven't suffered too much from the pace, though there are periods of the year where it does get to me, and when I might fall back on the daily post as the only post. But I've been asking myself: Is a daily post really required if I'm going to post every day anyway? What if I break the mold, as it were, and post only a single article every day? Could this be the best of all worlds? Could I, in fact, do EVERY feature I mention here, just on a weekly or twice-weekly basis? A couple days of Legion, a couple Who's This features, some TV series watched once a week, and Reign and This Week in Geek on the weekends, with occasional supplementary material (Who as an RPG, random funny panels about Dating Lois Lane, etc.) on top of that. Would that work? It might, and give me more time to write other things, or I don't know, having a relationship or something.
I've got four weeks to think about it. But what do YOU think?
Doctor Who
After I finished two years of daily Star Trek reviews (gosh that seems an eternity away), I kept going with comics and the occasional novel for another year. I'm not going to do this here. Availability is an issue, certainly, and while I'm a big fan of the novels and audios, there's just no way to talk about those on a daily basis, not beyond the short capsule reviews I've already been doing every Sunday. Another factor is reader interest. While the Trek comics and books had their fans, there was far less interest in those articles, because the source material wasn't as well known or as readily available to people. If I could read a novel a day, that would be one thing, but... Of course, Doctor Who isn't over, and I'll be keeping up the numbering and reviewing new episodes as they are broadcast, starting in August. And there several episodes to revisit, the recently found Web of Fear and Enemy of the World chief among then, as well as recently animated ones like Reign of Terror and The Ice Warriors. Those episodes were originally reviewed with whatever reconstruction was available, and deserve comments in the VERSIONS section. Updates will be mentioned in This Week in Geek on Sundays, as they occur.
Long Live the Legion!
Ever since I mounted a defense of the LSH in Why the Legion of Super-Heroes?, I've been discussing the very strong possibility of covering the Legion's entire history in daily articles. After all, I cleansed my palate of Star Trek with a daily Superman feature before turning to back to televised SF, and the Legion is the comics equivalent of the huge sprawling worlds of franchises like Trek and Who. My plan wasn't to do one issue/story a day, but rather to cover more or less a year's worth of LSH stories a week, starting in 2958 and up on through the present day+1000 years. I could do stories in batches, or focus on a particularly important story, or do thematic posts even, and share my love of the future's greatest heroes in a variety of ways. But since most people are either hard core fans of the Legion, or readers in no way interested in them, it might not be the most popular feature.
Who's This? Deluxe
The other idea that's hit me recently is to expand the Who's This? feature - you know, the one where I pick some obscure character from DC's Who's Who and show what their stories were like with an example - starting back with Vol.1 and doing a post on each and every entry from Abel on. That would allow for more variety, though I would have to figure out what to do with such well-known stars as Aquaman and Batman. For sure, I'd try to only use examples from before they appeared in Who's Who. My fear here is that it might require too much research for a daily feature, or that non-obscure characters might prove a little dull for comic book fans. And what of similar features like Reign of the Supermen? I'm having a hard time imagining a Saturday with both a Who's This and a long look at some Silver Age Superman variation, a possible chore for both the writer and the reader.
Beyond Trek and Who
Plenty more genre TV out there to cover, right? Having a TV-centric daily feature, with comics, RPGs, etc. acting as a second feature has been a successful formula for me, supporting the variety I've always wanted for this blog. But while there aren't very many TV worlds as big as Trek and Who - I've never even watched an episode of Stargate, sorry - I did once imagine I could do shorter series back to back. Say, Buck Rogers for a month, then Space 1999 for a few more, etc. Battlestar Galactica and the Buffyverse could lay a claim to these pages, but I feel like I've watched them too recently to start all over. Nevertheless, this is a possibility.
Breaking the Mold
When I started Siskoid's Blog of Geekery, the point of the daily (Star Trek) reviews was that if I didn't come up with anything else, I knew there'd at least be a post that day. Turns out, that wasn't much of a problem. Over the last 7½ years, two posts a day has been the standard. One for fans of the daily thing, whatever it was, and another in case it wasn't your thing. I haven't suffered too much from the pace, though there are periods of the year where it does get to me, and when I might fall back on the daily post as the only post. But I've been asking myself: Is a daily post really required if I'm going to post every day anyway? What if I break the mold, as it were, and post only a single article every day? Could this be the best of all worlds? Could I, in fact, do EVERY feature I mention here, just on a weekly or twice-weekly basis? A couple days of Legion, a couple Who's This features, some TV series watched once a week, and Reign and This Week in Geek on the weekends, with occasional supplementary material (Who as an RPG, random funny panels about Dating Lois Lane, etc.) on top of that. Would that work? It might, and give me more time to write other things, or I don't know, having a relationship or something.
I've got four weeks to think about it. But what do YOU think?
Comments
(as for the not having gotten into it before? I hadn't watched Doctor Who before you started going through it and showed me how awesome this thing that my friends nerded out over actually was over it's whole run, so I went back via my Amazon Instant and various web sources to watch all that I could over a few months of underemployment!)
TV: I think you said one time that you had never seen 'Blake's 7'. I would enjoy your insights on this series as you watch it for the first time. There are only 52 episodes; one per week would not take up too much of your free time. :-)
- Jason
Jay: Like I said, a bit soon for me. I'd like to forget stuff before diving back in. Would you expect a Buffy RPG feature to be in Unisystem?
Jason: Sadly, Blake's 7 is STILL not available in Region 1 DVD. I wonder what it'll take?
As a big fan of LSH, also looking forward to any on-going feature about the Legion.
Allow me to throw out the suggestion of the DC Animated "Timmverse"--Batman TAS, Superman TAS, Justice League & JLU. Well within your geek strike zone, all available, and only requiring 20 min per day viewing.
Or Gargoyles. Because that series was really really good.
(I really would like to see Stargate, and the idea of a series you're going into blind is also appealing. [Blake's Seven isn't any more difficult to find than the non-DVD'd early Doctor Who Episodes were, is it?]. Try and watch a couple episodes of it in June at least to find out if you're allergic to it or not, possibly for thing after next if not this time.
- Jason
As for Blake's, as with anything, I'd much rather watch it in DVD form. I rather dislike watching stuff on my computer screen, which is why I probably haven't seen that new cool You-Tube clip everyone's always going on about.*
*I'm not talking about one in particular, it just seems to happen to me all the time.
The only series I own is Neon Genesis Evangelion (and a couple films like Akira and Spirited Away).
I'd also be game for a visit to the Timmverse, since I never really got into it at the time. But more recently, I have been picking up the straight-to-bluray DC animated movies often on the strength of knowing that there'd at least be some good and relevant bonus Timmverse eps.
And not to troll, but I third the suggestion of getting into Stargate and blogging that daily. It would be interesting to get your take on it as a relative newcomer.
So, basically, anything you want to do is fine with me, except not doing something. :)
Watched that for the first time this past fall and loved it.
- Jason
Buffy, Firefly, and everything else Joss-centric is my core geekdom, but I love it too much to see it exposed to your completely reasonable critiques.
The idea of doing some daily reviews of short-lived series as a bit of a break for yourself from the multi-year projects also sounds fun to me. Maybe a "shows cancelled too soon" (never made it past the first season) sort of thing?
Anyway, many, many thanks for (I can't believe) providing years and years now of daily blog reading. Yours is the only one I check in every single day, because there's always something new and interesting. In other words, I haven't grown sick of you yet, which from time to time means you're better than all of my family and friends ;)
Jeremy: Thanks for throwing at least ONE vote Who's This' way. I'm fond of it myself, though we may be in the minority.
Liam: With Neon Genesis, there's always the risk of angering the fan base. True story: I once told a fan what I thought it all MEANT, and he became so angry he tried to punch me right then, and the next time I saw him as well!
I love Stargate, but from having watched SG-1 twice as it's been broadcast on the THIS network and all five seasons of Atlantis, don't do it. (I gave up on Universe.) For all of the great episodes there are way too many clunkers.
Stargate: My top choice. I'd be just as interested in your first-time thoughts as any of your re-watches. You seem adverse to it though--Is there a particular reason? (I've missed the "formula" part of your reviews for Trek, and it would work well with Stargate.)
Babylon 5: It's a well-constructed world, but I didn't love it. Still, I'd be interested in revisiting it.
Timmverse: I haven't seen much besides Batman Beyond, but I'd watch along with what's available on Netflix.
Star Wars, The Clone Wars: I know this is a tough sell, but hear me out. I've always been a Trekkie, but I found myself really enjoing SW:TCW. It's got interesting characters, moral dilemmas, and fun references to the movies and other sci-fi. It's much smarter than I-III, and better than I expect the new movies to be.
If you want to get a taste of it, I'd suggest 3x10&11, not the "movie."
I'd also enjoy B5 to see if you could help me finish the final season.
Stargate-only seen the film, so I could follow along on that as a novice.
TV series give you a manageable size and nice visuals to post in your reviews. (BTW: The WB screwup with the letterboxing on CGI shots might make your options for good images more limited).
Good luck with whatever you decide for your next stage of blogging.
I know about B5's technical problems, but haven't popped any of the DVDs into my machine to check them out. In any case, I've been known to save time by getting some screengrab from the Internet anyway.
Oh, do yourself a favor and please continue to 'Sapphire and Steel' Assignment 2. It's the best of the six - at 8 episodes it's longer than all but 3 Doctor Who stories, is set in a single location, a train station, with only 3 main speaking parts. It feels like gripping minimalist theater, or a novel you can't put down. Some haunting stuff I can't get out of my head months later.
And the ending will reward you for avoiding spoilers, let's put it that way.
- Jason
First. yikes! Second, you've spent a lot of time talking about Trek and Dr Who, so you should be experienced by now in dealing with slightly intense fanbases. Third, not doing Eva because you might upset the fans is like not going out wearing a short skirt because men might get aggressive on you... they're the ones in teh wrong, not you. Forth, I'm now really interested in what your theories are. Fifth, double yikes!
(I don't think the widescreen thing on the B5 DVDs is a screw up, more making the best of a bad situation. A situation which seems to be caused by Douglas Netter refusing to spend $100 on a widescreen monitor back in 1993.)
It has the benefit of being short, canceled before its time. The one-volume complete series should be fairly easy to pick up at an affordable price.
I refer, of course, to "Starhunter."
On a couple of more serious notes, I'll be checking in regularly regardless of what you decide to cover. Also, it probably wouldn't work as a daily feature, but it might be interesting to see some "old vs. new" posts--comparing things like the pilots of BSG, or Oliver Queen in Smallville and Arrow, seeing what works well and falls short in both versions.
Possible an argument against, there.
Evangelion would also be good, although I second the observation regarding relative insanity of fanbase. Back at the beginnings of my time on the internet I had a run-in with an Eva fan that I don't recall the details of, only that I came away genuinely shocked I'd found a fan more rabidly hair-trigger angry than the Who lot.
It looks like a constant stream of TV reviews is what the majority wants. The frontrunner is B5, since there's no reason not to undertake such a project in the summer months. The Timmverse might make a nice follow-up for the winter when I'm way busier, making 20-minute episodes more appetizing then. That's 116 episodes/days of B5, by the way, while the strict Timmverse could run more than a year if we included Zeta Project, Static Shock and the various movies.
Since any TV-centric scheme would make it impossible to "break the mold", there would have to be comics, RPG etc. content generated alongside. I think it might be possible to do a weekly Legion column that would service fans of that particular idea without taking the blog over entirely.
As for Who's This? Looks like most think it's fine as it is as a weekly or occasional feature about obscure characters.