Eighth Doctor! Tenth Doctor! More from the DWAS

 

It's about that time again, and what a time for it to be that time. As we're all still figuring out how to feel about the Doctor Who news, we're also navigating anniversaries for the show itself. At present, I've got several things in the works for the coming months, but there are two I can talk about at present, both courtesy the DWAS. One is ready for you to enjoy now, and the other is on the way later this year.

First, it's a new Celestial Toyroom! This one is pulling double duty, celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the organization and the 30th anniversary of the TV movie starring Paul McGann. Rather than my usual book reviews and things, I've written a reflection for the latter of these two occasions. I was, after all, one of those Americans who became a fan via the movie. You know, that thing that was intended to happen?

Download the new issue now and read my piece, plus lots of fantastic articles and interviews.

The second of these items won't be available for a bit, but I'm looking forward to everyone seeing it! Doctor Who 70-79 is a lovely upcoming publication from the DWAS, covering stories and topics from across that decade of the series. There are a lot of fabulous contributors in whose company I'm extremely happy to be, as well as interviews from the DWAS archives!

My essay covers the "brutality" of serials like Genesis of the Daleks and The Deadly Assassin. Were these episodes really "too much"? What can/should young viewers handle? And how does the brutality potentially complement the message or theme of the episode? As someone who remembers the congressional hearings about violence in video games all too well, I'm always interested in really interrogating why we avert our eyes from difficult visuals, and what purpose they might actually serve.

Keep an eye on the DWAS social media accounts for more news and eventual pre-orders.

As for what's next... well, let's just say I am very busy.

BOOK REVIEW: The Lovers, the Liars, and Me

 

THE LOVERS, THE LIARS, AND ME
by DeAndra Davis
Available June 23

Jaylia has just graduated high school as valedictorian, but she still feels small and unseen. She's never done anything especially daring, and she's even going to college close to home in Miami just to be safe. When her dad suggests she go to Jamaica for part of the summer to catch up with her uncle and cousins, she rejects the idea. But then an unsigned letter comes in, asking to see her again. Jaylia, convinced it's from her absentee mother, decides to take the trip after all.

Rekindling friendships and family bonds is tough at first, and her cousin is immediately standoffish. But she hits it off again with her childhood friends Deon and Andre, the latter of whom she's crushed on for quite some time. But then there's India: Deon's new friend who seems to like Jaylia instantly, and whom she discovers (much to her own surprise) she might have feelings for in return.

In between days of shopping and sightseeing and nights of partying, the group search for Jaylia's mother, following a seemingly endless string of clues. Before the summer is out, she will have several questions to answer about herself: who does she really love? Who is she as a person? And how much does finding this lost piece of her past matter?

The Lovers, the Liars, and Me is very deeply rooted in Jamaican culture, especially in Jaylia's feeling that she is too American for Jamaica and too Jamaican for America. Even if you're not familiar with the minutiae of the culture, this book is a love letter to everyday life: food, concerts, and life in general. But it also doesn't shy away from more difficult topics of family and spirituality. It's a rough read at times, and it won't be for everyone, but it's a good coming-of-age story with an ending that, while not what every reader will want, is probably the most uplifting it could be.

TEA PAIRING: A Dream Within a Dream
This sleepy, Shakespeare-inspired tea seems like a perfect match for the book's young heroes, many of whom spend sleepless nights figuring themselves and their families out. Use my code KARA15 for 15% off this and other book-inspired teas from Chapters Tea & Co.!

BOOK REVIEW: Love & Gelato (Collector's Edition)

 

LOVE & GELATO (COLLECTOR'S EDITION)
by Jenna Evans Welch
Available now

YA romance novel Love & Gelato completely passed me by on release. It dropped in 2016, and has since gained a loyal readership and an apparently not-so-great film adaptation in 2022. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the original novel, and with the occasion comes a really lovely collector's edition release. As a complete newbie to the novel, this is where I'm starting. And you know, this is pretty darn good.

The novel starts heavy: teenager Lina has just discovered that her mother has cancer and doesn't have long to live. And she's going off to Florence to live with "Howard," an old friend her mother cares for very much. In other words, her father. The following summer, she's living with a man she's never met before in the cemetery he looks after, allegedly preparing to go to a new school and trying to get her life sorted. And as all that is happening, she receives a surprise: her mother's diary from her time attending college in Florence. In other words, the story of who Howard is and where Lina comes from.

As Lina picks through the diary bit by bit, retracing her mother's steps, she also gets to know Lorenzo (Ren for short). Ren is half-American, friendly, and cute. He's also dating another girl in Lina's potential school. Hot British boy Thomas turns her head as well, but Ren is the one who helps her dig into her mother's diary, wants to impress Howard, and teaches her about the beautiful spots and delicious food all over Italy. Together, they read about her mother's love for "X" and their ill-fated relationship. But she soon learns that things aren't as they seem at first glance, and the reason for her mother's silence is far more complicated than she imagined.

What makes Love & Gelato a stronger read than most YA rom-coms that find their way to me is the fact that it has multiple focuses, and Lina and Ren's romance isn't the be-all end-all. It's important, sure. But ultimately, this is a book about a girl connecting with her mother when she thought she had lost that chance. There's a real love for Italy baked into this story, with so much of it digging into hidden gems, folklore, and even an admission of the less pleasant sides of life there. It does have its fairly generic teen romance story arc, but everything surrounding it made this a better read than I was expecting.

This collector's edition also features a bonus short story taking place on the night of Lina and Ren's Act 3 falling out. It follows Thomas, the jilted lover, from his point of view as he recovers from the situation with Lina and discovers his own romance may be closer at hand than he thoughts. You can really see the evolution of Welch's writing here, and it's a lovely read at the end of everything.

TEA PAIRING: Letters of Lavender
For a story about two romances across the years connected by a single piece of correspondence, this lavender Earl Grey is a perfect match. The floral and bergamot blend is inspired by love letters, and perhaps that is what one could consider the diary at the center of this story. Use my code KARA15 for 15% off this and other literary-inspired teas from Chapters Tea & Co.!

MANGA REVIEW: Eko Eko Azarak Reborn Vol. 1

EKO EKO AZARAK REBORN Vol. 1
by Yamada Jta
Available now

Back in the late 1970s, Shinichi Koga drew the dark horror manga Eko Eko Azarak, starring the lovely dark witch Misa Kuroi. Short of a live-action drama on Amazon Prime, it's pretty hard to get your hands on any version of this classic story these days. Or it was. A new manga starring Misa, titled Eko Eko Azarak Reborn, is casting its spell on readers in a new Titan Manga release.

Fortunately, especially given the difficulty of obtaining any of the original media, you don't have to know a thing about the original to enjoy this new manga. The series takes place in a version of our world haunted by demons and witches. And Misa Kuroi, a mysterious beauty in an old-fashioned school uniform, is one of those witches. This inaugural volume follows Misa through a series of mostly-unconnected adventures, usually involving a human who's gotten a little too cozy with a demonic artifact. While Misa isn't above throwing a bit of black magic around, the innocent (i.e., fellow students) tend to come out of these encounters safe, if not better than they were. Punishments are karmic and grotesque, and on more than one occasion we witness Misa doling out some serious justice. Or simply allowing justice to dole itself out.

Eko Eko Azarak Reborn is both beautiful and grotesque, with echoes of the era of horror manga that inspired it. The blend of shoujo-adjacent art and gory visuals will resonate with fans of Junji Ito's Tomie and Remina especially. This will make a gorgeous addition to any manga lover's library.

TEA PAIRING: Poet's Study
My favorite moody Earl Grey, inspired by dark poetry, is a perfect fit for this beautiful horror manga. Use my code KARA15 for 15% off this and other book-inspired teas from Chapters Tea & Co.!

The Backrooms Movie Was Damn Good Actually.

 

A24 is very much a "no middle sliders" studio. They're either going to show you the best thing you've seen in ages or a hot mess that at least still looks cool. Their decision to give "Backrooms" YouTube series creator Kane Parsons his own film was a bold one. And even as someone who's followed his channel and loves a bit of Internet-grown horror, I was iffy. The Backrooms are a setting, and one that's become somewhat open-source (even if Parsons's backstory involving ASYNC has become one of the best known versions). I feared that, in an attempt to do justice to something that's very big and sprawling, we wouldn't get a movie with depth and focus.

So okay, fortunately I was wrong. And while I don't think it was absolutely perfect, I do think it was really strong and very promising. And the approach taken was one that makes this analog horror juggernaut accessible without a deep dive.

I'm going to steer clear of spoilers because this is something that deserves to be experienced firsthand, so read on with confidence.

Clark is a very angry man currently attending therapy with Mary. He's been kicked out of his house by his wife and is now living in his failing furniture store. One night, woken by a power surge, he goes into the basement and discovers he can pass through a section of wall into a vast labyrinth of yellow rooms. He initially believes this place to be an as-yet-unknown extension of the store itself, but his mania to figure it out soon takes him over. Eventually, Mary receives a phone call luring her to the store, and she discovers the strange space Clark discovered, as well as its inhabitants.

Immediately, what works about this movie is that it is a character piece within the sandbox of the setting. We do indeed get some background about what the Backrooms could be, but it's all through the lens of Mary and her traumatic childhood. (Clark is not our central character, mind; he's our inciting incident.) ASYNC, the company exploring the Backrooms in Parsons's YouTube series, do indeed have a presence. But they hover indistinct throughout for the majority of the film, present either through devices threaded through the rooms or as silent watchers of Clark and Mary's exploration.

The two things that keep this movie strong are the script and the visuals. (Multiple facets of the movie were excellent, but these were the two pillars that would cause the whole movie to crumble if they collapsed.) The movie isn't done entirely in Parsons's blurry analog style, but there are multiple sequences shot essentially identically to the YouTube series: blurry visuals that make you question what you're seeing, shadows that disappear off the edge of frame before you can fully register them. Embracing or removing them entirely would both have been disastrous; this middle ground works, and it lets us see what Parsons can do in a more traditional style.

At the same time, Will Soodik's script treats the setting of the Backrooms not as a puzzle to be solved within the film's runtime, but as a metaphor for the psychological "path of least resistance" that keeps us comfortable in stagnation. It's not a stretch to interpret the film this way, either; it's right there on the surface, it exists in discussions between Clark and Mary. But the choice to make that the plot of the movie is absolutely brilliant, simply because of what analog horror and liminal spaces are in the first place.

Both of these trends have had a major uptick recent years, with Parsons racing to the head of an extremely packed field. It's an aesthetic and style of horror that I think first hit home with very specific demographics, of which I am a part. I remember those classrooms and play places and restaurants that, in hindsight, feel somewhat off. The degradation of old photographs and old memories wear away the edges of those places, making them feel both welcoming and haunting at the same time. A place you're certain you know every inch of, but that feels on some level like you shouldn't be there.

And perhaps that's why the concept of the Backrooms has resonated so much: because on some level, it's like our memories. We could nest ourselves in our pasts, in our old patterns, and be safe but still know it's not really where we're meant to be. We can deceive ourselves that it's close enough, and the longer we stay, the more strangely comfortable we feel. But these pasts that we cling to are distorted by nature, and they in turn distort us and the people in our lives.

I'm not sure how I feel about the film's ending. Not the final shot: that was great. But the final scene proper. It felt nearly properly paced, but not quite. But that could also just be the fact that it's the director's first movie. Having a secondary plot thread that feels slightly off is a very, very small issue in a first film that's otherwise legitimately impressive.

You don't have to have seen Parsons's original Backrooms YouTube series to enjoy the movie, but it still is a very enjoyable watch. I can't wait to see what he does next. I will be along for the ride every step of the way.

So, about Doctor Who.

 

Well, here we are at the end of it all, again. The last time this happened, I was eight years old and didn't know what Doctor Who even was. Now I've had it as a consistent part of my life for decades, writing about it and adjacent to it, and it's come to this. The series is now effectively up for bidding, with generous estimates saying the soonest it could come back is 2028. Alongside this comes news from Russell The Davies that there was neither Christmas script nor considered actor.

As a friend of mine very accurately put it, now is the time when everyone issues their lukewarm takes on what went wrong and how to fix it. So I guess it's my turn.

What went wrong?
I don't know, and I think most people who claim they do know are answering the wrong question. Plenty of people can explain why the most recent run (in whole or in part) didn't work for them, but the whole Disney+ era feels like it's been fraught with half-truths behind the scenes and in the press.

The Reality War was the first time in Doctor Who history that we've had an incumbent actor depart without an official statement to the press beforehand. (I did my research.) (Also leaks don't count as press.) The news we got about the big changes via reshoots, the suddenness of Billie Piper's appearance, all of it, it's clear there was a scramble and a shuffle. For months, we've been asking ourselves what a Bad Wolf-faced Doctor means for the show, when we should have been stepping back and going "What is going on?"

As to the posts and press releases, I remain neutral. I've worked in a corner of the entertainment industry long enough to know that legalities are weird and that just because someone says something on the record doesn't make it true. I'm sure a tell-all will come out in a decade or two, or the right person will be on the right panel at a convention and it'll all come out.

For now, I'm not going to say it's pointless to discuss where the show went wrong story-wise. But I will say that I'm pretty sure the real problems are still being hidden from us.

How would I personally fix it?
Panic and hand it to Paul Magrs.

No, seriously. When it comes to "fixing" Doctor Who, I have never believed I'm the person to ask, and I still don't. Bear in mind that my contributions to the Whoniverse so far have been writing an Initial D-inspired short story starring Sgt. Benton, introducing a pro-wrestling branch of Faction Paradox, and putting two Sailor Moons in the City of the Saved. (And that's just counting what's published; certain publishers have more from me in the wings.) You don't want me to try to fix Doctor Who.

What I will say is that I don't believe throwing more money at it will fix it. I don't think Disney money was ever the answer, and I certainly don't think the partnership as a whole was necessarily wise. But also I'm a professional Disney monopoly opp, so I might be biased.

I've seen others online (including a Classic Who writer) say that the problem is in the story becoming too mired in its own lore and canon. That definitely felt like a sticking point in an era when we got hammered with a lot of things that required (to quote Stephen Wyatt) a "course in Who-ology" to parse. I'm a big believer that viewers should be able to enjoy a show at any stage of their fandom. But I'm also not wise enough to know how to make that right.

What should we do in the meantime?
Well, there's loads of Who-adjacent media out there. Heck, I work on some of it.

My hope is that Big Finish will be nice and active during this time, since I believe their Doctor Who license is already pretty nicely renewed. There's also the Circuit Breaker multimedia project starring Jo Martin as the Fugitive Doctor. That might be a tricky one to keep up on, especially since it's spread across so many companies, but I will say I'm intrigued.

And of course there's Obverse Books, whom I am rather biased toward since I do a lot of writing for them. Depending on what you fancy, there are a few things to keep you busy:

• The Black Archive: Book-length looks at Doctor Who stories from all across the series's run. I'm one of the main editors for the line and have also written two entries (with more in the wings). New books are released every two months: plenty of time to grab copies, rewatch favorite episodes, and read the related archive!
• Forgotten Lives: Extremely unofficial, but it does appear to have a thriving fandom. Eight authors were called upon to pick one face each from The Brain of Morbius and design a Doctor from the ground up. I'm the primary (but not only!) writer behind the Hinchcliffe Doctor, a sort of frustrated swashbuckler with a sour side. Three whole volumes are available for your reading pleasure!
• The Cushing Doctor Novelisations: Several Obverse writers under pen names contribute to another "alternate history" project, in which Cushing's "Dr. Who" character adventures through more adaptations of televised episodes!
• Iris Wildthyme: There's a boatload of Iris to enjoy, including an ongoing series of "new adventures"! Paul Magrs's fabulous time traveller, her companion Panda, and her Celestial Omnibus have appeared in past Doctor Who tie-ins, and now she's having more of her own.
• Faction Paradox: There's a boatload of these as well, including the City of the Saved spinoff series (for which I've written three times now). A returning threat to the Doctor, once again from the tie-in novels, now wreaking havoc in a variety of spinoffs. The latest is the multi-volume Boulevard anthology.

This is absolutely not a complete list, either from Obverse or in general. There is so much Who out there in so many formats, by so many talented people. As we wait to see what's next, it would be wonderful to support those people and groups.