NOW AVAILABLE: Doctor Who 70-79

 

So, you know. It's downtime for Doctor Who. Maybe it'll be back soon, maybe it won't. We simply do not know at this point. But, fortunately, there are plenty of other things coming out in the interim: reference books, charity anthologies, official fiction, and the like. I'm embedded in some of this stuff, some of which is still in the chute waiting to come out. But one thing is currently ready, and it's very pretty.

Doctor Who 70-79 is a publication by the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, covering an entire decade of the series during the tenures of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. The volume includes interviews with Caroline John and Mary Tamm, reminiscences about specific serials and major events of the era, and much more. Like the other special publications (including DWAS annuals), this is a gorgeous full-color hardcover, as nice to look at as it is to read.

As for my part, I cover two fourth Doctor stories: Genesis of the Daleks and The Deadly Assassin. And just from that selection, you may have an idea of what topic I discuss.

My major fascination in this space is how fans and surrounding media interact with the show, and how that in turn affects the story and evolution of the series. In this case, I'm zooming in on two of Mary Whitehouse's major complaints as regards violence. Granted, I do bring an American viewpoint to this (as I state early on), but my focus is more on how this shock value serves the narrative than on if it's "okay" for young viewers. Having lived through the congressional hearings on violence in video games at an age when I would have been the demographic "at risk," I'm always fascinated by this sort of topic.

If that sounds like your jam, I hope you'll pick it up. And if not, there are so many other articles to choose from, including look-ins from Dale Smith, Simon Guerrier, Don Klees, and many others I'm very fond of. Bruce Nicholson and Paul Smith did an amazing job bringing this together, and I look forward to working with the DWAS more on similar projects in future.

Grab your copy of Doctor Who 70-79 here, and be sure to let me know what you think!

I'm Back on The Glam Gizmo!

 

There was a time when I was doing a lot more voiceover work. Nowadays I'm more committed to writing, but I'll still sit in for a handful of things for friends if asked nicely. And The Glam Gizmo is one of those things. Season 6 is streaming as we speak and, oh yeah, I'm back for that!

I first met Tom, the fella behind the series, when we started working together on Aron Toman's The Chronicles of Oz (me as Dorothy, Tom as the Lion). A part had opened up, and I figured I'd go for it, not sure if it was going to be a one-and-done or a recurring thing.

You know. Six seasons in, it's recurring.

The series takes place in Melbourne and sees everyday humans stumbling into otherworldly scenarios. There's definitely a flavor of Doctor Who to it, if that's your sort of thing. (And since you're hanging out in my blog, I suspect it is.) But while there are "Celestials" in this universe, it's the humans who are at its center.

I just happen to play one of those Celestials: Lydia, an old friend of a certain Professor Paradox. She's a Celestial who, despite spending a good deal of her time away from human problems, has gotten herself involved in recent seasons. You'll even catch her popping in and out of other series within the Gizmoverse!

Being an entire continent away, I don't often get to hear how things are going for the series. But this season, it's been gratifying to find out that it's doing pretty well in the rankings in Australia. Here's hoping Tom lets Lydia (and me!) stick around for a bit!

Being that far away also means I'm not in studio. So I'm generally recording from my office, here at the same computer I type at. It's not the most glamorous, but it gets the job done. And it's always fun to see new scripts roll in.

Right now, you can hear me in both Season 6 of the main series and in the spinoff, Boltizor. Keep an ear out and let me know what you think!

Visit the official website
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts

New Doctor Who-ish things

 

There are a few things in the works writing-wise (things which I should be working more closely on now that I'm not traveling for a while), but there are at least a couple of things to tide people over until more announcements go live.

First up is the latest Celestial Toyroom... or should that be Sealestial Toyroom? There's a definite focus on The War Between the Land and the Sea for this issue, which sadly I can't yet say much about because it's still in Disney+ jail. However, I did do some reviews as usual: one on 15th Doctor book Spectral Scream and one on the DWAS's own Fifth Doctor-centric annual. Plus, there's a very lovely review of my Mawdryn Undead Black Archive in the mix (which is always a relief when you send something out into the world).

Check out the Celestial Toyroom page to download the new issue as a free PDF or to put in an order for a print copy.

Second, and something I've been wanting to talk about for ages, is the new installment of The Benton Files. I was originally supposed to be in the sixth book with my Altrix collaborator Paul Driscoll, but his story ended up warranting a stand-alone book of its own! So instead I've been paired with the equally lovely James Middleditch.

My story, Wiltshire Drift, takes place during Benton's "retired but still UNIT adjacent" era and takes more than a little inspiration from Initial D. (Because if there isn't at least one anime fingerprint on it, it might not be mine.) An old acquaintance gifts UNIT a very special car, which immediately goes missing. Meanwhile, a mysterious racer is doing the impossible on Wiltshire's roads late at night. Big thanks to my long-time friend Rob Lantz for being my brainstorming partner on this story.

You can pre-order this new installment, or go all in and get the full collection of every Benton Files story!

Thanks as always to everyone interested in my Whoniverse and Who-adjacent work. There will be more coming in future, and I am very much looking forward to talking about it once I can.

NEW STORY: “The Whole Beast”

 

If there is one writing-related thing I consider myself especially bad at, it’s very short stories. I’m accustomed to having lots of room to describe and elaborate, and my least favorite published works are always the ones that have had several hundred (or thousand) words trimmed because I couldn’t keep my descriptions in check. I’ve admired other people’s ability to get the job done (Andy Farrant and Dan Long being two specific examples), but save for a piece of flash fiction in Build High for Happiness, I haven’t tried to wrangle a super-short story in quite some time.

So that changes with “The Whole Beast,” my first (and hopefully not last!) story published by Dream Theory.

I wrote this one back in December during my most recent trip to the UK, partly on the plane and partly in a Costa Coffee before going to see The Importance of Being Earnest. It’s a kaiju story, of a sort. And to me, the best kaiju stories are those in which the big monster gets to be a metaphor. I wanted to play in a world that developed a unique relationship with the creatures that terrorized them, but I didn’t have many words with which to build that world.

Writing this story was an exercise in trusting the reader and trusting myself. How much worldbuilding could be inferred through common experiences? How much could I rely on action and description to get the job done for me? How much does my narrator even need to say (or think) to make her point? Most importantly, what’s the one thing I want the reader to leave with, to the point that anything else is superfluous?

In retrospect, I'm pretty sure a lot of my ability to write more compactly comes from spending the last few years helping others do it. Medical school applications run the gamut when it comes to essays, with the shortest giving you only 1,000 characters or so to describe formative experiences. I've had to learn how to help others fit important, real scenarios into small spaces, and I guess we're to a point now where I'm putting that into practice myself.

(That said, my current WIP has a ceiling of 10,000 words, so it's not like things are changing broadly going forward.)

While I still feel most comfortable with bigger words counts, where I can really roll around in cinematic descriptions and develop multifaceted stories, I had a lot of fun with this. And I think I am maybe, possibly, over the idea that flash fiction just “isn’t for me.” But I suppose that will be up to readers.

Check out “The Whole Beast” on dreamtheory.media and let me know what you think!

I wrote a book about Mawdryn Undead

 

As I was getting everything together to write this up, I saw this book listed as "announced August 2022 but delayed extensively." And friends, that is fair.

My Black Archive on Mawdryn Undead was commissioned ages ago, right in the midst of me attempting to be able to write again. That's a long story, probably one for another time. But it is a bit odd to see that people are paying attention to what I say I'll do and what I ought to be doing. Thank you, I guess?

All that aside. Yes, I have a new Black Archive coming out this month, this one on Mawdryn Undead. It's up for pre-order, or perhaps indeed for regular ordering by the time this post goes out (at which point I will be in London for a week and a half). It would be fabulous of you to pick up a copy.

So, for the people who have no idea what's going on. What's Mawdryn Undead, what's the Black Archive, why any of this?

So the Black Archive is a series of book-length studies of Doctor Who stories from all across the show's run. These are heavily researched, and the goal is always to present an in-depth look at these episodes. The angle will depend on the writer. Some write more about society and culture surrounding the series, some dive into the production, some go fully academic about themes and philosophy. As of this year, I'm an editor on the series (with Stuart Douglas, Philip Purser-Hallard, and Paul Driscoll also on board and having been on board for much longer).

Mawdryn Undead came out in 1983, and it's a fifth Doctor serial that introduces companion Turlough and kicks off the Black Guardian Trilogy. I've always had a soft spot for this serial and, after working on a Black Archive on Heaven Sent several years ago, I wanted to approach a 20th century story. The funny thing is, I don't think the version I would have written a few years ago would be the same as the one I did recently, even though I kept to the topics of my pitch. Between personal experiences and the context provided by the more recent seasons of Doctor Who, there's a lot that wouldn't have been present (or as clear) in an earlier version.

So what does get covered? Turlough's role as a companion, and indeed what the role of a companion is. The Brigadier's paradox-induced amnesia and how it parallels PTSD. The lottery of regeneration and how this episode uses that uncertainty in its story. The history of "ghost ships," including the one that inspired this story. Time paradoxes and how Mawdryn Undead added a new twist to the inherent paradox of Doctor Who. And, of course, the curse of immortality.

All that said, I'd love it if you grabbed a copy and let me know what you think. And treat yourself and go through the other Archives. As of mine, there are 80, covering every Doctor and even a few more obscure contributions. Plus, we've just had a fantastic run of pitches and have some great future Archives stacked up.

Do I have another Archive in future? I'm already working on it. I'll just leave you to guess which I'm going for next. In the meantime, keep an eye on the series, because the next few books are looking to be especially fun!

How Your Television Show Finds Me

 

"My grades are good," I say loudly into the empty stairwell. "Grades are... great. I think I'm on track to ace my finals for the semester, actually."

There are, according to campus legend, a few ways to rile the ghost on the third floor of the English building. The main way is by being a good student... or, rather, by being open about being a good student. That makes her mad enough to appear and, sometimes, attack.

Hers was the boilerplate campus ghost story: honor-roll student dating a football player, he broke up with her, her life fell apart, she ended it all by jumping out that window there. I'm sure, if I asked students at other colleges, they'd have an identical version mapped out against a different building.

But that's not the point right now. The point is it's almost midnight, I'm in the stairwell just outside the third floor, and I have a ghost to piss off.

"Got friends," I add, since she also hates when people have a healthy social life. "I actually have friends who like to be around me. It's great."

I wipe at my eyes.

"So, you know. Things are going fantastic. No regrets."

And now, time to lock it in with the sentence that allegedly drives our ghost friend absolutely batshit. Never mind that it's not true. Never mind that, as of right now, I'm really not thinking about the future past this night. I've been lying my ass off 'til now, so what's one more?

"I think this might be my best semester yet."

The air pressure seems to drop all at once, sending me a little dizzy. There's a scraping sound from somewhere deep within the building... not on the third floor, not in the offices that were once the study room the ghost allegedly haunted. Further down. I feel it more than I hear it. A heavy, lurching noise, like someone dragging something large across metal.

You know that childhood memory that we all seem to have even though it can't possibly be real? That feeling of sailing down flights of steps, practically flying, feet barely touching as your hand grazes the banister? I swear I'm doing that, the worn souls of my sneakers barely skimming the metal-capped marble steps as I circle down the flight of stairs. It's not far — three stories in an Old Campus building is squat and scalable compared to the buildings on New Campus — but I still can't outrun the noise. By the time I'm in the atrium, windowed double doors separating me from the darkness of campus, the sound has come to a final decisive thump.

And it's on the floor below me.

There is a lower floor in the English building, but no one but English majors really has a need (or a desire) to go down there. The basement houses the archives, but it's nothing special unless you're writing a very narrowly focused paper for a literature class. Old theses and dissertations from past students, literary journals, alternate translations of epic poems, that sort of thing. Barely anyone goes down there for understandable reasons; there's certainly not anything down there that literally goes bump in the night. Unless, of course, there is. Unless it's her, and the rumors have gotten everything right except the floor she chooses to haunt.

The basement is down a separate stairwell at the back of the building. I stare at the door leading to the stairs, thinking about the cacophony that had just resounded beneath my feet. I don't know what ghosts are meant to sound like. They probably aren't meant to sound like a whole bit of world rearranging. It could be something, someone dangerous. But would that be so bad? Would the end result not be the same?

So I descend, slower this time, walking rather than flying. Not cautiously. Just dully. I swipe my ID card, listen for the click of the lock releasing, and pull the door open.

"Just squeeze around the side," a voice from beyond the blue box says. "Sorry, there's not really anywhere to park in here."

Maybe on some other night, I'd try to wrap my head around the fact that a giant wooden shed, phone booth sized and phone booth shaped, is blocking my way. But I do as the voice suggests, squeezing around it, and the door of the archives swings shut behind me. I look at it from the other side, the words POLICE PUBLIC CALL BOX emblazoned across the top. It reminds me of the emergency campus police posts along the walking paths, little poles every few yards with a speaker in the side and a blue light perched on top, ready to summon help. I think back to last night, walking a back trail alone, wondering what asking for help might do for me. The nearest pole mocked me with an "OUT OF ORDER" sign. Underneath, someone had scrawled "KEEP RUNNING" in ball-point pen.

"An extra pair of hands will make this go more quickly," the voice goes on. It's English, gentle but assured, the sort of voice suited to reading audiobooks of Victorian tragedies. "Check those shelves over there."

I look up, and I see the speaker. Maybe it's my sudden immersion in English major life, but nothing about him strikes me as especially strange. A shoulder-length mop of hair, green velvet jacket, silk cravat pinned just so to flow into a matching waistcoat. Once your Shakespeare professor shows up for a 7am class yellow-stockinged and cross-gartered, nothing surprises you, I guess.

"These?" I point vaguely to the shelf to my right, which is filled with dissertations: some leather-bound, some ring-bound, some stapled.

The man looks up at me, beaming like an old friend. He nods, sending his messy locks bouncing briefly. "That's the one." And he turns back to the shelf he's perusing, fingers flying across the spines. "We're looking for Y Gododdin. Three D's. Not the actual poem, of course. A paper on it."

"Right." I don't actually remember agreeing to help him, but I also don't see a reason not to.

"Bit late at night to be doing research," he says pleasantly, still skimming through documents. It's conversational, not accusatory, and I'm not used to that. Where I grew up, how I grew up, every statement is layered with meaning, and every layer is a slightly different flavor of "You've done something wrong." I hear it at parties, I hear it in classrooms, whether it's intended or not. Somehow this stranger has fully avoided that, and for a moment I don't know how not to feel accused. Like it's my fault I'm missing the implication.

Apologizing isn't right here because he doesn't appear to be accusing, so I go for my second-string coping mechanism: humor. "Time's pretty meaningless on a college campus."

He chuckles. "Fair enough." He looks up at me, away, and up again. As though realizing for the first time that I'm here and he doesn't know me. "So sorry, I've gotten used to having someone around, I just took it for granted. I'm the Doctor."

"Which one?" There are more PhD's in the science-based departments, but I think we might have one or two.

"One of several," he says simply, and that's fair.

I introduce myself. First name only. He says it back to me, and it sounds so much nicer when he says it. I've never really been fond of my name, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's more that I'm not a fan of the tone most people say it in. I'm used to it being invoked only when something goes wrong, and otherwise never said at all. He says it like it's worth remembering.

"I thought I'd met all the professors in the department," I say, moving over a few shelves. Y Gododdin is Welsh poetry. I should be looking in a section broadly covering that sort of thing. "Are you new?"

"Oh, I don't work here," he says pleasantly.

"Then how did you get in?"

He gestures to the police box. "Usual way."

I have no idea what to make of this, even with my growing acceptance of campus oddities. I turn away to think it over, to decide where this all fits in my mind right now, and my hand rests on the spine of a leather-bound document. Y Gododdin: A Model for the Modern Heroic Elegy. "Is this it?"

The Doctor crosses the room to meet me, his swift step out of tune with his appearance. He's closer now, and harder to avoid looking at. As he pulls the dissertation off the shelf and leafs through it, I consider him. About my height. Age... thirties? Maybe? I'm terrible with guessing ages. He could be younger, or much, much older. And there's a lightness about him. Like a sad poet who suddenly remembered that there are nice things in the world and is absolutely bursting with the notion. Even now, he's clutching the dissertation like it's a birthday present.

"Yes! This is the one! Perfect, thank you." He beams at me. Then, like a puppy with too many inputs, all of them equally exciting, he shuffles briefly in place before hurrying to a battered doctor's bag on the floor nearby and tucking the book inside. "I'll return it once I'm done with it," he says, to me or to the air, I'm not sure.

"For research?" I ask, and even as the words leave my mouth I feel stupid. No, silly, for a bit of light reading. Obviously.

"Just to show it to someone," he says, rummaging in the bag a bit more. "Sometimes, people need to see what will be, to help them decide to keep going. Which reminds me." And he pulls out another book: smaller, paper-bound, and very new. The cover is black with colorful swirls. He holds it out to me, still kneeling by the bag. When I don't move, he shakes it a bit, encouragingly.

I take the book from his hands, peering at the title. I don't recognize it. But I recognize the author.

It's my name. Well, sort of my name. The first name is mine. But the last is one I've mulled around in my head for a while: one that's easier to pronounce on sight, that sounds less "ethnic," that wasn't "comically" mispronounced by prank callers and my grandfather's coworkers during the Gulf War. I told myself if I ever became an actress, or a writer, or something that gave me worth, that would be the name I used. The key word being myself. I hadn't told anyone else.

I start to open the book, but the Doctor takes it back gently. "Ah... best you not look inside."

"How..." I blink at this stranger with his blue box, with a book that can't exist, with a name I've been guarding in my mind.

"There are a few of these," he says casually. "And others."

If it's a prank, it's an amazing one, and I don't think anyone would fault me for letting myself lean into it. "Do they mean anything?"

"Everything means something to someone." He snaps the bag shut and hops to his feet. "Everything is someone's favorite something. And that means everything, don't you think?"

"What are you actually doing here?" I ask.

The Doctor walks over to the big blue box, opening the door. "Same as you," he says cheerfully. "Ghost hunting. Except I prefer to leave behind a little more than footprints." He pats the bag. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have another young lady to speak to."

He closes the door, and I watch the blue light on top of the box illuminate, hear the scraping of metal, and the box fades away. And then I walk back to the dorm and slide into bed, any previous plans forgotten.

Maybe it's a dream, and maybe it's not. Maybe that Doctor really did slip backwards in time and showed another young woman on the edge that she not only graduated, she threw her whole heart and mind into something. And maybe something about it would mean as much to her as mine did to me, and the legends of the ghost on the third floor would vanish, replaced with one of the other dozen ghost stories that haunt the campus.

Or maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and realize I went to bed sad, and my subconscious patched things up with characters from a video I borrowed from the boy down the hall. (I should borrow some more.)

But I'm not sure that matters. What matters is that the Doctor finds you and leaves you changed, whether it's during an alien invasion in your hometown or on the worst night of your life through a little television stacked on top of packing crates. And ideally, we are better for it.

How to Write a Black Archive

 

Not long ago, I got an email from a fellow writer asking about the best way to pitch a Black Archive. I'm currently one of the editors for the line, and I've written one myself (with a second currently in edits). With the series getting more popular and people actively wanting to take part, it's a great question. I'm not the one and only authority on it—there are four of us—but I had a crack at explaining what makes for a good Archive from my point of view.

At the time of writing (May 2025), the Black Archive is accepting pitches for stories ranging from Day of the Daleks (1972) to Shada (1980). Further windows in different time blocks will be open throughout the year, leading all the way up to contemporary episodes by September. Check out this Facebook post for the full schedule. In other words, you'll have plenty of chances this year to put this advice into practice, and the advice will stay fresh beyond 2025!

So, for the curious, here is (more or less) the outline I gave of How To Pitch An Archive.

Care About the Story You're Covering

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it really helps if what you're covering is something you actively want to talk about. In terms of the Black Archive, I had a lot of thoughts about Heaven Sent when it first aired, and a surprising (to me) number of thoughts about the 20th century serial I'm covering for my next one when I rewatched it. I'm already planning a third because I was so affected by it that my first thought upon finishing the episode was, "I need to talk about this."

That desire to cover something doesn't have to be earth-shattering, but it has to be at least there-ish. Maybe an episode touches on a period of history or an aspect of fiction in which you take a special interest. Maybe it's an episode you love and you want an excuse to dig deeper. Whatever the reason, the desire to cover it should be significantly above "I suppose I could do that."

Have Something Unique to Say

A big reason we might reject an Archive pitch is because there's nothing in it that we can't find on blogs, entertainment websites, or as part of social media discussions. And there's nothing wrong with those points—it's just not the purview of the Archive. The point of these books is to dig deeper in some way; and what that way is depends on the writer.

For instance, I'm really into literary analysis, the psychology of the characters within the series, and how we as viewers interact with Doctor Who. My Heaven Sent book had a chapter on the psychology of the person who takes on the title of "Doctor," and how this episode opens up that interpretation. I also covered what the Confession Dial is, both through Jungian analysis and from the point of view of video game programming.

That doesn't mean yours has to follow those same rules. We've had some Archives that are very dense and historical, others that are more personal. Some focus on the words of the writers, while others lean on mythology and other television shows of the time. What flavor the approach is doesn't matter, as long as there's some meat on it.

Fully Explain Your Trajectory

Another thing that might get an Archive pitch rejected, or at least sent back for a second go, is a lack of idea as to where your book will be going. It wouldn't be enough to write, say, "I will look at Heaven Sent through a Jungian lens." It would be enough to say, "Utilizing Jung's 'dream house,' I will analyze the castle inside the Confession Dial room by room, both demonstrating how Heaven Sent uses this approach for storytelling purposes and examining how this lays bare the Doctor's grief and hidden emotional side." A write-up like this gives us an idea of what we have in hand, and also reassures us that you have a clear thesis in mind.

Of course, I know as well as anyone that things change as you do research. The things I discovered while reading through Tolkien's letters and perusing the history of PTSD diagnosis for my latest Black Archive changed a lot of assumptions I had when I put my pitch together. That's fine. We just want to see where you're leading us.

Read Some Archives

Ideally, read more than one! Find some about your favorite episodes or eras and dig in. Reading more than one will also give you a broader view of what these books entail, whereas reading just one might lead you to think that there's only one way to write an Archive. And, as mentioned above, there's not.

The Archives do have several things in common, but those are all to do with the caliber of research and writing. You don't have to reference weighty academic textbooks or write in dense language. One question I was asked was how academic your sources have to be. In response I pointed out that my bibliography for my next book references a few academic papers and books, but also several interviews, blog posts, the DSM-5, an opera, and a manga. To name a few. It doesn't matter if the sources are "highbrow" or intellectual. It matters that they're good, reliable, and relevant.

As mentioned, there are rolling submission windows between now and September 2025 for pitches from specific eras. I look forward to reading your pitches!

Otaku USA Summer 2025 Issue Now on Sale!

 

It's that time again: time for a new issue of Otaku USA magazine! Big thanks to everyone who keeps picking up and reading these issues. It's a lot of fun being part of this mag, and I love the opportunity to talk at length about both new and classic series.

This particular issue was a very busy one for me, with six separate columns! So if you're an enjoyer of me writing about anime a whole lot, this will be one to grab.

First up is my review of Ameku M.D.: Doctor Detective. Between the memes about "what if House was an anime girl" and my own work as a writing advisor for medical school applicants, this was an interesting watch. All that said, I consider this an absolutely fab show... and one that does something that even my beloved House didn't always manage.

Also up for review is the new adaptation of Ranma 1/2. I am, in fact, a big fan of classic series getting reboots (see Yaiba on the cover!). And considering the original series was one of my first anime, I wanted to get in there and give my thoughts on this latest version. Spoiler: I liked it and it's good.

On to features, of which I penned three. Headhunted to Another World: From Salaryman to Big Four! is indeed another isekai offering, but I kind of loved this. Like Magilumiere before it, this takes a relatively standardized genre and stretches it to tell a story about the importance of unique skill sets. I always love a show where people whose skills aren't flashy or "cool" get a chance to shine.

On the other end of the spectrum is my review of season 2 of Shangri-La Frontier. Or, as Paul Chapman rightly calls it, "The Adventures of John Darksouls Who Is Good at Video Games." Calling it an isekai misses the entire point, even if you could call it one on a technicality. This is a monumentally great series about the hobby of gaming—possibly one of the strongest anime made on that front so far. And any opportunity to talk about it from that angle is an opportunity I shall take.

Finally, at least in features, I cover TASOKARE HOTEL. This is one of my recent pet anime, based on a mystery/room escape mobile game. The game itself was Very Okay, with a lot of the Okay-ness being down to a messy localization. But I'm thrilled that the anime has turned out as it did, and fascinated with the choices made to turn an interactive experience into a compelling TV series.

Last but not least, I've invaded a new section for me: games! I offered my thoughts on the demo of Genso Manège, a newly-localized otome visual novel. Between the art and the story, this was absolute catnip for me. So I'm glad to have given it a boost to our audience!

The new issue is on newsstands now. If your local magazine seller doesn't stock it, you can order a copy from the website. You'll also find daily news and features there, including regular reviews and articles from yours truly! As always, thanks so much for your support—and keep spreading the word!

COMING SOON: Total Extermination - Peter Cushing's Dr. Who

I'm not unaccustomed to NDAs in my line of work, but it never gets easier to sit and wait for the opportunity to tell people something cool you know or have done. Fortunately, I now get to: I'm in the featurettes for the upcoming 4K UHD release of Peter Cushing's Dr. Who films from Severin Films.

If you don't know what the Cushing Dr. Who films are... welcome, you are from outside my usual demographic! These two films—Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD—are adaptations of the First Doctor serials The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth. While they adapt the early series history of the Daleks relatively faithfully, they take liberties with the core cast. For example, Dr. Who (his government name) is a human man tinkering with a homemade time machine, Susan is a literal child rather than a teen, Barbara is another of Dr. Who's granddaughter, and Ian is Roy Castle having an especially awkward day.

When I was approached about being a part of this release, I was told they wanted insight other than behind-the-scenes information. And, seeing what other extras are included, I understand why! Each movie has multiple audio commentary tracks, interviews with cast and crew, and even special features about the 4K restoration itself. The extras across both discs add up to more than ten hours, covering pretty much everything you could hope to know about the films.

Given my background with the Black Archive and my interest in how Doctor Who as a show is put together, I wanted to explore how we look at these movies as modern viewers. While plenty of fans remember these films fondly, they're often also judged based on how (or whether) they slot into Doctor Who canon as we know it. And there's so, so much more to them. How they work as films on their own, why they existed in the first place, and what we miss when we concentrate on canon-welding over meeting these movies where they are.

Beyond that, you'll have to check out the featurette!

While it's not my first time talking about a piece of media (I do that to some degree every day), it was my first time having a film crew in my house. Nervous? Extremely. But the people filming were lovely, we chatted about Doctor Who and anime, and my living room was rearranged for filming and then put back again by afternoon. It was also a good opportunity to get out some of my own model Daleks for set dressing.

I've not seen the full featurette, but you can see a wee clip of me within the first two minutes of Severin Films' March release trailer.

My own involvement aside, I'm extremely excited about this new release. It's going to be amazing to have restored versions of both films, and the people involved with the extras are lovely. Robert Shearman, Mark Gatiss, Mike Tucker, Emily Cook, and so many more people who are really wise about this series and its workings are all involved. I'm especially looking forward to the audio commentary featuring Roberta Tovey (who played Susan) and the archival interview with the late Bernard Cribbins. The first disc will also include the 1995 documentary Dalekmania, which I can't wait to have in my library.

Total Extermination: The Peter Cushing Doctor Who Collection drops on June 24. The slipcase release comes with that awesome case above and both films. You can also order each film separately. My featurette, Kara and the Daleks, will be on the Dr. Who and the Daleks disc.

Otaku USA Spring 2025 Issue Now on Sale!

 

It's that time again! The latest issue of Otaku USA Magazine is on the newsstands, and this time I have five pieces in the latest magazine. I've been doing my best not only to keep up with the latest titles coming out, but (where I can) to read or play the source material. It's been making the recent seasons much more interesting and giving me a lot more to talk about with you guys as I put these articles out!

Nina the Starry Bride marks the first of my two reviews—a really gorgeous romantasy series for which I have indeed been reading the manga (and continue to even after the anime has finished). It's a pretty series with a dangerous love triangle, promises of magic, and a unique mythology. I can only hope there will be further seasons to bring to life what I've seen in the manga.

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth is my second review this issue, and is one of my absolute favorite shows of both the fall and winter season. It's a buried treasure that hasn't been getting nearly enough attention. I especially love it as someone with an interest in astronomy and Medieval history. But even if those aren't fixations for you, I still feel like everyone would like this at least a little.

And now, feature time! I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History falls into that very specific brand of isekai I'm totally into: reincarnated as a villainess. But it also falls under the heading of protagonists who have no idea what wonderful people they're being and how they're improving the world around them. I'm glad I got a chance to talk this one up.

On the other end of the spectrum is The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor, which... I had some issues with. On the bright side, writing this feature gave me the opportunity to talk about writer choices and how even having a "legitimate explanation" for something unsavory is still glorifying something unsavory. No hate to anyone who enjoyed it—I kinda can't get past a couple that's 19 and 10 is all.

And back on the up side—I close with a feature on Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Much like Orb, Magilumiere ended up very ignored and passed over. It's a darling series that deserves more attention, especially if you're a grown-up magical girl fan looking for something that isn't a grim and depressing subversion. It's nice to know there will be a second season, and I hope to do more coverage then.

Pick up the latest Otaku USA at your local newsstand, and keep an eye on the official site for more articles from me and others every day!

OUT NOW: Otaku USA Winter 2025 Issue

 

If for some reason you've not had enough of my articles on Crunchyroll, Otaku USA, or Boss Rush Network, it's time to grab some off the newsstand! The Otaku USA Magazine Winter 2025 issue is now on sale, and I have four contributions in this one. Best of all, they're all for shows I really loved in recent seasons.

My one entry in the review section is Pseudo Harem, a dark horse favorite from recent seasons. What could have been a fanservice/wish-fulfillment series is actually both an adorable rom-com and a showcase of Saori Hayami's amazing voice acting ability.

Speaking of shows I wasn't expecting to love, my first feature is on Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! This coming-of-age series follows a light novel loving boy and three real-life "losing heroines": the third point of the love triangle who doesn't get the guy. In my feature, I talk about how well this series explores what actually happens to these seemingly disposable characters.

Next is a feature on my fave of the season: No Longer Allowed in Another World. This "anti-isekai" reincarnates legendary author Osamu Dazai in a fantasy world where other isekai heroes have turned their cheat powers to evil. It's a great look at what (much of) the isekai genre has become, why it's become that way, and what it could be. Also, I get to talk about classic literature, so you know I'm happy.

Finally, at least for me, is a review of Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools. In terms of isekai, my tastes tend to run toward "protagonist just wants to have a nice time" stories and "reincarnated as the villainess" stories (which have some overlap, admittedly). Dahlia in Bloom falls into the former category, but there are also some really lovely themes of being true to yourself and receiving appreciation for your work.

The new issue is on newsstands now. And if you want more articles like these on a regular basis, keep an eye on the Otaku USA website!

OUT NOW: Otaku USA Summer 2024 Edition

 

It wasn't long ago at all that I alerted you to the latest Anime USA—the special anime-only edition of Otaku USA Magazine that comes out twice a year. But for those of you following the main mag, the summer issue is out!

To address the obvious: yes, it is quarterly now as opposed to bimonthly. So there's fewer issues coming out per year. That said, you'll also get to see more regular coverage of evergreen titles. For example, the excellent Joe Luster covers the also excellent Dragon Ball Z in this issue!

For my part, I'm back again with more reviews and features:

I'm enjoying talking about Pokémon Concierge pretty much anywhere I can, because it really is that worth it. This short, sweet stop-motion series has won over so many people, and rightly so. Check out the mag for my review of this delightful addition to the franchise.

Speaking of shows with healing vibes, I also review My New Boss Is Goofy. This is another installment of the anime genre's recent "Toxic Workplaces Are a Blight on Society" meta-commentary—now with a bonus kitten!

Tearmoon Empire is the subject of one of my two long-form features this time. It's a surprisingly fun series about time travel, second chances, and Sumire Uesaka playing a princess who's either a genius or an absolute idiot. (Spoiler: only the narrator and the audience know the truth.)

And, last but not least, I also cover the anime adaptation of Shangri-La Frontier. Besides it just being an entertaining entry in the full-dive VR subgenre of anime (no one's trapped, life and death aren't on the line, it's gaming all the way down), it's also just a fun case study in fandom. I got to dive into the history of kusoge: where it started, how it's evolved, and how it got us here. Any time I get to learn something new while writing an article, I'm happy.

Grab the latest issue at your local newsstand, or visit the website to subscribe or order individual copies. You can also read shorter web-only articles from me on the website every other day!

OUT NOW: Anime USA Spring 2024 Special Edition

 

If you're a fan of Otaku USA Magazine, you should absolutely be picking up Anime USA: a semi-regular special edition. While OUSA covers anime, games, manga, merch, and adjacent topics, the special editions are 100% anime coverage. And for this issue, I got to cover some of my absolute favorite titles of recent seasons!

I cover two very different titles in the reviews section. Migi & Dali is a show that absolutely won me over from the first episode. I've talked about it at length on the OUSA website, but check out my review for a taste of everything that makes it special. (It's a lot of things.)

I also cover Toei's classic film of The Little Mermaid, which recently got a lot of attention from two fronts. Between its Blu-ray re-release from Discotek and its Rifftrax treatment, this buried treasure has been getting a lot more attention in recent months. Rewatching it for the purposes of review was wild, since I haven't seen it since I was a kid myself. And boy, did it shake out some buried memories.

Any chance to talk about Undead Unluck is a win for me. I'm a massive fan of both the manga and the anime, as well as the manga creator's backstory and technique for bringing this strange epic to life. My first of two features covers the recent anime adaptation. In particular, I delve into the original author's own goals for the story—both in terms of pacing and in terms of recognizing people who feel unseen and out of place in the world.

And last but not least, I cover Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. If you've heard this show being hyped up, it's for excellent reason. This show is phenomenal, and it deserves every bit of positive recognition it's getting. Whether or not you pick up this mag, I highly encourage you to give it a watch.

There are lots of other awesome reviews and features from fellow writers, so be sure to pick up your copy at your local magazine seller! And as always, check out features from me every other day on the OUSA website.