Now is the sun come up from the south

[sovay]

I sang tonight for the first time in public in almost exactly a year. I would have appreciated knowing that I was expected to lead off with the "Anchor Song," since as it was I sat down and took off my coat and was promptly requested to open the song circle accompanied by Benjamin Newman and his guitar, but fortunately I can almost literally do that song in my sleep and later on I had a chance at "Soldier, Soldier," which I had actually brought for the purpose. Other singers including teenybuffalo and ashnistrike did "A Pilgrim's Way," "The Land," "Rimini," "Troopin'," "A Tree Song," "Philadelphia," "The Hyænas," "Hymn of Breaking Strain," and "A Smuggler's Song." A young man I had not heard before did a very good "Danny Deever" and graciously took my request for "Back to the Army Again." I suspect I'm leaving something out, possibly a Leslie Fish setting I didn't know—my Kipling familiarity is almost strictly Peter Bellamy. I closed with "Recessional."

I was not in my best voice. I didn't expect to be: I've been running a throatsore fever since Thursday and talking all weekend in an Arctic-dry hotel. The panel immediately preceding "Songs of Rudyard Kipling" was both in an unmiked room and ran over time; I had no time to warm up and I felt rushed as soon as I came in. ("Canonicity in Theatre" was a genial mess; it did not know whether it was about theater fandom or actual theater, which are two different things, and the moderator did not decide either way. It was fun and it just kind of sprawled.) And I am not sure it mattered. I used to be able to sing—and sing well—short of everything but total loss of voice. Then some things were changed very terribly in my body, against my choice and desire, and everything became much less secure. I've spent half this last year working to change that. It does not feel safe to be hopeful, but I know these were bad circumstances and I do not think I sounded bad. I do not know that my voice will ever feel like my voice again to me, but it did not feel like not mine. It worked. And I enjoyed myself. I think that's important, too.

Just before my panels started, I found the novelization of The Robots of Death (1977) in the dealer's room and although it is a rather skeletal adaptation of a very rich script, it was also three dollars and so now I own it. I read it on the Red Line back from South Station, where I appreciate that I only had to deal with a smell of burning plastic from Porter to Davis. spatch was getting off work at the Somerville Theatre and because it is fifteen degrees Fahrenheit we took a taxi home.

My last two panels tomorrow are readings. After that, sleep.

Comments

[sovay]

Aw, well, I'm glad you were able to sing at least.

Thank you. It was good.

*hugs*

And, ha, is Robots of Death a Terrance effort?

It is! "With a wheezing, groaning sound, the blue box faded into nothingness." And I'm wondering if it was done off a draft script, since some of the dialogue is different; I'd love to have Chris Boucher's actual script to compare it with. I may have bought it more talismanically than anything else, but I am happy to have it.

My library growing up had most of them and since even VHS releases weren't available to me, that was how I did most of Classic Who until I finally got the videos, and Terrance Dicks did an awful lot of them.

That makes sense. Would I be correct in assuming this was how most people did their Classic Who until the advent of readily accessible home media?

I hope you are now getting some rest & recovering.

My last two panels were this morning and afternoon and now I am home!

[alexxkay]

When I was growing up, the novelizations worked in *both* time directions. They were the only way of getting pre-Tom Baker Who -- and for a while, the only way of getting *recent* episodes that hadn't yet made it to PBS.

[thisbluespirit]

It is! "With a wheezing, groaning sound, the blue box faded into nothingness."

Yay, LOL! Bless <3 (Because, yes, as you guess, this was how so many of us did Doctor Who until we reached the age of available video!)

And I'm wondering if it was done off a draft script, since some of the dialogue is different; I'd love to have Chris Boucher's actual script to compare it with.

It could be, especially the rehearsal script, which would be nearly-final, but would then have further editing by the script-editor and by director and cast during the rehearsal period (usually two weeks for a 50 min ep, which was the BBC standard - two weeks rehearsal, two days in studio, recording in the afternoon & evening - it's why there was no time for anything other than absolutely necessary retakes). It would be an interesting one to see, because Chris Boucher was always v good, but then so was Robert Holmes who was then DW script editor. I've watched a lot of both of theirs and while they have distinct styles, they overlap quite a bit in dialogue, especially snark and black humour. (The darker the humour, the more likely it is to be Robert Holmes!)

One of my flisters keeps obtaining B7 scripts and looking at them in detail, although mostly that shows the leap from Terry Nation's rehearsal scripts to the Boucher-edited final versions (plus cast additions, always hard to be sure of). Which is almost like exactly the reverse answer to your question, but she does also link to an interview with someone who novelised the first few eps, and they were done from early scripts in order to tie in with release when the show was broadcast. I'm not sure DW ones were done that closely - the order was quite random, but at that point in the 70s, they might have tried it for the current ones. You'll have to check the publication date. (I know aralias won't mind me linking things.)

(Some of the novelisations were written by the script writers - well, Terrance was one - he wrote Horror of Fang Rock, which I know has come up before and was script editor for the Pertwee era - and they could be very interesting in additional backstory for their own characters in particular. A lot of the Seven era ones, and Malcolm Hulke's 70s ones in particular. And Ian Marter, who played Harry Sullivan in the series, later did some too.)

I may have bought it more talismanically than anything else, but I am happy to have it.

Aww. I get that. :-D

My last two panels were this morning and afternoon and now I am home!

Recover well, then, I hope! <3