Buck Rogers and Doctor Who--Contrasting Sci-Fi Heroes

Last Saturday two great sci-fi icons and figures from my past appeared on TV. Turner Classic Movies began running episodes from the 1938 Republic serial Buck Rogers. (They usually show movie serials on Sat. mornings, which is when they were shown in the movie theatres back when my father was a kid.) Most people now know Buck Rogers as a 1980s TV series, but the comic strip and serial were first. That night BBC America had the American premiere of the new series of Doctor Who.

These series both star time-travelling heroes, both vastly different in terms of their problem-solving techniques, and were big parts of my childhood and adoloscence. Buck Rogers was a comic strip started in the late 1920s about a daring pilot trapped in suspended animation for 500 years to emerge in the 25th century. He bravely fights against Killer Kane, a futuristic gangster who has taken over the world, a sort of combination of Hitler and Al Capone. Local Philadelphia station Channel 17 used to run episodes on weekday afternoons with a kiddie TV host named Wee Willie Webber. I remember my uncle Jim in Boston had a big book of the original strips that fascinated me and my parents later bought me a copy for Christmas.

I first encountered Doctor Who, the long-running British sci-fi series about a Time Lord and his companions roaming the universe in a time-space machine disguised as a police box, when Phila. public TV station Channel 12 showed episodes starring Tom Baker, the fourth actor to play the role. The trick of the series was that Time Lords can regenerate themselves into an entirely new body so a new actor would take over the role when the previous one was tired of it. That way the show continued for several decades. My relationship with the Doctor continued into my move to NYC when I left college and became an adult. I actually joined a Doctor Who fan club called UNYT--named after the military branch of the British government the Doctor was allied with.

I even attended a Doctor Who convention in Valley Forge, PA, and met Doctor Who number 3 Jon Pertwee and several Doctor Who companions. I remember they showed episodes all day long. There was a Doctor Who event in Brooklyn College when I lived near there and I got Tom Baker and Colin Baker (Doctor number 6)'s autograph. My ultimate Doctor Who experience was at Infinicon, a weird convention held in NYC at the Institute of Ethical Culture that UNYT pariticipated in. I served as guest escort for George Takei,Sulu of Star Trek, and met Patrick Troughton (Doctor number 2) and Peter Davison (Doctor number 5).

The main difference in these two is Buck Rogers uses his daring and muscle to get out of a situation and the Doctor uses his mind. Both are infinitely brave. The Doctor thinks nothing of facing Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, or other invincible foes as does Buck Rogers, but the Doctor doesn't even have a raygun like Rogers, just a sonic screwdriver.

The new Doctor Who with Matt Smith is really gripping. So far we've seen two episodes and there is a weird story arc involving the Doctor's death and a little girl inside an Apollo astronaut suit. Amy Pond may be pregnant and her husband Rory doesn't know if his wife loves him or the Doctor, plus maybe we'll finally discover who Dr. River Song is--I think she's Amy's baby grown up from the future. Buck Rogers is up to episode four at TCM and not quite as exciting. Buck is trapped in the open country between Killer Kane's city and the Hidden City where the forces of freedom are keeping themselves. He is protecting Prince Tallen, an emisary from Saturn.

Best DVR Week Ever

This had to be one of the best weeks for my DVR ever. The Game Show Network has started showing the old black and white What's My Line at 3 AM weeknights. The Sundance Channel has gotten all Bravo and Logo-y with Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, a docu-series about straight women who are best friends with gay men. Batman had two of the campiest episodes ever--Hizzoner the Penquin, wherein the wily bird runs for Mayor of Gotham City; and The Devil's Fingers, the highest-rated Bat-episode ever because it starred Liberace. And to top it all off, the BEST Big Bang Theory yet with Leonard, Sheldon, Penny, Raj, and Howard headed to the comic book store for a New Year's Eve party dressed as the Justice League of America. New regular Zack, Penny's current hunky substitute for Leonard, is drafted into playing Superman. The scene at the end was priceless with the comic book store owher dressed as Doctor Who No. 4 (Tom Baker) announcing the winner of the best costumed group as the JLA--and there are THREE JLAs.

Where to begin? WML is like taking a time machine back to the 1950s when Broadway and movie stars would drop by to fool the blindfolded panel who were in formal wear to play sophisticated parlor games. America knew what was playing on Broadway then and cared. Not like now when the only show people know about is Spider-Man.

The Sundance series is fun and growing on me. But the hot guys in the ads on the sides of the bus aren't even on the show and they are way hunkier than the regular subjects.

The Batman episodes were a hoot. In the Penquin show, the pompous waddling kingpin of crime runs for mayor of Gotham and the script satirizes Barry Goldwater, polls, TV commentators, debates, etc. At one point game show hosts like Dennis James and Allen Luden play political TV anchormen as the Dynamic Duo and Pengy fight a mob of crooks at a jeweler's convention. The commentators cover the bat-fight as if it's a political convention--get it?

The Liberace segments were beyond absurd with the swishy maestro romancing Aunt Harriet and flirting with a trio of gorgeous lady crooks.

Oh, and DADT was repealed. So it was a perfect week.

Ready for the New Doctor

I finally caught up with Doctor Who, viewing the last David Tennant episode which was broadcast on BBC America over New Years weekend with a marathon of Tenant. I DVRed them and just watched the second installment of The End of Time. I am now ready for the new 11th Doctor and have seen almost every episode available in this country. My relationship with the Doctor is a long and twisted one with a major break-up, but now we are back together.

My first exposure to Doctor Who was via the Philadelphia public television station WHYY which showed Tom Baker episodes on Saturday afternoons. Howard Da Silva did voice-overs explaining what had happened in the previous segments. I was in high school and was immediately intrigued by the humor and infinite possibilties of a series which could go anywhere in time or space and a hero who could regenerate whenever the lead actor was tired of playing him. Baker was dryly funny and not your typical action hero--the Doctor used his brains rather than his muscles or martial arts.

I have met several of the doctors. There was a Baker-Baker event at Brooklyn College when I was living not far from there. Tom Baker and Colin Baker, the sixth doctor, appeared and signed autographs. I also attended a massive Doctor Who convention in Valley Forge, Pa. in the mid-80s which featured Jon Pertwee (second Doctor), and several companions. Continual episodes were shown all day. I got the closest to Peter Davison (fifth Doctor) and Patrick Troughton (second Doctor) at the convention in which I was a guest escort for George Takei of Star Trek (See previous blog where I encountered him again on the subway). I remember asking Troughton what it was like to act with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh--he played in their productions of Antony and Cleopatra and Caesar and Cleopatra.

I blush to admit it but at one time I was actually a member of the UNYT, the NYC-based Doctor Who fan club.

Tom Baker was always my favorite, perhaps because he was my first doctor. But dreamboat David Tenant has taken his place in my nerdy heart. I look forward to seeing his Hamlet on TV.

I lost interest in the show when Slyvester McCoy took over. Nothing against McCoy who is a fine actor--I recently saw him play the fool opposite Sir Ian McKellen's King Lear at BAM. The scripts lacked tension and the whole series seemed tired. There was an attempt to bring it back with a pretty lame TV movie which I couldn't even watch all the way through. Then Russel T. Davis rejuvenated the series several years later and here we are.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (9)--Back to Philly

I feel like a little kid on the day after Halloween. I've had too much fun and eaten too much candy. Over the New Year's weekend I visited my parents in Philadelphia and spent part of the time shopping for comics on South Street and going to a comic book con at a Ramada Inn near the airport (the same location as a previous con which I've blogged about). It turns out this Philly con is held every other month. I also watched the last episode of Doctor Who with David Tenant on BBC-America with my parents (they enjoyed it) and in addition to all the comics, I bought a DVD of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio for $6 from a used-book store (I stopped short of spending $8 on a DVD of Wacky Races, another favorite cartoon of the 1960s). It was a total mind-junk binge.

I also went on another mini-binge at Time Machine here in New York. I had previously bought a Lois Lane with an entire story missing so I returned it and got the full catalogue value and bought some Atoms and another Lois Lane. In Philadelphia, I went to Showcase Comics on South Street and they had some really good deals. Their back issues were 40 percent off. I didn't buy too many because I was going to the Philly con the next day, but it turned out I didn't find any of the titles at the con that they had at Showcase, so I should have spent the money. Another thing that stopped me from spending more moolah at Showcase was the fact that I got a parking ticket while browsing through old Silver Age comics in the store. I put money in a parking meter and got one of those little slips through you're supposed to display on your dashboard, but I lost track of time and they issued a violation exactly seven minutes after the time expired. Bastards! The fine was $36. I felt so guilty, I didn't buy an old Superboy for $6.

The next day I stopped feeling guilty and bought a whole new haul at the comic show at the Ramada Inn. Here's a list of the loot from both Showcase Comics and the Philly Con:
2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (origin of Machine Man, a 1970s Jack Kirby creation after he went back to Marvel from DC)
Action Comics #316, 359
Archie as Captain Pureheart #4
Batman #214 (See cover above, a fairly sexist depiction of the women of Gotham City when you think about it)
Blackhawk #215, 230 (which I already had, damnit. I need to start taking lists to these things)
The Flash #181 (featuring an incredibly racist depiction of Japanese people)
Green Lantern #11
Jimmy Olsen #64, 83, 84, 88
Jonny Quest #1
Lois Lane #82
Marvel Tales #17, 23
Marvel Team-Up #74 (featuring Spider Man and the Not Ready for Prime Time Players from the late 1970s)
Metal Men #31, 34, 38
Modeling with Millie #47 (I couldn't resist, no superheroes, but plenty of fashion)
Our Fighting Forces featuring The Losers #154 (Kirby again, I wouldn't have bought a war comic otherwise)
The Owl #2 (obscure Dell title)
The Silver Surer #18 (only Kirby artwork in this title)
Strange Adventures #204
Superboy #107, 109, 201
Superman #220
Thor #130, 151, 159, 174
World's Finest #191

On Monday I had a discussion with a co-worker also into comics. We were trying to identify the artist of a comic cover on a calendar I had bought. "That's a Kirby mouth," I said. "Yeah, but those are Ditko hands," he replied. Now that I think about it, that's the nerdiest conversation I've probably ever had.

My Top Ten Favorite TV Shows

We all gotta get silly sometimes. So here's my top ten favorite TV shows of all time. Please add your own in the comments spot. (I never get any comments, boo-hoo! Is anybody there, as William Daniels sang in 1776.)

In no particular order:

1. Rocky and Bullwinkle. Funny and satirical and way over my head as a kid. Boris and Natasha, the Giant Metal Moon Mice (while disguised as a moon mouse, Boris was reading a book called Mice Kampf), Cloyd and Gidney, Fearless Leader (when I was little I thought he was named Phyllis Leader), fractured Fairy Tales (Snow White: We used to have a line of giants, but we had to cut them out, too much overhead), Peabody and Sherman (Oh, no, Sherman, in this Indian dialect "ta-ta" means "Let's Have a War"), Wrongway Peachfuzz, and of course the flying squirrel and moose. I actually met June Foray at a sci-fi convention once and got her autograph.

2. Hill Street Blues. Real-life drama. I interviewed Bruce Weitz (Mick Belker) and saw Joe Spano (Lt. Henry Goldblume) on the subway. Robert Prosky (Sgt. Jablonsky) grew up across the street from my grandparents in Philly.

3. Dr. Who. Greatest sci-fi series ever, still going on. I've met six of the ten doctors and several of the companions at various sci-fi conventions.

4. The Amazing Race. Of course, read blog entries on the current season for more details.

5. The Dick Van Dyke Show. (Funniest moment: Millie and Jerry discovering Laura with the inflatible raft.)

6. The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Rhoda: I don't know why I'm eating this chocolate, I should apply it directly to my hips)

7. Theater in America. PBS series in the late 1970s spotlighting a different regional theatre production every week. Arena Stage, American Conservatory Theatre, Negro Ensemble Company, Shakespeare in the Park, etc. How I wish there were something like that on TV now, but even with all the dozens of cable channels, nobody cares enough about theatre to present one.

8. Upstairs, Downstairs. (Ruby, it's 6 o'clock, what should you be doin'? Not speculatin', Mr. 'udson. I'll speculate you, my girl!)

9. Mystery Science Theatre 3000. Too much magnificence to go into. This deserves an entire column.

10. Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward. Of course, my favorite show from ages seven to ten. We didn't think it was funny at the time. But now it's wonderfully campy.

Riding the Subway with Mr. Sulu

Friday morning I was riding the subway to work and George Takei, Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek series got on at 42nd Street. I wasn't sure if it was him since he was wearing dark glasses, but as soon as he started talking to the man with him--I assume it was his partner whom he married in California before the hateful Prop. 8 was passed--I recognized his voice.

"We need to get off at 8th Street--NYU," he said. That was my stop. I figured I would say something to him when we all left the train so he wouldn't have to deal with all the people in the car who would recognize him.

I had a perfect reason to say hello other than just "I'm a big dorky Trekkie fan." About 23 years ago I was a volunteer guest escort--no, not that kind--at a sci-fi convention where Takei was a guest speaker. At the time I was a member of UNYT—The New York-based Doctor Who fan club. Yes, I admit it, God help me. I forget what the initials stood for, but it was a variation on UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce that dealt with extraterrestrial stuff in the Doctor Who series. Anyway, the group was involved with organizing this event which took place at the Ethical Cultural Society on the Upper West Side. Also in attendance were the second Doctor Who (Patrick Troughton) and the fifth Doctor Who (Peter Davison) and some British horror movie queen named Caroline Munro.

I wound up serving as George’s guest escort when a friend of mine who was coordinating speaker relations grabbed me at the convention—it was called Infinicon—and told me Sulu’s original guest escort failed to pick him up at the hotel. It turned out the guy overslept. What would I have to do?, I asked. Here’s his schedule, she said, all you have to do is take him from event to event. First he gives his talk and question and answer session, then he signs autographs for an hour, then take him to lunch, there’s a talent show tonight, then tomorrow a special luncheon for people who have paid extra. So I said okay. He was a lot of fun and it was great to be with him as people on the street recognized him.

I haven’t been to one of these things in a long time. Comic Con and the other comic-book conventions I’ve been to aren’t really the same thing; they are too big or they don’t concentrate on intimate interaction between stars of old sci-fi shows and the fans. I used to go all the time. During the course of my convention-going, I met or saw most of the crew of the original Enterprise, most of the Doctor Whos, several of his companions, Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) and Judy from the same show, Joyce Randolph from the Honeymooners, Dawn Wells from Gilligan’s Island, some cast members from V and Blake’s Seven, Adam West (the original Batman from the 1960s series which was my favorite TV show), and Chewbacca from Star Wars.

It would be fun now to go to one, but these days the cons are either enormous media whore shows like Comic Con with little interaction or they are rinky-dink things with D-List people like wrestling stars or Mason Reese (the former commercial child star who looked like a tiny old man) or Larry Storch or Bill Daly from I Dream of Jeannie, The Bob Newhart Show, and Match Game sitting at tables and selling their autographs from $10.

When the train got to 8th Street, Takei and his partner were not making to get up. But I had to in order to make it to work. Should I tell him “I was listening in and heard you say you should get off at this stop”? Instead I just shook his hand and said “George, I just wanted to say hi. Twenty years ago, I was your guest escort at a convention.” He smiled and said “Is that right?” The doors were opening and I said “It’s nice to see you” and left. He was still on the train. There’s wasn’t time for me to say “I thought you wanted to get off here.” So I am guilty of making George Takei miss his stop, I guess he wasn’t a very good helmsman. Get it?