So spake Harlan Ellison ...

[fajrdrako]

Star Wars is adolescent nonsense; Close Encounters is obscurantist drivel; Star Trek can turn your brains to puree of bat guano; and the greatest science fiction series of all time is Doctor Who! ...This TV viewing will not harm you ... will, in fact, delight and uplift you, stretch your imagination; tickle your risibilities, cleanse your intellect of all lesser visual SF affections... Doctor Who is the apex, the pinnacle, the Louvre Museum, the top, the Coliseum, and other et cetera. -- Harlan Ellison

Comments

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

Unless I'm mistaken, that is from the introduction to every single damned Dr. Who paperback that was published in America in the early to mid-80s

LOL - really? I am amused.

Yup, I bet that essay was recycled from all those paperbacks for the encyclopedia. I remember being a little pissy that the intro to every adaptation was the same damned essay, so they wouldn't have a problem recycling it some more.

Ellison also calls Han Solo a pantywaist in that essay

I wonder why. I can think of many words to describe Han Solo, but 'pantywaist' isn't one of them.

Yeah, I suspect it's that whole "This one is a hero so that one must be the bad guy or a loser" thing Ellison has going on, isn't it! They can't be awesome together, one of 'em has to play the chump in his eyes. I love Han Solo and would love to see a nice crossover with Dr. Who now!

I was way the hell less devastated by Ellison's rudeness than I was by the fact that not a single one of my friends took Ellison to task for his crazed lunacy and no one stood up for me. They all made believe it wasn't even happening! Worse convention EVAR, at least until I turned it around the next day and made a fool out of Ellison by being another person and getting the story of the evil woman told to me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love Han Solo and would love to see a nice crossover with Dr. Who now!

That might be fun! I have thought about doing a Captain Jack Harkness/Han Solo crossover, but I don't have a good idea for it - they're too alike in too many ways.

not a single one of my friends took Ellison to task for his crazed lunacy and no one stood up for me.

That's a shame.

What convention was it? Except from that one time in New York (which wasn't a convention), I only ever saw him at San Diego Comic Con.

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

I don't see them as alike, really. Harkness is... I dunno, perkier? Prettier? And more intelligent than Solo. Also classier and more mysterious. Solo is a regular guy, though admittedly with an edge; he can *do* classy but you are aware he's putting it on for you. You may not know his background, but he's not mysterious. He's like John Sheppard in that he's a slouchy leaner-on-things. Harkness has a more military bearing.

I cannot believe I just wrote a mini-essay comparing & contrasting Jack Harkness and Han Solo. ;)

It was at a convention in Wisconsin, with Ellison, Neil Gaiman, and Peter David, if I remember it correctly. I've been to a lot of cons over the years and they all start to blend together at some point.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of Han Solo and Captain Jack as being alike in archetype: both guys with a light exterior and a reasonably dark past, on the iffy side of the law, both flying their own alien vehicles when we meet them, both braver than they pretend, both eventually making sacrifices and taking risks for the right cause and/or those they love. Both good with guns and ships.

But you're right, Captain Jack is smarter, more complex, perkier and darker. More... everything. Han Solo arguably has better boots, but Jack has the better coat. Jack has a better coat than anyone.

I cannot believe I just wrote a mini-essay comparing & contrasting Jack Harkness and Han Solo. ;)

And a damn good one, too.

I've been to a lot of cons over the years and they all start to blend together at some point.

Oh my goodness, yes, a hearty 'me too'. The dates and cities all blur. "That time I saw so-and-so, what city was that?" Usually I can remember what country the cons were in - and count myself lucky for that part!