My 2021

It's been another weird year.

I can confirm that looking after a two year old, is much more difficult than looking after a one year old. This rate of mathematical progression does not fill me with confidence in light of my impending duty to look after a three year old.

As far as I am aware I did not not get Covid, but instead I did get two vaccine doses and booster, which was pretty incredible given where we were this time last year.  

I wrote twelve articles for Hero Collector: Doctor Who Top 10 Modern Cliffhangers, Beat Blue Monday, George Lucas' THX 1138 @50, Star Trek End of the Enterprise, X-Men: First Class @10, Attack The Block @10, The Earth is Doomed!, The Expanse @10, Captain America @10, 007: Top 10 Pre-Title Sequences, Dark Season @30. and The Expanse Boasts A USP For Sci-Fi Fans. That's almost one a month.

Outside In Wants To Believe was published containing my article, You Say Goodbye, And I Say Hello.

Spatial Anomaly published Big Damn Heroics episode guides about the Firefly episodes: Serenity: The Pilot, The Train Job, Bushwhacked, Shindig, Safe, Our Mrs Reynolds, Jaynestown, Out of Gas, Ariel, War Stories, Trash, The Message, Heart of Gold and Objects in Space, as well as The R. Tam Sessions 416 Second excerpt, 1 and 22.

While there were articles that were exclusive to patrons about the deleted scenes from Serenity: The Pilot, Our Mrs Reynolds and Objects in Space. episode orders, opening narrations, character profiles of Badger, Niska, Saffron and the Hands of Blue, A History of the 'verse Part One & Two, Top Ten Firefly Flashbacks, Screentime, Top Ten Death Tolls and an analysis of the opening titles. 

Spatial Anomaly was neglected in the second half of the year, but I'm planning on continuing it in the new year.

There was also a top secret project that took up any free time that I had. I'll let you know what it was as soon as I can...

Time Travel Twitter

In addition to the Time Travel TV Instagram, I have taken control of the Twitter feed as well.

Since I started, we've reached 400 followers (up from a mere 390).

Come and join us.

Big Damn Heroics: Objects In Space & Objects In Space Deleted Scene

Over at Spatial Anomaly, Big Damn Heroics has reached the de facto Firefly finale, Objects in Space.

Alongside an article about a deleted scene from the same episode with a complicated history.

So, please drop by and have a look at Spatial Anomaly.

The First Avenger

Like Attack The Block and X-Men: First Class before it, Captain America: TheFirst Avenger also turned ten this year. 2011 was clearly a great year for movies and I doubt that I was aware of it at the time.

I chart Cap's progress from The First Avenger, through its sequels and The Avengers films, via Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter and onward to The Falcon And The Wilder Soldier, What If? and Captain America IV.

I wrote this to mark the occasion.

So Your Legend Tells

I made another appearance on the Sudden But Inevitable Rewatch podcast to talk about the Firefly episode Heart of Gold. 

I was their first recurring guest and we talked about Asian representation in the series, the nature of villains and the supposed differences between companions and prostitutes.

We had a great time, but don't just take my word for it. You can listen to the podcast here. 

In an unexpected development, the videos of the podcast that were the live experience and I think recorded as a back up were now being shared on YouTube and so there was a visual representation of the time difference over my shoulder towards the end of episode.

Do You Insta?

I've recently begun providing social media content for Time Travel TV. A company that makes Doctor Who documentaries, independent science fiction dramas and a series of interviews called Myth Makers. So it's very much in my wheelhouse.

I've started with an Instagram account. I'm posting photographs daily with links to where you can purchase the documentaries and dramas on DVD or download.

In just over a month, it's gone from zero to 135 followers, without any real promotion, which I'm pretty pleased with. 

Big Damn Heroics: Heart of Gold & Screentime

Big Damn Heroics moved onto Heart of Gold.

And there was an article regarding amount of screentime dedicated to each character that was only available to patrons.

So, please drop by and have a look at Spatial Anomaly.

It's The End As We Know It...

The 5th of June was World Environment Day and so I wrote an article about how science fiction has dealt with ecological disasters, but this is a message that is just as apt any day.

As Cop 26 recently copped out, the article shares a number of possibilities put forward by science fiction writers and if we are unlucky and our leaders fail us we'll get to find out who got it right...

You can read the article here.

Big Damn Heroics: The Message & Flashbacks

In the same way that this blog suffered so did Spatial Anomaly. Big Damn Heroics continued its examination of Firefly with an article about The Message...

And another that is exclusive for subscribers about the use of Flashbacks in the series.

So, please drop by and have a look at Spatial Anomaly.

Carruthers Ten Years On: December 2011

December 2011 on the Carruthers blog was nothing special. Here's posts about references to Blur and Doctor Who in the nineties and the twenty-first century.

Uplifting with Swords

I appeared on the Sudden but Inevitable Rewatch earlier this year in the episode dedicated to the Firefly instalment Shindig. They ended up using something I said to name the episode and so it was ultimately called Uplifting with Swords.

I was their first guest and it was the beginning of a great run of guests, mostly from other podcasts. 

Jesse, Josh, Kylie and Ricky were very welcoming and it was a lot of fun. Due to the time difference between the UK and Colorado, I had to get up very early in the morning to take part, but it was definitely worth it. I heartily recommend the Sudden but Inevitable Rewatch to listeners far and wide.

X-Men: First Class Ten Years On

Can you believe that X-Men: First Class is ten years old. No? That's because it's not anymore, now it's probably more like ten and a half years and I should have posted this a while ago.

I wrote this article to celebrate its tenth birthday and suggest that it should be the model for bringing the X-Men into the Marvel Cinematic Univese. Then got so busy that I failed to post it here, so let's consider that rectified now.

Outside In Wants To Believe Published

Outside In Wants To Believe, ATB Publishing's second volume dedicate to The X-Files universe, has been published and is available here. 

Outside In Wants To Believe features 156 articles, one about each of the episodes that make up seasons seven to eleven of The X-Files and the second film, as well as the entireties of Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm.

I have written not one, but two articles for the book and they both concern Inga Fossa, the third episode of Harsh Realm. I'll wager this is probably more than anyone else has ever written about it.

Outside In Wants To Believe is available here.

Carruthers Ten Years On: November 2011

. I have absolutely no memory the photo on the left. November 2011 on the Carruthers blog was the month in which Fistkrammer finally saw the light of day. It was a surprise to all of us.

Posts listing references to the Star Trek movies and Doctor Who in the sixties, seventies and eighties.

Photos like the one below warm the cockles of my heart. The cloak was very difficult to walk in at the best of times, but one of the holes was much lower than the others and made for a very uncomfortable crouch and made walking almost impossible. I loved it.

Carruthers Ten Years On: October 2011

October 2011 on the Carruthers blog. I quite like Diversion, Napkin, Fashion Victim and £, but it must be said that the photos are doing the heavy lifting.

The Star Trek references continue with posts about Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.

Carruthers Ten Years On: September 2011

September 2011 on the Carruthers blog features a shameless use of my showreel and Bengal Boogie is probably my favourite.

Again, I'm quite fond of the posts tracking the references to Dollhouse, Life On Mars and Star Trek.

Carruthers Ten Years On: August 2011

August 2011 on the Carruthers blog. Yankee and Concerning Flight are alright.

I'm surprisingly pleased with these posts about references on the blog to Red Dwarf, Star Wars and Blake's 7.

Carruthers Ten Years On: July 2011

July 2011 on the Carruthers blog was pretty pathetic. It began with the Friday's Child rhyme and ended with the phonetic alphabet, which were all pretty wafer thin, with the exception of Victor.

Carruthers Ten Years On: June 2011

June 2011 saw the Carruthers blog reach 1100 posts.

There's a pretty good run of posts here: Branded, Shedloads, Borderland, Trunk, Word Up, These Are Happy Plums, The Harsh Light Of Day, Style Over Substance and There's No Other Way.

Attack The Block

In a move that's sure to make everyone feel ancient, Attack The Block is ten years old today.

I wrote this for Hero Collector about Attack The Block's tenth birthday.

Carruthers Ten Years On: May 2011

May 2011 on the Carruthers blog was the blog's third birthday. Between Sherlock Holmes and links to the blogs of supportive people, the last of which Reader, I married her.

There is only really one worthwhile post all month: Danger Of Death.

Carruthers Ten Years On: April 2011

April 2011 on the Carruthers blog. The Tempest continued and I was pleasantly surprised by the payoff. It was replaced by Sherlock Holmes' The Sign of Four. My favourite post however is Railing Failing, the photo is funny, but the post improves on it rather than simply relying on it.

I can't imagine making a joke about rape now, even one as oblique as this.

Appetite For D-Struction

The USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D of Star Trek: The Next Generation is clearly an amazing piece of advanced technology, but infallible it was not. between the holodeck malfunctions and the upgrade that would awry, the ship had a propensity to be destroyed.

The Enterprise-D appears in more Star Trek than any other vessel. All 176 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the movie Star Trek: Generations as well as the first episodes of both Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Picard and as the finale of Star Trek: Enterprise. That's a total of 180 appearances. In no less than eight of them the Enterprise-D is destroyed. Fourteen times. 

I wrote this for Hero Collector.

THX 1138 at Fifty

THX 1138 was George Lucas' student film, which he expanded upon to make his first feature. THX 1138 is fifty years old today.

I wrote this for Hero Collector about THX 1138's half century.

Big Damn Heroics: Trash, Saffron & War Stories

This week, Big Damn Heroics covers Trash, exclusively for patrons for the next week.

Also, exclusively for Patrons is a character profile of Saffron.

The War Stories article has gone public.

So, please drop by and have a look at Spatial Anomaly.

Carruthers Ten Years On: March 2011

March 2011 on the Carruthers blog was the nadir, so far. Duel videos, music tracks used or referenced by our sketches and the text of Shakespeare's The Tempest alternating with dictionary definitions that were probably meant to be stark, but just seem facile.

The best post of probably Revenge.

Big Damn Heroics: War Stories, Niska & Ariel

Over on Spatial Anomaly, Big Damn Heroics has now reached War Stories. It's exclusive to Patrons for the next week.

This week's Patreon exclusive is a character profile of Adelai Niska.

Meanwhile the Ariel article is now free to read, as is the schedule for March.

Why not pay Spatial Anomaly a visit?

Big Damn Heroics: Ariel, Hands Of Blue Character Profile & Out Of Gas

Big Damn Heroics on Spatial Anomaly has reached Ariel. It's exclusive to Patrons for the next seven days.

This week's Patreon exclusive article is a character profile of the Hands of Blue. 

Meanwhile, the Out Of Gas article is now free to read. 

Come on over and have a butcher's at Spatial Anomaly.

Big Damn Heroics: Whedon, Out Of Gas, Jaynestown & Chronology, Part 2

Spatial Anomaly's current project Big Damn Heroics was thrown a bit of a curveball this week. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the recent and detailed accusations about Joss Whedon.

On a happier note, the Out Of Gas article is up. It's exclusive to Patrons for the first seven days.

The Jaynestown article is now free to read.

This week's Patreon exclusive article is A History Of The Verse, Part Two, which to the surprise of no one is a follow up to A History Of The Verse, Part One.

So why not pay Spatial Anomaly a visit?

Big Damn Heroics: Jaynestown, Our Mrs Reynolds & Chronology

A Spatial Anomaly update: Jayne Cobb plays Robin Hood for a spell as Big Damn Heroics reaches the halfway point of Firefly: Jaynestown. It's exclusive to patrons for seven days (or a week). 

The Our Mrs Reynolds article has gone public.

There's an exclusive article for Patrons about the historical chronology of the 'verse.

Please come over have and have a look at Spatial Anomaly. 

Sudden But Inevitable Rewatch

I'm a guest on the Sudden But Inevitable Rewatch Podcast live tonight at 10:45pm US Mountain Time, which is 5:45 in the UK (and technically Saturday morning).

I'm really looking forward to it. We are going to be talking about the Firefly episode Shindig, which by sheer coincidence, shameless plug, I recently wrote about. It'll be available on their Facebook and their Instragram as well as wherever else you can get your podcasts.

Carruthers Ten Years On: February 2011

In February 2011, the Carruthers blog reached one thousand posts. The month featured more index posts, more 're-mastering' and YouTube videos of the movie, Duel.

I quite like Baked.

I took the photo for Top Floor whilst stood outside the Courtyard Theatre during the rehearsals for the Behind The Bike Shed festival. You will notice that the blaze seems to have been isolated to one flat and in the wake of Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent demonization of firefighters by the Conservative Party who cut their resources this seems very significant. The accompanying joke was meant to refer to the notoriously buoyant and cutthroat London property market. Now it's hard not to think about the previous residents.

Big Damn Heroics: Our Mrs Reynolds, Safe & Deleted Scene

Some Spatial Anomaly news: Big Damn Heroics has reached Our Mrs Reynolds, the episode in which Mal gets married and Christina Hendricks gives a bravura performance.

There's also an article about a delete scene from the episode that's exclusive to patrons. 

The Safe article has gone public.