May the 4th Be With You! – Finding Hope and Fear on “The Ark in Space”

Happy May the 4^th everyone!  Today is the day we all celebrate the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker himself – the man who has played the Doctor longer than anyone else.  Getting into the spirit of the day – celebrating what it means when the Doctor is with you – I’m looking at “The Ark in Space.”  After regenerating, the Fourth Doctor’s first outing with Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter)  finds them exiting the TARDIS on Space Station Nerva in the year 16,087.  Nerva holds thousands of humans in cryogenic sleep alongside animal and botanical life and a vast store of “the entire body of human thought.”  However, the station also holds the Wirrn, a parasitic insectoid race bent on absorbing all human life.  Russell T Davies has said this was his favorite Classic Doctor Who story.[1] Steven Moffatt cited it as the best Fourth Doctor story.[2]  And (allegedly) it was Tom Baker’s favorite episode he ever filmed.[3]  I love it because space provides a unique setting for our stories, one as likely to inspire hope as soul-shaking horror.  Space holds endless possibilities and endless peril.  I chose “The Ark in Space” for this May the 4^th piece as it gives us both while beautifully showing what  happens when the Doctor is with you.

Dana Scully – Fiction’s Fearless Females

By Nancy of Graphic Novelty²

In celebration of Women’s History Month, I have joined up with some other amazing bloggers to celebrate! This is the fifth year that I have participated in this series with Michael of My Comic Relief, Kalie of Just Dread-full, and Jeff of The Imperial Talker and this year I choose FBI Special Agent Dana Scully, MD, of The X-Files fame. This iconic role began in 1993 and spanned eleven seasons and two movies over the course of twenty-five years before ending (for good?) in 2018.

How to Build a TARDIS: A DIY Project When Dad Does Everything

Let’s not bury the lead here.  Having my own TARDIS is fantastic!  Modelled on the TARDIS used by the Ninth and Tenth Doctor (as far as the size and TARDIS exterior goes), it stands 8’ tall (without the lamp, more on that below) and it’s 48 ¼” wide at the base.  I’d say having my own TARDIS is every bit as exciting as I thought it would be except I never could have imagined loving it this much.  I mean, I have a TARDIS.  I.  Have.  A.  TARDIS!  I have a TARDIS!  How could I ever prepare for this sort of excitement??  The TARIDS was completed on Christmas Day (poeticly perfect timing) and we moved it into my classroom over Christmas break.  However, I’ve waited until now to tell this story as this is my 500^th post on My Comic Relief which warranted a special piece.  And what could be more special than having a TARDIS?!!?

Nearly seven years, 500 posts, and 1,258,447 words have led to this – the story of my TARDIS.   

Star Trek Edition: The Great Fandom Swap!

with Nancy of Graphic Novelty²

Friendship is wonderful, isn’t it?  It can lead you to do all sorts of things you’d never do on your own.  I’d start listing examples but, c’mon, then we’d be off on a tangent (a beautiful, nourishing, and entertaining tangent to be sure!) which could fill pages.  Let’s cut to the chase!  My friendship with Nancy of Graphic Novelty² – my oldest, longest, and dearest blogging friend – has led to an historic first.  I, Michael John Miller, author and operator of the blog My Comic Relief, am writing about Star Trek for the very first time.  You see, Nancy loves Star Trek and I’d never seen a single episode of Star Trek (only the JJ Abrams films).  I love Doctor Who and Nancy had only seen a few episodes in passing.  So, in the name of friendship, AMAZING THINGS, and blog content, we did our first ever Fandom Swap!  Eagerly sharing what we love with the other, Nancy chose eight episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (her favorite iteration of the show) for me to watch and I gave Nancy eight episodes of Doctor Who. 

Smile, Doctor Who, and Lessons of Curiosity and Courage

Last night Kalie and I went to see Smile.  I wasn’t planning on blogging this weekend and I certainly wasn’t planning on writing a piece on the Smile movie as I don’t write about horror often.  However, as the movie unfolded I found myself thinking of Doctor Who.  This, in and of itself, isn’t surprising as I’m almost always thinking about Doctor Who.  However, I began to see a tie between the Doctor and the horrifying film unfolding before us.  Specifically, I found myself thinking of “Mummy on the Orient Express” (S8E8).  As these connections grew in my mind I could feel the piece developing alongside them…which was nice as there was no way I could have went to bed after I got home because THIS WAS THE SCARIEST MOVIE I’VE SEEN IN AGES and I needed time and distractions to decompress before bed.  So I started writing and here we are!  In an unexpected twist, Smile helped me see how the Doctor’s curiosity makes them such a remarkable hero.

This piece has basic plot spoilers for Smile so read on based on your comfort with such things :).

The BIG Question: Which Vehicle/Ship Would You Choose?

Once before, I rolled up my sleeves and tackled one of humanity’s oldest and most enduring questions – which superpowers would you choose, if you could have any?  But that’s far from the only query to vex the human imagination.  As long as we’ve been imagining mystical, powerful, larger-than-life beings in incredible, captivating, exciting stories, we’ve been imagining different ways for them to move around.  Naturally, the next best thing to imagining fictional characters travelling in these incredible vessels is thinking about having a real one for ourselves.  And this brings us to the question at the center of today’s post – if you could choose, which ship or vehicle or transport would you pick to have for your very own?