Many think of Shirley Jackson primarily as a short story writer, due to her much-anthologized classic “The Lottery.” But for me it’s Jackson’s novels that really demonstrate her lasting contribution to her field.

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While you can start with the first episode and go from there, you can’t watch Doctor Who, from the very beginning, in its entirety. Literally, it is impossible. The BBC recorded over old film to save money, and so a lot of the second Doctor’s stories and some of the first Doctor’s stories have been lost.

[Enter the vortex...]

Mary Tamm, best known for playing the Doctor’s companion, Romana, on Doctor Who from 1978 to 1979, died yesterday after a protracted struggle with cancer. Romana was a Time Lady from Gallifrey. Like the Doctor, she had the ability to regenerate into a new body, and so Mary Tamm’s Romana is known in fandom as Romana I to differentiate her from Lalla Ward’s version of the character (Romana II).

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The Janus Affair, by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris, is the second novel in the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Series. It follows the eponymous Ministry, which is a “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Women” style Imperial British governmental agency. More specifically, we’re concerned with the continuing exploits of Wellington Books, the Ministry’s very English head archivist, and Eliza Braun, New Zealander and still-stewing-about-being-demoted ex-field agent (now archiving assistant). Books and Braun discover that women connected with the suffragist movement have been disappearing in very mysterious circumstances, and that the Ministry has been burying the cases. Despite explicit instructions to stay out of it, their shared sense of duty and Braun’s personal connection to the movement draw them into a dangerous, high-stakes investigation. The Janus Affair has fun techy bits, a sense of liveliness, and many relatively appealing characters.

[But...]

Mercedes Lackey’s “Elemental Masters” series uses a straightforward system and framework of elemental magic to engage with and rework fairytale material. There’s typically a strong element of romance in the bargain, as you might expect due to the fairytale source content. Home From The Sea, the eighth book, involves characters and organizations from the rest of the series. It can be read on its own without much confusion or loss of meaning, though familiarity with and fondness for the returning characters might deepen your enjoyment of seeing them again here.

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The 50th anniversary of the beloved, classic Sci-Fi show Doctor Who is almost upon us. Sadly the show was off the air during its 40th anniversary, and so nothing happened—OH WAIT NO, THERE WAS A MULTI-DOCTOR STORY, AND IT WAS SO AWESOME THE THIRD DOCTOR, JON PERTWEE, CAME BACK FROM THE GRAVE TO BE IN IT!

But this wasn’t a television episode—it was part of a series of radio plays that are still being made today. If you’ve enjoyed either New Who or the Classic series and want more, you might enjoy Big Finish’s excellent Doctor Who audios.

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes (A:EMH) was one of the best incarnations of a comic franchise in recent memory. It was engaging for newcomers and longtime comic fans alike. In one season of 26 half-hour episodes the cartoon blitzed through the essential elements of the Avengers’ backstories, introducing us to Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, the Wasp, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Black Panther and Captain America. It also introduced the comics’ key villains and the other central forces in play in the Marvel universe (SHIELD, the Fantastic Four, etc.). The show then plunged into several meaty plot arcs, laying strong groundwork for future seasons, and an exciting, complex, high-stakes main plot, wherein an interesting villain brought about an enjoyably epic finale.

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