When I was in the bookstore, I was offered a “new” position in Store #1 (Southdale). My title was Associate Manager, a title that didn’t exist anywhere else in the bookstore world at that point. This fancy title meant that I had more responsibility, more work but no more power than any average employee. And certainly not a lot more money. But the one thing that I was promised was the doing this job would mean that when it came time for me to become a store manager, I would be able to skip the traditional small “starter” store, but would jump right away to a medium store.
If you live in the Twin Cities, if you ever visited the store over in Sun Ray Mall (not there any longer), you’ll know that they lied to me. There were only a few stores smaller than Sun Ray at the time. However, the Associate Manager job was such a pain in the patoot that I didn’t argue when they offered me the teeny store – off I went.
I’ve mentioned the teeniest because despite it’s small size, it had the largest Dr. Who section in the Twin Cities – seven full shelves in the corner so basically its own section. A couple of times a week, someone would come in the front door and ask “Dr. Who?”. We sold A LOT of the little mass market editions. Some of them were books based on episodes and many were other Dr. Who fiction. Written by many different authors.
That was over 30 years ago, only half way through what is now a 60-year legacy and still going strong. Even though we had cornered the Dr. Who market at the time, it didn’t interest me much. As time has passed, I’ve watched just a few episodes and a couple of years ago I did read the very first book.
A couple of weeks ago I read something on FB that commented that Dr. #5 (Peter Davison) is the father-in-law of Dr. #10 (David Tennant). Not sure why but that seems like a funny happenstance. So I decided I might learn a bit more about the whole Dr. Who universe. I’ve started with a series that was made about 10 years ago. There is one DVD per doctor with a 30-minute overview and interviews covering the doctor, the companions and what made them special and different. Then there is one episode, sometimes the first of that particular doctor, sometimes one of the most iconic.
There have been 14 different Dr. Who actors, although some folks count 15 because David Tennant came back. However clocking in with a whooping 892 episodes filmed so far, this is not a rabbit hole I’m going to jump down. I’ll watch the rest of the series. Maybe in the future I’ll watch a few more here and there – particularly David Tennant and Peter Davison, both of whom I already liked from other roles. I don’t think I’ll need a spreadsheet!
Is there any science fiction you like? A Dr. Who fan? Star Wars? Star Trek? Firefly? Avengers?
In my wheel house!
My kids were raised with Dr. Who.
It was the Tom Baker Era, 1974 to 1981.
Daleks remain a meme in our communications.
“Obey!”
“Exterminate!”
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Pluto TV has a dedicated Dr. Who channel.
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Although I write science fiction, I have not been an enthusiastic reader since the 1980s, when I started working on my own books.
My artificial intelligence writing craft coaches have lately been referencing other authors during reviews of the work, and I might have to start reading again to discover who my people are.
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Never got into Dr. Who and don’t know anything about them. Kinda got into Star Wars as a kid, learned a little more with our son. And I’ve got a nephew who is ALL OVER the Star Wars stuff. But he’s a geek.
I read Issac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy way back when… too young to get it back then, but I remember bits of it.
Not into sci-fi much anymore.
I do enjoy the Avengers movies; their humor makes them fun. Haven’t seen all of them… it’s on my list.
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Not really. I just don’t like it. See you tomorrow.
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