New Release Sale - Dust Between Stars

At last, Dust Between Stars (Zaran Journals Book 4) is out. It is Live on Smashwords and Amazon at the introductory price of 99¢. It will be at that price for at least a the first week.

 

Those who haven't read the previous books in this series might be wondering if they want to plod through three other books before this one don't need to worry. This book stands on its own and is a great place to meet Ven Zaran. There is an ongoing story that carries through all the books, but each book in the Zaran Journals chronicles an episode in the life of Ven Zaran, space trader, smuggler, and troubled soul.

When galactic trader Ven Zaran is accused of piracy, he’s on his own to clear his name.

Independent galactic trader Ven Zaran is wanted for piracy. Trouble is he was no where near the system where the attack occurred, yet the evidence against him implicates him specifically. The authorities seem to be convinced of his guilt and have set one of their best inspectors on the case. Ven chooses to go on the run to find the evidence that will clear his name. He has to use every trick he knows to stay ahead of the inspector. Only adding to his troubles is a ghost from his past who manages to find him faster than the inspector can and knows too much to leave behind. Ven must juggle his new traveling companion and his own investigation while covering his tracks to keep the inspector at bay. Unless he can uncover the real pirate, his career as he knows it is over.

The Grindstone

The trouble with being a writer is that on occasion you need to write. While I do most of my writing the rest of the year, I have had good luck participating (unofficially) in NNWM. This year I am back at it to pen my fifth installment of the Zaran Journals series. If the end result is as good as the idea in my head, this should be a good, action packed, book. I'll likely be only about halfway through by the end of the month, so this may be the last major post from me before Christmas. There is, of course, a special SF anniversary coming up in just over 3 weeks that might elicit a blog post or two, but I have nothing planned right now.

Watch for my new book at your favorite ebook retailer in the coming weeks. Dust Between Stars has plenty of action and mystery and early readers have really enjoyed it.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special Speculation

Steven Moffat and the BBC are being very tight lipped on the 50th Anniversary specials. I know of 3 so far; the special 50th Anniversary episode, The Day of the doctor, the docudrama, An Adventure in Space and Time, and a documentary. Unfortunately I can't quite understand why they are being so secretive about the later two. The special episode makes sense, it would be hard to show much without giving too much away. However, they aired a trailer for it at Comic-Con this summer, so there are a few people out there who know more than the rest of us. The docudrama, An Adventure in Space and Time, was also previewed at Comic-Con, it has no connection to the story of the 50th Anniversary episodes, and as of yet, no date or time has been announced and the trailer (viewable as a very bad cell phone video) remains unreleased. I would think they would want to build interest in that.

Then there are the hints and rumors. There are lots of rumors, few should be headed in any way. The only things I've been paying attention to are Steven Moffat's posts on Facebook. One of them was delightfully intriguing about John Hurt's Doctor without actually revealing anything. Hurt's Doctor is definitely earlier in the Doctor's timeline, but so far nothing official from Moffat about when. There are delightful hints of the Time War or maybe something much earlier, but nothing definite.

But there is one possibility that has occurred to me that allows for John Hurt's Doctor without changing our familiar sequence of Doctors. In the Time War things changed. Who knows what alternate timelines might have happened. It is seeming more likely that John Hurt's Doctor is the 9th Doctor, but not from the main timestream we are following. I see two possibilities; that he is from an alternate timeline that was erased/sealed by the end of the Time War, or that he is the same incarnation as Eccleston, but something happened to rejuvenate him without regeneration. In either case, I think, if all the theories about the Time War prove to be correct, that Hurt's Doctor is the one who ended the Time War and destroyed Gallifrey and the Daleks. That is monumental enough for the shame heaped upon him. Still, this is all just speculation and the only source that Hurt's Doctor comes between 8 and 9 isn't from a reliable source for the plot. The pieces do seem to fit together, but we will see.

With the regenerations we've seen in the series, the only places Hurt's Doctor could fall (if he is a separate incarnation and not some variant of one of the others or from and alternate timeline) is before Hartnell, between Troughton and Pertwee, or between McGann and Eccleston. All the other regenerations have been seen on screen and even the Troughton to Pertween regeneration was implied, thought not actually shown (Pertwee exits the Tardis in Troughton's clothes).

And Hurt's Doctor being from the Time War does have one strong bit in its favor. Clara went all through the Doctor's timeline and didn't see Hurt's Doctor. The Time War was locked so nothing could escape and nothing could get back in. That would likely apply to routing through the Doctor's own timestream so Clara would not have seen any of the Time War and not seen Hurt's Doctor. But then, how do we get to see him in this special? The more ideas pop up, the more questions there are to answer. But we are now less than a month from the 50th Anniversary and that much closer to seeing the episode and knowing. Until we get better clues or get to see the episode itself, it is all just speculation. Don't get your hopes up on any of these guesses. Keep your mind open so you can enjoy it as it unfolds.

Age of a Timelord

I must confess I have the Doctor on the brain. Likely because I have been watching a selection of old episodes in preparation for the 50th Anniversary Special to air on November 23. I have watched the first 9 Doctors and it has led to what I think is the answer to a question: How old is the Doctor.

We are only given his age from the perspective of an outsider one. Romana, when she first came aboard the Tardis, corrected the doctor on his age saying that he was 759 and had been traveling in the Tardis for 523 years, placing his age at 236 when he "borrowed" the Tardis (now shown on screen toward the end of the 7th season of the new series). Outside of that we have to rely on the Doctor's own measurements of the passage of time.

I'm not about to get into whether the Doctor is talking about human years or Gallifreyan years. I'm assuming that since we watch the Doctor in English that everything is in Earth years (and converted from whatever other measurement might be used to Earth years by the Tardis translation circuit if you want to go that far). But that one scene in the Rios Operation gives us a good clue about how accurate the Doctor is about his age. He isn't. He openly lies about it all the time.

That leads us to an estimate of his age at each point in time. 236 when he "borrowed" the Tardis. About 450 at the time of his first regeneration. We have to guess at the next one, but I'd say about 600 at the time of his second regeneration. About 750 for his third regeneration (which jives with what Romana said). But just over 800 at the time of his fourth regeneration. By the time of his fifth regeneration, he was 900. We are given an age of 953 for his sixth regeneration. The accuracy of that number is questionable. His next incarnation was over 1000. And that is where the old series ends and we appear to have a bit of an issue.

But it is a phantom issue. In the new series, the Doctor gives his age as 900 frequently. But that 900 has a source and the Doctor himself gave it to us. It isn't his age, it is how long he's been traveling in the Tardis. We of course have no estimate of how long between when he left Gallifrey in the Tardis to when Ian and Barbara joined him and it got stuck in the familiar form of a Police Box, but it wasn't long enough for Susan to age much (provided we even had a clue how old she was in An Unearthly Child or when she left Gallifrey). But the Ninth Doctor specifically says 900 years of phone-box travel which means he has lopped off the time before that, or 236 years. This makes the Ninth Doctor about 1136.

The Tenth Doctor kept his age in the 900's so we have no idea how much time might have passed. While that fits with his earlier age before he regenerated, it doesn't give us a clue to how long this incarnation lasted. He went out saying 906 (adjusted to 1142 to account for when he left Gallifrey). The Eleventh Doctor started off at 907 and claimed up to 1103 (1339 adjusted for when he left Gallifrey).

The Doctor leads a dangerous life. More so than most timelords. His first regeneration happened naturally and from that we can guess that timelord life expectancy is something like 6000 years. Yet the Rani was nearing 1000 and had not regenerated and the Master was done with his 13 lives by the time the Doctor was 750. If the Rani is more typical (and there is nothing to indicate she is) then a timelord should live for 13,000 years. But given Borusa has a different regeneration every time we see him, I would say that it is very variable.

Given the Doctor's tendency to lie, estimate, and reset his age, nothing he says about it is accurate. Another thing the we have to question is how his companions age as they travel with him. Do they age normally or slowly. Is part of his lying to avoid telling his companions that they have been with him for ten years but only aged one. Plus the Doctor has periods when he is alone. How well does he keep track then. For a TV series that has such a fundamental mystery at its core (who is the Doctor), it really isn't surprising that we have no answers for most of these things.

I think it is safe to say that the Doctor never has said he is older then he is (not without some ulterior motive) so as we wind down the Eleventh Doctor's time and look to the Twelfth, we can be assured that he has shaved at least 300 years off his age when he told Clara he was 1000. With all the things he has done off camera, I think it is safe to place the best estimate for his age at about 1500 as he goes through his eleventh regeneration this Christmas. That's assuming there aren't a lot more side trips unaccounted for.

The Theory vs. The Supporter

My surfing online has yielded many interesting articles and has led me to form a theory of my own. There are a great many crackpots out there, but not everything they come up with is pure idiocy. Yes, if you read their work you come away with a deep understanding of how unhinged they are, but once in a while they come up with a theory that has more merit than we give them credit for.

Take, for instance, one article that purported to explain why our planet was much younger that it appears by arguing against the slow, gradual speed of plate tectonics. The theory went that there had been giant asteroid impacts that had pushed the plates at great speed and then the plates had slowed down. At face value that theory is rubbish. However, look closer at it. Throw out his improbable idea that the plates have so radically change speed and just look at the idea of how giant asteroid impacts might affect plate tectonics. It makes sense. We know there have been some fairly large impacts, but what if there had been a few larger ones, ones that pushed plates in new directions and at faster speeds. It would explain India.

Another of the crackpot ideas is intelligent design. I have yet to find anyone of a serious scientific bent who give it any credence. It's supporters are all striving to prove their religion rather than seeking out theories to explain scientific findings. Yet the core of the idea, that there is a greater intelligence out there, has found a cadre of supporters to solve a problem with certain scientifically derived findings. The two theories of a greater intelligence are not even remotely the same, but the core idea, that there is something greater out there, lie at the heart of both. The issue with intelligent design as a theory is that it was not derived with the scientific method in mind, but rather just to give people of religion a quasi-scientific theory to bolster their claims that God exists and created the universe like their holy book claims.

That is why I have come up with the theory that you must separate the idea behind a theory from the person who created it. Crackpots have their own agenda and their arguments are usually discounted as completely worthless. However, An examination of the ideas they come up with can lead to some gems hidden in the dung. If we look at those ideas in the more sane light of mainstream science, they often have merit once divorced from the crackpot who created them.

In the end, it is the idea that matters, not who came up with it or what they were trying to prove using it. Each individual idea should be taken on its own merit and considered independently. We might find some overlooked ideas if we start looking past the agenda of the person who came up with it.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary and John Hurt

My mind keeps wondering over what we know about John Hurt's character. Out there are some interesting theories, but theories that don't seem to fit the facts. What we will find out in the 50th Anniversary Special in November remains to be seen, but here are my guesses.

John Hurt did what he did "without choice - in the name of peace and sanity." He is the Doctor's secret and did not do what he did as the Doctor. Clara saw 11 faces, 11 Doctors. What could this all mean. She jumped into his time stream at his tomb. She should have seen all the Doctors, from the first to his death, but she did not see past the Eleventh or before the first. Now, the Doctor had a life before he became the Doctor. He had a family and a granddaughter, Susan. We know that there will be a twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and long ago, at the end of Trial of a Timelord, it was hinted there would be a thirteenth and something pulled from that regeneration that we knew of as the Valyard.

The two key points to my way of thinking are the timestream and the Twelfth incarnation. Clara saw 1-11, and if there was something buried in the middle, she would have seen it. But there was before and after as well. I do not think that John Hurt is playing a part that fits anywhere between An Unearthly Child and The Name of the Doctor. I strongly feel it must be before, after, or (a remote possibility) something to the side (like the Valyard). I think the 50th Anniversary is key to what the event is. I think that a celebration of 50 years is going to be key to the story. I'm strongly leaning to John Hurt being the Doctor before he took that name. A different incarnation? Possible, but doubtful.

Now, we have a couple of examples of side Doctors. The 10th nearly regenerated, but instead ended up with a clone from his severed hand. The Valyard, a mysterious amalgamation of the Doctor, also, was a separate being. Both are technically the Doctor, but not. Perhaps there is another and instead of the secret of why he took the name of Doctor and ran, it might be a mysterious amalgamation from between his Eighth and Ninth incarnations, a tool used in the Time War. That would also harken back to the Doctor's past.

The other possibility is that we are looking toward the future. Perhaps John Hurt is the last Doctor and the terrible thing he did was what we saw on Trenzalor.

Still, looking a the event and what might be possible in the Doctor Who universe, I still am leaning toward a pre-Doctor first Doctor and an event that made him run. But we need to wait until November to find out.

Introducing The Twelfth Doctor - Peter Capaldi

Doctor Who is a show filled with mysteries. The title is the first indication, but it doesn't stop there. There are many things we don't know. We don't know the Doctor's Name or very much about his life on Gallifrey before he stole a Type 40 time Capsule. We don't know how he knows half the stuff he does or how he has gotten his hands on some of the most important pieces of Gallifreyan technology. What we do know he can regenerate (at least) twelve times and we are about to see it happen for the 11th time.

William Hartnell

Patrick Troughton

Jon Pertwee

Tom Baker

Peter Davidson

Colin Baker

Sylvester McCoy

Paul McGann

Christopher Eccleston

David Tennant

Matt Smith

and next...

Peter Capaldi

Congrats, Peter. Can't wait to see where you take our favorite Timelord next.