A Far Out Fantastic Site

Saturday marked the 50 th Anniversary of Doctor Who . It all started on 23 November 1963 and, interestingly enough, on a Saturday ! William Hartnell played the Doctor. His was a much older Doctor (in appearance at least) than today’s 30-to-40-something looking Doctors. In fact, Hartnell’s Doctor Who had a granddaughter. And so it was this teenage grandchild, Susan (played by Carole Ann Ford), who was the first Who girl or Doctor’s female travel companion.   As part of the worldwide Doctor Who celebration, Sacramento’s Stirling Bridges, a British pub, screened the BBC’s airing of the 50 th anniversary episode on several wide screen televisions throughout the pub. Because I live quite a ways from the pub (which is in east Sacramento, I’m in the west area and so closer to UC Davis) and take public transportation, I was not able to get there in time for the special episode. But yours truly did get there just as they were doing the costume judging and so he saw some fans’ fab...

Warning:  This post may contain content considered obscene/objectionable by some viewers. Photo Credit: Danny Hennesy/Kristian Svensson/Wikimedia Commons  I ran into a bunch of teens from a church while I was walking back to my house from town late this afternoon and they gave me an invitation card to their play. It turned out to be from a fundamentalist church. I get along with fundamentalist Christians as much as Jews got along with Samaritans in Jesus's time. You can't blame the kids, though; they're just going along with what their parents believe. But in the words of the British butler Cruikshank from 1966's Munster, Go Home! , I said as I tossed the invitation in the garbage as soon as I got in the house, "Adolescent, swine!" Only I replaced "adolesecent" with "fundamentalist". Man, I hate religious fanatics telling me what to believe and how. There's just no room in this horror writer's life for religious fan...

Cinema Insomnia 10 Year Anniversary: TV horror host Mr. Lobo looks up Photo: Eric Lobo I apologize for being gone from the Fantastic Site for so long. It's been a very busy month for me. I'm trying to resume weekly posts. Many of you probably remember when horror movies that aired on TV were hosted by someone. Remember Elvira Mistress of the Dark's Movie Macabre . If you're a native Sacramentan like me you may be old enough to remember Bob Wilkin's show that screened both B-rated as well as classic horror and sci fi movies. These TV hosts I go for way more than Oprah, Montel Williams, and don't even get me started on Jerry Springer's televised freak show! These TV horror movie hosts were mostly popular in the 1970s and early '80s as were many others going as far back as the early 1950s. Well TV horror hosts are not an extinct species. Below are some links to today's generation of horror hosts, many who's shows you can see on the Web! http://ww...