Tuesday 23 November 2010

Doctor Who’s science is pixel thin.

 Doctor Who is ludicrous and it breaks most of the laws of narrative.

So says Terry Pratchett who was
there at the beginning, chums, the very beginning, when the world was monochrome, and pretty grainy monochrome at that. .... In fact I was there twice. It was talked about so much in the following week that the BBC had to air it again on the next Saturday before showing the second episode.



Despite finding Doctor Who 'ludicrous', Pratchett is a fan.
After all, when you’ve had your moan you have to admit that it is very, very entertaining, with its heart in the right place, even if its head is often in orbit around Jupiter. I just wish that it was not classified as science fiction.

Pratchett has already collaborated on three books about science and fiction - The Science of Discworld  The Science of Discworld II: The Globe:  and Darwin's Watch  Discworld runs on a science of its own which keeps its universe ticking along according to the rules. (No hospitals suddenly uprooting themselves and being transported to the moon.)

The next exploration of science will be another collaboration, this time with hard science fiction writer Stephen Baxter. The Long Earth is a story (probably two novels) of parallel worlds and infinite possibilities that has been bubbling in the Discworld creator’s mind for over two decades.


Bubbling over, in fact, Thief of Time: A Discworld Novel was published in 2002.

Time is a fascinating subject. How many of you get a kick when you log on to read a friend's blog (in Australia, say) and find it's already tomorrow there?  It’s always now everywhere, wrote Pratchett.