On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams

The oldest memory I have of this actor is his role as Prof. Victor Bergman on Space: 1999. When Fred Freiberger came in as line producer, he left. I didn't get to see his work on the original Fugitive until decades later, thanks to the family's move to Ottawa. It was one of the many cultural benefits of that move, looking back.

I never had the chance to actually meet him, of course, although I'd heard of his attendance of assorted conventions and festivals over the years.

The thing I'm sorriest about is that we won't see any more new work of his.

Good-bye, sir.

For those interested: the CBC obituary notice.

I posted a week ago about Atlantis finally making Earth orbit, and what's the first response I get to that post trying to discuss?

Coral Egan and her MySpace page.

Spam? Probably. But it's also an odd coincidence, as the musician in question has been of some interest to me from time to time over the years.


( Further explanations after the cut. )

...on assorted subjects that may or may not be of immediate interest:

"Fine Young Journalist" posts on a possible problem or two resulting from news service hiring practices in recent years.

Denis McGrath notes some concerns re: the legal issues that resulted from Prairie Giant's first airing on CBC TV. I am not entirely surprised, I suppose, given Tommy Douglas' predecessor as Saskatchewan premier, "Jimmie" Gardiner, got some rough handling of his reputation in that mini-series. Somewhat disappointed, though.

More anon...

Speaking as a voter, how dare he?

"How dare who do what?", I hear you ask.

Asked and answered...

"People who work hard, pay their taxes and play by the rules do not have a taxpayer-funded lobby group. They don't have the time to hold demonstrations and they certainly don't make regular trips to Ottawa for news conferences." - Stephen Harper

FYI, here's the article from which I sourced it. If anyone can find the actual text from whence the original remark came, I'll post a link for that, too.

Personal opinion? I call that comment a 2-for-1 sneer.

I can't think of a single such person I know as fits those first three criteria, anywhere on this planet, who doesn't have a watchful eye on at least a dozen different organizations whose goals they either support or oppose. If introduced to anyone claiming to be such, I'll bet any amount or asset worth naming that I can prove such a claim inside of fifteen minutes with the right questions asked of them. That, or they've been living in a cave for as long as they've been alive. And even then, it's iffy.

Such people make the time one way or another to keep their eyes peeled and wallets ready, or else they know the rules they play by can be changed on a whim. So he's already insulted the intelligence and resourcefulness of every single one of us, no matter how we voted, as far as I'm personally concerned. Not to mention our sense of responsibility as individual citizens. So that's the first half of the sneer.

Not to mention what he's saying by implication about activists in general, including -- I believe -- his own supporters from the days when he ran with some of those lobby groups himself. And there's the second half.


Something else that's annoyed me, albeit in a more trivial way, as a Trekker.

Many of you will have heard about the JJ Abrams/Starfleet Academy report by now.

Thanks, but no thanks. I'm being annoyingly petty about this, but after the way Enterprise was left ill-finished, or more accurately, unfinished...well.

I think I'm going to be giving this a pass. First time I skipped seeing a Trek movie since the original.

(I know: it's odd, but it was only the second movie that really landed me. But that's another story...)

So...the two very different moments we've been expecting for quite some time for very different reasons have finally begun playing out. Plus the election plotline, of course. Seems to be working so far...and maybe that's what's got me in such a state as this. That, plus the fact that the End of the Series is Nigh.

As I've said elsewhere, this has not been a great year for me and TV drama. I've lost about half my favourites, and so far, no sign of anything worth making TV-watching appointments for to take their place. And three of the series I lost have revival campaigns quixotically marching onwards...to what end, I don't know. I'm not sure what I can do yet to help move any of those from "quixotic" to "standing more than a snowball's chance in a fusion reactor", either.

Not The West Wing, though.

I expected it to end in seven, although I would've bet cash money that the death that ended it would be Bartlet's. And that it would have been scripted. Sorkin would've done the fatal episode his own self. And that would be that. A properly Shakespearean ending.

Good thing I didn't place any bets, isn't it?

Some of you may note that I count The Rick Mercer Report as one of the several remaining justifications I have for watching TV at all. It's certainly one of the better ones I have at this point in time, given the cancellations that have been plaguing most of my other current favourites over the last year.

Last night, two further justifications for my high opinion of Mr. Mercer and his motley travelling crew appeared on the TV screen. One was this week's RMR Rant, wherein he tore Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and his proposal for a "Third Way" for medicare a couple of well-deserved new ones.

The other was a gag re: the state of the Liberal Party Leadership. Said gag constituted a bogus eBay auction selling off a kit to help the winning bidder land that particular job to the highest bidder.

Well, I don't know how much longer eBay will go along with the gag, but for the amusement of my friends outside of Canada, I present something I had absolutely no hand in organizing.

In the space of 15 minutes, from the moment I first read the web page on the other end of that link to the moment I reviewed it for linking to this LJ entry, the leading bid amount rose from $250 grand to $300 grand!

Clearly, this is an auction not only for the politically amusable, but for those deep in pockets as well. I would hope that if the Mercer Report people are actually behind this thing, the proceeds will be split equitably between CBC, Mercer's production house and the Liberal Party.

It's only the right thing to do.

Update: I just looked at it again at 7:44 PM, and the bidding is up to C$ 15 MILLION?!?!?

Update II: Mercer's pulled the plug himself, figuring "we're never gonna see that money."

Oh well...

...it seems as though I spend a Hell of a lot of time fixated on the TV instead, doesn't it?

I could rampaging verbally at some length on what happened to Marvel Comics' Canadian superhero team, Alpha Flight, in the latest installment of New Avengers, showing off art samples from either Local Hero or Retail Therapy, or any of a thousand other things.

But, no. It's been obituary links re: dead American TV actors whose work I've watched and enjoyed, and links to petitions to save particular Canadian TV drama series I've been enjoying over the last few years. Overall, it hasn't been a good year for me, TV-wise. Enterprise got chopped a year ago this month, if memory serves. That one really hurt. Then, in the last month or so, there was the Bad News about The West Wing. And now the latest CBC cancel notices, already covered earlier in this blog.

This is a long-winded way to tell you that my attention is likely to remain divided between those two media-forms for a while yet. I don't know that I can explain it to everyone's satisfaction, but I'll see what I can do.

I am convinced that the CBC leadership's decision to chop Da Vinci's Inquest and This is Wonderland is premature, as you may have gathered from previous postings here. I've read all manner of reports and opinions on the subject, and the reasoning behind it.

I like Da Vinci for several reasons:

• It's been giving me a better idea of how city halls across the country actually have to function from day to day, and what any given mayor -- no matter their political stripes -- has to deal with to get the job done with a sufficent degree of self-respect left intact.
• The performances of the actors.
• The "soap opera" aspects of civic politics, criminal investigations, and so on also get my attention.

The list is not all-inclusive, I'm sorry to say, but these three reasons are enough for me to start with.

Wonderland? Let's run down the list:

• Acting performances? Check.
• Writing? Check.
• As a former courtroom artist for one of the local news services, I can say that what I saw on the screen in each episode rang true with my first hand visitations to the local courthouse here in Ottawa, albeit magnified somewhat for dramatic effect. It worked as a drama for me, in part because of that.

If Wonderland were a comics series(as Degrassi seems to be en route to becoming), I'd say I was qualified to draw it, and I'd want that gig. Desperately.

I also get a better sense of Toronto as a good place to live and work, warts and all. I can say the same of Vancouver, which I'm sorry I didn't mention sooner.

So, a week and change after reading of the announcement, as well as assorted articles and blog entries on the subject, my mind remains unchanged on this:

I want Wonderland and Da Vinci back. Not as irregularly-produced collections of movies of the week, but as ongoing series.

Please?

Reminder: Petition links here for anyone who hasn't heard of those efforts yet.

Looks like the Tommy Douglas movie's finally going to air.

Good thing, too.

On a related note, there's petitions to keep Da Vinci's City Hall and This is Wonderland going past the officially announced cancellation-by-host-network dates. The petitions are located here and here. Thought I'd pass those links along, just in case.

Well, the weather's been reasonably good except for one wind-chill-accursed day. We've actually had real snow, barely an inch on the ground. But it's snow and it's still there. So, winter's starting to feel like it's really marching in through the city gates now. We'll deal as ever, of course.

I've been Working on a bunch of stuff: job leads, self-training in assorted disciplines and software packages, and generally learning stuff. A quiet day overall, and no regrets for it. Even got some time in at the drawing table, to boot.

I'm sorry to have missed taping This is Wonderland thanks to mis-programming the VCR for delayed viewing. It's been good viewing so far.

I keep thinking that if Enterprise had gotten past Year 4, and they needed a change of main titles music, the tune cited above would fit like a custom-measured glove. I miss that show. Yes, even now.

Back to you...

In this case, the other culture is British.

I am amused and pleased to note that Cst. Benton Fraser and James Bond AKA "007" now have something in common: Paul Haggis, creator of Due South.

This next film iteration of Casino Royale may be the first 007 movie I go see on the strength of the scriptwriter alone, never mind the acting talent.