The Wall of Lies

Number 103 Newsletter established 1991, club formed June first 1980 The newsletter of the South Australian Fan Club Inc., also known as SFSA

STATE Adelaide, November--December 2006 WEATHER: Hot! Free Special Broadcasting Service warped!

by staff writers Both viewers outraged.

ON THE NINTH of October 2006 the Special Broadcasting Service began showing adverts during programmes, beginning with an episode of Mythbusters.

New Zealanders are amazed that Shaun Brown, who they fondly recall as “that man who stuffed up TVNZ” is responsible for the station and this change.

Introducing adverts within programmes the same week legislation saw the greatest media changes in the O ut t N country for two decades was probably a bit of a smart No ow The gaps in the logo are for move. It hasn’t been on any other front pages. ! more advertising space! Spin off Torches records!

by staff writers Chameleon Factor # 80

O The first Doctor Who spin off series premiered on October 22, 2006 to an ut t N No audience of 2.38 million, with a share of 13.8%. This was all the more ow ! remarkable as the debut was on BBC3, a digital only service.

Consequently, episode one of Torchwood (Everything Changes) holds the record as the highest debuting non-sport UK programme on a digital chan- nel. The overall record is held by an episode of Friends broadcast on Sky TV in 2000 at 2.8 million viewers.

Subsequent episodes have not broken this record, but it continues to be the most popular digital television show for the week it is transmitted. SFSA magazine # 20 Over 65% of UK viewers enjoy digital programming, a figure closer to 13% in Australia. q Continued Page 2

Back from the grave, page 2. Pyramids of sound, page 4. Spin off Torches records!

q from Page 1 ABC will not comment on purchasing Torchwood until they have seen it officially, and even then they may show the same wariness in publicly scheduling it as they did with the 2006 Doctor Who episodes. The average for series two (season 28) on ABC was 890,518, down from the 2005 average of 937,744. The lowest rating episode across the five mainland capitals was The Satan Pit at 718,017, with this episode screening three hours late in Queensland due to State Election coverage. Meanwhile, our spy in the BBC reported back on the developments for the second spin off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures: “(They) are filming in Cardiff now - was on set last week over there and it looks very exciting...we are clearly looking forward to it very much.” The series will follow on from the Sarah Jane Investigates special, minus K-9, and will air on CBBC, a children’s channel which shares the same digital frequency as BBC3. © CNES 2006 On the 9th of October Shaun Lyon announced he was no longer updating the Outpost Gallifrey news page. The site has become central to Who fandom over the last decade, Artist’s impression of COROT and occultation. and has been recognised as so by the BBC. It continues as a reference site, and the forum remains the largest Doctor Who community online. Sky Watch Channel Ten disappointed Battlestar Galactica viewers on October 25th, replacing the show with Joker Poker so late in the day that most guides still showed BSG. They say it COROT hunts for planets. will return in January 2007, and admitted that Generation X don’t watch their network or buy their advertisers’ products.

Preservation Issues THE FRENCH SPACE AGENCY (CNES) in part- nership with the European Space Agency and a Vampira returns from archives! consortium including Austria, Spain, Germany, by staff writers Belgium and Brazil plan to launch a space tele- Contacts A FILM FEATURING the character scope intended to discover extrasolar terrestrial Vampira has come to light. type planets. Called COROT (Convection Rotation Jamie Stidiford Previously the only known footage and planetary Transits), the mission will employ two (President) was the actress’ mute role in the film methods to locate planets orbiting other stars. The [email protected] Plan 9 from Outer Space. first will be to examine the light from candidate Maila Nurmi attended a fancy dress stars, measuring slight dip in light as a non-lumi- party dressed as Morticia Addams nous body passes the disc. The other, termed aster- Martin Dunne where she was spotted by producer oseismology, uses the exotic trick of measuring Hunt Stromberg Jr. The Vampira acoustic waves on stellar surfaces. (Wall of Lies editor) Show premiered on Los Angeles COROT is also expected to improve our under- [email protected] KABC-TV on the 1st of May 1954 standing of stellar evolution by examining around 50 and ran for one year before Nurmi was blacklisted. In the late 1980s neighbouring stars in unprecedented detail. Matthew Fazakerley she unsuccessfully sued Cassandra (SFSA & CF editor) Peterson for copyright infringement SinoSat 2 launched. [email protected] with her Elvira character. While there is still no evidence any CHINESE NEWS AGENCY Xinhua announced on of The Vampira Show was recorded the 29th of October that China had launched its first Postal address: on film, KABC made a sales reel high powered communications and broadcast satel- PO Box 3227 featuring Nurmi repeating her script lite. Called SinoSat-2 it has a designed life of 15 from the 14th of August 1954, years, and is expected to deliver digital TV and Rundle Mall SA 5000 Vampira introduces the film Mystery broadband across south east China. (08) 8281 3995 of the Thirteenth Guest. There is an outtake from this film, and these The satellite was launched with a Long March-3B along with Plan 9 are all that is rocket. The foreign built SinoSat 1 was launched in Mailing list known to exist. 1998, and is still performing communications duties subscription: for the Asia Pacific. SinoSat 3 is expected to be Site: http://www.vampirasattic.com/ launched in 2007. [email protected]

This is a publication of SFSA: the South Australian Doctor Who Fan Club Inc., a non profit organisation. No attempt has been made to supersede the copyright of any holders of trademark or copyrighted 1 - 10pm 15/7, 19/8, 16/9 images, text, or information. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the contents of the newsletter is accurate at the time of printing, SFSA cannot accept any liability for inaccura- cies that may appear. Meeting details are subject to change at short notice.

2 www.sfsa.org.au November-December 2006 Printed by the Federal Printing House Archive Events Wall of Lies 43, December ‘96/January ‘97

November 4 Pub meeting 5 pm We want your stuff!! That’s right, we’re on the look out for YOUR Venue: Buckingham Arms Doctor Who related stories (up to NNoovv..----DDeecc.. 22000066 1000 words max) in order to give November 18 General meeting 1 to 10 pm It’s absent from free to air TV in prizes to the best writer in the Australia again! ABC purchased Venue: Adelaide High School club... Cost: $3 members/$4 others repeat rights to series one, but apparently decided to let them [The winner was Colin Varney’s December 2 Pub meeting 5.30pm story Trophy, the results were lapse. Venue: The Earl of Leicester Hotel published in Jethryk 4] 85 Leicester Street, Parkside Ph 8271 5700

Consequently series one is screening December 16 Annual picnic 11 am on UKTV. This began on October the Botanic Gardens park, Hackney Rd 1st with Rose. January 6 2007 Pub meeting 5 pm ~ 4/11/2006 Venue: Buckingham Arms

~ The Long Game 11/11/2006 Publications

~ Father's Day 18/11/2006 Chameleon Factor # 80: The many faces of Doctor Who. ~ The Empty Child 25/11/2006 SFSA # 20 ~ The Doctor Dances 2/12/2006 ELO cover Chameleon Factor 72, ~ Boom Town! 9/12/2006 Out soon! October 1996

~ Bad Wolf 16/12/2006 Chameleon Factor # 81 WOO-WHO!! THE MCGANN MOVIE Theme: Our Doctor Who year book. GETS CLUBBED-WHAT DID YOU ~ The Parting of the Ways 23/12/2006 THINK? SFSA # 21 Theme: General science fiction. The new series (??) is as like DOCTOR WHO as Bronwyn Check local or daily listings. Bishop is a woman. Both roughly fit thier catagories but are much Membership better suited to be something else. - Craig “P.C.” White Annual membership rates are $15. Club This entitles you to one year’s subscription In September we watched the pilots of to the club’s publications: bimonthly The Fandom Sliders (1995) and Logan’s Run (1977), Wall of Lies and SFSA magazine, and the Friends of Science Fiction and The Story of Doctor Who (2003), the ‘Girl Doctor Who themed yearbook Chameleon the Doctor Who Club of Hunt’ sequence from The Bandwagon Factor. Also included are discounted entry Australia present (1953), an interview with Sylvester fees to SFSA meetings, and discounts at A DAY WITH JOHN BARROWMAN McCoy, convention footage of Patrick various stores around Adelaide. Troughton in the USA in 1987, Doctor Saturday, 24th March 2007 Bankstown Sports Club Who Confidential: New World of Who, 8 Greenfield Parade Bankstown Doctor Who: Love and Monsters and The Discounts NSW Australia Girl in the Fireplace (all 2006) again -- FSF: P O Box 106 because it’s so good! Pulp Fiction 10% off comics and graphic novels CARINGBAH NSW 1495 (02) 9523 8385 In October we enjoyed Daniel Gosson’s Known Space Books [email protected] mechanical television experiments, Tom www.fsf.net.au Baker on This is Your Life (2000), Bad 10% off Who merchandise Taste (1987), The Monster Squad (1987) New location opening soon First Contact Conventions and the last five minutes of Elvira: Sunday March 25th, 2007 State Library of Victoria Mistress of the Dark (1988). Tel: 03 9873 0231 Mobile: 0439 444 901 [email protected] www.firstcontactconventions.com.au www.sfsa.org.au November-December 2006 3 Subscription due if a red dot appears PYRAMIDS OF SOUND in this box Anthony Daly Amateur physicist and In 2001 a listener television experimenter known as Chaos Pulp Daniel Gosson was Machine was experi- watching the Patrick menting with Aphex Troughton story The Twin’s 1999 EP Fiction Seeds of Death in Windowlicker, when he 2003 when he heard a found an image encod- Comics familiar sound. When a ed in the music. Jarmo decoy satellite was Niinisalo tried decoding employed to draw off it, arriving with images 34A King William St the Ice Warrior ships, of the musician’s face. Adelaide SA the noise presented in The software which Ph 8231 3433 the story to represent was used, called this sounded very Aphex Twin’s encoded face. MetaSynth, is more [email protected] much like a slow scan commonly employed to television signal. Daniel encode patterns in recorded the sound, music which can give Galactic Video and processed it musical motifs. Aphex through his slow scan Twin (real name South Australia’s Only viewer. The results Richard James) had Science Fiction Video Rental Store were surprising. gone one further by *SF *Star Trek *Japanese Animation including an image of a Two pyramids real object. *Horror *Dr Who *Fantasy/Adventure appeared in the image. Weekly Hire on all Videos The definition was poor, Slow scan television, a 102 Gawler Place, Adelaide and there was some method of sending Open Mon-Sat 11am - 7:30pm distortion, however it images via very small appeared to show two amounts of transmis- Phone 8224 0466 real images with differ- sion band, had been ent lighting, arranged developed in the late vertically. The upper- ‘fifties, ten years before most pyramid had a The pyramids of sound. production of The sharper climb. Seeds of Death. It was a cutting edge technology in the ‘sixties Daniel does not pretend to understand with a variant being used for space EVERYTHING FOR THE this, and believes the most likely expla- exploration, notably the first moon land- FILM FANATIC nation is that the images are sheer ing. WE BUY, SELL & AND TRADE coincidence. Geometric shapes are TRADING HOURS MON-THURS 10.30 - 5.30 easy enough to produce though artifi- So, did the Radiophonic Workshop use FRIDAY 10.30 - 9.00 cial means such as this. In the 1990s, an existing stock tonality which was an SATURDAY 10.30 - 5.00 SBS Television broadcast an advert for encoded image of two pyramids? Did CITI-CENTRE ARCADE its programme magazine Ariel with a they generate the sound with an image (CNR RUNDLE MALL & PULTNEY ST) moving regular right angle background themselves? Or does the sound just PH (08) 8232 5338 FAX 8232 5866 pattern, which would form a swastika coincidentally decode to the pyramid E-MAIL: [email protected] every few seconds. images? The Largest Range of SF and However there is the possibility the You decide. Fantasy Books in Adelaide images are real. Concealing images in Thriller/Horror/Adventure Fiction media has been demonstrated since at Imported Comics & Back Issues of least the 1960s, when The Velvet SF Digest Magazines Underground found their graphic Thanks to Daniel Gosson and Steven Finney. designer had thoughtfully added his face to their debut album cover design, which they rejected. 26 Blyth Street, Adelaide (08) 8212 2350

NOTE NEW LOCATION 4 www.sfsa.org.au November-December 2006 OPENING SOON!