The Wall of Lies Number 168 Newsletter established 1991, club formed June first 1980 The newsletter of the South Australian Doctor Who Fan Club Inc., also known as SFSA Final STATE Adelaide, September–October 2017 WEATHEr: Hope Springs Eternal Free Doctor Who Cast Shock! by staff writers The BBC took the safe option of casting a human. On 14 July 2017 book maker Ladbrokes’ odds fell on Jodie Whittaker being cast as the next Doctor to 1/4, then became equal to favourite Kris Marshall at 6/4 on the 15th of July. Another late tip was Tilda Swinton at 20/1. While these celebrities all had substantial odds and significant publicity, other forms of life were not even considered, due to political correctness gone mad. A slit throat (left) wasn’t even offered a O u screen test, due to BBC concerns the audi- S t So ence would find the image of a bloody wound on The best local talent; discrimination n! talking to be disturbing. There have been no against injured body parts in leading roles. protests. The First Female Doctor! by staff writers Media apoplectic, fans amused. Since Peter Capaldi announced he was leaving the title role in Doctor Who on 30 January 2017, speculation has been rife as to SFSA magazine # 33 who his replacement would be. Jodie Whittaker was announced as the next (thirteenth) Doctor via a one minute video, shown on BBC One after the Men's Wimbledon O u Final on Sunday 16 July 2017, approximately 3.28pm Greenwich N t No ow time (00.58 ACST on the 17th). The club was invited on to ABC 891 ! Afternoons with Sonya Feldhoff radio show later that day to discuss the casting. However, we confounded expectations, pointing out both The Master has a female incarnation as Missy, and The Jodie Whittaker, General was seen to change gender when regenerating in Hell (credit: BBC). Bent. As with other media, the choice has been well publicised with the emphasis of atten- tion being on the controversy over casting a female. However every re-casting has been criticised, with the news of Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy being initially very negatively received through nascent fandom. Every new Doctor of the returned series criticised over social media. This then is more an expected phenomena than a critical evaluation. The only opinion which truly counts is the one which has remained silent. The more significant change has been the least publicised, the replacement of show Deadly Earnest Annual runner Steven Moffat with Chris Chibnell. q Continued Page 2 Hipparchus pipped Turlo the Wondercat, by 1000 years, page 2. page 4. The First Female Doctor! q from Page 1 The only comment on the casting attributed to Chris Chibnall was in the BBC press release announcing the choice. "After months of lists, conversations, auditions, recalls, and a lot of secret- keeping, we're excited to welcome Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. I always knew I wanted the Thirteenth Doctor to be a woman and we're thrilled to have secured our number one choice. Her audition for The Doctor simply blew us all away. Jodie is an in-demand, funny, inspiring, super-smart force of nature and will bring loads of wit, strength and warmth to the role. The Thirteenth Doctor is on her way." Diagram of Wow! signal (main, Benjamin Crowell), plot The Club maintains every press release that the BBC supplies on its web site. of the signal (top, Maksim Rossomakhin) and paper feed (bottom, Big Ear Observatory and NAAPO). Whittaker worked with Chibnall on Broadchurch (2013-2017), the overlap between shows given as the reason there was no Doctor Who series produced Sky Watch in 2016. Former Doctor David Tennant was a lead character on the police drama. Wow! Signal Explained? Preservation Issues AuGuST 15 MArKED the fortieth anniversary of the Wow! signal, an extremely powerful radio burst from Tablet with 3700 Year Old Trigonometry! the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. The Ohio university Big Ear was a Kraus-type radio tele- Contacts by staff writers A BABYLONIAN CLAY TABLET from circa scope, a metal grid which lay horizontally while two 1820 BCE has pushed the practice feed horns focused radio waves upon it. The antenna Martin Dunne (Editor): of trigonometry back a thousand was not steerable, but tracked as the Earth turned. At [email protected] years. The tablet was found by approximately 22:16 EDT on the 15th of August 1977 Edgar J Banks, then donated by one of the horns reflected a signal thirty times as loud Postal address: George Plimpton to Columbia as background noise into the main grid. It is not university in 1936, where it was known which of the horns received the energy, which PO Box 870 catalogued as Plimpton 322. It has has two possible originating locations. North Adelaide long been recognised as containing This was immediately printed on a tractor feed of SA 5006 Australia base-60 integers describing triples, paper as the string 6EQuJ5. This gives the power of solving the equation a2 + b2 = c2. the signal, the printer using letters for numbers high- Email list subscription: A new study in Historia er than nine. Some days later SETI volunteer Jerry r [email protected] Mathematica by university of New Ehman found the power spike and wrote “Wow!” in South Wales academics Daniel the margin. Despite this region being investigated the Mansfield and Norman Wildberger Twitter: signal was not repeated. The only other characteris- gives a new interpretation of the tics were that it was a narrowband of less than 10 SA Dr Who Fan Club tablet, postulating the groups kHz (only one of 50 channels Big Ear could pick up), @SADWFCinc describe right angle triangles by the frequency was in the order of 1420.41 MHz, near ratios, not angles and circles. If so, The Wall of Lies the background radio emission of hydrogen, and the this pushes the study of trigonome- @WallofLies recording lasted 72 seconds, the period any stellar try back from the classical Greek point would be visible to the telescope. The Hourly Telepress period to the old Babylonian. On 10 June Antonio Paris announced a possible @HourlyTelepress The tablet is partially broken and source; two recently discovered comets which would is currently 13 cm wide, 9 cm tall, have converged in the region in 1977. Comet and 2 cm thick, with four columns of Facebook groups: 266P/Christensen returned on 25 January 2017, numbers. The uNSW team say P/2008 Y2 (Gibbs) is expected on 7 January 2018. South Australian Doctor Who there would have originally been six The claim has been met with scepticism by the SETI Fan Club Inc. and SFSA. columns. community. 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 16/9, 21/10, 18/11 images, text, or information. $5.00 $4.00 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 September–October 2017 Printed by the Federal Printing House Archive The Wall of Lies 108, Transmission schedule September–October 2007 rest of 2017 BBC reveal Doctor Who schedule through 2010. Doctor Who, Tuesday 26 December ~ Twice upon a Time The BBC revealed ... 2009 would see only three specials, before a 2010 series five. This ABC will only confirm broadcasts four news has polarised fandom, with many weeks ahead of time, but say they will assuming the “gap year” is a bribe to keep follow previous years practice. [Tennant] in the role while he plays Hamlet ... Check local and daily program listings. Fandom has condemned Network TEN’s changed schedule for Torchwood. Following a SFSA 21/22 September 2007. Club 55 minute over run of the Big Brother finale on July 30, Network TEN moved the programme to a midnight Tuesday slot. Premiering to an SFSA 21/22, impressive one million viewer final figure September 2007 Membership (overnight ratings had this at only 987,000), Annual membership rates are $20. by the second episode Day One the show had Editor’s Note: It’s with mixed feel- This entitles you to one year’s subscrip- already slipped to 897,953 (overnight ings that I’m sorry to say that this tion to the club’s publications: bimonthly 895,000). The shift to late night initially saw will be my last SFSA as editor! A The Wall of Lies and SFSA magazine, the ratings drop below 100,000 nationwide, very big thanks to those who have and the Doctor Who themed yearbook but this has steadily climbed. contributed during my editorship – Chameleon Factor. Also included are ... TEN (is) the purchaser and production your hard work, willingness, and discounted entry fees to SFSA meet- partner with Jetix/Park Entertainment of The professionalism has been very ings, and discounts at various stores K-9 Adventures. This indicates a shift in the much appreciated and to be com- around Adelaide. development of the show, and along with the mended. A special thanks to past purchase of Torchwood series two a long term editor Martin Dunne for support, commitment to Who spinoffs. proofing, and a plethora of con- Discounts tent, and to Neal Powell for his Pulp Fiction [Ten bought Torchwood series one, two and enthusiasm, willingness and pow- 10% off comics and graphic novels three but allowed ABC to buy repeat rights.