Happy Birthday: Terence Joseph Nation (8 August 1930 – 9 March 1997) was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist. Especially known for his work in British television science fiction, he created the Daleks and Davros for Doctor Who, as well as the series Survivors and Blake's 7.

Nation first made his name as a comedy writer before becoming a prolific writer for drama, working on many of the most popular British series of the 1960s and 1970s, such as The Avengers, The Baron, The Champions, Department S, The Persuaders! and The Saint. When Nation was commissioned to write The Daleks (1963) for Doctor Who, the villainous eponymous creatures established the series' early popularity. He later devised the recurring character of Davros in Genesis of the Daleks (1975). His series Survivors and Blake's 7 have been described as "much-loved cult TV classics".

In 1965, he and Dennis Spooner co-wrote the 12-part serial The Daleks' Master Plan, after which Nation, who still held the copyright to the Daleks, attempted to launch a Dalek spin-off TV series in the United States. Various other Dalek tie-in material appeared, including comic strips in the children's weekly TV Century 21 and annuals; such material was frequently credited to Nation, even when written by others. Over the next few years, appearances by the Daleks in Doctor Who became less frequent and were written by other authors (Whitaker wrote The Power of the Daleks (1966) and The Evil of the Daleks (1967), and Louis Marks wrote Day of the Daleks (1972)).

Following an eight-year absence from the series, Nation returned to writing for the Daleks on Doctor Who with the Third Doctor serials Planet of the Daleks (1973) and Death to the Daleks (1974). Producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks felt that the Dalek script Nation submitted for season 12 was too reminiscent of previous Dalek stories, and suggested that Nation rewrite the script to focus on the Daleks' origin. The resulting serial, Genesis of the Daleks, was voted the greatest Doctor Who story of all time by Doctor Who Magazine readers in 1998. In Genesis, Nation introduced the character of Davros, the creator of the Daleks, who went on to appear in further storylines. Nation also wrote two non-Dalek scripts for Doctor Who, The Keys of Marinus in 1964, which introduced the Voord, and The Android Invasion in 1975, which introduced the Kraals. Nation's final script for Doctor Who was Destiny of the Daleks, broadcast in 1979.

Having returned to writing for Doctor Who, the BBC commissioned Nation to create a new science-fiction drama series. First broadcast in 1975, Survivors is the post-apocalyptic story of the last humans on Earth after the world's population has been devastated by plague. Although the series was well received, Nation's creative vision conflicted with that of producer Terence Dudley, and the final two series were produced without Nation's involvement.

The production of Nation's next BBC creation, Blake's 7, experienced fewer problems. This series follows a group of criminals and political prisoners who are on the run from the evil "Terran Federation", piloting a stolen spaceship of unknown origin. Blake's 7 ran for four series from 1978 to 1981. Although Nation scripted the whole of the first series of Blake's 7, his creative influence subsequently declined in the following two series despite writing some key episodes, as script editor Chris Boucher exerted a greater influence on those seasons. Nation didn't write any episodes in the fourth series of Blake's 7. In the 1980s, Nation attempted, without success, to secure funding for a fifth series of Blake's 7.

[Terry Nation played a HUGE part in my teenage years not only in the creation of one of my all-time fave baddies in the Daleks - and as part of one of my all-time favourite TV shows in Dr Who - but also in 2 other series that I loved - Survivors and especially Blakes 7. So, a happy birthday indeed!]

Happy International Cat Day!

NEVER crossed my mind until I saw this..... [lol]

Just Finished Reading: The Last Sunrise by Robert Ryan (FP: 2006) [303pp] 

Singapore, 1948. Lee Crane was finally leaving South-East Asia before it killed him. He'd been offered a job flying cargo into a besieged Berlin and jumped at it. He even entertained the possibility that a certain girl would be there despite her not returning his letters. But fate, it seems, had other ideas along with echoes from his past. He knew what was coming long before Elsa punched him, throwing her entire weight behind it, in front of everyone. He knew that his ex-copilot would show up eventually and that they would use the memory of Kitten to manipulate him to fly somewhere for something illegal that might get them all killed. It was only a matter of time before he was looking down at the jungle again wondering if the airstrip could handle his arrival or whether he had enough fuel to make it over the mountains. Maybe, just maybe, he'd actually get out and leave the god forsaken place. Maybe... 

Although I've had a few books by this author for a while now this is my first time with him. I'm sorry that I waited so long. Overall this reminded me of the thrillers I read in the 70's with characters down on their luck, hoping to make a quick buck and who are still trying to live with the consequences of previous incidents (often war related) that were left hanging and unresolved but still ate away at them. All the elements were there: Lee is a cynical cargo pilot who had ALL of his innocence kicked out of him during the war in Asia first with the Flying Tigers and then as a cargo pilot flying cargo over 'The Hump' for the Nationalist Chinese. Then we have Else, the femme fatal of the piece (I liked her!) who could throw a mean punch and seduce just about anyone. There was even a love story, well told for once, with the mature and somewhat mysterious Kitten who was the focus of the green and very young Lee as he both found his feet and his wings in wartime. The story – full of crosses, double and triple –crosses – friends, enemies, sudden death, espionage, self-dealing and betrayal – was both complex and highly satisfying. The narrative moved at a steady pace and there wasn't a single moment when I found myself even slightly nudged out of the story. It was a good, solid thriller with more than a few nice moments and some great, very well drawn, characters. The only 'slight' niggle I had was with the number of cliff-hangers (some literal) which I thought was somewhat more than necessary. Whilst there's nothing TOO flashy here and the novel didn't exactly knock me on my heels it was still a very entertaining read and I'm looking forward to his other works Recommended. 

WEIRD.....!

Bonus points if you recognise the music playing in the background!

Just Finished Reading: The Last Crusade – Religion and the Politics of Misdirection by Barbara Victor (FP: 2005) [287pp] 

This, I think, is going to be a difficult book to review. At base it is about the rise of political evangelism in the US from Ronald Regan onwards up to George W Bush (featured on the cover). That's pretty straight forward. Although evangelism has been around in America for quite some time apparently, they only started throwing their potential voting weight around from the late 70's onwards. No doubt, thinking about it, brought on by social changes not only in the States but throughout the western world – the invention of The Pill, the rise of no-fault divorce, the legalisation of abortion, same sex marriage and no doubt, Feminism. If they could influence or, in the best case, control the politicians that made these decisions then they could get their way and create a country, a society, more in line with their beliefs and desires. But this is where I start to struggle... 

Throughout most of my life America has portrayed itself as THE land of the Free where all things are possible and the place where you can make of yourself whatever you want to be. The watchword is FREEDOM without interference from the Government or from anyone else. Yet here we have a significant group (the figure was 80 million in the book though no doubt this has increased in the subsequent 20 years since publication) who will use their political power to RESRICT the freedoms of others to be who they are, marry who they love and worship who they wish (or not). Personally, I've long been an advocate of personal freedoms (although I'm a Socialist, I do have significant Anarchist sympathies) which allows individuals to do – or believe – whatever they want to unless it conflicts with others freedom or harms those around them. If you want to get married, then have at it but if you don't and still want to live with someone else in a consensual sexual relationship then have at that too. It's not harming me (or anyone else) and frankly I don't care. Its zero business of mine. If I found such things objectionable (and I know some people do – my mother for example) then they're just going to have to 'deal' with reality. Essentially what I'm saying is that you should happily live your OWN life and not expect others to follow YOUR rules or hold YOUR beliefs. I certainly don't! 

Anyway... I think the biggest problem I had with the underlying 'philosophy' of those portrayed in the book was the rather bizarre (at least in MY mind) relationship of evangelicals and Israel. Now I'm at least aware of the whole thing about the 2nd Coming of the Messiah and all that but having that as THE justification of supporting Israel is more than a little incomprehensible to me. I suppose that it's because since I didn't grow up in a religious household and have never had a great deal of 'education' in Christianity (or any other religion) outside of academia I just couldn't connect the dots and that's BEFORE we get to the bit where the End of the World is supposedly a GOOD thing (although that does explain why so many Americans don't seem to care very much about the planet they inhabit or the future of our species). 

Finally, the other thing I had a hard time swallowing was just how religious many American politicians are. I certainly knew that SOME were but didn't really appreciate quite how many. Here (in the UK) if the electorate suspected that a politician's decisions were being influenced by religious/faith considerations it would call their political future into question. Politicians can certainly HAVE a personal faith in their own flavour of religious belief but public displays or public pronouncements of such raise questions of suitability for office. Across Europe we are more than familiar with how toxic, and how dangerous, it is when religion and politics mix. We've learnt that particular lesson the HARD way in our various histories and with luck America won't have to learn that lesson for itself. Being a 'Christian nation' might sound like a good idea to some, but when you get down to the details, I doubt if many (and not just the non-Christian/non-religious) would like the results. Whilst this was an interesting read in some ways, I think it was far too outside my 'wheelhouse' to appreciate it enough to fully understand the narrative. I've been feeling a while now that I need to at least start to look at adding to my knowledge of Religion (if not anywhere approaching full understanding), so I'll be sprinkling a few religion/Christianity books into my schedule over the next few years. Wish me luck!