Hugos: Assorting wibbling on Dramatic Presentation Awards

[major_clanger]

The 2008 Hugo Awards have been announced; congratulations to matociquala and commiserations to autopope, ianmcdonald and paulcornell2.

Back in January I was pondering nominations and commented on the dramatic awards as follows:

"[Battlestar Galactica is] going to once again get its ass handed to it on a plate in the next category...

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form. At the risk of tempting fate, we all know that the key question in Denver is going to be whether Steven Moffat's utterly brilliant 'Blink' will edge out Paul Cornell's utterly brilliant 'Human Nature' / 'The Family of Blood' in what will soon be renamed as Hugo for Best Dr Who Story."

No mistake there, then, although looking back at the BDP(SF) winners it might be more accurate to rename it as Hugo for Best Steven Moffat Story. In the end it came down to a choice between arguably the best-written and most emotionally effective Who story since the show was revived (if not ever) and the most perfectly-crafted piece of science-fictional horror in years. In that respect, 'Blink' perhaps had an edge with the wider Hugo voting community through being less reliant on the viewer's familiarity with the show's history and mythos.

I'm not sure if Moffat's run will continue, mind you, as I can't say that I found 'Silence in the Library'/'Forest of the Dead' to be amongst the best episodes of this year. Looking back at Season 4, I would suspect 'Midnight' to be a far stronger contender for the Montreal Hugos, possibly followed by 'Turn Left'. As for 2010, will he be writing any of next year's feature-length specials? In the mean time, Battlestar Galactica has an opportunity to try to make up lost ground, although the first half of its Season 4 (which we might as well just call 'Season 4' in its entirety, as it ended on a whopping cliffhanger and the other half won't be shown until 2009 so is really Season 5) suffered from frantic plot compression as the writers battled possible cancellation in the wake of the WGA strike. Since we're all waiting to see how Ron Moore resolves the hole he dumped everyone into at the end of the last episode we can but hope that he and his scriptwriters do so in a way worthy of getting onto the 2010 Hugo ballot.

Comments

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

Midnight!? IMO, that was the weakest episode of the entire season... It's creepy aspects were vastly outweighed by the fact that it didn't make any sense.

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Yes... but most of the others were 'The Doctor deals with Monster X' or extended running gags like 'The Unicorn and the Wasp'. 'Midnight', despite its shortcomings, at least had an interesting sf conceit at its heart, and I actually rather liked what I saw as a deliberate effort to subvert the long-running trope of 'this stranger arrives, weird shit happens and everyone defers to him for a solution'.

[rmc28]

I found Midnight completely compelling and absorbing to the point of losing track of time. It was particularly striking for relying entirely on acting to provide the monster; while there was the obligatory bit of CGI to say "wow look we're on another planet", it could have been done entirely without that.

(I can't help thinking it was "the cheap episode" in comparison with the final 3 ...)

[percyprune.livejournal.com]

Midnight may be the single strongest episode, but I thought Silence/Forest the stronger story. The fact that it packed a lot in and diverted attention from the monster half way through I thought enhanced the episodes, not detracted. But yes, maybe it's a little dense for an awards audience. You want something gem-like and self-contained, not something reliant on years of continuity to give it its edge.