Interesting News in Who-ville

The BBC has announced the May '08 Doctor Who tie-in novels, and intriguingly, Martha is *still* the companion, even being part of the title for one ("Martha in the Mirror"). It's the first time I can think of that a former companion will be appearing in the tie-ins while a different one appears onscreen.

This is the strongest indicator I can think of that the Beeb not only supports Freema (as opposed to the firing or placeholder companion rumors) and pretty much an official announcement that she will remain the companion at the end of this upcoming season. "The Last Dodo" was pulled and rewritten to replace Rose with Martha in less turnaround time than this.

It's starting to look more and more like Donna is the rumored "placeholder" companion, although I'm not sure that I like that terminology. I still very much think that companions should be treated equally by the BBC and by the Doctor. I hope Donna gets some of her druthers while she's on Team TARDIS - the DWM cartoon at least? - but I'm thrilled for Freema and for Martha. Freema gets an even better chance to solidify that foundation to her fledgling career; Martha and the Doctor get a chance to undo that unsettling racial subcontext.

Fic Recs:

nostalgia_lj has a delightfully cracky Donna, Martha, Ten sexpollen fic. "So," said Jack, who was indeed an expert on sex, "what we have here is a horny Time Lord and two annoyed women."

Recipe - Corn Saute

Made a recipe I found in Fine Cooking today. Excellent stuff - a corn saute that pulled together in about 20 minutes out of leftovers/odd bits and cumulatively cost under $1.

( Not so much a recipe as a process )

And all hail the brilliant maniac who put the lyrics to Mystery Science Theater 3000 to Doctor Who pictures.