Hugo Nominations Announced.

[The Wormhole]

Here's the list of this year's Hugo awards nominations. But basically, for Doctor Who it's Name of the Doctor and Day of the Doctor as well as An Adventure in Space and Time and The Five-ish Doctors.

I'm surprised Space and Time and Five-ish got nominated, not that I'm complaining, though I doubt they'll win. I suspect Day will win, not that I actually think it deserves to, but that seems the safest bet. Kind of surprised Nightmare in Silver didn't get nominated. Not that I thought it was that good an episode, but I figured being Neil Gaiman would guarantee a nomination.

 

[diankra]

Wonder if Davison ever dreamt he'd be a Hugo nominee.
Interesting that RUR is a retro award nomination... given that it wasn't recorded so if could have been great or awful for all we know.

 

[intrinsical]

I get the feeling Rains of Castamere will win simply because votes for Doctor Who will be spread thin amongst the four nominations.

 

[Brendan Moody]

I get the feeling Rains of Castamere will win simply because votes for Doctor Who will be spread thin amongst the four nominations.

The Hugos don't work that way. They have a complex preference system where voters rank the nominees and those rankings are analyzed in a way that prevents vote-splitting among similar nominees. That's how Doctor Who has won most years since 2005, even though it gets so many nominations they might as well change the category name to "Best Doctor Who Episode or Other Short Dramatic Presentation."

 

[inflatabledalek]

The inclusion of Adventure and Fiveish is utterly baffling to me as neither one is SF, does the awards remit really include "Fictionalised accounts of behinds the scenes of a SF show?".

 

[Stevil2001]

Apollo 13 was a Hugo nominee back in the day, and it's even less sf than those are.

I don't think there's any way that War of the Worlds won't claim the Retro Hugo.

 

[Brendan Moody]

Works about, related to, or parodying the genre have generally been allowed if enough members think they deserve a nomination. Which in this particular category has led to a lot of nominations for cliquish, self-congratulatory stuff like convention comedy sketches, Gollum's acceptance speech at the MTV Movie Awards, and the music video "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury."

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Not only was Gollum's MMVA acceptance speech nominated, it actually won! In light of this, nothing wrong with having AAIS&T or Five-ish Doctors nominated.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Works about, related to, or parodying the genre have generally been allowed if enough members think they deserve a nomination. Which in this particular category has led to a lot of nominations for cliquish, self-congratulatory stuff like convention comedy sketches, Gollum's acceptance speech at the MTV Movie Awards, and the music video "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury."

Don't forget, a Star Trek fanfilm (New Voyages' "World Enough and Time"), too. But something like "The Old Negro Space Program" gets disqualified. (ETA: Oops, sorry, it was the Nebulas that disqualified "The Old Negro Space Program" from their ballot. As you were.)

Is it wrong that I really really really wanted "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" to win the year it was nominated?

 

[Stevil2001]

Here's the SFWA ruling on the disqualification of "The Old Negro Space Program": http://web.archive.org/web/20060213170958/http://sfwa.org/news/2006/oldnegrospaceprogram.htm

The philosophy of the Hugos is that if folks nominate in sufficient numbers, it makes it. Which I like better than a cabal determining what is "science fiction" and what is not.

 

[Brendan Moody]

I like the flexibility just fine; in fact, I think the Hugos should take a page from the Nebulas and include language about works in "a related genre" to cover such cases. I just think voters have used that flexibility to make poor choices.

 

[MacLeod]

Part of my wants The Five(ish) Doctors to win. But I somehow suspect that "The Day of the Doctor" will win.

 

[Stevil2001]

I like the flexibility just fine; in fact, I think the Hugos should take a page from the Nebulas and include language about works in "a related genre" to cover such cases. I just think voters have used that flexibility to make poor choices.

That's democracy for you.

Maybe this year is the year I'll buy a supporting membership.

Actually, I'd really like to teach a summer course on science-fiction where the class just reads that year's Hugo nominees and then votes on winners amongst itself. And then I submit that as my vote. Someday, maybe.

 

[auntiehill]

Well, I liked them all but I thought Adventures in Time and Space was pretty special, so I kinda hope it wins. But I can't find fault with any of the nominees in that category.

 

[Takeru]

Game of Thrones or Orphan Black should win, they're both superior to everything Doctor Who did last year.