Why do we care about the Hugos?
Well, it’s a very good question, isn’t it?
This year’s nominations are now up. And the short form category lists the following nominees:
Doctor Who: “A Christmas Carol,” written by Steven Moffat; directed by Toby Haynes (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang,” written by Steven Moffat; directed by Toby Haynes (BBC Wales)
Doctor Who: “Vincent and the Doctor,” written by Richard Curtis; directed by Jonny Campbell (BBC Wales)
Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury, written by Rachel Bloom; directed by Paul Briganti
The Lost Thing, written by Shaun Tan; directed by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan (Passion Pictures)
Okay, good nominees over all. I suspect The Pandorica Opens / The Big Bang will win even though Vincent and the Doctor deserves it (and if A Christmas Carol wins there is no justice in the world). And it would continue a series of almost-consecutive wins that started with The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, The Girl in the Fireplace, Blink and The Waters of Mars. And do we love talking about the show being “Hugo winning” as some sort of form of legitimacy in the world of science fiction.
But look at those nominees again. Doctor Who, a short film and a four minute YouTube comedy music video about having carnal relations with a legendary SF author (It is, admittedly, very funny). Yes, this is a serious competition folks.
The truth is, the Short Form category is rubbish. It’s whatever the popular shows are, plus whatever thing that currently tickles the nerd masses’ fancy. We knew this back in 2005 when The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances won against two other Who stories, a couple of Galactica episodes, a two minute DVD extra from The Incredibles and a video made for the previous year’s Hugo ceremonies. And it continues today.
There is no level playing field in this category at all, no real determination of quality. And yet we love talking about “Hugo Award winning” writer Steven Moffat…who won against a Star Trek fan film in 2007.
And yet we still claim this utterly vapid, bankrupt, not even decently competitive category is somehow a bloody achievement for Doctor Who. It isn’t. We should stop pretending that it is.
All the same, I would like to congratulate my old friend (and Doctor Who short story author) Lou Anders for being nominated as Best Editor, because the Hugos are a serious achievement when it comes to literary SF. They just are frivilous when it comes to its long form and short form drama categories.
But why the hell do we care so much?
Posted by Graeme on Monday, April 25 at 1:44 am
2 Comments...
All awards are rubbish. Full stop. That’s why you see so many films and TV shows not even bothering with things like the Emmys and the Oscars. Yet, at the same time, there is huge name recognition, and especially something like the Hugos, winning one adds legitimacy in many quarters.
The problem with the Hugos is the short form category had most of its viability destroyed when they gave the award one year to an acceptance speech featuring Gollum at the MTV Movie Awards, rather than to episodes of shows like Firefly that were nominated that year. But it did regain some of its cachet when it put DW against BSG and more worthy competition - and it won. The fact it dominates the category this year - to the extent where there’s no doubt it will win, even with a split vote - could be seen as a sign that there wasn’t a lot of worthwhile short form SF out there this year (I’m sure Fringe fans are angry, though), but the fact DW is the chosen show indicates the Hugo nomination committee at least thought DW was worthwhile.
Posted by Alex on 04/25 at 03:46 AM
Vincent and the Doctor- all the way.
Although I am aware of the Hugo’s, I have never really followed them. I don’t believe they have ever really influenced the show I watched or the books I read. I think it’s positive in the sense that it keeps authors and artist on their toes, and possibly encourages the people with the power to publish and broadcast content to come back for more and for quality. I met a consultant once for Major League Baseball, it was more about getting attracting new bums in seats than about the die-hard fans.
Posted by mgledrew on 04/26 at 05:41 PM
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