It’s Monday, now two weeks since my anterior cervical discectomy and I’m “doing”. Following the doctor’s orders I’m limited to lifting nothing heavier than five pounds, which means the family cat, Ban, could set me back a few more weeks if I try and lift that 17 pound ORCA of a feline. I have my first followup with the neurosurgeon on Thursday. The question is whether I will be well enough to make an early return to work next week or not. I’m not keen to rush things, but I had to take unpaid leave to do this so the longer I’m off the more it hurts Leanne and myself. So I’m asking, though I feel awkward doing so, for donations towards these two starving BMS creators to help us through a tricky time. Every little bit helps, and we’ll send you a personalized thank from Slave Leia which you can print and proudly pinup or frame. Donations under $5 dollars tend to give a large chunk to Paypal, so please shoot for that as a minimum. Large donations will get a Kill Lucas pinup at hi-res too.

I have to give a huge HUGE shout out to both Cody and David for their donations that were entirely unexpected and blew us away. Thank you so much guys, and to everyone that has donated in the past!


Today’s strip is a cute little crossover with one of our greatest sci-fi loves, Doctor Who (THE ORIGNAL SERIES). Have to stress that, because as soon as you tell someone you like something, they tend to think it makes gift buying easy. But we’re very much classic fans only. That’s 1963-1989. Anyway, above you will see the 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) in BMS form. Did the TARDIS bring them to Dagobah by accident? Or has Yoda gotten Luke well and truly lost, winding them up on Zeta Minor? Don’t worry all you non-WHO fans, this is just a one off for fun. We hope to be back next Monday, but our schedule might suffer over the next few weeks as we try to manage with everything else. Leanne has done an amazing job looking after me and I hate being such a burden.

A few quick words about Doctor Who. The crossover today was inspired by the 1975 serial “Planet of Evil”, during the show’s golden age of gothic-sci-fi. The Doctor and Sarah land on the planet Zeta Minor at the edge of the “known universe”. The planet, covered by a dark alien jungle, is in many ways alive, with a conscience of its own. The set design by Roger Murray Leach won an award and truly adds to the scary claustrophobic atmosphere that was one of Doctor Who’s greatest strengths as a show. Zeta Minor is about as close to Dagobah as the classic series could offer and gave Leanne and myself the perfect opportunity to provide the 4th Doctor and Sarah (our favorite Doctor / Assistant duo) a cameo in the strip. In the future you will see the odd cameo from other sci-fi shows that we like, including the poll winning “Firefly”. Well, so long as BMS keeps going that is. 🙂

A quick word on Doctor Who. Like Star Wars, Doctor Who was a huge part of my childhood and teenage years. It as an escape. It fired my imagination. At it’s worst, it could be embarrassing, but at its best it was absolutely brilliant for what it was. I will always see Doctor Who as a family sci-fi show, as opposed to the generally more adult sci-fi shows that share similarly large cult followings to this day. The original run was on television for 26 years, and evolved and reinvented itself many times to survive. I can’t say I love every period equally, but as a whole, Doctor Who was a wonderful, wonderful escape. It was when Star Wars came out that everything really changed. The landscape for sci-fi was re-written in the eyes of the general public. Doctor Who’s budget became a hindrance as people expected movie quality effects. In my opinion, that was never what Doctor Who was about. You don’t like a show like the classic Doctor Who for things like effects, you like it for the stories and the characters. You like it for the atmosphere and the humor. In the future, I’ll write similar pieces about my feelings on the other sci-fi inspirations in our lives and how they took a place alongside our love for Star Wars too.

Got an email recently from a reader chastising me for not being pro-Prequels and assuming that I must feel this way because I was some sort of bandwagon jumper, or just didn’t give them a fair chance. I’m sorry dude, but I have an opinion, and contrary to what you may think, it is indeed an INFORMED opinion. Despite what you claimed, I am not WRONG for having an opinion different than yours. If someone has an opinion different than mine, I never preach to people telling them why they should change. It’s your life and you’re entitled to view the world how you choose. 🙂

If you love the prequels while also enjoying this site, then I’m delighted to have open-minded readers who can find the humor in what we do. But BMS is our little corner on the internet and our opinions may not always match up with everyone’s. For the most part, I don’t think this webcomic ever gets particularly heavy in prequel criticism so I don’t think you have much to complain about really. I mean, we’re not Red Letter Media… although I do love those reviews. 😉