Cthulhu Mythos and Doctor Who Share a Birthday! (Sort of)

August 20th serves an important distinction for the Cthulhu Mythos and Doctor Who. Sure, neither debuted on this day (well as far as I am aware anyway) but both share a birthday in common.


Thanks to the internet and global capitalism I discovered that both H.P. Lovecraft, the creator of the Cthulhu Mythos, and Slyvestor McCoy (the 7th Doctor) were born on August 20th, give or take several decades. A coincidence that's simply geektastic! As an aside, I found out about Sylvestor McCoy's birthday courtesy of Big Finish, the creator of Doctor Who audios. They are having a sale on ten 7th Doctor audios. Meanwhile, One Book Shelf is having a Cthulhu Mythos sale (20% off) on its Drive Thru Fiction, RPG, and Comics sites. Since I didn't feel like linking the OBS sale (last 12 days), out of fairness (and may not participate in) I won't link to the Big Finish sale (lasts until Monday morning London time - I may participate in this one).


The works of HP Lovecraft have been a part of my life for twenty years. In fact, my next D&D character for Adventurer's League may very well be a Warlock who serves Cthulhu (albeit played more for humor than straight). Meanwhile, I remember as a little kid watching Sylvestor McCoy's regeneration story on PBS and eagerly trying to watch each new 7th Doctor Who story to varying degrees of success as the airing of episodes had become erratic. Don't think I've watched every story from McCoy's time on the show, certainly haven't listened to every audio nor read every book. To be fair, I haven't read every Lovecraft story yet either - although I do own a copy of his complete fiction and an annotated edition of several of his works.


In any case, I had to shine a spotlight on two creative people's birthdays, HP Lovecraft and Sylvestor McCoy, whose body of work has thrilled me.