My TARDIS has a screw loose...

Saturday 29 October 2016

We have a storage problem: not enough room for our DVDs.   Husband has a brilliant idea: if he throws out all his remaining old Doctor Who VHS tapes we can no longer watch (he has slowly been replacing them with DVDs), then the Doctor Who DVDs can go in the TARDIS video cabinet, making space in our other storage units.

Problem 1: Find the autograph.  I distinctly remember Colin Baker signing a VHS cassette at the Who shop that briefly appeared in Little Chalfont, whilst avoiding falling Silurian masks.  Obviously we don't want to throw that one out. But none of the VHS tapes in the TARDIS are of Sixth Doctor stories. The later VHS tapes are downstairs, but the only Sixth Doctor story we have left is Trial of a Time Lord, and that hasn't been signed.  Have we already ditched the autograph by mistake? 

Problem solved: Husband finds the autographed cassette.  It turns out to be the 1994 Bill Baggs Video The Zero Imperative, starring Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, John Pertwee, Caroline John, Louise Jameson, Sophie Aldred and Linda Lusardi. (Spot the odd one out...) There is also an appearance by the writer, a young man called Mark Gatiss.  I wonder what happened to him?

Problem 2: DVDs are slightly deeper than VHS tapes.  The doors of the TARDIS no longer close properly, and one of them comes off completely.  Husband has another (not so) brilliant idea: we take the other door off to match.

I have a better idea: we put the Virgin New Adventures and Missing Adventures in the TARDIS, and the DVDs on the bookshelf.

The books fit, and I wield my (totally un-sonic) screwdriver to fix the doors.

Just one problem left.  Where shall we keep The Zero Imperative?

Doctor Who Festival: Session 1 - Monsters

Sunday 15 November 2015

I'm back from the Doctor Who Festival, which was extremely well-run and enjoyable.  This is the third of the official BBC events I have been to since the series returned (the others being the convention at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff and the Fiftieth Anniversary Convention) and they definitely have a format that works. 

I am somewhat disappointed that I was a Cyberman rather than a Dalek, but you can't have everything.  We got through registration and into the main theatre remarkably quickly.  Our first theatre session was the Millennium FX show with special guest Mark Gatiss.  I'm not sure really why he was included in a show about prosthetic monsters (OK he has played one, in Professor Lazarus, and written for several more, including last night's Sandmen), but it still seemed a bit odd. 

During this talk, a couple of the designers were given the task of coming up with a visual concept for a new monster. The idea, borrowed from a taxi driver, was an alien race who work on a very different timescale, and who are slowly cooking the earth, which we experience as global warming.  At the end we were asked to call out names.  I suggested 'Fryons', but it wasn't picked up by the roving mike.

There was a discussion of the creation of the costume for the Mire, which was modelled on stage. I think this costume looks great.  Although it appears to be corroded metal, it is actually made of foam.

A young member of the audience had the opportunity to go on stage and try out a monster mask.  The little boy who was chosen had been on stage at a previous event and seemed a bit blasé about it. There was no shortage of hands going up so it's a pity the opportunity didn't go to someone who hadn't had a chance before, but the team had no way of knowing.  He didn't want to wear the mask of The Foretold, so he tried an Ice Warrior instead, even though I'm not sure he remembered who they were. Rather him than me, anyway.  I tried on a Cyberman mask many years ago.  It was not pleasant in there.

My favourite part of the session was seeing Mark interact with Mr Sweet, the prehistoric leech which sat on Diana Rigg's shoulder in The Crimson Horror.

Mark and one of Millennium FX's creations. Isn't he Sweet?

To be continued....

Crossing Over...

So this weekend I'm going to a convention.  Danny Hargreaves will be there, blowing things up.  Maybe I'll get to see Steven Moffat or Mark Gatiss...

Sadly, it's a Sherlock convention.  My other half, who got me into Doctor Who is also a Holmes fan.

I like late 19th and early 20th century crime fiction, but the works of Arthur Conan Doyle are not among my favourites.  Moffat and Gatiss' revamped version for the 21st century is very clever, and certainly watchable, but it's just a (good) TV programme. Maybe the problem is that Benedict Cumberbatch just isn't David Tennant...

Update

Just back from Sherlocked. In comparison with the Doctor Who 50th, which was the last convention I attended at ExCel, it was disappointing.  Not really surprising, when Doctor Who has 50 years of episodes, fiction and related stuff (albeit with a long gap in the middle), whereas Sherlock has only 9 ninety-minute episodes.  We had basic tickets, rather than one of the event 'packages' which meant that we were second-class citizens.  We didn't even get passes, just ink stamps on our hands. With this level of access we were entitled to admission to the main event space and could attend talks on the second stage (most of which seemed to be about cosplay, which doesn't interest me) and the special effects demonstration by Danny Hargreaves in the main stage.  We could also see a taxi and a bus (big deal!)  some room sets and a costume and prop display.  We were however able to buy tickets for another of the main stage talks, 'Ladies of Sherlock', which also gave us free entry to a session with Messrs Moffat and Gatiss.  Without that, it wouldn't really have been worth our while to attend the event.

Wedding outfits from John and Mary's wedding

The problem with the prop and costume displays is that most of the Sherlock  costumes are just fairly ordinary clothes. It's not quite the same as coming face to face with a Silurian or a Cyberman, or meeting K9.  I mean, taking a photo of a London bus is not actually that difficult, if you live or work in London.

I noticed quite a few TARDIS bags (and even dresses) among the attendees, and one of the merchandise stalls had Doctor Who action figures.  It would have been perverse to go to a Sherlock event and buy a 10th Doctor figure, though, wouldn't it?

May 2007: the Doctor becomes ubiquitous

5 May 2007

Back to modern day England for an encounter with a dangerous monster – but enough of Mrs Jones; what about Professor Lazarus?  Mark Gatiss was excellent, as was his prosthetic ’76 years old’ make-up. The CGI monster also worked well, and moved more convincingly that the Reapers and Krillitanes. The episode looked good, and there was some ostentatious clue-dropping by one of Mr Saxon’s henchmen. Maybe too many false climaxes for perfection, though.  Saw a bit of David Tennant on Parkinson later.  Parkinson clearly hasn’t watched it and was not very well briefed, but DT managed OK.

18 May 2007

Watched Jonathan Ross show as John Barrowman and Andrew Lloyd Webber were due to be on it, with clip from John Barrowman’s return to Doctor Who. For once, JB was totally upstaged by Ross’ previous guest, the completely insane Janice Dickinson. Oliver Reed was nothing compared with her.  God knows what she was on.

19 May 2007

42  was set in real time, on a space ship hurtling towards a sun.  It looked wonderful, and there was real tension, but I didn’t actually enjoy it that much.  I think it reminded me too much of Star Trek TNG.

23 May 2007

To the doctor’s surgery for pre-holiday vaccinations.  Now I know Doctor Who is ubiquitous – they had a couple of the ‘quick reads’ books in the waiting room.  Makes a change from last year’s magazines, anyway. 

According to London Lite, Kylie Minogue is taking acting lessons so she can play a Cyberwoman.  I really hope not!

26 May 2007

Human Nature was much better than I feared. The scarecrows were particularly creepy.

 

May 2006: the Doctor impinges on my working life

3 May 2006

Am moving to new office at the entrance to our building.  Head of Department is concerned that I may get constant interruptions.  I suggest putting sign saying “Hazard: Radioactivity” on the door.  He counters by suggesting sign saying “Beware of the Doctor Who fan”.

Wonder whether mentioning Doctor Who under other interests in my profile in professional journal (‘Who does [redacted for professional reasons] think she is?”) was a good career move.

6 May 2006

Did I say I was overcome last week?  That was nothing to this week.  Steven Moffat strikes again.  Who else could have the Doctor jumping on horseback through a mirror to save the woman he loves?  And he even stole RTD’s ending from Casanova (well, almost).  My only quibble would be that the final shot which shows the name of the spaceship and the explanation of it all is easily missed by a casual viewer.  I had to explain it to our Academic Registrar afterwards.

8 May 2006

An inflatable Dalek, labelled ‘Departmental Administrators, for the use of’ arrived mysteriously outside the Head of Department’s office whilst we were having our weekly management meeting. He attended the remainder of the meeting as an observer.

 13 May 2006

And so from the sublime to the ridiculous. After the wonderful bittersweet ending of last week’s episode, we have some appalling ham acting from Roger Lloyd Pack. I love the idea of the zeppelins though – I wonder if RTD is a fan of Jasper Fforde? And full marks for playing The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

Am getting some interesting reactions to Derek the Dalek. My German colleagues have no idea what a Dalek is as they don’t have televisions.  The American ones are bemused, and the English ones amused. The Head of Department keeps patting him on the dome. (Don’t try this at home with a real Dalek).

Derek the Dalek

 

20 May 2006

Went to local library for talk by Gareth Roberts, who was promoting I am a Dalek.  There was us, assorted kids with parents (including a large proportion of girls) and a rather confused little boy in a spiderman outfit. There was a book-signing afterwards, and husband had brought along his copy of The English Way of Death.   Mr Roberts was a bit surprised at this blast from his past but signed it cheerfully enough. Husband then tactfully commented on the similarities with the work of E F Benson. Oh God!

Better this week than last. I was never really that keen on Cybermen to be honest, but I like the new design. It was quite a shock to see that Jackie (albeit an alternative Jackie) had been ‘upgraded’.

27 May 2006

Slightly disappointed with this week’s episode.  It was good, certainly better than the Cybermen episodes, but I have very high expectations of anything by Mark Gatiss. Maureen Lipman was perfectly cast as the Wire, though.

 

The trailer for next week looks awful.