Author Archive: Shaun

Rock Band Challenge

Well, David Tennant has joined our band. No, not really, but as part of our Episode Four challenge, we wanted to see how many Doctors we could create on Rock Band 3. Here’s my new and improved David Tennant in some action shots!
Don’t forget, we want to see YOUR creations! Just create a character, then “Doctor” them up, take a photo and send it too us and we’ll post it!

I’m sure mine will go through a few more revisions as I complete more challenges, thus unlocking more outfit options, (this still isn’t quite the right suit for him) so I’ll definately keep you appraised of my progress.

My gal Mel has even said since I’m doing Doctors, she might try her hand at companions!

Rock on…

Special thanks to co-worker and friend Sarah Hollis for bringing this tidbit to my attention…

As I have expressed previously, I have a very long, very heavy knit Doctor Who scarf. I love it, and I deeply admire the craftsmanship that went into it. Not everyone it seems, falls on the same side of that admiration.

A Doctor Who fan with a screen name of Mazzmatazz has a webstie featuring photography and knitting. One of her creations was a knit Adipose, featured in the Fourth Season opener, “Partners In Crime”. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so Mazz posted her patern on line for free, so that others could knit thier own fat baby.

Enter the BBC, and in a strange case of corperate dictatorship, they sent a Cease-and-Desist letter, requiring her to quote, “remove from your site any designs connected with DR WHO.” Now I completely understand wanting to get paid for your work. I have no issue with BBC cracking down on people who are manufacturing illegal copies of the episode DVDs and selling them, but a knit pattern? A FREE knit pattern?

At what point do we turn the corner from fandom to copyright infrengment? Surely an aspiring comic book artist, who draws a portrait of Batman which someone likes enough to offer him money for isnt infrenging on Warner Bros. Dark Knight? Surely someone who constructs a replica of the U.S.S. Enterprise bridge and charges $5 to take pictures in the Captain’s chair isnt creating a financial hardship for Paramount? And surely a fan who posted a FREE PATTERN to knit a Doctor Who monster (not even one of the main ones, a mobile ball of fat) is a threat to the profits of the BBC?

Stealing fat? Sounds like something from “Fight Club”.

I am against illegally making money off someone elses work. But I also understand that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. To BBC Worldwide, I say can’t we find some middle ground here for a fan who loves your product?

Up late on Saturday night and thinking deep thoughts…

Matt Smith maybe the first Doctor who didn’t need an “adjustment period”. I warmed to him immediately.

Of course, Matt Smith was the first Doctor who I knew in advance was coming, the rest of the regenerations had taken me by surprise.

I love Amy and Rory. Their dynamic is just so darned… cute.

Of course, if this were an American show, now that the couple had gotten married, the producers would be trying to shoe horn in a baby to raise ratings.

Although it would be kind of interesting to see Matt Smith’s Doctor react to a baby…

Steven Moffat: we do NOT want a baby.

I cant wait to see more of the inside of the Tardis. The wardrobe, the library, the pool.

With all of the classic series to mine, I wonder what villains have yet to rear their ugly heads on the new series? If the Sontarans are still around, does that mean the Rutons are as well? How about the Rani? Surely she survived the Time War. And if she did, she and the Doctor are the last two Time Lords in the universe….

I think there’s a bar joke in there somewhere.

Not that the original monsters haven’t been good. On the contrary, I have found the monsters created for the new series to be awesome, from the Ood, to the Slitheen. Even those aquatic fishmen with the aqua breathers were great. And most of these (I hate to say it) have been about a gazillion times more interesting than the “let’s put a piece of latex over this part of your face” Star Trek villains.

Glenn got me some authentic Jelly Babies for Christmas. I have now run out, and can feel the shakes starting.

The Sonic “Swiss Army” Screwdriver may be the most overused plot device since dumping the warp core.

Slightly Psychic Paper may be the best. So much of the classic series was spent trying to convince the guards they really should listen to you despite the fact that you’re dressed like a Rock Band character. Scripts were cut in half by this convention.

I wonder if we are doing a bit of a disservice to those WHO have come before, by calling it “Classic Series” and “New Series”? Isn’t that kinda like New Coke? I used to get upset with people for calling Star Trek “Classic Trek” or “The Original Series”. Uh-uh. All those that came after have monikers. Next Gen, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise. Star Trek is just Star Trek, leave it at that.

I love that the show has worked so hard to remember it’s roots. This is NOT a reboot.

I cant wait for Doctor Who: The Movie (or as I’ll always think of it, “Doctor Who: 1996”) to come out on DVD. They were lucky to get Paul McGann, and foolish to squander him. I watch it and think oh, what might have been…

But then I think about what might not have been. No new series for us if the “Americanized” Doctor had taken off. And surely he and Grace would be married and have five kids wandering the halls of the Tardis by now, probably still looking for the pool.

They should check in the library.

This may seem a tad out of place on a primarily Doctor Who site, but sci-fi fans are a diverse bunch, and we frequently have overlapping interests.

This is all rumor and hearsay at this point, but The New York Post recently reported that there are a few front runners in the casting news for the trilogy of films and tv series that will make up Ron Howard’s addaption of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ beauty Naomie Harris (Tia Dalma) is being considered for the female lead of Susannah, while Javier Bardem ‘No Country For Old Men” and Viggo Mortensen “Lord Of The Rings” are the lead contenders for Roland Deschain.

Okay, Viggo would be awesome. But Javier? Not really my idea of Roland! What do you think?

As most non-Who fans could attest, “The Doctor wears that really long scarf, right?” And of course they would be right, referencing Tom Baker’s stint on the show when Doctor Who hit big in America.

While STAR WARS was a gateway drug for my science fiction fix, Star Trek and Doctor Who became staples of the habbit. I watched as a kid and got hooked early. I can fondly remember my mother calling upstais for my brother and I, asking what we were doing. “Playing Doctor!” we’d reply. Her nervous verification had a whole different connotation to it until she realized what was going on.

And thank heavens for cardboard boxes, the bulwark of our playtime. We’d stack up a few boxes and stick plungers out of them to be Daleks, we carefully sculpted a couple of cardboard boxes and covered them with duct tape to resemble K9 (complete with an extendable stalk with a lego radar dish in the middle of his eye scanner) and mom brought home a giant printer box that we cut windows in and wrote “Police Box” over the door. And inevitably, we’d tie every scarf in the house together to create something close to the Doctor’s apparel.

I have wanted one of these scarves since I was nine. (Of course I also wanted a lightsaber and a light cycle as a kid) but I felt the scarf was at least attainable. It took almost thirty years.

My roommates girl friend knits. She loves to make things for people. Music to my ears. We scouted out patterns on line, found the “official” knitting pattern from the woman who made the original for the show. (Of course in show, the scarf was made for him specially by Nostradamus’s wife.) We picked out yarn, and away she went.

For the better part of a year.

I feel vaguely bad about asking for her do make something that turned into a project of this undertaking. Until she gave it to me. I literally have no words to describe what a wonderful gift this truly is. Thank you, Miss Kara, for an amazing job.

And I wear it. I told her in advance, this was no convention floor showpiece, this was a Doctor Who scarf for Pete’s sake!

And oddly, I have only gotten two Doctor Who related comments on the scarf, where people recognized it from the show while I was out and about. But I have gotten a slew of compliments from people who don’t associate it with the show. They just thought a really long scarf was cool. And fashionable.

Doctor Who, fashionable? Wow. Those are two words I never actually thought I’d hear together in the same sentence. This is not to say the scarf is without challenges. Wearing it during the winter is fine, because it’s exceedingly warm. (of course its warm, it’s 40 lbs of wool!) I can see now why they filmed in all those Scottish highlands and rock quarries. Baker had to be sweltering running around in that! And there are dangers lurking for the long scarves. Car doors. Cats eyeballing the dangling fringe. And of course, escalators are a definitive no-no.

But I’m bringing it back.

So everyone, go into your closets and tie those scarfs together. The fashionistas tell me they’ll be all the rage next year…