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…

Keith, Shaun and I will sit down and record our second episode of Traveling the Vortex tonight. We’ll be talking about the first three episodes of Doctor Who – Season 5 starring Matt Smith as The Doctor. Be sure to look for it on the feeds coming soon.

And thank you to everyone who has discovered and downloaded our inaugural episode. We were a little overwhelmed by the amount of people who have been attracted to out site.

If you’d like to leave feedback, you can e-mail us at travelingthevortex@gmail.com. You can also follow us on twitter – @travelvorex, and on Facebook. If you’d like to leave us an audio feedback, we have a Google Voice box as well. The number is 913-890-3025.

Thanks for listening!

Welcome to our Doctor Who podcast – Traveling the Vortex.  If you’ve found this blog, we know that our efforts at word of mouth advertising is paying off.  Please check back here for updates and new episodes.