'Well it's about time...'

Been a while since I've done one of these holiday posters. To celebrate The Twelfth Doctor's arrival, I thought I'd do a new one. Welcome back, Doctor.

Read On...

It's quicker by TARDIS

Way way waaaay back when rail travel in Britain had a so-called 'Golden Age', and beautiful steam engines rattled and huffed along the lines, the 'It's Quicker By Rail' advertising campaign promoted destinations with glamourous, stylish, and downright beautifully painted pictures of cities or seaside resorts. Google 'It's quicker by rail' to see just how tempting they made travel seem. You don't get that feeling any more. 

In the same spirit of those posters I knocked together this one, for Gallifrey's continent of Wild Endeavour (mentioned and seen in 'The Sound of Drums'), and its coastline. And it really is quicker by TARDIS. The train'll take bloody ages to get there. 

I promise I'll stop doing Doctor Who travel posters soon. I've nearly got it all out my system. In fact, there'll be something completely different tomorrow. 

Right Place, Write Time

There are several Gallifreyan fonts out there (WS Simple Gallifreyan is the most popular and widely-used, and available at all good font sites) but it's actually ridiculously simple to make your own if you have some imagination and some kind of drawing tool on your computer. Nothing fancy, in fact MS Paint would do the job nicely. Just click on the 'circle tool' and let your typographic fancy flow free. 

This was my effort (using GIMP) after just under an hour's work. The thing that took the most time was imagining what the symbols would look like.

It does't mean anything - it's purely decorative - but it does look worthy of Rassilon himself. If you're really ambitious you could come up with your own alphabet for it. I don't have that kind of...time.

New New Earth ('Gridlock' Edition)

In S3's 'Gridlock', The Doctor finds that lovely New Earth (last seen the series before in the appropriately titled 'New Earth') suffered a massive viral plague and that the planet was swiftly quarantined. So after the lovely shiny 'New Earth' poster, it only seemed fair to do a not so shiny sequel.  

Régénération en vacances (UPDATED)

Et voila. 

New New Earth

Gallifrey Falls? No More!

Seek...Locate...Relax!

Peace and quiet, and Silence

And now, for no reason, a Cyberman on the beach...

Birology: Silents Night, Holy Night...

Birology: The Silence

Done on the train just now, snapped and edited and uploaded with my iPhone (First time I've ever done that - ain't technology marvellous?), a picture of a Silent (Doctor Who's terrifying foes from Season 6). Another picture done in Biro. As I said in my previous ghost post, it's my favourite medium, which is why anything I now do in Biro gets its own special title: Birology.

Silence Will Eat

I apologise for the scruffiness of this cartoon. I thought of/drew/coloured this in literally five minutes as I'm about to go out and I wanted to get the idea down before I forgot it. I've just watched the jaw-droppingly fantastic Doctor Who episode 'Day of the Moon' (likely now my favourite Doctor Who episode, and that includes the classic series), featuring the terrifying Silence. They're a species with a clever trick: the minute you look away from them you forget everything about them, even that you saw them in the first place. They've been on our planet since "The wheel and the fire" apparently - so quite a while then - but how on earth did they find stuff to eat? Maybe this cartoon will help explain...

A Doctor a Day 9: Fantastic!

The Doctor & Dalek

"Run!" In TV's greatest (re)introduction, The Doctor returned with a bang, and though his 9th incarnation lasted only one series he managed to leave his fantastic mark on an old and a new generation of fans. He came from nowhere, dressed in a battered leather jacket and carrying the scars of a war beyond human comprehension. A Time War, waged against the merciless Daleks. This Doctor was a man who had seen unimaginable horrors; a man who had watched/caused the destruction of his species and his planet. He was alone, he was angry, he had a Northern accent ("lots of planets have a North!") and he strode through the Universe like an unstoppable force. Because he was one, and he knew it.

Christopher Ecclestone's Doctor is one of the best portrayals there is, partly because he had the hard task of bringing the character to a new and sceptical generation, and partly because he had to play a whole new Doctor; a man who loved Humanity but who had been so irreparably damaged by war that he saw the universe through jaundiced eyes. It's a complex, brilliant performance and one underrated by many. He revels in the little cliches of Humanity but is easily aggravated by them. Ultimately though, you know he is the Doctor, because he's willing to give up everything, even his own life, whether for the entire Earth and just one girl.

A Doctor a Day 10: Well...Allons-y!

The Doctor & Cyberman

"Hello! Ooh, new teeth, that's weird..." And so Doctor 10 was born, with one of the most memorable lines in the show's history. It wouldn't be the 10th Doctor's most memorable line though; he was full of catchphrases, from 'Allons-y' to 'I'm so sorry' to 'Well...' (the link is well worth checking out for that last one by the way) and his final, heartbreaking line 'I don't want to go!'. Over 4 years on our screens he picked up quite a few verbal mannerisms, and quite a few enemies too: parallel world Cybermen, Ood, a newly-regenerated Master, Sontarans, and Vashta Nerada.

In his slim-fit suit, a swishy coat, and Converse All Stars, he was a Doctor far more in touch with humanity than any before or since. Perhaps its why David Tennant's excellent portrayal was so well received by fans and the public. His Doctor was one that could easily be related to, and his style much-admired by fans and fashionistas everywhere, but it does lead to the least alien portrayal of the Time Lord to date. But that fits in with the Doctor's story arc: he was a man who was used to humanity again, after his predecessor had been so detached from it.

A Doctor A Day 11: Don't blink; fezzes are still cool.

The Doctor (with cool fez) & Weeping Angel

"I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool," proclaimed The Doctor last year, and instantly the fez became the headwear of choice for millions of kids across the country. So here's our hat-loving Doc, checking out his fez in a mirror. If you know how a weeping angel works then this cartoon becomes funny. If not, then you really need to watch an episode with them in: they're one of the greatest and scariest monsters ever devised.

I love Matt Smith's Doctor. His take on the character is old and new, classic but full of surprises; human but packed alien traits. Above all though, you really do believe he's playing an ancient man in a young body. With every look, every hand gesture, you just feel like you're watching a man who's seen the great horrors and beauties across the expanse of Time. His is the most alien Doctor we've had since the 70s - even his clothing speaks of a creature who's seen plenty of humanity but never quite got the hang of it, hence the love of bizarre headgear.

Don't get too attached to the fez though. Doctor Who returns on the 23rd of April...with a brand new item of millinery that no doubt every child will harangue their parents for: a Stetson. All together now: "Stetsons are cool..."

All the strange, strange creatures...

'RAWR!'

Last month Helen and I went to the Doctor Who exhibition at the Life Centre in Newcastle. We're both big fans (admittedly, I'm the far geekier of the two of us) and it was a great afternoon. The exhibit is packed with props and, monsters and costumes from series 1-4 and also the recently aired and superior series 5, meaning you can get up close to a Silurian, stare into the face of a Weeping Angel, and gaze in awe at a certain companion's kissogram police uniform. There are plenty of facts and clips from the shows playing as you go around too, meaning something to interest you at every turn. Disappointingly there's very little Time Lord-iness to see, with no Ninth Doctor costume of Tenth Doctor coat, or anything from 'The End of Time' episode, but that's only a very, very small quibble, and it's more than made up for by the excellent Dalek Room, where you're surrounded by moving Daleks and threatened with extermination in a neat three minute scene. I took a ton of pictures, and I won't bore you with them all, but here are some of the more interesting ones:

K9, and a hideous alien

"Smile!" A Smiler

A Sontaran

Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor costume, and on the right, his predecessor's raggedy outfit.

The TARDIS, crashed into a shed, as in 'The Eleventh Hour'.

Cyberman!

The very cool 'Ironside' Dalek.

"Don't blink!" A Weeping Angel.

I'll admit that the Weeping Angel was by far my favourite piece of the exhibit. Yep, even more than the Dalek (and Daleks are smaller in real life than I expected). The thing sent a chill down my spine, especially as it's set in a strobing section of Byzantium hull, just as in the episode 'Flesh and Stone'. Some of the exhibits are push-button interactive, the most dazzling (in every sense of the word) being the Cybermen display, while other exhibits will move and jerk when you don't expect them to, recreating the classic shocks of the show. I was taken off-guard by an Auton and nearly jumped out of my skin. I won't tell you everything that's in the exhibition as that would ruin the surprise and child-like wonder that wandering around the place elicits, but there's barely an alien from recent years that isn't included (there is a notable and popular one, and I'm not sure why it isn't present...). Other highlights include River Song's dress, a display on how an Ood is made, and the chilling Vashta Nerada 'skeleton in a spacesuit'. In fact, the sheer amount of stuff there made me realise just how skilled the designers, concept artists and production crew of the show are in creating vivid and memorable aliens over the course of each series. Stop and think about it for a moment and you really appreciate their diligence.

If you're in Newcastle and you have a couple of hours spare then I'd urge you to pay the exhibit a visit. It's on until October so there's still plenty of time to get down (or up, depending on your global orientation relative to 'tha Toon'). Helen and I really enjoyed it and it's very likely that I'll be going back again, especially as they're continually adding to it (would it be too much to hope they install the Pandorica?). Admission is a tenner, and for that you also get access to the other exhibits, rides and planetarium. If you're a fan, casual viewer, or just someone who appreciates the time, effort and detail that goes into making a TV show, then it's definitely worth the money.

Grandpa T-Rex...

...is trying not to Blink.