Reading/Writing material

Just a smattering of random thoughts today:

An article from 2012 about black holes (I find the strangest stuff in my files) could be the inspiration for another Doctor Who drabble. It described two of the largest black holes ever detected, one with the mass of 9.7 billion suns in the Leo galaxy cluster, and the other even more massive–equal to 20 billion suns–in the Coma galaxy cluster. At the time (2012), astronomers had found over five dozen supermassive black holes. There is even a black hole at the center of our own galaxy–yikes!

The same page also quoted CNN regarding Kepler-22b, the first confirmed planet in the “habitable zone,” where a planet could exist with liquid water on its surface. It is located about 600 light years away, “a good ten minutes in this old thing” [The TARDIS, that is, for those of you who didn’t get the DW telemovie reference.]

I’m slowly working my way through the Regenerated Edition of Doctor Who Who-ology, The Official Miscellany (great gift from a friend and fellow Who fan), a fascinating and detailed volume of Doctor Who trivia. It has lots of info that could be used to create trivia contests, or trigger craft ideas (psychic paper, for one). Their list of recurring characters will come in handy when I update the Doctor Who Dominoes game, pictured here in its current incarnation.

An appropriately decorated cake was served at the party where the dominoes game premiered.

We also watched a music video I had found online composed of clips of Doctor Who companions falling (mostly into his arms), set to “They Fall Like Dominoes.” I couldn’t find that link for today’s post, but did come across this one, with a FANtastic Doctor Who run of dominoes: Doctor Who in Dominoes – Neatorama

But I digress; back to the book: River Song’s timeline would have been handy to have for our River-themed Anniversary Party several years ago. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea–show all of her episodes at a party in chronological order based on her personal timeline. By the time we finally had such a party, there were so many episodes with the character that there would have been no time for any other activities if we showed them all! We did manage to have a trivia contest, (naming every appearance of Mels/Melody/River in order), and a cake.

(Are you hungry yet?) Two items in the book that I did not know before:  Ian was supposed to be in Mawdryn Undead, not the Brigadier; and Nick Courtney was an uncredited extra in Silver Nemesis.

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Spoilers, Sweetie

I wouldn’t normally include information that has already appeared in the Gallifrey Guardian, but since I missed blogging last week, here is an extra post — full of spoilers! [For photos, go to cultbox.co.uk, or spring for the $10 membership to the Guardians to see color photos in our newsletter, emailed each month.]

Some Doctor Who filming occurred inside Cardiff City Hall on March 8, with a bystander overhearing the crew say, “Mandip and Jacob are here.” The two were also observed eating lunch together outside the location.

A Doctor Who film crew shot a scene at Atlantic College in Llantwit Major, Wales on March 17, in front of an old stone house located on the campus. The scene included a silver Daimler DS420, a luxury model manufactured by Jaguar in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s.

On March 18 interior filing took place in Cardiff at Kongs, a bar with arcade games, and The Hayes, a commercial   area at the heart of the city center.

Several takes of a TARDIS scene with Jodie Whittaker, Mandip Gill, and John Bishop were recorded at Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool on March 22. The night shoot at Royal Albert Dock filmed the same scene from different angles. The scene showed Dan (Bishop’s character) approaching The Doctor and Yaz at the TARDIS with stunning night scenery of Royal Albert Dock in the background. The Doctor asks, “Need a lift anywhere?” and “Wanna come?” Dan then joins the Doctor and Yaz in the TARDIS and the scene ends with the Doctor looking briefly out of the door.

John Bishop and Nadia Albina (Innocent, The One) were filmed at the Museum of Liverpool on March 23. Director Azhur Saleem was present to guide the production as the two actors were filmed both inside and outside the museum for Episodes 1 and 3 of Series 13.

On March 24, the film crew recorded Bishop and Albina inside the Church of St. Luke. The church, originally built in the early 1800’s, was damaged by bombs during the 1941 Blitz and has been roofless ever since. A smoke machine was used by the crew. The production then moved to the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, where Bishop and Albina were filmed conversing while sitting on the massive steps in front of the cathedral. Reports of the dialogue on set indicate either a current or past romantic relationship between the two characters. Albina’s costume included a lanyard which identified her character as Diane Curtis, a staff member of the Museum of Liverpool. Later in the shoot, a very menacing-looking character showed up, wearing a dark costume with gold piping and a black, skull-like mask. His appearance prompted fans on Twitter to make comparisons to the Shadow, Magnus Greel, Omega, Skelator, Doomlord, and other villains.

On March 25 Mandip Gill and John Bishop were filmed in Liverpool at St. George’s Hall, a Neoclassical building containing concert halls and law courts which opened in 1854. The two actors, dressed in 19^th century clothing, filmed scenes with Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean). Gill’s costume included a straw hat and a split skirt suitable for riding a bicycle. Azhur Saleem, who is expected to direct three episodes, was present.

The Doctor is in My Head and I Can’t Get Him Out!

Ever feel like you might be too obsessed with Doctor Who? A car in front of me on my way home from work today had the license tag frame that reads: Doctor Who Fan/My other car is a TARDIS. Driving down the road, I kept trying to come up with ways to let them know that I, too, was a fan.

On an episode of a late night talk show, the “coming up next” teaser was a banner of “Space Travel and Dinosaurs” — you know where my mind went!

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship

Finally, I recently saw a Mom and child performing a lip sync act to “Wonky Donkey” which has now become my earworm — except I filk it up Doctor Who-style, as in:

“He was a cranky (12th), lanky (11th), wibbley-wobbley, timey-wimey (10th) Doctor…” 

A Small Assortment

Sorry for the delay. The blog has decided to change its set-up (again) and I can no longer find the Classic editing version I prefer. As I have given up and will now be using the Block version, posts may look a little strange for a while. To make up for missing last week, here’s several brief bits of Doctor Who-related fluff.

Well, Chester did it again. In an episode of The Flash, a strange obelisk is found with “temporal energy from the future” in its vicinity. Chester says, “Is this thing like a time capsule, or maybe like a TARDIS?!”

While perusing photos of recent Doctor Who filming (to gather spoilers for the Gallifrey Guardian), I noticed the gray cap Dan’s character is wearing in an episode set in the 19^th century  looks like one I had in my costume closet.

Our local paper includes a “Ticked off!” column of submissions from readers. Last month, a writer complained about receiving huge bills from a doctor’s office and said: These shocking bills do wonders for my hearts, not to say what it could do to my monthly budget. – [Hearts?]

The paper (The Orlando Sentinel) has also provided a half-page article, with photos, about David Tennant’s latest artistic endeavor, “Staged.” If you haven’t seen this, it features Tennant and Michael Sheen (Good Omens) as themselves trying to rehearse together via Zoom (due to COVID). The first season was so popular it now has a second season. You can see it in the U.S. on Hulu. There’s also a bit on YouTube that aired on Comic Relief.