So much of what I do involves Doctor Who...
Trying to write a bit earlier tonight – it's around seven o'clock.
I've noticed I've been doing a lot of diary style entries recently, probably because they're easy to do and I've been leaving everything very late. I've also noticed that I'm using the word “probably” a lot. It'll have something to do with my deep personal insecurity and low self esteem, probably. Damn.
Oh, and by the way, it's ten to eleven now.
So my earlier plan was to do another entry about my day but there's nothing really special to talk about. In fact, I could do it all in this paragraph. I watched the whole current series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks so far on YouTube with my brother and sister (the latter of whom had got hooked when I showed her an episode last night, when she came in wanting to see this Bill Bailey clip).
Actually, stuff the one paragraph thing. I have a rather verbose writing style and it'd just get unwieldy.
The only other thing of note today was that I finally ordered all the various Christmas presents I've been meaning to buy for my little cousins and Sam. I managed to get Sam something roughly equivalent in price and geekiness to what he got me (which was a Doctor Who DVD and a book examining the physics of Who, so the latter proved tricky) and I picked up various bits and bobs for my cousins.
It's mostly either Doctor Who toys or relatively harmless weaponry. I suspect my aunt's going to hate me for the Airzooka... assuming the sound effects from the laser and sonic screwdrivers (one each, with which to do battle through all of space and time) don't drive her insane first. But I'm confident that the little kids will like them, so there you go.
My other point for tonight is something curious I noticed when looking at the Wikipedia article on the portrayal of Mars in fiction. Don't look at me like that, I had a good reason. I just don't want to tell it to you.
Anyway, the whole thing is divided into two sections – before and after the Mariner 4 spacecraft reached Mars and dispelled various myths about its surface and habitability. Notice under the film and television section (secondary references) the Doctor Who examples.
The Ice Warriors were enemies of the Second and Third Doctors who originated on Mars and appeared repeatedly over that era, in the late 60s to early 70s. Mariner 4 sent back its findings beginning it 1965 and the idea of civilisation on Mars started faltering then and there in the minds of even hopeful scientists. By the early 70s, this perception would have filtered down into the public consciousness, making serious stories about Martians harder and harder to pull off.
Thus, despite Doctor Who's relatively lax attitude to scientific fact compared to other shows, the Ice Warriors were slowly phased out and the last adventure set on Mars was Pyramids of Mars, featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith trying to stop Sutekh the Destroyer escaping his prison on Mars – he hadn't come from there originally.
The new series only mentions Mars in passing, as a brief gag. Rumours of the Ice Warriors coming back keep cropping up but it would require either a retcon or a handwave, at least. Or maybe they'll go the The War of the Worlds route – the original book and many early adaptations had the aliens coming from Mars, a dried up and dying world, as the popular theory was at the time. Later versions usually chose to ignore the aliens' origins altogether.
That's it for now. Let's see if I can get to bed before midnight again. I'll have to try and work my way through some of that to do list tomorrow, assuming I get a good night's sleep and my cold clears up a bit.
Did I mention I have a cold?
I have a cold.
And I'm going to bed. Have a nice day.
I've noticed I've been doing a lot of diary style entries recently, probably because they're easy to do and I've been leaving everything very late. I've also noticed that I'm using the word “probably” a lot. It'll have something to do with my deep personal insecurity and low self esteem, probably. Damn.
Oh, and by the way, it's ten to eleven now.
So my earlier plan was to do another entry about my day but there's nothing really special to talk about. In fact, I could do it all in this paragraph. I watched the whole current series of Never Mind the Buzzcocks so far on YouTube with my brother and sister (the latter of whom had got hooked when I showed her an episode last night, when she came in wanting to see this Bill Bailey clip).
Actually, stuff the one paragraph thing. I have a rather verbose writing style and it'd just get unwieldy.
The only other thing of note today was that I finally ordered all the various Christmas presents I've been meaning to buy for my little cousins and Sam. I managed to get Sam something roughly equivalent in price and geekiness to what he got me (which was a Doctor Who DVD and a book examining the physics of Who, so the latter proved tricky) and I picked up various bits and bobs for my cousins.
It's mostly either Doctor Who toys or relatively harmless weaponry. I suspect my aunt's going to hate me for the Airzooka... assuming the sound effects from the laser and sonic screwdrivers (one each, with which to do battle through all of space and time) don't drive her insane first. But I'm confident that the little kids will like them, so there you go.
My other point for tonight is something curious I noticed when looking at the Wikipedia article on the portrayal of Mars in fiction. Don't look at me like that, I had a good reason. I just don't want to tell it to you.
Anyway, the whole thing is divided into two sections – before and after the Mariner 4 spacecraft reached Mars and dispelled various myths about its surface and habitability. Notice under the film and television section (secondary references) the Doctor Who examples.
The Ice Warriors were enemies of the Second and Third Doctors who originated on Mars and appeared repeatedly over that era, in the late 60s to early 70s. Mariner 4 sent back its findings beginning it 1965 and the idea of civilisation on Mars started faltering then and there in the minds of even hopeful scientists. By the early 70s, this perception would have filtered down into the public consciousness, making serious stories about Martians harder and harder to pull off.
Thus, despite Doctor Who's relatively lax attitude to scientific fact compared to other shows, the Ice Warriors were slowly phased out and the last adventure set on Mars was Pyramids of Mars, featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith trying to stop Sutekh the Destroyer escaping his prison on Mars – he hadn't come from there originally.
The new series only mentions Mars in passing, as a brief gag. Rumours of the Ice Warriors coming back keep cropping up but it would require either a retcon or a handwave, at least. Or maybe they'll go the The War of the Worlds route – the original book and many early adaptations had the aliens coming from Mars, a dried up and dying world, as the popular theory was at the time. Later versions usually chose to ignore the aliens' origins altogether.
That's it for now. Let's see if I can get to bed before midnight again. I'll have to try and work my way through some of that to do list tomorrow, assuming I get a good night's sleep and my cold clears up a bit.
Did I mention I have a cold?
I have a cold.
And I'm going to bed. Have a nice day.
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:30 PM
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