The Cupboard of Rassilon

As a Dalek would say “DECORATE” and i did

I have my little ” cupboard  looking nice all shiny white walls and my cabinets are in

the special thing here was to make it fit round everything so it flowed and worked as a whole, so i designed its lay out to have purpose and create more floor space
things set right up to the wall it works.
now not much but this humble collection is mine and now i got it looking to sweet

and i know you greedy lot wana see others so here we go

this is my who shelves and a paint to get right ,but are now spot on and made from scrap and skip finds and a bit of paint et voila shelves

now my big models and RC stuff on top as you can clearly see no room for a upcoming 3rd scale classic K9 RC but i wont say no to one as a pressie 🙂 under that is MY shelf, yes this room is the ultimate selfish trip my room my way, so L-R, Revenge of the Cybermen ,Remembrance of the Daleks ,Pyramids of Mars and Death to the Daleks ,all my fave stories immortalized in plastic form under that some of my TARDISes L-R Masters Tardis 70’s computer bank ,Smith Capaldi custom , Tennant Eccleston, 80s circa S19 and McCoy McGann box with the Masters TARDIS Grandfather clock custom and an unseen but there hat stand  add some awesome pictures a graphic or two the console diagram from the tech manual is behind the tardises and done

now thinking aghhhhh no blurred ,im being creative you get the idea im sure, this is my small lot (main focus is classic not new)

I think of this shelf as being the two Timelords discuss the doctor and the rest is a visual aide of what they’re talking about around them
yes that is original miss piggy rose figure and ecclestone these are the first figures ever made from them came this lot including and nice to have out my custom stuff like iron legionaries, delgado in suit Key to Time Tom etc

and on top shelf nearly all 13 Doctors (always one missing caught in a sodin vortex ,again, and not there) but as i grew up with 12 regenerations, 13 lives, and with CO decideing to shrink the range (due to lack of funds and resources ) to 3 inch tall things im out of that one  then this is for me a closing and end of the line i am missing a couple of big characters, Brigadier and Ainley Master, but i can pick them up at my leisure and whenever CO decided to get thumb out of their ass and just accept Ainley was the master for over a decade
and also last year i got Ace ,and at hi school i watched McCoy stories everyone pretty much and like him and his Dr and love Ace so this does feel like an end like ive done it ,
CO will only focus on the 70s and nothing but ,we got a couple of things from 80s ,if they do more ill pick some up that i like at my leisure but yeah im happy job done cabinet full

you can see the build a figure figures as well there and my collection of Dapol and tat from over the years ,a fave being a bubble bath for the 25th anniversary warm nostalgia there

Then there is this ,this i had on my door (guess how it got wrecked) in 88 and i made it on my to do list this year to get and aint she gorgeous the poster was fresh in mag like the day it was released

This truly is my room and what a blast of nostalgia and how nice to have these things in it ,my who stuff  and my comic stuff ,how good it is for me to have back stuff i did have
so really is reaching completion few bits left to do

so aside from that what else is new

 

Making DVD covers or re making them as the standard ones don’t float my boat and some stories i really like and would like proper covers for

Taking a die-cast Dalek and giving it a  repaint , one is pristine like the Dalek story after it just soaked up 1.21 gigawats of electricity
and the other now looks more dirty and battered and how we  see them now,
not easy ,plastic fine metal and weathering hard work, lots of trial and error but done

Now onto props and looking forward to sometime this year getting a Cyber head made then who knows

Big Chief Doctor Who

1/6 is here and it is a BIG market this may be a doll but is not for the kids

SIDESHOW MEDICOM heck even NECCA are doing 1/4 scale hi end pieces now,  Big Chief  wants to play with the big boys

bring it on im looking forward to it i want the 1/6 C Reeve Superman  as well

so for years we here of talk of Doctor Who getting 1/6 dolls we had a good cheap line by CO that was brilliant for its price point but then Big Chief said yeah were going to do high end 1/6 collectable who line along came Matt  very good

and a host of goodies to boot like his sonic extra hands etc jacket is a little iffy but we will come to clothes shortly but that’s nothing like matt’s jacket in color (Orange?), design and texture,  CO who do the smaller toys did a figure with the same jacket pattern in same colors

David Tennants doll was even better

that my friend is awesome the suit clothing may be off there a tad chunky and lot thicker but look good quality we got a coat and whole host of extras but what about classics ?

now if you build up enough bodies to use and re use well that means only new heads and clothes have to be made By using standard parts, they could have pushed out another 3 figures, by my estimation, quadrupling their financial income, thus funding future developments in further dolls like other companies do a small medium large body and thats it  but there not seeming to do this for some reason its all a bit slow

But at last we get Tom “THE DOCTOR” Baker ,well im in for that xmas list save whatever

The Doctor’s new costume, designed by James Acheson (yes the one now winning awards in Hollywood but ill leave judgement on his spiderman costume ) was inspired by a French poster advertising Aristide Bruant at the Ambassadeurs nightclub in Paris, 1892.

and scarf accident by bergodia pope resulted in every ball of wall used and a scarf of some length

original sketch

season 13

right off the bat er what gives with the boggle eye look ?,why isn’t he just neutral ? but ok so far so good (coats a bit chunky but ok) i can work with that then we get more pictures

facial details, skins tones, and texture im looking for as well as a decent expression , an example is this

Yes thats a doll not the actress i find that simply scary awe inspiring ,and some kind of voodoo magic

more here Black Widow

Then not so long ago i managed to see this Tom in hand at my local FP , and ill just say AGHH,ooook

I really want a tom doll in 1/6 and around £200 is a going rate for these things, but hears the rub

I was lucky enough to know several people in the store and this was a loose figure on a new series stand on there shelf,apparently the new series base for a classic Dr had the new circles these  circles spelt 4 , nope this don’t work its to new style design old style clash , its like lime green and lemon yellow together it jars it needs a natural black one and a stand like his environment. eg Superman has a chunk of the fortress Batman has chunk of the cave etc , BUT we get a nice picture of the console room no idea the season 18 at a guess so put that behind him i looked for many angles to shiny so reflects light and is a picture and as my good friend said “cheapens the figure” its just a bit of shiny cardboard so stand is right out ,not a problem ,i can work with that as well

Tom was famous for carrying over mixing up elements of his costume over his tenure right up to S18 with his brown adventure boots

The boggle eyes as i feared is a problem,the zombie look ,or i have to agree with my friend in recreating the famous brooding head down Pyramids Of Mars look he looks like he is crying like he’s going to burst into tears. The expression is all wrong, going for a expression was a big mistake why when every one else they did is neutral ? so i tried and you have to capture a moment him doing something and Tom used this as measure of a surprise part of his acting to a line so you got to play about to try to make it work he cant just stand on the shelf sadly,or maybe it’s sold as Tom Baker at the pub after filming Coming out the Coach & Horses with Francis Bacon in soho around 2am.

And the coat is to light darker thankfully than bright red prototype but to light to thick and clunky but can be made to work but its all off including the lack of details

The actual coat sold at auction for Bonhams

A Victorian style double-breasted frock coat,
of burgundy colored cut velvet, with matching buttons, having darned patches applied, giving the impression of age, lined with brown colored silk effect fabric, with large interior pockets, labelled inside “Morris Angel & Son Ltd, 117-119 Shaftesbury Ave, WC2” inscribed in an unknown hand in black marker pen “TOM BAKER, 41”

Costume Designer, June Hudson

this coat there using for this doll is this, and was used a lot by tom season 13 first and again  for deadly assassin ,lots of stories different scarfs different looks

as you can see to light button holes missing from lapel all easy to see and research so why is it missed ? ,trousers very Denis Fisher doll like and like the whole figure needs dressing and putting right this can be fixed but what can not be fixed is …………………

The Scarf a printed piece of cotton like a t shirt with a design on it its cheap nasty and don’t work a chap called Malcolm once found ribbed fabric that works and another person has used this to make new scarfs the scarf IS the costume for Tom

Now that’s more like it now this person chose to change the waistcoat i wouldn’t the pattern is to big its 1/1 for use so needs scaling down but the scarf is right again waistcoat is just a printed picture on plain cotton a thicker (dare i say it) piece of material that was wool like would of been better to print on

The beard of five o clock shadow docent suit this is varying degrees on each doll of one day to whole week of not shaving  and the hair is supposed to be brown not black with brown highlights the skin is little to white and no texture this with odd expression lets the head sculpt down

as they’re still fledgling  small company with a lot yet to learn I’m still cutting them some slack, but I do find it annoying that these figures still seem to be loosing ‘something’ when they go through the manufacturing process, and in the case of Tom an awful lot seems to be lost.

which for me is a shame best picture i have seen of tom has taken some modifications to it

Bottom line nice idea nice attempt ,i wouldn’t buy it personally £200 it has to be spot on perfect but as a present it would be awesome and id set out buying new items of clothing strait away and repainting the whole head as this pic shows ,it has tons of potential

these owners are a clever lot this is off sideshow forum

Peter Capaldi new costume the 13th Doctor

so there it is the 13th Doctors costume

Bit boring isnt it ,to me it is identical to Matts that he regenerated into but all in black ,and i do like doc martins so ill say ok to that new shiny boot but those pants are a bit wierd tight at the ankle wide at thigh big nappy baggy style at crotch and ass its a  bit ” cant touch this”, hammer style, first impression it looks like some sort of magicians outfit,isn’t this what collin wanted?

It is some are suggesting  akin to pertwees first costume,er no, well ok his was all black’ ish lot of blue in that jacket but his  was different material velvet/ satin /cotton etc with  the frills a striking cape and velvet smoking jacket with frog closures rolled collar braiding on the cuff  accessories including leather gloves and tardis key lifting the costume way above the ordinary and giving it a real sense of style

this is what there referencing to

Now with red lining in Peters coat it bears a resemblance and Peter is a confessed Jon Pertwee fan having wrote to the program and been a avid fan at that time so guess where the idea came from and good on him

but its not,

i don’t think personally it is the all black nature of it i think it is just so plain in its materials  or lack of , there’s no detail or texture or variance that’s missing if there was a black silk chord trim to the lapel or a black velvet waistcoat a silk stripe down the outer seem of the trousers something to lift it  or even a gold Albert chain with watch and key on it a or a sense of it being his something about it off cuff ,its a little plain  uniform at the moment

sounds like i am being hyper critical im not ,we have had a LOT worse ,Sixth and Ninth Doctors costumes ,7th Dr’s  xmas jumper covered in ???? ,That ruined a otherwise good look and only JNT liked and wanted and was soon dispatched with in comics books audio TV Movie (just about Everyone)

this is of course coming from the team that gave Dr 8 his new suit

that’s got a sense of style a traveler something old ,how do you go from being able to deliver this from nothing just whats available for a days filming to a very boring set for the 13th Doctor ?

Good news the Doctor does now change his clothes like in the seventies  so this is it for now for a year maybe longer but there’s another to be had when the actor wants to strike a new look and gets bored

main plus point ,a pretty simple custom to make just a very uninspiring one to do

Special Dalek forces

A  desert drone , designed entirely by Dalek science units was a Dalek although equipped with the same  bonded polycarbide armor  it had modified armor and equipment to withstand the harsh climates of deserts and extreme terrain ,as Daleks can be vulnerable to extremes of temperature and be slowed and impeded by harsh terrain ,

They like all Dalek  units inserted on a planet and not using aTransmat a Dalek landing craft or shuttle (a dedicated, armored, and maneuverable landing craft to transport Daleks directly into battlefields)  would land with mission specific equipment needed and units required , equipment could  include adapted  Hoverbout, (the Trans-Solar disc for transport ) a Mobile HQ , specific equipment /supplies to the mission

They were nearly identical to standard Daleks except they had additional programing  in specialized areas ( Technician ,Mining, Explosives, Data Computers, ) and advanced cooling systems in their Armour that offered the mutant protection from extreme heat the casing was completely sealed from the environment.  and anti clogging  filter even resistant to burial , polarized lenses built into the eye stalk as well as a standard eye with the wide  spectrum of site modes Infra red was omitted instead  there  was a special zoom , a built-in long range com link for extended missions far away from base  and different motive / anti grav units

Visual differences in armor included heat-reflective coating  lighter color different markings of black on the shoulders denoted different ranks , from the dark all grey leader at base to the mission specialists the all grey and grey with black slats ,collar or oval highlights, a specialist unit  there missions never required a supreme Dalek  they had a leader and own command structure and were a mission specific unit  , and as a specialized unit were interdependent and instead liaise with a mother ship via there special long-range  com links

They had the standard Dalek  heavy weapon gun stick with multiple modes of fire and standard manipulator arm that interfaced directly with equipment and sensor spheres as with previous casings, a number of different, interchangeable arm attachments were available for insertion into the arm sockets, and it could also be fitted with other mission specific equipment when necessary

The Dalek science units  are some of the oldest drones having developed Kaled mutants over many centuries with special intelligence and special computers and organic memory and computer gel packs  with all scientific knowledge acquired by the Dalek race studying, and in some cases, manipulating the nature of the galaxy ,they studied biology, chemistry, physics, or derivatives of these fields to the advancement of the Dalek empire and development of new technologies and equipment ,dedicated to research and development of new technology. It held a significant amount of influence in order to achieve its aims through other agencies within the Empire.

They unlike  Dalek  units inserted on a planet had there own saucer  a dedicated, armored, and maneuverable landing craft to transport Daleks wherever they want it even had limited time jump technology ,(this small scout craft sometimes even had its own dedicated  saucer commander red commanders were reserved for bigger saucer class but a black striped pilot  ) ,it was a remote exploration craft it would land with mission specific equipment needed and units required to study and take whatever materials were necessary or act as a advanced party if planet was important enough to await arrival of the Dalek fleet, this saucer was heavily armed and adapted with quad laser cannon and missile tubes capable of firing probes, seeker units ,satellites in high orbit  and ballistic missiles with any variety of war head they made from plague missiles to basic high yield explosives for sterilizing areas for research and study

They were nearly identical to standard Daleks with standard polycarbide armor except they had additional programing and computers  in specialized areas of scientific study  the eye stalk as well as a standard eye with the wide  spectrum of site modes there  was a special close optical system for study and analogizing , they had no targeting system they were not warriors  , the older mutant and personal life support systems were more vulnerable than most standard Daleks and prone to shorting out under internal duress

Visual differences in armor included the older silver steel base with  black  highlights , a specialist unit  there missions never required a supreme Dalek (they had a chief scientist in a blue casing ) they had a squad leader and own command structure and were a mission specific unit  , and as a specialized unit were independent and instead using advanced hyperlink communication  send there data for immediate analysis and study after mission conclusion ,often these craft could be sent far reaches of the galaxy and seldom heard from for long  extended periods, if ever again

They had the standard Dalek  heavy weapon gun stick with multiple modes of fire and standard manipulator arm that interfaced directly with equipment and sensor spheres as with previous casings, a number of different, interchangeable arm attachments were available for insertion into the arm sockets and special scientific instruments, capable of free thinking to they were able to create new weapons and equipment  if needed and had all facilities to do so on there specially adapted saucer

All Change for the Blog line

Well besides being a lonely place to blog Blogspot,I want to grow my blog.,no one could comment on posts without incurring to much grief and  Blogger became more and more glitchy for me over time. Feedburner lost ALL of my subscribers, and after I took down my “followers” tab, I could never put it back up. It was frustrating beyond belief. The other problem with blogger is that they own your site. At any time, they could take it down, lock you out, etc. and you have NO recourse. That never happened to me, but I had heard of people losing their ENTIRE blog content out of nowhere and never getting it back. When you go to self hosted, you own everything on your blog.

 

So Here i am after a suggestion i took a plunge got to just figure it all out now how this works and customize this to way i want it a few kinks to ,theres purchasing options and site ownership im not getting into but for now so far so good at least will give me something to keep me busy

Hope you enjoy the Blog

still i hope find me through my user name of transcendental musings so should all i hope run smooth

George Carlin – National Press Club [complete]

Carlin speaking before the National Press Club on May 19, 1999 is a reminder that in 13 years little to nothing has changed in America’s and Britains  political and cultural landscape. If anything, it’s gotten worse.

What a brilliant human being.

Random selction and top five favorites

I enjoyed knocking out the Cyber post, cos i HAD to do it
I even just watched the Invasion DVD Crap animation schools do better cheap skate BBC for you ,BUT damn fine story so here is my list and yes it changes but this is pretty much it of my fave stories of classic who baddies
Cybermen I’m starting here no real reason just so fresh in the bonce

1 Revenge of the Cybermen
,why ?,its classic its a A typical story for them in there style no not as epic as 60s stories, sure not a good portion of the budget set aside for it ,but a great design period  a nice set deep in space not enough of the Ark set reused here ,but what a feeling of deep space in the windows and corridors a little added CGI new laser FX etc movie length unedited this could be the best of all, but BBC chose not to do this with DVD release ,why? i have seen great amateur FX for this on you tube  ,Tom the main man Baker is the Doctor with harry and there double act, Sarah gets to have a mini adventure great use of wookie hole caves and the aliens look alien what more can you ask ?
sadly only time to be seen in Toms tenure as this story was commissioned by Barry Letts and Holmes didn’t like the more traditional Who villains preferring to use new monsters and creations instead 

2 Invasion
this is one heck of a good story, now i think only one of Pat’s still around. others long binned oh did see tomb, bit over rated me thinks
this is where it is at awesome stuff epic quality, score is brilliant and nerve stretching, FX good,the sound fx are great a Cyber in its deth throws the wailing mad one the clunk as they fall why did they ever stop doing this? ,nice design liking the helmet and a damn good TARDIS crew and Doctor with the introduction of the Brig and UNIT ,nuff said
A good invasion story think 50’s SC FI movie, that works because it is the Cybermen you cant imagine Daleks doing this ,all very creepy and dark stuff shot very low and effectively dark sewers and big business corporation gone mad and megalomaniac sinister sadist in Vaughn who thinks he can control and use the Cybermen ,and monochrome adds a edge to it all

3 Earthshock
Best Cyber suit design so far a good outing for them skulking  about a freighter little 80s cheese going on but a good story good fx and a good dr and yes Adric is killed so bonus
I like beryl reid she is funny, but the whole intro people being killed in mines nice, and sinister androids NOT Cybermen doing the killing  if a little pastel shaded and high 80s drama but a good story a god return and nice Cybers

4 Spareparts
Its a Audio i know, but what a audio what a brilliant story and the creepy as hell Mondasian Cybers Davison is good in this, and well theatre of the mind and all , good stuff great origin story now someone get this on screen !

5 Attack of the Cybermen
Sadly no more of Pat’s around to state but seen plenty of decent clips alas not enough but Attack borrows from his best cyber story’s and doe it very very badly and the whole sewer thing and cyber control there the conversion process the excellent design blacked out cybers haunting the sewers just lacks any real quality unlike invasion the story dosent add anything to the cybers in invasion one mad with fear in the tunnels something akin to that would of been great some depth to the story sadly as shallow as a puddle  
As a story, it makes little to no sense, but as a spectacle it’s truly has some good visuals

Master story’s
 My favourite character in Doctor Who, hands down, is the Master,he is perfect enemy, i wish to see him return to the mastermind,the kingpin of crime he was behind several schemes and plots amassing wealth power and snickering in the back of large luxury car smoking a big Havana cigar,the puppet Mater his name was well chosen.
 theres something wrong in government he will be behind it proving it that’s another story a alien invading or some scientists got a crazy idea ,he will be behind it
you do not need to have him in the story,maybe a fleeting glimpse in said car, just hints suggestions of his involvement part of his large tangled web so the character is built upon and up to a legendary status he belongs making a confrontation all the more epic,he should always be slippery and just get out his scheme over planet cosmos safe but hes long gone and untouchable

1 the Deadly assassin
Through the millennia, the Time Lords of Gallifrey led a life of peace and ordered calm, protected against all threats from lesser civilisations by their great power. But this was to change. Suddenly, and terribly, the Time Lords faced the most dangerous crisis in their long history…

Does this really need introducing or synopsis ?, no not really,question is this a redundant title ?, how many none deadly assassin’s are there?,is there a i really really like you Assassin?

Dr gos back to Gallifrey actually this is a lure from the Master (  after a gap of three years.), who by the way is a corpse,having exhausted his maximum twelve incarnations and being found half dead after some incident probably some scheme of his gone wrong . (This rule also had its first mention here, though The Master would later be given a get-out clause (see The Keeper of Traken)
and he looks disgustingly slimy creepy, a rotting skull ,teeth exposed eyes bulging from there sockets like boiled eggs ,flesh hanging off the bone which is yellow and showing ,wrapped in a black shroud enough to make you visit uncle Ralph and Hughie,his full appearance kept to a minimum so effect doubly shocking

he may escape unable to conclude his business after killing hundreds of Timelords leaving the capital in ruins  but he does get to finish off where He started  (see The Keeper of Traken) oh and take the doctor down (see Logopolis) so defeated at story’s end or just delayed?
The Matrix sequences are brilliant  (Fighting Chancellor Goth who original was one of the two prosecuting Timelords that exiled the second Dr to Earth and regenerated him into the third Doctor so there duel in the matrix has a double significance ) ,this had a big impact on me hiring it from the video shop in the 80s
His scheme steal power from Gallifrey main arton energy, the eye of harmony without burning himself up, like 9th Dr said “no ones meant to do that” to think if he had the sash on him he’d still be here now, to reverse the effects and body snatch a Timelord voila new set of lives,oh and see the Dr go down for the presidents murder revenge at last (Killing him wouldent be fun and be to good a end for his main rival and he would be left very bored )bonus points take Gallifrey down and watch it crumble  ,what could possibly go wrong?.

our knowledge of the Doctor’s home race, the Time Lords, and their planet Gallifrey. is expanded and first time shown in full the look the costumes the collar  the seal that became definitive starts here partly the work of James Acheson, who went on to be an Oscar-winning cinema designer
The Master for the first time gets a iconic look for his TARDIS in the Grandfarther clock ,now making a TARDIS available to all homes and a majority allready had them, go round to grannys and theres the Masters TARDIS  this is now infused as a iconic look for his ship
And less fortunately but just as momentously, complaints about the programme’s content and suitability for children came to a head and the show would never be the same again, it had complaints starting from day one in 63 with cavemen and daleks and aztec sacrafices to 2nd dr and Cybermen complaints, getting louder during Terror of the Autons and in Pertwees time, with the family friendly team of Letts and Dicks so when the Gothic horror loving, lets scare the kids make a more mature program, team of Hintchcliffe and Holmes got together it was really only a question of time ,really, no one know it has a on and off switch on the telly?
Miss whitehouse it has a knob on it you turn it it turns it over ,tho shes robably not comfy with somethig  with a knob on it
.yup god bothering coffin dodging miss whitehouse started to rattle her walking stick she saw this the infamous Dr drowning freeze frame and blew a fuse. She had complained about torture in The Sontaran Experiment, about the grim tone and Nazi overtones of Genesis of the Daleks and about the Frankenstein themes and grisly imagery of The Brain of Morbius. This time she drew blood. The Director General of the BBC wrote her a letter of apology. Philip Hinchcliffe was replaced as producer
what a story season to exit on, thank you Phillip your fantastic

2 Deamons
 Come on whats not to like with this a classic who story classic British story (Wicker man eat your heart out) the Master is a local parish priest, the mind boggles on what his Sunday and even song masses were like, but soon turns into a hard rocking devil worshipping sadist at night forked fingers and all
Classic Master and classic story once again playing chess but the pawn this time turned out to be a bit bigger than he could handle 
UNIT get a good show here and Jon is in fine form, being exterior shots in a little stereotypical English village all chocolate box cottages and pagan beliefs in the subtext and white witches and science  this is one worth watching

3 Terror of the autons
His intro his story and using the Autons the Moriarty to the Third Doctor’s Sherlock, a BRILLIANT  enemy alien in plastic any plastic coming to life to kill you the Autons cranking up the inventiveness of their deathtraps to surreal and comic-book levels. shop window dummies dolls  killer plastic daffodils that suffocate you, watch out for clingfilm kids  and fake policemen is ,circus of horrors and dolls and chairs coming to life is nothing safe?
scripted by Holmes by far the greatest writer of classic who imagine him as a producer ,, Terror was the opening story of Pertwee’s second season, and was the first real opportunity for new producer Barry Letts (who’d inherited the basic set up of the new show, its leading man and script editor Dicks from the previous regime) to make his mark on the show.much like Hinchcliffe in toms second season ,Terror begins the process of not only warming up the Third Doctor, but also creating a more inviting, family-friendly tone that would drive the programme to heights of popularity unseen since the peaks of Dalekmania in the mid-60s.
He manipulates all including the nestene and he also gos toe to toe with the UNIT and the Doctor and beats them always one step ahead pure evil and sadistic its a definitive start for the Napoleon of the cosmos, 
Terror Of The Autons still stands up as a fantastically entertaining and incredibly confident slice of macabre fun

4 Frontier in Space
Frontier In Space is commonly classed as a “Space Opera”. The Doctor and Jo come up against a great big wall of hostility. All The Doctor did was to get in a freighters way and emergency land in said ships hold (best 70s design), and all of a sudden, he’s being used as a Gallifreyan football between two factions – the Earthlings and the Draconians, who are both in conflict with each other and the pressure is up high and ready to blow
The novel adaptation of this states this more explicitly – Doctor Who And The Space War. Earth and Draconia are in conflict, the two sides rivalling each other for control of the galaxy. Sure enough though, The Doctor’s landed at the worst possible time. Someone is provoking the conflict even further, to the point where full-blown war could erupt, and The Doctor, getting caught in the crossfire, realises that he’s up against a series of deadly enemies.
Brilliant designs in sadly underused Draconians and Ogrons,something of a feature of the Letts/Dicks era of Doctor Who; great monsters like the Drashigs, Ogrons, Axons and Draconians were created on an almost weekly basis and then tossed aside with almost cavalier abandon, because there’d be another one along in a minute.,
  the what must of seemed so futuristic in the early 70s council estates used as back lots of future  buildings that brings a chuckle but it is pertwees performance that’s on form the story puts him through hell to being on a prison colony on the moon to attacked and threatened and questioned on all sides
The Master makes his appearance. and this shock half way through from a delightfully glee fun loving Delgado in a oily slick performance his Tate a Tate with the Governor is great to see hes no fool and smooth and the battle of wits delightful to watch
But sure enough, we find that The Master’s just as much a stooge as the Ogrons.The Master reveals his paymasters in one of the best scenes of the story. Yes – it was the Daleks all along. Malcolm Hulke very cleverly structures the story so as to mis-direct the viewer as to who’s provoking war between Draconia and Earth. The Daleks barely figure in the story, but it’s a hell of a shock moment when they trundle into view on the Ogron planet.
but what was the Master getting from this ?, just his chance to get revenge on the Doctor and boy is he loving watching him being put through hell thats not cruel sadistic and downright evil nothing is,who says the doctor always wins?
the Master doesn’t have to kill you he gets kicks watching his enemies suffer death is to quick and to disappoint a finish for him

5 Logopilis
Maths – I hate it. Ever since I was a small kid, I’ve never got it. All that talk of hypotenuses, acute angles and fractions frequently left me with a revolving head at school. Even as a grown-up, anything to do with maths leaves me in a cold sweat. Me and maths do not go together – much like the fourth Doctor. This may account for his long face which never really breaks into a smile during the story called Logopolis.and so i find a affinity with this
its not bad visually its over serious bull from bidmead that’s frankly boring lecturing stuff but 2 TARDISES a console room scene jodrell bank and the Master is back more bonkers than ever and really having fun
Yes, after a record-breaking near-on seven years, Tom Baker is about to hang up his scarf. It’s an important moment in Doctor Who, especially when you consider how Doctor Who had changed between 1974 and 1981. In 1974, it was a well-respected and much loved family TV show, watched by millions. However, Tom Baker helped to turn the show into a global phenomenon, with popularity and viewers escalating considerably. The vast majority of his stories are fondly remembered to this day and frequently crop up in Top 10 polls, while Baker himself is still widely regarded as the definitive Doctor.
So Logopolis is an important story with that in mind. In theory anyway. in practise, however, the final results are a bit mixed. It’s telling that the story’s written by Christopher Bidmead. Logopolis encompasses every influence of Bidmead throughout: The hard science. The over-reliance on maths and bafflegab. The lack of humour. It’s sophisticated and frequently well-written, but the main problem is that it doesn’t feel like a ‘fourth Doctor’ swansong. There should be a grand, epic battle, full of wit and heroics. And what actually happens?
The Doctor measures the TARDIS. Whoopie-doo basil
so this just gets in as frankly not seen all of Ainleys 80s stuff and most sucked as it got camper and he started skipping about and minceing around (which, to be fair, is not totally down to him).here the Master actually gets to kill the Doctor the fourth one
Sadly as much as i personally like John Simm it only got worse 

Daleks

1 Remembrance of the Daleks

Nostalgia fest for me watched it on Broadcast stole a blank VHS from school to record and watch it over and over and over oh and put it on for some of my mates and me on the huge telly in school at lunch time (any one else remember them on a stand with wheels metal tub one stood about five feet up ) it was akin to watching who at the cinema
this is surely the best Dalek story since Genesis
As the opener of Doctor Who‘s silver anniversary season, “Remembrance of the Daleks” can be forgiven for self-referencing.; we have a story set in the 1960’s, Coal Hill School, a junkyard owned by I.M. Forman  and Pamela Salem dressed up to look like Barbara Wright. We have the Doctor talking about “the Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness Monster” and “Yetis in the underground,” we have Ace finding a book on the French Revolution, in what could be Ian Chesterton’s science lab, we have the welcome return of the Daleks, and of course, we have a BBC announcer making a none-too-subtle postmodern reference to the fact that Doctor Who is a television programme. None of these elements impede on the plot and for most fans were probably quite welcome.
See JNT can get the nostalkgia right and not lay it on with a shovel

This is the one that’s always missed by smug tabloid journalists, who fell over themselves pointing out that Daleks could finally climb up stairs in 2005. One of them does here in their final ‘classic series’ story, ascending the steps in a cellar to kill the doctor effectively blowing a door literally of its hinges .
nice new casings first time since early 70s and original 60s  , a break from original design all moulded so look chunky and more one piece tho effective

There’s a complicated plot going on involving the recovery of the ‘Hand of Omega’, which the 1st Doctor confusingly buried on Earth in the 1960s for safekeeping. The device itself tampers with stars. The Daleks want to use it as a weapon.
The Doctor schemes ,Ace gos all Hardcore with bazookas and souped up baseball bats , allows Davros’ Imperial Daleks (still at war with the Supreme Dalek not seen for 5 years  (Livery now still black but gloss and shiny silver ) Renegade faction following the events of Resurrection Of The Daleks ideologically motivated) to capture the device and detonate it, at which point it blows up Skaro’s sun (tho how they survive enough to time war with Timelords is any ones guess), as the Doctor had rigged it to do so.
theres brilliant battles with Daleks going boom big time a savage looking abomination special weapons Dalek mental and more insane than any other 
 This being done, he then goes out onto the streets and literally talks the Supreme Dalek to death being the hero (oh and blows a drone Dalek up early on with nitro nine, action man) , pointing out that it’s the last of its kind and its existence is therefore futile. It self destructs,.(but as we all now know this is the last so far classic tv Daleks appearance and story) Dr Commits genocide(so much for Genesis speach) long before Dr 9 make of that what you will
Skaro its solar system boom gone,
Erm hope Thals have moved out.
 the “more then just a Time Lord” this erked me then and now, no he is Just a Timelord what makes him special, he left his race and became bigger better and superior he is the best of  them due to his knowledge expierience etc he may have wierd and fatastic powers being a Timelord due to his physiognomy and the fact he is a Alien but just  a Timelord 

“Remembrance” has a good cast, is well acted and, for the period, some quite excellent special effects.especially the Shuttle bit this so unlike the BBC its a surprise now and then the Daleks death ray is finally realised here x ray fx, and theres some serious bangs that lead the production into some trouble .

The Doctor now acting not pantomime but gritty for first time and he hits the ground full throttle, his actions manipulative ,dubious and questionable, is he acting for a greater good ? is the Doctor turning heel here ? are his actions justifiable ?, so lots to see
Factor in a creepy little girl (I HATE creepy kids)  being used by the Renegade Daleks for her imagination to assist them planning, doing her best Palpatine lightening from fingers  routine ,chasing Ace round a settee , a subplot about racism in Britain in the 1960s and Daleks being the fourth Riche which blob is pure and Aryan  , and a wonderfully written cafe scene in which the Doctor debates the ‘ripple effects’ of his interfering in time with a world weary shop assistant (Joe Geofry fresh prince Butler Marcell) , and you’ve got a diamond of an episode. get the target book

2 Day of the Daleks

read the book few times as a kid story let me down on VHS late 80s came out on DVD 2012 bloody wow !!!!!
Ok 1972 Barry is in charge properly first time and got a good relationship going with all especially Terrance first time in five years the Daleks are back (as Mr Nation got delusions of grandeur and tried to sell the Dalek idea to USA ) it would be fair to say that, at the time, Louis Marks’ 1972 story Day Of The Daleks was  highly anticipated even been requests on Blue Peter (the props there were from this story which had already been filmed despite perves drumming up support for them and asking kids to write in)

The opening serial of the shows ninth season, and the third to feature Jon Pertwee’s incarnation of the Time Lord, Day Of The Daleks has long had a somewhat clouded reputation among Doctor Who fans.,this is understandable great idea get the target book what a story  ,but boy was it badly put together like all 70s television production, most of the show’s problems are the usual Who complaint of too little time, too little money. however, that doesn’t tell the whole story, and in among the usual rushed scenes and occasional dropped line, there were some pretty horrific faux-pas.lets start with the Elephant in the room the bizarre and distinctly un-Dalek-like voices that  squawk out for much of the story are clearly an on-set mistakes why wouldn’t you use the ring modulator as had always been done ?, And as for the jaw dropping, climactic assault on Auderley House by a combined attack force of Daleks and Ogrons… yah 3 Daleks 3 Ogrons ,look i know one Dalek is enough but this is supposed to be a Dalek assault couldn’t they used split screen or something clever editing ?
   However, thanks to DVD producer Steve Broster, and the brilliant work he’s overseen on this ‘special edition’ release of the story, Day Of The Daleks has graduated into an outright joy.  and now living up the spectacle we all read and imagined with its enhanced effects, specially shot new footage and superbly re-recorded Dalek voices by modern series voice artiste, Nick Briggs (Big Finish maestro, interviewer from the reel time series and new series voice Artist hes living the dream obviously ) is that it allows the fog of prejudice to lift and the show to be judged on its own merits.
A clever and recursive tale revolving around a present day peace conference, time-travelling freedom fighters, grotesque Ogrons and the return of the Doctor’s titular arch-enemies, Day is packed to the brim with incident and ambition. 
there are many moments to savour in this story; whether that be the Doctor’s assessment of the quality of Audeley House’s wine cellar, the Brigadier’s usual stiff-upper lip charm or the Daleks’ gleeful subjugation of the future Earth. and being down right nasty bully’s and cold killers
I HATE the console being out of the TARDIS its stupid and doesnt make sense but alas no console room so best can be done ,erm use the police box prop ok bit worse for wear but still better idea

in this enhanced form – Day Of The Daleks is the best of the Third Doctor’s Dalek stores
 A  much tighter affair than 1973’s excessively padded Planet Of The Daleks,  a more engaging story than 1974’s Death To The Daleks, and (Not including guest appearances here like Frontier in Space) Day is a solid story in its own right, which is enhanced by the Daleks’ involvement, but not defined by it.
With its use of a time-paradox at the centre of the story, and its reinstatement of the Daleks as world conquering uber-bastards, it’s clear that Day was a profoundly influential story on future new Who and its legacy is a good one
its a one off with the effects, new footage etc,  money is tight obviously for these DVDs and i just wish this treatment could of been given to a few others  Jons Invasion of the Dinosaurs being a prime candidate Letts said in many interviews how unhappy he was with the end result
Its nice to see the TLC Letts and Dicks gave who being  respected here in this DVD realise ,realising there dream of what they wanted but were not able to achieve
The first disc contains the original, unaltered version of Day, the one we all watched on VHS or if old enough on original release
enjoy

3 Genesis of the Daleks

probably saw this coming Cliche Alert over hype sensation right , this episode tackles their back story and where they came from. we meet Davros for the first time, and learn how the Kaleds, the Daleks genetic ancestors, mutated by a prolonged nuclear war with the Thals, were mutating. this surely renders the Hartnell story and origin mute and didn’t happen ? 
Instead of healing them helping his race the master scientist Davros (Best performance and look/mask and voice  in Micheal Wisher and unlike new Davros he uses his correct chair and doesn’t look like a child in his high chair ) accelerated the process and built a ‘travel machine’ for them to move around in. Then stripped them of all pity, empathy and compassion fantastic weaponry (how he had resources knowledge of this powerful laser energy ultimate destructive weapon as everyone is on WW2 rifles and sten guns, isn’t clear there is plot holes you can drive a bus through in this ) .problem there grey not silver ,but if 60s Daleks didn’t happen maybe supposed to be grey ?, would of been nice to have them silver why did they have to repaint them ? personally i like the grey its military its tank like and its also Nazi like grey uniforms oh which we get LOTS of  from dressed in black, goose stepping clicking heals to Nider  to Allo Allo actors appearing and committing all manner of sin in the name of ‘experimentation’, are a very clear allegory of the Nazis. 

querying whether Davros would develop a virus capable of destroying all living matter if he had the ability to do so. confirms that he would, and that, through the Daleks, he shall have this power. After this, the Doctor concludes that he is entirely insane, and that reasoning with him isn’t going to work. oh hell yes this guy is bat shit crazy and on the megalomaniac road little does he realise whats to come and the genocide that comes form it 
one small squad of Daleks wipes the Thals off Skaro something the thousand year or whatever time it was war couldn’t do 
The story itself is a powerful statement about the perils of nuclear war and radiation, broadcast as it was, in the 1970s, against the backdrop of the Cold War This is Doctor Who at its very best, taking real life issues and reflecting them back at the audience without patronising, but also telling a powerful, enthralling and entertaining story at the same time. its dark its Hinchcliffe Holmes its got style just wish it had more money

4 Death to the Daleks

Jon Pertwee, in what was a bit of a blasphemous remark for an ex Doctor, once remarked that he never enjoyed working on the Dalek stories. Which is a shame, because he got four of them in total, second only to William Hartnell in his exposure to Skaro’s natives not even Troughton got that many .  Death To The Daleks is probably more interesting than great.but it still has some great moments
 
A beacon on the planet’s surface which is draining power from passing spacecraft. A human spacecraft has  been downed the TARDIS ( a eerie set piece shot well even with majority of the set missing and last time the console room would be seen until the planet of evil some 18 months later and last time you would see this console which was a shame ), and so, of course, has a Squad of Daleks in there scout ship. nice start all Dark foggy and brutal Aliens a sophisticated culture returned to a stone-age level, very Terry nation (also the “Plague Missile” the Daleks will use ) ,with a civil war between tribes,
the Doctor has a lot to do with precious minerals needed to cure a space plague rescue Sarah (turning more and more into a Who girl and less feminist poster girl ( tho beating a Exillon with a crank Handel is something to see while gasping terrified) defeat Daleks solve the puzzle of the Exillon city oh and get power back on


Dicks’ successor, Robert Holmes, was allowed to script edit “Death to the Daleks”, uncredited. As a result, the serial appears as a curious mix of the by then well-known Letts and Dicks production style, and the more adult approach that Holmes was to introduce later but is in evidence here with the sacrifices and the skeletons etc
Letts envisioned the programme as being enjoyed by ages eight to adult; therefore, from mid-Season eight onwards the violence level drops, and the plots are very plainly put, so as to be comprehensible to the younger age groups. Holmes, however, regarded fourteen as the minimum viewer age for Doctor Who; later, as script editor, he would famously raise both the intellectual standard and the gore level of the series. In “Death to the Daleks”, we see a mix of a simply-explained plot, with a good deal of exposition and info-dumping, and scenes such as the crewman’s death at the beginning of the story, and the use of drugs in the sacrifice sequence,so a real mixed bag story wise and visually
Holmes, however, was less than enamoured with both Nation and his creations; although the story that he came up with the name “Death to the Daleks” purely out of dislike for the characters is doubtfull and probably something Nation thought of  , but Holmes said in interviews he didnt like the Daleks or many of the “Traditional who villains”  the reason we don’t see them again until 1979 ,with a new production team,2 stories in toms 7 year stint ,not a lot really and a further five years before appearing with Dr 5 so that in total is 12 years and 3 Dalek  stories Dr who had defiantly moved on from the Daleks this being the last typical Dalek story next story onwards it would be centred around Davros who was played by Micheal Wisher who coincidentally is doing the modulation and Dalek voices here.

With location footage recorded in Dorset Hansons Quarry it was all sand instead of rocks and mud mostly late evening/ night or early morning shoots so its dark this adds to the dry barren nature of the story and makes for a very eerie setting some surprisingly impressive CSO sequences, the Exxilon City model is realy well done the melting model well realised impressive sets (even with Daleks bumping into each other)

the Daleks were using negotiation rather than slaughter to achieve their objectives devious and clever, last time they would be 
they look good last time the silver would be seen which is a shame considering there next story was there origin where there supposed to be silver ,and these are the original 60’s casings to boot that machine gun and screams from the Exillons as there gunned down brilliant stuff the daleks kill in  very real ways
and TARDIS gun target, get the feeling they REALLY don’t like him

5. Resurrection Of The Daleks
Davison has a high opinion of this story and seems to regard it as one of the best of his tenure in the lead role.
Bleak. that would be one way to describe it ,.Depressing would be another and about as grey as the Daleks themselves from landing on a grey overcast London dockland (in the Shad Thames area next to Tower Bridge that is now fully renovated and the home of the Design Museum),to grim dark old warehouse to wet rainy afternoon mass slaughter by policemen (clones) of alien specimens and a couple of innocent by standers to boot
 Eric Saward (who was also the show’s script editor at the time,also did something similar just less bodies for Earthshock and Cybermen  ), piles up what must surely be the highest onscreen body count in Who history, apparently higher than the Terminator film from the same year, in an adventure where the Daleks are trying to do everything at once and, as a result, achieve nothing

The Daleks, are trying to rescue Davros from prison on a space station (one nice set, also a brilliant storming of the barricade  ) which hes defiantly not being cooperative about and has his own plans (Davros has some sort of secret weapon that brainwashes humans and Daleks alike to his cause … How? Where did it come from? plot holes to drive a bus through,again ) nicely played here and during the 80s by Terry Malloy in a very good mask and updated desk , win the war with the Movellans (Remember them?, Destiny of the Daleks Disco robots with those silver dread lock wigs glam silver eye shadow platforms and a nifty gun that fitted over there hand?, if only Daleks new like the doctor take the pen off there belt, do a little dance round them there turned off then  ,yeah BIG threat )

 That’s a lot of plates to spin, a task made all the more difficult when you don’t have opposable thumbs.
Brilliant visuals the blown up Daleks are great (same FX as done in 5 Dr’s)  not to sure on melted ones with shaving foam, the melted flesh on the Space Station crew all great,the pyrotechnics that resulted in the biggest explosion ever staged within BBC TV Centre – and a severe reprimand to the production team as a result never, ever to do that again. looks great on screen, boom gos the airlock boom boom go Daleks 
 Biggest let down, what drunken fool bought the Dalek trooper outfits from obviously a Soho sex shop ? and Janet Fieldings east end hooker outfit leather mini skirt  and high heels??

I remember this on broadcast,the Dalek going out of the warehouse doors the slimy Kaled mutant attacking the soldier his screams the Doctor with a gun !?? AGAIN??, (Earthshock famously doing a Han Solo) shooting the Kaled mutant and then on space station knocking out a Dalek trooper taking his gun and threatening him to pointing a gun and threatening to shoot Davros ,and this the wet Dr???
Rodney ‘Likely Lads’ Bewes is the worse thing ever and without him this would be higher, he kills this story he is such a horrific actor and hammy and so wooden he has a woodpecker on his head 
 Stunt casting gone mad and stupid
Litton is redeeming one here (and he returns to great relish of a performance later on with Dr 6) ,with his creepy policemen
By the end, essentially everyone other than the TARDIS crew is dead ,by the end the survivors are struggling to find space on the studio floor to walk on without tripping over all the killed-off extras. It even adds the “duplicates” thread ( a wierd adjuct story thread of clones replacing key people to assist taking over the world not explained at all , Also cloneing a Dr and companions they havent met ???  to kill the Timelords (sense wear RTD got influenced here ) so that the same actors can get killed once, cloned, and then promptly shot again just to add to the numbers.
Also a large number (surprisingly for the BBC ) of Daleks dead and dieing, this is effective with the slurred speech ( Majority of the props were exhibition casings that were in less than satisfactory condition including the infamous Tussards Dalek and its misshapen Pyramid skirt, from broken domes to missing eye discs, badly painted eye stalks,badly painted cases, damaged slats  and overall shoddy condition ,the lack of lighting doing them a big favour ,  )
 and even the Doctor’s companion, Tegan, has had enough, and leaves, by story end
It’s powerful and compelling,and effects the Dr up to his regeneration. in fact he rants about this in the next story
Just so relentlessly grim that you cant call it enjoyable. ( “it isn’t fun any more” as Tegan says ,a portent of way things were going in the program, understandable Davisons wish to leave)

so why use this and not Collins? simple his is a Davros story with possibilities i might add and Molloy is brilliant when just the disembodied head ,and the FX ruin it pop gos the Dalek ???,please it looks pathetic, badly modulated to boot and that’s as and when they do appear and Alexi sale another unfunny cringe worthy 80s comedian and  everyone hamming it up minus the guards, Nicola Bryant seems to be unable to walk and consequently walks and runs weird, in this story she cant  act at all and comes across as plain shrill, Collin is OK ish but has nothing to do ,its dull dark and extremely grim and more depressing (dealing solely about death) than Pete’s , its just plain awful 

So why on earth is  it in my top five ? , 2 reasons, 1 Davidson is good Litton is brilliant character 2 and the FX save it ,  it’s confirmation that, after too many stories where they appeared vulnerable, the Daleks really are bad, bad creatures who will kill you purely for the sake of doing so.and they don’t need a ray gun and armour casing to do it ,that vulnerable mutant needing the support of its casing not so vulnerable after all 

 Children firmly back behind sofas

 special mention
Victory of the Daleks 
now this is wear the new who has fallen and fallen far,
 RTD overused the Daleks to the point there appearance was something you could count on and they were   impotent and frankly a easy cannon fodder kill and defeat even if the companion and not the doctor did the defeating ,which is against the shows title, premise and having the lead hero doing nothing could not be further from being wrong 
Nice design all bronze eventually brown ish but the AARU Movie Style was good and given modern twist its armour so lets go for that look all bolts rivets and plating return to the eye being lit not done since the 60s (Massive influence on new who)  
this story contains some nice design and fx and visuals and CGI even if that big spanner thing he was whacking the Dalek with looked very fake (in an episode with much better effects, to be fair)
Some nice ideas here tho very Patrick Troughton evil of the Daleks  .with Daleks playing patsy , now living under the name of an ironside. A Bracewell ironside,  a seemingly loyal creature determined to help win the war.  even serving the tea at one point.a faithful servant ok nice start Doctor and Amy working well one Dr one companion (before yet again we get boyfriend husband etc and hello soap town) and she is good and both enjoying themselves so far

We get a decent into farce at light speed after the intro, spitfires working in space and in reverse to troughton episode Daleks being identified by the Doctor 
and then we get the mighty power ranger Daleks primary colours ok one awfull design a A level student goint aint i clever 
You can see the marketing asking you to collect the set in different colours a mile off, brisk business to be had in the toy shops and that is its fall down merchandise someone got clever and redesigned a icon of the show of Sci Fi a legend a icon this makes JNTs 6th Dr decisions inspired, it bares no resemblance to a Dalek any more a very specific design ,easily should of done a mix of RTD and movie Dalek it was a logical step,the toy sellers around Britain got to turn cartwheels of joy, as pure Dalek DNA is moulded to create a new collection of multi-coloured Daleks. Yep, now you can buy one to suit your mood, and match the colour scheme of your bedroom! eh ?????????
it makes no sense as a story the emotion of the robot scientist who thinks he has invented them stopped being a super bomb thanks to emotions, a theme that killed the Cybermen story into groan chease fest and a idea that still did not does not ,will not work ever , you know they say “Never say never “? well i am saying NEVER


this episode lacked any tension or depth and Smith is way to young and this is where it showed his arch enemy and he didn’t have the gravitas for it ,or probably as so badly written this was the problem the script, to bothered about the season long story arc YAWN again
This hurt was deeply felt and as a step to far, way to far and we haven’t seen the Daleks since massive back peddling
 were promised there return in the Autumn/ fall of 2012 we shall see  ,gay pride daleks, a 60 minute make over tardis do not a classic make. for me the worst moment has to be the raising of Old Glory can’t remember the last occasion where a BBC programme has made such a crass appeal to commercialism and future sales of the programme to the US.chasing the Yankee dollar is something there obsessed with since Moffat took over at expense of the story the program its fan base
someone needs to get back to some basics some fresh thinking inspired ideas

 


 

the cops are out ,there running about

well what a interesting week ,glorious weather nice change unheard of real Indian Summer,
Shame skint cant enjoy it more
Then came the Saturday and the biggest waste o police time money and precious resources , we here endlessly low numbers no money front line services cut
And here is two members of Manchester’s Police “Service” doing there duty………………
Chasing a hooded mugger ,no grant you to obvious ,How about following up on a crime or burglary or community follow up to see if a felon has been preparing his nefarious plans
NO they came because of a Neighbour hood dispute (Sounds big don’t it like gangs in a neighbourhood warring ) they came because one waste of space person rang them to complain about ………………..
A washing line a WASHING LINE  i kid you not

The offensive item in question m lud is a 6 sided pentagram shape and two such items co exist in a designated area
Now 4 of said sides were full two were not, a elderly couple had some washing and used the two vacant ones 
Now ,said person of the female variety and well known for her extensive vocal capabilities and nuisance capabilities came to complain in a vigorous manor with the elderly gentlemen to move his washing because she was bringing more down and she wanted those that was original spare sides for herself EVEN THOUGHT there is a whole dryer stand vacant unused
a argument ensued over the use of the vacant lines the elderly gentlemen used
Then some days later 2 police turn up to tell the elderly gentlemen off for doing such a naughty thing 


GET A GRIP !!!!!!
What has happened to this god damn fading country of mine ???,
i feel like i am in the twilight zone or something

A PC and a WPC turn up all that money off front line duty to deal with a washing line
this is beyond absurd
seriously you could not make it up
and what a bunch of scruffy toys they looked like ,not real police at all
some sort of t shirt and combats no shirt no trousers no shiny boots and i am supposed to respect this ? the image inspires me …………….honest
and a WPC that cant comb her hair or just dragged herself through the hedge way backwards, the way they stood there cocky arrogant self posturing manor surely a sight to behold

welcome to Britain folks cant do anything any more ,funny thing is even the PC said it was a waste of time ,Tell me am i supposed to take the plods seriously is it any wonder the abuse they get?
 as a witness and in need of statements i to was asked about the line,but even i felt it was a waste of time
I for the record was perfectly polite but turned every single argument back upon them until the last line of a PC with no argument comes out “Were doing are Job to tell you” ,that’s right got no argument no common sense heck or that little thing called proof ,blame the job

Rot set in when we got a Police “Service” sounds like a Police hostel ,what ever happened to a Police FORCE, enforcing the law not triviality dealing with real crimes and real scum and being out there working for a living, this carries on they deserve everything they get and we can only look at are would be representatives the political elite to see where it has gone so badly wrong as they run around flapping there gums and doing precisely nothing 
it would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad and pathetic

Other wise known as desperation

 

 core members Superman, Batman, Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman. there are an additional eight faces in the border panels. They appear to be: Deadman, The Atom, Element Woman, Firestorm, Green arrow, Hawkman, an undetermined female thought to be Black Canary or Power Girl, and Mera.

So this is the new look DC,On Tuesday afternoon, DC Comics announced “a historic renumbering” of their entire universe of comics, debuting 52 first issues beginning August 31. On that date, Justice League’s new #1 issue will be released, marking the beginning of a collaborative project between DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and best selling artist and DC Comics Co-Publisher Jim Lee. Johns and Lee are promised to offer a “contemporary take” on Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman.The focus will be on the characters’ relationships with one another and society at large. ”What’s the human aspect behind all these costumes?

“The focus will be on the characters’ relationships with one another and society at large.” 

Hmm… Does that mean that Batman will have a Facebook profile and spend his day logged in the bat-computer..?

AHA a clue Sherlock, 

Personally his hush series was ok but Adams ,Burgess,Breyfogle, the master Lopez all done better interpretations of Batman , the big deal about Mr Lee escapes me,  commercial yes  hit a chord and was successful then so was Bolland with his killing joke series what about millers take on dark knight returns? this for me shows where the issues lies ,or one of the many 

With the recent legal issues around who has what rights to the Man of Steel himself it’s probably been the nail in the coffin for the DC Universe. They can either risk losing the biggest star they own or they can take him back and reinvent his origin.,and BAT family has got so messy with 3 Bat girls numerous Robins a tidy up was in order should Barbara walk again ? ,no personally Oracle worked and Stephanie worked as the right Batgirl even if her costume was just plain stupid  Red Robin is third Robin Tim and Damian is new Robin ok 

no i do not like the new look it is change for change sake 

Improve upon the wheel don’t reinvent it, and again this is raises one core problem for me and no doubt others 

There are just too many attempts to create small, unified changes. Notice how everyone who doesn’t have a cowl has that same v shaped collar?  Or how a lot of the costume have weird piping/raised bits on them?

According to Lee, this was done to make the characters more recognizable and marketable (Yes like merchandise was such a huge problem really) ; a statement which makes no  sense, because everyone who has been born already knows what Superman and Batman ETC  look like.

 its ingrained what these characters look like so messing with the facts is not good 

Superman knee pads really ?,Lee’s attempt extends the sleeves to cover his wrists more and gives them a red piping tip, extends his neckline to the V shaped collar and also gives it a red collar, and does away with the red underoos. The S shield is also supposedly different, being smaller and more stylized, but I’m more akin to think that’s Lee’s own polish on the shield.  My biggest problem is this costume looks like it’s lost the exciting, swashbuckling feel of the classic. With the added neck and simple colours, it feels more like a military uniform than a costume, which isn’t a feel that Superman should be going for.

for me we have been here before and i don’t see this one lasting forever either 

Superman Batman etc have a history and over the course of the 70 years of DC comics have evolved the wheel got better new alloys from hub caps so to speak  
Batman is a great example of this he started out a lone vigilante and evolved to what we know as Batman his attitude and look from dark to fun and camp back to serious then dark again the cape and ears got bigger his  suit darker he evolved a yellow oval behind his bat symbol to hi tech belt to then going old school black and loosing the yellow oval, it sort of worked and then even the logo and titles  evolved and is basically the same over the years just neater or bolder or different colour
Superman was basically same from day one he evolved became brighter his standard as we know it S shield was a result of the forties and fifties to the standard we all know and it stayed that way with different artists and writers, the personality evolved to become something more than a man with powers, a symbol, and he was always dealing with bigger things global issues robots aliens personal issues he wasn’t all powerful but the stories were clever and thought out 
now were taking giant leap back curtailing powers to his first appearance loosing the costume at first t shirt and jeans with a cape looks like a kid dressed up for play time

What went wrong why people left in droves simple

Exclusive, it doesn’t work and bad stories there’s been some good art work of late but the writing and concepts leave a lot to be desired ,  where has gone the simple story’s the one shots?, now i pick up a comic book i need to own last 7 and next 8 to know the story its all wrong
the price way to expensive and to be fare not spread wide enough

London editions was British Arm that did reissues for 80p big oversize format throw a page of fun facts and a old 60s 70s comic strip story one shot as well, boom, great cheap entertainment and got the general masses into the characters 
all that’s gone its overpriced over digitised sanitised comics available form specific retailers narrow the market narrow the audience narrow the availability and messed around so much the characters are simply unrecognisable
it all needed sorting out this i don’t doubt but i think more a back to basics approach would of been better and put Bats back in his midnight blue fresh change superman more traditional than ever

it was one time a evolution of design and art and you could follow it from the 50s to present day even the titles and logos it was subtle and fresh new changes , then it stopped they started messing with the characters and well this is the result all seems a bit desperate to me

But this is one step to far for me ill continue to buy my back issues and reissues but this holds no interest whatsoever the slippery slope to nowhere started in 2001 and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down and some one get a legal team to address the Superman issue please

Ben Flay

Ben Flay: Graphic Designer, Artist ….
Tech Noir designs
my very own web site so you can if you are interested click and link to me from around the WWW