Sunday 28 December 2014

Top Ten Doctor Who Christmas Specials

It's been ages since I did a top ten and since practically the only Christmas TV I've watched this year was the most recent Doctor Who Christmas special, I decided to write a top ten of Doctor Who Christmas specials, I've widened the definition to include Doctor Who on both the radio and the red button.

Worthy of special mentions are The Unquiet Dead, The Chimes Of Midnight, Death In Blackpool, Relative Dimensions, The Power Of Three and the Torchwood episode Out Of Time, all of which feature scenes set at Christmas, but were not broadcast on the big day itself. So, not making the cut are Voyage Of The Damned and The Time Of The Doctor.

Here's my list of Top Ten Doctor Who Christmas specials:

10 - Attack Of The Graske
The BBC Red Button thingy from 2005 sees David Tennant's Tenth Doctor foil a alien attempt to spoil Christmases modern and Victorian alike with help from you at home. It's better than it sounds. "If you turn the TV over to ITV, the galaxy may implode".


9 - The Runaway Bride
Catherine Tate's Donna made her first exit from the TARDIS on Christmas Day 2006, an episode with a fascinating new take on the relationship between Doctor and companion that also features a brilliant TARDIS versus car chase sequence, all the trappings of Christmas out to kill you and segways.


8 - The Snowmen
2012's Christmas special introduces Jenna Coleman...again. She is a real shot in the arm for the series and it's great to have her on board. And then she dies...again. And then in the last scene the episode reintroduces her...yet again.


7 - The Next Doctor
After three contemporary Christmases in a row, 2008's The Next Doctor sent the Tenth Doctor to 1851 to defeat the Cybermen in the snow. This episode was brilliantly pitched to take advantage the speculation about the who Tennant's replacement might be, by giving us The Next Doctor, even the real Doctor was fooled for a while. David Morrissey and Dervla Kirwan are great, both playing characters that aren't what they think they are with aplomb. That's right, I said aplomb.


6 - Last Christmas
Peter Capaldi's first Christmas is his Last Christmas. Nick Frost is fantastic as Santa Claus, while Alien, The Thing and Inception all compete to take over your dreams. And then Clara left, and then she didn't. I'm a little worried though that children watching may think Doctor Who just categorically told them that Father Christmas doesn't exist.


5 - The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe
2011 saw Narnia meet Androzani as the Eleventh Doctor visited a forest where Christmas trees grow complete with ornaments. Clare Skinner is fantastic and the episode exploits the fact that Matt Smith was never better than when acting with children by bringing two along.


4 - The Dalek's Master Plan: The Feast Of Steven
Although not necessarily a special, the seventh episode of The Dalek's Master Plan fell on Christmas Day 1965. William Hartnell's First Doctor visits a 1960's police station at Christmas, then a silent movie set and the Doctor breaks the fourth wall by wishing a happy Christmas to the viewers at home. It's often dismissed as a runaround that has very little to with rest of The Dalek's Master Plan, but it's a lot of fun at a time when Doctor Who was going through a very bleak death-filled period.


3 - A Christmas Carol
Christmas 2010 was Matt Smith's first and his best. Michael Gambon and Katherine Jenkins are wonderful and the reveal of the Ghost of Christmas future is one of the best examples of timey wimey phenomena in the series.


2 - The End Of Time, Part One
The first half of David Tennant's swansong was broadcast on Christmas Day in 2009. Not particularly Christmassy and somehow all the more Christmassy for it. Tennant, Bernard Cribbins and John Simm give fantastic performances and the episode builds to what is possibly the best cliffhanger in the entire history of the TV show, which when you consider Doctor Who relied so heavily on its cliffhanger for the first twenty-six years is really something.


1 - The Christmas Invasion
The first real Christmas special still hasn't been bettered. 2005's The Christmas Invasion is a game of two halves and both are great. The newly regenerated Tenth Doctor sleeps through most of the first half almost leaving Rose to fend for herself (and her planet), a cup of tea later and the new Doctor is fighting fit and fantastic. Tina the cleaner, the royal family on the roof, post-amputation regrowth, "No second chances", snow that isn't snow, "Don't you think she looks tired" and sees Billie Piper, Jackie Tyler, Noel Clarke, Penelope Wilton and David Tennant at the top of their game.


Merry Christmas to you all.

What are your favourites?

Monday 22 December 2014

2nd Annual Noiseless Chatter Xmas Bash

I have contributed something to Noiseless Chatter's 2nd Annual Xmas Bash. I'd say more, but Phil of Noiseless Chatter (pictured below in a very festive mood) has been keeping details close to his chest and therefore so will I.


It's all in aid of The Trevor Project, a charity that provides counselling and a suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth.

Phil has released a few of what he has called "tidbits", which is apparently what Americans say instead of titbits. I presume Americans fear tits. So we know we can expect to see an episode of Ben Paddon's PortsCenter, an ALF Christmas Special called ALF's Special Christmas, No Date Gamers, vintage toy commercials and what he describes as "a mess of as-yet-mysterious terrible Christmas specials".

The link to the live stream will be posted here at 8pm US Eastern time on December 24th, which is 1am on Christmas Day in Greenwich mean time.

Monday 24 November 2014

With A Massive Twist...

A taster image by Paul Ridgon from Assassin, the comic strip I've written for the fourth issue of The Psychedelic Journal Of Time Travel, has been released:


Editor Owen Watts goes on to describe the strip as "a partially coloured sci-fi hitman story WITH A MASSIVE TWIST..."

I'm happy with that.

The Psychedelic Journal Of Time Travel issue four is available here.

Sunday 16 November 2014

Getting Back On The Horse

I moved up from London and starting again seemed daunting. I had no contacts and no idea where to begin. The move itself, the unpacking and then the search for a 'proper' job took up all my time and in a way it was easier not to get started.

So for the first time since the move Up North, I have taken some steps to try and get my acting career back on track. I renewed my Spotlight subscription, updated my CV, rang my agent, emailed some casting directors and got myself an audition. I wouldn't normally post about auditions, because auditions aren't jobs, but it feels like a significant step that I should acknowledge.

P.S. This has absolutely nothing to do with horses.

Thursday 16 October 2014

Animal Magnetism

The fourth video I wrote for Bad Teeth was a guide to being a Babe Magnet. It was surprisingly easy to find bad videos of people claiming to have all the answers, whilst looking like idiots. Not including the 'Once I Was A Babe Magnet' singer obviously.



Rory Barker presented this one. It's still a little different to what I wrote, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I'm going to post some script snippets that didn't quite make the cut for each of the videos.

Thursday 9 October 2014

A Man Told Me To Beware Of 33

A man told me to beware of 33.
He said, "It was not an easy time for me"
But I'll get through
even though I've got no miracles to show you



Today is my thirty-third birthday. So far, it's been alright.

Friday 3 October 2014

Unboxed

Here is the third of the Bad Teeth videos that I wrote. Unboxing is a similar phenomenon to Hauls and one I was equally ignorant of before I was asked to write about it. Individuals film themselves opening boxes of recent purchases.

I enjoyed writing this and selecting clips to include in it. Elements that didn't make the final cut include references to Pandora's box, McDonald's Happy Meals and from the late Jar Jar.



To date over 11,000 people have watched it. One commented to describe it as "asinine commentary over other people's videos than adding a poorly contrived sketch at the end", while another said "I really didn't see a point in this video, the only part I liked was dropping the phone, sorry :/", but on the plus side it made somebody else "LMAO".

Sunday 28 September 2014

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Following the award ceremonies held by the High Sheriff of London and the Chief Constable of Herefordshire, we were more than a little surprised to be invited to do it all again.

We were nominated for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Police Public Bravery Awards 2014 and were both presented with certificates and silver medals. We are pictured here with Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde on the left, Assistant Chief Constable Michelle Dunne and Chief Constable Andy Bliss on the right. For some reason, we both look a little like we were being held at gunpoint.


For the record, we weren't.


We're pretty sure that's the end of it, but then we probably said that after the trial, after the first award ceremony, after the second...

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Please Release Me: Yet More Star Trek

More Star Trek material as-yet-unreleased on DVD. This time trailers for the final season of Star Trek: Voyager:

Captain Janeway



Tom Paris



Tuvok



Seven of Nine



Who knows what Chakotay, Torres, Neelix, Kim and the Doctor (no relation) did wrong?

Saturday 13 September 2014

Haulage

The second thing I wrote for Bad Teeth was a guide to Hauls. For those that are unaware of them, which definitely included me when I got the brief, Hauls are videos filmed after shopping trips in which the overprivileged show off outfits they've just bought. Yep.

I was very proud of my script. If you like the video, then great, but this is not my script. It's a strange experience watching something you've written. Knowing what comes next, but still wondering how it has been interpreted. Watching this was an even stranger experience. I barely recognised it.



Monday 8 September 2014

Just One Job

What seems like aeons ago, I wrote a script for a comic for inclusion in The Psychedelic Journal Of Time Travel. I had no idea it was even out yet, but it is available for purchase here.

My strip is called Assassin and features some truly fantastic artwork from Paul Ridgon.

Not only is it already out, but it's also been reviewed as well. Judge Tutor Semple describes it brilliantly as "An assassin, who is sent through time for one job. Just one job.", so I won't try to do better than that.

He goes on to say of Assassin that it's "A very well put together story with a marvellous twist, the plot addresses the Grandfather Paradox. Again the art is simple and clean and leads the reader through the tale well."

Which is nice.

Saturday 6 September 2014

Sarah's Trek Into Darkness

So, we watched Star Trek: Nemesis and Sarah cried. The following contains SPOILERS for Star Trek: Nemesis and the Star Trek: Countdown comic.

We both enjoyed the film more than I expected. Sarah laughed at Data's singing, liked the Argo sequence and was glad to see Guinan and Spot back. She was disappointed that Troi was now married to Beardy and that we see more of Shinzon than the Enterprise crew. Then Data jumped ship and saved Captain Picard. Sarah was on red alert and knew something was up. Data fired his phaser into the green MacGuffin and exploded into a billion separate fragments. Dead, dead, dead.

Sarah stared unbelieving at the screen and cried. She cried all though Picard's "absent friends" toast. She stopped crying, but still couldn't quite believe what had happened.

B-4 began to sing 'Blue Skies' and what I had hoped would be an encouraging note to end on didn't really make much of a difference to her. It wasn't really her Data.

Fearing the worst I had bought Sarah a copy of Star Trek: Countdown, in which, somehow, Data subsumes B-4 and becomes Captain of the Enterprise (I haven't read it yet myself), she was touched, but it didn't stem the tears.


Sarah cried, but it could have been worse. She might not have cried.

Sunday 31 August 2014

Sarah's Trek

I should point out that the following contains massive SPOILERS for Serenity, Doctor Who and all forms of Star Trek.

My girlfriend has become a Star Trek fan, but when I first met her she had never seen any.

She liked me and I liked Star Trek, so she decided to give it a chance, but I was resistant. Here was a thing that I liked, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to share it. I ummed and ahhed about what to watch to try and show off Star Trek in the best possible light. In an effort not to have to decide, we watched JJ Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film. I figured, since it was designed to be accessible to a new audience, it would be a good way to dip a toe in the water and since it was so new it wasn't necessarily 'my' Star Trek. If she'd hated it, that would have been it and I would have gone back to watching the show when she was out.

She loved it. The next day she suggested that we watch some more and not having made the decision about what to show her we started at the beginning and watched The Man Trap, the first broadcast episode of the original series. I watched it with one eye on the television and the other on Sarah. Since she loves Doctor Who, I wasn't worried that the effects might not seem as special as they did in 1966, but having seen 2009's offering if she didn't like the original version of the Enterprise crew I was going to be very disappointed.

I had no reason to doubt. We watched the first episode and she enjoyed it and I gave up trying to work out what to show her and we simply carried on watching in broadcast order. Sarah loved seeing the kid from Gentle Ben, Sulu's fencing, The Trouble With Tribbles, the silliness of planet Mudd, the re-education of Uhura ("bluey") and by far and away her favourite character was Spock.


Eighty episodes later we started in on the animated series and Spock's pet euthanasia, Mudd's love potion and the crew regressing to babies all impressed. Then we hit the big time, and The Motion Pictures. The first was received well with Sarah enjoying it more than I expected, but it was the second I was really worried about.

So far, Sarah had been deliciously spoiler-free, but I was worried. Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan is a brilliant film and the ear creatures, "Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!", Carol Marcus, "from hell's heart I stab at thee" and the submarine battle in space are all excellent, but again I was watching Sarah as much as the screen. To save the ship Spock walks into an irradiated engineering compartment and takes the lid off a thing with sparks. Kirk says "He'll die" and Scotty replies "He's dead already". Sarah was incredulous. Spock can't be dead, can he? Can he? She was bereft. She cried. A lot.


The next day we were set to watch the third film. She had no idea that it was subtitled The Search For Spock and was unsure about watching it. Dubiously, she elected to give it a go. The gap at the beginning between William Shatner and DeForest Kelley's credits was torturous, but Sarah got the drift. Between Sarek's expectations, McCoy using Spock's voice, the Vulcan boy, the Genesis planet et cetera, it's pretty obvious where it's heading. And then there he was brought back to life. Sarah cried again. A lot.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a big hit. No tears. Then we began watching Star Trek: The Next Generation (broadcast order, remember). Sarah took a while to adjust to a new crew, but managed to get into it just in time to be affected by Tasha's death. More tears. She enjoyed the cameos by McCoy, Spock and Scotty, disliked Q from the start, laughed loads at the narcotic split lentils of Symbiosis, laughed even more at the musical instrument from We'll Always Have Paris (left), was Lwaxana Troi's biggest fan, mocked Riker's beard, mocked Riker, enjoyed anything to do with Guinan, cried tears a plenty when Sarek died, loved Alexander Rozhenko's dungarees, Spot, Gowron's starey eyes, and was impressed by the likes of The Measure Of A Man, Yesterday's Enterprise, Captain's Holiday, The Offspring, The Best Of Both Worlds, Brothers, The First Duty, The Inner Light, Rascals, Relics, and All Good Things… She laughed raucously at the cut rungs of Starship Mine and found Frame Of Mind hilarious. I wasn't surprised when Data became Sarah's new best friend. She was even willing overlook his abuse of the Sherlock Holmes canon.


We returned to the silver screen for Star Treks V and VI. Both big hits. The former is not nearly as bad as its reputation and what's been refreshing about watching these with Sarah is that she is oblivious to that reputation anyway. She felt that The Final Frontier was the most in keeping with the series it span off from. The latter film, The Undiscovered Country, is impossible not to like, but seeing Captain Sulu, Worf's grandfather, "Earth, Hitler, 1938" were all great and we spent a lot of time recreating Uhura's sarcastic laughter.

We reached Deep Space Nine and I was back in the position of really hoping Sarah would like it. DS9 is my favourite and because she was so taken with TNG, I thought a darker Star Trek might also be a harder sell. And it was. Where TNG is largely easy TV to watch, DS9 makes the viewer work and while Sarah enjoyed the pilot, it took a while to warm to a more abrasive crew dynamic. She compared it to a tough day at the office. Eventually she fell in love with Siskos Benjamin and Joseph, Rom, Odo, Kira, Opaka and Nog. She loved to hate Gul Dukat, Kai Winn, Weyoun and the female Changeling, laughed repeatedly at the Bajoran man who shouts "Shifter" in A Man Alone, was glad to see Worf back, watched Trials And Tribble-Ations with a constant grin from ear to ear, the revelation that Bashir was a changeling was a fantastic shock, Morn's fake death left her briefly despondent, she loved episodes like of Far Beyond The Stars, Honor Among Thieves and In The Pale Moonlight, made up her own expletive-filled Breen dialogue and adored the genetically enhanced Patrick. She wasn't bothered by the epic space battles, but I think the character development more than made up for it. The final shot of the final episode rolled around and Sarah cried until it was accompanied by the sound of an ice-cream van outside, which punctured the moment pretty spectacularly.



I don't remember if Sarah cried at Kirk's death in Star Trek: Generations, but she loved the 'promotion' of the TNG crew to the silver screen, Beverly getting soaked, Data's emotion chip, more Guinan, more Spot, the bizarre way Picard's illusory daughter says "thank you for the doll", the demise of Lursa and B'Etor, Data's expletive and Kirk and Picard together.

Star Trek: Voyager had a far easier ride. Neelix was an instant hit, the Doctor's pomposity was very popular, she was wary of Seven but warmed to her, while Chakotay and Kim failed to impress her at all. Sarah's biggest worry about the show were all the detours that took the ship off course and provided the drama, Sarah would have preferred it if the USS Voyager had flown in a perfectly straight line and the crew had only been required to conduct some light admin. She was a big Naomi Wildman fan, but even she thought Once Upon A Time was pretty awful, Barclay's efforts to get the crew home were very popular and Neelix's departure caused more tears.

Back on the big screen, Star Trek: First Contact was very well received. Sarah loved seeing her TNG friends again, Alfre Woodard as Lily, Barclay's cameo, the spacewalk scene, the Borg Queen, the Moby Dick speech and everything Data does, while Insurrection left her largely underwhelmed.

Enterprise was a shock to the system. Sarah hated the theme tune (who doesn't?), liked T'Pol, Trip and Phlox and adored Porthos, giggled at Trip's wrist nipple, took a while to get into the original mission but by season 2 was really enjoying it, found the Suliban creepy, giggled at Shran's wiggling antennae, decided Daniels was in love with Archer, initially got very into the search for the Xindi superweapon before describing as "a bit of a misstep" and then got a bit bored of it, hated the revised theme tune (who doesn't?), we laughed derisively through Extinction, loved every minute of Phlox and Porthos double act episode Doctor's Orders, willed T'Pol and Trip together, performed some excellent air guitar to the end theme, was thrilled to see Brent Spiner back, couldn't have cared less about In A Mirror Darkly, had a bit of a cry when Elizabeth died, another one when Trip joined her and disappointment at Riker's domination of the screentime in the finale.


I've been trying to stave off the inevitable and I floated the notion of watching the Remastered versions of the original series, but Sarah didn't go for it. Instead we've watched The Cage, Free Enterprise, The Captains and both Trekkies documentaries.

I don't mean to make her sound like an emotional wreck, she isn't, but she does get attached. We are about to watch Star Trek: Nemesis. In about a hundred minutes, Data is going to sacrifice himself so that his crewmates might live and Sarah is going to cry. I wondered about pretending there was no tenth film, but I can't bring myself to lie to Sarah. I wondered about spilling the beans, but it would ruin the first three quarters of the film and they arguably need all the help they can get. We watched something a while ago, I can't remember what, and Sarah got a bit teary. We talked about it and she sees it as a part of how she enjoys things. She wants to get emotionally invested and some crying is apparently an acceptable side-effect, yet I feel like I'm inflicting the tears upon her. In another discussion, we talked about Wash's death at the end of Serenity, and I was wondering whether his death would have still had the same effect on her if she had already known there wasn't going to be a Serenity II (I'm still holding out hope by the way), and the answer came back as an emphatic yes.

Wish us luck.

Friday 29 August 2014

By Sepek's Blood!

Dredd Alert has been a little behind schedule of late, but it is slowly updating...


Black Hawk was the Nubian Warrior enslaved by the Romans, who is freed, made an officer, works his way around the empire and then, in a surprising move, travels out into deep space. Black Hawk is a fondly remembered strip that initially appeared in Tornado, before being absorbed into 2000 A.D. and Dredd Alert has expanded to include it.

Tuesday 26 August 2014

Caught By The Buzz

I was angered by the treatment that a Star Trek fan was getting on the official Star Trek facebook page and then heartened by the Trekkies that saw it on Reddit that sprang to her defence. In a move that surprised even me, I wrote a Buzzfeed article about it, but even more surprisingly the article has now been viewed nearly ten thousand times.

Saturday 23 August 2014

Rain

The third and final sound effectless video. Reading, raining and robing.



Thursday 21 August 2014

Stan The Man

A friend of mine had a Marvel comics themed fancy dress birthday party the other night. Not wishing to try to squeeze into some lycra I decided to go as Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor and the X-Men among others. Easily recognisable from his many cameo appearances in the film adaptations of Marvel comics.

Here is my Stan Lee costume in all its glory:


I can tell you're impressed.

Here's a spot the difference of me and Stan:


It's uncanny, isn't it?

Sadly, unlike Stan's, my moustache did not last the night.


"Excelsior!"

Monday 18 August 2014

Kettle Mettle

Another conspicuously silent video crying out for the addition of sound effects. It wasn't intentional, but it looks like we were trying to make an advert for Clusters, which to be fair are a chocolate I had never heard of before and maybe could do with a bit of marketing...



Featuring a cameo by Sylvester McCoy.

Thursday 14 August 2014

"Kidneys! I've Got New Kidneys. I Don't Like The Colour"

This is the Twelfth Doctor's first line from The Time Of The Doctor and these are the last annotations from the draw my lives Doctor Who video that I wrote for Bad Teeth.


This is Peter Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor and in just over a week's time, we'll get a chance to see what he's like.

Tuesday 12 August 2014

Caretaker

Here is the first of the little silent films made for students to practice putting sound effects to.



I'm expecting doors shutting, keys jangling, footsteps on gravel, creaky gate and sweeping, but to be fair they could put anything they want over it.

Saturday 9 August 2014

"I Did Seven Drawings And We Saw A Dead Cow"

So says Digby in the Eleventh Doctor story The Snowmen. Here's the penultimate set of annotations for the Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote for Bad Teeth.


Matt Smith was the incumbent Eleventh Doctor when this was written. Shown here with the Doctor's increasingly convoluted family tree.


Fishfingers and custard from The Eleventh Hour, the Silence from The Impossible Astronaut and A Good Man Goes To War, a Weeping Angel from The Time Of Angels and Flesh And Stone and Van Gogh's Starry Night seen in Vincent And The Doctor.

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Swept

This photo is from filming yesterday on a short film for students to use for Foley and sound effects.


I look like I don't know how a broom works.

Monday 4 August 2014

Please Release Me: Even More Star Trek

When I posted a batch of Star Trek ads with the promise of more, one commenter on Reddit took it upon themselves to point out that "this author has totally overlooked a ton of technology commercials". I can only apologise. I didn't realise this was meant to be in any way definitive.

The most recent Star Trek films have been partnered with several corporate entities.

Star Trek Cadets Verizon Nokia Ad
Starfleet Academy may want to raise the entry requirements...



---

Esurance Ad
The bridge set and costumes are used here for a bit of uncharacteristic casual racism to sell insurance.



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Star Trek Xfinity X1 Commercial
A common theme throughout many of these adverts is that our heroes are idiots, Zachary Quinto and  Anton Yelchen help to undermine their characters for Xfinity.



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Xbox TV Ad
Zachary Quinto beams in. Nothing happens.



Again, I have discovered some more of these and will another in a few days...

Tuesday 29 July 2014

"This One's Smart As Paint"

This is the Wire's description of the Tenth Doctor from The Idiot's Lantern. Here's another set of annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.


David Tennant's Tenth Doctor is shown here with John Smith's pocket watch from Human Nature and The Family Of Blood, the Doctor's pair of 3D glasses from Army Of Ghosts, an Adipose from Partners In Crime, a Judoon from Smith And Jones and Ood Sigma from Planet Of The Ood, The Waters Of Mars and The End Of Time.

Sunday 27 July 2014

Please Release Me: More Star Trek

Here's another batch of unreleased Star Trek oddities unlikely to ever make it onto a home video format near you:

National Power and Powergen Ad
William Shatner and James Doohan took the money and ran for this British TV advert shot on the Star Trek: The Next Generation sets for National Power and Powergen.



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Hallmark Star Trek Christmas Ad
An earless Leonard Nimoy goes Christmas shopping. It's a little embarrassing.



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Hallmark Enterprise-D Ad
In 1993, Patti Yasutake and Majel Barrett appeared as Nurse Ogawa and the voice of the computer respectively in an advert for Hallmark's Enterprise-D Ornament. Ogawa is a surprising choice of character as this is clearly meant to be 'in character' and you wonder how much of the wider audience would recognise her.



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Hallmark Klingon Bird of Prey Ad
Another advert, another guest star in the lead. Robert Reilly gives us an unusually generous Gowron with his usual wide-eyed gusto. How many TV adverts would trust the audience to read subtitles throughout, never mind those accompanying dialogue in a fictional language?



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Star Trek Social Security Ads
I love George Takei and while I'm sure it's all in a good cause, he risks looking like he has lost his mind in this pair of adverts for SocialSecurity.gov. The costumes are beyond awful (the UK Pizza Hut ad with Finchy from The Office is more impressive) and aggressively tucked in, but George manages to get his "Oh My" catchphrase in, so at least he's happy.





Fear not, I've got a few more videos that I'll share in a couple of days.

Would using Star Trek characters, cast and crew make you more likely to part with your hard-earned?

Saturday 12 July 2014

"That's Your Doctor There, Isn't It?"

So Clive says of the Ninth Doctor to Rose Tyler in Rose. Another set of annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.


Skipping over John Hurt, because I had no idea how that was going to play out, here's the Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. Is he still the ninth? Also here are The Empty Child from The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances, Cassandra from The End Of The World and New Earth, a Slitheen from Aliens Of London, World War III and Boom Town and Bad Wolf, a thread that was woven throughout the 2005 series and had ramifications beyond.

Thursday 10 July 2014

Moved

So we've moved. I can't say this blog will be business as usual quite yet as we are still surrounded by boxes. Things have been so busy between the packing, tidying, paperwork, moving, unpacking, untidying, etc.

We've moved away from London and are now Up North. North Yorkshire to be specific. A series of surprising developments, that I won't bore you with, have brought us here, but we're choosing to see it as an adventure. My agent was optimistic about casting opportunities up here and the writing work I've had of late has all been conducted entirely over the internet, so there was no need to remain in London's thrall.

I will miss London, but no sooner had we arranged to move I got some work back in the capital. So, I won't have to wait long for a return trip.

Yorkshire has been good to us so far. They've laid on a Tour de France and some fantastic weather. Tomorrow we are off to Howarth, which is apparently beautiful, and I've been promised I will love curd tarts.

Tuesday 24 June 2014

On The Move Again

Sorry it's been a bit quiet around here of late. Sarah and I are moving house again.

More details after the move.

Wednesday 28 May 2014

"He Had A Cold When He Drew That"

So says the Eighth Doctor of a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch seen in the TV Movie. Another set of annotations for the Bad Teeth Doctor Who: Draw My Life video that I wrote.


The Eighth Doctor played by Paul McGann, with kisses on his cheeks.


The Doctor is wearing Bruce's sunglasses and with the Master as a snake from the TV movie. If this seems sparser than the others it's because it didn't seem appropriate to mention his audio appearances as much as I love them.