United in War- the cover!

So, here it is. The scene is the lounge aboard the Midnight Runner, with the Doctor Ian and Barbara. Susan and Marchor aren’t featured. The picture in the background is the Sculptor galaxy, or at least it’s supposed to be. It looks to me like the Milky way, but in the story it’s NGC 253/Sculptor, which I’ve labelled as Acteon

So what happens? Well, the entire premise of the story is based on the tall tale the Third Doctor tells Jo in Frontier in Space-

DOCTOR: Did I ever tell you the story about how I was once captured by the Medusoids?

 JO: What are they?

 DOCTOR: Medusoids? How can I describe them to you? Well, they’re a sort of hairy jellyfish with claws, teeth and a leg.

 JO: Erk!

 DOCTOR: Anyway, they put me under one of these mind probes things, you see, and tried to get me to tell them where I was going. So, I said I was on my way to meet a giant rabbit, a pink elephant and a purple horse with yellow spots.

 JO: What happened?

 DOCTOR: Well, the poor old machine just couldn’t believe it, had a nervous breakdown.

 JO: And then what happened?

 DOCTOR: Well, they put me under another one of these mind probe things and the same thing happened.

 JO: But you weren’t telling the truth. I mean, you weren’t really going to meet a giant rabbit, a pink elephant and a, what was it?

 DOCTOR: A purple horse with yellow spots. Yes, I was. You see, they were all delegates for the third Intergalactic Peace Conference.

 JO: How did you get away from these things?

 DOCTOR: Well they had to turn me loose eventually.

 JO: Why?

 DOCTOR: They ran out of mind probes.

Third Doctor and Jo Grant- Frontier in Space

I mean, it sounds like a joke, but what actually happened? Tune in at the weekend to find out!

Special thanks to Bob and the The Doctor Who Project team!

 

50 Quirky things to do in Halton- Victoria Park

It’s the place I’ve been to most over the years. In rain, sun, snow and even fog. So it’s nice to make a few new discoveries.

The 50 Quirky things to do in Halton provided another insight. I usually just walk past the statues, greenhouse and memorial/cenotaph. Not this trip.

Number 37 on the 50 things list was “Look out for raiding airships and stand proud next to the Victoria Cross statue”. So I found the statue of Corporal Mottershead, easy enough, but the description was of a bombed milestone from the Zeppelin air raids in WW1, so had a look near the road and gates, no sign, but found it near the cenotaph. Good job.

No 19 on the list is ‘flutter through a butterfly house’ Well, since I’m no Menoptera, that wouldn’t be possible, and besides, it was closed and locked. I’m counting it, since it’ never open anyway.
So 26 is also ticked, though I didn’t go Esposito’s, there’s another one on Runcorn Hill, so might go there.

And that is another three things done in Halton- yay!

oh- FYI- Menoptera were the inhabitants of the planet Vortis in the classic Who story The Web Planet.

 

The 50th anniversary of Bagpuss and my Birthday blog (two days ago)

Yes, you heard it right, that cloth cat is older than me! February 1974 was when it launched, just a couple of months before I arrived on the scene. I have got the dvd of the series, just didn’t do a review of it yet.
So, found the intro on Youtube along with Roobard- also from 74, then got epically distracted by other Tv programmes- Dangermouse, Trapdoor, Chorlton and the Wheelies- ooo ecky thump!

So my 50th birthday saw me do a couple more of the 50 things- Victoria Park, St Lukes then I walked up to Bold Heath and Griffin Wood- which was so muddy. Then Clock Face park and back down along the old rail line by the Dream.
So, that’ my 50th birthday blog- yay. Now just need to edit the vids- shouldn’t take long, maybe a month or two!

 

THE TIME OF THE DOCTOR- Dr Rrr’s Guide to the WHOniverses- Doctor Who from the Beginning

I think this is the 76^th video is the series.  It’s also a great point to finish for the year.

It’s been a long road, a lot of effort to keep on track, even letting other things go to keep on a (sort-of) schedule. Since I’m missing Series 10 and 12, leaving it makes sense until I can afford the dvds

Anyway, It’s a great story, the whole Christmas day malarkey with the Turkey and the Doctor going to Naked Church is a bit mad, but that’s Steven Moffat’s plotting for you. He ends up on Trenzalore, the place we saw his Tomb in The Name of the Doctor, defending the town of Christmas from every enemy he has ever had and stop the Timelords from returning.

Hat’s off to Moffat though for giving Matt Smith a great story to end with.  He’s what? 1,600 years old. The ageing makeup adds to the fact that this is it, he is the last Incarnation. He even explains it all to Clara (and the audience) That with The War Doctor and two Incarnations sharing the same face (Tennant) it all adds up. He is the Thirteenth Incarnation, there’s no more.

Well, until Clara intervenes, begging the Timelords for help. Which they do, as the Daleks defeat every one else and attack the town, Regeneration energy pours through the gap, giving The Doctor another Regeneration cycle, another twelve lives and he regenerates for the 13th time.

There are also the other Christmas specials on the dvd- The Doctor Widow and Wardrobe, Snowmen and Christmas Carol, which has Katherine Jenkins singing to a space shark of all things!

And thinking about whether Taylor Swift or Muse should be in the next Christmas special, found a surprising list of singers who have been in Who-

From McFly to Kylie Minogue: 22 pop stars and musicians you didn’t know were in Doctor Who

So hopefully will have Doctorspotting done for Xmas, we’ll have crack on with that won’t we?

 

Valliant Renegade’s take on SuperMario Bros opening will blow your mind!

As I was prepping the Leeds-Liverpool canal vid for the blog, caught latest video from Valliant Renegade, whose in-depth financial analysis is always quite impressive. This revelation, that Super Mario on it’s opening few days tops Disney’s Lightyear and Strange worlds was a mind-blowing revelation. Something is seriously wrong at the Mouse house, with everything from Star wars to Marvel suffering, but can it be fixed? Kudos to Universal and Illumination for this, I might go see it, see it it lives up to the hype!

 

Prelude to Halton Comic con 2-

Posting about Halton Comic Con 1!

I didn’t actually write anything up about the First HCC back in April 2019, although four videos were made of the event.

So, as a prelude, I thought I’d post the first set from the first one!

And a selection of photos from 2019 on TVP-

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2218566221563178&type=3

Anyway, back to the jobsearch!

 

THE TEN YEAR BLOGVERSARY SPECIAL!

THE TEN YEAR BLOGVERSARY SPECIAL!

Who remembers what it was like to be 10 years old? It was a few decades ago for me, so the details are a bit hazy.

I know I left things a bit downcast on Thursday, looking through old posts, especially from January 2020- The year started off bright and hopeful, til March and the horror story of LOCKDOWN!

In the meantime, I’ve turned several short local walks into day hikes by combining them, both east and west and north of Widnes. I declared War on the Back Garden, and lost, as it keeps growing back, I’ve binge-watched a lot of dvds and series- Divergent/Defiance/the first 7 series of Smallville/ X-files/Babylon 5/Survivors/Brooklyn99/Battlestar Galactica/the 1^st series of NuWho/Die Hard trilogy/Lethal Weapon series/the ENTIRE Generation-1 of Transformers cartoons, and now The Walking Dead on dvd and online.

And yet amongst that I have still tried pitching ideas and CV’s and applying for Media jobs while on Furlough- And still no change.

Ah well- I shall persevere. I have gotten all fifteen completed Short stories out- with another four nearly finished, so that’s something surely?

Anyhoo, happy Blogversary! Another fifty posts til ONE THOUSAND! Probably October then, let’s see what’s out there!!!

 

Infinite Whoniverses series 6- COMING SOON!

Working on editing the first three stories of Infinite Whoniverses series 6-The NeoDoctor Adventures. All I’ve got to is record narration and add sound effects- sound easy? Naa, not likely!

Anywho, here’s a new poster of the NEODOCTOR!

Plus the old trailer for the first line up, though it’s changed a bit now!

 

And ONE week to go b4 the BIG ONE-OHH!!!

 

 

SIX YEARS AFTER 10 Reasons why Muppeteering is the Future

When I saw the video of Beyond Baby Yoda- the reason THE MANDALORIAN was a big success, I realised I actually wrote something about it several years ago, so went for a rummage through the blog archives- and lo! I was right! 2014 was an epic year of hiking and experimental storytelling, culminating in puppet versions of several shows- a Game of Paws/TigTrek and Tig Wars, and I ended up writing up a few thoughts on it-

1- I’ve always loved Puppet shows

From Punch and Judy to Panto, as well as Kermit and co!

2- Favourite Film – The Muppet Movie

From a swamp to a film set, this is an excellent Road Movie, Fozzy’s Rainbow-coloured Studebaker car summing up the silliness, as well as the Giant Fork in the middle of the road!

I could also mention Labyrinth, Muppets Treasure Island and most especially The Dark Crystal as other faves, but I think you get the gist. In fact, I might watch it again this weekend- Moving right along!

3- I’ve been trained!

Honestly, I have! Thinking about all my previous experiences from Blackpool Beach Mission 1992, Harry and Sally, The Nuisance twins and all the way to Tiglet and gang, I should list the lot on my CV!

4- The Muppet Show

Well, what else would be such an inspiration? Need I say anymore?!

5- Its an excellent Creative resource in Kidswork

The best thing I have ever done at my Afterschool club was a stop-motion film last summer (Superthunderman’s Adventures in Partyland) but that was topped when the kids did their own Puppet show at Half Term, wish I had filmed that instead! Tiglet’s hikes and stories have appeared occasionally, but it is something I want to do more of, when I get the time!

6- An excellent Creative resource in Storytelling too!!

All the stories done on Tiglets site/Facebook page over the past year and the first attempts I made on my main Blog in 2012 have been such an incredible experience. All the poems, Time Travels, Pirateez, the Woozies all the way to the Hiking vids and beyond. Check them out, what a journey!

7- It’s taking over my life!

2009 was when I proposed a short film about a Tiger Puppet making a wildlife documentary about Students in Liverpool on a film making course. I was told it was ‘too gimmicky’ what the hell? Should’ve done it. I am thinking about putting a proposal together and seeing about getting it funded from Kickstarter.

8- Stop Motion is hard, Puppeteering so much easier

While on a Harryhausen stop-motion phase on and off over the last year has been fun, it was a lot of hard work. Superthunderman’s Adventures was a great learning curve, but using the pictures from Tiglet’s Time Travels and narrating over them has been great, though I’d still love to get into Claymation. The return of Morph is making me think of a few possibilities for the summer, so it’s 50/50 what I’ll do, but I haven’t given up on the idea yet!

9- It’s fun to do

That’s a no-brainer, but thought I’d mention it, well duh!!

10- I’m a Muppeteer!!!

It’s a great job title and great conversation topic for down the pub!

That’s the Top 10 Reasons why Muppeteering is the Future, though I’ve got lots of ideas for other stuff, including Live Action films, so we shall just have to see what happens then won’t we kiddies?

That was the original version, here’s the link-

https://iancaimercer.wordpress.com/2014/07/16/10-reasons-why-muppeteering-is-the-future/

Thinking about all that, there has been a lot I still haven’t done. Well, no time money and little in the way of sets and other resources meant it’s been difficult. Pawlock 2 shows how I need to plan more effectively, yes I should’ve turned a light on for the Empty Grey Castle- I thought it would be atmospheric- guess I was wrong!

Now with seeing the video I was reminded of a number of favourite films and shows that it had clips from- Terrahawks/Flight of the Navigator/Starfleet/The Dark Crystal- to name a few. Plus new things like Dark Crystal Age of Resistance and Thunderbolt Fantasy- I only caught a few episodes of that, but it looks epic.

Maybe it’s time for me to re-plan Starship Infinity and Tiglet’s Timewars, do something original rather than Dr. Rrr or Infinite Whoniverses? Something to chew over while looking for a job, though I’d rather be paid to puppeteer but that’s a whole other Kelli kettle of steaming fishes!

Thanks to Ben Page and Jamie Anderson on Linked In for the Inspiration!

 

Always 5, Acting as 1- Going gaga for the Return of G-Force

“Battle of the Planets!

G-Force- Princess, Tiny, Keyop, Mark, Jason, five incredible young people with superpowers!

And watching over them from Centre Neptune, 7-Zark-7!

Watching, warning against surprise attacks by alien galaxies from beyond space.

G-Force! Fearless young orphans, protecting Earth’s entire galaxy.

Always five, acting as one.

Dedicated! Inseparable! Invincible!”

 

Battle of the Planets was one of those Saturday morning cartoons in the 80’s that followed the success of Star Wars.

It was only later on I discovered it was adapted, like the original Transformers from a Japanese series- Science ninja team Gatchaman, which was very different, with more violence and profanity than a Western audience could handle.

 

So, with judicious editing, writing and addition of new elements- most notably R2D2/C3PO-Wannabe 7-Zark-7, who was really a framing device and expositional add on to link scenes into a semi-coherent storyline. Gatchaman had been set solely on Earth, with invasions every week. What made Battle of the Planets different was to have the team go to different planets, even other galaxies to fight Spectra.

It is quite good, a fun series, varied in its depiction of various planets being attacked by giant robots/monsters, although there are a few Astronomical niggles, most important the placing of the Home planet of Spectra in the Crab Nebulae, fifty thousand light years from Earth. In fact, I would go so far as to say this is a cosmological cockup. It should be the Delphinus Globular Cluster.

Okay, to be fair, in the 70’s, knowledge of the Universe wasn’t as sophisticated as it is now. But saying things like G-force protects the entire galaxy from ‘alien galaxies beyond space’ and then having the Alien Homeworld in the galaxy is a bit lame. It even gets the location wrong as the Crab Nebula is only 6,500 LY away and dominated by a pulsar that would make life extremely difficult, even if Spectra had a force field, but anyway, don’t let that spoil your enjoyment, I just went off on a cosmological tangent.

I hope the Russo Brothers do a thorough job of the cosmological background to the Live Action Remake. That’s how this started, I read of the announcement at San Diego Comic Con last weekend and began watching the series on Youtube.

Then I began researching and looking into the background of how it was made. The Battle of the Planets info site by Jason Hofius was extremely helpful and insightful, as well as providing a tangent for me to go off on!

So, It’s off to watch another exciting episode of Battle of the Planets- TRANSMUTE!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61PYU_ZCCo&list=PLLhOnau-tupQ8b6e96_z36YhzNG9-S8PK&index=2

http://battleoftheplanets.info/

http://www.battleoftheplanets.info/featurefilm.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Planets

https://deadline.com/2019/07/russo-brothers-agbo-studios-developing-grimjack-comics-adapting-japanese-anime-battle-of-the-planets-comic-con-1202649229/

Astronomy website-

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/galaxy.html

And here’s one from the microscopic to the macroscopic-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BjHvwSvpOw

The Delphinus cluster-

https://inspiringnews.wordpress.com/2010/10/12/50000-light-years-from-earth/

 

And for a headache, or inspiration for your next intergalactic empire- check out Project Rho-

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/starmaps/mapindex.php

 

Want an even bigger headache? Try the Lanikea Supercluster, ‘cos I just thought it was the Virgo SC-

http://www.astronomy.com/magazine/2019/02/all-about-our-local-supercluster

And as a bonus- here’s the only episode of Gatchaman I could find. After years of the US BotP version, the original is a bit bizarre!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpD1rHg7K8