I'm still computerless. The maddest machine ever put together needs more time on the treatment table. Or more precisely time is needed for a new PSU that will hopefully solve it's issues. I'm also without my sisters laptop she kindly lent me as she has decided to be selfish and take what is rightfully hers away. So today I'm trying to blog from my phone. Handy. But I'm not sure how this will look.Today I took delivery of some fridge magnets that I've had made featuring some of my Doctor Who designs on. Soon they will be available to buy in the shop, both as a set and individually. I'm rather fond of the TARDIS one myself. I was hoping to get some of the classic designs made as well but seeing as how I don't know how financially viable these will be I've decided to just select some from the new series for the time being.I continue to paint away. Working on another Sunflower painting, in which I am challenging myself to only use blue. Building up the tones by glazing the paint layer by layer. It's painstakingly slow as each layer needs to be dry before the next layer is applied. But hopefully it will achieve a level of depth which will allow the colour to glow not unlike a stained glass window. Soon I shall be entering a few competitions but I'm yet to decide on exactly what pieces to enter in which. But fingers crossed I'll be able to have some work on display in the not too distant future. Today's listening was Big Finish's superb 8th Doctor saga "Dark Eyes". Beautiful storytelling and some of the finest Doctor Who you could hope to experience.
Yeah. So I've yet to find my blogging rhythm. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly it is all a bit alien to me. Unfamiliar. So I'm very much fighting against my natural tendancy to shut the hell up. Well, I'm quite good at blabbing on and on endlessly. But I've found it harder to allow this to happen in blog form. Perhaps I need to relax a bit more. I dunno. However this has been compounded by a few things, namely my computer increasingly going insane. It's hard to commit yourself time to writing something when at any moment you might be hit in the face with the blue screen of death. And I mean smacked right in the face! Forget about the light at the end of tunnel, I reckon its that shade of blue we will all go to when we meet our invitable end. It'll probably have that terrifying sound playing as well, that one that sounds like a synthetic attempt at recreating the sound of a machine breaking. That's your computers soul either screaming or laughing at you depending if its psychotic or not by the way. One other reason I've been quiet is that I've been fairly productive, over the last couple of months I've been focussing more on my non Doctor Who artwork. I went through a period of throwing ideas together and looking at a variety artists work. I joined Pinterest and I've been using it as a quick way of creating a wall of images, a virtual one, this helped stick artists together whose work I might not always have compared to each other. This helped churn up some thoughts and I began experimenting with things. Some of which are on going. Now you might think being productive would be good for blogging but I'm very much a final piece person. I prefer to show things when they are finished. I'm quite the solitary figure and there is something to be said about a constant one to one dialogue with something you have created. Feedback can be great, but sometimes its not. Sometimes feedback is better once you've finished and can be applied to the melting pot of the next painting. So a daily update of how I've changed the tiniest bit of a drawing or glazed a bit of colour doesnt really go hand in hand with my working practice. However I've managed to complete a few things recently. You'll have to forgive some of the images, my studio can be a terrible place to take a photo of my work. On a gloomy day (which seem to be almost endless) the light is terrible. Most of the following is either finished or close to being finished. With the sunflower painting being the newest piece and thusly the furthest from completion. With the second half of the new series of Doctor Who well underway I plan to catch up and offer up some reviews and thoughts on the stories so far. I could blog about the 50th Anniversary Special news but beyond jumping up and down shouting the word "Zygons!" over and over again it would just be speculative madness. Hopefully this run of Who will help bed in the blogging into more of a habit or routine. Till then!
With the really rather brilliant news of Earth being invaded by Daleks on Sunday, all for the purposes of the ever increasingly exciting looking drama documentary ""An Adventure in Space and Time." I decided to sit down with the original Dalek Invasion of Earth. Not that Peter Cushing one! What do you take me for? No, it's the 1964 story featuring the very first return of the Daleks. It's classic Who in every sense. Set in 2164, the original TARDIS crew have finally returned to London. After a whole season of hoping, Barbara and Ian look like they might have just made it home. But it doesn't take long to realise that this isn't the London they remember. Something is a miss in London. Namely its inhabitants. The Doctor soon works out they have arrived too far in the future but is curious to know what has happened to the city. Why is it deserted? Ian is more concerned with not getting into more danger, worried that a plague may be involved. But fortunately the TARDIS is blocked off when a dilapidated bridge collapses on it. Forcing the crew to begin exploring the city to find help. Susan falls over. Susan hurts her ankle. The crew become separated with the Doctor and Ian finding the murdered body of someone wearing a massive set of headphones. Not being completely stupid the Doctor theorises that these must be some form of personal communication device. Susan and Barbara however are dragged off by some non headphone wearing humans. They lead them to a group of underground survivors who begin to explain that Earth has been invaded, having been decimated by a plague from space. Ian and the Doctor are soon cornered between the Themes and non murdered headphone wearing humans. This brings about one of the most memorable sequences in classic Who. A Dalek emerges from the Themes to complete the capture of the Doctor and Ian.
The sequence when Babara and a couple of rebels have to flee across London is a highlight. This is actually the first attempt at an "Earth Invasion" story in the shows history. The first season is made mainly of historical stories and the odd future space event. Its a slight shame the quality doesn't quite hold up throughout the second half of the story. As the crew and rebels make there way to the mines in order to find out just what the Daleks really want with the Earth, writer Terry Nation has to invent a few ordeals to pad out the story somewhat. Fortunately it never reaches the point of having to jump over a gap over and over. But this does provide time to add more colour to the story. Ian encounters the rather rubbish Slyther, but finds that even when desperate that the human race is still capable of greed. Susan and the Doctor have to deal with sewer alligators (yes really), this allows time for Susan to get friendly with a local. A human, not an alligator. But it's Barbara's trek to the mines I find most effective. Having watched a wheel-chaired man of science (accidentally foreshadowing something perhaps?) sacrifice himself to a Dalek patrol. Her and another rebel escape in a vehicle driving through Daleks before having to ditch there new found wheels when attacked by a Dalek saucer. On foot for the rest of the journey they find a couple women and offer food in exchange for shelter. The ladies quickly sell them out to the Daleks in order to get even more food. Taken to the mine to work they soon see the true extent of the Dalek plan. They plan to remove the Earths core in order to pilot the planet. Unfortunatly the eventual uprising and over throwing of the Daleks is a bit of an anti-climax. One area where the Cushing movie does perform better. Its all there on paper but this is tv in 1964. Everyone is certainly giving it all they can, whilst its fair to say that they are still "exploring" the Daleks. With more on screen chatting away its clear they are trying to find new variants to the voices. Some simply dont work as well (although that black Dalek is seriously cool). Its easily over looked though as it truly is an epic story. Not only the first return of the metal dustbins, the first invasion earth story its the first time a companion leaves. Susan has grown to love a young Earth male over the course of the story. The Doctor, realising that his grand daughter can never walk away from him, decides to leave her behind with the promise that he will return. The closing moments are sublime and Hartnell, who typically stumbles his way through the odd line throughout the story, gives a perfect performance. Creating a moment worth watching over and over. And over and over. Again and again. Memorable. Yesterday I got to listen to the Big Finish audio story, "The First Sontarans" by Andrew Smith. Simply, its really rather great. This begins as a relatively small tale but grows throughout before reaching an epic scale. Constantly unearthing secrets and finally offering something close to an origin story for those angry little starch men. The story never directly takes place at there creation so this isn't a Genesis of the Daleks or Spare Parts style event. But the first orders for the clone race bred for war have finally be revealed. The Sixth Doctor takes Peri to the moon before coming across an alien signal that entices them to Sussex in the 1800's. Here they find that not all is what it seems and soon the Doctor is threatened by a man who knows of the Time Lords and someone else has a Sontaran locked away. Before long 3 alien races are involved in a war that started long ago. What is rather remarkable about this story is that it also manages to tell an intimate sub plot about family including touching on a more paternal side of the Sontarans, they show a desire and pride to look after there young. Fitting for a race so full of honour. As part of the Lost Stories range this is also a "What if?" moment as a chance to experience a story that didn't get produced in 1985 having lost out to the Two Doctors story (which also featured Sontarans.) In many ways its such a shame that this didn't get made instead. However its highly unlikely the story would have been done justice in its current form. Typically splendid audio work helps let your head paint the canvas to one heck of a story. Its full of classic sound effects and I love me some classic sound effects. If I have one nitpick its that the score was a little unremarkable. But it still hits the right moments. A brilliant adventure well worth listening to for any fan of hostile armored spuds. It also features possibly the best description of Sixeys outfit ever. Giving this a listen gave me the chance to sit down with my own first Sontaran. Quite why its taken me till now I dont know. They are one of the most popular and iconic creatures from the shows history. It seemed apt so I started with the real first clone from Sonta, Commander Linx! Or Toadface for you Irongron's out there. From The Time Warrior (1973) by Robert Holmes. I've always loved Linx. He displays not only the brutal angry spirit you expect of a soldier, from a race of soldiers but also some tact and wit. Stranded on Earth in the Middle Ages he has to make deals with the locals, it tests his patience having to deal with illiterate half wits but bless him he bargains with them anyway. I've also always thought highly of this design of the Sontarans, the make up job for Doctor Who in 1973 is a brilliant achievement. The fleshy moist texture is sadly lost in their next appearance in the Sontaran Experiment (1975) when Styre turns up to be incredibly nasty to some astronauts. The upside is that Styre's head has a bit more shape and structure to it. The less said about the later appearances of the Sontarans the better, whilst there plans are ambitious in The Invasion of Time (1978), invading Gallifrey no less, they look hideous and frankly terrible compared to the previous versions. Things dont improve much in "The Two Doctors" (1985) as they seem to give up being clones, offering up huge height differences between them and strange hollow lifeless looking heads. Fortunately the new series take on the Sontarans, to me at least, look like a blend of the the first two. The stronger sense of form of Styre is combined with the fleshy texture of Linx means they look like living things. If I'm brutally honest I would have preferred the armour to have kept the black/silver colour scheme but I dont mind that much. I also prefer the original Linx helmet. There is something slightly regal about it. Knight like. But I cant write about Sontarans for long without mentioning Strax. Brilliantly played by Dan Starkey (who also provides voices in The First Sontarans) I find him impossible not to love. Scene stealing excellence. I so hope Moffat gives him a proper origin story of his own! Alongside some properly brutal Sontarans. Also Moffat needs to make it commercially viable for us all to have Sontaran butlers. Do it now!
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Matt King
I am artist. Doctor Who. Madness. Archives
March 2014
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