A Tale of Four('s) Scarves

Right, now you have your Fourth Doctor hat, it's time for the most famous part of the ensemble: the scarf.

But it's not quite as simple as that.  Did you know there were four different scarves used during Tom Baker's seven-year tenure as the Doctor?  And that one of them was chopped down three successive times, combined with another, and finally rearranged and given patches and new tassels?

(That would be the original scarf, by the way, cut down following the taping of "The Sontaran Experiment" (1975), again following "Revenge of the Cybermen" (1975), and yet again after "The Seeds of Doom" (1976).  A duplicate was made for "The Android Invasion" (1976) for a fight scene between the Doctor and his evil doppelgänger.  That scarf and the original were then combined at the start of Season 16 (1978) to form one enormous scarf.  This was finally rearranged and repaired for the unfinished story "Shada" (1979), made its televised premier in repurposed footage from that story in "The Five Doctors" (1983), and last appeared on the show worn by Ace in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy" (1988).  I told you it wasn't simple.)

Where can you go to find out exactly which scarf, in exactly what configuration, was used in your favorite Fourth Doctor story?  (And if you say it's "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," where he doesn't wear his scarf, I'm going to slap you.)

You can go to the Doctor Who: The Scarf website, at the conveniently intuitive URL http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com.

The site contains diagrams of the various scarves, in their various guises.  To the left is the original version, seen only in "Robot" and "The Sontaran Experiment."  The numbers represent the number of rows.  (The story in between, "The Ark in Space," was actually taped after "Sontaran," meaning that, as seen on television, the Doctor's scarf lost the grey section marked "44" at left, grew it back, then lost it again.  Maybe the Doctor's wardrobe regenerates, too.  We know his buccaneer boots turned into shoes between "Logopolis" and "Castrovalva."  But I digress.)

For those wanting to create their own scarves, there are also best and alternate choices for wool to match the color and texture of the real thing(s), some knitting instructions regarding stitch, how to change colors, and how to make the tassels.

To see that his instructions are accurate, check out his section of photos of his own work, including one of his Season 16 scarf next to the genuine article (as it were).  And when you're done, your photo can join the gallery of user-created scarves.

If you're like me (and, as always, if you are, I'm so, so sorry), you can wear the scarf your grandmother knitted you in 1983 from the "official" BBC pattern (based on the Season 13 duplicate... although now that I compare my scarf against the chart, either the pattern left out two grey sections, or my grandmother did), or the Season 18 scarf you bought on eBay in 2008, and just revel in all the nerdy informational goodness.

The Trilby of a Time Lord

photo from bbc.co.uk

Have you ever wanted a hat like the one Tom Baker wore during his first six years on Doctor Who?  Sure, we all have.  I, personally, have been jonesing for one for 31 years.

But how to get one?  Surely you can't just go grab one off the shelf at the local K-Mart.  (The "K," unfortunately, does not stand for "Kasterborous.")  And making one to order would be prohibitively expensive, yes?

No.  "Penwiper," on Pyrdon Academy's Doctor Who costuming forum, shows you how you can make one yourself for less than $20.

And what do you need to get started, making the headgear of that quintessentially British hero with the unshakably Edwardian dress sense?

Why, naturally, a cowboy hat.

Windshield roadkill pigeon optional.

I can't describe the process in full.  (That would be stealing, and Lord knows that's not what the Internet is for, right?  Right?)  And why bother when you can follow the link above, and see it for yourself, along with copious numbers of helpful photos.  But suffice it to say that with some clipping, soaking, brushing, bashing, ironing, and sewing, you too can have a hat you'll be proud to travel time and space in.  Just watch out for that automatic security system when you visit Nerva Beacon.

Change, my dear.  And it seems not a moment too soon.

If Your Cats Are Science Fiction Nerds, Too...

...here's how to thrill them beyond measure.  If they're not, however, they will disdain you and puke in your shoes.  But you're probably safe.  It's a well-known fact that cats made up 28% of the audience of Enterprise by the fourth season.

Still, considering how obsessed most cats are with appearing dignified (in between bouts of cleaning their butts with their tongues), they will probably just claim to like these "ironically."  They will also insist you use the term "speculative fiction" in referring to their interest.

Get back, Trekkie cat

(Imgur via Blastr via Nerd Approved)

Now, this wouldn't interest my cats.  Not even the Reliant one that I'm tempted to buy and lie on myself.  You see, Charlotte and Emily are Doctor Who fans.  They watch K-9 blowing up at the beginning of "The Leisure Hive," and they just laugh and laugh.

Kaylee the cat showed a decided interest in the 1/6 scale TARDIS her owner domestic help was building.

The original version of "The Mind Robber, Episode 1" was much more horrifying.

Accordingly, he next made a step up to 1/2 scale to give her the cat fort of her dreams.

She's not blurry here, she's in a state of quantum indeterminacy.

Not actually bigger on the inside.  But it is more furnished than most versions of the TARDIS.

(via TARDIS Builders)

Charlotte and Emily want me to build them one, but not one like this.  They're original series fans.  Right now, they're rolling on the floor, biting each other's neck over the issue of whether I ought to build them a Brachacki box, or a Tom Yardley Jones.

Degradation of the Daleks

Diagram of the Dalek props as used in "Resurrection of the Daleks" (1984)

Here's a website which perfectly embodies the dedication, curiosity, attention to detail, and general weirdness of we science fiction enthusiasts.

Called Dalek6388, it follows the history of the Dalek props used in the original Doctor Who series from their inaugural appearance in the series' sixth episode, "The Survivors," in 1963, to their swansong in "Remembrance of the Daleks, Part Four" in 1988.  Along the way, it also handles Daleks constructed for the two movies starring Peter Cushing, the play Curse of the Daleks, and for publicity purposes.

In the graphic above, for instance, we see that the four Daleks scraped together to menace Peter Davison in "Resurrection of the Daleks" (1984) consisted of the following: the top of a 1963 Dalek on a base produced for "The Chase" (1965) from the molds made for the film Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965); the top of a Dalek built for "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (1964) on an odd, almost-symmetrical base from a Dalek built for exhibition purposes; the top that originally went with the aforementioned base from "The Chase" on a wooden base (as opposed to the fiberglass of the others) originally built for "Planet of the Daleks" (1973) purely as a crowd-filling extra; and the top from that base, on the base of the other "Dalek Invasion of Earth" build.

So you can see it's kind of a complex story.  The site's creators spent many hours freeze-framing videos and carefully examining photographs to uncover characteristic differences between the props, and are able to give us a complete, highly readable, lavishly illustrated account of how they (the Daleks, not the authors) were used, given away, borrowed, stolen, broken, repainted, mismatched, repaired (or not), and generally abused over the course of a quarter-century.  (As I was amazed to find out, the top of one of the Daleks used in "Remembrance" in 1988 came from the original set of four, built in 1963, and survives to this day.  So do the collars and base of another 1963 Dalek, but for some reason, they last saw use in the series in 1967 and 1975, respectively.)  In the process, the authors come to some new conclusions (such as that the Daleks made for Curse went on to appear in the second film, Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) and put to rest some old bits of received wisdom (such as the notion that any film Daleks were ever converted for regular use in the series).

After reading this site, with rapt attention, for about three hours, I began to wonder if I wasn't, you know, like, a nerd or something.  Fortunately, the authors end their account with this amusing and reassuring statement: "We thank you for taking the time to read any of this site, and if you feel a little bit guilty for finding it quite interesting, you can take comfort from the fact that you weren't the losers who wrote it."

But let me tell you, nerds like me should (Dalek voice) ap-pre-ci-ate (/Dalek voice) the dedication of losers like them.

YouTube Tuesday: "Who" and What

In our first Doctor Who-related video this week, we find the question is not, in fact, "Who?" Instead, it's...

A couple weeks ago, we got good and funky with the theme from Star Wars (among other music from the first four released movies). Now it's Doctor Who's turn. Amazingly/horrifyingly enough, this is the only arrangement of the theme ever made by its composer, Ron Grainer. Reportedly, he said that if he had had the chance to arrange it in 1963, it would have been something like this. So if you haven't thanked your deity recently for putting Delia Derbyshire on this earth, you will in a few minutes. (Okay, okay... despite the utter wrongness of this music, I sometimes find myself listening to it several times in succession.)

Finally, watch 45 years flash before your eyes. I don't know where that clip that's allegedly from "The Massacre" came from, because it has no surviving clips. The "Mission to the Unknown" clip appears to be a photograph touched up with CG. ("Marco Polo" has one existing clip, on the technicality that it repeated the end of the previous episode.)

Thanks to the fans who recorded the off-air soundtracks, and to the superhuman efforts of Mark Ayres in restoring them, you can, at least, hear those stories. (In the case of "Mission to the Unknown," he took two different recordings-- one that was generally superior, and one that had more top-end --synced them up line by line, and combined them into an even better version.)

Density of the Daleks: Less Than 1

But they're still deadly. If they continue to wipe out editors of more popular science fiction venues, however, I can live with that.

See and read more about it here.

And here, where I heard about it.

YouTube Tuesday: Bits and Pieces

Yet another video I wouldn't have known about if not for i09, here's an amusing CGI collision between two science fiction epics of 1968, 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Doctor Who Cybermen story "The Wheel in Space." (I hadn't thought of this when I decided to post the video, but the series turned 46 years young yesterday.) I particularly enjoyed the "recasting" of the Pan-Am shuttle scene. Even if you don't know Doctor Who from a hole in the ground, the re-creation of iconic 2001 sets is still pretty incredible. And if you don't know 2001 from a hole in the ground, either... well, there's not much I can do to help you.

If you're anything like me (and if you are, I'm so, so sorry), you've been waiting almost a year for this: Part II of the Star Trek: Phase II adventure "Blood and Fire," co-written and directed by Thrilling Wonder Stories, Volume 2 alum David Gerrold. This is the recap and Part II teaser.

They're still working on a final sound mix, but you can download the current working version here. Since I'm choosy, in addition to being a big, big nerd, I'm going to wait until it's all done, and then let the full experience wash over me in the fullness of its coolness.

And while I'm pimping the work of people I know... I finally watched Humanity's End, the new film by Neil Johnson, the other day, and it's a knockout!  It keeps the action coming and delivers some unexpected emotional punch at the same time. And some of the effects are pretty damn impressive, too—the envy of science fiction films hundreds of times its budget of $140,000.

Don Baldaramos has a great supporting role in it as General Freitag. And he was in the Star Trek: Phase II episode "World Enough and Time," which we covered in the aforementioned TWS Volume 2, as well as being indispensable behind the scenes. So it all fits together, you see. (Kari Nissena, who has nothing to do with Thrilling Wonder Stories, but who I also know, appears in the film as a Nephilim officer, Gorlock.)

Speaking of things fitting together, it's nice to see the spaceship sets at Laurel Canyon Stages again. We shot most of A Can of Paint there in 2002, and I was just wondering the other day if it was still around.

YouTube Tuesday: Doctor Whuesday

I don't know what's put me in such a "classic Doctor Who" mood lately, but here are some more videos around that theme.

To start with, one literally around "that theme"—the familiar "ooo-WAH-ooo" we also dealt with last week. This video mashes up all the original-series openings, plus some classic-style ones made up for the Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Doctors. I think the first two minutes is just fantastic, with all the layering of the various credits sequences. Putting the 1980-84 stars in the background certainly gives the various 1963-73 howlarounds more pizzazz. (It drops off a bit after that.)

Here's a video that must have taken an awful lot of effort: the beginnings of a homemade Doctor Who anime. The Third Doctor stars, because if you want copious quantities of anime-style butt-kicking, there's no denying he's your man. If I were running the BBC, I'd hire this guy immediately, because what with Doctor Who currently taking over all available media... well, why not anime?

And here's the inevitable LEGO version. The punchline trades off a classic Doctor Who line. (I wonder if that's Arcturus from "The Curse of Peladon" that the Doctor's companion is bothering.)

YouTube Tuesday: ooo-WAH-ooo (diddildy-pom-diddildy-pom)

Ever since I started watching the show in 1980, the Doctor Who theme has been my favorite science fiction music... maybe my favorite music altogether. I can walk on the treadmill for an hour, and listen to nothing but various arrangements of that theme. (Try it yourself—there are literally hundreds of them at whomix.trilete.net.)

But seeing as this is YouTube Tuesday, music alone won't cut it. So how about a video of someone playing both parts of a two-track synthesizer arrangement?

Not good enough? How about someone playing the theme on ukulele while wearing a the costumes of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors?

Or the theme played on tuned twin Tesla coils. (Try to say that ten times fast.)

Or how about the theme as it appeared on the BBC Micro computer in the game "Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror" in 1985, accompanied by two versions of the TV opening credits, treated to make them look like era-appropriate computer graphics.

While we're on the subject of opening credits, how about an example of the ever-popular mash-up? Here's a 1978 performance by "Mankind," set to the Colin Baker credit sequence.

What, still not satisfied? Well, here's a guy in a mohawk, playing it in front of the TARDIS on an electric violin.

Okay, I have to admit this doesn't have much in the visual department, but it's a cool heavy metal take on the theme.