The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

And so, it has finally been revealed that Christopher Eccleston is going to play the Doctor as another Cosmic Hobo. He is going to be a bit of a scruff, in a disreputable brown leather jacket, burgundy polo shirt, black trousers and black boots. I cannot say I was greatly impressed by the outfit when first I saw it, but it has grown on me. The thing is, it is a set of clothes, not an uniform. In the 1980’s John Nathan-Turner, the Producer at the time felt that the Doctor who wear the same thing all the time, that he had multiple copies of the same outfit and never varied from it. This is of course ridiculous, and it reached its nadir with Colin Bakers frock coat of many colours. It appears that the Doctor in this new series is going to have the above mentioned signature look, but it will vary from story to story. On a side note, I have plenty of black trousers, I wear a pair of black boots, there are numerous polo shirts in my wardrobe, an I have just found my father’s old leather jacket from the 1970’s. Hey, instant Convention Costume.

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I have recently discovered a new joy of the Internet, the Webcomic. I am currently engrossed in Paul Gadzikowski’s Arthur: King of Time and Space. In this comic, King Arthur has recently pulled Excalibur from the stone, and its magic has displaced him in time, so that he and his contemporaries exist not just in the Fairytale setting of Camelot, also in contemporary setting of an US High School and in the future aboard the Starship Excalibur. The story is told in a series of self contained daily strips, and depending on the needs of th plot, exists in one of the three arcs.

I thoroughly recommend anyone reading this blog take a half an hour or so to read the series as it stands, and then become hooked, bookmarking the daily strip and visiting it each day, to see what happens next.

It was published in Saturday’s Western Mail newspaper that on Tuesday and Wednesday, certain streets in the centre of Cardiff were being cordoned off, so that scenes from the new series of Doctor Who could be filmed there. And then I read on the Outpost Gallifrey web forum that half of the pub The Toad at the Exhibition was being used by the production team. This was far to good an opportunity to pass up, Doctor Who my favourite television series has not been made in for 15 years, and now they were filming it virtually on my back door, and I would have a chance to watch from a comfortable, if slightly overpriced bar.

As I am working on Saturday morning, I was entitled to an afternoon off this week, so I chose Tuesday. Finished work at 1pm, had something to eat, and then caught the 3:31pm train down to Cardiff. Before I left, I had to set my SKY+ to record that night’s (more…)

On Sunday, this blog will be one year old. Quite a bit has changed in the past 12 months. The first entry was written on my old RiscPC, in my old room in my Mothter’s house. This entry was written on my new IyonixPC in the study of my house.

As you can see, to mark the anniversary, I have redesigned the layout of the blog, going to a three column structure. I am still not sure if this works. Also I have modified the colour scheme. Please let me know what you think.

Today, I should have graduated with an Honours Degree in Combined Studies. Today I should be celebrating instead of in work as per normal. You see, I have been doing my degree in my spare time, and the first to modules for the Third Level were taken before what was known as The Big Bang. In those days, students did ten modules per year, and each module was worth 12 Credits. For the past two years, students have done six modules a year worth 20 Credits. Everyone assumed that when I completed the sixth Level Three module then I would be done and dusted. Then they checked to see what sort of Degree I would get, and of course, they found I was 16 Credits short of getting an Honours Degree. So, I have to do an extra module next year at Level Three to make up the shortfall.

When I was told this, at the end of June, I was gutted. I had booked the time of from work for the Awards Congregation, booked the robes and mortarboard, and it felt like it had all been snatched away from me.

On the plus side, I know that when I do complete the module SP308: Selected Topics in Modern Astrophysics, given the average of my modules, I will definitely get a 2:1 and if I get an “A” grade in this module, I will be borderline for receiving First Class Degree. All this from a person who was told by the Headmaster of the comprehensive school I attended that I would never pass a CSE.

20six Comments

(21.7.04 22:00)
this is very familiar, comments from teachers i mean, i finally made it to the ol’ mortar board routine. i felt like posting them a pic, but then i couldn’t be bothered.
well almost congratulations, when will you get it at xmas ? or do you have to wait till next july?

(22.7.04 00:51) With luck, I will graduate next July. Another year of going down to the University at Trefforest. I am looking forward to it now.

Way back when VCRs were extremely complex and cumbersome devices only used by television professionals, and the DVD was the sort of thing that would feature in Doctor Who and not hold copies of it, the only way to enjoy past episodes of the series was by reading the novelisations. These began in 1965 a company called Universal Tandem books released three novelisations of the William Hartnell stories, The Daleks, The Web Planet and The Crusades. They failed to take off, and it took another ten years before W. H. Allen and Company had another shot at releasing Doctor Who novelisations through the Target paperback list. With the exception of two stories by the late Douglas Adams and two Dalek stories written by Eric Saward that fell foul of the Estate of Terry Nation, Target printed an adaptation of every single televised Doctor Who serial.

In these high tech days, it seems unlikely that the news series will have a similar treatment. This however, has not stopped some of the talented members of the of the Outpost Gallifrey Forum from having a go at designing the layout of novelisations of the new series.

My favourites are by Forum member SKMDC, from the USA who has produced a potential cover for the first story with the working title Rose and the fourth story (two episodes) with working title Aliens of London. This is the product of a thread about the possible logo that the new series is going to use. SKMDC started of by designing a logo and then seeing what it would look like. I think it is unlikely that the Three Who Rule will move away from the TVM/Pertwee era logo that appears on all the merchandise.

We were told that filming of the new series of Doctor Who was due to start in July.  Well, we are nearly half way through the month, and not  a peep has been heard from the series. I am hoping that today is the day that things move up a gear, and filming starts.  I am quite happy to see this morning taken up by a publicity photo shoot, with pictures splurged across the tabloids tomorrow.  (It being the summer, the tabloids should jump at it, today must be a pretty light news day if a photo of Geri Halliwell in wellies is front page news in the Daily Mail).  Idealy Billie Piper and Chris Ecceleston in costume outside the Millenium Stadium and/or Cardiff Castle.  With the long summer days and relatively good weather and very short twilight, I should imagine that all the exterior location work will be done in the next few weeks.

I went out last night, with the family to celebrate my younger sister Carolyn’s birthday. We went to the Abercave Inn, which is on the borders of the Brecon Beacons National Park. A lovely old pub, that does first class food. It also has a wide selection of malt whiskys, including the new Penderyn Welsh Single Malt Whisky (Penderyn Wisgi Brag Sengl Cymrieg), which is distilled a few miles away from the pub in the village of Penderyn. I could not resist, I had to have a taste, see what it was like.

All the Celtic countries have a tradition of making Malt Whisky, most famously of course are Scotch Whisky and Irish Whiskey. Unfortunately, Welsh Wisgi died out in 1896 under the enormous pressure of religious bigotry from fundamentalist Christians. It has taken over a 100 years to see it born again. It is a great shame, that after waiting so long, the people making the whisky could not have waited for the liqueur to mature properly. The spirit in the bottle I had a single measure from had only been in the cask for three years. The minimum any decent whisky should be matured for is in my opinion 8 year. I read on the Welsh Whisky Company’s web site that this is an initial release, the bulk of the brew is still maturing in Maderia casks, this is just enough to keep the company afloat. As a result, the whisky I was drinking was still a bit on the rough side. Despite it youth, the whisky had potential, It smelt wonderful, and had warmth and pleasantly sweet aftertaste given a decent amount of time in the cask, it could be a winner.

A few months ago, I talked about a particular sort of desperately sad vehicle, the Wallycar. The souped up Ford Fiestas or Vauxhall Novas with their hugh spoilers, huge exhausts and alloy wheels. Well I have no found a car that beats even them in the tragedy stakes. I am talking about the Subaru Imprezza. This is the car for the person who is to lazy to go out and ruin a decent set of wheels themselves, as this car is a production wallycar, it comes from the factory with the hugh spoilers, huge exhausts and alloy wheels. Who in their right minds would be seen driving something that sad.

About ten years ago, the band Massive Attack released a song called Winter in July. Well, that is exactly what we are having with the weather at the moment. It is the middle of summer, and yet I have my central heating on because it is so cold. At least South Wales is not getting it as bad as the south and east of England. Which makes a change, normally the weather comes strait of the Atlantic and batters Wales and the west, this week the cloud is coming from the south and the wind is coming from the east, so the London and the Home Counties are getting a battering.