The Journal of the Browncoat Cat

It is remarkable what a difference a few sunny days will make to peoples’ outlook on life.   The whole week had been gloriously spring-like and Saturday was no exception.  It added to greatly to the party atmosphere in Cardiff for the Wales v Ireland rugby match, that would decide the outcome of this year’s RBS Six Nations Championship.

I arrived in Cardiff at just before 1pm.  I got off the train at Cathays Park station because I had heard that there was some filming for Doctor Who taking place in the Blackwells University Bookshop on Senghennydd Road.  Unfortunately, by the time I got there, all was done and dusted.  Not to worry, it was such a lovely day, that a few more minutes walking in Cardiff would be no hardship.

The lady in the photograph, for reasons that probably made perfect sense when she was getting ready was wearing this attractive wedding dress.  I did notice that there were a number of  groups of women, between six to twelve in number, who were all wearing if not identical, then very similar outfits. as can be seen in the photo on the right.

It is amazing that a few short days of sunshine in March will encourage people to unpack the lighter Summer clothes that last saw the light of day at the end of September.  One of the reasons I love the Summer is because people are more open in the Summer, not wrapped up, closing themselves off to avoid the worse of the winter weather.  But lets be honest, Saturday was still a bit on the chilly side, and maybe it was a bit too soon to air the Summer flimsy.

The bars and restaurants of Cardiff’s city centre were doing a roaring trade, and mostly the people were good tempered and law-abiding.  Whether this party atmosphere lasted throughout the whole of the day, I cannot tell, but whilst I was there, it seemed that everyone was having a good time.

Usually, I travel down to the Rugby Internationals with my Brother-in-Law Gary. Today was different, in the morning he was taking his son William, my nephew out for a birthday treat, and I was meeting Gary in the Millennium Stadium before the match kicked off.  So at just after 5.15pm I took my seat for the main event of the day.    The photo below shows the Welsh Team coming out of the Tunnel, just before they ran onto the pitch.

Although I would have liked it if Wales had won, I was glad that the Irish won their first Grand Slam since 1948.  To be perfectly honest, Wales did not deserve to win.  In the first half, they managed to get a six point lead over the Irish, halfway towards winning by the 13 point margin that was needed to win the Championship, Grand Slam and Tripple Crown.  However the Irish came out for the second half like a different team, it was obvious that they really wanted to win more than the Welsh.  Two quick tries at the start of the second half sealled it. The Welsh Coach, Warren Gatland really needs to come up with a couple of alternative strategies, as the Home Nations seem to have worked out his current game plan and now know how to counter it.  Also, the Welsh XV were back in the bad habit of losing Line-Outs, which is a schoolboy mistake that should not happen at Test Match Level.

And for a few short hours on Saturday Night/Sunday Morning, I was the King of the Internet Doctor Who Forums, because I was  probably the only fan who saw the one minute long trailer for the Doctor Who Easter Special Planet of the Dead, and was able to write about it once I got home.  Now, given the close relationship between the WRU and the BBC over the broadcasting of Welsh Rubgy Internationals, ever since the series returned in 2005, I have been expecting some form of trailer for series to be shown as part of Half Time entertainment.  So imagine my surprise when it finally happens, and I heard All the Strange, Strange Creatures being played on the tannoy in the stadium and watched the trailer unfold.   The trailer featured various assorted clips of Cardiff and Dubai doubling for London and an Alien Planet and from memory and in no particular order it showed:

• Shots of Michelle Ryan doing some sort of Mission Impossible break in with wires and a harness
• UNIT troops shooting at something after Colonel Magambo declares a “Code Red”
• A steaming burnt corpse appearing in the tunnel
• The Doctor asking Christina if she was ready
• A woman saying “we’re dead” over and over again
• Lots of glorious panoramic shots of the desert
• Christina being pursued by the Police.
• The Doctor and Christina aboard the bus.

The funny thing is that the BBC has been very quiet about this trailer.  It has not been accompanied by the usual fanfare, as far as I know it was not featured in the broadcast half-time coverage of the match on BBC One, it has not appeared on the BBC Doctor Who web site or on the BBC Channel on YouTube.  It is almost as if the seventy-five thousand or so souls in the Millennium Stadium got an unauthorised sneek peek at the trailer, and the vast majority of those present did not really care what they saw in the interval, they were only interested in the International rugby match.

I just booked a rail journey from Treherbert to London for a few months time.  I did it through the Trainline web site.  Something has gone seriouly wrong with the way that the railways in this country are being run.  It was considerably cheaper to buy two Single tickets than to buy the combined Return ticket.  This is madness.

Remaining on a Japanese theme.

I think it was either in the Sixteenth or Seventeenth Century that someone in Japan had the idea to serve some raw fish in pickled rice, wrapped in sheets of seaweed, thus creating Sushi.  That person must have been, as Terry Pratchett said in one of his novels, desperately hungry, even to think that such a notion was even edible, let alone delicious.  Delicious it proved to be, and people in Japan have been eating Sushi ever since, and in the last century, with the growth of Japanese industrial giants Worldwide, it has spread to the West.

I have eaten a lot of sushi in my time, and today was my first attempt at preparing it.  A few weeks ago, I had been to my local Tesco in Talbot Green, and I had been quite prepared to buy everything I needed to prepare sushi there.  Unfortunately, they did not have the yaki nori, the seats of dried seaweed in stock, and so I gave it a miss on that occasion.  A few days later, I decided to go on line and order everything I would need, well nearly everything I would still have to get the fish locally, from the Japan Centre web site.  Last week a package containing all the various bits and pieces, including the nori arrive.  I bought a tuna steak and some salmon fillets, to use as the Sashimi, the raw fish in the sushi  and prepared to go oriental.

First things first, preparing the sushi rice.  This is not like the normal long grain rice that is eaten with Indian or Chinese food.  Sushi Rice is very short-grained, almost round, more like the rice that is used in the UK to make rice pudding.  Preparing the rice is unlike any other rice cooking I have ever done.  The 250 grams of dry rice has to be washed in cold water at least three times unitl all the lose starch is removed.  It is  then added to unsalted boiling water, which is then brought to the boil and left to simmer for ten minutes, with the lid on tightly, and no stirring at all.  This is then left to cool slightly, with the lid still firmly in place for another fifteen minutes.  After this time, the Sushi-Su, a blend of rice vinegar, rice wine, sugar and fish stock is carefully stirred into the rice, giving the sushi rice its unique flavour.

First mishap, I had the heat too high under the saucepan and burnt the first batch of rice.  I managed to salvage a little under a third of the rice, and mixed in a greatly reduced amount of pre-mixed sushi-su into it, and made my first batch of  maki-zushi 巻き寿司.   I still had a lot of raw fish left, so, after cleaning the saucepan, on went the gas and I cooked the other half of the bag of sushi rice.

Second mishap, George jumped up onto the kitchen table and stole half my raw salmon.  Fortunately the rest of the ingredients and the makushi, the bamboo rolling mat were out of harms way on another work top.  I was not happy with the cat, and I think he knew it, as he bolted out of the house like he had a devil on his tail.

At the end of the process, there was a little rice and shashimi left over, but not enough to go into another maki, so I made four nigiri-zushi  握り寿司 to make the plate look pretty.

I served the sushi in a white plate, with a little watashi and some pickled ginger and a small egg cup of soy sauce.  Watashi is green Japanese horseradish and is strong enough to clear the sinuses of an elephant, it must be treated with care, with only a tiny and I mean tiny amount on the plate. As I purchased this from the Japan Centre, I suspect that this is the genuine hon-washabi made from Japanese Horseradish and not the imitation seiyo-washabi made from European Horseradish, mustard and green dye.

The finished sushi tasted nice, and I think my mother, who was my victim for the night enjoyed what I had prepared.  There are a few left over, in the fridge, that my sister Carolyn is going to try tomorrow morning.  I enjoyed the whole process, even with the mishaps, and will definitely be doing it again.

This just great.  Someone doing a Japanese Anime style short film using Doctor#3, the Brigadier, The Master, Davros, Daleks and Cybermen.  This is totally unauthorized, and sadly I cannot imagine that either the BBC or the Estate of Terry Nation letting this stay on YouTube for very much longer.

Paneer is an Indian cottage cheese, made by adding either fresh yoghurt or lemon juice into boiling milk to separate the curds from the whey and then pressing the curds into a solid white block as it cools.  The thing about paneer is that it has a very bland taste, so goes well with the spices of Indian cooking.  My mother’s neighbour makes her own fresh paneer because she loves cooking Indian food, and when she was making her last batch, she prepared some for me.  I cooked the paneer in the following way:

• 400 grams of Paneer
• 2 medium onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 inch cube of ginger finely chopped.
• 4 desert spoons of fresh yoghurt
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoon of Garam Masala
• 1 teaspoon of Cummin Seeds
• 1 teaspoon of Fenugreek Seeds
• 1 teaspoon of Chili Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
• Olive oil

1. Cut the paneer into chunks and fry in small batches, so that each face is lightly browned.
2. Remove the paneer from the pan and add some more oil and fry the onions until they start to brown.
3. Mix spices together with the garlic and ginger and add to the pan.  Fry for 10 minutes on a low heat.
4. Add the tomatoes and the yoghurt and simmer for an additional three minutes. Just before serving return the fried paneer to the pan.
5. Serve with rice and naan bread.

That serves three people with a healthy appetite.  The original recipe I saw on the Internet used fresh tomatoes and that seemed a bit dry to me, which is why I substituted the tinned tomatoes and added some yogurt to make a bit more gravy.  The original recipe also said to add a tablespoon of clear honey, which I forgot.  I might add that to the mix next time I cook this meal.

It cannot be denied that the Human Race is making a right old mess of the World in which we live.  That as a species we are doing massive amounts of damage to the environment, and we have to curb our excesses before we wipe ourselves of the face of the Earth.  However, I do not believe that all the changes that are occurring as a result of Climate Change have been caused by Homo Sapien.  That is Anthropocentrism on a massive scale. “Global Warming” as Climate Change is erroneously labeled in the Media is happening, we as a species are not helping, but it is not our fault.  Compared to the massive and complex system that is Planet Earth, we as a species are just something that walks on the surface.  If mankind were to wipe itself out by poisoning its environment, life on the planet would continue, intelligent life might even rise again and look upon the antics of us naked apes with horror and pity.  The fact remains if we go, the World will not go.  Humans are basically an irrelevance.

As I said, the Human Race is damaging our environment, and we do need to change our ways.   At the same time I am beginning to wonder how much of what the Environmentalist tell us comes from sound scientific principles, and how much is driven by the horror of the Bourgeois that the Oiks are enjoying pleasures that until recently were only theirs to enjoy.  What you could call the Working Classes in the developed world is far more affluent than its grandparents because the two-income family is now the norm not the exception.  It used to be that a woman got married and instantly gave-up whatever carreer she might be following to become wife and mother,, limiting her family to her husband’s income only, now women take maternity leave and return to their previous jobs, and the family benefits economically in the long term.  This has meant that “The Working Class” can now afford to eat out regularly at nice restaurants,  that were once the preserve of the Upper Middle Classes.  The Environmentalists tell us that we should all return to a simpler locally grown seasonal diet, how much is this to do with preserving the Earth’s resources, and how much of it is to do with the fact that ordinary working people go to the supermarket and buy a variety of interesting food from abroad that previously only the rich could afford, and the rich don’t like sharing these treats one little bit.  Likewise with Aeroplanes getting bigger and international flights getting cheaper, the Bourgeois are getting to their exclusive foreign holdiday resorts and finding them full of Oiks who have arrived in these cheap flights.  This is not on, so the Environmentalists are now saying that foreign holidays are an ecological evil and two weeks in Margate is the best that people should expect.

So, how much is there a willingness to protect the Global Environment, and how much is there an attempt to protect the Environment of Greed.

December last year, I went to an event in the Wales Millennium Centre where Ed Thomas the head of the Art Department (the people who the designs sets and props) at Upper Boat talked about his job.  After the event, I had a chance to have a chat with Mr. Thomas, and I asked him if he was dreading ever receiving a script that opened with the stage direction “The Doctor stands back and admires the new Console Room.”?  He said that he put so much into the design of the current set that he would be loathed to have to design another one.  Then he got a sort of far-away look in his eyes and asked if anyone had ever designed more than one version of the iconic set, and I got the impression that if he had to, he would be up for the challenge.  Well, the Daily Mirror a red-top tabloid daily newspaper has announced to the World that when Matt Smith takes over as The Doctor in 2010, he will have a brand new TARDIS Console Room set to play with.  As Mr. Thomas is still head of the Art Department, and as he said at the WMC that his contract does not run out until this June, he probably will have the job of redesigning the Console Room.

Whilst I love the current dome shaped Console Room, I would dearly love to see a return to the Brachacki style white wall and say goodbye to the coral buttresses.  I was so glad that after Series One [27] the Production Team decided to drop the vomitinous green lighting and generally give the Console Room a brighter look.    I don’t think that the set needs to be any larger, as it is big enough for the amount of action per story that takes place there.  I would like to see a door to other parts of the TARDIS, even if we never see other rooms, we know they are there and it would be nice to know that there is a way to get to them.

History of the TARDIS Console Room 1963-2009

In 1963, designer Peter Brachacki during his brief association with the series created the first Console Room it contained a number of key elements:

• Ultra modern gleaming white walls and floor.
• Circular indentations or roundels in the wall.
• A  hexagonal control console that had a column that rose and fell whilst the TARDIS was supposed to be in motion.
• A television that hung from the ceiling giving and indication of what lay outside the TARDIS.

The Original Peter Brachacki Console Room

Naturally the wear and tear of television production meant that every few years the Console Room set would have to be recreated.  However, no designer was willing to throw out any of the core design ideas from 1963.  Even the 1977  Secondary Console Room, which was meant to be a step in a new direction only replaced the gleaming whiteness with warmer wood paneling, and retained almost every other Brachacki Element.

Series 14 Console Room

The wood panels warped in storage and Series 15 saw a return the the gleaming white, that remained until the show was taken off air in 1989.

The short lived co-production deal between the BBC and Universal Studios that lead to the 1996 TV Movie “Doctor Who” saw a radical move away from the norm.  All that remained was the hexaganol console with central “Time Rotor”, and even this had mutated into a column that reached from floor to ceiling, with the rising and falling instruments within.

The TV Movie Console Room

I am not a great fan of the TV Movie Console Room because it was too big and also it seemed a bit divorced for its function as the control room of a machine that moved in time and space. It was one of the many “Close but no Cigar” elements of the TVM.

Which of course brings us to the current Console Room, designed by Ed Thomas in 2004.  Again the center of the Console is a column with moving parts within, and whilst there are six definite sections, the console is round.  The geometric roundels have returned, but these are now the hexagonal element of the set.

The Current TARDIS Console Room

Well, for the first time since Doctor Who returned to our production in 2004, I have been unable to go and watch some of the location filming in February.  I was all set, on the last of my days off I was going to head of for an evening in Newport, rubber-necking at the filming.  Except on Friday morning I was still feeling ill, not as ill as I had been all day Thursday, but ill enough to keep me home. So the following is a commentary of what has recently appeared on the Doctor Who Forum and other places on the Web. I would like to thank the people who have let me reproduce their photographs in this article.

It is impossible to keep location filming secret.  The residents of the area where filming is taking place have to be informed well in advance, especially if artificial snow is going to be applied to the street, and the road in front of their house closed to all traffic.  So as early as the week before filming, it was suspected that something interesting was going to happen on Victoria Place, of Stow Hill in Newport.  Sure enough, the residents getting a letter from BBC Wales confirming that the filming was indeed for Doctor Who and the local council erected a sign (photograph by Simon Watkins) at the end of the road in question, announcing when it would be closed.  Victoria Place consists of a dozen or so very elegant three storey Georgian/Victorian terraced townhouses.   Once the dressing was up, it became apparent that these houses were doubling for a posh part of London.  However, to give the whole production a futuristic edge, one of the signs advertised the fact that only Hydrogen powered vehicles were allowed on the road and that the Congestion Charge for that part of London was fixed at ¥3,000 per day which is roughly £22 at the current rate of exchange. (photo by Scott Frankton).

The actors present for this location shoot were David Tennant, counting down his remaining days as The Doctor; Lindsay Duncan, a top British actress, who was absolutely superb last year playing Lady Catherine de Beurgh in the comedy drama Lost in Austen and recently scored top marks playing Margaret Thatcher during her last days in Office; and two as of yet unnamed guest stars.  The scenes being filmed appear to be at the end of the story.  One scene showed The The Doctor apparently dropping off the people who have helped him vanquish whatever evil he has encountered.  Doctor and the guest cast piling out of the TARDIS into what looks like snow.  After some discussion, the four characters go off on their separate ways.

Earlier that week intrepid location reporters had noticed something mechanical, possibly with caterpillar tracks on location at a quarry outside Taffs Well, but had been unable to make out any details as they were standing a mile away from the filming using very long lenses on their cameras to see anything, they could not be certain.  On Friday however, once the street was covered with fake snow, the TARDIS prop was assembled a curious caterpillar tracked robot was unloaded of the back of a van.  It was obviously the mysterious prop as it initially dumped fine red dust, that must have been the dried on mud from the Taffs Well location, onto the streets of Newport.  The picture on the left (taken by DWF user Alan.Vega) shows the robot standing sideways on to the camera, in front of David Tennant as The Doctor and an unnamed (at time of writing) guest character.  As the robot is probably the same machine that was so important in the previous location shot, I imagine that there will be some sort of CGI jiggery pokey to show it emerging from the TARDIS with the other characters. And speaking of a different sort of Character, I can see this robot becoming a surefire best seller next Christmas for Character Option, the company that has the licence to produce Doctor Who related toys.

Long after many of the onlookers would have headed of home, the Crew were still busy getting the most out of their narrow window of opportunity for filming.  Only the persistent saw the big surprise of the night.  Paul Casey in an Ood costume.  As the photo to the  right shows (taken by Gareth Price) It isn’t just any old Ood, it is the costume of Ood Sigma.  Exactly what the spokesbeing of the freed Ood of the forty-second century was doing on what everyone believed to be late twenty first  London is a mystery that most probably will not be solved until the end of the year, as it is generally believed that this particular episode is the Christmas Day episode this year.  Needless to say, the theory has emerged on the DWF that this street is not on Earth, but on a far-flung colony planet.

Which brings us back to the robot, and a thick slice of speculation from me.   The robot looks a bit chunky and awkward and not the sort of gleaming high tech droid that a far future World.  I think it was in The Impossible Planet that Rose Tyler was told that the existence of the Ood made robotics uneconomical.  Well, perhaps this story is set slightly after Planet of the Ood and humanity has had to reinvent robotics as it can no longer rely on the slavery of the Ood hive mind, so they have created the sort of robotics that most science fiction world would laugh at.

The last scene filmed that night/morning was the scene of something knocking the wind out to of The Doctor’s sails so forcibly that he collapses against the TARDIS.  We all know that David Tennant is leaving Doctor Who after these specials.  Has his Doctor at the end of this story seen the harbinger of his own doom.  Is this story, like Utopia and Turn Left from previous years it merely the foretaste of a more epic story that will follow shortly afterwards.  That all three remaining specials will be broadcast on Christmas Week and form an epic mini-series.  We will all know by New Year’s Day.