Dude! I have a "Doctor Who" connection!

...Aside, that is, from putting the phrase "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" into virtually every TV series  I've written since 1978* and having a bunch of Decepticons running around screaming "Exterminate!" in an episode of Transformers.

According to this entry in the Transformers Wiki, the BBC sound effect for the Dalek control room was used in one of my Transformers episodes!

I'm such a hopeless Doctor Who geek that this discovery completely made my day.


"Are you aware that we've been making threats to a test pattern all this time!?"


* Okay, I didn't use it in "Zorro" or "Conan & The Young Warriors," but it is in most of them.

Cardiff, center of the SF universe.

Yesterday, Audry and I took a high-speed train from Paddington to Cardiff. At the end of the two-hour trip, we made an immediate beeline for the Red Dragon Centre, which is sort of like a mall, only more entertainment-oriented (restaurants, arcades, a multiplex). It also seems to play host to a swap meet.


Our destination, however, was the massive Doctor Who exhibition in the middle of the centre.




As always, click on the photos for a full-sized view.





A Weeping Angel from "Blink."


"You've got something on your back." Donna Noble's costume (and giant time-sucking bug) from "Turn Left." As in the episode, she's surrounded by the time-mirrors that Rose Tyler and U.N.I.T. use to set the timelines aright.


Tick-tock robot from Stephen Moffat's classic episode, "The Girl in the Fireplace."


Giant wall-mural photo of David Tennant on location at Cinecitta in Italy during the shooting of "The Fires of Pompeii."


L to R: Early Rose Tyler costume; Christopher Eccleston's leather jacket and 9th Doctor clothes; David Tennant's robe and jimjams from "The Christmas Invasion," Martha Jones' trademark purple leather jacket and jeans.


Captain Jack Harkness' costume, complete with stain on lapel.


Rose Tyler's whacking big gun from "Journey's End."


Cybermen!! "Prepare to be upgraded or face deletion!"



Daleks with Emperor Dalek. Exterminate!




"Hey! Who turned out the lights?" A victim of the Vashta Narada from Moffat's "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" episodes.


K-9! I have one of these at home.


The Ood pose with Donna's costume from "Planet of the Ood."


Ood brain and assorted props, along with a quote from "The Impossible Planet."


Spoiler alert! River Song's sonic screwdriver and copy of the Doctor's Diary from "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead."


Robot angel from "Voyage of the Damned."


A scarecrow from Paul Cornell's "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood."


Emerging from the exhibition, we managed to escape the Who shop without spending a penny, and promptly hoofed it over to Cardiff Bay and the Millennium Centre -- home to Torchwood and the Rift.






The mirrored waterfall facing the Centre -- and the secret entrance to Torchwood.


Audry in front of the Centre...


...And the waterfall.  (Note the fob watch!)


We then walked a couple of miles down Lloyd George Road to central Cardiff.


At the end of this street we visited Cardiff Castle -- but that's another two dozen photos I'm too lazy to post just now!

Guess where we went today?

The dumbest thing we've done this week.

The other day we were out and about in London. We got caught up in the midst of the Palace Horse Guard for the second day in a row...


...And encountered the gayest cab in all of London.


We soon found ourselves on the fringe of the West End...and street after street of little antiquarian bookshops.




Hey, look! They have Tintin! And P.G. Wodehouse!




Evidently Daleks are bibliophiles. (This is an original 1960's prop.)


At last we could restrain ourselves no longer. Despite the fact that we're travelling with two heavy suitcases that are already overweight, we bought books. Loads and loads of lovely books. We discovered some fascinating fantasy/historical novels we'd never heard of before, and I discovered a new line from Penguin called Read Red. It's a series of classic adventure stories (Treasure Island, the Sherlock Holmes books, Verne, Burroughs, The 39 Steps, etc.) with fantastic retro Boy's-Own-Adventure style covers that look old but are in fact new designs. Well, you know about me and Penguins; I wound of getting every book in this series I could find -- even though I had older copies of several of them.

As soon as we got back to the room, Audry took pictures of our booty. (As always, click on each photo for a better view.)


The 5 books on the upper right are Penguin Read Reds. Check out the cover of Tarzan -- it's freaking awesome!


More Read Reds. And I've been meaning to read "Gone With the Wind" for years, so naturally I had to fly to England to buy a copy.


Audry got that fantastic retro-Penguin pencil set in the middle. To its left is an old school Penguin-themed notebook she got to use them with.


Needless to say we are REALLY looking forward to lugging these things back to the States.

Exterminated!

They found a Dalek in a swamp.



Here's the full scoop.