From Which We Were Spared

From: List of unmade DW serials or films

90s US reboot - Leekley bibleEarly in the process that was to lead to the 1996 Doctor Who film, Universal Television had Amblin Entertainment produce a writers' bible which detailed John Leekley's proposed pilot and episodes of a new series.[160] The new series would have established a new continuity rather than following on from the classic series,[160] and the bible reused many elements from the classic series. It is unclear whether clearance could have been obtained for all the episodes detailed, as the costs would likely have fallen to the BBC.[160]

The pilot was to feature the half-human Doctor seeking his father, Ulysses, through various time periods—contemporary Gallifrey (where Borusa dies and is merged with the TARDIS, and the Master becomes leader of the Time Lords), England during the Blitz, Ancient Egypt, and Skaro (where the Daleks are being created).[161] Other proposed episodes in the bible included The Pirates, in which the Doctor teamed up with Blackbeard,[162] and several remakes of stories from the classic series, including:

The Talons of Weng-Chiang, set in New York[162]
Earthshock, featuring the "Cybs" (Leekley's more piratical version of the Cybermen)[162]
Horror of Fang Rock[162]
The Celestial Toymaker, who was to have been under the control of the Master.[163]
Don't Shoot, I'm the Doctor, a more historically accurate[164] remake of The Gunfighters[165]
Tomb of the Cybs, a remake of The Tomb of the Cybermen in which the Cybs are awoken by the Master[165]
The Yeti, a remake of The Abominable Snowmen featuring the Dalai Lama and Sir Edmund Hillary[165]
The Ark in Space[165]
Earlier versions of the bible included, among others:

The Cybs, a story set on Mars in which the Doctor escapes capture by hiding in a gold mine[165]
A remake of The Sea Devils, set in a Louisiana oil rig[165]
The Outcasts, in which the Cybs would attack Gallifreyan outcasts[165]
The Land of Fear, a conflation of The Reign of Terror and The Claws of Axos[166]
A remake of The Dæmons, set in Salem, Massachusetts[166]
A completed version of Shada, which would have introduced Romana and Professor Chronotis as Romana's uncle.[166]

Leekley's scripts were not well received at Amblin or elsewhere; and in September 1994, he was removed from the project.[167]

Not surprisingly removed from the project; I too was wincing throughout reading the whole list.

YUCK!

Too much bad news from the Classic Who front: Only today I learnt Mary Tamm, who played Romana I back in the 70's, has died age 62. I'm still not over Caroline John's death a few weeks earlier at only age 71. That is, I can't understand neither of them are around anymore.

I can't understand they died as young as they did. Add to that Elisabeth Sladen's death last year at age 65, and it's a rather depressing time for Classic Who. All three of them lost their fights against cancer.

Rest In Peace, Ladies. You will be immensely missed.

P.S. Of course we also lost the good Brig (Nicholas Courtney) last year, but at least he reached a nice age (81). Still, Rest In Peace, good sir. We miss you too.

13 Minutes Rant of Absolute Randomness.

Back in the office after a short interlude from work. I had nice hot weather and a lot of spare time. I did next to nothing which means I watched loads of films and cycled around the area a lot (to buy DVD's and food).

Side note: I just said 'hm-hm' in an attempt to warm up. Obviously, it didn't work.

I'm still in my Jake Gyllenhaal period. Yesterday, first thing in the morning, I ordered more DVD's, all JG films. According to the confirmation mails these should arrive somewhere around 2-3 August.

He chooses his films well, most of the time, though lately his picking has been a bit off. Nearly all films he did, at some point I thought: "Damn, I want to see that film".

I remember having some ideas for tweets, but I forgot them all.

This morning I remembered Doctor Who; still love the Doctor.

Brokeback Got Me Good

Jake Gyllenhaal. Only a few days ago I didn’t know how to spell his surname. I do now without even thinking too much about it. He really took me by surprise…this time.


It was Brokeback Mountain. Of course it was Brokeback Mountain. I can’t remember buying the DVD, but I’m sure I have it for a few years now. I hadn’t seen it for a while though, even though it is one of my favourites (tearjerkers for bleak times).

It started with my waterbed; it leaks. I wanted to get it mended, but it seems that with the one leak more leaks started to come, so I don’t want to have it mended anymore, just get it rid of. I hadn’t yet and was still sleeping in it risking getting wet or at least moist and cold. That was the reason why I decided to make bed in the guestroom, or rather purple room again.

The last couple of days I’ve been suffering from stomach aches more often en sometimes far beyond comfort. So one Thursday (?) afternoon I decided to lay my head down in the purple room. As I did so I had a nice look at the lone bookshelf that carries all kind of small stuff and a small collection of small books. Of one of the books I couldn’t read the title on the back. Squinting my eyes I couldn’t get any further than “Twee…”. Two what!? I squinted some more without any luck. Eventually I got up and discovered it said “Twee Cowboys”. It was the book Brokeback Mountain translated into Ducth. I decided to dug out the DVD and watch the film again.

It took me several minutes to find the DVD even though I was looking in the right place. I could swear I had seen the DVD not too long ago in the small compartment of the DVD bench. Checking twice, three times and more didn’t find me the DVD. It frustrated me, cause I had set my heart on Brokeback Mountain for that evening. I shortly considered watching another Ang Lee movie, but my frustration kept me from picking that one up and I resumed searching for Brokeback Mountain. Only after taking out all DVD cases and studiyng them thoroughly I found what I was looking for.

I had seen the film many times before and I already knew the story from start to end and backwards, inside out and from back to front. Yet I got quite a surprise; I noticed Jake Gyllenhaal.

I know, I know, he’s in it quite a lot. How could I not have noticed him before? Well, Heath Ledger. That’s my answer. I think it’s quite self explainatory. And yet….

Ever since, I’m hooked. I have no idea why. When I look at him I can’t sum up why he attracted me…all of a sudden. He’s not ugly, definitely not, but he doesn’t have the beauty that attracts me. He’s also not the type I usually fall for. Not really geeky, not dumb but also not extremely intelligent or smart, not funny as I usually appreciate, though he can be funny, just not laughing out loud funny for me. And yet….

And yet, right now he’s all I’m thinking about.

Good actor, that he is. And what else? He seems balanced enough? Not sure the word is ‘balanced’. It’s not really ‘quiet’ either. ‘Sensible’ maybe? No, doesn’t quite ring true to me either. I think he is all that, in his own way, just not the way I would like to see. And yet….

I keep coming back to watching him, to listening to him, to searching for more about and from him.

What just happened?

Going to watch Brokeback Mountain again this evening? It would be the umpteenth time this week. What’s happening to me!?!?

I'm going to blame it on his parents. I remember being quite charmed by Jake's older sister Maggie a year or so ago. (Sort of fun fact: Didn't think much of Jake at that point) It must be his parents fault.

13 Minutes Rant - The Mystery of the Use of Silly High Pitched Voices

Some time ago I read about someone wondering why people starting talking weirdly to children and animals. You know, dribbling all kind of nonsense in high pitched voice. The reaction you usually get is one of wonder from victim and bystanders alike. However, especially children and dogs seem to appreciate it, any other animal will look at you as if to ask: “You gone mad or something?”

I do it to my cats and they remain unimpressed. They probably think I’m completely cuckoo. It’s when I speak in normal voice to them they, or rather she; he doesn’t talk all that much (typical, eh?), respond. When I get home from work I ask them how their day was. She tells me that she’s hungry and likes to be fed. That’s usually as far the conversation goes.

Beside asking how their day was and telling them off I only speak in funny voices to them, it seems with the aforementioned results. I did wonder with them why the hell I applied a silly high pitched voice. I have no idea; I really must be going mad. I also call them kitty cats, usually in high pitched voice, and once again I have no idea why. Maybe if they tell me to stop over dramatizing I will stop. Fat chance that.

If there's anyone who cracked the mystery, please come forward and delight us...well, me....

Roy & Noah

When I was a little kid I had a fantasy friend; Anders. I’m sure I wrote about him before. I’m also sure I wrote I never really stopped fantasizing. This brings me to Roy. Roy was always a favourite of mine. I don’t know why, probably cause I wanted him my favourite. I even once attempted to make a drawing of what he was supposed to look like. I do remember thinking him up in my Queen period, so he was acquainted with the Queen members and especially Freddie Mercury; Freddie was very fond of him. Silly really.


My fondness of Roy got out as well; Tess knew about it. Well, she knew about my ‘Roy’ fixation. I even had a very extended roleplay going on on MSN with Jade, whom I haven’t spoken to for years. She had a Roy too; she stole the film Roy from ‘Behind the Red Door’ which was really Kiefer Sutherland playing a ‘gay Roy’. Oh, did I mention? Roy is bisexual….or just sex mad… Anyway, we thought it would be fun to have the two Roys meet and Jade even wanted to go as far as hooking the two up. At the time, my Roy was dating Noah. This meant that Roy and Noah had to break up for Roy to start dating uh..Roy.

To unconfuse matters, the Kiefer Roy was dubt RoyRoy while mine conveniently stayed Roy. Roy and Noah were parted, to my big grief and RoyRoy was magically available as well. So off we went on a very weird, bouncy and rushy relationship. We spent a great deal of our chats chatting as Roy and wooshing them from one place to the other. We even got exes involved and boyfriends of exes. Boyfriends of exes disappearing again. And I’m sure if I hadn’t put a stop to it, Jade would have hooked Noah up to one of the exes of RoyRoy, EEEP!!!

In the end we even got the two Roys married with wedding and all and one very drunk Roy. At that point I had to put a stop to it. I told Jade I could not handle anymore and divorced Roy from RoyRoy to have him come back to Noah, where he belongs.

The thing is, in my mind I had already decided Roy and Noah were forever. They were the perfect match. In my mind I had their backgrounds worked out and their characters and how they fit together. In my mind it made so much sense, there was no way else than them together. Usually I let things happen and then that’s what is, even in my fantasies. When you think about it, it might be complicated, cause whatever is in your fantasy you have complete control over. Well, yes, but to experiment with relationships and characters I sometimes have them do certain things and like in real life, they can’t be undone.

Back to Roy and Noah. I had their backgrounds and characters worked out. By the way, they’re the only two characters who have not only birth years (and Roy even a complete birthdate), but also last names, which most of my fantasy characters don’t; just first names. At some point I’ve written Roy out at the age of 28. He had cancer and died, though we never actually saw him die. I’m laughing now, cause I’m talking as if I was a writer to a soap series and I’ve written a character out. But that was what I did, because Thomas Acda said that all great artists die at age 28. Stupid really. Roy was not really an artist; he was a troubled young man having inherited some money and owned his own club. But he was dead.

Their backgrounds, characters and relationship are so deeply wedged in my mind. Noah never left, and I brought Roy back. He didn’t die, he only made everybody believe he did. He actually went to India to work in charity. Don’t ask me why, I just came up with it to explain his absence and like in real life things can’t be turned back.

The reason I brought Roy back was I was playing the Sims FreePlay on my phone, which reminds me I’m redownloading it as I write. At some point I had created so many Sims (about 8) I ran out of characters I always use. I already had Noah and thought: “What the heck, I bring Roy back.” So I did. Only then I realized how deep my love for Roy was. Funnily, Roy’s and Noah’s relationship has changed as well. I’m having great fun fantasizing about that now. They’re still very much in love with each other as am I with them.

This morning I finally decided Noah’s birthday, it’s 1 March 1980. My birthday too, incidentally. I had an online date randomnizer deciding it and this is what came out. Rather happy with it. Also, according to some site are Roy and Noah the perfect couple when looking at their birth signs. Roy was born on 23 July 1978.

This weekend I spent finally trying to visualize them with the aid of the Sims 3 ‘Create a Sim’. I tried Roy several time, because I had trouble getting him right. Noah I had no idea to go about. Though in the end I think I managed it, or at least as close as I ever got to how I visualized them in my head.

Left is Roy and right is Noah.

I have to say, the pictures are darker than when I created them in the Sims. Roy has rather brown hair and isn't as dark haired in the picture. Noah has dark brown hair, not black. Though it does give them both a nice tan.