Well, I’m not all that sure how minor he really is, per se, since he is a pretty important guy. He has shown up in only a single episode, so far, but I would absolutely love to see the return of Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff the 41st, Defender of Humanity, Imperator of Known Space. Otherwise known as Porridge.
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#50 days of doctor who 50th #Emperor PorridgeYes.
Every one: past, present, and future.
Because of reasons. All of them. Across time. Across space. For then. For now.
For always.
Well, there’s really only one Doctor I can do honestly from my actual, normal wardrobe, and that’s the First:
Well, okay, I found the wig in my costume closet. Didn’t even remember I had it until I went looking.
But, my absolute favorite Doctor is the Sixth. Not a Doctor you can cosplay out of a normal wardrobe. Then again, mine’s not really a normal wardrobe (see above outfit, which I have worn to work). I don’t exactly have much of Sixie’s lovely Technicolor kit yet, but here’s what I do have – filled in with normal clothes:
First off, I’d like to point out that I really, really like the Eleventh Doctor’s new desktop theme, with all the Gallifreyan writing and the cool blue lighting and the rotating bits at the ceiling around the time rotor. It’s just that it’s a bit dark in there. Harder to see what you’re doing under the mood lighting. And I really like the classic TARDIS interiors, with the cool grey and the nice bright lights and the curly wooden coat rack by the door. Especially the one Five had at the time of “The Five Doctors,” which Sixie later inherited.
But.
I think my absolute favorite is the one Eleven had before the new one: all warm orange and copper and golden tones, with notes of turquoise, fantastically Steampunk. Wonderfully dimensional, with all sorts of exciting levels and nooks and crannies and features.
There are a number of ‘ships I sail (such as Doctor x TARDIS, Doctor x Sonic Screwdriver, Two x Jamie, Four x Sarah Jane, and Five x Turlough), but I’d say top of my list is Sixie and Peri:
Yep. 'Shipping it like FedEx.
They traded barbs and bickered like an old married couple, but underneath it all, it’s clear they really cared for one another.
On the whole, I think this is the crew I’d like: Sixie, Jamie, Nyssa and K-9.
Well, I am very behind on Big Finish audio productions, so there’s a good chance that Ian Chesterton is still rattling around the universe with the Doctor in those stories. I have no idea what he’s been up to in those, but as far as the televised adventures go, he landed back on Earth and disembarked with Barbara, laughing merrily. So, I’m still going with Ian for today’s challenge, mostly because I share a birthday with William Russell. In fact, I was born four days before the Doctor Who 10th anniversary.
I imagine going back to normal life after those adventures had to have been pretty tough. Two years gone, he’d certainly have lost his job, and in those days I don’t imagine he’d have had an easy time explaining away his absence to the satisfaction of the state school system, much less the public school system, so I have my doubts he’d have gone back to teaching. Given his scientific background and the things he’d seen, I suspect instead he went to work for the government in some top-secret advisory capacity. Barbara may have done, as well, but at any rate, it seemed very likely to me that they’d have gotten married.
50 Days of Doctor Who 50th - Favorite Who-themed Video
This was a tough call, because there are so many that I love. There’s a wonderful tribute to the Sixth Doctor done to MIKA’s “Grace Kelly,” a fantastically funny tribute to the Tenth Doctor done to Weird Al’s “White and Nerdy,” an infectiously toe-tapping dance remix of some of the mostly badly- and campily-delivered lines in Classic Who history, and a spectacular eleven-Doctor homage done to Lebo M’s “He Lives in You” from the soundtrack to “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride.”
But, if I have to pick only one that I like best, then it’s got to be the one I posted there at the top: Babelcolour’s jaw-droppingly epic tribute to the entirety of Doctor Who done to Carbon Leaf’s “What About Everything.” It is one of the most glorious, powerful and perfect vids I have ever seen, bar none. Babelcolour is perhaps one of the best amateur Doctor Who video makers in the universe, posting awesome tribute music videos on various Doctors and professional-grade trailers for upcoming and past DVD releases. There are a number of vids with this song, which is so befitting of the whole show, that sometimes I just want to swear it was written especially for Doctor Who, but I think this is the very best of those videos, and entirely apropos for such a special anniversary.
To be honest, just about any cool line from any TV show or movie that I like is fair game, and I just juggle them around and apply whichever one fits the situation best. I’ve been known to use “Brilliant!” a lot. I’ve been caught saying, “Allons-y!” every now and then. And I’ll shamelessly riff on “Bow ties are cool” – especially if I’m wearing one.
But, I’ve also quoted Sixie from time to time, especially his little speech from “The Mysterious Planet”:
It was about three and a half years ago that I was first really introduced to Doctor Who, in earnest, by my dad and my brother. I already knew a few of the basics, just via osmosis from knocking around in sci-fi fandom and going to conventions. I knew about the TARDIS being bigger on the inside, something about a malfunctioning chameleon circuit, regeneration, quarries, and an oddball alien from some planet called Gallifrey, dashing about the universe in quirky clothes which at some point included the most ridiculously sublime scarf ever knitted. I also got the sense that the show was just about the most British thing in the world with an uberfandom so loyal and dedicated, that it pretty much knocked to the curb anything Star Trek could ever field.
The circumstances around seeing my first episode of Doctor Who were an odd combination of bad and perfect, because, you see, I live in Michigan and had flown out west for my step-mother’s funeral. I’d known her since I was about 7, and her son, who is technically my half-brother, I actually consider my full brother, because I just make more sense when viewed in the context of my Dad’s side of the family. My step-mother died of cancer within six months of her own brother, who had gone from having flu-like symptoms to death within the course of two weeks, from another, more virulent form of cancer, himself. It was a pretty hard time, and I suppose a lot of families have that one really religious relative who uses the time of grief as an opportunity to evangelize. It was emotionally exhausting and made things a lot harder on those of us who don’t go in for that sort of thing. It was already very tragic as it was that she died so much younger that we all expected. We drew in, where it was quieter, away from all the additional unwanted stress.
Geek families bond and start to heal a bit over things that “normal” families might find a little odd or even disturbing. Sometimes, it’s nice to hide in troubles of an entirely fictional nature, because those at least come with nice endings, even if they’re scary. A couple days after the funeral, we sat down and my dad and brother said “we have to show you ‘Blink.’ It’s awesome. It’s won awards. It was the only episode [my step-mother] liked. You’ll love it.” And so, I met the Tenth Doctor - my first. They were right. It was brilliant! I’m a big fan of horror, so the Weeping Angels really hit the spot for me. I never find them scary - I haven’t been truly scared by anything in movies or TV (except the news) since Dad taught me how to deal with it when I was a kid. But, I recognized how they worked on the psyche, the qualities they possessed, and was impressed by the writing that brought them to life. I was fascinated.
But, I knew I was staring at a probable new obsession, and a major one at that, given the vast stores of material there was to catch up on. It was a daunting prospect, and I wasn’t quite ready yet. So, for a year, I procrastinated. Eventually, I wandered onto “Blackadder,” discovered something about Rowan Atkinson that I was NOT prepared for, and in the midst of all the hugger-mugger, found out he is a Whovian, and that he’d actually played the Doctor in a little comedic short, which I then watched. Surprisingly, I actually got all the jokes. And that was it. There were no more excuses. So, I dove in, starting with the Ninth Doctor, on the theory that they’d reboot the series at a good starting point for the uninitiated, but Ten was my first, and for a time, my favorite. He’s still pretty high on the list, but he was deposed once I got into the Classics. More on that later. ;)
so much rage for anyone who tells the story of the radium girls like “ohoho weren’t people in the 20s fucking stupid” and not like “corporate greed has always cost people’s lives and health”
History Lesson:
The Radium Girls were factory workers who painted glowing markers on watches. They pointed their paint brushes with their lips after being told do so and that it was safe for them to do so by their managers. The paint had radium in it to promote the glow.
Dentists became the first people aware of the medical complications happening amongst all the women working in this factory. Complaints of loose bones, teeth, ulcers, etc. began to circulate amongst the staff.
Eventually, the girls started to die. The first one’s jaw literally came off her skull before her death as a result of radiation poisoning.
Perhaps all of that you could say was “stupidity” on behalf of the workers and corporation.
But what came next wasn’t. The corporation, the U.S. Radium Corporation, originally called the Radium Luminous Material Corporation, lied to the public and said that their workers were dying from alternate causes such as syphilis. They continued to instruct their staff to work business as usual, perpetuating more deaths and illness amongst their staff so their product could continue to be made.
The Radium Corp offered to change the method of painting dials, but the alternative brushes slowed down work and they were paid by the dial. To continue earning the wages they needed, the girls were forced to continue to use the brushes that they had to wet with their mouths.
The girls eventually took the matter to court. They took it to court eight times because Radium Corp continued to appeal until 1939.
As a result of their win, which provided a settlement to each girl a lump sum, a yearly stipend, and medical expensed paid by the company, LABOR LAW changed to ensure that companies could be held accountable for not properly protecting their employees from disease. New health regulations and standards were put in place to keep workers safe and they stopped using the brushes after that point.
(I don’t have the data to say if there was a corresponding wage increase to factor for lost wages due to a slowing down after new regulations were made).
The point, though, is that this company willfully knew that its staff was geting sick and dying from the procedures they put in place, and lied to their staff and started a public smear campaign saying these women had sexually transmitted diseases instead.
That’s not on the “stupid” women, that’s corporate greed.
I’d also like to add that they were intentionally delaying the court case so there would be less girls left alive to be there. Even after they’re caught, they are still heartless shits. Don’t ever forget these poor women and the company that thought cycling through workers and leaving a trail of bodies was worth making more money at the top.
I’d also like to add another detail. The girls weren’t the only workers at the factory who worked with the radium mixture. They were the only ones ingesting it, but the (male) scientists who worked upstairs, mixing the radium paint powder in the first place, were given protective gear to wear while doing it. So the company knew enough by this time about the hazards to give the scientists some PPE, but did not care enough about the primarily young, immigrant, female workers to give them the same protection. The workers at that level were simply viewed as dispensible. But a scientific education was something they actually valued. The work they profited from the most, though, was the application of that science. Applied by a lower class workforce, lured into danger by the promise of a slightly higher wage. But they ended up having horrifically short careers.
It is said that regulations are written in blood, because they were generally promulgated in response to some corporation or another choosing money over lives. To this day, they still find cheats and work-arounds, still whine about regulations, and when they flout these protections, still kill their workers and wreck the environment - because to this day, corporations still view their workers as disposible. Use one up, hire another. May as well be a box of paper clips or a shipment of lumber for all they care. They’re not even subtle about it. Consider the term: Human Resources. A lot of places just shorten it to HR. Easy way to dehumanize their employees. Some places just use the last word, which is somehow worse.
