It Died!

My rewards this week for being at work while the rest of the family gallivants around the country have been many, including the above Dalek Ironside and a 100g of Army and Navy sweets which have now vanished mysteriously - probably eaten by the Dalek I think. There are many geeky reviews of this figure out in Youtubeland so I'd better not add much to them just in case I give you the impression that I am 13 or something. Instead I just need to say that the general appearance of all Daleks is one of "rightness". The Dalek Ironside is a return to the utilitarian style of some of the early Daleks - like something cobbled together from the battered metal junction box casings in the basement of the BBC. Making it Olive Drab just adds to that feel of a combination of dusty Civil-Service corridors and various obscure military establishments. Much as I was enthralled by the return of the single Dalek in the first series of the revival, the finish of that particular machine was a bit too shiny - showing the plastic of which it was made. The green paint of the Ironside covers up all that and returns us to the rough and ready feel of the originals.

And that is maybe where it should have stopped for now we have the sudden regeneration into the Duplo Daleks. While I am not that bothered, the primary coloured replacements do not seem to be quite in the right proportion. They have various lumps and changes in contour that make them a bit brutish. I know that seems silly, but the Daleks as they were in the past, were the evil geeks of the Doctor Who World, an enemy with no need of overpowering bulk because their whole attitude, voice and movements were threatening, the epitome of the scary short dictator - the Napoleons of the Galaxy.

This is just a poster but I would be quite pleased if someone decided to write the whole thing. I'd certainly buy it.

Six Horse Pills and a Teddy Bear

When I had just started work full time, I was often skitted by my immediate bosses for what they called "my italic handwriting". In those days (I feel old) typing documents was done by secretaries and I took comfort in the fact that they said that my writing was actually the easiest to understand. It will be sad if handwriting does cease to exist as this article suggests but it has only been in the last 150 years that more than a small percentage of people could actually write and only say half a millennium since writing (and reading) was only done by very few people. Handwriting is, I suppose, the rigorous framework which gives structure to our thoughts and lets us speak in a clear way so it will be useful for everyone to learn to write. I am slightly worried by the idea in Went the Day Well? that the undercover Germans were discovered because they put lines across the written number 7 in that strange "continental way"; I've always done that - I had to look back in the notebook to check.

Second story is how The Daily telegraph chose to prefix the story regarding the fossils which prove that fish started having sex longer ago than first thought.

Philip Larkin was nearly 380 million years out when he wrote that sexual intercourse began in 1963, it appears, after scientists found an ancient fossil of a pregnant fish.

Brilliant!

And finally, I spotted some Lorem Ipsum in the pages backing a BBC4 ident about their motoring season. The pages were in the style of a Haynes Manual but all the text was Lorem Ipsum - shortcuts at the BBC? never! Anyway maybe they could have used the text from this one.

To Be Precise, One Has No Frets

Daughter was much taken with the Dalek on a stick which was used by the Doctor Who Crew to provide an eye-line for the cast when filming some special-effects shots. She is allowed to stay up late for Doctor Who Confidential which my wife says means that she is less scared of the monsters – it is difficult to be frightened of a Cyberman when you have seen it ask to be excused like Private Godfrey. I was especially amused by the two conspiratorial Daleks discussing whether they no longer trusted Dalek Sec. One of them looked around furtively to see if he was overheard before replying to his brother. And “First floor – perfumery” – how camp is that?

I have lost my copy of Godel, Escher Bach. I am sure it used to be in the bedroom and I have been wanting to read bits of it again recently. I cannot think where it has gone. I want to get the new edition but one of the Amazon reviews complains about the quality of the paper and the old hardback edition is £30. Maybe it had a fight with one of Rudy Rucker’s books and they fell into a wormhole between this set of dimensions and another. You may enjoy