Spiders, Upgraded Paintings, Conventions & Events and William Hartnell Meets Cliff Richard

Rebecca Crockett is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

Welcome once again, readers, to a patented K News Blast! We’ve got loads of news items for you, covering a wide spectrum of Who news topics. So let’s get started!

Upgraded Paintings

So we’ve all seen them – those nice but, well, bland and banal paintings that, while in they may have been done with great skill and are lovely, are just well, dull. Originals and copies alike of these paintings tend to end up in corners of charity shops when loved ones clear out the houses of deceased relatives or people decide to redecorate the old family home.

Aside from those that are fans of said artwork, most of these works lay around gathering dust and will never be worth much. That’s when David Irvine steps in.

Irvine takes those discarded paintings and adds his own touch to them, by adding a pop culture twist to the bucolic farm scene or the quaint cottage.

Thomas Kinkade meets Doctor Who?

Irvine finds the painting in shops, yard sales, even on the curb set out as trash and rescues them.

“They are usually old and in bad shape so I touch up marks and scratches to bring it back to its original form, then I add in my own elements…generally most are bought at thrift shops, yard sales and even salvaged from the curb. I hate seeing waste and when I see a painting collecting dust on a shelf, I see potential, not garbage.”

Each updated painting can fetch between £200 to £535. Check out Digital Spy for more of his “Re-Directed Art” works.

Denton, TX Doctor Who Day

As part of a special mini series in the Titan comics Doctor Who line, 29 special covers were created – one of which was set in Denton, TX. After a “frantic” call from Tim Stoltzfus, the owner of Denton’s More Fun Comics and Games, local comics artist Jake Ekiss got the call to design the special cover, featuring the Denton Courthouse on the Square, the TARDIS, and the Ninth Doctor.

To celebrate the release of the comic, the mayor of Denton declared 4th April “Doctor Who Day” and festivities were held on the Square. Many fans came out for the event, a number that was more than anyone expected. When asked to explain where all the fans came from, artist Ekiss had a simple explanation, “The Denton nerd community is intense and huge.”

(Via Dallas Morning News)

Katy Manning Coming To Kansas Convention

For our Stateside readers, does anyone live near Wichita, Kansas, or is planning on being in the area at the beginning of October? Well, you’re in luck!

Former companion Katy Manning as been added to the guest list of the Time Eddy Doctor Who convention in Wichita, KS, 2nd-4th October, 2015.

She’ll be joining a number of special Who guests including Sixth Doctor Colin Baker, companions Deborah Watling, Nicola Bryant, and Daphne Ashbrook, and script editor Andrew Cartmel, among others.

Special events for the convention include an Aztecs themed lunch and a discussion on the science behind Doctor Who. For more information about the convention including tickets and a full list of guest already scheduled to attend, check out Time Eddy website.

VFX House Stargate Opens Ealing Offices

Stargate, one of the visual effects companies that as previously done work for Doctor Who, has opened offices in Ealing Studios, with hopes joining in on London’s VFX market as well as bringing their innovate technology to a new locale. The company, which has also done work for other major television shows including The Walking Dead and 24, is already working on sci-fi comedy Apocalypse Slough, starring Rob Lowe, for Working Title TV, Sky 1 and NBC, as will also be working on Luther for the BBC.

Stargate is most widely known for their “virtual backlot” technology, which allows stories set in locations that no longer exists or that are complete fantasies to come to breathtaking life.

BONUS: Can you spot some of the shots Stargate has done for Doctor Who in this highlights reel? (I counted 3)

Stargate VFX Reel from Stargate Studios on Vimeo.

(via Digital Arts)

Disabled Whovian In Need Of An Artist

Do we have anyone reading this that is an artist or knows one in the Hove area? We an 18 year old young lady could use your help!

Sacha Walker is looking for an artist to turn her 18 year old daughter Amy’s wheel chair lift into the TARDIS for the Doctor Who loving girl.

Amy, who suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, loves the theme music of the show, according to her mother. “Amy is quite a mover, she jiggles her legs and arms and smiles and pats her hands for more.”

To brighten Amy’s life, Sacha got the idea to turn their boring and dull chair lift into something more appealing. “I want to break the mould of equipment being so boring and dowdy – it’s all so big, bulky and bland. Teenagers want something a bit funky but designers put no thought into making it interesting.”

“When she’s in the lift we can mimic the sound as she’s going up and down. We need to get a blue light too. There’s going to be a police car driving around without one on top wondering where it’s gone!”

So if you know someone that could help out this fellow Whovian, check out the The Argus for more info.

William Hartnell in Life With Johnny: Johnny Come Home

So we’ve got a treat for you, K readers. A rare look at one of First Doctor William Hartnell’s other television roles, this one after his time on Doctor Who.

In 1969, singer Cliff Richard and his band the Settlers stared in a series for Tyne Tees Television called Life With Johnny. Each of the six episodes drew it’s storyline from a Biblical parable. In this episode, Johnny Come Home, the character is looking to get out of the town he lives in to find bigger and better things, which would be the parable of the prodigal son. Hartnell plays Johnny’s father. Hartnell first appears at about the 4:29 mark.

(With thanks to Gareth)

Doctor Who Helps Scientists Understand Fear of Spiders A Little Better 

Now, I’m not generally an arachnophobe. Spiders, so long as they are outside and leaving me alone, are cool. (We’ve had some really amazing orb weavers every fall for the last few years at my house.) The ones kept as pets or in zoos, etc. well, I won’t actively seek them out, but those are cool too. Come in my house though? YOU. WILL. DIE. EIGHT. LEGGED. DEMONS.

So, I urge you to read this study at your own risk.

Apparently some scientists, trying to figure out just why humans tend to be afraid of things, including those little eight-legged freaks, did a study where they measured how distracted people where when simply seeing the picture of a spider. Their theory was that people were more distracted by those things that we see as threats, and therefore the images would be a bigger distraction. So what does this have to do with Doctor Who? Well, that’s in the title of their published scientific paper:

“But what about the Empress of Racnoss? The allocation of attention to spiders and Doctor Who in a visual search task is predicted by fear and expertise.”

There’s a lot there, but basically they used images of spiders and Doctor Who stills and had three groups of people, those that watched Who and were afraid of spiders, those that watched Who and weren’t particularly afraid of spiders, and those that had no strong feelings about either and measured their reactions to the images of spiders, Doctor Who stills, fish, and dogs while they were supposed to be looking for a picture of a horse.

Turns out, their  results insinuated that it has more to do with personal relevance than threat level.

Personally, if it were pictures of Matt Smith or David Tennant, I’d be the most distracted by those. What spiders? (No word on the reactions of those that looked at pictures of the queen of the Racnoss…)

 

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