Doctor Who Nostalgia

Remakes usually suck. They're gutted remnants of everything good and decent that you loved about the original show, usually. But I have to say after two seasons of the new version of Doctor Who that it is completely brilliant. The writing has the same campy feel with improved special effects and the same wonderful richness of characters.

Tonight I rewatched a few episodes, including 'School Reunion' and the nostalgia just got to me. I am a Whovian-that's what we call ourselves, Doctor Who fans-through and through and seeing one of my favorite girls standing there strong and beautiful before the ever regenerating Doctor moves me to tears. The first time I saw it I had bootlegged it off a sharing site and crammed it onto a cd which I then smuggled into work and watched on the sly. It was tiny but clear and it made me cry so hard I had to sneak out to the bathroom to compose myself. This time I watched it off the DVD set in the comfort of my boyfriend's living room on a giant TV and again I wept. Truth is: I love Srah Jane Smith and I want to be her. She's the girl who the Doctor liked best-until Rose although Ace and Perri were well loved too-and she got to be more than the screamer, she got to be the Doctor's equal. And even though they made a slight mistake in saying the Doctor never went back for her...we all know he immediately attempted to go back for her. In Leela's first ep the Doctor walks out of his TARDIS and declares, "This isn't Hyde Park." (Psst...that's where SJS lives.) They did an amazing job of showing you what happens to the girl after the adventure. Kind of sad to see wonderland and then be forced to pretend to be normal again. I bet it's like going on the best vacation of your life and then coming home to find out you still have to go to work on Monday. Horrible!

But anyway, the nostalgia: Jen and I used to play a game where we named all the companions back to front. My brother and I pretended our child size table was the Tardis and went back in time to hit dinosaurs with yellow whiffle ball bats and my best friend and I went to our friend Carl's on Saturday nights to watch the Key to Time. Oh and all the endless fuzzy vhs copies we traded because there was no cable except for HBO and all we watched on that was Fraggle Rock. Man, I pretended to be Sarah, Peri, Ace...I traveled with Jamie and Jo. My imagination knew no limits for that show. Sometimes I time travled with the Doctor and MacGyver! Ridiculous but fun. I think they would've got on on famously. It was fun. It was somehow golden and better and not as boring as High School or Grade School or real life.

I miss the intensity of my imagination. I miss Sarah Jane Smith. I really love and hate the show for doing that to be me. I love how it still has the same soul and the same intellegence and compassion and Good vs Evil. I hate it because no matter how much I beg and plead it will never be reality. Not in my life time. But just in case he is real and he is out there...I'm ready to go. C'mon Doctor, take me with you. Oh and if you could stop by and pick up Sam too...I promised her if you were real, I'd call her.

Back to Animation?

Today at work I was informed via email that my jigsaw puzzle is offensive to office life. So now I need something else to do during the copious amounts of downtime we have inbetween calls. Is animation the answer?

I went to the Art Institute of Philadelphia at the end of the 90's and graduated with an Associates in Animation Degree. I haven't really been animating all that much since...oh, Graduation Day. Ha, that's not true, but there haven't been any major animation projects. I think I could add Flash to this computer without a whole lot of fuss. In the trunk of my car is a huge bog full of paper animation. I pulled a half done walk cycle and brought it back in to my desk. Mind you, I could be working on my novel, but I find that the boring Saturdays and Sundays atmospheres here much more conduscive to writing then the busy Fridays and Mondays. Besides last night I outlined the last seven chapters and am ready to go!

Anyway, a few new walk cycles, a cute short 5 minute cartoon might do wonders for me getting a job...in art...where people like jigsaw puzzles. Plus Flash is easier to hide then the bottle of vodka I was thinking about bringing to work to get through the downtime.

Moon Bunnies

This little image is the start of my new portfolio. I am currently working at a help desk rebooting people's computers and keeping them happy and up and running on the internet. I get to talk to a lot of really interesting people from all over and since there is a lot of lagtime between when you reboot and when it comes back up I have more time to draw. This is the result of that lag time. Not bad, eh? So keep an eye on this blog-I know I always say that and then forget to write in here for a year or so. But this time...I will most likely do the same thing!