Are you ready for the next installment, The Bells of Saint John tonight, more clues about Clara/Oswin, and the Doctor's new outfit (nice frock coat!)?
Speaking of which, I've been promising a Doctor Who Sew Along to coincide with the 50th Anniversary? Keep reading to the bottom of this post for the dates.
But I should be talking Bowie for this Sew Along shouldn't I?
Do you reckon I can combine Bowie and the Doctor?
You bet I can!
So Bowie had a song Life on Mars.....and what do you need for life to exist?
Yep, Waters of Mars........and what's the name of the space base in Waters of Mars?:
Now what about Doctor Who possibly influencing Bowie's style*?
Here's Tom Baker, the fourth Doctor in 1974 choosing his new clothes following regeneration.....spot the Ashes to Ashes-like Pierrot costume at 51 seconds:
And that was 6 years before Bowie!
*Yes, I know Bowie knew all about Commedia dell'Arte from his mime days....but perhaps that was because the Doctor travelled through time to influence him, like he did Leonardo Da Vinci etc.....I'll get my coat.
OK then, it'll be starting October 21st
and running till November 30th.....this means it will give you a little
time if you want to make something Whovian before Halloween, will
include all the stuff in the run up to the Anniversary weekend (Nov
23rd) and you can either take Thanksgiving off to spend with friends and
family (if you're American) or sew right through it until the big final
parade on November 30th. There'll be lots, lots more information near to October....so watch this blog.
Obviously, if you're outside the UK you can't text that number to donate.
I wasn't sure whether I could donate from the USA...it used to be so easy donating to Comic Relief in the UK, in every school, every workplace, just texting a word to a number...
BUT
You can donate here:
Click on the pic above to go to their secure site or this link here and you can donate to Comic Relief and save lives using Paypal (I contributed in dollars by changing the currency in the drop down list).
The only thing you can't do if outside the UK is get the UK government to claim GiftAid on the donation.
And as you've watched David being serious, here he is being funny too on Comic Relief with Catherine Tate.....before she was Donna:
When I originally posted about making these two outfits on Sew Weekly, I was a bit down and thought them a failure because neither were finished within the week. Below are some of the pics of what I had achieved in the week, and it wasn't too bad a start.
With the 50th anniversary next year, I'll be finishing them properly for me and Mr D (and probably upgrading some of the fabrics used.....I seriously want some of this fabric from Spoonflower for the 11th Doctor's shirt), and making something for Goth Child and Melchett. We've been the 11th Doctor, Amy, Rory and River Song for our family Doctor Who Impossible Astronaut roadtrip...
...but I think the 50th Anniversary deserves new makes. Do you think I can persuade GC and Melch to be the 4th and 10th? I reckon I might. Mind you Melchett is growing so fast this year, she'll probably more David-Tennant-heighted by 2013. I like cute little 10s.
Next challenge I need to tell you about week 45 my F is for Fortune Cookie apron for Apron Week. Watch out each week for sneak peeks of what I'm making currently on Absobloominglutely which today are 3 dresses from my favourite pattern from the whole year.
Pop that into your GPS/satnav and that will get you to the exact point.....
Of all the locations we had to find on our Doctor Who Road Trip, the dam was the easiest by far. You can't miss it. And wow is it spectacular....from the outside and then, oh my goodness, standing on it, looking over the side and going inside it - in a lift (elevator) that descends the equivalent of 53 floors and to stand at the bottom....but more of this in a bit.
The dam is here:
And here's Rory getting captured in 1969 on the dam:
No escape...
No point in jumping....
Rory dies......again.
And then us hamming it up....whilst also being on a guided tour, which I have to say was ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT and really interesting. It only cost $15 for our whole family and really was worth the money. We didn't think we'd be allowed on the top of dam (let alone inside it) but the interesting thing was the dam is a Federal property, so the security is majorly tight....you're allowed to take id, wallets, change purses (not handbags/purses) but that's about it and you have to go through the full metal detection bit. We were also warned that no joking about bombs, terrorism etc would be accepted. And you could see why, if anything did happen to the Dam the consequences are pretty unthinkable for the damage it would do, the stopping of water and electricity to 4 states, let alone the amount of time and money it would take to repair or rebuild it.
So anyway, this explains why we didn't draw the tally marks on our skin (to indicate seeing the Silence) until we were off the dam:
But here's proof we were on it too:
Goth Child trying not to drop the camera but still get a good shot down the equivalent of 53 storeys of dam. And this is the pic she took:
That green stuff down there is a grass lawn....as big as an American football pitch.
Mr D and Melchett looking over the edge.
Goth Child (blinking), Melchett and Mr D listening to our tour guide.
And for some strange reason, when off the dam....there's this in the Dam's Visitor Centre:
Oh of course....it appeared in the season finale "The Wedding of River Song" of course.
(Erm, Tempest, not everything in the world is related to Doctor Who).
(All screen captures are the copyright of the BBC and appear here as reference to illustrate the location in comparison with how it looked at the time of filming and the present day; no attempt is made to supercede this or any other copyright)
(We did some Torchwood shots too, but the girls were too young then to be allowed to watch it, so it didn't make a whole deal of sense to them).
I think though to be honest when we lived in the UK, the places (mainly Cardiff for the 10th Doctor) they filmed didn't seem that exciting. Places aren't that exciting when you've lived by them all your life. Weirdly now, when I see anywhere in the UK on the tv I get excited.
But when we saw the two episodes of Doctor Who at the start of the 6th season (Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon) were filmed in Arizona and Utah, we knew we'd have to do a Doctor Who roadtrip.
I've split our current Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon USA Doctor Who Road Trip into 3 parts, today the beach, tomorrow Monument Valley where they all meet and Saturday Glen Canyon Dam from Day of the Moon.
If you haven't seen this episode yet....there are spoilers in the pics about what happens, though I'm not going to show you more than is in THIS episode.
Right, for all you Whovians who've only ended up on this page wanting directions for your road trip, here you go:
The picnic on the beach in Impossible Astronaut
It's filmed at Lone Rock Beach, Lake Powell which straddles the Utah/Arizona state line near Page.
Thanks to the Doctor Who Locations website we got the GPS co-ordinates are: 37°00'38", -111°31'50" Pop that into your GPS/satnav and that will get you to the exact point.....
HOWEVER, our GPS tried to take us to the exact point as the crow flies...through a bit of the lake. So know that is the exact co-ordinates but go about 10 miles on US89 from Page, past the turn-off to Wahweap Marina, past the Lake Powell Mart Corner Cafe on the left of the road and just over the Utah border (there's a big sign on the right of the road). The road you need is Lone Rock Road down to the beach on the right.
You can drive right onto the beach and camp there but if you haven't got a 4 x 4 or truck, you might want to stop when the sand starts getting too soft...we did, and I have read an account of other Whovians who got stuck and had to be pushed off.
We had a fab time on the beach, though were glad we came out of season - even in March there were plenty of people, cars, quad bikes and a few houseboats on the beach. I know they filmed the bits for Impossible Astronaut in November and I'm not surprised to get peace and quiet. Melchett had a great time skimming stones into the water. The views and colour of the Lake are quite spectacular, it's a serenely beautiful place. You'll see we had a little trouble with the brightness of the sun though, it's seriously intense for photos and bounces off all the mountains.
And here's some of the fun we got up to and comparison pics from the original show(s)....btw we don't say 'cheese' for photos anymore.....we say 'spoilers' in a very River Song way, it makes us laugh. We're such anoraks.
Melchett attempting to get into the water to be the Impossible Astronaut:
Her inspiration:
And the furthest she got in:
That water is flipping freezing....goodness knows what it was like for the stunt man filming in November!
Our picnic on the beach:
I'm sure I saw someone on the hill. I can't remember who it was now....
And we didn't have 4 picnic rugs like the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River...we had just one. It is there underneath us honest. We didn't have wine either....but we did have grapes, pringles and lovely yellow mugs for our water (I really wanted a cuppa tea (when don't I?) but we didn't bring a stove).
Here's the proper picnic:
And here's what happens when the Doctor goes to meet the Astronaut (and a pic of me and Mr D as Rory and Amy....with a small 'astronaut' behind us in the water):
Which is obviously based on:
Goth Child also wanted a pic of me (Amy) spotting the Silence. As none of us could be bothered to run up onto the hill to pose, I've had to photoshop the Silence in:
Obviously now you have looked away from that photo and are reading this you have forgotten what I was looking at up on the hill....wink wink.....it is there honest, you just keeping looking away from it and therefore forget it's there. How dare you accuse me of being lazy on not photoshopping one in! I'm hurt!
OK that's it for Pt 1....tomorrow I'll show you our pics from Monument Valley when the friends first meet up in the planet called America (as River Song's guard calls it). Then Pt 3 will have our trip to Glen Canyon Dam where Rory got caught by Canton and the FBI in 1969.
(All screen captures are the copyright of the BBC and appear here as reference to illustrate the location in comparison with how it looked at the time of filming and the present day; no attempt is made to supercede this or any other copyright)
If you use social media to chat about your sewing, you're probably a #sewcialist. Sewing + Social = Sewcialist. Find out more at sewcialists.org
Here's a list of sewing challenges, sew alongs & meet-ups around the world, in monthly order, on Kat's Modern Vintage Cupcakes blog:
Want to learn to sew? Here's Tilly & the Buttons (of Great British Sewing Bee fame) Learn to Sew online lessons:
Want to find sewists and sewcialists near you? Or to put yourself on the map? Click below for a set of maps of sewists & sewcialists around the world, organised by Vicki Muise of
Another Sewing Scientist:
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