Hanging out with River Song

 So last weekend I was very lucky to be invited to Hurricane Who's Summer Night where I was also asked to be the guest emcee and host the Q&A session with Alex Kingston AKA River Song, however getting to Orlando in time was gonna be a challenge for me as I live on the west coast and Orlando is on the east coast it meant I had to be up at 5am to catch a 6.30 flight to Dallas and connect with a second flight to Orlando.  Hurricane Who would start at 5pm my flight arrives in Orlando at 5.05pm.  Fortunately for me Alex's Q&A dosnt start til 9 and so I rushed from the Airport to the Buena Vista Palace where this one night event was being held.

Needless to say I did make it, and even managed to get some one on one time with Alex where she told me her ghost stories, however our chat was cut short as it was time to hit the stage.....

Some of my favorite quotes from the interview:

“I did wind him [David Tennant] up though. Because the moment where I do whisper in his ear, I *was* whispering things in his ear. There’s quite a lot of outtakes of him not being able to keep a straight face. But I’m not gonna tell you what I was whispering!”

“My knees went in places they shouldn’t have.”
—     Alex Kingston about filming the scene in Time of Angels where she lands on top of Matt Smith

“My favorite episode of Doctor Who ever? I’d have to say my favorite episode is…. [Flesh and Stone?] Maybe? I don’t know!”

“Spoilers spoilers spoilers! I can tell you that I’ll be back…. And I can say ‘trench coat’. And ‘Reuben sandwich’.”

“Only Steven writes River…Matt thinks Steven has a crush on River”

"It [Doctor Who] is a really positive show.... it requires children to think and work things out and be detectives...... there are no guns....." Me: "Well.... well there is....... Sweetie" Alex: "Well....I'm the bad girl....."

“[on working on the Doctor Who video game the night after partying with John Barrowman] I had a terrible hangover and had to pretend I had a cold…Naughty naughty Captain Jack”

 

All in all a truly fantastic night...

For information of following Hurricane Who events check out their website: http://www.hurricanewho.com/

Alex Kingston (River Song) in Florida next week

SPOILERS

Next week, I will be appearing along side Doctor Who star Alex Kingston (River Song) at 2 different events, firstly I will be guest emcee at the Hurricane Who Summer Night at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel located across from the Downtown Disney Marketplace Thursday 28th June and then Friday we head down to Miami to join the folks at Florida Supercon for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Both events will be offering professional photo ops for $30 where you get an 8x10 with Alex printed on site.

In addition, Florida Supercon will be giving away a full size TARDIS, full details are to be confirmed but I can tell you I've seen the work that's gone into this TARDIS

Win your own Life size, Variant Matt Smith Dr. Who TARDIS at Florida Supercon 2012. Lasting the whole convention so please check us out and see if you walk home with your own time lord ride!



Specs:
4'6" x 4'6" x over 9' Tall!!
Styled on the latest Matt Smith Tardis build.
Exterior Shell consisting of Select #2 Cedar
Complete 6”x6” corner posts sectioned off to form a sturdy frame
Reinforced Based for high traffic and coated with primer and rubber sealer for weather proofing
Removable Power cable with weather proof electrical box cover
Exterior stained Blue with Clear coat over to protect and add weatherproofing
Black Interior designed to give the “bigger in the inside” feel.
LED lighting rated for 50000 hours continuous use on windows and police box signs
Rounded corners for safety and beauty
Aluminum signs on phone door
Illuminated phone box to night time use
Phonelynx Bluetooth to Land Line system allows 2 phones to be connected to the TARDIS at the same time
Illuminated power switch inside
UK Yale lock –w- 2 keys and TARDIS keychain
Old style two piece phone installed in Front Panel
Weatherproofing on Roof with insulation for climate control
120V Incandescent bulb for flashing top with sound
Fully remote control Lights and sound
Custom circuits easily modular to replace
Separate power supply for lights and circuits for redundancy and failover
Caster on bottom for easy moving on flat flooring
Signed by Alex Kingston (River Song)

http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3499.0

For full details do check out both the websites and I hope to see you there....

Allons-y

Will River Song return in Season 7?

Following both Matt Smith and Karen Gillan’s recent appearance on the Graham Norton Show Alex Kingston is next in the line up tonight in the UK and tomorrow on BBC America to promote her new role in the BBC television series Upstairs Downstairs, however, during her interview, which has already been recorded, Kingston is asked about whether or not River Song will return in Season 7.

As you can expect, Kingston is playing her cards close to her chest, only hinting at another appearance from the character.

“You may see her again. Who knows?” she told Norton “Let’s just say, Upstairs Downstairs and Doctor Who don’t film at the same time.”

Kingston also revealed to Graham that for the entire last run she knew about her relationship to Amy Pond even though none of the other actors did, “They discovered it in that episode when they read the script”, she said, referring to A Good Man Goes To War.

Both Karen Gillan and her on screen husband Arthur Darvill are due to exit Doctor Who next season 

The Graham Norton Show airs tonight at 10.35pm on BBC1 and Saturday (Feb 4th) 10.15pm ET on BBC America

Wishing you a Pond Farewell...

Next year will see series 7 of Doctor Who returning in the fall, however there's going to be two BIG changes, firstly there will be no more two parters, each episode will be its own standalone story which for me I dunno if I'm a huge fan of this idea.  Personally, I feel that sometimes the story requires more than 45mins, otherwise it can seem a little rushed.  I don't think we could have got through season 6 if each episode was a standalone.

Here's what Stephen Moffat had to say in the Doctor Who Magazine:

“I was looking at the facts and stats and it’s not true that the two-parters save us money. We’ve assumed it for years. They don’t save us money at all. Not a penny. So what’s the point in them? The viewing figures always go down. The AI [Audience Appreciation Index] goes down, even if the second episode is the better one. The press coverage goes down. The trailers are a bit boring. I want to be able to say, every week, we’ve got a big standalone blockbuster, and then a trailer that makes it look like nothing compared to what’s going to happen next week! That’s the form for next year. Interesting point of order on this—the AI’s change from part one to part two on any given episode is usually negligible. In fact, there are many occasions when it goes up. Look, AI is a nice way of saying “Did the audience actually like the episode?” In the grand scheme of things, that matters very little to the BBC. What does matter is viewership.”

The second bit of news is that series seven will say goodbye to both Amy and Rory (Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill) there was hints of this sometime ago, I believe Moffat even made mention that the Ponds will appear now and again but not as full time companions however it has now been confirmed that they will be making a heart breaking permanent departure and the Doctor will be getting a new 'exciting' companion...

Screen Shot from The 11th Hour copyright BBC

Moffatt said: "The final days of the Ponds are coming. It's during the next series. I'm not telling you when and I'm not telling you how. That story is going to be a heartbreaking one."

He went on to say that The Doctor would be "taking a new friend", adding: "I'm not going to tell you anything about he, she or it."

Me with Arthur Darvill from November 2011 at Hurricane Who

Not quite Van Gogh...

My Dad is to blame for my love of Doctor Who for it was him who introduced it to me, we would watch the BBC series every week.  I remember more so that in November 1992 a new channel was launched on SkyTV.  'UK Gold' a station that was to show repeats of the 'classic' archive programming from both the BBC and ITV networks, and with that they began to air Doctor Who from the original 1963 William Hartnell episode 'The Unearthly Child'.

Anyway, back to the reason for this post. I wanted to share with you three paintings that I did for my Dad, firstly my Dads favorite DW bad guy was the Cybermen and so for his birthday I painted him this:

Cyberman painted 2005 by Paul Bradford

The following year for Fathers Day I painted him a Dalek:

Dalek Painting 2006 by Paul Bradford

The a couple of years ago my Dad went to Disney World in Florida and so as a surprise to him I painted the exploding TARDIS painting from the 2010 episode "The Pandorica Opens" and had it delivered to his hotel.

Exploding TARDIS 2010 by Paul Bradford