Jessie's Prints - Episode 28 - Mega City One Street Furniture

This week, I are mostly been printing...  Street Furniture

Suicide Booth - Thingiverse: 734066

I'm a big fan of Futurama and there was no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to print off a few suicide booths for the citizens of Sector 55.  The model is very accurate but scaled far too large for my printer and so needed to shrink it to about 1% it's original size.  The model is also hollow and at my 15mm scale the walls became impossibly thin for my resin printer to print consistently.  

However, I did get a couple of decent prints which painted up nicely.  I also created some posters of the signage which I've included in my Judge Dredd Mini-Posters pack. 

Robot Food Stand - Thingiverse: 1645528

This is a great little model for designed for 28mm miniature wargaming game infinity but I thought it was such an interesting shape that it would make a great centrepiece for any plaza scene.

Printing in 15mm scale was easy enough although the robot arm is incredibly fiddly.  I chose to magnetise the roof of my stand to make painting and assembly easier which was a challenge at this scale.  The robot arm is a little too big for this model so I had it leaning out in "attract mode".

In my games this is going to be Klaw Dogs, their moto is "Served Robot Fresh" and you can download this signage in the Judge Dredd Mini Posters Pack.

Tardis - Thingiverse: 153977

I have always wanted my own tardis for a Judge Dredd game.  Not necessarily as a plot point but as a piece of background scenery.  I'm sure that if any of my Judges are out on patrol they will spot this immediately and either blow it up or have it taken away as an illegal structure without the correct city permits.

Needles to say, if Judges ever encounter a timelord, they should arrest them on sight as an illegal alien.  I believe that possession of a timetravel device also carries a significant sentence these days.

Holding Post -  Thingiverse: 6023582 

Having GM'd a few games now, the one functional (storywise) piece of street furniture I've always needed are holding posts.  These are the ubiquitious plascrete features that adorn the streets of Mega City One to which Judges cuff their arrested perps to await pickup from a pat-wagon. They are tough, tamperproof constructions designed to stay intact in all but the most extreme conditions.  They are able to withstand most vehicle impacts and abuse from smallarms or handheld tools making them the perfect safe and sturdy way to keep your perps locked up.

The holding post is my own design for my 15mm Judge Dredd miniatures but can easily be scaled up for 28mm games.  It makes a great addition as an objective marker or cover for games such as Warhammer 40K, Cyberpunk or infinity and is available for free download  at the link above.

Sci-Fi Benches - Thingiverse: 4293393

A rare model are this collection of benches designed specifically for Warlord Games Judge Dredd Miniatures wargame.  A great job on the model from Death Zap Studios who has also done some fantastic work on scenery and buildings for the Marvel Crisis Protocol boardgame.

Sci-Fi Merchant Stall v3 - Thingiverse: 5924557

This model is a fabulous set piece designed to complement any wasteland or outer rim world but I think it looks great in a Mega City One pop-up shop sort of fashion.  It's hard to keep track of the changing trends inside the city and these prefab pop-up structures change vendors on a weekly basis much like the tastes of your average citizen.  

I printed out a bunch of these funky little structures for my games.

Doctor Danny Dyer?

Now that Jodie Whittaker's stint as The Doctor is nearing it's end, the rumour mill has started turning.  Today, I learned that Danny Dyer could be in the running to be the next Doctor Who!

A Mockney Cockney Rhyming Slang Timelord.  I Can't Adam and Eve it!

If the doctor can regenerate into a woman then there's no reason why she can't be a pearly king is there guvnor?  

"Avvit!" or "Avin a Girafe"?

In terms of regional accent we've had 3 Scots, 2 Scouse, 1 Mancunian, 1 Tyke, a bunch of southerners and 1 Received Pronunciation.  

However, looking at the stats, I think it's glaringly obvious that we need a Welsh doctor.  

Actor/actress options include; Catherine Zeta-Jones (Darling Buds of May), Ioann Gruffudd (Fantastic 4), Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones), Ruth Jones (Gavin & Stacey), Michael Sheen (Passengers), Rhys Ifans (The Kingsman), Christian Bale (Batman The Dark Knight), Paul Whitehouse (The Fast Show).

That's a cavalcade of talent right there, although I do hear that Daniel Craig is at a loose end since hanging up the keys to the Aston Martin. Whichever actor gets tapped up for the role, can we please keep their identity a secret until the regenration episode airs.

Let me know who you think should be the next Doctor Who in the comments below.

Why Who Plays Who? Doesn't Matter

So Peter Capaldi has thrown in the towel, been fired, resigned (delete as applicable) and will regenerate at the end of series.  The search for the 11th doctor will inevitably consume the nation (if you listen to the pundits), but not this little corner of geekdom. 

To be honest, I don't care.

I have every faith that whichever actor gets the job, be they young, old, black, white, male or female, dog or cat, they will do a bang up job.  IMHO it is not the actor which makes a great Doctor, rather it tends to be the other way around.  The role maketh the actor.

What concerns me more is that the BBC gives whoever takes on the mantle the proper tools for the job.

Falling Ratings?

Some of the gutterpress have accused the BBC of ditching Capaldi, claiming he is unpopular and that ratings have suffered.  I disagree. 

Nu Who By The Numbers

Looking at the ratings of each Doctor across their time in office, their relative popularity doesn't hint at anything terribly wrong with Capaldi's stewardship of the TARDIS.

In fact he has racked up a creditable episode count over his 855 days and still has season 10 yet to air.

 
However, the big fat elephant in the room is the increase in "Days Without Who".

Put simply there has been too much time between seasons/episodes.

In a Newsweek interview back in March 2016, Capaldi himself criticised the BBC's "erratic scheduling".  Helmsman Stephen Moffat also moves on at the end of the year which signals a sea change at the BBC.  Perhaps they are scaling back on expensive shows such as Who and replacing them with cheap as chips reality TV which they can regurgitate out at pennies on the dollar.  Who knows?

What I know is that I'm fed up with mid season breaks and long hiatuses.

No More Love interests... Please

Whilst I enjoyed the Rose, Amy and Clara characters I found their on/off relationships with the Doctor nauseating.

Can we not go back to the condescending alien superiority of old Who?.  It's not a feminist backlash, I don't care if the companion is male or female.  Let's face it everyone is a complete idiot compared to the Doctor's supragenius mind.  One of my favourite male companions was Harry Sullivan who on many levels was a complete berk, but he knew his place, acting as both a plot device or a plot explainer whenever the story needed it.

My favourite female Doctor / Companion relationship was that of the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson).  The Doctor's frequent frustration and anger at her savage common sense, naivete and independent nature were a joy to behold.  She held her own on many occasions and even reversed the damsel in distress trope a few times saving the Doctor from his own curiosity.

How Do You Fix Who?

I don't want to sound like an old fogey, but the golden years of Who had a plot template and it's one which I have used in my own storytelling.  It goes like this:

1.  Episode begins with a short segment to show the episodes location and shows two factions violently trying to co-exist with each other.  The two antagonistic factions have been in impasse for many years / decades / centuries / millenia.

2.  The TARDIS crashlands in a new location and is somehow trapped or disabled (removing its use as a powerful Deus Ex Machina from the plot solution).  The Doctor and companion narrowly escape with their lives and must now use their wits and ingenuity to survive.

3.  The Doctor and Companion are soon seperated, one each to each faction.  The story of each faction emerges (as told from their perspective) through their interactions with the Doctor and the companion respectively.

4.  An Attack is launched by one faction against the other.  There is much running around and confusion during which the Doctor and companion are reunited and seperated again.  They swap sides and, armed with the facts about the other faction, a true picture emerges of which faction is Good and which is Evil.

5.  The Doctor and companion are finally reunited and the Doctor saves the day by either resolving their differences, helping one side defeat the other or fails to save the Evil faction from their own demise.  

Simples.

Let's hope that the BBC take the opportunity to go back to basics and give us some good old fashioned scarey thought provoking tense sci-fi like they used to be able to make.

Oh and if Toby Jones or Rory Kinnear get the job I will be a happy man.