The 2020 Doctor Who Christmas Special That Wasn't... Again!

There haven't been proper Christmas specials for Doctor Who since 'Twice upon a Time' in 2017. 

Since then, I've taken it upon myself to fill in the gap with my own takes on these festive sci-fi treats. Just a blu-ray cover or two together with a Radio Times cover to whet the appetite. 

Before you ask... Yes, I do have plots for these adventures in mind. 

If any Doctor Who showrunner has run out of Christmassy ideas for future specials, then they should contact me via the Twitter. 

My DMs are usually open. 

Here are the original two specials that I did for 2018 and 2019 - 'Hark the Weeping Angels Sing' (in which the WA's invade Earth using Christmas cards) and 'Daleks of Christmas Past' (in which the Daleks infiltrate a US town in the 1950s and plan to turn the inhabitants into drones under the cover of a mysterious and magical circus that's a bit like the one in 'The Seven Faces of Dr Lao' - Davros might even have been the eponymous Dr. Lao... I hadn't got there far in my head. Bit obvious though. Maybe make the Master the Ring MASTER instead now that we have him back on the show.)

Anyhow, this year's was tweeted out on Christmas Eve as part of a Christmas TV Specials of Old advent calendar. Here are the finished articles in full. You might even be able to read the text on these images...

Links to the previous ones:

The 2018 Christmas Special that wasn't.

The 2019 Christmas Special that wasn't.

If you've enjoyed this or any of the 300 odd post of this blog, then you can show your appreciation to the blogger by purchasing for him a nice coffee via his Ko-fi page - where you'll find a gallery of the tat he thinks is his best work. The link is here.

Lockdown II - Cinema Posters

Yes, I'm back. It's been three months since my last post so not only am I apologising to you for the neglect, I've also got a backlog of stuff to post. So without further ado, here's a very large one to be going on with...

Obviously, there's been a second lockdown in the UK during much of December and that very nice Emily Cook from Doctor Who magazine again took it upon herself to organise a selection of tweet-a-longs for the Whovian community. 

To cut a long story short, I uploaded one of my cinema posters to the lockdown website and next thing I know I'm doing social media ads for all of the tweet-a-long episodes. 

They are (with one or two exceptions) all based on vintage (and not-so-vintage) movies. Some are quite familiar whilst others are on the obscure spectrum. They've really been fun to do and the only real labour was the effort in finding suitable old posters to homage. 

In no particular order, here they are - all 23 of them*. At the end of these, is a list of posters that I paid homage to.

* Yes, I know there weren't 23 tweet-a-longs but I kind of overdid it. All of the Christmas/festive specials are included even though they weren't all selected.

A Christmas Carol – The Muppets' Christmas Carol (1992)

Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways – This Island Earth (1955)

The Christmas Invasion – Invaders from Mars (1953)

Dark Water/Death in Heaven – Original

The Return of Doctor Mysterio – Batman (1966)

Last Christmas – Miracle on 34^th Street (1947)

Resolution – Not of this Earth (1957)

Revolution of the Daleks – Earth vs the Flying Saucers (1956)

The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe – The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

The End of Time – El Cid (1961)

The Husbands of River Song – Tobor the Great (1954)

The Next Doctor – Konga (1961)

The Pilot – Fantastic Voyage (1966)

The Runaway Bride – I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)

The Snowmen – Great Expectations (1946)

The Unquiet Dead – Scrooge (1951)

Thin Ice – Wuthering Heights (1949)

The Time of the Doctor – The Time Machine (1960)

Turn Left – Original

Twice Upon A Time – It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Utopia – Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Voyage of the Damned – The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

If you've enjoyed this or any of the 300 odd post of this blog, then you can show your appreciation to the blogger by purchasing for him a nice coffee via his Ko-fi page - where you'll find a gallery of the tat he thinks is his best work. The link is here.

Beyond Vision Dalek Serials

Way back in the 'Before Times', there was a VHS label called 'Beyond Vision'. It was actually an encompassing brand name for Warner Home Video's Sci-fi titles. There was a trailer on each video extolling the virtues of the line. Titles included 'Blade Runner', 'Highlander', some of the Doug Mclure fantasy films of the 70s and a rather nice widescreen transfer of 'Forbidden Planet' with a stereo soundtrack. They also lumped in their episodic releases of 'Babylon 5' which actually ran longer that the label itself. 

In amongst these titles were the two Aaru 'Doctor Who' movies from the 60s. Both were nicely remastered in widescreen - unlike the previous VHS releases. 

I was quite taken at the time with the design of the artwork - grey metallic background, formal lettering and a typically 90s sci-fi logo of a glowy bald guy staring at a framework globe. It had a formal look but seemed to suggest it was taking the product range seriously for a change. 

I've recreated that branding for two new video covers that juxtapose the original movie design with ones for the original TV episodes. There's a few gags in there but I'm quite pleased with the authenticity of the designs. I even made an authentic 'Dalek Invasion of Earth' saucer in Photoshop. 

If you've enjoyed this or indeed any of the hundreds of posts I've shared, then you might like to consider buying me a coffee. You can do this via my Ko-fi page. The link is here.

Chumbleymania Forever!!!

I did some Chumbley merchandise a few years ago and I regularly return to them as the subject of alternate merchandise. There were part of a regular troop of alien robots that were seen as attempts to duplicate the success of the Daleks during the early years of the series. Needless to say, like the Mechons, the War Machines and the Quarks, they failed to make much of an impact. They haven't been awarded the honour of a figurine by the Doctor Who Figurine Collection. Shame! 

Here's a few more items from an alternate universe where the Daleks were overtaken by the success of the cute little robots from Rilla. 

If these examples of fan sadness have moved you to pity, then you might like to purchase a new warming cup of coffee for the poor soul who created them. You can do this via his Ko-fi profile. The link is here.  Thank you.

Not Star Trek Annuals.

I recently acquired the first Star Trek annual. £2 from a charity shop since you ask.

 It's the typical lazy World Distributors fare - a couple of Gold Key reprints padded out to the 64 page limit with a handful of pages featuring 'space facts'. 

It reminded me again that I don't do much, if any, Star Trek stuff on here. Looking at the cover of that annual gave me the idea of doing some more spin-off Doctor Who annuals using the covers of these icons of the 70s as inspiration. 

That first one fitted Frontier in Space quite well. In fact, it's my favourite. (You will note that the futuristic city behind Jo Grant and her two Ogron chums is the Brazilian National Congress building in Brasilia - a photo of which portrayed the Earth President's residence in said episodes. Quite a clever inclusion that though I say so myself!) 

The others are a mixed bag. I've included the original annuals at the foot of this post as the Doctor Who fans who follow me might not be familiar with Star Trek. It was a US TV show in the 60s that ran for only three seasons and was a staple schedule filler for the BBC during most of the 70s. They tried remaking it a few times over the years with varying degrees of success. The latest versions can only be viewed if you pay extra.

If you've enjoyed this wander into the realms of absurdity, then why not buy the creator a cup of coffee for the troubles. You can do this via his Ko-fi account. The link is here. There's also a gallery of his best stuff so you don't have to sort through all the crap posts on this blog to get your fix of fun.