That was a nice surprise this morning. Also great to see the Griffin Academy teasers...well, not exactly pay off, since I am sure there will be many more zany hijinks, but at least taking more shape.

Also, y'know, when Jack Harkness has respect for your swagger?

Damn, son.

HELLO SWEETIE

And that's the point I fell down laughing for several minutes. Nicely done.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Mine was Zaphod's brief mental appearance.

Hmm, fairy cake...

Brian

Agreed. It is very very silly and I love it.

---
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to hell/But I'll have all the best stories to tell" -- Frank Turner, The Ballad of Me and My Friends

LAST EDITED ON May-24-13 AT 04:57 PM (EDT)
 
- That's the outfit Kitty's wearing in the first couple issues of Wolverine and the X-Men.

- Don's proton screwdriver resembles a scaled-down version of the wand from a Ghostbusters proton pack, and makes very similar visual and sound effects. This is total overkill for a screwdriver, but that was at least 50% of the point. The Doctor fears that Don's replacement of his laser screwdriver, which he gave to Rose in Project Phoenix 3: The Eye of Harmony, with the proton model may spark a screwdriver arms race among the 25th century's Time Lord expat community, although he himself is one to talk since he devised the version of the sonic with the barbed wire repair mode.

- There are obviously a number of modern artifacts in this telling - the Untempered Schism is the most obvious, and of course the HELLO SWEETIE joke - but the core of this incident dates from the ancient RPG campaign Don originally comes from. In the original playthrough, I seem to recall it was the result of a straight-up stress-induced freakout, like the screaming guy in that one montage in Real Genius.

- I suspect the Gladiator's MO was similar to the Doctor's, except he was much, much more up for a fight. Hence his somewhat shorter career.

- The unofficial second image of Romana in the Hall of Remembrance, which kicks the whole adventure off, shows her as she appeared in City of Death. This is because that serial had just come around on PBS when we did the game session in which the original version of the incident unfolded.

- Like the Gladiator, I enjoy the concept of the neurotic TARDIS. Given what we've seen can happen to them, I can't say I blame that one for developing an anxiety disorder.

- As previously mentioned, Don's TARDIS's party trick is that its chameleon circuit does work, but can only imitate one thing. It will do its damnedest to become a Pepsi machine that wouldn't look out of place wherever it is, even when that is patently absurd (Don's particularly fond of the form it takes when he visits Victorian London), but it's always a Pepsi machine.

The other important thing about the Type 66 for purposes of this adventure is that the model was sort of the 1960s muscle car of TARDISes. Sixty-sixes had the most powerful engines ever fitted to a standard TARDIS - so much so that later, more advanced models were considerably less powerful, because the sheer grunt of the 66 was deemed superfluous and unnecessary for any reasonable purpose. And so it is... for any reasonable purpose. Running the Tython CVE: not a reasonable purpose.

- Who let in the Theta Chis? comes from an old MST3K, but I can't remember which one.

- If you want a little help with your mental casting, that's John Simm as the Master, and the Tenth and Fifth (in the flashback) Doctors. (And Romana in the "present-day" framing sequences is still Lalla Ward.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

> > - If you want a little help with your mental casting, that's John
>Simm as the Master, and the Tenth and Fifth (in the flashback)
>Doctors. (And the Romana in the "present-day" framing sequences is
>still Lalla Ward.)

Huh, the straw hat made me think of the Seventh Doctor, but you're the boss. :) Anyhow, I really enjoy your Time Lord stories, and I hope to see more of them.

(Heh, random thought, I wonder if the Master will play the Dominus on Professor Enigma someday, arranging to have Clarkson "regenerate" into him, and have the Doctor play against him... or maybe they can play against parts, with the Doctor playing the evil genius (and hamming it up badly) with the Master being good. I can just see the critics, "Newcomers John Smith and Harold Saxon added a lot of energy, but eventually spent more time chewing the scenery....")

>I can just see the critics,
>"Newcomers John Smith and Harold Saxon added a lot of energy, but
>eventually spent more time chewing the scenery....")

<whimper>

Wannaseeit, wannaseeit, wannaseeit...

<tries to plokta on TV remote> Drat, I can't find it.

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

Oy, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a little scenery chewing ;-p

...yeah, I'm a ham. In more ways than one.

>Oy, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a little scenery chewing

As long as you don't swallow.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

>> > - If you want a little help with your mental casting, that's John
>>Simm as the Master, and the Tenth and Fifth (in the flashback)
>>Doctors. (And the Romana in the "present-day" framing sequences is
>>still Lalla Ward.)
>
>Huh, the straw hat made me think of the Seventh Doctor, but you're the
>boss. :)

I don't remember #7 ever rolling his hat up, offhand, but #5 pretty frequently did. Which may be why you don't think of him wearing it. :)

The Doctors and their hats, from memory:

- 1: Not much hat action; rocked a Garibaldi now and then, though, that was pretty boss. It takes a certain devil-may-care panache to pull off a Garibaldi hat with an Edwardian-math-teacher ensemble.
- 2: No hat, as far as I can recall. Did like a Wookiee-pelt coat, though.
- 3: Stole a snappy fedora in his first appearance, then rarely wore it.
- 4: Fond of a slouch hat. Also once wore a Zippy the Pinhead clown hat, or was that just the time I had a 105°-F fever?
- 5: Straw hat. Usually rolled it up and stuck it in a coat pocket.
- 6: No hat.
- 7: Straw hat.
- 8: No hat.
- 9: No hat, except in that one photo of him on the Titanic.
- 10: No hat. (Strange. Did Russell have something against hats?)
- 11: Likes a hat. Not that picky as to style. Personally I like that Tom Petty top hat he was kickin' during the Victorian Sulk.

>the Doctor playing the evil genius

... I'm not actually sure the Doctor and Rose could maintain a straight face long enough to produce an episode in which she was the Professor and he played Dominus, and they definitely wouldn't be able to do so if the Master was along as the Professor's a-bit-out-of-his-depth-but-game assistant Harry. :)

--G.
"HARRY SAXON IS AN IMBECILE!"
-><-
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#2 had a thing about hats early on - he kept stealing other people's hats in some of the early episodes of his tenure. (The whole reason he meets Jaime is he's trying to "borrow" his Tam.)

10 also had that straw cowboy hat a few times when he was in "Party" mode.

>10 also had that straw cowboy hat a few times when he was in "Party"
>mode.

When he wasn't rockin' the necktie-as-hachimaki look. "Have you seen the French?!"

(John "Rock Doctor" Smith, lead guitarist in Professor Rose Tyler's new backup band.)

--G.
-><-
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>(John "Rock Doctor" Smith, lead guitarist in Professor Rose Tyler's
>new backup band.)

And the Master on drums? :)

LAST EDITED ON May-31-13 AT 00:47 AM (EDT)
 
>>(John "Rock Doctor" Smith, lead guitarist in Professor Rose Tyler's
>>new backup band.)
>
>And the Master on drums? :)

That'd be a bit cruel, don't you think? I was thinking keyboards.

--G.
It's the FIIIIIIIINAL countdowwwwwn
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>>(John "Rock Doctor" Smith, lead guitarist in Professor Rose Tyler's
>>>new backup band.)
>>
>>And the Master on drums? :)
>
>That'd be a bit cruel, don't you think? I was thinking keyboards.

That's cool. He probably whips out the cowbell at times, too.

The Master seems to be stuck in Manic Phase ever since the drums stopped.

>The Master seems to be stuck in Manic Phase ever since the
>drums stopped.

"I'm monopolar!"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>
>>And the Master on drums? :)
>
>That'd be a bit cruel, don't you think? I was thinking keyboards.
>

"I still can't believe you actually like playing the drums."

"Ah, but these are different. If I want the drums to stop, they stop. Did you really think somebody who calls himself The Master would like being completely out of control of something? Can't stop it, can't slow it down, can't even walk away?"

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

>"I still can't believe you actually like playing the drums."
>
>"Ah, but these are different. If I want the drums to stop, they stop.

But when drums stop, bass solo.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>"I still can't believe you actually like playing the drums."
>>
>>"Ah, but these are different. If I want the drums to stop, they stop.
>
>But when drums stop, bass solo.

*rimshot*

Offsides

[...] in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.
-- David Ben Gurion
EPU RCW #π
#include <stdsig.h>

Ah, but that's not a restriction on him. There's nothing beyond the Master's newfound respect for the responsibility of power (and also that his arms get tired) to keep him from going on indefinitely, forever denying the bassist his or her solo.
More generally, the band member with the greatest, most comprehensive control over the group is the drummer. Just because the Master isn't prone to abusing power any more doesn't mean that power itself has lost any appeal.

> - 4: Fond of a slouch hat. Also once wore a Zippy the Pinhead clown
>hat, or was that just the time I had a 105°-F fever?

No, he did that during his post-regeneration mania, while trying to settle on a look.

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

> - I suspect the Gladiator's MO was similar to the Doctor's, except he
>was much, much more up for a fight. Hence his somewhat shorter
>career.

Something more like a cross between Kid Gladiator (also from Wolverine & the X-Men) and John DiMaggio's Aquaman (from Batman: Brave & The Bold), with a healthy dose of Brian Blessed? :)

> - Who let in the Theta Chis? comes from an old MST3K, but I
>can't remember which one.

You lost some geek points for not throwing in a "Theta Sigma" joke, Ben. I am somewhat disappointed.

>You lost some geek points for not throwing in a "Theta Sigma" joke,
>Ben. I am somewhat disappointed.

I don't think those two references fit together as well as you seem to think they do, that's all I'm saying. :)

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>You lost some geek points for not throwing in a "Theta Sigma" joke,
>>Ben. I am somewhat disappointed.
>
>I don't think those two references fit together as well as you seem to
>think they do, that's all I'm saying. :)

This is highly probable. :D

> - There are obviously a number of modern artifacts in this telling -
>the Untempered Schism is the most obvious, and of course the HELLO
>SWEETIE joke - but the core of this incident dates from the ancient
>RPG campaign Don originally comes from. In the original playthrough,
>I seem to recall it was the result of a straight-up stress-induced
>freakout, like the screaming guy in that one montage in Real
>Genius.

As I commented to Gryphon during development, in one swoop, Don Griffin managed to accomplish all THREE of the outcomes of looking into the Vortex:

* Inspired (to go and retrieve Romana from E-Space)
* Run away (stealing a TARDIS to accomplish that)
* Go Mad (well, nobody remotely SANE would've tried the above things for such a goal and expected to live...)

The full trifecta -- "Hitting for the cycle", as one might say.

> - I suspect the Gladiator's MO was similar to the Doctor's, except he
>was much, much more up for a fight. Hence his somewhat shorter
>career.

He and The Corsair used to be drinking buddies. It played out about as well as could be expected.

--- Philip
"All right, WHO STOLE MARS?!"

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here"

All I can say, is thank you. Thank you for rescuing my favorite-ever companion. Now we just need Sarah Jane and Leela, and we can start the Doctor's own Special Assignment group. :)

>All I can say, is thank you. Thank you for rescuing my favorite-ever
>companion. Now we just need Sarah Jane and Leela, and we can start the
>Doctor's own Special Assignment group. :)

Well, actually...

        "I only pass on the messages, I make no warranty as to their
accuracy," the Master replied piously.  "Martol, Castellan Andred asked
me to tell -you- that if he sees your face in the Citadel at any point
in that same span of time, he will see that you are transported to the
Death Zone and there leave you to the tender mercies of Lady Leela."
        "Told you he'd be pissed," said Don philosophically to Kitty.

... Leela, at least, is still around. I make no promises about Sarah Jane Smith, though if she was to appear, she'd probably have the same sort of longetivity as Dr. Raoul Duke (but with MUCH LESS pharmaceutical use). As long as there's a Story to uncover...

--- Philip

Tales tell of a lone journalist, one to whom even the greats -- Murrow, Cronchite, Winchell, Reston, Carter -- bow their heads at the mere mention of her name. Some say she travels still, enlightening all who read her words, seeking out the truth in the shadows, empowered only by her wits and the assistance of a curious robotic dog. All that we know for certain is her name... Sarah Jane.

	Philip J. Moyer Contributing Writer, Editor and Artist (and Moderator) -- Eyrie Productions, Unlimited CEO of MTS, High Poobah Of Artwork, and High Priest Of the Church Of Aerianne -- Magnetic Terrapin Studios "Insert Pithy Comment Here"

>I make no promises about Sarah
>Jane Smith, though if she was to appear, she'd probably have
>the same sort of longetivity as Dr. Raoul Duke (but with MUCH LESS
>pharmaceutical use).

I dunno, man, that could be pretty awesome.

SARAH JANE
(voiceover)
Ah, devil ether. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel.

--G.
-><-
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> - As previously mentioned, Don's TARDIS's party trick is that its
>chameleon circuit does work, but can only imitate one thing. It will
>do its damnedest to become a Pepsi machine that wouldn't look
>out of place wherever it is, even when that is patently absurd (Don's
>particularly fond of the form it takes when he visits Victorian
>London), but it's always a Pepsi machine.

Something I've always loved about it. I seem to recall telling you of my discovery of soda machines disguised to look like shipping crates on Tom Sawyer Island at Disney World a few years back, and my immediate decision that they had to be Don's TARDIS. All of them.

>(And Romana in the "present-day" framing sequences is still Lalla Ward.)

<HOMER>Oooooo, Lalla Ward!</HOMER>

-- Bob
-------------------
My race is pacifist and does not believe in war. We kill only out of personal spite.

What I rather like is Don's reaction to the Schism: at first, everyone (including him, and the audience) thinks it was surprisingly understated, and only gradually do we realize that he is in fact tripping his ass off.

A small question about "Enterprise:" what was the cause of the seven-year deadline? Seems like Salusia and the UG could've waited a little longer to make official contact, if that's what it took for Earth to be able to make the first move (on the record).

>A small question about "Enterprise:" what was the cause of the
>seven-year deadline? Seems like Salusia and the UG could've waited a
>little longer to make official contact, if that's what it took for
>Earth to be able to make the first move (on the record).

I was mightily confused for a moment here, since Enterprise isn't in Omni 5; it'll be the leadoff story in Omni 6. But anyway: traditional NASA end-of-the-decade thing, calling back to Project Apollo in the '60s. Also, they wanted to get it done before President Clinton would have had to leave office (though it was always possible that he wouldn't have been re-elected in 1996). Whoever replaced him might've canned the whole thing. Why take the chance?

--G.
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>I was mightily confused for a moment here, since Enterprise
>isn't in Omni 5; it'll be the leadoff story in Omni 6.

It isn't??? ... (checks again) ... indeed it isn't. Don't have any idea why I thought it was. Sorry for the confusion.