Casual Gallifreyan

Gallifreyan "language" (more of a code for us Earthicans) can be a bit of a challenge, especially to design the more beautiful words, sentences, phrases, and paragraphs we see wandering around the internet. These are lovely, but also difficult to do, especially when working by hand. Take this one for example. It's my name:

It took me about twenty minutes to get a good circle, put in the right letters, and erase the extra lines. It's my name. I know how to write my name, so very little of the time is spent thinking - it's spent making it look pretty. It's a bit like learning cursive in second grade, or learning calligraphy as an adult.

So it seems like the Time Lords must have had some type of shorthand, right? A short hand which allowed them to scribble notes to each other without spending hours desperately sand-blasting their message into the floor of some great hall. 

See image here.

Suppose some Time Lord had to desperately get the above message (I'm a little teapot, short and stout; here is my handle, here is my spout, etc., etc.) to another Time Lord and couldn't go back in time to cross her own timeline... Time Lord problems. You know.

So anyway, casual Gallifreyan - that's where I'm going with this. I started experimenting with a handwriting version of this, and while not as pretty, it's a heck of a lot easier. Unless Time Lords were born with the innate and unbelievable ability to draw perfect circles every time, then scribbly handwriting would probably be written in ovals. On the left are the three words in my name (Ariele Joy Sieling). On the right are the same characters written in ovals.

And no I didn't just take a picture of the page from a weird angle.

But then I began to consider the elements that might make one Time Lord's handwriting different from another's. The little dots, for example - some might just do them as dots, others might have the size change, and they can be placed differently as well - mine tend to be in the middle of the letter, but they could be on either edge. It's just like some people cross their t's low or high, some people dot their i's with circles or hearts, and some write in tiny or big letters.

Here is my name written in four slightly different styles. I'm the only one making the words, so the strokes all look the same, but the dots, tidiness, lines, and shapes are slightly different. With other people writing similar words, it would look completely different: 

I intend to keep experimenting with writing quickly, because I think that is really how handwriting is formulated - practice! Here is vaguely what I think my Gallifreyan signature should look like - a 3/4 moon having a seizure: 

For more practice, I wrote "Doctor" repeatedly: 

And of course, as any good Doctor Who fan would do, I tried to invent a signature for the Doctor using the word "Doctor," since we're not allowed to know what his real name is. Of course it should be as messy as a medical doctor's:

I would really like some nerd at the BBC to teach each of the doctors how to write "doctor" in Gallifreyan - then we could see how his handwriting changes, in addition to his face, outfits, and tardis!

Anyway, I intend to keep working on this - practicing my writing, getting faster and better at full sentences (not just words), and figuring out what shortcuts make it easier to write but not confuse the meaning. Stay tuned.

And send me any of your scribblings and I'll include them in my next post!

Aliens 101

Recently I have been thinking about aliens, and how we create our aliens to be relatively like us in most regards. Take some of the Star Trek aliens, for example: 

This guy, and that guy.

Very humanoid. Along with those are all of the people from BattleStar Galactica and Firefly, aliens from Star Trek and Star Wars, Doctor Who, etc. We seem to like the idea of humans exploring the universe and finding other humanoids. But those are definitely not the only types of aliens the human mind has invented.

There are much weirder aliens...

 Like this giant lump of meat, which is actually an alien (Torchwood) and it's still alive when they cut it up.

And then you have scary.

This is a Predator, which may not be an alien after all, just a human from the future (Primeval). But alien enough by one dictionary definition (unlike one's own; strange; not belonging to one.)

And there are Daleks - they set the bar for scariness, with their insatiable desire to be the only intelligent life in the entire universe and their tendency to exterminate everyone (Doctor Who).

 The Slitheen, who kill humans and take their skin to wear as suits (Doctor Who)...

 The Silence, who make you forget they ever existed when you can't see them (Doctor Who)...

The blue aliens are scary because they seem to be studying us... and yet we can't understand them (Stargate Universe).

There are of course hilarious aliens...

(Men in Black)

And Superheroes...

(Megamind)

(Superman)

And let's not forget the metal aliens...

This is an attacker drone from Stargate Universe, set on autopilot to find and destroy any and all forms of technology that are at or above its level. They escaped, don't worry.

These two are Cylons from Battlestar Galactica. Everyone in Battlestar is technically an alien, but these are not human aliens. Of course, humans invented them...

And the all-famous Cybermen (Doctor Who), not technically aliens, but creatures invented by humans (and made out of humans) usually brought in from another universe or from the future.

And we wouldn't want to leave out a Transformer.

I'm also going to throw a nice alien in, for good measure:

These aliens can morph into anything you want them to be. They are in Star Trek, Next Generation.

And finally, I'm going to leave you with a taste of one of my favourite aliens - the Clockwork Aliens (Doctor Who).

Now, these are probably better classified as alien robots, as they seem to function under only one directive and have no willpower to do otherwise. In that sense, they are slightly terrifying, because they're taking people's internal organs to make their ship function properly, but they're so beautiful! And imagine they weren't evil killing machines - they would make awesome butlers.

This is far from all of the aliens in the fictional universes of Earth, as it leaves out all books and about a million movies and other TV shows, but it's a start.

31 Days of Planets: New Earth

Day 16

Rose: Where're we going?

Doctor: Further than we've ever gone before...

New Earth exists in the year 5 billion 23, in the galaxy M87. There is apple grass there. The Doctor explains that in the year 5 billion, the sun explodes and the original Earth roasts. Humans, of course don't die out, as they've moved out all over the universe (if we could just get on with that please!) and there was a sort of nostalgic movement. So they found a planet that was the same size as the earth, has the same air and the same orbit and they turned it into New Earth. 

The even built New New York. "Strictly speaking its the 15th New York as the original - that would be New New New New New New New New New New New New New New New York..."

It's brilliant, just brilliant. To think that out there in this giant never-ending universe there might just be another planet that is so like ours, that we can actually name it New Earth without looking utterly ridiculous. But then I wonder - if it's just like Earth, did we have to fight the people living on it to make it ours? Did we buy it? Did we simply invade, take over, and that was that. Or was it empty? Did we get overwhelmingly lucky and just happen to move into a completely empty planet (of intelligent life, that is)...

Well, maybe one day, I'll get to stand on apple grass and stare at a completely foreign, yet completely familiar sky.

In conclusion, go watch Doctor Who, new season 2, episode 2. If you do, you'll also get to see the cat people!

Pictures from tvbabble and the Tardis Index File.

31 Days of Planets: Gallifrey

Day 3: Gallifrey

I think there may be more orange on Gallifrey than on any other planet in the universe. If you image search "Gallifrey," you see a lot of orange. Now some of you may be wondering, "Gallifrey? Where is that?" It is located in a binary star system in the constellation Kasterborous, at "galactic coordinates 10.0.11 x 02." That is approximately 250 million light years away from Earth, probably within the Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex.

I have never been to Gallifrey, but I hear it is beautiful - fields of red grass, mountains that shine with silver-leafed trees, and from the outside, it is so very orange. The reason we know about this planet, is because the Doctor, a Gallifreyan (also an alien), is really great about protecting Earth from impending aliens of doom.

Gallifrey is also called The Shining World of the Seven Systems.

Its inhabitants, the Time Lords, live for thousands of (human) years.

In conclusion, Gallifrey... is fantastic.

Pictures from http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Doctor_Who_Wiki

The Slow Invasion... is real.

Doctor Who may be predicting the future.

Just this morning, I watched the newest episode  --  about the slow invasion in which small black boxes appeared everywhere: 

Next, Dave and I went to Plum Island.

Plum Island looks more or less like this: 

However, to my dismay, on our way out we saw something that set off all alarm bells...

Black boxes.

And these are not the little paper kind you can print off and make. These are giant wooden boxes that could have real weapons and serious computing abilities...

When these boxes start reproducing, becoming smaller and curiouser, and eventually finding their way into people's homes... then we'll really have something to worry about. 

But we should be find for a while. This doesn't look to be just a slow invasion. More like a reaaalllly reaaaaallly reaallly slow invasion. 

Daleks on the Moon

And how do I know, you ask, that they found Daleks on the moon (they are also on Mars - see here)?

Because, as I was perusing images for a less recent blog post about the moon (mostly), I found these:

This was found in the NASA archives.

This was found in the NASA archives, as well.

This was found in the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive.

This was found in the George Eastman House collection.

You may have to peruse closely, but trust me - the evidence is there. 

I'm hoping that if I post enough pictures of Daleks, the Doctor will show up.

The Internal Metamorphosis of the Doctor

I am working on a project about values* and the implementation thereof in day-to-day life. So, I thought to myself, I wonder what Doctor Who would consider his primary values? What is it that motivates his actions (besides the constant need to save the Earth/his friends/wherever he happens to be/whomever he happens to be with from impending doom, that is)?

Now, the personality of the Doctor has evolved, for sure. I haven't seen every Doctor yet (still working on it), but I'm going to take a stab at guessing the values of the ones I have.

1: Kindness, wisdom, curiosity

3: Intelligence, perseverance, knowledge, exploration

4. Humor, curiosity, exploration

5. Curiosity, intelligence, open-mindedness

That's all I've seen of the first bunch. Now, looking at the three newest Doctors, it is clear that his attitude and intentions have been changing gradually. He started out (as Christopher Eccleston) pissed at everyone and everything, probably because he had just blown up his planet and killed his entire species. David Tennant was a bit irritable in the beginning, but Rose had chilled him out a lot, and he cooled off majorly through the next three seasons. He became more open and willing to acknowledge his feelings (to a point), as opposed to constantly running away from his feelings. Then, when Matt Smith arrived, the Doctor began to work through his feelings of guilt over what happened to Rose and Donna, then Amy and Rory; he goes through extreme bouts of wishing he would never hurt anyone ever again. So, through out the most recent six seasons, I would say the prioritization of his values changes quite a lot.+

9: Problem-solving, resilience, strength, intelligence, assertiveness, conviction, daring, cunning, ferocity, shrewdness

10: Optimism, passion, playfulness, curiosity, intelligence, exploration, discovery, teamwork, persistence, victory

11: Inquisitiveness, perceptiveness, persuasiveness, self-control, watchfulness, adaptability, appreciation, relationships, giving back, patience

Then, of course, is the whole issue of how his companions' values influence, negate, or keep in check the Doctor's... but that's like a whole book's worth of material.

Thoughts? Agreements? Disagreements? Please, share in the comments below.

Following image found here.

*Here is a list of potential values that anyone might have.
+To clarify: I think that his values remain relatively consistent, but which ones have the most influence on his behavior at any given time change radically throughout the series.

Images of Gallifrey

David Tennant's famous quote is: "The sky is a burnt orange, with the Citadel enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever... slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow..."

So I found pictures. I thought that even if we can't know exactly what it looks like, a combination of them all might give us a sense.

This one is just beautiful. I think this is the kind of image 10 had in his mind at the time of his quote.

This is pretty, with the snow, and the two suns. No red grass though.

Evil Time Lord overlooks his barren planet that is stricken by war. 

All of this images have an orange sky; but how do you make it look like it's not on fire?

It's interesting how the Doctor focuses on the citadel, and makes it seem so big, but compared to a planet, any citadel would be quite small. This picture makes it seem tiny... but giant at the same time.

It also looks like it's all about to go up in flames.

This is pretty, but somehow I can't imagine 10 and Rose going back and skipping through the fields of a planet that went up in flames and caused the Doctor so much distress.

This one is an interesting depiction, much more devoid of detail and more concept based. 

Also, the sky is orange, but obviously not on fire.

I like this one because it clearly depicts the two suns.

Also, this version of the planet has water.

Weeping Angels

I think this may be the most terrifying statue I have ever seen, including all of the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who. Although, for all we know, this is a Weeping Angel...

But I mean, take your pick.

(Doctor Who Weeping Angel)