Tag Archives: science fiction

Dec 22 2012

Making of my Cyber-Sun Mask

Cybermen..  arch enemies of the wandering Time Lord (The Doctor). These creatures – humans from another planet who had replaced body parts with cybernetic parts so much that they became cybermen – were first encountered by the Doctor whilst in his first `incarnation’ – (William Hartnell), and the adventure very nearly killed the Doctor.  It was called `The Tenth Planet’ – where a wandering 10th planet came very close to Earth in deed (by its own propulsion …thanks to Cyber-technology)!  The weather on Earth went haywire. Those Early Cybermen were really scary character to be honest. Fabric-draped faces..  hollow gaps for eyes.. and mouth..  and speaking in a strange tape-recorder playing on/off type manner.

At the end of it, the (first) Doctor had to withdraw to the safety and support of the TARDIS, where he regenerated for the first time!  Those were the 60′s!

Well, more recently (2006?) when the revamped `new’ new new new series of Doctor Who came back to BBC TV, Russell T Davies & the folks responsible re-invented the origins for Cybermen. These ones were the product of a Scientist in a parallel Earth – who was a disabled (wheel-chair bound) guy who wanted to create better models..  and he kidnapped and surgically hacked homeless people off the streets and turned them (or just re-housed their brains in machine body suits) into Cybermen.

Few years ago, for Christmas special, there was the story `The Next Doctor’ – where the then current Doctor (David Tennant) found himself in Victorian London, in snow..  and encountered a cybermen plot to create `CyberKing’ – (spoiler alert) – a Giant Robot form.

The making of the `New Cyberman' mask & Cyber-Sun

The making of the `New Cyberman’ mask & Cyber-Sun

This image (screen capture) comes from my art website page  http://www.artofmani.co.uk/html/features_1.html

As a pagan I got thinking about this – and as I already had a `Maya Sun God’ mask, decided ..not only to make a new cyberman mask..but to also make a `CyberGod’ out of him (Cybergod is a Concept I have played about with for many years in my own visionary art explorations and narratives..   It will surface one day! ;-)

So here’s the step by step photos of how the Cyberman mask was made.. It’s made entirely of card board  (link comes from my Fantasy, SciFi & Visionary Art website Art of Mani)

-Mani

ps. By the way, this is the 2nd Cyberman mask I have made. The first one was made around early 1990′s, and I also made a full cybersuit then (polythene body suit sprayed with silver paint)..  to walk around King’s College (London University) Student Union areas, to promote the `Sci-fi  & fantasy Society’ (My friend Raymond & I started that off).   It’s possibly the earliest example of me wearing a mask and parading around large number of people (been doing that in Open pagan rituals in recent 7-8 years).

pps. Here’s the full Sun-mask

A Mayan Sun-Mask

A Mayan Sun-Mask

Doctor Who (my) blog links

Tardis Tales: K9 and me

Trials of a Time Lord: Kangaroo Court

Dec 22 2012

TARDIS Tales: K9 and me.. many X’masses ago

DrWho: K9 robotic dog - full scale model - made by Mani

DrWho: K9 robotic dog – full scale model – made by Mani

I am a big Doctor Who fan..  and have been since I landed on the shores of UK back in 1985, and started reading the old Target novels, and watching Trial of a Time Lord (Collin Baker…6th Doctor final season in 1986).  Doctor Who is the BBC TV’s science fiction drama series, that has been going on now for 49 years (50 years in 2013!!) and charts the the adventures of a Time Lord who travels in Time & Space in an old London Police Box – ie his time machine disguised (TARDIS – Time and Relative Dimensions in Space).

My K9 & incomplete TARDIS in the garden

My K9 & incomplete TARDIS in the garden

And it has – next to Star Trek & Blakes-7 – been the biggest TV sci-fi series to make the biggest impact in my life..  inspirations, motivations, and at times, even solace. Oh yes! How? well, all that in blogs to come..  (Why you ask? well, it’s my blog  and I can talk about my life.. any and all facets of it :-)  Go on start your own blog, and talk about anything you like..   !)

So to kick off my Doctor Whovian blogs, I’m  starting with K9 and me  (am not making that word up at all..  In fan circles and even in published magazines, `Whovian’ is a real word that’s used!!)..

Few years ago, I started doing special Christmas projects – based on Doctor Who…just for my own fun..  making art & craft stuff.  K9 – the robot dog that Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor had for quite a while (from the `Invisible Enemy’ story on wards) was my first `big’ Doctor Who project.

I’ll dig out the actual `making of K9′ photos another time (it’s in an external drive..)  but here’s the finished item..   (with  a part of the TARDIS door that I started to make behind)…and a photo of me sitting on K9   (it’s a wood & hardboard full scale model..that can take my full weight. I posed this way as I recall Peter Davison (5th Doctor) being seated on k9 in a publicity photo for the 20th anniversary special `Doctor Who: Five Doctors’.  So I figured if I can’t build a motorised model, it should at least be strong enough to support my weight. (and no reason why I can’t motorise it one day).

In fact,one of these days – I may take `my’ K9 out for a walk around London…yes, in the real trains & tubes..  (I can just lift `him’ into buses and trains :-)

Mani seated on K9

Me (Mani) seated on my K9 (4-5 years ago)

So anyway,

I’ve lost touch with fellow Whovians..   and would welcome contact from you all.   `Who’ knows..  perhaps to build a few Daleks..  complete a TARDIS… make a few short videos ….just for fun  (plenty of woods and historic sites about in London.. )

-Mani Navasothy

Link

Trial of a Time Lord: Kangaroo Court & me

Sonic screw drive too far?

Ultra sound : Mouse repellent to Muscle warmer

Oct 5 2012

Robin Hood & Roj Blake- Rebels against The Sheriff & The Federation

Question: What do the Following things have in common?

  • Robin Hood
  • Roj Blake (of TV prog Blake’s 7)
  • Doctor Who

Robin Hood, Roj Blake & the Rebel Time Lord.. with a guest appearance from Mani

 

Have you figured out the link yet?

Oh come on..  it’s obvious, right?  No..no..I am not the link..(well, I suppose I could be..)

But really,  they are all mythical or TV characters that are rebels, challenging the norm, attacking atrocities, fighting intergalactic injustices, protecting the innocent, defending the weak!

Robin Hood is said to have fought the Sheriff of Nottingham (a nasty power indulging feudal Lord), and Rob stole from the rich and gave it to the poor. He lived in the Sherwood Forest with his band of loyal rebels!

The Doctor – tv character from the BBC (and one about to celebrate 50th anniversary in 2013) is a rebellious Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who stole a time machine that was ready to be scraped…an old type-40 TRADIS, and ran away from his people…to roam time & space. The Dotor has `always fought evil, where ever he has come across it..’

Roj Blake - another tv character from BBC (Blake’s 7).  Blake was a political idealist, who was arrested, put on trial by the government (The Federation) and brain washed to be a model citizen. The Federation thought bu showing him this way, they’ll destroy the morale of the rebel movement, who fought for freedom.  But Blake’s memories re-surfaced, and he escaped in an alien spaceship nicknamed `The Liberator’, and with a band of (initially reluctant) oulaws, started fighting The Federation.  Their ship’s computer was called `Zen’ and they also had a super intelligent small computer (their equivalent of a laptop I guess) called `Orac’  (short for Oracle!).   Blake was killed by one of his own men…but it was a tragedy of misunderstandings, set up by the Federation machinery!

and then we have…me!

Mani Navasothy – Following the racial riots  in Sri Lanka where my Tamil people were getting killed in thousands by the corrupt government army, I came to UK as a refugee and started again at the age of 15. I have dodged army trucks & tanks in streets, been out on a refugee ship in sea for 3 days (going from Colombo to Jaffna), and survived a midnight attack on our train.   And here in England, as an empowered pagan and a rebel, I am outspoken, challenge whatever system that oppresses people and just keep going..  (started Hern’s Tribe as a rebellious outdoor group for rejects from other pagan groups!)  I have served as an elected Union Officer for 2 years full time in the Home Office, years ago, and fought many civil servants’ cases of bullying and harassment by managers.  In the end, it was a fellow Union rep who bullied & attacked me,and that led to …well..that’s another big story for another blog :-)

-Mani Navasothy

Dec 29 2011

Doctor Who: A Screw-driver gone too far?

All this talk of ultra-sounds and technology got me thinking about that ultimate do-it-yourself  tech device – the Sonic Screwdriver – from TV’s Doctor Who! And about Dr.Who itself.

In the old days it was a novelty tool.  In 1970′s, Jon Pertwee’s 3rd Doctor used various devices from the TARDIS’ tool box..one of which was the sonic screwdriver;  Tom Baker’s 4th Doctor who used it quite a bit in and around the Galaxy..  for opening control panels; It was getting used too much as a fix-all prop, so the then-producers decided to get rid of it. So in one story it actually got blasted by enemy fire (Cybermen?).

But it came back in the new series in 2005 – with the Christopher Eccleston’s 10th Doctor. The show-runner Russel T Davies said he didn’t want silly things like doors to be a problem for the Time Lord. So the Doctor opened doors with it. and did a few extra things..  and it became a few more extra things..  Now, the bloody thing (ah, now you get my feelings on the matter) seems to do pretty much everything!   It scans, it alters frequencies, it collapses clones’ DNA, it opens machines, sets up force fields, keeps someone’s body-imprint in its pattern buffer (erm, Transporters from Star Trek?!)

In one story of the 2005 series, Rose asks the Time Lord, `gimme some Spock. Will it hurt to give me some Spock?’   And now it seems the (T)rusty old sonic screw driver IS more than Spock!  It’s almost a weapon..  the way the Doctor holds it often and points… either in publicity photos or in the stories. It has so many protruding bits.. it’s practically a Claw.  A tool of many trades!!  And even when it gets destroyed, the blooming TARDIS generates a new (improved more bulkier) one and just pops it out for the Doctor!

Can the Exec.Producer/ Directors/ story tellers  please make sure the sonic screw-driver gets blasted out of Time..  put into a Time-lock …never to return? (and another thing- if something is time-locked, I don’t want to see it again. Don’t bring back a whole civilisation and a planet out of time-lock again!!)

And please, write-in a new device for the Doctor – a sonic
stethoscope perhaps (which can double up as a sonic-shower attachment!!)  Now that would be Cool!