Messages

"Best wishes Alan and whatever you do next I hope you have all the success with what you've done on the Meg."

Bless you. Now do you want fries with that?

Al

"Well as long as it's not too Welsh, gay, x-files or list-lifey it'll rock! (But then I liked Ultimate Force so what do I know... actually hope it's an sf version of Ultimate Force)"

... and that wouldn't be in the least bit gay, obviously ...

"I don't actually think Adam does have 20,000 years of Human knowledge. The machines that they used in the future wipes your brain, thus why he was recording it. But, oh dear, The answering machine exploded. I just can't see how he's ever going to retrieve that information... "

The hardcore spods on Outpost Gallifrey noticed ages ago that when the message is going through to Adam's mum's answering machine, the family dog is leaping around threatening to dislodge the receiver ...

Dog ... wolf ... do you see?

But that would be rubbish.

The reason why Shakta can't have bionic eyes fitted was explained in Meg 228 - it wasn't just her eyes were destroyed (as with Dredd in City of the Damned), but the optic nerve itself. Do pay attention, class!

I'd do the Starlord Stronts in an instant, but the trouble with the Starlord material is the masses of greytone - which could be reproed fine from the original film, but it seems like all the film was chucked in a skip a very long time ago. Scanning from printed issues (always an absolute last resort so far as I'm concerned) would look piss-poor in this case IMHO (the greys will go to mush, plus there are a lot of full full-bleed pages with balloons right on the very edge of the trim). I am making some efforts to track down the original art... you never know... but I'm not holding my breath, to be honest.

So that's the problem with the Starlord stuff. I could do the Tornado stuff, but it's crap.

Alan

I don't know where she got that idea from - I'm sending 8 to print today.

It's Firekind. In the right order.

Alan

I wouldn't show that cover to a 7 year-old!!!

There's an odd thing in the final episode of Flesh II -

[SPOILER, I suppose]

- in the panel where Big Hungry eats Claw. The episode is drawn by Carlos Pino, but *that* panel is a reprise of Belardinelli art, showing Big Hungry eating the Trans Time capsule in ep 2 or 3. My best guess is that Pino's pic of Claw's death was too bloody, so something else was pasted in at the last moment.

God, I'm sad.

--Alan

You may be interested to know there's a five-page feature about Modesty B - the first in a new 'British Cult Icons' series - in Meg 228.

Alan

The Hershey/Inaba tags - um, sorry. Quality control failed in 226 here and there (rumours of E Morricone's death, etc, and several other things no-one appears to have noticed yet!) - a fact not unrelated to me becoming a daddy again in the week we were supposed to go to press (a little girl named Miranda, and she's lovely). I ended up having to proof the entire issue in an hour and a half - frankly, it's a minor miracle the Meg came out at all this month!

So mea cupla [sic] and all that.

--Alan

Oh, there's some great stuff left - the MACH 0 saga for one, plus the whole concluding story arc.

Grouping individual artists' episodes together (Enio/Dorey/Cooper/Redondo/Lozano) made the issue look less bitty, to my mind. Also - they were out of order in the first place! Prog 13's Airship takes place in 1988, but Prog 34's Everest takes place in 1983. So it seemed reasonable to juggle them around.

--Alan

I hate to spoil a good argument, but Extreme isn't going bimonthly. It's going eight-weekly.

Erm - well, for one thing, 'The Final Encounter' isn't in Extreme 6.

For another, if/when you do get to read it, you'll see that ...

[SPOILER, I suppose]

... the story actually *begins* with Probe's funeral. So it's not a surprise twist ending or anything.

-- Alan

I've just sent Wake the cover and blurb, so all will be revealed very shortly ... ooh, the suspense ...

I expect they're from either The Dalek World or The Dalek Pocketbook and Space Travellers' Guide - mid-60s things (partly) written by Dalek creator Terry Nation and (mostly) then Doctor Who script editor David Whitaker. So they're reasonably 'true'. Don't have copies of either - we had them kicking around the Doctor Who Mag office. Someone on the Outpost Gallifrey forum will probably be able to help out. (www.galllifreyone.com)

I do, however, remember the Dalek word 'Zyquivilly'.

Alan