Higher Learning

I guess I technically finished this list item a while ago, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I finally came to a decision about it. List item number 14, Investigate a Masters Degree is something I've been struggling with for quite a while, and this is what I've come up with.

I was one of those lucky (but not really) kids who always did well in school, without very much effort. I retain things pretty well, and I have good comprehension and problem solving skills, so consequently studying was never really something I had to do. This was great in high school, since it left me lots of time for extracurricular activities and friends, but when I hit university I was in big trouble. High school does nothing to prepare you for university. After a disastrous first year (including getting an F in a course because I got the exam time mixed up and didn't think to talk to the professor about it), I managed to pull out a decent GPA by graduation, but I've never been happy with it. It also led to a dismal conversation with a guidance counselor about my options for continuing on with my education. So I kind of stopped planning for my Masters and decided to be content with my BA. 

My mother has had different plans for me. She wants me to be happy and knows that I do have an interest in continuing my education and doesn't want to see me give up. She's the reason I put this item on the list. So, for her sake as well as my own I did some investigation. 

I started out trying to nail down an area to study. My BA is in Psychology, which I loved to

study, but Masters degrees are more specified, and I couldn't find one area that felt right. I thought about Education, but again, I would need to find a specific focus. Given how much I love my job, I started to think about looking into Masters programs in autism related fields. This is where I would head if I did someday decide to go ahead with it. But once I looked at availability of courses, it looked like mostly online was the way I'd have to go. And then there was the price. It costs roughly $20,000 to get a Masters degree, and once you sign up, you pay, even if you don't take any classes for a semester. This was what it looked like in most of the courses I looked at anyway. And since I have no immediate plans of leaving my job, I had to think about whether having the degree would benefit me at work, which, at this point I don't think it would. It doesn't appear that there will be any positions opening up soon in which a MA would improve my chances of advancement.

So, although it is something that I would like to have, at this point in my life, I just don't think it's something I want. I am hoping to be starting a family within the next 3-5 years (if all goes well), and it will be hard to do that if I'm spending $20,000 or more to get a degree that, right now, will not benefit me immediately. I can't afford to take a risk on this. If I don't know for sure that it will improve my situation financially to have the Masters degree, I'm not going to worry about it. It will remain one of my future goals, but there are other things I'd rather do first.
 

First Date Times Three

I'm not going to lie. I had my fears that this list item would not happen. With 6 weeks to go before the end of the project, I still hadn't gone on a date. And I had no real prospects. And then, out of nowhere, someone came along and changed all that. This is the story of list item number 29, Go on a Date.

I know not all guys are the same. But up until now, most of the guys (except Toronto guy, who just lived too far away) I've dated have been pretty similar. They were all (mild) bad boys. Kind of rebellious, with an 'I don't give a shit' attitude about a lot of things. Unfortunately, I was oftentimes one of the things they didn't give a shit about, intentionally or not. My ex was the least asshole-ish of all of them, and like I said, although he isn't a bad person, he was absolutely not right for me. And trying to change this was what left me so totally lost when we broke up. This whole project has been done in an effort to get back what I'd lost, and I'm determined that I'll never lose it again. And this makes dating hard. I'm done wasting time, so I found myself ignoring a lot of messages on the dating website, because when I looked at the profiles that went along with the message, nothing jumped out at me. No one seemed right. One guy did seem promising, even though he lived in Fredericton, but one day I went to message him back and he'd deleted his profile.

So I was beginning to think that this list item would go uncompleted. And then I got a message. A guy messaged me and asked me about my pottery class. I checked out his profile and he didn't have a whole lot there, but I decided to write back anyway. At first, I admit I was unsure if he was more interested in me or my pottery class, but he asked interesting questions and seemed to have a good sense of humour, so I kept messaging back. Pretty soon we were messaging multiple times a day and I found myself sneaking peeks at work (shhh) to see if he'd messaged me. After a bit more than a week of messaging he asked me if it was too soon to ask me to meet. I'm not ashamed to admit that I did a little dance of joy when I read that sentence and we agreed to meet the next day. I think the short time frame helped keep me calm. It didn't give me enough time to over-think and stress out.

We met at the nature park to go for a walk. It's always that first moment that's the hardest, the part where you walk up to each other. Do you shake hands? Introduce yourselves? We did neither, thankfully. We just said hi and started walking. The first few steps were hard and a bit nerve wracking, but pretty quickly we were chatting away like we'd known each other for years. Our walk through the trails turned into a walk on the beach, and 2 hours later we were figuring out the next step. We continued with dinner, for another 2 hours and then we watched a movie and talked more. It was like 3 dates in one, and it lasted 9.5 hours. And yes, he kissed me. And yes, I liked it.

We've gone out twice more since then, and have talked on the phone every night we didn't see each other. We still email throughout the day, everyday. 

That's the details of what happened. The details of how it feels to be with him would

take a lot longer to explain. I feel more at ease with him after only a week than I think I ever did with my ex. So many things about him are the exact opposite of what I'm used to, and because of that, I've become shockingly aware of just how damaged my psyche is because of my relationship experience. But he's patient and understanding, and wants to help me, with big things and small things (such as reattaching the 'p' key on my laptop). He makes me laugh and asks me questions that he really wants to know the answers to. And when I ask him questions, he answers them. We have a lot in common and we share a lot of opinions. I don't have to pretend with him. He sees the me I show my closest friends and family and he still wants to be with me. It's so refreshing to be able to be silly with someone, and to have meaningful conversations with someone. I can tell him the truth about things and he doesn't get offended or make me feel like it's my fault.

I didn't see him coming, and I definitely never imagined that one date could make such a difference. I'm trying to take things slowly and not rush, because I want to make sure that we do things right. I don't want to mess this up. And he's ok with that. 

And so, despite the fact that he likes red and I like green, and despite his aversion to vegetables and seafood, I think this thing could go somewhere. At some point I'll have to stop referring to him as 'he', but I'm waiting for him to come up with his own code name. I even let him read my blog, which I was a bit nervous about, so he'll be reading this post soon (hello there, you!!). I warned him about it on our first date. And once again, the project has amazed me with its ability to put exactly what I need right where I need it to be, and to motivate me to put myself out there to date, something I probably wouldn't have done if I didn't have a deadline to meet. And to you (you know who you are), thank you for showing me more of how I deserve to be treated in only a week than any other man has shown me in years. And thanks for making me smile :-)

1000 Words

They say a picture tells a thousand words. I think that's true.

The day I completed list item number 22, Have Professional Photos Taken of Myself was a great day. It was one of those days that just seemed to run really smoothly, things going just the way I wanted. I woke up feeling well rested, before the alarm and had time to wake up slowly. My banana was delicious and I didn't overcook my hard-boiled eggs. I didn't get lost in a black hole in the shower like I usually do and kept it under 10 minutes long. My makeup stayed put, my hair cooperated and I got to my appointment early.

Probably the biggest factor that made the whole process feel so comfortable and, in my opinion, successful, was my choice of photographer. I don't normally use people's names in my blog, but I have to give credit where it belongs. I honestly don't think this list item would have turned out as well as it did without my amazing photographer, Kayla Roy of Picturesque Photography. I'm friends with Kayla's sister, and I've seen and loved her work since I met her in September, so when I started to plan actually doing this item, it wasn't much of a decision as to who I would choose to take the pictures. You'll see for yourself here soon just how fantastic her work is.

So here are my pictures! I won't put them all here, but these are my favourites.

As I Ieft the studio I felt great, apart from a desperate and unexplained craving for a peanut butter sandwich (I confess to eating 2 when I got home).

My pictures DO say a thousand words. They say I'm happy and healthy. I feel pretty in them, confident and proud of who I've become.
 

My Whovian Adventure Part 6

Yes, this post is coming very shortly after my post on the Fourth Doctor. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is that the Fifth Doctor was only there for 3 years, in contrast to the Fourth Doctor's 7 years. The second reason is that the Fifth Doctor's episodes were really interesting!! Throughout this whole process I have been watching the episodes while doing something else; painting trim, sewing, cleaning, writing blog posts, Pinterest...because they weren't all interesting enough for me to just sit down and watch (to be fair, I do this with pretty much every show I watch. I'm a multitasker, what can I say?), but during the Fifth Doctor's run, for the first time, I found myself stopping what I was doing so I could really focus on what was happening.

So, I really liked the Fifth Doctor, almost as much as the Second, who remains my favourite to date. Peter Davison's Doctor is much more easy going, friendly and all in all just a more caring person than any Doctors before him. I feel a certain kinship with him, for many reasons. He was the Doctor in 1983, the year I was born. He was 29 when he took over the role, I was 29 when I started watching Doctor Who. AND, possibly the most exciting reason, he is the Doctor who I will be meeting in November when I go to Hal-con (basically Comi-con in Halifax. For those of you who are still lost, Comi-con and Hal-con etc are big conventions where geeks like myself can get together and celebrate all the TV, book, movie and comic characters we love so much). He's basically the reason I'm going.



Back to the task at hand. When the Fourth Doctor gets into a fight with the Master (his arch nemesis) on a tower, the Master pushes the Doctor off and he is forced to regenerate to survive. Strangely, a weird white figure had been following him around for the whole story arc, which turned out to be the Fifth Doctor, preparing to take over at regeneration. Kind of unusual. The Fifth Doctor is the only Doctor I've encountered so far who NEVER changes his clothes. Sometimes he adds a hat, and in one story arc he trades his sweater and coat for a strange embroidered vest, but that's about it. He's a cricket player and therefore wears a cricket outfit around all the time. And yes, that is a celery stalk in his lapel.

The Fifth Doctor has far fewer companions than the Fourth, but sadly, I didn't really like any of them. The only one I really disliked was Adric, but the rest were just kind of meh. No companion I have met so far can hold a candle to my Jamie. Three companions carry over from the Fourth Doctor. Two of them get better, one of them gets worse. Guess which one gets worse...

...Adric. He was only mildly annoying when he was with the Fourth Doctor, but by the time he takes up with the Fifth Doctor he's a horrible, whiny little shit. He's sexist, has an inflated ego and refuses to listen to anyone, preferring to do what he wants. He always thinks he's right, right up until the moment he blows himself up. Not going to lie, I did a bit of a happy dance. That sound horrible. But you watch a couple of episodes with him in them and see if you don't feel the same. I dare you.




Nyssa starts to develop a personality during the Fifth Doctor years, and also stops wearing strangely designed clothing. Her exit story is a bit of a refreshing change from the horribly ill-conceived love stories that seem to come about for most of the female companions. She stays behind to help rebuild a planet who needs her scientific knowledge. Honourable little thing that she is.

Tegan also becomes more tolerable during her time with the Fifth Doctor. She eventually gets back to Earth and decides to stay, but she gets fired and joins up with the Doctor again. She then finally stops wearing her flight attendant's uniform and starts wearing some quintessential 80's garb. She gets a haircut too, which I really like. After a particularly bloody fight with the Daleks she chooses to stay on Earth once again, which is also a much more believable reason to leave than a lame love story.

Turlough joins the companions under false pretenses. After crashing the Brigadier's car (yes, the Brigadier is back), and complaining that he doesn't want to live on Earth anymore (in his final story he mentions that he is from the planet Trion, and we eventually learn he was sent to Earth as a punishment, but when he makes his initial statement we don't know he's an alien) he is hired by the Black Guardian (a villain from the Fourth Doctor's era) to kill the Doctor, but in the end he isn't able to do it and then proceeds to skulk around being grumpy and dissing Earth for the next season and a half. I tried to find a better picture of him, but seriously, this is what he looks like most of the time. He leaves in the second to last episode of the Fifth Doctor's run and returns to his own planet, just as he becomes less of a grump.

Chameleon. Weirdest. Companion. Ever. He was a shape shifting robot who started out as a tool of the Master, but joined the Doctor as a companion at the end of 'The King's Demon' story arc, and then isn't mentioned again until 6 stories later, at which point he is written out. Very disappointing because he had the potential to be really cool. A full size, working robot. Come on!! 

The final companion to join the Fifth Doctor was Peri. She was an American student who Turlough saved from drowning. So she wanders around in a bikini a lot. And I seriously question the choice to make her from the US. Her American accent was pretty pathetic, and she talks more like a five year old than a college student, but I had no major complaints about her.






Here are the top five things I noticed about the Fifth Doctor;

1. ADRIC!!!!;  Unless you watch him, you will never understand why I hate him so much. He's just such a pompous ass. At one point after his death, Tegan and Nyssa are reminiscing and the Doctor says "He wouldn't want us to mourn unnecessarily". I disagree. Adric was a dick and would probably have just loved the fact that they were sad about losing him. Boo Adric! And those stupid clothes!




2. Helmets; It was the era of weird helmets. The first picture is of the helmets worn in the 'Terminus' story arc. They are weirdly shaped (hard to tell in this picture) and I can't imagine they're too practical. They did have some very impressive 80's hair underneath. The second picture is of the helmet of a Dalek trooper. To me it looks like half a Dalek with a dildo stuck to the front of it. Strange designs...

 











3. The Garm; Not the best visual effect. He's kind of a bumbling creature who's mouth doesn't move when it should.







4. The Guardian's hats; Yes. They are wearing birds on their heads. Enough said.








5. The Celery; It seems that many of the Doctors are best known for their accessories, and the Fifth Doctor is no exception. His is perhaps the most unusual accessory, however. The Fifth Doctor wears a stalk of celery on his lapel, and we don't find out why until the final story arc of his tenure. Apparently, the celery will turn purple when it comes into contact with certain gases that the Doctor is allergic to. If it turns purple, he eats it, and says if nothing else it will be good for his teeth. I will be wearing a stalk of celery when I meet the Doctor :-)







And so that was the Fifth Doctor. I liked and was interested in most of the episodes, but my particular favourites were 'The Black Orchid' (even Adric was tolerable in this story), 'Mawdryn Undead' (some useful information about regenerations and the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) and 'The Five Doctors' (which didn't make a whole lot of sense, but all the Doctors and several companions were back, which always makes me happy). I'm a little nervous to start the Sixth Doctor, because my go-to girl Tansy Rayner Roberts of A Modern Woman's Guide to Classic Who implies that this was the beginning of the end of the classic Who, due to poor writing etc, but I'll give it a whirl.

Life is Clay, You Are the Potter

I have to say that this list item, #15, Make a Piece of Pottery, was one of my favourite things I did this year. I felt such a sense of accomplishment when I was finished and I will definitely be returning to the class, probably once the Summer (and the rest of my list items) is complete.

I kind of stumbled onto this pottery class by accident. When I made the list I didn't know where to find such a class, but in talking it over at work I discovered that one of the girls I work with was taking a class with her grandfather through the local university (one of their non-credit personal interest courses), so when the next course came along I signed up quickly. It ended up being quite a big class, with 9 people. Word of mouth had spread through my workplace, and 6 of the 9 of us work together. The other 3 fit in really well with us though, and it was a great group to work with, very supportive and encouraging. Our instructor has been a professional potter for years and has studied pottery all over the world. This girl knows her shit. Her quirky style fit in well with our crazy little group and her 'cool rules' (mostly, no negative talk about anyone's work, including your own) helped us all feel comfortable and welcome in her space. We each received 22 lbs of clay and were allowed to do pretty much whatever we wanted, within reason, and the instructor guided us during our turns on the wheel.

It did not look like this. She sat across from us. It was far less romantic.











We learned several basic techniques; throwing, slab work and pinching. Some of us also worked on some sculpting. I had a disastrous experience with this. But more on that later.

First, we learned about pinching, and made 'pinch pots'. It's exactly what it sounds like. You make a ball, push your thumb into the middle and pinch until it resembles a vessel of some sort. None of these pictures are of me, by the way. I planned on taking pictures, but you get kind of involved in what you're doing. That, and the fact that you're usually covered in so much clay that holding a camera would be dangerous. For the camera.





We then got a demonstration of, and took turns on the wheel. Making things on the wheel is called 'throwing'. Not sure why. Even my instructor wasn't 100% sure about the origin of this term. You do throw the clay onto the wheel when you begin, but that's about it. Anyway, throwing is very messy work. Lots of water is needed and you come out covered in clay sludge, but seeing those pieces take shape in front of you is unlike anything you'll ever experience. The placement of your hands is very important, as are the techniques for creating your piece (ie. coning up, coning down..and some others I forget the terms for...). It's very easy to mess things up at this point, which is why the instructor helps you so much.

We also learned about slab work. The slab machine in this picture is a little different from

the one we actually used, but it'll give you the basic idea. It's a lot like a giant pasta machine. You put your clay down on a piece of canvas and punch the crap out of it to flatten it. Then you fold down the other side of the canvas and push it through the machine. It works best with 2 people; one to guide the clay into the machine and one to crank the handle. You have to do it in one quick motion or you'll end up with grooves in your clay where you stopped. You can adjust the thickness and at this point it's also fun to experiment with textures by putting things in your clay when you roll it out.



Now, the sculptures. I got the great idea to attempt to make Dalek salt and pepper shakers, which would require me to do some pinching and some sculpting. I spent almost an entire class trying to get this right, and wasted more clay than I wanted to part with, and eventually, sensing my frustration level, my instructor told me to put it down and walk away. Which I did. It was the only class in which I felt discouraged. Maybe I'll try again next time I take the class.

Once your pieces have dried, or after they've been fired the first time, you can paint them. One of the hardest parts about this is that the colours change when they're fired and glazed. Also, I'm not very artistic, so most of my pieces ended up pretty simple. But I love them anyway <3








Next step is to glaze the pieces. This happens after the first firing (baked in the kiln), and

before the final firing. The instructor typically does all the glazing, but given the size of our class and the number of pieces we'd each made, she got us to do our own pieces. I was really nervous that I would ruin these beautiful pieces that I'd worked so hard on and had fallen in love with, but, with the instructor's coaching, I glazed most of my pieces myself and didn't find it as hard as I'd thought I would. There were 2 kinds of glaze, clear and celadon, which is a really pretty blue-green. When you put them on they cover all the beautiful painting you just did, and the clear looks muddy brown and the celadon is a light greenish colour. Neither glaze looks very forgiving when you're using it, and it takes a lot of stirring to keep the consistency right. You can pour it over your item or dip it in, either using your hand or a set of wicked looking tongs, reminiscent of something they'd use during a mummification process to remove people's brains through their nose. But bigger. It's very easy to put too much glaze on the pieces, making them look gloppy when they're finished. You also can't get any paint or glaze on the bottom of your pieces, because it will fuse to the shelves during firing. Not good. Added pressure. 


The final step is the last firing. Firing is done in a kiln, which reaches some ungodly high temperatures and takes something like 14 hours to complete. I'd hate to see the power bills. A few of us stayed late one night and watched the instructor load and start up the kiln. I had my doubts about everything fitting in, but the instructor is a professional for a reason and she got it all in.







Now I'll show you all my pieces!

This was the first piece I completed, my pinch pot, and is also the piece I like the least. I messed up with the painting. Also, I missed a class and while I was gone the instructor did a firing and this piece went in before I'd had a chance to finish painting it. Hence the boring white outside. I was planning on painting it to resemble the plant from Mario that comes up out of the pipes. Fail. Now it holds jewellery on my nightstand. Kinda scary looking though...

My mug was the first piece I threw, and the only piece I put a handle on. Handle placement is tougher than you think. Clay also shrinks drastically when it's fired, so this mug turned out a lot smaller than I'd originally planned. And as you can see, my handle is a little lumpy. It's cute though.

I made these for my friend. Not exactly sure what they are, but I thought maybe she could hang them in her garden. I used cookie cutters to make them, just like playdoh!

This is the first of 2 bowls I made by forming them over a bowl I'd bought at the Dollar Store. This one was a bit tricky to get off, so my instructor suggested I cover the bowl in plastic the next time to make it easier to remove. This is a piece I glazed myself, and this is what the celadon glaze looks like when it's fired. I'm going to give it to my Nan, who fed me before every pottery class. She earned it.

This is the bowl I made on the plastic covered bowl. It's hard to see, but it ended up looking like lettuce, and instead of smoothing it out I turned it into a salad bowl. This is an example of how different the colours look after they're fired. It was supposed to be a lighter green, but I still love my lettuce bowl.

My mom collects wind chimes of different materials, so I made this for her. I got tired of throwing out so many scraps of clay so I cut them into little pieces and celadon glazed them. I secretly think it was this project that inspired my instructor to get us to glaze our own pieces...

This was the last item I threw. I didn't know what to make, but then I decided to make a bowl that was more streamlined than my rather organic looking lettuce bowl and it's tidier brother. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and it's great for when you just want a bit of cereal to snack on. I'm recently very into bright yellow so I painted it that colour. 

I love this little guy. Another scrap, which I put through the slab machine with a large patterned lace on it, and painted the pattern that remained. I use it to hold my tea infuser after it comes out of the pot. It's just the right size. I was devastated for a couple of days because I thought I'd lost it, but I found it hiding in the dishwasher. It's so damn small!

This is a little snack plate I made in the same method as the tea infuser holder, and I painted it to match. They also match my kitchen. I love this piece as well. It's great for cheese and crackers or cookies.

And this. This three piece set is my pride and joy. The pieces I am most proud of. My cream and sugar set. Kind of a happy accident that they ended up together like this. I had planned to make them from the beginning of the class, but wasn't sure how to execute them, especially after my instructor told me that lids weren't a beginner skill. I decided to model the sugar bowl after those frogs you used to see in kitchens to hold pot scrubbers, where it was open at the mouth. So I made a hollow ball on the wheel (with a great deal of help from my instructor), and when it had dried a bit I cut a hole in it. It was love at first sight. The tray was just something I made to practice my slab skills, without a real purpose for it in mind. It was another piece that got fired before I could clean it up, which was probably for the best because I most likely would have painted it instead of just celadon glazing it. When we were taking some pieces home I just happened to sit the sugar bowl on it and one of the other girls and I realized how good it looked there. I made the creamer several weeks later, without the other pieces to reference, but it worked out perfectly. The spout even works without spilling! I opted out of a handle because I liked the simple look of it, and, frankly, I didn't trust myself to make a sturdy enough handle. I glazed the creamer myself and love it in an almost obscene way. The set sits out on a shelf for everyone to see, because I love it so much.

This 8 week course was so refreshing and relaxing. It made me happy and made me feel creative. The feel of the clay in my hands and seeing my pieces go from lumps of clay to beautiful, functional items was incredible. And looking back at it now, and at the last 10 months of the Project, I kind of feel like I'M a lump of clay. When I started the Project I had lost my shape and was kind of drab and dreary. But with each list item and experience that has come along, I've started to reshape myself into something new, something I'm proud to show off. I'm brightly coloured and happy again, and I know that where I'm headed is where I want to be.


 

My Whovian Adventure Part 5

I am so behind on my posts. I'm sorry. And I just looked at the list and realized how much I still have left to do in the next 2 months. Less than 2 months actually. Oh, crap. The date thing scares me the most. I may have to just suck it up and go out with one of the guys who have visited my online dating profile. Oy.

On a happier note, I've FINALLY finished the Fourth Doctor. I feel kind of bad about rushing through these, but to be honest, at this point I don't have much of an option. Especially since there is so much buzz about what happened on the season finale of the current season. DON'T TELL ME!!! I will get there eventually!

 So, the Fourth Doctor. Seven years. A lot of episodes. 178 to be exact. A couple of good companions, some kind of blah ones and an awesome robot dog. 

The Third Doctor gets radiation poisoning and goes back to UNIT where another Time Lord helps him regenerate. He set off around the universe with Sarah Jane Smith, who had been a companion of the Third Doctor and a UNIT doctor. 





The Fourth Doctor is played by Tom Baker, and is widely regarded as one of the most popular Doctors. He is what most people think of when they think of Doctor Who (before 2005, that is). He's the version they parodied on 'The Simpsons' and definitely has one of the most famous accessories. The scarf. Oh, the scarf.








He has quite a few companions during his run, but considering it was seven years long, I guess that's not surprising. Here they are!

 Sarah Jane Smith began with the Third Doctor and continued on with the Fourth after his regeneration. I began to like Sarah Jane more and more as the seasons went on, and just as I was REALLY starting to like her, she left. Stayed on Earth. Like, literally the SAME episode I said 'I really like Sarah Jane'. She picked up her plant and left the TARDIS.

Then there was Harry Sullivan. He was a doctor (a medical doctor) with UNIT and only stayed with the Doctor for one season, leaving before Sarah Jane did. I liked him, and I was disappointed that he didn't stay longer. He also had SWEET 70's sideburns.

K9 was a robot dog who joined the Doctor in a story line that had the Doctor travel inside his own head to repair damage. Technically speaking, the Doctor stole K9 from his inventor, but who's keeping track? K9 has lasers and can talk and is incredibly smart, which make him pretty much the ultimate companion. Although he can't do stairs. But he's pretty easy to carry. There are actually 2 K9s, one who stays with Leela and one who stays with Romana II after getting damaged.

Next up was Leela. She was a warrior type who stayed with the Doctor after her people fed her father to a pit full of worms. She was quite a fighter and was always heading into the heart of danger. And she dressed like that all the time. And when it was time for her to leave, they wrote her out in yet another STUPID love story. As in, when the Doctor went to leave and called her to come with him she said no, I'm staying, I love this random guy I had no interaction with in any of the scenes in this story. So annoying.

After Leela left, the Doctor was joined by a Time Lady, Romana. She's known as Romana I because she regenerated in the next season. Romana I was overly concerned with her appearance and, considering she was from Gallifrey, she seemed to care very little about science. I read somewhere that the actress left because didn't like the way her character was written. Can't say I disagree.

Romana I regenerated into Romana II. It was a weird regeneration. She walked into a closet and came out wearing different people, finally settling on a copy of the princess on the planet they had just left. It was weird. Anyway, this Romana was much better than the first, but she also had a pointless exit scene. K9 was damaged and there was a mirror that healed him. Romana II and K9 stayed behind the mirror without a whole lot of discussion. 

Adric. ADRIC!!! He wasn't too bad during the Fourth Doctor's run, just a little bit of a know-it-all. But wait til I get to my post on the Fifth Doctor, because I hated him then. AAARRRGGGG!!! Anyway, he joined the Doctor after most of his friends were killed and stayed on when the Fifth Doctor took over.

Nyssa joined The Doctor and Adric after her father was killed. That happens a lot. She's kind of boring. Not much else to say about her. She transitions from the Fourth to the Fifth Doctor along with Adric and...

 ...Tegan. Also pretty boring. She was a flight attendant who wandered into the TARDIS thinking it was an actual police box, needing help when her aunt's car broke down. She's kind of whiny, always wanting to get back to Earth and wearing stupid clothes. 









I've come to the realization that one of the most important things in how much I like a Doctor is his companions. I like the Fourth Doctor at first, when he was with Sarah Jane. Then not so much until K9 and Romana II came along. And then when he was with the last three I was practically bored out of my mind.I think I've also discovered the secret to being a good Doctor; don't overstay your welcome. Tom Baker was a GREAT Doctor, but 7 years is just too long. I started really looking forward to a new Doctor somewhere during his 4th year...and had to wait 3 more. Now, I'm already almost finished with the Fifth Doctor, with only 3 more story lines before he regenerates, and I'm really kind of sad about it, much like I was when the Second Doctor regenerated. But more on that later. 

Here are the top 5 things that jumped out at me about the Fourth Doctor.

Robot from 'Robots of Death"

1. Creatures; So, I basically mention this with every Doctor, but this time, it's for a different reason. The advent of the Fourth Doctor seemed to usher in a time of MUCH better visual effects. Mouths started moving in masks, strings were no longer visible in flying creatures and they became less campy and more creepy. Here are a few examples.

Mandrel

 

Jagaroth

Sontaran

 

Zygon

2. Swampies; Ok, so you know I like to point out how silly some of these things look. The first Swampie I saw reminded me of the Jolly Green Giant. Not sure where they come up with their designs sometimes...








3. Romana II's wardrobe; They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that's true then Romana II must admire the Doctor an awful lot. In one episode she dresses in an exact replica of the Doctor's outfit, except hers was pink and white while his was comprised of more masculine colours. It was a bit weird...







4. Davros; This guy is weird. He's the creator of the Daleks and is half man, half Dalek, all creepy. He's a recurring character on the show as well, so I have more of him to look forward to.










5. THE SCARF; Ok, so, seriously. This thing was like a character in itself. I don't know how many times they had to reshoot scenes because Tom Baker had tripped over the scarf, but in the actual episodes he is flawless. Never once stumbles or gets caught in anything. Apparently, when they were coming up with the Fourth Doctor's wardrobe, an old lady was given a huge pile of yarn with which to knit a scarf. They didn't tell her how long to make it, so she just used it all. And the result is what you see here. Toward the end of the Fourth Doctor's run they changed his wardrobe to an all maroon version of what he'd been wearing before, so this scarf doesn't survive the whole run. I liked it much better than what he wore in his final few season.


And so, that was the Fourth Doctor. My favourite episodes were 'The Ark in Space', 'Pyramids of Mars' and 'The Robots of Death', all of which were from the first 3 seasons. While I really liked the character, I feel he hung on a bit too long and that his story lines took a serious drop in creativity as they progressed. I'll be finishing the Fifth Doctor soon, so expect a post on that any day now!