Guy's Bookshelf: War of the Worlds and Teach Yourself Tibetan and other books

[justsomeguy]

"Frontier in Space" was the first Doctor Who story I recorded on video tape. It has its flaws, but I watched it over and over and over again. I always loved the Master's reading Wells's War of the Worlds and have looked for it from time to time.



Warmcanofcoke posted in the references a few screen shots of the book, but with a few minor differences--it didn't have "his famous novel" on the cover, and the televised version has many more blurbs on it's nearly indistinguishable back cover. You can view Warmcanofcoke's pics here on http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3898.0 and a lot of other, well, books time lords read. I can only dream of creating or owning them all.

So I mocked up a cover as best as I could. I doubled the cover to create the back , drew on an orange block, added text, simulating the font, and cut the title out of the front cover and manually made the spine. I tried to find an actual word mark from the publisher, but couldn't so I faked the font.



right now, I'm trying to find a book roughly the same size the Master is reading and then scale the image up. Also, I'll have to take the image to a print shop and have it printed on paper large enough--or simply do a miniature version.

And speaking of mock ups, here's my Teach Yourself Tibetan from The Creature from the Pit. It's super basic, but then so was the prop....



There's some kind of writing on the spine that's unclear, so I cropped something from a wikipedia article on Tibetan (let's hope it's not something rude) and I added some filler to replace whatever is written on the back near Tom Baker's hand.




Again, I'm looking for the right sized book and how to print it, etc.

[russellsuthern]

Nice work!

I'll be referring back to this thread when I get to "The Creature from the Pit" section on my Cosplay thread, as I'm planning on recreating that picture of Tom down the pit with that very book, so thanks for doing a lot of the hard work for me!!

Cheers,


Russell

[deafeningsilence]

I think it says "TIBETAN 1"

[justsomeguy]

Now that you say that, I see it. It's really blurred. Hmm.

[galacticprobe]

Wow! Great work, Guy! (You might also want to check out the http://tardisbuilders.com/index.php?topic=3898.0 topic in the Other Prop Reference Section if you want to go insane and create a complete library of book covers that have been seen in the series. Maybe you could also add that link to your first post above so it's always visible since these comments will collapse with your next Update. This topic and that one make great cross-reference topics!)

Dino.

[justsomeguy]

New cover for thsi book, with the smudged TIBETAN 1 spine



I don't know if I'm 100% satisfied with it, but it does the job. And I think the Tibetan writing version will look better on a shelf perhaps....

[galacticprobe]

I agree with everyone; this is a great replica cover. And here's a little something that might help you fine tune this cover a tad. If you're using a word processor to create it (the wavy red lines under the words is what's making me think that, as the word processor is not recognizing the spelling), if you right-click on those words, and select either "Ignore", or "Learn Spelling", then those red line will go away.

The advantage of using the "Learn Spelling" option is that you won't have to keep using the "Ignore" option to get rid of the red lines every time you open this to print another one. Once the spelling is in your word processor's Dictionary, it will recognize then each time you open the document and you won't be dealing with red lines on your replica anymore.

I hope some of this is helpful.

Dino.

[justsomeguy]

oh good grief, I didn't even notice those. Ooops. I'll post a clean version soon.

[justsomeguy]

So I dropped the spelling check wibbly red lines, and I changed the black lines, which are far too noticable, to gray--folding line, which on the yellow paper should not be as noticable.

[galacticprobe]

oh good grief, I didn't even notice those.

To be honest, Guy, the only reason I noticed them was because some time ago I'd created some prototype book cover art for something I've been working on over the last few years (not SF- or 'Who'-related: historical fiction... I have a wide variety of interests), and after printing out a test cover I'd noticed not only those red "Spell Check" lines, but also some green "Grammer Check" lines! So I had to disable those functions on my word processor and try another printing... which still needs some work, but at least as that prototype sits on the desk, it's not blaring red and green wavy lines at me.

Glad I was able to help you with that.

Dino.

[justsomeguy]

Thanks Dino. I'm really glad you mentioned that.

Also, is it DIEno as in dinosaur or DEEno as in Dino De Laurentis?

[justsomeguy]

I have books!

For Teach Yourself Tibetan, I altered the font and made sure of the size and found a book (a taller paperback version of Crichton's Eaters of the Dead) and printed on YELLOW cardstock (the color demanded all caps). The Melody Malone book is a bonus. I found a 1970s pulp paperback, and glued the cover on--I wish I knew where I got the cover, it's been in my files forever. I also wich I could weather it as the Doctor's is, but that an experiment for another day.

I used superglue on both.  

Here's the updated graphic.

My ebay order of the 7th Doctor's Juggling for Klutzes book also came in, but it's not pictured.

[galacticprobe]

Thanks Dino. I'm really glad you mentioned that.

You're more than welcome! I'm always happy to help out however (and whenever) I can.

Also, is it DIEno as in dinosaur or DEEno as in Dino De Laurentis?

Funny you should ask this. (You're also the first one to ask this. ) I was named after Dean Martin (actor, singer, comedian) whom my father really liked. (He was no stranger to that; his mother named him after actor Robert Young because my grandmother really liked him.) And at the time I got my name, 'The Flintstones' were really big on TV (the first Prime Time animated series), and the nickname for the little one (that would be me) to family friends was "Dino the dinosaur" from 'The Flintstones'.

As I got older and being from Italian heritage, living in an Italian neighborhood (where most of the people were related to me - I couldn't get away with a darned thing; someone always saw me in action, called my mother, and all hell was waiting for me long before I got home!)... anyway, with the Italian language everywhere, my father and grandfather always introduced me to their friends as "Dino" (Dee-no). It's what most of my family's Italian side called me, and what most of my friends just started calling me on their own. So since retiring from the military, unless I have to use my legal name, I use Dino. (I'd have it legally changed, but then it would involve a Mount Everest of paperwork to get everything set right: pension, disability, Social Security (for taxes), banking, "plastic money" cards... a nightmare, and I haven't even mentioned half of what I'd have to change!)

So it's just plain, simple, Dino (which is Italian for Dean, but it also works for all languages as those four letters have the same sound whether it's Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Swedish... even Welsh ).

Dino.

[justsomeguy]

I kept reading it as Dino as in Dean Martin, but if you didn't know him, it would have been a heck of a reference to explain. And, of course, I have very fond memories of Dino Flintstone--and Astro Jetson, too. So there you go. Oh, and agreed on the paperwork. Ugh.

[galacticprobe]

I kept reading it as Dino as in Dean Martin, but if you didn't know him, it would have been a heck of a reference to explain.

Yeah, I've gone through this many times. Too many times I've had to talk to (what can only be described as) idiots on the phone because of something that's gone wrong, or to check up on the car when she's in for an inspection or to have something fixed, and have the idiots ask for my first name: "Dean"... "Excuse me?"... "Dean, like the actor and singer, Dean Martin?"... "Oh... Okay. Can I have your last name, Steve?"... "No, not 'Steve', 'Dean' - like Dean Martin from the 1950s and '60s?"... "I didn't think Steve Martin was that old?"... "Okay... listen, I'll spell it: D-E-A-N"... "Thank you, Mr. Dean, or may I call you Steve?"... <cartoon sound of blood boiling as steam from anger rises from the character's head> "My first name is Dean!"... "Oh? Who's Dean Martin?"... <heavy sigh of 'ugh'> "Google him. Now... would you like my last name? And I hope you have room for it; it's a long one!"

Sometimes it gets so frustrating I just say "I'm officially giving you authority to talk to my wife! She handles everything anyway! Here she is!"... and then I hand the phone over. And you should hear her go off when she gives them her first name, and they ask her to spell it. She usually demands to speak to a manager. (Her name is Mary!)

To (partially) quote Dark Helmet: "I knew it! I'm surrounded..."

(Drift Compensators adjusted: back on course for "Guy's Bookshelf". )

Dino.