Doctor Who Drabble: Aliens And Quarries

[bk_forever]

Title: Aliens And Quarries

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: The Doctor, any regeneration.

Rating: G

Written For: Challenge 035: Quarry at dw100

Spoilers: None.

Summary: Why are so many aliens found in quarries?

Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, or the characters.

What was it about aliens and quarries? It seemed like anytime alien races came to earth, they made straight for the nearest quarry, preferably disused, and set up base there. Maybe abandoned quarries reminded them of home; there were a lot of bleak, rocky worlds in the universe. The Doctor had visited a fair few in his travels; there was no accounting for taste.

On the other hand, battling the enemy in a remote quarry had its advantages. Fewer people around to get hurt or captured; damage was restricted to rocks rather than buildings.

Best of all, hardly anyone noticed.

The End

Comments

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

I remember seeing an old British 'Whose Line' episode teasing the show for taping in so many quarries. :) They must have really liked finding such locations.

Nice one!

[bk_forever]

Need an alien planet? Find a disused quarry! I guess it was cheaper than trying to build something alien-looking, and shot the right way, they could be quite effective locations.

Thank you!

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Yep, very handy things, those quarries! More affordable than sets, simple to find. It's a case where being cheap/easy is a good thing.

...I can't believe I just said that...*blushes*

[bk_forever]

Ahem!

I know what you meant though ;)

Quarries were a practical alternative to expensive sets for classic who. Nowadays, there are more alternatives available,
but back then there was a lot of improvisation involved in getting shows like Doctor Who made. It's not as if they could film on location on an alien planet!

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

It was certainly every bit as effective as CGI is these days. :)

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

So Aliens in Quarries is a good thing then lol

great drabble

[bk_forever]

It's better than aliens in cities!

Thank you!

[bk_forever]

Agreed. The special effects people did a lot with limited resources back then, they found ways to make things work.

Love your Fifth Doctor icon!

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Yeah; they did what they could with what they had, and made it pretty convincing, I think. My mom has seen clips of the older stuff, and tends to make fun of it. And I always have to go, "C'mon; it was the [whatever decade the episode comes from]!" But, then, for one thing, she isn't a fan; for another, she's really only familiar with Ten, Rose, and Donna. ^.^

Thanks! :D

[bk_forever]

I grew up with Doctor Who, starting with the Third Doctor, and we all usd to watch when I was a kid, but mum was never really a fan of New Who, she tried to follow it a few times because I'm such a big fan, but she just found it confusing.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Lucky; I envy anyone who can say that. I didn't know it existed until around 2000.

[bk_forever]

That's so sad! But at least you've discovered it.

Being British, Doctor Who was a staple part of TV viewing when I was a kid. We only had three TV stations back then, and dad didn't approve of advertising on television so we were only permitted to watch the two BBC channels (this was back in the mid-1960s). Doctor Who was one of the BBCs big family shows on Saturday evenings, so I grew up with it. Star Trek was also shown on BBC, so the two shows are still a huge part of my life.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Yeah, and am doing my best to catch up with all I've missed. :) I'm actually pretty glad I didn't discover it until I was an adult; I was pretty timid as a child, so it would probably have scared the hell outta me. Even looking at some of them as an adult (particularly 'Planet of Fire'), they still sometimes scare me!

Wow; hard to believe anyone outside of small-town America having so few channels! I grew up with three on Mom's TV, and five on my grandparents' (this was in the Eighties).

[bk_forever]

Things have changed so much over the years!

My older sister used to hide behind cushions, peeping out. I never did that, but I always loved the Doctor. These days, I watch with my teddy bear, he protects me from the scary episodes!

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Boy, have they! Going from hardly any channels, to being able to watch things on computers and phones. Crazy!

Haha! I think I probably would have watched one or two episodes, gotten scared, and sworn off of it...but, then, I would check out books on ghosts from the library, get creeped out, swear I'd never check them out again...and then check them out again a few months later. So, ultimately, I have no idea what I'd have done if I'd watched as a kid.

[bk_forever]

In a way, getting scared is addictive, as long as it's a fear we;re in control of. We know we'll be scared so we're prepared.

I remember the first home computers, little things that needed to be connected to a tape recorder and a TV, then huge ones with a built in monitor, like a keyboard attached to a TV. My first laptop was really clunky and hardly more than a word processor. Now they do everything.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

That must be why horror movies and roller coasters are so popular. (Not that anybody could pay me enough to let myself be scared to that extent!)

little things that needed to be connected to a tape recorder and a TV,

Wow. I've never heard of that kind. Lol, I must sound like such a young pup!

[bk_forever]

The ZX Spectrum, came out in the early 80s I think. You had to type in code for programmes out or magazines and save it to cassette, sometimes it took days before you could play a simple game. You could buy games on cassette too of course, but the magazines worked out cheaper.

I used to love horror movies, but now I live alone I don't like scaring myself to that extent, I'd never turn the light out at night!

I went on a rollercoaster (a very basic one) when I was about 9 or 10. I'm terrified of heights but my best friend conned me into it. Crazily, I loved it and wanted to go again, but no one else did. I wouldn't go on the new kind though, they're too high and the going upside down... No thanks!

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Wow. I'm not familiar with anything earlier than the old Apple ones we used in school when I was seven, so that's pretty amazing.

I'll only watch the old ones; Lugosi, Karloff, etc. I don't mind getting a case of the creeps, but a full-on heart-attack-worthy scare? I'll pass.

I'm scared of heights, too. Wow, you're braver than I am; the closest I'll come to something like that is Star Tours at Disneyland! Yeah, upside-down does not sound like fun! And especially the ones where you're harnessed in from above, and they leave your legs dangling; I'd be afraid of hitting something and breaking/losing one! When those suckers first came out, I was, like, "Nooooooooooo way!!!"

[bk_forever]

People who go on modern rollercoasters are way braver (or more stupid?) than me! My friend totally tricked me, she said it just went up and then came down again. Total lie, but it was fun and fast.

I love the old Hammer Horror films, Christopher Lee as Dracula, Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, as well as Karloff and Lugosi. I like reading horror novels too, or used to, but the last few I read just weren't scary.

Kids these days grow up kn owing how to use computes, tablets, phones... I can just about use my very basic mobile phone as a phone, I have no idea how to text or anything. I'm such a dinosaur *sigh* Everything I've leaned about computers has been trial and error. I can do what I need to computer-wise, but nothing very fancy.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

How about crazy for a description? That works for me! ;D Either I'm a total wuss, or I have a very strong sense of self-preservation; I'd be too suspicious.

I haven't seen too many of the Hammer ones, but I've liked the ones I've seen. Lee and Cushing were brilliant. I could listen to them for hours. And I love Vincent Price. I used to be a pretty big fan of horror novels, myself; now I just tend to gravitate more toward the "true" hauntings, instead.

It's pretty amazing/insane, how quickly kids are getting into technology. Mom used to work in a restaurant, and she'd see two-year-olds with iPads. It's so stupid; parents seem to give their kids all these high-tech things as pacifiers, instead of as gifts for special occasions, or things along those lines. Boy, times have changed rapidly.

Mom got a new phone last summer, and she really surprised herself by how quickly she caught on to it. She doesn't consider herself tech-savvy at all. I had to help her out on a few things (complete trial-and-error on my part; she gave me her old phone, so her new one is a lot more advanced than anything either of us were used to). But she figured a lot of it out in about two days; now she's texting, using Facebook, beating the pants off of a lot of people on Words with Friends.

I envy her, though, coming from a simpler time. I like having the Internet and video games and DVDs. But everything sounds like it was so much more relaxed when she was a child.

[bk_forever]

Well, I was only 9 or 10 and I trusted her and her family.

My phone isn't an internet one, just a bog standard mobile. Anything more would baffle me completely.

Even when I was a kid life was much simpler. We had to use our imaginations more, make our own fun. Nowadays,, kids expect to be entertained and if they're not they get into trouble. I could spend hours entertaining myself all alone, with no TV or anything. Kids seem to have forgotten how to do that. It's sad. Some things are better though - washing machines are easer to use, central heating is everywhere, and computers are fantastic! I still entertain myself by writing =)

True ghost stories are WAY scarier than horror novels, just because they're true.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Haha, even at that age, I would still have been way too scared. I didn't trust anyone but Mom and Grandpa.

Yeah, these Internet ones can be pretty confusing. It's a cool option to have (for a couple years, our only access was through Mom's old phone). But I don't really see where phones need all these functions. I'm more than happy letting a phone be a phone, and letting a computer be a computer. Juggle too many balls, and you're bound to drop a few.

Same for me. I grew up in a small town, was an only child, and didn't have very many friends. So I'd be reading, playing with my Legos, doing puzzles, coloring, making up stories while playing dolls. Just doing quiet stuff, keeping myself occupied. It kinda sucked that, after I got my Nintendo, there were these two girls who I thought were friends, but they only ever came over and glued themselves to it, when maybe I'd want to play outside. Mom told me a few years later that she'd given them an ultimatum: Either actually play with me when they came over, or quit coming around. They chose the latter option. :-/ It's a funny thing how a video game system is all you need to let you know who your friends really are, and who might only be an opportunist. Anyone else who came over was totally fine with a water-balloon fight, or flying kites.

Oh, infinitely scarier, I agree! I didn't used to believe in them until about fourteen years ago. Now I feel differently; have enough weird stuff happen, and it makes you stop and think.

[bk_forever]

I do believe; mum saw some strange things, she saw her sister in the middle of the night shortly after she passed away.

I was never much for dolls, I played with toy cars, jigsaws, and my farm, read a lot, coloured, played with fuzzy felt... I never had a shortage of things to do. the same is true today but I don't seem to have enough time for everything. I love to do various crafts but computers get in the way, I spend too much time online, writing and occasionally reading, or answering emails.

I tended to just have one friend at a time. My older sister was more popular, but she spent a lot of time with her friends so mostly I was on my own anyway. Now I'm on my own completely. I miss mum, but I'm managing. I keep myself busy.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Wow. That's spooky. We seem to have something that follows us every time we move houses. And I saw a shadow person when I was seven--but I thought it was Santa Claus, because it was Christmas. And the house I grew up in seems to be haunted by a cat; we're not sure if it's a cat Mom and her brother had when they were kids, or if it's the one I had as a child.

I was more a Legos/puzzles girl than a doll one, myself. And every librarian I've ever met has been crazy about me; I'd check out about twenty books at a time. Ah, the online life; the ultimate distraction! I have two library books I need to read, and I keep sidetracking myself with the laptop! I gotta say, though, it is damn handy if I need to research something for my writing!

[bk_forever]

I find it handy for Doctor Who and Torchwood transcripts so I can check details without getting sidetracked by watching whole episodes. I do occasional other bits of research, but on;y when I need factual details. Mostly I just let my imagination run riot.

I loved lego, we had quite a bit but I think it was given to my nephew when he was little. He's in his thirties now!

I think we were limited to six books at a time by the library, but I tend to own books these days rather than borrow them. Back when I was young and still able to work, before my health fell apart, I worked in the science library at our local university. My absolute dream job, I loved it. Libraries are the best places!

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Yep, the transcripts have been handy for me, too. Every so often, though, I need some sort of scientific detail that I'm not quite sure about, so I hunt around. I've learned the damnedest things as a result. Research was so boring until I got into this fandom; now it's a blast!

When I was about eight, we found this huge Lego set at a garage sale; I'd only had a few pieces prior to that. Snapped that sucker up, and I still have it. :) I lost the minifigures pretty quickly, though, and ended up using the 1 x 1 blocks as "people".

We never had limits except for this one time when the local librarian was sick, or something. The person who stood in said that I could only take about five books. When I got home and told Mom about it, her reaction was pretty much, "Well, she doesn't know what she's dealing with!"

A science library? That sounds really cool! :D

[bk_forever]

Mostly I research for places, street names, locations... I try to be realistic with those things.

Wow, that sounds like an awesome lego set, lucky you! Must be fun still having it. I regret so many of the things I don't have any longer!

It was awesome working there. We had the biological sciences, the so-called pure sciences (chemistry, maths and physics) and engineering, all under one roof. I started work there when I left school at 16, but had to give up work at 21 because of health problems. I loved it there though =)