Acts of Cultural Vandalism #4 - Advertising the Digital Switchover

This edition is an unusual one. Instead of paragraphs of dribble, I'm going to create a sequential story told with words then picture then words then picture and so on. It's like a comic strip.

The subject for this sequential story is my version of a TV ad advertising the Digital Switch-over. I know the last analogue transmitter in Britain was switched off in October, but I only got this idea just a few days ago. Inspired by an early digital TV ad in the late-1990s, here's my take on advertising the digital switch-over.

DIGITAL SWITCH-OVER AD

One of the best things about digital TV (apart from picture quality and an increasing choice of channels) 

is that any television can be converted to receive digital TV.

Yes.

Yes.

I think so.

Crikey, that's old. But yes, any TV, no matter how old, can be converted to digital.

No. That's a radio.

That's a microwave.

That's a washing machine.

That's an aquarium. Nice fish though.

No. That's a mirror.

No. That's a picture frame.

For god sake, what's this guy on!

NO! ITS NOT A.....

OK. Yes it can. Sorry.

Yes. Any computer or internet-enabled device with a screen can become a digital TV.

Err! I'm not sure.

I already covered mirrors, and the answer is still....

Oh, you got one of those mirrors. I think it falls into the same category as crystal balls.

Are you taking the Micky, Doctor? I think you already know the answer.

Anyways, the point is that any TV, computer or internet-enabled device with a screen 

can be made to receive digital TV.

Yes. Any television, no matter how old, can be converted to digital.

I think so, with some tinkerin....

I did. Any TV can...

What.... Is that a Sinclair ZX Spectrum? You must be joke....

I have to stop you there voice-over guy, because I found out you can make a Sinclair ZX Spectrum receive digital TV through the internet. And here's the proof....

So there you have it. My folly into advertising the Digital Switch-over. I wanted this page to go out before March ended because of another event in the world of television. The iconic BBC Television Centre in London is going to shut down by the end of this month (their moving to a new building in Manchester, by the way), so as a tribute the final sketch I usually place at the end of my posts is this....

Note - Photoshop and illustrator CS4 didn't have Gill Sans (the font the BBC currently uses

 in its corporate ID) so I had to use a similar-looking font.

A discovery in Forbidden Planet

I just been to the Forbidden Planet comic book shop on Buchanan Street, Glasgow, earlier today and I made a discovery.
It was something I thought couldn't be done on print.....

.... A comic book crossover of Doctor Who and Star Trek!

The two greatest sci-fi franchises ever to come form the 1960s (except for Ultraman and the works of Gerry Anderson) together in a single storyline! How could this be possible? (I know it has been done online, check the link below.) But the fact that it has been printed astonishes me.

Doctor Who and Star Trek Next Generation Crossover fan-fiction

I should note that the comic I discovered is a crossover of Star Trek - The Next Generation (That's the Patrick Stewart Captain Picard series for you non-Trekkies out there.) and the 11th Doctor Who (Matt Smith).

So, did I buy it.... no (I had already bought a lot of stuff that day, so I didn't. Plus, I'm not that well into Star Trek to make such a purchase (I seen the J.J. Abrams 2009 movie and a few episodes and movies, but that's it).

If you are curious enough to click the link, feel free to explore the site. There's a lot of crazy stuff on it. There's one story where the Doctor kills Stewie Griffin to prevent him dominating the world (which is very dramatically-written) and a few about him getting mixed up with a certain high school club whose interest is in aliens, time travellers and ESPers, whose leader could destroy the world (although she doesn't know that). (I'm not telling you who I'm talking about there. Find out for yourself.)