11 - Round 2 (vs. Toni McQueen), Part 3 - Beyond the Sea

Round 2 (vs. Toni McQueen), Part 3 - Beyond the Sea

Sean:

If I have one regret about this round, it was cramming in the references to popular culture. The sharks with lasers on their heads, the Big Daddy, the Loch Ness monster(s), the Giant Enemy Crab, the Cloverfield Monster and a Portal turret is just a little bit too much in such a short amount of page space. They distract from the setting and don't really do much except clutter the panels even more. I'm not counting them as a mistake though!

The Picadilly Circus screens in the first panel are supposed to be showing the Prime Minister at the time (Gordon Brown) denying all of Al Gore's accusations about global warming, mostly because that was part of the environment's description ("Al Gore was right!"). On reflection Gordon Brown was a bit of a cock up as Tony Blair was PM back then. Okay, okay, Sean mistake number 4!

I honestly didn't realise I'd ripped off the first episode of the revitalised Doctor Who what with the whole "London Eye as a relay dish" thing until it was too late. Honest (we added Ralph's throwaway line after realising!).

I found it funny that our opponent's entry had a very similar ending to ours - obviously great minds think alike!

Sam:

Ralph: dat hair.

I'm rather torn on the issue of cameos. On the one hand, I had fun and we had a really good response from all the Austin Powers fans. On the other, it would have been nice to have worked in some original designs. Maybe draw some mer-people to populate London. But on the third, horribly mutated hand, those backgrounds took so long to complete that any designs I came up with would have been rushed and therefore naff. I think I'm content with the cameos.

Except maybe the Portal one. That one seems out of place.

A note on Medula's desk: I spent too long thinking about how he uses a computer. In the end I decided that as he's a brain in a (very technical) jar with no obvious optics, he must plug himself straight into his personal PC, negating the use of a keyboard and mouse. That is why his desk is so sparse. I bet you're so glad I brought it up.

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