If you saw this weekend’s episode of Doctor Who — the one Neil Gaiman wrote — you saw the Doctor make a whole new TARDIS out of scrap parts. What you might not know is that the TARDIS was designed by Susannah Leah, a 12-year-old girl who won a “Design-a-TARDIS” contest and had her concept made and featured in the last episode. Her design is delightfully goofy, and it’s fun to see her pretty much shut down when she gets to meet Matt Smith in person, as shown in this video clip detailing the contest from BBC’s Blue Peter. I wonder if she knows enough to be extra pleased that it was used for Gaiman’s episode. If any of you TR-reading Brits happen to know her, you should make sure she understands that she’s kind of like Kate Middleton, if Prince William were the personification of British nerdery. (Via The Mary Sue)
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.