Spilled Ink

Yeah that's right I SAID MAKE UP

Everything from the top of their head to the end of their neck

purely intricate, beautiful makeup

(by the very talented make up designer Sheelagh Wells who is the only one to have worked both on doctor who in '63 and new who)

Each shaped individually to each actors face and able to pick up each micro expression we still struggle to produce with cgi to this day without it looking wrong or plastic

everything from the small cheek movements to the eyebrows to the nose crinkle, the actresses is able to act as if she usually would.

By not having to restrain her face to act in one peticular spot or with nothing but small motion capture dots on her face, means she can actually bounce off the more realistic reaction to the other actors performance rather than if they just said "right well pretend she's a cat and we'll add it in later".

and sure, okay, I'm not gonna lie to you, the main reason the nun cats were made to be nuns was because it meant that they could cover up as much skin as they possibly could to save time in the makeup chair, because like op said, they truly did have the budget of a crisp packet

but hey, if it works

IT WORKS

Yes, each actresses sat in the makeup chair getting the extensive hair and make up done for HOURS, but ultimately the sheer amount of detail they were able to add to the characters by doing this made it worth their while.

THEY ONLY HAD A BUDGET OF AROUND £800K PER EPISODE at the time, in 2006 FOR EVERYTHING INCLUDING LOCATION ETC

But then I got my grubby little paws on it, and I immediately stopped fertilizing, spraying, and bagging up grass clippings and leaves. I ripped up sod and put in flowers and vegetables. I put down nice thick blankets of mulch around the flowers and vegetables. 

When I first was sweating my way through stripping sod, I saw a grand total of 1 worm and 0 ladybugs. The ground was compacted into something that would bend shovel blades. 

Now, six years later, I can’t dig a planting hole without turning up fourteen earthworms, and there are so many ladybugs here. Not the invasive asian lady beetles; native ladybugs. They winter over in the mulch and in the brush pile. I see thousands of them. 

The soil is soft and rich. There are birds that come to eat, and bees of many sorts.

You light a pillar candle to represent the fire used in constructing Opportunity and thank God for the fire of creation, for creating the sun which gives light and warmth to the universe and thus allows life to flourish, and the light and all that represents. It’s a pillar candle because those are absurdly long lasting, as was Oppy.

At the annual Robonukkah family dinner you and your family talk about times you thought you couldn’t go on but did, in spite of how hard it was, and meditate on what got you through that, how to better support each other, etc.

In remembrance of Oppy’s death just before Valentine’s Day, a day of chocolate, the children are given gelt that was put in the fridge (representing the cold vacuum of space) during Hanukkah Proper ™.

The traditional Robonukkah song is “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Billie Holliday. This was the final transmission sent to Opportunity.

When we light the pillar candle at sunset, we recite the following blessing: “As the people of Earth have understood the last transmission of Opportunity*, ‘my battery is low and it’s getting dark’. Blessed are you, G-d, lord of the universe, who gives us the opportunity to learn, and to bring light and life into the corners of Your creation.”

A Shechechiyanu may be recited on the first night to commemorate reaching a new season of knowledge.

 Write a dragon rider who really fucking hates it when a dragon is trained to bow while being reined. A space ship engineer who is pissed off when perfectly good antimatter ship has been adapted to run on neutral matter. A historian who is still not over the massive failures of a general who lost a specific battle 300 years before she was born.

 The guy currently giving us a series of lectures on the restoration of historical buildings really, really hates polymer paint. At the artisan school our stained glass teacher really hated this one specific Belgian artist - we never really figured out what did that guy even do, but he’s been dead for over 200 years and our teacher was glad that at least he’s dead.

GROND

GROND

GROND

GROND

GROND

GROND

GROND

GROND