Return of the Doctor to these shores
The SciFi Channel doesn’t have a history of showing quality first-run material, though there are exceptions: “Farscape” and the Stargates come to mind. In a nice change of affairs, they have recently been broadcasting the new “Battlestar Galactica”, which despite initial doubts, soon won over large chunks of the geek populace. Heck, even though the new BSG is not really my thing, I’d watch it in a second over “Low-Budget CGI Monster Movie CLXI”.
Tomorrow night at 9 Eastern, they are showing the first two episodes of the new Doctor Who series. If you’re a Who fan, it’s probably already on the DVR, but if you aren’t, I strongly suggest you give it a try. You may have heard of “that weird British show with the scarf guy in the phone booth”, but this show bears the same resemblance to that as “Star Trek: The Next Generation” bears to the original “Star Trek” series. (Intentional comparison, as I have quite a soft spot for the ‘classic’ versions.) Now the stories come in one or two episodes each, not six half-hours of padding. The characters are much more fleshed out and three-dimensional, and even develop over the season. There’s even a late-season character who’s less discriminate than Riker about his bed buddies! And there’s a two-parter near the end of the season which may be the best 90 minutes of the Doctor we’ve seen since the show’s 1962 beginning.
Whovians: please watch or record it tomorrow. Many of us have seen bootlegs on the ‘Net, but the cable companies will read our DVRs and report back to SciFi – and the BBC is gearing up for season two.
The main character is an alien from a planet of time-travellers, who fled his people for reasons that have been explained, then repeatedly contradicted over 40 years of storytelling. He has an unexplained affinity for planet Earth, and meddles frequently in its various historical events. The other members of his race have names, but he never refers to himself by anything besides “the Doctor”.
His time machine’s cloaking device stuck in the shape of an English ‘police box’ (an emergency phone link, supply cabinet, and criminal lockup from the fifties) some time ago, and he’s grown fond of the shape. If he is mortally wounded, but his body remains basically intact, it triggers a systemwide ‘regeneration’ that changes his appearance and personality (thus giving actors a chance to retire from the role). He has done so 8 times; thus, this is the Ninth Doctor. Based on casual comments, he’s somewhere between 900 and 1500 Earth years old.
He is almost always accompanied by one or more human companions. Sometimes they’re useful, sometimes less so; but it seems that loneliness is his greatest enemy, and his companions are the first defense.
Give it a try!
Tags: doctor who, galactica
I’d planned to tape it but need to see if they’re doing their normal repeat-after-showing-original-episode deal, since I’ll probably be visiting my folks in Roanoke till 9 pm tonight, and the VCR I’m using to record doesn’t have a reliable timer.
mee too! i _need_ dr who!
at least until i decide whether i like this new guy..
(OK, so there are plusses to living near Seattle… CBC!)
It took a *while* for the current Doctor to grow on me. I really didn’t like him at first… but by the end of the first season I liked him muchly. 😀
I meant to mention this last week, but if you miss an episode, I can easily arrange for you to acquire a digital copy 🙂
I’d appreciate that–somebody realized we had a dual DVD/VCR in the Screening Room where the library has its cable connection, so as of yet I haven’t been able to catch any of the episodes at all.