What I’ve been waiting for
What I’ve been waiting for has finally come true.
Doctor Who has come to America.
It returned to the BBC last year. I despaired of seeing it come here. But at last, the Sci Fi Channel has finally made itself worthwhile.
I watched the first show last night with a little skepticism, remembering well the disaster that was the 1996 Fox movie pilot. Most real fans will recall how terrible and Americanized that version seemed to them. The Doctor was half-human. He kissed a woman. He forgot who he was. There were some annoying kids. Even the special effects couldn’t save the Doctor.
The new version seems nothing like that.
The writing was great, with plenty of well-placed humor. And the chemistry between the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his companion, Rose (Billie Piper) was entertaining and believeable. I thought the production values were, for the most part, fantastic, and have come a long way.
The Doctor meets his companion as he is trying to save the Earth from an old Doctor enemy, the Nestenes. I laughed with delight as I recognized the foes, living plastic controlled by a hive mind best manifested by mannequins.
Yes, mannequins. A nice nod to the old show, with much better production values. Much better everything.
Not that I don’t love my old show. I won’t abandon it. I’m just saying…
Rose is a young woman who has a fairly dull life, working, living with her mum, and meeting with her boyfriend.
As she and the Doctor save the Earth, she has a choice to make. Continue to seek adventure or go back to boring, working to eat and shop.
As the Doctor says, did he mention the TARDIS travels in time, as well as space?
That’s a good enough pickup line for me. I can see where the Doctor might be loosened up from his previous unspoken no-touch, no kiss rules, if not with Rose, then someone else. And I wouldn’t even object at some point.
The next show, The End of the World, is a bit of a leap at first. The Doctor, in an attempt to show off to his new companion, wants to show her what the TARDIS can do. So he takes her to the end of the Earth. Which is a mistake, because it immediately puts Rose in touch with her mortality, and for that matter, the mortality of her mother, and everyone she ever knew. Luckily, the Doctor can retool her cellphone and put her in touch with her mother, in space, and millions of years in the past.
But it was great. Reminds me a bit of The Restaurant At the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, where you can see the Universe end over drinks and dinner.
The new Doctor Who still gives nods to it older, cheesier roots. The monsters are still pretty fantastically unbelieveable. But done much better. The pair stumble into a group of dignitaries assembled to watch Earth be engulfed by the sun, and one of them claims to be the last human. All she is is a piece of skin with veins with eyes and a mouth, and is a sly poke at plastic surgery. Another dignitary is descended from trees, and has an interest in the Doctor, and where he comes from.
She discovers something about the Doctor, since he won’t tell Rose who he really is. He’s the Doctor.
The Doctor’s sadness comes from being the the last of the Timelords. It will be interesting to see that play out in another storyline.
I also appreciated that the Doctor has a conscience when it comes to interference. Sometimes all you can do is watch. Everything dies, he says to Rose more than once. Her planet, the villain of the episode and his planet too. Or himself, since Timelords have only 12 lives.
And the show handles the backstory well. I have yet to find anything that I find directly contradicts the old series.
The TARDIS itself could bother me, but it’s so lovely and alien and organic, with many odd little manual dials and pistons as a nod to the old console. The Doctor has remodeled his TARDIS before, after all.
Even if you’re not a Doctor Who fan, you could easily jump into this new series. There’s nothing to alienate an old fan, or turn off a new one. I’m excited. I know the series already is on yet another Doctor, but I’m going to look forward to seeing this one settle into his role first.
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I, somehow, fell into the SF channel site a few days ago and saw the news. I thought about forwarding it to you, but figgered you of all people would already know…Are you taping the show? At some point, I’d be willing to pay you to send them to us. I’d love to see the new WHO and we don’t have the SF channel.
I would be taping them, except I know they’re releasing the first season on DVD in early July. Showing them on Sci-Fi first.
So… if you like, I’ll buy them on DVD and loan them to you.
Or I could start recording it too, just for you.
Thanks for the offer. I think I’ll take you up on the loan when the time comes. At times like these, I am sorely tempted to pay for cable again…
Cable… How I love and hate it.
I used to dream of the day when I could afford cable and get the Sci Fi channel, only to find that they didn’t show a lot of shows I would be interested in watching.
At one point in my cablelessness, I even got within minutes of getting DirectTV, just so I could get Star Trek: Enterprise, only to find out that despite promises of having local channels, DirectTV did not, in fact, carry local channels in my area.
I will go great lengths to watch certain shows. And once I got cable, I suddenly stopped watching Enterprise. (My source had been hooking me up with tapes from his cable.) Pathetic.
So Sci Fi has just made itself worth it, just for Doctor Who. It’s also good for Star Trek and X-Files reruns, I suppose.
Another part of my disappointment appears to be from the changing Mel B.: I don’t watch a ton of sci-fi anymore. It has to be very smart, well done.
Same thing goes with books: not so much fantasy or sci-fi. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. Sigh. Growing up sucks!
If you mean that you are incapable of sinking into books like you used to, I understand. I get more of a cerebral kick out of books any more, less sensual.
Matt has an old friend–a prof at WVU Parkersburg–who reads nothing but SF, however. She told me years ago that she thought the most experimental writing was being done in SF and not in mainstream fiction. She also just reads women authors….anyway, I’d be curious about what you mean by smart and well done. You should blog more about your reading. I’d like to see a list at any rate of these smart books you go on about…
Garrrrg. I don’t know about blogging about my reading. There’s still frivolous stuff well-mixed in there: I read the majority of the Little House books last week.
I do still read much at the same rate I always have: I plow through a lot of books.
This week I’m doing something I used to hate in my mother: juggling several books at once. Reading seriously: Affluenza half-heartedly, though it’s pretty good; Cadillac Desert; War for the Oaks.
My problem is that I leave a book downstairs and I need something to read. Or I get distracted by the thought of reading something a little lighter to keep me from blowing up with serious stuff. Or I leave the book somewhere, and I can’t find it.
Don’t get me wrong: I love sci-fi, I guess. We just needed to take some time off from each other.
Sci fi is responsible for inspiring many innovations. I love that, being able to think that this author or that one predicted these things decades ago.
That said, I have a hard time picking new stuff. I think it’s hard to find new books without having a word-of-mouth network. I find myself re-reading a lot of the same old stuff. I don’t like to take a chance on wasting my time. I wish I had more friends who could trade/recommend sci-fi/fantasy to me.
As it is, I just don’t have the stomach to weed through the bad stuff myself right now. Which is why I’m broadening my horizons.
Have you read Alfred Bester? The Demolished Man? Good, surprisingly inventive early sf.
Dawn and I read to one another in the evening. Otherwise, I’d never do any regular out-of=class reading. I’m just too busy. We’re about to read Invisible Cities…
Well, sometimes we read to one another in the evening. Have gotten out of the habit the last week or so.
Tried to start Invisible Cities tonight, but proved impossible with Elliot who wanted to read “Language Nursery” (”Hello, duck!…How are you, Star?…This is a cow…” in 4 different languages).
Maybe tomorrow night. Frankly, I think I’m still more in the mood for reading some fairy tales together.
No, have not read Alfred Bester. You always seem to dig up stuff I’ve never heard of. That’s good.
Fairy tales would be nice too.
[...] Going into the show, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I gave it a faithful fan’s try and was surprised. Good pacing and suspense. Well-done special effects, with a leaning toward cheesy on occasion. Excellent chemistry between the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and his first companion, Rose (Billie Piper.) [...]