Old Shat, New Who
The new Doctor Who series finally premiered in the U.S. last night, and if you subtract the SciFi Channel's usual overload of promo spots and commercials aimed at senior citizens from its 2-hour running length, it was a pleasant enough hour and 10 minutes of actual show. The new doc, Christopher Eccleston, recalls Tom Baker at his most manic, and Billie Piper does a more than adequate job as the new sidekick eye-candy. The BBC also manages to update the special effects and alien makeup without losing that essential cheesiness Who fans have come to expect and demand, and thankfully, they haven't updated the theme music too much (except for the addition of some Peter-Gunnish riffing). At this point I'm cautiously optimistic, but I think the inevitable Daleks episode will be the proof in the pudding. [Link]
Meanwhile, on this side of the Briny, my main-man Shatner, attempts to bloviate his way into history with a 2-hour Discovery Channel documentary humbly (if somewhat misleadingly) entitled, How William Shatner Changed the World. In the show, he employs his god-like expository talents to tell us how the gadgets and social commentary in Star Trek (cellphones, medical imaging, interracial tongue-wrestling) have beamed down from the deck of the Enterprise to make our lives here on Earth better. Too bad for Shat that Gene Rodenberry never envisioned a galaxy without bad toupees and hair weaves. [Link][via]
Comments
I saw my first Doctor last year when the new series started. The first seasons were never shown in Germany. I was surprised and well entertained. I am looking forward to the new doctor - I think it's nice to have a series were the main character comes in different flavours over the time.
Well Shatner ... that's a different universe, but the docu wasn't that bad and had some valid points. Too bad Gene Roddenberry is already dead.
Posted by: orange | March 18, 2006 7:56 AM
Oh, I enjoyed the documentary. I'd pay to hear Shatner recite dramatic excerpts from the telephone directory.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | March 18, 2006 8:02 AM
ITYM Christopher Eccleston? The series with David Tennant hasn't aired on this continent yet, with the exception of the Christmas episode that aired on Canadian TV.
Posted by: Rimrunner | March 18, 2006 11:57 AM
Yes, you're quite right, Eccleston. I saw his name in the credits last night, but got confused by the BBC cast listing on the webpage.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | March 18, 2006 12:16 PM
Shatner is GOD!!!
Posted by: sleasegrinder | March 19, 2006 1:15 PM
Fan-bore away... I taped it to fast-forward through the endless Sci-Fi adtime (and it still felt like I spent the whole time watching ads), and my two cents -- surprisingly, pretty darned good. Last month I pulled out some of my old tapes for a refresher and perspective (verdict: Tom Baker era still holds up pretty well, though there are a lot of shabby patches). By comparison, the new series definitely blows away the post-Tom Baker era, and though sentimentally, I'd like to stick up for the earlier shows, by any sane standard it beats them as well. Not just the vastly improved production quality, but more importantly, the writing and acting. The characters have some credible and realistic depth to them (tons more, compared to the old shows), and I can imagine that there will be interesting developments as the relationships progress. In only two episodes, issues of mortality and sacrifice have gotten much more serious consideration than they ever got in the old shows. Though I'm making it sound awfully heavy, it snaps along at a consistently faster clip than the old serials, which often got stuck in endlessly protracted plot filler. Not to be Pavlovian over the old leather jacket trick, but yeah -- that's great. They finally got him out of that long, cloth, Grandma coat with 'cute' pins on the lapels. I'll check this coming week's episodes, and if they hold up the quality, I may quit watching Sci-Fi's choparama (does anyone know the actual BBC runtime? 'cause Sci-Fi must be cutting in at least 20 minutes of ads per hour) and wait for the DVD set. Unfortunately, that well-known online retail site still doesn't list a preorder price (I hope it's affordable). July release, supposedly. Now I can see why the British have seemed so enthusiatic about this new series. Fan-bore out...
Posted by: M.Ace | March 19, 2006 2:03 PM
Fan-bore away
Nah, I think you did a pretty good job of laying out what made the show work for me.
I counted 20-25 minutes of commercials/hour with fully half of that being self-promo spots. SciFi sucks.
I'm surprised that BBC America didn't run the show, but ad-wise, they're as bad as the SciFi channel, so I guess it doesn't matter.
Did I mention I want to bear Billie Piper's children?
Posted by: MrBaliHai | March 19, 2006 3:17 PM
MBH sez: "Did I mention I want to bear Billie Piper's children?"
I think she's Kim Wilde's niece. Or she should be, anyway. Remember Kim Wilde?
I especially love the way Sci-Fi even adds promo pop-ups while the show is in progress.
Posted by: M.Ace | March 19, 2006 6:39 PM
Remember Kim Wilde?
We're the kids in America...wooah-oh! Hell, I'm almost old enough to remember her dad, Marty Wilde.
And lot of channels do those incredibly annoying pop-up promos now. But what really fries my crumb on SciFi are the senior-citizen ads for Life Alert and motorized wheelchairs. Jeeze, we're gettin' old, but not *that* old!
Posted by: MrBaliHai | March 19, 2006 7:13 PM
I missed the first run of the shows on Friday (hockey was calling), so I caught 'em late Sunday night in reruns. I was kind of on the fence after the first episode, but I'm hooked after that second one. Wasn't sure I'd take to the new Doc, but I rather like him.
And sorry, Mr. B, but all I could think while watching Billie Piper was "someone needs to tell her to use about 2 tubes less mascara per episode." But I liked her character, so I'm willing to overlook the clumpy raccoon eyes. (Geez. And I'm the least girlie-girl ever. I never notice things like that.)
Wasn't as enamored with the Shatner thing. I had no intentions of watching it, but the boyfriend had control of the remote, so I didn't have much choice. Ah, well.
Posted by: czeltic girl | March 20, 2006 4:29 PM
Czelt: I was fascinated by her big, horsey teeth and Carly Simon mouth. I wasn't paying much attention to the eyes.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | March 20, 2006 4:36 PM