Vintage Sci-Fi
I haven’t had so much fun watching a Sci-Fi series since the days of Farscape. And I don’t remember the last time when there was actually anything worth watching on the TV on a Saturday night. But Saturday night has become [Doctor Who][1] Night chez bsag. In fact, we even try to watch it live if at all possible. That would explain why—-when dashing from a hasty shower and hurtling down the stairs on hearing the ‘diddle-dee-dee’ theme music1—-I managed to pull a muscle. The trouble with rampant nostalgia for a childhood TV series is that you aren’t young and fit enough to hurtle downstairs to watch it without doing yourself a mischief.
Last night’s episode featured a Victorian Cardiff (it was supposed to be Naples, but the Tardis went a bit wrong), and Charles Dickens (played by Simon Callow—-hooray!), along with some zombies reanimated by gas creatures. Again, there was some wonderful, playful dialogue. The Doctor asked an undertaker if there was a location in his establishment that was particularly prone to ‘ghosts’:
Undertaker: That would be the morgue.
Rose: Is there any chance that you were going to say ‘the gazebo’?
The Doctor acts like a total fanboy when he finds out that he’s sitting next to Charles Dickens:
[Very excited] Go on, do the Death of Little Nell. That always cracks me up!
I love it. They play with every stereotype of Sci-Fi, including ‘Shaun of the Dead’ style slow zombie walking and giant rotating blades blocking access to a vital switch straight out of ‘Galaxy Quest’, but they tread the line between drama and pastiche perfectly. Like Dickens’ writing, they also switch effortlessly between humour, horror, drama and sentiment, often in the same scene. I have a sneaking suspicion that Russell T. Davies is a bit of a Dickens fan. The very deep and deeply ambiguous relationship between Rose and The Doctor is also developing nicely. Now, if we can only persuade Christopher Eccleston to change his mind and do another series…
[1]: http://www.rousette.org.uk/blog/archives/2005/03/27/dr-who/ “I rave about the first episode”
1I heard Mr. Bsag doing the ‘diddle-dee-dee, diddle-dee-dee, wooo-eee-oooo’ bit in the garage later on, while he was rummaging in the freezer. We are **seriously** addicted.
1
The new Dr Who is indeed a return to form. Long may it reign!----- "I have a sneaking suspicion that Russell T. Davies is a bit of a Dickens fan."
Sorry to be a pedant, but 'somebody' Gatiss wrote that one as far as I can remember from the credits. (God I hope I'm not wrong).
I never saw any of the previous Dr Who's (no TV in South Africa when I was growing up), but I am happily hooked on this series. Inspired casting of the two main characters IMHO.
by bernard @ 10/04/2005 11:04 pm • Permalink •
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I agree, the new Doctor Who is a cracking return to form. Mark Gatiss of "The League Of Gentleman" fame wrote this weeks Welsh zombie episode.
by Pete @ 11/04/2005 8:04 am • Permalink •
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I must admit that I haven't been totally sold on the series so far, I would prefer a bit longer storyline, maybe 2 45-60 minute episodes with a cliffhanger in between, at the moment it seems a bit rushed, with the story barely having been set up before the denoument. Perhaps I'm just a curmugeon who pines for the old Dr Who, I remember seeing the first ever episode. Anyway I did enjoy this episode, and I thought that there were some fairly scary effects, for children I mean, I wasn't scared at all of course, not even a little.
by Keith @ 11/04/2005 6:05 pm • Permalink •
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Keith - apparently some of the later episodes will be multi-part stories.
by ijw @ 12/04/2005 12:04 pm • Permalink •
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Did you ever watch Joss Whedon's Firefly? The FOX network over here in the States only kept it on for 14 episodes, but it was some of the best SciFi TV I've seen in a while. It's out on DVD, and that's where I've been watching it.
by bitweever @ 12/04/2005 10:05 pm • Permalink •
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the series is definitely getting better - i thought the first one was a bit too "ooh we're doing dr who", but its improving quickly.
by c'lam @ 13/04/2005 9:04 am • Permalink •
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bsag
"The birds have flown" Expect (Recorded) delivery Thursday/Friday They are wearing Amazonian camouflage...
by Mr.D. @ 13/04/2005 9:04 am • Permalink •
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Oooh Firefly. Everyone should own this.
For those of us who missed episodes the first time round the new Dr Who series will be out on DVD next month starting with the first three episodes on the 16th.
by Nick @ 13/04/2005 11:04 am • Permalink •
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bernard: You're absolutely right---I didn't spot that. He did a great job.
Keith: I think that it's the duty of Doctor Who to scare the living daylights out of small children. Mind you, I think that kids are a lot harder to scare these days.
bitweever: No, I never did, though you aren't the first person to recommend it to me. I must remember to see if they have any DVDs of the series at Lovefilm.
Mr. D.: Thanks! You sir, are an officer and a gentleman, and I await the arrival of my camouflaged birds with anticipation.
Nick: That's good to know. I think that they might well be worth repeated viewing.
by bsag @ 13/04/2005 4:05 pm • Permalink •
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Over here in the USA, we have to resort to...other means to get our fix. Since I haven't watched Doctor Who since Tom Baker, I feel like I've missed out on a bunch.
I get the impression that the crew hasn't really settled into the series, that they haven't figured out where they're going with it, but I'm still enjoying it very much. The writing is better than I remember it being during the Tom Baker era, and that's even with the tendency to idealize the past.
Also: coughFirefly is on coughBittorrent.
by Adam Rice @ 14/04/2005 4:05 pm • Permalink •
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re firefly - there should be a film in the offing... If I recall my fanboy gossip correctly
by russh @ 20/04/2005 6:05 am • Permalink •
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