Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Merrily Bubbling In A Pot of Nerdly Glee

I'd heard rumors six months or a year ago that Christopher Eccleston - aka 'The Shizzle' - was going to be the new Dr. Who.

All right, now that 99% of the readers have clicked away to another web page, I can continue.

I've always enjoyed Dr. Who. It's smart, quirky, irreverent and it's gone through so many incarnations over the years that no matter who you are, you can find a Doctor that you like. (The Doctor is an alien, and he metamorphises into another 'life' and appearance when he dies, a convenient method of bringing in new actors to play the role)

Tom Baker, Best Doctor Ever:



Each Doctor has a different personality, and the show usually gets a revamp and different look with each new Doctor.

The Doctor (for those of who you don't know) travels through time and space in a time machine - natch - that is giant nearly unending series of rooms on the inside and small on the outside (He's a high tech alien).

The time machine has a cloaking device which is supposed to function to blend the unit into the surroundings of where-ever it arrives. Early on, the cloak stuck on the form of a UK Call Box, and that has become its static form.

Like So:



Every week, The Doctor and his companion(s) end up on some planet, space station, etc where some great terrible thing is happening or about to happen, and must be stopped or the universe will come to an end, etc.

These companions are typically of the low-tech average peeps sort of person, so that The Doctor can explain esoteric stuff to the companion, and to the viewer.

So I was surfing the web and came across the fact that the new Dr. Who series IS in production, and Christopher Eccleston is indeed playing The Doctor. (Though it seems Chris is already leaving, and David Tennant - of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire fame, is taking over...)

I watched the trailer and was literally giddy with excitement as I heard all the old sound effects and the new take on the theme music. Dr. Who has great capacity to be a very good sci-fi series. The show is all about witty dialogue, and much less about action.

Even though I'm not nearly the sci-fi fan I was growing up, I'm very pleased that the show is getting a new chance.

One of the biggest problems with the older versions of the show were its awful, strongbad special effects. Now with 3D computer FX and blue screen, they can accomplish a lot more.

There are no airdates yet for the show to play in the U.S., (despite 2 'Coming Soon to ABC Trailers' - which on further research turns out to be Australian ABC TV) but I'm looking forward to at least getting the new episodes from Netflix, eventually.

1 comment:

  1. I've never seen Doctor Who but I feel that as a card carrying nerd I need to partake in it at some point. Perhaps if the new series airs in the U.S. I'll take a peek, based on your enthusiasm alone.

    ReplyDelete