Doctor Who is back on TV

[The Curmudgeon]

And it's a rare beast indeed.


Britain's longest running sci-fi series returned for it's (ahem) "Second" series on Saturday, and The Curmudgeon, for once, is all smiles and laughter and baby kissing happiness. And not just for the show (nor the scrumptious Billie Piper either).

To be honest, this episode wasn't great. A fun half hour, granted, but nothing extra special (unlike the majority of series one), but it's still all good. And do you know why? Because it's a sci-fi television show. And it's on the main channel on the most watched time of the week. Doctor Who is prime time television. It's front page tabloid news, with rumours of who (zing!) the new Doctor will be, as well as assistants getting the red-top media in a frenzy. It's not some cult show at 11pm on Channel 4, it's not zeitgeist surfing supercool show - it's family entertainment that can be either watched and enjoyed or fanatically poured over and studied. That's the beauty of it - it can work both ways.

TV schedules, as I'm sure you're aware, are awash with the bile of entertainment - reality television. Whether it's attention-craving morons doing anything to be on television or coke-ravished "celebrity" morons doing anything to be back on television, prime time television is in the worst state it has ever been in. The Curmudgeon remembers a time when watching TV on an early Saturday evening meant watching GENUINE entertainment. Shows like A-Team, Airwolf, Knight Rider.. hell, even Baywatch. But just check out the TV schedules on BBC one for this Saturday night..

7pm: Doctor Who
8pm: Strictly Dance Fever
9pm: The Lottery
10pm: Strictly Dance Fever Results

It's enough to make you want to tear out your eyeballs and mail them to the BBC in complaint. And over on ITV there's all manner of bullshit, where Karaoeke fever simply will not die. After the depressing success of X-Factor ITV will do whatever it takes to dip their bread in that gravy again. So there's "Just The Two Of Us", which has "celebrities" singing with, er, singers. There's Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes, which has (probably the same) "celebrities" dressing up as their favourite star they've been told to like. And all across TV land there's a whole host of atrocities; I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Big Brother, Big Brother's Little Brother, Celebrity Big Brother, countless gardening and house make-over shows. Just this week a new show is out where failed boyband stars try to dress up as women to form a girl band. Christ all fucking mighty, what is GOING ON??

Television has been bombarded with these cheap, easily made dogshit programs. Why bother paying script writers, actors, set designers, special effects people, directors etc when you can bung a few attention starved idiots into a room and watch the "fun"? And it galls me to think that it almost works every single time.

Ah yes - "almost." There was a time, a happy, happy time, where ITV's latest cash cow, "Celebrity Wrestling" (which didn't feature celebrities OR wrestling, funnily enough) was apparantly The Next Big Thing. They hyped it to the moon, giving their celebrities stupid wrestling names (don't get me wrong - I LOVE wrestling, but this was clearly made by people who didn't) and a huge advertising and media blitz. This was to go against the BBC's new show - Doctor Who.

I'll admit I was worried. What's that, a TV show with "celebrity" in the title? The simple minded mouthbreathers won't be able to keep away. How wrong I was. Doctor Who absolutley trampled over it, so much so that ITV "re-scheduled" their wrestling show, not to prime time on a Saturday night, but nestled away in the Guilty Secret Corner of 11am on a Sunday morning.

So it IS possible. REAL, genuine television CAN win out against this lazy slop. And surely the BBC must sit up and take note? "Hmm.. hang on, if this show is doing well, giving us great ratings, and all the merchandise we sell is bringing in even more money, not to mention the total Screw You Fans priced boxset.. don't you think we should be making MORE of this sort of program?"

And if the BBC can get the knuckle-dragging masses away from the reality bug and interested in REAL television again.. then Hells bells, that can only be a good thing, can't it?

So embrace Doctor Who. It's not perfect by any means, but by God we should treasure it. A prime time sci-fi show that the media and pondlife are interested in too? We may never see the like again.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

I myself am completely tired of reality television. It screams "NO BUDGET, HIGH PROFIT FOR THE BOSSES ONLY." And unfortunately, I live in a house where the wife seems to be facinated with viewing well over half of these available.

Networks have truely become lazy. Many of these **ahem** "programs" take a scant time to film but can last up to several weeks. Gone are the weeks and months of careful prep work involved in gearing a show up for some kind of production value. I can't watch this shit, I really can't. I find I spend more time on the computer than I do in front of the TV these days.

The 80's was really THE time to view television. My foundest memories of TV lies within that wonderful decade which I grew up in. Thanksfully, a handful of the best shows from then have been wisely released to DVD and I'm slowly gathering up the ones I like best just so I can show them to my son instead of letting him watch what some idiot is swallowing to win a million on FEAR FACTOR.

Truely, we are hitting an age where the movie THE RUNNING MAN is becoming not only a social commentary on the state of society as it slips into this mass "dumbness" but also an idea that one day some network will say "Let's air the REAL thing!"

Honestly, where's Mr. T when you need him?

[The Curmudgeon]

Saying that, if The Running Man WAS actually on I would be front row centre. What, to see these idiots actually get destroyed by WWE type psycho's? "Sennnnnsational."

[InvisibleWolfMan]

Hey,

As long as they had a real "Richard Killian" hosting and controling the show, I'd probably watch, too.

"What's that? I'm being told our runners are entering the final quadrant. Let's go there now...."

Speaking of The Running Man, have you ever read the short story by Stephen King (who published it as "by Richard Bachman")? I find it just as compelling now as I did way back when. I'd wish they'd actually make a film of it. I think it'd work, especially if you got Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell to play that incarnation of Richard Killian.

"Sennnnnsational."

[The Curmudgeon]

Well, erm - it's in my house, I just haven't read it. The Wife(tm) reads pretty much all of Mr King's work and that's one of them. I may well get round to it one day.

And ANY film with Bruce would be Sennnnsational.

On another note, have you read Bruce's autobiography? I had to put it down once because I was sore laughing. It's superb.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

What?!? You haven't read it? Oh my....

When you get a chance, please do. Sure, it's got a few clichés in it (what Stephen King book doesn't?) but dammit, once it's going it really picks up speed. And I like the fact that he's an ordinary guy who's condemned himself to certain death just to save his wife & child.

And the ending? Another cliché, but again...modern times actually now make it hard to do without having some pretty big brass balls.

I've not gotten to read Bruce's gem of a book, as dammit....it's not available here! However, I do have a good copy of Hulk Hogan's biography. Boy, what stories that man had to tell!

[The Curmudgeon]

Excellent. I didn't even know the Hulkster HAD an autobiography. You're not into wrestling as well are you, Wolfy? If so, I would seriously check in on us being clones.

I'm reading a Stephen King book just now - The Stand. Man, it's a MONSTER of a book (its the unabridged version) but I'm getting through it. Then I'm reading a book that my mother in law got published last year, as well as all my comic books I get every month. My reading schedule is fully booked, guy.

On the subject of books - have you read Catcher In The Rye?

[InvisibleWolfMan]

Hi.

I'm into the old time WWF Wrestling with the all-time greats of Andre The Giat, The Shiek, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Hulk Hogan, Capt. Lou Albano (been so long, hope I spelled his name right!), Bret "The Hitman" Hart....the list goes on. I miss those days. The wrestling then was truely an artform. Hogan's autobiography is quite an insight and very revealing. You must pick up a copy for your fine self!

I have unfortunately never read Catcher in The Rye. As for The Stand - Complete and Unabridged, it takes me a total of 9 hours straight to read it from front to back. I was ill alot as a young child and Stephen King offered books that were insanely long and could take up a whole day for me. Needless to say, I've developed a bit of a speedy way of reading due to that...

[hackersanonymous]

As a long-time Doctor Who fan, I'm agreeing with you whole-heartedly on your comments on "Series 2" (ack!).

I haven't watched the episode that was on last night yet, as Mr. Sky+ is bulging at the edges with assorted televisual goodness - almost all of which is (depressingly) American.

In fact, having just double-checked - with the exception of Hollyoaks (for the fiancee. Though the eye-candy is good, if not quite as good as it used to be), Doctor Who is the only British show on there.
Then again, although we watch large amounts of TV, we don't subject ourselves to the mindrot of "Reality" shows which almost certainly explains the lack of UK shows on our Sky+ schedule..

Anyhoo, the 10th Doctor series is still very much in its infancy. And, as The Curmudgeon says isn't perfect.

The first two episodes of the new series have slight overspill of what could be considered "Smugcamp" humour. However, it's a testament to how good the show actually is that even a relatively weak episode is Oscar-winning, Academy Award level material in comparison to what has been called (without apparent trace of irony) Entertainment TV for more years than I care to think about.

Here's hoping Auntie Beeb keeps up the quality levels with Torchwood when it appears. God knows she's owed us some decent TV for long enough.

[The Curmudgeon]

Ah, another newcomer ventures into The Fortress. Welcome, welcome. The Fortress is impenetrable to this "reality" television you speak of, so you have nothing to fear.

Yeah, you gotta love the "series two" attitude towards Doctor Who. I think Series One Hundred and Two would probably be more accurate. But, nyah, that's a small quibble.

Episode 3 was, in The Curmudgeon's (all conquering) opinion - absolutely superb. A nice nod to previous episodes, some excellent character development (even if it was a touch too overly romantic) and K-9 kicking maximum ass (and Anthony Stuart Head being evil) - it was head and shoulders above anything else from Britain this week, nay year.

Again, welcome to the fold, HackersAnon. Enjoy your time in The Fortress.. just ignore any screams you may hear in The Forbidden Rooms. They're loving it really.