Okay, who's been watching the new Dr. Who (no pun intended)? I
have, and I'm pretty damn happy I have been. It's bloody good (or
so I think).
I was a major Dr. Who fan when I was younger (through to early High
School). I watched the show and read the books. I loved
it. Watching the old ones recently has been less of a
delight. They are still good, but they are quite silly (which is
fine, I just don't remember thinking it when I was younger).
When I heard the announcement that a new one was on the way, I was a of
two minds: it would either be very good, or a piece of crap. I
was really expecting the second as a hell of a lot of "upgrades" tend
to be crap. In an effort to grab a new audience they throw away
all the things that made the original great. Also, there is often
a window of opportunity in the collective psyche that makes a program
popular. Take a look at the original Star Trek, for
instance. It was made in a time where we had Democracy (shiny,
new, good) versus Communism (nasty, dirty, evil) (or at least, that was
the propaganda). Star Trek mirrored this with the nice, happy,
democratic Enterprise (run in a fascist dictatorship) versus the nasty
Klingons who were always angry and a bit dirty. It was the cold
war made physical. Now the episodes look a bit odd, and would not
really do well (though, to be fair, the original didn't have a
particularly stellar run. It only lasted 3 years). So I
wondered if Dr. Who would be able to drop into the world of
today. Well, I reckon it has done quite a good job.
The new Doctor is angry and a guilt ridden. His new companion is
feisty and young. The interaction between the two of them seems
very real, and far more emotional than in the past. In fact, as
far as I can see, the biggest shift in the Dr. Who universe is to move
away from techno-babble and science fiction as the main theme to a more
people oriented concept. Even the wonderful Dalek episode ended
up being about emotions and relationships.
Someone said they felt Dr. Who needed a shot of "Buffy", in that it
needed meaningful dialog and the mapping of human emotions and
experiences to beasties and problems. This seems to be what they
have done.
So, I for one, like the new Doctor a lot. It's still a kids
program, with a lot of silliness and story gloss overs, but it is a lot
of fun, and looks really good.
|
