Countdown to the Doctor’s Return5
Posted By Kathleen David on March 13, 2006
Friday at 9pm EST I am hoping there will be a lot of people viewing the SciFi channel to watch one of the greatest resurrections of a show probably ever. Dr. Who TV series on the BBC went on hiatus (a.k.a. limbo) in 1989 when it ended with
There are worlds out there where the sky is burning, and the sea’s asleep, and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on, Ace. We’ve got work to do.
Which is not a bad last line for a series.
The TV movie was a hope that FOX and the BBC could take a series and recreate it for fans of both sides of the pond. New viewers were lukewarm to very confused and old viewers of the Doctor ran from Wow to “How dare they make the Doctor 1/2 human”. The Americans complained it was too British for American audiences and the British complained that FOX americanized their doctor. The numbers were not good and we were left with an excellent actor playing the Doctor with no series. We did get books and audio shows which was better than nothing but fans longed for the series back.
There were rumors every year that the good Doctor was coming back either on the big screen or the small screen. Heck, I think the Doctor Who Magazine managed to live on these rumors. I ended up involved in debunking one internet rumor of a revival that took on a twisted life of its own but that is a tale for another day where all the names will be changed but not the locations. Then we started getting rumors and inklings from sources that were more reliable and people in various places of power at the Beeb were starting to either confirm or no comment on the information. Something was happening and the fans knew it. They crossed their fingers and lo and behold it happened. They had their series back and with it their beloved Doctor in the form of Christopher Eccelston.
I am grateful that SciFi picked up one of my favorite TV series of all times.
Doctor Who just bores me.
It’s no secret why the American comics industry has so many brit creators. They are trying to get away from Doctor Who, Judge Dredd and that comic about the soldier with blue skin.
Whoops, I posted early due to the cat that jumped on my keyboard. But Doctor Who? I would rather watch Firefly/Serenity or whatever new name Joss came up for it this week to take our minds off the fact that it isn’t very good.
heh. Nice stereotyping there A.
Thanks for the heads-up there Kath. Gonna be out of town this Friday, but the lovely abilities of the Tivo will save the TWO episodes (that’s the way it’s listed) that come on this Friday.
I second Kathleen’s comments about the new show. If you haven’t watched it Anthony, give it a try. It is good. It turned into the highest rated drama on British TV, so they must be doing something right. I think SciFi will likely get better ratings than they are expecting.
Lee Whiteside
SFTV.org Webmaster
Well Jeff after having to grow up with Doctor Who, 2000AD and Judge Dredd it would be almost criminal “not” to let them do Superman. 🙂
I will watch Doctor Who. If you guys like it, then I know I will end up getting hooked.