Every week day, I let you know what’s happening in the world of television from around the world
Woo hoo! Maybe not three cheers, but one cheer anyway. Airwolf season two is being lined up for a DVD release. Nowhere near as good as the first season, it still had a few classic episodes. One for the Christmas wish list anyway.
Murder One was one of those great shows that are ahead of their time. Created by Steven Bochco, who also created Hill Street Blues, it followed a single court case for the length of an entire season. Trouble was, back in those pre-Lost, pre-24 days, no one could be arsed to keep up with a plot that lasted for 22-odd episodes; by the second season, the superb lead, Daniel Benzali, had been replaced, and the show chose to focus on cases for only a few episodes at a time.
Now it’s back, apparently. CBS has commissioned a pilot for a new series, as yet untitled, that will follow a single case for an entire season. It will be written by Six Feet Under writer-producer Kate Robin. Where it differs from Murder One, which dealt purely with the defence lawyers and the defendants, is that it will focus on the lead lawyers on both sides of the case, along with half the members of the jury and the judge.
Nevertheless, for those of us who loved the original Murder One, there’s a twinge of sadness as we think of what might have been and how the show might have done in this age of high-quality US TV.
PS It’s available on DVD, but still isn’t at discount prices yet. It will be though, so let’s be patient.
Other interesting nuggets of news that popped up last week that weren’t about Doctor Who.
And finally, just in case you wanted to know what The Hanso Foundation is and what all those numbers mean in Lost, someone’s assembled all the video clips from The Lost Experience (which, my street urchins tell me, is some kind of online game thing). Press the Play button to find out what’s up.
This is all old news, but just in case you missed it, here’s a rundown on the top Who stories of last week:
Sarah Jane’s back… again, in another Doctor Who spin-off… again
The Beeb has finally confirmed that The Sarah Jane Adventures will be happening. Lis Sladen’s back as (almost) everybody’s favourite old-school Who assistant, complete with helpful investigative teenage neighbour. K9 will appear in the first episode, a 60-minute special, but won’t be in the rest of the series. Has a hint of Dark Season to it, don’t you think?
It’s worth pointing out that that’s yet another series Russell T Davies is spreading himself thinly over. When’s he going to find time to sleep?
McGann’s the other official BBC Doctor
The Eighth Doctor aka Paul McGann is to get his own original BBC7 series in the New Year. McGann’s Doctor is already a reasonably familiar presence on BBC7, thanks to airings of various of his Big Finish stories. This season of stories, however, will be originals and will feature Sheridan Smith from Two Pints of Lager… as his companion, rather than the delightful India Fisher as Edwardian adventuress Charley Pollard. They’ll still be produced by Big Finish, however, and enhanced versions will appear on CD later next year.
I’ll withhold judgement on the stories till I hear them (ooh, goodie, new things to review!) rather than “go knee jerk”, but having seen her filming Two Pints, I would say that Sheridan Smith is actually a pretty good actress (who doesn’t fluff her lines constantly like certain cast members) so could do well here. Why they’ve switched from India Fisher, though, I don’t know: pick your own conspiracy about Charley being too posh, etc for younger audiences to identify with or how it might annoy Conrad Westmaas if India Fisher got a solo companion role.
Most unlikeliest event in human history occurs
Janet Fielding has agreed to narrate an audio book version of rubbish Peter Davison story Warriors of the Deep. Caroline John (Liz Shaw) and Katy Manning (Jo Grant) will be narrating Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Sea Devils as well, as part of the ‘Monsters on Earth’ limited edition CD.
I’ll tell you something: if you’ve never seen Janet Fielding go on at length about how Doctor Who is rubbish, anti-feminist, etc, in front of a mass of seething Whovians, you haven’t seen courage yet. Now she’s narrating one of the most awful stories she ever appeared in? Bizarre. Still, at least you won’t have to see the polystyrene sets and the Myrka in this version…
I know, I know, I’m supposed to be on holiday, but…
Today’s issue of The Sun says that David Tennant has signed up for a third series of Doctor Who, asking for and getting the princely sum of £1 million for the series. However, it continues, that he absolutely won’t commit to another series after that.
Now, The Sun has been good in the past for insider info, although I suspect its accuracy varies according to the journalist writing each story – they’re a territorial lot at The Sun. But, how can this be, given that
Were the Beeb waiting to see whether DT would sign on the dotted line before committing to another series? Surely, given Who‘s unique “let’s dump the star” capabilities, they wouldn’t have been that fussed.
Alternatively, maybe they thought they could keep DT’s asking price down if they didn’t commit themselves to another series. Theories on a postcard or stuck-down envelope to…
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