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Every week day, I let you know what’s happening in the world of television from around the world

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How to fight off Who deprivation

14 July 2006 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

ShadaWith no new David Tennant Doctor Who stories to watch until the Christmas Special, you could do worse than tune in to listen to Paul McGann’s Doctor on BBC 7 this Sunday at 6pm.

This repeat run begins with the six-part Shada, which also features both Romana and K9 in a script originally written by Douglas Adams for Tom Baker. Following that, it will continue with McGann’s first audio season for Big Finish.

The Beeb are going to be doing an episode a week (so it’ll last until the middle of next century, I reckon), but half an hour or so of Who every seven days should be enough to keep you going until Christmas.

News

Hugh Laurie gets a pay rise

14 July 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Hugh Laurie in HouseYou have to love it when a Brit does well in Hollywood. House MD‘s Hugh Laurie – everyone’s favourite grumpy, Sherlock Holmes-inspired doctor – has just had his pay per episode tripled to between $275,000 and $300,000. Hoorah!

Turns out that Fox has realised that the only reason anyone watches the show is because of Laurie. So understandably, given it’s a ratings smash in the US, they’d like to make sure he doesn’t quit so he can come back to the UK and appear in a drama about life under Thatcher in the 80s or something.

Can’t see him getting that kind of cash from the Beeb, can you, and it should make up for not getting an Emmy nomination this time around, as well.

Watch some shows for free over on Sci Fi Pulse: Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, The Amazing Screw-On Head

14 July 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

US cable network The Sci Fi Channel is giving us all (for some reason, they haven’t banned British viewers like they normally do) the chance to watch a couple of TV shows streamed over the Internet in not very high quality. Hoozah.

The first is Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, a Channel 4 series that starred Richard Ayoade of The IT Crowd among others. It’s a parody of just about every 80s sci-fi/horror anthology series and serial going, with references to The Twilight Zone and The Ray Bradbury Theater in the opening titles alone, although the likes of Stephen King and Shaun Hutson are the main victims.

It’s not actually very funny though. It’s like something a bunch of students put together to show how clever they are (I, erm, wrote similar things when I was 16…): yes, you can see exactly what they’re satirising, but it doesn’t make you laugh, only go “Oh yes. Very clever.”

Also appearing in stream-o-vision is The Amazing Screw-on Head, a pilot for a new animated series based on a comic book of the same name. Not too great either, but you can vote on it at the end to decide whether it should be made into a series.

While you’re about it, if you decide to watch anything on the site, you’ll get the SciFi video player and be able to watch interviews with the Doctor Who team. It has Eccles-cake in full humourless mode, sucking the fun and joy out of the atmosphere. But it’ll make you all nostalgic for 2005.