Doctor Who

An archive of blog entries about British science-fiction programme Doctor Who.

UK TV

Sophia Myles: sci-fi groupie

10 August 2006 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

Sophia Myles in UnderworldSophia (pronounced to rhyme with “hairdryer” apparently) Myles seems to be a big fan of sci-fan. Obviously, she’s dating the Doctor, himself, after meeting him while filming an episode of Doctor Who. But she’s all set to appear in a new adaptation of Dracula for BBC1, that will also feature Marc Warren (State of Play, Hustle, and, you guessed it, Doctor Who).

Dracula won’t be her first vampire effort though, since she appeared, to slinky effect, as a vampire in Underworld. She was also Lady Penelope in the movie Thunderbirds. So I have a quick question.

What is it with posh blonde women and sci-fi?

There’s that Susannah Harker of Pride and Prejudice, confessing that her deep love of sci-fi made her take on vampire drama Ultraviolet as well as the role of Sapphire in the audio Sapphire and Steel stories. They’re all over the place, I tell you.

I know it’s by no means a conclusive trend, and I know posh blonde women who hate SF, but apparently there’s a lot of them who secretly loves it. Including my wife (who’ll claim she isn’t posh, but we all know she is really). What’s up with the world?

Top 10 – and bottom 10 – sci-fi title sequences ever

10 August 2006 Rob Buckley 7 Comments

An enterprising gentleman in the US has decided to organise troll bait top ten lists of the worst and best sci-fi title sequences LIKE EVER!!! To save you the effort of going there, they are, complete with YouTube links:

Best

  1. Firefly
  2. Space: 1999
  3. The Six Million Dollar Man
  4. Doctor Who (Tom Baker and Eccles Cake versions)
  5. Star Trek: Voyager
  6. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
  7. Star Trek: The Next Generation
  8. Mystery Science Theater 3000
  9. The Greatest American Hero
  10. Battlestar Galactica (original series)

Worst

  1. Enterprise
  2. Cleopatra 2525
  3. Battlestar Galactica (new series)
  4. V
  5. Babylon 5
  6. Charmed
  7. Xena: Warrior Princess
  8. The Bionic Woman
  9. Manimal
  10. Land of Lost

Now, clearly the man has both atrocious taste in title sequences as well as a somewhat limited viewing range. Otherwise, how else did all those Star Trek sequences get in there? At the very least, the original series of The Tomorrow People should be in there, as should The Prisoner. On the other hand, he does correctly slam Charmed for mauling a classic Smiths track, and The Six Million Dollar Man titles are classics indeed.

What other title sequences should be in there, do you reckon? If we include serials, I’d definitely include The Day of The Triffids‘, and if we were to expand beyond SF, I’d add in Callan, Penn and Teller’s Bullshit (titles are about a minute in) and Touching Evil. But what would you include?

News

The children of Who

10 August 2006 Rob Buckley 6 Comments

FA and DTBlah, blah, blah. Season three starts filming this week. Big press release with gushing stuff from Freema and RTD in all the papers.

The Daily Star – which should perhaps be called the Daily Start Making Stuff Up – has chosen to go one better with a ‘revelation’: next season is going to hint the Doctor has a son.

“Everyone knows that Time Lord’s have 13 lives and then that’s it, they finally die. Since there are only two regenerations left, the BBC need a plan to make sure the show can carry on.”

“So the only way to stop Doctor Who from being killed off completely is by bringing on a successor.”

Apparently, this news flash to the world will appear in the final episode of the season. However, as always with the Star, you have to question just how true this is likely to be, particularly given its ‘source’ continues:

Last year it was hinted that the Doctor had a child following a doomed love affair with someone from a forgotten planet.

Really? I must have missed that. Which episode was that in? Saying “I was a Dad once” is somewhat different from “I had a child following a doomed love affair with someone from a forgotten planet”.

Also, and correct my maths here if necessary, 10+2, no matter which way you spin it, is still not 13. There are at least three Doctors left before it all falls apart – and the Master proved that doesn’t have to be a permanent problem. Since we can be pretty sure there’s going to be at least two seasons per Doctor, following the Eccles Cake® debacle, that’s at least seven years of Doctor Who left before the wheels are going to come off. Even that’s assuming that DT legs it at the end of the third season, which given his obvious relish of the role and that he no doubt has ambitions of longevity to rival Tom Baker’s, I don’t see that happening just yet.

And they’re working on the back-up plan now? What do you think?

Incidentally, just to pre-empt future fans, I will try to claim credit for a Freema Agyeman nickname, assuming no-one’s already done so. In future, if any of her fans describe her as “Sweet FA”, they will have to pay me royalties. I declare that now.

Do I have to pay Stu_N royalties for my repeated use of the phrase “Eccles Cake” to describe Christopher Eccleston, I wonder?

No luck for Lucker’s Rani

4 August 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

come out on DVDThe Sun seems to have put a foot wrong for a change. The Beeb is now denying the Currant Bun’s story from yesterday that Zoe Lucker is up for the role of the Rani. No word on whether The Rani will be appearing in the third season, but with a different actress playing the role.

It has been pointed out that the Rani rumour has some interesting timing, given the pretty rubbish Mark of the Rani has just come out on DVD and might need some promotion…

Bang. There goes an afternoon

3 August 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Thanks to Paul, via Lisa, for ending all my productivity this afternoon with links to the Beeb’s Doctor Who Years, three half-hour guides to Doctor Who during the 60s, 70s and 80s. Clips from every story, plus Blue Peter, Nationwide, et al, complete with entertaining captions. Save you having to wade through them all, if you were never a Fan (with a definite capital) of the old series.

Took me forever to remember the originating format came from The Rock & Roll Years. Curse my encroaching senility.