The New DOCTOR WHO series

[TELLE]

Is he really?  That's great.

He's my favourite as well, ever since I discovered (strangely frightening) Dr. Who  episodes being  broadcast in the late 70s on Canadian public television.

[JulianPerez]

Just remember: the Cybermen two-parter starts next week!

Well, they just showed "The Girl in the Fireplace" last Friday. This episode is really the one that most successfully leaves the tenth guy in my head more than any other episode, because it makes a lot about him make sense.

When this new guy showed up, my reaction is, "Hey, who is this pretty boy, anyway?" He's way, way too good looking to be Doctor Who.

But I like what they're doing with "Doctor Will Smith" because it's exploring a very interesting idea: how successful Doctor Who can be at being attractive to women, a very interesting idea that gives this new Doctor a lot of identity. Colin Baker's the "mean" Dr. Who, Pat Troughton is the "hobo" Dr. Who, John Pertwee is the "tough" Dr. Who...this guy is the "sexy" Dr. Who. It's really interesting to imagine the Doctor with women: for one thing, he's a traveller, a mystery man, very charismatic.

From what I've seen thus far of the latest season of DOCTOR WHO, mostly they've been going back to a lot of 1960s concepts. The idea of a Dalek Emperor, for instance. "The Girl in the Fireplace" was most explicitly a 1970s-inspired episode, however: it combined science fiction and history (e.g. "Pyramids of Mars"  or "Mask of Mandragora") it had really, really frightening faceless villains: haven't seen guys this spooky since Tom and Leela met the Dums, Vocs, and Super-Vocs.

[Permanus]

Incidentally, BBC 3 have just started showing a Doctor Who spinoff about Captain Jack Harkness and his lot; I haven't seen it, being televisually impaired, but you have to love the title: Torchwood.

[Great Rao]

I'd like to see a Torchwood/U.N.I.T cross-over.  I'm also curious if it was explained how Capt. Jack managed to escape from his clif-hanger fate.

[TELLE]

The Sarah K-9 stuff was a blast, and seemed to be a direct sequel to the unaired Sarah/K-9 pilot episode from the 1980s. 

Just saw the Sarah Jane/School Reunion ep the other day on CBC and found it quite affecting.  Bit of a crappy plot otherwise but it was the character side that took the fore (although I like the doc running into these races he already knows that also have the same advantage he does --they change their appearance periodically).

I'm going to have to see if I can't catch this on one of the PBS stations as well --about time to get into Dr Who again.  I've only been watching this new series sporadically since last year.