Sunday, January 3, 2010

"There is no indignity in being afraid to die, but there is a terrible shame in being afraid to live." Alydon, in "The Daleks"; Doctor Who series

For as long as I’ve known, I’ve never really liked British TV Programming. I’ve seen a little hear, a little there, but I never really grew fond of it. I can’t pin it on a specific thing really, like the humor, or the production, but I never really got it. For awhile, I liked being the only Anglophobic out of my social group just too see my friends’ gawf at my antianglo tendencies. But recently (probably within the last year), my attitude has started to change a little. Through discussions of popular British shows and friends sending me clips of funny scenes, I’ve started to warm up a little too actually thinking about watching something from across the pond.
My first real experience was viewing one of the seasons of Top Gear, a show dedicated to cars. Needless to say, it was quite interesting. I like cars, but I’ve never really been into them so much to the point where I could tell the specific horsepower of a specific model gets or how many seconds it can go from 0 to 60 in. Top Gear will definitely appeal to those types of people. But that’s only half the show. The other half seems to be the Cast trying to implement “I’ve got a crazy idea; now let’s see if we can get a car to do it!” From racing different types of British buses, making a car able to float across the English Channel, to can they make an old p.o.s. car make it across an African desert. It usually turns into quite an ordeal, and then hilarious ensues. I’ve liked it enough that I need to track down more seasons of it.
Until I do, I’m watching the new incarnation of Doctor Who. I’m currently about half way through the second season, and I rather do like it. They have rather clever plot device where if the current actor playing the Doctor is no longer with the show, they can bring a new actor on board without a glitch of any sort. I’m currently on my second Doctor, played by David Tennant. As of the moment, I like the Christopher Eccleston (the first) version of the Doctor a little bit more at the moment. Don’t get me wrong, I like the job Tennant is doing. I don’t know if I just got use Eccleston as being the Doctor since he was the one they started with in the new series (I’m a big fan of continuity) or what. They both portray the genius and slight insanity of the Doctor rather well, but to me Eccleston has more of a solid presence on screen. The best way I can describe the difference is Eccleston is more akin to a rabid wolf and Tennant is like a cornered badger; both things you wouldn’t want to deal with.
I may yet grow to like David Tennant more as the Doctor (he’s in it for a couple more seasons) because he does do a rather fine job. Time will only tell. As long as I don’t overdo it, I think I may yet come to love British television as much as the rest of them. Just as long as it doesn’t involve me having to watch Red Dwarf.

1 comments:

bluefish said...

Tennant actually just finished up his tenure as the Doctor. I think he did a good job, but it got a bit too melodramatic for my taste. I blame the writers for making things a bit too epic. But then again, since it's Doctor Who, I suppose they can always use a little more epic.

Post a Comment