So my British fixation has morphed into the be-all and end-all of all good geekdom. Doctor Who. Now, I have been aware of this show, it's cultural importance in both geek culture and basic Britculture since I was old enough to know that PBS was on channel 9. (For reasons still not completely clear to me even now, up and down the west coast, channel nine always seems to be the public broadcast system network. i know basically, the allocations to major networks, sort of like football numbering, go to most important stations, and that there usually are the big three, two locals and then it gets iffy, with nine always seeming to host the shows I adored: Zoom, and the Frugal Gourmet.
At any rate, as a kid in Seattle, via antennae (look it up, it should be right there next to "dial tone") we could also get canadian stations, which meant I could watch not only SCTV on weekends, but reruns of the Monkees on weeknights. I lived for that shit, and, in my twirling of the knobs also found Monty Python on PBS (pretty sure it was pledge week the first time) - and was mesmerized. So many things being made fun of, so witty, and: cardinals! They were making fun of church people! And dead parrots. Anyway. Amongst all that, I would occasionally happen upon Doctor Who episodes. I am not gonna (nor am I capable, actually) sugar-coat it: the production value stank, and in a way that wasn't easily dismissed like it was in Monty Python or even, later, the Young Ones. Nope. I'm pretty sure it was my lack of passion for Sci Fi that kept me from latching on to the shaggy haired, long scarf wearing Brit who seemed to always be trapped in a plywood garage with blinking light machines. So, for years, and years, and years, I dismissed it as the kind of canon, like Star Trek (aside from New Gen, which at least caught me for a little bit in its peacenik story telling, until it went all Borg=God=doom thingy stuff and Whoopie as a bartender in space. WTF???) just something i wasn't ever gonna get.
Until a brash former footbally player in a bowtie and a writer/producer who wrote Queer as Folk took the reins and rebooted it. And they were able to up the production value to at least make crazy sci-fi nonsense look good.
So, yeah, Matt Smith is my Doctor, and I'm fortysomething. However. He (and Mr. Merchant) have led me to watch the whole reboot from 2006, and i get it a lot more. I hesitated with Tennant, because to be honest, I wasn't sure anyone that good looking could be anything other than...well...sort of like John Barrowman. However, the tenth doctor is amazingly well written, and David Tennant is a better actor in most of the situations (save when he's rising christ-like in golden rays, then, ick) than almost all sci-fi actors I've ever watched (which, admittedly, isn't many). But Eccleston, he's frigging gold. So good at capturing the inner mayhem that if you really think about that life, the life of a timelord, what that must be like. He's cheeky, sexy without being full of himself (tenth...) and puts a spin on that blonde botox queen chav companion that is missed in the next 2 series.
Yeah, I'm not a Rose fan. In fact the whole series could do without the pining for Rose nonsense that really dampened the Martha stories. She was an amazing character, and to leave her in the dust is kind of a continuity glitch.
But whatever, apparently in sci-fi fandom, you let that shit go.
So. Anyway, I like Donna, and Micky and find Captain Jack a nice camp distraction, though can't make it through a whole episode of Torchwood because his fucking jacket is ridiculous.
It's tv. It's winter. This is what happens during the interlull. Good news: we beat Norwich, and I'm going to be back on 3 games a week until christmas, yay! less sci-fi, more footy!
Yay. Also, Brits. Enjoying learning more and more about them all the time, and not just on TV. More about that next time, if I can keep calm and carry on.