Posts Tagged ‘Television’
How to Enrage The Internet Pt.1
How to enrage the Internet Pt.1: Re-design a Dalek
This Dalek appears with its ‘election special’ counterparts in this week’s edition of the Radio Times. There has been no official confirmation that this new ’2010 Dalek’ is the genuine article but already the Internet is hailing this new design as the worst thing to happen in the world, ever! We’ll just have to wait until the broadcast of this week’s episode, Victory of The Daleks, to find out if the world does actually come to an end or not.
Unlike the rest of the Internet, I quite like the new-look Dalek.
Bow Ties Are Cool
I thought that I would wait for the second episode of the new series of Doctor Who to air before I passed any judgment. The first episode of a new series Doctor Who always focuses on introducing the new characters rather than entertaining the viewer with a good story; it isn’t until the second episode of the series that the we get the exposition out of the way and learn how event through the series may unfold.
I needn’t have waited. The series opener was fantastic!
In this fifth (or thirty-first to be precise) series Matt Smith is the eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan is the companion, the TARDIS has been redecorated, the theme tune has been updated and the show has a new head writer/producer in the form of Steven Moffat. That’s all you need to know, that and the fact that it is bloody brilliant!
Matt Smith’s doctor looks too young for the role, looks too weird, acts and dresses as an old physics teacher (one that can run and jump around), pulls silly faces, is clumsy, doesn’t like apples and is possibly channelling Patrick Troughton. Everything that the Doctor (who is an alien after all) should be.
Karen Gillan’s companion, Amy Pond, is Scottish, a kiss-o-gram, sassy, sexy and possibly as mad as a sackful of snakes – everything a Doctor’s companion should be.
The TARDIS has regenerated into a time-spanning amalgamation of useful junk and bric-brac, like a high-tech antique shop powered by a nuclear reactor with see-through floors. Everything a… you get it by now.
So everything has changed. Or has it? It’s still modern Who yet somehow more like a fairytale, possibly due to the bright colours of the show’s appearance on BBC HD. In recent interviews head writer Steven Moffat admits that Doctor Who IS made for children and is nothing but a fairytale. He adds that although a fairytale sounds weak and insipid, fairytales are actually scary, dark and terrifying, and everybody loves those. As someone who grew-up watching Tom Baker’s Doctor I can agree with this, but I’ll admit that in my young childish mind I was more scared of Baker’s face looming out of the time vortex in the title sequence than I was of the Daleks!
Speaking of title sequences, I seem to be the only person on the Internet who likes the new version of the theme music.
Doctor Who is back, and better than ever!
I Like This
The new series of Doctor Who starts this weekend on BBC1. I think there may be some sort of religious festival taking place too.
Syntax Era
Well, this has certainly set my geek-radar off the scale! It appears that the BBC is set to broadcast a new comedy celebrating the classic years of British computing in the 1980s.
“Syntax Era (working title) provides an affectionately comic account of the 1980s race for home computer supremacy,” reads the BBC’s release.
“The drama documents the lengthy rivalry between maverick visionary Sir Clive Sinclair (Alexander Armstrong) and his former colleague Chris Curry (Martin Freeman) as they go head to head to achieve domination of the growing home computer market.”
“Those of us that lived through the eighties will remember the sense of excitement when gadgets and technology started to appear in our homes,” says Controller of BBC Four, Richard Klein.
“But not many of us will know the fascinating stories behind their arrival. Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman are excellent choices to portray Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry at a time when battling to have the UK’s most loved home computer was their number one priority.”
Syntax Era (I really hope they keep this title) will be broadcast later this year on BBC4.
What’s this?
We’ll find out next week…