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I remember that Doctor Who used to be on Canadian TV when I was little. It scared me. I'm not five years old any more, and in large part because of the enthusiasm of Andrew Rilstone, I was intrigued enough to download the first episode of the new series.
And all the other ones, immediately afterwards.
The set-up is simple: there's an alien guy (though one who looks exactly like a human; saves on the special effects) with a time-traveling police box (bigger on the inside than on the outside). He picks up a random girl from 2005, and they have adventures in distant places in the time-space continuum.
All of this is tremendously fun--it's got a spirit of fascination with everything that's in the world. Not merely in an escapist sense; the Doctor's attitude suggests that everything in the world is new and interesting, whether it's the year 2000 or the year 200,000. Life-threatening danger is especially exciting. It's really rare to find so much honest cheer and goodwill in a TV show, especially when it's science fiction. But there's more depth under that, too. It would be a good superficial adventure show if it never questioned this attitude; but it DOES acknowledge that you have to be pretty callous in some respects to see the worst things the world has to offer along with the best, and keep grinning, and it does acknowledge that such an attitude doesn't handle the worst stuff in the world very well.
The second thing I love about it is that it values platonic friendship in a way I've almost never seen on TV before. I was a major Mulder/Scully shipper back in the day; and the fanfiction community has a tendency to map romance onto every possible kind of relationship, especially when it comes to slash. Rivalry? Repressed love. Enmity? Repressed love. Platonic friendship? Love. I think in some respects it's a great thing that writers can turn the text on its head like this, but sometimes it's important to just let characters be friends. Because you can love someone, and have affection and loyalty, even if you don't have the slightest interest in sleeping together.
There is not an ounce of unresolved sexual tension between the Doctor and Rose, the random earth girl. I wouldn't be surprised if there's fanfiction where they're involved, because fanfiction never surprises me any more, but (I believe) it just isn't there. And it's refreshing to see a relationship that's so believably close without the slightest hint of sex.
Plus, there's the British accents.
It's worth watching, and it had better come out on DVD before long. I'm just disappointed that we've got only six episodes left (for a total of 13) before the current Doctor leaves the show, because he's charismatic and kind of cute.
And all the other ones, immediately afterwards.
The set-up is simple: there's an alien guy (though one who looks exactly like a human; saves on the special effects) with a time-traveling police box (bigger on the inside than on the outside). He picks up a random girl from 2005, and they have adventures in distant places in the time-space continuum.
All of this is tremendously fun--it's got a spirit of fascination with everything that's in the world. Not merely in an escapist sense; the Doctor's attitude suggests that everything in the world is new and interesting, whether it's the year 2000 or the year 200,000. Life-threatening danger is especially exciting. It's really rare to find so much honest cheer and goodwill in a TV show, especially when it's science fiction. But there's more depth under that, too. It would be a good superficial adventure show if it never questioned this attitude; but it DOES acknowledge that you have to be pretty callous in some respects to see the worst things the world has to offer along with the best, and keep grinning, and it does acknowledge that such an attitude doesn't handle the worst stuff in the world very well.
The second thing I love about it is that it values platonic friendship in a way I've almost never seen on TV before. I was a major Mulder/Scully shipper back in the day; and the fanfiction community has a tendency to map romance onto every possible kind of relationship, especially when it comes to slash. Rivalry? Repressed love. Enmity? Repressed love. Platonic friendship? Love. I think in some respects it's a great thing that writers can turn the text on its head like this, but sometimes it's important to just let characters be friends. Because you can love someone, and have affection and loyalty, even if you don't have the slightest interest in sleeping together.
There is not an ounce of unresolved sexual tension between the Doctor and Rose, the random earth girl. I wouldn't be surprised if there's fanfiction where they're involved, because fanfiction never surprises me any more, but (I believe) it just isn't there. And it's refreshing to see a relationship that's so believably close without the slightest hint of sex.
Plus, there's the British accents.
It's worth watching, and it had better come out on DVD before long. I'm just disappointed that we've got only six episodes left (for a total of 13) before the current Doctor leaves the show, because he's charismatic and kind of cute.