The Mind Wobbles

So many things to absorb, think about, deal with and put up with - it simply makes the mind wobble...

Saturday, November 5, 2011

I've Gone to the Darkside



Yes...it's true, while I wasn't Blogging I became a (GASP!) Doctor Who geek! I KNOW!

OK, well technically I became a Torchwood geek, to be specific a Torchwood: Miracle Day geekm which in turn led me to Doctor Who.

What can I say? It was a perfect storm of geekarification - a bunch of Second Life (about which I may or may not some day Blog) friends were really into Doctor Who, and were forever rambling on about something called a TARDIS, and Daleks, and arguing about who the best Doctor was. Then the Starz cable network aired "Torchwood: Miracle Day" which is the first "Americanish" Torchwood but the fourth in the series - the first three shown on BBC. Torchwood (TW), in turn is a spin-off of Doctor Who.

Still with me?

OK, so I started watching TW Miracle Day, starring John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harkness - a character that originated on Doctor Who - and I was hooked! So then I went to Netflix looking for Doctor Who, and after much back and forth was ill-advised, albeit with good intentions, to watch the four episodes called The Ark in Space - from the 1975 season and featuring the Fourth Doctor.

OH.MY.GOD. It was awful. Seriously awful. I mean OK, it's science fiction and it was 1975, but the original Star Trek aired in the mid 60s and their effects were infinitely better. Now stop and think about how cheesy the effects on the original "Star Trek" were. Right?! And these were so much WORSE!

I was flummoxed. How was it possible that something so awful begat something so awesome? Well it turns out that the episodes I saw were from the "old" Doctor Who series which aired between 1963 and 1989 in the UK on BBC and in the US on PBS and later BBC America. Then in 2005 the series was relaunched and is the one that is running now. Torchwood spun off from the "new" Doctor Who series.

Soooo, when the Starz series ended, I went back and, again via streaming Netflix, watched the five-episode third season of TW - Torchwood: Children of Earth - which was
absolutely fantastic! And then watched TW seasons one and two which I really enjoyed.

That brings us to last monthish, when I started watching the 2005 season featuring the ninth Doctor played by the dashing, snarky, quirky Christopher Eccleston. I'm about half way through that season. Hopefully by the time the next season starts I'll have caught up and be able to watch it real time.

Wow. This has been rambling. If you're still reading...sorry! It's difficult to explain Doctor Who in a succinct coherent fashion. Just watch if you're curious. But don't watch the ones prior to 2005 - I will not vouch for those! You can get all the info you need from the Wikipedia links I gave you.

Or ask around - you'd be surprised at who might turn out to be a Doctor fan.

In the meantime, if you need me I might be whisking about in the TARDIS...


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2 Comments:

Blogger pearl said...

'ello Sweetie!

Tru Whovian here. Even bought hubby the first (as in VERY first) season...talk about cheezy effects and stilted ACTing (Jon Lovitz voice). But love love love it all. Each new Doctor brings his own charm.

Latest favorite line: Biting is a lot like kissing, with a winner. (sounds like something Raj would say)

10:10 PM  
Blogger pearl said...

Exact quote: Biting's excellent! It's like kissing. Only there's a winner.

BTW -- it's pearl. for some reason blogger is ignoring my blogsistance. Not unlike the public at large. Answers the question: if you have a blog and no one reads it, does it exist? In my case, apparently, no.

10:12 PM  

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