I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have gotten hooked on British TV over the last few years. I always loved Ab Fab and Benny Hill, but then again who in their right minds doesn’t love Benny and Eddy. It is just that the rest of the TV shows from the UK seemed so….British. I just didn’t get the point. Even Monty Python, with the exception of a few skits, always left me cold. That kind of changed for me about 3 years back when the BBC relaunched the new Doctor Who.
Doctor Who in many ways is the British cultural equivalent of Star Trek. The show has been around forever and has attracted a legion of insane fans who have grown up with these characters. One of the most interesting aspects to the Doctor Who is that the character “regenerates” every few years and can then be recast with a new actor. The tenth and current Doctor is played by David Tenant. Tenant is probably best known to Americans as Barty Crouch Jr. from the 3rd Harry Potter film. Anyway, while I love Tenant as the Doctor, my favorite will always be the ninth Doctor, Christoper Eccleston.
When compared to the other versions of the Doctor that actors had portrayed over the years, Eccleston was a different kind of hero. He seemed to be a man plagued by past. He was extremely lonely and haunted by survivor’s guilt over being the last of his kind. His portrayal of the Last Timelord seemed to be far more dependent upon his human companions than some of the other Who incarnations. The goofy way he dressing was cool in a geek chic sort of way and avoided the overtly British attire of Cricket shirts and long scarfs that I suspect alienated potential American viewers. Eccleston was the first Doctor Who that had a edge. This manic personality of his Doctor always gave the sense that underneath his cheerful exterior was an individual that you did not want to cross.
Anyway, the reason that I bring this up is because the new season of Doctor Who is getting ready to start in the UK. The Doctor Who Christmas special debuts on this coming Christmas Eve. The problem is that he special won’t air in the US until maybe a year later. Fortunately for me the torrent sites should have it almost immediately after it airs in England.
And yeah, I am a total nerd.