RE; NEW DR WHO TONIGHT, 9/4/04, THE UNQUIET DEAD...

[Bico]

I merely meant that it isn't reinventing the wheel as far as telly sci-fi is concerned, as the overwhelming response to it on the board is positive, but perhaps overly so.  I expected that a bunch of picky buggers like ourselves would have put the boot in on principle alone, but it's all sunshine and roses so far.  One-of-a-kind lead characters are a staple of yankee telly, and the arcing storyline trend was a big thing years ago for about the five seconds that everyone thought Babylon 5 was going to reinvent serialised science fiction.  Then they actually watched it.  As for your other point...

'I obviously haven't watched as much crap yank TV as you'

YOU HAVE *NO* IDEA!

[paulvonscott]

I dunno, if you enjoy something, you enjoy it really!  If you don't enjoy it, you then start to be more critical, usually to explain why you didn't like it, or why it wasn't satisfying.  I could be more critical, but as long as it's pushing all the right buttons, it could be written by a lump of cheese and directed by triangles for all I care.

Personally, I can't think of a time when I was so excited to be plonked in front of the telly.  Nobody is claiming it's reinventing the wheel, most people are just pleased to see an updated Doctor Who that feels contemporary, has good storylines, good actors and decent production values.  

Still not sure I really understand the gripes about story arcs and this one-of-a-kind problem, though.  You have ongoing hints and clues about why the Timelords have been destroyed (but for the doctor we assume) leading up to something much bigger later on.  Fine!  It's all very intriguing!

[Goosegash]

Er, I don't remember there ever being a trend for "last of their kind" heroes in US genre series. The only one I can think of is Kai in Lexx, but that was Canadian. What series were you thinking of?

[Bico]

Actually, it's not so much a trend as an ongoing thing nowadays in the same way that every show is an ensamble cast, rather than two or three main characters, like what they used to be like.
Every sci-fi show seems to have 'last of their kind' or 'only one of their kind' members of the cast - Star Trek being a consistent offender in all its incarnations.  I suppose it gives the writers something to write about later down the line when they run out of ideas.

[paulvonscott]

But doesn't genre fiction always deal with unique and unusual characters?  By their very nature they are more interesting than the mundane and everyday. It seems a bit of a wonky argument to me.

Certainly there has been more examples than we probably needed of the group on board a spaceship, whether that's the military model of start trek (all those star treks) or the renegade Blakes 7 model (Farscape, Andromeda).

I mean the reason you usually have an ensemble cast is to give you a lot of options for stories, and the show doesn't balance on a few key actors.  I don't see how they are evil as such.  X-Files did very well without a huge ensemble cast, having only two primary characters.

[Noisybast]

I can think of a few - Smallville is about the last Kryptonian (except the other Kryptonians that presumably pop up every so often).

Star Trek had Data (the only sentient android, apart from his long-lost brother), Odo (the only shapechanging goo-man, apart from all the ones in that big goo-lake) and probably a few others was Whoopi Goldberg's barmaid the last of her kind?.

[Buddy]

Didn't watch it.

[SamuelAWilkinson]

Yep, she was. And let's not forget Worf (the only Klingon is Starfleet, apart from the ones that hoin later on) LaForge (the only blind man who could see with a hair thing over his eyes, apart from later one when he could see with his eyes) and Wes Crusher (the only character we all wanted to die, apart from... nope. We always wanted him to die.)

[Carlsborg Expert]

Thaluin?

Thalin.

Thaelean?

Loook,at the timeI posted my guess of what it was about.

Do I get any word from anyone?
Does somebody say, "Nice one" "Good point!"

No but if acted like a ghaffle-bette or said something that didnt run according to gramma.It'd be "ooh stop talking sht."

I dont know.

[paulvonscott]

"No but if acted like a ghaffle-bette or said something that didnt run according to gramma.It'd be "ooh stop talking shit.""

Quaequam Blag!  Keep yer hat on!

"Look,at the time I posted my guess of what it was about."

Time Lord souls?  Well, they did say they were in that state as a result of the time war, but they said that to the doctor to elicit sympathy, they told Gwyneth they were angels.  So they are may well be lying ghosty gits.

"if Rose left the TARDIS and ran straight into Jack the Ripper"

I think Jack the Ripper has been done, certainbly touched upon in Talons of Wieng Chang.  And generally has been done to death (pardon the pun).

[paulvonscott]

Audience figures were up a bit on last week, I thought they might be, just because it was said there was a weather blip last saturday, and I imagine word of mouth might have convinced people to give it another go.

Anyway, even if I don't make a convincing nostradamus (no, I knew  that was gonna happen, honest like - how many of us still fancy nostradamus by the way?)... then the audience was just scraping 9million, probably make that when combined with the BBC results.  It beat the Grand National and, er, the Royal Wedding.

Of course, nobody will watch it next week, because the Doctor is the last of his kind (or is that one of a kind) or they are in some sort of protests against the license fee.

[paulvonscott]

I definately wouldn't watch Dr Who if it was 'three of a kind'.  Timelords in the shape of lenny Henry, Tracy Ullman and the other bloke would be very offputting.

[Carlsborg Expert]

:-)

[The Amstor Computer]

"the audience was just scraping 9million, probably make that when combined with the BBC results. It beat the Grand National and, er, the Royal Wedding."

...and it caned Ant & Dec for the third week in a row, IIRC :-)

I've also been told that the ITV show "Ministry of Mayhem" had a spoof of "Cassandra" from the second episode - remarkable to see something like that appearing so quickly!

It really does seem like this new series is hitting home with the mainstream audience.

[longmanshort]

Since my f*cking computer has just wiped the long post I'd written, I'll just say this.

Superb.

Scary, pacey, humorous and interesting with great SFX, brilliant performances and genuinely bringing back the days of scary Who!

Really seemed like the story that Ghost Light should have been ...