New Who

During my travels, I've had some opportunity to watch some of the "new" series of Dr Who. When I say "new", I mean what the BBC has revived over the last three years. Up until now, I had dared not go near Dr Who after the psychological damage incurred from the wretched American tele-movie blessed by the BBC which revealed gems such as the Doctor being half human etc etc. [How can it possibly be considered canon?!]

The good news is, the newly revived Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) is excellent. While there are some things that break the mold of previous Doctors, overall the writing is good, the characters are likable, and the production values are high. The romance factors and the humour seem to have much more emphasis in this incarnation which seems like a modern quirk, but overall it is a very entertaining and fast moving show.

The first three episodes of the first series are self-contained one hour episodes, and I figured this was a format change as well (i.e. none of the famous cliffhangers) but there are multi-part stories as well. Unfortunately, the people producing (and broadcasting) seem rather clueless, as when you see a potential cliffhanger, in the very next segment ("Next Week...") you see the Doctor jumping up and down happily, clearly out of harms way.

I do have to make an exception for "Dalek". Loved the concept, but hated the writing. It's not the "internet" references, which are laughable (or maybe even make you want to cry) -- it's the whole "absorbing" thing which seemed just a silly plot device. Then again, in a show which routinely features the sonic screwdriver, maybe I should just get over it :) "Father's Day" seemed to leave a whole bunch of strings holding the universe together not just undone but totally frayed, but I don't want to get too bitchy.

I look forward to getting caught up to the current episodes...