Doctor...Who?

(10.03.06) Last time I got on my soapbox in Sharpy's corner, I prattled on about my adoration of America's pastime. No, not morbid obesity (that's more America's passion than a pastime), but the grand old game of baseball. (Ed. note : It's been a while since that article was posted on this, the most non-prolific example of a blog that this site has. Stanley Kubrick pumped out films with greater frequency during his career than this.) Baseball seems worthy of mention again right now as the playoffs are about to begin, easily the most exciting time of the overly long baseball season.

But an even more thrilling television event is on the horizon, that being the Canadian debut of the second series of the new Doctor Who on CBC. For those who don't know, hockey is a distant third on my list of passions in life (my number one passion now is obvious; she knows who she is). Doctor Who has always been near or at the top of that list.

A brief history, while trying my best not to sound like a full on nerd : Doctor Who is a science fiction show that was shown on the British Broadcasting Corporation originally from 1963 until 1989. It featured a mysterious guy known only as the Doctor who travelled around through space and time in a 1950's police telephone box, solving crimes in his spare time. As the years went on, it was revealed that the Doctor could change his appearance when he was mortally wounded or when he feared typecasting. As a result, several actors went on to play the role, with Tom Baker (here's a pic in his usual attire and expression) the most famous, especially on this side of the Atlantic.

For some reason, a brief sighting of an episode on PBS (in the same year that Jesse Hey was born), glorious in its witty writing, cardboard sets, and freaky music, had me hooked and I was on my way to becoming the closet Doctor Who uber-geek that speaks to you today. Unfortunately, the show was finally cancelled at about the same time that my interest in the series was most rampant. The show looked to make its long awaited return to our screens in 1996, with the help of the Fox Network in the US. A pilot movie was made, but the tradition and uniqueness of the original show was lost in a flurry of motorcycle chases, tacky romantic subplots, and Eric Roberts.

Fascinating aside! : It's interesting to note that Fox also managed to ruin another favourite obsession in 1996, as that was also the same year they debuted the Foxtrak laser puck for their hockey broadcasts. And, in keeping with the hockey theme of this website, and thus validating the presence of this article on a rec league hockey website, did you know that the same man who created Doctor Who, a Canadian named Sydney Newman, was also a producer of the very first experimental broadcast of Hockey Night In Canada in 1952? True story! When Newman died in 1999, I almost thought I owed it to him and myself to go to his funeral.

Anyway, back to Doctor Who. After the failure of the Fox movie, the fortunes of the show seemed to be firmly entrenched in the realm of side tables at Star Trek conventions and the basis of a popular song knock off of Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll, Part II". Fast forward to 2003, when, seemingly out of the blue, the BBC commissioned a new series of Doctor Who to be broadcast in its classic timeslot on Saturday night on the flagship station, BBC One. The show became a massive hit in the UK, regularly finishing in the Top 10 most watched programs each week, and raking in several prestigious awards.

Here in Canada, the show was a bit of a minor hit for the CBC. Filling a slot once occupied by the Stanley Cup Playoffs (vacated thanks to the 2004-05 NHL lockout), the show averaged about one million viewers each week opposite the bafflingly popular televised karaoke contest known as American Idol. Series Two will air Monday nights on CBC at 8:00 PM, starting on October 9.

Now, I wouldn't bestow the virtues of something, especially a television show, on this website if I didn't think that it was really, really good. It would have been tough to introduce the old series (you know, the cheap one) to people now without having to apologise for it beforehand. But this new series is fantastic. It looks and sounds terrific, it's fun and exciting, and it's made for the average viewer and does not require any knowledge of the shows' past history to enjoy it. Basically, imagine that George Lucas made new Star Wars films that were actually even better than the originals. Yeah, Doctor Who is THAT good.

And no, I don't work for the marketing department at the CBC (although I may someday, thanks to the good folks at Corus Premium Television). So do yourself a favour and check the show out - Doctor Who, Monday nights, 8:00 PM, CBC. 8:30 PM in Newfoundland.

Or tape it and watch the baseball playoffs, instead.