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Eddie Izzard As ... Doctor Who?
cmdr_forge writes "The BBC is reporting that Former Doctor Who Tom Baker says that Eddie Izzard is to be the next doctor for the TV show that starts 2005. How awesome is that!"
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They have just started playing the original Dr Who in Australia again and I am getting a massive kick out of watching my son react the exact same way I did 25 years ago.
If you have never watched Dr Who from behind your dad's back (cowering in fear everytime the cellophane alien or plastic dinosaur lurches into view) the you just haven't watched it right. :)
Q.
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Yes, Tom Baker is great but he is as mad as a crate full of squirrels. Ananova reports that he reckons Melinda Messenger would make a good assisstant because:
'Melinda would be good as she can scream and has bosoms. It doesn't really matter if she can act.'
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Reverse outsourcing: it's the future
Tom's been on a bit of a media blitz recently. Note that Tom, back when he was the incumbent, suggested that the Doctor should have a talking cabbage as a companion.
:-)
At this ridiculously early stage in proceedings, I'm rather in favour of Bill Nighy for the part, and there seem to have been a few leaks suggesting this is Russell Davies' feeling too. He seems t ohave let it slip in conversation with Doctor Who Magazine editor Clayton Hickman, and has mentined it elsewhere as well.
But let it not be forgotten that Eddie Izzard has been branching out into very serious drama recently and has turned out to be a very capable and powerful actor, so if he gets the part, no worries.
But seriously, Tom's not into facts, Tom's into stimulating interesting conversation. and here we are, interested, and conversing
tV
Yes, Tom Baker is great but he is as mad as a crate full of squirrels. Ananova reports that he reckons Melinda Messenger would make a good assisstant because:
;-)
'Melinda would be good as she can scream and has bosoms. It doesn't really matter if she can act.'
I think his assessment is not too far off the mark. Very few of the past assistants could act, and Melinda does have bosoms - quite nice ones in fact!
??? Baby Boomers? What about GenXers? I'm a little too young to be Generation X, but I know a few who are just as into Dr. Who as I am (born circa 1970).
Un-news
...you arn't entitled to an opinion.
Cross-dressing and "homosexual agenda"? Be serious. There is no deterministic relationship between the two outside bad steriotypes.
Izzard is straight and tranvestite. I'm homosexual, dislike "drag shows" and pusshy-queen walking steriotypes, and would go naked before putting on a dress. Getting transvesties onto TV is about as far from my agenda as you can get. I don't want them not-there, but seeing a man in drag is like watching straight people kiss; it does nothing for me at all and generally looks a little creepy. 8-)
Lumping people into broad categories just because you haven't bothered to do any fact-finding, and then claiming they lumped themselves and are now subscribed to a particular "agenda", is tiresome and childish.
On a less-side note, I dislike anybody sexualizing characters that don't need it. It makes for bad literary construction as no mater how you slant sexuality you, by definition, slant it into a niche. Izzard could be a hoot as the doctor if he is capible of playing the character. I've seen him in suit and tie so I think he could pull off a nice excentric personality without injecting sex where it doesn't need to go.
[FURTHER ASIDE]
I once had an over-straight homophobe ask: "What do you mean 'phobia'? Why would I be afraid of some faggot?"
My response: Clearly you are affraid that there are men out in the world who might think about you, and treat you, as badly as you think about and treat women.
I have never met a homophobe, or indeed any man who used the phrase "homosexual agenda" (etc), that didn't also misstreat, marginalize, or rampently objectify every woman foolish enough to approach him.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
News for Nerds, News from Last Week.
Ah, strictly, the news from last week was 'Doctor Who coming back to Saturday nights'. The Eddie Izzard rumour's a smidge more recent (middle of last week rather than 2 fridays back.
About bloody time BBC ! What took you so long to listen to the loyal fanbase?
As part of the loyal fanbase for the last thirty years, I'd say what took so long was for us, the loyal fanbase, to stop pestering them, harassing them, sending hatemail, insulting their intelligence, claiming that we knew better than them what makes good TV, flooding their switchboards with flame-calls every time they mentioned the show... Eventually we calmed down and started acting more like mature adults. These new stories, I sincerely hope, will NOT be for the likes of me. When I was a happy little 8 year of viewer/fan, Doctor Who wasn't made for people in their thirties with an unhealthy interest in vintage TV shows, and I am absolutely confident that Russell Davies won't be making a show for me (and himself for that matter).
Also my personal view on 'what turned it' - the original viewers (not fans, viewers) grew up and created a new generation of potential child viewers. There needed to be a critical mass of 8-14 year olds who'd never seen the show, but with parents who remembered it, and that was always going to take a while. Remember that the key requirement here is for 'family viewing' - they were waiting for those families to be ready. No 8-year-olds? It's not Doctor Who then.
I'm a bit worried BBC Wales is looking after the project tho.
No worries there. The BBC's much more decentralised now than it was when Doctor Who was last made, and a lot of productions are sponsored from one of the regions. The particular production department involved usually doesn't imply location, setting, casting or any of that. BBC Wales films stuff in England, Scotland, Wales, wherever. As does BBC Sctoland, and so on.
tV
Ah, well, us folks in the UK actually know what Izzard has done in the acting department; he was fantastic in 40 and his Imdb entry seems to miss the play screened on BBC4 with Eddie as the father of a special needs child which was just heart breaking.
And the transvestite stuff? Well, Eddie Izzard dropped that from the act years ago. And anyone who can do five minutes on jam and make it hilarious is fine by me. Oh yes, and if you've ever seen him go bilingual in a set, well, then you're lucky to have seen a master of international comedy (who takes the international bit seriously).
If all you can see is a frock on stage, that says more about you than it does of Eddie Izzard.
And, for the record, I think he'll be a superb Doctor.
"You know you want me baby!" - Crow T Robot
the Dr. Who loving baby boomers are toooooo old to be interested.
:-)
Alternatively, the Dr. Who loving baby boomers are now old enough to have kids to watch with,and t oappreciate that the show is primarily for their kids, and only secondarily for them too
Remember that 'family viewing' is the BBC's Holy Grail here. It's not us thirty-year-olds who were viewers first time round the BBC is interested in, it's not 18-25 genre-fans, the idea seems to be to get back to the 1970's when over half the British viewing public used to sit down as a family after the football results and before the big gameshow to watch Doctor Who together, as a family.
Carlin is very inciteful, Izzard is surreal. How people try and mix the two is beyond me.
Going even farther off topic, I'd just like to make a comment on your last paragraph. When men are around other men, they play down their attachments and feelings for women. This is psychological fact. Actual poor treatment of women is absolutely wrong, but when women aren't present, men will often talk about them in a more callous manner. I played rugby for a year in college, and some of these guys would say the most sexist, derogatory stuff. Some of them actually were assholes, who ought not to be allowed within 100 feet of another human being. But there were also a good number who weren't that way. Some of them were just acting out a role, in the same way that guys who talk trash (during sports or videogames or whatever) may actually respect or even like their opponents.
I bring this up because I often notice the same phenomena with respect to gay bashing. Yeah, "gay" or "faggot" are often used as insults, but in many cases it has no meaning. Just as calling someone a "bitch" is rarely meant to imply that the person in some way resembles a female dog, gay related insults are often much the same way. I recall reading an article in my freshman year about a gay guy on the soccer (I think it was soccer) team. The article talked about how there was a lot of worry that it would be a bad situation, because the guys on the team tended to use terms for homosexuals as insults. The players were frankly surprised it was even an issue. Basically what they said was "yeah, sure guys would say those things, but no one actually MEANT it." The gay teammember said basically "I do get treated a little differently, but not in a bad way. Most of these guys have never met anyone who was openly gay, so they're a little worried about saying something that will offend me. For the most part though, they're a great group of guys."
Now, I went to a relatively enlightened school and I'm not trying to say that there is no such thing as sexism or homophobia. That is clearly untrue. Indeed, even saying derogatory things about groups of people does reveal prejudices. However, I'm also suggesting that perhaps people aren't always as bad as they seem. Sometimes, the way people act in one context is not a good indicator of their personal morals or deeply held beliefs.
Surely this should be modded 'inciteful'?
Just proves that you're only ever going to LOOK at women's breasts...
Beggars aren't usually good choosers.
That was classic intercourse!
But then Peri, the fifth doctor's final assistant and the sixth doctor's first, had big bosoms as well.
But IMHO she had this awfully whiny voice, and was a pain in the neck. I though of her has having "two qualifications for the job."