Slashdot Mirror
Doctor Who Series Four Is A Go
netglen writes to mention that the fourth series of Doctor Who is a go. The BBC confirms that another season of the popular sci-fi series will be made, although the article is sketchy about the current doctor and his attachment to the next season. The third series starts at the end of this month in Britain with new companion Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman, replacing Billie Piper's Rose. "Tennant, who plays the time-travelling hero, would not talk to reporters about his role in future series. 'Do you know how many times I have been asked that question? Do you know how many times I have answered it?' said the actor. "
actually a lot of the early Doctor Who was written by some very talented people (eg Terry_Nation) who often worked to incredibly short deadlines, and had crap all in the way of money to back of the special effects they wanted in.
:). The most I got out of Phantom Menace was an urge to make JarJar real so I could kill it oh so many times.
Bizarrely that produced some wonderful SF and social commentary that is still of interest to SF buffs old and new.
I don't like to say that I disapprove of special effects, I don't, and sometimes I even like the very latest thing. Let me say right off that my primary interest in SF is on the cheaper end of the scale. I'm a H2G2/pulp SF fan, I don't much go in for the extravagant approach currently being taken in SF drama (I don't want to talk about the H2G2 film, no really, I don't..).
'Star wars that was' rocked, but the new stuff is crap I feel. Not because of the special effects, but because they weren't the kind of thing you'd stick on after a night out to watch for the n'th time and quote your way through, they had no depth, you couldn't relate to the characters. That was what Star wars was about to me, pure, unadulterated escapism, masterfully done, You wanted to *be* Han Solo or Obiwan (or Luke, if you're some kinda pooftaah
Blade Runner was full of special effects, and that is an awesome film, so it can't be that all SFX are bad.
I think the problem isn't something you can lay at the feet of Electric Light and Magic and their ilk. Nope, the problem is that Film and television SF makers seem to have forgotten that SF is as much about social commentary as it is about lasers. My problem with adaption of old Pulp SF stories to multi million doller SFX orgies is not that they've changed the story as a rule, that can't be helped. It's that they have often removed the entire point of the story and extracted just the SF bits.
And yet I like Blade runner. Why is that? Because while they almost entirely changed the story, they left the underlying point, the way in which man might treat a self aware creation that does not do as it is told, intact, and expressed it using the same general idea but with some innovative alteration to the core story.
I'm not against all new SF. I liked Stargate, and I do enjoy a bit of star trek on the side from time to time. That said, my favorite Stargate Episode is 'Window of Opportunity', not some of the later SFX crazy episodes.
I wait hopefully for a new SF film that can be truly considered a classic, and has all the very latest SFX bells and whistles. I'm sure it will happen eventually.
torchwood is awful. buffy the vampire-slayer wannabe that fails hopelessly. they have decided that the definition of a mature programme is just to add dollops of sex to the storylines.