Jacey Bedford's Journal

It's a win!

OK, I admit to being a fan of new Doctor Who (having watched Old Who since the beginning, though I'd drifted away in the dreadful Colin Baker years). I loved Chris Eccleston's interpretation of the tough-but-fragile, war-damaged Doctor. You just knew there was a lot going on under the surface and the wild swings from brooding to brittle-brightness were crazily addictive.

It took me a while to warm to David Tennant. I wasn't too keen on the 'Christmas Invasion' and the pyjama clad swordfight until the 'no second chances' moment, but it only took me three or four episodes to be convinced that here was a Doctor who was probably a bit mad, but was also filled with both passion and compassion fuelled with just a touch of desperation to hold the edges of his frayed life together.

But Matt Smith? Just not loving him so far. Oh, it's still a great programme with many reasons to continue watching, but now a bit flattened by having a Doctor who - frankly - seems to be trying too hard to be quirky, though without substance. I don't see that 'old soul' in him that both Eccleston and Tennant had in spades. He also seems to be without a funny bone in his body. He tries for goofy and fails. Both Eccleston and Tennant delivered the comedy moments with unconscious ease as well as excelling at the drama and emotional content. is it because Smith is too young? I don't know. I thought his odd face might offset that, but I'm not sure it has.

It's not the writing. Steven Moffatt wrote some of my favourite episodes for both Eccleston and Tennant (Empty Child/Doctor Dances; Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead; Blink etc.) It's not the assistant/s. Amy Pond and Rory are fine. I look forward to more of their character development and applaud Moffat's decision to include Rory to make sure that the Doctor and Amy weren't set up for another Rose/Doctor (or even Martha/Doctor) relationship. (I loved the Rose/Doctor thing, but you just can't repeat something like that - at least not too soon.)

No, I'm afraid I just haven't warmed to Matt Smith yet. Can we have a twelfth doctor soon please?

I'm still a Doctor Who fan, but a slightly disappointed one. I really wanted Steven Moffatt to deliver on his promise of a great new Doctor.

And while I'm on with the grumbling... the new version of the theme tune is not a patch on the last one.

It says here http://syndicated.livejournal.com/og_news/887258.html that Russel T Davies and Julie Gardner are developing a US version of Torchwood for Fox and that John Barrowman is likely to reprise his role as Captain Jack. Any excuse for more Captain Jack is great news. Great news! However... it's being developed for FOX.

Come on guys, you know what Fox did to Firefly. They foxed it completely.

I just looked in Radio Times and spotted the return of Merlin to Saturday night TV schedules. (BBC). The jury's still out on this, but it's marginally better than Robin the Hoodie though probably not quite as good as Primeval. None of them, of course, are a patch on Doctor Who or Torchwood, however. Of course, SF telly has been so grim over the summer that even the return of Merlin is quite a bright spot.

I just bought The Dresden Files on DVD to try it - though I haven't watched yet, so I'll let you know. I tried Moonlight, but I thought it a poor version of Angel. (Vamp detective.) Even Sophia Miles (so good in Girl in the Fireplace - Doctor Who Season 3) couldn't really save it. 

I never saw the last couple of seasons (9 and 10) of Stargate SG 1 so I bought the sets when they came on cheap offer because I like Claudia Black and Ben Browder (Farscape). They did add a bit of life to an old and well-tried concept and were certainly worth watching, though call me cynical, but the casting office seems to have drawn in all the regulars from a host of SF series with Lexia Doig from Andromeda and (name forgotten) the Doctor from Voyager. I may have missed a fair amount of seasons 7 and 8, but it was easy enough to pick up the threads again. I probably need to get Continuum to finish off my Stargate watching. Not sure I can ever afford Stargate Atlantis as I've missed all of it, but I might watch out for Stargate Universe.

Looking forward to Lost. I won't get to see Season Five until the DVD set arrives.

So the digibox (TV freeview box) that we've had for a few years has been a bit sticky for months - especially when newly switched on - acting completely arthritic until it had warmed up. Finally last week it stopped working altogether - telling us there was no signal (possible, but unlikely since non didgi TV was fine). Anyhow the Doctor Who documentary on BBC3 prompted me to do something sensible. I went out an bought another - just £25 from the local electronics shop in Penistone. It was the only one they had,. so no choice. I was surprised, however, on taking it out of the box, to fied thatr it had a 'factory reconditioned' sticker on it. Nothing was said at the time of purchase and the box looked brand spanking new. Anyhow - it works, so no complaints... but I was a bit miffed about the not-toldness.

The big advantage is that we've now taken the second DVD player and the old video out of line, so we no longer need a scart switch box and a long list of accompanying instructions for hapless visitors. And miles of 'spaghetti' wiring has been neatened.

And the Doctor Who documentary? Nothing new except a few interviews and lots of rehashing of old clips, but nice to see in this year of Doctor Who famine.

Went all the way to Birmingham yesterday to see John Barrowman in pantomime (Robin Hood). I'm a sucker for a good panto anyway and this was truly, gloriously silly. Barrowman is such a ham, he's perfect. (And the rest of the cast were also excellent.) Plenty if innuendo, lots of good singing, some very decent dancing and a bit of ice skating, too.

The whole thing was so good humoured; I haven't laughed so much in a long time. Well worth travelling from Huddersfield to Birmingam in cold January.

Americans, it has nothing to do with mime artists. If you don't grok pantomime look here.

Matt Smith.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/

My first reaction is that he's way too young. (Age 26) I hope I'm wrong.

I have had friends over from Canada who've never seen Doctor Who before, so we're watching New Who from the beginning again. Whoo-hoo. The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is just as good eleventh time round... (lost track of how many times I've watched it with other people). We're into the second season now. 'School Reunion'  was great fun.

Been doing some more family history and I've broken the 1600s barrier for the first time on one of Best Beloved's family lines, but one of mine (George Crow/Crowe and Eliza Lindley) stubbornly refuses to reveral itself beyond my g-g-granparents who were born 1837 and 1840. I've sent for their marriage cert (1860) so in another few days or so I might find out what each of their fathers was called and where they lived at the time of the marriage.

For klwilliams. You said you wanted to see us play a gig, and this about as close as you can come. It's the archive film from the Artisan gig at the Kennedy Centre Millennium Stage in DC December 11th 2003. They film and archive every performance - as far as I can tell, forever. It's not fancy, just a one-camera job with no editing, so what you see is what you get. It's a full hour as it happened.

Forjulesjones and other Torchwood, Doctor Who and Captain Jack fans, this is the archived concert of John Barrowman when he played the same stage in 2002. Another full hour concert. and I think it's lovely - very unaffected. I know from the way they work, this is also unedited footage, so also very real.