Doctor Who: comments on a Telegraph article about Russell T. Davies...

[fajrdrako]

Today's Telegraph has an article about Russell T. Davies, not much in it about Torchwood, but it has lots of interesting things about Doctor Who and Russell T. Davies. Commentary from me:

• Good quote: "'You've got to have corpses,' he says. 'You don't want to keep hiring them. Corpses are expensive. Especially when you hire them on the scale we do.'"
  
  
• What's a Teasmade?



• "'everyone wants to be a Dalek,' says Davies." Say what? I wouldn't want to be a Dalek! A Time Lord, a Time Agent, a Companion, sure. But not a Dalek. They aren't sexy in the least!



• A good TARDIS picture with funny lighting.



• I love the Davies philosophy: do what the other shows are not doing. He doesn't always do it - we can see all sorts of influences, like Joss Whedon's work - but he does it enough to be effective.



• Another Davies quote: "I just sort of kept my head down, immersed myself in TV and comics - Marvel comics, loved them." No wonder I love this man, and his work. We have the same tastes.



• Davies quote: "I thought drama was tragedy. It's a profound mistake to think that drama can't be fun."



• Quote by the writer of the article re Queer as Folk: "It was the Channel 4 drama Queer as Folk that first brought him to popular attention - or unpopular attention: it remains the seventh most complained about show in the history of British television. The gay drama, featuring rimming, underage sex and recreational drugs, also featured complicated, sympathetic characterisation. But it's the rimming that people remember." Sure, maybe because it was highlighted in the first few scenes of the show. I loved it. If it's the seventh most complained about show, what are the six that are more complained about?



• The fourth series of Doctor Who is in the works. Good.

Comments

[cupati.livejournal.com]

A teasmade is a cross between a kettle and an alarm clock. It wakes you up in a morning with a cup of tea. More information here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teasmade) Thanks for the linkie!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My goodness! I never heard of such a thing. What a contraption. Now I want one!

Thanks for explaining.

Proving that that the world is not only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we can suppose.

That's another good icon there.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

By the awesome duckbunny, of the even more awesome URY's awesome Technical Difficulties team [aka T, T, T & J]'s spectacular Torchwood parody Yorkwood.

Though if you liked the icon, I'm assuming you've heard some.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

[That was badly phrased: Not intended to imply duckbunny was am member of the team.]

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Haven't heard any yet, but want to.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

The last ep will be on Technical Difficulties, 10pm Monday at www.ury.york.ac.uk [hour-long show, Yorkwood will be on for about 2mins at about 10.40] - the first two are linked here (http://community.livejournal.com/torch_wood/722709.html), and Tom promises to put the rest up...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Good! Thanks for the link.

[cupati.livejournal.com]

The rest of them are up now: HERE. (http://community.livejournal.com/torch_wood/1052027.html) Though you'll probably have seen over on t_w anyway.

[raissad.livejournal.com]

The end of the article even contains some info on the animated series. Cool!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, though I despair of the animation ever being shown in Canada. I suppose you never know.

I saw pix from it on the BBC site and it looks great.

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

"'everyone wants to be a Dalek,' says Davies." Say what? I wouldn't want to be a Dalek!

I think he's referring to the cast and crew getting inside the actual Dalek casings on set. There's something about it in one of the Confidentials, the one that accompanied either Army of Ghosts or Doomsday, IIRC. Ex-TER-minate!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I remember that in the confidential, and I think I saw something about it in an article. And I've heard that kids are really into the Daleks. Myself, I'd rather be able to fondle the Doctor's coat, or slip into the TARDIS.

PS

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

LOL re. the rimming!

And yes, I'm wondering about the six "most complained about" too. Heh.

Re: PS

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Seems to me we should have more rimming in more TV shows. It's an oversight, really.

Yes, I wonder what people really do complain about. Besides that.

[katkim.livejournal.com]

If we're talking about the UK, Celebrity Big Brother 2007 hit the headlines this year as the most complained about show on TV. OFCOM received over 30,000 complaints over racist language and bullying. Before that, the most complained about show had been Jerry Springer the Opera that got around 5500 complaints. And then there's Top Gear, which most people take as tongue in cheek but has feature in the past Nazi salutes, jokes about asylum seekers and cars being driven into trees...But bearing in mind that 30,000 is only a few percent of the viewing audience, it's not a lot :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

If we're talking about the UK,

I think we are - that is, I think that's what the statistic was meant to be referring to.

Celebrity Big Brother 2007 hit the headlines this year as the most complained about show on TV. OFCOM received over 30,000 complaints over racist language and bullying.

Yes, even I heard about that. It must have been pretty bad!

Top Gear, which most people take as tongue in cheek but has feature in the past Nazi salutes, jokes about asylum seekers and cars being driven into trees..

I'm trying to think whether I've ever heard of Top Gear. I think I have, but don't know what it is. Is it a comedy?

[cupati.livejournal.com]

It's a show with three blokes going on about, and messing about in, cars. And destroying caravans. They think it's funny. More info here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_gear)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Ah. I had the notion it was a sitcom. I had no idea how long it had been on the air. Interesting!

[cupati.livejournal.com]

I preferred it when Tiff was on it. And someone, somewhere, is probably making a sitcom out of it.

[cyberducks.livejournal.com]

There was rimming shown on QAF? It must not have made much of an impression on me because I can't remember it. I am one of those eccentric people who loves the British version while loathing the American remake.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There was rimming shown on QAF?

Well, featured, "shown" would be putting it rather too strongly. Right in the beginning of the first episode; Stuart takes Nathan home, gets him naked, and says "Do you like rimming?" Nathan says "yes" obviously not even knowing what the word means but eager to try anything. Turns out he does like it, of course. Then they are interrupted when the phone rings and it's Stuart being told his son has been born. Remember it now?

am one of those eccentric people who loves the British version while loathing the American remake.

Is that eccentric? I adored the British version and watched it several times - in both French and English. Then I tried watching the American version, hated it, and didn't last more than about fifteen minutes into the first episode. (And I slept through some of those fifteen minutes.) I was watching it with maaseru, who felt the same. Later we were telling someone about how boring and awful it was and I said, "We only watched the first forty minutes before turning it off."

"We didn't last that long," said masseru. "It was only about fourteen minutes. It just felt like forty."

I'm a little fussy in my TV watching sometimes.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Being from near Pittsburgh myself, I winced at the American version of this show, which was filmed in Toronto with totally fake "Pittsburgh" in it. There is a vibrant gay community in Pittsburgh, thank you very much; it would have been better to have picked a city at random instead of having set it in this very real place ... sorry, just my disappointment speaking. If they'd actually done a solid American (Pittsburgh?) version of the show, it would've been so cool. I think I was also pretty disappointed that none of my lovely local landmarks got into it, not to mention any of my lovely local personalities -- and, hey, I have friends there who'd have sold random body parts just to be background extras! We're talking high-camp fun, here, yep.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

winced at the American version of this show, which was filmed in Toronto with totally fake "Pittsburgh" in it.

And why not actually make it Toronto - which has a great gay community? That is of course, a rhetorical question, Toronto seldom gets to play Toronto.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

And why not actually make it Toronto - which has a great gay community? That is of course, a rhetorical question, Toronto seldom gets to play Toronto.</I. That would have been the best idea yet!!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That would have been the best idea yet!!

The one idea that no one ever uses.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

Agree with you about wanting to know the other six most complained-about BBC shows. Details, we want details!

"Everyone wants to be a Dalek"??!!! Hm. Must be a British thing...? I cannot even stand the sight of them -- they seem cheesy and amateurish. Also, the voices literally cause me pain. But I'd already felt them to be cheesy and amateurish before I'd ever heard these voices; I'm not about to dismiss something on creative grounds just because my sensory perception of them is off from the norm. Uh, right, hope you know my meaning, there.

The DVDs of Battlestar Galactica season three will be out on May 8, btw.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Must be a British thing...?

Hee! That's it! A nation of would-be Daleks. All those little boys who grew up on Doctor Who are secretly planning world domination.

I like the Daleks a lot. I find them both amusing and scary, and they are the focus of three of my favourite Doctor Who episodes - "Dalek", "The Parting of the Ways", and "Doomsday". Have you seen the episode "Dalek" yet? You may not like it so much, because there is - inevitably - a Dalek featured in it. But he's an interesting Dalek. I can hardly wait to see Dalek Sec again - he's the one that transported himself away in "The Parting of the Ways".

I saw the lastest episode of Battlestar Galactica last night and loved it.

[walkingowl.livejournal.com]

No, I have not seen "Dalek" yet, but when I watch it I'll do so with an open mind... um, and probably the sound on mute and the subtitles on ;-]

You saw BG...? Ahead of me in everything, you are! Was it the heavy-on-Starbuck one I saw the previews for ten days ago? On my last day in Canada? In the snowstorm? Yeah, then. By the way, how was that drive to Toronto, that day?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

have not seen "Dalek" yet

It's rather different. But that's one of the things I love about Doctor Who - every episode has a different tone and a different style. The did something similar with Torchwood, where each episode is a different genre, but it's less successful.

Was it the heavy-on-Starbuck one I saw the previews for ten days ago?

No, that was last week. This one didn't feature Starbuck at all, though they talked about her.

how was that drive to Toronto, that day?

No problem at all. It took a little longer than it might have to get there but really, it was better driving than it often is.