I appreciate the fact that Russell T. Davies managed to resurrect one of my favorite television shows of all time, and did this on such a grand scale that Doctor Who is perhaps more popular now than any other time in its four decade history.
But please, Russell. Enough is enough. Show running might be your calling in life, but script-writing is not. Case in point …
Executive Producer and Head Writer Russell T. Davies reveals that the forthcoming Doctor Who special Planet Of The Dead will serve as an “antidote” to recent adventures.
The departing showrunner told Doctor Who Magazine: “After the events of Journey’s End and The Next Doctor I think it’s time to get away from the past and have an adventure with lots of new elements. And lots of fun too!
“The next Special should be a nice antidote to Christmas, with a bit of sunshine if we’re lucky. And with not one but two alien races that you’ve never seen before.”
Oh. Great. A wee bit o’ sunshine. Maybe one of the alien races will look like leprechauns. Or, as Alyssa suggested, they’ll look like kittens with unicorn horns.
Update: Behold, the next great Doctor Who alien threat … (more…)
So I was having a perfectly normal and casual chat-thing with the Youth Librarian, when out of nowhere I get an email announcing auditions for an upcoming production of something called Mulan, Jr. Now, I’ve heard of other productions that have been made kid-friendly and given a “Jr.” title like Les Miserables, Jr. or Rent, Jr. and so on. But it blew my mind that the musical adaptation of a cartoon created for children would ever even need to be made especially kid-friendly.
I mentioned this to Youth Librarian. After sharing my confusion over the junior-ization, this is what she said.
Youth Librarian: I mean, I will say, the little girl (who is now 15) that I used to nanny for was terrified of Mulan … the bad guy in it. Like she used to have nightmares of him coming out of the bathroom faucet and demanding she make him a sandwich. Which is awesome.
me: I never saw Mulan. Never has had any appeal to me.
Youth Librarian: It kind of sucks. Not gonna lie.
me: Yeah. Makes me wonder what marketing genius said “This is the next best cartoon in the Disney legacy.” Now, all the other Princesses have to be nice to Mulan, though they have little to talk about.
And from there, through off-hand chats that got more and more bizarre, we proceeded to write what might be the most awesome Disney cross-over movie that Quentin Tarentino will never ever film. (more…)
People have asked for my opinion on the new Doctor (#11), the replacement planned for Series 6 which debuts in 2010. (Sadly, the BBC did not take my earlier suggestion.)
The actor in question is a guy named Matt Smith. Now, I’ve not seen a single film or television episode in his repetoire. I’ve read that he’s acted alongside Billie Piper (who played Who companion, Rose Tyler) in two instances, but so have a lot of other people. He’s younger than any other actor to take the role, and though it might appear that this is simply following a trend — Tennant (#10) is younger than Eccleston (#9), Eccleston was younger than McGann (#8), McGann was younger than McCoy (#7) — the age of the actor chosen for the role has risen and fallen often over the show’s 40 year history.
And while it is somewhat interesting that this fellow shares a surname with one of The Doctor’s Earth-bound aliases, I’d hope that it would take more than just being a “Smith” to catch such a plum role.
And already, the rumors are flying about his possible companion. Pop star Lily Allen is in that mix, but that can’t be serious, can it? A possibility from the betting pools (at 14/1) is an actress named Kimberly Nixon, who is right about the same age as Smith.
So why pick Matt Smith? Well, he’s a bit on the emo side. He’s trendilly thin and he’s got this messed-up, bed-head of lanky hair. And check out the pale skin, the lantern jaw, the deep-set eyes … you know, he looks almost …
Oh. Oh, no.
I think I see what happened here.
(Fast-forward to next year.)
