Progress in the Whoniverse Today

Now that the broadcasts of Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures have temporarily gone on vacation, but the future of all three are secure, I'm writing a series of articles about the themes that they have in common. In my reviews of the Doctor Who episodes "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End" I looked at the convergence of the three series to help defeat the Daleks. Inspired by rewatching series two's "Army of Ghosts" which introduced the Torchwood Institute, and Stephen James Walker's great book about Torchwood Series One, Inside the Hub, I wrote about what makes the show Torchwood unique.

Torchwood is a new kind of show for a mainstream audience that portrays science fiction situations in a real Earth environment. Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of Russell T. Davies' inspirations for the Doctor Who spin-off, the main characters have real-life problems even as they battle extraordinary creatures. Every episode has something different to offer. Torchwood is unconstrained by television censorship rules that might be in effect in America, allowing authentic language and fight sequences, as well as love scenes, to be portrayed.

Captain Jack Harkness is also a progressive leading role. An alien from the 51st century, he makes no distinctions of gender or race, or planetary origin, about who he finds attractive or allies himself with. This leads his team to become more free about their own relationships. This viewpoint may also influence viewers to progress in their societal expectations of others. A science fiction series should portray the diversity of humans, as well as different types of aliens. This is a standard especiallv visible in the new series of Doctor Who, as well as Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. They all portray many different aspects of contemporary human life in addition to imaginative alien environments and characters.

WALL-E Poster

WALL-E Poster, originally uploaded by monikalel42.

at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco

Disney/Pixar's WALL-E at the Vogue Theater, San Francisco

Me at WALL-E, originally uploaded by monikalel42.

I saw WALL-E at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco last week. It's a great film, with lots of action, science fiction and comedy! The robots are also fun, with personality and resourcefulness. It should get an Academy Award, even best picture as Time Magazine speculates.

Photo Galleries

I'm at Flickr posting some of my pictures about Doctor Who and travel!

"Doctor Who" in Portland and Seattle

This is a shop window of a store called Robot I saw on a trip to Portland, Oregon. They have mannequins in the window like Autons, and Daleks!

a restaurant called Rose's in Portland, this references the City of Roses and reminded me of Rose from Doctor Who

Daleks in Seattle!

The Doctor visited the Space Needle too.

I took this picture from the top of the Space Needle with a view of The Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project

The Doctor and Rose see the sights in Seattle

The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle has representations of just about every science fiction series, including props, original novels, and pictures as well as interactive videos about science fiction. There are some pictures and props from the classic series of Doctor Who, I saw a picture of the Fourth Doctor with Daleks and a weapon from "The Happiness Patrol."

The music museum has an art installation made up of guitars reaching to the ceiling.

The Space Needle with the Science Fiction Museum.

The Dalek leaves Seattle.

Doctor Who Action Figure Pictures

My favorite characters in action figure form!


Doctor Who action figures in front of the
TARDIS: Dalek, Captain Jack, Martha, K9,
the Tenth Doctor, Rose, an Ood, Dalek



Martha Jones, the Doctor, Captain Jack

The Doctor and Rose meet an Ood!



The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS



The Doctor, Rose and K9

I took these pictures in my garden and back yard.


Also posted today: review of "Fear Her" on my website, added to other episode reviews from series two as well as series four.

Welcome to Torchwood

I also went back and rewatched the first episode of Torchwood, "Everything Changes," after viewing the first two series of the television show. The series spins off from Doctor Who with the Doctor's companion Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) taking the lead role as the director of the Torchwood secret organization branch in Cardiff, Wales. Doctor Who established that a rift in time and space over the Welsh city, which also serves as the base for the filming of the television series, causes aliens to come through to Earth. Torchwood is made as a program for older viewers, with more explicit language and violence, as well as realistic depictions of adult relationships. While Doctor Who is designed for a family audience, Torchwood may not be suitable for younger viewers. Both Doctor Who and Torchwood have a lot of humor and has fun with science fiction conventions as well as aspects of everyday life.

The first episode introduces viewers to Police Constable Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles), who like Rose Tyler in the first episode of the 2005 Doctor Who revival is just discovering the existence of aliens in her world. Russell T. Davies' script, like Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer which was one of the series' inspirations, has lots of unexpected moments and humor as well as shocking revelations. Gwen, like Buffy, meets an enigmatic man (Jack in Torchwood, Angel in Buffy) who she gradually finds out more about. Though Torchwood began in 2006, I first saw "Everything Changes" after viewing Doctor Who series three (2007), so I already knew some more about Jack's story than Gwen did in the episode. I saw the show more from Jack's point of view than Gwen's, since I had seen Doctor Who and knew its backstory. However, someone who was less familiar with the show's history or science fiction might identify more with Gwen who doesn't know what is going on until Jack explains the situation to her. Torchwood can be enjoyed on multiple levels and has lots of fun moments for Doctor Who fans as well as providing a great action adventure and mystery for people new to the series or genre.

My Doctor Who Viewing History

While rewatching the Doctor Who episode "Love & Monsters," I was reminded of how I first came to see the television show, long before the new series began. Check out my review here.

I started watching Doctor Who in 1997 (at age 11) with the Third Doctor's "Planet of the Spiders," the regeneration to the Fourth Doctor, and "Robot." I watched the show in San Francisco on the local PBS station KTEH, which showed all the classic series and now airs episodes from the new series. It soon became my favorite television show, and still is today, having seen all the new series and spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Like Elton Pope in "Love & Monsters," back in 1998 I searched the Internet for information about the Doctor and his companions, finding many fan sites dedicated to the show. I found out that it had been quite popular in Britain, but was not being produced at that time. Over the next few years, I saw all the television stories (except for the ones that had episodes missing from the BBC archives), and found many of the novelizations, Missing Adventures and BBC Books with stories from the series, as well as behind the scenes books like "The Making of Doctor Who" and "The Official Doctor Who and the Daleks Book." In 2000 on a trip to London I visited the Who Shop in East Ham London which had lots of props from the show and many more books and videos. My parents are also fans of the show, so I was aware of it for a long time.

Around 2004 I heard about a new production of Doctor Who being planned. When I finally saw the first episode, "Rose," it had all the magic of the classic series, starting with the theme music and the TARDIS flying through the time vortex. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper gave amazing performances as the Doctor and Rose. The episode also paid tribute to the fans of the classic series, with the character Clive who kept track of the Doctor's history with his website. Now Doctor Who is very popular again in Britain, and is a cult favorite around the world. By the time the series came to America, viewers already knew a new Doctor, David Tennant, was coming the next year. He had been a fan of the show since he was young and planned to stay for a long time, like Tom Baker, the most well-known Doctor in America. When David Tennant took the lead role in the program, the Tenth Doctor became my favorite of all time. I enjoy his enthusiasm for the part and the history of the series as well as his dynamic and engaging performances every episode. I hope David Tennant remains a part of the show for many years to come.

New Classic Popular Culture

Entertainment Weekly's 1000th issue has an interesting look at the 1000 new classics that have been most influential in American popular culture as a whole in the past 25 years, in the categories of films, television, books, music, videogames, and more. They also recognize that individuals will have their own items that are most important to them, and the issue includes personal essays and top ten lists from authors, actors and musicians.

I especially like Neil Gaiman's list of "Top Ten New Classic Monsters" which includes "The Weeping Angels in Steven Moffat's terrifying 2007 Doctor Who episode 'Blink.'"

In that spirit, I wanted to write my Top Ten New Classic Doctor Who Moments from the new series since 2005. Check it out!

Russell T. Davies and his contributions to "Doctor Who"

The New York Times has a new article about Russell T. Davies and how his revival of Doctor Who has improved television in Britain in terms of the quality and range of issues that can be covered: Who Altered British TV? ‘Who’ Indeed. Another New York Times article from 2006 discusses the first series of Doctor Who and how Davies, the executive producer and lead writer, brought the show into the 21st century.

Outpost Gallifrey also reports that Davies will receive the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) honor from Queen Elizabeth II for his work in writing and producing drama on television. This honor is well-deserved, since Davies brought Doctor Who back when it seemed like no one else could and made it as good as any dramatic series. After the last original series episode in 1989, and a television film in 1996, the show lived on in novels and audio plays, as well as in Doctor Who Magazine. Many of the writers on the TV show today, such as Davies, Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, previously wrote for the tie-in media.

The new series brought Doctor Who back to popularity among general audiences in Britain, and gained it many new fans around the world. Davies' episodes are fun to watch and include spectacular events as well as character moments. The show today honors the past 45 years of stories as well as being original and unexpected. Since 2005 it has also won many prestigious awards, including BAFTAs and Hugos for best television drama. The spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures take the world of Doctor Who in new directions as they explore the impact of alien invasions on Earth. The current fourth series of Doctor Who is the best and most consistent set of episodes ever in the show's history, with David Tennant and Catherine Tate doing excellent work every episode and all the cast and crew making it one of the greatest shows on television.

Doctor Who references in other media

Doctor Who in the comics! American liberal political cartoonist Tom Tomorrow features the Doctor in his latest strip about the presidential contest (thanks to Outpost Gallifrey for featuring this)
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/06/10/tomo/


Pink Floyd in their 1971 song "One Of These Days" incorporated the rhythm and theme tune of Doctor Who. The KLF (Timelords) in their 1988 song "Doctorin' the Tardis" about the Doctor and Daleks hit the top of the UK singles chart. The band Orbital also reinterpreted the theme tune. YouTube search for the music videos.

San Francisco Library Selection: Then We Came to the End

The San Francisco Public Library has a cool program in which they choose a book for the city to read, and make it more widely accessible to people to check out. Many of the books are contemporary literature, that have been critically acclaimed and on a wide variety of interesting subjects. The May/June 2008 selection is Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris, which is a 2007 novel about employees in a Chicago advertising agency and the contrast between the prosperity of the dotcom boom and the economic downturn around 2000. Ferris shows the personal and common experiences that the workers have.

Other stories like Douglas Coupland's novels JPod and The Gum Thief as well as the British and American versions of The Office have also examined this theme of contemporary life in the workplace and its moments of humor and tragedy. Then We Came to the End introduces an ensemble of characters and makes them distinct and interesting all the way through the story, using the first person plural narrative device that creates a sense of community with the reader and the protagonists. In the downturn, the workers find there are fewer contracts and redundancies are unavoidable. There is suspense in who will be made redundant and how they will react to the loss of their job, and also the effect on the workplace as a whole. Ferris creates a literary tone that is also funny and touching, connecting with contemporary life and the younger generation who is used to communicating by email and using computers as a part of everyday life. The novel also engages with how people support and occupy themselves with a job and also how they look ahead to realizing their future dreams.

Sarah Jane's Challenges

In the last part of The Sarah Jane Adventures series one, after setting up the characters and their personalities, the alien invaders test Ms. Smith and her friends on a personal level. In "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?" Maria finds herself the only one who can remember her new friend one morning, and must set out on her own to figure out how to bring Sarah Jane back and save the world. In the next story, "The Lost Boy," everything the characters have come to depend on is changed, and there are some developments I didn't see coming and that were very surprising. Looking forward to series two, The Sarah Jane Adventures has proved itself a great series on its own, complementary to Doctor Who and Torchwood in their exploration of different aspects of alien life in relation to the human experience.

Ratatouille and Pixar's Appeal

I just saw the Disney Pixar movie Ratatouille: it's a very unique and fun film that like Remy the rat transcends preconceptions about a animated film with cooking and rodents as the theme. It's really a film for everyone, taking the best aspects of animated and live action genres and combining them into a singular achievement for Pixar. While some previous Pixar films were targeted at the childrens' audience with a youthful central character, Cars and Ratatouille appeal to the older audiences with their themes of finding one's way in society. Like classic films of the 1940s and 1950s they are movies that everyone can watch but adults will connect with on a different level to children. Pixar movies like the early Disney animated films don't target stories down to children but earn their respect by making the films entertaining to people of any age.

In Ratatouille Remy and his human friend Linguini both want to be accepted by the restaurant community. It's a theme that continues on the special features on the DVD, where Remy gives a funny and informative history of the position of rats around the world in an effort to rehabilitate their reputation, in the cartoon "Lifted" a young alien tries to impress his superior in levitating a human, and the film's writer/director Brad Bird and chef Thomas Keller talk about their mentors in following their ambitions and how they motivate their associates. This DVD is recommended for increasing interest in both cooking and animated films as art forms.