Monday 27 December 2010

Mandatory Doctor Who post

I'm a blogger. One of the rules of blogging is that no blog may continue to exist without at least one discussion of Doctor Who. Having just watched the 2010 Christmas Special (if you aren't in the UK, search for tips on how to fool the iPlayer that you are), I'm happy to oblige.

OK. Here we go.
Jolly good this year, though slightly lacking in scariness. And very lacking in Amy Pond (I know, I'll get e-mail). I enjoyed it a lot, except for the Katherine Jenkins element. She's a popular singer in the field of light classical. Fine - a storyline requiring a singer who saves the spaceship is Christmassy enough, but choosing a famous one with a lot of product to move risks turning the show into a celebrity vehicle, and the BBC should have a little more self-respect.

As to the new series - the trailer makes it all look rather wonderful. Though the shot of some Nazis makes we wonder how far in time and space we have to go before the British will stop going on about the war. Can TV be subject to Godwin's Law?

This all sounds a little curmudgeonly considering that I enjoyed this episode and think the upcoming ones will be wonderful, but we have to keep an eye on it. To the BBC, it's just another product to be sold, merchandised, cross-marketed and exploited. To us, it's a perfect little world which should be untainted by the need to sell Dalek figurines and Katherine Jenkins CDs. Naive, I know.

Right. If I can't get to sleep, I've always got the cricket. England seem to be coping with Australia adequately.

2 comments:

Imaginary Friend said...

...and we all know of course that the reason you feel that the episode was lacking in Amy Pond is because you think Karen Gillan is a highly talented actress.

The Plashing Vole said...

That's exactly what I mean.