Up Front by Emma Hart

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Up Front: You Never Forget Your First

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  • Emma Hart,

    (BTW, anyone know who has the New Zealand rights to 'Being Human' and if we're ever going to see it?)

    Prime, I believe, so I hope so. Because if it's not "soon" I'm going to have to burn off a bunch more bandwidth. There's a show whose outline sounds utterly naff (so, like, there's a ghost and a vampire and a werewolf, and they all flat together...) which is brilliant, if you can just persuade people to watch it.

    I think the Russell Tovey thing went through creepy and out into endearing. About when the best thing Davies could think of to cheer up Captain Jack was to give him Midshipman Frame.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Like many I grew up with Dr Who as a kids show (in B&W what's more) - it was on in the afternoon and when I went off to Uni it disappeared from my horizon ....

    Until in the early 80s I moved to the US and one of my co-workers was a real fan - I'd never heard of adult Dr Who fans, it was a kid's show after all ....

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Campbell,

    Oh and my Uncle when on his '70s OE used to know someone who was a dalek ... until he broke his leg (probably that whole stair thing again)

    Dunedin • Since Nov 2006 • 2623 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    (Re the Buffy thing, there's a lovely wee bit in The Writer's Tale where Russell Davies is having dinner with Kylie Minogue and James Marsters, and can't get over how James is even hotter in real life. Bless.)

    Emma -- that is very funny.

    I saw a YouTube clip of JW speaking at a convention, someone had asked him what he thought of RTD, and he said, "Don't mention that man, he stole my James..." :-)

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Prime, I believe, so I hope so. Because if it's not "soon" I'm going to have to burn off a bunch more bandwidth.

    It's definitely in Prime's 2010 lineup, but they've given no idea when it will screen.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Hosking,

    Glad to know I am not the only one who remembers Patrick Troughton.

    Oh, I remember him too. Indeed he later went on to run Telecom, I believe.

    I thought the first Doc I remembered was Pertwee but when I check the dates it must have been Troughton.

    Around 69-70. Used to be on in the late afternoon, 5pm ish I think. I didn't watch it much because it wasn't funny, like Get Smart or the Monkees. Or the Partridge Family.

    But it used to give my little brother nightmares: the music would come on and he'd start screaming and demand the folks buy a couch for him to hide behind.

    Mum would invoke the 'Go Play Outside In The Fresh Air' rule and that would be that.

    South Roseneath • Since Nov 2006 • 830 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    he'd start screaming and demand the folks buy a couch for him to hide behind.

    Couch WIN, I believe.

    "Don't mention that man, he stole my James..." :-)

    Use it or lose it, surely. Also, dressing Billy Idol like Adam Ant? Full of win.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Dave Patrick,

    Patrick Troughton in black and white was probably my first, but I remember more Jon Pertwee than is probably good for me. The series went through a looong period of obvious cost-cutting when the Pertwee Doctor and the brigadier were stuck on earth and never went anywhere in the Tardis. And the less said about K9 the better..... although he did redeem himself somewhat in the Tennant episode he was in.

    Tom Baker is still my favourite, I liked Peter Davison as well, but stopped when Colin Baker and then Sylvester McCoy turned out not to be stellar choices.

    I liked Donna - she was manic but also real. Loved the Doctor Donna episode. Rose and the whole "love" interest thing bored me stupid - I don't watch Doctor Who to see kissing and doe eyes, I watch for aliens and the Tardis and accidental arrivals and ever-so-slightly-in-the-wrong-place travellings.

    And one of my daughters is named after a companion......

    Rangiora, Te Wai Pounamu • Since Nov 2006 • 261 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    Use it or lose it, surely. Also, dressing Billy Idol like Adam Ant? Full of win.

    :-) All so true!

    At the risk of being unpopular, I really liked Rose! But the problem with having a Doctor-Companion romance is that when the companion leaves, and someone else hops on board, and they try to do the same dynamic...well it just seems a little cheap and nasty!

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    well it just seems a little cheap and nasty!

    Doctor Who, such a slut!

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    What Grace said :-)

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    William Hartnell was my first although barely registering on my consciousness.

    But Patrick Troughton was the Doctor who first really registered with me. It was while he was The Doctor that I spent my time peering out from behind the couch. I still have vivid memories of that horrible web that the Yeti used...

    By the time Jon Pertwee was involved I was brave enough to watch from on the couch, most of the time.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    I think black and white Dr Who was too scary for my little sister so didn't get to watch it very often, but I much preferred programmes with strong female characters anyway. Bewitched was my favourite, and I have strong memories of Patty Duke playing cousins, Maxwell Smart and the smarter Agent 99, and Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanners' dominance of Coronation Street.

    Which is the more vigorous survivor, Coronation Street or Dr Who?

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • philipmatthews,

    I think black and white Dr Who was too scary for my little sister so didn't get to watch it very often, but I much preferred programmes with strong female characters anyway. Bewitched was my favourite, and I have strong memories of Patty Duke playing cousins, Maxwell Smart and the smarter Agent 99, and Ena Sharples and Elsie Tanners' dominance of Coronation Street.

    The 1960s as the golden age of women characters on telly? Might be something in that.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report Reply

  • Bart Janssen,

    Donna not so much

    You're kidding right. She was brilliant! SO nice to have a heroine who is just so damn ordinary.

    Megan

    but I've never loved Doctor Who

    it's Ok. Everyone is allowed to be wrong, true friends still love you despite your faults :P.

    I really, really did that. Web of Fear, it may have been.

    Still have a really strong visual memory of that cotton wool smothering everything ... shudder.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report Reply

  • Isabel Hitchings,

    My eight-year-old is making a Matt Smith Mii. I think that means he likes the new doctor.

    Christchurch • Since Jul 2007 • 719 posts Report Reply

  • recordari,

    well it just seems a little cheap and nasty!

    Especially when they go off and become a call girl.

    [ducks]

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    Philip, you might be right about the era. My earliest television memory is going over to watch the neighbours' television, as they were the first locals to get one. We watched a comedy featuring a maid called Hazel (as was the series). US culture, enormous houses and servants were all a bit of a shock. And then there was Lassie (who was apparently a male dog).

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • Islander,

    Hilary Stace - 'Lassie' was generations of male rough-haired collies...I will try to learn the proper way to embed wiki refs - every time I try, something goes wrong. But, no worries-

    Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report Reply

  • Lucy Stewart,

    I also know someone who hated The Girl in the Fireplace, because she loved Rose so much.

    I resemble this remark, probably because I *was* an eighteen-year-old when I first watched DW, and Nine's season was the first season I watched. I always liked Rose and I always will. (Or because when it comes to shipping, in any medium, I find an OTP and then cling onto it like grim, grim death. It's a personality...thing.)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report Reply

  • Grace Dalley,

    Does anyone else remember Chris Eccleston playing Iago in the modern-day BBC retelling of Othello? Wow, he was scarily good.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2008 • 138 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock,

    Yes.

    But whatever you do, don't ever watch the remake of 'gone in 60 seconds'. That will make you watch through your fingers with horror and fear. 'Christopher, Christopher....what have they done to you.....?"

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Joanna,

    And I was even more impressed after seeing Catherine Tate on Never Mind the Buzzcocks and wanting to kill her quite, quite dead.

    I feel like this is an appropriate time to join in to say that the only reason I am now planning on watching the new-ish seasons of Dr Who is because ohmyholyfrickingshit David Tennant was hot as the host of that one Buzzcocks episode. I suppose I should refrain from comparing him to one of the Cactus Lab boys...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 746 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Hosking,

    The 1960s as the golden age of women characters on telly? Might be something in that.

    Something for the Pratchett fans: Ena Sharples = Granny Weatherwax?

    Back to the SciFi, lates 60s/early 70s - Dr Who never really did it for me, but there was a great short series called 'Timeslip' - anyone else remember that? Two kids playing, ducked through a broken fence and slipped back into 1940 Britain. I think they discovered the dad of one of them was a Nazi spy, or something like that.

    Later episodes had them going into the future, where they met themselves, grown up. In one of them there was a globally warmed world; in another a future ice age. I think one of them found their own corpse in the snow.

    Cool.

    (Just checked - its been released on DVD and they have it at Aro Vid. Excellent)

    Then of course there was Catweazle - not technically Sci Fi, but there was time travel. And brilliance.

    South Roseneath • Since Nov 2006 • 830 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    I suppose I should refrain from comparing him to one of the Cactus Lab boys...

    Ooooohhh, snap!

    As for Dr Who the 11th, I've watched the episode three times now. Googled, and there are entire threads dedicated to critiquing his choice of dress, the new theme & opening credits (FWIW I thought the score for the whole episode was marvellous), and complaining (???) about Amy's short skirt, including someone that complained about the impropriety of putting a "stripogram" [sic] on a "children's show" [sic].

    Apparently a bunch of Dr Who fans are annoyed about the "sexing-up" of the show, as if other female companions spent their years wearing a habit. Frankly, I noticed Amy's legs, but I was far more distracted by the Doctor's extraordinary cheekbones. Hell yes, they've sexed up the show; Matt Smith could've walked straight out of NME (bow tie and all), and I'm totally at peace with that. And I reckon he's going to be an awesome doctor! Russell C described exactly why I wasn't completely convinced by Tennant's take (as much as I hate myself for admitting that) - struggling with the weight of all the emotional baggage they heaped on him. Matt Smith appears to be able to convey haunted hidden depths simply by not smiling.

    Wasn't expecting to be so ok with Amy (there's something about impossibly cute female sidekicks that irritates me to all hell), but I really liked her in the context of the whole tragically romantic girl-who-waited storyline. (sigh)

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

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