No geek
is an island

Satires on taxation, global capitalism and Section 28 aren’t perhaps the usual fare of television aimed at children, but, produced as it was by the BBC’s drama department, Doctor Who often aimed squarely at the family audience, ensuring that there was a something in its stories to appeal to adults while the kids were hiding behind the sofa.

As part of my exceptionally slow progress through all the Doctor Who ever made, I recently reached The Sun Makers, a Tom Baker story from 1977 in which political satire is pushed front and centre - arguably at the expense of younger audiences.

The central conceit is relatively simple: the Doctor and Leela arrive on Pluto, where what’s left of the human race are living, enslaved by compulsory work for the Company and punitive tax rates. The Doctor’s task within four episodes is to overthrow the Company and free the people.

(more…)

I have a couple of meme tags still outstanding, one of which needs addressing before midnight and so I’d best get it done.

Jo off of Jo’s Jottings tagged me with Iain Dale’s Eight for 2008 meme. So with world peace and Prime Minister Nick Clegg taken as read, here are my 8 wishes for next year:

1. That the fourth series of <DOCTOR.WHO> will be at least as good as the third; that the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures will be at least as good as the first; and that the new series of Torchwood will be better than the first (and I’m sure it will).

2. That the Lib Dems get good results in the London elections and the English and Welsh local elections in May.

3. That I’m able to find enough spare time to make some progress on various projects currently sitting on the back burner.

4. That in the light of its inability to handle personal data securely the Government abandons the illiberal, costly, and technically monstrous identity database.

5. That I maintain a reasonable record playing Scrabulous on Facebook and at some point win a game of Settlers of Catan.

6. That the majority of my commuter trains into London are on time (December’s score: 0%).

7. That a sensible Democrat wins the US Presidency.

8. That I lose some more weight, although ideally not through amputation, decapitation or any sort of wasting disease.

Given that it’s December 31st, I’ll not tag on. Happy New Year!

Very sad today to hear of the death of Verity Lambert at the age of 71. Verity was the very first producer of Doctor Who when it first aired exactly 44 years ago today.

She was the first female BBC producer and the youngest - a year younger than I am now - when she took charge of steering such a ground-breaking drama serial through its first years. Many of the elements that featured in that first episode are present in the series today, so it’s no understatement to say that without her we probably wouldn’t have the hugely successful show we still have today.

Alex has written a lovely blog post already, and Russell The Davies’s tribute is worth repeating:

“There are a hundred people in Cardiff working on Doctor Who and millions of viewers, in particular many children, who love the programme that Verity helped create.

“This is her legacy and we will never forget that.”

As it’s Doctor Who’s birthday, I was due to head to the pub anyway to celebrate with The Fans. Tonight, we’ll be toasting Verity.

There are a few years between them. They each have different styles of presentation. Neither of them has any policies on the economy as far as I’m aware. Erm…

As I’m not allowed to comment on the biggest subject currently enveloping the Liberal Democrat blogosphere, I’ll have to appeal to the Doctor Who blogosphere instead. [Obligatory plug: if you’re a Lib Dem supporter, click here to join the party before the end of the month and get a vote in the leadership election.]

This year’s Children in Need is on November 16th and once again there’s a special Doctor Who scene. This one is called “Time Crash” and is written by Hugo Award winner (twice) Steven Moffat. And it features David Tennant and the return of Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. Which, if you’re a Doctor Who fan, is pretty exciting.

Here’s the story on the official site.

A novel way to get young people to church is being tried out with a special service at St Paul’s in (Lib Dem) Grangetown, Cardiff. The church was used as a location for Paul Cornell’s Doctor Who episode Father’s Day a few year’s ago, and the series is its means to entice fans in, as icWales reports:

Fr Dean Atkins, youth officer with the Diocese of Llandaff and one of the organisers of the service, said: “The figure of Doctor Who is somebody who comes to save the world, almost a Messiah figure.

“In the series there are lots of references to salvation and the doctor being almost immortal. We are using the figure of Doctor Who as a parable of Christ.

“The language used in the series lends itself to exploring the Christian faith.”
[…]
Parish priest Fr Ben Andrews said: “I love the series, and it has such a great following that we couldn’t resist doing something for young people on a Doctor Who theme.

Full story here. I hope you appreciate my restraint in titling this post, when Rise of the Congregation, The Sound of Hymns, Army of Holy Ghosts or Pew Earth were all out there.

The BBC have announced that there will be a fifth series of Doctor Who - but not until 2010. After next year’s series, 2009 will see three one-off* episodes starring David Tennant. No words on whether he’ll be back after those.

The full story is on the BBC News site.

*Technically not one-offs if there are three of them, of course.