The trip of a lifetime is about to resume in the UK today. Taken off the air by the BBC in 1989,
Dr. Who returns today in the UK. It is the
longest-running sci-fi television show in history. (In one of its episodes even Star Trek: The Next Generation pays homage to Who.) The first episode aired on the BBC the day JFK was shot--November 22, 1963. (View BBC One's trailer for the new series
here, courtesy of
DWNY.org.)
Most Americans familiar with Dr. Who encountered the series on their local PBS station in the 1970's, '80's, and early '90's.
How much will the resurrected program touch on themes resonating with contemporary political issues? Perhaps not at all. However, there are three reasons why I think Dr. Who might dare to at least negatively allude to the Bush-Blair adventure in Iraq
~~~~the "classic" series of Dr. Who was officially a children's program; the new Dr. Who series is not: almost any topic is fair game....
~~~one aspect or another of the show--conceptualization, writing, filming, editing, etc.--was occurring before, during, and mostly after the build-up to the invasion of Iraq ; in fact, some production for this season are still in progress....
~~the new show's producer is the Oxford-educated and BAFTA-winning writer, Russell T. Davies, the creator of the original Channel Four series, Queer As Folk (compared to which the US version for Showtime is at best derivative, voyeuristic pablum); while Davies hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, publicly spoken out on political issues, it is probably reasonable to assume that someone expert at bringing successful children's educational and entertainment programs and gay-themed dramas to TV is not a pro-war conservative....
~episodes of this series include "World War III" and "Aliens in London," a 2-parter in which disguised aliens infiltrate the Government (an alien genesis of Tony Blair might explain an awful lot), though given Dr. Who's reliance on time travel as a plot device, it's fair to assume "Aliens in London" takes place before or after today's Labour Government under Blair.
The amount of coverage the new series is getting the UK is extraordinary. Large photographs of aliens from the new series have even appeared on the front page of The London Times this week. The BBC has run special documentaries on both TV and radio concerning everything from "the making of" to Dr. Who's remarkably creative, powerful, and resilient electronic theme music; from the so-called "ninth Doctor," Christopher Eccelston, to the long history of Dr. Who, including the famously low-budget special effects of the pre-2004 "classic" series.
The new series will for infinitately too expensive for PBS, and hopes remain among U.S. Dr. Who fans that BBCAmerica, the Sci-Fi Channel, or possibly UPN will purchase it.
All Dr. Who fans have a first Dr. Who memory. My first encounter with Dr. Who was when, as a kindergartner, I saw a 4:30 p.m. broadcast on Iowa Public Television in which Jon Pertwee, the "third Doctor," went face-to-face with a menacing Sea Monster. Pertwee was commanding and no-nonsense, dressed like a dandy, and the Sea Monsters had these cool laser pistols with wide, flat discs at the end as ray transmitters. I can still remember the way they walked ashore from the sea, and The Doctor's stern visage, his big bundle of white hair, velvet jacket and cape, and gentlemanly leather gloves. For a 6-year-old, it was all terribly interesting, but it was the eerie theme music and opening sequence that made the most enduring impression.