I’ve been rather enjoying the modern interpretation of Dr. Who lately. The show fluctuates between brilliant (The Empty Child) and cheesy (The Lazarus Experiment) as it has done for over 40 years, but always manages to be entertaining. David Tennant and Freema Agyeman are well cast as the quixotic Doctor and his stalwart companion, and the supporting cast is often surprisingly strong. Furthermore, as a fan of science fiction, the modular stories are a nice change of pace from the long drawn-out story arcs featured on other shows. In that sense, Dr. Who could draw favorable comparisons with The Twilight Zone.
You may ask what provoked me to write about this now? Well, the episode that the CBC aired this week, Blink (we’re way behind you Brits), was especially excellent. It featured a chilling antagonist, a cohesive plot and only revealed the bigger mysteries towards the end; the majority of Dr. Who episodes pull off two out of three of those at best. What truly sealed the deal was the story-told-backwards narrative, a plot device employed surprisingly rarely considering the time-travelling nature of the show.
The CBC is kindly offering streaming video of the latest episodes on their website, so you now have no excuse for not checking it out. Get to it!
September 1st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
That’s definitely the best episode of the season.