Born in the U.S. in the late 50's I grew up a child of the 'space race' and the original Star Trek, loved Forbidden Planet and The Day The Earth Stood Still.
I still love sci-fi today more then any other genre... the only thing worse then a young nerd, is an old nerd.
As far as TV, Babylon 5 is my all-time favorite show, and I contend, it is still the best sci-fi story to ever grace American TV screens. You can't get much more geeky then that... unless you know my second favorite show of all time is Doctor Who... The ultimate in geekiness.
I've watched the BBC's, Doctor Who since the mid-80's when Public Broadcasting aired the first Tom Baker episode, 'Robot' . I followed the show through Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christoper Eccleston, and most recently David Tennant. PBS eventually went back and ran Doctor's 1 - 3 respectively William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee.
(Peter Cushing also played The Doctor in two British-made movies in the mid-60's... looooove those Daleks!)
As a result, I have every (available) episode in some recorded media, be it video tape, DVD, or on my DVR.
For those that haven't followed the show, you noticed I've mentioned different actors playing the part of The Doctor. For a show that is has first aired the night President Kennedy was assassinated in November of 1963, it was inevitable the show would have to change actors sometime... of course no one suspected the show would still be running 47 years later. There was a 16 year suspension of the series between 1989 and 2005, with the exception of an ill fated made-for-TV movie in 1996 in which they somewhat tried to 'Americanize' The Doctor... what a waste of a potentially good actor for the part.
How do they successfully change the actor of the main character of a show and make it work???
Well, The Doctor is an alien, a Timelord to be exact. When a Timelord is severely injured they have a way to 'cheat' death... they regenerate into a different looking humanoid up to 12 times.
Regardless, January 1st in England, and the 2nd, in The U.S. viewer of the show saw the end of an era that brought the show to world-wide attention. David Tennant, the actor that picked up the torch of departing actor Christopher Eccleston (who is the fine actor that was part of the resurrection of the series in 2005... look for him an a film in production in which he plays John Lennon) left the show in a flash of light and destruction as he 'regenerated' into an new Doctor played by Matt Smith.
Smith is Doctor number 11, meaning there should only be one regeneration left. Of course sci-fi always allows for writers to come up with way to change the rules. The Doctor's arch enemy; The Master is well past his 12th regeneration and look pretty spry most recently in the form of actor John Simm.
Okay, I'll stop blathering and get to what I wanted to post...
Things to come this spring...
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