The Time Lord is fast approaching his 50th Anniversary special so what better time to look at some of his more unusual appearances on his home station, the BBC, than now. Having a time machine does have its advantages and it makes the Doctor able to appear in some of the strangest places. Here is a very small sampling of some of his adventures in time and space.
Continue reading The Doctor’s Adventures with the BBC – A GB Doctor Who Special
The British population has had cause to celebrate recently with a new baby joining the royal blood line. But the only event Whovians have been waiting to celebrate is the regeneration of our favorite time lord. Matt Smith is standing down from playing The Doctor, and for the last few weeks fans have sat staring at their computer screens waiting for the day when the new actor or actress who will play The Doctor will be revealed. Even we here at Grizzly Bomb had our own guesses as to who the 12th Doctor might be. Just a few hours before the show aired, we got a sneak peek into the gender of The Doctor. The Mirror reported that celebrity photographer Rankin let it slip with the below tweet that it was indeed a man scheduled to play the role.
Continue reading Doctor Who Has a New Time Lord! Peter Capaldi is the Twelfth Doctor!
Some of the best television shows of the last decade have originated in the UK and are slowly starting to find their way to the US. One of these such shows is Luther starring Idris Elba. The story of Detective Chief Inspector John Luther is a dark and violent one. His obsession with his job has cost him his wife, but gained him a serial killer friend and a porn star protégé. Always under the watchful eye of his fellow law enforcement officials, and repeatedly suspected of being dirty, John Luther is one of the most interesting characters on television. He takes all those old stereotypes about cop shows and somehow makes them fresh again.
Continue reading Luther Season 3 Updates – Trailer Proves Things Won’t Get Easier…
If I had to pick one thing to clearly illustrate the difference between American television and British television it would be the length of time shows stay on the air and/or the length of time actors stay on shows. If something lasts less than three years in America it’s seen as a bit of a failure and yet three years in Britain is somewhat more of a norm. Then if a show does last for many years, it’s cast very often doesn’t stay the same. Of course there are exceptions to these rules. One show that clearly illustrates the “show stays, cast changes” rule is Doctor Who.
In it’s original run of 26 seasons, there were 8 Doctors. Since it’s return in 2005, there have been three. Now the search is on for the fourth, the 12th Doctor.
“Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show. I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realise all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.
Having Steven Moffat as show runner write such varied, funny, mind bending and brilliant scripts has been one of the greatest and most rewarding challenges of my career. It’s been a privilege and a treat to work with Steven, he’s a good friend and will continue to shape a brilliant world for the Doctor.
The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special!
It’s been an honour to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys. Matt.”
That’s right, Matt Smith, #11 is leaving Doctor Who after the Christmas special as reported by the BBC. While it’s sad for fans of the show and fans of the 11th Doctor, Steven Moffat does such a great job at giving these actors (not only the Doctor but also his companions – go watch the Ponds’ departure and tell me you didn’t cry) a proper send-off that’s it’s difficult to not look forward to seeing how they’ll go about it. Not only that but there’s a built in excitement when it comes to the regeneration of a new Time Lord. What will he wear? What type of personality will he have? How will he interact with his companions? What will his catch phrase be? There’s so many questions! We’ll find out soon enough, for now let’s enjoy #11 while we can.
In what appears to be quite the “get”, Hugh Laurie is in talks with NBC to star as Edward Teach in their upcoming pirate drama, Crossbones. Who is Edward Teach? Well, he is none other than the infamous pirate, Blackbeard.
Laurie, fresh off House, has not made any announcement, nor has NBC, so it’s all speculation at this point. Fun speculation, but speculation all the same. If nothing else, it will be nice to hear Laurie in his native tongue once again. Perhaps that is why the Emmy voters snubbed him for so many years as Gregory House, they just didn’t like his American accent. Hogwash. Could he take home an Emmy as Blackbeard, a la Kevin Costner in Hatfields & McCoys? We’ll have to see.
“But wait, what is this Crossbones of which you speak?” You have questions, I have answers, as limited as they may be. NBC, who is leading the charge so far this season when it comes to viewers 18-49, for the 
first time in a very long time, is in development for a 10 episode mini-series about Blackbeard and his “rogue nation of thieves, outlaws and miscreant sailors” (Deadline). Set in the 1700’s on the island of New Providence, Crossbones will hopefully deal with Teach’s transformation from student pirate to the most notorious and recognizable pirate we know today.
Crossbones is written by Neil Cross, creator of the fabulous Luther (if you haven’t watched it, head over to Netflix and remedy that, post-haste) who has written for MI-5 in recent years as well. With a seasoned BBC man at the helm, one has to wonder, is NBC willing to further their 10 episode experiment into more similar projects in the future?
One has to hope that reality TV will someday fall out of favor and people will return to scripted television. Problem is, 22 episodes is too long. It just is. I enjoy a long season of a show just as much as anybody else, but in terms of coming up with material and funding and just the investment that needs to be made ahead of time, 22 episodes is too long. Not only are there financial issues, there are creative issues. Perfect example is Life on Mars.
Life on Mars had two seasons (series) on the BBC each consisting of 8 episodes. It was met with critical acclaim
and after the first series, the creator (Matthew Graham) announced that the story was finite and there would only be one more season. There was a total of 16 episodes that told the story from beginning to end, quite nicely. ABC decides to remake show here in America. Same concept, better budget, arguably better production value, 17 episodes. Difference? It was canceled after 17 episodes due to waning viewership. Instead of controlling its own destiny like the BBC version and having the chance to write out the ending in a way that made sense and wrapped things up to viewer’s satisfaction, the US remake falls somewhat flat. It was a great show! Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but it wasn’t a concept that was built for many seasons of 22 episodes each. This is where American network television and it’s stubbornness has sunk itself. Boardwalk Empire is getting ready to wrap up their third season, with its 12 episodes each season. Are there people out there complaining the season is too short? Of course, as a society we like to get more, but by the same token, are there many people complaining that the quality of the show is less because it is shorter? No. And if they are, well they are wrong.
All that to say, I hope Crossbones is successful and it heralds in a new age of network programming in America. One that doesn’t revolve around teenagers singing and getting pregnant. Oh what a happy day that would be.
Because we’ve discussed shows being canceled and NBC, I feel obligated to further my one woman campaign to resurrect my favorite canceled show. Bring back Kings! If nothing else, let’s just hope Crossbones doesn’t suffer a similar fate.
In honor of last night’s Elementary premiere, I have put together a little musical tribute. Enjoy.
Can you hear the fandoms scream?
Expressing their hatred with angry memes.
They feel that since it was done in England,
It can not be done again.
– set to the tune of “Can you hear the people sing?”
Going into the show, pretty much all you heard was “It’s not as good as the BBC version. I can’t believe John Watson is a girl. I mean really Lucy Liu is Watson? What are they thinking? Sherlock Holmes lives in London, not New York! This show is obviously going to suck. I can’t believe people will even watch this shit.” [Editor’s Note: Yeah, that was mostly me]
Well, there were enough people that didn’t think it would suck, or were just curious because Elementary premiered to some rather good numbers. I, obviously, watched it as well, and rather enjoyed it.
Was it as good as the BBC version? Well, I don’t know that we can even compare them like that. While Sherlock is a mini-movie, Elementary is a typical procedural- we see a murder, cut to title sequence, meet the cops, find a bad guy, it’s the wrong bad guy, sit around with pensive looks, have a EUREKA! moment, find new bad guy, and of course it’s the right bad guy. [Editor’s Note: My point…] If it’s a good procedural, there is enough storyline between the main characters that keep us coming back each week. I don’t know about anyone else, but I watch NCIS more for the relationship between Gibbs’ team than the actual murders they solve.
Johnny Lee Miller is a believable incarnation of Sherlock Holmes. He’s quirky, witty, quick, and intelligent. And he’s got enough of asshole in him that makes it entertaining. He’s not intentionally an ass, as shown by his attempt to not pour salt into Watson’s wounds, but it’s there, just waiting. As he begins his post “junkie jail”/rehab life, his father has hired Liu as Joan Watson to be his sober companion. Blame it on my sheltered life, I had no idea that such a job existed. He has also decided that instead of just sitting around, he is going to return to a job he did with Scotland Yard- police consultant, this time with the NYPD. We all know what Sherlock Holmes is like, and Miller does it well.
Call me nuts, but I like Joan Watson. I don’t know that the leap from surgeon to sober companion is all that believable, but they did a good job at setting it up. I loved Sherlock’s assessment of how much she likes her job though. Can’t say I’ve ever considered the number of alarms set as an indicator of how much one likes their job, but hey, it was fun. Watching her step into the investigator role was rather ingenious. I was afraid it would be forced but it really wasn’t. And can we discuss the fact that Joan Watson is a baseball fan? I love when a woman is a baseball fan. I do want to ask her opinion on pink uniforms, I’m sure we would both agree on that topic.
If there was no other reason for me to watch this show- it would be this man. I would watch Aidan Quinn do anything. ANYTHING! I’m just hoping he has a longer stint as police captain than he did as a police lieutenant in Prime Suspect.
So- the big question is, would I watch it again? I would. Pilots are always a bit messy. They have a lot of back story to fit into a little bit of time and it makes for, at times, an awkward flow. I thought Elementary was successful in navigating those waters. The murder/investigation story vs. the relationship between Sherlock and Watson was pretty balanced. Both Miller and Liu were believable as the characters. I’m looking forward to seeing if/when Mycroft is introduced as he is one of my favorite characters. I’m the oldest child of some crazy siblings, so I can relate to his pain. What I’m really hoping is that Sherlock will start introducing Watson by a variety of titles, a’la Sean Spencer.
Because there is potential and I’m excited to see how things develop, I’m going to give the pilot episode a 4 grizzly rating.
That wraps up this review- we’ll meet up next week and see what our favorite detective and his sober companion are up to then!
[Editor’s Note – I (Doc) am at a bit of a loss here. I have to disagree with my colleague. I thought the relationship was forced, the characters were boring, and the NYC setting was akin to moving Batman out of Gotham. 2/5 for me. They felt as natural together on-screen as they look in this picture:]
Grizzly Bomb 