Dr Who The Next Doctor

Well, it wouldn't be Christmas without The Doctor, would it? In this years Dr Who Christmas Special we find The Doctor in London in 1951-a pretty dull year where nothing much happened. Except that the Doctor, of course, never lands in dull places where nothing happens.

This was a good episode. I liked the idea of David Tennant meeting his new self in the person of David Morrissey. The Next Doctor had more of an Old Doctor feel to him, as he kind of reminds me of both John Pertwee and Peter Davidson. Of course, all you really need to be The Doctor is a lot of self confidence in the face of hopeless situations. I was also happy to see one of my favorite actresses, Dervla Kirwan, playing the part of a villain. Oh Assumpta, how could you?

I was a bit surprised to see The Eighth Doctor in a flashback of all the old Doctors. Doctor Who, like many other interesting Science Fiction programs, had a chance of being a success on the American FOX network-the same chance that a snowball has in hell. FOX is notorious for airing new shows out of sequence or delaying thier airing because of sporting events, or just waiting so long to air them that everyone involved has moved on to something else. There was one episode of Doctor Who which featured The Eighth Doctor, but he seems to have had a great afterlife in comics, books, and the hearts and minds of fans.

Steampunk is one of my favorite bits of silliness. The main idea is what if Victorians invented say, cell phones, what would they look like? Knowing the Victorian love of intricate detail and the primitive state of Victorian technology, they would be both beautiful and clunky. The Wild Wild West was steampunk in that our old west heroes had all kinds of modern era gadgets. Spock made a steampunk TV in the best Star Trek episode ever, City on The Edge of Forever. Lots of people now make and sell their Steampunk jewelry and technology. The Golden Compass is filled with steampunk.

The big finish of The Next Doctor has our hero fighting a Cyber King-a dreadnought class Cyberman battleship-only it was made using 1851 London materials and techonlogy. So it is a giant steam powered Cyberman complete with glowing red eyes and giant gears and pulleys. This is a brilliant bit of steampunk which actually steams.

It would have been fun to see a Steampunk Dalek, as that is one of the first steampunk things I really noticed online. Well, maybe next Christmas.