Ood enough

I'm disappointed to see that the BBC is being a little over zealous in protecting their trademarks when they ask to removes a Doctor Who fan’s knitting patterns from the Web.

It's this sort of fan activity that kept Doctor Who alive for the period of time between 1989 and 2005 -- and it was this sort of fan activity that encouraged people like Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss, Gary Russell, and lots of other people that have now worked on the new television series.

I'm sure it's some over enthusiastic person somewhere in the BBC -- and I certainly respect that the BBC needs to protect their property -- but I think there should be a way for people to celebrate their love for the show in creative ways -- and to share that amongst other fans.

Very sad to see.

[found from Boing Boing]

Here Comes the Commentary!

It is nice to see that the commentary track dropped at the last minute on the US DVDs for Series three is now available on the BBC America website.

I can't imagine anyone listening -- and pausing -- with it while it's actually airing on BBC America. (Especially in case they make any sort of episode cuts -- the episode was heavily cut on Sci Fi, after all...)

But, really, very very cool.

It's just the way my brain works...

Ok. Sometimes, I think there are some times that I can't escape Doctor Who.

I'm watching the following video of Jonathan Coulton performing his song Still Alive in the UK, and well, they've got a bunch of faces on sheets of paper... and one is clearly Colin Baker from when he was playing the Doctor... why, I don't pretend to understand.



I think there's some fine tuned "Doctor Who" sense that goes off whenever there's something with a connection to the series...

You know, for Kids!

I think the advertising for the Sarah Jane Adventures on Sci Fi has made it clear that this spin-off is much more a children's show than Doctor Who is.

The main reason why I was skeptical about an American distribution was that I couldn't quite see how it would get sold here -- but the teenage cast should make it clear that it's target audience.

It's an enjoyable show -- but really, the intended audience is completely different than something like Battlestar Galactica -- and that is one of the things views of the show have to be aware enough to realize.

Russell T Davies Interview To Read

This interview with Russell T Davies has some interesting little spoilers and cameo reports that I'm sure will be very interesting to some of you.

Shocking - Merlin on NBC!

It's probably because of the recent writers strike, but it is highly unusual that something like Merlin would get a first run on one of the major american networks like NBC. Obviously, NBC and the BBC have an existing relationship, in fact, that's probably one of the reasons why Doctor Who ended up on NBC's Sci Fi channel.

In a way, I can only imagine that it's because of the success of Doctor Who on Sci Fi that something like this would even be possible. It's obvious that Merlin is being done "for the Doctor Who slot" on the BBC -- all the more important with the year off for the series -- but I suspect that it also helped make it easier for NBC to take the risk of airing a first run UK program like this. (Though it's probably less of a risk than repeats due to the lack of development.)

Very, very interesting.

Amusing Doctor Who is everywhere...

This might not be meaningful for everyone, but I'm terribly amused that Neil Gaiman can make jokes about the depths of Steve Manfred's Doctor Who knowledge.

Next Month!

We've got the shortest delay between the UK airing of Doctor Who and the Sci Fi channel airing of the series.

It'll start on BBC One in April 5th, and it'll be on Sci Fi by the end of the month.