Tag: doctor who

From one doctor to another

Matt Smith, perhaps the best Doctor Who yet, returns.

Forty seconds into the video I was taken by surprise, seeing Lily Cole, who was such a standout with another doctor, in Terry Gilliam’s dazzling, but frustrating and overly long, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. I’m sure those who keep closer watch on Who have known for ages that Cole would be appearing this season, but it’s news to me. Who boy, with Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, that puts two tall redheads on the show at the same time.

The career of Oscar-nominated actress Carey Mulligan was kicked into high gear by a single impressive appearance on Doctor Who. Carey had the featured role in one of the finest and most enjoyable TV shows I have ever seen, playing Sally Sparrow in the unforgettable episode called Blink.

Have Yourself a Glam Christmas

Denro notes that in England it’s been a holiday tradition in recent decades to get snockered and sing-scream “Merry Xmas Everybody”, by the 70’s British Glam Rock band Slade. You’ll find it in part 8 of this video, the finale to the stellar Christmas 1973 edition of Sir Jimmy Savile’s “Top of the Pops”, posted on YouTube by one of its best members, NYrainbow.

The new “Doctor Who” series features a Christmas episode every year, including one that will premiere Christmas night…

… and a couple of the past installments of Who have included bits of “Merry Xmas Everybody”.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2010/DEC/DoctorWho.flv 512 288]

In need of a blog post, Who to turn to?

I have several posts in draft form, but they haven’t come together yet. Besides being busy with real-life stuff, I’ve had my mind on things other than this site; although I did update WordPress to the current version, and for the first time I was able to take advantage of the automated update script, so it took all of five seconds, with no ill effects, as far as I’ve noticed. Amazing.

The Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, is available on Netflix HD streaming. I’ve watched half a dozen installments from the first season, and it looks and sounds great, but so far I’ve been slow to warm up to the series. I’m doing better getting used to Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and Karen Gillan as the new companion, Amy Pond, is definitely a major asset to the series. So, stuck as I am for a blog post, I’ll embed these webisode videos that Bismo pointed out to me.

Season 5 of Doctor Who isn’t available for free on Netflix yet, but Amazon has it. Paying $12.87 to buy — not just rent! — all thirteen episodes is a bargain, but with a $10 credit from a previous purchase, I procured it in HD for only $2.87. A measly 22-cents per episode! And as Bismo has seen, played with the Roku HD-XR on my Panasonic 720p projector, the picture quality is stunning. Who needs Blu-ray? Who doesn’t.

Whose theme is Who?


Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

I’ve been trying to get back to Dave Dexter, Jr. and the Beatles, but I got distracted by a renewed interest in the fascinating history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Ron Grainer’s Doctor Who theme. This is Delia Derbyshire’s stunning, shimmering production, which includes the famous sound effects for the show.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JUL/DoctorWho1963.mp3]

Snippets of sounds and music by Derbyshire and the workshop have been collected by the BBC into a Flash player that you’ll find at this link. It’s all too easy to make the sounds overlap, so be quick with the stop button, and watch out for the clips that loop. Here is Murray Gold’s fantastic, powerful arrangement and orchestration for the new Doctor series in 2005.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2010/JUL/DoctorWho2005.mp3]

If this subject is of any interest I’ll let you find the same sites I’ve been looking at, but one favor I should do for you is assemble the pieces of a 2003 BBC documentary on the Radiophonic Workshop, called The Alchemists of Sound.