Thanks to the Roku Digital Player, my guilty pleasure has been watching the revived BBC series Dr. Who. I’m almost through the second season with David Tennant, who took over from Christopher Eccleston. The Doctor always has a young lady along for his adventures, and Billie Piper as Rose appears in both seasons.
Dr. Who retains the preposterous stories and hokey monsters of past incarnations, but I’m impressed by the human interest elements of the new series. The love triangle between Rose, her boyfriend, and The Doctor had a curious end. One episode in particular, “Love and Monsters”, uses the ludicrous sci-fi trappings of the last Time Lord as an excuse for memorably quirky character portrayals. The scenes with Rose’s hopeful mum and a younger man are both a funny and poignant. The episode features the delightfully mouse-voiced Shirley Henderson, who is Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter movies.
England in the early 60’s was the source of some of the all-time best theme music. The James Bond theme was composed by Monty Norman, but arranger John Barry disputes that claim. A man named Laurie Johnson wrote the theme for The Avengers, and the Dr. Who theme was composed by Ron Grainer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.