YOU WHEDON WORSHIPPERS, I'M TELLING YOU ONE LAST TIME
...and by "last" I mean "I'll probably tell you again"Last night I had the good fortune to spend New Year's Eve amongst a group of people of which I only knew two before walking through the door. There were many clues (many too geeky to recount) I was in the right place. One such clue was the "Serenity" room. Someone had decided the first movie of 2008 should be Serenity, and thus it was. As people entered the room, many were asked to complete the sentence "Joss Whedon is..."
When "god" wasn't the answer, it was still voiced as being the first thing they thought of. It generally was the answer.
There were some aspiring writers and fully-achieved TV geeks in attendance, and in talking about our favorite shows and writers (lots of Joss Whedon talk) I had to try to talk about Doctor Who, Russell Davies, Paul Cornell and Steven Moffat. Nobody was on my page. That's okay, but I realized that there was likely not a soul in that room who wouldn't utterly flip like Courtney Kupets on speed for this show, and thus I feel I must once more make my case for the show, but with these points (including specialized Whedonite points).
- It's a new year, so you can make watching Doctor Who (and for that matter watching more quality British programming) a resolution.
- The writer's strike has been grinding on long enough that most of what you're watching just isn't on and isn't going to be for a while, so you've got the time.
- Netflix carries it and there's no wait.
- It airs on Sci-Fi channel, you can TiVo it. In fact, there's a marathon on Monday (though it seems they're showing the second half of a season and then the first half of the same season, so beware.
- With three thirteen-episode seasons, it's not too hard to catch up.
- Most, if not all the writers cite Whedon as an influence.
- An enormous number of critics compare Doctor Who to the Whedon shows favorable and many call Doctor Who a worthy sucessor.
- Dollhouse ain't gonna be on for a good long while, so you've got time.
- Anthony Stewart Head in the third season. James Marsters on the spin-off show, Torchwood, this season.