BAFTA Cymru - What's 'Who' in Welsh?
The first season of the revamped Doctor Who, produced by BBC Wales, was nominated for foutreen categories of the BAFTA Cymru awards (fourteen!!! count 'em!) and walked away at the weekend with five, including Best Drama and Best Drama Director. Russell T Davies picked up the special Sian Phillips Award four outstanding contribution to network television. The BBC reports that the show is once again nominated in the main BAFTA awards (held later in May) in the Best Drama category. Go, Who!
And still on the Who front, how utterly terrific was this weekend's episode?!?!? Do I sound like a gushing fanboy? Well, I am, so that's nothing to worry about, is it? Scottish glens (except not filmed in Scotland of course!), howling werewolf, kung-fu monks, Queen Victoria being chased through a Scottish castle by a lycanthrope! Yes, in many ways it was a rather silly episode, but a gloriously silly one - Tennant slipping into his native Scots accent and out again, Billie Piper attempting a Scottish accent that makes Groundeskeeper Willie sound real. The Doctor's wonder and delight at seeing an actual werewolf contrasted against everyone else legging it in the other direction was priceless.
And how about that ending, clearly cribbed from the Tom Baker-era creepy tale, the Horror of Fang Rock, which in turn was based on the equally creepy Ballad of Flannan Isle by Wilfred Gibson, (SPOILERS AFTER THIS!!!) where the Doctor improvised a primitive laser using the lighthouse lamp and some diamonds to save the day from what appeared to be a supernatural menace but was actually a nasty Rutan (enemies of the Sontarans). Sounds a little familiar to this weekend's finale, doesn't it? Given Davies is a huge fan of the original it is obviously more than coincidence and it worked well; for newbies it was a good ending as it was for us old hands too, with the added bonus of seeing a homage to a classic Baker tale.
And very nicely we see the groundwork for the spin-off series Torchwood being laid, as Queen Victoria decides the Castle, Torchwood, will give its name to a new organisation designed to investigate the unusual events which are clear threats to the Empire's security - how very League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! Although I am now wondering how the writers will square the existence of Torchwood from the Victorian era onwards with the fact that it has never been mentioned in Who lore before - for example why wouldn't UNIT work with Torchwood to combat alien threats? They will need to come up with an explanation for that or they could paint themselves into a continuity corner the way Enterprise did with Trek by being set before the other shows but made after, muddling the history somewhat. But given the track record so far I'm pretty confident Davies et al can handle this. Next week we have Anthony Head - former Nescafe Gold Blend man, Giles in Buffy and the PM in Little Britain - to look forward to and monsters bursting out in a local school (perhaps the Doctor will simply set chavs on them?).
And still on the Who front, how utterly terrific was this weekend's episode?!?!? Do I sound like a gushing fanboy? Well, I am, so that's nothing to worry about, is it? Scottish glens (except not filmed in Scotland of course!), howling werewolf, kung-fu monks, Queen Victoria being chased through a Scottish castle by a lycanthrope! Yes, in many ways it was a rather silly episode, but a gloriously silly one - Tennant slipping into his native Scots accent and out again, Billie Piper attempting a Scottish accent that makes Groundeskeeper Willie sound real. The Doctor's wonder and delight at seeing an actual werewolf contrasted against everyone else legging it in the other direction was priceless.
And how about that ending, clearly cribbed from the Tom Baker-era creepy tale, the Horror of Fang Rock, which in turn was based on the equally creepy Ballad of Flannan Isle by Wilfred Gibson, (SPOILERS AFTER THIS!!!) where the Doctor improvised a primitive laser using the lighthouse lamp and some diamonds to save the day from what appeared to be a supernatural menace but was actually a nasty Rutan (enemies of the Sontarans). Sounds a little familiar to this weekend's finale, doesn't it? Given Davies is a huge fan of the original it is obviously more than coincidence and it worked well; for newbies it was a good ending as it was for us old hands too, with the added bonus of seeing a homage to a classic Baker tale.
And very nicely we see the groundwork for the spin-off series Torchwood being laid, as Queen Victoria decides the Castle, Torchwood, will give its name to a new organisation designed to investigate the unusual events which are clear threats to the Empire's security - how very League of Extraordinary Gentlemen! Although I am now wondering how the writers will square the existence of Torchwood from the Victorian era onwards with the fact that it has never been mentioned in Who lore before - for example why wouldn't UNIT work with Torchwood to combat alien threats? They will need to come up with an explanation for that or they could paint themselves into a continuity corner the way Enterprise did with Trek by being set before the other shows but made after, muddling the history somewhat. But given the track record so far I'm pretty confident Davies et al can handle this. Next week we have Anthony Head - former Nescafe Gold Blend man, Giles in Buffy and the PM in Little Britain - to look forward to and monsters bursting out in a local school (perhaps the Doctor will simply set chavs on them?).
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