Where my love for Babylon 5 began

The first time I saw Babylon 5 was when the pilot movie (known as "The Gathering") was originally broadcast.  I thought it was crap.  The pacing was abominably slow, the make up was ridiculous (especially the aliens with the fanned out hair) and the music was way too 1980s.  I had friends who were instantly in love with the show.  I suspected this affection was just a craving for any SciFi on television, rather than an appreciation of some high quality, which was invisible to me.

After it was commissioned as a series, I was told about some interesting plot developments, including  an alluded to visitation by the same characters from different time periods (each hidden from the other).  It was also mentioned that some great war was going on for the future versions of these characters.  This intrigued me and I started to tape it (yes, I know, the old fart and his VCR).  I did not watch it, even then.

This resistance came from the fact that Bruce Boxleitner (Scarecrow and Mrs. King, and various god-awful TV romance movies) was the major player in the second season.  These friends continued to assure me that Bruce could indeed "act his way out of a paper bag".  Still being a stubborn bastard, I did not watch.

One day, while recovering after a very near-death experience (hospital and everything), I started to watch.  The episode was "Confessions and Lamentations".  It is well worth watching, for anyone who is still a hold out.  A very rare thing happened at the end of this episode, I cried.  It actually moved me that much.  I had never felt that way about any SciFi before, or in fact by fiction of any kind.  So, OK, I was hooked after that.

In the next article I will talk about major series events, don't worry, no spoilers.  I will also discuss why its creator's writing displays both genius and mediocrity.

Doctor Who (21st Century), you're dead to me

I have been watching Doctor Who since 1978.  That admission gives away my age, but it should also indicate my long-term devotion to the show.  As an American, I suppose I’m not a “true” DW fan in some people’s eyes (mainly UK fans).  Although I did order the Target Books novelizations, at a time when it was expensive for a 15 year old to scrape up enough pocket money to buy any at all.  There were no VCR/DVD/BluRay releases in those days, so book were all any fans had to rexperience past broadcasts of the show.  I slavishly watched the show every weekend on my local PBS, all the way into my mid twenties.

Years after the death of DW, in 1989, I returned to see reruns of the adventures of my favorite Timelord.  You see, DW was a low budget SciFi/Fantasy serial from the BBC, but it told incredibly wonderful stories, with clever dialog.  The production staff did the best they could with the pitiful budget they were given.  Once again, I want to repeat, the stories were the core of pre 21st century Doctor Who.

Many fans of the old Doctor Who wanted desperately for the show to return.  They wanted to see a modernized version of their beloved program.  What they got was something totally devoid of the spirit of the original series.  It started well enough, Autons, an “End of the World” story, A Charles Dickens ghost story, even a wonderfully original Dalek story, and then the other shoe dropped.  We had nanotech altered children, annoyingly intoning “MAWMEEEEE!  MAWMEEEE!”, farting aliens in “human suits” (two whole episodes wasted on that crap). To top it all off, the companion, in the season finale, destroying the whole of the Dalek race, by absorbing energy from the TARDIS and then the Doctor sacrificing himself for this cardboard cut out of a woman.

This pseudo-Doctor Who has gained a huge following worldwide.  There are theatrical releases of episodes, images of scenes from the show, projected onto the sides of buildings and of course, a plethora of merchandising paraphernalia.  Doctor Who as a popular culture icon is a worldwide phenomenon.  Unfortunately, the stories, for the most part, are not of any significant quality.  Instead of good adventure yarns, with fun SciFi / Fantasy plots, we have soap opera and postmodernist meta-textual nonsense.

I am not going to go into episode by episode nitpicking.  That can be left for articles that follow this one.  I can only say that I am sick of this parody of my favorite SciFi TV series.  I want it to be dead.  Short of that, I will treat it as dead.  The latest Series (8) as of this article, has been just plain awful, only one episode redeems the entire year’s run (“Flatline”). 

I have given this version of Doctor Who 10 years to shape up, it has failed.  So, goodbye travesty masquerading as Doctor Who.  Goodbye.

Doctor Who - Series 8

Considering the title of this post, it ought to be obvious that I will be discussing major plot points.  However, to be fair to those who have not yet seen Doctor Who Series 8:  SPOILERS BELOW!!!

SPOILERS BELOW!!!  SPOILERS BELOW!!!  SPOILERS BELOW!!!  SPOILERS BELOW!!!

Whenever a new doctor takes over in DW, there are always fans who whine about how the current doctor is not and cannot ever be as good as doctor "- 1".  Here in the US people were outraged by the change from Tom Baker to Peter Davison.  It was a terrible thing that Tristan Farnon from All Creatures Great and Small would be taking over the role of the doctor.  I'm not entirely sure, but I would guess that happened after each actor change, in all of  "Classic Who".

Many people have said that Peter Capaldi's first season as the doctor was terrible, but most back away from saying that Capaldi is an inferior incarnation of the doctor.  They blame the writing instead.  I'm afraid that I am also in that camp.

While people were complaining at the beginning of Matt Smith's run, about how they wanted David Tennant back, I was not.  The approach to portraying the doctor was different, but it breathed new life into a story that was getting tired and staid.  The yippy skippy fervor of a Jack Russell Terrier (in the form of Matt Smith) breathed new life into the series.

If Capaldi just had a gruff and brusque manner as the new doctor, then all  would have been well and good.  The real problem was the quality of the scripts that were produced for his first Series.  There is nothing wrong with pandering to the kiddies in Doctor Who.  It was a children's show at its beginning and children have always been a major part of the Who audience.  Its just that Mr. Moffat and his stable of writers seem to be going for low hanging fruit.

Story gripe number one:  Dinosaurs.  While kids have been fascinated with Dinosaurs for many years, it is an easy pick.  No real work went into that, as far as I can see.  What will be next?  Attack of the Lego people?  The menace of the Kerplunk tribe?  There is so much potential to be harvested from the science fiction concepts of 50 years ago right up through the genre bending ideas of today.

Story gripe number two:  Madame Vastara, Jenny and Strax.  Recurring characters can be a great thing, but they should be kept fresh and not having them repeat some variation of the same words they said the last 5 times we saw them.  These characters are tired.  If they have nothing new to say via the writer, let them rest for a time or kill them.

Story Gripe number three:  Clara, Clara, Clara!  Who does this woman think she is anyway?  She smacks the doctor around all the time.  It would not be politically correct, but the doctor ought to haul off and smack her right back.  She seems to think she is the center of the universe (e.g., commanding the doctor not to wipe out the Timelords in Day of The Doctor). Its like she thinks the doctor is her child and she is his mommy.  And an abusive mommy at that!  William Hartnell would have ceremoniously shown her the door.  The doctor is her whipping boy.  Then when she is given the responsibilities that the doctor carries she starts whining about how he abandoned her, not acknowledging that she isn't even close to being able to carry his mantle.

Story Gripe number four:  Danny Pink.  What a waste of a character and the viewer's time.  His entire story is just to point up the doctor's faults and make Clara question her already dubious motiviations.
The one word I can think of to refer to Mr. Pink is "cardboard".  This term has been overused by critics to the point of making it cliche.  However, in this case, the description fits.  He is one dimensional, bland, pre-fabricated and uninteresting.  He is what Clara was in Matt Smith's final series, a placeholder for plot points.

There are other complaints, but I think I've made my point about  poor plotting in Series 8.  In future posts I will discuss each Series 8 episode.