Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Moffat is in!

It's not really surprising news, considering how closely associated he's been with the revival of Doctor Who, but the news that Steven Moffat will take over as the show's "showrunner" for the show's fifth season in 2010 is still great to hear. Moffat is both a phenomenal writer (not just for Doctor Who, but also other British shows) and a lifelong fan of the program. And going by his episodes for the show -- the original Captain Jack two-parter, The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink -- (and his BBC miniseries, Jekyll), the show may be headed for a darker place.

It's also good that Russell T. Davies is getting out before the show claims another burned-out producer. If there's one word I would use for the fourth season of the show, it would be tired. It all feels a bit exhausted, and considering Davies has spent at least the last five years breathing Doctor Who almost every moment of the day that shouldn't be a surprise. It's happened before on the show. John Nathan Turner led a renaissance for the show at the end of Tom Baker's era and into the rather jolly Peter Davison years. The problem is that he then stayed, and stayed (there are stories that the BBC wouldn't let him leave the show, so this may not be all of his own making). The show's budget got squashed, the number of episodes were cut and the program limped along in the end, fueled mainly by Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred. It seems that they've learned from past mistakes (that Doctor Who is one of the most popular BBC programs doesn't hurt when it comes to leverage) and want to keep the show fresh and successful.

Just a note on my music project. I don't want it to seem like that all I listen to is 1970s hard rock, but the latest major block of music I'm dealing with is Alice Cooper. Alice and the boys were a better group than often given credit for, more glam than metal, and they put a jolly series of albums in the middle 1970s, even if the pot is so soaked into the recordings that you can practically smell it through the computer. Upcoming acts include Alison Krauss and British crust legends Amebix. Oddly enough, there's no Allman Brothers. I may have to make a trip to the record store to rectify that...


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