Monday, December 26, 2005
Boxing Day
I am very tempted to write about the hunting ban today and some of the outrageous comments in today's Western Mail. In particular the claim that "Hunting is humane and natural......It forms a vital part of many rural communities and their social lives. The Hunting Act threatens these communities and their relationship with the local police."
If these people think that using dogs to rip apart another creature is humane then they obviously have a different set of values to most of the human race. There is nothing natural about a group of people dressing up in red and chasing around the countryside on horses, smearing blood on the face of initiates and if the Hunting Act is threatening the relationship between communities and the police then that can only be because they are either breaking the law or pushing it to the very limits. It is like saying that the outlawing of burglary threatens the relationship between burglars and the community bobby. If they break the law then they should be arrested and put on trial.
However, I will write instead about Dr. Who, who I thought, took Christmas Day by storm. The film was witty and it was exciting. The script was audacious, self-aware and at times just too clever for its own good. It is one thing, for example, to use a cup of tea as the device to revive the Doctor, but quite another to use the first letter in each paragraph in the Christmas Radio Times Dr. Who Special to spell out "A cup of tea". The Doctor worries about whether he has regenerated with ginger hair, he quotes from the Lion King and compares himself to Arthur Dent as he fights the Sycorax in his pyjamas.
It was classic Russell T. Davies right down to the killer Christmas Tree. He has created a Doctor steeped in the popular culture of the twenty first and twentieth centuries, an alien who is more rounded and more human than the people he helps, compassionate, knowing and clearly higher up the evolutionary chain. I cannot wait for the new series.
If these people think that using dogs to rip apart another creature is humane then they obviously have a different set of values to most of the human race. There is nothing natural about a group of people dressing up in red and chasing around the countryside on horses, smearing blood on the face of initiates and if the Hunting Act is threatening the relationship between communities and the police then that can only be because they are either breaking the law or pushing it to the very limits. It is like saying that the outlawing of burglary threatens the relationship between burglars and the community bobby. If they break the law then they should be arrested and put on trial.
However, I will write instead about Dr. Who, who I thought, took Christmas Day by storm. The film was witty and it was exciting. The script was audacious, self-aware and at times just too clever for its own good. It is one thing, for example, to use a cup of tea as the device to revive the Doctor, but quite another to use the first letter in each paragraph in the Christmas Radio Times Dr. Who Special to spell out "A cup of tea". The Doctor worries about whether he has regenerated with ginger hair, he quotes from the Lion King and compares himself to Arthur Dent as he fights the Sycorax in his pyjamas.
It was classic Russell T. Davies right down to the killer Christmas Tree. He has created a Doctor steeped in the popular culture of the twenty first and twentieth centuries, an alien who is more rounded and more human than the people he helps, compassionate, knowing and clearly higher up the evolutionary chain. I cannot wait for the new series.
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I liked the implication that Arthuer Dent was someone the Doctor had met. 'twas indeed a good show. When it was announced at the beginning of the year, I knew I would like it, and other sci-fi /net-nerd types, but to be the show of the year across the board?
Russel T deserves as many awards as he can get for that one. TV is getting almost good enough for me to get one again.
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Russel T deserves as many awards as he can get for that one. TV is getting almost good enough for me to get one again.
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